"Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know."
—Mitch Albom
*Flap*
...
*Flap*
...
*Flap*
...
*Flap*
That was pretty much all I've been hearing for a few minutes now.
*Flap*
For a moment back then, after all of the traumatizing lurching that I had experienced as this pony flew while carrying me at speeds I couldn't fathom, I thought I actually saw the sun's light shine through my closed eyes. Only for a little while though, as she put me in what was probably a bag shortly afterwards since everything went pitch-black once more.
*Flap*
Her two companions had left after some sort of arguing, leaving me alone with the poacher whom had begun flying after some time.
*Flap*
I wanted to panic, cry for help, escape...
*Flap*
I wanted to return to where Mom had left me so that I could resume waiting for her...
*Flap*
I wanted to feel safe again, I wanted to feel the soothing love that permeated the hive, I wanted to feel the comforting presence of my new family...
*Flap*
Alas, there wasn't much I could do, for I was stuck in an egg.
*Flap*
...
*Flap*
It was kind of warm in here at least, so I supposed that not everything was bad...
*Flap*
My family had eyes in every town and city, right?
*Flap*
They should be able to find me in no time.
*Flap*
...Assuming I ended up in one of those.
*Flap*
Also assuming that whatever invasion they were at went well and that they'd manage to return to their previous posts without too many issues.
...
...
...
I realized that my captor had stopped flapping her wings just as that familiar-yet-distant sensation of falling came.
"(I swear I'm going to die from this heat if I have to wear this dress for a moment longer,)" she muttered. "(I'm almost tempted to send a letter to Celestia and ask her to hide the sun for a bit.)"
*Clip-clop* I heard as we seemingly landed.
After a bit of shaking and moving around, she must've opened the bag, because I could then see and feel the warmth of the sun as she very gently lifted me outside, setting my egg on the ground.
'But... supposedly, no one knows about our existence yet, and if they don't know anything about us, then, then I'll probably be kept as a sort of lab rat! I'll be poked and prodded with all sorts of needles and machines and...'
...Come to think of it, I don't think I was ever told how technologically advanced this world was.
I could hear some muffled shuffling nearby, followed by a relieved sigh from the one who had kidnapped me.
'I have to get out of this egg right now,' I promptly decided. The pony would resume her flight any moment now, and I doubted that I'd be able to do anything at all while we'd be in the air. This was probably the only chance I'd get to escape her, and hopefully I would be able to figure out where the hive was at so that I may return home.
I didn't want to stick around long enough to know what this pony planned to do with me.
Gathering strength in my new and unused muscles as I assumed direct control over them, I tried 'punching' a hole through the egg's membrane with my... hands?
'Wait, I probably don't even have hands now, we're quadrupeds. Is it like a paw then?'
Trying to understand what exactly was going on with these new and completely unfamiliar limbs quickly made the whole process of moving around in the egg feel unbelievably weird, but I still tried extending what I thought was an ‘arm’ to push my way out to freedom. Unfortunately, since the egg's exterior was soft instead of solid, my efforts to pierce it with this method were pretty much unsuccessful.
It was as I wiggled around the egg that I ended up feeling the pony's shock and panic.
'Crap, she knows. Too late to back out now.'
"(Please...)"
I tried 'pushing' with both of my arms—or is it forelegs now?—in a concentrated point, but that didn't work either.
"(Please not now...)"
After a few seconds of tossing and turning inside my prison, trying to extend all of my completely unrecognizable limbs as far as I could in an attempt to stretch the membrane enough for it to rip, I ended up throwing my head backwards in frustration—
*Riiip*
—causing something on my head to literally shred a section of the egg, the contact making me shiver at the foreign sensation coursing through my body.
Oh, and the pony's panic levels skyrocketed.
My momentary pause also made me realize that I now felt the urge to do something fundamentally important to everyday life. Something that I actually used to do quite commonly:
I desperately needed to breathe.
Reaching for the newly-made tear in the membrane, I blindly managed to enlarge the hole just enough to be able to drag myself out through it, at which point I unceremoniously sprawled myself on the ground, greeting the sweet dusty air.
However, the mere effort it took me to get out of the egg had made me so exhausted that I wasn't sure I could even stand up. In my haste to escape my prison, I hadn't taken into account that this body was effectively that of a newborn's, and that it— that I no longer had as much endurance as I used to.
Still, as I lay there panting, I eventually managed to slowly open my new eyes for the first time, though I had to blink repeatedly to shake away the blurriness before I was actually able to notice the pegasus mare, whom was staring at me from a few feet away with abnormally widened eyes.
And she... didn't quite look like any of the ponies that I had seen on Earth. Neither did Celestia when Mom had warned me about her, now that I thought about it.
