“We need to find shelter,” Hibiscus decided, looking around as she felt the first drop of rain on her muzzle. Leviathan twisted his mouth in conflict.

“I’ll fly up and scope out a cavern or something,” The Changeling said, looking around at the others, receiving nods in agreement. Extending his green wings, the Pegasus took flight and began soaring forward in search of a place to stay while the storm passed.

The rain was slowly picking up and it stung against the green Pegasus’ face as he watched trees grow into what appeared to be a lush swamp, bugs flying freely through large hives before the rain could force them all into hiding. As Leviathan continued his venture, he squinted as he looked down to the ground below and saw several structures that appeared to be hollowed-out trees. Perfect! Turning around in the sky, Leviathan headed back to the group of ponies and Amber to notify them of the direction of shelter.

“Did the medicine start working, yet?” Cobalt could be heard from where Leviathan was, his voice always so loud. The blue Pegasus was standing beside Ornament, blue wing outstretched over his head to protect him from the drizzle that was steadily growing heavier. The rain was washing off the medicine and if they didn’t find shelter soon, they’d have to wait out the pain to go away on its own. Ornament had only packed one of each medicine under the impression that the trip would be short and unstressful.

“No,” Ornament groaned, green eyes shut as he tried to ignore the pulsing pain in his hoof. Leviathan quickly touched down and notified his companions of the nearest location where they could hide from the storm.

“There’s a swamp just about a few minutes that way,” Leviathan pointed with a green hoof, shaking his wings out from the rain they’d collected. “If we fly those that can’t fly on their own over there, we’ll be able to take shelter in no time.”

Ornament froze, eyes darting between Amber, Cobalt, and Emerald/Leviathan, the only Pegasi present. His gaze shifted to Hibiscus next, both ponies seemingly unsure of the flight arrangements.

“I can carry Ornament,” Leviathan said swiftly, almost suspiciously fast. The other ponies looked over at him and silently agreed. Cobalt decided he’d fly Hibiscus (childhood friends, go figure) and Amber was on watch to make sure no one fell off mid-flight.

“I’ll watch, but I’m not catching any icky ponies,” The golden Dragon had said, face twisted up in annoyance. Leviathan knew Amber well and he knew that was a lie. She may not like the pony species, but she wouldn’t let an innocent creature get hurt on purpose.

Shuffling over to the purple stallion, Leviathan felt something in his gut start to grow more and more difficult to stomach. He needed to regroup mentally; his job was to lure these ponies to the Hive and henceforth feed off of them for the foreseeable future, until another Element Tree was discovered, or until they had another magical pony to tide them over. Leviathan had been assigned the role of royal guard as a disguise and background when he eventually met this stallion, assuming he’d ask questions. Leviathan had not been instructed to start developing a conscience!

Even as a guard, Leviathan had avoided being assigned a personal guard to any of the royalty out of fear of pony feelings. Attachment was fine; he and Amber had been attached at the hip for a while. Genuine emotion, however? That was off-limits. It was unpredictable and nothing a Changeling was supposed to deal with! This prince was a magic devourer! Destroyer of worlds! Or at least, of ponies! He couldn’t deal with all these strange emotions. Wasn’t it Hibiscus that he had felt strange over, initially? Ponies often fell into groups of stallions and mares, not stallions and stallions. Though, there was that billboard he’d seen in Canterlot just last month… and that magazine of adult nature…

“Hey,” A voice snapped him out of his off-topic thoughts and Leviathan flushed so red, he might as well have burst into flames at that moment. Ornament was looking at him with pain and confusion on his face. “What’s wrong with you?”

Leviathan spluttered, shaking his wings off, not realizing they’d begun to perk up slightly, which only caused his face to redden more! “I’m fine!” Shoot. His voice cracked in the middle of that. Clearing his throat, the Pegasus tried again, voice steadier this time, “I’m fine. Are you ready to go?”

Ornament looked quite off-put, but he said nothing else and nodded, limping toward Leviathan, who felt his stomach drop at the pitiful motion.

When they’d first met, Ornament had seemed so arrogant! Even prior to now he’d made fun of the Changeling’s speech! Now he was reduced to an injury.

