The Past and the Present

“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.