Love's Many Forms

by DraconequusMaximus

Chapter 7

Noteworthy awoke hours later on the floor of his humble dwelling. Okay, so... did last night actually happen? He thought to himself. He turned on the porch light & trotted outside to see it was early morning. The damage Berry had effortlessly inflicted to his house was most definitely there.

"Alright then, that answers that." He said to himself before trotting back inside.

"So, I have a dinner date with Berry & a changeling that I suppose is currently my coltfriend... I never thought I'd ever say that." He said aloud before settling in on the sofa. Try as he might he couldn't honestly bring himself to think about turning Cherry in. He hadn't actually replaced anypony, he was working to make an honest living & had a small group of friends that loved him for who he was. Noteworthy didn't even have that, his career was nearly nonexistent & he never really took the time to make a lot of friends in town or Canterlot. If he looked at everything objectively he seemed more likely to be a changeling than Cherry at first glance. He promptly stopped thinking about that, deciding it was pretty depressing.

"Okay, so what do I actually know about changelings?" He said staring at the ceiling in thought. The answer was very little. Aside from tabloids & what Cherry himself had told him he was very lacking in changeling knowledge. Black changelings equals bad, purple equals good. He surmised, but immediately pushed out of his head because of how blatantly racist it sounded. He thought about going to the public library later, but decided against it. The newest princess of Equestria was the librarian. According to the news her brother had been mind controlled by a changeling queen that had replaced her new sister-in-law. She might very well give him the third degree if he went to her looking for knowledge about them. He also ruled out television, the cheesy body snatcher films he had seen would probably border on the territory of insults to an actual changeling.

He sighed & turned on the television anyway, according to a 24 hour news channel it was 6:12AM. Luckily he didn't have to go into Canterlot today, but that also left him with quite a lot of nothing to do until dinner. He decided to look over his photo album he had kept since leaving home to make it on his own three years ago. The first page was of him & his family on his eighteenth birthday back in Whinnypeg & of him packing his possessions into a rickety old cart he had purchased. The next page was him standing in front of his current residence, he had spent nearly every bit to his name on the place. He worked his tail off to keep himself afloat that first year until he could find a job he liked. There were several other pages of photos he decided to ignore, pictures of himself & various coltfriends from failed relationships.

Things definitely hadn't gone as he had imagined them, he finally had a music job & his own place. But his job offered little satisfaction, he was only playing Friday, Saturday, & Sundays at a dingy cafe in lower Canterlot. His home left much to be desired as well, the plumbing was in need of repair & the roof leaked in the bedroom. He couldn't afford a better place, he was probably going to need a second job before long as is. He decided to try & make the most of his current situation, he had a prospective new lover who was an admittedly nice stallion (species aside) who had no criminal record & a steady job. The thought rejuvenated his dying mood enough to get him off the couch. He made himself breakfast, a fried egg & cheese sandwich & a glass of orange juice.

After that he decided to try & patch the roof, it was insanely early to think about bringing Cherry into the bedroom but better safe than sorry. He got right to work (after a few minutes of contemplating the pros & cons of shape shifting in the bedroom) & used a ladder borrowed from a neighbor to get onto his roof. With a bucket of waterproof adhesive & roofing shingles in his teeth he made it up to the roof without incident. He was able to spot the hole in his roof's weather defenses & applied a liberal amount of the waterproof sealing agent to the leak & replaced the damaged shingle with relative ease.

"Ha! Why didn't I do this sooner? That only took me like fifteen minutes!" He said triumphantly. Anypony who reads or watches television knows that making out loud declarations of victory is almost always a foolish idea, as it tempts fate. Noteworthy apparently forgot this important fact as the roof began creaking & a faint cracking could be heard.

"Oh no, no no no no n-AHHHH!!!" Was heard by several of his neighbors, alongside a loud crashing noise. Noteworthy alongside a fair percentage of his home's roof had come crashing down into the home itself.

MEANWHILE

Cherry was having a lovely morning all things considered, last night could have been disastrous but had seemingly turned out pretty well. Berry had invited Noteworthy over for dinner later tonight as a thank you for giving him a chance. Pinchy had just left for school & he & Berry were bottling another batch of finished product, this time it was some kind of coffee flavored liqueur that Berry already had a buyer for. This was his first time working with her on a special order & he intended to put his all into it. They were making good progress but something had been nagging at the back of his mind since he had seen the wonders of television.

"Hey Berry? If ponies are so advanced & everything, shouldn't you have some sort of machine to do most of this?" He asked her. Berry looked slightly offended, but calmed herself.

"You're quite right Cherry, most places have much larger facilities & automated machines. But my family has been making booze since several hundred years before the rise of Nightmare Moon. We pride ourselves on being smaller operations because that much more care is put into everything we brew. Our family may not be as famous as the Apples, but we've been around even longer. We've catered to royalty since the fall of Discord, & satisfaction is guaranteed. This order right here is going to princess Luna herself. She's my best client for bulk orders, I have another to fill as soon as this one's shipped out. She likes my work so much she payed Pinchy's college tuition to Celestia's school to buy this vat for herself." Berry said with pride as she worked. Cherry looked up at the vat & sure enough there was an Equestrian royal seal placed on the side of the enormous container.

"There's no way one pony could go through that much alcohol." He said in disbelief. Berry merely shrugged.

