Love Hungry

by helmet of salvation

8. Deep in the heart of Twilight

As Fluttershy desperately nosedived towards her falling friends it occurred to her, too late, that she had acted purely on impulse. Even if she could reach them in time, she was scarcely strong enough to carry even one pony to safety—barring an emergency-triggered adrenaline surge, and she could hardly rely on undergoing one of those. Discord could surely help her but he was nowhere to be seen. Why hadn't he followed? "Discord, I need you," she pleaded aloud. "I can't do this on my own. Please help me. Please help my friends."

Her friends' best chances of survival lay in untying Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle thrust the pegasus across to Rarity, whose magic was better suited to intricate, dextrous tasks than Twilight's. However, the knots Discord had conjured were tangled, complicated messes, while the ropes themselves were of some reinforced material that stoutly resisted cutting. For safety's sake no doubt, thought Rarity darkly as she fought to loosen Rainbow's bonds in the seconds they had left.

"Hurry," begged Rainbow Dash.

"You can do it, Rarity," exhorted Spike.

"Ooh look, cotton candy," chirped Pinkie Pie.

Before the passengers could react, they struck an enormous, thick, densely packed cloud of pink spun sugar. They did not come to rest but plunged through the base of the cloud, the sticky substance merely slowing them down.

"Urgh, thanks for nothing Discorblooblmph."

Twilight's complaint had not fully emerged from her mouth when the party splashed into another floating mass: a voluminous pool of viscous, translucent, brown liquid, somehow holding its shape in mid-air. After they fell through the underside, Pinkie Pie slathered her long tongue around her chops. "Mmm, molasses."

They passed through one incongruous, edible, fluid layer after another—cake batter, honey, custard, double cream, ice cream, cookie dough, jelly, molten chocolate, caramel, peanut butter. Each layer retarded their descent, little by little, until they finally hit a boggy patch that Discord had created on the ground beneath them. They splornged into the soft mud over their heads, suffering no more pain than a high dive into a deep pool of water, before finally coming to rest. Laboriously, the ponies and Spike hauled themselves out of the quagmire and plodded, groaning and spluttering, onto dry land.

"Mud? Aww, I was so looking forward to licking us all clean," whined Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy and Discord were waiting for them; the former looking relieved, the latter smug.

"Mares and gentledragons, our sincerest apologies for the unscheduled enforced landing. Though honestly, I don't know what Twilight was thinking. Is it not common knowledge that airships made from draconequus bodies are extremely susceptible to loud, abrasive noises?"

Applejack glared at Discord through a mask resembling a baby's art project, as her Stetson hat plopped crookedly onto her sodden head. "Of all the cheap, low-down, dirty pranks."

Discord chuckled, "'Dirty pranks'. I see what you did there."

"For future reference, Drip-cord," rasped Rainbow Dash, "'saved your life' gags got old while I was in kindergarten."

"So did you." Without looking, Discord lobbed a basketball into a nearby net, the ball not even touching the rim.

Rarity was so unnerved by the plethora of substances oozing through her hide and mane that she could hardly walk. "Eugh, getting these stains out is going to be an absolute nightmare. Could you not have furnished us with some parachutes instead?"

"Well I tried but I simply could not get the colours right."

Not surprisingly, Twilight Sparkle's anger burned more fiercely than any of them, her negative emotions continuing to burgeon in lieu of her depleted love. "Oh, you ponies don't know the half of what Discord's pulled. Spike, gimme that troll. I mean scroll." Hurriedly, Spike passed the message to Twilight, who snatched it ungratefully from his grasp and shoved it in front of Discord's eyes. "What do you have to say about this, mister?"

Discord placed a pince-nez on his muzzle and peered curiously at the parchment. "Hmm, let's see. It's a parchment, with a broken seal. It's covered in ooze. There's some writing but it's smeared to illegibility."

Whipping the parchment back to herself, Twilight gave it a cursory glance before crossly flinging it aside. "It was a message from Princess Celestia."

At once, a flood of overlapping questions poured forth from her friends.

"Is she okay?"

"What's happening?"

"Does she still need our help?"

"What about Shining Armor and Cadance?"

"Is the Crystal Empire safe?"

"Were there any casualties?"

