The Pony Dialogues

by Knowledge

Dinner Time 4.6: Hungry For More (Unedited)

-------------------------------------New Barn--------------------------------------------

There was a mound of dirt in what looked like an egg in the middle of the barn. The livestock didn't know what to think of it. Like most things they didn't get that ponies made, they ignored it. The fact the mules had given filled the troughs with their food made ignoring the strange dirt cocoon so much easier.

While the livestock chowed down on a broth of corn, overripe fruit, and leftovers from the ponies' last night dinner, the dirt cocoon started to change color. It blackened and then turned a translucent green. A pig who didn't have an appetite for animal feed took noticed and muttered in fear and confusion.

"How is she still alive?" the pig whispered.

"What got botherin', sis?" another pig said.

"It isn't possible!" the first pig exclaimed, shaking her sister.

"What ain't possible, Spam?" the second pig said. She took a break from eating to comfort her sister Spam.

"Pam, I thought, it shouldn't... I can't...." The words died as Spam held back what she was going to say.

The dirt cocoon started to shake.

"Sister, yah can be honest with me. Ah am your...family," Pam said, getting a headache suddenly when she mentioned 'family'. Something told her that it wasn't normal for livestock to live with their family, but she dismissed the idea.

Cracks started to appear over the surface of the cocoon.

Spam pointed a trembling hoof towards towards the alien object behind her sister. Pam recovered from her headache and followed the hoof. Turning around, she spoke.

"This better be good. Yah are actin' like a scaredy---Wahhhhhh!"

The cocoon suddenly exploded, sending green slime everywhere. That was not what caused Pam to scream. No, what caused her to scream was the bug pony that had launched zirself from the cocoon and straight onto her face.

"Get it off, get it off," the pig screamed. Spam didn't move and the other animals hadn't had the time to react yet.

"It is biting me. Help me someone!"

This got some of the rams to rush to Pam's rescue. They tried prying the changeling off with their hooves, using zir large holes to get a good grip, but the sheep had no success.

Another ram and male pig walked up calmly. By this point, the changeling had put enough flame venom into Pam to pacify her.

"That is not how you get a feral changeling to do what you want," the pig said.

"Bacon, if yah had a better way to do it, then its all yers," one of the two rams said. They made way for the pig and his accompanying ram.

"Samuel, if you don't mind," Bacon said, addressing the ram next to him. Samuel nodded before walking up to poor Pam. Extending his forelegs to either side, he made a space for the changeling in his embrace for the changeling. The feral bug pony loosen zir grip on a very unhappy pig. Dislodging zir fangs from the Pam's neck, ze swiveled zir head towards Samuel.

"Ah'm here to help," Samuel reassured. This caused the changeling to launch zirself from Pam's face into the ram's waiting embrace where Samuel let zir bite into his shoulder. Samuel noticed how panicked the changeling was and used his sympathy to feed the creature live-sustaining energy.

"How he do dat?" one of the rams from earlier said.

Bacon smirked to himself. "Samuel here met a changeling when he was on the run."

"Don't tell me yah believe dat pack of lies," the other ram doubted.

"Oh it is all truth."

"Prove it." The rams were about to ram into Bacon for dishonesty.

"I met him on the outside. He had gotten all the way to the Raven camp thanks to a changeling sacrificing herself to house him in her cabin."

"Why would he come back?" the first ram asked.

"Why would she do that?" the second ram asked.

"She was part of the Freedom Road," Bacon stated. The Freedom Road referred to the safe houses provided by equines, usually mules and donkeys, who sympathized with non-equines. The safe houses were situated to get livestock from the farms to the West where ponies where the buffalo roamed. "If anyone is going to side with us, it would be a changeling. They can't help but empathized with our plight."

"I wouldn't know about that," Spam muttered, picking up her inebriated sister from the ground. The feral flame venom had taken a number on Pam's ability to ambulate. Bacon merely cocked an eyebrow at the skeptical pig.

"As for Samuel, he has a debt for that changeling. While he hid under the bed, the ponies' Royal Guard stormed the safe house. It was no he but her that they were after. Removing the changeling's disguise with a quick bug, the Guard took her prisoner. Now Samuel has returned to Equestria in order to give her the freedom that she had given him."

"Well, not much luck doin' that on an apple farm," one of the rams said.

