Twilight felt a faint scent of candy. No, it wasn’t candy. It was something better. Something that made her mouth water and horn tingle with sparks of energies. She opened one eye – in the dimly lit room, she saw her former body wrapped around hers in a cuddle. That was the source of the smell. Yeah, it was time for some breakfast…
“No, wait!” the mare snapped to a standing position and quickly shuffled away from the sleeping Chip. She felt that smell again, the fragrance that made her go crazy with lust long ago.
“No, not this time. I’m stronger than that. I’m stronger than that!”
The aggravated pony’s words caused Chip’s ears to twitch – his hooves moves about, uncertain, looking for something. The nice warmth that accompanied him and which he grew to accept left him. Some of it remained inside him, and that heat felt important to preserve. To do so, the changeling feebly curled up into a ball.
Twilight was so happy she nearly went blind with tears – he was moving, he was alive, he would be alright. But she needed to stay away from him. Chip had to wake up soon and tell her how to control his hunger. She didn’t want to be an animal that attacked her friends. She didn’t want to be a changeling to begin with! The mare sat on her haunches, mustering all her resolve, drawing thoughts away from the intensifying aroma of re-emerging emotions.
What did she do prior to this body swap? Ah, yes, that strange path, the dark one. She tried to unlock it…and then she dug her hooves into an eye spying on her. And then she got blown away by some kind of force. It must’ve been at that moment that she lost contact with her body. Did that mean that she could do it again? That her spirit ccould be dislodged at will by something like that mind-blast?
It was scary. Twilight sometimes read about out of body experiences, ghosts, ‘wanderers’ that were looking for abandoned bodies…what seemed to be non-scientific mumbo-jumbo turned out to have at least a grain of truth in it. She needed to remember those articles. Or better yet, read them again. If she only had the time…
In the other corner of the room, Chip was coming to. His body was stiff and tired, but it obeyed the colt’s commands, at least to a certain degree. It allowed him to open his eyes, but moving his head was a no-go. Moving his legs around was fine, but standing up was not included in the package. Still a bit dazed, the changeling focused his view on the pony that was staring at him from across the chamber. Silver coat, white mane, yellow eyes…oh, that’s right. It was him. No, uh, it was Twilight. Yeah, they changed bodies. But there was something else…ah yes. She felt the hunger. Was she alright now?
Of course. She fed on him.
That realization wasn’t as scary as he hoped it would be. By no means did he feel daunted by Twilight, nor was he urged to scream at the top of his lungs. It wasn’t that bad. He had no memories of how it all went, so that was a bit of a bummer. Still, he was alive, she was fed and all would turn out well. If he could only get up.
“Twi…” whispered Chip, reaching out for the mare.
“Chip! Chip, are you alright?” Twilight stood up and shuffled in place, uncertain if she should come closer or not. The aroma was very tempting…
“I can’t come closer…I’ll hurt you again!”
“Hurt? Oh, that,” Chip put a hoof to his face. “You need to control it, Twilight. You can’t let the hunger rule you.”
“I know! I don’t want it! But it just…it just happens! Chip, how do I stop it?”
“Eh…let me get my thoughts together. Hold on.” With great effort, the colt managed to sit up against a wall.
“Come over here,” he said, smiling faintly.
“No!”
“Come on, I promise it will be alright. Just listen to me, okay? Take a few steps, okay? If the feeling will be too strong, don’t back way. Don’t move forward either. Keep yourself on the verge, you understand me?”
“No, not at all! I’ll just, I’ll just wait till it passes!”
“It won’t pass. A changeling is always hungry – the Queen regulates that feeling for every changeling…but I’m not connected to the hive. So you feel everything a feral changeling would. A broken, let loose one. I managed to suppress the feeling on my own. You need to do the same. Now, come on.”
Twilight took a deep breath and held it for a few moments. She took a step, feeling compelled to trot over and do that…thing again. She let go of the air and nearly dug her hooves into the ground, straining against the force that wanted her to advance.
“Good, good. Fight it Twilight. I know you can.”
“It hurts,” cried Twilight.
