8 days later

"This is all I could get." The undisguised changeling said as he opened the bags on his sides to reveal 5 apples. He poured them onto the floor of the cave.

"Wait... Ebony, against the wall, now." I said. He did so and a couple seconds later the Canterlot train sped through the cave and up towards that accursed place. Once it was gone I stood up and looked at the apples, they were all under-ripe and slightly bruised. "Hm, still better than Tuesday. Ripening spell please." I held out the apple as it grew in size slightly and became softer. I took a bite. "Meh, edible, good enough for me. Say, your getting good at this 'real food' stuff." I sat with my back against the flattest piece of rock I could find in the whole cave.

"Speaking of food..." He said, pressing up against me.

"Psh, you know I can't resist." I pulled him up onto my lap and wrapped my arms around him. This was the plan. I feed him love, he goes to Ponyville, disguised, and steals fruit or buys it with money he finds on the floor if possible. After a couple of minutes of changeling cuteness I pushed him away. "Full yet?"

"Yeah, I was just seeing how long you would hug me for."

"Ha, if I wasn't dizzy from not eating enough, I could do it all day."

He rubbed his neck guiltily. "Yeah, I'll try to get more next time."

I waved a hand "Nah it's fine, if worst comes to worst we could go hunting, its been a while since I had some protein. Actually... that's probably why I feel so ill. Think you could pick up some beans or nuts tomorrow? They have protein, not a lot, but enough to keep me going..."

"Wait... you can eat meat?" He asked as he stood back up from our hug.

"Yeah, why? Can you?"

"Kinda. It's not good for us. But in emergencies; it has been done."

"Hm, fair enough, I knew those fangs were used for something other than looking cute." He struck a bashful pose. "Oh my god, stop, please. You're going to drain me dry." I said jokingly.

"Don't worry, I'm not hungry." Wait what "Well, not anymore."

"Wait can you do that? Drain someone?" I asked, somewhat worried.

"Well, yeah. It's kinda what we're infamous for."

"Really?"

"Yeah, in the past, some hives had such low food-levels they had to start draining ponies completely, if you don't do it in small intervals like we do, you can completely drain someone of emotion. Leaves them a husk of their previous self."

"Woah dude, das spooky." I poked him on the nose, he went cross eyed and his nose crunched up.

He recovered and smiled. "And that was delicious."

"Hey, careful there, if you remove my emotions you won't have a source of food anymore."

"Oh don't worry, I'm careful in everything I do."

"What about Tuesday?"

"Okay, I slipped up once, but that was a one time thing, okay?"

We sat there in the cave simply enjoying each other's company. After all, that was all we had, aside from a couple apples and some bags Ebony stole. A while (and a couple apples) later, the amber sun-light began flooding the entrances of the cave.

"Hm, nearly night. You still working on getting those sheets?" I asked.

"Yeah, but the shop is so small it's hard to sneak out with one. Those things are pretty big."

"Just get one from the trash for all I care. Long as it's soft and isn't full of insects." I shuddered at the thought as I said it.

"You know, that farm-house has a bunch of spare beds, I could probably nag one of the sheets if you let me near that place."

"You can't go there and you know why." I said, pointing at him accusingly.

"...I don't!"

"I told you last time!"

"And I told YOU I didn't know was a shut-gone is!"

"It's 'shotgun'."

"Whatever that is!!!" He dramatically waved his hooves in both mock and real confusion.

"I can't tell you what they are, if they make those here, I know I've done a bad job."

He turned a little more somber. "Speaking of which, you think they're looking for us?"

I thought about what he just implied. "...Your saying I did a bad job?"

"...Yes" He said, actually meaning it too.

"It's okay, I made a scene. She'll remember what I said."

"What did you even say?"

I sighed. "Even I wish I didn't know, now. You don't need to know. Ignorance is bliss."

"Yep." He sighed. "Absolute BLISS" He gestured to the cave sarcastically.

I laughed slightly. "But yeah, they probably are, or will be. On a different note; where do you want to sleep tonight?"