“It’ll be a couple of minutes and we’ll be there. Hold on,” With the Unicorn on his back, Leviathan extended his wings and took off, smirking at the sudden yelp and tightening of hooves around his neck. The flight really was short now that Leviathan knew where he was headed. Directly toward the Hive, and then a sharp right and down, where the trees tapered into bushes and vines, and the grass turned to marshland. There were several trees that appeared to have pony-made windows, the leaves decorated with ornaments (haha, how coincidental of a name choice!), and the surrounding area was greener than the natural swamp environment.

“What’s that?” A purple hoof pointed down at something moving in the bushes near the tree-homes. There was no figure, just motion.

“Probably some animal?” Leviathan suggested as he touched down, making sure to look out as Cobalt and Amber followed behind. All five creatures were soon safely on the ground and the storm was nearly full-force. The wind was shaking the vines, the sound so loud it nearly caused the group not to hear each other. “This way! Into this tree!” Leviathan shouted, using his wings to channel his voice toward those behind him.

Pink, blue, yellow, and purple all rushed into the tall tree structure, followed by Leviathan, who shut the entrance with a nearby bookcase, shutting the group off to both rain and wind.

“Did the medicine all come off in the rain?” Hibiscus approached, investigating the swollen black and crystalline hoof. The pink Unicorn frowned as she observed that all of the salve had, in fact, disappeared in the rainy trip over.

“We can just wait it out,” Cobalt assured, not looking at all stressed. “There’s no rush to get to the monument, right? Maybe you’ll feel better once the storm is over!”

Amber puffed a cloud of smoke out of her nostrils, tapping one foot on the ground impatiently. “And how long could that take? This forest is enchanted! Storms could last for days!” Her ruby eyes shone in annoyance. She was right, Leviathan knew. Storms could last days or even minutes. The length was entirely random.

“We’ll just have to wait and see, then. It’s up to Ornament,” Hibiscus defended, turning back toward the Unicorn in question.

“That name’s awful,” Ornament stated simply, sitting down and huffing loudly. “We’ll wait here until the rain either passes or becomes light enough to travel through. You can guess more letters while we wait.”

Cobalt and Hibiscus absolutely lit up, eyes glittering despite the dark weather outside. Leviathan laughed, recounting which letters they’d guessed already. “Okay, so we have an I, an R…”

“What’s next?” Cobalt thought, sitting down on the dirt floor as well, making himself comfortable in the time the group would spend stuck in this spot.

“Ooh!” Hibiscus leaned forward. “Try another R! All the words starting with IR that I can think of usually have two of them in it. Like irritate, irritant…” She paused for a moment, green eyes looking around in thought. “Those are all the words I can think of right now, actually.”

Ornament made a face. Leviathan grinned. “She’s right, isn’t she?” The purple Unicorn nodded slowly.

“Yes!” Cobalt cheered, flying up a few feet before touching back down. “Amber, why don’t you guess any more letters?”

“No! She’s not allowed to play, remember!” Ornament suddenly shouted, standing up too fast and falling forward as he put too much pressure on his twisted hoof. One would think crystals couldn’t feel pain! “She knows my name already. No Amber guesses allowed.”

With an eye roll and a crossing of her arms, the Dragon Lord just sat herself beside the blue Pegasus, satisfied with just spectating the guessing game. “I’ll just guess which pony guesses the name first,” She looked at the three options, her eyes landing hungrily on Leviathan. “Emmy,” She decided, “I bet you’ll guess the name first.”

Hibiscus groaned. “Whatever,” She said, stretching her legs, “I’m a sore loser and if I don’t guess the name first, I’ll never talk to any of you again!”

There was a moment of silence in the tree and the rain and wind beat against the bark outside. It had been two days since the ponies had begun their trip and no one had discussed the plans for after the journey was complete.

Of course, Leviathan knew there was no after. He would deliver Ornament to his Hive, feed off his magic, and imprison the other two until they were necessary. Hibiscus would become his personal therapist, or whatever he wanted to do to her so he could stop feeling so emotional! Amber would come along and probably be a victim of his mother’s lectures about betrothed and marriage and alliance. Cobalt could work the mines. Tartarus knew he looked buff enough to play the part and his mind was already full of rocks! Surely he’d want to be surrounded by more.

“After we reach the monument,” Ornament thought for a moment, drawing everyone’s attention to him, “I’m going to go back to the Magic Academy. I’m going to find Moonshine and Sunny Daze, sue them for all their bits, and then bulldoze anything memorializing my disappearance.”

