//------------------------------// // Night // Story: Ocellus' Ordinary Day // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Twilight had been an attentive teacher for Ocellus and Snails, if a bit of a verbose one. Ocellus didn’t know what a thauma or alveo or cornumuscula were and didn’t think she needed to know, since those organs which apparently helped control unicorn spell casting had nothing to do with her own ability and only existed in her own body if she let them. But on the other hoof, when Twilight had produced a small book of spells for foals, Ocellus had found it quite intriguing. Following the steps in the book describing how to cast the warming enchantment had allowed Ocellus to quickly grasp what was supposed to be happening, and after about an hour of effort and guidance she’d managed to heat up a procured paperweight to a little above pony body temperature. A larger stone conjured by Twilight, and massing about half as much as Ocellus’ fillyform, took another hour after that, but she managed it. “That’s incredible, Sprite!” Twilight exclaimed. “I never would have thought a little filly could have learned this spell!” Ocellus smiled, trotting up to the rock and putting her hooves on it, feeling it’s warmth...and taking advantage of the fact that she was facing away from Twilight to grab a bite of happiness and satisfaction with just a hint of love for a job well done. She needed it - for her, love was magic and magic was love, and to cast this spell had tapped deeply into her love reserves. She was now back to where she had been before leaving Rarity’s boutique. “How long will it stay warm?” She asked. Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin as she came over, Ocellus quickly hiding her changeling tongue. The real unicorn’s horn lit up as she examined it. “It’s already cooling down,” she said. “I’d say...an hour? More if it’s properly insulated under a blanket with you. It won’t last all night, but I’m sure it’ll make up for a room that’s just a little chilly.” Ocellus chewed on her pony lip, good feeling from having cast the spell gone. That was...not good. She didn’t have a room that was a little chilly, she had a burrow that was going to literally freeze if it got too much colder. Her sleeping pod was a good insulator, but not against the slow encroachment of winter. And casting it cost so much love/magic...she’d had a hefty surplus today from her gluttonous feeding on Rarity. She wouldn’t have that most days. Sure, the spell would become a little easier over time as she familiarized herself with it...but she wasn’t a unicorn, she could just look like one. She would never develop the reflexive ease with any magic spell that a pony could. The spell would become easier, but never easy. But Twilight wouldn’t expect that. So Ocellus smiled and nodded and tried to look happy, while she looked over to Snails, who was still struggling with a paperweight held in his own telekinetic aura. “Any luck?” She asked. Snails let out a long sigh as he dropped the paperweight. “No,” he answered, poking the paperweight with his hoof. He was smiling, though. “I didn’t really think I could. My special talent doesn’t have anything to do with heat. But I wanted to try!” Twilight offered a sage nod. “Sometimes foals who haven’t discovered their special talents yet can display a surprising ability to cast a wide variety of spells...but usually not. And you have found your special talent, Snails. Maybe if you had been able to really stretch what a ‘firefly’ is...” Snails looked up. “Fireflies don’t really create fire. There is a hive of cinderflies in the Everfree Forest, but there’s a colony of giant water beetles that make sure they don’t burn down the forest.” Twilight and Ocellus stared a moment, each having their own set of concerns for their homes at the knowledge of magical fire bugs living relatively nearby, before Twilight broke the silence. “How could a bunch of tiny bugs hold off elemental pests?” She asked. “Oh, not normal giant water beetles,” Snails clarified. “I meant giant beetles, made of water. Though I did learn about them from a giant water beetle. A normal giant water beetle. She said they were nice.” That was about as much explanation as they were likely to be comfortable with. On confirming that there was no immediate threat of her burrow melting - though honestly it would have been a much better problem to deal with than it freezing - Ocellus looked back to Twilight. “Thank you very much for helping us,” she said, as was expected. “I’ll make sure to practice this spell as often as I can.” Left unsaid was that the practice could only come on days when she’d gorged herself on love. Twilight beamed, then looked at the clock. “You’ve got about an hour before the library closes,” she said. “Just make sure to have your final selections ready before then.” She used magic to get rid of the stone she’d summoned, plus the paperweight when Snails