Changeling Therapy 2: Dreams And Nightmares

Iridis had been unconscious for quite some time well over a week, seriously injured but stable, as he lay in the Ponyville hospital. His physiology had meant that there wasn’t much in the way of intervention his friends could do, but never the less he didn’t seem to get any worse.

On a sunny morning, a monday morning, consciousness slowly returned to him, painfully, his body racked with tiredness. He moaned out a little, his vision blurred, but soon beginning to recognise a familiar large yellow shape, slowly the smudge settled into the form of Fluttershy. She was asleep, comically sprawled over a chair rest and drooling a little on the floor, he saw her chest rise and fall; she was making adorable little snoring sounds.

“Fluttershy,” he whispered, and she stirred some. He whispered again and this time she opened her eyes.

After a moment’s pause she cried out in joy and relief, “Iridis!” was all she said as she moved in, hugging him painfully and then backing off apologetically. Her eyes were filled with tears of joy and her mouth trembled, she pushed her muzzle up to his and snuffled for a good ten minutes. It was a while before they began converse

“Oh Iridis.. Oh Iridis, I was so worried. I thought you were gone!” she exclaimed, kissing him time after time again on the end of his snout, “I love you so much Iridis.”

“I love you too,” he whispered, heavy and drowsy, “where am I?”

“Ponyville hospital buglet, you’ve been out for over a week!” she replied.

“I have?” he asked himself then with a slight edge of panic, “the Tantabus?”

Fluttershy blushed and looked apologetic, “oh sorry, of course you wouldn’t know all this. We’re save buglet, we’re safe. After Sunny ‘broke the link’, as Twilight called it, the Tantabus was vulnerable. It still put up a huge tough though. But we’re safe, all of us.”

“I remember,” Iridis replied, looking up at the sunrays streaming through the hospital room blinds, “yes, that’s right, then that means… Fluttershy did my second cutie vessel get filled?”

She nodded smiling, “yes, yes it did, with Sunny’s symbol. I’m guessing you know why?”

“Yes,” he answered, an edge of sadness and regret seeping into his voice, “yes, we shared much together, his worst fears. We felt, very close, almost like brothers… It was very intimate.”
Fluttershy nodded gently, understanding, “yes of course is was!”

Iridis sighed heavily then continued in a soft voice, “but I know what he did Fluttershy, I felt it when he did it, he knew the only way to break the link was to take his own life… right? It was like a part of me was torn away somehow.”

The pegasus seemed surprised and gasped, forming a little o shape with her muzzle, “you don’t know do you?”

“Know what?”

“Sunny’s alive buglet, he’s ok.”

“What?” Iridis exclaimed, the exertion sending a jolt of pain down his body, he grimaced and then looked her in the eyes, “but how…. I was sure I felt…”

“Easy sweety,” she cooed and gently stroked his crooked horn with her hoof, Umm Twilight said that getting his cutie mark so close to death may have been what saved him, something along those lines. She mentioned a lot of things and I don’t think I understood all of them, I think you should ask her.”

“Ok!” he whispered, a grin now widening on his face, “where is he, can I see him?”

“He’s just next door buglet, still recovering, I’m sure he’ll want to come and see you.”

Sunny was looking worse for wear when one of the nurses wheeled him into Iridis’s room. His neck was ensconced within a swaddle of bandages and the rest of his body was stitched, bound and sutured in various other ways. He reclined in a wheelchair and it was looking like he’d sustained injuries to more than just his neck - clearly he’d been too close to the battle.

“Hey brother…” he said, tentatively, smiling a little awkwardly, but very happy to see the changeling again.

“Sunny…” he smiled, “looks like I got your cutie mark, but I’m afraid it looks a bit crap.”

Sunny gasped for a moment then his face widened into a grin when he saw that Iridis was joking, “hah! Yeah well, you’re stuck with it!”

They giggled together and the nurse pushed him in close to the bedside, leaving the two in peace. There was a slightly awkward silence, then Sunny put a hoof over one of Iridis’s.

“But no, no it’s lovely…” Iridis reassured, smiling, looking down at the intermingled chiaroscuro now permanently etched onto Sunny’s flank, “looks almost like a cross between Luna and Celestia’s marks.”

“Yeah, it does,” he replied, resisting the urge to crane his neck, the wound wasn’t well healed yet, “Everyone reckons it’s to do with how I’m a ‘mix between light and dark’ or something like that, but I’m not sure what that means for a special talent?”

“Maybe your special talent is being really fucked up?” Iridis grinned cheekily and Sunny chuckled.

“You know Rainbow said the same thing, I wouldn’t have laughed about that even a week ago, and now, well it is funny!” the stallion replied.

The changeling’s face dropped to a more serious note.

“I thought I’d lost you, Sunny that was a brave thing you did. I mean, it was incredible!” Iridis congratulated, filled with pride.

His friend shrugged a little, as though it were nothing, “honestly it was just the only thing to do, I don’t know if you can call it brave really, I don’t remember being scared. I just remember thinking that it was the only thing I could do to save Apple Bloom.”

“Ahh I see, but you’re forgetting the first part of all this, in the dreams, you were brave there, you were terrified but you overcame it.”

“Only because you held me down and stopped me leaving,” Sunny pointed out.

“You’re the one that made peace with those nightmares,” Iridis reminded him.

