Forbidden Flowers

by Dragonqueen5900

Chapter 7: Recompense

It has been a full day since she spoke with that pony in the park. Nyceris avoided the café entirely yesterday, still trying to piece together her own thoughts, and worried that any more interaction with the pony would just throw her back into a spiral. “Hives, why can I not get her out of my head?! I’m a Heer officer for fuck’s sake I shouldn’t be debilitated because some pony got the better of me!”

She turns over onto her side, staring out the window from her bed. All she can see is the identical apartments across the street through the opened blinds, partially hidden in the darkness of the early morning. “Why did I even let her get away with that anyways? Scutellum would never let a pony push him around, and I shouldn’t either!”

Pulling her hoof up in front of her face, she lightly taps her jagged, black horn. She thinks of the gun it had held in her magic, poised to take the life of a pony. All it would have taken is a light pressure on the trigger, the slightest will to do it, and the gun would have fired. But she couldn’t. She had failed, and Scutellum did what she didn’t without hesitation.

Rolling over to her other side, she stares at her clock. There are six minutes until her alarm will go off, signaling the start of her day. She had woken up early, stirred by vagrant thoughts that she hasn’t been able to remove from her head no matter how hard she tries. She sighs, closing her eyes and pressing her head deeper into the softness of her pillow. “Why am I so weak? I need to be able to do this, to be the commander my soldiers need me to be. Why can’t I be that?”

Once again, her thoughts drift back to the café pony, who had stood her ground against her, and had been so kind yet so afraid. An all too familiar tightness swells in her chest, though it feels a little different this time. Her eyes clench even more, wrinkling along with her brow, and she finds herself mentally begging for the release of her alarm.

She opens her eyes, casting them in the direction of her clock. “One minute…”

Still unable to rid herself of the pony plaguing her mind, she makes a vow to herself. “Alright Nyceris, today, you are going to go to the café like normal, and you are going to tell that pony to meet you after her work, and you can finally make this right.” Her alarm goes off just as she finishes, its incessant chiming filling the previously silent room. “I need to prove to myself that I won’t let a pony walk over me, and that I can be the commander my troops deserve!”

Nyceris turns off the alarm with her magic, and tosses her covers off. Climbing out of bed, she flicks the lights on with magic and starts getting ready for work. She takes a quick shower, gently drying her fragile wings and cleaning her fangs with a brush. Next, she assembles the pieces of her uniform, carefully removing any blemishes and pulling the belt tight across her waist. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she makes every necessary adjustment to make sure she looks the part of an ideal changeling officer: orderly, clean, and imposing.

Happy with her appearance, she flashes her reflection a fanged smile. “Okay. I can do this. I’m an officer of the Heer, and nothing can stop me.”

She marches downstairs and pulls her pistol and bag out of her closet. She ignores the kitchen for now, figuring she can get something to eat at the café later, and heads out the door. Without any urgency to the day, she peacefully struts along the sidewalk, purposely ignoring the ponies moving out of her way. Within a few minutes, she arrives at the garrison post and passes by the saluting guard to enter inside.

As usual, the post is rather quiet in the morning. The operations officer is sitting at a desk reading out orders for the radio dispatcher, and a pair of soldiers are talking in the corner while checking their rifles. The officer notices her entering through the door watching her while reading something, and Nyceris gives him a nod as she heads upstairs. It seems she is the first to go up here today, as the door to the second floor is locked. She pulls out a key from her bag with her green aura and unlocks the door, pushing it open and stepping into the dark room.

“Strange that I beat the other officers here, usually at least Scutellum arrives before me.” She shrugs. “It’s probably nothing. He might have just slept past his alarm or something.”

Flicking on the lights, she uses her magic to open the blinds on all the windows, and subsequently heads to her desk. Thankfully, she doesn’t have much paperwork today, allowing her to sift through the remaining files at her leisure. Suddenly, she hears the sounds of hoofsteps running up the stairs, and instinctively turns towards the doorway, alert and ready. Her alarm, however, is unwarranted, as the changeling who passes through the threshold is just the operations officer.

