//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Love's Many Forms 
// by DraconequusMaximus 
//------------------------------//

Things had went admittedly well since bringing Noteworthy home from the hospital the previous night, although this could probably be attributed to the fact that Noteworthy was strung out on painkillers almost all day. It was currently somewhere around three AM the day after his accident, his medication was wearing off & he was quickly waking up to severe pains. He groaned a bit as he tried to survey his surroundings, he didn't get very far as it was pitch black wherever he was.
"Hello? Is anypony there?" He shouted into the darkness. He heard someone yawn before his reply came.
"Good morning Noteworthy, is it medication time already?" A voice said to him. Oddly enough the voice sounded very familiar.
"Cherry? What are you doing in my hospital room?" Noteworthy asked greatly confused.
"Wow, those were some powerful pills. You really still think you're at the hospital?" Cherry asked sounding amused.
"Where else would I be? I just had a terrible accident!" He replied getting louder with irritation. Suddenly a hot pink fireball came into existence, illuminating the room. Cherry was standing upside down on the ceiling above his bed still in disguise. Noteworthy's weird quota had been reached several times over very quickly, in response he did the only thing he could think of. Scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAA-" Noteworthy cried before receiving a hoof in the mouth.
"Quiet! Berry & Pinchy are sleeping!" Cherry whisper-yelled at the injured stallion before removing his hoof. "You're in my room at Berry's house, you didn't have anywhere to go so I convinced Berry to let you stay with us. I let you have the bed because you're injured & need your rest. Changelings can walk on walls & stuff, I explained all this last night but I guess the painkillers messed with your memory a bit."
Noteworthy took a moment to process this before responding.
"Oh... um, thank you? You weren't like, watching me sleep or anything... right?" He asked unsure he would like the answer.
"What? No! I was asleep before you were! You were giggling to yourself about how you looked sort of like a mummy, last I remember." Cherry said sounding offended. Noteworthy felt bad, & slightly embarrassed now. Cherry could sense it & sighed.
"You don't need to feel bad, or embarrassed, or whatever. This is an admittedly weird situation for both of us. Now let's just go back to sleep & start fresh in the morning." Cherry said reassuringly. It helped Noteworthy a little but something new was bugging him.
"Did you just read my mind?" He asked genuinely weirded out now.
"No, I can sense emotion. It's sort of like a smell/taste combo thing." Cherry said feeling a blow to his self-esteem, his possible love interest/roommate thought he was purposefully invasive to his privacy.
"Oh, that's actually pretty cool. What does guilt taste like?" Noteworthy said genuinely interested.
"Well, I really haven't eaten a lot of pony foods to compare things too just yet. Although it doesn't taste very pleasant. It's kinda like the taste I get from the air after I just cleaned the brewery floor with that spray stuff." Cherry said relieved that something he could do was considered "cool". 
"You're right, that doesn't sound pleasant." Noteworthy said in a sympathetic tone. "What does love taste like?" 
Cherry was silent for a moment, trying to articulate the right words to describe it.
"It's complicated, familial love is sort of sweet & the flavor stays with you for awhile, friendship is like that but kind of less potent. Romantic love is sweet, tangy, & kinda tart all at the same time. Pure love is totally indescribable though, I've only had it a few times back at the hive. You can get it directly but it's nearly impossible, every time I've had it it was refined from love reserves over a long period of time. It makes you full nearly instantly, makes you feel like you could take on the world." Cherry said with a pleasant tone as he remembered the past times he had had it. Noteworthy wished he could feel things so vibrantly like Cherry could, if he could do that he might be able to express them better in his music.
The two carried on for awhile until Noteworthy needed to take another pain pill. After that the pair went back to sleep, both with renewed optimism. It seemed Cherry could teach ponies just as much about changelings as they could teach him about ponies. Noteworthy awoke several hours later in an unfamiliar place again. He almost thought he was dreaming, everything was polished metal  & gauges. When his eyes adjusted properly he could see Cherry & Berry before one of the polished metal objects, now obviously a vat. It was pretty easy to decipher his location from what little he knew.
"Why am I in the brewery?" He asked, thinking it a reasonable question. Berry & Cherry turned from their work to look at him.
"Thought you were gonna sleep all day, it's nearly one o' clock. Cherry promised taking care of you wouldn't interfere with work, so he wheeled you in here with us so you could at least talk to somepony. Didn't feel right to leave you inside alone in case you needed anything." Berry explained as she looked from a clipboard to the gauge on the vat before her. Satisfied with the reading she trotted off to the next one. After a few more she was finished & instructed Cherry to clean up before they called it a day. Cherry retrieved the necessary things from the supply closet & began working, Berry stood next to Noteworthy's wheelchair & they watched him. Noteworthy decided to start up conversation first, as he had nothing better to do.
"So Cherry, what was your hive like?" He asked, continuing their chat from earlier. Cherry looked up for a moment before returning to work.
"Well, it wasn't too different from Ponyville really. Everyling had their own job they would do, & mother would oversee like your mayor does." Cherry said as he mopped. 
"Mother? You mean the queen? Your mother was the queen? Does that mean you're a prince?" Berry said unsure of how to feel about making royalty clean her floors. Cherry looked at Berry like she was crazy.
"Well of course mother was the queen, she's the mother of everyling in the hive." Cherry stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"How many brothers & sisters did you have then?" Noteworthy asked unsure of how to take this.
"Counting myself & mother the total population of the hive was 18,373 changelings at last census." Cherry said immediately without stopping to think.
"Th-that's a big family." Noteworthy said trying to fathom having that many siblings.
"Your mother gave birth over 18,000 times?" Berry said practically shuddering at the thought.
