Changeling Protective Service

Dusk sighed as he sit in the middle of the basement, looking around at the various equipment that Twilight had pulled as he blinked. “Twilight, is all this really necessary?” He asked as she emerged from the closet with yet another scientific instrument.

Twilight nodded quickly as she went about setting up her laboratory. “Of course!” She said as she looked at the taller changeling, her eyes sparkling with the thought of knew knowledge. “You said so yourself, ponies have a disadvantage when it comes to changeling magic due to lack of knowledge!” She said quickly, giving a machine a thump with her hoof before it lit up, blinking.

He blinks again, before chuckling. “Are you sure your equipment will work on me?” He asks, a knowing gleam in his eyes.

Twilight nodded. “Why wouldn't it?” She asked as she tilted her head a little, confused.

He smiles as he shrugs. “You're the magic expert. You tell me.” He said as he leaned back a bit.

Twilight raised an eyebrow as she shrugged. “That's kinda the point of all the tests.” She pointed out, before depositing a helmet on his head. He winced slightly at the sudden weight on his head.

He nodded, watching the purple mare mess with some knobs for a moment, before she finally flipped the switch, looking back at the changeling with a smile.

He just smiled back, his eye never losing its gleam as the machine began to print out its findings Twilight quickly grabbed it and scanned over the initial results. Dusk's grin only grew bigger as her eyes grew wider, the paper slowly falling from her grip.

“Well? What do the results say, magic expert?” He asked in a teasing tone.

“The results say you don't have any magic.” She said slowly, disbelief in her voice.

“No magic?” He asked, blinking. “Okay, wasn't expecting that.” The changeling admitted as he took the helmet off, stepping over and looking at the results for himself as he laughed softly. “I told you, changeling magic is so different from pony magic, or even the ambient magic of the land.”

Twilight powered down the useless machine as she sighed. “Okay, I have to admit. I don't have an idea of where to start on this. Without any base points to start with and work out from, I can't do anything but guess and check.” She said, sitting down with a thump as she sighed again.

Dusk just stood there for a moment before laughing, loudly this time as he enjoyed what seemed to be a good joke, earning an angry look from miffed unicorn scientist.

“And just what, exactly is funny?” She asked, glaring at him as he wiped a tear from his eye before answering.

“Twilight, how much do you know about changelings?” He asked, sitting down with her.

“Not much. Once thought to be mythical, the only things we know for sure about... your kind is that they feed off of emotion and can transform themselves to look like anyone with only a thought.” She said as she easily remembered those two facts.

Dusk nodded as he flashed green, and when Twilight quickly regained her sight she was faced with the image of herself, sitting across from her. Dusk continued in Twilight's voice. “That's correct. Changelings can become anyone they want to, but it takes practice and doesn't just happen 'with a thought.'” He said as he did quotation marks in the air.

“And also correct is we feed of emotions. Ponies however make the wrong assumption of we need to change into someone and get the emotion that they would receive from a loved one. While that is faster, ponies let off enough ambient emotion that we almost never resort to that.” He explained, another flash of green changing him back into the white pegasus he favoured.

Twilight nodded, still being a little unnerved by the blatant display of changeling magic, not quite used to it yet. “Well, that's reassuring to hear, but that doesn't explain why changeling magic is so different from every other magic in the world.” She said, confused.

“Well, unfortunately that's advanced magic theory, and only a trained mage could tell you about that.” He said, rubbing his chin as he thought.

Twilight sighed as she rubbed her temples. “I figured as much.” She said sadly.

After a moment of seeing his charge being sad, he smiled as he continued. “Lucky for you, you happen to have a changeling mage right in front of you.”