//------------------------------//
// A Pegasus and a Changeling 
// Story: The Golden Armor 
// by Comet Burst 
//------------------------------//

Comet sat alone in the rec room after coming back to the castle with Valyrie. He wasn't sure what to think as he stared at the magical fire. Images and sounds of both Angel and Valyrie bounced around in his mind in an unorganized mess. Little bits of previous conversations he had with both repeated endlessly in his mind and he felt his face tighten into a scowl. He knew the inevitable decision would happen soon, the one where he had to choose between Angel and Valyrie. As he thought about it, Comet's mind gave no forgiveness, showing him both the absolute worst reactions from either. If he wanted Angel, Valyrie would probably be distraught enough to hurt herself, or worse. If he chose Valyrie, well, Angel was another guard and would thrash him to within a couple inches of death, all while making him feel like he deserved it.

Comet eventually suppressed the thoughts concerning the mare and gryffon's reactions, knowing he first had to decide who he liked. He had known Angel longer and had even taken her on a couple dates. She was adorable to the point of almost too cute, was his friend and made him feel happy around her. Valyrie had a bit of an exotic and familiar feel to her. She was a gryffon, but her personality felt like she needed somepony to help her stabilize her life. She was also his friend, always wanted to spend time around him and just took on a different kind of persona, one of hope, when she was happy. Frustrated the answer didn't come to him, Comet buried his eyes into his hoof, wondering how he had allowed himself get into this mess.

"Hey there, Comet," came a voice from behind him. Comet spun his head to see a blue pony standing there who had a striped white and blue mane.

"Oh, hey Paradox," he responded, "What are you up to?"

Paradox sighed before replying. "Well, I'm here to relax. This is the rec room, isn't it?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Good, now it's pretty cold outside. You got some room over by that fire?" Comet nodded a reply and moved over on the couch, making room. Paradox walked over and planted himself next to Comet, sighing at the wonderful warmth. The two sat in silence, Paradox staring at the fire and Comet looking down at his hooves, still hung up about Angel and Valyrie. Paradox finally looked over to him and said, "Not very chatty today without your friends?"

Comet shook his head and replied, "No, just... kinda trying to figure something out."

Paradox grinned and said, "Figuring out stuff is my specialty. What's up?"

Comet avoided the topic, trying to dismiss it as a personal problem, but Paradox insisted on hearing it. Finally, Comet gave in and told him about how he felt for Angel and Valyrie and how he didn't want to hurt either one by choosing. Paradox listened quietly as Comet rambled on about both, stating all these things he thought that made each of them wonderful and how hard it was to pick one.

"Here's a thought, why not have both?" Paradox offered to the orange pegasus. Comet narrowed his eyes at the blue pony and ground his teeth at the thought.

"You must think I have a death wish or something," he replied tersely, "I would love to keep both, but even I know they wouldn't share. Plus, it wouldn't be fair to one of them if I did."

"Hey, you can always ask," Paradox said, his mouth hinting at a grin. "I'm sure they will agree."

"Then I evidently didn't explain it to you well enough," Comet grumbled before stepping off the couch and stretching his wings. "I'm off to bed. Goodnight Paradox." As he approached the door, it somehow swung shut just before he walked out of it. He jumped back, startled, and heard the lock click into place. "Hey! What the buck?" Comet yelped.

"I said, you just had to ask," came Paradox. 

Angry now, Comet spun to face Paradox and yelled, "They both are way too special to do that! Now stop trying to convince me otherwise!"

"Oh, but having both isss sssso much more fun!" came Paradox again, but his voice had changed as he spoke. It went from Paradox to a weird hissing or buzzing kind of noise and Comet locked himself in place as Paradox got down, his eyes now glowing a sickly green. He turned to Comet and gave a wicked grin before saying the most creepy thing Comet could imagine. "I can get you both. All you have to do issss assssk!" After saying that and thoroughly creeping Comet out, Paradox erupted into green fire and Comet yelped.

The fire burned around him quite brightly and soon exploded outwards, along with a pulse of air that nearly knocked Comet over. Returning his attention back to Paradox, Comet suddenly realized Paradox wasn't here. Instead, a large black pony stood in his spot. The pelt of the pony was a shiny pitch black and was full of holes. Not missing patches, but actual holes that Comet could see through. A long and wispy bluish green mane hung down from the pony's head and neck, giving it an almost wet appearance. Splitting the mane at the dead center was an abnormally long and crooked horn that reminded Comet more of a dagger than a unicorn's horn. Finally, Comet stared in horror as two bright green glowing eyes opened and stared directly at him.

"You see?" came that weird hissing voice, "I can be whoever you want."

Comet found his voice at that and yelled, "Changeling!" before taking up a defensive stance. The changeling laughed at him and he frantically scanned the room for anything he could use as a weapon.

"How observant," mused the changeling, "No wonder you can't decide."

"Shut up, changeling!" Comet spat back, now very scared. Why in the world did he tell it about his mare troubles?!

"Oh, fiesty," it replied, grinning evily at him, "I like that."

Comet locked eyes with the changeling and gave his best scowl as he slowly circled it. The changeling lowered itself, grinning the whole time, and followed his movements exactly. Comet real objective wasn't to fight, but to get out of the room. Whoever this changeling was, it was bigger than the ones he had heard about. In fact, it looked almost as big as the one who attacked Celestia, at least, according to what he heard. Comet wasn't sure since there were no pictures or real ones to go off of.

"Go on," it hissed at him, "Make your move."

Comet kept circling, wondering what to do. He wasn't a very fast flier, but he was agile. He stunk at hoof to hoof combat, but specialized at weapons, particularly a spear. It didn't really matter though, since the changeling shot a green bolt of magic at him. Comet nimbly dodged it by jumping straight up and over it, flapping his wings as hard as he could and preparing to tackle the changeling.

