I sat at the table of a white room, waiting for something. As I watched the clock, my concentration was broken by the sound of a metallic screeching. The door to the room slid open and a man stepped through, staring down at a clipboard. He wore a white coat and moderately sized framed glasses. His hair seemed to be a shade of dark brown, the color of soil. Soil... that covers caskets. He walked over to the chair opposite from me, sitting down.
"Good morning sir, I'm Doctor Daniels, and I'll be your proctor for today. You filled out on your form that you have a history of mild Schizophrenia, Mania, PTSD, and Chronic Depression, correct?"
I nodded.
"Good, good, just making sure. I'm going to ask a series of questions now, please do your best to answer them. If you do not feel comfortable answering a question at any given time, just say 'skip'," Doctor Daniels said as he pulled a pen out from his breast pocket.
Again, I nodded. "Got it, doc."
"Alright let's see. Aside from medications, in the past thirty days, have you indulged in any sort of narcotics or alcoholic beverages?"
"No," I responded.
Doctor Daniels took a few notes before speaking again. "In the past thirty days, have you suffered from worsening symptoms of your conditions, or maybe even had a psychotic break?"
I remained silent for a minute.
"Okay, next-"
"Yes," I stated.
Doctor Daniels took some more notes. "You wrote down on your form that you had no living family members. Could you tell me more about that?"
"Skip," I said, looking down at the table. Of all the questions he could have asked...
Doctor Daniels made the motion of striking something off his clipboard. "Do you know why you're here today?"
"Clinical testing for an experimental drug, right? That's what the professor said."
"That's correct. It should have been on the form, but I feel obligated to tell you anyway, out of 73 applicants, only 4 have benefited from the drug. The rest either experienced no change in behavior, worsening symptoms, full-on psychotic breaks, or have even ended up in comas. A handful of them are even on suicide watch as we speak. Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Doctor Daniels lamented.
I had already thought this over, I didn't need to second guess myself now. "I'm sure, Doc."
Doctor Daniels tossed his clipboard aside, clasping his hands before looking me in the eyes. "Look, kid, you're young. I can't possibly imagine what you're going through, but there's no guarantee that this will work. It might even show you a hell far worse than anything you've experienced. I'll tell you what, if you agree to go home right now, I'll give you a sure-fire way to reduce the symptoms of your condition. It won't cure you, that's for sure, but you'll be better off. I won't say that I don't understand, I know what happened to your-"
Getting a bit annoyed, I snapped a little. "I said I'm sure. Just give me the drug," I demanded with a bit of venom in my voice.
Doctor Daniels leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his hair. "Alright...alright, kid."
Reaching into a coat pocket, Doctor Daniels pulled out a clear black pill bottle. He then slid it over to me, myself catching it in my left hand. I looked at the pill bottle in my hand, closely inspecting it. The pills looked... strange, to say the least. For one thing, every pill seemed to be a different color, the pills changing whenever I managed to focus on a single one.
"Take one of those at night just before bed. One, no more no less. And for the love of God, kid, don't mix them with alcohol or other drugs. That's where most applicants fail, I can't even tell you why they'd do something like that. That's all for now, please report back in three days."
Standing up from the table, I began making my way over to the door. Wrapping my hand around the handle, I heard Doctor Daniels speak up from behind me. "Stay strong, and good luck."
Upon opening the door, I was blinded by a bright light that completely consumed my being.
Anon's room...
"Up and at 'em!" Dawn cheerfully announced as she opened my curtains all the way.
I moaned, turning away from the sun's light as I placed a pillow over my head. I heard Dawn trot over to me, nudging me with her muzzle.
"Come on, Anon, you have to get up! I have the whole day planned out, we're gonna be late for our spa appointment," Dawn said, pleading with me.
Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed, landing on my hooves. I let out a yawn before rubbing my eyes. I could have sworn, I had some strange sort of dream. Pills? Yeah, I think it was about pills. Weird... Why can I hardly remember any of my dreams? I wonder if there's a spell to help me handle this, I'll have to look for one later.
I sighed in defeat before walking past Dawn towards the bathroom. "Alright, give me a minute..."
"Huh, she's still wearing the necklace," I thought to myself.
Later in Ponyville...
"Okay, we still have about an hour before our appointment, so in the meantime, let's do some shopping."
Faust, was I glad I brought my bag. Suddenly, Dawn took off toward a small stand selling apple products; this was something she had a bad habit of doing. I'll have to talk to her about it sometime. Just as I was about to follow after Dawn, I saw something that arguably changed my word. There was a small group changelings smiling brightly, but not changelings like myself, no, they were the newer variations of changelings. That's when an idea hit me. What if I copied their appearance? Then, I wouldn't have to hide the fact that I'm a changeling. It may not be the full truth, but I won't have to deceive people at the very least.
That... might work, I approve." Chrysalis acknowledged.
Watching the changeling's closely, I took in every detail of their appearance that I could. Luckily, I didn't have to learn the mechanisms behind their abilities, since they were changelings as well.
"Alright, that should do it, now where's Dawn?"
