Bleeding Love

"I Write to You..."

It was cold in the prison cell, dimly lit by the torch just outside, cascading dancing shadows along the walls and floor.

Within the worn concrete walls was a changeling with eyes of pink and an empty heart. Beside her was a foal changeling. Her daughter fighting off constant starvation. She slept peacefully, despite the cold floor beneath them. Her mother, Iris, nuzzled her gently, deeply saddened with the burdening inability to feed her.

On the floor in front of them lay a piece of paper, a drawing the filly had made with the quill, ink and paper the guard gave her.

Iris deeply sighed, watching her purring daughter sleep.

"No matter how much I say I love you, I can't feed you..."

She turned her eyes to the drawing.

"I wish they understood...not all of us are monsters..."

With a hoof, she turned the paper over to its blank side and bit her lip in thought. She took the quill between her lips and after some time, she began to write. However, ink was not the only liquid to land on the paper, for she cried in silence the longer she wrote.

Every now and again, she'd stop to nuzzle her daughter, who wheezed with every breath.

Iris sighed again as she placed the quill back into the ink jar, accidentally leaving splatters along the bottom of the paper, dotting it like the tears she shed while writing.

She folded it twice, then carefully, with what little energy she had, she limped over to the steel door which kept them locked in. Hoping the guard just outside would be nice enough to send her letter off, rather than tearing it to shreds, she slid it beneath the door.

Weakly, she said, in her choppy voice; "May you bring this to the princess?"

She had gotten no answer, however, she watched from the crack, that the guard had indeed taken it.

"Thank you," she whispered, before returning to lay be her daughter's side, bringing her close.

With a yawn and heavy eyes, she fell asleep...

The following morning...

Celestia had just risen the sun after Luna had lowered her moon.

She stared for a moment, at her sun, feeling today was going to be different.

"Your majesty," came the voice of one of her guards.

Turning around, she responded; "Yes, Blazing Shield?"

"One of the changeling prisoners requested I give this to you," the stallion, who was white, with a mane of blue, reached a hoof into his mane and pulled out Iris' letter, hoofing it to the princess.

"How interesting," she said, taking it from him in her magic, observing it. There was a sloppy image of her and a young changeling under her wing, with little hearts all around.. "It's a drawing?" she asked, eyeing the image of the two anatomically incorrect characters.

"Flip it over."

Celestia did as such and began to read:

Dear Princess Celestia...

I write to you over the matters which transpired not too long ago.

It's been nearly a month since the invasion upon your nation; an event which will haunt our memories for many years to come. Any changelings left behind afterwards, including me and my daughter, have been imprisoned, slaughtered or killed. I had no intention of taking part, however, it was mandatory I came and with my daughter, sad as it is she has to suffer as I do.

It is with the most displeasure that others' past wrong doings have set the bias for the rest of us, who truly mean no harm. We've been deemed as enemies of Equestria, to which I can fully understand. but why should the mistakes of others bear weight upon the backs of the innocent? Should we be blamed for something we never did? In fact, me and my daughter, we hid, disguised as ponies.

Your troops, when they found us, beat us till we were too weak to sustain consciousness - a nightmare that will torture my daughter's dreams for what I can only assume to be a millennia, if not more. I cannot bare to watch her suffer as I am unable to do a thing to help her. I cannot feed her love myself and I'm not sure how much longer she has left. She's bony and weak. She's dying.

As you know, we changelings feed on love. Without it, we die. My daughter needs love. But, since she's a "threat," she's being left to starve - a punishment she is far from deserving. Not only that, we are tricky and as such, anything we do or say in our own self defense, is instantly dismissed and an attempt to trick you. It's the aforementioned bias that results in this.

After the invasion, your ponies are scared of us, and unwilling to spare any love. To obtain even a slight fraction of what we require is nearly impossible without tricking or forcing them into giving us love. Consequently, we become a dangerous threat. My daughter is anything but.

To feed allows us live.

To feed...makes us evil.

I ask you consider my words, for the hold nothing but truth in them and whether you decide to care or not, to let us die, or allow us to live our reverie is up to you. I wish not for my daughter to pass on at such a young age, as I could not bare the thought of one of your little ponies to die as well.

We are not all evil, your majesty. Some of us simply want to be understood.

When and if you read this, I hope you at least mull it over before making your decision.

Sincerely,

Iris

For a while, Celestia was silent, her jaw moving up and down as if to speak, but unable to find words.

"Your majesty?"

Celestia shut her eyes for a moment and gave an inward sigh.

"Take me to her. I would like to speak with her."

Blazing Shield chuckled a little nervously, rubbing a foreleg.

Celestia raised a brow. "Is there something wrong?"

Blazing Shield nodded.

"They died."

Author's Note

I wrote something .-.

If you didn't like the ending (I don't think I do) I'm thinking of changing it. However, I'm in school at the moment and I have to work right after. So later on today - much later on, Ill write an alternative ending as a different chapter. If you, the readers, like it enough, I'll make the changes to implement it into this chapter, then think about a requested 2nd chapter.

Sound good?