"Don't care really. I don't feel the cold like you do."

"Lucky..."

"Hey, at least you have an excuse to cuddle me!" I could not help but laugh a little bit. Oh Ebony, you know me so well. That was actually true. At night we had to share body-heat, he could take the cold, but I couldn't.

"I don't need an excuse." I said with a smug grin. "Hm... yeah, okay, I think that little alcove place was the warmest last time, let's try there again." He did his little 'makes no difference to me' shrug and set off for the location. It was deeper into the cave, it was a little hole I had to crawl to fit through that led to a small room-like hollowing. It was only about half a meter tall, about a meter wide and two meters deep into the wall. Allowing just enough space for me to lie in.

The whole 'sleeping with each other' thing was weird for the first couple nights, but after we noticed it was a necessity (if I was going to survive), we both agreed that what happened in the cave, stayed in the cave, and that once this was all over, we would never speak of this again.

After a couple biology lessons things got a whole lot more comfortable, we both knew each others limits and we both knew that we HAD to do it, lest I freeze to death. So it was nice, really. And it was a really good trust exercise in a way, we both got really comfortable with each other and became a lot closer as friends. He even started to pick up my sense of humor, some of my mannerisms and even my speech-patterns. Which was not exactly a good thing, but whatever, it's a development none-the-less.

We both scooted into the little hole and moved into the position we accepted upon. I curl up and lay on my side facing him, he faces me, on his side. He puts his hoofs over my back and I wrap my arms around the back of his neck. It wasn't that comfortable, and it was definitely awkward. But it was warm. Plus, he really didn't seem to mind being a hot-water-bottle.

***

We were woken by the early morning train rumbling the ground under us.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhggggg." We both groaned, untangling ourselves and shifting out of the small room, into the crisp morning air.

Ebony stretched out his back like a cat, and his carapace shifted and clicked. It looked really cool, and painful. "Any dreams last night?" He asked. That's strange, maybe I did something in my sleep?

"I don't remember anything, why?" I didn't notice then, but it seems that the whole 'leaving Canterlot' thing had made me completely forget about what I saw in Chrome's house, saving me from the nightmares that had been plaguing my nights since the day I saved Chrome.

"Oh, er, never mind." He said awkwardly.

"Seriously, what did I do?"

"You... kinda hugged really tight then nuzzled my neck."

"...And?" I asked. He stared at me for a couple seconds. "OOH, that probably means something in pony-body-language. Don't worry, that means nothing in human."

"I never said it was bad, it was pretty tasty too."

I pointed at him like a dog that had just ate some food I dropped. "No! I am not okay with you eating my emotions as I sleep. When I'm awake, sure, go ahead. Just, tell me, you know?"

"Yeah, sorry, I kinda... panicked."

"Nah dude, don't sweat it, it's fine, just wake me up, or shove me next time I do something weird. Anyway, I haven't mentioned all the weird stuff you've done in your sleep."

He looked about nervously. "Like what?"

"I ain't sayin' anything."

The day continued as usual: he left about an hour after we woke up to go get some more supplies. I waited at the cave, just watching the clouds and hiding whenever a train came by. He came back 4 or 5 hours later, about twice as long as he usually takes.

"Dude! There you are! I was starting to worry man!"

"Sorry! Sorry. It's just, I saw an opportunity, and I took it." He stepped to his side, revealing a small trailer. It was full but there was a cloth covering it's contents.

"Dude! Where the hell did you get this?!"

"I might have bumped into a rich pony a BIT to hard and made him drop a LITTLE money." I smirked, he was beginning to sound like me. "I spent the money I managed to get a hold of on this trailer, then filled it with basic house-hold items from a hardware store."

"Any food?"

"You betcha' there's food! I managed to snag an entire pie!"

"Aw nice dude. Literal life-saver, you are. You know that?" We walked back into the cave and to the outside of the alcove. He set down the trailer and I looked through what he bought and placed them in what I deemed to be the 'correct' places outside the alcove, decorating it like a house.

