Warden awoke slowly to the ray of sunlight falling across his face, spilling in through the bedroom window. His eyes fluttered open, and he stretched slowly, yawning.
His eyes opened in time to see Kuno quickly close her own eyes and pretend to sleep.
The pegasus made a soft sound, nudging the changeling curiously with his nose.
Kuno stirred fitfully, yawning and stretching slowly, pressing her hooves against his chest, tongue waggling in her yawn.
“I already saw you were awake,” Warden accused.
Kuno snorted once, opening an eye to peer at him.
“Were you watching me sleep?” Warden asked, sound both confused and slightly scared.
“...I may have been,” Kuno admitted.
“Kinda creepy,” Warden stated with a single blink. “Why were you watching me sleep?”
Kuno frowned at that, her ears lowering. “I... I dunno. You’re just... different when you’re sleeping.”
“Different?” Warden asked, bewildered.
“Different,” Kuno repeated, nodding once and then peering at him for a long moment. “You look peaceful... calm. It’s nice.”
“I can be peaceful and calm,” Warden protested with a single blink.
Kuno laughed softly at that, before she shook her head, gently kissing his nose. “No you can’t. There’s like this pallor just hanging over your head constantly, like there’s a pegasus following you around with a thundercloud just waiting to ruin your day.”
“He’s an earth pony, actually,” Warden said with a wrinkled nose and a soft sigh. “I haven’t been unconsciously happy since... well, since Swarm died.”
The changeling nodded gently, though she couldn’t help but contradict the pegasus in her own mind. She had seen him smiling as he watched her open her present. Seen that little spark in his eyes when he watched her licking the bowl of the cake mix.
“We should do something fun,” Kuno said, nosing into the pegasus’ neck slowly.
“Always trying to get me to do naughty things with you,” Warden said with a roll of his eyes.
Kuno snorted once. “I mean we should go into Ponyville... you can take me on a date. Show me what you ponies do for fun.”
“I...” Warden trailed off, pursing his lips. “I guess... there’s a fair in Canterlot?”
Kuno smiled. “Sounds like fun.”
Warden stepped through the front gates of the fair, accompanied by a snow-white pegasus with a long teal mane, and a blue flower as her cutie mark.
The front gates of the fair were marked with a big sign with the outline of a changeling on it and a big red mark over it. Underneath it were the stern words ‘report any suspicious behavior. Arrange safe words with your family and friends for easy identification of changelings. Security is everypony’s concern!’
Kuno stared up at the sign and scowled. Warden ushered her past it, towards the ferris wheel. “C’mon. Don’t mind the signs. We’re supposed to be here to have fun.”
Kuno gave a nod at that, sighing once and then casting her gaze around. “So what do you think we should do first?”
Warden pondered on that for a moment. “I should get you a plushie.”
“A plushie?” Kuno asked blankly, blinking once.
“Yeah, a plushie,” Warden said, pointing to a large tiger plushie hanging from the ceiling of a stall. It was a simple spider-toss game, popular in fairs and Nightmare Night festivities for generations.
“I want that one,” Kuno said, pointing a hoof up at a winged tiger hanging in the back.
“Then it shall be yours!” Warden said confidently, stepping up to the counter and placing down ten bits.
Three fabric spiders were given to the pegasus, and he picked up one of them, aiming the distance, and throwing it. He winced as the throw came short, the spider bouncing onto the web, far below its target.
“Woops, practise throw,” Warden said self-consciously, tongue between his teeth as he concentrated on the target. His next throw went a little wide, and his third went high. His total was only five points. He needed forty for the winged tiger, which was a bullseye and two inner rings.
It was going to take a lot of tries to get it right.
Warden selected an inferior toy, and passed it off to Kuno.
“But this isn’t the tiger,” Kuno pointed out petulantly.
“I know, but I’m still trying for it,” Warden said with a confident nod.
Four tries later, and four inferior toys later, and Warden’s confident was failing rapidly. “Ugh... this throwing is hard work...” he said, pointing his nose towards a refreshment stand. “Get us some lemonade, Kuno? I’ll keep trying this.”
