I sat there in awe. I could not believe what just happened. Did it really happen? For all I know I could have imagined it, and me being full might just be the effects of the food kicking in.
Yeah, that must be it.
It couldn’t be anything else. She couldn’t have just kissed me, it’s preposterous!
…well what if she did? What then?
Well she does take care of her animals right? She must if she has so many. Maybe it’s just those nurturing instincts popping up. Yeah, means nothing, you are just acting like an ignorant hatchling. For all she knows you’ve just met.
Why’d she bring me inside?
I mean she must have seen I was watching her. Why did she not leave me there, or dump me far away from her house?
I get up from my position on the bed. I creep towards the door. I feel like I’m in a trance, just acting on pure instinct.
I slowly raise my hoof to touch the handle. I turn it and carefully pull the door open. It creaks as I open it.
I walk down the steps, keeping as quite as possible. I enter what seems to be a living room. It actually looks rather cozy. Oddly, the very fact this home looked so comforting made my hair stand on end and my wings flare out.
I got to the bottom of the stairs, there seemed to be the front door right in front of me. I thought for a moment that I would just leave right away. A part of me was curious about the yellow pony however. Since when did I get curious? Changelings never get curious. This thinking thing is really too much to handle, how do these ponies do it?
I could hear a faint humming coming from the room right next to me. I peeked around the doorway, only to find the yellow one doing something by the stove.
Her back was to me so she could not see me, but whatever she was cooking it smelled like fresh grass. I watched her with a mix of fear and astonishment. Up closer she didn’t seem so threatening. No, that’s the fault of the humming. She is probably trying to lull you into a false sense of security.
Just as I stepped towards the door, I heard a floorboard creak from under me. I knew I should have flown. I slowly turned my head, to see her staring at me wide eyed.
I panicked… again. I scrambled to the front door, threw it open and once outside I flew as high and as fast away from there as I could. It was a couple minutes before I slowed down.
I looked back to see if she was behind me. I could not see a sign of the yellow pony anywhere. She must not have followed me. I let out a sigh in relief. I was safe for now. I have to be more careful in the future.
At least I found one of those meddling ponies. The others must be around somewhere. I’ll go check the town, maybe I can find more clues there.
I slowed down to a hover, thinking of where I could find clues. Who would I ask if I wanted to know where the troublemakers were?
I facehoofed, I could have easily asked the yellow one if I wasn’t such a scaredy cat. All I had to do was act casual and eventually ask where her friends were.
I sighed, I’m a horrible changeling. I’m probably an even worse actor. Getting the information is going to take time. I could see if I can spot one of them in town and then follow them…
Now I’m thinking! That’s pure genius. I only have to remain unnoticed by them.
I start flying toward town with renewed vigor. I scanned the ground for any sign of those meddlesome ponies. I had to stop a few times to get a closer look at a few of them. All ponies kind of look alike.
I guess I should have looked where I was flying more because I seemed to run into a low flying cloud.
“Ah! Watch where you’re going wise guy!” a scratchy voice yelled from behind me.
I shook the condensation off my face as I slowed to a halt. I looked behind me to see a cyan mare with a rainbow mane looking at me with contempt. Why does nothing ever go as planned?
“What do you think you are doing?! Flying right into a cloud that someone was sleeping on!” the rainbow maned pony screamed at me, throwing her hooves in the air in aggravation.
I needed to think of an excuse, I looked down below me to see an odd shaped building… that might work, “Uh… sorry, I got distracted by that giant gingerbread house right there.” I apologize to the pony, trying my best to look sincerely apologetic. It was tough, but she seemed to buy it.
She sighed, “Well I guess it is rather odd,” she rolled her eyes at me, “though you must be new here if you haven’t seen Sugarcube Corner yet.”
I’m doing great at giving myself away, it should be my hobby. “Ah, yeah… I’m kinda new to town and I wanted to get a quick view of it to get my bearings.”
