//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Love's Many Forms // by DraconequusMaximus //------------------------------// Berry awoke at her usual time & got Ruby up & ready for school, as it was Monday. As soon as her daughter was out the door she fixed herself & Cherry breakfast. She left everything set on the table & went to wake the changeling. She opened the door to find him already awake & staring out the window at the town below, still in disguise. She trotted up to him without him noticing. She tapped his shoulder with a hoof surprising him so much he jumped straight to the ceiling. Strangely enough he stuck there, hooves affixed to the roof as if it were nothing. She stared at the scene for a moment before the jittery changeling spoke up. "Berry? Why'd you sneak up on me like that? I nearly lost my disguise!" He said as he walked back down the wall nearest him as if it was nothing. His apprehension lifted when he saw Berry's confused expression. She snapped out of it after a moment but was still quite confused. "You can still use changeling powers in pony form?" Berry asked looking back to the ceiling where he had been moments before. "Yeah, but I had to choose between wings or magic otherwise they'd know I was a fake. I'm not good with hooves so I picked magic, even if I'm not strong enough for it yet." He said looking at his darker blue hoof. "Well hold off on the wall climbing in public. That'd get you busted for sure." Berry said in a serious tone. "Now lets go downstairs for breakfast" The pair ate & chatted about pony society, for coming from a race that ponies assumed was all cunning tricksters, Cherry severely lacked knowledge. Berry explained their government as best as she could, along with typical pony behaviors. Cherry had an alright grasp of being friendly & sociable from back at the hive which would work in his favor. After a breakfast of eggs, hay bacon, & a bagel each they left the house to Berry's brewery in the backyard. Ponyville was a small town so her operation wasn't grand but it was just as big as her actual house, though it had only one level & one large room. Cherry looked around at all the vats & various apparatus with wonder & worry. He had never made alcohol before, & was secretly worried that if he couldn't earn his keep Berry would turn him in. His train of thought was derailed when Berry began speaking. "Alright, today is your lucky day Cherry! We're going to be making cherry schnapps! I've got just enough black cherries to make it, so lets get to work." The work turned out to be less complicated than Cherry had assumed beforehand. At first all he had to do was inspect them for imperfections & load the cherries into a large washer to ensure they were perfectly clean. The cherries came out in a large basket with small holes to allow the water to flow off without losing any fruit. While they dried he & Berry cleaned other various equipment, Berry was working very hard & looked entirely serious. Despite appearances love was wafting off of her as they worked, even something as mundane as sterilizing equipment got an emotional response from her. She truly did love her work & would not stand for anything less than perfection. After several hours of cleaning & checking on various other vats full of assorted liquors they came back to the cherries. "All right, now we load the cherries into that vat there, it's empty at the moment." Berry said pointing to a vat at the far side of the room. They loaded the basket of cherries onto a wheeled platform & pushed the basket over to the vat. The only really difficult part was pushing the cherries up the ramp to the top of the vat. Through the combined effort the two they managed & were able to dump the cherries into the vat. The vat seemed about 2/3rds full. "Berry, is that enough? The vat isn't full yet." Cherry asked his friend & employer. "It isn't supposed to be, we need to fill the rest with that." Berry said pointing to an adjacent vat. She trotted down the ramp & over to the vat. She looked at a gauge on it & seemed satisfied. "Go over to that closet & bring me the large hose." Berry shouted to him. He saluted & trotted over to the closet in question. The hose truly was large, it was nearly as thick as his foreleg. There were several places along it with handles specially designed for hooves. With some difficulty he managed to get the hose to Berry. She took an end & attached it to a port at the base of the vat. She unwound the rest of the hose & took the nozzled end with her back to the cherry vat. She placed the nozzle over the side & pulled a release valve with her teeth. A clear liquid poured into the vat until it reached a marked fill line. Berry closed the valve at just the right moment, an impressive feat for only having a mouth to do it with. "What's that stuff? Water?" Cherry asked as he trotted up the ramp. "Nope, eighty proof unflavored vodka." Berry said with a smile. "Now they need to steep for a few months, in about 13 weeks after it's been filtered & settled it'll be fit for drinking." Berry's pride & love directed at her product was obvious to him, he could feel it seeping into the vat. He stopped himself from taking it in, after all it wasn't meant for him & he wasn't in any immediate risk of starving. Ponyville had a high level of ambient emotion that should keep his disguise going anyway. Much to his surprise, Berry hugged him, forcing sweet sentiment into him. "I wanted to thank you for your help today, I know I didn't give you much choice in this but things went a lot faster with another set of hooves around." She said before releasing him. Emotion was most powerful when it was directed at you, so Cherry was feeling a wave of relief from his aches. Even if he had