//------------------------------//
// Episode 3: Little White Lies 
// Story: My Little Changeling: Friendship is Weird 
// by Niaeruzu 
//------------------------------//


Little White Lies


“Hunter’s log, date... Thursday, I think. Me and my companions have delved deep into the Everfree Forest. It’s dangerous, but if we go through with this and find what we’re looking for, it’ll all be worth it.”

Lyra stuck her head out of a bush, wearing an explorer’s pith helmet. “In fact, I can smell our prey. It’s close.”

Vinyl Scratch’s head popped up out the bush right next to that one, wearing similar headgear. “Lyra, who the hay are you talking to?”

“Never mind that, I forgot why I’m here, myself,” Suncloak said, also sticking his head up out of a bush, this one on the other side of Lyra. He, too, was wearing a pith helmet, although not exactly voluntarily. “Also, it’s friday. And that’s the day, not the date.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “I’m telling my documentation team what we’re doing, so they can write down our amazing adventures in a journal. If we fail, then someday, somepony will find it, and they can embark on a cool adventure! Duh.”

Vinyl and Suncloak looked at each other, confused. “So, are we this ‘documentation team’?” Vinyl asked. “I didn’t think I’d have to write stuff when Bon Bon told me she needed somepony to keep an eye on you in the Everfree Forest.”

“No, silly, there’s somepony else who writes everything down,” Lyra continued, causing Vinyl and Suncloak to give each other even more confused looks. They didn’t even bring another pony with them, who would she be talking about? “You’re here because Bon Bon wanted somepony to lend me a hoof, and Suncloak’s here because he promised!”

“I did?” Suncloak asked. He didn’t remember promising to risk his life by going into the Everfree Forest. Not only was it scary, and filled with dangerous creatures, it also reminded him of how he arrived in Ponyville in the first place. Not the most pleasant flight he’d had.

“Yeah, I asked you if you could change into a human for me, but you said you needed to see a live one, so we’re looking for one right now!” Lyra excitedly said. “It’s going to be so cool! Too bad we only had two helmets, though.”

Suncloak briefly touched the pith helmet on his head. Right, not a real one. He’d changed his appearance to make it seem like he wore one, so technically, it was physically a part of him. Lyra had insisted that it was vitally important they wore helmets like this, but Suncloak had no idea why.

But, indeed, he had told Lyra something along the lines of helping her out. If he’d known he had to go into the Everfree Forest to help, he probably would have said no. However, right now it seemed sort of rude to go back on his word, plus it was a good opportunity to spend time with his friends and get some of the friendship he needed so dearly to live.

“Right,” Suncloak said as he stepped out of the bushes, “we won’t find anything if we’re going to sit around here like this. Let’s go.” He picked a random direction and walked, stopping for a bit to part some bushes, Vinyl joining him to look at what was on the other side.

They could see some kind of fairly large wood-like creature, curled up and softly sleeping. In fact, when looking more closely, they could see there were actually a lot more, disguised as random bits of wood. “Oh, look, sleeping timber wolves,” Vinyl said softly. “I hear those are really dangerous. Vicious, sharp fangs and claws, all that. Pretty cool, if you ask me.”

Upon hearing that, Suncloak instantly took about twenty paces back. Nope, nope, nope, he wasn’t getting anywhere near close to beasts like that. “Pretty cool?!” he hissed. “Those things will tear us apart if we wake them up!”

“Nah,” Vinyl said coolly, “their bark is worse than their bite.” She paused for a moment. “Though I guess that means they have a pretty tough skin.”

Lyra walked past the two of them, creating a suitable forest path with her telekinesis. “We’re looking for bigger game here, you two.”

Suncloak and Vinyl complied, following the mint green unicorn through the woods. They’d already found their first dangerous species, so it was only a matter of time until they found something bigger and meaner. All in all, an exciting prospect for any changeling or pony. At least they’d be okay so long as they didn’t disturb anything.

These ponies were absolutely insane, and Suncloak was insane for being friends with them. What else could he be, after going into what was probably one of the most dangerous places in Equestria, with only two friends and no means of protection? He really hadn’t thought this through very well. Why, any moment now, they could encounter something like a swarm of parasprites, or a cockatrice, or something more dangerous! And I just agreed to go, Suncloak thought to himself, I must have some kind of death wish.

Suncloak, not paying attention to the ground at all, suddenly found his front hoof falling away. With a sudden rush of air, he found himself tumbling head over hooves with a surprised scream, flailing his limbs about every direction he could. Before he could think of using his wings to stop his fall, he hit a body of cold water, sinking down.

Luckily, changelings were taught at the hive how to swim, even though the holes in their hooves weren’t actually useful under water. As his head breached the surface of the water, he spewed out some water in an arc and took a gasping breath.

“Suncloak!” he heard Lyra yell from above, “Are you okay?”

“I’m o-okay,” Suncloak answered with chattering teeth. This water was really, really cold! Luckily, the pool wasn’t too big, so he quickly found himself at the nearest edge, where he pulled himself out onto some rocks. He looked up to see both Lyra and Vinyl staring down at him through a roughly pony-sized hole.

Vinyl let out a sigh of relief. “Can you fly up?”

Suncloak, shivering all over because of the cold water, tried buzzing his wings. No dice; they were too heavy to use. “My w-wings are too w-wet,” he said. After shaking his whole body to get rid of most of the water, he tried again, but still couldn’t take off. “C-can’t you p-pull me up?”

Lyra and Vinyl looked at each other for a moment, thinking. “Maybe,” Lyra said. “Lemme try.” She scrunched her face up in concentration as her horn started glowing. After a few moments, she let out an exhausted gasp, halting her efforts. “I can’t reach you with my magic, sorry!”

