“They're soooooo cuddly!” Pinkie Pie snorted with laughter as she played with five small changings. They run about her hooves and hid under her cape and around small stalagmites dotted around the cavern.
Rarity let out a sigh, sitting down beside Twilight's sleeping form. It had taken less time than she had expected to get the alicorn princess to rest. Both of them, actually. Lily was also fast asleep, leaving the newest arrivals to deal with their old prejudices on their own. But as weary as she still was towards the changings, Rarity was still doing far better than Rainbow, who was sitting stiffly by Silverline and Blue Flame to Rarity's left side.
“I mean, I guess the food is nice and all,” the blue pegasus admitted, poking a plate of hay fries in front of her, “but come on! We can't just be friends with these guys. They wrecked Canterlot! For all we know this food is poisoned or something!”
Blue Flame's eyes grew large and he swallowed his mouthful of food with a pained look on his face, eying his plate with suspicion.
Silverline sighed and looked over his tightly wrapped side. It was a maze of bandages and a strange, hardened green substance. “They have no reason to kill us. They feed off of love, remember? Dead ponies don't love. They rot.”
Blue Flame looked a bit green now and pushed away his plate with one hoof.
“I guess,” Rainbow muttered, still unconvinced as she watched Applejack introduce herself to a changling.
“Uh, h-hi. Mah name's Applejack,” the earth pony gave a brave smile.
“I am called Sally. I'm one of our Queen's healers.” The changling gave a friendly grin in return. An unfortunate move as the lights in the cave glinted off its fangs.
“Oh, uh, n-nice to meet you then!” Applejack rushed, backing away quickly and sitting down between Rainbow and Rarity without taking her eyes off the dark creature. “They ain't all that nice lookin', are they?” she whispered over at her winged friend who gave a nod in agreement.
Rarity looked the changlings over. Most of them were milling about away from the ponies. With Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and the every popular Discord being exceptions, of course. In fact, the group of wondering changlings that was beginning to form around them was growing.
The changlings were indeed intimidating. Their coats, if it was actually a coat, were pitch black. At least, they looked to be the same shade of black at first. As Rarity squinted in the odd lighting she realized that they were actually different shades of either black or very dark blues and greens. So dark that they appeared black.
She blinked in surprised and looked again. Their bodies had holes in them, but looking at them in a calm manor she often applied to dressmaking, their bodies were actually quite... graceful. Like living works of modern art. Their eyes were different from one another just as their coats were, with small variances in shade and shape. And their wings! Delicate and of the most beautiful gauze like film, shimmery and soft. Slowly Rarity began to pick them out from one another.
She closed her eyes for a rest, forced herself up and headed towards the group, Discord's head the only thing showing above the black ring of bodies.
“Gather around every changling! Look and seeeeee-” Discord was holding out a card in one hand. With a twist of his wrist, it disappeared and was replaced with a small bunny. A small familiar bunny.
“Angel!” Fluttershy cried out, grabbing onto the small creature. “But how did you get here?”
“Magic, my dear,” Discorn explained, a top hat appearing in his hands. “Magic. Now please place the bunny in the hat.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy complied with a worried look. “Where will he go? Will he be ok?”
“He'll disappear!” the draconiquus announced loudly. Before Fluttershy could panic, however, he leaned near her and whispered, “I'll just teleport him on home. He'll be just fine.”
With Fluttershy smiling again, but still apprehensive, Discord waved a hand over the hat, tapping Angel's head down again when it tried to pop up, and spoke a line or two of pure gibberish. When he showed the changlings the hat's innards, it was quite empty once again.
Rarity shook her head with a grin as the changlings bust into joyful talk. This kind of magic was beyond simple for most unicorns who attended magic schools. For a draconiquus it was akin to walking through a park. Minimal effort was an understatement.
The unicorn looked over at a changling staring at her. It was Sally, the healer again. She was shorter than some of the other females, with wide eyes and elegantly slender legs.
Rarity smiled, ignoring the small glints of the creature's fangs. “Hello, dear. Sally, was it? I'm Rarity.”
Sally smiled, but attempted to keep her fangs hidden in the process, a pitiful act that made Rarity flinch inside. “Oh, you can tell which one I am? Most ponies say we look the same.”
The gracious unicorn smiled wider. “I'll admit that I used to think so, too. But now that I've seen more of you up close... Well, you're quite different from each other, aren't you? Take yourself, for example. You have full eyes and a tiny frame. Just like a pixie!”
The changling tilted its head. “Pixie?”
“Small fairy creatures. They're tiny, but very pretty,” Rarity explained.
The changling smiled fully now, forgetting about the effect her fangs gave. “You think I'm pretty?”
Rarity looked into Sally's eyes. They were blue, like all the others, but the exact hue and size was unique to her. It was like a fragment of sky. The kind of sky one sees right after a light rain, when the sun has burst forth and glints off the water droplets clinging to each blade of grass.
“Yes,” Rarity answered honestly with a soft smile. “Yes, I do.”
Sally walked up to Rarity's side and gave her a small hug. “Thank you, Rarity.” When she moved back, the unicorn noticed that the creature's fangs seemed not quite as sharp as before. Though perhaps it was only her perception.
“Where's our queen?”
Rarity turned away from Sally to see an out of breath changling standing awkwardly in the center of the room. He was taller than Sally, with thicker wings, stocky shoulders and a worried expression.
“Where is Queen Chrysalis?” he asked again.
“What's wrong?” Silverline asked from across the room, forcing himself to get up with a flinch.
The changling looked around in vain once more before admitting with dread, “We're surrounded by a small army. And one of their unicorns is using magic to block our main entrance. We're being buried alive!”