Mender swore he had enough of today. He envisioned just a small trip back into Ponyville to speak with the librarian there about that odd ivory door, who turned out to be Princess Twilight Sparkle.
That bombshell was still throwing him for a loop. He had no idea a Princess was living here! She'd always be a good source of conversation...even if a few things she talked about flew over his head to time to time.
But then as he left that library, the next thing he remembered was a blur of ribbon and fabric as Rarity dragged him into her Boutique. She worked at a blinding speed, and he vaguely remembered trying on over 20 different outfits. Sweet Celestia, when it comes to fashion with her, she may as well be just as energetic as Pinkie!
However, when she wasn't tossing him outfits to try on, her conversational skills no doubt gleamed with a sense of refinement and...posh. It worked well in her favor that her beauty matched her noble-like demeanor, as it made her all the more tolerable to Mender...somewhat. He hated nobility that stood on a high perch above others, so it was pleasant to find an exception to the rule he self-imposed on himself.
It all still gave him a headache, though, and that rocking chair's been calling to him as soon as he left the Carousel Boutique. It had barely been an hour that passed, but it felt like six. He didn't even feel like examining the door further right now, for his body ached for rest. It was a feeling Mender was all too happy to oblige as he stepped on the porch of his shack and took a seat in the chair on the deck.
The chair groaned a bit under his weight, but held firm. To his surprise, it made little noise as it moved, and combined with the sound of a light breeze flowing through the porch, it served to be the most relaxing spot he could be in at this moment. Happy that he finally has some time to rest after a hectic two weeks, he closed his eyes and began to rest...
...for about six minutes.
He felt something tugging at his leg. The sound of glass shattering echoed in his mind. He opened his eyes and looked down to find a small snow-white bunny. It was waving its paws frantically in the air. He was already annoyed that something managed to interrupt his rest so quickly.
"Hmph. What's the matter, bunny? Your carrot fall down a well?"
The bunny's face looked mad now. He thought it was cute...until the bunny kicked his hoof. Hard.
"Ow! Son of a-okay, okay! What do you want, ya little puffball?"
The bunny was still mad, but made gestures resembling what looked like walking.
"You want to...go somewhere?"
The bunny shook his head.
"You want me to go somewhere?"
It nodded.
"Can I say no?"
The bunny promptly facepawed, then pointed toward what looked like a cottage sitting near a forest. It looked like it had a serious overgrowth of moss on top of it from this distance.
"You want me to go to that cottage? Why? Your owner lock you out of the food cabinets in there?" Mender smirked at the thought of this rabbit furiously scratching at cabinet doors.
The bunny kicked him again, interrupting his thought. Now Mender was getting irritated.
"Okay, kick me again, and I'll seriously consider punting you into those apple acres over there."
The bunny was not amused, but didn't respond with a kick. Instead, it got into the cutest pleading stance Mender had ever seen. Dear Celestia, it knew how to get its way when it needed to.
"Gah, dammit, fine! You win this round, bunny."
The bunny stood proudly, then started hopping off toward the cottage. Mender sighed, and got off the rocking chair. That nap would have to wait...and he wanted to get back at that bunny at his earliest convenience.
The walk looked long from his chair, but was surprisingly shorter than he expected. As he walked the path bordering the forest, he couldn't help but look in once or twice. He felt the presence of dark, sinister creatures in there that would easily rip him to shreds. Yep, avoid that place whenever possible...but then he remembered the cottage sitting right at the border. Who in Equestria would be crazy enough to live near a forest like this?!
...apparently the same kind of pony who keeps a kicking bunny as a pet, he remembered. They have to be tough...or whipped, owning a pet like that rabbit.
As he approached the cottage, the bunny started pawing at the door, trying to reach the doorknob. Mender opted to knock instead. As much as he wanted the bunny out of his mane, he didn't want to be intrusive doing so.
A few seconds passed with no response, so he spoke.
"Uh...hello? Got a bunny here that interrupted my nap, is it yours?"
Still no response. Now he tried the handle, and was surprised to find it unlocked. Seriously, near this forest? Ponies are way too trusting here, he thought to himself.
