My faithful student, Twilight
The fact that your holding a changeling captive is surprising, and dangerous, but I trust that you have the situation under control, if you need royal guards to help keep the changeling under control, just ask. As for the feeding it part. That is for you too decide, while I wouldn’t recommend feeding it too much, enough to keep it alive would be advised. Since the death of any creature is to be mourned. Do be careful though.
Sincerely, Princess Celstia of the Sun
Twilight leaves the letter on the stairs. Then walks down to sit next to the changeling again. “Tell me more about how changelings feed.” She asks.
“We take the love a pony has for something, and aim it toward us, so we can feed off it. If the pony is distracted it goes unnoticed, but if we take too much or the pony notices its love going somewhere else. We usually get discovered by the ponies natural reactions. I made the desperate mistake of trying to take too much earlier today.” he smiles at the mare.
“Is it possible for a pony to give a changeling love?” Twilight asks going down a mental checklist of questions.
“Well you’d have to love the changeling.” the changeling laughs as he tries guess what the purple pony means by asking such questions.
“Define love?” Twilight places her hoof on her chin thinking.
“Love, you know that warm fuzzy feeling, or so I’ve ease dropped. I think friendship works to--.” He gives a shriek.
The changeling suddenly slumps forward holding his stomach.
“Are you hurt?” Twilight asks worriedly.
“No, just another reservoir cramp from me not feeding.” he chokes out. Twilight hovers over the changeling awkwardly. To see anything in such pain makes her inner empathy reach out to it. The changeling soon stops clutching it's stomach and sits up, looking at twilight with vulnerability etched in its face.
“ I've decided what I will do.” Twilight sighs.
“hmm?” the changeling looks at her.
“I’ll feed you, but just enough so you wont die. I trust you to only take that much.” she says.
“Okay." he takes a deep breath. "…ready?” the changeling asks lowering his horn.
Twilight nods.
A green light comes from his horn, followed by a small green fog, about the size of fishing line. It snakes itself through the air towards Twilight. It rests on her forehead between her horn and her eyes. A bit of dopamine is released from twilight brain sending a shudder down her body. She can feel the warm feeling of love washing over her then being taken away through the small green thread, to wash over her again only to be taken away. A final rush of love washes over her, and hangs there the green line disconnecting. Twilight melts.
“I had no idea, it was so intament.” she says.
“When you take it quickly it is, other wise it’s a downed version of what you just felt.” the changeling looks behind at his body as it starts reconstructing his wings and shell.
“What’d you take the love from?” Twilight asks.
“Oh, just places where there was an abundance in the wrong place. Like your umm…love for rule 34 Science is Magic.” he chuckles.
Twilight gasps. “You can see my secrets?” the changeling nods. Twilight stares at the changeling
“You know too much.” .
The changeling laughs. “Relax, not like I care.”
“I’ll go get you a bed.” Twilight says trying to stand up. Her legs wobble and she falls back down onto her stumach.
“Sorry the feeding process also has tiring effect here. I'll get it.” in a green flash of light there is a second Twilight standing in front of the first. The imposter Twilight walks up the basement stairs and opens the door. “Spike can you grab a cot from the closet.” The changeling calls in Twilight’s voice. Spike mumbles dragging a fold able bed over to the changeling. “Thanks, my number one assistant.” the impostor says before pulling the bed through the door and down the stairs. Twilight looks up at him.
“Why didn’t you just run?”
the changeling drops it’s disguise.“Because I have everything I want here. A supply of love, a bed, and best yet I'm working on my plan.” he says unfolding the bed.
“Plan?” Twilight questions.
“Oh, nothing.” he shrugs it off.
“What kind of plan?” Twilight pesters.
“Just a plan.” he folds out the sheets on the cot.
“An evil plan?” Twilight digs.
“Nope, a good one.” he fluffs the pillow.
“About?”.
“Ponies and changelings being peaceful, you’ve restored my hope in an old tale number 499028291 used to tell.” the changeling says testing out the bed.
“499028291?” Twilight asks.
“Yep, changelings are named by birth number, I’m 50829381.” he sits on the side of the bed. Twilight looks up at him from the floor.
“I need to get to bed.” she tries to stand but falls back down.
“I’ll help you.” the changeling lifts up Twilight and places her on the cot.
“Whoa, what’re you doing?” Twilight asks.
“You’re too tired to walk upstairs, and well your assistant would have a heart attack if he saw me carrying you up. So…” he pats Twilight's head and then lays down on the floor next to the cot. Twilight objects.
“No guest of mine is sleeping on the floor changeling or not.” she says.
“So now I’m a guest? Thought I was a prisoner.” he asks. Twilight shrugs. “Well the only bed here is the one with you in it, and I’m not letting you sleep on the floor.” he says.
Twilight sighs. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, but….Get up here.”
The changelings ears perk up. “You sure?”
Twilight nods .
The changeling climbs onto the cot next to Twilight, the small size of the cot forcing their bodies together. They slept back to back through the night in the basement science lab.
knock knock knock…..bang Spike bangs on the door. The two wake up. “Twilight? It’s noon did you pull another all nighter with your science experiments?” he calls.
The changeling ducks under the bed.
“Hide.” twilight says. Spike turns the knob and opens the door.
“Twilight you have to go help Fluttershy in with the ducks in half an hour. Twilight?” the baby dragon squints.
“Yes spike?” the mare says letting the blanket drop in front of the bed.
“Is someone down there with you?” the baby dragon asks.
“Nope.” Twilight says running her magic through her mane, trying to straighten it out.
