Mirror stiffened at the feeling of the stallion climbing onto her back. She knew full well what he was intending, and the experiences Wind Chaser had shared with her about Oak Breaker had already freed her of the illusion that changelings can't be raped. But... this felt a bit different. As changelings, they could feel emotions, especially those direct at the changelings themselves. And when the pony in question knew the changeling for what it was, rather than holding misdirected emotions for the changeling's disguise, those emotions were much easier to sense.
Oak Breaker had been malicious, intending both physical and psychological harm on the pony he thought he was raping, his step daughter. His actions had been driven by anger and a desire for domination. But the pony on Mirror’s back just felt lustful. Desperately lustful. And she could sense some lingering longing that seemed linked to the disguise. He knew it was a changeling beneath him, but did he know Moonbeam, the lunar pegasus Mirror was disguised as? Normally, she would just connect his mind to Moonbeam’s and ask, but her kingsblood was still offline. And she didn’t know for sure if it would be able to restore itself on its own.
Mirror snapped out of her thoughts as she felt the pony on her back tease her with his fangs, and seemed about to plunge them into her neck. “Wait! I have magic blood! If you taste even a drop of it you’ll become bound to my king for life!” she summarized, hastily. She wasn’t certain it would actually happen, because of what the lightning had done to her, but she didn’t want to risk him being infected unintentionally.
The stallion withdrew his fangs. “Alright, alright. If you don’t want me taking a taste you just had to say so. I’m not trying to do anything against your will here. You don’t have to make up stories.”
“It’s fine if you want to, but my king doesn’t want anyone being bound to him unintentionally. Join the kingdom of your own free will or not at all.” She wriggled her rump against his erection to make her point. “And what about this? Where you actually going to ask first?”
“What, you don’t want it? I thought this was what changeling eat?” he asked, while climbing off of her, obviously disappointed.
“We eat love, not sex. And while they can be related, that’s not what this was, and you know it. Second, I am quite well fed, and third I have a quite fulfilling sex life as it is. I don’t actually mind, if you want to. I can tell you’re pretty pent up, but don’t try to pretend you’re doing this for me,” she scolded.
The stallion was quiet for a moment, sighing. Despite the spoken consent, the mood was too fouled up to continue. “So... what are you doing here, anyways? You looked like you were in quite a panic when you rushed in here. Guards catch you with your disguise down or something?”
Mirror slumped. “Worse, a unicorn knocked me out of my disguise in front of a bunch of ponies, and then called the guards. So now my cover is blown, and the pony I was covering for might get in trouble. And one of the guards almost hit me with a lightning bolt and it kind of... messed me up. Now I can’t seem to contact anyone.” Her body language told more than she intended, showing clearly that she was alone, afraid, and vulnerable.
The stallion responded reflexively, snuggling against her and covering her with a wing. She responded by snuggling into him, and giving an appreciative peck on the cheek. “My name is Midnight Hunter. I know I might get in trouble for this but... you can stay here with me for now, I won’t call the guards on you. But can you tell me… where did you get this form from? Do you know where she is, if she’s still alive?”
“I’m Mirror, and my king just rescued her last night. She was enslaved by some bad ponies to work in a mine, but now she has been set free, and chose to join our kingdom. Her name is Moonbeam… did you know her before she was enslaved?” she asked.
“Not as well as I would have liked. She was a friend of my sister that I used to have a foalish crush on, before she disappeared. Your king really rescued her? They’ve been trying to tell us all changelings are bad ever since the wedding incident,” he replied.
“The invasion was a foalish move by our queen, and it cost us dearly. Some of us became disillusioned by our queen after that, and were lucky enough to learn of the Itinerant King, and change our loyalties to follow him instead. He’s taken much better care of us, helped us to become much better fed and healthier, and given us new purpose along with the ponies who also serve him. I would try to convince more changelings to join, but I think the moment may have passed. Also... things got a little troublesome when we had too many changelings and not enough ponies,” Mirror explained.
"So, you're not enemies of Canterlot anymore? That's good. Though you'll have to convince the Princesses of that," Hunter pointed out.
"Well, we're not, no, but the majority of the changelings still are," Mirror began then paused, ears perked as she looked toward the cave entrance.
Mirror felt a pair of presences approaching the cave entrance, searching. She quickly rolled onto her back, pulling Hunter onto her. “Quick, make love to me!” she whispered desperately, wrapping her legs around his hips. Hunter was caught off guard for a moment, but quickly met her in a kiss and in seconds the wet sounds of their coupling reached the ears of the approaching guards.
The guards blushed, only one of them getting close enough to catch sight of them and confirm what they thought they were hearing. They muttered an awkward apology and took their leave, heading back to the cave entrance. While it was far from proof that there were no changelings present, the guardsponies were not willing to interrupt the proceedings to confirm, and being pegasi lacked any particularly useful spells to break the disguise again.