Thinking about how unsafe this was started making his head hurt, so he pushed the door open. The bunny entered, then beckoned for Mender to come inside.
"...I swear, if this is a trick, I'm going to figure out a way to shove a stick of metal into your next carrot without you noticing."
He walked into the small cottage and got a feel for the place. It oddly resembled his shack in a way, but mirrored, less old, less filthy, and certainly more colorful. However, there was no basement door that he could see, and the living room was a large space that you step into as soon as you walked in. It was quite inviting as his eyes gazed up to a bunch of pictures the owner had hanging on the walls of the house. Most of them were of birds, small woodland critters...and a bear?! Okay, now he knew the owner was tough...until he saw another photo sitting on a table.
In it was the bunny, with a small name under him that read "Angel." The irony of that name caused Mender to physically groan in response. But holding him was a baby yellow pegasus pony with straight, long locks of pink mane hair. Her deep emerald eyes were both a spectacle of wonder and...fearsome? An odd thought, as she looked so nice in the picture. The cutie mark was barely visible, but it looked like a small cluster of butterflies.
Instinctively he reached for the photo and flipped it around. Two names were on the back. Angel and...
"Fluttershy." He was almost unaware that he spoke her name out loud, as it sounded so unusually smooth coming from his mouth. So...effortless. It was a nice name that didn't invoke any ill thoughts in his mind.
"Eep!"
He turned to the doorway and saw her standing there, holding a bag of groceries. He found himself fumbling with the photo he was holding before he set the picture down on the table.
"Uh...h-hi there." Why was he stammering in front of this mare?
He straightened himself up and continued, "Please, pardon my intrusion. Your bunny came to my house earlier and wanted to come into your cottage. I take it he's yours?"
She said nothing. This unnerved Mender a bit, so he continued some more. "He interrupted my nap with a few kicks, but it's no problem since he's here now, right?"
Still nothing. "Uh...my name's Able Mender. I live in that old shack on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres." He extended a hoof. "What's your name?"
She didn't extend her hoof, but instead backed off a bit. This time he got a response...barely.
"F-flutter..." He didn't hear the rest, but he didn't need to.
"Fluttershy, what a nice name. Well, it's nice to meet you, miss. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should go. I've a pet at home that needs to be fed."
As he started to walk past her in the doorway, her eyes lit up at the word "pet." She turned around as he walked past and spoke softly to him. "T-thank you, mister Mender. Tell me, what kind of pet is it?"
After hearing her voice, he suddenly became convinced that the bear photo he saw wasn't one that existed just because she was tough. That voice could calm down a Hydra if she put enough effort into it, or so he believed.
Mender turned around and answered her. "Actually...I don't know what it is."
She seemed confused. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"I mean what I said. I don't know what it is. It was just in my house. I fed it apple chips, then actual apples, and it likes me now. I don't know anything about raising...whatever it is."
She was still confused. "Maybe I'd have a better idea of what it is if you describe it to me."
"Hold on then...well, I guess the best way I can describe it is it looks like an alicorn pony, but small and black. Has sea green eyes, tattered wings, sharp fangs, and holes in its legs."
Her eyes widened at his description, which now confused Mender. "What? You know what it is?"
"I...I have a very good idea of what it is, but I'm really worried if it's true. Can I see it?"
"Oh, well, certainly. Whatever helps me figure out how to take care of that thing."
Her concern radiated off in waves that washed over Mender as they both approached his home. She was scared as she got a better look at the house, so Mender had to spend a minute reassuring her that there were much worse things out there than his apparently scary house. His mind flickered back to three fillies for a moment before he took her inside.
"Crunch! I'm home!"
A black blur tackled Mender to the ground as the creature rounded the corner. This scared Fluttershy as she stood on top of his kitchen table, looking at the scene before her. Her eyes didn't lie to her as she saw a young changeling seemingly attacking the silver stallion. She gritted her teeth and was about to intervene when she heard...laughing?
"Crunch, Crunch, easy boy. Easy!" Mender spoke in between the licks the changeling gave him, and at these words Fluttershy visibly became less tense at the scene.
