The Past and the Presentby MIdnightLovesScootalooChaptersChapter One: That white Pegasus mareChapter Two: With the Purple hairChapter Three: Search for her everywhereChapter One: That white Pegasus mareI nervously step onto the porch and raise my hoof to knock when the door opens. I am a little surprised that the door opened before I could knock, but I just guess that this ‘Aurora’ Pinkie Pie mentioned, was simply a magician. I hear a voice, soft and sweet, call out “Hello? Who’s There?” and I see a pristine white pegasus mare with dark blue hair, and clear, topaz eyes in the doorway, “umm...,” I am dumbstruck by her appearance, I recover quickly though and ask, “Miss Aurora I presume?” She looks a little flustered by that question, and responds with, “Yes, that’s me. What’s this about?” I let my eyes gaze lazily about while I try to come up with a good reason for showing up, eventually I sigh defeatedly before deciding that it is too cold to be having this discussion outside, “Yes, about that, may I come in?” She looks at me unsurely for a second, as if trying to figure out the best way to reject me, before replying, “Sure, it’s getting cold out, so I don’t blame you.” Now that I think about it, spending a cold night in my tent sounds like a terrible idea. well that could have gone worse. She holds the door open for me, shutting and locking it behind me, before leading me down the hallway and into what appears to be the living room. As I walk down the hallway, I automatically tense and search for hostiles, I eventually mentally berate myself for this, and step into the living room behind her. I notice that her mark is a starry rainbow, my gaze lingers on her flank for a moment, before she stops moving, and asks, “So, what is this about? you never actually answered my question.” Shehas pretty flanks, I think from nowhere, feeling heat suffuse my cheeks, “I have no real idea, I was walking home after visiting a friend, and she jumps me, shoves me in this direction, and tells me to go to Aurora’s house, she even gives me an address. I am too scared of her to ignore her, so here I am.” am I really that long winded? I hope not. “I don’t know how much help I can be if you need anything, so make yourself at home, stay as long as your like, “ Aurora responds. Maybe she understands that mare better than I do. I begin trying to figure out why Pinkie would send me here, I don’t come up with anything, so I try harder, still nothing comes up, eventually I am broken from my thoughts by a question, “What’s wrong?” I stop moving, realizing I was pacing, again, and turn to face Aurora, “Nothing is wrong, I just pace out of habit,” I quickly think up a lie to convince her, “I had to pace a dirt floor once, and I never got out of the habit,” I try not to sigh in relief when she seems to buy it. Her crystalline, blue eyes stare into my own, and she shudders slightly, before asking, “What is your name?” I am enthralled by her beautiful eyes, and answer, “MIdnight… MIdnight Muse.” “Midnight… I like that name, you have amazing eyes.” Yes a compliment, initiate hoofpump. I continue to stare into the clear depth of her eyes, replying, “As do you Miss Aurora.” Aurora looks away after a moment, blushing, before shaking her head and asking, “Can I get you something to drink?” I continue pacing, and ask for a water. “You know you can sit on my couch, right? Your pacing is starting to worry me,” she walks towards the kitchen, and begins getting a couple glasses of water. I walk over to the couch and lay down on it, I find that it is cotton filled, a most curious thing for a pegasus to have in her house, whatever. I think I can have some fun with this, “If you insist, Miss Aurora.” I sigh, sounding disgruntled. I can’t see her from here, but I am sure she is flustered, I try hard not to chuckle and succeed, “I do, thank you,” She sounds very controlled, not as happy as she did earlier, SUCCESS! I think to myself, and have to wipe the grin off my face a second later when she walks back into the room, carrying a couple glasses of water, she sets one in front of me and says “Here,” She keeps the other, sitting down next to me. I accept the water and drink it sparingly, not wanting to fluster her too much and get kicked out, “Thank you, Miss Aurora,” “It’s okay, you can just call me Aurora.” she requests. “As you wish, Miss Aurora.” The flustered has been doubled, Huzzah! “Stop it!, Aurora is fine, really.” she insists, tossing a playful punch at me, my jumpy nerves don’t let it connect though, and I instead duck the punch, and push my head back up over her leg, pulling her off balance, I am about to hit her with a lightning quick strike to the nerves in the back of her leg, when I register what I am doing, and release her, feeling very embarrassed at what I almost did. “Excuse my behavior, Aurora, I was not expecting that, and surprises don’t end well for me.” That could not have gone worse. She surprises me by blaming herself, “No, I shouldn’t have done that, we don’t know each other all that well. I am sorry, it was my fault.” I stare at her in disbelief, “It’s not your fault, you attempted to mess with me, your intent playful, and I almost hurt you because of it. I am sorry for my actions, and I hope you can forgive me.” "I can forgive you, because you did nothing wrong. I'm to blame, and there's no way you can convince me otherwise." she sounds insistent enough that I am not going to argue, even if she is wrong. “You have a self-blame problem,” I state, matter-of-factly. “And it was my fault, you are an innocent pony, and I am a mass-murderer with only the argument of justice to lighten my burdens, the weight of another mistake would be unnoticed among the many others I have made. You have never had to deal with the turmoil that comes from killing hundreds of your own, even if they intended to take thousands.” By the end of my pity-party/speech/thing, Aurora is curled up on the far side of the couch, sobbing quietly, “You know, you have shown me more kindness than most