“Commander! Apologies, you came up here before I could let you know. Leutnant Caracin wants to see you. I already sent Feldwebel Scutellum there after receiving the radio transmission earlier today.”

Startled by the news, she begins worrying that she may be late, but makes sure that it doesn’t show on her face. “Very well, thank you. I’ll head out momentarily.” She takes a second to gather her things and re-sort the papers on her desk that she had displaced, only to look up and see the operations officer still standing there at attention. “You’re dismissed Unteroffizier.”

He salutes with deft acuity before heading back downstairs.

Nyceris rolls her eyes at the strict mannerisms of her subordinate, only to remember that she does the exact same thing when standing in front of her own superiors. “Huh, I guess it feels a bit different being on the receiving end of that…”

Once she has everything ready, she heads downstairs and out the building. Nyceris finds that she is a little annoyed at having to go after just having settled in for the day, but such is duty. Out on the street now, she opens up her wings and flies over the cars and ponies and patrolling changelings to arrive as quickly as possible. Changelings may not be as fast as a pegasus, but she is still able to travel multiple city blocks in only a few minutes.

She lands outside the district headquarters, easy to see due to the massive Hegemony banners hung over it. Straightening her uniform with her hoof and a bit of magic, she approaches the entrance. There are two soldiers standing outside at attention, much the contrary to the delinquent changeling she had met the last time. They salute as they see her officer’s uniform, and let her inside.

A brief interaction with the receptionist later, Nyceris is heading upstairs to the hectic hallway above, where she forces her way past a multitude of other officers to arrive at the Leutnant’s office. She looks inside through the open door, seeing Scutellum already present, sitting in a chair, and Leutnant Caracin perched in his own sit behind the desk. As she does so, the Leutnant notices her, and beckons her inside.

Nyceris obeys and enters, saluting once inside as the door closes behind her with a glow of green magic. Scutellum turns to look at her, and the Leutnant waves a hoof at a vacant chair. “Oberfeldwebel, you’re finally here. Please, sit.” His tone is bland and professional, but Nyceris thinks she can detect a hint of annoyance at her tardiness.

Suddenly filled with anxiety, and not wanting to give her superior any more reason to punish her, she lowers her foreleg and quickly takes her seat. She shares a momentary look with Scutellum, who only appears smug as ever, possibly even enjoying her nervousness given the slight twist of his grin. “Thanks for the reassurance, you jerk. I’ll remember that next time you’re late.”

Leutnant Caracin leans forward and addresses the two officers before him. “Apologies for calling you both in on such short notice. I know you are busy enough as is, but it is about to get a whole lot busier for all of us.”

Nyceris tilts her head in curiosity.

“You see, in central Equestria, the Love Tax has had a number of reforms to increase both efficiency and reduce the violence that can occur with the current system of random love feedings.” He continues. “They had been implementing this new system for a while, but only now have they become requiring the protectorates do the same. Protectress Lilac has jumped at the opportunity and will be implementing a trial run this month.”

He leans back in his chair, seemingly waiting to see if either of them has any questions. Nyceris doesn’t risk it, since without explicit permission it could be considered a breach of protocol, but Scutellum appears not to care and asks anyways. “What does this new system involve?”

Nyceris braces herself for her compatriot to be yelled out, but it never comes. Instead, the Leutnant just answers the question. “The inventors of the Royal Science Division back in Vesalipolis have built machines capable of harvesting love at a more controlled rate en masse. This has been proven to not only collect more love faster, but also be less draining on the ponies, meaning they can return to work the next day instead of taking up to a week for recovery like it would with a traditional harvesting.”

Nodding, Nyceris finds herself a little excited to implement this. She only ever has bought her love at a store rather than collecting it herself, so she doesn’t really know firsthand about it, but she has heard too many stories in which a changeling has nearly killed the pony they were draining from taking too much. “A better system is sure to help keep them under control too.”

Seeing the approval of his subordinates, the Leutnant continues explaining the plan. “This process is done on a monthly basis, with each pony only being drained once. This is to be implemented on a rotating cycle per district to prevent a total loss of labor on a given day. For us, that means three weeks from today. As the commanding officers of the Portside neighborhood, it is up to you to prepare for the harvest. I have files containing everything you will need to know here.” He pulls a pair of manila folders from a drawer in his desk and hands them to Nyceris and Scutellum respectively.

