//------------------------------//
// Coffee and Wine 
// Story: Burnt Offerings, Oaken Hearts 
// by Phoenix Quill 
//------------------------------//

There was of course a dinner to be had in Canterlot before Magdalena grabbed a ticket back to Ponyville. It was nothing too special, just a cheese and daisy sandwich from a small shop. She was sitting outside, pony watching while eating, and kept a close eye on the nearby station clock tower. 

As she slowly chewed her food, and waited for her train to arrive, her mind was a whirl of thoughts. I wonder what's going to happen?  Should I talk to somepony about this appointment? She looked again at the appointment slip before her, and frowned deeply. It just seems too fantastic to be real. There's always a catch.

A pony ran by, and for some reason, she felt compelled to watch her as she rounded the corner. I wonder still how many of these ponies are changelings in disguise. The scene around her seemed so chaotic as she tried to keep track of it all, the pony shouting and hawking his wares at a small stand. There was a gryphon entering the small Gryphonian restaurant, while another exited, no doubt stuffed with the flesh of some poor dead creature. 

Magdalena's stomach turned slightly before she turned away from that part of the street, and looked down the other way. She had an excellent view of the Canterlot City Park from her table, and she couldn't help but feel a smile creep over her face as she took note of the lovers trotting beside each other down the paths. There were foals playing in the playground, as mothers watched them from a bench. 

One of the mares suddenly got up from her bench and made her way across the grass a few steps to scold her foal for eating the grass in the park. "No dear, that grass is not for eating!" The foal of course began to cry as the grass was taken away from him, and his mother placed him into a stroller. "Let's go home, Daddy's gonna be off work soon."

Other ponies continued to mill about, but Magdalena failed to register everything. At this point her sandwich was gone, but for some reason, what that mare had said rung a bell in her mind; like a familiar memory that she couldn't quite put her hoof onto. She glanced back at the train station's clock tower, and saw it was a quarter to seven. It feels like so much longer than that, she mused to herself. Well, time to go. She left a few bits down on her table, and left for the station at a slow canter.

The station was busy, as usual. Porters galloped back and forth with trolleys of luggage, ponies scrambled to ticket booths and train platforms, and several more of them just walked around the little shops inside the station. Magdalena fell right into the crowd, another faceless mare in a sea of ponies. 

Somehow, it felt right to her to just simply do exactly that. To blend into the crowd so effortlessly that she became unnoticed. And unlike how she was a year ago, instead of trying to fight the tide of traffic, she now knew how to flow with it to get where she wanted. Like a leaf on a stream, she used the flow around her to get where she needed to be. 

And where she needed to be, happened to be the Friendship Express. It's true, the tickets cost her more, but it was either that, or take the regular train to Ponyville, and suffer having to take the old tracks that are shared with other trains that could take her at minimum four hours to wind down the mountain. Longer if it had to stop to let other trains pass.

No, she thought to herself. It's better this way, I'd rather get home on time to sleep in my own bed, rather than try to get a full nights sleep on the train. She nodded to herself in silent agreement with her thoughts, not caring about the indignant look the pony next to her was giving off at the 'strange pony' that nodded for no reason as she boarded the train.

2/24/14, 9:00 AM, The Punch Bowl in Ponyville, Second Floor, Magdalena's room.

An alarm was ringing in the room, and Magdalena wished for nothing more than for it to stop. "Be quiet,' she mumbled through her pillow. "Just five more minutes..." she faded off before another snore came out of her muzzle. Despite her best wishes however, the alarm kept ringing on it's dresser across the room. It began to shake violently as the hammer clanged quickly between it's bells, causing the mechanical devil to make it's way to the edge.

It demanded her attention, Silence me, or I'll jump! it practically screamed with the bells. It grew dangerously close to the edge, only to have a purple hoof slam it into silence before pushing it back into it's place. "Mags, get up."

Magdalena peeked slightly from under her pillow, and groaned before slamming it down over her face again. "No, I just wanna sleep."

Berry Punch's eyes narrowed slightly as she crossed the room, and quickly snatched the covers off the barely snoozing mare. "I don't have time for this right now," she said in an annoyed tone. "You've got to help me with the store today if you wanna continue to stay here, and I can't afford to have my business partner sleeping all the time."

Magdalena groaned as she slowly creaked out of bed. Wincing as her joints protested with pops and cracks that she could have sworn were new. "Alright, I'm awake anyway I guess," she mumbled, still bleary eyed to the world, and moving no further than the edge of her bed. "What's on my agenda today?"