ponies would, if it’s any consolation, ponies tend to avoid me, either from my armaments, my eyes, or my gaze, whichever they see first, they never take the time to say hello, never try and understand how one being could have so much presence, never even try to barter when I go to market. Well, I think I should take me leave now, I don’t want to trouble you further.” She keeps crying, but says "N-no... Stay..." I am surprised by this, most ponies try to make me leave their presences, “Really? After all I have done? After I reduced you to a dribbling mess you want me to stay? Thank you.” "Yes. Because you remind me of my brother." She seems to have difficulty with the last word, so I decide not to press that. “Be happy that there are few things you remind me less of than my own brother,” I state solemnly. "What's that supposed to mean?" “You have a soul.” I don’t say anything for a minute, remembering all the dark things he has done, ponies killed, towns slaughtered, Mares raped, tortured, and killed all in the name of his self-righteous ‘cleansing’ of the world. Aurora didn’t need to know about that. I continue, “We aren’t here to talk about the dark depths of our pasts, are we?” She shakes her head a little and stares at the floor. “Well then, why are we just sitting here then? We aren’t even talking. Why don’t we make a list of things to talk about, and we can just cross items off the list until we have on- no, that’s a bad idea, and it would take forever. Well, let’s try thinking of things we can talk about, not past, or family…” I trail off, giving Aurora a moment to voice any suggestions she might have. She doesn’t do anything, but her tears slow considerably and she looks back at me, waiting for me to continue, “When was the last time you ate something? I have time, bits, and an appetite, so why don’t we go get something to eat?” She looks happier now, and surprised, “Are you… Are you asking me out?” Now she looks excited, and curious. I smile, happy that I was able to cheer her up, “If that is what you want to consider it as, go ahead.” I wink, informing her of her answer, and idly comb my mane with a brush from my bags. “Yes,” She whispers, smiling happily now, almost beaming. “Well then, let’s not dillydally,” I return Aurora’s smile and lead her down the hallway and out of the house. Once we step outside Aurora steps beside me and leans against my left side, “I just hope it doesn’t storm too bad… “ Let’s see how good my acting is. I mock indignance, tap my horn with my left hoof, causing it to fizzle with green fire, and ask, “I hope you aren’t implying that I am so improficient with my magic as to be unable to keep us warm and dry.” She tenses and looks at me with worry, “I-I never meant anything like that!” Maybe a little too good. “I was just messing with you, I am not offended, Besides most unicorns probably couldn’t keep themselves warm, much less two warm and dry,” I stiffen a little at unicorn, trying hard to hide my disdain at the word, which I am pegged with so often. She seems to notice, despite my best efforts, “W-what’s wrong?” She looks like she still thinks she insulted me. “Nothing of concern, just some bad karma, but it has passed.” I forcibly relax, and stare into the distance, remembering just how much of a bitch karma was. She looks away, obviously not satisfied with my answer, before suddenly turning and kissing me on the cheek, blushing lightly. I smile, she is such a nice mare, and give her a surprise of my own by draping a previously hidden, bug-like wing over her back and pulling her closer against my side. Aurora doesn’t seem too surprised by this, she must have seen my fangs and promptly figured that I might have unusual anatomy, or something along those lines, “There’s so much about you that I’ll never know, isn’t there?” She asks, causing me to flush slightly with embarrassment. “I was expecting a different reaction, my kind are usually ill treated, confused with another, less civilized species,” I clear my throat before continuing, “And yes, there probably is, but trust me when I say there is a lot about me you don’t want to know.” I smile, hoping to look like Celestia does when she lectures me on collateral damage and the danger I pose to Equestria. I teleport to her other side, ignoring the decent sized drop in my reserves, and drape my other wing over Aurora. She climbs onto my back as soon as I teleport, and states, “I’m tired of walking.” “Isn’t it a little early to be mounting?” I deadpan with practiced ease. “No, It’s too early for you to be mounting me, not the other way around,” She replies, in her own deadpan, while adjusting herself on my back I shrug a little, careful not to knock Aurora off, and decide to mess around a little, “As you wish Milady,” I pose dramatically, and charge, continuing down the path, “FOR NARNIA!” I shout as a battle cry, laughing hard as I race down the path for a few more feet, before spreading my wings and flying towards Cloudsdayle, no particular restaurant in mind. Chapter Two: With the Purple hair“This is fun… I’ve never been able to fly without having to concentrate on flying,” Aurora says in my ear, her arms wrapped over my shoulders. “Well, by simply letting you enjoy flying, I have to work extra hard. you can ride air Midnight sometimes, but don’t make a habit of it,” I say, while keeping my voice even, in truth I don’t really notice her extra weight, but a double pony isn’t aerodynamic. She stiffens for a moment, and spreads her own wings, before loosening up and flapping in time with my slow and steady wingbeats, “Oh, sorry, I… I’ll help you by flapping my wings as well.” I fly a little easier, but Aurora doesn’t weight that much, being a pegasus, and also due to her pegasusness, her aerodynamics are decent at the very least, “Thank you Aurora, however that is unnecessary as we have almost arrived at Cloudsdayle,” I climb to the cloud ceiling, and stretch my wings out fully, gliding towards the city. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a burden.” “It’s okay, You don’t weigh as much as some of the other ponies I have had to carry,” I land on the edge of the main road, fold my wings, and begin walking towards the middle of the city. “I really am sorry,” She continues to apologize, folding her own wings and shifting on my back. “It’s fine Aurora, really, just forget it. Now to locate food…” I trail off, and continue walking towards the center, eying a few restaurants as we pass them. "No, I should have asked you before I climbed onto your back, and I'm sorry that I didn't..." “Aurora, If I wasn't comfortable with it, I would have said something about it. Now why don’t you stop worrying and help me find somewhere to eat?” We arrive at a plaza ringed with restaurants and eateries. “I don’t know what I want… Surprise me.” I decide to mess with her, and teleport a blindfold and earplugs over her ears and in her eyes, respectively. I then walk into a pizza parlor, I get us a booth near the front window, and order some waters for us, "Well, you didn't have to do that, you know..." The waters arrive a few minutes later, and I order us some pizza. “You know I’ll be able to smell the food when it comes, right?” I use my telekinetic abilities to move a glass of water to Aurora’s lips, and hold it there for her while she drinks, before allowing it to be pushed away. I stretch my abilities, and using my changeling half, telepathically speak into her mind, “Not if they prepared my food as I asked... Are you disabled, can you not take the glass of water? And the food is here, so it doesn’t matter.” She seems a little steamed at my disability comment and replies, “Well, I can’t see the water, so I can’t hold it. Unless you place it in my grip. I continue using my telepathic abilities, “If you insist.” I add some salt, pepper and hot sauce to her drink, mix it, and press the glass into her wing. “Thank you” she replies, slowly trying to bring the glass to her lips. “Three and a half inches to the left, Aurora,” I try not to laugh at her inability to drink without sight or hearing. “Thanks,” She moves the glass to the left, but overdoes it, and ends up with the water too far to the other side. Struggling not to facehoof, I guide the glass to your lips, and slowly tilt it, “Just let me git it for you.” “I-I can do it,” She protests. I continue to stretch my telepathic abilities, “You have already proven that you need at least three of your senses to drink water.” “Y-yeah, but I have three… Touch, smell, and taste. Hey, why does this water smell kinda strange?” She grabs the drink with her left wing, and holds it up to her muzzle “Because Humans, that’s why.” Aurora tilts the glass of water back and takes a large sip, before spitting it everywhere and coughing, "Ack! What the heck?!" I struggle to remove her blindfold and earplugs while laughing hard, rolling off of the booth and onto the floor. She glares at me for a moment before commenting, “If you weren’t such an interesting stallion, I wouldn’t have forgiven you for that.” I chuckle a bit, and reply, “With the way I have been bringing down the mood, we needed some entertainment.” She continues to glare at me, “Entertainment for you maybe, but-” I cut her off, “But FOOOD,” Good timing too, the food arrives, it’s pizza, because everypony, no everyone likes pizza. Aurora shakes her head and begins eating a slice, “Nevermind, let’s just eat.” I stick a hoof in my mane, dig around for a moment, and pull out a package of pepperoni, before placing several slices on about half of the pizza, and eating it, “Ah, the delicacy of processed pig guts,” I wink at her disgusted look and eat a slice. “Eww… How can you eat that?” She seems thoroughly disgusted. Whatever. “By being half changeling. What? You think these fangs are just for show?” I joke, eating a third slice and watching her apparently struggle to eat her own. “Y-you don’t eat ponies, D-do you?” I look at her with a serious, dry look and reply, “Are you dead?” “No, but if I were, would you eat me?” “Half Changeling, as in half pony. No I am not a cannibal.” I try to imagine what pony would taste like. Nasty I decide, all the sugar and fat they eat. Eww, and that would technically be cannibalism. Now Aurora looks curious, “I thought Changelings fed off love, not meat.” “Did Changelings write your biology books, or did Royally funded, sheltered professors who have probably never even seen Changelings write them?” I ask, smiling with a grin designed to emphasis my fangs. Aurora shrinks back in fear. I might have taken that too far, but what I am saying is important, “If I seriously wanted to eat you. I would have taken the back entrance into your house and ended you there, or I would have waited for you to go to sleep and killed you then, or I would have killed you when you punched me. or would have dropped you when we were flying. or poisoned your food when you were blindfolded, or simply killed you when you were blindfolded. or simply shot you in the head," I gesture to the silenced pistol holstered on the inside of my front left thigh. Stupid, illogical, paranoid, ponies. She hides her head in her hooves and shakes, unable to speak. "Is something wrong? If you were appalled by my physical attributes, or my armaments you would have fled long ago, is something bothering you Aurora?” She doesn’t respond, so I walk around her, and hold her in my wings, while tossing sufficient bits to cover our tab on the table. After I do that, I carefully slide Aurora onto my back, and walk her home. She cries the whole way home, and when I get her to the couch she curls into a fetal position and cries, “Do you want me to move you to your bed?” I ask, and she replies by shaking her head slightly, I move around her, turning so I can look directly into her eyes, and say, “I am going to leave for a moment. I will be right back.” I step away for her, and prepare myself for a long distance teleport, when she clenches her eyes shut and carefully reaches a shaking hoof out to me, trying to grab me. I stop what I am doing and