Ignoring the tumult, Twilight stepped purposefully towards the docile draconequus, gave him her most infuriated look and screeched, "DISCORD'S ALREADY DEFEATED THE DRAGON!"

Silence fell for several awkward seconds, until Discord cautiously broke it. "You're ... welcome?"

Rainbow Dash was also looking puzzled. "Yeah, Twilight, isn't that news kind of, uh, what's the word, super fantastically amazingly awesome?"

"Yeah, great news," replied Twilight bitterly. "Swell news. Peachy news. News that he could have told us in the first place! Instead, he tied us to the outside of that blasted airship, dragged us all this way through freezing gales and then dropped us three miles down into a quagmire. Why would you do that? Oh wait, don't tell me, there's some kind of lesson about friendship in here you thought you'd teach us. You know, purely out of the goodness of your heart, not for the lulz or anything. All right then, I'm listening. Do please enlighten us as to what this whole rewarding experience is meh twmm huhhh tschm engfeh mememe..."

The alicorn's tirade petered out into embarrassed gibberish, then silence, and she began to cast her eyes around for a rock to crawl under. For after patiently enduring Twilight's rant for a few seconds, Discord had reached behind his back and produced Snookie Boo.

The toy dragon he had shown them at the railway station. The toy dragon that he had quite clearly stated was a real dragon, the same real dragon who had been besieging the Crystal Empire. Transforming the beast into a marionette was admittedly not the most obvious of strategies but, as the ponies well knew, Discord was not exactly renowned for orthodox activity, and they had seen their share of instantaneous, large-scale transmogrifications from him. To push the point home, he again suspended the puppet inches from Twilight's face, only this time his mood was anything but playful.

"Two corners of Equestria under attack, Twilight Sparkle's friends and family in grave danger, and you all assumed I was just clowning around?" Discord's pouting muzzle began elongating until it resembled an enormous python, and started coiling around the ponies. Their shame gave way to fear and they retreated towards one another, seeking safety from the reproachful face encircling them. "You know, I'm trying to wrap my head around this whole friendship business, I truly am." He disappeared, rematerialising in his more usual form. "But when it comes to how friends are meant to act, you ponies keep giving out mixed signals." Discord folded his arms and turned his back on them, only to glance coldly back a second later. "Even you doubted me, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy let out an audible whimper at Discord's voice and countenance. This was no mischievous, manipulative guilt trip. This was hurt. Genuine, profound hurt. She fluttered hesitantly up to his head. "Discord, I ... I——."

"Is this how friends behave? Expect the worst of one another? Trample the feelings we have for one another?"

"It's not how we're supposed to behave, but I can't deny we do once in a great while," Fluttershy conceded sorrowfully.

"Then remind me again what is so magic about friendship?"

"To become better than you could be without your friends, to help them do the same. But mainly because the alternative is not to have those feelings in the first place. And however much you're hurting right now, I don't think you want to go back to that. Does he, Twilight?"

Twilight shook her head. She would not wish her current emotional debilitation on anypony.

"Can you ever forgive me?" Fluttershy's plea was barely above a whisper.

Discord considered refusing. His sense of injustice was consuming him, making him feel righteous and vindicated. Yet was it worth the loss of the strange, buoyant feeling he gained from friendship? Despite his best efforts, he felt his resentment ebbing away. "I suppose you have forgiven me far greater transgressions."

Fluttershy threw her forelegs around Discord's torso and the pair hugged tight.

"Well shucks, ah reckon we all owe Discord an apology," said Applejack.

"Not to mention our gratitude for dealing so promptly with that dreadful dragon," added Rarity.

The friends all expressed their heartfelt penitence and thanks to Discord, who graciously accepted.

Almost all.

"Twilight?" prompted Fluttershy.

"Sorry, thanks," the alicorn muttered through clenched teeth.

"Now, there's no need to go overboard," huffed Discord.

Rainbow Dash agreed that Twilight's response left something to be desired, but she felt obliged to come to her defence. "Aw, cut her some slack will ya, Discord? She's lost a lot of love."

"That's no excuse."

Everyone turned in surprise to Fluttershy. As much as she hated having multiple pairs of eyes trained on her, she maintained her steady, implacable demeanour.

"I beg your pardon?" Twilight was half-indignant, half-nervous.