For one, I would've thought that ponies would walk around naked, but this one actually had clothes on. The kind of clothes an explorer would be using if the pith helmet and jacket indicated anything. Kind of reminded me vaguely of Indiana Jones. The mare also had a... tattoo on her flanks?
Indeed, the marking of a compass was clearly on display on her tan-colored fur. Her hair and tail had various shades of grey in patterned streaks, but what was most surprising was the color of her pupils... unless having magenta-colored eyes was something common in this world.
...If you removed the muzzle, I'm pretty sure it would look like a human's face. Well, one of those humans from the various "anime" shows at the very least. Her pupils had also shrunk far beyond what I had known to be possible.
We had been quietly staring at each other for a couple minutes in the time it took me to examine her, however, and it was starting to get awkward. I should probably say something.
"...Hi! Please love me?" I squeaked from my position on the ground; and though I wanted to frown at the high pitch of my 'voice', I was simply too tired to.
'Whoa, didn't think her pupils could shrink any more than that.'
...
...
"(Oh buck, it thinks I'm its mother!)" the giant pony exclaimed before she rushed to the bags that were laying between her and I, fumbling around with them before throwing all sorts of things out. Stuff like a book or two, a box of matches, some rolled-up maps... grass and flowers in a bag?
I swear I even saw a rubber ducky somewhere out there as she finally took out writing materials with...
'...How the heck is she holding that with hooves?' I thought, bewildered as she held an inkpot and some paper with the aforementioned limbs while having a quill in her mouth.
She then used her mouth to manipulate the quill into the ink and started writing on the scroll at a hurried pace, though she repeatedly kept glancing at me as she wrote what seemed to be a short message.
The pony panicked even more and sped up her writing when I tried—and failed—to stand up, unable to muster enough strength.
Her task complete a short moment later, she quickly put a seal on the rolled-up letter before taking out a matchstick, lighting up what looked like a normal candle which had a... not-so-normal green flame?
I then stared in absolute confusion as she threw her scroll into the miniature flame, vaporizing the letter immediately.
...
'Wat.'
And we suddenly found ourselves back to awkwardly staring at each other.
At least until I felt something dripping down my forehead, subsequently noticing that I was still nearly completely covered with whatever substance was inside the egg.
And it. Just. Looked. So. Delicious.
The next thing I knew, I was slowly licking myself clean with a forked tongue, the substance tasting like some sort of sweet sour candy that I quickly realized made me feel energized as I consumed it. I also took advantage of the moment to examine my own body, seeing as the pony didn't look like she would be moving from her spot anytime soon.
My entire skin seemed to be covered in glistening black chitin, though it still looked like it was soft; presumably because I just... hatched. I appeared to also have the base body structure of an equine, though the holes going through each of my legs kind of honestly freaked me out, especially when I tried to clean the ones on the front. Those things were pretty sensitive in the ticklish way.
A stray thought came to me. 'Shouldn't I be feeling disgusted at what I'm doing right now...?'
A quick glance at my only company showed a green-faced mare with her cheeks bulging, holding whatever meal she had previously eaten with a hoof on her muzzle.
'...Yeah, something like that,' I mentally chuckled.
I also took note of just how flexible her hooves were, looking back at how she had been throwing stuff around when she was searching through her things.
Continuing my self-inspection / cleaning, I spotted a pair of tattered bug-like wings on my back, while noticing at the same time just how far I could turn my neck around.
'Edge did mention flying in most of his stories,' I remembered. The prospect of being able to fly excited me to no end and I promptly began to imagine myself soaring through the skies, flying without a care in the world, feeling the wind flow through my hair, free of—
Everything got dark as something covered me.
...And I most certainly did not squeak in fright at the sudden change of lighting.
"(Here, let me help,)" the pony said, very slowly rubbing me with the purple... silk?; as her disgust at my actions slowly dissipated.
I fought as much as I could against whatever she was doing, but I soon stopped my struggles because of a couple things that I noticed.
She wasn't feeling anything negative towards me—quite the opposite, in fact—and she was... or rather had been in the process of cleaning me from what I could tell. In my moment of panic, she had retreated to stare at me from a couple feet away, worried as if she had done something wrong.
I... I wasn't sure what to make of that.
For a brief moment, she stared at me as if I had done something adorable. Which was weird, because all I did was pop my head out from under the blanket that was covering me after shuffling around awkwardly under it in an effort to escape its evil clutches.
She began to close the distance between us quickly at first—or so it seemed—but when I flinched back, she paused before approaching with a much slower and calmer pace.
I don't care what anyone says, having a giant pony loom over you is scary. Her head alone was bigger than I was! The only thing that stopped me from outright freaking out was the fact that I could feel what she was feeling, and as unbelievable as it seemed, she was more concerned for me than anything. Heck, she was actually making efforts to not frighten me!