She takes hers with her hooves, and glances over the front page. The first thing she notices is the word ‘Confidential’ stamped in red across the first piece of paper. “What?! Is he sure he handed me the right file? I don’t want to get in trouble for reading classified documents.” Nyceris looks up to her superior for guidance. His resolute look of patience only leads her to believe that he did, in fact, mean to give her that file, meaning she is now considered a need-to-know changeling. “Great...”

After giving the two a moment to skim their folders, Leutnant Caracin breaks the quiet sound of moving paper to finish his orders. “With that, I trust you both to carry out the instructions carefully. The Love Harvest will be overseen by members of the Queen’s Guard, so ensure that everything is perfect, and that they have no reason to reprimand District 7. Am I understood?”

They both salute. “Yes sir!”

His mouth draws in the slightest hint of a smile. “Good. You are dismissed.”

And with that, Nyceris puts the file in her bag for later and stands up, eager to leave. She has already been stressed enough recently, and adding a whole new layer of complexity to it only fuels the fire. “And here I thought today might be calm… At least it is for a good reason this time, and not just me being an idiot.”

She leaves the office, with Scutellum in tow, watching as the door closes behind them. They walk through the busy hallway together in silence, heading downstairs, only speaking once they are outside. Scutellum turns to her as they trot down the sidewalk back to the garrison post. “Well, I can’t say I was expecting that. Probably for the best, though I’m a little sad that the love feedings will be coming to an end.”

Nyceris eyes him incredulously. “Of course you’d be the type of changeling to actually enjoy feeding directly off of ponies…” She knows she can’t really say that without revealing too much about herself, so she goes with something else. “I guess. I still think this is a major improvement. More discipline, happier ponies, what’s not to like?”

He mutes a laugh, so it comes off more as a scoff. “You care too much Nyceris.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, you emphasized discipline above the fact it’s just more efficient. Who cares if someling wants to have a little fun?”

She can’t help but just stare. It would be almost shocking if it weren’t completely in-character for him. “And what do you mean by that?”

He sighs, as if the answer is obvious. “What I mean, is that a few ponies being upset or hurt is hardly the end of the world.”

“That may be true, but it still feels wrong to hurt them unnecessarily.” She thinks, before trying an approach he may find more acceptable. “It is more efficient to keep them happier. Happy ponies work harder and cause less trouble. So, in a way, being nice to them means less work for us.”

He almost seems stunned at the implication, and Nyceris finds a bit of catharsis in his discomfort, as revenge for earlier. After a moment, Scutellum gathers his thoughts and responds. “I can see the reasoning there, but taking that too far could be dangerous. Being seen as a pony sympathizer isn’t exactly a good thing for someling’s career.”

Now it’s her turn to be stunned, having forgotten about that particular aspect. “Shit, he’s right. There are Queen’s Guard coming in only a few weeks, if I have a reputation as being too nice to ponies… well, that’d be the end of my career, or worse…” She nods nervously. “You have a point there. We can implement the new procedures as intended, but otherwise stick to how we’ve been operating. Does that work for you?”

His formerly concerned expression returns to his usual smug grin. “Wonderfully.”

They continue walking quietly for a while, passing by a changeling putting up some propaganda posters on the side of a building. Nyceris can’t help but feel like she had been outplayed. Her doubts regarding her position as a commander resurge, and she has to try her best just to keep Scutellum from noticing. Mercifully, they arrive at the garrison post fairly quickly.

Returning inside, they go upstairs to their desks and start delving into the confidential documents they were given. Sorting through the papers, Nyceris finds that it is mostly just a bunch of procedures for the day of the Love Harvest, but there is also a section about preparation steps, and most importantly some detail about how the machine functions. “I really have my work cut out for me today…”

As she finishes reading the file, she remembers what she had promised herself earlier this morning. “Right, I was going to tell that café pony to meet me later. I guess a coffee and a bagel wouldn’t hurt either, it’s gonna be a long day.”