"You shall have it, as soon as you give a real apology to Discord. And me. And Spike. And everypony else here for the way you've been acting this past week."

"Now look Fluttershy, I——."

"You what? You don't feel like it? You think it will be too hard because you don't have much love? Well, you know what I don't have much of? Courage. Yet I have gone on one difficult, dangerous, terrifying mission after another even when it was the last thing in the world I felt like doing. I had duties, Twilight, responsibilities. Well, so do you. Not just as the Princess of Friendship but as our friend. And the Twilight Sparkle I know would stop at nothing to protect her friendships, no matter how she felt. So you are going to dig deep and find some reserve, some spark, of the emotion you need to do what you have to do. Because if I can then by Celestia, so can you."

Twilight turned away, tightly closed her eyes and began breathing deeply. She was not sulking; she was concentrating. She guided her conscious mind down, tunnelling through the pallid mass of neutrality and negativity that had swollen up and filled her soul, reaching for some memory, some image, that would trigger what was left of her love.

Picnics, no. Parties, no. Need something bigger. What about adventures? Hmm, not that one. No, that won't work either. No, been there before. No. No. No, no, no, n——.

Then she saw it. The image that triggered possibly the most momentous decision she had made. Discord, the enemy turned friend turned traitor. Discord, who renounced the magic of friendship for his own shallow, selfish desires, and had nothing to show for it but his broken, laughable, powerless body, held prisoner by the treacherous Lord Tirek. Discord, who warranted nothing but contempt and ostracism, who should have been left to spend the rest of his worthless life utterly alone.

And Twilight gave up every trace of alicorn magic in Equestria for his freedom, because he was ...

Her friend.

The princess gasped, then turned her quivering eyes to the draconequus. "Discord, I-I'm so sorry. You took it upon yourself to perform a voluntary, selfless act of heroism and valour for your friends, and I was so impatient and cynical that I never even considered you might have done such a thing. I behaved disgracefully towards you." She tracked her line of sight across her other friends. "Towards all of you. Fluttershy's right, I have no excuse. Just because I don't feel love doesn't mean I can't at least try to show love. Especially when it comes to my friends." She turned back with a warm smile and looked directly at Discord. "My true friends."

Discord's eyes lit up, forcing Twilight to shield her own eyes. "Does that mean I get my own throne at Friendship Castle?"

"Time will tell." Without warning, Twilight's face fell and she collapsed, panting with exhaustion. Her friends rushed to help her back to her hooves—which wasn't easy, given that nearly all of them were smothered in mud and assorted foodstuffs—until she found herself magically elevated to her upright position, courtesy of Discord. "I'm okay. That just took a lot out of me." Like a spent firework, the dazzling but brief flash of warmth and affection that had risen to her surface was gone.

"Well, Princess, after that heart-rending speech, I think I for one can forgive you just like that." As Discord completed his sentence, the fingerlike tufts on the tip of his tail snapped and the eight friends instantly found themselves back at Ponyville railway station—all untied, and all spotlessly clean, dry and well-groomed, as if they'd just received a full spa treatment.

Discord peered northwards along the track, his eyes bulging out like binoculars. "Oh splendid, all your changeling problems should be solved soon. There's a crystal train on its way and, unless I'm mistaken, BBBFF and BSFFSBFF* will be aboard. Tell them I said 'hi'."

"Aren't you going to stay a while longer?" asked Fluttershy.

"Certainly not, I've kept Snookie Boo here in this state far too long as it is. I have to head to the badlands and restore him. Don't worry, I'll make it clear to him that this is just a sample of what he can expect if he makes any more trouble in Equestria. Besides, I'm afraid some of the ponies around here might still harbour some mistrust about that little sell-out-all-of-ponykind-to-Lord-Tirek matter. Best to keep a low profile for the time being." Sensing that his cheerful exterior had faltered somewhat, Discord bucked himself up. "Until next time, my friends." With a flourishing wave, Discord opened a nearby door then closed it behind him.

Applejack turned with a grin to her companions. "How soon y'all reckon before he realises he's stepped into a broom closet?"

The friends' laughter was cut short by an uncanny, wheezing, grinding noise. They looked in astonishment towards the closet, which gradually faded until it disappeared from view, leaving a bare wall behind.

