Creepy ponies

Ben awoke to someone poking him in the ribs. He opened his eyes to see Jeff.

"Hey, E.J said that we need to go to the store." Jeff said as Ben sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Why both of us?" He asked.

"You're the only one who has money." Jeff answered. "And, it would be pretty boring to go by myself."

Ben stood up and sighed. "I guess you're right."

Jeff led Ben outside, handing him the shopping list.

"Keep up if you can." Jeff said as he took to the skies.

Ben chased after him. "Since when can you fly?"

"Since I taught myself." Jeff answered, slowing down and hovering over Ben.

"You actually learned how to fly by yourself?"

"Yep." Jeff landed next to Ben. "It was really easy once I worked the kinks out."

"Well, congratulations."

Jeff flew over to a tomato stand. He smiled and poked a few of the tomatoes.

"Jeff, tomatoes aren't on the list." Ben told him.

"I know." Jeff said, sniffing a tomato. "I just wanted to look at these."

Ben smiled and facehoofed. "You're such an idiot sometimes."

"Either buy one or leave." They both heard the voice of the tomato salespony. She was looking at them, annoyed.

"Sorry." Jeff backed away with a sheepish smile on his face. He turned away and made his way to a stand selling cabbage.

"Since when do we eat cabbage?" Ben asked.

"Since bacon dropped off of the face of the earth." Jeff replied, grabbing a cabbage and putting it in his hoodie pocket.

"Are you paying for that?" The salespony asked.

"Yeah." Jeff answered, nodding to Ben.

Ben levitated his hat off of his head and took a few bits out of it.

"What else do we need?" Jeff asked.

"Celery, potatoes, oranges, apples and some cherries." Ben answered as he placed his hat back on his head, looking at the list.

"This is gonna take a while." Jeff said, sighing.

*****

The two made it back home after about 10 more minutes. Jeff made it to the laptop before Ben could. Ben was a bit surprised at Jeff's sudden interest in gaming. He was even more surprised that Jeff was suddenly good at video games. He also hadn't complained at all while they were out, even though he was the one carrying everything. It seemed very unlike him. For a moment Ben wondered about it, but he shrugged it off, deciding that it wasn't as odd as he thought it was.

"Hey Ben, I see you're back." They turned to the stairs to see E.J.

"Hey E.J." Ben greeted.

"Hey Jeff." E.J glared at Jeff as he spoke.

"Hey, what's up?" Jeff asked as if E.J wasn't acting strange at all.

E.J didn't respond, but his glare intensified. Despite the mask, they could tell.

"What's up with you?" Ben asked.

"What do you mean?" E.J turned to Ben, the hostility disappearing from his voice.

"Why are you so pissed at Jeff all of a sudden?"

"It's nothing that concerns you." E.J responded, turning back to Jeff, glaring.

Jeff looked up and stared back with his usual derpy looking smile. The two stared at each other for a while. "Whatcha staring at?" Jeff asked. "Like what you see or something?"

E.J raised a hoof as if he were about to hit Jeff, but put it down and started walking away. Before he reached the stairs he turned back. "Don't bother talking to me again, as far as I'm concerned, you and your family are dead to me."

"Alright, fine by me." Jeff turned back to the computer, unfazed.

"Aren't you mad?" Ben asked, confused.

"Nah." Jeff opened up Pokemon Lost Soul Silver, the 4th generation version of Lost Silver.

"Why?" Ben blinked in surprise. "He just insulted your family, your dead family."

"They're dead, it's not like they'd care." Jeff said, shrugging.

"B-but, what about Liu?" Ben asked, very confused. He could understand Jeff not caring if E.J had just insulted his parents, but he said family, and that meant Liu as well. Jeff usually teared up just at the mention of his brother, this should've given him a mental breakdown.

"Who?"

Ben nearly fell off of the couch in surprise. "What do you mean, 'who'?"

'Who's Liu?" Jeff asked.

Ben couldn't believe what he'd heard. Jeff cared about his brother almost more than life, this didn't make any sense. "J-Jeff."

Jeff turned to him. "Yeah?"

"Liu is your brother." Ben said, not sure what to think.