"You don't realize that the only way we are going to free those like that changeling is by having as many rebels like Samuel here on the front lines. The farms are the ponies first defense for weathering any conflict, and if we take those away from them, their society will quickly crumble," Bacon explained.

The rams rolled their eyes. "That talk again. No one is going to rebel against no ponies. We got food. We got safety. We got a roof over our heads."

"Hedonists! It could be better, we could be free," the pig retorted.

"A pig calling someone a hedonist," Spam muttered, earning her another glare from Bacon.

"It could also be a lot worse. We could be pets, stuck in some house all day doing nothin'," one ram countered.

"Even worse, we could be banished to some desert to starve," the other followed up. With that, the two rams went back to eating. Bacon frowned. He hadn't had any luck convincing the livestock that they could have a better life. Well, that will all change soon, and this changeling will help, Bacon thought to himself.

Since their argument was finished, Samuel voiced his concerns. "Why ain't this changeling shapeshifting? Ah got a clear idea of what Ah want her to be."

"Ze's blind, Samuel, and ze is a horsefly," Bacon explained.

"Like--" the ram began to ask.

"Just like zir," he replied, omitting as many details as possible. Samuel's eyes went wide and he held the changeling even closer at this revelation. After a moment to recover, Samuel return to asking questions.

"How can a changeling become blind? They are made of magic, ain't they? Can't ze just make new eyes?"

"They are made of magic, but this one seems to have had a run into poison joke."

"Poison joke can do that?"

"It can do pretty much anything, and making a changeling lose zir sight does fit the flower's humor."

Samuel accepted this with a nod and began to think.

An hour later

"Ever looks about done. I ain't never seen a changeling that hungry before," the ram commented.

"You 'ain't never seen' many changelings period," Bacon countered.

"But what about--," the ram began.

"They were a few changelings just in different disguises," Bacon explained. Samuel's jaw dropped a bit. "You will get used to it in the new world order when changelings can freely change their disguises more regularly in order to feel more comfortable."

"A new world order?" grumbled the weak voice of Ever Ruler.

"Finally woke up," Bacon said, greeting the magical being.

"Woke up? What?" ze wondered, deeply confused.

"First time waking up? Now you know how we mortals feel," Bacon replied, lending a cloven hoof to pick up his future accomplice. "At least you can talk. I was worried your near death experience left you permanently feral. Now lets see what you remember."

"Wait, you thought he would be permanently feral?!" Samuel exclaimed.

"It was a possibility I considered. Their minds are their flames, and they were all strewn all over the barn floor during our little fire incident." Samuel gave Bacon a cold stare. "Oh, did no one tell you about that? Well, Ever Ruler seemed to have cracked up or... something and had caused an emergency. Luckily, there was a unicorn talented in geomancy enough to make the traditional dirt cocoon. And before you ask why a unicorn would do that, a little birdy told me this filly is Ever's adoptive daughter."

Samuel shook his head in disbelief. The changeling focused on nuzzling the soft sheep in order to encourage a more generous flow of energy.

"Ahem, Ever, if you don't mind, may I ask you a few questions? You love answering questions." Bacon felt like they needed to get some business done before it was lights out and they would all enter their stalls.

"Questions." The changeling chirped in pleasure. "I like asking questions."

Bacon rolled his eyes. "I will be asking the questions right now. You may ask yours later."

"Rude to ask before letting other go first," Ever mumbled with a buzz of frustration.

Bacon coughed. "Be that as it may, but I must insist you answer my questions. If you would--."

"Buck! Just ask 'em already!" Samuel exclaimed. Bacon huffed indignantly and then blushed embarassed as the changeling deliriously chewed on the ram's coat.

"Do you remember what happened to you, Ever?" Bacon asked. The changeling buzzed furiously as ze tried to think.

"I...the potion...cure....Ah the presence destroy the cure!" Ever answered with a hiss.

"A cure for what?" Samuel asked curious.

"A cure for poison joke," Ever said.

"For your disease," Samuel responded.

"No, I need it for my daughter. I can wait," Ever corrected with a squirm. "But I am afraid. Can she handle emotions? Maybe this was not a bad thing."

"Ze seems to be recovering nicely, but I want to know what this presence was," Bacon said. "Ever, who is this presence?"

Ever buzzed in memory of pain and agony.

"Perhaps you should let the changeling go," a female voice said. The two rebels jumped at the sudden intrusion. They turned to see it was Spam. "Don't act like that. We are in a barn. There are no private conversations here."