"Ohhh-kay then, that happened." Rainbow Dash wasn't quite certain what else to say. One more bizarre exit from Discord.

* * *

The glittering, streamlined train engine screeched to a halt and let out a loud hiss. Two crystal pony stallions in military attire alighted from the only carriage and flanked the open doorway, from which Shining Armor and Cadence briskly emerged. Shining Armor dismissed the two guards, who saluted in unison then re-entered the carriage and waited for it to pull out.

"Twily!" the white stallion cried in dismay. Unlike Twilight's Ponyville friends, he and his wife had not seen his sister's steady decline, so her dour, empty appearance came as a shock to them.

"About time you two showed up," Twilight deadpanned. Even her negative emotions were weakening.

Cadance gently lifted Twilight's head with her forehoof. "What's happened?"

"Changelings," replied Rainbow Dash bluntly.

Rarity cleared her throat. "Your Highnesses, I realise that you have an urgent duty to perform but, if it is not too much of an imposition, Princess Cadance, could you please restore poor Twilight's love first?"

"Of course, right away." Cadance angled her spiralled horn towards Twilight's. A charge of energy crossed over to Twilight and coursed through her psyche, mingling and reacting with every trace of love within her. The love energy within Twilight began to swell, then surge, inundating and disintegrating the wide patches of negativity within her. She felt herself slowly rising from the platform, her eyes brightening, an irresistible smile curving her mouth. Twilight hovered in mid-air until the joy within her reached an apotheosis, and she dropped with to the platform with the landing of an expert gymnast. Tearfully, she rushed to embrace the royal couple.

"Oh thank you, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. And you're both all right?"

"We're fine, Twily. Much better for seeing you back to your old self, of course," replied Shining Armor.

"And the Crystal Empire is safe?"

"No breaches," smiled Cadance.

"What about Princess Celestia? She didn't say how she was in her letter."

Shining Armor grimaced. "She's been better, but she should pull through. She's in the Imperial Hospital, along with a lot of the royal guards."

Seeing the worry in Twilight's eyes, Cadance quickly added, "After ruining that dragon's gems, she thought she was done for. Thankfully, it seems he was more focused on trying to re-stock from the empire than on getting direct revenge on her. Maybe he figured that would be the best revenge."

Twilight anxiously darted her eyes around, hoping that Shining Armor's prognosis for her longtime mentor was accurate, until she caught sight of her friends. A deluge of emotions—relief, remorse, hope, worry, happiness—swamped her, and she prostrated herself. "I don't deserve you," she wept.

"Tough turnips, Princess, you're stuck with us," cracked Rainbow Dash.

The seven friends converged for a prolonged hug, punctuated with various cooing sounds of adoration. The royal couple watched with satisfaction for a moment, before Shining turned to Cadance. "What do you say, sweetie? Time to share the love?"

Cadance smirked. "I'm sure Ponyville would appreciate a royal wave about now."

"Then let's do it."

"Wait!" Again, Fluttershy uncomfortably found herself the centre of attention. "Please forgive my forwardness, Your Royal Highnesses, but, um, did-did Princess Celestia, um, tell you ... um ... you know?"

The couple looked quizzically at Twilight, who was just as lost as they.

"Fluttershy, I'm sure Princess Celestia has told them all they need to know," said Twilight.

"Including what the changeling queen said?"

"About what?"

"About all the suffering and anguish that we'll endure if Shining Armor and Cadance cast their love wave?"

The royal couple's faces made it clear that they had not heard about any such thing.

Twilight gave what she hoped was a reassuring chuckle. "Oh Fluttershy, you're not still hung up on that, are you?"

"I don't know, Twilight." Shining Armor walked towards his sister. "That sounds to me like the kind of thing we should be hung up on."

"It was nothing," insisted Twilight. "A bunch of vague threats about how sorry we'll be. One last hollow, desperate bluff from a cornered monster."

"But how can you be so sure?" Fluttershy pleaded.

"Look, suppose casting the love wave did cause some horrible fate to befall us. What good would that do the changeling queen? She'd still lose the only thing that matters to her. The only way to save her brood would be to make sure there was no love wave. If she had any leverage over us she would have used it, made it perfectly clear what would happen to us."

"Maybe there was some reason she couldn't reveal the specific details."