"The princesses are ancient, & don't have a foreseeable lifespan. Liquor keeps good for a very long time. Last Hearth's Warming she sent me a bottle of moonshine. Not the illegal stuff I make for special occasions mind you, but distilled moonlight & lunar magic condensed into liquid form. Supposedly strong enough to drop a dragon with a shot. It's the last bottle she made before she fell. Probably the most expensive bottle of liquor on the planet, saving it for Pinchy's wedding." Berry said proudly. Cherry was extremely proud to be part of something so important to Berry, the mare had taken him in to her home with little thought & made him feel like he belonged. It made him feel... at home again, like he was still part of the hive. He knew they were all either gone or had been assimilated into the black swarm's corrupt hivemind, but being a part of Berry's family helped immensely. He was about to thank Berry when a familiar face burst into the miniature brewery. Lyra had obviously ran here from her & Bon Bon's house & was panting heavily.

"Cherry, *pant* Noteworthy *pant* accident *pant* Ponyville General!" She said before collapsing. Bon Bon trotted in several moments later & propped her up on her shoulder.

"Sorry about that, Lyra hasn't been taking advantage of our lifetime gym membership lately. Noteworthy was trying to fix up his roof when it caved in & he fell with it. He's at Ponyville General Hospital right now receiving treatment." Bon Bon said sadly as she supported her marefriend. Cherry hadn't known Noteworthy long but got many good vibes off of him & he had agreed to enter a relationship with him even after learning his secret.

"Berry? Would it be okay if I went to see him?" He asked pleadingly at his employer.

"We'll all go after we're done bottling this batch, by then he should be done being treated & we'll actually be able to see him right away." She said placing a hoof on Cherry's shoulder. Cherry hugged her in response before getting back to work. Bon Bon & Lyra went to wait in the house, Berry loved her friends dearly but business was business & employees only during business hours except in emergencies was her rule. Plus Lyra had gotten a bottle stuck on her horn the last time she had tried to help out. After a couple hours of bottling & another crating up bottles they were ready to go.

Ponyville general was a bit of a walk outside town but was readily equipped to handle all sorts of mishaps, accidents, & Pinkie Pie induced trauma's. Nurse Red Heart was sitting at the front desk when they entered. Berry was the most familiar with her, she would often bring those unfortunate enough to challenge her drinking ability with their own here. As such, Berry approached her.

"Hey Red, we're here to check in on Noteworthy. This is my cousin Cherry he just started dating him last night & Noteworthy was supposed to come to dinner at our house tonight. We had to be sure that he was doing alright." Berry said motioning to Cherry & the girls. Red looked past Berry to see the sullen stallion & their friends.

"Oh, yes that's right. Pinkie Pie sent me an invitation to his welcome to Ponyville party for next week. Noteworthy is down the hall in room 4, he should be awake but the painkillers may be making him a little delirious." Red Heart said as she smiled & pointed to the hallway to the right of the desk.

The group headed down the hall a short distance before entering the room. Noteworthy had obviously seen better days, both of his right legs were in casts, he was in a neck brace & had bandages around his barrel & an obviously black left eye. Cherry trotted in first looking very close to tears.

"N-Noteworthy? Are you awake?" The stallion in question's good eye opened to look at Cherry. "Is there anything we can get you?"

"Nah, I feel pretty awesome at the moment. Doctor says I have two broken legs, I pulled something in my neck, I cracked a rib & hurt my eye, but whatever is in the IV has me carefree for the moment. The police looked into the records, turns out Filthy Rich hadn't had the house inspected in years before I bought it. I get a fat sack of bits as a settlement as long as I don't sue, but the authorities condemned the house." Noteworthy said as if things were less serious than a papercut.

"B-but where are you gonna stay? What about your job?" Cherry asked obviously more concerned than he was.

"I have no idea, & I can't work without both my hooves. Plus my saxophone got pretty banged up too." Noteworthy said looking over to the table beside the bed. Cherry was no expert on instruments but it probably shouldn't be so dented & he was pretty sure the mouthpiece was supposed to be actually attached. Cherry looked over to the mares who were a little uncomfortable in the situation, Bon Bon & Lyra didn't have any real interaction with him before so this was kinda weird. Berry was trying to deflect the intense puppy dog eyes being directed at her from Cherry. She was doing remarkably well until she actually looked at Noteworthy. She felt bad, he had lost everything in one swift incident. Plus, she had previously threatened him with bodily harm just last night. She looked back to Cherry & sighed.

"Ugh, fine he can stay with us. But you have to share your room & take care of him. I'm not giving anybody a sponge bath, I already have to take care of you & Pinchy. Just don't let it interfere with your work." She said upon giving in. Her response was a hug & teary expression of thank you's. Things are gonna get awkward once those painkillers wear off. Berry thought to herself before she trotted off to fill out the necessary paperwork.

Author's Note:

So yeah, I thought to myself: "What would really speed their relationship along?"
& myself answered thusly: "Make them move in together because of a terrible accident!"
In short, my psyche is a bastard that has sociopathic tendencies & a love of schadenfreude.
But thanks for your continued support everypony/everyling!

Comments

[TV-Junkie]

Interessting concept. In many ways. A clear "Thumbs up". FiMF has a lack of good (non-clop) M/M-Shipping with male Changelings.

In my opinion the only tiny flaw is the story speed. It's a little bit to fast for my taste.

[Vinyldropsthebase]

Still one of the greatest writers my friend i enjoy the twist good job

[mylittlebrony15]

This is a really good story and it is going a little to fast but I can adjust to that. You get a like, favorite, and a moustache for good non clop D'AWWWS so here you go

[Avid Fiction]

So, loving this so far. Lots of D'aww's and giggles to be had. But then I see this:

after a few minutes of contemplating the pros & cons of shape shifting in the bedroom

And all of a sudden I have Avid giggling like mad in my head, going, "Noteworthy! You dirty little colt! Lol!

All I can do is cackle along with this mad, dirty minded pony living in my head.

HEY!!!!!

Oh please. You know it's true.

*pouts in anger*

Great. Now he's upset. Anyway. Beautiful job.