"Ah'm sorry, Featherweight, but...Ah...Ah just can't do this anymore," Apple Bloom finished, her voice cracking, unsurprisingly. She hadn't been able to look at him while saying it, because his eyes could do powerful things when connected with hers.

She looked up. And her heart broke.

Never before in her life had she seen a more excruciatingly sad pony. He wasn't dramatising how he felt like Rarity sometimes obnoxiously did, nor was he pouting in a perfect, tearful, camera-worthy facial expression.

It was ugly. His face creased in all the wrong ways, fat saltwater tears clouded his eyes, and from his throat rose gasps of disgusting sobs.

Apple Bloom whimpered as her own tears stung their ways down her cheek. She whimpered. "F-Feather..."

But as she tried to approach the heartbroken colt, he slammed his front door in her face.

She let out a sob that could easily have been mistaken for a scream of anger and bounded off his porch. The biting, cold wind snapped at her damp face as she galloped, wailing and yelling and howling and dying.

She could barely breathe, or see, or hear, but she just kept sprinting till she found herself at the edge of Ponyville, standing in front of a house that was considerably smaller than the average Ponyville cottage.

It was old and run-down and appeared to be abandoned so she set to pushing her head against the cream plaster walls. A moment later she reared back and punched it as hard as she could. Some of it crumbled away, and she clawed at the loose, cracked surrounding parts.

She continued to attack it even when it refused to come away. She screamed in frustration, turned round and bucked it with full force.

She missed the plaster but penetrated the wooden framing, lacerating her hind legs with splinters. The moment she placed them back on the ground, a searing heave of unbearable pain shot throughout her body. But instead of screaming, she opened her mouth wide, eyes popping.

Momentarily balancing on her forehooves, she sat down and wept relentlessly.

Once she found herself able to stop crying, she set to picking out the splinters and various other substances wedged in her flesh. Her hooves quickly turned the colour of her mane, so she resorted to licking them clean.

The taste of blood made her gag, but she kept going because otherwise she'd never get home. Apple Bloom snatched some leaves off a nearby bush and squeezed them against her tarnished coat.

When the blood had mostly stopped seeping out of her wounds, she assumed the fetal position and sat there, sniffing unceremoniously.

It wasn't until the sun had started to set that she decided to return. The pain hadn't stopped, but it had lessened significantly. As she winced with each slowly-taken step, she decided to stay over at Carousel Boutique instead of stumbling all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres.

When she eventually made it back into the centre of the town, she spotted Briar, the only changeling living in Ponyville, walking towards her. They were walking the same path, but Apple Bloom was in no condition to change course so she waited for him to move out of her way.

Once he blankly bumped into her, she hollered, "DO YA MIND?!"

He flinched and hastily apologised, "I...I'm sorry, I just...I-I didn't see you..."

"Ya didn't see me? YOU WERE LOOKIN' RIGHT AT ME!"

He gulped and mumbled, "I...I'm blind."

Apple Bloom's throat clogged up. "Oh...well, Ah...Ah'm sorry, sir."

Now it was his turn to be angry. "What did you call me?!"

Apple Bloom's bottom lip quivered. "Umm...sir?"

"I am female, I'll have you know." She lowered her voice to a mutter. "Curse my male-sounding name."

"Oh gosh, Ah'm so sorry, Ah...ya just look like..." She looked down, not wanting to offend her any further.

"Hey, it's fine. I get it a lot. There's literally no physical difference between female and male changelings. We all share the same DNA."

Apple Bloom sniffed. "Ah should've known, anyway."

"Oh, come on. Half the town thinks I'm a colt. How would you know?"

"Umm..."

"Exactly."

Apple Bloom felt the silence that followed become awkward very quickly, so she blurted, "How does it work?"

"Pardon?"

"Can...Ah mean...word is changelings can 'see' love. Is that...how does it...?" Apple Bloom locked eyes with her, even though she was blind.

She laughed. "Yes, it's true. We're blind for the most part, but it's like infrared radiation: we can see, quite clearly, the form of ponies bearing strong emotion for another."

Apple Bloom puffed out her cheeks. "Then why couldn't you see me? Ah love mah friends, mah sister, mah family. Why the hay couldn't ya see that?!"

"I don't know. Maybe right now you just don't love them as much as you normally do."

Apple Bloom was about to retaliate, but she stopped herself. Was that true? She certainly wasn't feeling like she was the best pony in the world, but...what did that have to do with her friends and family?

