For science - Book three

by Znegil

3 Soft

As our time ran out, we said our goodbyes so I could bring ‘Chryssi’ back to her room. She looked much calmer on our way back.

“It's interesting to see you two interact with each other. From what I had been told by Celestia I had expected a fearsome beast, but I see a cuddly teddy bear.”, I told her smiling.

She blushed a bit, which was a nice contrast to her dark color. “Celestia only met me in battle, I'm fierce when I fight for the changeling race… that doesn't mean I don't like to have more tender moments.” She never stopped walking while she told me this and kept staring straight ahead, avoiding looking at me. “It's not like Celestia looked kind while we battled, her face back then would bring foals nightmares.”

We walked on for a few more minutes until we reached her room. We passed the guards and entered.

After the doors had closed I was finally able to ask her what had been on my mind for some time now: “If you're ‘not so bad’, then why the attack on Canterlot, why not living like all the time before?”

She sighed and looked out of the window. “I guess Celestia told you we are gathering love from ponies?”

“More or less.”, I answered. “How do you do it?”

“There isn't much to it, it's our natural ability. We can absorb positive feelings from other beings, the closer we are the more we can gather. Love is the strongest feeling we can feed on or store inside us.” She sat down on the bed before she continued. “There are different methods to gather enough so we can bring it back to the hive. Being close to lovers is a possible way, but since it's difficult to get really close to them it is one of the slower ways. It is much quicker to replace someone in a relationship or make someone fall in love with your disguise, this way you can gather the love skin to skin and you're full in a few days. I gathered so much from Lavender on our visit.”

“So you can still feed with this clamp attached?”, I asked.

“Yes, it seems it only suppresses the active use of magic, I can feed just fine. I have often been disguised as an earth pony, so doing usual stuff without magic isn’t a problem for me.”

“What does this have to do with the attack on Canterlot?”, I inquired.

She took a deep breath and looked towards the window again. She looked somehow different… smaller and more vulnerable.

“When you gather love there are many things that can go wrong and you may be forced to come back to the hive with no or very little food. Also, there is a limited number of changelings working as ‘gatherers’ because there are many other things that have to be done in the hive and being a gatherer isn’t without risk. This means there isn't a steady amount of food for the hive, it fluctuates greatly.”

She shifted her position in bed to lay on her back and she stared at the ceiling. “You know, every şahzadə has a part of the hive to reign, in my case about eighty changelings. They are the whole range of every job, gender, and age. Now imagine things going badly and there is barely any food left. Imagine the queen tells you: ‘You have to choose fifteen of them to die so the others can live.’”

She used her hooves to cover her face. “You have to kill fifteen of those who trust in you and who you care for. How do you choose? Do you spare the young ones? But the adults can go and gather love, so they can improve the situation.”

I saw tears run down the sides of her face. “How do you choose and how can you explain it to everyone? But you have to do it…” The rest was inaudible because of her crying.

I was shocked to see her this way and didn’t know what to do. I sat on the bed next to her and laid my hand on one of her hind legs. “I’m sorry to hear this.”

I must have surprised her because she winced when I touched her, but she relaxed and calmed down again within seconds. She used her hooves to wipe her eyes.

“Sorry, you weren't supposed to see me like this.”, she said while she got into a sitting position. “But this is the worst memory of my life…”

She calmed herself down even more by taking some deep calm breaths. “Anyway, I decided never to make this decision again and taking control over Canterlot was my solution for this.”

We sat next to each other in silence for a moment.

“Don’t take what just happened for weakness.”, she finally said. “I could still punch you through a wall if I wanted to.”

“I would never think caring for others is a weakness.”, I replied. “Quite the opposite. It makes you stronger if you fight for others you care about.”

She looked at me surprised for a moment but quickly turned away from me.

“I think you should leave!”, she shouted. “I want to be alone right now.”

I got up from the bed and walked towards the door.

“Well, I have a reception to attend anyway.”, I told her. “I’m glad I was able to get to know you a bit better, see you soon.”

She just huffed in reply.

I left the room, closing the door behind me and passing the guards. I was heading towards Twilight’s room, so we could get dressed for the reception.

‘This went waaay different than I had expected.’, I thought. ‘She is much more human than I thought.’

Comments

[Perpetually Confused]

It’s considered very rude to stick anything inside our holes without permission

Oh God... I wanna say it, oh please oh please let me say it...

[Znegil]

8717468
It's almost like I choose this wording on purpose

[hmaf43]

‘This went waaay different than I had expected.’ , I thought. ‘She is much more human than I thought.’

the human that burn cadenza alive and want to invade equestria?