“But I thought-”
“HEY!-you know what would be great? We have just enough time to stop by Sugercube Corner and get you some ice cream on the way to Fluttershy’s doesn’t that sound nice Spike?” Twilight asks. The baby dragon shrugs.
“What ever Twilight. Hurry up though.” he walks away from the door.
Twilight ducks her head under the bed. “Okay I’m going to be gone for a few hours you have my lab to yourself, don’t break anything.” She says before running up the stairs and closing the door behind her.
The changeling gets out from under the bed and looks around. There’s rack of lab coats on the far wall. Next to those are cabinets full, and next to the cabinets are shelves full of beakers, closed test tubes, and books. In the middle of the room is a metal table with a half finished experiment still lying on it. He walks over to the rack and puts on one of Twilights lab coats. He walks over to the book shelf and begins browsing. “Encyclopedia of chemistry…..boreing….A complete collection of star swirl the beardeds theories on magic and science….yawn…..History of hearts of hooves day…one of these things is not like the others.” he picks the History of hearts and hooves day book off the shelf and flips through it. Wondering why its on the shelf of chemistry books. He is left in wonder till he comes across a recipe for a certain potion. “This is a answer to my prayers. A easy way to achieve my plan.” he holds the book up to his face like a kitten. Think the queen.” he quickly checks to see if twilight has the ingrediants on hoof, and being the never overlook anything type of mare that she is. She does lined up with the beackers of other things. He grabs the beakers of supplies off the shelf. “but what about twilight. It seemed like she legitimately liked me, as a friend.” he shakes the thoughts out of his head. “Friendship leading up to a relationship takes too long, this is much faster. Much quicker! Much better!” he sighs. “but, I’ll still feel guilty later.”
“So Fluttershy what do you think of changelings?” asks Twilgith as she levitates a trail of ducks across a small stream.
“Oh those dreadful things… “ Fluttershy goes into a defensive pose, looking around.
“Well, what if one wasn’t as evil as we think?” Twilight asks.
“Then I guess it be okay.” the yellow pegasus says.
“What if all changelings where nicer than we think?” Twilight asks.
“Oh, that couldn’t be, they attacked Canterlot.” Fluttershy says. Twilight gives a scowl. “Did I say something wrong, I’m sorry.” Twilight relaxes her posture. Sighing.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why the sudden interest in changelings?” Fluttershy asks. “uhh….” Twilight searches for a suitable lie. “I read a interesting book.” good Twilight now you just have to keep this lie up
“About what?” Fluttershy asks.
“A pony who meets a changeling and breaks through the predadice and stereotypes to see that the changeling, and not all changelings are bad ponies!” twilight is practically screaming by the last few words.
“Must have been a good book” Fluttershy says.
Twilight hangs her head. “How much farther do we need to excort these ducks?” She asks.
“Just to that pond over there.”
“Spike! I’m home” she says hoping her voice caries to the basement. “I’m going into the basement to continue studying.” she opens the door and finds the changeling sprawled out with one of her chemistry books in his hoofs.
“What have you been up to?” she asks.
“Working on my plan.” he puts the book down.
“The plan to have ponies and changelings live peacefully?” Twilight asks.
“Mostly. So how was your day?”
Twilight sits down on the cot next to him. “Helped Fluttershy move ducks from one pond to another. Quick question, how often do changelings feed?” Twilight rubs her shoulder awkwardly
“Everyday preferably.” Twilight’s eyes go wide. “Though, not as much as yesterday, yesterday was a big portion” he sits up. “What time is it? There aren’t any clocks in the basement” he asks.
“Umm, let me go check upstairs.” Twilight climbs up the stairs and closes the door.
Number 50829381 fans himself with his hoof, (highly inefficient). “You sure you got the potion right? Yeah I think I do…tuft of cloud, rainbow glow, Pegasus feather, stirred fastly all courtesy of Twilight's bottles of chemistry supplies. I feel bad about tricking her like this, I can tell she’s developing feeling for me, but that’s just friendship, I need pure love.” he looks down at his feet. “Still feeling guilty though.”.
Twilight opens the door. The changeling looks up at her wide eyes. “Uhh, it’s 4pm.” she regains her seat next to the changeling.
“So we got a lot of time to burn. Any questions about changelings?” he asks.
“Quite a few actually.” Twilight precedes to interrogate him with waves of questions on changeling society,
“What time is it?” the changeling asks.
“I’ll go check.” Twilight says walking up.
“While your upstairs can you grab a drink.” he asks.
Twilight nods, walking up the stairs and closing the door behind her.
“Okay moment of truth dude don’t screw this up. Tons of benefits for the hive, and all it cost you is your mind. Haha. Simple.”
Twilight soon returns with two drinks held in her magic.
“It’s 11pm, so I guess it be for the best if we..uh got you..” she shuffles nervously.
“fed?” he hints. Twilight nods. “Okay, well are you ready?”
she nods again.
A green string connects their foreheads like before granting 50829381 access to Twilight's mind . The changeling searches through the many neatly organized files of love in Twilight's mind. Each file labeled alphabetically, as to be expected from the studious mare. He searches for a bad habbit that she has too much love for doing. He snags some love for “SCHEDULE EVERYTHING.” and comes across a new file. “Love for changelings.” he smiles. Love meant for changelings... How convenient . He leaves Twilight with a sudden rush of pleasure and draws out his magic.
Twilight slumps forward. “I think you took a bit too much” Twilight stammers
“I’ll get you a drink.” he walks over to the table and pours out the water from a glass then refills it with the purple bubbling liquid he constructed today. "Tilt your head back." he commands. Twilight obliges. the changeling lifts the glass in front of Twilight's lips.