Path of a daughter

“The bug bitch is laughing at us!” the nearest earth pony’s face twists in anger.

“Whoever knocks the most teeth out of her gets to use her before we get rid of the body,” growls an earth pony in the back, who seems to be the leader.

“Deal,” says Guiding, who hasn’t moved an inch despite the pony who brought her turning around to tackle her.

Six ponies - four earth ponies scattered around, the one who led me here right on my left, one unicorn near Gem. Enclosed space - circular room, benches lining the walls, a raised stage in the center with Gem strapped to a torture chair. The ground is even, no tripping hazards. Weapons - heavy horseshoes all around, one knife, one pipe, potentially a metal folding chair or the bucket with Gem’s blood and teeth in it.

Alright, so the worst case scenario is one of them harming Gem. Hopefully, the unicorn will try to use magic instead of doing something physical. They tend to.

The left earth pony’s muzzle collides mid-charge with the immovable object that is Guiding’s foreleg, which clearly wasn’t there a fraction of a second before, throwing a casual bone-obliterating jab. The pain spiking from her hoof to her shoulder from the impact warns Guiding that she’s too hungry and thus too vulnerable to be so thoughtless, but the bleeding crater remaining from the pony’s face is just too satisfying.

She doesn’t take the second fastest goon head on as he jumps forward and tries to punch her. Instead, she ducks under the swing and sends him to the dream world with one quick uppercut that makes his neck crack. The third earth pony slows down to avoid his buddy’s falling body, giving Guiding time to rush to the center of the room while giving him a heavy kick with her hind leg as she passes by. This time it’s not a one-hit KO, but it still makes him back off.

The unicorn finally snaps out of the shock of three of his hefty companions failing to stop a visibly built and athletic mare but one still not looking like a brick house, and falls directly into Guiding’s trap when his horn lights up. With two targets easily downed, one disoriented, one on his way, and one still in shock, Guiding isn’t fighting for her life but more looking for dinner. When the unicorn lets his magic flow, she rips it out of him even without getting close which makes him collapse on the floor with an agonized screech, leaving her time to spin around to give a left hook to the fifth goon that sends him to the floor.

Two earth ponies who are seeing stars and the earth pony boss shaking in his pants.

Said earth pony boss picks hsi pipe up with his mouth, blinks, something creaks in his muzzle, and when he opens his eyes the pipe is gone, held by Guiding raised on her hind legs whose forehooves are now claws. He only hears a whistle as the pipe cleaves the air before everything goes black. A single flash of Guiding’s horn later, as she uses the stolen magic to cast a dreamling-specific version of a sleep spell, the two wounded earth ponies, one trying to unlock the door and one beating against it in panic with his hooves, collapse as well.

Nine seconds without enhancements. Not bad, far from perfect either.

The sleep spell laced with nightmares starts paying dividends two-fold. One, for the first time in months, Guiding can not just barely feed, but feast. And two, she’s feeding from every target in the room, which means she didn’t kill anyone by accident and they can be interrogated later if need be. With so much energy starting to flow directly into her after so long, she needs to steady herself when the pain of dozens of legs fallen asleep and now waking up rushes through her entire body.

Her eyes twitching and the feeling of needles stabbing her everything, Guiding forces herself to approach Gem who is just sitting in the chair and slowly breathing. Guiding’s hooves unfold into claws again, which make untying the young zebra a simple task. When she touches her neck while putting her ear to Gem’s mouth, Gem raises her foreleg and gently pushes the Queen away.

“I’m fine, just thinking,” she says quietly, trying to move her bruised mouth as little as possible.

“Do we have the time to be thinking?” asks Guiding, glancing towards the door.

“The only time I saw somepony move as quickly as you did, it was one of the top ranks of Queen Chrysalis’ hive. I think anypony who peeks in here will get the message.”

“I’m a barely tolerated guest in this world. It wouldn’t look good if my first night out ended with a massacre.”

“You have me as a witness, but I guess you’re right- ow!” Gem tries to get up and slumps back into the chair, “Just give me a couple minutes. Anypony outside will be expecting that I take some persuading, and if anypony in here wakes up I have some chemistry to deal with them.”

“Then how did you end up in this mess?”

Gem grits her teeth and this time manages to get out of the chair.