Berry Punch gave her friend a gentle nudge on her back to send her to her hooves before trotting out of the room. "There's a laundry list of things, but I think you could use some coffee first. And maybe a shower, you look terrible."

Magdalena stretched on the floor for a few moments before standing straight again and grabbing her apron and hat from the peg on the wall. "Hmm, coffee first..." she mumbled before trailing off into a series of grunts and groans that, to be honest, Berry was used to at this point. 

She followed the mare down the hall to the kitchen, where a fresh pot of coffee waited for the tired mare. Magdalena grabbed a cup and placed it on the table and stared at it for a moment before adding the black brewed elixir into it. "Oh coffee, tell me lies about all the stuff we can get done together today." She then drank it down in a fast gulping motion that she wouldn't ever do in front of strangers, or most of her friends. Already feeling more awake, she quickly pored another cup of coffee. This time, she opted to add sugar and cream before sipping it politely.

Berry grabbed her own cup of coffee at this point, and sat down at the table across from her friend. She gave her a gentle smile as she dipped a croissant into her cup of coffee. So, you came home late last night, is everything okay?" She grimaced slightly at her own question as Magdalena's expression took a downturn, and she mentally kicked herself for asking, knowing from the look on her face, that the day had finally come, as she knew it would.

Magdalena stared into her cup and watched as the small foam bubbles floated on the top. Not making any sort of real pattern, she still looked at it as if there was one there. "He's dying," she said it quickly, and in a flat voice. As if doing so would detach her from the emotional weight those words carried. It of course, did not.

"Dying?" Berry replied in shock. "But I thought you said that he's getting better, how could he be dying?"

Magdalena winced at her friend and sipped on her cup with pursed lips. "Well, it's more complicated than that, the doctor said he may never wake up..." she trailed off as she sipped on her coffee again, her face locked in a look of intense concentration. "Maybe I was too dramatic with what I said."

Berry looked at Magdalena with narrowed eyes and a deep frown. "Ya think? There's a bit of a difference between not waking up and dying." She took a deep breath and sighed before taking a bite out of her croissant. "Now, what exactly happened last night?"

"Well, the doctor came up to me and said that he was likely to die, or at the very least may never wake up." She spoke in a level voice, but Berry could see that, in fact Magdalena's hooves were shaking as she tried to hold her coffee cup steady. "It's like this, without life support, he would die. With it, he could live for a very long time and never come back to us at all. He... he gave me a set of choices last night, and I have to think about it."

Berry nodded, and gave her friend a compassionate face. As if she understood what Magdalena was going through, despite never being in this same scenario before. "Hey, it's okay if you gotta cry hon, I understand that you don't want him to die. But you just gotta ask yourself, what would he want?"

Magdalena shook her head a few times as tears began to silently drop from her eyes. "No," she said with a crack in her voice. "I mean, I don't know any more. The doctor, he told me that he could save him, but I don't know if it's the right thing to do." Magdalena then pulled something out of her saddle bags, and passed it to Berry.

Poor thing, she must have been exhausted if she slept with those on her back all night, Berry thought to herself as she opened the paper to look at it. It only took a moment for her to read all the information, but once it was all said and done, she now understood why her friend looked more confused than sad. "So, that's how he wants to save him?"

Magdalena nodded as she downed a few more swallows of coffee. "It's all legitimate, I have an appointment with the mop sea to help me on my decision."

"The what," Berry Punch deadpanned.

"Mop sea, M-O-P-C," she said each letter individually as if that were some sort of help. Finally, she groaned and answered with the full name. "The Ministry of Practical Chaos."

"Oh them," she replied with a groan. "That ministry is a joke Mags, they haven't turned out anything for us as a country other than create national disasters, and raised the taxes by point two percent."

"Right," Magdalena said softly as she leaned on the table. "Well, since you know what the doctor wants to do, what do you think? Should I let them make him into a... a changeling?"

Berry almost dropped her croissant and did a spit take, she knew that it was a big decision for Magdalena, but she didn't expect her to ask for advice on it over breakfast like it was the weather. "Uh, umm wow. That's not such a black and white question is it? I mean, it's up to you I think," she said with a shrug. "What I mean to say is that it's not that it's a bad idea, but, don't you think you might be rushing into this? For all we know, he might wake up any day now."

Magdalena nodded a bit as she tried to process all the words her friend had just said. "I guess, it's just that Doctor Offering Heart, he's worried that Burnt Oak might wake up and not be able to function properly, that his brain was without oxygen too long. If he changes him though, then we would know for sure and they might be able to give him a life as a changeling. Or maybe he'll be mentally there still, somewhere and-"

"And you would welcome him home with open arms so he could feed off your love for him," Berry finished with a neutral face. "I'm no expert, but if you think you can handle him like that then do it. But I would suggest you wait a while longer. He may come around."