walk over to her, grabbing her hoof, and pulling Aurora in for a tight hug, “Yes Aurora?” She holds me close against her chest and cries into my shoulder, leaning heavily on me, I stand still and hold her, waiting for Aurora to calm down. She doesn’t stop crying for a good fifteen minutes, so I eventually carefully push her onto the couch, face her, and say, "Aurora listen to me, here is what we are going to do. I am going to walk you into your room. and you are going to sleep. I will wait on the couch. and when you get up, you are going to tell me what is wrong.” Aurora shakes her head and grabs me with her hoof again, “I wasn’t asking.” I state, and pick her up carefully, before carrying Aurora to her bed, She clings tightly to me as I walk down the hallway, After I set Aurora down, I attempt to carefully extract myself from her embrace, when she refuses to let go, I sigh and hold Aurora until she sleeps. Once she is asleep, I try to escape to the couch again, and get all the way to the hallway, before I hear a thud, turn, and see you had fallen onto the ground while attempting to follow me, I pick you up, set you on the bed, and crawl on next to you, I sit, contemplating timey whimey, mumbo jumbo for a moment, before placing my patented tripwire spells on every entrance to the room, more from habit than thought, and fall asleep beside you. Chapter Three: Search for her everywhereI wake up the next morning to one of the alarms blaring into my consciousness, Instantly rip out my knife, and scan the room. I see Aurora attempting to sneak out of the room. staring at me. I wink at her, and get up. I try to follow her into the kitchen, but she locks the door behind her, so I dig around in my mane, and pull out a flathead screwdriver, and a paper clip. A few minutes and a heavily bent paper clip later, the door is open. I grin triumphantly and announce, “Finally, I get to open another one, it’s been a while since I needed to do that, or could.” She gives me a withering look, and says, “Go sit on the couch, Midnight.” I’m having none of that, she had a bad night, I’m gonna cook, “But you had a trying night, and you need to rest, Allow me to make some food… I know a recipe for chocolate covered cereal.” I add the last bit as an afterthought. “Go sit down. After last night, I owe you this at least.” So insisting, so losing. I grin, and with my best evil grin, I Levitate her, I love how light pegasi are, After carefully placing her onto the couch, I turn back to the kitchen. “Midnight! Let me do this for you,” She calls, sounding somewhat frustrated. I ignore her demands, and reply in the most foalish way possible, “Not listening, Lalalalalalalalalalalalala…” She stops trying to speak over my singing, so I stop doing it, and blow a raspberry at her, before begging to prepare said cereal, getting out the Milk, chocolate chips, and powdered sugar, “Pfft.” so mature, hah. I finish preparing the cereal, and make a bowl for each of us, I then sit at the kitchen table, wait for her to walk over, and begin eating. Aurora watches me eat for a minute, before she gets a pained expression, and pushes her bowl away, “Not hungry…” Definetly not because of the jerky… Celestia I love jerky. I look across at her, giving her a flat expression, “What? There is no meat in yours, I wouldn’t want to deal with a sick, emotionally unstable mare.” “Not. Hungry,” She repeats, much more forcefully, but still almost whispering, I see tears forming in her eyes. I shrug, and finish my cereal, before eating hers, once I finish, I look her in the eyes and say, "Alright I am not waiting any longer. You are going to eat something, anything, and then, you are going to tell me what made you break down last night, and there is no getting out of it." She looks a little insulted, and she begins crying as she turns and walks out of the kitchen silently. I concentrate and levitate an apple out of the pantry in front of her, “Eat, now.” I insist, but she pushes the apple out of her way, and keeps walking. I move the apple back in front of her, “You will eat the apple, or I will crush it and teleport it into your stomach.” well, the back of her throat, but she doesn’t need to know that. She ignores me, walks to the door of her room, turns, glares at me, challenging me to follow her, and steps into her room, slamming the door. I hear heavy furniture being moved in front of the door. “Sometimes, I should think out threats before I make them.” I say to myself, quietly, before magically crushing the apple into a thick sludge, and teleporting the paste into the back of her throat, bit by bit, my honor demanding I do so, even if I shouldn’t, I can always apologize later, and by the moon I will, until she forgives me. After I finish teleporting the whole apple, I walk around the house and check all of the windows leading out of her bedroom, before applying my magical tripwire spell to them, Don’t want to drive her out of her own house, and I don’t want her to get hurt. She could always ask me to leave anyways. I walk back into the living room, and sit on the couch, playing a game of sudoku I dug out of my mane, I never understand how I do this. After a minute, and one completed puzzle, I hear a crash from the bedroom, followed by one of the alarms going off in my head, it sounds like an alarm clock beep, beep, beep, SHADDAP. I teleport into the room, pulling my trusty knife out and looking around. I see a note on the bed, it’s crinkled and tear-streaked, it reads. “Dear Midnight, I need to be alone for a while. Don't bother looking for me. You won't be able to find me. Signed, Aurora" I see a pile of mush that must have at one point been the apple in a corner, I chuckle a little, while crying a little I’m an idiot, well, at least I’m an honest idiot. After a moment to collect myself I fly out the window, following Aurora’s slight lilac scent, and the slight trail of drag behind her. I follow the trail into the Everfree forest, and curse her choice of direction, after a while the trail begins to fade, several minutes later I hear a scream from somewhere to my north, so I follow it.