...N-not that I was scared! This was just a pony, after all!
A pony that could squash me with a single one of her hooves with how huge she was compared to me...
A pony who could catch up to me without any issues whatsoever if I tried to run away...
A pony that, when all was said and done, had kidnapped me from my hive...
...
Okay, so maybe I was still somewhat wary of her—
"(I'm just going to clean you up, alright?)" she slowly said with a surprisingly soft voice as she very carefully approached me.
—but I had to admit that her efforts to keep me calm seemed to be working, because I soon found myself allowing her to resume what she had been doing a moment ago with the blanket.
The very same hooves that could end my life right then and there were taking great care to dry my dark-red colored hair, tenderly running the fabric across my head, though she seemed to be avoiding—
'I have a horn!?'
—the apparent jagged, curved horn on my forehead that I could barely see on the edge of my vision. Whenever she happened to lightly brush it, I would end up feeling this utterly weird sensation that spread throughout my body; something which also coincidentally reminded me of the energy I had sensed during my last moment with Mom as she had been setting up those traps around my now vacant room.
'I hope this horn is as sensitive as it is only because I just hatched...' I grumpily thought, looking up to the pegasus whom had finished drying my head and was completely focused on my back with squinted eyes, doing her best to avoid rubbing too hard my new, fragile-looking wings. They were connected to the shell which covered my entire mid-section, which sported the same shade of red as my hair. And tail, as I soon learned of its existence when I felt it slowly swish of its own accord.
Part of me felt like I should've been panicking by then at just how different my body was compared to when I was human, but I did realize quite some time ago that it probably wouldn't be anywhere close to how I used to be, what with everything I heard back in the hive.
Again wondering why this mare was methodically cleaning me, I took a deeper peek through her link with me, yet I felt nothing but determination and... a small but very slowly growing bond of caring.
'She can't be a bad person if she's actually helping me, even if she has absolutely no obligation to.'
Looking back from ever since the moment I woke up, this pony actually hadn't felt a single negative emotion towards me yet. Other than when I was licking myself clean, that is.
I couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind.
--------------------------------------------
'It's probably a natural thing for changelings, Daring. Just forget about it. It never happened. This foal didn't just, slowly lick off the... eurk...'
Daring Do shook her head, desperately trying to get rid of that particular memory while she refocused on removing the gunk off of the recently-hatched changeling.
'Poor thing had a panic attack when I threw the dress on her...' She winced.
Thankfully, the fact that the little one had chitin instead of a fur coat meant that the slime could easily be removed, though it still stuck to the mane and tail. She decided to be careful around the wings, however, as they appeared to be somewhat delicate.
Daring wasn't quite sure why she was even bothering herself with helping 'Artemis' get clean to begin with, though she eventually paused when she noticed that the tiny nymph was staring at her.
With the most adorable wide sparkling eyes she had ever seen.
--------------------------------------------
I blinked at the pegasus' sudden change of mood, beginning to feel a minor trickle of love coming from her, despite the fact that she barely met me. She had simply gazed into my eyes, giving me a somewhat uncertain smile shortly afterwards.
I didn't know if I actually did anything to trigger her shift in emotions, but it felt... nice. Nowhere near as good as what I used to get back when I was still in my egg of course, but simply knowing that she 'kind of' cared for me put at ease any fears I may have had about her having any sort of ill intentions towards me.
Her size was still kind of scary, though. I was literally at the complete mercy of this giant pony, and even if I somehow managed to outrun her should the need arise, she could still fly to catch up to me while I had no idea how to even move my wings.
...Not that I'd even consider running from her at this point. Looking at the landscape surrounding us, I saw nothing but dried earth and rocky mountains in the distance. Literally a desert, minus the sand. This mare was, for all intents and purposes, my guardian and my only source of food for what seemed to be miles around.
Besides, I also had no experience in moving around as a quadruped, either...
The pegasus had just finished with my midsection when I saw a flash of light in the corner of my vision.
My two-hundred seventy degree vision, more or less.
'Another one of the many things I'll have to get used to...'
...I could've sworn that scroll wasn't there before.
She...
'Hmm, I should give her a name for now.'
Lara left the stained blanket on me, leaving my side to go read the scroll that came out of nowhere.
'There isn't even a cloud up in the air right now, so it didn't just fall off the sky. Though, there was that flash...'
Really, unless they were so technologically advanced that teleportation was an actual thing, the only explanation would seem to be 'Magic', but that's ridiculous.
...
Well, I guessed shape-shifting would kind of be like magic, so maybe it actually was possible.
Different world, different physics?
Speaking of which, I had to learn how to 'change', hopefully sooner rather than later.
"(Could only do a cursory examination of changelings so far... can't really give you much that would help in caring for a recently-hatched one...)" Lara muttered to herself.