“I was expecting them to at least try to talk first. I must have crossed somepony a bit too influential,” the gears in her head resume turning as she shuffles over to the closest unconscious pony and starts looting his saddlebag. She catches Guiding watching her take a pouch of gold, and adds: “Don’t judge me, I just got beaten up and waterboarded.”

Guiding raises an eyebrow.

“Just observing. For example, one of the things I noticed is that you’re not missing a single tooth anymore,” she lets the sentence hang in the air when Gem gasps, freezes, and unconsciously runs her tongue along her mouth, “You know a lot about changeling feeding and you ‘saw’ a changeling move close to my speed, which is a level of skill I doubt anyone smart would reveal unless their life was in danger. Let me guess - you’re a changeling yourself?”

Like a deer in headlights, Gem slowly raises her foreleg, and a burst of green flames halfway to her knee reveals black carapace drizzled with silvery spots before turning back into a striped zebra leg.

“I’m sorry you got caught in whatever this is shaping up to be. I promise I was really just trying to help a fellow changeling get some love, I know how difficult it can be around here even if you are allowed to shapeshift,” Gem hasn’t resumed looting the ambushers yet, and is watching Guiding whose years of combat experience are telling her the ‘zebra’ is looking for a way out but the Queen is between her and the door, plus she’s clearly much faster and stronger.

Guiding sighs.

Perhaps it’s time for truth even from my side? Gem is both useful and a potential friend.

“Well, if we’re sharing secrets about each other, we’re less changelings from a different world and more weapons of annihilation and, as such, we wouldn’t exactly be effective if we fed on love, would we?” Guiding allows herself a bitter smirk, “We feed on fear, and our innate ability to use sleeping magic and evoke nightmares was built into us by the monster who made us. Only a couple ponies know this, and some are trying to figure out if we might be able to eat love as well, so far without any success. I accepted your offer to go out so that I could give it a shot myself,” looking around at the twitching and moaning ponies locked in their deserved bad dreams, she tries to lighten the mood, “The plan sort of worked.”

“Ohhhh!” Gem finally resumes looting the ponies and adds with a renewed interest, “In that case, maybe I can help you with both?”

“I’m listening,” is all Guiding can say with her head starting to spin as she’s forcing her body to not just get used to the flow of energy, but now to start overloading itself. After all, the more she can, even temporarily, absorb, the more she’ll be able to give to the others back at the castle. It’s just going to hurt immensely, but that’s nothing new.

“I’ve been making my living selling rare alchemy reagents which I create using my shapeshifting skill. In a matter of weeks, I can turn my resin or parts of my carapace into reagents which are near-impossible to find and can cost a fortune,” she nods to the leader of the ponies lying toothless with his trusty pipe in a pool of blood and drool next to him, “It seems like I encroached on someone’s turf, because they wanted to know where I was getting a particular thing called silver rust. This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked suspicious questions about it by strangers, but it’s the first time it got this bad, so I doubt this is the last time they’ll target me despite the message thrashing everyone will send. It might even make them escalate, so you might get some more volunteers to feed from as well as my help in trying to get love or lust.”

“Where did you learn that level of transformation?” asks Guiding, clearly impressed by the first part and unbothered by the second, “Based on the few changelings I’ve met, I know that our own shapeshifting is basic at best.”

“That, I’m not allowed to tell you, sorry,” Gem shakes her head, “But I can teach you a thing or two.”

Good, you’re still keeping secrets, which means so can I.

“I don’t think that’ll work. We can’t even copy someone else, which is something that comes naturally to normal changelings. Just like the fear-eating, it’s something with our genetics-” she pauses, “Actually, I could be wrong about that. I’ll just need to check with our father. In return, I could teach you how to throw a punch.”

“No, no violence! I- I… just no.”

“I can also teach you how to dodge and, most importantly, take a punch. You know, the better you are at fighting, the easier it is to control the situation as well as your own strength and avoid unintended consequences,” the Queen looks meaningfully at the crumpled but alive ponies.

For a second, Gem looks not just in thought but as if she was actively listening to something before replying in a tone full of hesitation:

“I’ll… think about it.”

As Gem finishes going through the saddlebags and settling only on taking the ponies’ valuables, Guiding changes the topic:

“Why a zebra?”

“Hmm? That’s simple - the exotic value makes it shockingly easier to feed and, since I don’t know pony culture that well yet, it gives me cover in case I slip up. Plus, zebras are known for practicing alchemy, so that aligns perfectly with me,” Gem raises a small ring of keys and shakes it, “Finally! Ready to get out or do you need more time to drain them?”