Their hooves pressed harder together as feelings of warmth and love washed between them, it was a wonderful sensation.

“So, I think we have some work to do,” Iridis announced, still sounding a little weak, “when I’m recovered though.”

“How so?” he replied.

“Getting you some much needed loving Sunny, and although this is going to sound a little shallow, there’s a lot of mares out there who really fall for a tragic hero!”

“Ummm, heh,” Sunny blushed, “what about stallions?”

“Oh, feeling like you want to experiment a little?” Iridis asked, interested.

“Yeah, quite possibly, yeah. Honestly I don’t know what my sexuality is, I never had time to breath properly, you know, never really felt I could find out. But, I need to find somepony really patient. I’m a bit of handful, as you know.”

“Nahhh, no way! What you, difficult?” the Changeling teased and they both laughed again, “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll find somepony to help you. Oh that reminds me, do you know anything about Luna and Pinkie, assuming you know anything, I didn’t ask Fluttershy earlier…”

Sunny smiled, “actually Fluttershy explained all that to me, we talked a lot while you were unconscious, she was so worried about you, sick with worry. She told me everything, although I kind of think she felt she might have overshared, you know, it’s kind of a bit personal between them…..”

“And how are they?” Iridis pressed.

“I think they are going to be ok...”

“I could get used to this!” Pinkie announced, excitedly as she ate another round of delicious ‘Princess Level’ cakes - as she had come to call them.

Canterlot was pretty at night and the earth pony sat with Luna, enjoying their third ‘date’. They were alone on a stunning high tower with a set of beautiful confections. There had been much in the way of tears and reconciliation after the Tantabus finally fell, but Pinkie had been surprisingly resistant before her hair erupted into its happy voluminous state. She’d had many questions, asking if Luna would ever hurt her again, would she have to be on the sidelines, was Luna ashamed of their relationship?

Luna had to think very hard about the answers to these questions. Everything about the way their romance had developed felt extremely secretive, taboo and unmentioned. They had never spoken about it, not even as a rumour, even when speaking to one another it was never explicitly stated.

All that had made it feel delicious, utterly delicious, like two naughty teens sneaking out to grab a kiss behind the backs of their parents. But along with the pleasure came the repression and pain, at first a little splinter, then eventually a wound that couldn’t be closed. Their passion on their first coupling in the real world had been too torrid for both of them, especially Luna.

It felt different now though, it felt more sustainable, even though the flame was burning hot. This unlikely love and attraction was smouldering between them. Luna would curl her mane sometimes, or blush for no reason and Pinkie glowed - sometimes their hearts would ache to be as close as possible.

“I must say you do enjoy those cakes, ummm, darling?” the words felt strange coming from Luna, it would take some getting used to.

“They’re delicious!” Pinkie replied, smiling, “almost as delicious as you.”

Luna blushed deeply and averted her eyes for a moment. It was nice out here, in the open, and though she did care still a little that other ponies might see them the anxiety was subdued. This was better, better than that sneaking and subterfuge she had thousands of years ago with her courtly lovers.

“I must apologise that we must often have these, dates, in the evenings or very late. I’m a bit of a nocturnal creature,” Luna explained.

“Don’t worry about it, on date night I just eat an espresso cake. That keeps me up, not missing a moment with you. Ohh, we should bake one of those together?”

“Yes, I would like to try this, cake baking!” Luna answered, thinking about how it might be quite fun. Normally the servants would cook for her and she was less of a hooves-on princess than even her sister.

“Sounds great!” Pinkie moved over on the bench a little and snuggled into the larger pony, nestling her frizzy hair up against the dark well groomed coat of the Princess.

Luna still flinched slightly, then remembered that she didn’t need to anymore. She looked over the table at the many many stacks of vacant plates that Pinkie had almost single handedly demolished and she had to wonder how the pink pony wasn’t enormously obese.

“So, shall I see you tonight, in my dreams?” Pinkie asked.

“Certainly, after my other duties are complete. Yes, I would like that…” Luna answered, blushing once more.

Pinkie leaned very close to whisper: “how about watching me facesit myself, with you hiding in the room closet?”

Luna shivered and had to admit that it made her marehood tingle.

And so things settled back to normal in PonyVille. After a little bit of searching and effort Fluttershy and Iridis finally found the one pony who was the most optimal match as Sunny’s ‘romantic’ teacher, the one pony who wouldn’t be offended, would be patient to the extreme and most likely wouldn’t be even the least bit perturbed if he freaked out.

“Sunny, this is my friend Treehugger!” Fluttershy had announced.

“She wasn’t even scared when Discord nearly sent her to another dimension, so I think she’s going to be able to handle you,” Iridis teased, smiling.

“Charmed so much to meet you, like, I heard so much about your incredible experience with darkness and dreams!” Treehugger had said to Sunny, eyes half closed and with a distant whimsical quality to everything she said.

It had been the right choice, and Sunny made great progress with her, before finally deciding to leave Ponyville and do what his Cutie Mark was telling him. Four years or more of sudy was a long time, but it seemed like counseller was going to be his calling.

He would help other ponies, especially little fillies and colts who were suffering with their own problems and mental illness.

Suny was sad to leave Iridis but they knew they would always be connected by their marks, a shared and intimate thing that would be treasured for the rest of their lives.

Life wouldn’t be perfect, but it was going to be very good, and he knew it.

The End