Changeling Stories

by Holtinater

Seeing Things

“Ugh, this again? I’ve already told you everything I know. Can’t I just go home?

“Fine, fine. I’ll just repeat myself until the end of time. Should I start at the beginning, then?

“Ok, so I was just minding my own business, as usual, on a hot summer day. I was just walking through Ponyville’s marketplace when I started to get a bit queasy. I think it was the heat, but it may also have been that new restaurant that I had eaten at earlier in the day.

“I found a cool place between some buildings, super shady and with a nice breeze, and that’s when I saw it.

“Yes, “it”. It certainly wasn’t a pony, though it kind of looked like one. It had the silhouette of a pony, but with what little light that was there, I could see that it was almost like some sort of bug, or a beetle. Black shell, those weird eyes, and the fragile-looking wings. And it had a spiky horn, and fangs. I couldn’t help but stop dead in my tracks; I was terrified.

“And it was standing in front of… excuse me. It was standing in front of a dead body. I couldn’t have been sure at the time, but I definitely am now. The body was Creamy Gelato, that new pony who moved in just a few weeks ago. But then…

“Fine, I’ll tell you, but you won’t believe me. Nopony else has.

“Don’t be too sure. The bug-pony, it… it caught on fire, a big one, and then suddenly, there stood Creamy Gelato. I was almost relieved, but then I saw that the body was still there. There were two Creamy’s.

“Then, the creature picked up the body and ran inside the nearest building, which was Creamy’s home. I followed it, and, well, you kinda know the rest, don’t you?

“The record says that I was a delusional intruder into their home. I’ll admit that I may not have handled the situation that well, but can you really blame me? I mean, I just witnessed a murder! That kinda thing doesn’t happen every day, you know.

“Of course I accused them all of being in on it. They had to have seen her walk in there. They were either blind or covering for her. It. Celestia, now I’m getting confused.

“Look, that’s all I know. If you want more information, I’m afraid you’re not gonna be getting it from me. I’d ask Creamy what she thought happened, but I’d assume she has some sort of alibi, no doubt being supported by her “family”.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I just… I wanna get out of here. These white walls are gonna drive me crazy. Well, crazier, I guess. When am I getting out of here?”

Author's Note:

This won third place for a Panic in Q&S, given the prompt Insanity. So, of course, I had to write changelings.

Comments

[EverfreePony]

Well, that escalated quickly. Given that ponies seemed pretty unaware of changelings’ existence in the early seasons of the show, I can imagine that any witness of such an encounter would be considered insane.

By the way, why is this whole story formatted as if it was one large piece of monologue? It’s really off-putting, given there’s no action to accompany it or another character speaking (which I expected might happen at the end). Why put the quotation marks there when it’s just a regular first-person POV story?

[Holtinater]

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I wanted to make it explicitly clear that this was not just informal text told to you, the reader, but that this was actual dialogue being spoken to some unknown third party whose dialogue we do not get to hear. I liked formatting it that way because it allowed for some fun storytelling and left the ending deliciously ambiguous. What is the response? We'll never know!