A sheet, sweet, that can go inside.

A lamp? I guess it would look cool on the outside of the door, though lighting it would be risky.

A couple planks of wood, some nails and a hammer. "Dude, what should I make out of these?"

"I was thinking a door maybe?"

"Yeah, I thought so too. Are these... cleaning supplies?" There was a multitude of spray-bottles arranged in a small bag.

"I don't know, they were giving them away for free, so I just took all of them." A man of my own heart.

I took a look at one of the sprays, an amazing idea popped into my head which in hindsight was actually a really bad idea. I walked up to Ebony with the spray-end facing him, so he could not see the label.

"Hey, Hey Ebony. Look at this." I sprayed him, he was unfazed. "Aw, damn stuff doesn't even work!" I threw it on the ground, revealing it to be bug spray. He looked up at me.

"You fool." He said, all to dramatically. Before he flipped onto his back and began to twitch. I laughed at his antics

"Dude, I was expecting a 'dah hell you say' stare, not this." I continued laughing until I realized he wasn't joining in. "Dude?" Nothing. "I swear I will spray this up your nose if you don't get up." He quickly righted himself.

"Fine, fine jeez g-"

"No, YOU don't say that."

"Say what?"

"Jeez."

"...Oh wow, your right, I am picking stuff up from you..."

"Yeah, stop it. And don't even fake-die again either, only a couple days ago did one my friends actually die. Obviously I saved him, being the infamous 'Sir Dan Micheals, Insubordinate Hero, Defender and Medical specialist, that I am. But still, don't do that man."

"Oh, sorry dude, I forgot. Didn't mean to strike a nerve there. But you never explained that to me, how DID you save him if he had already died?"

"By shocking his heart with lightning, breathing into his mouth, filling his lungs, then emptying them by pressing his chest. Why?"

"That's it? You can bring someone back from the dead just like that?"

"Only if they are very recently dead, and usually only if they died of asphyxiation. Which he did both of, I am pretty sure he died in my arms on my way to the palace."

"How romantic."

"Nah, that guy's taken now, isn't he?" I said, giving him a smug grin.

"...Yeah... you and your weird ways..."

"Yep, I wonder how he's coping..." I imagine Luna can be a bit of a handful sometimes...

The last things in the trailer were the pie and some tools. I ate about half the kinda-warm apple pie before getting started on a door, well, 'hatch' for our improvised house. It took quite a while. So it was dark by the time I had finished, I could see my breath in the air, it was so damn cold. I attached the hatch and went inside, I found Ebony lighting the lamp with a pale-green flame, casting a strange light about the small room.

"Dan?" His tone was serious, yet sincere. "Do you know why I like it here?"

"You LIKE it here?"

"...Yeah. I do."

I thought. Nothing sappy like 'because your here', he wouldn't say that... "Does it remind you of... well, Home?"

"Yeah... How'd you know? Not many ponies have seen a hive and survived..."

"I can't explain it to you. Just accept that sometimes I just know things okay?" In reality, most theories I had read had Changelings living underground. So I just assumed it as fact. I was lucky it was true, or I might have well offended him by implying his home was a hole in the ground.

"Yeah, I've noticed that..." He stared into the flame for a while, I sat beside him, the door doing wonders keeping the heat in. "Dan, what was your home like?" I blinked.

"It's a horri-"

"Not your planet Dan. Your HOME." He said, uncharacteristically sternly.

I sighed. "I try not to think about what I left behind. But someone should know." He looked slightly guilty, but curious. "I lived in a small house, with my Mother and sister... My father moved away a couple years ago..."

"Did he travel with work?"

