Chapter 1: The Grey Boy in the Woods
----- The Boy in the Woods -----
Scootaloo came out from her kitchen while talking on her phone with her adoptive mother, Rainbow Dash. It had been twenty years since she had been adopted, making her twenty-seven years old. A few days ago, she had finally packed up her last boxes, moved out and found an apartment which was just a floor below the one her father, Feather Racer, had had his first home. She checked herself in the hallway mirror, yep the same semi-long magenta hair and tough look. Maybe a bit small nose, but it was little to do about that.
“No Mom, I got it under control. I can do it on my own.” She said, slightly annoyed. Rainbow had been bugging her, asking if she needed help with the moving.
“Yeah I know you can, but if you get any difficulty, just call okay?”
“I will. Thanks Mom.” She ended the call and looked around her. Boxes were still stacked in heaps around the living room with some furniture already in place like drawer, sofa, table and such.
She opened a box and found it was her trophies and diplomas. There was her graduation diploma from the Wonderbolt Academy and another from Cheerilee's class with a group photo of all of her classmates with her, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle hugging in the front. It brought a smile to her face as she remembered the club the three of them had had.
Deeper down in the box she found a couple of trophies and medallions from the different flying competitions she had attended. She started placing them up on the drawer. Things were a bit different nowadays. Sweetie Belle had moved to Canterlot to follow in her sister's footsteps and was working on become a designer and Apple Bloom was working as a baker together with her boyfriend, Rumble.
Scootaloo hadn't really thought too much about getting a boyfriend, sure most of her friends had one, but she didn't see the reason to rush it. She wasn't saving herself for someone special either, she just hadn't really met a guy that had caught her eye. She had been on a few dates with some of the guys she had been racing against, but they had turned out to be mostly muscles-heads that hadn't done anything than brag about themselves.
She was brought back to reality by her phone ringing again. This time it was Fluttershy calling. What in Equestria could she want?
“Hi Fluttershy. How’s it going?”
“Oh, I’m fine, thank you. I heard you moved out. How is that going?” Why were everyone so concerned about how she was doing with the move?
“I’ll manage. Still a few boxes to go.” A look around was more than enough to tell it was more than a few left. “So why are you calling? It must be for something more than just to ask about me moving.”
“Uhm, well yes, there is something more. I mean, if you got time in between all the outpacking.”
“Of course I can help. Anything for a family friend. What’s the bother?”
Well, I was suppose to watch some cats for Carrot Top, but one of them escaped through an open window and ran into the forest. Big Mac is working today and I have to watch the other ones so they don’t do the same, so if you and Michael could-”
“Say no more Fluttershy. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” Scootaloo grabbed her jacket and put it on.
“Oh thank you, it really helps a lot. See you soon then.” Fluttershy hang up.
Michael Appleseed was Fluttershy and Big Macintosh’s son, a bit younger than her own brother, Cloud Jumper. She had been babysitting him when he was younger, but now he was twenty and didn’t need one, but he still asked her about how it was to meet the Wonderbolts at the academy. He was a flyer, something that was normal since children tended to be the same type as their mothers.
Scootaloo checked that she had the apartment key in the pocket and grabbed a mini flashlight from the drawer. even though there were midday,it was usually pretty dark in the Everfree forest. She went out the door and locked it, smiling a bit when she saw the door number. Apartment number twelve, that number made her think about Cloud Jumper and she wondered if he was well where he was before she went on to meet up with Fluttershy.
It took only half a minute from Cloudsdale to the Cabin where Michael and Fluttershy was waiting outside. Michael had his normal dark blue shirt an orange with wings and a pair of worn jeans. She landed and Immediately took him in a headlock and rubbed her fist hard into his short, orange hair, a thing she did every time they met.
“Hello Fluttershy. Hello Michael, I see you still aren’t stronger than me.” He tried to break free from her grip, but she kept the orange angle locked.
“Owowow, fine. You win. Let me go, that hurts.” Scootaloo let him go. Fluttershy just smiled at the two and their little fighting. He usually wasn’t the type to give in, but against her special treatment he broke down easily.
“So what kind of cat are we looking for. Is it a totally white one?” That would at least make it easier to spot.
“Well no. It’s orange with black stripes and with white paws. I saw it heading to the left of the path to Zecora’s house.” She pointed in the general direction. “But that was five minutes ago so he could be anywhere by now.”
