Eighth Chapter
Equestria was a word that meant close to nothing to Thornton. He had no idea what it was in the slightest, nor did Reece from the look he received.
The zebra, Zecora, did most of the talking– or rather, rhyming. She really never stopped with that. It was probably a force of habit, the bug imagined. But rhyming or not, she did explain a few things to him. Equestria was the country they inhabited, in a world called Equus, which was, in simple terms, ruled by a bunch of talking mythical animals. Most of them were mythical anyway. Some, like the zebra, existed in the real world, and some, like he, the ‘changeling’, didn’t exist at all.
She must have told all of this to Reece before, because he didn’t speak up, and had a taste of emotion like he wasn’t as completely confused as Thornton was. No questions came from him, although no explanation did either. It was probably for the best anyway. How much could his brother know with just a few hours lead time?
Zecora though, did have questions, chief among them being the topic of ‘reformation’ and why he hadn’t done so yet. He had no idea what a reformation would entail outside of some church guy nailing his letter to a door. It seemed important with the slightly spicy, slightly herbal tasting seriousness she spoke with.
“To reform and change you must start by sharing the love within your heart.”
“I have no idea what the heck that’s supposed to mean,” he replied without hesitation. “What would reforming even do?”
“Allow your love to shine a light,” she spoke in rhyme, “that burns away shadows from being so bright. It might be easier if you were younger, but until you reform, you will hunger.”
The second she brought it up, he noticed his hunger again. It felt like he hadn’t eaten in a week, and needed something right now.
“Can you– do you have any food that we can have? And what do you mean I’ll be hungry until I reform? What does that mean?”
“Changelings like you must feed on love. For nutrition and energy and magic thereof. You must look into your heart and share your love with someone whom you deeply care.”
He had no idea what the heck that meant, and hated that this zebra was speaking in riddles. He loved his family, he guesses. As much as anyone else did their own. Shouldn’t that have been enough? He thought so.
Just like he could taste everyone else’s emotions, it was much easier now to read his own. He did love his family, truly, but it was more in the way that– well, the way that one would love their family. Family was family. You were supposed to love them. He certainly didn’t hate them, and knew he loved them enough to protect them if need be, but as the saying went, family was family. He had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be enough for him to do whatever the heck this zebra thought he should do, a particularly sharp hunger pain in his abdomen confirming that.
“If I’m a changeling,” he said, moving on, “then can I change? Well, I know I can change since I did it before, so I guess I’m asking more how do I change?”
“I’m but a zebra, so I cannot show. But you are a changeling. How do you not know?”
“It’s like I told you before,” Reece finally spoke up. “Thorn and I aren’t from here. We just woke up here in these bodies and don’t know anything. So if you could help us out a little bit, that would be great.”
“I spoke this before, so for you it is clear. Steer away from anger and no fire you’ll fear. But knowledge of changelings, I am not great. The process to change should be innate.”
Of course it was. And that was true, too, annoyingly, since he knew he turned into a human before without thinking about it. And a bug again, he guessed, while he was passed out. That made it annoying since he’d have to figure this out himself.
“Whatever. We can worry about that later,” he waved a hoof before Reece could ask another question. “Can you help us find our parents and sister? Is there any way to track them down?”
“We cannot leave yet. There is too much smoke. But do not worry. There is some hope. I sent a message that should be clear. In due time, Fluttershy will be here.”
It took Thornton a second to process what she was saying– all the rhyming was really messing with his head, combined with the knowledge of a language he shouldn’t have known. He hoped every creature in this world didn’t speak exclusively in rhyme.
“Who’s Fluttershy?” the bug asked. “And how the heck do I get whatever power I have to work?” He turned to his brother and asked, “How the heck did you turn on fire?”
“I don’t know. I was just angry about everything and it happened. I still am, but not as much now since we found someone.”
That made sense to the bug– the changeling, he now knew. When he was angry and frustrated before, Thornton remembered seeing some kind of smoke coming up from him. He wondered if he, too, would catch on fire if he got angry enough. Probably not, since Reece seemed like he could just completely ignore the fire and smoke while it caused Thornton to collapse.
“Do you think you could look for them?” he asked. “The fire didn’t seem like it was hurting you, and if I could change into something like you, then we could both get back without an issue."
“A noble idea, but one that’s quite unwise,” the zebra started again. “In the Everfree Forest, there are many a surprise.”
“Okay, then once again, who the heck is Fluttershy?” he asked. “And how the heck would they be able to stop from getting burned or killed by whatever those wolves were?”
“My friend, and a master of nature, she is. She can tame animals both small and big. And in forest navigation, she will not choke. Her directional skills are not a joke.”
“So what? We’re just supposed to stand around and hope our family is okay?” Reece didn’t say anything, but Thornton could tell he was thinking just about the same thing. There was anxiety mixed with frustration radiating off of him. The zebra had no such emotions, instead harboring something bordering on let-down and sadness.
“I am sorry, but it's for the best. For now, you should consider getting some rest.”
Rest was what the bug didn’t get. How the heck was he supposed to given the strangeness of everything that was going on? He probably wasn’t going to sleep for the rest of his life with how many questions he had. He didn’t ask any more though, instead allowing himself and Reece to be led to a small guest bedroom that had furniture like he’d see in an IKEA. How a zebra– or any animal outside of a primate– could have the dexterity to assemble such a thing, he had no idea. Maybe it was more stuff related to secret powers these creatures had. He and his brother had them. Why not others?
“How the hell is any of this happening?” he asked as he stood in front of the bed, his brother taking the chance to claim it for himself. “I’d ask if this was one long dream, but I just woke up twice, so what the hell?” What sort of impossible magic was at work here? Was there some scientific explanation for waking up in an alternate universe as animals, or just the wrath of an angry god who wanted to play with his creations?
