Know your enemy

by Znegil

3 Journey

We moved through a thick forest. Chrysalis said it would be best to stay under trees until we had more distance to the hive.

I was impressed how much better she looked only three hours into our journey. Most of her injuries had disappeared, and she managed to walk at normal speed, but we paused often.

"How long do you think we have to walk until we reach Canterlot?", I asked her.

"Hard to say.", she answered. "I only flew there before. I would guess two or three days since we can't go in a straight line because of a mountain and a little canyon."

That was a lot longer than I had hoped for.

"Are love and positive emotions the only way you can survive, can't you eat normal food?", I was curious and hoping to avoid 'feeding' her again.

"Yes it is, we can 'eat' food when we have to keep up our disguise, but we gain no energy from it."

I thought I found a flaw in her logic: "Then how are changeling babies fed?"

She stopped. "Do you really want to know how we function as a hive? Some things are not that pretty."

"Well, two or more days of walking will get pretty boring if we don't talk to each other. So yeah, I want to know, or is it secret knowledge I'm not allowed to know?"

She chuckled. "Are you kidding me? They left me to die. I tell you everything you want. Let's rest and have a chat."

We found a fallen tree we used as a bench.
"Ok, let's start from the beginning.", she began her lecture. "The only female laying eggs is the Queen, she can produce around twenty eggs per week. Well I could produce eggs as well, but one the queen is allowed to do it... This really reminds me of my time as changeling teacher." She giggled.

"You have been a teacher in the hive?", I asked.

"No questions during the lecture, you can ask them later student.", she answered with an impish grin.

"Sorry Miss teacher."

She continued: "The babies from these eggs will become workers, soldiers, teachers or any other job. For a princess egg, there have to be unique mating habits. Every changeling can produce a green slime that is very versatile in its use. We have several glands in our mouth to change its characteristics so that it can be utilized as a building material, a trap for enemies or by transferring some of the stored love, as food for our babies. After about four months, the food will be reduced to only a fraction of what the little changelings need, a fight for food will occur, and only the strongest third of them will survive. After about five years, changelings are big enough to work in their allocated position, princesses after about ten years."

"Wow, fighting for survival when they are little, that is harsh.", I said with a frown.

"A changelings life is not easy..."

As she did not continue, I decided to ask her again.
"Why did you work as a teacher?"

"A princesses and possible future queen of the hive has to know exactly what her subjects do, so every princess works two years in every possible job. All jobs combined that's 34 years."

"Wow, that is a long time."

"Not really.", she said. " Princesses live a very long life. How old do you think I am?"

I knew in any universe or dimension this was the most dangerous question, I knew there was no good way to answer that.

"You... you look very healthy and pretty, no matter what age you are.", I tried to sidestep the question.

"Very smart answer. I am 204 years, that is young for a changeling princess, we can become around 1200 years... but I guess I'm not a princess anymore."

I could see how her mood darkened and she stared back the way we came from.

"I guess I can't get near the hive or speak to another changeling ever again..."

There was an unpleasant silence because I didn't know what to say.

"Maybe we should get going again.", she said after a moment, stood up and walked on.

As we continued our journey through the forest, I decided to return the favor and tell Chrysalis about the world I came from. It got her in a better mood again, while I told her about our history and inventions like TV, phones, and the internet.

...

"Hey, do you know what berries are edible or poisonous?", I asked her. "I'm starving, and I am very thirsty."

"No, that was never a problem for me, but do you remember that green goo I can produce and vomit? You can eat that."

The thought of doing that made me nearly throw up. I had to sit down for a moment.

She started laughing.
"You're so gullible! You would get sick if you tried that."

"So funny...", I answered slightly angry.

"There is a reason why we are going this route, when I was younger I practiced hunting in this area, together with a sister of mine. In a few minutes, we should reach a natural fountain, you can drink there. Also, I am pretty sure if we wait there for a while, I can use the bit of magic I have, to stun a rabbit and start a fire."

I was surprised. "Wow, that sounds great."

"Well, I can't let my food and power source die.", she answered with a warmer smile than I had expected.

Like she said, we arrived just a few minutes later at the natural fountain, eagerly I drank from it, this pure water tasted like the best thing ever.

Then we hid and waited for some little animal to show up.

"Is your sister still in the hive?", I whispered.

"Who?"

"The sister you hunted with in this area. Maybe you could try to meet her again when some time has passed.", I whispered again.