“Should try luring him out with lasagna.” Scootaloo mumbled to herself. “Okay then. Common Michael, let’s find that stupid cat. You got some catnip so we can call it out?” He held up a small bag of something that looked like bread crumbs, but smelled strongly of fish.
“Here, you take this since I already got one. You go a bit to the right there and I can look to the left there.”
“Good thinking. Let’s move out.” They started heading toward the forest.
“Be careful though! I heard some pretty scary sounds from in there last night.” Fluttershy yelled after them.
“You shouldn’t take it that easily, Scoots.” Michael said. “I heard it too and it was pretty creepy. It sounded like a manticore attacking something that came with a terrible scream.” He shuddered thinking about it.
“Well they are pretty shy for people as long as they don’t provoke them so there is not much to be scared of.” She took out her flashlight and shined it in between the dark trees. The branches here in the outskirt grew so close together they almost formed a solid ceiling with just a few rays of sunlight got through.
“I’m not scared. I’m just worried about whatever angered the manticore.” He pulled out a flashlight of his own. “I hope it got away. They are pretty vigorous with their victims. I once found the remains of a rabbit. It was mostly just bloody bones left.”
“Geez Michael. You don’t need to draw the picture for me.”
There were no traces after the cat in the mud. “Let’s widen the search. Go look over by those boulders over there while I check the thorn bushes over here.” They went their separate ways while still being able to see each other.
The bushes were pretty thick and the thorns was like needles, trying to rip her jeans and poke holes in her legs. She manage to traverse it without getting too bad scrapes, but her pants had seen better days. She shined around in the bushes and noticed a little bundle of orange hair on one of the lower branches and a few specks of red led on further into the thorn hive. She continued after the traces while shaking the bag to try to make it come out from wherever it was hiding.
“Here kitty kitty. You shouldn't be out here all alone. Come here you little hairball.” She heard a weak meow from some rocks in the middle of the bush maze and a little cat face poked over the top and looked at her. “There you are! Thank Celestia. Come here and get some goodies.” She opened the bag, but the cat disappeared back behind the bushes.
“Hey Scoots, have you found him yet?!” Michael yelled over to her. “It’s not over here at least!”
“Yeah, it’s hiding over here in between some rocks! I’m going after it!” She started walking over to where the cat had retreated to. A small speck of blood was on the rock were the cat had been standing. It was probably still hurt and scared which would explain why it ran away.
She saw it shimmy further into the pointy branches until it reached a sort of small clearing where it started to meow painfully.
“See? I told you you shouldn’t be out here alone.” She said to it as she got closer. “Now you probably gotten a thorn in your paw or-” She stopped as she came to the little cleared area.
There, in the heap of sharp thorns, broken twigs and a small pool dried deep blood was a boy. He looked to be just a few years older than herself with pale grey skin and very torn up clothes. He was lying completely still with the cat on his chest, licking its own wound. He had some serious cuts on his arms and legs, especially the one going diagonal just below where the cat was sitting and another rather nasty one in the head, but he seemed to still be alive. His thin, bug-like wings poked out from under, making the already convinced Scootaloo even more sure that what was in front of her was a changeling.
“Hey Scoots, are you finding that cat or what!?” Michael yelled from the thorn bushes. She would have punched him if he hadn’t been so far away.
She didn’t really know what to do now. On one hand she could try taking him to Fluttershy and ask her to help him, but if he woke up and attacked in panic, she would be an easy victim. No way she was risking her taking care of someone that dangerous.
On the other hand, she couldn’t just leave him out here to slowly die from the injuries either. She could take him back to her place, but then she had to send Michael home first or else he would blabber to everyone about it. Changelings were kinda witch-hunted nowadays after the incident a while back, but to let something so humanlike die like this was something she couldn’t bring herself to do.
“Scoots, are you alright in there?!” She snatched the cat from his chest before it could run off again.”
“Yeah I’m alright. The little bastard manage to hurt himself on some thorns, but he seems alright otherwise.” She trampled back to him, giving herself an extra hundred scars. She could just have flown back, but she didn’t want to startle the cat even more. “Could you take him back to Fluttershy? I just have to check something I saw over there.”
“Don’t tell me you found whatever angered the manticore last night?” He took the cat Scootaloo gave him. “I thought you said it was disgusting just hearing about it.”
“Of course it is, I’m just gonna... check something. Get the cat back home so Fluttershy can check on the wound and make sure it’s not infected.”
