Changes was jmj's entry into The More Most Dangerous Game 2 contest held in January of 2015, under the "Cupcakes" prompt. (his portfolio is highly recommended and can be found here - make sure to have your Mature filter off). The task was to write a story based on "Cupcakes", in three weeks, with a level of gore appropriate for posting on Equestria Daily. Impossible? Perhaps. But not for any failing of the author.

As everyone who reads MLP fanfiction knows, a rational, or rather, typical motive was not written for Pinkie Pie in the original story. This provides ample opportunity for re-imagining, creativity, and/or extrapolation on what is read between the lines to satisfy the reader's denied curiosity and need for logical consistency. jmj fills the gap with profound sensitivity to character development, with a central theme that recalls the topics of transformation, rebirth, and psychological relief explored in The Silence of the Lambs.

In this story, there is no pure antagonist or protagonist. The killer and victim are mutually referential, and the interplay between them is complex. Both experience a fundamental lack of fulfillment in who they are. Rainbow is coming to terms with becoming what she sees as a "loser" - that is, an athlete who is past her prime and can no longer perform the physical feats of her youth. She has defined herself according to the state of her body, which must deteriorate over time. Her value as she sees is it immanent to her person - she is, strictly speaking, self-centered. The dark nature of the story begins here. The childlike joy in using one's body to its fullest potential, and basing one's identity on that, is doomed once that potential is reached. Rainbow is in effect enacting her own slow destruction over the course of her life. Her troubled mental state on realizing her increasing limitations prepares her for the predation of the killer.

The killer, by contrast, is a chameleon, deriving self-worth from how others see her, moving from identity to identity searching for one that will finally satisfy her need for love and friendship. She has grown jaded with the process, to the extent that she is on the verge of suicide. She invites Rainbow to visit her in the hopes that her friend can convince her to live, and in so doing, provide her with the motivation to undergo another iteration of her life cycle. To do this, of course, she needs to kill Rainbow and take her skin as her own. This character is relatable to anyone who has gone through a number of life changes and not yet found fulfillment (and seriously, who wouldn't want to be Rainbow Dash?). The motive, therefore, while sociopathic, is not an irrational one. The murder is an expression of love: the killer loves Rainbow Dash, identifying her with the admiration and respect she commands. The conflict is in the difference in how the two characters define identity.

The killer destroys Rainbow in both the obvious sense and in a theoretical sense. By taking and wearing her skin, she is negating content as a concept that relates to something in reality. She proves, brutally, that identity is not inherent or objective, in direct contradiction to one of the central ideas of MLP:FiM - one's cutie mark reflects one's true self, enabling altruistic friendship. This also ingeniously parallels the Pinkie of the original "Cupcakes", who wears the identifiers (signifiers) of her victims.

The show's moral principles are also subverted in that it is Rainbow's concern for the creature she believes is Pinkie that seals her fate. Friendship is what kills her. It is likely that the reader will be able to identify instances in their own lives when the need for friendship was exploited by others for gain or cruelty. Misery loves company.

"Changes" delves into serious, relevant concepts, far beyond the pulp of most of the readily available MLP horror fiction. It explores the meaning of friendship in a way that the show cannot, challenging readers to rethink their own motives. It is well worth reading, and easily deserving of honors in the contest for which it was written.

Thank you, sir. I'm glad you got so much out of my story. I actually did plan on all those things to be inherent in the characters. Psychology (and Shakespeare) tell us that the search for individuality is something that drives us as a person. We strive to stand and say "This! This is who I am!" and the problem with the chameleon is that she never knew who she was or tried to be anything but her role models. She, of course, has went to extremes with this but has discovered, as so many of us do, that while she may derive happiness from the new her for a sort while, it is a diluting process and she always reverts back to square one at some time. This mirrors life but puts that little bit of darkness in it. It's easy to see how the depression and anxiety could drive a person crazy and cause them to quench their thirst in the only way they know how.

Rainbow Dash in this is what most beautiful actresses with no real talent or trophy wives become: the wretch. While Dash is only teetering on depression and fights her way out with "Pinkie's" help, she is a mirror or happens to those who rely on their physical appearance (in Dash's case, ability) will become once their beauty fades. Look at Carmen Electra. She used to be gorgeous but now she's so collagen injected that she looks like a freak.

Plus it was fun watching Dash convince Pinkie to give life on more go when she's actually dooming herself.
But, the chameleon is good at her hobby and I bet she'll make the Wonderbolts next year in Dash's honor.

So... Dash ultimately wins?

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It was my pleasure. I could have gone on and on, but I wanted it to be as concise as possible so people wouldn't see it as a big wall of text. I felt something had to be done after another reviewer declined to recommend the story. I put my critique out as a blog too to give it a little more recognition.