"Changelings traditionally come from eggs, only royal changelings are given birth too." Cherry said looking up from his work, sensing Berry's discomfort. Before he could ask her about it Noteworthy spoke up.
"So are you a royal changeling? You're almost as tall as a princess." Noteworthy asked trying to string together similarities between ponies & changelings.
"Yes & no. I was specially birthed using material from another hive's queen to be prince consort & pass new genetic advantages down to my offspring. But mother gave me the option of going through with it or not & I decided against it. I'm not particularly interested in females, so I was more of mother's attendant than anything. She just used more material to make a different consort." He replied. He began to grow worried after several moments of awkward silence. "Um... guys? Everything okay?"
"You were supposed to be your mothers husband?" Noteworthy asked a little louder than he had intended.
"Well yes, my genes would have passed positive traits from me to future generations. I can process love more efficiently than previous generations. Queens of friendly hives often exchange gene samples to augment future offspring for the better, their hive now has better durability added to their chitin." He said dropping his disguise momentarily to tap on his hard exoskeleton before putting it back on. It was Berry this time that spoke up.
"But if you still had some sort of relation to your mother wouldn't the future changelings be... inbred?" She said failing to put it delicately. Cherry looked upon her with a look of understanding.
"Oh no, changelings aren't affected by things like that. Like bees, but we can diversify with other hives & such through magic. You'd have to ask a changeling queen about the specifics though, I'm no scientist. I basically just refined love so it was fit to her standards & accompanied her to meetings & stuff." Cherry said as he wrung out the mop & started on a new section of floor.
"So... changelings really are bugs?" Noteworthy asked still a tad weirded out.
"I think bugs have to have six legs, we're more like... bug ponies i guess. I'd ask, but I don't know any other changelings anymore." Cherry said as his ears drooped. Berry trotted over to the downtrodden changeling & hugged him.
"We're here for you, I'm sorry if we opened some wounds there. We were just a little curious about your life, you hadn't really told us much about yourself. We won't push you to talk about it if you don't want to." She said. Berry was definitely scary sometimes, but she was a mother before anything else. Noteworthy unfortunately had to stay where he was, since he really didn't have a choice. 
"I'm really sorry Cherry, I should've remembered your situation." Noteworthy said from his wheelchair a couple yards away. As he & Berry got up Cherry wiped tears that had started to form from his eyes before smiling.
"Actually, it sort of helped a little. I'd been trying to keep my mind off of the hive but I think talking about them made me feel a little better about everything." He said before sniffling a little. Berry & Noteworthy smiled a little at this.
"Alright then, how about I round up some lunch for us then?" Berry said trotting to the brewery door. Cherry took place behind Noteworthy & pushed the wheelchair forward after Berry. 
They went back into the house through the kitchen where Cherry set Noteworthy at the table. Berry began cooking something while the stallions sat at the table across from each other. The awkward silence slowly made a comeback, until Noteworthy spoke up again.
"So, do you have any cool defense mechanisms like changelings in the movies? Like acid spit, hypnosis, or poison fangs?" He asked excitedly. 
"Um... no? I can shape shift, fly, & do magic, although I don't really know any aggressive magics. I can make a waxy substance to store love in like a honeycomb though if I have more than I need." Cherry said thinking of things unique to changelings.
"How do you fight?" Noteworthy asked slightly disappointed about the lack of awesome abilities. 
"Well, I personally don't know how to fight. My hive was peaceful & I was technically royalty. The worst thing I normally had to deal with was mother's complaining during egg laying cycles." Cherry said thinking back on how moody his queen got from the excessive hormones. Noteworthy was kind of bummed that he wouldn't get to see acid spit, but it was cool he was close with royalty. That's when a thought occurred to him.
"How are we gonna go on dates & stuff if I'm gonna be stuck in a wheelchair for the next two months or so?" He asked having just remembered his promise of a romantic trial period.
"Well, we could still go right? I can get you nearly anywhere with the chair & my magic." Cherry said looking up at his now spiraled horn. Noteworthy knew he was right, but was reluctant.
"I suppose, but I'd feel terrible if you had to wheel me around all the time. People would think you were my nurse instead of my coltfriend." He said his expression sinking. To his surprise Cherry erupted into his trademarked pink flames & reappeared still in disguise but in maroon scrubs like a nurse would wear.
"I could be both, I saw a male nurse on television the other day. He was wearing clothes like these." Cherry said looking himself over. Noteworthy hated to admit it but Cherry did make a cute nurse, even if it was a facade. Berry chose this time to set a plate of sweet potato fries in front of each of them & her own spot before sitting down.
"Now you're just showing off Cherry." She said before munching on a fry.
"Well, I'm just happy that I have enough love stored up for a few changes here & there." He said before taking a fry for himself. Noteworthy ate a few before speaking.
"Wait, I thought you didn't need to eat actual food?" 
"I need it to help heal some cracks in my chitin, shouldn't be much longer till I'll only need to eat to look realistic though." He said before eating another. "Plus, it's interesting tasting things like this. In my actual form I can only taste emotions."
"Weird, but anyway... When were you thinking of going out 'Nurse Cherry'?" Noteworthy asked with a slight grin.
"How about tomorrow night? It's not like I have plans or anything." Cherry replied.
"I'm game, just so long as Berry doesn't need you." Noteworthy said turning to the mare in question.
"Nah, we should be done with work for the week. All the vats are full, all that'll need to be done is taste testing & gauge monitoring which shouldn't take more than a half hour." Berry said before finishing off her fries.
"Alright then, how about Sugarcube?" Noteworthy said turning back to Cherry.
"It's a date then." Cherry said unaware he was blushing. He had yet to master the pony disguises emotional responses, but with his love life picking up he would learn quickly.