Alternate Title: "Changeling Acid Trip"
I tell you love, sister, it’s just a kiss away- it’s just a kiss away…
(The Rolling Stones - “Gimme Shelter”)
The cafe was bustling with ponies that day. It was the end of a long work-week, and most ponies were getting ready for a relaxing weekend. Conversations mingled with each other, creating an almost deafening roar that would have been more so if it were not an open-air cafe.
Unseen, a presence weaved her way throughout the ponies who had gathered to partake of the cafe’s wares. Lorrie enjoyed this part of her daily quest for food: the hunt. It was the most exciting part of it all to her. Sure, it was good too when she actually found the right ponies and began the process of feeding off of their love, but to her the hunt was the best part of all.
She’d grown up with countless other Changeling siblings, most of them male, so naturally their coltish rambunctiousness had rubbed off on her from an early age.
Lorrie zeroed in on a couple that she’d seen at the cafe a few times before. Lovebirds, as some would call them. This particular cafe was a favorite spot of hers, due to the large volume of traffic flowing through it on a regular basis. She was always just about guaranteed to find a steady source of love to feed off of. This was the town’s “Lovers’ Lane” after all, and it wasn’t referred to like that for no reason.
As she approached the couple, though, she could sense that something wasn’t right. The looks they were giving each other were a bit more stern than the loving gazes they usually lavished upon each other, and the words they were using were a bit more to-the-point than normal. She knew exactly what was happening then: they were having an argument. She sighed, but kept heading towards them. She knew that they still loved each other in spite of what they were saying, and she hoped that their current hostilities would not get in the way of her feeding.
When she got close enough to sense their auras, she sat down on the ground, trying to get a sense for what she was dealing with. Luckily for her, though muted, she was able to get a lock on the love energies coming off of them. She began to happily feed off the love that they were emitting. She was always glad that her subjects never noticed any kind of leeching when she was feeding off of them, both because she didn’t want to get caught and because it would make her feel bad if they actually knew what she was doing. Because they remained oblivious, though, she didn’t have much of a problem with it.
With a grin on her face, she began the process of leeching off the couple. It took a minute to get it started because of the tensions in the air, but once she cut through those, it was a lot easier, and she could feel the energies flowing through her veins. It took only a few minutes to fully recharge herself, and she could tell that it didn’t take much away from their supply at all. Satisfied, she broke the link and started to walk around the cafe once more, enjoying the satiated feeling she now felt.
As she went from table to table, still invisible, she began to engage in another of her favorite past-times: eavesdropping on other ponies’ conversations. Naturally, she still gave no indication that she was there; no use in ruining the fun for anypony. Some of the conversations, of course, she didn’t really care about at all, but some she found to be rather entertaining.
Then, something caught her ear.
“Are you going to the Burning Pony Festival this year?” she heard. Something about this intrigued her, as she’d never heard of this festival at all, so she went over to the table where the voice had come from and began to listen intently.
“Of course,” the other pony at the table replied. “We go every year, myself and my organization do. And this year, it’s being held right here in Ponyville! Of all the places!” Both ponies were rather peculiar in appearance; one was female, the other male, with long, flowing multi-colored tails and manes twisted up into bizarre, colorful braids. She found herself more entranced by their appearance than what they were talking about, but that was soon to change.
“What is your organization called again? Somehow I can never remember the name.”
“We call ourselves the Free Love Group. That’s what we’re all about, after all: spreading the magic of friendship and love to everypony.” Lorrie’s ears burned at the mention of the name of the group? Free Love? This was something that she could get behind 100 percent, especially if it meant she could feed off the love of the group’s members as much as she wanted to.
She moved a bit away from the table and decloaked, using that opportunity to don the visage of a pony she’d seen once whom she hoped looked enough like the two ponies sitting at the table to not cause too much suspicion. Once her transformation had been completed, she looked around to see if anypony at all had noticed her suddenly appearing in the cafe. Nopony had. They were all too absorbed in their own conversations. Satisfied, she walked over to them.
“Excuse me,” she said. After she had their attention, she continued: “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation in passing, and I’m quite intrigued as to this festival you two are talking about. Can you tell me more about it?” They didn’t even question the fact that they hadn’t seen her pass at all; most likely, they assumed they’d been too deep in conversation to notice her.
“Sure!” the female one said. “Pull up a chair and we’ll tell you all about it!” Lorrie eagerly did so, though she was keen not to let on just how much this concept set all of her nerves ablaze.
“So we’re talking about the annual thing that we all go to, called the Burning Pony Festival. Basically, it’s a weekend where we do nothing but gather together and celebrate the common bonds that we have with one another. We do campfires, bonding exercises, and yes maybe even a little… pony-made substance-taking.” Lorrie assumed they were talking about drugs, but she just nodded and looked like she was interested, which didn’t take much work at all.
“So what do you think of us?” the male pony asked. “Do you find this interesting enough to maybe want to go this weekend? The festival is being held this year at the Ponyville Stage Grounds.” Lorrie knew exactly where that was; she’d been there a few weeks previous for an open-air concert put on by a pony named Octavia Melody. She’d left the event more than filled with love energies.
