Twilight Questions
“Fluttershy? Where are you going?” The winged mare perked her ears, turning her head. Thorax had jumped off of the couch and was trotting towards her.
She smiled, rubbing his head affectionately. “I just need to run to the market. Are you guys okay by yourself?”
“Oh!” He squeaked, buzzing his translucent wings with excitement. “What’s a market? Can I come?”
A low growl sounded from the couch, and Pharynx bared his teeth. His violet eyes were narrowed on Thorax, who sighed and rolled his eyes.
“C’mon, what’s the worst that can happen?”
The glare intensified.
Fluttershy sighed, her smile faltering. “Maybe next time. I have to explain this to my friends before anything else, and some ponies aren’t the most...accepting.”
The little changeling sighed, his ears and crest flattening. “Okay...”
Angel hoped from the ground and onto her back, sticking his tongue out at the changeling. She would talk to him about it later. Right now she needed to restock on supplies.
With one hoof, she pushed open her wooden door. A rush of cool, fresh wind washed against her face. The sound of birds singing filled her ears as she looked back. “I’ll be back as soon as I can!”
With a flutter of her wings, she was off to the market.
“Angel, pass me the list, please.”
The bunny rummaged around in her saddlebag before pulling out the parchment paper she had brought along. She smiled, looking down at the list.
“Carrots...potatoes...celery...and we’ll add fish to the list,” she muttered, looking around at the booths. She still wasn’t sure about the ‘eating emotions’ thing, so getting an extra stock of fish was probably the best bet.
“Fluttershy!” She looked up as she heard her name called. Twilight waved from the next booth over, trotting towards the yellow pegasus.
“Oh! Hey Twilight,” she greeted, smiling. She looked around. Usually, a certain purple dragon would be here too. “Um...where’s Spike?”
“He’s running the library at the moment. I’m just running some errands.”
Fluttershy hummed, walking alongside the lavender unicorn. Stopping at one of the booths, she looked over the produce. “Um...how much is this celery?”
The stallion answered in a gruff voice. “Five bits, ma’am.”
“Five bits, five bits...” she pulled out a small pouch, counting the coins. Handing over the golden bits, she picked up the bundle of celery, placing it into her brown saddlebag.
“How are things going with you? You know, not counting the time Sweetie, Applebloom, and Scootaloo ran into the Everfree Forest.”
“Oh, it’s been going quite well actually!” Fluttershy looked down at her list. “I came across two creatures while I was coming back from Zecora’s.”
“‘Creatures?’ Like what?” Twilight scrunched her nose, thinking. “Breezies? Manticores? Chimeras?”
“Oh no.” She shook her head, giggling. “Nothing big like that. They said they are changelings. Thorax is a complete sweetheart, and Pharynx however doesn't exactly trust me yet, but—“
“Hold on, changelings? I’ve never heard of those.”
“Oh...I was actually hoping you’d know, since I only learned of them today…” Weird. Even Twilight of all ponies hasn't heard of a changeling. Her wings twitched nervously, unsure of what else to think. The purple unicorn suddenly became very excited, her striped tail flick back and forth.
“Do you mind if I come over to your house later?” she asked, her nose pressed against Fluttershy’s. Then, she quickly backed off. “You know... for research! If there is no knowledge about changelings then I need to know as much as I can. Maybe do some offhoof studying. Do you think the Golden Oak— no I’ve looked through all the books and not one had anything to do with changelings. Perhaps I can ask Celestia! Oh please can I come over?”
“Um...” Fluttershy glanced over at Angel, who lay across her back lazily. The white bunny shrugged, not caring. Shaking out her pink mane, she looked over to her friend. “How about after I finish my shopping? Then we can head over to my cottage.”
Twilight kept an eager grin as she nodded. Chuckling, Fluttershy continued through the market, the purple unicorn excitedly trotting after her.
“So, you said their names were Pharynx and Thorax?” Twilight levitated a notebook and quills, juggling to them above her head.
“Mhm.” The yellow pegasus nodded, trotting along the path back to her cottage. In her mouth was a net full of small sardines and a carp, which she had managed to bargain from a griffon at the market. Lots of yelling, but she somehow managed to only lose twenty bits rather than fifty. “Twilight, I do have to tell you, Thorax is fairly energetic, and I haven’t managed to get Pharynx to talk yet...so I don’t know how much you are going to get out of them.”
“Duly noted.”
The winged mare sighed, smiling as they approached her doorstep. She knocked lightly, letting the two changelings know she was home.
The sound of rustling paper and light hoofsteps were muffled by the door. “Fluttershy?” called a familiar voice.
She laughed. “Yes, it’s me.” With a careful hoof, she unlatched her lock, pushing through the entrance. The little changelings were laid on her couch, while a scatter of paper and crayons littered the floor.
“Aww,” Twilight cooed, stepping towards Thorax. “You are adorable!”
The cyan changeling backed up a bit, biting his lower lip. Quickly, he hid behind his friend, pressing up against the back of the couch. Pharynx slit his eyes open, violet eyes glaring at the two mares.
Fluttershy cleared her throat. “Thorax, Pharynx, this is my good friend Twilight! She’s really excited to meet you two.”