She stands up to leave, and Scutellum turns to look at her, confused. “Going somewhere?”

Nyceris nods. “Yes. I was going to get a coffee.” She starts towards the door, but then figures that it would be rude not to invite him. “Would you like to come with?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, I had some instant coffee before I left home. Go on ahead, I’ll stay here and figure out these checkpoint procedures.”

“Okay, see you later.” She exits the post and heads off towards the café. While walking, she is mentally preparing herself for what she needs to do. “Okay, you can’t let yourself be distracted. Just go in there, order you stuff, and when she delivers it to you, tell her she will meet you after work. She’s just a pony, there is no reason this should be hard.”

She arrives at the café and pushes the door open, the soft jingling of bells announcing her presence. There are only three patrons inside at the moment, all ponies. Two of them, as well as the employees, give her a nervous glance before returning to whatever they were doing. Nyceris strolls up to the counter, where awaits a yellow unicorn she remembers seeing before. She places her order, watching the pony in the back preparing something and pretending not to notice her.

Sitting down at a nearby table, she awaits her chance. It takes a minute, but eventually the purplish-red earthpony she is waiting for comes by carrying her coffee. Nyceris watches her and can tell she is avoiding eye contact. “She’s afraid… at least that’ll make this easier.”

The barista sets down the tray, turning to leave before Nyceris stops her. “Hey, pony.”

Freezing in place, the pony turns back to look at her, obviously fearful. Nyceris’ own nervousness makes this difficult, but she holds an authoritative disposition, and gives her command. “I wasn’t able to finish with you last we spoke. You get off of work at 7 PM correct?”

The pony nods hesitantly, and Nyceris can see the panic in her rose-colored eyes.

“Good. You will meet me in the park we were at last time at 8 PM today. Ensure you show up.”

“Yes ma’am!” The pony squeaks, before practically galloping off to hide behind the counter.

Nyceris breathes a sigh of relief. “I did it! Now I just need to get through today, and hopefully have enough energy left to prove I won’t let a pony get the better of me again!”

She sips her coffee, happy with herself for being able to exert control over the pony, like a good commander would. Another pony, a pegasus, walks through the door and to the counter, eyeing her suspiciously the whole time. She returns his glare at one point, causing him to shrink away, suddenly entirely absorbed by the menu. Nyceris forces herself to smile. “I’m such. A good. Commander.”

A few minutes pass, and she finishes her coffee. She gets up to leave, paying one final look at the counter. She can only see the yellow unicorn, who smiles as their eyes meet. Nyceris turns away and exits through the door onto the street. “At least there’s one pony who isn’t afraid of me.” She then catches herself. “No, wait! My soldiers probably expect ponies to be scared of an officer. Shit, why is this so hard…”

The rest of her day goes by relatively uneventfully. She still has a lot of work to do, but there are no emergencies or anything that would prevent the day from interrupting the humdrum of filing and signing paperwork. Scutellum helps with it all of course, and as the evening draws near, they manage to fill out most of the forms they’ll need to request proper equipment for their soldiers and establish checkpoints on major streets.

Nyceris yawns, looking out the window at the setting sun. “It’s probably getting close to time.” She glances over at the wall clock, seeing that it is 7:37. “Close enough. It’ll take me some time to get there anyways.”

She turns towards Scutellum, who is still working through some paperwork at his desk. They’ve done more than enough for today, but she has come to know him as a rather hard worker, something dreadfully in contrast with her image of him from their academy days. Putting that aside though, she takes a step towards him to announce her departure. “I’m going home now. Thanks for the help today, goodnight.”

He waves a hoof at her without looking up from his work. “Goodnight. I’ll be here for a little bit more, I think. See you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Make sure to get some sleep.” With that, Nyceris leaves the room, heading downstairs and out for the park she had ordered the pony to meet her at. It doesn’t take her long to arrive, only about ten minutes she would guess, leaving her with plenty of time.

Walking through the park, she observes the otherwise still leaves moving whenever a car passes along the street. She finds her way to a metal bench, a little bit off the main path to allow for more privacy, and she waits. “You had better show up, pony. I promised myself I would do this.”

