Ever had one of those days where everything's just gone wrong, one problem after another?

Of course you have.

Ever had one of those days when you wake up to find you've accidentally switched places with your counterpart in a world where you and all your friends are stallions?

...No?

Maybe that's just Twilight, then.

But the Princess of Magic isn't going to let a little thing like being in the wrong universe ruin her day. She has a schedule - a checklist! - and it matches up with this Dusk Shine's perfectly. Apart from the names and the genders, everything seems to be a match, and Ponyville has seen much weirder things since she moved here.

Being stallions or mares shouldn't make her friends that different. What could possibly go wrong?

Every week around the same time, Skywrite the pegasus leaves his little cottage in the woods to “pick up groceries,” and every week around the same time, Petalgrown the pegasus welcomes him home with a few hours of cuddling and his favorite dinner on the table. Of course, not everything here is as it seems. For one thing, there’s the dinner. French fried potatoes? Who’s ever heard of such a thing!? For another thing, there’s the way Sky looks at his hooves sometimes, as if trying to will something else to be there. Also, as a footnote, Petalgrown is one of the hundreds of changelings thrown free of Canterlot during the failed invasion attempt, and has been living off Skywrite’s strange, fiery love ever since.

As time goes on and questions about the strange, loving pegasus start piling up, she grows determined to discover the truth behind the pony she finds herself growing more and more intrigued with. Of course, it could be something even crazier than “love-sucking, shape-changing bug-pony,” but that’s just speculation. After all, there’s no way a pony could ever hide such a strange secret from a creature born of secrets, right? Why, it would take something very unpony-like to pull that off, wouldn’t it?

I always wanted to go to Equestria. When I got the chance, I took the deal without reading the fine print. To my surprise, I didn't arrive there as a pony, or even as a human. It seems I get to view this world from a different perspective than what I've imagined.

My name is Echo. I am a Diamond Dog.

-Edited by the one, the only, Nathan Traveler!
-(Cover by Jovial_Shake of fimfiction.net)
-Now featured on Equestriadaily.com!