“Fine, just be careful out here. There might be something more dangerous than manticores out here. Maybe even a changeling.” He said mostly on joke before heading back home with the cat in his arms.
She ignored the comment and flew back to where the changeling was laying. She could hear him breathing with a slight gurgling like he had something in his throat, probably more blood. She carefully checked his pulse, a bit afraid that he might just jump up and bite her in the neck. His pulse was weak, but stern. Good, still alive enough to where he didn’t need a hospital. She took off her jacket and helped him up before putting it around him, mostly since if people saw her carrying a changeling into Cloudsdale they would both been stoned out, or rather clouded out.
“Hhng... angel.” He suddenly mumbled. People with wings used to be called that just as magic users were called mages, but he hadn’t opened his eyes so he must have been dreaming something. She decided to ask him on a more appropriate time and took off through the leaf roof, avoiding any branches that could hurt him even more and heading towards her flat.
She got home and behind her door with the unconscious guy without meeting anyone. She took off his destroyed clothes down to his underwear and cleaned and bandaged his wounds with alcohol, but he didn’t grinch as she did so. She placed him in her bed to make him rest properly and she sat by just looking at him for about twenty minutes.
He looked more peaceful now with a small smile on his lips, showing his slightly longer corner teeth. His short black hair was still sticky with blood which he had to wash out. He had a healthier grey look now although she didn’t really knew what was healthy for them. She wondered how he would react when he woke up in a totally different place. Probably not good, but she had to try to calm him down when he did. Just as she thought that, he started mumbling more and slightly opened his eyes.
“Ooow, my head. Bloody manticore.” He mumbled and took himself to the head and noticed the bandage.
“You should try to keep still, you’re still hu-” She started, but he jumped up on the bed, his face filled with fear and anger.
“Hissss!” He hissed at her and tried to jump her, but she wasn’t going to go down easy.
She stood up, grabbed him mid air and pushed him up against the wall. She used her left hand to hold him by the throat and her right hand to hold his right hand so he couldn’t use that to get a chance to attack her face.
He hissed at her again and started swiping at her with his free hand, but she managed to keep an arm's length from her face. He got in a good swipe at her shoulder where his nails made four cuts by the start of her collar bone, but he also managed to cut the straps of her orange tank top and bra.
For a second they both froze with him staring at what he just did and her just as shocked. A fire lit in Scootaloo’s eyes and the grip on the changeling’s neck tightened. He seem to regret what he did, but it was too late. She let go of his wrist for a second before giving him a strong right hook that sent him to the ground.
He got up on all four and spit out a tooth with a bit of blood, but it didn’t really bother him since changelings could go through ten sets of teeth in a lifetime. Scootaloo tied the bra and top’s strops back together. Luckily nothing had shown, but still. She went over to him and stood towering over the boy that wiped the blood from his mouth, spreading her wings to look more intimidating.
“Okay listen up, I just saved you from a slow and painful death. I am risking being thrown out of both home and society by helping you, so either you behave or you can fly home to your hive or whatever you changelings have. Got that?” He gloomed at her hatefully, but nodded. “Good. Now let’s try this again. Hi, I’m Scootaloo.” She reached her hand out to help him up.
“Zcootaloo?” He rolled his s’es so they sounded like z which made it seem like he had an accent.
“Yes. Scootaloo. Do you have name or are you all just called changelings?” He took her hand and she pulled him up.
“Only thoze in the inner zircles get’z namez. The rezt of us are juzt changelingz. Why are you even helping me? Aren’t I your enemy?”
“Enemy is a pretty strong word, more like very different races that hate each other. Even so, I couldn’t let you lie there with those wounds.”
“Well, uhm, thank you anyway."
“So you don’t have a name? Well, I better give you one. I can’t go around calling you changeling. Also, you can’t look like that outside. Here it’s okay, but with other people, you need to look different.” He cocked his head and looked around the room.
“What about thiz?” He got encased in a short burst of green flames and suddenly her father stood in front of her. She quickly turned around since he was still in his boxers and saw he had copied the picture at her bedside.
“No, you can’t use that and don’t copy people from my photos.” She put the photo with her family in the nightstand drawer.
“How about thiz then?” A new burst of fire and this time it was herself standing in front of her. She covered up her own chest on instinct and gave him, or rather herself, a mad glare. The bandage covered over most of it and since she were a bit flat chested it wasn’t much to show either, but still.
