My Little White Lie

by ForestTrails482

Chapter 2: 4-8-2

Inside the Apple Family barn, a white changeling started to regain consciousness.

“Ow… that mare’s got quite the arm.”

The changeling shook his head, but when he tried to move he realized that he was tied to a post inside a wooden structure with hay all over the floor.

Great! Bested by two ponies and now I’m locked in some kind of cell. Can this day get any worse?

The changeling heard a creaking sound and looked up to see some big wooden doors open. The sunlight came in, causing him to flinch. Once his vision cleared, he saw the little filly that tore off his ear.

You! You’re lucky that I’m tied up otherwise I’d… wait a minute. This is my chance to escape!

Grinning, the changeling tried to turn into Apple Bloom so that he could slip out of the ropes. But for some reason, his powers weren’t working.

Huh? Come on. Change!

There was no response.

What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I…

Then a thought occurred to him.

It must be these ropes; they must have been enchanted to keep me from changing.

And the changeling was correct. Applejack had gotten the rope from Twilight two weeks ago. Twilight had spent most of her time after the wedding learning new tricks and spells that could counter changeling magic. Applejack figured an enchanted rope would be a good investment.

Looking up, the changeling saw that the filly was carrying a water bucket in her mouth and balancing a small glass on her head. After she was three feet in front of him she set the bucket and glass down.

Even though he was staring daggers at her, Apple Bloom wanted to try and make up for ripping off the changeling’s ear. She started by saying:

“I came in because I thought maybe you’d be thirsty.”

“Come again?”

“Don’t changelings need water?”

“Of course we do kid! What living thing doesn’t need water?”

“I wasn’t sure!”

The changeling rolled his eyes. He just wanted to get whatever this filly was trying over with.

“What’s the catch?”

“Catch?”

The changeling exhaled in frustration.

“What do you want in exchange for the water?”

"Huh?"

“Is this your first interrogation or something?!”

“Interrogation? I didn’t come in to interrogate you. I just wanted to offer ya some water.”

"Yeah, right."

“I’m serious. No catch.”

Apple Bloom picked up the glass, dunked it in the bucket and presented it to him, giving a smile as she did.

“Here ya go.”

The changeling was hesitant at first. Leaning forward, he sniffed the cup and then dunked his tongue into the water to test it. Looking back at Apple Bloom, he searched her for any traces of deceit. After he determined that the water wasn't drugged and that the filly was being sincere, the changeling thought:

Eh, your foolishness is my gain.

He grabbed the glass with his fangs and dumped the contents down his throat. He still found it surprising that this filly was giving him cool, clean, fresh water. Back at the hive, changelings only gave their best water to the queen.

“Would you like another glass?”

“Uh… sure?”

Apple Bloom refilled the cup and gave it back to the changeling, who stared at her skeptically before he drank.

What is she trying to do? Win me over with kindness? Clever tactic. Well, nice try! But just because you’ve given me water and… patched up my ear?

He just barely realized that they had bandaged his torn ear.

Well... regardless! You’re not going to break me that way! You can’t butter me up.

After the changeling returned the cup, Apple Bloom asked:

“What’s yer name?”

“Huh?”

Apple Bloom pointed to herself and then the changeling for emphasis.

“My name’s Apple Bloom. What’s yer name? You do have one, right?”

Ok, I’ll play along Ear-Biter.

“4-8-2.”

“What?”

"Four... Eight... TWO!!!"

“I heard ya the first time! I’m just surprised that ya have a number for a name.”

“Well, it’s hard to make good names for all your sons, when you have over a million of them.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes shot wide open.

“You have over a million brothers?! That’s a lot!”

Yeah, and even one is too many. Getting separated from those jerks was probably the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I mean, true, hunting for love has been harder doing it alone, but at least I...

Looking down, 4-8-2 noticed that Apple Bloom was staring at him curiously; and he didn't like it one bit.

“What’s the matter?! You’ve never seen a changeling up close before?!”

“Actually, I’ve never seen a white changeling before. I thought y'all were supposed to be black.”

4-8-2 glared angrily at Apple Bloom then turned to the left, giving her a partial cold shoulder. He couldn't give her an actual cold shoulder since he was tied to a post.

Gee, some changeling's sensitive about his color. But why?

“Did something happen to ya, or were ya always white?”

