Sally crouched down. She needed information. "Where are we?"
The pony who replied to her greeting looked at her with some interest now. "We were all just farmers. If you get out, head north, and keep heading north. That will help you better than any description I can give you, I think. I'm Apple Stew." The pony stepped closer and lifted a hoof.
Not sure what to do about the obvious greeting, Sally ended up lifting a hand, balling it up and bopping the end of the hoof. "Sally Gailor." It was hard not to give a little smile, the creature was quite adorable. "Guess I'm not in Kansas no more?"
"I don't know where that is, but we are quite a ways south of Equestria, are you cold?"
Sally had started to shiver a little, her smooth flesh not as resistant to the chill of the caves as the pony's coat of fur.
"Clear Skies, can you come over here?" Apple gestured to one of the other ponies, one with wings.
Sally looked startled. "Pegasus? I really am a long way from home, or I took a good thump to the head." The other pony looked a little lost. "Is… he, is he okay?"
Apple Stew shook her head. "He has been here a long time. He was the reason the changelings started pulling us out and giving us rest times. His taste soured and he can't think very well anymore. Clear, can you wrap your wing around Sally?"
The stallion looked at Apple a few moments but stepped closer to Sally and in a moment it felt like she was wrapped in feathers, because she was. There was warmth there too, and Sally decided that be damned if it was odd and leaned into the pony. She reached up and rubbed one of his ears, getting a surprised gasp from the stallion before he leaned into it.
"He likes you." Apple grinned at this. "Are you the type who is going to try and run?"
Sally sighed and nodded. "I gotta try, this isn't the life for me."
"Thought as much. If you need help, we can give it so far as not leaving our pen."
There was the sensation of something building, of a rising of pressure around them. "What is that?" Stick looked a touch confused, but not nearly as much as when Dreams and Shadow giggled together and kissed. The kiss seemed to fold a black mist over the pair and, when it receded, there were two little tiny, perfectly shaped ponies.
"Our disguises? I wasn't trying to hide…" Dreams looked confused. The tiny pony still had the same proportions, but their wings were much more evident. "What is going on?"
All around them, the umbrum had started talking together, smiling with their nightmarish faces and one by one turning into the tiny and adorable fairies.
"You look like a breezie… well, sized anyway. You said this was a disguise?" Penny looked more intrigued than surprised.
Shadow explained. "When we would hide, we would change to this. Much easier being sneaky when you are small."
"How long ago was that? You are shape changers then? Like Stick?" Penny got a nip on the ear from her mate for the comparison. "Hay, stop that, they might be."
Stick stopped tormenting her mare and threw her own two bits in. "If they are shape changers, what if they eat the same?"
Penny focused and looked up. Stick looked delighted at the happiness and love she was channeling, the umbrum seemed not interested at all. "Not feeling anything?"
"Feeling what?" Shadow confirmed her thought.
"What if it is just not love and happiness." Stick gave Penny a nuzzle at that sore ear now.
Dreams was looking confused, which was amazingly adorable combined with her new form. "Love is what trapped us."
"What is the opposite? Hate? Anger?" Penny tried to dredge up feelings like that but it wasn't enough. "Hay, could anypony get my saddle bag from my room?"
Dreams looked confused at this but nodded. "Guess the fighting is all a bust now, go on. Oh, and might as well let their friends out." The order given, a few of the little fairy-ponies were off toward the castle while others dismantled the cage, banishing the dark metal.
Rainbow Dash leaped up and suddenly started flying in tight circles, most of the others kept huddled close, except Pinkie Pie. She pronked over. "What'cha doin'?"
Penny couldn't hold back a smile, not from this pony. "Trying to work out what our new friends here really eat. Awesome as your cupcakes are, Pinkie, I don't think they are doing the trick."
"Would a cake help?" She reached into her mane and produced a two-tiered chocolate cake.
Stick lifted a hoof. "It couldn't hurt?"
By the time Penny's pack was produced, there was cake being hoofed around to everypony, although the small umbrum were only getting appropriately-sized pieces.
"Ah, thank you!" Penny plucked up her bag with her magic and in a moment produced her old phone. "Poor thing, no cell towers here for you to talk with, not even some wifi."
Turning the phone on, the mare sighed when it beeped to say it was almost flat. "Going to need to visit Canterlot and give you a good jolt again huh." Using the edge of a hoof, she tapped at the music player and looked thoughtful. "What you want to try first, anger? I can probably do that better than fear."
The umbrum around them looked mildly interested. The problem was they were eating genuine Pinkie Pie chocolate cake and while it might not be meeting their dietary needs, it was still some of the best cake in the known universes.
Sound started issuing from the phone, it was guitar and drums and then a very, very angry sounding man. The words were of violence and anger directed at him, of how much people hated him, and how he reveled in it.