offered it to her. She looked to Ocellus. “On Tuesdays I have an open tutoring session with some of the unicorn foals in town on how to use their magic - Snails shows up sometimes - and I’ve been talking with Hoofington’s librarian and he’s been interested in doing the same. You could join Emeral when he starts it up this Spring.” Ocellus kept enough of her wits about her to react with a smile and a nod...but inwardly she felt panic. The librarian in Hoofington spoke to Twilight? Or sent her letters, at least? But what if Twilight mentioned Sprite? What if Emeral asked Cream Soda and Shaken Cola about the daughter they didn’t have? What if... Twilight was already trotting back to her desk, while Snails made his way over to Ocellus. “So what do you want to do now?” He asked. “I guess you probably need to learn more Equestrian history. But there’s also this really cool book series by A.K. Yearling that you might like - “ ”She’s gonna ask somepony in Hoofington about me!” Ocellus hissed. A real hiss, too - in her panic, she couldn’t stop herself from shifting her vocal chords back to their changeling form so that she could inflect properly. Her tongue, too. She could taste her own dread. It tasted like soggy peas. Snails’ head tilted to the side a little as he took that in. “She is?” He asked. “She said she talks to the librarian there.” Several plans pushed their way through her mind. Actually masquerade as the Hoofington ponies’ daughter for a little bit? Not likely. She could get the two ponies to go along with it if she drained all their love to enthrall them, but other ponies would notice their catatonia, and also there was the small problem of them having to somehow explain a hitherto unseen fourteen-year-old filly. Replace Emeral? More doable, especially if she arranged for an “accident” after a few days. One missing and/or found dead pony would not immediately lead to searches for a mysterious changeling, and certainly not as far as Ponyville...but then again, so soon after she spoke to Twilight? Would she suspect anything? Also she had no idea what Emeral looked like nor if he had any defenses or guardians, like the larval foal Rarity had (which actually a “kitty” probably was not a pony larva given that she’d seen no others in town but whatever that wasn’t important right now). So that was probably out... Snails was looking pointedly at Ocellus. “You can’t eat ponies, Ocellus,” he said firmly. Ocellus really needed to look into the telepathy that ponies seemed to possess just by looking at each others’ faces. She hadn’t been able to access it herself yet. “I could...” she pointed out. “Well, then, you shouldn’t,” Snails corrected himself. “It’s wrong. And besides, I don’t think Emeral knows every foal in Hoofington. It’s bigger than Ponyville, and I know Twilight doesn’t know every foal here. And Twilight might not even mention you. So just don’t worry about it.” “But what if somepony finds out?” Sprite asked. “That Sprite isn’t a real pony?” Snails grinned. “Then you won’t get to be Sprite anymore, but you’re still Ocellus. So you could just be somepony else if you really have to be.” Ocellus let out a long sigh. That was true, but...she liked Sprite. Or at least the effort she was putting in to creating her, and she didn’t want to see it go to waste. However, Snails was probably right. He had a tendency to be right about these sorts of things. He wasn’t very quick or clever - though on Nightmare Night he had managed to think up a way to trick Ocellus into revealing herself - but he was insightful in his own way, and his simple solutions were often the best. If he had been a changeling he would been considered a very good drone. Well, except for the fact that he’d probably try and make friends with a hexarachnid and subsequently get eaten, anyway. Ocellus shook that thought from her head, and looked to Snails. “Promise?” She asked. Snails thought. “Well, I mean, I can’t promise that Twilight won’t mention you or Emeral won’t look into you,” he said, “but I do promise I’ll keep helping you, no matter what!” Ocellus nodded. It would have to do. After a moment, she leaned in and hugged Snails. Hugs were weird and intimate and constricting, but ponies liked them as signs of affection, and repeated signs of affection made ponies like you more. And...and also, she wanted to make sure that Snails knew she liked him helping her, since that way he’d keep helping her. Also it was an easy way to a snack. Snails returned the hug and Ocellus grabbed a bite of the affection, but only a little. She didn’t even have to hide it from him, Snails had said he didn’t mind if she fed on him occasionally...though she didn’t do it too much. She didn’t want to hurt him. “It’ll be okay,” Snails said as he withdrew, chuckling a little at the sight of Sprite with Ocellus’ tongue sticking out. She grabbed a last sip of mirth, then turned it back. “Though I do think we need to let other ponies know