Harbingers of Chaos

A few days passed, with Arach doing little more than reading and getting used to her new form. She quickly realized that she could transform emotion directly into magical power, and so decided to be careful with her spellcasting, in case she starved herself before she was ready.

No-one had seen her, apart from various texts she had sent out. Luckily, she had transformed during a break from work, giving her plenty of time to hone her skills.

She had also quickly discovered an ability to see in the dark, and was already well-versed in Changeling transformation magic. As such, she had regained her old form, with nothing to betray her new nature.

It appeared that hands could channel magic much like a unicorn's horn: A green... coloration, similar to on the show, covered the hand down to the wrist whenever magic was cast. The coloration moved about on it's own as well, almost sharing the physics of fire, with the direction of the wrist being the constant direction of 'down'.

Something nagged at Arach's mind for the first day, before on the second she just dropped everything she was doing and stepped to the center of the room she was in, closing all curtains and returning to her true form.

She closed her eyes, inhaling softly as a thick green goop began to seep out of the holes on her limbs, causing her to sigh. Something was just... Fulfilling about doing this. A strange desire to just... coat the room with the stuff had gripped her.

Her hoof moved through it easily, though through primal instinct she knew that any non-changeling would get trapped within it.

Within the next two hours, every surface in the house other than the windows and anything electronic was coated, the curtains closed and the room dim.

The house quickly grew warm and humid.. But in a pleasant way. The Changeling quickly grew to enjoy and revel in the dark and damp place, only briefly thinking about the correlation between this and the optimal location for bacteria...

Arach smiled, though there was a hint of nervousness to it.

"I knew this day would come..." She thought, exhaling as she consumed the last piece of emotion that her human half had wastefully left wafting around. For some reason, she couldn't feed on the emotion from other houses, or even sense it as she had once tried...

She smiled softly, walking over to a window and peering out of a crack in the curtains "My power has grown, I think... I am ready." She said to herself, closing the curtain.

She was living on the outskirts of a small town, relatively far from civilization. A perfect place for a new hive, she had theorized.

Wordlessly, she left the building, being consumed by green fire, blinking as she put on the form of a pale man, clothed in some of her old clothing.

She smirked down at the form she was taking. It felt... right. Right to be disguised like this in public...

She began to walk down the path to her neighbor, before deciding to walk past the house and enter the town. Mere happiness and the other spectrum of emotions would not do... While they were delicious, some primal part of her knew that love... Was exquisite. Not necessary, but a luxury.

She tapped into her 'empathy sense', as her book had called it; Something that all changelings have, allowing them to sense the emotions of nearby beings, even consume it discreetly.

Quickly, she began to walk towards her target; A couple of two, eating at a bar. Deeply in love... A perfect meal.

She entered the bar and blended into the crowd after taking a simple glance at the couple, already feeling the mass of emotion around her, silently tapping into it to fuel herself.

This had the effect of raising her mood, causing her to smile gently as she ordered a drink. Silently watching a conversation between two drunk men, while keeping tabs on the couple through her empathy sense.

Some small part of her protested, thought that what she was doing was disgusting and immoral... How wrong it was. These humans... They were so... simple. Undeserving of the freedom that currently graced them, nay, this was not their place at all.

Their true place was at her hooves, as her eternal food and slaves.

The barkeeper returned with her drink, dragging her out of her thoughts and giving her a smile. "That'll be three pounds." He said simply, as she sensed his boredom and yet small happiness.

She smiled, handing him the money, along with an additional two pounds for a surge of happiness. Money would soon be worthless to her, after all.

She looked down at the beer she had ordered with a smile, raising a hand to grasp it.

Beer... Some would question the value of getting drunk while attempting to replace a family member, but to her it made perfect sense.

The two were drinking non-alcoholic drinks, and she knew just the thing to get one of them tipsy, and dull their senses.

She pretended to take a sip, before lowering the glass to her side, with a smile, putting one hand in her pocket.

Some may have noticed a dull green glow coming from her pocket, but they were either too intoxicated or distracted to pay it heed; Or they may have even have thought that it was some form of technology.

In actual fact, she was separating and evaporating the alcohol from all other things in the beer, before magically guiding the vapor to the drink of the male of the couple.

Once done, she noticed their drinks were nearly finished, and so raised her glass and drank, subtly evaporating some of the now non-alcoholic beer in order to finish it faster.

She finished just in time, and placed her cup on the counter as the couple did, smirking to herself as they both got up at the same time.

She let them leave first, knowing one of them to probably be a little drunk, following after them silently afterwards, walking into a back alley when they weren't looking.

No-one noticed the green glow coming from the alley for a second, and nobody noticed the butterfly leaving the alley and flying after them, high in the sky. Watching them... Waiting for the perfect moment to strike.