Random looked up in confusion as the jasmine mare pressed down on his back, "what are you talking about?"
"Don't give me that!" Cloud Kicker shouted at him. "Blossomforth's been feeling awful all morning."
"I'm sorry to hear that," he said as he finally managed to get his forehooves back under himself. "How is this my fault though?"
Their little scuffle was starting to draw some attention from the other ponies in town. They started gathering at a distance and began whispering among themselves. A concerned mother ushered her child away from the conflict around the same time Random heard someone say "lover's spat" under their breath.
"She was feeling fine before the party and when we got home, but..." she started to sob. "She wouldn't wake up this morning."
"Well... Did you take her to the hospital?" That would be the first response, wouldn't it?
"You know very well why I can't take her there! She's one of your kind after all. I really don't think they would help her." She began pounding on his back in her frustration.
"You're not making any sense!" He shouted back at her. "I don't know what you think I can do, but I'm not gonna figure it out if you don't calm down."
"Don't give me that 'mare in hysterics' line!" She gritted her teeth at him. "I know you have something to do with that dark cloud she started coughing up!"
Random felt his heart stop at that, "did you say dark cloud?!"
"Did I stutter?!" She dug the tips of her hooves into his back, making him to wince. "You heard what I said. I haven't forgotten what happened yesterday!!"
Random narrowed his focus, the situation had just gotten a lot more serious. He didn't want to hurt the poor girl, but this wasn't accomplishing anything and they might now be facing imminent disaster. She needed to get off him, now.
Random arced his back as he let the energy run through him. His fur began to ripple as a tingling sensation ran through it and into Cloud Kicker's hooves. "What are you doing?" She sounded wary as the fur on her legs began to itch.
"Get... Off... Now!" A small arc of electricity jumped from his body and into the unfortunate pegasus. The crowd gasped as she went flying several feet away before coming to a stop on the ground.
Cloud Kicker laid there confused as she was stuck staring at the sky. She felt like she had just kicked a temperamental storm cloud. Small little jolts ran through her numb body as one of her hind legs involuntarily twitched. She was still feeling rather toasty when she noticed the stallion she just had pinned was now looking down at her mere inches from her face.
"I still don't know why you didn't take Blossomforth to the hospital, but now I'm glad you didn't," he said to her in a low voice. "I'll take responsibility and help her however I can, but we aren't going to get anywhere if you get all worked up."
The sound of swooning mares followed by mumblings of "he'd take responsibility" and "he's getting her worked up" brought their scuffle to a close. They both started turning various shades of pink as it sunk in what sort of fuel they had just provided to Ponyville's rumor mill. Cloud Kicker's ears pressed against her head as her embarrassment continued to burn her, the full implications of how this must look to other ponies completely sinking in.
"We need to get out of here," Random said quickly, Cloud Kicker hastily nodding in agreement.
He placed a hoof to her shoulder and with a flash, they both teleported away.
Nearby, an apple farmer hocking her wares had caught snippets of exchange as well as being privy to the whisperings of the bored residents of Ponyville. She'd had one hell of a story to share with the girls later.
They reappeared across town and with Cloud Kicker's guidance, they both quickly made their way to her house. She threw open the door and practically dragged Random inside before slamming the door behind them.
"You know if anypony saw that, that's just gonna add to the rumors that are bound to already be circulating," Random mentioned.
"I think it's already too late for that," she said as she made her way to the stairs. "Anyway, she's up here."
He followed her up the stairs and down the hallway until they reached a door. Random could tell right away that something very wrong was going on behind it. The malevolence radiating from behind the door felt very similar to what he kept locked inside himself.
"This is bad, I can already tell from here," he said to her, already feeling anxious about the situation. "I don't think anypony aside from me is equipped to deal with this."
"Please... Please help her..." Cloud Kicker whimpered. "You wouldn't abandon your own kind, would you?"
"That's the second time you've said something like that," Random cocked his head at her. "What exactly do you think I am?"
Her eyes clouded up with tears, whatever argument she might've made, she was too emotional to make it. She pushed the door open and Random's eyes went wide when he saw the creature laying on the bed.
"A changeling?" He said in realization. Sure enough, there was an ashen bug pony laying unconscious on the bed. He rushed forward and began to inspect her prone form, paying no mind to the shadows that were pouring off her body.
