Love's Many Forms

by DraconequusMaximus

Chapter 3

The changeling stood before Bon Bon who had just left & returned with a varied assortment of sweets in tow. He could feel the love from the candies just as he had from the various bottles of Berry's brew. He was given a piece of each kind & was instructed to give her his opinion. He turned out not to be a very good judge of anything other than the amount of love he sensed as changelings had no taste buds in natural form. Bon Bon was disappointed but still thanked him for telling her how much love was in each candy. The least loved candy was the black licorice which Bon Bon admitted she wasn't fond of. The most loved was her white chocolate spearmint bon bons, upon hearing this she blushed & looked over at Lyra.

"It seems like your personal preference has a lot to do with how much love you put into your work." Bon Bon said eying her licorice, slightly disappointed at herself.

"So, if you get enough love you'll be good as new again right?" Berry asked attempting to change the subject & lighten the mood. He looked back to his cracked chitin, the cracks seemed to be making good progress with healing thanks to Berry's food & Lyra's impromptu show of affection with Bon Bon.

"Actually, I feel much better now. My chitin is the only problem now, but it can heal while I'm in disguise. I should be good to go now." He said looking himself over to make sure his exoskeleton was still without major breakage.

"Well then fire it up! You have a disguise ready or do you need to think of one?" Lyra asked curious as to how the changeling would look in a moment.

"Yes, I have one in mind. I was going to use it when I made it here anyway." He then motioned for his new friends to step back a bit to which they complied. Ruby Pinch was practically vibrating on the spot with excitement & the others weren't far from it either. He took a deep breath & focused for a moment as he didn't want to mess up & waste his energy. After a moment his hooves erupted into pinkish-purple flames that slowly spread up his form. When the last of the flames vanished a dull blue unicorn stallion stood before them. His mane was bright pink & purple & he wore rose tinted glasses & a red-violet hoodie. The mares were all silent for a minute until Ruby ran up to him & hugged his now hole free foreleg.

"That was awesome! Can you change into me now?" She said looking up at him. He smiled as the minor affection soaked into him.

"I'm still not in tip top shape just yet. I can't change whenever I want without a steady supply of pure love, but keeping this disguise up doesn't take much love." He said. He paused for a moment not yet used to the sound of his new voice. He decided he liked it & put his worries on the matter to rest. The other mares trotted up to him now too to examine his new form. Lyra raised a hoof & poked him in the chest cautiously as if he would pop if handled too roughly.

"Whoa, you really feel real! Even this hoodie feels exactly like it should!" Lyra moved to the side as Berry took her turn looking him over. She looked him over meticulously inspecting the quality of his new body. She completed a circle around him before speaking.

"Alright, I think it's good enough to fool anypony in town. But the mane seems a little... pink for a stallion don't you think?" She said looking to Bon Bon. Bon Bon put a hoof under her chin & looked him over herself.

"I dunno, it is a bit unusual for stallions to have pink in their manes or tails but it seems to go well with the rest of him." She said turning to Berry who merely shrugged.

"I'm just looking out for the guy, he needs love to survive. He won't get any mares if they think he's a colt cuddler." Berry said looking from Bon Bon back to the disguised changeling. He raised a brow at the comment.

"What's a colt cuddler?" He asked unaware of the terminology used by ponies.

"It means a male that takes another male as a mate." Lyra said slightly surprised by his lack of knowledge. He visibly grew nervous when she said this, his new sweat glands already being put to the test.

"T-that's a bad thing here?" He said looking at Lyra as his ears drooped. Berry immediately felt guilty for automatically assuming that her new friend would be into mares. She trotted over to him & put a hoof on his shoulder.

"Nah, I was just being a little silly for a second. You can love anypony you want in Equestria, but if you like stallions couldn't you just turn into a mare?" Berry asked him as if it were nothing.

...

"But that'd be weird." He said after a short awkward silence. Lyra giggled a bit & Bon Bon thumped her on the back of the head for it. Berry thought about it for a second before shrugging.

"Fair enough, but you do make a decent stallion even if you forgot your cutie mark." Berry said before pointing to his flank. He turned to view it & realized that she was right. His flank was bare & blue like the rest of him. He raised a hoof & focused himself lighting it aflame, he pressed it to his flank & the flames vanished. When he removed his hoof there was a mark that looked like cherries on his flank. The mares stared at it for a moment before Ruby Pinch spoke up.

"What are the cherries supposed to mean? What's your talent?" She asked innocently. He looked at the cutie marks of the mares & back to his own several times.