In fact, as she came to realise, she had accidentally been feeling like she was completely unloved in the world. Somewhere along the self-hating process she had gone through, this had subconsciously happened.

And she hadn't been bothered to even acknowledge it.

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me. It probably isn -"

"You're right, actually," the earth filly breathed.

"Oh. Know how it happened, or is it just one of Those Days?"

She sighed. "Ah...Ah broke up with my coltfriend, and then Ah destroyed a building, so now Ah'm injured, and he hates me and Ah'm such a horrible filly, aren't I?!" She unexpectedly started crying again, but silently. She didn't want condescending sympathy from a stranger.

But somehow, Briar knew. She awkwardly reached for Apple Bloom's head. When she found it, she carefully found her way to her wet cheeks and wiped them as gently as she could. "I'm envious of you, you know."

She sniffed and absent-mindedly asked, "Wh-why?"

"Because you had a coltfriend. I'm not saying I can't believe you didn't stay with him, but I can't have that."

Apple Bloom's brow creased. "Changelings can't love?"

"There is probably only one equine for every changeling. There's a slim chance of meeting them, and an even slimmer chance of them loving you back. We have this...defence mechanism thingy."

"Woah, and your terminological vocab just exceeded mine," Apple Bloom laughed. She paused. "Whad'ya mean by that?"

She sighed. "I guess you really can learn nothing about us from books," she muttered. "Changelings are empathic beings. We have hormones that can mimic the feelings of anyone we want. Young changelings are...forced to feel what betrayal, jealousy, anger, depression and, most importantly, heartbreak is like so they know what love can do."

Apple Bloom gasped. "Did you have to...?"

"Yes. We are then given the choice to leave the hive. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us are cruel and see staying in the hive as the only way of guaranteed self-preservation."

Tears started to fall from Apple Bloom's eyes for the third time that evening. "That's horrible."

Briar nodded a little, an almost-smile on her lips.

"Ya have friends though...right?" Apple Bloom questioned, dreading the answer.

"Yeah, yeah. That's how I survive. But...I can't exactly say I love them."

Apple Bloom rushed up and hugged the changeling mare tight. "Ah can't even think what that must be like," she whimpered.

Briar awkwardly returned the hug. "That's a good thing. Now, do you want me to carry you home?"

"Ah...Ah couldn't possibly ask that of -"

"Shush. You're injured. Stop pretending it doesn't hurt."

The following week, Briar walked into town to get that day's newspaper. Since she couldn't see the goings on for herself most of the time, one of her friends read the newspaper to her every day.

She heard her name numerous times on the way home - which was normal, but it wasn't in the lets-pretend-we're-not-talking-about-someone-behind-their-back way she usually heard.

Ash was waiting for her when she returned. She handed it to him. He laughed, "There's something about you in here, Bri."

"What is it?" she demanded, suddenly scared it was discriminative.

"'In Need Of Love'," he read. "We all know that changelings need love to survive. It's their only source of food. Briar, our local changeling resident, has very few friends and no special somepony. Have you ever been hungry? Well try to imagine feeling that constantly. That's how she feels, every day.

"Changelings are empathic beings. They can feel what you feel, should they choose to. They can mimic your form, they can mimic your love. But mimicking is no more than pretence. They find it so hard to love they might as well be completely unable to.

"Granted, a few of you have probably been affected by changelings. It's no secret that most of them are cruel, heartless beings that toy with your emotions to get a full stomach. But that is most, and not all.

"Briar has a heart. She can care, she can feel and she can love. She's just afraid to. But if you can give her reason to, it'll make her the happiest mare in the world.

"She's kind. And patient. And understanding. I'm not asking you to fall in love with her, because you can't force that sort of thing. What I'm asking you to do is to be her friend. How many times has the famous friendship of the Elements of Harmony saved Equestria? Well, being her friend will give her a happier life."

Briar had her mouth open by the time Ash finished. She stared at him. "Who wrote that?"

"It says...by Apple Bloom, student at Ponyville School, formerly one under the name of 'Gabby Gums'. There's an author's note here: I'm aware that me and may friends promised never to write again, but this matter was so important I think it counts as an exception.

Thank y'all kindly,

~ AB."

Author's Notes:

The moment I saw that changeling in 'Slice of Life', I knew I wanted to make a fanfic about him - her