//------------------------------//
// And Down We Go 
// Story: The Witch, The Bug, And The Airhead 
// by Bucking Nonsense 
//------------------------------//

	Under other circumstances, had she not been so surprised by what she was seeing, Silhouette would have summoned a simple forcefield and used it to deflect the changeling and her pursuer.  Or used a spell to teleport out of the way.  Or... really, just about anything other than stand there with her mouth wide open as first the changeling, then the cloaked pony, collided with her at high speed, resulting in all three of them rolling down the hill.  Sadly, it was a rather large hill, so the three of them ended up rolling a rather long distance, Silhouette screaming in fear, the changeling yelling in surprise, and the cloaked earth pony exclaiming "WHEEEEEEEE!!!!" all the way down.  
When they finally reached the bottom, it took a bit of effort for everypony to get untangled.  The changeling seemed somewhat stunned by what had happened (she may have taken a knock or two to the head on the way down).  The earth pony, on the other hand, if anything, seemed... absurdly cheerful about the whole thing, and in fact her first words when they reached the bottom had been "DO IT AGAIN!  DO IT AGAIN!  DO IT AGAIN!"
Once everypony was sorted out, and she made certain that no one was seriously hurt, Silhouette asked what that was all about.  Well... she tried to.  Before she could get even on word out of her mouth, the earth pony pounced on the changeling, giving the creature a fierce hug.  The changeling was not amused.
"ARGH!  Get off of me!" the changeling shouted in anger.  She was obviously trying very hard to get away from the earth pony.  However, the earth pony wasn't about to let go, and all of the changelings efforts seemed only to amuse the hooded pony.  "STOP IT!!!  YOU'RE HURTING ME!!!"
Under other circumstances, Silhouette might have considered just walking away (in all honesty, if a pony wants to hug a changeling, that's their own business, not hers), but then she heard something like a series of cracks.  Expending a little bit of magic, she pulled the pony and the changeling apart, held the two of them in midair, then looked at the changeling's side.  As she had feared, there was a series of visible cracks in the changeling's exoskeleton, and it seemed that the pony's hugs had worsened them.
Silhouette walked closer to the changeling, held in the air by a levitation spell, and  examined the cracks further.  Some of them looked like they had recently healed, then reopened, and if left untreated, they could get much, much worse.  She said to the changeling, "You've got some cracks in your thorax.  Nothing too deep, thankfully, but they're pretty bad.  If you'll lay down and hold still, I'll see about patching them up for you."
The changeling seemed shocked by the offer, but said, "Alright, but don't try anything funny.  And be quick about it!"
Silhouette smiled and said, "Relax, this won't take a minute."  She cleared her mind, focused, and called up a basic mending spell.  While it wasn't a perfect fit (the spell had been intended for fixing plates, mending ripped garments, etc.), it did the job fairly well, and within a few seconds, the cracks were, if not truly healed (changeling chitin is tricky stuff), then at least they weren't in any danger of reopening.  "There we go," Silhouette said, as she finished casting the spell, "that's about as good as I can get it.  I won't say it's a perfect job, but it'll hold together until a doctor can take a look at it.  Just try to avoid running into anypony, rolling down a hill, or any extreme hugging."
The changeling gave an awkward chuckle, then stood up, and stretched, testing the mended chitin it it's sides.  "Well, it'll do, I think.  It's not together enough for me to shapeshift, but it's a lot better.  Ummm, thanks..."  The changeling looked rather embarrassed about the whole thing.  "So, um... what do I owe you?"
Owe me?  That sounded rather... odd to Silhouette.  Like the changeling expected her to demand something from her for doing something so simple.  "You don't owe me anything..." she started saying, then thought better of it, then added, "...except maybe an explanation.  How did all of this happen?"
If anything, the changeling looked even more embarrassed, then said, "Well, ummm, I was out looking for a quick meal, I hadn't eaten in a few days, and I spied that... pony over there walking along.  I thought I'd do a quick grab and drain, nothing fancy, just take a little love and be on my way.  I'm not exactly part of the swarm anymore, so I can't really do anything fancier than that.  But, ummm, she saw me, and instead of screaming, running, or anything like what normally happens, she... she laughed, then ran up to me and hugged me.  Hard.  I got loose, and ran for it, because that hug had started making those cracks open back up, and..."
"...and she chased you all the way here," Silhouette finished.  She was about to ask why the changeling hadn't flown away, when she noticed that the changeling's wings appeared to be badly damaged, as if burned by a fire.  It looked like they had been that way for some time.  She was going to ask about that, when she heard a noise behind her.  It sounded suspiciously like a pony going "WHEEEEEEEE!!!"