---

“Hey Red-eyes! You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

“Nah! He just needs to lie down. After all, he’s looking a little pale!”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

“Hey, come on guys, give the grub a break. Marshmallow's too soft for those jokes. You might make him cry!”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

---

“None of your bee's wax!”

“Okay! Sorry!”

Somepony woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Hmm... wait a minute. Maybe he’s just hungry?

It would make sense. Apple Bloom has seen her friends when they’re hungry, and boy, do they get grumpy when they’re hungry. But how could she be sure?

“Are ya hungry?”

“Noooo, I just tried to suck the love out of your sister because I was bored. Yeah I’m hungry! What’s it to you Apple Blob?”

Eeyup, he’s hangry. But how can I feed him?

Apple Bloom sat down to try and think of a solution.

Come on Apple Bloom, there’s got to be a way. Remember that one book Applejack borrowed from Twilight? The one about a pony dating a bat pony, who satisfied his hunger for blood by sucking it from livestock, rather than ponies. What was the name of that book again?

Apple Bloom shook her head to refocus her attention on finding a love substitute.

Okay, changelings feed off love, but it weakens a pony when they do. Can they suck love from something that isn’t living?

Then an idea crossed her mind.

Wait! We put a lot of love and care into our apples! Maybe he could suck that love from them!

“Don’t move! I’ll be right back!”

Apple Bloom ran out of the barn, leaving the doors open as she did. The changeling rolled his eyes and thought:

Ha. Ha. Very funny. Well, at least now I can finally enjoy some peace and qui-

4-8-2’s train of thought was interrupted when he heard something barking from outside.

What was that?! What kind of animal makes that sound?

4-8-2 prepped himself for whatever was coming. He watched as a small furry critter, with brown and white fur, ran up to the open doors then stopped, staring at him curiously.

What is that thing?

Winona, the Apple family’s Border Collie, decided that she wanted to get a closer look at this strange bug-like-pony. As she approached him, 4-8-2 thought:

Hey, I don’t know what you are, but that’s close enough!

4-8-2 hissed angrily, hoping it would scare off the creature. He succeeded in making Winona jump back a little, but she only paused for a moment before she proceeded to close the gap.

Seeing that his hiss failed, 4-8-2 tried to free himself from the ropes.

Come on, stupid rope! How can ponies even tie good knots with only hooves?

He felt pressure against his chest. He slowly turned his head towards what he knew was the creature. It was two inches away from his face, panting as it looked at him.

Oh flip.

---

Apple Bloom gathered the best apples she could find, from today’s apple bucking. She figured that she would try four apples first, to see if her plan would even work. She had just finished tying up her sack, when she heard a noise coming from the barn. It sounded like… screaming?

“Ahhh!!! Ew! Ew! Ew-hoo-hoo-hoo!”

Apple Bloom ran to the barn, carrying the sack of apples in her mouth. When she got to the doors and saw what was going on, it took everything she had not to fall down onto the floor laughing. Winona was standing on her hind legs, leaning on the changeling and licking his face repeatedly.

“Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!”

Once she got control of herself, Apple Bloom whistled for Winona. The loving dog ran to her young owner, who gave her a nice belly rub for her obedience. 4-8-2 was busy spitting out dog drool.

“Her name’s Winona. She seems to like you.”

“Yay, lucky me.” said 4-8-2 sarcastically.

Apple Bloom picked up her sack of apples and walked up to him. Setting the bag down, she untied it and presented the first apple to the changeling.

“Here ya go.”

Staring at the apple, and then at Apple Bloom, 4-8-2 said:

“What is this, some kind of joke?”

“No, it’s an apple. I thought that sense my family and I put a lot of love and care into our apples, that maybe you could suck that love from the apple.”

After a short pause, 4-8-2 was laughing his head off.

“Ha! Ha! Ha! You think…Ha! Ha! ...that an apple… Ha! Ha! …will satisfy my hunger…Ha! Ha! …like it does for you ponies?! Ha! Ha! Ha! I’m a Changeling! Ha! Ha! We feast on the love you have for ponies, not fruit! Ha! Ha!”

Apple Bloom waited patiently for the changeling to stop laughing. Once he was done, she asked:

“Well, have you ever tried it before?”

“Tried what?”

“Tried sucking love from something other than ponies?”

“No. But why would I? There’s no need.”

“But what if it works? Wouldn’t it be easier than sucking love from a pony?”