She seemed to contemplate this for a moment before speaking once more, “I guess that makes sense. Well once you give a onceover of the area you should probably head to Sugarcube Corner.”
I looked at her with confusion etched onto my face, “Why?”
She shakes her head condescendingly before speaking with a gigantic smirk on her face, “Cause if you don’t go to Pinkie, Pinkie will eventually find you.”
Ug… that’s just great, whoever Pinkie is, she sounds like a freak. I try to keep up the conversation, “Uh, so… what’s your name by the way?”
“I’m Rainbow Dash!” She exclaimed, somehow sticking out her chest while in midair. I thought that was quite a feat. “I’m only the fastest flyer Equestria!”
That would explain the speed, I’ve made some powerful enemies it seems. “R-really? Is that official?” I ask.
“Well not really, but I’m the only pony in the history of Equestria to make a Sonic Rainboom! Multiple times over in fact!”
“Wow, that’s really something… you must be… really famous.” I manage to get out, most likely sounding like a complete doorknob.
Her posture seems to droop for a bit, before she stuck out her chest yet again, “Well not yet, but I’m going to be when I join the wonderbolts!”
I have no idea who they are, but I have the feeling I should know… “Well that sounds neat…” I managed.
She rolled her eyes at me, “Well everyone has got to have a dream don’t they?”
“I guess so.” After all, I dream that I will get revenge against you and your friends.
“So, what’s your name?” Rainbow asked me.
Crap… I probably should have seen this coming. I need to think of something quick. Uh... Flightfeather? No that’s stupid. Mastermind… too obvious I’m plotting something. Oh I know!
I play it off the pause like I just spaced out, “oh, uh right. My name’s Discovery”
“That’s a pretty cool name.” Rainbow nodded her head in approval.
That’s me, Discovery, master of social recovery. Chrysalis I feel smooth.
“So what do you do Discovery?” Rainbow asked.
“Well… I’ve always enjoyed learning new things, so you could say I’m a collector of knowledge.” I totally BSed.
Rainbow laughed at me. I didn’t know whether to feel hurt or not.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, making it clear that I was indignant.
“Oh, it’s nothing, it’s just that you sound kinda like Twilight. Really, the similarity is uncanny.”
“Twilight?”
“Yeah she’s one of my closest friends, she runs the library in the center of Ponyville. You can’t miss it, it’s the big tree.” Rainbow elaborated, pointing at a giant tree near the center of town.
Closest friends huh, as much as I hate being compared to her friends, “Well I’ll probably go do just that.”
“Cool. If you want to hang out sometime, let me know.” Rainbow suggested. She sounded oddly, hopeful.
I mentally cringe, but I need intel… “Okay, where would I be able to find you?”
She chuckled, “Either anywhere in the sky over Ponyville, or in my cloud-home over there.” She pointed a hoof at a really extravagant home made out of clouds with large rainbow rivers running off of it. Not what I was expecting from someone who seemed so laid back.
“I guess I’ll see you around then.” I say, mostly still pretending to be polite.
“Yeah, see ya.” She responds. We take off our separate ways, me going to visit this tree library, and her, probably to finish her nap.
I soon stood in front of the massive tree. I found it hard to believe such a thing could look so healthy. If it had a library in it, shouldn’t the tree be… dead?
I shook my head to focus myself. I need to stay on task. I reached out and knocked on the front door.
“The door’s open!” I heard a voice respond.
I turned the handle and walked inside, this was definitely an extensive library. There were thousands of books on the many bookshelves lining the walls. There were even a few on the floor. I looked around the tree home in awe. I was so consumed with idly staring at the bookshelves that I wasn’t watching where I was going, I ended up running into somepony.
“Oh so sorry dear, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” The mare helped me back up to my hooves before I could even process what was going on. “I apologize again for the inconvenience dear, but I really must be going, Ta-ta.”
With that the white pony with the styled purple mane left the library. I can’t believe my luck, I ran into almost every single one of them today.
