Chapter II: ..Is not so bright outside..
— ..How so?! - red-eyed horse angered for the first time - They are silly!
— What is silly?
Fascinating, how different emotions are perceived differently, when directed at no less different things. There - so well familiar rage, yet she raged not at the snowwhite creature! As if, this pony tried to protect him at a distance, in her own thoughts! But why?
Nobody behaved this way. Even animals - rabbits of all coats, wargs of different kinds - just who did insectoid not meet in the first hours of studying Equestria. They all feared the big bug. Predators ran away at the sight of an extraordinary insect.
Looking them over could not be done at all. Nobody came closer to the shapeshifter, when he laid on the grass to smell the ashes. Yet even earys hesitated at the sight of wolves! Birds stopped singing, the whole brightness walked away. Colours stayed, they inspired. However, others blew off the excitement.
Naturally, it only pondered those very questions harder. And now, with new words and suggestions from the orange pony, the same questions reconstructed into something else entirely! Did all those critters feel something off, indeed? Like all other ponies?
Since they also expressed feelings. And the changeling felt them perfectly. Felt, that they were directed at him. Felt the similarities - very different, but fear nonetheless. Rational fear; what if this fanged creature would try to eat someone, just like that?
After all, hunger is not some small thing. And what do such creatures as this big fanged bug eat? Everyone around knows. Or rather, everyone thinks they know - insect himself as well. He saw how ponies were fed in the hive with some sticky substance. Maybe, one needs to repeat?
Not even a smell of anything matching around. In every sense. Means, time to find alternatives! Eating someone else did not even get inside the head - everything around is just too miraculous. However, many green bushes with yellow berries challenged these thoughts. There are a lot of those berries - will the bush get upset, if it is forced to share?
The bush might not resent, yet the insectoid himself felt something like that. Something strong, that not a thought of even sparked before. His own emotions. They shone from nature's gifts so hard, that the bug did not even know what to think. And yet, such thing has already happened.
Changelings always had emotions. Very flattened, dulled, only giving some kind of a hint how to react. Emotions, that other shapeshifters cannot satiate from. And there, when they are shining brighter than anything else, one simply cannot think about this "anything else".
— ..What feeling, now? - pony tried to learn, what plant is talk going about.
— Do not know. Pressure. Not want to think. Want to hide.
— A-a-ah..! - she finally got it - That's a cringeberry! Berries that make you feel shame!
— ..What is shame?
Literate horse barely managed to explain, what this embarrassing plant is and what it is used for. Reputation it has is sorrowful - only immoral folk are using it! Emotional torture, desire to humiliate, attempts at learning something.. One berry is enough to ruin everything.
And the insect ate more than one. That did not fill him up at all. Nothing changed in the stomach - only shame joined the struggle. Then again, what else can be done? Everyone around understand everything, and he does not know even a thing! As if he was born just then and there, mistakes come one after another. "Ashamed of them." - flickered in his head - "Ashamed of me.".
Changeling does not even know who he is! Can he even be a changeling, if he is so distant to other insects? The coat and holes are completely different, it just cannot be! This orange horse is probably not a pony, either. Looks like a pony, yet acts too uncertainly!
Not even completely opposite to the public reaction, but unpredictable altogether! And the looks are not too clear: ears are big, but she is small; behaves like a foal, yet the voice is very adult! Reactions, mature facial features, large wings, bended legs! Especially the legs.
Nobody else stood like that. Even soldiers did not bend their back legs so hard, though they were ready for a battle on their hinds at any moment. Why did this mare stand like that? Is she afraid of the white one? But the head says otherwise! Feelings are never deceiving.
Snowwhite bug found that out for himself, when meeting those very soldiers. At only a single gaze they almost threw their spears - some away, and some at the bug! Not only because of the fighting posture, but also thanks to their emotions. Fear and certainty at the same time, says nothing but that.
Ones who had no weapons - did not stand like so. Orange one had nothing but the flower in her mane - yet she stands like that, and certain as well! Certain, but not afraid. Perhaps only for the bug. How can one be afraid for someone else? Though, that is also possible. The insect felt like this already.
Not far from the village with troops, even before meeting them, he met wolves with common ponies - the first ponies in the wild. Changeling simply could not do anything but help them with his looks. Only, the coloured horses ran away with wargs, almost together.
— ..They are silly, don't take this too deep! You're not a bugling, you are nice! You are a changeling!