My mood instantly improved and I actually found myself smiling. Using my magic, sense, I was instantly able to pinpoint Dawn's location. Another benefit of all my training, I suppose. Effortlessly making my way through the crowd, I saw Dawn talking to another mare at the apple stand. The mare's coat was a pale, light grayish olive, her mane was brilliant amaranth, and her eyes a brilliant gamboge. Tieing off her mane was a light brilliant crimson bow tie. It seemed that I trotted over just as they finished their transaction.
Dawn turned around presenting me with a caramel apple on a stick. I took the apple in my grasp, thanking her as I did so. Taking a bite of the apple, I began appreciating how good it was. The apple was the perfect texture, not too hard, not too soft, and the caramel only served to complement this.
Dawn looked up at the sky as if contemplating something. "Ooh, let's head to the petting zoo!"
Grabbing me by the hooves, Dawn began leading me by the hoof, something I didn't know I missed so much. It was nice whenever she did this.
At the petting zoo...
We had been walked for maybe ten minutes along the outskirts of Ponyville. That's when I noticed that we had arrived at a familiar-looking cottage. Dawn led me around the side of the cottage, a sign dangling of a large fence. The sign read 'Fluttershy's Petting Zoo ( and Discord's)'
"Fluttershy...why does that name sound familiar? Wasn't she the author of that zoology book?" I thought to myself.
Dawn knocked on the gate of the fence a few times, shouting out Fluttershy's name. Dawn stepped back a few feet, the two of us waiting there in silence, hoof in hoof.
A few minutes passed before we heard anything. Eventually, we got a response.
"Coming!"
The door opened at a casual speed, a familiar mare standing in the doorway. At that moment, a horrid realization had hit me, causing me to let go of Dawn's hoof and take a few steps back.
"It's the he-mare that tried killing me!" I screamed to myself internally.
Chrysalis chuckled. "Relax, you're not a bunny right now, are you?"
"Oh...right."
Allowing myself to relax, I saw that both Dawn and Fluttershy were staring at me. I smiled nervously walking back up to the two of them.
Fluttershy spoke up first. "You two must be here for the petting zoo, come on inside."
Dawn entered first, apprehensively, I followed after. That's when I spotted a den full of rabbits. I'm not sure how, but I was instantly able to pinpoint a specific friend of mine, Angel.
"Angel?!" I blurted out.
Again, Fluttershy and Dawn looked at me. Dawn looked concerned, but Fluttershy looked confused.
"You know Angel?" she asked.
Realizing my mistake, I immediately tried to rectify it. "What? Angel? Where?" I said, looking all over the place and up at the sky.
Fluttershy pursed her lips, eyeing me suspiciously. "Anyway... you two can have a look around. The animal pins with a green sign are okay for interaction. Please, please, stay out of the ones with red signs. Also, only use the food from the bins placed outside their designated pins. If you'd like you can donate some bits over at the donation station. I have some work to do now, so enjoy your time here. I'll probably come by later if I have the chance, see you two later," Fluttershy said as she trotted to her cottage.
"Thanks, Fluttershy," Dawn said to Fluttershy.
Unfortunately, Fluttershy was already out of ear-shot, so she didn't respond. Dawn then turned to me, with a look of concern on her face. "Anon, are you feeling well?"
I smiled. "Yeah, I'm just a bit excited is all."
Walking over to the donation station, looking inside. There were a few bits at the bottom of the container, so I whipped out my bottomless bag and filled it to the brim with bits. I gotta keep my boys fed. Thinking of Angel and Harry, I wondered if I would get a chance to speak with them.
I walked over to Dawn who was now smiling more brightly than her necklace.
Sometime later...
Dawn and I now stood outside a building that I now knew was the spa. Honestly, it looked more like a circus house than anything else. I'm starting to notice a trend here in Ponyville.
I never got the chance to talk with Angel or Harry, I would have just looked too suspicious. I could have used telepathy, but I didn't want to run the risk of damaging their minds, it's still an experimental spell after all. Maybe I'll get a chance to catch up with them some other time; it'll probably have to be during my own time.
"This is it, the Ponyville Day Spa," Dawn announced.
I hummed to myself. "That's a very interesting aesthetic design."
Dawn giggled. "Come on, let's head inside silly."
Hours later...
After a long day of nothing but fun, Dawn and I stumbled through the front doors of the castle, dozens of bags in tow.
"Come on, let's go to my room," Dawn said, trotting up the stairs.
I caught myself looking at her flank again, but not feeling nearly as embarrassed this time. Reaching Dawn's room, we dropped all the bags on the floor, throwing ourselves on her bed beside each other.
"I had a lot of fun today, thanks for coming with me," Dawn confessed.
"It wasn't a big deal, besides, I had fun too," I admitted.
Dawn placed a hoof on mine, looking me in the eyes affectionately. "No seriously, thank you."
My intuition told me where this was going, but before I could let it go that far, the truth needed to come out, or at least parts of the truth. I sat upright in Dawn's bed.
"What's wrong?" Dawn asked, sounding confused and concerned.
"Dawn, I have something to tell you."