She waits for a while more. Nyceris doesn’t have a watch, so she can’t actually check, but she guesses that it is about time for their meeting. Looking around at her surroundings, she sees nothing but trees and bushes swaying in a gentle breeze, illuminated by lampposts dispelling the growing darkness of the sunset. After a minute however, she hears the sound of gravel crunching under hooves. She turns around towards the noise, and spots who she was waiting for. The pony is approaching carefully, her body visibly tense.

Nyceris stands upright, straightening out her uniform with magic, intent on looking as commanding as possible. The pony meekly walks up, stopping in front of her, avoiding eye contact. Nyceris nods. “Good, you made it. Please sit down, and we can finish what we started last time.”

The pony complies, and places herself on the bench, gaze magnetically drawn to the ground. Nyceris sits down beside her. She prepares to speak, wanting to get in the first word, but the pony starts first.

“W-why did you have me come here?” The pony’s voice is laden with anxiety, and perhaps even dread, causing the tightness to return, clenching at Nyceris’ chest.

Pushing through the discomfort, Nyceris tries her best to establish control of the situation. “You’re here because I wished to continue our conversation. You had been spouting some inane nonsense about friendship, and I have come to correct that.”

“I… see?” She seems confused.

“That’s not exactly the response I was hoping for…” She decides to try a more direct transition. “So, from what I recall, you were trying to sell the idea that your ‘harmony’ is somehow a strength, is that right?”

The pony nods apprehensively, clearly terrified of this whole situation.

“That’s more like it.” Nyceris tries to use the pony’s fear to her advantage, sitting upright and glaring down at her. “And how is that supposed function? You just be kind to someling and they magically be kind back? Expecting nothing in return? That’s not how it works.”

Eyes still glued to the ground, the pony provides her tepid response. “It worked for Equestria…”

“Oh please.” Nyceris chides, not having the pony’s indignance. “You’re telling me that for 1000 years, you ponies were just friends and had no conflict? What was all that up in Severyana then?”

“Of course we’ve had conflict!” She shouts, before noticing her mistake and backtracking into a more submissive tone. “But harmony only works if everypony wants it.”

Seeing her opportunity to defeat the pony’s inferior reasoning, Nyceris recounts some of the phrases she has heard time and time again. “And that is why it will always fail. An ideology cannot survive unless it can force others to its will. Queen Chrysalis knew that, and that’s how the changelings were led to greatness.”

The pony finally looks up from the gravelly ground towards Nyceris, her expression one of both fear and a tinge of resolve, something no proper changeling officer should tolerate. “We offered your kind friendship before, and she refused. You…”

Nyceris interrupts her, desperate to prove herself worthy of her position. “Our Queen refused for us because she knew that friendship would make us weak! Don’t you dare insinuate that we would ever accept your pitiful ‘kindness’, or whatever you’d call it, when without any help we have become stronger than any nation in the world!”

Hurriedly pushing herself back to the other side of the bench with her hooves, the pony shrivels in terror. The feeling in her chest only tightens, but Nyceris finally feels that tinge of assurance in her role. “This is what my soldiers expect! I have to be able to do this!”

She tries and tries to push her advantage while she has it, to really prove her strength to herself, but she can’t do it. Something in her conscience is preventing her from harming this pony, even though Nyceris knows she deserves it given how much she’s talked back to her. Instead, she only manages a sigh, and recedes to a less imposing stature. “Look. I’m not going to hurt you, but I would be remiss if I didn’t fix such indignant suggestions as kindness being a strength. It is unbecoming of a citizen of the Hegemony to imply such things.”

A heavy silence weighs for a moment, before the pony gives her retort, still sitting as far as possible from the changeling commander. “You’re wrong. Kindness is a strength. It is what keeps ponies together.”

Scoffing, Nyceris can’t help but be curious at her reasoning. “How do you suppose? Kindness makes for weak soldiers, and weak soldiers makes for weak nations. I would’ve thought that concept had been proven in the Great War.”