about you sooner or later anyway. If we just explain what’s going on...” “That I’m a predator who’s been feeding on ponies for months?” Ocellus asked. “Maybe we don’t say it like that...” Ocellus grimaced. A changeling did not reveal its true form to non-changelings unless she was getting ready to feed. That was some kind of basic, fundamental, driving instinct in her, one that no changeling had been able to feel on Protea for millennia and yet nevertheless something she knew to be fundamentally true. It would be bad, bad, bad. Snails kept trying to convince her...they’d even had a fight over it, and Ocellus had avoided Snails that weekend, until the possibility that he might reveal her out of spite occurred to her and she’d come back and apologized. Snails still brought it up occasionally, and as always, Ocellus deflected. “Not yet,” she lied. “Maybe over the summer...when I’m more used to living in Equestria.” “Okay...” Snails intoned. She didn’t need her changeling tongue to taste his doubt. But he pushed forward. “So what do you want to read?” Ocellus chewed her pony lip, looking at Snails pointedly. “You pick,” she said, wanting to give him a victory. She...didn’t like seeing him disappointed. Because disappointment tasted bad, of course. That was the reason. --- Ocellus and Snails had parted ways after the library had closed, Ocellus going back to her burrow, and discovering that she had been wrong earlier, when she’d worried that the colder weather of Ponyville might spread to the Everfree Forest. It turned out that hadn’t happened. It couldn’t have. Because even Ponyville wasn’t this cold. The Sun had long since gone down, and a cloudless sky allowed a bright and full silver moon and countless stars to illuminate the forest. To a pony, the night was just bright enough to see by, maybe even read by. But just in case, Ocellus shifted her eyes to her natural changeling ones, and just like that the Everfree Forest seemed to light up as though a noonday sun shown brightly in the sky. It did not, however, do anything for the temperature. She had shifted into a pegasus form, but just like with a unicorn, she could only emulate their magic - she was not a real pegasus. As such, though the freeze abated a little, it did not go away. She still shivered, even with weather-magic warming her, even under her new cape. She hurried through the forest, as quick as her hooves could carry her to her burrow, and climbed inside. The tunnel was freezing, too, and the little trap door partially frozen in place. She had to tug it open and crawl inside carefully, then gave herself her natural horn and lit up her burrow with green light. Everything was fine, nothing had moved. But a thin layer of rime coated her sleeping pod, and the whole chamber, while warmer than outside in the Everfree itself, was still literally below freezing. She could see her breath when she exhaled. Ocellus shook her head. There was a large, relatively flat rock that she sometimes used as a table in her burrow; she lifted it with telekinesis and put it into her sleeping pod, then climbed in as well. She shifted her horn to that of a unicorn, and began casting the warming spell on the rock. It was all she had, and it had to be enough, she thought, even as she wrapped her cape tightly around herself and fought back more shivers. She could get a big meal tomorrow, go into Ponyville early as Sprite and meet up with Snails and his friends and spend all day eating the love of different ponies. But right now, she needed to make it through the night. So she cast the warming spell she’d learned from Twilight, and pressed herself against the rock. It was at first very cold, but gradually the rock warmed. Slowly it’s temperature rose, and soon Ocellus had cast her cape over it so that she could press her own body against it. It was a rock, so it was hard and unyielding, but it was warm. Not as warm as it could be, not as warm as she wanted...but warm. So she sloughed off her disguise, and bit back a hiss at the cold that was no longer kept at bay. She all but hugged the warm rock to her carapace, and closed her eyes, and tried to sleep... --- Sprite rushed down the stairs from her warm, warm room, and joined her family at the table. It was dinner time, and dinner was the best meal of the day. The young unicorn found herself looking at a vast spread of food. There were bowls of happiness and plates of interest, cups of desire and spreads of kindness, a basket full of serenity and plates heaping with surprise. A nearby tray held freshly carved admiration and a saucer was used to hold a thin helping of trust. All of it was organized around a centerpiece of the most delicious portion of love Sprite had ever seen. Sprite dug in. “This is great!” She exclaimed, looking to her paternal antecedent, Shaken Cola, as she shoved a huge helping of ecstasy into her mouth. “Where did you find so much food?” “Equestria, of course,” Shaken