"I didn't know they meant anything, I thought they were just tattoos. Like a cultural thing or something." He said as he felt increasingly stupid. Bon Bon facehoofed at this & didn't even bother to stop Lyra from laughing herself silly. Berry however bumped Lyra's flank with her own sending her over into the floor.

"When a pony discovers what their calling is the mark magically appears, scientists can't even explain it. It just happens, I got mine when I was helping my father bottle wine when I was 12." Berry said looking at him seriously, which told him this was very important to ponies. Bon Bon looked at his artificial cutie mark again before thinking for a moment.

"What made you pick cherries as a mark?" She asked.

"Well, on my way here I was in pony form in a place called Dodge Junction. They had trees full of them there & they smelled really good so I ate some. I really liked them & they were the first food I had ever eaten in pony form. The ponies there ran me out after that though, it was somepony's crop apparently." He said thinking back on his expedition to Ponyville. The mares looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, their concern was in the air making him feel worse about his lack of pony knowledge.

"We're gonna need to come up with some some back story for you" Lyra said.

"& he needs a name." Bon Bon added, & with that the group spent the next several hours fabricating a life for their friend.

"What's you're name & where are you from?" Lyra asked him in a mock serious tone.

"I'm Cherry Plum, & I'm from Vanhoover." He said as casually as he could fake.

"Why are you moving to Ponyville & where are you staying?" Asked Bon Bon.

"I'm moving in to my cousin Berry Punch's house because I wanted to get into the family business. I'm going to be her assistant brewmiester & quality control specialist." He recited from memory.

"How old are you, when did you get you're cutie mark & what does it mean?" Berry continued.

"I'm 22 & I earned my cutie mark when I made my sick mother a cherry pie when I was 8. It means that I'm especially good at making things with cherries." He said with a triumphant smile.

"What's 200,000 times 857 divided by pi assuming that pi is represented by 3.14?" Ruby Pinch yelled to the surprise of the other mares. Cherry visibly started sweating & his eyes darted back & forth.

"I-I don't know! I didn't know math was going to be on the test!" He blubbered through his forehooves. Berry shot a glare at her daughter who visibly sagged. Ruby trotted up to Cherry slowly before hugging him tight.

"It's okay Cherry, I don't know either. I just wanted to be part of the group." She said feeling terrible for panicking the sensitive shapeshifter. He sniffled a bit before returning her embrace. The mares shared in a collective AWWWW at the scene, much to the embarrassment of the shifted stallion. He let go of Ruby & righted himself though he still had a hint of redness in his cheeks. He liked being soft & furry but missed the fact that chitin didn't show embarrassment like flesh. After a goodbye Lyra & Bon Bon departed for their home & wished Cherry the best of luck at starting a life here. Berry tucked Ruby Pinch into bed as the hour had grown late. She then showed Cherry to his new accommodations upstairs. The room was pretty bare, there was only a bed & a window with closed blinds.

"I know it isn't much, but when you make some bits working with me we can go shopping." Berry said somewhat guilty that the room was less than luxurious. He examined the room carefully & smiled.

"It looks great Berry, back at the hive all I had was a small hexagonal hole in the hive wall with hundreds of thousands of neighbors. This seems like paradise in comparison." Cherry said as he tested the firmness of the mattress he hopped on & let himself relax. Berry's mood picked up at this as he hadn't seemed less tense all day.

"I'm glad you like it Cherry, hope you get some rest. I'm putting you to work tomorrow!" Berry said semi jokingly as she trotted out shutting the door behind her. Cherry slipped under the covers & reflected on the days events. Changelings were supposed to be the perfect stealth species, but four ponies already knew of his identity. Heck, they had built his identity for him. He had never been meant to leave the hive, he wasn't an infiltrator drone. He was unfit to be doing all this, but the love & friendship radiating from his new friends was all that was keeping him alive. He needed to keep his identity they had forged him better from now on or Cherry the pony would cease to be. Cherry Plum... I really do like the sound of that. He thought to himself as sleep overcame him & his cares were momentarily forgotten.

Author's Note:

Woo! Progress! More to come soon, as well as the beginning of romance next chapter! Back story will continue a few chapters down the line, so keep reading!

Comments

[Vinyldropsthebase]

Perfect just like u

[-Borialis-]

not bad. just when i thought everyone had been shipped already. i like this.

[Lycanthromancer]

My main issues so far is that you use ampersand (&) instead of "and," and you use numbers instead of letters on various amounts (say, 20, instead of "twenty"). The ampersands are really distracting and pull me out of the story whenever my eyes roll over them, which isn't a good thing at all. Less so for the numbers, but it's still a hiccup to overcome.