Finishing not long after the guards left, Hunter panted lightly and asked "how was that?" Mirror avoided answering at first so he followed up with a "well?"
"Mediocre," she finally answered quietly. Seeing the look on his face she followed up with "but I can show you how to do better, if you want."
Hunter hesitated, not sure he liked the grin on Mirror's face. He had an idea of where this was going and wasn't sure he really wanted to go down that road. But in the end, curiosity won out. "Show me."
Hunter had guessed that Mirror might turn himself male for the demonstration. He didn't consider himself a 'colt cuddler', but when you start involving shapeshifters the line can get real blurry real fast if you let it. What he hadn't expected was for Mirror to live up to his name, and take on Midnight Hunter's own form. The excuse that this made it 'basically masturbation' slipped into his mind, helping him set aside his inhibitions.
Mirror took things very slow, and very sensual. He treated the entire body as an erogenous zone, and it worked quite well. Hunter had never experienced anything even remotely like it. It was half an hour before any of the more traditional erogenous zones were even involved, and by then the real Hunter wasn't even thinking about taboos or what other ponies might think. He was barely able to focus enough to try to remember what Mirror was doing to him. By the time Mirror was done with him, and they were laying, cuddling together in a spooning position, he felt like a puddle of butter in his doppelganger's arms.
Mirror let him rest for a while, recovering, before shifting back to Moonbeam's form and nibbling his neck a bit. "So.. care to show me what you learned?"
Hunter pinned her on her back. "I thought you said I wouldn't be doing this for you? Your attitude sure seems to have changed."
"Well, I owe you for keeping the guards off of me," Mirror began, sounding to both their ears like an excuse. "And... I'm still feeling kind of... alone and afraid. If you'd rather just cuddle, that would be enough, I think. But... I'd like the distraction, and the... bonding. And even if I am well fed, I want to feel your heart open up again."
"Weren't you just going on about how 'sex isn't love'?" Hunter asked. When Mirror fixed him with a blank look, he blushed, becoming more aware of his own shifting feelings. It wasn't much, but even the bonding from their little tryst together, tinged with the camaraderie of evading the danger of the guards together, was enough to form some small link between them. 'Love' would be an overstatement, but there was definitely a new fondness there.
A few minutes into their new round of lovemaking, Mirror's kingsblood subnet finally reconnected to his mind. [Rorrim status: online. External connections initializing... connected to extranet. Incoming connection request from subnet Fossil. Auto-accepting based on preference settings.] And so before Mirror could think to object, he felt Midnight Oil's mind's presence within his own.
[Ooo-la-la! Offline for a few hours and you already have yourself a nice studly coltfriend? Color me impressed! Mmm... what is he... wait, you're in Moonbeam's form? Shouldn't you have asked first? Here, let me connect her in.]
Mirror wondered briefly if he should block or limit Moonbeam's connection. But since he had first tried it with Midnight Oil, being someone's avatar during sex had quickly become his all time favorite fetish, and so he not only allowed her to connect but quickly gave her control of his body as well. Hunter seemed to notice the subtle shift in body language when control was passed, but not knowing what to make of it he didn't stop lavishing his attentions on the mare beneath him.
[Oh Luna! Is that Midnight Hunter?!] Moonbeam cried out in Mirror's mind. [I knew he had a crush on me back before I was foalnapped, but.. wow! I guess I never knew what I was missing...] Moonbeam struggled a bit with her emotions, especially so soon after laying with her own changeling partner for the first time. But after a quick exchange with him on the side, she was ready to relax and just enjoy the ride. Slowly at first, she began to return his affectionate touches, and whisper sweet nothings back to him.
When she started calling him 'Nighty', recognition dawned on him, but he wasn't ready to dismiss the likelihood of coincidence. He was, however, ready to do something foalhardy. As he moved on from foreplay to the main course, he nibbled her neck and then took a careful nip, sinking his fangs in and tasting her blood as he had tried to do from the start. It was a very intimate maneuver for a lunar pegasus, and the hormones he secreted helped to heighten her sensations and pleasures. But as he had been warned, it also meant something else in this case. It meant tying himself into this strange group the changeling belonged to. Maybe he would be able to reconnect with the real Moonbeam, or at least have a continued relationship with Mirror.
He set aside any thoughts for the future, and focused on the present, and the lovely mare beneath him. He was so focused that he didn't notice the presence of another mare strolling into his cave, even when she called his name. But when she came into view and cried out "Moonbeam?!" he finally paused and looked up at his older sister, Shadow Hunter, in her full night guard uniform, looking at the two of them in shock and disbelief.