“Sure,” Lorrie replied. “And from what you’ve said, it sounds like it’s right up my alley. Say, what are your names?”
“Well,” the female replied, “I’m Starbright and my friend here is Dusty Roads.”
“Great to meet both of you,” Lorrie said. “I go by Moonbeam around here.” She pointed to the faux cutie mark she’d conjured up, of a full moon with beams of light going in all directions.
“Well, Moonbeam, I’m pleased to meet your acquaintance,” Starbright replied. “How about you come with us over to our house, and we can get you ready for tonight’s festivities?”
Lorrie smiled and nodded, and the three soon got up and went on their way. Great. Everything is going exactly as planned.
That night, Lorrie walked amongst the ponies who were gathered at the park. They were all dressed in similar attire, with intricate colors and patterns woven throughout. Lorrie found herself almost just as entranced by their dress than by anything else, including the smells. Speaking of…
“Um, Starbright,” she said, “what’s that smell? I’ve never smelled anything like it before.”
Starbright smiled. “Oh, that’s just something that we use to get more in-tune with nature and our surroundings. We call it mareijuana.” Lorrie had never heard of it, but the smell was almost getting to be overwhelming. She found herself feeling a bit light-headed as well.
“Mareijuana?” she asked. “I’ve never tried it before.”
“You will, before the night’s over with. We usually only do this for one day each year, but for that one day… Everything is perfect.” Starbright smiled. “Completely and totally perfect.” As they walked, Lorrie took the opportunity to sample from the auras of everypony around her, draining only a bit of love from each one that she came into contact with. That was all she had to do, really, as the sheer number of ponies in the area made it very easy for love to come by. And they all had it in such large amounts.
When they got to the largest tent in the park, Starbright turned to Lorrie and smiled. “This is where the real good stuff happens. I’m sure you’ll fit in with everypony just fine.” With that, they entered the tent. They were greeted by a rather intimidating pony with a tan coat and a cutie mark that looked like a prismatic spiral.
“Welcome to all of you!” he said in a deep, almost booming voice. “Here, have your complimentary gateway strip. It’s on the house!” They all took one, Lorrie a bit more reluctantly than her companions, and proceeded into the tent, where a group of ponies sat in a giant circle.
“What’s this about?” Lorrie asked when she and the other two ponies were seated. She noticed that they were the ones who had completed the circle.
“This is just an envisioning exercise,” Dusty replied. “A way to get in touch with your inner self and maybe even discover something about yourself that you never knew existed.” Lorrie had no idea what he was talking about, but she went with it anyways. She noticed that the ponies had placed the “gateway strips” on their tongues, so she did the same.
While she did so, she began once again siphoning off a bit of love from each of the ponies sitting in the circle. She began to feel strange, as though there were something inside of her that didn’t need to be there. She knew that it couldn’t be part of the love-taking, as it had never happened to her like that before. Her head felt lighter than it ever had before, and she began to see swirling patterns of colors at the corners of her eyes.
Wh...what’s happening? I feel so… weird. This can’t be good…
The swirling colors descended over her entire vision, blocking everything else out. She began to feel as though she was no longer even in her own body, but rather was floating above it somehow. Though she’d never experienced any of these sensations before, there was a part of her that begged for her to embrace it and run with it entirely, and against her better judgment this was the part of her that she chose to listen to.
Suddenly, she became aware of another presence, one that stood just on the outside of the peripheries of her vision. She turned her head to see who it was, but the being moved with the gyrations of her head, always staying just outside her field of view. Just then, a voice echoed in her head: “Hello, my daughter Lorascza.”
Lorrie recognized the voice immediately. “My Queen…! Wh-what are you doing here?”
“I’m not actually here.” Chrysalis giggled. “This isn’t actually happening. I’m just in your vision, because it appears I’m the one you wanted to see most.”
Lorrie sighed. “It’s true. I miss being at the hive. I know you sent me out for a reason, but… I miss everyling there. You, my brothers and sisters, even the ones who come to visit. I miss them all…”
“Do you remember why I sent you out?” Chrysalis asked.
Of course she did. “To find out why love is what we have to feed off of, instead of what everypony else feeds off.”
“And have you come to that conclusion yet?”
Lorrie thought about it for a second, then nodded. “It’s because love is the most powerful emotion in the world. And not only that, but it can never run out. As long as there are two beings left in the world as a whole, love will remain, and thus our food source will remain.”
“Very good,” Chrysalis said approvingly. “Every Changeling needs to find that out for themselves. Now, you may come back to the hive and retake your rightful place at my side- as soon as you come down from your acid trip, that is.” She giggled again. “It’s so fun watching Changelings drop acid for the first time…”
“So this is acid?” She’d heard of it, but never experienced it before. “And wait, how are you seeing all of this? You told me that you weren’t here.”
“I’m not physically here, in your vision. However, I am one of the ponies in the circle. Disguised, of course. And right now, you’re dancing around like a madpony. It’s rather intriguing, the patterns you’re making.” Lorrie could feel herself flush a deep crimson; was that actually what she was doing back in the real world?
Just then, she came to a decision. “I don’t even care. I just want this to continue for as long as it can.” She laid back and let the feeling wash over her again, and then she slipped into the abyss of thought once more.