“Don’t you have a form you usually use, something that’s not connected to me or anyone I know?” He thought for a second.
“Okay, I think I got one.” This time he changed into a guy with deep purple hair and flaming red wings.
“Okay then, that’s a good one. Now for a name. Have you ever thought of one you would like?” He changed back to himself and shrugged.
“Cloud Jumper?” She blanked out as he mentioned her brother’s name. How had he gotten that name?
“I- Is that a name you have picked up somewhere?”
“Yeah, I found a list over the missing people after what happened awhile ago.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Well you can’t use that, other than it being disrespectful for the person, you risk not looking like them if someone knows them and meets you. We’ll just come up with one later.” He suddenly cupped her cheeks and without warning, kissed her.
It didn’t really feel like a kiss, it was more like him trying to suck the air out of her only it was something else. She started to feel lightheaded before she came over the shock and pushed him away, but he didn’t seem fazed by what he did.
“Oh, iz that why you didn’t want me to uze that name.”
“What the fuck what that?” She couldn’t believe the guts on this guy, first trying to attack her and now kissing her. “What do you mean by that anyway?”
“We changelingz can zort of read mindz thiz way so we can eazily reflect the feelingz and reactionz to people we copy, but I can limit it to zertain thingz they try to hide from me like just now.”
“Well don’t do that. Some things we humans want to keep to ourselves and besides, it’s not what we do, going around kissing random people, I mean. You should be glad I already hit you or I would’ve slap you for that.”
“Well you got a pretty good right hook.” He rubbed his chin that had started to swell up.
“Follow me and I will find some ice for that. You feel good enough to walk right?” He took a few tempting steps on the spot.
“Zeemz zo, a bit of a pain in the thighz, but other than that i feel good.” She followed after her to the door, but stopped by her clothing drawer and looked at a picture of a guy with sky blue wings and rigged yellow, orange and red hair with the text ‘Cloud Jumper’ on the frame.
“Hey, you coming Change?” Scootaloo called.
“Yeah, coming!” He put the picture back and went out into the kitchen.
End of Chapter 1
Chapter 2: An Alternate Course
----- An Alternate Course -----
The changeling came into the kitchen just as Scootaloo took some ice out of the freezer and put it into an ice bag. She heard him coming up to the counter behind her, but when she turned around, she jumped,for he was sitting curled up on the edge of the counter and looking over her shoulder. She picked up the ice bag she had dropped and gave it to him before sitting down on the only chair she had right now.
“Did you really have to scare me like that?! And why stand on the table?” He sat with his knees under his chin as he placed the bag to his swollen cheek.
“You mean you don’t? At the camp hive on the other side of the Everfree Forest, we don’t have much space. Zo we have to zit like this pretty much all the time around feeding time. You mean you have this whole place to yourself?”
Scootaloo looked around. It wasn’t the biggest place ever, but it was at least hers.
“Yeah, well, I rent it. Someone else owns it, but I pay rent to have this to myself. I could have gotten a roommate to ease the payment, but I wanted to have a bit of personal space first to see how it would be.” She leaned over the table. “Talking about the forest, what were you doing there? You were awfully close to a friend of mine’s house.” He shifted a bit.
“Well, whatever I waz going to do it got interrupted by that manticore that did a real number on me.” He put his hand on the bandage on his chest which made him grunt a little.
“I got to say, you recover pretty fast. A normal person should still be in bed with the wounds that manticore served you, but here you are,up and about after just a few hours.” Her stomach suddenly gave off an audible growl.
“What waz that?”
“Em, me.” She blushed slightly. “Guess I waited too long to eat. I think I got some yogurt in the fridge. Want some?” He tilted his head at the question and the content of the bag rattled.
“You know we changelingz don’t eat food right? Even though we have mouthz doesn’t mean we uze it to conzume food like you.” She took a blueberry and banana yogurt out.
“Oops sorry, it’s just a bit strange to have a changeling in my home. Say, how long can you go without ‘feeding’ per say?”
“A couple of weekz. It’z moztly to fuel our magic, but we uze small amountz as food.” He took the ice bad away from his face and placed it beside him.
“What would actually happen if you ate something? You don’t explode, do you?” She didn’t bother with a spoon and instead started drinking it.
“I don’t know. Let me try.” He snagged the small plastic cup from her and downed the remaining half of it. He rolled it around in his mouth she threw it in the trash.
