What does one do when they find a Changeling in their attic? Do they run away? Do they kill it? Do they tell the nearest guard?
No. For the case of a certain mare, it was neither of these. In her case she did something no other pony would ever think to do
Heal it.
Why? Not even she knows why.
Celestia's own sun rose up into the sky highly, ceasing the end of Luna's night, and signalling the end. The light from the burning mass didn't take long to awake the slumber of a tan-brown mare; the patio doors of her kitchen/living room offering little resistance to the light as it shone out from the garden and into her sleeping space, awaking her ungracefully. "Meh" she muttered out groggily, trying her best to avert her eyes from the sun's light, even pulling up the blanket over her head did little to dim the morning lights of the bright star. "Oh for Faust's sake!" she huffed as she pulled off the covers from her head and reluctantly pushed herself up from her lying position, rubbing her dreary eyes to get the sandmare's dust out of her eyelid's and mumbling some rather... uncouth words to herself unhappily as she pushed the blanket off her body and onto the floor.
As you can tell, Fruit Heart's not a morning pony.
The mare sat up and grudgingly pushed here body off the coach and-Coach!? That wasn't there before She thought to herself. But it was there before. It always had been. "Oh yeah" she realised as to why her coach was in her bedroom; or, to be correct, why she was sleeping on the coach. She allowed a smile to slightly appear when she noted of how dumb she acted now. "Oh yeah" she repeated, now allowing a frown to appear on her face as to WHY she was sleeping down on her old coach instead of her warm bed.
"Him" she said out loud, eyeing her stairs as her face distorted into a small anger. Her mind remembering what had happened earlier that night; making it the second worst day she had ever experienced.
She remembered it all.
The mare walked towards the creature cautiously, vigilant in case it was faking it's unconsciousness. She stood beside it to get full look on it, the light from the candlewick giving off enough for her eyes to see. It's left eye bleeding badly, and it's broken so twisted she wondered if it would ever work again.
"What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" she repeated quickly, unsure of how she should react. She paced back and forth in her attic, her mind stuck on one thought.
"No" she said sternly as she stopped pacing about. "He wouldn't want to me worry, he would me want to act". And her gaze fell on the silent creature "But how do I act to this?" she asked to nopony as she walked to check on the changeling. "Hello" she called out.
No answer.
"I guess you really are knocked out" she mused as she prepped her hooves over and under the changeling, prepared to lift it up. Fruit Heart barely strained to lift the black creature over her body and placed it over her back, "it seems you aren't as heavy as you appear" she smirked as she carried the changeling out the attic and down the ladders; making her way into the bedroom, and preceded to gently drop it onto the bed.
At this, Fruit Heart left the dark creature and made her way into the bathroom, fishing out supplies from the cabinet, and came back with bandages, plasters and other miscellaneous items of medical use, eyeing the changeling as she prepared to help it. "Your'e lucky" she announced to the still unconscious creature "that he would have helped you helped you out. If it wasn't for him, you'd be down in the Canterlot dungeons with nothing but you own blood to keep the company. If he didn't tell me to always know the intentions of a pony before you label him a monster- even if you aren't one- then Celestia's knows what I would have done." And she ended this by unfolding out a bandage, ready to be use.
"Oh yeah" she said as she made her into the kitchens fridge and pulled out a carton of milk, pouring it into a cup conveniently left on the counter. Greedily drinking it all up in one go as she pondered onto what happened next. "At least I've trained a bit on medicinal practice" she murmured with a small smirk as she thought on.
Fruit Heart managed to make quick work of bandaging up the changeling; she added splints to it's broken hoof as she wrapped it firmly around it, making sure they were no loose bits. She taped an eye pad to it's cut eye, not wanting to check if it could see with this large a cut. Guilt stopped her doing so, After this she preceded to bandage around the ripped-off area that was it's left wing, the wing itself nothing more than a tiny pathetic stump of an buggy appendage. She lastly ended the healing by wiping away the last of the dried blood with a damp cloth.
After admiring her, she deliberated on what to do next. Her gaze shifted around the room until she looked at a bunch of old large cardboard boxes stacked along the walls, no indication on what they hold. Only she know what was inside. She trotted to the boxes and lifted down the one box on top of the two.
"Please don't hate me for using your rope" she said out loud in an almost sad tone as she opened up one of the other boxes, bringing out a length of rope before closing the box back up and lifting the other box back in place. After this she walked towards her bed and tied one end to the end of the bedpost, and the other end to the tied firmly to one of the unconscious changelings back hooves, making sure it wouldn't come undone by accident. To note, it was during this time Fruit Heart found out the "it" was a "he", and not in the way she would have wanted to know.
"I'm sorry" she said towards the creature, "but there is no other option" and turned her head to look out the window "we both now that."
"I'm sorry" Fruit Heart said under her breathe, a tear forming in her eye "I know he may be the bad guy but..." she then wiped off the tears from her eyes and continued on "you taught me to always understand somepony, to always hear them out, to always listen rather than dismiss them. And because of this!" She slammed her cup down hard on the counter "I will need to understand him before I do something that I may regret." Fruit Heart's heart filled with unbridled pride; she felt like she could take the world on.
