"So..." the necromancer said with amusement, "This is the one?"
"Yes, boss." the imp gave the pony a poke with a thin finger, making it squirm in its ropes. The imps had jumped it during its challenge, and tied it up with ropes in mere seconds. It always surprised him a bit how good they were at these kind of things. The brown mare had already been squirming wildly when he had arrived, but the moment she saw him she doubled her efforts to escape.
The imp chuckled as he watched her squirm, "Should we just eat her now or do you want us to cook her?"
The mare's eyes shot open and she looked around herself in terror. Off to the side, an imp was slowly working a hatchet over a whetstone, the grinding sound echoing sharply within the chamber. For a moment, it looked up from its work and gave her a big, toothy grin while running a testing thumb along the blade. The mare started to panic.
"Easy now, easy now. Let's have a look first at what we are dealing with." Aergad chuckled as he walked up to the mare with a kind smile and bent down to her, "Madam, I am sure this is just a big misunderstanding. Let me assure you that we'll be getting you right out of this mess and back home." he started to undo the gag in her mouth.
The mare seemed to relax a bit at his words. She started to talk, but before she could mouth a word the necromancer cut her off, "Could you answer me one question first? If I travel back into the past to kill myself, but set aside a fresh-baked pie before I do, what temperature will the water in the bathtub have?"
The mare just blinked at him with big eyes and at a complete loss for words, "I... I... What?" He could almost see the gears in her head grinding, but he knew it would lead her nowhere. Then, as her confusion reached its peak, it happened. For a single second, the shapeshifter lost its concentration and Aergad saw her true form.
He scratched his chin with a wry smile, "So even if not much concentration is required, you still need some to uphold the illusion? Impressive... but not the best I've seen."
The mare just stared at him with an open mouth, not believing she had been found out so easily.
Aergad waved a dismissive hand with a small laugh, "Don't worry about it, I've seen shapeshifters in all shapes and sizes." his face suddenly became so serious that it sent a shiver down her back, "So drop it. You're not fooling anyone."
For a moment, she hesitated. But seeing as there was no other thing she could do, she finally let the illusion fall away.
"Alright." he clapped his hands, "Now we're making progress. Let's see now..." he called out to one of the imps, "Did you get it?"
"Sure thing, boss." the imp handed him a book.
"Are you really going to eat me?" she eyed the imp with the hatchet with dismay, it was still working it on the whetstone with a big grin.
"Quiet now... I'm reading." he flipped through the pages of the book, "There we are... Changeling..." he mumbled a few words to himself as he read the lines, "Interesting." he turned to her, "Can you do bipeds as well?"
She frowned, "We can... but we're not good at walking on two legs so..." she looked around herself nervously, "Could you..."
He cut her off again with a big grin, "What about alicorns? Can you do those?" he started to make gestures with his hands, "Like, could you do Celestia? With a really big butt? Then I could have you prance around the town and declare that everyone has to give her cake or she'll sit on them!" he chuckled, "That would be awesome! I can already see the look on her face when they all send her cake!"
"Alicorns are really hard..." the changeling mumbled, feeling slightly irritated at his strange behavior. She had expected some kind of interrogation, but this seemed far from it. The imps though, seemed keen to do something entirely different with her. They had been giving her evil smirks the whole time.
"No alicorns, huh?" he replied with a sigh, "Well then, that leaves only one issue..." he grinned, "You."
The changeling swallowed, what was he going to do with her?
"First off, introductions! I, am the necromancer." he grinned at her.
"I know..." she frowned, "I'm Xerghis..."
"A pleasure to meet you! I'd shake your hoof, or whatever you call it, but it seems you're a bit bound at the moment." he laughed, the imps chuckling darkly with him.
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked.
He gave her a contemplating look, "Difficult to say... there's still the idea of cooking you..." the imp with the hatchet looked up form his work with a happy grin and Xerghis paled considerably, "But then again, what are you doing in my tower? It says here you feed off love." he held up the book, "Can't really see you getting much of that here..."
"We feed off many emotions... love is just the strongest one." she replied, "But there are all kind of emotions here for me to collect... and the challenges are fun." she mumbled the last words out sheepishly.
"Mmm..." he flicked his wrist, and a scroll of paper appeared in his fingers, "Let's see now... Buttercup." he raised an eyebrow and gave her an amused look, "Seriously?" he shook his head with a laugh, "I know the ponies have a strange ideas when it comes to names, but that's just taking it too far." Xerghis blushed.
"Well now... you did, the challenge of the comfy sheets?" a big grin appeared on his face as she blushed even deeper, "And you even made it to the third bed, impressive." the scroll disappeared again, "So, after you collect the emotions... I take it you bring them back to your hive?" she nodded, careful of what information to give him.
He clapped his hands with glee, "Excellent! Now then, when you head back to your hive, be so kind as to relay a message to your leader."
Xerghis eyed him with an uneasy look, "What kind of message?"
His grin widened even further, making her cringe as she saw too many of his teeth and a maniacal look in his eyes, "An invitation to tea, of course! What else?"
Off to the side, the imp put the hatchet down with an unsatisfied humph. Some meat would have been nice for a change... then again, the boss always did enjoy new toys.