“You know, you should stop doing things like that, taking and doing stuff without warning people. So how is it?” He seemed to be in a state of surprise and wonder as he swallowed the yogurt.
“I- It taztez. I can tazte the food! The only other tazte I’ve had iz when I bleed, but this taztez zweet. it’z zoft and fluid and it taztez zo zweet.”
“Wow, you really haven’t tasted anything before?”
“No, love is zort of like air that we zuck in which dozen’t really tazte anything, but it feedz uz zo we juzt feed on that. Zo thiz iz how food tazte?”
“We eat more than just this.” She said with a chuckle and took another one out to make up for the one he took. “You still haven’t gotten a taste of some of the more flavoured things. Now about your name-” She got interrupted by someone ringing at the door.
“Who iz that? Are you expecting zomeone?” She hit herself in the forehead.
“Son of a fuck, I had totally forgot about that. I invited Apple Bloom and Rumble over today. Quick, go to my room and check the lower drawer for something fitting. Having a changeling sitting in his boxers on my counter is the last thing I want right now. And please remember to change into that form from earlier.” He jumped down and went into her room to do as she said.
“Hey Scoots, are you home?!” Applebloom yelled as she slammed at the door. Typical her. If she didn’t get a response in under half a minute, it was up to knocking and yelling to get contact with the person.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!” She took a deep breath before opening the door.
Outside her door stood Applebloom with a big grin and Rumble in his usual white jacket with grey fur on the hoodie that matched his wings. Applebloom had her hair in her normal ponytail and a yellow dress with a wide skirt. They must have been in a hurry, since she got a few specks of flour on her forehead.
“Hey, sorry we’re late. Had a last minute order which took a bit more time than we thought it would, but knowing you, you probably forgot all about it.” She noticed her staring at her head and she wiped the flour off.
“You know me too well. Hi to you too, Rumble, I hope she wasn’t too heavy to carry up her.” He smiled.
“Nha, the skywalking spell Nightshade gave us made her all-around lighter so there was no problem.” Applebloom gave him an upset look.
“Are you saying I’m heavy? I’ll have you know that I haven’t tasted one of our products all week.” Scootaloo choked her giggle at Rumble’s face.
“So you let her try casting the spell, ey?” She said to quickly change topic. “How is she? Still much like her mother?”
After Twilight had finished her exam as the student of Celestia and literally grown wing, she had had been doing a lot of traveling around Equestria before returning to Ponyville where her daughter had taken her earlier job as librarian.
“She’s pretty close, might even say she’s better. She has to tie notes to her fingers to remember the things, but other than that she’s awesome.” Suddenly something thudded heavily inside Scoot’s apartment.
“What the hay was that?” She looked over Scootaloo’s shoulder into the entry hall that was mostly occupied by boxes. “Sounded like some of your boxes fell over.”
“That would be my... new flatmate.” She said. “He is settling in and probably has some trouble with a shelf or something.”
“Can’t he come with us? The more the merrier, ya know.”
“I’ll go and ask him if he got time..” She marched inside and swung up the door to her room. The changeling had tried to but on some jeans that had been her brother’s a bit too quick and tripped. At least he had gotten a shirt with a green circle inside a cube.
“Zorry, thiz pantz waz a bit difficult.” He tried to excuse with.
“Can’t you just change into shape?” She hissed. “You changelings change all the time so why not make it that easy?”
“We are changelingz, not chapelingz. We only change to people in our own general height.”
“Well get your clothes on and change. You are now my roommate and my friends want to see you.” He pulled it on, got up and changed into the purple haired guy from before. “Good, now how long can you hold the form?”
“A long time, a couple for weekz if necezzary. Why?”
“Because you are coming along for a night out with friends. C'mon.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him with her out to the door. “Here we are, this is, ehm, Change Ling. He moved here from Nippony which is why he has an accent.”
“Ehm, hi.” He greeted the guests a bit sheepishly.
“Oh wow, you’re all the way from Nippony? I heard you got some pretty awesome culture over there like with spirits and ancient dragons and stuff. Is that true?”
Yeah, zome of the culture haz that in it, but we also got zome advanced technology there too.” This was more common knowledge, but it seemed to be enough for Applebloom.
“Well we better get going before they give away our table.” Rumble looked at his watch.
“So, let’s get going then,=.” Scootaloo took her jacket. “I hope you like pizza, Change.” Applebloom looked weird at her.