pony flesh at the moment he could feel his true self heal a little. The day was still young so Berry had him help her bottle some finished product on the other side of the room. She said it was her special "Berry Punch", something she herself had invented. It was her best seller & she would tell nopony the exact recipe. Cherry could feel the amount of love coming from the liquid but again stopped himself from taking it, Berry was being very generous to him & he would feel ashamed if he did something to lower the quality of her work. After they had bottled the special beverage Berry hoofed a bottle of it over to him. "Since you've been such a big help today I wanted to give you this, it's the first bottle of the batch. It's dated today so you won't forget when you started out here." Berry said with a smile on her face. He gladly accepted it as a reminder to himself that he had met ponies that cared, even if they knew he wasn't a real pony. After they loaded the bottles into crates they loaded them onto the same wagon berry had snuck him into town in. They would take the bottles to the Everfree cellar tomorrow. It was already late, & they were a bit tired. They entered the house to find Ruby doing homework at the kitchen table. The group decided to eat out since Berry didn't feel like cooking & Cherry didn't know how. They trotted down the streets of Ponyville to a new restaurant called "The Grazing Spot". It was a family place with an all you can eat buffet & menu options. Ruby opted for the kids meal, while the adults were having the buffet. Cherry knew next to nothing about pony foods so he just took a little of the first few things he saw. He was headed back to their booth but suddenly tripped on something sticking out underneath one of the other booths. He fell flat on his face, or would have had it not landed into his plate. There he was, glasses askew & face covered smashed foods in front of the entire restaurant. He didn't bother to look around, he could feel the emotions in the air surprise, & shock. Everypony in the restaurant had their eyes glued to him. He was about to have a breakdown when a new emotion pierced his senses, worry, regret, embarrassment. He looked over to the table closest him. There sat a blue earth pony stallion looking very apologetic. He got up from his seat & offered Cherry a hoof. Cherry hadn't seen this stallion before, he would have remembered those beautiful amber eyes. Cherry broke himself from his trance & accepted the hoof. "I'm really sorry about that, I must not have gotten my saxophone case far enough under the table." The stallion said. Cherry looked over to the underside of the table, sure enough there was an imitation maroon leather case. It was nearly the same color as the carpeting of the restaurant, explaining why Cherry hadn't seen it. "I'm noteworthy, I'm super sorry about this. Let's go get you cleaned up." With that the two headed to the Stallion's restroom. Noteworthy pushed the device on the wall's lever with a hoof several times for paper towels, which he then wet & handed to Cherry. Cherry looked at himself in the mirror as he cleaned himself, I look like a mess he thought to himself. After a few minutes & more than a few paper towels he looked much more like himself than before. He placed the glasses back on his face & sighed. "Well I'm glad you didn't get hurt or anything, but I still feel bad. The whole restaurant was gawking at you. How about you let me get you dinner sometime..." Noteworthy paused & looked him over for a minute. "Wow. this is embarrassing. I don't even know your name." "Um, it's Cherry Plum but it was an accident. You really don't need to do anything." Cherry said nervously. "Nonsense, I insist. I ruined your dinner so I'll get you a new one." Noteworthy said with a smile. "How about tomorrow night?" "I really don't have any plans after work so that would work." Cherry said. "Great, what's your address?" Noteworthy asked. "Uh, I'm not sure. I'm new in town, I'm staying with my cousin Berry Punch." He answered ever grateful to his friends for his fabricated life. "Cool, everypony knows Berry. How does eight sound?" Noteworthy asked with a smile. "Um... sounds great." Cherry said unsure of the situation. "Great, see you then." & with that noteworthy trotted out of the restroom. Cherry was so full of worry & doubt that he could taste his own negativity. He slowly trotted back to the table where Berry & Ruby were sitting. "You alright? That couldn't have been easy to deal with on your first day." Berry said worriedly. "Actually it went really well." Cherry said sadly. "How does face planting into dinner end really well?" Asked Ruby Pinch confusedly. "Noteworthy, the one who made me trip on accident asked me out to dinner to make up for it." Cherry said lowering his head to the table. "That's great! I thought you were looking for a nice colt?" Berry said. "Yes, but I don't know the first thing about pony dating! This is happening way too fast! I'm gonna get caught!." He blubbered through his hooves. Much to his surprise Berry smacked him, He sat there stunned for a minute before Berry spoke up. "Now you listen here, you're my friend & Berry Punch never leaves a friend in trouble. We're going to get you ready for your date & everything is going to be fine. I'm sorry I smacked you but you were starting to get loud" She said before gesturing to some ponies at adjacent tables staring at him. He took a few deep breaths before sitting up as straight as he could. "Thanks Berry, I guess I needed that." Cherry said as he rubbed his cheek. "Anytime." Berry said sarcastically. After the mares had finished eating they headed home & each of them turned in a bit early. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.