Love Me

"Silver Spoon, wait, it's me, the real me, I'm not a changeling, honest!" Diamond only just managed to leap aside and dodge a kick that would have broken flesh and cracked bone if it had made contact. "I can prove it. Remember our saying? Bump, bump, sugar-lump, rump!" Silver Spoon turned around and glared at her.

"That is no secret, the whole of our class knows it. Tell me some things that only you and I would know."

"Well, I once smuggled some illegal display fireworks back from the Camel Lands-being mainly desert, with not much around to burn, they have much weaker firework laws then Equestria has. And on Holy Celestia's Royal Birthday in the middle of a brightly starlit warm summer night, we smuggled them into Applejack's apple orchard but it didn't go according to plan. The orchard was set on fire and by the time the Ponyville Pegusai Fire Brigade got there a third of the orchard had been burnt to ashes. We were very lucky not to be caught for that little stunt and didn't tell anypony about it."

Silver Spoon nodded, but she still glared at Diamond. She asked quietly "How could you do this to me? What you did today, it makes me sick-it's so disgusting that it almost makes me want to throw up. You've not only put yourself in danger and everypony around you in danger as well, but in the short term at least you have ruined my reputation. Now my friends think that I'm a f.....a filly-fooler. I'll end up as the school laughing stock for something that I never even did. It may be perfectly legal for two colts or two fillies to be a couple, but not everypony is open minded, especially amongst my friends and family. If my parents hear of the rumors going on about me, I could end up grounded. And before you ask me, I don't love you in that way, I never did and I never will. I want a coltfriend, not a marefriend.And if I ever find out that you are doing what you did with Changelings again, I won't just refuse to have anything more to do with you, but I'm going to tell the Royal Guard. Rich and powerful as your family is, harboring a Changeling is not something that they can turn a blind eye to." And she turned her back on Diamond and left the mansion.

Diamond held her head high in the air as there was no way that she wanted to break down and cry in front of any nearby servants. Such a thing would be beneath her and her Family Line. But when she was alone in her bedroom she burst into tears, crying for her severely damaged if not lost altogether friendship with Silver Spoon.

A pegusas flew through her open window and landed, and at once transformed into Silver Spoon.

"Never fear, Silver is here. Why are you so unhappy, Princess?" The faux Silver hugged Diamond and kissed her softly on the forehead.

"Silver Spoon, the real Silver Spoon might not be my friend anymore, and she has not only walked out on me, but threatened to tell the Royal Guard about us which would get you arrested or worse."

The faux Silver narrowed her eyes. "Give me the OK to do it, Princess and tell me where she lives, and I can have her replaced within days. You get your loved one, in secret until we feel we can go public about our coupledom, and her family get a much sweeter and more loveable Silver Spoon. I get more food then I can eat, enough to distribute to the Hive from time to time, and the would be informer Silver Spoon gets to hang in a cocoon and feed the near-helpless Changeling grubs with her love."

Diamond managed a weak smile at the thought, but then shook her head. "No, please don't. Up until today she was my best friend, one of the only ponies outside my family who really understood me. And for months I've loved her. I can't just abandon her to a Changeling Hive like that, to be food for grubs. Please, for my sake, don't do that unless you have to."

The faux Silver nodded. "Are there any other ponies that you have a crush on?"

Diamond blushed. "Well....Princess Celestia. She's so beautiful and clever and regal and a goddess."

At once the Changeling turned into a somewhat smaller version of Princess Celestia, complete with long horn, white wings, royal jewels and crown, glowing many colored mane and Sun cutie mark on her flank. Apart from her smaller size, as a Changeling could not change it's size by more them a few inches, she looked perfect.

Diamond's mouth dropped open in shock. "Holy Celestia!"

The faux Celestia kissed her on the forehead and draped a wing over her. "I am here for you, my faithful student, and I always will be."

This is so blasphemous and yet so much fun. My very own personal alicorn goddess Diamond thought. So wrong and yet so right.

"Princess, please can I ask you about Changelings?"

The faux Celestia replied in the sweet regal tones of the real goddess. "There are some things I cannot tell you, both because I do not know them, being in the Changeling ranks, and because it is strictly forbidden and High Treason to inform upon a fellow Changeling, let alone Her Majesty. But I can tell you things about our race in general that will endanger noling."

"Is it true that you feed only on love?"

"We can feed on other things....we can eat solid food, but whilst it keeps the pangs of hunger away it does not nourish us properly, and it does not nourish the grubs at all. f we don't feed on love at least once a month, we will starve. It is the great tragedy of our race that we cannot feed on the love of our own kind. We can and do enjoy it, there are as many Changeling couples in the hive as pony couples, but it does not act as a food source. Your love is rich and there is enough to take back to the Hive. A third will go to Her Majesty Queen Chrysalis, another third to the grubs, and the rest of us get the other third. Those who have not died by being catapulted out of Canterlot that is. A lot of young Changelings will be in mourning tonight for their lost fathers and mothers."

"Can I trust you not to suddenly fang and replace me?"

"Yes, you can. You know full well what I really am, and yet you willingly feed me with your sweet love. It is almost unheard of for anypony to do that. Given enough time, I will love you as much as you love me."

*****
Silver Spoon walked back home, shuddering with disgust at her best friend's betrayal of her and ponykind in general. And fear too. Where there was one Changeling, there were most likely many more around, and she had no wish to be kidnapped or worse and replaced so that one of those foul insect-creatures could impersonate her and feed on the love her parents had for her.

When she reached her own mansion her mother, Silver Tray, hugged her and kissed her forehead. "Silver Spoon, what's wrong with you? You look so unhappy."

Should I tell everything and get my former best friend into trouble, or should I keep silent out of whatever loyalty I still have for her? Silver Spoon wondered.