Kuno blinked once, but nodded, taking the bits the pegasus offered and ducking through the crowd to get to the stand.
Once she was out of earshot, Warden stepped closer to the attendant and leaned in close. “Look... I think we both know that I’m not gonna get what she wants...”
Warden reached in, took out a small pouch of bits, and then held it out, jingling it faintly. “Just... say I won! Please!”
Warden looked over his shoulder furtively, his eyes widening as he saw Kuno returning with a pair of drinks balanced in the crook of her wings.
The attendant looked past him towards the pegasus, and then gave a wry smile. Without pausing, the attendant swiped the coin pouch, picked up three spiders, and casually tossed them the full length of the pitch to land neatly in pattern on the web, a 45 score.
The ‘are you kidding me?’ flabbergasted expression was still on Warden’s face when Kuno came up besides him, putting down his cup of lemonade on the counter in front of him. Kuno cast her gaze at the target, her eyes widening.
“You got it?” she asked with a grin, bouncing once.
“He sure did!” the attendant said, “That last throw was something spectacular, too!”
Warden closed his mouth and then nodded mutely.
“Select your prize,” the attendant said, waving his hoof.
Warden immediately pointed to the winged tiger. The attendant took down the tiger,and then passed it to Kuno, who added it to her pile of smaller plushies and grinned, snuggling it against her chest and immediately biting its ear.
The pegasus raised a brow at the changeling.
Kuno blinked once, looking up at him, still with a mouthful of ear. “What?” she asked, her voice slightly muffled by the felt ear, before she frowned and puffed out her chest. “I’m showing him who’s boss!”
Warden just stared at the changed pegasus for several long, long moment. “You are insufferably cute.”
“I know!” Kuno chimed with a grin.
“C’mon, we’ll go check out the ferris wheel! Maybe it’ll get stuck at the top and we’ll be forced to sit up there in the seat for hours,” Warden said with a sage nod.
Kuno’s eyes widened. “Really?!”
Warden shook his head with a wry grin, “No, not really. That only happens in stories where the writer is really looking for a contrived way to get the characters together. That sorta thing never happens in real life. Not to mention there’s a safety winch to make the wheel turn if the power is cut.”
“Awww...” Kuno said, her ears drooping.
The pegasus grinned slightly. “But we can pretend we’ll be up there for ages, with only each other for company...”
“Deal!” Kuno said instantly.
The pegasus and changed-pegasus staggered in the front of Warden’s home, each of them with a hoof-full of plushies or cotton candy. Kuno had never gotten cotton candy before, and had never really saw the appeal of it, but upon Warden’s offer had immediately gotten herself two of each of the three flavours.
Immediately upon closing the front door, Kuno shrugged placed down her things, and then changed back to her natural form, giving a shiver. “Ugh... that is so weird. Feels strange not to be myself.”
“That is the oddest sentence I’ve ever heard anyone say,” Warden said with a shake of his head, carrying the bag to the lounge room and placing it on the table.
Kuno came in after him, placing the rest of her stuff next to the bag and humming thoughtfully, looking back and forth between the unopened cotton candy.
“Why didn’t you try some at the fair?” Warden queried.
The changeling paused, and then wrinkled her nose. “Things taste different when you’re an earth pony, or a pegasus, or a unicorn. And even when I’m being just regular ol’ Kuno.”
“How... odd. Maybe that’s why unicorns eat such strange foods?” Warden suggested.
“They taste perfectly fine as a unicorn,” Kuno pointed out, before selecting the blue cotton candy, unwrapping it.
Holding up the cotton candy, the changeling immediately bit into it, blinking at how easily her teeth sunk through it. She drew back without biting down properly, staring at the marks she left in it. “It’s all... light and full of holes.”
“Hence, cotton candy,” Warden pointed out with a grin.
“Touché,” Kuno muttered, before biting down on the cotton candy properly and drawing it into her mouth, working her jaw slowly.
Immediately, the changeling began to flail her forehooves. “It’s fizzling in mai mouf!” Kuno cried out, her tone muffled, eyes wide.
Warden just watched the changeling with the cotton candy and smiled, unconsciously happy.