Vinyl tried the same, but found that her reach was too short as well. “Sorry, Suncloak!” she shouted down. “Can you see a way out?”

Suncloak cautiously looked around. He was in some sort of large rocky cave, with the pool of cold water roughly in the middle. There were odd mushrooms here and there, but more importantly, there was a source of light on the other side of the cave. “I think I see an exit,” he told Lyra and Vinyl. “It’s over there,” he said, pointing in the direction of the light.

Vinyl tapped her chin with a hoof for a bit. “Okay, how about me and Lyra go that way, and we’ll meet you there. That sound good?”

Suncloak nodded, as he didn’t see any other option besides waiting for his wings to dry. However, staying put in a cave in the Everfree Forest didn’t really seem like a good idea. If anything lived here, it might come back soon. Not something the changeling was willing to find out, to be honest. “I’ll s-see you there,” he told the two ponies above him.

“Alrighty!” Lyra said, putting a hoof to her head in salute. “Meet you there, Suncloak!” With that, both her and Vinyl headed off in the direction Suncloak had indicated.

Suncloak didn’t immediately leave, but lingered for a bit. This cave gave him the chills. Not because of the water, since he’d already left the pool, but because it reminded him of the changeling hive. Except the hive didn’t have a swimming pool, and it had a lot more green gunk lying around.

Oh, and there was a total lack of other changelings in this cave. That’s a pretty big difference, too. In fact, that made this cave all the much better in Suncloak’s book. Other changelings could be the worst. Well, except the few who had come to Ponyville a few weeks ago. They were sort of endearing in how they slightly looked up to him in that mocking, jerkish changeling fashion. Or that could've just been Suncloak's imagination.

As Suncloak started moving towards the exit of the cave, an idea popped into his head. Maybe, if no dangerous beasts had taken up residence in this cave, he and the other changelings could use this as a gathering place! At least it’d be better than meeting up at the edge of the Everfree Forest, right?

However, when he got to what he thought was the cave’s exit, Suncloak had to pause for a moment again.

He was, in fact, not outside, but in a different, smaller chamber. This one had a large crack spanning the length of the ceiling, probably too thin to fly through. It spread a dim light throughout the whole cave, revealing an abundance of flowers on the cavern floor. Luckily, there was still an exit on the other side, showing a bit of light.

Suncloak walked through the large patch of flowers, amazed at just how many different ones there were. Almost shiny, ugly white ones, blue ones with dark blue streaks which tickled when the changeling’s hooves brushed past them, strongly-smelling yellow ones, thorned red flowers... Any pony would have called it beautiful. Changelings not so much, but Suncloak couldn’t deny that it was at least pretty.

Wasting no more time, Suncloak left the chamber, which led him to a narrow path leading up. Though it felt a bit claustrophobic, it didn’t last very long. Once at the end, the changeling found himself having to crawl through some bushes until he could finally stand up and take a look.

However, Lyra and Vinyl weren’t there yet. Looking around, perhaps a bit more frightened than he’d like to admit, Suncloak couldn’t see them anywhere. “Lyra? Vinyl? Where are you?” he called out into the woods.

“Suncloak?” he heard Lyra calling out from somewhere in front of him. Moments later, both her and Vinyl appeared. When she saw the changeling, her face lit up. “Ohmigosh you’re all right!” she leapt towards Suncloak, wrapping him in a tight hug. “We were so worried! Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Suncloak said with a smile, incredibly glad he found his friends again. “Wet and a bit cold, but okay.” Gently, he tried to pry Lyra off, but failed. Not that he wasn’t happy they found each other, but he just wasn’t a very huggy changeling.

Vinyl let out a sigh of relief. “We totally walked past this place, we didn’t even see a cave. Thank Celestia we didn’t go much further yet.” She went up to Suncloak and gave him a hug, although far calmer than Lyra did. “Don’t you go falling into any more holes, Sunny. That was pretty scary!”

“Eugh,” Suncloak said, not used to this much hugging all at once. “I’m happy to see the two of you too. That cave wasn’t too scary, though.” Well, unless you were really afraid of rocks and flowers. Let’s just get...” He trailed off, interrupted by something tickling in his nose. “ACHOO!” the changeling sneezed, causing the other two ponies to back away slightly.

“Uh oh,” Lyra said, “let’s go home before you catch a cold. My friend’s health is more important than my silly quest, anyway.”

Suncloak agreed, sniffling. He didn’t want to get sick, of course.

“Yeah, I’m getting pretty tired,” Vinyl said, “plus the Everfree Forest still kinda creeps me out. Let’s get back to Ponyville, then we can take off these hats.” She tapped the pith helmet on her head a few times. “No offense, Lyra, but this thing is messing up my mane.”

Suncloak realized he had his helmet still on as well. Not really on, per se, as it was part of him, but he hadn’t changed himself to get rid of it. With a whirl of green flame around the changeling’s head, it disappeared.

Relieved, the three of them went home. Luckily, nothing bad happened on their little excursion into the Everfree Forest. Suncloak had at least expected something to go wrong very badly, considering the two ponies he had joined, but he was pleasantly surprised. He only fell into a hole and got wet, that wasn’t so bad.





“I’m home!” Derpy called out as she closed the door of her house behind her. She took her mailbags off her flanks with her mouth, expertly throwing the bags at a hook on the other side of the small hallway with a flick of her head.