...While she was busy with that...
"(...Bring it to Canterlot as soon as possible...)"
...I turned to look at the parts she hadn't yet cleared of delicious egg fluids...
"(... and try not to let it be spotted by anypony on the way since the public has a generally negative view on changelings for now.)" She snorted. "(Well, obviously. Anypony could tell that just by strolling through Canterlot— Hey.)"
By the gods, it even smelled heavenly good...
"Hey!"
I opened my muzzle, almost drooling in anticipation, tongue stretching out to once more begin licking procedures—
"HEY!"
"Eek!" I squeaked on realizing that she was speaking to me, turning to face her.
"(No,)" she stated, pointing at me with a hoof.
...
...
I turned to feast upon—
"(NO.)"
...!?
We stared each other down under the watchful gaze of the harsh sun on the horizon, our gazes unfaltering and unwavering.
...
...I went back to—
"(NO!)"
I tilted my head in confusion, watching her.
'...She... doesn't want me to clean myself? Well that's really nice of her, wanting to take care of me and all, but fortunately I can do this part myself!'
I once again turned to look at the nectar of the gods—
"(Stop right there!)"
—opened my mouth and stretched my quite lengthy tongue—
"(Don't do it!)"
*Lick*
"Ugh!" she groaned, covering her face with a hoof.
She eventually went back to finishing the letter as I savored my little victory.
"(Take care of it as if it were a regular foal for now... yada yada yada... our studies showed that every changeling we've examined save for Chrysalis herself was, in fact, asexual, and we'd... like you to...)"
I stopped when I felt the embarrassment flowing from Lara, blushing included, as she froze at a certain line of the letter. She slowly looked up from it, her eyes meeting mine, and her face became even more tomato-colored when she noticed that I was innocently looking back at her.
"(Let's get this over with,)" she sighed, nervously smiling at me while she approached, the scroll held under one of her flexible wings.
She carefully wrapped me with a clean section of the blanket, making me squeak as she gently lifted me up, resuming her cleaning on my belly this time.
"Oh, well, I guess you can do that part," I chittered, taking notice of how the dirt clung to the substance.
She was kind of focusing a lot on the part between my legs, though. Erm, and by that I meant my hind... legs...
"H-hey! Stop touching me!!" I indignantly screeched, flailing my limbs as much as I could to show my displeasure once I realized what she was doing.
"(Doesn't- Oof! have a sheath...)" she said as I managed to land a solid kick on her muzzle, which barely fazed her.
"Gah! If only I wasn't so SMALL!!"
My world suddenly turned upside-down as she flipped me over, looking at my backside.
"NO! NOT THE PROBE!!!"
"(Okay, okay! Calm down! I'm done checking!)" she blurted in a slightly panicked tone when my thrashing increased to the point where she almost lost whatever grip she had on me.
I kept my eyes trained on the pony the moment she released me on the ground after taking the blanket back with her, and I scrambled backwards in an attempt to put some distance between us, my wings subconsciously buzzing in my panic while I felt my long pony-like ears flatten themselves on my head of their own accord.
Emphasis on 'attempt' to scramble backwards. True to my earlier musings, I had no idea how to move as a quadruped, and the fact that all of my legs literally bent in ways I wasn't used to didn't help at all.
The pegasus, for her part, merely frowned slightly, looking unsure of herself, apparently having no idea what to do in this situation.
Once my shivering at feeling violated calmed down somewhat, I began thinking rationally again, and I noticed her discomfort and guilt. At more or less the same time, however, Lara noticed that she was still holding the bundled piece of dirty cloth with a single hoof, scrunching her muzzle in disgust.
"(Meh, I've got plenty of these dresses, I'll just get another one,)" she said, throwing it behind her without looking.
I followed the trajectory of the stained purple blanket, right up until—
*Fwoomph*
—it touched the candle's eerie green flame, immediately disintegrating it.
Lara, who was watching me the entire time, comically widened her eyes as she heard the sound behind her. During that moment, though, I was more busy pondering about why she suddenly took an interest on examining my...
'Wait a minute.'
I slowly turned to hopefully confirm the existence of my jewels just as Lara slowly twisted her neck around to notice where her bundle had gone.
...
...
"Fuck," we each said at the same time in our respective languages.
Lara recovered faster than I did. She didn't suddenly have to discover her gender got changed, however. Unlike me.
...
Change...
"(Other differences between what we're now designating as 'Queen' and 'Drones' are as follow,)" Lara said, having gone back to the letter after shaking her head. "(Queens have an actual mane and tail, whereas the common drone has frills, or a type of fin, whichever you prefer to call it,)" she continued, quickly glancing at me, her eyes widening slightly before she returned to reading. "(Queens also have fangs, though they do not protrude out of the muzzle at all times, unlike the ones drones have.)"
