Let's Try This Again

by HypernovaBolts11

Chapter XV - Loved

The walk was slow, long, and without incident. All of that was by design, but when he arrived at the Golden Oak Library, with the sun rising, he couldn't help but take pause for thought. He was, for the second time now, an escapee, arriving at the same library, at the same time of day as he had a few days ago.

It didn't seem like the kind of thing to worry about, but it made him feel odd about the whole thing, like he was going around in circles. Ponies had a term for that sensation, déjà vu. He knew that the phrase was Old Unicorn for "already seen", and that it was one of the more intangible experiences to a pony.

He lifted a hoof to the front door, and rapped on the entrance. He began to wonder if he'd ever move on from this place. Twilight had never specified how long his stay would be, or what her end goal was. She wanted knowledge, but that was all he knew. Perhaps even she didn't know what to do with him.

The sound of hooves clapping against the wooden floor inside me this ears, and he tried his best to look as nonchalant as he could. But all the excitement of being nearly killed, saved by the god of chaos, and escaping custody wasn't entirely gone. He was shaken a bit, and longed for sleep.

The door opened, and he smiled Twilight, who grabbed him with a hoof, yanked him inside, and slammed the door closed behind him. He found himself pinned to one of the bookshelves, with a million questions being thrown at him, most of them ludicrous, the rest of them being based on false presumptions.

He had to shout in order to calm her down, "Twilight!" He placed a hoof on his forehead, and let off an exasperated sigh. "I've never killed anyone in my life. I've never tried to hurt a member of the royal family. I thought love spells were a myth. I don't know any if they exist. On top of all of that, I've had a really bad day, and I really need to sleep.

"I'm not a threat to you. I've never harmed you. I made a promise, Twilight, and I intend to keep it. I... I thought I was outside of being flawed, subject to what you call emotion, and the thing you call love. But I was wrong, okay. I didn't kill anyone, and I just narrowly escaped a surgical knife being driven through my skull."

He took a deep breath, and slumped against the shelf. "Who said those things about me?" he asked her.

"Princess Celestia," she answered immediately, a new pair of wings rustling at her sides. "You had a trial, and you killed so-"

"No, I didn't. I will go to court. I will let you read my mind. I will do anything, because nothing you're saying is true. I wasn't given a trial. I wasn't even allowed to finish one sentence in my defense before your perfect princess strapped me to a table, and tried to carve out a piece of my skull," he informed her.

"I spent hours in a cell, with a guard driving a spear into every part of my body he could find, dipping it into my venom, burning me, knocking one of my fangs out, and ripping off my ear, along with removing the same leg twice," he told her.

He shook his head slowly. "You call that a fair trial, then I don't know what kind of messed up world this is, where that princess is your idol," he added. "Oh, and you're an alicorn now, so I'm probably about to be banished, executed, or tortured to death. I..." He choked up, and bit his lip.

"I... I thought I loved you, Twilight, but I think I was overreacting to the whole thing. I miss my mother. I miss my father. I miss my home, Twilight, and I can't get any of those things back. Now with Discord willing to let me die, I'm a changeling, the last link to any chance of my race's survival, stranded in a world of people who just want me dead," he declared, his voice shaking, his eyes filling with tears.

"I... I can't... I can't be the last one... I'm a failure by every standard, and no one will even give me a chance anymore. I never did anything wrong, and I'm still on death row, for a dozen crimes I didn't commit," he said, and wrapped his forelegs around his head, hiding between them. "I... I hate myself for what I am, but no one seems to understand that."

He finally cried, and, despite every part of his mind insisting that this was a changeling thing to do, he knew that he wasn't a changeling anymore. He was only half changeling by blood, and at this point, he'd lost all right to even call himself one.

"My dad... He loved my mother, but she hates him, and now they're both dead. They're both dead because I'm a failure! Why did he throw his life away on me? He had forever left in front of him, and he died defending me," he sobbed, and his breath caught as he sat there.