"No, divorce." He gasped. "Such a thing is common there. But I digress. I woke up 4 days a week for college, the days were long and testing, but I enjoyed them in the all the ways I could. I also had a job in a instrument shop, you know, the places that sell guitars, drums, flutes, violins, all that stuff." He gave me a confused look, I dismissed him with a hand gesture. "Me and my father always seemed to get along, whenever I saw him, which wasn't often. Me and my mother were not on the best of terms when I left... Still loved my sister though, she was helpful when she needed to be. My house was by the coast, so I could go and walk along the rocky shore-line whenever I needed to get away from things..."

"Sounds nice... I've always wanted to see the ocean..." There was a pause. I should take him to see the beach one day... If there are any nearby...

"What was YOUR home like?" I asked and he looked at me, with reminiscent eyes, looking beyond me, and into the past.

"Everyone had a job, you knew exactly where to go and when. ...Navigating the thin alleys and spiraling towers felt so natural that... you could tour the entire place and not even notice... When I left I... I had barely ever seen the outside world, the clouds still freak me out a little even now." He laughed softly. "Guess it not natural for me to be above ground so much? Hey?"

I snorted. "It's completely unnatural for me to even BE here."

He laughed shortly. "Okay, dude. I've got to sleep, and you got a sheet now, guess you don't need me anymore..."

I laughed. "Dude I ain't stopping you. You know what you do to me." He rolled his eyes.

We slept side-by-side from then on, as a compromise between the two methods. Only I had a sheet on me, so its no homo. Right? I don't care, he's a pony, basically, and he's a bro. A little homo here and there never hurt nobody.

***

14 Days later

We had both given up on them finding us. Or even searching for us. Shows how much they care.

I was getting weak, I had one meal a day if I was lucky. Ebony was feeling it too, my malnutrition-ridden mind was in a daze that made it hard to concentrate, causing less fake-ish love to be made. We both decided it was time to send a message, the question was how?

"I'm pretty sure they could track a letter, magically or something." I said in rebuttal of his suggestion.

"How else could we let them know? It's not like we could be seen back there and not be followed back here."

"Yeah, your right..." I thought over everything I had done since I got to that land. It wasn't much. But then I came across something. "Hey is there any chance you could get a recording device today? I guess I could go without food today."

"No! You can't! You are weak right now Dan! Look at yourself and tell me you 'can go without food'." I looked down at myself, he was right. My ribs were more visible than they usually were, I was always underweight. But now, I could see each bone-y rung very clearly.

I sighed. "Dude, just pick up a recording device, whatever this world uses for that, while you're out there, but only after you've got food. Okay?"

"I don't know where I will find one..."

"There has to be a specialist shop or something, you know, a place that sells that type of thing."

"Look, I'll try. But I can't promise anything." He strapped on his bags and waved to me as he left the mouth of the cave, changing into a generic-looking unicorn.

I waved back to him, and got back to the task at hand -- being bored.

For the hours he was gone for I would usually attempt to make things out of the planks of wood he brought sometimes, but I had ran out of those, I usually ended up breaking them anyway. I suck at carpentry. That day I managed to find two rocks, they seemed to be some kind of metal ore, since they were harder than the rock around me. I found these rocks by bored-ly smashing rocks against a wall.

These ones didn't break. One was round, the other was a dagger-like shape, ending in a slightly rounded point. I used them as a chisel and started to draw humorous images on the walls of the cave. Well, humorous to me at least. I also named the house. Over the small the door-way I scratched "The Equality Hole". Then in smaller text under it "No gurls allowed". I leaned back and admired my work. Then almost got decapitated by a train going by behind me, guess I was to distracted to feel the rumbling. The train was gone in a couple seconds, I'm pretty sure no-one saw me. But it was still pretty scary.

A couple hours later, Ebony returned. He had a beaming grin on his still disguised face. I freaked out for a second, thinking a pony had found me, but then I realized it was just him. His face faulted as he eye'd on some of the 'art' I made on the walls.

"Why did you do that? And what is Celestia doing?" He asked, pointing at one of my amazing drawings. I quickly scribbled out part of the picture.

"Nothing! She was... eating cake." He stared at me. "You know she likes cake right?" He just stared. "Hey, don't judge. I was bored today, I let my mind wonder a bit."