With an anticlimactic ‘thwap’, the bags hit the wall, well out of reach of the hook Derpy was aiming for. Well, at least this throw was done more expertly than earlier ones. She only missed the hook by about two meters this time! Diligently, the mailmare went over to the bags to neatly hang them up on the wall anyway.

“Yay, mommy’s home!” a voice called out from the living room, adjacent to the hallway Derpy was now standing in. It was a voice that was very familiar to the grey pegasus.

It belonged to a pale violet unicorn filly with a golden mane, tail and eyes, who burst into the hallway, flinging herself around the mailmare’s neck with a gleeful shout.

“Dinky!” the mare called out, recoiling slightly from the impact. “How is my little muffin? How was your day?” she asked, pulling her daughter closer for a hug.

“Kinda boring,” Dinky said as she released her mother from her grasp. “Dad had to leave early because of some timey-wimey emergency again.”

Derpy chuckled. “And everypony says being a timekeeper is incredibly boring.” Oh, they had no idea how exciting the life of her husband was. Clocks were serious business, and the adventures one could have repairing them were utterly ridiculous, suited for only the most adventurous of ponies. That’s what Derpy found so cute about him, after all.

“So I was home alone for a little while, until you came back, but nothing happened,” Dinky continued. However, her eyes widened as she remembered something. “Oh, but Mr. Suncloak from next door was making a lot of noise this morning!”

That surprised Derpy. Sure, Suncloak did some weird things once in a while, but hey, he was a changeling. Ponies barely even knew about them before the Canterlot invasion, and now one of them was living in Ponyville. There were bound to be some cultural misunderstandings. “A lot of noise how?” Derpy asked. “Angry noise, panicky noise, or just regular noisy noise?” She walked past her daughter to the living room. The hallway could feel so small with two ponies in it, especially to a pegasus like her.

Dinky thought for a moment as she followed behind her mother. “Panicky noise, it was definitely panicky,” she said.

“Huh,” Derpy said as she sat down on the living room couch. “I don’t think he ever makes panic noises. Do you know why he would suddenly panic?” she asked Dinky.

“I, um...” Dinky started, as she looked down and kicked at the ground with one hoof. “I... didn’t ask.”

Derpy sighed. “Dinky, I know you think he’s a little bit scary,” she said as sweetly as she could, “but he’s very nice! Your mommy has weird eyes, and he just has a weird body, and weird magic, and a weird culture...” She stared blankly ahead for a moment. “Okay, everything about him is a bit weird. But he’s the only changeling in Ponyville, don’t you think he’s just as scared of us?”

“Well, yeah,” Dinky admitted, “but he really made some loud noises this morning! Something must’ve really spooked him.”

“How loud and panicky are we talking?” Derpy asked. “Regular ‘I-can’t-find-what-I’m-looking-for’ panic or ‘the-world-is-ending-aaah’ panic?”

“Worse,” Dinky answered, “he sounded kinda like you when we’re out of muffins and Sugarcube Corner is closed.”

Derpy gasped loudly. That bad?! “Oh no, whatever happened to him must be absolutely terrible! Just horrible, unimaginable...” The poor mare shuddered in horror. “I don’t even want to think about it!”

Dinky gave her mother a deadpan look. “Mom, I think you’re overreacting a little.”

“Nonsense,” Derpy said, being oddly serious, “you’re just a little filly, you don’t understand yet. You will when you’re older, okay?” She went back to the hallway, followed by her daughter, who was visibly annoyed with the age-old ‘you’ll-understand-when-you’re-older’ excuse. As Derpy opened the door, she said, “Let’s just go check up on him, make sure everything’s okay.”

With that, she took off, made a U-turn, and promptly slammed into Suncloak’s front door. “Ow,” the now even more wall-eyed pegasus mumbled to herself. Stupid depth perception.

Dinky, on the other hoof, took the long way around, walking out of the garden in front of the Hooves family’s house and properly walking up to Suncloak’s house and her mother, who was currently collapsed on the ground. “Um, are you okay, mom?”

“I’m okay,” Derpy said as she picked herself up, “I was just knocking on the door.” Demonstratively, she raised a hoof to knock, but a shuffling sound behind the door interrupted her.

“Yes?” came Suncloak’s voice from behind the door, sounding muffled, yet strangely calm. Derpy had at least thought he’d be shaken, considering how panicked he must’ve been.

Even stranger was that he hadn’t opened the door. “Hi, Suncloak. Could you, um, open the door, maybe?”

For a while, Suncloak was silent. “Can’t do that,” he swiftly said.

That was weird. Suncloak was always glad to see anypony come visit him, and he’d always let his friends in. And even if he was busy with something, he’d at least open the door. Not that he was busy very often.

“Okay... Why not?” Derpy asked.

Suncloak was silent for a long while. “Can’t say.”

Derpy sighed. “Look, Dinky heard you make quite a lot of noise this morning, and we’re worried about you,” she said. Behind her, Dinky nodded her head. As Derpy put a hoof to the door, she continued, “I’ll just open the door and—”

“NODON’TOPENTHEDOOR!” Suncloak suddenly shouted, startling Derpy and causing Dinky to hide behind her mother. “Sorry, but I can’t come outside right now. And you can’t come inside,” Suncloak said, before Derpy or Dinky could respond.

“O-Okay,” Derpy said after a few moments, somewhat shaken by Suncloak’s outburst. “I’ll, um...” She took a look around, and saw that Suncloak had closed all of the curtains around his house. Right now, there was no way to see inside, so there was no way she could find out what was wrong with Suncloak, unless she could somehow get him to talk, or get inside. “I’ll come back a bit later, okay? I’ll get the others, and we’ll figure this out together. Uh, after we find out what’s wrong.”