He wasn't a changeling. He wasn't a pony. But he sure as heck wasn't safe where he was. Then again, he wasn't safe anywhere now. His home had kicked him out. His parents were both dead. The only pony who'd ever given him a chance was accusing him of murder, and he had actually liked her, if not loved her.

He was a wreck, a failed experiment, but one which an alicorn and a queen had both died defending. And he'd let them both down. What a waste of chitin and space he was. What a mess he'd made of everything. What had they been thinking as they died, that they believed in him, or that they'd been in the wrong places at the wrong times?

His chest stung. His face and throat were both numb. His wings were limp at his sides.

He erupted into a instant of fire, and cried as he truly was, the mess of a drone who never should have been born. Several of his wounds were still there from when the guard had inflicted them, and his ability to heal them had been thoroughly drained by the wounds he'd already recovered from.

He felt a soft object touching his shoulder, and he flinched, scrambling away from the warm hoof. He shook his head, and told her, "Don't touch me. Don't look at me. Don't pretend I'm worth it. Go away!" He fell onto his side as his back slammed against another shelf, and his right wing got folded underneath his body. He yelped in pain, but did nothing to solve the problem.

He saw something warm, rich in love, and practically glowing with affection, moving towards him. He did nothing this time, and cried through his closed eyes as her warm hooves picked him back up. She sat him up, and carefully examined his injured wing, saying, "Ssh... It's okay. I'm nice. I'm here to help."

He continued to cry, and closed his jaws down over his left leg, loosing a muffled yelp as the chitin in his leg splintered like ceramic, with slivers of it digging into the softer flesh in his leg. He would have ripped it off if Twilight hadn't used her magic to pry his jaws open so she could remove individual pieces of chitin from his mouth.

She examined his hoof, and cast a pain killer spell on him, before removing any more splinters from his leg. She wrapped his leg in a white bandage, and put a splint on his bent wing, whispering softly, "You're not a failure. You're not a failure. You're not a failure, Fangheart."

After another few minutes of treating his wounds, burns, and trying to restrain him to prevent the wounds from worsening, she turned to look him in the eye, and spoke in the single most stern tone of voice she'd ever used, "Dammit, Fangheart, you're not a failure. You're my friend. Now, get into the bathtub so I can stop what damage I can."

He went completely still, letting her carry him in her magic. She set him down in a porcelain tub, and turned on the hot water. She made sure he kept his injured leg out of the water, and went about removing what noxious fluids she could from his chemical burns.

He just sat there, and only whimpered as she scrubbed down one of the sores on his side with a sponge. He lifted his only uninjured leg to his mouth, and felt around the gum where his fang had once been. He let out a deep breath, and muttered, "If I ever see another piece of armor, it'll be too soon."

Twilight didn't look up from her task, and said, "At least you aren't being as negative as you were a moment ago."

He looked at her, and then down, somehow ashamed of himself, but not quite in the way he had when he'd started crying. This shame was more reflective, assessing his more recent behavior than the deaths of his parents. He pinned back his one remaining ear, and said, "I... Sorry."

Twilight glanced up from the wound she was treating, and raised an eyebrow at him. She said, "You mentioned your father, how he had an eternity left. Who was he?"

He would have run away from that question, as he'd been taught to never answer that particular question. But he didn't have any more to lose at this point, and, besides, it wasn't like she'd believe him anyway. He said, "Prince Cosmos, Celestia's and Luna's older brother."

She narrowed her eyes, but didn't roll them, much to his surprise. "You're half alicorn?" she asked him.

He didn't respond.

"Celestia had a brother?" she pressed.

He didn't move, much less speak.

"Alicorns can die," she muttered, a logical conclusion, and one that rung painfully true to Fangheart's one ear.

"He... He was commander of the planets, ruler of the stars, and overseer of time. He made sure everything followed a single timeline, and that the planets were in the right places every night and day. Now, those two tasks are divided between his two sisters, and I am his illegitimate heir," he said, more to himself than anything.