“I’m sorry. I really am. But there is no other way. You can do it. C’mon, next step.”
Twilight put another hoof in front of her, nearly falling over. She wanted to embrace him so badly. Is that what changelings had to live with for all their lives? Is that what Chip felt around her? This gut-twisting hunger?
Now it was time for the hind legs. One step. Her confused senses were picking up a lot of mouthwatering goodies – compassion, hope, a bit of fear…all of it came from Chip. She could see how he felt like.
Another hoof.
Being a changeling meant you could tell what a person thought of you. So all this uncertainty she felt towards the colt, he picked that up? Did that mean he could read minds? No, rather not. Either Twilight was unable to focus, or the changelings didn’t have such super-natural powers.
Another hoof.
She almost lost herself there. Her body nearly tipped forwards as her knees unexpectedly sprung forward.
No, just stay calm. Stop.
This was as close as she could come now. But then again, she maybe moved a foot or two from her starting point. And this was her limit – just an inch closer and she would lunge at him, again sinking her mental teeth into his barely recovered mind.
“Very good Twilight, you’re doing great. Come on, just a little bit further now.”
“I-I can’t. Don’t make me come closer…”
“You have to. Trust me. You can’t stay in that corner forever. We must continue our research, even under these…extreme conditions,” Chip huffed and puffed, finally standing on all fours, leaning heavily against the wall. It was not the body that was tired – it was his mind that was drained.
Twilight gulped down a mouthful of spit and took another step. Moving forward was easy; it was standing in place that caused the problems. As if she was a horseshoe and Chip was the magnet. She wished for nothing else than to embrace him…no, it wasn’t her. It was the changeling body. It was not part of her. The body couldn't rule the mind!
With that bold thought in mind, sweat wetting her brow, she moved forward again. The smell was very intensive from here – her senses picked it up as taste, smell and images all at the same time. It was like eating a rainbow – she could bite into thin air, feel it on her tongue, but it was somehow eluding her, not giving her the satisfaction that she knew and loved.
“Twilight, just a few more steps, come on.”
His voice, which belonged to her original body, helped a bit. She tried hard to see a pony in him – a friend, a colleague. Not a snack, not prey. Fighting against this primal instinct was tiring. Each second she hesitated to take another step burned her muscles from the inside – she was working against herself. Against the lust, the desire to feed.
She closed her eyes and decided it would be now or never. A deep breath…and a few fast tip-toes…
* * *
It was around three in the morning when somepony opened the doors to Celestia’s private library. Shelves upon shelves of books with questionable contents lay there, in the darkness. The intruder didn’t try to flip on the light switch – that would give her away.
Instead, she went straight for her target…but it wasn’t there! The space was empty! But how?
It was late at night, so there was no way Celestia could have taken it just yet. How did it leave the room? Did somepony else take it? Maybe it wasn’t there in the first place?
The figure looked through the shelves.
No, no… Not here… It's not here!
Somehow, it vanished. Maybe Celestia had it with her? Was it worth risking a trip to her room? Probably not.
On second thought, what the hay. What was she going to do to her anyway? They were sisters, right? Huh, but what would be her excuse? ‘Hi, um, listen, you remember that book, Forbidden Gardens? Yeah, it’s not where it is supposed to be and I was wondering if you took it.’ No, that sounded stupid. Well, she would have to be silent, then. As Mistress of the Night, it should be easy to conceal herself in shadows. If she got found out, she would just grab a hairbrush and leave the room. Yeah, hairbrush. Celly never gave her back the stuff she was borrowing all the time.
Luna really wanted to read that book tonight. With a faint smile, she made her way to her sister’s chambers.
* * *
“You did well, I’m proud of you,” whispered Chip, delicately casting aside the wet white mane from Twilight’s eyes. She was still visibly shaking and didn’t say anything just yet, but she did it. She was leaning against him, her eyes closed tight shut…but she was controlling it.
The mare herself was going through hell. Her body told her to start feeding. But it didn’t do so without her consent this time. Why? She felt his vicinity, every single strand of delicious emotions she wanted inside her so badly. Why didn’t she take it?