“You mean he hasn’t had pizza before? What kind of food they eat over there if you haven’t have pizza yet?” Scootaloo locked the door behind them as they stepped out.
“Well, let’s just say it’s not your usual dishes, but he’s not afraid of trying something new, are you?” She nudge him in the shoulder.
“Ehm, sure I’m not, hehe.” He doesn’t seem to be completely sure how to react.
“Trust me, it’s pretty good stuff. A lot of melted cheese and tasty stuff in top.” He still seemed a bit unsure, but nodded and followed as they started walking.
They arrived at Cloudsdale’s more fancy pizza place called ‘The Skyward Hut’ a very popular place both on the ground and the sky. There were a good amount of people here today, there was even some other wingless people was there. They found their table which was a corner sofa with just enough seats. A waitress with the name badge ‘Sally Wing’ have them each a menu. There were a song playing faintly in the background, but none of them could make it out over the talking in the restaurant.
“Oh wow, I think they have gotten a few new ones since we last was out.” Applebloom scanned the parts of the latest types. “Some of these are so ridiculous I just have to try them.”
“You know, I think all the baking with Pinkie have started to affect you Applebloom.” Scootaloo said and laid down her menu. “You get excited about almost everything and always have that giddy smile. You just need to color your hair and bam.”
“You thinks so? I don’t know, I just get so happy when I bake which tend to last the rest of the day.” She pointed at something on her pamphlet. “I’ll try that one, the one with apple and cinnamon!” She exclaimed. “You join me, right Rumble?”
“Sure, it actually sounds something like it would be good.” Scootaloo just shook her head at the two, but Change looked to not be so good.
“Hey, you okay there?” She put a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s them, I can feel their love.” He whispered. “It’z like an intenze heat right at me.” She looked over at them as they discussed some of the other ones.
“Well try to hold out a bit longer, I can order something that might help.” The waitress came over again to take their orders. “We’ll take a big one, half with number nineteen to them and the other with, uhm, twelve to us.Oh, could you give me and my friend here something strong? He’s a bit nervous.” She looked at Change and nodded sympathetically.
“Hey! I’ll take a beer, I’m not driving.” Applebloom quickly said.
It took awhile for the drinks to arrive so he just had to not make too much of a scene of himself, something that seemed a bit more difficult than first thought. He started to swear slightly and seemed to have a stomach ache. He was getting pale and with a discolor of grey, but he kept his mask up. The frantic tapping on the table kinda revealed him, but the other didn’t seem to notice it.
“I could juzt feed,” He whispered so Applebloom and Rumble couldn’t hear. “Juzt zuck their love and forget about thiz whole pizza thing.”
“Please try to contain yourself, if you do anything like that here we are going to have some serious trouble.”
“I really hate thiz, having thiz burning feeling in my face. I juzt wabt to zwallow it and feel it heat me up inzide me inztead.” He gave the two a hateful look behind the menu.
“It that’s why you do what you do, that you can’t feel love yourself?” He didn’t answer since right then the drinks finally came and a glass with something orange got placed in front of him and Scootaloo together with the pizza, a soda for Rumble and a beer for Applebloom.
“Oh yay, pizza!” Applebloom cheered. Change grinched and took a big gulp of the glass. He immediately started coughing from the burning liquid.
“By Zhacra’s fizt, that stuff burnz,” He said and Scootaloo couldn’t help but giggle.
“Do you feel it heat up inside you?” He patted himself above the wound on the middle of his chest.
“Yeah, almost the zame warming feeling.”
“Geez Scootaloo, giving a first-timer something like that. He’s gonna get a banging in the head tomorrow ya know.” Applebloom said and took a slice out of the pizza.
“Trust me, it’s a better alternative. Beside, there has to be a first time for everything.” She took a sip of her own drink, a bit less than Change, and took a slice of the pepperoni, paprika and onion part. “Do we have anything to cheer on?”
“For friendship!” Applebloom said and raised her beer.
“For love.” Rumble suggested and followed his finance’s example.
“I guess family for me.” Scootaloo said and looked to Change who looked uncomfortable. “Do you have something Change?”
“Thoze are all pretty ztrong feelings, but if I had to add zomething it would be...” He looked up from his glass. “To fit az I am I guezz. Put the pazt behind me and start anew.” they all became silent.