“Oh, umm… sorry about Rarity. She gets like that when she’s on a tight schedule” the voice that called me inside apologised from right behind me. I turned around to see the purple unicorn with a dark purple mane, she did have a streak of pink in both ther mane and tail. Was that natural? What was her name again…? Twilight I think.
“Oh it’s no problem,” Cause she’ll get what’s coming to her eventually. I wave my hoof and pretend it isn’t an issue. “Who was that anyway?” I ask Twilight.
“That’s Rarity, she runs the Carousel Boutique here in Ponyville. She just came over to drop off a book on ancient clothes design trends.” She explained to me, “I haven’t seen you around town. Are you new to Ponyville?”
Okay, just stay in character… stay in character. “Why yes actually, I met this nice Rainbow maned pegasus who told me that there was a library here in this tree. I just had to check it out. How do you keep the tree alive when it’s all hollowed out?”
“Well I didn’t build the place, but I researched how it was built shortly after deciding to stay in Ponyville. Turns out that during construction the contractor moved the sap conduits so that they were on the outside ring of the tree instead of in the centre. Then while they were hollowing out the tree…”
She’s going to keep going isn’t she? I might have been genuinely interested before, but I’m not nearly as interested as she seems to be.
“Um… miss…” I interrupt her as she was beginning to talk about how trees grow rings or something. “Not that this isn’t fascinating, but I have yet to even learn your name.”
“Oh, right, silly me. My name is Twilight Sparkle, librarian here in Ponyville and personal student of princess Celestia. I am also the bearer of the element of magic. What is your name?” She asked in a cheery manner. Why do my enemies have to be so friendly to me?
“I’m Discovery… I don’t have any other titles I’m afraid.” I don’t feel like making more work for myself by saying something impressive that I can’t back up.
“So, Discovery, what do you do?” Twilight asked me.
What do I do? “Uh, well I do a lot of travelling, and I’m always looking for new things to learn, but I don’t actually have a job at the moment.” I half- lie.
“You don’t work anywhere? Do you have a place to stay?” Twilight asked, concerned.
I hadn’t thought of that… I have no money, nowhere to stay, and her bittersweet tasting concern reminded me that if I don’t find a stable source of love soon, I’ll be in deep water.
“Um… I don’t usually have a place to stay… I just kinda find a place to sleep somewhere relatively safe in the places I visit.” I tell her.
“Well it’s going to be dark in another couple of hours, do you want to stay here for the night.” She asks.
I barely know you, your trustworthiness will be your undoing, but I don’t know of anywhere else I can sleep.
“Well, if you are sure I’m not intruding-”
“You’re not. Spike is away for the week so I’ve been getting kind of lonely. I’ll go get the spare bed ready for you, why don’t you go explore the town before it gets dark?” I tried to get a word in but the mare had already walked up the stairs and disappeared.
I look around the library awkwardly before deciding that I should probably just do as she says. I walk out the door just as the late afternoon sun was nearing horizon. The sky was becoming the dark blue that it usually gets before turning into the beautiful reds and oranges.
I walk back to where Sugarcube Corner is. If Rainbow told me that I had to come here, I figured I should at least check it out. I walk up to the door and push it open, a small bell jingles as I enter the shop, there seems to be no customers at the moment and there is nopony at the counter as well. Well that was odd… It’s not that late is it? I walk closer towards the counter. It kinda is very dark in here now that I think about it. Is the shop closed?
Just as I get about halfway to the counter, I hear a loud pop coming from behind me. I screamed and turned around in panic as the lights went up around the store.
“Surprise!”
Standing there were hundreds of ponies, all of them staring at me. I looked at them in bewilderment.
A pony that was so pink that if it wasn’t her favourite color it would be a form of self-hatred came up to me.
“Hi!” She practically yelled in my ear, “Welcome to your ‘Welcome to Ponyville party’!”
It was the pink one… and just when things were starting to look up.