Then it came to her. She didn’t see him. She needed to see him to cast the spell. Strange. She wanted to eat, yet nothing told her to open her eyes. Why?
“Chip?” managed Twilight.
“I’m here. How are you holding up?”
“Barely,” whispered the mare, cuddling up to the changeling. “Why do you need to see the ones you consume?”
“I do?”
“I…think so? I mean…I want it so badly. To do this thing to you again…but I can’t. The spell is drilling under my skull, but it won’t come out.”
“Strange,” said Chip, observing Twilight more alertly now. He never noticed it before. Truth be told, he only fed once, and he was so panicked back then that he didn’t pay attention to what was happening.
So a changeling needed to see its victim. Would a blind changeling be harmless, then? Would it not be able to hurt other ponies? That is definitely something worthy of checking out. But maybe later. When he got his body back…
“Okay, so you can’t feed on me now. That is some progress. We must try and give you back your body. Do you remember how it happened? Can you focus enough to tell me?”
“Y-Yes…I can.”
* * *
Chip was fascinated by the story. So he still had a connection to the hive mind – it was locked away somehow, but that path was not physically severed in his brain. On the other side, that part of him still could hurt him badly. At this moment, it could hurt Twilight. And he didn’t want that.
She was still shaking, but not as hard as half an hour ago. Their embrace calmed them both down a bit, and Chip found himself stroking Twi’s white mane almost thoughtlessly.
“It is too risky to try doing this again. This spell is a very dangerous one. We have to try it the other way... When our minds united. We felt that other empty space, remember?”
“Yes. Do you think we can reach it?” asked Twilight.
“We have to try, I guess. That, or you’ll have to be blind for the rest of your life.”
“That is not funny…” Yet, she snorted.
They both giggled a bit, the stress slowly leaving their bodies. It was one crazy night.
“Do you think you can focus now?”
“A bit…maybe.The smell, the hunger is still big…but I think I got used to it a little.”
“Okay. Do you think you can cast your memory spell?”
“I-I don’t know. Maybe. Your horn feels…different than mine. Let’s try. Touch my forehead…”
Chip did as he was told, and was immediately sucked inside. Somewhere.
* * *
He was standing at a mental crossroads. On one side he felt the sensation of the hive mind – it felt warm, welcoming, almost calling out to him. On the other side was confusion, emptiness, solitude… A mind that seemed quite foreign. The colt felt tempted to inspect that which was known and friendly… But in the end followed the other path.
They were one being once again. Trapped in the dimensionless space, with the images and sensations blurred and not making sense. But there was something new, something that was not there before. The blurs overlapped from time to time, creating split-second scenes with audible words. They recognized them – they were from barely a few hours ago. Right after the body switch.
What does it mean? asked Chip/Twilight. During those brief moments of synchronization, another sensation was felt – the pain that would overcome them by now was somehow reset, reduced to a lingering threat that was banished each time an image appeared or a sound made sense.
They decided not to look too much into it – there was no telling how much time they had this time around and if these new things happening were good or bad. They needed to separate. So they heaved and pushed, almost without any noticeable effects.
Did you feel that? one of them asked. There it is again! I think…try and push, try and pull when the images show themselves, okay? Okay…
It was working. As an image popped into view, the combined minds of Twilight and Chip pulled slightly apart – it was like trying to separate two books that had their pager interspersed. Slowly but surely, they felt a sticky sensation in a point between them. Most importantly, they started to recognize who was who.
It took Celestia knows how long, but they finally did it. They were together only by a thin thread now. For some reason, the frequency at which sensible images showed up increased, sometimes amounting to even a few second slide shows from their recent pasts. Twilight flailing in despair behind the closed door. Chip levitating in a green light. Spike being told by the colt to stay put and cover his ears…
“You stay here, I’ll take a leap towards that space. I think I can reach it,” said Chip, who now knew he was Chip.
“Okay. Just be careful,” replied Twilight, now fully aware of herself. She was relieved that the changeling’s body did not haunt her here. She was free of the monstrous pain and sucking in her guts.
“Here goes nothing…” murmured Chip.
The thread broke…