The first place they checked was the little shop Penny had started in. But even after a warm greeting with the Loafs they found the place was now home to a little juice bar.
"So where are we going to find that might take in an artist?" Jen sipped at the boysenberry drink her friends had bought for her.
"There is one option." Penny swapped her drink with Stick's. "We could go to a publisher, see if they need an artist, then see if they might have somewhere for you to live."
Genevieve blushed at this. She had made a living selling her art, sure, but actually getting it published in books, in PONY books? "That would be so awesome!"
Penny smiled widely, flashing her fangs. "Okay, now where to find one. I guess we ask at a library." She of course knew where one such was, where she had met Moon Dancer.
Hay and Sablee were finally done geeking out together about their projects but while they seemed friends, Hay was glad to feel that he really did just seem like a friend again.
"So, Hay, have you tried changing yet?" Stick slurped up the last of the juice from her drink, tasting not only the deliciously sweet berry flavor, but getting a hint of Penny from the straw.
"Changing?" Sablee cut in, looking a little confused.
Hay shook her head to Stick but turned to include her friend. "Yeah, it was a bit of a shock but we found out that my dad is a changeling. It was strange, a little scary, but I think I am okay with it."
The stallion wasn't stupid, but finding this out was a shock to him. "So you are half changeling?" Hay nodded. "That would have been really strange, if Chrysalis hadn't attacked then, you would have gone your whole life and never known… I wonder if there are other ponies who are part changeling and don't know it?"
This was quite a bit of insight but Stick shook her head. "Your dad really is something, though. I doubt there are many other drones… leaders, like him." Stick altered her classification, remembering Fast's little test.
Hay puffed a little with pride, it was nice when another pony saw your dad as being as special as you felt he was. "How would you even test for that? I am half changeling, and it took a lot of effort and focus for me to be able to feed."
"You can feed? Like a changeling I mean." Sablee sounded surprised, not scared. Which pleased Hay.
"So, have you tried changing?" Stick brought the conversation back to her first question.
"I wouldn't know how, I mean, I have seen changelings change, do those flames hurt?" Hay finished the last of her juice too and looked sadly down into the wax-lined paper cup, it had been delicious.
"Nope, the flames don't hurt, but it does take a lot out of you each time. Only a well-fed changeling can afford to slip their shape often." Stick glanced over to Penny, eyes clearly coveting and a little hungry.
"Okay, so what do I do? Think of what I want to look like?" Hay did a mental 'feel around', trying to sense if there was something else she could push with that changeling energy inside her.
Stick drew her attention back. "Well, yeah, but you need to fill in all the details you want, your magic will take care of keeping the bits you really need in the right place. So, think of a pony, about your size, that you would want to look like and then…" Stick stopped, suddenly at a loss for how to describe how she changed.
Hay focused on the figure in her mind, grinning a little and waited for her 'mentor' to continue.
"Okay, so you know your energy?" Stick got a nod from Hay. "Okay, so pull it out and over you in a blanket, think of the pony you want to be inside that the blanket and then pull it away."
Hay stopped moving and closed her eyes. Jen and Penny halted and turned to watch as well. There was a slight flicker of green flames, then more. Then a roar of fire flowed over Hay, it was pure green, not a hint of her unicorn magic involved. When it retreated, a changeling stood. A pure changeling looking identical to Stick, right down to the scars on her carapace.
"I did it!" Hay bounced in place, looking quite happy with herself.
Stick trembled a moment and then rushed forward to hug her twin. "We are so cute!" The pair hugged and kissed. Stick was totally not enjoying it, nope, not one bit.
"Okay, now both of you break it up. Real Stick, over here. Hay, can you change back or do you need more energy?" Penny stepped in to take charge of things. Hay looked down at herself, buzzing her wings excitedly at her back.
"Can I have a drink, I want to try another shape!" Hay was quite excited but Penny booped her on the nose.
"No, back to Hay now," Penny admonished her but the unicorn leaned in close to her adventurous mate, whispering softly, "we will play later, I promise."
Hay perked right up at this, flashing a grin full of fangs. "I might need a little more, I haven't been eating a lot of you lately." Penny nodded and started channeling, thinking of how wonderfully talented her mate was and all the fun and naughty things they would do together.
The half-changeling blushed at how good her mate tasted today, leaning in and biting gently down on Penny's neck as she fed. "Okay, let me give it a shot now." She inhaled Penny's scent deeply, it felt to be sharper as a changeling, was their sense of smell stronger?
"Blank shape, you want to have nothing under the blanket, your magic will fill in your real form." Stick provided some instructions and Hay turned from her embrace of Penny to nod to the other changeling.
Bringing the flame up was easier this time, she thought of nothing under the blanket and whisked it. The blanket took up the shape she had thought of, nothing, and filled in the blanks of her own features, then it spread over her in flames and wrought those changes. The fire was gentle, it was her magic after all, it felt good to let it remake her and she trembled a little, even after it left her looking just as she had been all her life.