Cola responded. He wasn’t eating. “Where else?” “Eat it all up, Sprite,” her maternal figure, Cream Soda, said, in a voice that was familiar to Sprite. “Eat it all.” Sprite did, drinking dry the cups of amazement and licking clean the plate of confidence. She ate all the awe there was at the table and then moved on to the anticipation. She crunched down on acceptance and chewed thoughtfully on joy. “And the distraction,” Cream Soda said, holding the plate forward. “Try the distraction, Sprite.” She didn’t even hesitate. She dove in, ripping, tearing, licking, biting, chewing, swallowing, and repeating. She gorged herself. Her tongue sought out every last morsel. She ate and ate and ate and... ...and... Sprite looked, and saw her parents staring at her. Her brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins, too. Hundreds of thousands of them. Staring at her. Hungrily. They wanted her food. Sprite stood upon the table and and glared at her family. “This is my food!” She roared. “You can’t have it! It’s mine!” She punctuated her point by biting down on optimism and swallowing it whole. She leapt backwards and landed on the love and bit into that. “Mine!” Her family stared. “Eat,” Cream Soda said, in the voice that wasn’t her own but was familiar to Sprite. “Eat it all. Grow fat. There’s plenty for us,” Cream Soda moved out of the way, and Sprite saw a new table, already surrounded by her family, her family already eating there too. They bit and ripped and tore and licked and savored drank and swallowed and repeated. Their meal looked and smelled delicious to Sprite, and she badly wanted to join them at their table. There was so much there, they might even share their meal with her. Their meal was ponies. And her family...weren’t. They were hideous monsters of black chitin and giant blue eyes and great fangs and covered with holes. And her mother wasn’t Cream Soda, she was taller and stronger and more hideous and beautiful at the same time, and she sat at the head of the other table and looked at Ocellus with green, slit eyes, and she licked her teeth. And she started eating too, eyes never leaving Sprite’s as she tore into flesh and lapped at blood... And her mother wasn’t eating some random pony. She was eating something real with orange fur and teal hair and a cutie mark of a snail - “No!” Sprite exclaimed as she tried to leap from her table, tried to run for her mother...her Queen. But her hooves were stiff, locked in place, and she saw ice and rime around them, holding her back, crawling up her as her Queen kept eating... --- ”Zzznailzzz!” Ocellus cried out as she shot awake, eyes wide, horn glowing bright green. In her panic she instinctively leapt up, and then cried out at the pain that caused, and not just from hitting her head. Every joint was stiff, her fetlocks, her knees and hocks, her neck and jaw. And she was shivering, fiercely shivering. She realized she was cold, chilled straight through...not just her carapace, but beneath. Cold was everything now... Letting out a cry of frustration, Ocellus wrapped magic around herself and shifted into her pegasus-Sprite body. Relief was...moderate. It was better than before... but it wasn’t good enough. She put a hoof to her rock, but found it to be cold as ice - the warming enchantment had faded completely. Worse, changelings had pretty good internal clocks, and could tell that she’d only gotten a couple hours of sleep at most. And the drain on her love/magic to even get this much... Ocellus was going to freeze. She felt tears in her eyes as she realized this. She was going to freeze...or starve as she used too much magic to heat this stupid rock to barely pony body temperature. Maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow night, but... Ocellus hissed to herself. “No,” she insisted, then started talking to herself in the simplistic language of Protean, the natural language of changelings. She needed to focus. “Untrue. Unable unlive plus-unwarm. Protea unwarm, allhive warm. Solution extant. Find.” She crawled out from her sleeping pod, dragging the useless rock with her, and thought. “Why allhive warm? Deep heat. Planet core warm. Unanswer here. Unable dig deep. Maybe...build fire vent? Take time, risk melting burrow. Unanswer now. Other cause allhive warmth...” Ocellus trailed off. She knew the answer. “Allhive. Allhive keep allhive warm, warmth from occupants.” She took in a deep breath and let it out. “Body heat,” she said in Equestrian, a much more expressive language. The Hive was kept warm through a combination of geothermal energy and body heat. Something she had been trying to emulate with the dumb rock! Ocellus glared a the rock, and stamped a hoof against it. “Come on!” She exclaimed. She grew a unicorn horn and cast the warming spell again, pouring more magic into it this time. She wanted to heat up more, she willed it to start glowing red! But she wasn’t a unicorn any more than she was a