She did not answer for some minutes, I was surprised as she finally did.
"As we were younger, it was ok to have some fun together... as time passes all princesses realize that we are rivals for the throne. Since I am not a part of the hive anymore, she would kill me the moment she notices me."

"That's..."

"Quiet, something is coming."

Just a moment later I saw a rabbit carefully hopping toward the fountain. The moment it started to drink, it got hit by a green magic bolt, it hurled him a few feet away, and it laid there without moving.

"Go and get him!", she shouted.

I ran over to him and held him by his hind legs.

"What now?", I asked even though I knew the answer.

"You should kill it while it is knocked out, break its neck."

I looked another way while I used both hands to grab the bunny at its head and body.
"I'm sorry.", I said and twisted my hands. The sound of breaking bones was very upsetting to me, I missed the supermarket, where meat was packaged and without a face.

Chrysalis gathered some wood, while I used a sharp rock to make a strong branch pointy enough to use it for the rabbit.

The sun was about to set as she started the fire and I made some basic holders to roast the meat over the fire.

We sat next to the fire and waited.
"Does it hurt to change your body and appearance?", I asked her.

She was a bit surprised by the sudden question.
"No, but it can be a bit confusing when your body parts are not where you expect them."

"When you had been out in the world, gathering love, have you ever considered just staying with a stallion... forever?"

"That's not how we changelings are trained to do it. Long contacts increase the risk of being discovered. Three days should be maximum since a regular changling would not be able to store additional love after that anyway. Well, I can store a lot more, but still, the rule is three days.", she said while she stared into the fire.

"That didn't sound like a 'no', you're just avoiding the question."

She sighed.
"Ok, I tell you, but I want some love afterward."

"Ok, deal. But we keep a little distance between us this time. You seemed to be a little... heated last time."

She blushed a bit but ignored that comment.

"There are different ways for us to gather love.", she started to explain. "You can replace someone and absorb the love of their partner and free the captured pony later after using magic to cloud their memory. You can sneak around at night and be close when two ponies make love, or you can blend in as a new pony and start a new relationship.

I went as a light brown unicorn to Manehatten and searched for a stallion. I played the part of a clumsy mare on the ice rink, and within minutes a unicorn stallion was very eager to help me. He invited me to dinner, and everything went as planned. After another date the next day, we ended up in his apartment and in his bed. I had a fantastic night with him and gathered a lot of love while doing it.

This went on for two weeks, at day we had fun trips to different sights, and at night we had other fun together. I should have left him days ago since I could not store any new love, but he was so caring and fun to be around...

Then one morning he woke up, and I wasn't disguised. I don't know why it happened. It is no problem at all for me to sleep in disguise. I think unconsciously I wanted him to see the real me, wanted him to accept me. Well, you can guess what happened, he ran out on the street screaming for help 'there is a monster in my house' and I barely made it away unseen."

She ended the story with tears in her eyes and turned her head away from me.

I went over to her and sat next to her. She was looking so miserable. I wrapped my arm around her.
"You're not a monster, you have your reasons for doing what you did."

She tried to shake off my arm, but I held on.

"Sure, you can look frightening at first glance, but once I got used to it, I found that there is more to you than that.", I told her while I rubbed her back.

We sat like this for a while. My arm was wrapped around her midsection again while we looked into the fire. The rabbit would be done soon.

"Hey, remember our deal.", I said. "You can get your love now."

"But your to close this way.", she answered.

"No, I'm not. I want to try something, start your ability.", I said still hugging her.

"Ok..."

"You don't think of your Moon Princess.", she said after a moment.

"No, I don't. What does it taste like?", I asked her.

"... Friendship"

"Towards whom?"

After some seconds she looked at me surprised.
"Towards me.", she said with a smile.

We sat like this for some minutes until the rabbit was done.

Comments

[Insane psycho]

More chapters please !!!

[Znegil]

7257573 Of course, I'm working on it, but this life-size Luna statue does not build itself ;-) Luna Statue

[Verdant Sea]

Will Luna share? Will there be a big fight? Maybe both! Only time will tell!

[Aunty Furby]

7259623 dam

[Texus]

This starts to look like a nice story. Maybe I start this one too.

edit: or the one that before this, since this seems to be a sequel.

[Znegil]

8214038
I think it is, in special this story. I tend to read it every three months again.

[TheDullKnight]

I really like this chapter!!!