Dual Natured Change

I woke up early. It was still dark outside my window, but the lack of sleep didn't bother me much. I was focused. I needed to feed if I was going to keep up this facade without looking like an emotional train wreck. I gathered my courage and left my room quietly.

The town was completely different at night. The once busy and colorful streets were eerily empty and completely silent. Darkness covered the town, but thankfully the moon was bright tonight, providing the light I needed to make my way to Rusted’s house. The trip was slow. I had to make sure no one would see me. I stuck to the shadows, and sometimes clouds, flying over the more densely populated areas.

The better part of an hour was gone before I reached his property. I peered through a window in the house, still just as messy as before, looking for any sign of him. There he was, sleeping soundly on the floor, his covers trailing behind him. He must have rolled off the bed in his sleep. I couldn't imagine being able to sleep through something like that. Maybe the fall killed him; I giggled to myself at the thought. What a horrible way to go.

I made my way around the house to the door. I pushed lightly, and with a solid click the door gave way, sending me to the ground with my ears covered. In the dead silence of the night that small click was deafening. I pushed myself against the wall, all my hairs standing on end, listening for any sound to come from the inside of the house. A small steady tick of a clock, some small scratching sounds as the wind blew tree branches against another wall, but nothing that would make me fear he was awake.

I held my breath as I pushed the door further open. I waited for the eventual creek but, to my surprise and relief, none occurred. The door swung open smoothly and I slipped inside as soon as I had enough room. He was still laying there, a stupid grin across his face. He really had no worries at all, did he. I walked carefully over to him, using caution to keep my movements steady as I dodged around the clutter on the floor. I could feel it again as I slowly approached him, yet I still could not wrap my mind around it. How could he care about someone he just met?

It didn't matter, this was my chance. I closed my eyes and started the process.

It’s hard to explain how we feed. It comes so naturally to a changeling. Imagine knowing someone so well you think a thought right before they do. It’s kinda like that, only with emotions. Once it begins, a chain reaction occurs and their emotions become stronger and stronger until they start releasing it. However, something was different about this one.

I couldn't figure it out. I could feel it working, but another emotion was clouding it. This new one was not from him. Was it from me? It couldn't be because it was the same one as his, only- Aghh! This was wrong. My emotions are supposed to be sedated not growing stronger. I had to stop.

I glared at him in the darkness. What had he done to me? I have heard stories in the past of unicorns resisting before with their magic, but he was just a stupid earth pony. On top of that he was asleep! I took a few steps back away from him. Anger and confusion washing over me in intense waves. He shifted.

I couldn't move. Every bit of me to my core was stuck in this one moment. He kept moving, shifting into a more comfortable position, and just when I thought it was finally over, the worst thing that could have happened did.

Green sparks started igniting at the base of my hooves, breathing to life small flames that burned at the fur on my hooves in waves of cleansing, destroying the lie that I had been, leaving my true form in it’s wake. It was not a quiet process. Unlike normal changes that I had done plenty of times before, this one was violent. I let out a yelp, struggling to keep myself upright as my body fought off the gift that had been so unwantingly left by that bi- "Agghhh!" The pain reached its peak as the last of my old form was torn from me, leaving me panting, gasping for air.

I slowly picked myself up as the pain was replaced by a slight hum in my head. I brought a hoof to it rubbing the ache from my eyes. "At least I didn't pass out that time," I whispered to myself in a weird form of self encouragement.

"Mmm... Wha... Who's there?" I heard a sleepy voice ask just in front of me. Had he really just woken up? I was so stunned I couldn't react but I quickly regained my composure and lowered my hoof from my face just in time to see him look right at me.

I watched as his expression changed from confusion to hate. He knew what I was and I knew that only meant one thing; I'd have to kill him if I couldn't escape. I lowered the front of my body in perpetration of a fight, my fangs barred as a loud hiss escaped my throat. I tried my hardest to seem intimidating to him but his reaction was so fast it seemed like he wasn't fazed at all by it.

He jumped to his feet and wheeled around landing a kick into a small dresser sending it skidding across the floor toward me. I pounced up trying to clear it but I was slow, the dresser catching my hind leg sending me to the hard wood floor with a thud. The dresser crashed behind me. I looked back quickly to see it pushed up against the front door I had come in through. 'Just great, now I will have to kill him,' I thought to myself as I looked back at my opponent who was now armed with a fairly large hammer in his mouth. I stood to my hooves, my horn glowing a bright green and my wings fully extended. He wasn't going to catch me off guard again.

He ran at me, his hoof beats against the floor beat a tune of deliberation, steady and focused. He was aiming to destroy me. And that's when everything clicked. All the training I had undergone under my mother, all those magical lessons, finally everything I was taught in the hive had a purpose. I noticed a slight falter in his eyes as a smile darted quickly across my face. I was excited.

He swung his hammer early throwing it at me. My horn immediately grew brighter engulfing the hammer in a magical field of energy moving it slightly to the left and just missing my face as my focus changed to the pony running at me. I Grabbed one of his hooves in the field sending Rusted stumbling to the floor face first. I heard a cry of pain as landed, rolling a couple times and coming to a stop just in front of me. He didn't move as I stood over him my horn growing brighter than it ever has. This was it. I win.

"Why are you here?" He growled out, his head still laying on the floor, the only movement was that of his chest slowly rising and falling "You monsters can never have what we do, so you try to steal it." He lifted his head and looked me directly in the eye. "But you will never have what I do." His face was puffy and bruised from the fall, a small cut shining red across his forehead. "You can't ever feel what I feel!"

I stumbled backwards as a wave of emotion hit me. He was thinking about me! Or rather the Pegasus he had met. And I still couldn't feed off it! Extreme emotion hit me again and again making it impossible to think. My vision blurred as tears ran down my cheeks. What is wrong with me?

Voices could be heard outside Rusted's door. The commotion must have drawn a crowd. I looked back at Rusted but he was out, his head laying once again on the floor. I heard a sharp knock at the door. I had to get out of there. I focused my horn on a window and forced it open with my magic. I jumped threw and began running. I could hear ponies yelling at me but I just kept running.

I don't know how long I ran for. It had to have been daybreak by now but I couldn't tell in the thickness of the forest. Trees were scattered everywhere, along with various other plant life. Vines and ivy squeezed and choked the trunks and weaved them all together, making it hard to tell where one plant ended and another began. The density of the woods together with the thickness of the air made everything feel more crowded than it really was.

Weakness and fear consumed me as I fell to the dirt to rest. What happens to a changeling that can't feed? I had no idea. Only the worst theories came to mind. Maybe I would die. Maybe this will be my final resting place. I was too weak to change form again. No one will let me get close to them in this form. I could feel my heart thump against my chest, and in the stillness of the forest it was easy to focus on. The rhythmic beat slowly put my mind at ease, lulling me into a state of uninvited comatose.