"I could rule two kingdoms at once, but neither of them like me, and the one my father ruled isn't up for grabs," he said. He looked at Twilight, who was busy breaking every expectation he had by not laughing. He sighed, "I look even more pathetic now, don't I? I should have two crowns, but I've lost them both."

Twilight's eyes pointed back at his wounds, and she squeezed out her sponge, letting green and black liquid tint the bath water. She picked up her first aid kit, and asked, "Why haven't you healed yet? I thought changelings healed very quickly."

He sighed, "A changeling's healing ability is directly linked to the amount of love they have stored up and are receiving. Given how many wounds the guard inflicted, I used all of my reserves on healing those, and I'm empty now." He shook his head slowly, and snorted, "At least you won't have to worry about an unfair trial. I'll just starve to death."

Twilight paused, and shot him a burning look. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. None of what you say is your fault was within your ability to prevent or stop," she said.

She took a deep breath, and lifted his good hoof to the side of the tub, where she held it between her own hooves. She said, "I'll do some investigating on your case, and ask an impartial party to perform their own investigation. I'll advocate that you were treated unfairly, and I'll raise public awareness of your mistreatment.

"Celestia cares about what's right and her public image more than anything, and she'll listen to the population, if not me. You had no say in your conviction, sentence, or arrest. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again, and that Celestia learns from her mistake," she assured him, gently patting his hoof with her own, maintaining eye contact with him.

Something about that felt good to him. The whole thing was warm, tender, and he sniffled, the steam of the hot water having loosened up his sinuses a bit. He didn't notice the waves of affection pouring off of her, or the scents of oxytocin, dopamine, and a dozen other chemicals coming from her.

He didn't see any of that, nor would he have cared in that moment. He just smiled as she used a bit of gauze to soak up the blood from what remained of his left ear, and he asked, "Twilight, do you... I... Do you..." He paused to collect his thoughts, and took a deep breath. "I..."

"I love you too, Fangheart," she said.

His mind went wild. It probably said a lot about him that his changeling side demanded that he feed. He didn't listen to it, though he probably could have without ruining everything. He knew that if he fed upon her now, he'd do it again the next day, and again, and again, until the promise he'd made a few days ago didn't make any sense.

He bit his lip, and said, "I... I love you, Twilight Sparkle." Those three words sounded so weird to him when they were in his voice.

She lifted a sterile pad of gauze, and placed it over the top of a bottle of disinfectant, which she then turned upside down for a brief moment before righting it. "This'll sting, but it's necessary," she said, and dabbed the piece of cloth on his missing ear.

There was a shrill whimper, a reassuring voice, and a sigh of relief, followed immediately by the sound of splashing water.

Twilight slapped her forehead with a hoof, and muttered, but her question quickly became a shout, "Is this going to become a regular thing, you marching to my home at dawn and collapsing from exhaustion shortly after escaping my mentor?"

Fangheart could only jump when his body realized that it didn't have any oxygen, as his nostrils and mouth had both been submerged when he'd collapsed. He sat bolt upright, coughed up a bit of water, and did the first thing any changeling would do in his situation.

Twilight blinked at the changeling, who then jumped back when he realized what he'd just done, and how seriously dead he should have been. She giggled as she watched him scramble backwards in the tub, getting nowhere, and said, "Fangheart, at least give me a Unicorn kiss if you're going to panic afterwards."

He went still, and asked, "Y-you're not mad?"

Twilight shook her head, and said, "First of all, you need to promise me a few things, if we're going to have a serious relationship."

He gulped, and nodded. "Sure, anything," he said.

"No more sulking about your hierarchical status. No more random drop ins and collapsing at dawn. No more cover stories to my friends. No more impossible promises," she said. She then added, "You may feed in any way that doesn't hurt me, whether you're seriously injured or perfectly healthy. You can walk around in your natural form when we're inside. If your natural form bothers someone, please turn back into your pony form."