"Alright, alright, settle down. We have a guest." Mender rose from the floor and pointed to the yellow mare. "Say hello to Fluttershy."
Crunch looked at her and for a moment, it hissed at her. Mender gave the changeling a hard look at the sound, and it stopped hissing, instead nervously shuffling its legs.
"Alright, Fluttershy, care to tell me what this is?"
Fluttershy was still baffled at the scene. She didn't even consider that a young changeling could warm up to a pony like it did to Mender, but her previous experience with them didn't exactly have a great starting point either, and certainly not at the young age this one was at. She was so lost in these thoughts, she barely heard his question, but she answered calmly.
"It's a changeling, Mender."
"Changeling? Can't say I've heard of them."
This shocked Fluttershy somewhat. "Really? Did you hear about the wedding at Canterlot some time ago?"
"Yeah, I heard of it. Between some Royal Guard Captain and a Princess, right?"
"Yes, Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She changed it to Princess Cadence during the wedding though."
"Hah, I'll bet. Her full name's quite a mouthful," he quipped.
She giggled a bit before continuing. "Well, the wedding was interrupted by this mean old queen called Chrysalis. She was the leader of the changelings, and even managed to have complete control over Canterlot at that time."
"Whoa, seriously? This is the first I've heard of this. I thought security was very tight during that wedding."
"It was, thanks to Shining Armor. But the queen came in disguised as Princess Cadence, and did something to him that...I'm now concerned will happen to you."
Mender could feel a chill creep down his spine as he asked a question he would regret having answered.
"Oh? And what...what would that be?"
Her answer was direct. "Changelings feed off of love, Mender. Love that they forcefully draw out of you with their horns. That's how they feed."
At first, Mender did nothing...but after a few seconds, his laughter boomed throughout the shack.
"Haaaaaahahahahahahaaaaaa.......A-are you sure about that, Fluttershy? Crunch has done no such thing to me! Hah, forcefully taking love, it just sounds so ridiculous! Haaaaa.....miss Fluttershy, if anything, I've been willfully giving it love of my own accord. If it really must eat, I feed it apples, which it enjoys! Look at him right now and tell me he's some evil creature that's out to siphon away my love!"
They both looked at Crunch, who was sitting on the floor and licking in between his legs, clearly preoccupied.
Mender broke off from the sight. "...okay, maybe he's got personal issues that need sorting out, but seriously, does it look like he wants to harm me?"
"I...I guess not, mister Mender. Still, I'd be careful if I were you. Everypony in Ponyville is at least aware of changelings existing and how much trouble they caused in Canterlot, so they won't react too kindly to Crunch here if you take him out into the town."
"...would it improve the image if I bought him a pink leash or something?"
"No, that would just make both of you stand out more...and probably make you look strange," she said.
"Fluttershy, I live in a creaky old shack on the edge of town thought to be haunted by spirits, own a pet that's of a species that is apparently widely feared in Equestria, and I'm still recovering from a filly trampling that happened two weeks ago when I barely moved into Ponyville. I AM the epicenter of strange right now," Mender listed all of this off manner-of-factly. He briefly forgot about keeping his injury a secret, but she didn't seem to catch it.
"Be that as it may, Mister Mender, there's no sense bringing a pet into town that everypony perceives as a threat at the moment. This is the sort of situation that they need to be slowly introduced to, for example, to a few ponies at a time...oh! I know how to get him better integrated into Ponyville!"
"What idea would that be, introducing him to your animal friends?" He laughed once, but felt a chill as her eyes bored into his skull. "Er...sorry. Continue." Yep, he didn't like those eyes, not when they're angry like that.
Her gaze softened enough to give him room to breathe. "We introduce him to my friends first. They've all had firsthand experience dealing with changelings...the bad ones at least. If we can convince them that Crunch here is no threat, then you can take him around Ponyville as much as you like."
"Oh thank Celestia, that sounds like a great idea!" Mender wasn't joking, this really wasn't a bad idea as far as he knew.
"So...uh...who are your friends?"
He suddenly felt his stomach knot up before Fluttershy even spoke.
"Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie."
"...you remember what I said about this being a great idea? I take that back, it is now a terrible idea."