'Oh, eheheh, it's alright! I'll, just, change back into a male whenever I learn how to. Y-yeah! It'll be fine!' I nervously chuckled, still trying to absorb the fact that I was... not the same gender that I used to be. Becoming a new species was one thing, but that and being the opposite sex?
"(The Queen's shell covers both her back and her barrel, while it merely covers the back on drones.)" Another glance in my direction. "(Finally, the Queen had a crooked horn with holes dotting it as well as slitted eyes, meanwhile drones merely possessed a slightly curved horn and lacked any sort of iris, instead simply having clear sky-blue eyes.)"
'...At the very least, all of my brothers and sisters came from one changeling, right? Even if I'm a... girl now, I probably can't even have babies. Or eggs, as the case may be.'
"(Send an update via the Messenger Service Network candle you were given as soon as possible,)" finished the pegasus, slowly setting the note down and once more looking at me.
'...Yeah! In the entire family, there's only one mother! Just what are the odds that I'd suddenly be the second changeling ever to be able to conceive, especially when thousands were apparently born before me? I shouldn't have anything to worry about,' I finished my own train of thought, feeling somewhat calmer now that I was sure that I had covered everything and that I convinced myself that I wouldn't have to go through parenthood for—I shuddered—thousands...
"(Well Artemis, looks like you'll eventually be the mother of thousands, huh?)" Lara said to me, smiling nervously.
Her smile was contagious.
==============================================
"Erm, Princess? While I commend you for wanting to 'take the plunge' in the interests of science, as it were, we don't even know what that stuff is," a curious unicorn researcher remarked, observing one of Equestria's Diarchs act in a very un-princess-like way as the alicorn tentatively sniffed what probably used to be a simple dress, which was stained with some unknown substance at various parts.
"Smells like cake frosting..." the princess muttered, oblivious to what the head of her research department said.
"Celestia, I don't think I would try tasting something that's sticking to silk, whether it smells good or not..." Cadance trailed off as the Princess of the Sun—
*Swoosh*
The alicorn of love quickly forgot about her Aunt and picked up the newly-arrived note through her magic, eager to read the report.
'Artemis' seems to possess all the characteristics of a future Queen, based on the descriptions you sent me. She's also surprisingly docile and calm, for a newborn foal. Or nymph, rather. Not that I know much about foals and changelings, however.
Will continue on my way to Canterlot as originally planned, though I will have to make a detour to acquire another 'disguise' in order to not attract attention once I arrive, as I sent my last one to you by accident on purpose.
P.S. : The dress I sent you is covered in changeling egg slime from when I cleaned Artemis after her hatching.
Cadance smiled and opened her muzzle...
Then promptly closed it, forgetting what she was going to say as she noticed Celestia's half-lidded eyes and content expression as she blissfully licked the floating dress.
Eventually, Celestia noticed the apparent silence, pausing long enough with her tongue sticking out to notice that Cadance looked ready to empty her stomach at any moment. The note slowly drifted towards the older alicorn, in the meantime.
"...Oh," Celestia said after a moment, having read the scroll for herself.
"I'll, I'll just," Cadance gulped, turning increasingly green. "Please excuse m—mblrgh!" she hurriedly galloped out of the room while holding a hoof on her mouth, most likely headed towards the nearest bathroom.
Meanwhile, the unicorn levitated a nearby vial and filled it with the fluid coating the dress, planning to run a few tests later.
"Does it actually taste like 'cake frosting' then, your highness?" he curiously asked, excited at the prospect of learning more about this new species, even if it was simply about the composition of the liquid contained in one of their eggs.
"It tasted like the best cake I had ever eaten," Celestia easily replied, longingly staring at the dress as she exercised all the restraint she could muster to not just jump on it like an overly excited dog licking its master relentlessly.
"...Because this smells like a hayburger to me, surprisingly," the unicorn said, his nostrils flaring as he smelled it himself. "A nice, juicy, perfectly cooked hayburger..." he continued, his face sporting a dopey smile as he slowly but steadily approached.
Celestia noticed that somepony was about to steal her would-be 'cake', and she audibly cleared her throat. "Well! It would simply not do to have Miss Yearling arrive in Canterlot along with such an important guest without a proper dress now, would it?" she said as she magically caused the object in question to vanish from the room. "I will see to it that she gets a replacement in pristine condition. I trust you will put that vial to good use?" she asked, gesturing towards the sample the researcher had taken and resisting the urge to take it as well.
The doctor shook his head once he realized his 'hayburger' was nonexistent. "Why, yes, of course! Though if I were to make an educated guess, I would theorize that this liquid—" he pointed towards the floating vial with a hoof, "—seems to somehow mimic the smell and taste of a pony's favorite meal. Whether it is actually nutritious and beneficial to us, I should soon find out. This brings up quite the issue, unfortunately.