"May," she echoed the word just to hear it. It sounded hopeful, and dismal at the same time. She chose to hang on to the hope, but couldn't ignore the way that the possibility of a negative outcome was still there. "Well, enough of that," she said with a slap of her hooves against each other. "What's on our agenda today?"

"Well," Berry answered with a smile. "We've still got a few hogsheads of Merlot that we've got to get out of stock, so there's going to be a special on that." She then looked over at the wall where she'd tacked up some notes on a board. "Uhh, today we have a delivery to the Carousel Boutique for one small barrel of our sparkling white zinfandel. Other than that, the usual shop running, and I think we should get started on that vodka distilling before the night is through."

Magdalena nodded numbly to herself for a moment or two and gave a small yawn, as if to kill off the last of the sleepiness that clung to her. "Alright, let's get going."





Things went along pretty slowly that day, but the two mares managed to fill their time by rotating the stock around a little bit. It wasn't until around three in the afternoon that the days monotony was broken by Berry when she took off her apron and gave a bored sigh. "Hey, it's getting late, you mind taking Rarity's order to her shop before you get yourself something to eat?"

Magdalena shrugged before answering, "sure, I don't mind." She rummaged through the shelves behind the counter for a few moments, searching through several orders on hold for the bottles with Rarity's name attached to them. Finally finding the order, she placed them in her saddlebags and headed for the door. "Let me know if something happened when I come back."

"Oh I'm sure you'll know if something happened," Berry replied with a smile. "After all, how hard is it to notice if something turned the shop into a crater. Again."

"Right," Magdalena replied with a small laugh. She knew that it was meant as a joke, but at the same time she understood that it could happen. After all, disasters like that seemed to happen several times before to not only her, but pretty much everypony in Ponyville at one point or another.

When she left the coolness of the store, she was immediately bathed in the bright warmth of the noontime summer sun. The walk to Rarity's wasn't a long walk, and even with a wandering mind, it couldn't wander farther than trying to figure out what she was going to get for lunch before heading back to the shop.

It almost didn't register in her head that she'd already arrived at the boutique, and was waiting for Rarity to arrive after ringing the service bell. When it did register, it was only because she realized that she'd been staring at a dress with a thousand yard stare, and Rarity's magic had taken the service bell away so she would stop ringing it. "Yes, I am here, how can I help you Miss?"

Magdalena smiled sheepishly and gave an embarrassed laugh, "Sorry about that, I'm from The Punch Bowl, and I have a delivery for two bottles of Merlot."

Rarity gave a polite smile to Magdalena, and was quick to head over to her register. "Ah, so that's where I know you from, you work for Berry, correct?" Magdalena gave her friendliest smile possible as she nodded. "Yes, I remember now," Rarity said as she opened a drawer, pulling several receipts out. "If I remember correctly, there's supposed to be a small bottle of Cabernet as well," she said while squinting at the paper scrap without her glasses.

"Oh," Magdalena said as she placed the pair of bottles on the counter. "The Cabernet isn't quite ready yet, needs just a tad more time to get ready."

"I see," Rarity said with a nod. "Well, thank you very much for coming all the way out here to deliver my order, is there anything that I could do for you?" She gave the unicorn a small shake of her head and thanked her for her business before heading out the door.

Once left alone to her thoughts, her mind once again started drifting off to Canterlot, and the decision she was still mulling over. Rather than go back to the shop and home, she instead discovered that her hooves had taken her over to Sugar Cube Corner, and that she was already at the counter blankly staring at the cakes in the display case. When did I get here?

She placed an order for an apple cupcake and an ice cream soda, then sat down in a corner by the window to watch ponies go by. Thankfully, the place was mostly empty, and it didn't take long for Pinkie Pie to bring the treats to the table. "Here you go," she said in a cheery voice laying the tray before her.

Magdalena smiled and took a sip from the drink before her, not really paying much attention to Pinkie before going back to looking out the window. She was watching as a trio of fillies tore down the street as the pegasus on a scooter pulled the other two on a wagon, but only with passing interest. Once they were out of sight, she turned back to take a sip, only to find Pinkie was now sitting across from her. "Uhh, hi."

"Hi!" Pinkie almost sang the word before eating a cupcake of her own in one bite. "I'm on my lunch break, and thought you could use the company, you mind?"

She looked back out the window, and watched as a mare with a long pole lit one of the lamps on the street before saying, "No, please join me." She watched as a stallion ran by, stopped to look at a watch on his wrist, then continued to gallop down the road.