She could hear Suncloak sigh softly behind the door. After a few moments, he added a defeated “Okay.”

Derpy looked back at Dinky, who shared her look of confusion. “Uh, like I said, you’ll understand when you’re older. I think.” She added a fake grin, to completely convince her daughter that obviously, being an adult, Derpy knew exactly what was going on.

Dinky’s look of confusion was now replaced by one of annoyance. “I don’t think anypony understands what’s going on,” she said with a groan.





Not much later, five ponies had gathered in front of Suncloak’s house. Derpy had told Vinyl Scratch, Lyra and Bon Bon about what was going on, as far as she could. Dinky was still there as well, trying to help her mother and her friends to find out what was wrong with her neighbour.

Vinyl went up to the door and knocked on it. “Sunny? You there? Derpy told us about what was going on. Or what she didn’t know was going on, I guess.”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Suncloak answered from beyond the door. He still wasn’t opening the door, though.

Bon Bon went up to the door as well, standing next to Vinyl. “Can you tell us what’s going on, sweetie?”

“I already told Derpy, I can’t say that,” Suncloak replied. It didn’t sound nearly as annoyed as Bon Bon had anticipated, though.

“Please? We just want to help you,” Bon Bon said in return.

“You can’t help me,” Suncloak said, still not even bothering to give an explanation.

Lyra forced herself in between Vinyl and Bon Bon, shoving the two aside slightly. “Sure we can help! We just need to find out what.” She sat down and rubbed her chin for a moment. “Hmmm... Suncloak, did you get a zit you’re really embarrassed of?”

“What? No!” came Suncloak’s bewildered response.

As Lyra continued guessing, and Suncloak continued answering ‘no’ to all her questions, Bon Bon took a few steps back. “I’ve got an idea,” she whispered to Derpy, who had a very concerned look on her face, “cover for me while I get something.”

“Uh, okay,” Derpy whispered back as Bon Bon left. She briefly traded confused looks with her daughter, Dinky, but had to give an unsure shrug. She didn’t have the faintest idea what Bon Bon was planning.

“Doooeees it have to do with yesterday?” Lyra continued guessing.

“Maybe? I don’t know,” Suncloak answered.

“Well, at least it isn’t a no,” Vinyl murmured to Lyra.

Intrigued, Derpy went up to them. “Yesterday? What happened yesterday?”

“We went into the Everfree Forest yesterday,” Vinyl explained, “and Suncloak kinda fell into a hole. It led to a cave and he fell in a pool there, so maybe he got sick from that, I guess?”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Lyra asked Suncloak. “I mean, it’s not really hard to find out if you have a cold or not. Sniffly nose, sneezing, headaches, that kind of stuff. Oh, and maybe you get a bit pale, but that’s—”

“Noi’mnotpale!” Suncloak exclaimed, interrupting the minty green unicorn. “Uh, I mean, I don’t have any of that, so I’m not sick.”

“Oookay,” Vinyl said, not completely buying Suncloak’s answer. Sadly, she was unable to figure out what was actually wrong with him, nor could she think of any good question to ask.

“Then...” Lyra said, but trailed off, unable to come up with a good guess as well. “I got nothin’.” She sighed, and added a shrug for good measure.

“Now what do we do?” Derpy asked. Nopony reacted, seeing as none of them really knew what to do. Derpy cast her head down, feeling defeated. How could she help her friend?

“Wait, where’d Bon Bon go anyway?” Lyra asked, looking around if she could spot her housemate.

“She told me she was going to get something,” Derpy answered, “and she asked me to cover for her. I... don’t know what she’s doing.”

“Oh,” Lyra said, swiftly returning to thinking about what to do with Suncloak. “Maybe we should just get a ladder, a hammer, an orchestra and an orange, then we might be able to get something done.”

Derpy and Vinyl stared incredulously at her. After a moment, Vinyl asked, “Why, in Celestia’s name, would we need that?”

“I just really feel like eating an orange right now,” Lyra said nonchalantly.

“Right,” Derpy said, “I think I can take care of the ladder, hammer and orange, but I don’t think I have an orchestra lying around somewhere in the house.”

Vinyl smacked herself in the face with a hoof. Why she would do that, neither Lyra nor Derpy knew. As she removed her hoof, she could see Bon Bon approaching, wearing... what, exactly? Some kind of weird headdress. It looked like a guard’s helmet, but made out of papier-mâché, often used in plays. “Hey Bon B—” Vinyl started to say, but was cut off by one of Lyra’s hooves covering her mouth.

“Shh!” Lyra shushed her, “she’s doing her thing.” Vinyl, with a look of annoyance, pushed Lyra’s hoof away from her mouth.

Bon Bon, wearing the odd helmet, went up to Suncloak’s door and knocked. She stood perfectly still, like a Canterlot guard on alert.

“Look,” Suncloak’s voice came again, with an almost-audible eyeroll, “I can figure this out, ok—”

“Suncloak?” Bon Bon interrupted him with a surprisingly deep, stallion-like voice, “I am with the royal guard. Open this door.”

Derpy’s mouth fell open as she heard her friend talk with such a strange voice. “How... how is she doing that?” she whispered to Lyra, barely managing to not shout it out.

Lyra gave her a sly grin. “She can do some really crazy stuff with her voice, eh? Though she has to wear the hat to get into her role,” she said, pointing at the crude papier-mâché helmet Bon Bon was wearing. “Actually, she has a whole chest full of costume parts. Just in case.”