"Brother?"

"H-how do you not remember him?"

"Well, you said that he's dead, so I must have not been able to see him."

"You visit his grave every year on the anniversary of his death." Ben told him.

"I do?" Jeff sounded a bit worried at this point.

"Yeah, and when you're not at the graveyard you lock yourself in your room and cry."

Jeff looked scared for a moment, then his expression was neutral. "So, what do you think?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You really haven't put two and two together?" Jeff set the laptop on the arm of the couch and stood up. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Ben was silent as he stared at Jeff.

Jeff sighed. "Fine, if you insist, then I will." After he was finished he transformed into something else. It looked kind of like a bug pony. It was black and light reflected off of it's exoskeleton. It had wings and a horn, it's wings were very bug-like. It's eyes were light blue.

"What are you?"

"A changeling drone from the Chrysalis hive." It answered. It's voice had changed.

"Where is Jeff." Anger and fear suddenly coursed through him. "What did you do to him?"

"My associates kidnapped your friend and took him to our hive, he is in the care of the guard drones and his fate rests with our queen."

Ben glared at the changeling and leaped at it. He hit it repeatedly, or he tried to. He was levitated off before he could land a single punch.

The changeling held him above it's head. "I will take you to the hive and have another drone replace you."

"No!" Ben kicked the changeling in the face, causing it to drop him.

Before Ben could attack it again, it transformed into a pony Ben had never seen before and ran out the door.

Ben tried chasing after it, but it was gone by the time he got out the door. He went back into the house, his anger fading away into fear. Where was Jeff? What were they doing to him? He looked up to E.J's room. E.J had known about Jeff's kidnapping, he would be able to explain this. Ben just hoped that E.J would be willing to answer his questions this time. He ran up the stairs and knocked on E.J's door.

"Ben, what's wrong?" E.J asked as he saw him.

"You knew about the changeling kidnapping Jeff." Ben stated. "That's why you seemed to hate Jeff."

"Yes." E.J stepped back, making room for Ben to enter. "I will answer any questions you have."

"Where are they keeping Jeff?" Ben asked.

"In their hive."

"Where is that?" Ben didn't want to waste any time, he just wanted to get there, get Jeff back and have the elements of harmony take care of the changelings.

"If I knew then I would have rescued him." E.J answered, sitting down on his bed.

Ben sighed and sat next to him, deciding that if he couldn't help Jeff at the moment then he would at least of E.J answer some other questions.

"So, what made you notice?"

"He didn't know who Liu was." Ben explained.

"I see."

"How did you first figure it out?" Ben asked, expecting E.J to tell him about the conversation in his room from the other day.

"Well, I couldn't feel any emotion from him, so I knew it wasn't really him."

"You couldn't feel any emotion from him?" Ben echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, right, you don't know about changeling abilities." E.J said. "Well, changelings feed off of positive emotions from ponies, that's how that changeling was able to stay here so long." He began to explain. "He was feeding off of the positive emotions you have for Jeff."

Ben was about to object and say that he didn't have that many positive emotions for Jeff. E.J spoke again before he could.

"You know what I mean, Ben." He said, sounding unamused. "You two are good friends, but, unfortunately for Jeff, nothing more."

Ben looked away. "I know, it's just that you make a lot of shipping jokes."

"Indeed I do, but now isn't the time."

"That still doesn't explain why you should be able to feel his emotions." Ben said, trying to steer away from the topic of shipping.

"Oh, right, that."E.J sighed. "You see, I'm a hybrid, pony and changeling."

"But you weren't born a pony, you were born a human." Ben pointed out, confused.

"I used to be a hybrid of human and changeling." E.J explained.

"How?" Ben asked. "Changelings are creatures that belong to this world, humans are from a whole different demention."

"My parents never bothered to explain how it was possible, but it's the truth."

"So, you have changeling abilities?" Ben questioned.

"I have one, and that's the ability to feed off of emotions."

Ben nodded, understanding.

"Do you have any more questions?"

Ben sighed and looked out E.J's window. "No, not really.

"You should rest, then, because we're searching for the hive tomorrow."