"You… uh, could have gone with your own teeth, you know?" Penny noticed the two changeling-like fangs.
Stick, thankfully, had a little more tact than their other mate. She leaned in and kissed Hay on the nose. "Changes. Being a changeling is full of them. I think your first outward change has revealed itself."
Hay tried to look down, she could feel the odd… but familiar, expanded cutlery in her mouth. She opened her jaw and ran her tongue over them, feeling sharp points. "I… they are strange. Are they ugly?"
Penny moved in, realizing at last that this wasn't intended. She pressed her lips to Hay's, practice with Stick had taught her well how to kiss a fanged mare and not get an injury. "They are perfect. Like my mares."
Hay blushed at the compliment, but liked how easy it had been for Penny to say. The change hadn't taken as much energy to do as the first time, but it still ate heavily into her reserves. "Will more changing make more changes, or will this be it?" She looked over to Stick.
The other changeling shrugged. "You are amazingly unique, even in the hives we never bred with ponies, Chrysalis would have gone crazy… er."
"So no instruction manual." Penny kissed the cheek of each of her talented mares. "Just know, either of you, I love you no matter how you look. Stick knows it more than you do, Hay, but up until recently I was not very… interested, in sex." The little group were off to the side of a less-walked area of the city, with Jenny and Sablee providing a little bit of a foil it meant nopony was close enough to hear their talk, or even take much umbrage at their intimate actions. "She knows that I loved her as her, first. You can learn it too, it is what is in here," Penny reached up and tapped Hay's head, "that I love. Physical looks are nice, fun as well, but it is a shadow of the wonderful pony I see when I look at you."
Hay blushed hard, looking at her mate with a new light. It was easy to be told you were a beautiful mare, when you were, but to be told you were beautiful despite how you look… her heart fluttered a little.
"Oh darn, look at that, we have used up all the love in this area. We really should move on." Stick wrapped a foreleg around the withers of each of her betrothed, pulling them into a walk so they might have a hope of getting something done for the day.
Penny and Hay laughed at Stick's attempt to get them moving again, but they didn't resist.
"So, hook up again tonight?" Jen looked to the stallion at her side, reaching a hand out to ruffle his mane a bit.
Sablee blushed at the question, the touch, but also the fact that he really wanted to. "How about something to eat? We could have dinner."
The human beamed at this. "Why, you smooth stallion, of course I will go on a date with you." Jenny felt really good about how her life had changed.
It was a surprise for Genevieve then, when a voice called out. "Hi there! Not often we see a woman here." She turned to see another human, a guy.
Lifting a hand she offered it for a shake. "Jenny. Not many 'girls' here, huh?"
"Bradly." He seemed friendly enough, but Jen had a repeating history with 'nice guys' who really weren't. "Yeah, seems like a lot of bronies who end up here and not a lot of pegasisters."
Jen was definitely getting a vibe from Brad. "So what you do here, Bradly?" She reached down on her other side, walking along and tangling her fingers in Sablee's mane.
"Massages. Could you believe it, my profession translates mostly, although pony anatomy is a little different, but my hands are in high demand." Bradly looked proud. The vibe got stronger for Jen. "So, doing anything tonight?"
Bam. Jenny felt Sablee stiffen under her hand. She worked her fingers through his soft hair. "Oh, uh, sorry Brad, but I have plans for tonight." Genevieve put as much of her 'no' into the reply as she could without telling him that he isn't really her type.
"Maybe later in the week?"
"Hi there!" Stick seemed to appear from nowhere and Jenny made a note to give the mare a hug later. "Oh, you are another human, do you taste nice?" Stick flashed her teeth, giving her best 'I bet you physically taste nice too' predatory looks.
"A… uh…" Brad was off balance suddenly, this approach wasn't going well at all for him. "I was just talking to Jenny…"
"Oh she is a stick in the mud. Never goes out, never meets anypony… she hasn't even let me feed on her!" Stick was between them now, talking up to and flashing her fangs at the human male every chance she got. "You look tasty though. Bradly, have you ever seen the inside of a changeling pod?"
It was too much for him. Brad shook his head and stopped, leaving the little mixed group to keep walking. "Oh, uh, look at the time, I need to get back to work!" Some girls were totally not worth getting to know their friends for. This was certainly one of them.
"I owe you so much…" Jenny leaned down and gave the changeling the hug she had promised herself she would. "Ugh some guys are such creeps."
"Don't sweat it, you looked like a little bunny before a timberwolf, no way I was going to let you stand alone." Stick returned the friendly hug.
Sablee was dumbfounded. The whole conversation seemed like one he was bound to lose something over, only the human mare's hand on his neck had kept him from slinking off. To hear that she had really not liked the other stallion at all was reassuring though. "Our date then…"
"Is still on, silly stallion." Jenny's hand was back in his mane, Sablee deciding that he liked the feel of her fingers there. She was a nice mare and just being close made him feel good. He would have to make sure their date went well!