We only slept on the streets of Ponyville for one night. A little fudtsing with my magic and we discovered that my “natural” pegasus form is grey, with one of the generic cutie marks she mentioned. My magic talents- concealed in that form, but not blocked- turned out very convenient. If I combine them with my Changeling empathetic senses, I can quickly deduce the intended addresse’s location, no matter where their mailbox might be. So, my pegasus form quickly became the Ponyville mailmare, with Scootaloo’s able help on our little hive mind.
Also with her help, I was able to secure a loan from the bank, ‘gamble’ it up a bit by cheating with our empathic sense and hive mind, and purchase not one but two homes. One is for the mailmare to live in; it’ll be empty most of the time, so it’s a tiny little home. The other, she selected.
… I’m not sure why she thinks we’re going to need this massive house, but she does. And I’m not about to argue with her.
After that, we worked together to get her into the local school system. It wouldn’t do, she told me, for a filly her age not to go to school- and besides, she never learned much of what they taught there anyways.
Then the night came, and went. Our first night in this veritable mansion. I was so exhausted after spending two nights and two days working on our escape that I fell fast asleep as soon as I hit the pillows. Which are, by the way, far more comfortable when I hit them as a unicorn than in my true form.
… Er, the floor was, that is. We haven’t gotten any furniture yet, so with Scootaloo’s informational assistance, I used my pegasus form to produce a couple of clouds inside for us to sleep on; pegasi, like us ‘lings, can sleep on that.
And the cloud… Well. Scootaloo slept well both nights prior, and she’s used to a far fancier bed than me. However, she still moaned with pleasure when she flopped down on her cloud.
Me? I remember jumping onto my cloud… then Scootaloo prodding me awake for the first day of my new job. Which, I was still in pegasus form from making the clouds, so I didn’t bother transforming as I got up and went to work. That cloud was undoubtedly the most comfortable thing I’ve ever felt.
Now, I just got home from work, but it’s not even noon yet. Scootaloo won’t be back from school for a few hours. I’m not going to be going shopping for furniture without her; she’s the one picking everything, and I don’t want to distract her. It’s just too… Well, nice to feel her bubbling excitement at learning something new.
Even though we’re both starting to run low on love.
… ‘low’ is a lot higher for her than it is for me, being as how she’s used to getting as much as she likes from the reserves.
I’m tempted to head upstairs and hit the cloud, so to speak, to stave off some of my remaining exhaustion while I wait for her.
But that would not do, so I stand, and I wait.
Up until this point, my concentration has taken all of my attention. Back at the hive, from the moment I got up to the moment I went to sleep, I concentrated on the hive mind, listening for requests even before the courier master could relay them to me. Oftentimes, I correctly anticipated a request- and was already on my way when it was relayed to me. That allowed me to outperform my more lazy brothers and sisters, and sometimes even get extra helpings at meals for my performance. Not once, after I started doing that, did I fall short of his expectations.
I couldn’t even pause to mourn my brothers and sisters when they died on the job. Not if I didn’t want to join them. So I was forced to keep my concentration on the hive mind, even as they collapsed.
Then that night came, when Nyadra was disgraced. I spent the night planning.
The day of the escape, even after we deviated from our assigned tasks, noling questioned the concentration in my emotional signature. It’s always been such a constant part of me that noling even notices it anymore. Then, Nyadra had made us invisible; she masked our emotional signatures as well. I remained concentrated for the rest of the day, this time on the transforming spell- and once I had that down, I spent the rest of the evening- and much of the night- analyzing my new pony form, trying to understand its strengths… and weaknesses.
Then day came, and we had to secure work, home, and school, which took all day. Then the cloud beds, then work in the morning, then-
Then now. I…
Hay with it, I’m still half-dead on my hooves. I’m way too young to be staying up two nights in a row like that, and I haven’t recovered from it yet. I head upstairs, and crash on my cloud.