Suncloak, in the meantime, had not opened the door yet. “Uh... That’s... A royal guard, you say?” he asked with a nervous chuckle. “I can’t... But... Just, uh...” He sighed. “Just give me a moment.”

The faces of everypony outside lit up, except for Bon Bon, who was still in her role of a stoic royal guard. They were all eager to say something, but since none of them wanted to ruin Bon Bon’s effort, they kept quiet.

“Wait a minute,” Suncloak suddenly said, sounding awfully suspicious.

Now, everypony outside had a more frightened look. “Uh oh,” Vinyl whispered.

They could hear Suncloak loudly smelling the air for a few moments. “Hmmm... Bon Bon? Is that you?”

Even Bon Bon’s mouth fell open at that. “What?! How did you know it was me?” she asked as she took off the helmet and set it down on the ground, her voice returning back to normal as soon as she took the helmet off.

“I smelled it,” Suncloak answered matter-of-factly.

Bon Bon raised a hoof to her nose and sniffed. Smelling nothing noteworthy, she even smelled her whole leg. She turned around and gave Lyra a questioning look, who only shrugged in return. “I don’t smell that badly, do I?” Bon Bon said as she turned back to Suncloak’s door.

“No,” the changeling replied, “but I can smell your love. Or friendship, whatever you want to call it. You smell just a tiny bit different than other ponies.” After a moment, he added, “You did a really good impression of a royal guard, though.”

“So will you open the door?” Bon Bon asked with an awkward grin.

“No.”

“Suncloak, I swear, if you don’t open that door right this instant, I’ll break it down myself!” Bon Bon suddenly shouted furiously, turning around and rearing up to deliver a strong buck to the door.

“Uh, let’s not do anything rash here,” Derpy said, though she was too scared to intervene. Who knew how powerful the angry earth pony’s bucks were? It wasn’t exactly something Lyra or Vinyl were keen on finding out either.

“Whoa, just give me a moment, okay?” came Suncloak’s reply, sounding somewhat frightened.

Bon Bon snorted, turning back to the door again and adopting a slightly less aggressive posture. Though she still looked thoroughly annoyed.

A long moment later, they could all hear... something scraping against the floor on the other side of the door. Something heavy. Bon Bon put her ear against the door. “Suncloak? What’re you doing?” she asked.

“Using the couch,” Suncloak answered, panting a little bit, “to barricade the door. I just can’t let you in.”

“What?! But... You... Argh!” Bon Bon exclaimed, angrily turning around and giving a swift buck to the door. It rattled a bit from the force, but held its ground. “You can’t stay in there forever, you know!”

“Yes I can, as long as you come visit,” Suncloak said. “I don’t need to eat or drink, remember? I just need friendship.”

Bon Bon gave a frustrated groan. “Fine. Sorry, I’m just... I’m worried, okay?” she said, seeming somewhat more calm.

Vinyl now had the courage to go back up to the door, seeing that Bon Bon had calmed down a little. “Look, why don’t we all get some rest, and then we’ll think of a solution tomorrow, okay?”

Bon Bon sighed as she picked her fake guard helmet up again. “That sounds like a good idea.” She turned around and headed home, Lyra following her soon after. “See you tomorrow!” they both called back.

After they were both out of sight, Vinyl went up to Derpy. “So, I have an idea,” she started, “and I need your help. Tonight.”

“Okay, but I thought you said we needed to get rest?” Derpy asked, confused as to what her DJ friend was planning. A quick glance towards Dinky showed that her daughter was equally, if not more confused.

“Yeah, I know,” Vinyl said with a troubled look, “but, uh... You’ll see, okay? Thanks!” she said as she, too, trotted off to home.

“Well then, Dinky,” Derpy said, “let’s go home then.” She would’ve explained what just happened to her daughter, but to be honest, she had absolutely no idea how to do that. Therefore, sidestepping the issue was required.

Dinky groaned. “Grown-ups are weird.”





Night. A time when little fillies like Dinky are in their bed, sleeping, and adult mares like Derpy are waiting for their friends to drop by, with whatever plan they had come up with. Her husband, who had had a long day, was already sleeping in bed. Derpy, however, was watching the seconds tick by on the old clock, hanging from the wall.

She was worried about Suncloak. What was wrong with him, and why was he being so secretive about it? They were friends, they could tell each other anything, right? It must’ve been so serious, that the changeling couldn’t even tell his friends about it. What could it be? Surely, it must be absolutely terrifying, no doubt about it.

A knocking on the front door interrupted her thoughts. She swiftly went over and opened it, to reveal Vinyl Scratch. She was wearing her usual sunglasses, which was odd, considering it was night, and a pair of saddlebags. They seemed quite full and heavy.

“Hey. I’ve got the goods,” Vinyl said with a hushed tone. gesturing towards the saddlebags with one hoof.

“Uh, what ‘goods’, exactly?” Derpy asked, seeing as Vinyl hadn’t even told her what she was planning.

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Vinyl said as she took off the saddlebags and levitated the contents out, one by one, and laid them on the ground. Two black bundles of cloth and two complex sets of goggles. “Catsuits and night vision goggles.”

“Okay...” Derpy answered, staring at one of the sets of goggles, “I don’t know why we’d need night vision goggles, and I don’t even have a cat, let alone two.” However, she noted, maybe they could fit one of the suits on her pet ferret.

“No, they’re for us, so we can be sneaky when we check out Suncloak’s house,” Vinyl explained.

“Oh, but we don’t have to be sneaky to look at Suncloak’s house, silly!” Derpy said with a smile. Crazy Vinyl, the stress must be getting to her! “I can just poke my head out the door a bit and it’s there,” she said, looking at her neighbour’s house. “See?”

