To eat love every day would have been impossible gluttony on Protea. The podlings - the old or punished changelings who had been forever placed in hibernation pods that slowly and safely siphoned the love from them for the rest of the hive to feed on - just didn’t produce enough love for everyling else to consume it as they pleased. As a worker drone who had mostly been tasked with construction and repairs, a job in which almost any changeling could have replaced her, Ocellus’ rations of love had been particularly scarce. One uninterrupted hour among the podlings per five day period, that was it. It was barely subsistence level, just enough for her to have the strength to do her job and make it to her next feeding period. She had hated it, but there wasn’t much that could be done about it. Even the Queen and her hive lords occasionally went hungry, so of course the drones would.
Here in Equestria, at least in the town of Ponyville, it was... different.
As Ocellus trotted into town, careful to come from the direction of another nearby pony settlement called Hoofington, she made sure to pull her scarf up over her muzzle, hiding her mouth completely. She also struggled to stop herself from shivering again. It was actually colder in Ponyville than in the Everfree, which Ocellus didn't understand. Hadn't Snails told her that ponies controlled the weather through pegasus magic? Why would the ponies want it to be colder? She couldn't understand it. She briefly considered taking on a pegasus form, since their natural magic, which she could emulate when disguised as one, made them all but proof against extremes of heat and cold. An earth pony would have been good as well, due to their more robust builds and natural toughness that made them deal with the cold better, even if they still felt it.
But her fillyform's chosen tribe was unicorn, and the unicorn filly Sprite was starting to be recognized around Ponyville on the weekends (a term that had taken some explaining from Snails, given that Ocellus hadn't even known what a week was. Changelings didn't count weeks or months on Protea). She'd initially made Sprite a unicorn simply because Snails had been in front of her when she'd picked it, and she'd wanted to model it off of him. Since then, she'd put in some appearances as Sprite around the town, slowly inventing the filly even as she learned more about the ponies...who was easiest to stalk and discretely feed on, mostly, but she also wanted to learn more about the world that she lived in now. So she didn't want to abandon Sprite for another form, at least not on the weekends, when Sprite could appear in town without anypony wondering what she wasn't doing in school (whatever that was, she still hadn't really asked Snails).
Ocellus-as-Sprite quickened her trot into town as another breeze swept across currently snow-covered farmlands of Ponyville and tried to chill her down to her shifted bones. Once within the confines of Ponyville's town proper, the buildings at least provided some protection against the cold wind...but she still found herself shivering and pining for the warm confines of the Last Hive, where the body heat of innumerable changelings kept the tunnels and passages sweltering, the warmth of changelings pressed tight together after hours working above ground...
“Oh! Excuse me,” said a voice. Ocellus jumped a little, glancing up. Without realizing it, she’d pressed herself against a pony, seeking warmth. This pony was a white-coated, purple-maned unicorn mare, clad in winter boots for the snow and a thick winter cape.
“S-sorry!” Ocellus stuttered, fighting back yet more shivers. “M-my mistake...”
“Think nothing of it, dear,” the unicorn said, eyes darting over her. “My word, surely you have more than just a scarf for this cold?”
Ocellus made sure her scarf was covering her mouth, then took a moment to flick out her changeling tongue beneath it. The tang of concern and pity reached her senses. “I l-left my s-s-stuff back in Hoofington, didn’t think it w-was that c-cold...” she said, no longer hiding her shivers.
The unicorn’s eyes widened. “All the way from Hoofington? With only that old scarf? No, I won’t hear of it.” The unicorn’s horn lit up with a blue glow, and she swung her own cloak off of herself and over Ocellus, tucking it carefully around the disguised changeling. “That will do for now, but you simply must come with me back to my boutique. I’m certain I can throw something together for you from my extra material. It might not end up being my most fashionable work, but you can’t be traipsing about Ponyville in this weather with no winter clothes!”
Ocellus fell in beside the unicorn as she set off, though she couldn’t keep her concern from rising. “I d-didn’t bring any m-m-money with me...I was just here t-to see my f-friend Snails, stay the w-weekend with him...”