pegasus. By the time she was done, she’d depleted enough magic/love to not only undo her gains from Rarity, but to undo what she’d taken from the previous day as well. It was by no means starvation...but she was hungry for love again. Very hungry. And the rock, meanwhile, was still only pony-body temperature to the touch. Ocellus let out a furious hiss, or started to. Instead, she sneezed, a pony process by which she suddenly and involuntarily and violently expelled a great amount of air from her body through her mouth...and her nose. Her snot-filled, gross nose, which had snot follow the air out so that it ran down her muzzle. “Eugh...” Ocellus groaned, disgusted. Pony bodies were gross sometimes. She briefly became a changeling again, since the ejecta was easier to get off of her carapace, then turned back into a pegasus and thought... She was cold, and tired, and hungry. She needed a solution to the problem...and after a few shivering minutes, she came up with one. It was dangerous. It was probably stupid. But it would keep her warm, and feed her, and give her a place to sleep... She set out for Ponyville again. --- Ponies locked their doors and closed their windows at night. But they didn’t do anything for their chimneys. The one leading into Snails’ house was too small for Ocellus or Sprite, but with a fair bit of extra magic she simply transformed into Opalescence and dropped down, doing her best to ignore the soot and ash. The logs in the fireplace were still smoldering, but Ocellus avoided them easily enough and landed in the darkness of Snails’ living room, looking around while taking a few moments to soak in the blessed warmth of the house. Nopony was nearby; the house had been dark from the outside, which Ocellus had learned meant that either nopony was home or else everypony was asleep. Either would suit her purposes for tonight, though the latter was her hope. The changeling resumed her natural form, and tried to ignore the pang of hunger that hit her as she did. Shifting into a form much larger or smaller than her true one was taxing on her love/magic reserves. But she had been Opalescence for only a few moments. She’d be fine. Ocellus took a cautious step forward, then another. She moved with all the patience she could muster, slowly, carefully, lest she make too much noise. As soon as she was near a wall, she climbed up onto it instead, her changeling hooves easily grabbing on and letting her crawl as though it were horizontal ground - and the wall made less noise, too. From the living room to the stairs; then up those stairs and to the master bedroom. She’d been in Snails’ house before, as Sprite. She knew where his parents slept. They didn’t lock their door. Ocellus crept in, crawling along the ceiling now. Shutterbug and Dewdrops slept together in a single bed, curled around each other beneath thick covers. Moonlight shined in through the window and illuminated the two, fast asleep directly beneath her as she lurked in the shadows of the ceiling. Asleep. Good. Yes. They wouldn’t resist her that way. Wouldn’t notice or think to notice as Ocellus extended her tongue, tasting the air...tasting their emotion. Sifting. Feeling. This wasn’t Nightmare Night, when she had been so starved that she couldn’t control what emotions she ate. This wasn’t her grabbing a nibble of what was freely available. The changeling drone’s tongue sought out, tasted, and found their love...and took it. A little at first. She didn’t want the two pegasi to notice, to feel it and to wake up. But as she took more love, their sleep grew deeper, and her gulps became larger, and oh it was so good, the love the two felt for each other, for their children. But she stopped herself, stopped gorging on love after a few minutes. She’d replenished herself a fair bit, put herself back to where she’d been when she left Rarity’s. She was still hungry...but she had other meals. Ocellus moved from the room, less cautious leaving than entering - the two pegasi would sleep deeply tonight. She next made her way over to Raindrops’ room. Opened the door. Slinked inside. Raindrops was unconscious as well, sprawled on her back beneath her bedsheets, an open book that she must have been reading lying across her chest. She snored softly. Ocellus drank down love from Raindrops, just as she had her parents. The pegasus never noticed, never reacted save towards the end when she let out a particularly strained snore and rolled over onto her side. Like her parents, her sleep would be long and deep tonight. And she had been a particularly lucious meal, making up for all the bites and nibbles of love through Ponyville she’d drank down, the love she’d lost into the heating spells and more. Ocellus slipped from Raindrops’ room. She had made good her losses. She had ensured that three of the four who lived here would sleep in. She should have retreated to some corner, maybe their basement or attic, and slept. But... ...but she