But for now, she had to take a changeling on. Knowing this, the mare placed the milk carton back into the fridge and walked up her stairs, head held high, ready to face the changeling.
And she was not happy.
Fruit Heart stopped moving when she realised she was outside her bedroom door. Closed, of course. Fruit Heart inhaled deeply and walked in, her eyes narrowed to be ready for anything. Inside, Fruit Heart saw that the creature was not lying down in th-her bed, but covered up in the middle of the sheets was the changeling, his whole body squirming around. "You awake, it seems" she said, getting the attention of him. Immediately hearing this the dark creature stopped and startled growling. The changeling flew off the covers of the bed and narrowed his eyes towards the source of the voice, his body positioned as if he was about to lunge at her.
"How are you holding up" she asked nonchalantly, as if she was not talking to a snarling creature that feeds off love, but to a regular pony. The changeling only responded by jumping straight at her; hooves held outwards as if ready to grab, mouth agape ready to bite down on her his body poised out int he air, ready to take her down in one fell-
-and fell face first into the floor, halfway between her and the bed.
The changeling got out from his daze quickly and looked backwards, seeing, as if not knowing, that he was tied down with rope, the thing that stopped him from attacking the helpless mare. His attention now turned to the rope, and furiously started biting and chewing down on it ti free him form the chain.
"You can't bite through the rope" she stated, now getting back the changelings attention. "It's magicked rope. It's just as strong as iron, so you will have no look getting out of that." she finished matter-of-factly. He, however, didn't even seem to listen, as he swiped at the air in front of Fruit Heart, hoping to at lest once hit her.
"What's your name" she said flatly, her face stern and void of emotion. The changeling did seem to hear her this time, as he stopped swiping at her, his body still positioned as if to attack at any time.
"You do have a name, right?" The changeling's body was now more relaxed, and was no longer snarling at her, his mouth closed. "What is it?" she tried to get him to say, but he said nothing in return.
"WHY are you in my house?" Still no answer "oh this is getting me nowhere" she said out loud, annoyed about his silence. He remained that way, and it made Fruit Heart think, if not believe, that he couldn't even talk. She never heard any of them speak during the invasion; all they did was snarl and capture (something she wished to never speak of again) and this one gave no signs of not being a mute.
"Can you understand what i'm saying" she said slowly to him. This time, now, he responded, nodding his head. "Ok good" she breathed a sigh of relief. "At least now i'm getting somewhere. Now, why are you in my house? Why did you come here, and did you break my window." And he only responded by flicking his tongue at her.
"What the-OI,you did that on purpose!" Fruit Heart was sure she had seem him smirk afterwards. Sighing under her breathe, she now thought on what she should ask the mute changeling. "I know, are you hungry?" She perked up at this, and so did the changeling, who nodded quite furiously at that remark. "Good, than i'll get you some soup" and she left, closing the door behind as she made her way downstairs, leaving the changeling on his own.
Turning away, he looked around the room; nothing more than a bed,dresser, closet, and a pile of old boxes. Looking back at the door, the creature was wondering something that was stuck on his mind since he first saw her:
Was she the one who healed me?
Fruit Heart was busy cooking soup in her kitchen, her mind set on making it. After all, she she was hungry too. (So would you be if you forgot breakfast) And soup seemed like a good thing to eat now, or at least to her it did. Two bowls were set aside as she finished her dish, it now cooked nice and tasty. She poured half of the soup into the nearest bowl and placed on a tray, holding it in her mouth as she walked off.
Before she even walked out of the kitchen, she stopped to take a glance at picture frame on the end of the counter, frowning slightly as eyes washed over the picture; a photograph of two pegasi, with young filly under them both. This is all for you.
Shaking her head (and spilling some soup on the floor as she did so) she carried on, walking up the stairs and into the bedroom, where a changeling awaited her, not even appeared to move from his spot when she left. "Um...excuse me?" she said as she saw the changeling was still trying to bite off the rope.
Taking notice, the changeling stopped and and looked at her with his one eye. Staring at her quizzically as his nose caught the scent of the soup. Fruit Heart laid the tray down and slid it towards him, she was making sure she wasn't within reach of him. "It's cream of tomato" she stated. He sniffed at it cautiously, not knowing what cream of tomato actually is, then licked it, then started lapping at it lick a dog.
"I forgot a spoon, didn't I" she laughed, finally happy to see that the changeling is now, as she would think, starting to like her. "I'm going downstairs for my own bowl, you OK here?" She announced and got the attention of him, a grin appearing on his face as he went back to lapping at the soup happily, and left the room. Content on now thinking she has made friends with him.
As she passed the kitchen, her eyes once again gazed at the picture on the counter. Fruit Heart picked it up and looked down it slowly, her eyes mostly transfixed on one of the pegasi: an alabaster stallion in full guard armor. I'm finally making you proud, ain't I? She smiled to herself as she poured the rest of the soup into her bowl, and downed it down I just wished I could have made you proud when I could see you she thought to herself as she continued eating her soup, tears falling down her face as kept on eating.
Soup couldn't fix her problems. She wished it did.