Penny closed her eyes, not seeing some ponies backing away, unsure how to take Henry Rollins. Focusing on the feelings inside, that responded so well to the music, she started to breathe faster, harder. The pony nature that was growing within her shrunk away from this. All the recent negative events came to the fore. Being attacked by those strange umbrum outside the city, finding out Shining Armor had been attacked by others. As the music hit the final chorus, she channeled.
The feel of wings against her, of little umbrum suddenly very close, broke through the sensation. She gasped and opened her eyes. "More cake…" She channeled harder, broadcasting rage and anger.
"It isn't perfect, but that is delicious…" Shadow sounded half-drunk on it already.
Penny ran out of steam, her magic flickering before she cut off. Then the rage inside, the lens she had been channeling through, was stolen. The umbrum literally drank it away, leaving her feeling none of the anger she had been. "Oh wow…" Penny felt numb, it was like her emotion had been stolen. More solid hooves wrapped around her, hugging her. Stick.
The emptiness was filled again, this time with love and contentment. Mr Rollins now sang about lying and cheating, but it had no impact on her. The phone suddenly gave a loud bleat, a cry of hunger itself and stopped. "You really listened to such things?" The changeling was nuzzling Penny's ear.
The lunar unicorn let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "Yeah, it helped me keep a mood I wanted, or just let off steam."
"Could you do that again, please…" Dreams was pleading but it wasn't for herself. Dozens and dozens of the little umbrum were clustered around now, quite a few had been fed by her magic alone, some others by the anger she had inside. But there were many more.
"More cake, lots of cake." Stick's reply superseded Penny's, since the changeling was stuffing some cake into the former human's mouth.
Penny just nodded and, between mouthfuls, managed to get out a few words. "Oh, and try not to drink me dry again, I lost all that anger and I don't know if my phone can help any more."
Shadow stood as tall as a tiny pony could. "I can help there, never been a pony born that I couldn't scare into a good fright!" Penny lifted a hoof over and offered it to the stallion to sit on.
"Okay, Shadow, how will you frighten me? Explain it before you do it."
He puffed out his chest and fluttered the oversized wings on his back. "I will slip into your thoughts. What do you fear most?"
Penny thought well on this. "I would have said losing Stick, but I want you to promise not to use that." He gave a little nod to this. "How about high places, in my last-"
It was all she managed to get out before she was suddenly on a cliff. Looking down. The old terror welled up, and beside her, hovering just over the edge, Shadow smiled. "Come on little pony, little unicorn. Surely looking down doesn't cause… oh wow…"
Penny's terror attracted the umbrum in a much bigger way than her anger. Stick kept stuffing food in her mouth and she chewed it instinctively, but all she could see was how far down that cliff dropped. She began to channel.
As each umbrum came to her, they brought more food, realizing that the pony feeding them needed food herself. Penny was terrified, of course. It was one of the few fears she had held her whole life and now it was being exploited like never before.
Her mouth worked, finding berries, bread, cake or any one of a dozen other foods. It was hard sometimes to swallow, but even in her fear her body demanded more food to maintain the energy.
Shadow was with her the whole time, his own presence in her mind supported by her magic. "It's okay now, little pony." His voice cut through her terror and the cliff seemed to fade. "My friends have lost the edge of their hunger… for now. Stop your magic and let me take all this away."
Penny nodded to him, relaxing and ceasing her channel. The fear was still there but, opening her eyes, she saw the tiny stallion floating before her nose. He kissed it and the last of the fear suddenly rushed out of her.
The food brought to her was simple stuff. A thin porridge made from water and oats, some berries and a small pile of apples.
"Thank you." Sally looked up to the changeling who had brought it. It never hurt to say that, not even now. The oats were warm and the heavy food settled well in her. "This the normal fare?"
Clear Skies nodded, sinking his snout into one of the wooden bowls to eat like an animal.
Sally moved over to him. "Hold up there, come on." She reached down and lifted the bowl up from where he was getting it all over his snout. She tilted it so he could eat the oats without wearing them. "There you are. You help me, I help you." She plucked up an apple and offered it to him. He smiled and started munching on it.
"More of a pony than the last who tried to get free." Apple wandered over, claiming a bowl for herself. Sally watched as the mare held it, impossibly, in one flat hoof. "She was a unicorn, all high and mighty. Changelings never told us what happened, I almost hope she didn't get free."
"Don't say that. If they got free best of luck to them. No one deserves to live like this. You said they changed their habits after Clear got… hurt?"
Apple nodded.
"Then they aren't stupid, maybe they can be reasoned with more?"
Apple looked astonished at this. "Reason with them? They… they own us!"
"Right, and they have a vested interest in not only our survival, but our state of mind."