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// Ariving at the party 
// Story: A hard change 
// by Techy 
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	Today was going to be great. The party was going to be in half an hour and Deceit couldn't wait for it. This is going to be the first time he's ever been to a party. Of course he's heard about them from other changelings retelling their experiences from when they were disguised, but he's never gotten the chance to go to one himself. As he walked down the street, he felt a bit more at home in this little town. He's still a bit on edge when near ponies that he doesn't know. He could tell that the others that know about his secret have been a bit on edge as well because when he would pass by them, they would give him suspicious glances.

As Deceit walked, he noticed that the streets were empty. Normally at least a few ponies would be walking around whether it was to get groceries or to visit a friend, but today they all seemed to just be gone. It slightly disturbed Deceit and made him think to himself, 'What's going on here? Did they find out that I'm a changeling and are hiding from me? No, I'm probably just being paranoid.'

Deceit decided to not dwell on the matter and continued to walk down the road he was on. He soon heard wings flapping and felt a gust of wind, but before he could figure out who just flew over him a small piece of paper smacked into his face. He picked it up and read, 'Come to Sugarcube Corner.'

"What?" He said before looking around, "Um... alright."

Deceit started walking towards Sugarcube Corner and found the emptiness on his way there very eerie. He finally came to a stop infront of the building and could see that the lights were off. He could swear that he saw a bit of movement and heard some very soft shuffling from inside and for that moment Deceit was too creeped out to remember the party. He walked up to the door and grabbed the handle before opening the door and slowly walking inside the darkened room. The door shut behind him and made it pitch black inside the establishment.

The next thing Deceit knew he was blinded by the lights turning on and heard "SURPRISE!!!!!" get shouted at him from all directions. In his mind, Deceit was thinking that something terrible was going to happen to him when he entered the building. He was so scared that he didn't even remember the party. So when those lights turned on and he heard the yell from everypony, his reflexes caused him to scream and flail his hooves around while falling on his back. Sadly, Pinkie was right in front of Deceit and one of his hooves had hit her in the head.

Deceit calmed down after seeing that it was just a party, but he soon after noticed the knocked out Pinkie sprawled across the floor. Everypony just stared at her, including Deceit, with their mouths hanging open.

Finally Twilight broke the silence by saying, "I'm gonna get an ice pack. Somepony get her comfortable," ending it with a sigh.

After that statement everypony started to regain control and awkwardly watched as Applejack and Fluttershy got her over to a waiting couch in the corner of the room. Deceit finally got off of the ground and looked at everypony. Some of them had been walking over to where Pinkie was laying and stared at her, while others have been glaring at Deceit and a final few were walking around slightly talking to each other. Deceit guessed that last group was hoping to start this party up again and it seemed to be slightly working as more ponies started talking too.

Deceit felt terrible for accidently hitting Pinkie and watched with sorrow as Twilight put an ice pack where he had hit her. She noticed this and walked over to him, "Don't worry, she's going to be fine. You didn't hit her hard enough to do any major lasting damage. She's just going to have a headache for a bit, but that should be all."

"Thanks, Twilight. I think I might know how to wake her up. Should I try?" Deceit replied.

"I doubt that Pinkie would want to miss a party, but be careful. Just try not to hit her head on anything else." Twilight replied cautiously.

"You don't think she's going to be mad at me, do you?"

"As long as it was an accident then I don't think she's going to mind too much. I've seen her do crazier things that have ended up getting her hurt worse than a hit to the head."

"Alright." Deceit replied before heading over to Pinkie. He also noticed that the party was starting to get livelier and was happy that what happened wasn't bringing the party to a complete stop. He proceeded over to Pinkie and whispered in her ear, "You're gonna miss all the cake."

Instantly she shot up yelling "WHAT?!?!?!" and had a look on her face like the cake was going to save her life. She then grabbed her head with her hooves and grunted in pain.

"You're gonna want to take it easy there Pinkie." Deceit said to her while gently helping her onto her hooves. She wobbled a bit before getting steady and continued to hold her head. Deceit grabbed the ice pack that was on the couch and gave it to her.

"Sorry, about hitting you like that. I got scared when you all yelled and I hit you by mistake." Deceit said sadly, but was surprised when Pinkie had a smile on her face.

"That's alright. I've gotten hit in the head before by a bunch of stuff. Were you surprised?"

"Huh? Um, yeah, but wasn't it just supposed to be a normal party?"

"That's just what I want you to think so that you're extra super duper surprised!!!"

"Wow, that's pretty smart," Deceit replied as they started to walked over to the snack table, "Next time could we just have a normal party though?"

"Ok," She said with a smile, "Is the cake really almost gone?"

"No, Pinkie. I just said that to try to wake you up, which seemed to work a little too well." Deceit replied while grabbing some a plate and filing it with snacks.

Pinkie started to do the same, but she grabbed mostly cupcakes, cake and other sweets, "When there's cake involved, I will do anything."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing." He said with a laugh.

"So how long was I out?"

"Not very long, but it looks like the party is starting to get better since you got knocked out."

"Only starting?! Well I can fix that!" Pinkie replied as she brought what looked like a cannon out of nowhere.

"Wait, is that a cannon?!" 

The next thing that Deceit knew, he was launched over to the couch and was sprawled out across it with all the food he had been carrying landing on top of him, along with some confetti and streamers. It did seem to get the party back on track as the whole crowd cheered. Once Deceit spotted Pinkie laughing next to the cannon he thought, 'Well, I guess I kind of deserved that one.'