Vinyl looked at the house for a second, then gave Derpy an unamused stare. “I’m not talking about that, I mean checking out the inside. Without him knowing. Catch my drift?”

Checking out the inside of his house... Without him knowing. That sounded an awful lot like... “You want to break into his house?!” Derpy exclaimed. “Are you crazy?!”

“No!” Vinyl angrily replied. “I’m just... really worried, is all.” She backed off a little, looking at Suncloak’s house. “I mean, me and Lyra were there with him in the Everfree. I don’t know what happened yet, but... I feel horrible when I think something happened to him there and I didn’t even notice.” She sighed, and looked at Derpy again. “So that’s why I brought the sneaking gear!” she said, perking up.

Derpy stared at her unicorn friend with unease. On the one hoof, she wanted to help her friend, Suncloak, but on the other hoof, she wanted to help her friend, Vinyl. And she was really curious as to what happened to Suncloak... But then again, they would be breaking into his house. But only a little bit. No harm in just looking, right? After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “Okay, I’ll help out.”

“Awesome!” Vinyl said, with a large grin. “Put on your gear so we can get started!” She proceeded to take one of the catsuits and put it on. She easily slipped into it, and put a set of night vision goggles on her head, while Derpy did the same. Their manes were tucked in as well as possible, but Vinyl’s messy blue mane still stuck out from multiple openings.

“I’ve never used night vision goggles before,” Derpy said while she was fiddling with the set on her head. “How do they work?”

“Easy,” Vinyl said. “You put ‘em on your face like this,” she said, using her magic to pull Derpy’s set of goggles onto her eyes, “then you flick this thingy here.” She used her hoof to flick a small switch on the goggles. With a soft ‘bweep’ the magical apparatus activated.

Even though everything was green now, Derpy could now see so much clearer into the night! “Oooh! This is cool!” She looked around, noting just how clear everything was. “I can see everything!”

“Yeah, just take them off if you’ve got to look into the light, or you’ll be blinded,” Vinyl said, slipping her set of goggles on as well. “Let’s go.”

And so, once more, they stood in front of Suncloak’s house. The first thing to check was, of course, the door. Vinyl tried pushing it open with a hoof, but it was locked. Or it was still blocked by the couch that Suncloak had shoved in front of it. They checked the windows on the ground floor, but those couldn’t be opened.

“There’s no way in,” Derpy whispered, “what do we do now?”

Vinyl hummed to herself as she tapped a hoof on her chin. Indeed, there was no way in... on the ground floor. She looked up and saw the second floor window, illuminated by the light of the moon. “We go in from above,” Vinyl said with a grin, pointing to the window.

“Well, I can get there by flying, but how’re you going to get up there?” Derpy asked, because, indeed, unicorns aren’t the best of flyers, courtesy of not having wings.

“Duh,” Vinyl replied, “you lift me up there. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”

“I could do that. I’ve lifted some heavy packages and other stuff before, so I guess a pony wouldn’t be too difficult,” Derpy said, choosing to omit those few times where she accidentally dropped something. She still felt really bad about injuring Twilight Sparkle that way. “Well, let’s see... I think I’ll just grab you like this,” she said, flying over Vinyl and wrapping her front hooves around her waist. With strong beats of her wings, she slowly managed to get the two of them up to the window.

“Now we just need to open this,” Vinyl said, looking at the window.

“Oh, that’s easy!” Derpy said, using her front hooves to try and push or pull the windows open. “I’ll just p—” she tried to say, but she was interrupted by a scream and a loud smack coming from below.

Looking down, she saw Vinyl lying on the ground below. Derpy looked at her hooves... the ones she was supposed to be holding the poor unicorn with. “Oops.” Quickly flying down, she checked on her fallen friend. “You okay?”

Vinyl merely groaned, not moving a single muscle otherwise.

Derpy picked her friend up again and set her on her hooves. “Sorry about that.”

Vinyl shook her head to try and stop everything from spinning. “Okay, next time, I’ll handle the window, okay?”

Derpy nodded as she picked her friend up again, lifting her up to the window once more. “How’re you going to open it, though?” she whispered.

“Easy,” Vinyl whispered back as her horn started to glow. “I’ll just open it with a little bit of magic.” Inside, the handle on the window glowed a soft blue as it started to move. One moment later, the window swung open. “Okay, now get us inside. Soft—” she started, but was interrupted by Derpy flinging her forwards, causing her to land inside the house with a loud whump. “-ly.”

Derpy carefully flew in, standing next to her once again downed friend. “Oops,” she whispered.

Vinyl groaned again as she stood up. “It’s fine, just be more careful next time, okay?” She took a look around the room, seeing little aside from Suncloak’s presumably empty closet and his bed. He probably didn’t have any money to fill his closet with, and the only things visible in his bed were the white sheets and pillow. “Huh, I thought he’d be asleep.” If he had been, all this noise would’ve probably woken him up anyway.

“Maybe he’s downstairs,” Derpy whispered. Suncloak could have camped out in front of his door all day, to prevent others from getting in, and maybe he fell asleep there.
“Good thinking,” Vinyl whispered back as she tip-hoofed her way to the staircase, making very little sound aside from a quiet clip-clopping.

Derpy hopped up into the air, following her friend, with a loud flapping of her wings.

Putting a hoof to her lips, Vinyl shushed her accomplice. “Your wings make too much noise. Don’t use them and just walk like I do.” Can’t have loud noise waking Suncloak, after all.

Derpy blushed a little and nodded, dropping to the ground. Stealthily, she and Vinyl made her way down the stairs.