Chapter One: That white Pegasus mareI nervously step onto the porch and raise my hoof to knock when the door opens. I am a little surprised that the door opened before I could knock, but I just guess that this ‘Aurora’ Pinkie Pie mentioned, was simply a magician. I hear a voice, soft and sweet, call out “Hello? Who’s There?” and I see a pristine white pegasus mare with dark blue hair, and clear, topaz eyes in the doorway, “umm...,” I am dumbstruck by her appearance, I recover quickly though and ask, “Miss Aurora I presume?” She looks a little flustered by that question, and responds with, “Yes, that’s me. What’s this about?” I let my eyes gaze lazily about while I try to come up with a good reason for showing up, eventually I sigh defeatedly before deciding that it is too cold to be having this discussion outside, “Yes, about that, may I come in?” She looks at me unsurely for a second, as if trying to figure out the best way to reject me, before replying, “Sure, it’s getting cold out, so I don’t blame you.” Now that I think about it, spending a cold night in my tent sounds like a terrible idea. well that could have gone worse. She holds the door open for me, shutting and locking it behind me, before leading me down the hallway and into what appears to be the living room. As I walk down the hallway, I automatically tense and search for hostiles, I eventually mentally berate myself for this, and step into the living room behind her. I notice that her mark is a starry rainbow, my gaze lingers on her flank for a moment, before she stops moving, and asks, “So, what is this about? you never actually answered my question.” Shehas pretty flanks, I think from nowhere, feeling heat suffuse my cheeks, “I have no real idea, I was walking home after visiting a friend, and she jumps me, shoves me in this direction, and tells me to go to Aurora’s house, she even gives me an address. I am too scared of her to ignore her, so here I am.” am I really that long winded? I hope not. “I don’t know how much help I can be if you need anything, so make yourself at home, stay as long as your like, “ Aurora responds. Maybe she understands that mare better than I do. I begin trying to figure out why Pinkie would send me here, I don’t come up with anything, so I try harder, still nothing comes up, eventually I am broken from my thoughts by a question, “What’s wrong?” I stop moving, realizing I was pacing, again, and turn to face Aurora, “Nothing is wrong, I just pace out of habit,” I quickly think up a lie to convince her, “I had to pace a dirt floor once, and I never got out of the habit,” I try not to sigh in relief when she seems to buy it. Her crystalline, blue eyes stare into my own, and she shudders slightly, before asking, “What is your name?” I am enthralled by her beautiful eyes, and answer, “MIdnight… MIdnight Muse.” “Midnight… I like that name, you have amazing eyes.” Yes a compliment, initiate hoofpump. I continue to stare into the clear depth of her eyes, replying, “As do you Miss Aurora.” Aurora looks away after a moment, blushing, before shaking her head and asking, “Can I get you something to drink?” I continue pacing, and ask for a water. “You know you can sit on my couch, right? Your pacing is starting to worry me,” she walks towards the kitchen, and begins getting a couple glasses of water. I walk over to the couch and lay down on it, I find that it is cotton filled, a most curious thing for a pegasus to have in her house, whatever. I think I can have some fun with this, “If you insist, Miss Aurora.” I sigh, sounding disgruntled. I can’t see her from here, but I am sure she is flustered, I try hard not to chuckle and succeed, “I do, thank you,” She sounds very controlled, not as happy as she did earlier, SUCCESS! I think to myself, and have to wipe the grin off my face a second later when she walks back into the room, carrying a couple glasses of water, she sets one in front of me and says “Here,” She keeps the other, sitting down next to me. I accept the water and drink it sparingly, not wanting to fluster her too much and get kicked out, “Thank you, Miss Aurora,” “It’s okay, you can just call me Aurora.” she requests. “As you wish, Miss Aurora.” The flustered has been doubled, Huzzah! “Stop it!, Aurora is fine, really.” she insists, tossing a playful punch at me, my jumpy nerves don’t let it connect though, and I instead duck the punch, and push my head back up over her leg, pulling her off balance, I am about to hit her with a lightning quick strike to the nerves in the back of her leg, when I register what I am doing, and release her, feeling very embarrassed at what I almost did. “Excuse my behavior, Aurora, I was not expecting that, and surprises don’t end well for me.” That could not have gone worse. She surprises me by blaming herself, “No, I shouldn’t have done that, we don’t know each other all that well. I am sorry, it was my fault.” I stare at her in disbelief, “It’s not your fault, you attempted to mess with me, your intent playful, and I almost hurt you because of it. I am sorry for my actions, and I hope you can forgive me.” "I can forgive you, because you did nothing wrong. I'm to blame, and there's no way you can convince me otherwise." she sounds insistent enough that I am not going to argue, even if she is wrong. “You have a self-blame problem,” I state, matter-of-factly. “And it was my fault, you are an innocent pony, and I am a mass-murderer with only the argument of justice to lighten my burdens, the weight of another mistake would be unnoticed among the many others I have made. You have never had to deal with the turmoil that comes from killing hundreds of your own, even if they intended to take thousands.” By the end of my pity-party/speech/thing, Aurora is curled up on the far side of the couch, sobbing quietly, “You know, you have shown me more kindness than most ponies would, if it’s any consolation, ponies tend to avoid me, either from my