Cobalt guffawed, gold eyes bulging in shock, “You’re telling me you don’t want something honoring you? A big picture of you that says you’re important?” Ornament shook his head firmly.

“It’s just something that tells everyone I was too cowardly to fight back against bullies. They hurt me and what, I ran away?”

Hibiscus shook her head, “You were a child! You didn’t know what else to do! Don’t act like your reaction wasn’t valid.” Definitely keeping Hibiscus as a therapist. Ornament just sighed,

“Right, sure.”

“After we get to the monument and Ornament gets cured, I’m going to go back to Canterlot and become your personal Wonderbolt!” Cobalt declared, hoof on his heart.

“What does that even mean?” Ornament asked.

“It means I’ll be there for you! This is such a fun adventure! We can be like the old heroes of Equestria and all be friends and live in a cool castle! I’ll be the awesome daring one!”

Hibiscus, Amber, and Ornament erupted into laughter. For different reasons, Leviathan was sure. “That makes no sense!” Ornament managed through giggles. Leviathan felt his stomach twist up.

“It makes perfect sense!” Cobalt defended, expression irritated, brows furrowed as he began to pout at the reactions of the other ponies. “You guys are just mean!”

“Ugh, once we get to your destination I am never speaking with another pony,” Amber decided, wiping away a tear from one of her eyes.

What was a Changeling to do? Leviathan felt his emotions becoming more and more uncontrollable, always due to Ornament’s actions, expressions, and reactions. The purple stallion was frustrating and funny, pretty and interesting, soft…

“Dude,” Cobalt awkwardly spoke up, expression almost fearful. “Do you need to deal with something?” The blue Pegasus had gotten over his frustration at his companions’ lack of understanding and now was looking right at Leviathan, whose wings were sticking right. Up. In. The. Air.

“Woah,” Ornament said, devolving into more laughter as he looked at the green Pegasus from across the almost-circle the creatures were sitting in. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you, Emerald? You thinking about somepony special?” The stallion’s face pouted cartoonishly, speaking with a baby-talk voice toward the end of it. Leviathan groaned, which sounded a lot worse presently considering his situation. It came out almost whiny.

“Woah!” Cobalt was standing up now, mouth agape. “Maybe he’s thinking about you, Ornament!”

“I have to go to the bathroom!” Leviathan stood up, attempting to force his wings back against his red-hot body.

“I’m sure you do,” Hibiscus chuckled, holding a hoof over her mouth as she watched the green Pegasus make his way out of the tree in shame.

Ugh. Emotion. This reaction wasn’t uncommon; bodily reactions were something all Changelings dealt with privately and it was nothing new. The fact that this had occurred because Leviathan was in fact thinking about the purple Unicorn was new.

“His name’s Irradiance, by the way.”

“Amber!” Leviathan hissed, turning around to scold his friend. She’d followed him out of the tree and into the forest where the Changeling had thought he’d be in private! He didn’t actually have to use the bathroom, of course, but the invasion of privacy was still unwanted!

“What? You were definitely thinking about him. You keep looking at him, doing what makes him comfortable… this is nothing like what you were like when we were together,” The golden Dragon remarked. Her voice didn’t contain any malice or any evidence of a grudge held against the stallion. Just an observation she’d made.

Leviathan groaned once more, not letting it turn into a wanting moan at the end this time. “I don’t know what to do!” He cried, face pained. He began pacing, panicked and unsure of how to explain, “I have been feeling like this since the start of the trip. Mother asked me to lure him to the Hive and so I am! So why am I feeling like I don’t want to?”

Amber, the angry and cold Dragon. The Dragon Lord herself, rather, with no connections and no obvious emotional ties. Golden features melted into a sympathetic smile, brows drawn in understanding, “Leviathan,” She started with a sigh. “Do you know what love is?”

Author's Note

AHHHH character growth PLUS finally! mentioned love!!! this is my first time ever writing my attempt at a slow-burn romance fic. the romance isn't the central purpose necessarily, but i really wanted to write it. it'll get heavier in the themes as we continue and both characters learn how they feel and wonder whether its just finally liking someone as a friend or actual love. for now though, amber's at least noticed that leviathan is definitely feeling something. enjoy!!!!