//------------------------------//
// 6 - Love is All You Need 
// Story: All You Need is Love 
// by AugieDog 
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Two beats, three beats, four beats: Sapphire kept her head bowed, not at all sure what was supposed to happen now that she'd emptied herself so completely and thoroughly.

Rustling pricked her ears, and she blinked to see Angel scamper up, throw his arms around her right front fetlock, and squeeze it. Then he was hopping past her; she twisted her neck to follow his progress away from her and toward the door.

He reached it quickly—it was a very small office—spun, braced his forelegs, and pounded a rapid tattoo over the door's bottom rail with his rear paws.

Almost immediately, the door pulled open, and Pharynx was rushing through. "What?" he shouted, his head moving too quickly, Sapphire was sure, to actually focus on anything. "Is she okay?"

Angel leaped high enough to smack him in the chest, then landed with a glare.

Pharynx snapped a look down at him, then transformed with a green flash into a large black rabbit.

The two proceeded to wave their paws at each other, at Sapphire, and all around the general area while making such cute squeaking noises, Sapphire couldn't help grinning. After everything she'd just gone through, watching a couple bunnies cavorting seemed to fill a little part of her emptiness just the way she needed it to be filled. Especially with all the positive emotions swirling out from the pair of them...

Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately now that she thought about it—the confab broke up pretty quickly, Pharynx slapping Angel on the shoulder. Angel turned, gave Sapphire a wink, and hopped away out of sight down the hall.

A swirl of green, and Pharynx stood grinning at her. "I'd started thinking that rabbit wasn't physically able to say anything good about anypony other than that pegasus he lives with."

Sapphire couldn't help taking a bit of a pose. "Not just anypony over here."

He winced. "Sorry: anyling, I mean, of course."

"No." It came out harsher than she'd meant it to: she had to take a breath to get her mane to stop bristling. "I'm not a pony, not a changeling, not anything simple or straightforward like that."

That got him blinking. "What are you, then?"

She gave him the slow smile with the half-closed eyes. "Maybe you'd be interested in finding out?"

His wings quivered, but they didn't go shooting out the way she'd hoped. "Well, now," he said, his grin widening, "officially, all I'm supposed to do is invite you to take your true shape and return with Thorax and me to the hive for a repatriation ceremony before you decide what you're going to do with the rest of your life."

"My true shape?" She put just the right amount of sway into her step as she moved toward the doorway. "You're looking at it, Buggy Boy." Squeezing past him, she made sure her tail stroked that broad, deep chest of his a little. "Of course, I'll be happy to add the hive to my tour schedule, but I s'pose that'd be a matter to take up directly with His Majesty." Out in the hall, she looked back over her shoulder. "Or maybe with His Majesty's security chief?"

The way Pharynx's gaze was moving up, down, over, and around her, Sapphire almost expected to feel it like the tines of a currycomb. "Well, now," he said again, turning and stretching his neck before sniffing the air. "I'm no expert, but I'd say that's a kind of love I'm sensing here..."

With a laugh, she started a medium strut back toward the VIP Suite. "First things first. I mean, you said we've gotta check in with your brother, right?"

"Why?" A buzz of wings, and he dropped into step with her, Sapphire sensing all kinds of very interesting things wafting around in the space between them. "I love my brother, sure, but really, Ms. Shores! To suggest a threesome this early in our relationship?" He looked away and sniffed, an absolutely phony primness taking over his face . "I don't know what sort of fellow you think I am, but—"

"Uh-huh." She let herself shift just enough to brush his flank with her own. "I can take a few guesses about what sort of fellow you are if you'd like. I'm especially thinking of the term 'hard ass' that I believe I heard earlier."

When he looked over this time, his sincerity was a crisp and literal scent. "If that's what you want and need right now," he said, his voice gentler than she'd yet heard from him, "then I'm happy to help."

Sapphire had to swallow and look away, her insides still battered and raw after finally squeezing everything out. "Cute, flirty, and fun," she murmured. "That's all. But—" She shook herself, slipped into her regular self as easily as she would into a comfortable robe, and winked at him. "You keep doing as well as you're doing, I might just show you a few of my favorite spots later."

Some of his grin coming back, he nodded. "Because I imagine you'd know all the best places in Canterlot."

"That, too." Another bit of a brush against his side. "The spots I'm thinking of, though, tend to follow me around rather closely..."

He blinked, then everything about him perked up. "Well, now!" The glow of his magic shot down the hall to pull open the VIP Suite's door, and he hurried ahead. "Let's get this evening started, then!"

Watching him go, Sapphire basked in a warmth she wasn't sure she'd ever felt before. Yeah, she was gonna like these new changelings, she found herself thinking. She was going to like them a lot.