was still hungry. Changelings were always hungry, and Snails was just down the hall... ....just through his door... ...just beneath where she perched on the ceiling...just laying there, curled onto his side beneath extra layers of covers that his sister and parents didn’t have, didn’t need because they were true pegasi. Lying there beneath her, so unaware, so peaceful, so full of love... Ocellus’ tongue was out, she was tasting his love but not eating it, when Snails shivered a little. She froze, staring. He was...he was still cold, even with those extra layers. Not freezing, not remotely what Ocellus had felt, but still...like what she’d felt. They were both cold... And Ocellus remembered her dream. Her family - other changelings - eating ponies. Her Queen, never breaking eye contact with Ocellus, as she bit into Snails’ flesh... Ocellus’ tongue snapped back into her mouth, and she was still for several long moments. Finally, she crawled down from the ceiling, and shut Snails’ door, then went over to his bedside. Shifting into her Sprite form (since even if he knew what she really looked like, she presumed the natural pony instinct to seeing a predator on waking up was to scream), she leaned in close and poked him with one hoof. “Snails,” she whispered. “Snails, wake up.” Snails stirred a little. “Huh...?” He asked, eyes slowly fluttering open. They widened when he spotted Ocellus in the moonlight his window let in. “What’s going on? Why are you here?” He whispered, sitting up. Ocellus paused, trying to come up with an answer, even as she changed back to her true form. “I...I’m cold,” she settled on at last. “I’m cold and that heating spell is no good, I think you’re right, I need to build a chimney, but I can’t do that tonight, so I need to sleep somewhere until I can...” she took in a deep breath and shook her head. “And I ate some love from your parents and sister, more than just a nibble, but they’ll be fine, they’ll just probably sleep ‘til noon tomorrow unless somepony goes and wakes them up if it’s really important. And I’m sorry.” She looked back to Snails. “Can I...can I sleep here tonight?” Snails stared at Ocellus, blinking a few times, then yawning. “Okay,” he said easily. He looked pointedly at Ocellus. “But don’t eat that much love from ponies again! Tomorrow’s Sunday so it’s okay to sleep in. But what if my sister or mom or dad had needed to get to work early?” Ocellus nodded. “I promise,” she said. She meant it, to...probably. Unless she got really hungry again...but only if it was really hungry. She wouldn’t be as gluttonous again, not like she was today. Not like she had been in the dream...her, or the rest of her kind. She didn’t need to be in Equestria, not while she was the only changeling here. Snails nodded at that, then looked around. “Okay, I can lock my room’s door just in case...and I think I have some clean spare sheets...hey!” Snails barely kept his voice down at the last, as Ocellus hopped up onto his bed and slid under the covers, pressing right up against the colt. “What are you doing?” He asked Ocellus turned around, looking as Snails mere inches from her face. “Body heat,” she said. “You’re cold too. I could tell. This way neither of us will be.” Snails shifted a little under the covers. “Um...but...I mean, I guess me and Snips share the bed when he stays over or when I go to his house...” Ocellus tasted a multitude of emotions, chief among them embarrassment. She considered sampling them more deeply to figure out what Snails was so nervous about...but then the image of the Queen eating Snails came into her mind again. “Do you...want me to sleep somewhere else?” “No, just, um...” Snails shifted a little, maneuvering oddly beneath the covers, until he’d apparently moved a sheet between him and Ocellus so that they weren’t directly touching. “There. That’s better.” Ocellus didn’t get why, but the sheet was thin and she could already feel herself warming up. “Okay,” she said, deciding to ask about it tomorrow. Snails’ horn glowed and the lock to his bedroom clicked. “Thank you very much, Snails,” she said, as was expected. And she even meant those words, too. “You’re welcome. G’night.” He rolled over so he was facing away from her. Ocellus found herself...oddly disappointed in that. She didn’t know why. But she rolled over herself - though she kept her back against Snails’ own - and closed her eyes. Her dream that night featured no changelings besides her. Snails was with her too. They were sitting on top of a giant Opalescence, the sun shown brightly in the sky, and it was warm. A spread of food lay before the two of them, pony food, but baked so that it somehow tasted of emotions. And Ocellus dreamed that she and Snails sampled them all, Ocellus learning pony tastes like it was the first time, and Snails getting to taste emotions. They ate all day long, and the food never ran out. All in all, it was a pretty good dream to end her day with.