The two mares sat silent for a few more minutes before Pinkie finally asked, "What's wrong?"

Magdalena was taken aback by the question, and blinked in shock. "Wrong? Nothing, I mean, not really, why you ask?" She looked at Pinkie with a smile, the same smile that she'd had for the last hour or so, only to feel it melt away under Pinkies gaze. 

"I know a fake smile when I see it," Pinkie said with an unusually serious look on her features. "Come on, what's going on? Is it something to do with," she looked around before whispering, "you know."

Magdalena raised an eyebrow at Pinkie, "no, no I don't know." The two of them looked at each other in silence for a few more moments, the rest of the world acting as if nothing were wrong at the moment. Magdalena felt a chill cross her back and she looked away.

Pinkie had a look on her face that Magdalena wasn't sure how to read, it was somewhere between trying to be friendly, but serious, and she was not sure on how to take that. "Burnt Oak isn't coming home, is he?"

There it was, asked out in the open to hang between them. Magdalena took a bite out of her cupcake and gave a small nod. "Pinkie, everypony in town knows that you know everypony, do you remember," she paused to take a sip of her soda before going on. "Do you remember the changelings?"

It didn't take Magdalena long to explain what the doctor had told her, but it did take several more cupcakes and sodas than planned. Even though Magdalena didn't think of Pinkie as her friend, not especially since she was friends with everypony, she couldn't help but to spill everything to her. The hospital visits, the crying, the doctor's reveal and offer, and how she has an appointment the coming weekend with the Ministry of Practical Chaos to use some sort of device to help her decide.

Despite how long it took to explain, Pinkie proved to be a good listener. When she was done, Pinkie picked up another cupcake and chewed on it slowly. "You know," she said before swallowing. "I think you should wait until you see the device at the ministry." She stopped to look at a clock before standing. "I'm sure everything will be fine, but if you want my opinion, I'd ask Twilight for help."

Magdalena thought to herself for a moment, she knew who the pony in question was, who wouldn't? But other than to go to the library for a book now and then, she wasn't really all that close to the pony. "I'll think it over." She then stood up herself and gave her legs a stretch. "It was nice talking with you, but I ought to head off."





Several hours later, just after nightfall, Magdalena found herself sitting on a blue cushion inside the library as the unicorn that ran it pulled several books from the shelves. "According to their biology, the way that they feed off of love is simply fascinating, they can convert the feeling into an energy, and that energy into a liquid to be stored and digested later." 

Twilight continued to prattle on about changeling facts that she didn't really care to hear about. Magdalena looked at a clock on the wall and saw that despite how slowly it's been moving, yet another hour had slipped by since she'd come in for advice. Despite all that, she'd yet to still have an answer from the unicorn. "Twilight, it's getting late and,"

"Oh. Yes! The answer," Twilight said as she opened another book. "I'm not saying that he should do it, or shouldn't, but I am curious, how do they convert a pony into a changeling? Is it like, a biochemical or, maybe it's something to do with DNA structure. Did they say that it was a mind transfer?"

Magdalena did not much care for how this conversation was going. Nor did she care much for how time was moving as slow as possible. She looked again at the clock, and saw that only another moment had passed since she last looked at it.

" Twilight," Magdalena said that she raised a hoof to the air. " I don't wish to intrude, but you still have not actually answered my question."

"Oh yes, your question." Twilight looked at her with inquisitive, yet uncertain eyes before a sheepish smile crossed her lips. "What was your question again?"

Magdalena looked at Twilight as if she wanted to shake her hard and scream. Instead, she simply breathed in and out. "Should I go through with it?"

Twilight finally slowed down and looked away from the book that she was currently holding in her magic. She paused, and gave thought for several moments. Finally, she gave an answer, "part of me wants to say yes, because this would be a fascinating study. But on the other hoof, would I want one of my loved ones to be turned into a changeling? That's the crux, I don't think I would."

Magdalena felt just as conflicted as she did before she came to Twilight, and hung her head in dejection. "I suppose then, you don't really have any advice to give on this subject?"

Twilight paused for several moments, she pulled one of the books out of the pile next to her that she was going through and passed it over to Magdalena with her magic. She then took a scroll and quill, dips it into inkwell and started to scratch some riding onto the paper. "I... Think that you should take this note, and bring it to the ministry of practical chaos."

Magdalena looked over the paper with confusion, "I don't understand. What is that supposed to mean?" 

Twilight gave a small half smile and stood up indicating that this particular visit was indeed over. "I'm sorry if you don't understand, but I think the ponies at the ministry will."