"Oh, for the love of Pete, do you have to question everything I do? Do you have to be scared of every single thing? There is no danger. You're just wasting time. I know this is a novel concept for you but will you please, please, stop getting into a tizzy over a big, fat pile of nothing, you yellow-bellied ninny?"

Twilight suddenly became aware that she had advanced to within a few inches in front of Fluttershy, who looked ready to burst into tears at any second. Then her own words—words that she would never in her right mind direct towards Fluttershy, and certainly not in such an aggressive tone—began to echo in her head. She turned to the dumbstruck onlookers.

"I should be ashamed of myself," she murmured.

The others were still too stunned to reply.

"But I'm not!" Agitated, Twilight began trotting in place. "It's happening again. There's a changeling around here and it's consuming my love." She lunged at Shining Armor and cast her anti-disguise spell over him. Seeing no difference, she scanned her other friends one by one, talking as she did so. "You're the only ones who've been anywhere near me since Cadance restored my love so, the changeling must be one of ..." She came to the last pony in line, who was Fluttershy. "You."

The pale yellow pegasus recoiled with a squeal of alarm.

"When we all met up at the castle, ready to set off for the Crystal Empire, I scanned every one of my friends. Except you weren't there." Twilight marched imposingly towards the pegasus, who stammered incoherently and retreated a few steps before stumbling and falling on her back. "All your hiding and your excuses and your lecturing about 'digging deep inside me'. You've just been stalling this whole time, and now you're trying to stall us some more."

The lachrymose pegasus tried to beg Twilight to stop but the only sounds she could produce were plaintive, unintelligible squeaks.

"Oh, you've done your homework, I'll give you that, but all you're doing now is showing off. The jig's up, changeling." With grim triumph, Twilight charged up her spell, guided her horn down the length of the pony's body, then looked up to see ...

Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash whispered, "If she's the real Fluttershy, why was she so scared of Twilight scanning her?"

"I don't think it was the scan that was scaring her," replied Rarity.

Twilight was at her wit's end. "This makes no sense. Somepony here has to be the changeling. But I've scanned you all and you're all clean."

Pinkie Pie piped up, "Well there's still one pony you haven't scanned".

Twilight twisted her head wildly around her vicinity. "Who?"

Pinkie looked straight at Twilight and said nothing.

Twilight cocked her head. "Pinkie, we've already been through this. I am not a changeling." She turned to the others with a 'do you believe this' look, only to find that they, too, were staring intently and wordlessly at her.

Twilight was flabbergasted. "You're not ... you don't ... nnggh ... why would I be so keen for Shining Armor and Cadance to expel all the changelings from Ponyville if I'm a changeling too? That's completely crazy."

Applejack shrugged. "Then ah guess crazy's all we got."

Twilight threw back her head and roared with exasperation. "Fine." She adjusted the flow of magic from her horn so that the energy showered over her own entire body. "There, are you happy? I'm exactly the same shape as I——."

With a jolt, a cylindrical bulge shot out from Twilight's right flank.

"What the?"

Almost immediately, a similar bulge descended from her belly.

"Ow!"

Then another from her left flank.

"Oww!"

By now, the mysterious shapes were stretching her entire barrel, which began to swell like a misshapen balloon. Within seconds, Twilight became so top-heavy, and the outgrowths so frequent and random, that could no longer keep her balance. She keeled painfully over, her legs flailing helplessly in the air. "Help! Helllp!"

"We would if we knew what was happening," cried Cadance.

As the ponies and Spike gathered around the huge, supine Twilight, Rarity screamed and pointed. "Did you see that? Look."

They looked, and collectively gasped in horror. The jabbing, writhing masses pushed from within against the walls of Twilight's distended abdomen, their contours becoming clearly visible.

Inside Twilight's body was a seething swarm of changelings.

---

* Big sister-in-law former foal sitter best friend forever. Unlike 'BBBFF', Twilight herself had never used this initialism; Discord coined it to tease her.

Comments

[helmet of salvation]

5867729 I really appreciate your encouragement and continued readership but can you please keep the major spoilers for other readers out of your comments? Many thanks.

[Twilight Shine]

5868013 Oops. Heh...sorry.

[Skye Mist]

That sounds highly disgusting.