Long story short, he did.

In what he felt was the stupidest move of his life, Comet's front hooves wrapped around the changeling's neck, much to the changeling's surprise as well, and his shoulder collided with its face. The changeling fell backwards as Comet folded his wings and tried to press down with all his weight. He barely missed landing on its neck and the two rolled a couple times, Comet delivering a couple quick kicks while trying to pry himself from it. The changeling cursed in its buzzing language and tried to get its own hooves around Comet, but luckily he was just slightly too small for it. He wriggled himself free, but landed on his back as the changeling skidded to a halt.

Comet frantically tried to get to his hooves, but the changeling had landed on its own and charged him. As he righted himself onto his belly, a shiny black hoof just missed his right cheek. Reacting instinctively, Comet rolled to his left and frantically tried to get himself up. Another green bolt of magic barely missed him again and Comet tried to run before feeling a set of hooves wrap around his waist. An impressive weight forced him to the ground and as he struggled, he heard laughing.

"Wow, you are a live one," the changeling mused as Comet missed with two kicks, "No wonder thossssse two like you."

Something must've sparked for Comet, because he did the second stupidest thing he could've done. Instead of kicking blindly, he spun himself over and managed to free one rear leg. He saw the changeling's grin and buried his hoof in it. The changeling howled in pain, releasing Comet's other hoof and he scrambled back over, trying desperately to get away in the couple seconds he bought himself. The changeling's smug grin quickly became an irritated pout as it tried to grab him again, but this time missed.

Finally loose, Comet spread his wings and bee lined for the window on the far side of the room. The changeling cast a spell instinctively, unwilling to let her prey escape, and Comet impacted with the window. It refused to shatter due to the changeling's magic and Comet fell to the floor with a nearly crushed snout. He yelped in pain, but managed to avoid yet another green bolt. Comet ran as fast as he could, hoping to dodge the changeling's attacks and wound up getting the table where he and his friends played cards blown up. Figuring his best way to win was to subdue the changeling, Comet ducked yet another bolt and ran straight to the changeling, who in turn was whining about him not staying still. When he was close enough, Comet leaped up and for a second, locked eyes with the changeling who was rearing up in response.

Just reacting, Comet brought a rear hoof up and kicked the changeling in the chest as a black hoof connected to the side of his head. The changeling's eyes went wide and it gasped for air as Comet was knocked off balance and collided with the ground. His left eye hurt and so did the right side of his body, but Comet managed to try and run away as the changeling wheezed.

"Oh, no you don't!" It shouted angrily and a hoof wrapped around his right rear leg. The changeling was strong and pulled him back to it. Comet slid on his belly, utterly terrified as he spun over to kick at it again, but a series of black hooves pinned down each leg as they moved. Comet tried as hard as he could to move, but the changeling was heavy enough to keep him immobilized. Fearful, Comet gazed up as the changeling lowered its head, growling and glaring at him. Two big teeth like Angel's fangs protruded from its mouth and the scary green irises of its glowing eyes seemed to bore into his own.

"You're..." it snarled and panted at the same time, "Going to LOVE me!" Comet's eyes went horribly small as he tried to scream for help, but before he could, a green bolt of magic hit him squarely in the forehead and he passed out.

Outside, Gorgon finally released the stubborn orange pegasus and wheezed, trying desperately to get her breath back. The little piece of meat was strong, really strong to knock the wind out of her. Before him, only her mother was capable of doing that. Still, though, she had her prize. She could taste the emotions he felt for the bat pony and gryffon just from looking at him. Like a satisfied hunter, Gorgon finally slowed her breathing and stood over him again. The sweet and delicious emotions were just pouring out of him and she felt herself salivate. That pitiful amount she got from the entranced guards was nothing compared to this one pegasus and she slowly allowed herself to consume the emotions.

The changelings had an odd way of consuming the emotions out of ponies, which was through physical contact. Unless a pony willingly fed it to them through magic, something only unicorns could do, changelings had to seduce ponies and siphon it out through acts ranging from holding hoofs to what happened behind closed doors. Only really strong changelings, like her mother, could siphon emotions from simple contact, something she used to her advantage with Shining Armor. Gorgon, however, was still a fairly young changeling queen and wasn't strong enough to just poke the pegasus and take the love from him. No, she had to actually be intimate with him, something she loathed.

Slowly, her head moved towards his and she licked her lips. The scent of his emotions got stronger as she neared him and she dove in. Her lips locked with his and a powerful surge of emotions raced into her. It was like a fire hose had just turned on full blast as she was assaulted by all sorts of emotions. Confusion, shame, terror and fear were in there, but they were overpowered by the sheer amount of other emotions. Joy, happiness, contentment and what she prized most, love, simply gushed from him and soon Gorgon had to pull away, gasping from the sudden surge. Her hive had been living off a pitiful amount of love for as long as she could remember, which is why her mother Chrysalis had lead an attempted coup of Canterlot, so the sudden amount of emotions she received overwhelmed her quickly. She looked back down at the unconscious orange pegasus and grinned wickedly.

"Oh, I'm definitely keeping you," she hissed with a small hint of eagerness in her voice.

In the bunk room, both Angel and Valyrie tossed and turned as they slept. Strange images of Comet entered their dreams, ones of him being attacked by a black mass and getting hurt. Angel woke up and bolted out of bed, straight to the stallions bunk room. A guard stood by the door and when she asked him to check on Comet, he went in and came out, saying he was just fine, sleeping away.

Angel returned to her bunk room, feeling slightly better but still upset by her dreams. Upon opening the door, she saw a familiar plume of white feathers bobbing up and down and Valyrie asked, "Bad dreams too?"