“I asked that zebra while you were out,” Reece explained. “She doesn’t know, obviously, but she did talk about some sort of magical burst or something that she felt a while ago. It sounded like it happened when we showed up from her description. I don’t know what that means, but maybe it’ll be useful for later.”
He was going to make a sarcastic remark about having to rely on magic, but then remembered that none of this was even possible– at least, as far as he knew. It might as well have been magic that brought his family here. Why couldn’t magic take them back?
But right now, he didn’t really care about magic or learning the details of whatever world he inhabited. One thing was at the very forefront of his mind.
“Is it just me, or does it feel like you haven’t eaten in weeks, too?” he asked. “My stomach is killing me. It feels like I’m starving!”
“I feel fine, mostly,” he replied. “I didn’t have anything to eat all day except for that grass from earlier, but you threw that up. I’m sure there’s something for you though. We can ask the zebra since she knew what you were.”
“She said I feed on love, but I have no idea what the heck that means. How do you eat an emotion?”
He didn’t know, but he was eating emotions all the time. Even right now, he was getting the bland, but slightly sweet, taste of sympathy from his older brother without Thornton actually doing anything. It just came automatically, and almost made him feel a little less hungry. Did sympathy count as love? He didn’t think so, but it eased his hunger pains a smidge now and when Barney did it. He would take it.
“That. Keep doing that. I don’t know how, but that helps.”
“Keep doing what?”
“Feeling sorry for me. I don’t know what it is, but it’s making me feel less hungry.”
The sympathy was suddenly cut off by slightly bitter skepticism, and Thornton got a raised eyebrow in response to his comment.
“Well, it was helping, but now you stopped.” There was a pause as Reece remained silent, the taste of skepticism growing. “Can you not feel all of the emotions around you?” Thornton asked. “Or do only weird bugs have to taste it all the time?”
“I guess it’s just weird bugs,” his older brother replied. “I would say we need to make a plan, but I’m not really sure what we could do without getting ourselves killed. I watched that zebra send a message somewhere– at least, I think she did. She wrote it out on a piece of paper and then burned it in a candle and said it was heading to some girl named Twilight. It was a lot harder to read and make sense of than it was to just listen to her talk, but it basically said that the girl was gonna get some other girl named Fluttershy to come out here and help us. To do what though, I don’t know.”
“Neither do I. I just hope Mom and Dad and Denver are safe… and that I could find something to eat, because man, I am starving. I don’t look like it– well, I kinda do, I guess– but I feel like I’m skin and bones. And I have no idea what sharing love even means. Does that mean, like, finding a date? But that doesn’t make sense because your sympathy helped a little bit. Try hugging me.”
Maybe Thornton was a little bit telepathic, because he could tell without a change in facial expression or any words from Reece that he didn’t like that idea. Neither did the changeling, to be fair, but starving was starving, and he wanted to ease his stomach at least a little bit. It wasn’t something they could test out to ease his hunger right this second though, because all of a sudden, Zecora was calling into the room just a few minutes after sending them away.
“Come on out, your journey is nigh, because she is here, the pegasus Fluttershy.”
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I wondre what Fire Ant colonies would be like in the Everfree.
11718892
Ants in your pants would be even worse I'd imagine
Wait, I just realized something. How come Thornton and Reece can understand Zecora while their other family members couldn't understand Fluttershy?
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I'm sure he skipped that part.
11718955
Oh, so it was a potion. I thought he was so thirsty he couldn't speak.
Did you forget to finish that sentence?
11719443
Oof, that's embarrassing for me, but thank you for pointing it out. No idea how that happened in editing.
11718892
I think we all know it would involve lots of spontaneous combustion. Might as well keep going with the joke and look for Militia Ants, Homicidial Hornets, Clumsy Bees, Religious Mantus, and Springing Spiders... (Ok, that's enough puns)
11720233
Youve given me an idea, seeing canon Chrysalis make fakelings from tree branches, Im remmebering totally wrngly the possibility of something sort of like a Whumping Xanthus? A type of plant we get Xanthan Gum from, but like Potters Walloping Willow, not only is this thing extremely mobile, but thanks to Piers Anthony Magic getting confused, it can change form accross Xanth species etc, to bettre lure and the beat its dinner?
Well, what I want to say is that the story is pretty good and I'm waiting for the continuation. It's a little disappointing how easily the language issue was resolved, but come on. But the most important thing I want to say is that I really hope that it will not reform. I can't stand these colorful bugs from the series, so I really hope that he will remain a black changeling with holes, especially in the future it can open up a lot of interesting interactions, including, for example, with Chrysalis, which would teach him to get love, although I know perfectly well that our hero has only one ahead the road, namely the "reformation", I will never believe in my life that the author will decide on something so audacious as to leave him not reformed, a black-and-green changeling feeding on love.
The MLP changeling is based on the fae changeling, where the fae would steal the baby out of its crib with the mother being none the wiser to feed off of the mother's love.
An argument can be made that it is also based on succubi as well
Most if not all of the creatures in Generation 4 are based on real-world animals, some form of mythology, or are references to earlier generations.
Gee i don't know Thornton, do you think all the other mythical animals who seem to have a normal diet are fine tumed to feel and taste emotions in the same way the mythical animal who eats the aforementioned emotions?
Sorry if i'm ranting, but his lack of deductory skill was just grinding my patience
It feels like this family always had a little bit of a disagreement with eachother, and all this rapid change certainly does not help. I suspect Thorton will for a long while remain a black whelp.