"So can you help her?" The desperation was evident in Cloud Kicker's voice.
Random rested a hoof against her forehead, finding it cold to the touch. "She's not in good shape. I can tell you that much. Changelings are supposed to be relatively warm even when they're at rest."
"So can you help her?" She asked. "She's one of your people isn't she?"
"I'll do what I can, but I'm not a changeling." He asked her as he turned the changeling onto her belly.
"But, I saw you change in the library's basement. That's what changelings do, right?" Cloud Kicker asked cautiously.
Random shook his head, "this is just an elaborate glamour spell. I'm very much a pony beneath it." He drew his attention to her hooves and seemed to pay extra close attention to the holes in them. "She's still got a lot of life left in her," He observed. "She must be passively feeding off your love. You must care for her very much or she'd be in worse condition than this."
"She went to bed early last night, said she wasn't feeling well." She gave a weak chuckle, "imagine my surprise this morning to find something other than a pegasus in her bed."
Random gave her a curious look, "so you didn't know she was a changeling before today?"
Cloud Kicker shook her head, "I was scared at first. My first thought was to call the guard and find out where she hid my friend, but when I noticed how much pain she were in, I hesitated. It took me a moment, but I eventually realized it was actually Blossomforth I was looking at."
"How were you so sure?" He questioned her skeptically.
"I sort of just knew," she said sheepishly. "It was just a feeling."
"Sounds like she's lucky to have a friend like you," Random said as he pulled back the sheets. His eyes went wide at what he saw. "Her carapace is white..." Sure enough, the shell draped across her back was a milky white color.
Cloud Kicker stepped up to the other side of the bed, "is that bad? I noticed that as well since they described the ones that showed up at the wedding differently."
"Changelings change their native colors for a number of reasons," he started explaining. "It can be to indicate their role in a hive or sometimes they'll change it to keep others away if they're sick. However, this right here," he pointed at the carapace. "Is to mark which hive she belongs to."
"You seem to know a lot about them for not being one yourself," she noted.
"I sort of got lucky," he said. "I have some history with this particular hive. I don't have time to get into it right now."
"So what's wrong with her," she looked at her friend who still had the dark fog wrapped around her. "Can you cure her?"
"It's not so simple," Random shook his head. "It's not a disease. She's possessed."
"Possessed?" Cloud Kicker looked at him with confusion. "Possessed by what?"
"It definitely came from me and I'm going to do everything in my power to cleanse her of it before it's too late." He stepped away from the bed after moving Blossomforth to a more comfortable position.
"So this did come from you then?" Cloud Kicker had calmed a bit now that she was getting answers to what was wrong.
Random gave a solemn nod, "the thing I've got possessing me has been making attempts to try and escape for a long time. He must've broken off a small piece again."
"How come you don't appear sick?" She wondered. "I thought unicorns had the weakest constitution of the tribes."
"I've taken steps to keep it at bay, spells and the like. I'm also, shall we say, just a bit sturdier than a normal unicorn." Random gave a small chuckle.
"So... about Blossomforth..." She looked back at her friend in concern.
"She's got at least a couple days before it starts to tear her apart from the inside." He exchanged a look with her, realizing too late that he picked the wrong words to calm her down. "Unfortunately, I'm too weak at the moment to be able to pull that thing back out of her cleanly."
Cloud Kicker sniffled a bit, "what can we do then? I don't know if anypony else could help and who would help a changeling. Is there anything I can do?"
"The best thing you can do is to stay by her side," Random said as he placed one of Blossomforth's dark, hole-riddled hooves in her own jasmine ones. "She'll last a lot longer and be in a lot less pain with you by her side," he said as he turned for the door.
"What're you going to do though?" She looked to him, desperate to have some hope to hold onto.
He sighed as he turned back to her, "if I can get my amulet back, I should be able to fix this easily."
"An amulet?" She looked at him strangely. "How's that going to help?"
"I may as well tell you since you're already trusting me with her safety." He gave her a stern look. "I know it's somewhere in the Everfree. A black metal necklace with a red diamond in the middle of it. It's been lost for a long time due to the trouble it keeps getting involved in, and because of the immense power it gives its wielder, it's come to be known as the Alicorn Amulet."