“Shutterbug’s little colt? He does seem like a decent sort, though I worry a bit about his hobbies, and that he might not have the proper hygiene one might hope for in a pony who spends so much time in the dirt looking for bugs. Still, colts will be colts.” She looked down to Ocellus. “Oh, but where are my manners? I am Rarity, my little filly. Who might you be?”
“Sprite,” Ocellus answered, only hesitating a moment, not long enough to be noticed. She flicked out her tongue again, and tasted Rarity’s concern still, but now Rarity also tasted of congeniality...and beneath that a vague hint of anticipation? Over what? Ocellus might have been a little concerned, but she tasted no hostility or aggression, so it probably wouldn’t end badly.
In just a few minutes the two had reached a large, circular building done up in purples, with a ostentatious design that put it a little at-odds with the rustic aesthetic of most of Ponyville. Ocellus hesitated outside the door when Rarity opened it - a sign that said “out to lunch” was hanging from it - even though she could feel the warmth eminating from the place.
“Welcome to Rarity’s Boutique,” the unicorn said as she entered, “where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!”
Ocellus only knew what one of those words meant, but she didn’t miss that the interior of the building was blessedly warm...which was the only appealing thing about it to her. Pony buildings were, by and large, strange, built in straight lines or perfect curves that bothered her changeling sensibilities. Halls should be ovular, not rectangular, she thought. Interior chambers should be shaped according to their purpose and need, expanded as necesssary, not built in a box shape and then repurposed as needed. And the walls were all too smooth, no ripple patterns on them at all from continuously added and molded layers of ejecta ooze that had solidified. And no holes! Changelings always built things so that there would be holes in them, holes were just too useful: as cubbies, as shortcuts, as ways to easily spread messages throughout the hive...buildings just looked wrong without holes.
But Ocellus-as-Sprite lowered her scarf, as would be expected, and put on an impressed look. While the walls and ceiling and floor were unnerving, the contents of the building were certainly pleasing to the eyes, pony clothing in various styles that suggested warmth from the cold of winter, although some of the clothing seemed to sacrifice that protection in order to instead draw attention to the wearer’s body.
“I don’t have any money...” Sprite repeated as Rarity took her winter cloak back and hung it behind the store’s counter. Ocellus froze a moment at the sight of something else on the counter, a small, somewhat rotund white-furred creature with a big bushy tail. The creature eyed Ocellus for a few moments, sizing her up, before glancing to Rarity and letting out a soft but insistent mrrow sound.
“Oh, pish-posh, darling, ‘tis the season and all that,” Rarity said, running a hoof gently across the white ball of fur, who seemed to enjoy the attention. A pet, then, Ocellus reasoned. An absolutely pony concept that changelings has no equivalent for and Ocellus still didn’t understand, except that they weren’t to be eaten. “As I said, I have extra material on hoof, a bit of a mix-up on the part of my supplier. It fell off the back of his truck, as it were. And I do so rarely get to put something together for young fillies, but with my new boutique in Canterlot opening next year I’ll certainly want the practice. Nobility with excess spending money and all that, their foals are rarely skyclad this time of year.”
As she had spoken - Ocellus only understanding a little of what she was saying - Rarity led “Sprite” over to a platform set before a series of mirrors, and took out a long strip of marked cloth that she began to use to do...something that involved holding it against her body at various angles. Ocellus has to fight back against hissing in annoyance, in particular when the marked strip was wrapped around her neck, and again at her croup. “What are you doing?” She finally asked, hoping to get her nervousness under control. The fact that the white-furred creature had accompanied Rarity over and was staring at Ocellus didn’t help.
“Taking your measurements, of course,” Rarity said. “This might be something of a charity case but that is no reason for you to look like you’re wearing your big sister’s hoof-me-down.” She used telekinesis to float a note pad over to herself and take down some notes. “How old are you, if you don’t mind?”
“Fourteen,” Ocellus answered, deciding to use her real age, which wasn’t much more than Snails’ - provided Protean and Equestrian years were the same length, anyway. Ocellus was pretty sure they were.