… It was more comfortable as a pegasus, but I already switched to my unicorn form before returning home, and I don’t have the love to throw around for extraneous transformations right now. I need to wait for Scootaloo so she can help select our furniture, before we start searching for a way to attract the love we need, without draining it from ponies or temporarily replacing a husband or wife like the hive’s infiltrators do. After all, stealing love like that does leave traces- and if the ponies don’t notice them, other ‘lings will.
It’s technically possible for us to absorb enough ambient love, in a town like this, to survive. The problem is, we’d have to be out on the town almost constantly, and we’d be constantly weak, for lack of love. Not only would that be suspicious to the ponies, but a dead giveaway to other ‘lings.
Besides, the love tastes better when it’s freely given.
I pass out very quickly on the cloud. … Or, I would have, if I hadn’t thought of something important when I was about to. I roll onto my back, eyes open as I concentrate once again.
My levitation… is different. I saw lots of ponies levitating today, and yesterday as well. Their magic auras have a lot fewer extraneous runelets in them, but they’re still much larger than mine. Their auras don’t wobble or vibrate like most ‘ling auras; no, the effect on theirs is entirely visual. It does seem to wave somewhat, though.
Mine stands solid and constant.
I need to change that, unless I want to stand out.
So I set to work. I need to find a way to make my aura wave like that, without reducing my holding ability- and with minimum love waste. My goal is to fit in; allowing my magic to stand out like that, like it did at the hive… Not only would that draw pony suspicion, but it would be another dead giveaway to other ‘lings.
I manage to solve this issue in hardly a single hour. Right as I finish, though, before I have a chance to even close my eyes, Scootaloo comes up on our hive mind.
“Hey, Lyra? Erm, you are Lyra right now, right?”
I nod. “Yeah. What’s wrong?” I could hear the tension in her voice.
“Nopony wants to talk to me,” she answers. I get the feeling she’s curling up in the corner of the schoolyard. “I’m not sure what to do.”
I scrunch up my face, thinking. That doesn’t seem to match what I remember seeing while on my mail runs; the entire town- colts and fillies included, I started before they all went to school- seemed very accepting to me. “Have you tried talking to them?”
She gives me an eye roll on the hive mind. “I’m not stupid, of course I did.”
“Hmm,” I mutter, staring at the ceiling. “Anypony else left on the sidelines?”
“Again. I already checked for that, there’s none.”
I scowl. “Any clue why they don’t want to talk?”
She sighs on the hive mind. “Yes. They’re calling me a ‘blank flank’. Two bullies in particular-!”
“Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon,” I finish for her. After I receive her answering nod, I continue. “They did feel like that kind of pony while I was on my mail run. Didn’t notice anypony else.”
“Well, that’s good news, at least. Only, they- Diamond in particular- seems to command a lot of authority over everypony else.” She snorts. “And to think, Diamond doesn’t have her cutie mark either! Yet she still pounds on me for being the ‘foreign blank-flank’, and everypony listens.”
I roll off of the cloud, heading for the door. We don’t have any writing tools yet, and I get the idea I’m going to need a good amount of them. As much as my near-photographic memory lets me do all the processing in my head, delivering a large amount of information to someling else is nearly impossible. Especially since she doesn’t have such an eidetic memory, so I’ll no doubt have to deliver the same snippets multiple times.
The easy solution, of course, is to write it down, and let her study it on her own time. “I’ll see what I can come up with,” I answer.
She sends me a smile. “I hope it’s good. I’m starting to feel a little weak.”
I wince, approaching the front door. “Conserve your love. We can survive on ambient if we have to, but only if we conserve our love.”
“What? We can?”
“Yeah, we can. It’s hard, and we’d be very weak, but we can, if it comes down to that.”
“I… I am not looking forward to that.”
“Me neither. Especially since I wouldn’t have the love to transform and play mailmare.”
“I still think that’s dangerous… Though, I suppose, it’s less dangerous than being some kind of gambling hero.”