armaments, my eyes, or my gaze, whichever they see first, they never take the time to say hello, never try and understand how one being could have so much presence, never even try to barter when I go to market. Well, I think I should take me leave now, I don’t want to trouble you further.” She keeps crying, but says "N-no... Stay..." I am surprised by this, most ponies try to make me leave their presences, “Really? After all I have done? After I reduced you to a dribbling mess you want me to stay? Thank you.” "Yes. Because you remind me of my brother." She seems to have difficulty with the last word, so I decide not to press that. “Be happy that there are few things you remind me less of than my own brother,” I state solemnly. "What's that supposed to mean?" “You have a soul.” I don’t say anything for a minute, remembering all the dark things he has done, ponies killed, towns slaughtered, Mares raped, tortured, and killed all in the name of his self-righteous ‘cleansing’ of the world. Aurora didn’t need to know about that. I continue, “We aren’t here to talk about the dark depths of our pasts, are we?” She shakes her head a little and stares at the floor. “Well then, why are we just sitting here then? We aren’t even talking. Why don’t we make a list of things to talk about, and we can just cross items off the list until we have on- no, that’s a bad idea, and it would take forever. Well, let’s try thinking of things we can talk about, not past, or family…” I trail off, giving Aurora a moment to voice any suggestions she might have. She doesn’t do anything, but her tears slow considerably and she looks back at me, waiting for me to continue, “When was the last time you ate something? I have time, bits, and an appetite, so why don’t we go get something to eat?” She looks happier now, and surprised, “Are you… Are you asking me out?” Now she looks excited, and curious. I smile, happy that I was able to cheer her up, “If that is what you want to consider it as, go ahead.” I wink, informing her of her answer, and idly comb my mane with a brush from my bags. “Yes,” She whispers, smiling happily now, almost beaming. “Well then, let’s not dillydally,” I return Aurora’s smile and lead her down the hallway and out of the house. Once we step outside Aurora steps beside me and leans against my left side, “I just hope it doesn’t storm too bad… “ Let’s see how good my acting is. I mock indignance, tap my horn with my left hoof, causing it to fizzle with green fire, and ask, “I hope you aren’t implying that I am so improficient with my magic as to be unable to keep us warm and dry.” She tenses and looks at me with worry, “I-I never meant anything like that!” Maybe a little too good. “I was just messing with you, I am not offended, Besides most unicorns probably couldn’t keep themselves warm, much less two warm and dry,” I stiffen a little at unicorn, trying hard to hide my disdain at the word, which I am pegged with so often. She seems to notice, despite my best efforts, “W-what’s wrong?” She looks like she still thinks she insulted me. “Nothing of concern, just some bad karma, but it has passed.” I forcibly relax, and stare into the distance, remembering just how much of a bitch karma was. She looks away, obviously not satisfied with my answer, before suddenly turning and kissing me on the cheek, blushing lightly. I smile, she is such a nice mare, and give her a surprise of my own by draping a previously hidden, bug-like wing over her back and pulling her closer against my side. Aurora doesn’t seem too surprised by this, she must have seen my fangs and promptly figured that I might have unusual anatomy, or something along those lines, “There’s so much about you that I’ll never know, isn’t there?” She asks, causing me to flush slightly with embarrassment. “I was expecting a different reaction, my kind are usually ill treated, confused with another, less civilized species,” I clear my throat before continuing, “And yes, there probably is, but trust me when I say there is a lot about me you don’t want to know.” I smile, hoping to look like Celestia does when she lectures me on collateral damage and the danger I pose to Equestria. I teleport to her other side, ignoring the decent sized drop in my reserves, and drape my other wing over Aurora. She climbs onto my back as soon as I teleport, and states, “I’m tired of walking.” “Isn’t it a little early to be mounting?” I deadpan with practiced ease. “No, It’s too early for you to be mounting me, not the other way around,” She replies, in her own deadpan, while adjusting herself on my back I shrug a little, careful not to knock Aurora off, and decide to mess around a little, “As you wish Milady,” I pose dramatically, and charge, continuing down the path, “FOR NARNIA!” I shout as a battle cry, laughing hard as I race down the path for a few more feet, before spreading my wings and flying towards Cloudsdayle, no particular restaurant in mind.
Chapter Two: With the Purple hair“This is fun… I’ve never been able to fly without having to concentrate on flying,” Aurora says in my ear, her arms wrapped over my shoulders. “Well, by simply letting you enjoy flying, I have to work extra hard. you can ride air Midnight sometimes, but don’t make a habit of it,” I say, while keeping my voice even, in truth I don’t really notice her extra weight, but a double pony isn’t aerodynamic. She stiffens for a moment, and spreads her own wings, before loosening up and flapping in time with my slow and steady wingbeats, “Oh, sorry, I… I’ll help you by flapping my wings as well.” I fly a little easier, but Aurora doesn’t weight that much, being a pegasus, and also due to her pegasusness, her aerodynamics are decent at the very least, “Thank you Aurora, however that is unnecessary as we have almost arrived at Cloudsdayle,” I climb to the cloud ceiling, and stretch my wings out fully, gliding towards the city. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a burden.” “It’s okay, You don’t weigh as much as some of the other ponies I have had to carry,” I land on the edge of the main road, fold my wings, and begin walking towards the middle of the city. “I really am sorry,” She continues to apologize, folding her own wings and shifting on my back. “It’s fine Aurora, really, just forget it. Now to locate food…” I trail off, and continue walking towards the center, eying a few restaurants as we pass them. "No, I should have asked you before I climbed onto your back, and I'm sorry that I didn't..." “Aurora, If I wasn't comfortable with it, I would have said something about it. Now why don’t you stop worrying and help me find somewhere to eat?” We arrive at a plaza ringed with restaurants and eateries. “I don’t know what I want… Surprise me.” I decide to mess with her, and teleport a blindfold and earplugs over her ears and in her eyes, respectively. I then walk into a pizza parlor, I get us a booth near the front window, and order some waters for us, "Well, you didn't have to do that, you know..." The waters arrive a few minutes later, and I order us some pizza. “You know I’ll be able to smell the food when it comes, right?” I use my telekinetic abilities to move a glass of water to Aurora’s lips, and hold it there for her while she drinks, before allowing it to be pushed away. I stretch my abilities, and using my changeling half, telepathically speak into her mind, “Not if they prepared my food as I asked... Are you disabled, can you not take the glass of water? And the food is here, so it doesn’t matter.” She seems a little steamed at my disability comment and replies, “Well, I can’t see the water, so I can’t hold it. Unless you place it in my grip. I continue using my telepathic abilities, “If you insist.” I add some salt, pepper and hot sauce to her drink, mix it, and press the glass into her wing. “Thank you” she replies, slowly trying to bring the glass to her lips. “Three and a half inches to the left, Aurora,” I try not to laugh at her inability to drink without sight or hearing. “Thanks,” She moves the glass to the left, but overdoes it, and ends up with the water too far to the other side. Struggling not to facehoof, I guide the glass to your lips, and slowly tilt it, “Just let me git it for you.” “I-I can do it,” She protests. I continue to stretch my telepathic abilities, “You have already proven that you need at least three of your senses to drink water.” “Y-yeah, but I have three… Touch, smell, and taste. Hey, why does this water smell kinda strange?” She grabs the drink with her left wing, and holds it up to her muzzle “Because Humans, that’s why.” Aurora tilts the glass of water back and takes a large sip, before spitting it everywhere and coughing, "Ack! What the heck?!" I struggle to remove her blindfold and earplugs while laughing hard, rolling off of the booth and onto the floor. She glares at me for a moment before commenting, “If you weren’t such an interesting stallion, I wouldn’t have forgiven you for that.” I chuckle a bit, and reply, “With the way I have been bringing down the mood, we needed some entertainment.” She continues to glare at me, “Entertainment for you maybe, but-” I cut her off, “But FOOOD,” Good timing too, the food arrives, it’s pizza, because everypony, no everyone likes pizza. Aurora shakes her head and begins eating a slice, “Nevermind, let’s just eat.” I stick a hoof in my mane, dig around for a moment, and pull out a package of pepperoni, before placing several slices on about half of the pizza, and eating it, “Ah, the delicacy of processed pig guts,” I wink at her disgusted look and eat a slice. “Eww… How can you eat that?” She seems thoroughly disgusted. Whatever. “By being half changeling. What? You think these fangs are just for show?” I joke, eating a third slice and watching her apparently struggle to eat her own. “Y-you don’t eat ponies, D-do you?” I look at her with a serious, dry look and reply, “Are you dead?” “No, but if I were, would you eat me?” “Half Changeling, as in half pony. No I am not a cannibal.” I try to imagine what pony would taste like. Nasty I decide, all the sugar and fat they eat. Eww, and that would technically be cannibalism. Now Aurora looks curious, “I thought Changelings fed off love, not meat.” “Did Changelings write your biology books, or did Royally funded, sheltered professors who have probably never even seen Changelings write them?” I ask, smiling with a grin designed to emphasis my fangs. Aurora shrinks back in fear. I might have taken that too far, but what I am saying is important, “If I seriously wanted to eat you. I would have taken the back entrance into your house and ended you there, or I would have waited for you to go to sleep and killed you then, or I would have killed you when you punched me. or would have dropped you when we were flying. or poisoned your food when you were blindfolded, or simply killed you when you were blindfolded. or simply shot you in the head," I gesture to the silenced pistol holstered on the inside of my front left thigh. Stupid, illogical, paranoid, ponies. She hides her head in her hooves and shakes, unable to speak. "Is something wrong? If you were appalled by my physical attributes, or my armaments you would have fled long ago, is something bothering you Aurora?” She doesn’t respond, so I walk around her, and hold her in my wings, while tossing sufficient bits to cover our tab on the table. After I do that, I carefully slide Aurora onto my back, and walk her home. She cries the whole way home, and when I get her to the couch she curls into a fetal position and cries, “Do you want me to move you to your bed?” I ask, and she replies by shaking her head slightly, I move around her, turning so I can look directly into her eyes, and say, “I am going to leave for a moment. I will be right back.” I step away for her, and prepare myself for a long distance teleport, when she clenches her eyes shut and carefully reaches a shaking hoof out to me, trying to grab me. I stop what I am doing and walk over to her, grabbing her hoof, and pulling Aurora in for a tight hug, “Yes