Rarity’s brow raised a little. “Well, a bit older than I thought. Not to worry, plenty of time left for a growth spurt, darling, but even if there’s not much more than a few inches coming your way there’s nothing wrong with it. There are certain advantages to remaining petite, and it would certainly fit your name.”
“...okay?” Ocellus answered. What was “petite”, what were the advantages, and why did it fit the name Sprite? And her height was perfectly normal for a fourteen-year-old changeling drone!
The unicorn chuckled a little as she turned around, trotting over to and behind the counter and opening a door there. “Now be a dear and just wait a moment. I'll be back presently with some material and we can get to work. I won’t be a minute, and you can keep an eye on Opalescence.” With that, she disappeared behind the doors.
Ocellus watched her go, then let out a yelp when she felt something brush against her leg. She leapt away and looked down, and saw the creature, Opalescence she guessed, had come up to her and had started to rub against her. The creature, for its part, was staring at Ocellus like it had a low opinion of Ocellus’ intelligence. The changeling turned her tongue back to normal and tasted the air, and was met with a combination of curiosity, boredom, and a smug sense of self-satisfaction, like it knew that it, a tiny fat ball of fur, had been able to startle the much larger “pony”.
Ocellus frowned at that. Glancing at the door to Rarity’s back room and confirming it was closed, she turned back to Opalescence and sloughed off her fillyform for a moment, giving a full changeling threat-hiss at the creature before transforming back.
Opalescence only let out a slight sniffing sound and started licking one front paw, then cleaning her face, totally unimpressed. Ocellus even confirmed the lack of concern with her tongue.
“...okay, I think I like you,” Ocellus said as she trotted back up to the creature. Opalescence came forward as well and started rubbing against Ocellus once more. The changeling lowered her hoof onto the creature and started petting it the way she’d seen Rarity doing. It was...surprisingly soothing. Opalescence was soft and warm, letting out a kind of continuous low buzz or growl or something that Ocellus could tell was affectionate and vaguely reminded Ocellus of the distant buzzing of changeling wings in one of the Hive’s grand conclave chambers, or the crèche where the podlings and larvae and nymphs were kept.
Snails had told her not to eat pets, but Ocellus assumed he meant physically. Ocellus didn’t see an issue with sampling some of Opalescence’s emotions. Possessiveness was a little tangy, but curiosity was pleasant if a bit hard to pin down, and the smugness that permeated Opalescence’s being was smooth and sweet and filling, if not particularly nutritious. Opalescence didn’t seem to mind Ocellus’ changeling tongue sticking from her fillyform’s mouth, and in fact made to bat at it, but Ocellus was able to keep it out of reach easily enough. The creature’s amusement was literally palpable and tasty, too.
Ocellus heard Rarity open her back room’s door, and quickly shifted her tongue back to a pony one. Rarity was carrying a large amount of green cloth in her telekinesis, as well as a roll of what looked like bundled up white fur. “Now then, Sprite,” she said, trotting up to the filly and comparing the cloth to Ocellus, “green would not ordinarily be your color, but I think this shade would blend rather fetchingly with your mane and go with the red of your scarf as well. It is quite a lovely scarf, by the way, reminds me of a line I had several seasons ago, though it looks like it’s been trimmed down to foal-size by a...well, I’m sure the pony was well-meaning.”
Ocellus glances down at her scarf. “Snails gave it to me,” she said.
“Oh he did, did he?” Rarity asked, sounding quite surprised and intrigued, and she smiled in a curious, knowing way. “Well! I see that my little sister Sweetie Belle is right, Snails is quite the gentlecolt once one gets past his particular...peccadilloes.” She leaned a little closer to Ocellus, whispering conspiratorially now. “And between you, me, and Opalescence, I can tell already that despite his looks now, he’ll grow up into quite the dashing young stallion, just you wait.”