“The more time I have the better. I’m trying to store as much as I can to share with the others back in the castle. We can’t exactly go around bringing nightmares to random ponies to feed on,” replies Guiding and watches Gem seemingly listen to something again.

“Riiight, the Queen’s body is primarily adapted to storing and efficient use of energy and only secondarily to be a warrior or an infiltrator.”

Guiding doesn’t comment on it.

There’s a world of difference between knowing a definition of something and understanding its meaning and consequences.

“If you know so much, explain to me one thing - a pony at the bar called me a muscular mother and wanted me to crush his head with my thighs,” she says instead and watches Gem blush, “I’m entirely capable of doing that and I’ve spawned many clutches over the years, but I’m wondering how he figured that out.”

“Do NOT literally crush anypony’s head with your thighs when they say that!” Gem blurts out, “NoI’mnotaprudestopsayingthat!”

Guiding just raises an eyebrow.

Is there a changeling she’s linked up with? Why didn’t they come to help? No matter, it just means that I can’t be called out for not sharing my side of everything. Secrets can be a double-edged sword.

“Gem, about our partnership - I can tell other dreamlings to be of assistance in case I’m not available. They need a chaperone to leave the castle just like me, and they can provide protection as well. With the exception of 19, that is. I would like it to spend its time with the changeling Nightguard.”

“That would be fantastic, Your Majesty- Guiding,” Gem openly smiles now, “I’ll, of course, show any of them around Canterlot as well as the club scene. Maybe they’ll get luckier with gaining love or lust or, if not, I’ll think of something solid to repay you with.”

A couple minutes of silent relaxation later, one of the ponies grunts and starts foaming at the mouth, which makes Guiding frown in disappointment, stand up, and fight off the bloated feeling coupled with an onset of dizziness.

“I’m ready to go. Feeding much more would be dangerous to them and, as I said, I don’t want my night out ending with a massacre.”

“Yes, uh, that wouldn’t be good!” Gem nods and walks over to the heavy door leading back to the club, “Say, there’s somepony who might shed some light on what happened today. Do you have the time to come along?”

“As long as I’m with someone, I wasn’t told there was a curfew.”

“Excellent!”

***

The trip on hoof down the mountain to lower Canterlot this late at night could be dangerous for a happy, young, and curvy zebra chatting incessantly about random topics relating to the city, but only if she wasn’t accommodate by her polar opposite in a muscular changeling Queen prowling next to her and staring intensely at anyone in the vicinity. The night and day duo eventually make their way to the mountainside district of the lower city and to a small, unremarkable, two story building like any other with empty shelves behind barred windows on the bottom floor and a sign above the door reading [Rare Remedies].

Gem looks up at the dark windows of the second floor and frowns.

“Mister Steaming Cauldron usually does his errands around noon and keeps the store open late when ponies come and buy stuff after work. He lives on the upper floor, so…”

“Got it,” Guiding nods. She can’t sense any alarm spell on the entrance, so she tries the handle which gives in despite the [closed] sign on the door.

“That’s not good,” comments Gem.

Guiding walks into the store, and a single sniff of the air brings with it a hint of blood and the stale air of early decay from the door in the back.

“Corpse. A couple hours old at most. Back room.”

Gem grits her teeth and sighs, which Guiding reads as that it was one of the possibilities Gem was expecting but hoping against.

“Go back outside.”

“Huh?” Guiding looks at the zebra.

“We’ll have to report this as soon as possible and I’m getting you out of the loop because we’re bound to get questioned and I am not the one who can only leave the castle with company,” Gem walks to the door of the back room, opens it, and immediately turns back with a crestfallen expression, “I’m sorry, Mister Cauldron. I thought occasionally selling a rare ingredient would be a stable source of bits, not that it would lead to this…”

“Were you and the alchemist close?” asks Guiding when Gem leaves the shop.

“Not overly. He took me under his wing when that court creep I was learning from turned a bit too grabby even for my tastes,” Gem looks away, “It was nice to have somepony who thought of me as a daughter again,” she wipes her eyes, “But that’s neither here nor there. So, here’s what we tell the guards - I invited you to the club, you didn’t manage to fee- to get any love, we left, I wanted to stop by a guy, you didn’t know why, we discovered him dead.”

“Ah, the technical truth.”

“The best kind of truth.”