Consciousness was slow to return to Octavia. The first thing she realized was that she had been moved from the hard wooden floor of the living room to the firm comfort of her bed. The cellist blinked and sat up, looking around with wild, terrified eyes. What she had seen had been impossible. It had to have been a joke, some illusion spell that Vinyl felt like using to prank the poor mare.
"Good, you're awake," came a voice that was almost the DJs, but with a slight buzz in the lower register, "Sorry if I startled you."
"Startled me!? How... you... but..."
"Easy, Tavi, I'm still the Vinyl you met," the voice said, stepping out from behind the door to the hall, still standing in a shadow cast by the lamp, "Just... revealed, I guess."
"You're a changeling, though! How could I believe anything you've ever said."
"I'm not a changeling!" the other female spat, stepping into the light. The alabaster white coat that Vinyl usually sported had dimmed to a gray-green color. Her mane and tail were the same, as Octavia's eyes widened even further, pupils dilating until barely any iris was left. Vinyl's horn was still there, but where had previously been beautiful ruby eyes, were a pair of black eyes that glistened in the light revealing they were made of small hexagonal pieces. On the other beings back sat a pair of membranous wings that appeared to be perfectly clear until the light caught them, revealing a rainbow of colors. Her coat met with a chitinous plate protecting her underbelly and additional plates armored her legs, broken up by more of the faded coat. It was as if someone had taken parts of a unicorn and parts of a changeling and put them in a blender, pouring what was left into a unicorn-shaped mold.
"So what are you, then?"
"Are you willing to listen to the whole story before you run screaming into the night?"
"I think if I were to run screaming, I would have done so by now, Vinyl," Octavia said, scooting back a little further on the bed as her guest moved closer and sat on the edge.
"Right, well, I was born a normal unicorn in Neigh Orleans. I get that little Cajun accent back when I get drunk. Before I even got my cutie mark, I was kidnapped by a cult of Changeling worshipers. The queen of the hive was trying to find a way to bring pony and changeling together in order to form a more perfect being. I was placed in a cocoon with a drone and a group of unicorns and the queen herself cast some kind of spell.
"This... was the result. A failed experiment," Vinyl sighed, looking up and revealing the fangs that came with being a Changeling, "Fusion spells, I later learned, hardly ever work as intended, and the merging of minds tends to drive the resulting being completely insane and their body just breaks down. Lucky for me, drones don't really have minds of their own, just base instincts to feed, protect, multiply. Those are easy to control once you practice. I was rescued in a raid on the hive by the local militia after three more foals were taken."
Octavia had moved closer to the creature sitting on her bed, her fear lessening as she heard the tale. A tear dropped from Vinyl's eye as the earth pony put a leg around her shoulders, "I'm so sorry..."
The half-breed shook her head, "Don't be, there was nothing to be done. I couldn't be separated from the changeling, but I could use their innate ability to shape-shift. I used that to hide everything about me that wasn't a unicorn once I was rescued. My parents were supportive for the most part. I was able to live a normal life.
"Then the wedding of Cadence and Shining Armor happened and Princess Celestia herself found out about me. It took a long time to convince her that I wasn't a threat, but in the end I was still allowed to play at the reception. Thanks to the spell that cleared the Changelings out of Canterlot, my ability to shape-shift has been weakened. Those glasses I wear serve a double purpose. They hide it when I lose control of my eyes and they look like this, and when I'm Vinyl, they let me see beyond my own nose. I'm rather near-sighted."
"So, you're just a unicorn with some additional parts?"
"In a manner of speaking. My instincts are a little better, I'm a bit more agile, and I can live on Love or normal food. I still need to do all the other things a pony does to survive. The only other real benefit is that if I can stay awake for up to a month without any ill effect, but I have to spend a week in bed afterwards. The cons are more numerable. I can't go to a doctor other than the one in the royal castle now, before I couldn't go anywhere. I occasionally hear the hive if I've been awake too long, and I have to fight this constant urge to cocoon myself. I don't know what would happen if I did," Vinyl said, finishing her story and levitating a glass of water from the night stand to drink, thirsty from storytelling.
Octavia sat there, absorbing the information she had just received. No wonder she was so accepting of the small fact that instead of having a marehood, she had all the parts a stallion would love to put to good use on a beautiful mare like Vinyl. At least, the unicorn illusion. She sighed and looked out the window at the stars as if expecting them to give her advice.
The two sat in silence for some time while they both thought things over. Vinyl grew increasingly worried that her friend and possible romantic interest would leave immediately. The cellist was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the mare she had found so attractive and was willing to take a risk with had revealed herself for all she truly was and what she was incredible. Such a thing could cause problems in the higher echelons of society she usually played for but, Bad, Tavi. Your image is tertiary to your happiness and your health.
Sighing, Octavia stood from her bed and looked Vinyl over in detail, sniffing occasionally, "Well... I liked your coat better before you showed off, but I'm sure Rarity could work with this shade as well. You still smell like you need a bath. You still sound like the mare I took in. It may take some getting used to, but you're still you."
The DJ looked over the earth pony like she had grown an extra head, wings, and a horn, "You... what?"
Instead of answering with words, the cellist took to heart the old axom that actions speak louder and kissed her companion on the lips, ignoring the fangs as she probed with her tongue. Vinyl closed her eyes and returned the kiss, their tongues dancing around each other for several moments before breaking the embrace of their lips, "I think that answers that."
"Answers what?" the Uniling asked with a dazed expression.
"Whether or not I still want to be your marefriend."
"Oh... So, you... But I'm..."
"It doesn't matter what you are, Vinyl. It matters who you are, at least to me. I learned, when I figured out what I am, not to judge a pony by their cutie mark. You are still Vinyl Scratch, also known as DJ-PON3, and I believe that is the part I... I admit I have fallen in love with. I'm sure you can tell I'm telling you the truth."
Vinyl could indeed, her changeling physiology suddenly inundated with the sweet tingle of love filling her belly. She blushed and concentrated, filling the room with a green flash as she took back on her unicorn shape, "If you don't mind though, I'm more comfortable like this."
"Darling, I am fine with whatever shape you want to be in."
Smiling, the DJ and cellist embraced, kissing each other passionately before curling up with each other on the bed. They silently agreed that the evening had been too filled with emotions and oddness that their inaugural session of lovemaking would have to wait. The earth pony fell asleep first while her marefriend drank down all the love she could, finding it just as satisfying as a Rose burger with hay fries and a triple thick chocolate malt. When she felt full, she nuzzled into the mane of the beautiful pony next to her, and fell into a blissful sleep.