He blinked, and asked, "That's all?"

Twilight added, "And I get a proper kiss."

"Now?" he asked.

"After you heal, so you don't hurt yourself," she said, nodding.

He opened his mouth, and readily consumed the copious amounts of love she was pouring into the air. His burns went away first, then he used his fang to remove the bandage from the leg he'd bitten as its chitin grew back. He removed any and all other bandages, any wounds or unwanted holes sealing themselves, giving off a bright green glow. The crease in his right wing glowed as it straightened itself out, and he cast aside the splint. His ear grew back all at once, and he closed his mouth just before he could cause Twilight harm.

He transformed once, shortening his one remaining fang until it could have been mistaken for that of a bat pony, the extra space being filled in by flat teeth. He lunged forward, hopping out of the bathtub, and wrapped his forelegs around the lavender alicorn, hugging her. He placed his lips to hers, and opened his mouth, slipping his tongue into hers.

Twilight flinched a bit, surprised by the speed at which he'd recovered, and leaned into the kiss, wrapping her new wings around his back. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to consider what sort of legal hassle this odd relationship would cause if they ever got married, and then she remembered, he was a xenomorph.

The bathroom door creaked open, and a very sleepy Spike stepped inside, carrying a rolled up comic book under his left arm. He froze when he saw the strangest thing on the planet, and said, "Okay, staying up was a bad idea. I'm going back to bed." He turned around, and closed the door as he returned to his bed.

Fangheart pulled away from the kiss, and turned to look at the door. He asked Twilight, "Did you hear something?"

"Spike stayed up all night planning my coronation with Celestia and me. I think he saw us, and is convinced that his lack of sleep is causing him to hallucinate," she told him.

Fangheart smiled a bit, and said, "Then we should start relationships more often. Maybe we can kill his habit of staying up to take the longest bubble baths on the planet." He turned to look at her, and hugged her ever closer to himself. "Thank you, for everything, Twilight."

The alicorn wheezed, "Can't breathe."

He released her, and blushed, his cheeks turning green. "Sorry. I... It occurs to me that, if my mother could see me, she'd kill me," he told her.

"Why's that," Twilight asked, using her magic to pull the plug in the bathtub, letting the tainted water drain out.

"Because I'm in a relationship with three of the things she hated the most. Twilight Sparkle, the pony she feared the most, an alicorn, a race she loathed, and a bearer of an Element of Harmony, the weapon she had managed to disable, but still lost to," he told her, and nuzzled her affectionately.

"Well, I'm sure some of her rules made sense," she said.

He thought for a moment, and shook his head. "The only way I could break all of her rules, is if I somehow was an alicorn, but I'm no you," he said.

"Haha," Twilight said dryly. She watched the last of the water swirl down the drain in the tub, and said, "Okay, now get back into the tub."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you clearly don't know what a bath is. I can smell every piece of dirt you've ever touched since you were born. Along with that, it's always fun to pretend that someone you know is a toddler," she said, and turned on the hot water. "Now, go on, get in."

He pinned back his ears, and, whether he intended it or not, did the most toddler like thing he could have possibly done in that moment. "No," he said, and quickly ran through the door he pulled open, zipping around the library at top speed.

Twilight shouted, "Let me add a clause to our relationship agreement; you need to be clean if I'm getting in the same bed as you!"

In a scant two seconds, the changeling had slammed the bathroom door closed again, jumped into the water, taken a collection of water in his front hooves, and thrown it at her. He smiled as the warm liquid soaked her mane through, and asked, "When you say sleep, what do you mean?"

Twilight frowned as she used her hoof to move her sopping mane away from her eyes, and said, "Stay off my bed until I can clean you off." She took in a whiff of air, and added, "Hang on. Let me get the hose."

"What's a hose?" he asked her, displaying more naïveté than necessary to form a smile on the alicorn's lips.

She simply said, "You'll see."

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

And then Celestia explodes in with fire in her eyes to destroy him, right?