"If my hypothesis is correct," he continued in a tone that lacked its usual cheerfulness, "then this knowledge should immediately be categorized as 'classified', else we may see a dramatic increase in egg poachers if this 'Artemis' is indeed a 'Queen' changeling. Surely you can imagine how well this substance would sell if its apparent properties were to become public knowledge?"
Celestia sighed. "Indeed."
Despite all her efforts over countless years, there were still the occasional groups of ponies whom would set out to gain for themselves at the cost of others.
"Very well." She stood up and flared her wings in the usual way she did when decreeing something. "From now on, you and somepony you will most likely meet within the week will be the only ones allowed to research about changelings, and everything you discover is to be classified unless I say so."
"Of course, your Highness." He quickly bowed. "Though, if I may ask, who else is going to be studying changelings, exactly?"
Celestia smiled. "None other than my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, of course."
He slightly frowned. "Are... you certain that is wise? I may have heard rumors here and there about how she supposedly suspected all along about Chrysalis's deceit. Yet, when she went ahead and confronted the fake Cadance, everypony—her friends, her brother, even you—" at that, Celestia managed to hide her flinch, "turned against Twilight herself. She may have some hidden resentment towards changelings in general due to that, like most of Canterlot nowadays..."
"While it may be true that she may not take kindly to changelings at this point in time," Celestia replied, "I have the utmost confidence that she will not bring any harm to young Artemis. Twilight is, after all, one of the bearers of the elements of harmony." Her warm smile returned. "Besides, she will most likely be too excited learning about a new species to even think about sleeping, let alone dwell in any anger she may have."
He chuckled. "Ah, yes, I have heard about her fervor and dedication to her studies."
The Princess nodded with her usual serene expression. "In any case, I must prepare to lower the sun. I would like you to personally deliver me the report on that sample you took, whenever it is ready," she said, leaving the room.
"Yes, your Highness!"
Besides, the Princess of the Sun also had a dress to clean.
Yes... clean...
--------------------------------------------
...
...
...
"Well, I guess they're not coming ba—"
*Flash*
"Huh? What's this?"
...
...
...
"Chimicherrychangas?"
...
...
"Whoa, this... this is..."
...
...
"Mmmmmm..."
"Shining, love, are you still in here?" Cadance said, entering Celestia's room. "It was horrible! Celestia accidentally... tasted..." she trailed off on noticing a very familiar dress being levitated by Shining Armor, whom had his tongue sticking out, ready for another lick if it were not for his expression akin to a deer caught in headlights.
She bolted out of the room to continue her dry heaving.
"Cadance, wait!" he exclaimed, discarding the dress in favor of catching up to his wife-to-be.
Just in time, too, as Celestia teleported into the room, gazing hungrily at the bundle.
Had he stayed, he would've learned what happened to ponies who stole the Sun Princess' cake.
Nopony steals Celestia's cake.
Except Pinkie Pie. She's a special case.
==============================================
Lara began writing another letter—carefully this time—and by now I had to assume that the candle, which was still at the same length despite the amount of time it's been lit, was some form of communication thingy, though how it exactly worked escaped me.
And I decided to try and take a crash course in 'Quadruped Walking 101' while she was busy with that.
I lifted my right arm foreleg, setting my 'hoof' flat on the ground, and I immediately noticed something odd.
Have you ever held a large magnet against a metal surface? What I was feeling was kind of similar to that. I could feel my 'arm' up until the point where it connects with the 'magnet', but I couldn't feel the 'metal surface' itself, which was the cracked dry dirt in this case. I could, however, feel the grip of the 'magnet', just like I somewhat instinctively knew I could control the magnet's 'strength'.
...If that made any sense.
Concentrating once more, I managed to do the same with my other forehoof, focusing on trying to understand how my hind legs worked next.
This entire 'walking on all fours' business would take some serious getting used to, seeing as the proportions of each of my legs felt... weird.
As an example, what I associated as my 'foot' was actually a little less than half my entire hind leg's length! What went as my thighs was incredibly short and my foot's "heel" was where I would've thought my "knees" would be. (Those were actually pretty close to my body.)
Comparatively, my hands, well... imagine your human arm remained at its current length, but your hand began where your elbow was. And you only had a single, large, blunt finger at the very end.
Yeah... this felt pretty weird...
The other hard part would be getting my body to memorize the movement patterns so that I wouldn't even need to consciously think about it to move around later on.
I tripped a few times as I tried to get my hind legs to stand up straight, but fortunately my forelegs were flexible enough that they pretty much still felt like arms to some extent, thus I didn't have too much trouble on that front.