On the ground floor was... nothing exceptional, really. The couch was moved from its usual spot, and a quick peek into the hallway confirmed that it was still in front of the door. However, no Suncloak. The other furniture, the table and chairs, were still in their old places.

Emerald, Suncloak’s pet moth, was fluttering around the place, minding her own business. She mainly left the two ponies alone, until she decided to perch on Derpy’s goggles.

“Hi Emerald,” Derpy said, currently unable to see anything due to the moth on her face. “Do you know where Suncloak is?”

In response, Emerald flew away from her, going up the stairs.

Derpy and Vinyl looked at each other for a moment. “Uh, didn’t we already check upstairs?” Vinyl asked. Derpy merely shrugged. Quietly, they followed the moth up the stairs.

Once up the stairs again, they found Emerald, circling Suncloak’s bed. Derpy and Vinyl stared at each other in confusion. “But, we already checked his bed, he isn’t there!” Derpy told the moth.

Emerald responded by making her circles faster, seeming a bit annoyed.

The two ponies shared another glance, and shrugged. They walked around the bed, taking a better look, until they were both with their backs to the window. If they looked closely, they could see the blankets rise and fall just a little bit, in a steady rhythm.

“Huh. Guess he’s all the way under the covers, and also a really heavy and silent sleeper,” Vinyl mused, still keeping her voice to a whisper.

“What do we do?” Derpy asked.

“Lift the covers, obviously,” Vinyl answered, grabbing hold of the covers with her magic and lifting it.

Suddenly, both ponies were blinded by a flash of light, amplified by the goggles they were wearing. Surprised, they let out a yelp and both stumbled back, tripping over each other and falling out the window. With yet another loud smack, they both fell on the ground.

“Owww...” Vinyl said with a groan. “What happened?”

“There was light, we fell, and now we’re lying on the ground,” Derpy answered. “And it hurts.”

Above them, they heard a window being closed. “This’ll hurt for days,” Vinyl said as she raised her head. “It’s too bad you couldn’t catch us.”

“Oh, I could,” Derpy replied. “But you told me not to use my wings.”

With a final groan, Vinyl dropped her head to the ground again.





The next day, five ponies had again gathered in front of Suncloak’s house. Lyra, Bon Bon, Vinyl Scratch, Derpy Hooves, and her daughter, Dinky Hooves.

Cautiously, Lyra went forward and knocked on the front door. “Suncloak? You there?”

A moment later, the reply came. “Yeah, I’m still home.” Before anyone outside could reply, he added, “Still not going to open the door, though.”

The ponies outside sighed. They’d hoped the changeling would come outside now, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “Okay then, but are you okay?” Lyra asked.

“I’m fine,” Suncloak answered. “Though my memory might be a bit wonky. I woke up in the middle of the night to find that my window was open, even though I don’t even remember opening it.”

Vinyl and Derpy nonchalantly whistled a tune, pretending like they didn’t know what the changeling was talking about at all.

Bon Bon gave them a suspicious glare.

“So we really can’t convince you to open the door, huh?” Lyra asked.

“No.” Suncloak sighed. “It’s just... I don’t know how to explain it, okay?”

With a defeated sigh, Lyra turned around and joined her other friends again. “I really don’t know how to get him out of there. I thought about it all night, but I just couldn’t come up with anything!”

“I don’t have any idea either,” Bon Bon added. “What should we do?”

While the adult ponies discussed their future tactics, Dinky was staring at the front door. Deep in thought, she tapped a hoof on her chin. Suddenly, she had an idea. “Hey mom?” she asked. “Can I try something?”

Derpy looked at her daughter. “Uh, sure, but...” She wasn’t really sure how much help her daughter would be. After all, the only thing Dinky knew about her neighbour was that he was a changeling.

Dinky took a deep breath, and went up to the door. “Um, mister Suncloak?” she asked hesitantly.

There was no reply for a moment. “Who are you?” Suncloak asked.

“I’m Dinky, my mom’s your friend,” Dinky explained.

“Oh, right, the filly. What’re you doing here?” There was a hint of disgust in Suncloak’s voice, but Dinky didn’t pick up on this.

“Well, I heard you make a lot noise yesterday morning, and I was wondering why. But, uh, I was a bit too scared to come ask about it,” Dinky said. “Just a little bit, though! I was here yesterday too.”

“Right,” Suncloak replied. “And now you’re here... why?”

“Um, the reason you don’t want to open the door...” Dinky hesitantly started, “is it because of a changeling thing?”

“Uh, yes.” The changeling replied, as if it was incredibly obvious. “Why?”

“If it’s a changeling thing, why don’t you want to let us in?” Dinky explained. “We’re all ponies, so we won’t understand it right away, and we probably won’t even think it’s weird at all.”

“Dinky!” Derpy started to chide her daughter. Dinky was starting to sound awfully inconsiderate.

“No, wait,” Bon Bon interrupted her. “I think Dinky has a point.”

Vinyl quickly zipped up to the door. “Yeah, Sunny! You don’t explain changeling stuff all that often to us. If it’s something really serious that other changelings would laugh at or something, it wouldn’t be so bad, ‘cause we aren’t changelings!”

“Huh,” Suncloak said. “That... makes sense. Okay, give me a second.” A scraping sound followed, the sound of the couch being moved back into its normal position in the living room. Presumably.

“Wow,” Bon Bon said in surprise, “how did we not think of that?”

Derpy went up to her daughter and gave her a tight hug. “That’s my Dinky! Smart as always!”

“Oh, come on, mom!” Dinky embarrassedly pushed herself out of the hug. “I’m not that smart,” she said, though she had a noticeable blush on her face.