“Huh?” Thorax nervously chittered, buzzing his wings in spurts. “Why?”
Her purple eyes shined. “I’ve never heard of a changeling before, let alone met one. I would love to ask some questions about your home life, diet, perhaps your hierarchy, really anything!”
Pharynx growled, baring his teeth. Twilight quickly sat up straight, a sheepish grin plastered her face. “...Maybe a little too upfront.”
Clearing her throat, she began again. “Hi! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m excited to meet you.”
With her magenta magic, she levitated a small notebook out of her saddlebag, along with a feathered quill. “I hope you don’t mind. Tell me everything you are comfortable with!”
The cyan changeling looked uncertain, looking back at his friend. Pharynx rolled his eyes, shrugging.
“Um...I guess I could do that...”
“Great!” Twilight opened her notebook, flipping through the pages until she reached an untouched paper. “So, you are changelings; do you...for a lack of a better word, ‘change’ in any way?”
“Uh...yeah we can disguise ourselves as many things.”
“Is there a limit to what you can transform into?”
“Not really, just some disguises are harder to keep up than others.”
“Interesting...” She jotted something down in her notes, pursing her lips. Thorax still had his ears flattened, to which Fluttershy gently rubbed his hole-ridden hoof. Cyan eyes looked around the room as Thorax nervously clicked.
“Are you ok?” Her concern laced her voice. This questioning seemed to make Thorax very uncomfortable.
The changeling bit his lip. “I’m fine!” he assured, smiling. She had a worried frown but didn’t press further.
Twilight didn’t seem to notice. “I notice you guys seem to take after bugs, so do you guys run the same way? Do you guys live in a beehive? Do you have a queen? What’s the social hierarchy? Oh, and do you guys go through metamorphosis as butterflies do?”
He perked up at one of the questions. “Um...we do metamorphose when we are five months old. We hatch as grubs, and we don’t do anything other than feed at that age. It’s when we cocoon and grow our wings and limbs that we are of use to our hive. W-we...do have a queen but...it’s forbidden to refer to her by name...or talk about her for that matter, so...”
The lavender unicorn hummed, writing down everything she heard. “So...about your diet: Fluttershy told me you feed off of emotions, but you also seem to eat plenty of meat. I just want a clarification on that.”
“Emotion is our main source of food. We take it from either a living or non-living thing and it gives us a lot more energy than hunting for meat and stuff. Uh...we can eat anything, really, but love and happiness are the most nutritional and fill us up more than anger or sadness.”
“Hmm.” While she wrote it down, she levitated a small sticky note and stuck it on the page. “Curious, curious...so about your—“
“Twilight?” Fluttershy muttered, catching the unicorn mid-sentence. “I think Thorax and Pharynx are getting tired, I should probably get them to sleep soon.”
“Huh?” Twilight was so caught up in her questions she didn’t register the sentence. “Oh! Yeah, yeah, you should get them to sleep. I guess I have enough information right now, bookmark this...probably send a letter to Celestia...”
As she continued to jot down words in her notebook, Fluttershy gingerly picked up Thorax by the back of his neck. She made sure the small changeling clung on tightly as she placed him on her back, moving her wings to create a barricade he couldn’t fall out from. Pharynx followed after her, his hooves trailing behind the winged mare.
Trotting upstairs, Fluttershy felt Thorax relax against her shoulder. She was right; the little changeling was getting worked up over the questions. Though she may not know why, she did not press for details.
Instead, she let the changeling breathe, smiling as they entered her bedroom.
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Okay Twilight, take things slow. They're too young to know much of the stuff you're asking. Well, Pharynx probably knows, but he's not talking.
Excellent job, again, on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Greatly enjoyed Fluttershy explaining as much as she could to Twilight before she met Thorax and Pharynx and then Twilight HERSELF admitting that she might have gotten a bit too excited about meeting (to her) a new species and asked too many questions. But still, glad Twi is taking this so well for the time being.
On to the next chapter.
Umm thorax I know you're young and very curious changeling but that's called tempted faith
Ok Twilight I know you're very excited for knowledge about new things but you got to come down they're just kids but at least thorax open up to questions again pharynx it's just having some trust issues and I guess because he's in a new area that he's not familiar with but I wonder do they know that their brothers well I guess we'll find out next
Eh, a few errors, a traitorous barricade...
But overall, really enjoyed it!
Grade A Purple Smart characterization, here.
Also, as a minor tip, you do have occasional typos littered around. My advice is to try out Grammarly. It's an app and/or Chrome/browser extension that tracks, lists, and offers corrections for your errors based on your sentence context, which means it is 1000x times better than the inherent browser spell check, which only checks for word misspellings. It is totally free for basic grammar and typos! The paid version does even more than that, but totally not necessary. It is a lifesaver for me.
10643362
I already use it, but going back to this chapter and seeing all the errors...I think I just completely forgot about spell check when I wrote it
Ah yes, this was before Twilight mellowed down with questioning when she gets the chance to learn something new. She used to be excited...well, she's still excited, but she did show less restraint back in the early seasons.
Pharynx is about to commit a warcrime!