I was soon standing up, albeit shakily, while Lara still seemed to be finishing her letter.
Now how to move forward?
'Probably easiest to keep my balance by moving front-right with back-left, then front-left with back-right, and so on...'
And so I semi-successfully advanced towards Lara, progressing slowly as to get a 'feel' for my new legs. I may or may not have tripped a lot as I awkwardly 'walked', though at the same time, I ended up noticing how silent my footsteps were compared to the pegasus's own.
'Then again, she is much larger than me.'
By the time I had traversed the two or three feet of distance that used to separate us, Lara had finished her letter and thrown it into the fire once more, still oblivious to my closer proximity as she had her back turned to me the entire time.
"Gah! (How long were you standing there!?)"
...Which was probably why she leapt to the air with a startled cry once she did turn around.
She quickly calmed down while she remained in the air for a few seconds, flapping her wings to remain afloat, though I wondered how I could have possibly spooked her.
In fact, why had I even walked up to her? I could've instead put some distance between us and tried to wander off to find my hive... in the wasteland that surrounded us on all sides for as far as I could see...
...Never mind.
Besides, the thought of leaving Lara somehow bothered me a bit. I wasn't sure if it was because I didn't want to be left alone, or because she was all I had right now, in a way.
In any case, Lara soon landed and began collecting her stuff, placing it back into her bags while she kept a close eye on me if the frequent glances she shot my way meant anything.
I didn't feel like standing there doing nothing in the meantime however, so I looked around for anything that I could help with, eventually spotting a rolled up scroll not too far away.
'Perfect.' If anything, I'd at least get more practice walking.
I clumsily made my way towards it, debating how I would be able to bring it back to her seeing as I lacked hands and had to use all of my legs to move around.
"(Can't believe you're already able to walk,)" Lara muttered after another quick glance at me. "(How am I supposed to carry you all the way and constantly keep an eye on you now?)"
Looking at her to see how she was doing it, she seemed to be using her mouth for most of the things now, her teeth gently grasping notes, books and miscellaneous items around while she organized her possessions in the bags with her hooves.
I was about to do the same, when I finally felt the miniature fangs inside my mouth, which would've no doubt pierced the scroll.
'Guess I'm using my lips?'
There was no way I could've carried this thing with my own hooves, anyway. It was practically as big as I was!
I carefully grabbed the edge of the paper with my lips, careful not to let any saliva or whatever was inside my mouth leak onto it as I slowly but surely dragged it towards her bags. However, the task proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be, since I was moving backwards. I had to take a large number of pauses just to figure out which leg to move next, and I didn't always end up with the right one.
While I struggled with moving the piece of paper, I was able to feel Lara's curiosity, as well as her amusement every time I tripped on my own hooves. It was only when I ended up bumping into her with my rear that I finally let go of the scroll and looked up, only to meet her gaze and realize that she had been looking at me the entire time.
For my efforts, she stared back and forth between my eager expression and the object that I had painstakingly dragged all the way, as if unsure of what to do.
Lara eventually settled for giving me a smile that seemed more genuine than any of the previous ones. There was also a slight increase in the flow of love she felt for me, and she hesitated a little before gently patting my head a couple times as thanks, leaning down to grab the scroll and place it with the rest inside her bags.
I couldn't help myself but smile back, feeling proud of myself for having managed to make her happy while simultaneously securing a source of food for the foreseeable future. If being nice to her was all that I needed to do to increase that meager flow of love, then I would be the nicest changeling to have ever walked the Earth!
Erm, this Earth.
...Was this planet even called Earth?
She was about to pack up the still-lit candle when the sun suddenly declined the rest of the way much faster than what I was ever used to, while at the same time the moon rose on the opposite side of the sky.
It was either closer to this planet than the moon was to Earth or simply bigger in this world, considering it was larger than I remembered.
"(Ponyfeathers! I should've been paying attention,)" she suddenly exclaimed in the diminishing sunlight, looking all around us for... something.
"(Well, we should be fine here, the badlands are mostly deserted anyway,)" she said. "(...Mostly.)"
Despite what I assumed was the lack of sunlight, I could still see pretty clearly. Either the moonlight was more intense here, or I had special eyes.
Leaning towards special eyes, considering she was squinting her own as she nervously tried to look in what was probably darkness for her.
She dropped her bags back onto the dried ground—seeing as she had begun putting them on prior to the sun's rapid descent—before approaching the candle, sitting on her haunches next to it.
Knowing how cold deserts were at night despite how hot they were during the day, I also approached the candle, only tripping once this time as she watched me settling myself at a relatively close distance, mimicking her sitting pose as best as I could.
Our gazes remained interlocked for some time; mine in waiting to see if she would do anything, while hers seemed to be more in a state of conflicted contemplation. Since she appeared to go into deep thought, I redirected my stare to the night sky, and...