Instead of being the winning move she had intended, the mention of the war just seems to trigger something within the pony. Her previous timidity is suddenly replaced with a strange conviction which Nyceris hasn’t seen before. “Shut up! Equestria was the strongest, kindest nation in the world!” She shouts, almost frenetically. “Then you monsters came and destroyed it! You took everything from us, and now I have to live every day in fear because us ponies were too kind to do to you a fraction of what you did to us! Your strength lies in nothing but cruelty and terror!”

Nyceris sits there, utterly paralyzed. The pony is huffing with the ferocity of her reprisal, but slowly it seems to dawn on her what she just said, and a piece of her conviction melts into horror. Nyceris meanwhile, is not doing any better. The two sit beside each other silently, both unable to speak.

Eventually, Nyceris recovers enough to continue, though her voice is now timid where once it had been controlling. “I… we’re not monsters. We just did what we had to for our people to survive.”

Perhaps realizing that she lost control, perhaps just sensing her weakness, the pony regains some of her stance, standing up from the bench in anger. “Is that what you tell yourselves? Last I checked, survival doesn’t require slaughtering millions and enslaving their families! No. You changelings are all the same. Cruel, power-hungry, vindictive monsters.”

“Is that what ponies think of us…” The tightness in her chest becomes unbearable now, and her mind is racing with justifications, desperately trying to prove to herself that the pony is wrong. She thinks back to the pony she had nearly shot, and remembers how Scutellum barely seemed to care afterwards. Flipping through her memories, every changeling she can recall talking to either doesn’t care, pretends not to care, or actively enjoys the violence they inflict on ponies. “She can’t be right, can she?” With her mind embroiled in doubt, she only gets out a weak mumbling. “I…I’m…”

Nyceris is sure that the pony can see her distress now, there is no way she could hide it. It only seems to give the pony more confidence to fight, and she starts yelling at the fumbling changeling before her. “You’re what? What could you possibly have to say for yourself?!”

“I’m sorry!” She spouts. This is definitely not how Nyceris had seen this conversation going, and the situation has spiraled so far out of her control that she feels like she might cry.

Clearly sensing her weakness, the pony continues to press even harder, gathering more momentum as Nyceris loses her ground. The pony stands tall over her with ire, and points at the changeling accusingly. “You’re sorry?! Is that all you have to say for the years of misery your kind inflicted on Equestria?! Is that it?! You know what, I don’t even care if you decide you wanna shoot me or something. Getting shot is preferable to living in terror for the rest of my life, and it would only prove my point!”

Helpless against the pony’s verbal assault, Nyceris covers her head with her forelegs, trying to protect herself from having to look into those hateful eyes. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”

“How could you possibly not know! You’re some sort of officer right! That means you are the one who makes all this happen! I bet you’ve been harassing me these last few days just because it’s some kind of sick joke to you damned bugs!”

The idea that something like that probably would be a joke to changelings like Scutellum only makes the accusation dig deeper. “That’s not true!” She tries, her tone growing increasingly forlorn. “I just wanted to know…”

“Know what!?!”

Nyceris swallows. “Know why you were kind to me!”

The words seem to strike something in the pony, and the tension begins to diffuses, her rage transforming into some mix of frustration, resentment, and pity. She looks down at the officer’s cowering form, and an expression spreads across her face that Nyceris would only describe as guilt.

“Look, I told you already. I was kind to you because you looked like you needed it.” She sighs, pinching the bridge of her muzzle with her hoof. “You haven’t beaten or killed me yet, despite the fact that most changelings probably would, so you’re at least better than the average.” She pauses for a slight moment to breathe, still trying to recuperate.

Peeking out from behind her hooves, Nyceris suddenly feels a bit embarrassed at the position she took. She tries to straighten herself out, and responds as cooly as she can. “I still don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t… I’m sure the first thing they teach in fascist school is that kindness is bad, right?”

She doesn’t know how to respond to that.

The pony sits down on her haunches, looking exhausted, and perhaps a still a bit scared. “Why aren’t you punishing me anyways? Isn’t that what you Heer are supposed to do?”

