Rose In The Teeth

Rose had just walked back from the river, and it was starting to get late. She still felt flustered, confused, angry, betrayed, more confused, and exhausted. Col was a changeling ever since they had met. The real Colgate by now was Celestia-knows what. She collapsed on the bed, and spent what seemed like an eternity just processing this information. Then, a slight squeak of the door hinges. She snapped her head to the door, her current look was of confusion, and saw Colgate.

"Drop the fur." Rose decided to stop trying, and just roll with it. It still took a bit of willpower not to do something violent.

"I know it's probably a lot to take in. I'm sorry it took this long to tell you."

"I feel like everything I knew in life had just been scorched, drowned, shattered, frozen, and incinerated. All I know any more is plants." Rose was completely emotionless. No tone or twinge of emotion in her face, body language, or voice. She got up, and went to the kitchen, not being able to face the changeling she had fallen in love with. The worst, most confusing part, was that she was even more in love with her now. What was her life right now? There was one thing her gaze passed over, it had helped her through her teen years, her parents' death, her first love shooting her down. Her tub of Aurora. A nearly impossible to grow volatile narcotic wonderdrug with healing abilities. She opened the tub, grabbed one of the flowers, and ate it. She instantly felt lighter. Things looked nicer, the fact that Col was a changeling didn't bother her as much, no more inhibitions, life felt better. Nothing hurt. One moment, she was broken, the next, she was content. She tipsily stumbled back to the changeling that was now in her living room.

"Heeeeyy, there." She put her arm around the rough surface that was the changeling's neck. "You know, I- I still, like, I still think your a nice pony but, you really- really pulled a bitch move. If I knew sooner, like, I'm open for ideas. I wouldn't have taken off you know." The Aurora was to the point where she was about to pass out. The last thing she managed out was "We shhould toootally esperiment with dos holes."

Rose woke up early, and felt a different feeling of a rough pony-shaped chitin snuggled up to her back. She almost freaked, but recalled yesterday. The changeling she knew as "Colgate" was snuggling up to her. Half of her said wake her, the other half said let her sleep. She listened to the prior. She got up from the bed, moving and waking the monster she loved so much. She had full, blue eyes.

"Hey, good morning." Said the changeling, an apologetic tone in her voice.

"I don't even know your name. Don't try to make this better within one day."

"I'm Lithid. It's Welsh for allure."

"Makes sense." Lithid opened her mandibles to retort, but probably decided that was a bad idea considering the situation.

"Uh, hey. What was up with you last night?" Awkward silence. "That came out wrong. I meant-"

"Aurora. Always helps me through rough patches."

"Uh, hey. I should probably elaborate on the whole changeling thing."

"Yeah, you don't say. Were you ever a detective?" You could tell when someone is withholding a punch when they bust out the angry sarcasm.

"Okay, okay. Calm down-"

"Don't you tell me to calm down!"

"Granted. Anyway, my old hive across the sea was invaded and my queen nearly destroyed herself turning into a dragon, so my old queen gave 3 of us something to help us survive. Then she sent us across the ocean to try to conquer our own hive. We ended up finding Chrysalis's hive, and she was in the middle of conquering you. I and one of the others saw the danger, and left. One, Kuno, stayed. No idea if she's still even alive. The other went her own way, I think she also ended up in ponyville. Colgate found me as, well, me, and she taught me a lot about dentistry, so I managed to fit into her job when the fire took her. I always fed on my patients. Ponies were repeating and getting stale, so I got out there." Rose had no Idea that a changeling could be so smart, but this one was from across the ocean.

"What did your queen give you to help you survive, exactly?" That made Lithid pause, and seemed flustered.

"Well, she made the other changelings give us any extra love sustenance, and we each ended up with about 10 years of it. After, of course, our queen who got anywhere between 20 and 25." Lithid seemed to be slightly uncertain at first, but Rose brushed this off as a nervous habit. However, she didn't drop it entirely, as it nagged the back of her head. Then, a question came to her head, and threw an appropriate glance.

"So, why did you stay here?"

"Because it was possible to sustain myself longer than anywhere else just from large strings of bypassers. Also, where ponies wouldn't be suspicious of me here, and the patients from surgery kept me going."

"Why wait this long to tell me?"

"I wanted to make sure you wouldn't leave me because of how I was made."

"It only makes sense that everyone should get a chance out there, I guess. It's understandable that you waited some, with the whole changeling bounty and all the anti-changeling byist circulating around, but we did it. TWICE! "

"I planned to try to say something after the first time."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyways, I thought I knew you inside-out. However, better late then letting me get a changeling detection lamp, I guess." They were silent for a while, and Rose was getting used to the whole Lithid/Colgate changeling thing more and more.

"Hey, uh, I don't want it too come off like your just some meal. I really couldn't live without this. The best love I could get would just be stale bread compared to Cookie Dough." Lithid seemed to effectively lighten the mood.

"Surprised you let the stuff near your teeth." A green flame enveloped the changeling, now as Col.

"I only did once, then I read what was in the stuff." They shared a lighthearted chuckle, but they had to return to the subject.

"Anyway, what do we do now?"

"You should probably just tend the shop, you seem like you need some time to think."

"I'm sure you have to had been a detective at some point." Rose wasn't exactly hiding the fact that this was a surprise of a surprise. Her knees were trembling, the smile was mock, and her mind was still in slight flustered disarray. "Anyway, I really should open the shop. Don't want to keep customers waiting." She turned, and grazed a wall on her way to the front. Once there, she flipped the sign on the door, and stood behind the counter.