Aurora?” She holds me close against her chest and cries into my shoulder, leaning heavily on me, I stand still and hold her, waiting for Aurora to calm down. She doesn’t stop crying for a good fifteen minutes, so I eventually carefully push her onto the couch, face her, and say, "Aurora listen to me, here is what we are going to do. I am going to walk you into your room. and you are going to sleep. I will wait on the couch. and when you get up, you are going to tell me what is wrong.” Aurora shakes her head and grabs me with her hoof again, “I wasn’t asking.” I state, and pick her up carefully, before carrying Aurora to her bed, She clings tightly to me as I walk down the hallway, After I set Aurora down, I attempt to carefully extract myself from her embrace, when she refuses to let go, I sigh and hold Aurora until she sleeps. Once she is asleep, I try to escape to the couch again, and get all the way to the hallway, before I hear a thud, turn, and see you had fallen onto the ground while attempting to follow me, I pick you up, set you on the bed, and crawl on next to you, I sit, contemplating timey whimey, mumbo jumbo for a moment, before placing my patented tripwire spells on every entrance to the room, more from habit than thought, and fall asleep beside you.
Chapter Three: Search for her everywhereI wake up the next morning to one of the alarms blaring into my consciousness, Instantly rip out my knife, and scan the room. I see Aurora attempting to sneak out of the room. staring at me. I wink at her, and get up. I try to follow her into the kitchen, but she locks the door behind her, so I dig around in my mane, and pull out a flathead screwdriver, and a paper clip. A few minutes and a heavily bent paper clip later, the door is open. I grin triumphantly and announce, “Finally, I get to open another one, it’s been a while since I needed to do that, or could.” She gives me a withering look, and says, “Go sit on the couch, Midnight.” I’m having none of that, she had a bad night, I’m gonna cook, “But you had a trying night, and you need to rest, Allow me to make some food… I know a recipe for chocolate covered cereal.” I add the last bit as an afterthought. “Go sit down. After last night, I owe you this at least.” So insisting, so losing. I grin, and with my best evil grin, I Levitate her, I love how light pegasi are, After carefully placing her onto the couch, I turn back to the kitchen. “Midnight! Let me do this for you,” She calls, sounding somewhat frustrated. I ignore her demands, and reply in the most foalish way possible, “Not listening, Lalalalalalalalalalalalala…” She stops trying to speak over my singing, so I stop doing it, and blow a raspberry at her, before begging to prepare said cereal, getting out the Milk, chocolate chips, and powdered sugar, “Pfft.” so mature, hah. I finish preparing the cereal, and make a bowl for each of us, I then sit at the kitchen table, wait for her to walk over, and begin eating. Aurora watches me eat for a minute, before she gets a pained expression, and pushes her bowl away, “Not hungry…” Definetly not because of the jerky… Celestia I love jerky. I look across at her, giving her a flat expression, “What? There is no meat in yours, I wouldn’t want to deal with a sick, emotionally unstable mare.” “Not. Hungry,” She repeats, much more forcefully, but still almost whispering, I see tears forming in her eyes. I shrug, and finish my cereal, before eating hers, once I finish, I look her in the eyes and say, "Alright I am not waiting any longer. You are going to eat something, anything, and then, you are going to tell me what made you break down last night, and there is no getting out of it." She looks a little insulted, and she begins crying as she turns and walks out of the kitchen silently. I concentrate and levitate an apple out of the pantry in front of her, “Eat, now.” I insist, but she pushes the apple out of her way, and keeps walking. I move the apple back in front of her, “You will eat the apple, or I will crush it and teleport it into your stomach.” well, the back of her throat, but she doesn’t need to know that. She ignores me, walks to the door of her room, turns, glares at me, challenging me to follow her, and steps into her room, slamming the door. I hear heavy furniture being moved in front of the door. “Sometimes, I should think out threats before I make them.” I say to myself, quietly, before magically crushing the apple into a thick sludge, and teleporting the paste into the back of her throat, bit by bit, my honor demanding I do so, even if I shouldn’t, I can always apologize later, and by the moon I will, until she forgives me. After I finish teleporting the whole apple, I walk around the house and check all of the windows leading out of her bedroom, before applying my magical tripwire spell to them, Don’t want to drive her out of her own house, and I don’t want her to get hurt. She could always ask me to leave anyways. I walk back into the living room, and sit on the couch, playing a game of sudoku I dug out of my mane, I never understand how I do this. After a minute, and one completed puzzle, I hear a crash from the bedroom, followed by one of the alarms going off in my head, it sounds like an alarm clock beep, beep, beep, SHADDAP. I teleport into the room, pulling my trusty knife out and looking around. I see a note on the bed, it’s crinkled and tear-streaked, it reads. “Dear Midnight, I need to be alone for a while. Don't bother looking for me. You won't be able to find me. Signed, Aurora" I see a pile of mush that must have at one point been the apple in a corner, I chuckle a little, while crying a little I’m an idiot, well, at least I’m an honest idiot. After a moment to collect myself I fly out the window, following Aurora’s slight lilac scent, and the slight trail of drag behind her. I follow the trail into the Everfree forest, and curse her choice of direction, after a while the trail begins to fade, several minutes later I hear a scream from somewhere to my north, so I follow it.