— ..What is a changeling?
Maybe, this mare is mistaken? He can morph at least somehow, yet other features are not typical for him. And then, other creatures cannot transform, though they have all the qualities of book-lored changelings. Except the obvious appearance, of course.
Maybe, this snowwhite creature - is an eary? Rabbits often came around with white fur - he is also white. Ears are, clearly, not reaching the ground and are not lopped, though they are still special! Real antennas. Able to hear ideal and afar - just like those little and fluffy ones.
From another side though, these rabbits are more like ponies - both with ears, and fluff. Changelings are not soft, and very cold. Like the horses inside. "Not literally." - he seemingly understood something - "Inside. Not that inside.". Soulfully, with personality. With feelings.
In one moment, curiosity and hunger beat the bug completely. Will he have to go to those soldiers, indeed? But they do not want to even talk with the insects! What of it - other shapeshifters constantly attacked, right in front of the white one! Shapeshifters with green carapaces.
Like yellow, only the yellowness is green! "I am not alone." - snowwhite bug clearly realised. There are other insects! Probably, not very good ones, since they are being fought so fiercely. They were not morphing either - only fought and hissed! Maybe, they do not know the other ways? Like the white one?
— But you know how to! You know it yourself, you did it be-
— Into others. Morph into others.
— Even now? Just how much time had passed..!
— ..What is time?
The changeling described the surroundings of a militarised hamlet somehow improbably. An image drawn by, that persisted very long ago. Two years back, at least. And when the insect was explained, what "year", "season" and a "second" means, all the thoughts beckoned in an instant.
That place, Armare-de-Forge, was not found by the bug in a day or two. He travelled for a while - at least, for a week. A week without food, with a huge desire to taste something. And the tasted things did not suppress that desire. Why did it not appear before? Seven "years" everything went nice, and now there is disaster!
And that question also has an answer. Like in that moment with morphing. A need with the desire appeared only then, after leaving the hive. Why would one want to hide in a hive? It is the opposite - he wanted to talk with others! And the changeling learned how to speak. At least somehow.
— ..I, don't understand you well. - red-eyed pony shifted her head from one side to another - Can you describe it the other way?
— ..O-ther-way?
— Differently. With different words. Well, under a different angle..! - the horse angered at herself from inability to find the right words.
— Will try. Do not be upset.
Constant runnings from the upset stallions have not exhausted. Maybe, only emotionally - just like them. No matter, how much one had to run and when - the changeling managed to do so all day. Huge hunger only drove towards food, back to the village.
It did not allow to think at all, only act. And how to get closer to unhappy horses, other than with natural skills? That way, one and only wish allowed the shapeshifter to learn how to take a guise of rocks, then random lamps.. And then it went to the object, that brought the bug and solar mare together.
— So what do you see, when you are different?
— Different?
— I mean, when you're morphed into something! How do you realise that it's time to act?
Ah, if only the words would listen to the bug.. He would explain that he sees everything around at the same time. As if the whole imagined object - one pile of invisible eyes. "Under a different angle.". Though, the horse probably understood him - ponies also see things not only on their front. Eye corners notice the dangers.
For instance, the insectoid, every time. Other coloured and even white ponies seemingly blend into surroundings, yet the shapeshifter always appeared in their field of view. Is it because he is white, and this whiteness shines? Or because he is very loud? Any movement, and the whole region knows about him!
Maybe, the changeling is too different. Even when he tried to transform into others, he would not succeed. Foxes, birds, rabbits and wolves.. What else is here to say about someone like ponies? One and only picture would arise every time. Very frightening picture.
— ..You are still very adorable! I like your replication!
Is it adorable, though? All that he could do - slightly change the body shape and attain the other colours. Every time he looked at puddles, to ensure the disguise worked, it disappointed him and caused emotions. Emotions from other horses. Since it is still an insect, simply with different colours and shapes.
Which cannot be said about items. Their images clearly draw themselves in his head - purpose, materials, flexibility, difficulty.. Something hard can always be simplified, and if not - nothing prevents one from imagining and pretending how one wants. A soft glass, for example. Or a solid paper..
— But you are so kind! So innocent!
Why does this pony continue to hug the insectoid? Why have others not done so? Is the bug really dangerous like he appears? Only if he is left completely alone. At one moment, absence of feelings brought a whole hurricane of emotions into that settlement..