Once more, Nyceris doesn’t know how to respond. Her words come out stuttered and clumsy. “I… I don’t know… I’ve been trying so hard to do as I’m supposed to, but over and over I haven’t been able to. There’s just this feeling in my chest whenever I see ponies being afraid of me, and it makes me feel bad when I know it shouldn’t and I just realized I should not be telling you this.”

Thankfully, her explanation seems to come as a surprise to the pony as much as herself, and the two just sit in the awkward situation they have found themselves in.

Eventually the pony breaks the silence, much to Nyceris’ relief. “If it makes you feel any better, I won’t tell anypony. They probably wouldn’t believe me if I did anyways.”

“Th…Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Another pause, as both of them avoid eye contact. Then once more the pony speaks first. “You know, out of all the changelings I’ve ever seen, you’re probably the only one that seems like an actual person, instead of just some faceless fascist drone.”

“I don’t know how I should feel about that, but thanks for the compliment I guess?”

The pony smiles weakly. “As weird as it is for me to say, I do mean it.”

Nyceris thinks it over for a moment, mulling the implications over in her head. She decides to try her best to return the pony’s compliment. “You’re probably the first pony I’ve ever really talked with if I’m being honest. You are very different from what I was expecting.”

The pony meets her eyes, intrigued. “Oh? What were you expecting?”

She gives an exaggerated shrug to emphasize her uncertainty. “I don’t know, the propaganda always paints you ponies as these weak, sappy servants who are too cowardly to defend themselves.”

“And I’m different from that?”

Nyceris gives an affirmative nod. “You still seem scared a lot, even right now, but you clearly have more feelings than that. It’s… difficult to process.”

“You can tell I’m still afraid?”

“Ponies are easy to read. You’re all very expressive compared to changelings.”

The pony turns her head away. “I suppose…” She pauses for a moment, staring off into the distance while considering something, then looks back to Nyceris. “About earlier, I’m sorry for going off on you like that. I know it’s not like you started the war or anything, I’m just really stressed and scared, and you coming to bother me these last few days hasn’t been helping.”

While the pony’s words still weigh on Nyceris, she finds herself fixating on one particular part of her statement. “You… you’re apologizing to me? Why?”

The pony smiles faintly. “I am trying to be nice to you. Is that so hard to understand?”

Despite everything that just occurred, Nyceris still does have trouble wrapping her head about the alien concept. The idea of kindness for the sake of it is simply something that changelings aren’t supposed to do. “I almost feel like I shouldn’t answer that.”

A laugh. The pony produces a short series of laughs, almost deliriously. The situation is so absurd to her at this point that Nyceris has trouble taking it seriously, and she can’t help but chuckle slightly in response, not knowing what else to do. After finishing whatever that was the pony sighs. She looks meets Nyceris’ gaze, and speaks, her tone awkward but lighthearted. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to make you understand then.” She sits up and extends her hoof towards the officer. “I know we technically already introduced ourselves before, but since we seem to be at some weird kind of understanding, why don’t we do it again?”

Unsure of what to do here, Nyceris just timidly takes the pony’s hoof in hers while considering the offer. “I have no idea what sort of thing you are planning, but it sounds harmless enough.”

“Alright, my name is Nyceris, I am an Oberfeldwebel in the changeling Heer.”

“I’m Orchid, barista at the Olive Branch Café.”

They both laugh again at the ridiculousness of the situation, standing there in the middle of the park, alone save for the sounds of cars and bristling leaves.

Orchid smiles, genuinely this time as she comes off her fit of laughter. “Well, I never thought I would be saying this to a changeling, but it is nice to meet you Nyceris.”

She smiles back, her disposition eased significantly. The tightness in her chest fizzles away for now, and for a reason she can’t explain, she feels grateful to have someling, somepony, to talk to. “It is nice to meet you as well, Orchid.”

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading my longest chapter yet!
I had initially planned on releasing this about four days ago as reparations for not releasing anything for almost a month a bit ago, but I wasn't liking how it turned out, and had to redo it a few times. This is a fairly big turning point for the characters, and it took a while to get it to a point that I thought made sense for them.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and I will get back to you with more Forbidden Flowers when I can.

Comments

[History Student]

I’m genuinely shocked that this isn’t really popular, you’ve got a fav and follow from me. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.