"H-hi, Shadow Hunter," Mirror replied awkwardly. "Long time no see?"
In the back of his mind, Hunter wondered how Mirror knew his sister's name, but let it go for now. Asking in front of his sister was no way to keep the changeling's secret. "Hi, sis! Moonbeam's back! And, umm... looks like she was as happy to see me as I was to see her?"
"What in Tarturus... you finally show up after nearly two years, and you jump right into bed with my goofy little brother?! I'm not buying it," the mare said as she approached the couple. "Hunter, get away from that.. thing. I just came to warn you, there's a changeling on the loose. And I'm betting we just found it."
Hunter held his ground, protectively. "That's crazy, sis! It's Moonbeam! She's back. She even knew your name! Ask her anything. You'll see." He prayed hard that the changeling would be able to somehow pull off the act, pulling away just a bit in case she needed to try to flee instead.
With Moonbeam guiding Mirror's actions, they had a good chance, but the implausibility Shadow had pointed out made it a stretch. "Shadow, it really is me. I've been stuck slaving away in a mine for the past two years, and now that I'm free... I got a little excited to finally have some friendly contact for once. Your 'goofy' little brother is a surprisingly good lover," she turned to the stallion in question, "but if you want to have another go you'll have to go on a proper date with me first. Tomorrow night work for you?"
"Of course! I can't wait," he said, grinning. His mind was spinning, trying to guess whether the changeling was serious about dating him, or just throwing off his sister, or would find a way to tag out with the real Moonbeam. The mystery of it all made it all the more exciting.
Shadow wasn't so easily convinced though. "If you really are Moonbeam, then what were your last words to me before we parted ways?"
"'Tomorrow night, let's go get Neighponese food for lunch. I could really go for some sushi with extra seaweed.' It's funny what sticks in your mind sometimes. I kept regretting going out with such boring last words when I thought I was going to die down there. And wishing I had some seaweed. They didn't feed us very much down there, and it was mostly refuse, like carrot leaves," she answered.
"If you were so mistreated, how come you seem so fine now? Well fed, no injuries to show for it," Shadow pressed.
"After we were rescued, our rescuers took the time to nurse us back to health before setting us loose. I could have come back a week ago, assuming I could have even made the flight without falling to my death, but I wanted to let them finish healing my broken wings and feeding me back to a decent weight. I still feel a bit too lean, something I never would have complained about before I was taken. You're looking positively plump by comparison. I thought the guard would have worked you harder than that... have you been grief-eating in my absence?" Mirror teased.
Shadow blushed, "hey, that's not fair... okay, maybe a little. Moonbeam? Is that really you?" she rushed up and hugged the changeling tightly, with all the strength a guardpony could muster. "I can't believe it... I thought you were gone forever."
Mirror returned, the embrace, much more gently. "Hey there. I'm back now, and we're going to make up for lost time. Later. But first, you have a shift to get to, don't you?"
Shadow nodded, wiping away a few tears. "Yeah. Are you coming back to the force?"
Mirror shook her head. "Not yet. Maybe in a little while? I may have been nursed back to health, but I still need a little time to feel the wind beneath my wings before I'm ready to get back into the thick of things. And I need to decide if I'm ready to tackle the danger of guard life head on after..." she shuddered a bit. "Maybe I'll settle for something a little more low key, like bartending."
Shadow nuzzled her lightly before backing off. "Alright, I understand. Don't push yourself too hard. But you're right, I need to go check in and start my shift. Watch out for that changeling though!"
Mirror saluted her. "Will do!"
Shadow then pounced her little brother roughly. "And as for you! You'd better be a perfect gentlecolt to her from now on, or I'll have you neutered!"
"Ack! Sis! I promise!" Hunter said, struggling to get back up.
"Alright.. don't be a stranger, Moonbeam!" Shadow said as she went to take her leave.
Once she was gone, and the sound of her wing beats was out of earshot, Hunter turned to Mirror. "So.. what happens now?"
Mirror rubbed the spot where he had bitten her, looking at his fangs pointedly. "Now? Now you're going to get feverish, and eventually pass out. When you awaken, the real Moonbeam will be here to welcome you into the Kingdom. And to go out on that date you promised her."
"Aww, and here I thought it was you I was going to be taking out. Not that I would mind a date with my old crush but..." he blushed a bit.
"I'm sorry. I've got to get away from the city, at least as long as they're on high alert. But um... for the past half hour, I've been Moonbeam's 'avatar'. She's been talking through me, and experiencing everything you did to me. You've given her some high expectations for next time you bed her," Mirror said with a wink.
Midnight Hunter took a moment to process that before chuckling. "That explains some things. You sure live a complicated life, little changeling."
Mirror nodded. "You have no idea. But you will."