“You know, that is the best one out of all of them,” Applebloom said. “Don’t worry Change, we might just have met you today and you might be a bit awkward, but we are already your friends. Let’s cheer for Change, our new friend and Scootaloo’s new roommate!” They all raised their glasses in a series of clings before they all took a swig of their drinks, Change more carefully than before, before digging into the food.
“Hmm, thiz iz really good. I thought yogurt were good, but thiz iz zo much better.” Change said as he took a bit of his part.
“Yoghurt? Have you set him on your training diet Scoots? Poor guy, first time here and he thinks we’re eating thick milk and doing competitive flying.” Applebloom said and tried to eat a string of cheese.
“It was all we got time for so don’t blame me.” She took a new sip of her beverage. “Oh wow, this is good. I didn’t think they could serve this at places as this.” Change was taking it slowly, but steady to get used to the strong stuff.
“Zo iz thiz zomething you guyz do often? I didn’t have much time to get friendz back in Nippony, too much focuz on study.” He was really enjoying the pizza.
“Not very often, we usually have pretty busy lives, us being working at the bakery we run together and Scootaloo with her racing, but she probably have told you all about that already. She likes to brag about her flying.” Rumble said and Scoots choughed.
“Ahem, well I actually haven’t had time for that. He arrived today and he only got time to settled before you guys came.”
“Wow, you not having time to brag?” Applebloom laughed. “Well basically she is one of the greatest flyer since Spitfire and supposedly even faster than her mom, Rainbow Dash. her mom had the opportunity of joining the Wonderbolts once, but said no because she wanted to stay here in Cloudsdale with her father, Feather Racer. Quite the love story if you ask me.”
“Well I remember they picked me up and told me they just have left the offer. Don’t know if it’s true, but it is a nice story.” She took another slice.
“Wow, I wizh I had a ztory like that.” He the last piece of his slice.
“If you could excuse me for a moment I have to use the lady’s room.” She got up and Applebloom followed her.
“Me too, that beer goes right through me.” They went to the ladies room in the end of the pizza bar. “So is he a keeper?” She immediately asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean is he a possible candidate as a boyfriend?” They went into separate stalls, but continued talking through the thin wall.
“He got here today Applebloom, I’m not gonna just inspect every guy I meet as that.”
“Yeah right, You have judge other guys at the spot and walked away from them outside the restaurant, but this time you brought him with you. You could just as easily just left him at home. I think you like him and I don’t blame you.”
“I haven’t seen him as that yet. I mean, yeah I have acknowledged that he’s pretty handsome, but for now I have only seen him as someone I will share the apartment with.” Just for a short amount of time before he goes back to his kind, she thought to herself.
“Well you probably should decide if he is a good one or else someone else is gonna take him.” She didn’t respond since she didn’t really wasn’t sure herself. She had actually taken a liking to him, but he was a changeling. He had already had a bit of trouble control himself and she wasn’t sure if would be as easy next time.
They came back to the table where the guys had manage to finish most of the pizza by himself. It seemed Change had ordered another round of drinks on her, probably something she had to pay for since he didn’t have any money. They sat down and he actually smiled which marked a first, but it might be since he had almost finished his second glass.
“Welcome back girls, hope you don’t mind us ordering another drink?” Rumble smiled.
“Fine by me, feel like I can take a few more.” Scoot smiled back and sat back down.
“Me too, I feel like I can drink thiz all night.” Amazingly, for a first time drinker, he hadn’t started to slur. Any other first timer with this much alcohol intake would be having difficulties with saying their own names.
“Are you saying you challenge me to a drinking contest? I’ll have you know I drink almost everyone under the table.” Scootaloo gave him a challenging look.
“Good that I tend to be on the table when I drink.” he answered the look and declared drinking war.
“Oooh a drinking battle between Scoots and her boy- ehm, roommate. You’re in for a tough one Change.” Applebloom waves at the waitress. “Hey, we need a few more drinks here for a drinking match!”
“If I win, can I actually ztay with you?” He whispered so only Scootaloo heard.
“What do you mean?” She whispered back.
“I’m actually an outcazt from the hive. I don’t have anywhere to go which iz why I waz in the forezt, I was trying to get away. I have no other place to go, but if I can beat you now, am I allowed to ztay with you?” She thought about it and she might been a bit affected by her earlier drinks.
“you would have to get a job too, paying for two people isn’t cheap.”
“I will.” The waitress came back with a plate of drinks to the drinking competition.
“Then let’s do this shit.”
End of Chapter 2