Ocellus had no idea what Rarity was talking about. But she nodded and smiled as well, figuring that was what was expected, and Rarity withdrew and tittered to herself while she looked over her procured materials, levitating a book full of blank paper and a pencil to her side and starting to draw. Opalescence, meanwhile, settled down nearby, closing her eyes and looking like she was going to go to sleep in the middle of the floor. “Now let me think, what would be best...sleeves for the arms would be perhaps a tad complicated for our ‘budget’, so we’ll need to make the mantle a little heavy so that the cape is weighed down at the shoulder, easy enough with the wool trim we’ll be adding. I could probably add a hood easily enough, and wouldn’t you just look simply darling in it...yes, I think we’ll do that...I’m certain we could find some spare buttons for the clasp, brass I think...”
She had turned from Ocellus, continuing to mumble to herself. Ocellus changed her tongue to its changeling form once again, chancing a taste of the air...and had to keep from letting out a low, throaty growl at the flavor that reached her.
Filling and nutritious, sharp like cinnamon, warm like bread fresh from the oven with butter melted into the dough already...or that was how Ocellus would have attempted to describe it to Snails, and would have done it no justice.
Love. Rarity was filled with love, a love for the work she was doing. It was one of the most common sorts of love that Ocellus had encountered in Ponyville, but its abundance did nothing to reduce its taste, it’s texture...it’s necessity. Ocellus has come here looking to snack on sympathy and, as an unexpected bonus, get a winter cape to fight off the cold. But now she found herself grinning with a predatory glee that would not have looked out of place on her new siren comrades. She pulled her scarf over her mouth and started advancing on Rarity, her tongue lolling out completely from her mouth as she started lapping up the love Rarity was giving off, careful to only take a bit at a time so she wouldn’t notice...it was so good...
But then there was a deep, awful-sounding growl, followed by a threatening, almost changeling hiss, and the next thing Ocellus knew was pain as sharp claws raked across her right front leg. She let out a yelp of pain and only barely kept herself from hissing as she stumbled away. Opalescence had awoken from her nap, it seemed, and was now standing between the changeling and Rarity, with her fur on end, eyes wide, ears folded back.
Save for a lack of extended tongue, it looked a lot like Ocellus’ own threat display, the one she was desperately holding in check as Rarity turned around in fright as well. Ocellus has enough time to turn her tongue back to its pony form and pull down her scarf, at least.
“Opalescence!” Rarity exclaimed, setting down everything in her aura and turning its blue glow to picking up the creature, who was still growling low at Ocellus. “What’s gotten into you?” She looked to Ocellus, who let her fright show but shook her head as though she didn’t understand.
“I wanted to see what you were drawing,” Ocellus lied. “Maybe I startled her?”
“Well that’s hardly an excuse,” Rarity said, turning Opalescence around. “Bad kitty! There’s no need to be so rude to our guest. Mommy’s going to have to put you in another room now.”
Opalescence didn’t seem to care much, though she did settle down a little. Rarity was careful to carry the “kitty” at a distance from Ocellus. The two creatures’ eyes never left one anothers in that time. Once the “kitty” was safely behind a door, Rarity came over to Ocellus. “Are you alright, darling? Did she scratch you?”
“No,” Ocellus lied, showing her attacked leg - she’d quickly used her magic to shift the wounds away for now, though it wasn’t real healing and she’d need to bring the cuts back and let them heal naturally if she didn’t want to constantly expend magic to keep them away. They were small cuts, at least, easy to hide. As soon as she left Rarity’s, she could stop hiding them.
“Fair enough. I do apologize, she’s normally a very friendly cat. You must have startled her quite a bit. Or perhaps she misinterpreted you coming up on me while my back was turned. Thought you were going to attack her mommy. She can be quite protective.”
That seemed very likely to Ocellus, the most reasonable explanation. Ocellus’ mind stuck on another point that Rarity had said, though, as the white unicorn went back to her sketching. “Wait, she’s a pony?” She asked.
Rarity paused, looking at Ocellus in confusion. “Whatever do you mean, darling?”
“You said you were her mother...”
Rarity stared a moment more, before bursting out laughing. Ocellus didn’t get it what was funny, and nor did she get an answer. But at least the unicorn’s amusement added a wonderful flavor to the love that Ocellus lapped up, without interruption this time, over the next several hours.