"If THIS is what you think of when your mind wonders A BIT, your issues with Celestia are a lot deeper than I thought."

"Hey, I've got no issues with her. I've got an issue with the entire population."

"Yeah I'm pretty sure that's an internal problem you should get checked out."

"Not being a racist is not an 'internal problem'."

"Oh... that's what you meant. Oh, okay..." There was an awkward pause.

"So! What-d'ya get today?" I said, attempting to change the subject, and lighten the mood.

"Oh a couple things..." He whipped open the bags and an impossible amount of stuff fell out. And I mean 'stuff' literally. It was like he had an entire Ikea store in there. "I found a closed store. So I let myself in and helped myself to everything I thought might be useful."

I blinked. "Well, this... potted cactus... sure is... nice... but did you get any food? Or a recording device?"

"Oh yeah, I got a couple apples."

"...Where are they?" I asked as I looked about the pile of assorted things.

"I... don't know..."

"Great, their probably crush- Oh here they are." I picked up the three large shiny apples, they were completely unharmed. "Damn cartoon world" I mumbled as I ate one slowly.

"Hm, that's convenient. And yeah! I found a recording thingy! Or at least I... think it is..." He walked around the pile of things. "Here it is, you have any idea how to make this work?" He held up a device that looked like an old-timey gramophone. It had two switches. By the looks of the symbols on them, they were a "go" and "stop" switch and a "Record" and "Play" switch.

"Yep, this is perfect." I said as I took the device from him and set it down in front of me as I sat. "Could you organize your stuff? Or half of it's going to fly away when a train goes by, I've got to work on this thing." He nodded, changelings are super obedient from what I've seen, or maybe that's just him.

I switched the right switch from neutral to "play" then switched the left from neutral to "go". The white record in the center span, but no sound came out. Blank, awesome. I hit 'stop' then set it to 'record'. A small hole opened as I did so, revealing a kind of in-set microphone. Neat. I clicked 'go' and hoped the record had enough space to hold the whole song.

From what little I knew about music magic, it was evident it really struck ponies, hard. They feel the emotion coming from the song as if it were a confession, unlike us, who use it for entertainment, they use it for emotional means, so singing a song was a great way of exposing my emotion to the ponies. I sang the song I had prepared a couple days prior, I had edited the lyrics from the original to more fit what I felt, and to make it hit Celestia as hard as possible.

I performed my message. I used possibly the saddest, angriest song I could think of as a base when I wrote the lyrics. So the music that backed my vocals was an awesome mixture of guitars and some sick double bass.

"Ha, I didn't even have to change some of those lines." I laughed and turned to see that Ebony was staring at me, with tears in his eyes. "Come on dude. It's just a song."

"I'm sorry, it's just... songs seem to affect us more than they effect you... plus I-... I could taste your emotion." Oh shit.

"Oh.. aw, man, dude. Come here-" I hugged him "-I'm sorry dude, I should have warned you or something." He pushed me away.

"Dan, it's okay, really. You needed to record that anyway. Plus... It WAS beautiful... even if it didn't taste that nice..." Beautiful? I will admit it was pretty hardcore, though I have a rather limited experience in that field, so I probably can't even use that word yet... but still... 'Beautiful' is not the word I would use to describe that kind of music. I mean, it's nice and I like it. But... still...

I laughed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure if this does not work, nothing will... You up for an undercover mission?" His eyes widened in both fear, and exitement. I noticed the record still rolling. I put in an impromptu personal message, then stopped the recording.

"So... undercover mission?" He asked with an excited smirk.

I explained my plan, it executed immediately.

Updated: 07-08/11/15 (It's only 2am)
-Added 's everywhere!
-Fixed stuff like formatting, grammar and those other things
-Ironed out some pesky plot-holes

Woah, I said I would have this up by today, and I barely made it!

If you can't tell, I really like playing with Ebony in this. Writing those two interacting, for some reason, has been probably the most fun so far.