“Seriously? If it were that easy, don’t you think changelings would have discovered that by now? We’re not stupid.”

“I never said y'all were. Even us ponies can be so set doing things a certain way that we forget that there are easier ways to do things.”

“Heh, I still think your idea is pathetic.”

Okay, that was it! Apple Bloom had just about enough of this changeling's mean attitude. Setting down the apple, and furrowing her brows, Apple Bloom pointed her hoof at the changeling and shouted:

“You said you were hungry, and I’m trying to be nice! So you're gonna try it, NOW!!!”

4-8-2 was speechless. The only other creature that had ever given him orders like that was his queen. And even though this filly was about half his size, he was actually intimidated by her. Not wanting to know what would happen if he said 'no', he decided to give it a try.

Closing his eyes, his horn began to glow. As it did, a green aura surrounded the apple. Slowly the apple shriveled up until it was just a rotting apple core. Apple Bloom’s face lit up as she watched the apple shrivel. Once the magic had ceased she asked:

“Did it work?”

4-8-2 opened his eyes and looked up at Apple Bloom. His expression changed from astonishment to frustration.

(Sigh) “Yeah... it worked.”

“YEEHAW!!!”

She had done it! She found a new way for changeling’s to eat!

Wait until I tell Applejack! She’ll be so impressed!

Apple Bloom let out a gasp as she quickly spun around, looking at her flank.

Did I get my cutie mark?! Is it a “genius” cutie mark?! A “bright ideas” cutie mark?! What did I get?! What did I get?!

But to her disappointment, there was nothing. She was still just a Blank Flank. Even when she did something good she still had nothing to show for it. Ears drooping, she sat down and started kicking at the dirt in frustration.

“What’s your problem?”

“Huh?”

Apple Bloom turned around to see that it was 4-8-2 who asked the question.

“You were all excited, and now you’re upset. Why?”

“Oh, nothing. I just thought maybe I’d finally earned my cutie mark.”

“Cutie mark?”

“It’s a mark that we ponies get on our flanks when we discover our special talent. It shows us what makes us special and what we’re good at.”

“Really? Huh... I always thought they were just tattoos.”

“Ha! Ha! No, they're not tattoos. I’m surprised though. I thought y'all would know what a cutie mark is, considering y'all change into ponies all the time.”

4-8-2 gave a small chuckle to that statement.

“You don’t know a lot about changelings, do you?”

“No, not really.”

“Well, okay. I’ll tell you this…”

It’s not like she can destroy the hive with this information.

“…changelings can take the form of any creature that they see in front of them. They don’t need to know anything about what that creature is, or what it can do, because our magic allows us to turn into a perfect copy of that creature.”

“Wait a minute. Are you saying that you have to see a pony in order to change into one? What if the pony isn’t present?”

“Then we can’t. Why else would my queen kidnap your pink princess rather than kill her?"

"Princess Cadance!"

"Okay, Princess Cadance! Sheesh. Once a changeling changes into that pony, they can stay in that form as long as they want. We keep the ponies we impersonate as prisoners for two reasons:

1-We don’t like food to go to waste.

2-Because our queen will sometimes use more than one form to deceive a kingdom. She needs the original to change back into them.”

"Okay, but if you can become a perfect copy of the creatures y'all impersonate, then why didn’t y'all use Twilight’s magic or Rainbow Dash’s speed during the invasion of Canterlot?”

“Most of us haven’t studied magic. You can’t cast a spell if you don’t know how to. As for the speed, well... have you ever put yourself into somepony else’s body?”

“No.”

“It’s kind of like trying to ride a unicycle. The unicycle has the ability to carry you around, but only after a lot of practice.”

“That kind of makes sense.”

Apple Bloom waited patiently for 4-8-2 to continue, but after a moment of silence she realized that he was done.

Too bad. It was quite interesting learning about changelings.

"Uh, Apple Bloom?"

"Yeah?"

"Can... I have... another apple?”

What are you doing Blockhead?! Changelings don't give prisoners more food if they ask nicely! Why would it be any different with ponies?

“Sure.”

"..."

You're not a very good prisoner warden, are you?

Comments

[fanreader999999]

Why

[ForestTrails482]

9510124
Why what?

[jimerjam]

9510162
I think she means
WHY IS THIS SO GOOD!!

[Green-Venom]

You're not a very good prisoner warden, are you?

All a question of perspective. XD