Wow.
I was immediately mesmerized by the sheer number of stars that were present. It was like something out of a fairy tale, and I couldn't find the right words to describe just how wonderful of a sight it was to behold. In fact, as I watched, even more stars seemed to be added, as if someone suddenly decided to play with the sky by adding extra constellations here and there.
Though I occasionally shuddered from the steady drop of the local temperature, I found myself trying to 'connect the stars' after a few seconds of complete silence, looking for whatever images I could produce in doing so. It was entertaining for a while, but I eventually stopped playing my little game when I saw Lara getting up, trotting around the candle until she was opposite of me, lying down on the ground to sleep. For some reason, I could sense some guilt coming out of her.
I got up myself to join her—
"No," she firmly said to me the instant I moved.
...I knew that word. She was telling me that when I wanted to lick myself clean. It meant something along the lines of...
'Denial.'
Her feelings of guilt increased as I froze, my ears suddenly folding themselves against my head by their own volition.
"(You. Sleep. There,)" she slowly said, pointing at me and then to the ground I stood on. "(I. Sleep. Here.)"
I thought I understood the gist of what she was trying to tell me, yet I didn't think I could just accept that. Even now, I could feel the cold creeping up on me, my lack of fur leaving me naked against the frigid night.
I let out a small sad-sounding chitter, which essentially translated into "Please". I could tell even she understood the meaning of it, as she sported a pained expression, scrunching her muzzle.
"...no," she repeated, though much more softly this time, turning away from me.
I could feel the maelstrom of conflicted emotions swirling within her; from regret, to fear, to slight anxiety...
Deep inside, though, I could still feel the bond of love she had with me. While it still remained relatively small, it had also grown over the small amount of time we had spent together.
Knowing she somewhat cared for me still, I got up and approached her anyway, the clip-clop of my tiny footsteps replacing the silence of the night, despite being extremely quiet.
Once I had reached her, I sat down and poked her back with a hoof.
No response, beyond Lara's guilt increasing even further.
I was finding it increasingly hard to maintain my body heat, so I continued prodding her at a frequency that only increased over time. And yet, she still remained quiet and refused to acknowledge my presence, even when I had moved on to one poke per two seconds.
I stopped physically pestering her when her guilt turned into annoyance, and as a last resort I let out a questioning chirp—
Frustration "(Look, I said no!)" Lara snapped, getting up and turning around to loom over me as I backpedaled a couple steps in fright from the outburst I had really not been expecting. "(I'm going to sleep on this side, and you... are...)" she trailed off.
"(...freezing,)" she finally whispered with widened eyes upon noticing my shivering.
Lara quickly ran up to her bags. "(How could I forget you didn't have fur!)" she chided herself, beginning to sift through them. "No... no... (Horseapples! I didn't even pack up a blanket, and I threw that old dress away!)"
She stared at me once more with a wrinkled muzzle and conflicted emotions until, after a moment of thought, she let out a sigh and laid back down on the ground, getting ready to sleep.
I drooped when I realized that she was going to leave me to fend for myself against the cold with nothing but the warmth of a meager candle, even despite the small bond of love she had for me—
"(Alright, just... Come here,)" I heard Lara say before I could curl up on myself.
She was looking at me with uncertainty while holding a wing out in invitation.
I... I couldn't quite stop the wide grin that formed on my muzzle at her change of mind.
I tried running to her, but that kind of motion required a whole different way of moving my legs, and so I repeatedly tripped as I closed the distance between us, until I slammed onto her barrel and hugged it for all the warmth it was worth with a content sigh.
The pegasus hesitated for a moment before she brought the wing back down to act as a sort of blanket for me, and I gave her the most grateful look I could muster at the time as my shivering steadily came to an end.
She stared at my little form in the meantime, her expression slowly losing its uncertainty and gaining a meager smile that become more genuine by the moment, and after a little while she wrapped a hoof around my body while her other foreleg gently petted my hair in soothing motions that were quickly making me feel sleepy along with the constant sounds of her heartbeat.
Had I not closed my eyes in contentment, I would've seen her staring off in the distance.
"(What the hay am I even doing...?)" she muttered without stopping her ministrations on me, chuckling mirthlessly afterwards. "(Taking care of a baby changeling. Hah. What kind of story could I possibly write about that?)"
Everything after that was fuzzy from how sleepy I felt, though I was pretty sure that she held me a little bit tighter before I finally drifted off.
This pony may have kidnapped me and taken me away from my hive, but she had also been both careful and 'nice' with me. As I was being held within her waaarm embrace, I couldn't deny that I felt... safe.
But, most importantly, as I sat there and entered the realm of dreams...
...I felt like nothing could go wrong.