Bacon squinted at the pig.

"Bacon, we should let zir be. We can talk to the changeling as much as we want in the morning," Samuel suggested. The pig took a long moment before huffing and nodding.

Knock Knock Knock

Someone was knocking on the barn doors. It surprised everyone that they didn't know to think about it.

"It's a barn, not somepony's house. Just come in!" Pam hollered.

The door opened to reveal two stallions, a mare, and three fillies.

"Ever!" exclaimed the mare in a gravelly voice no one would expected possible. She ran up to Samuel and pulled the delirious changeling from his grip with ease. Ze happily sunk zir teeth into the mare, who flinched for a moment and then calmed down. The livestock who hadn't seen Bon Bon earlier couldn't believe their eyes.

"Bon Bon dear, if you please, my daughter and I need to talk to your friend there," one of the stallions said.

The mare frowned but complied by dropping Ever down before the other ponies. One of the fillies, a unicorn, walked around the changeling inspect zir. Another filly, Apple Bloom, joined the unicorn, expressing clear curiosity.

"I am Filthy Rich," the stallion says. Pointing to the filly at his side, he continues. "This is my daughter, Diamond Tiara. Today, I am sorry to inform you that Diamond harmed your daughter. This was very shameful, and so we have come to apologize. I am very sorry."

His daughter didn't apologize but instead looked terrified. He nudged her, but she still refused.

"Daddy, that is a monster--."

"This is a glorious creature capable of completely changing Equestria!" he replied.

"Daddy, they attack Equestria!" the daughter complained.

"And almost won!" Filthy Rich exclaimed, earning him a glare from Big Mac behind him. "That is to say, those were misguided changelings. Not all of them want to rule us. They just want love and we would be hypocrites to deny them that. Now I don't want any more of this. Just apologize."

He nudged his daughter into the face of the changeling. She closed her eyes. "I'm sor--Wah."

Ever bit into the filly, causing her to scream.

Bacon rolled his eyes and was about to signal Samuel to get Ever again when Bon Bon beat him to it, her feelings less forced than the ram's.

"He bit me!" the filly exclaimed, running behind her father for protection. She rubbed where she was bit to find no blood as the entry points for the venom were immediately cauterized due its flame nature.

"It isn't a he," the Filthy Rich corrected.

"Whatever! I am not apologizing after being bit by some monster," Diamond replied.

"Daughter, please, while the changeling was a bit forward, this is an important learning experience. It is proper manners when doing business with changelings that you offer them to bite you a little so they can have some food. After that, they become very amiable to anything you might propose in exchange," Filthy explained.

"Wait! Yah do business with changelings?!" Apple Bloom asked surprised, turning away from the changeling she had watching intently.

Filthy coughed in his hooves. Big Mac behind him was eyeing him suspiciously. "When you have done as much business as I have, you eventually do business with everypony and everyone."

This seemed to satisfy the two earth ponies. Urging is daughter to apologize again, she did so half-heartedly.

The changeling gave a small nod if acceptance, but said nothing.

"Ah don't think Wisdom's mom is ready to talk much. She was hurt pretty bad, so we should just leave 'em be," Apple Bloom said.

Yawning, Filthy Rich accepted this with ease. Before he left, the business pony said he would visit again soon.

The ponies began to leave when they noticed Bon Bon was not. "Yah comin'?" Big Mac asked. The mare shook zir head. This surprised the ponies in the room except Big Mac.

"Yah want to be with yer friend," the stallion half-asked, half-stated.

"Eeyup," the candy mare answered.

With that said, the stallions left.

"Wisdom, I am going to get you some blankets. Just you wait," Apple Bloom declared before galloping after her brother.

The filly in question didn't seem to hear as she picked a stall. She charged her horn and the earth shifted into a raised platform. Moving some hay around, she created a mat. The filly climbed onto her makeshift bed and began to sleep. Bon Bon yawned, becoming extremely drowsy due to being drained by zir teacher, and collapsed on the bed with zir teacher in her hooves.

The animals didn't say anything about what they saw that night, but they all knew that things would be getting a lot more interesting on Sweet Apple Acres.

Author's Note:

I will get back to this in a day or so. If you want to read it now, it isn't changing much, just making sure I didn't make my typical errors with leaving out words or writing half sentences.