“Okay,” came Suncloak’s voice again, “I’ll open the door now. Just... You won’t laugh, right?”

“Sunny, I wouldn’t laugh at you, ever,” Vinyl said. The others quickly agreed with this.

“Right,” the changeling replied. Slowly, the door unlocked, and slowly, it opened. Something shone incredibly brightly, causing the ponies outside to look away and shield their eyes with a hoof. After a moment, they could all take a look.

In front of them was a white changeling. From his horn to the tip of his short tail, Suncloak was all white, except for his eyes and wings, which still had their natural colour. He wasn’t just white; it was possibly the purest white any of the ponies outside had ever seen, and his newfound shininess sure helped in that regard as well. The changeling shied away a little, obviously incredibly embarrassed of his new colouration.

The ponies, however, all shot him, and each other, surprised and confused looks. “Wait, what?” Vinyl asked. “You locked yourself in all that time because you turned white?”

“I don’t get it,” Lyra added. “Can’t you just change back to black?”

“No!” Suncloak replied. “Look!” A whirl of green flame surrounded the changeling, but after it disappeared, he hadn’t changed at all. He tried to work his changeling magic a few more times, but to no avail. “I’m stuck like this!” he wailed.

“Why is this so terrible, actually?” Derpy asked.

“Changelings hate the colour white,” Suncloak explained. “No offense, Vinyl. It’s a really long and complicated story.”

“None taken,” the white unicorn replied. “But how did you get like this?”

“I don’t know!” Suncloak became a bit more frantic. “I just woke up like this yesterday! I don’t know what happened at all!” He dropped to the ground and covered his head with his hooves. “What if I stay like this forever?” he said in a tiny voice.

“Something must have happened in the Everfree Forest. It’s the only place where you can get strange illnesses like this,” Bon Bon mused aloud. “But what?”

“But we didn’t run into anything weird!” Lyra protested. “Well, Suncloak fell into a hole, but that’s pretty much it. We met up later and then we went home.”

Bon Bon rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Hmmm. Suncloak, what happened after you fell into that hole?”

“Uh, I fell into a pool of water, climbed out, couldn’t get back up to Lyra and Vinyl, then I walked to the exit of the cave,” Suncloak recounted as he stood up again. “There was a big patch of flowers inside that cave, but that’s pretty much it.”

“Huh? You didn’t tell us about those flowers,” Vinyl said.

“Is that so important, then?” Suncloak scratched himself on the head in confusion.

“Well, were any of those flowers blue?” Bon Bon asked.

“Uh, yes,” Suncloak answered.

Suddenly, Bon Bon realized something. “Poison Joke!” she exclaimed.

“Poison Joke?” Suncloak asked. “What’s that?”

A look of realization crossed the faces of the present ponies. “Poison Joke is a flower that pulls a nasty joke on you if you touch it,” Derpy explained. “You must’ve touched some of it in that cave!”

“But this isn’t even remotely funny!” Suncloak protested. “This is horrible!”

“It’d probably be funny for other changelings,” Vinyl said. “That’s good enough for the Poison Joke.”

“That’s great and all,” Suncloak complained, “but how do I get back to normal? I don’t want to be stuck like this forever!”

“Oh, that’s easy, you just go to the spa for a special herbal bath and you’ll be cured,” Bon Bon explained. “But next time, please tell us if something like this happens, okay?”

“Yeah!” Lyra added. “We’re your friends, and we’re here to help!”

“And we can’t help if we don’t understand you,” Bon Bon finished. “So you’ll have to explain some changeling things to us, else we can’t help. But, how about we go to the spa first?”

“So... you really don’t think it’s funny, or strange?” Suncloak asked timidly.

Vinyl made a dismissive gesture with a hoof. “Nah, I’ve seen way crazier stuff at parties. This is nothing! Though I would like to hear the explanation.”

Suncloak sighed. “Sure. I’ll explain why changelings hate the colour white on the way to the spa, but I’ll try to keep it as short as possible. It’s a bit complicated.” As the whole group started walking, he started explaining. “I guess the best place to start is when a changeling is born...”





“...and that’s why we can’t stand the colour white,” Suncloak finished as he walked into the spa, followed by his friends. And Dinky.

“That’s... quite the story,” Derpy said. She had a horrified look on her face and her cheeks were quite green. 

“We never should’ve asked you to explain that,” Bon Bon added, looking almost the same as Derpy.

“Oh, but that’s only the short version,” Suncloak said. “I left out most of the details. I’ll explain about those some other time.”

“No!” Lyra shouted. “Don’t!” Even though she was already a green pony, her cheeks had obtained a darker hue. “Just get the treatment, and we’ll never talk about this ever again! Please?”

“Oookay,” Suncloak said, “but I thought you wanted to know—”

“There’s a limit!” Lyra interrupted. Apparently, hairless apes were okay, but a simple explanation was not. Crazy ponies.

“Just get the bath, Suncloak,” Bon Bon said, “and then leave this behind us.” She looked over her shoulder, where a shuddering, horrified Vinyl was mumbling something to herself about having to take a long shower. “I don’t think some of us can take any more.”

“Next time, I think ‘it’s a changeling thing’ is enough explanation,” Derpy said. “But don’t be afraid to tell us if something weird has happened, okay?”

Suncloak nodded. “Okay, I’ll get that treatment. What’re you going to do?”

“Go home, and take a bath or something,” Lyra said, a horrified look still on her face. “See you later, Suncloak.” She turned around and left, taking Bon Bon in tow. Vinyl followed as well, still too horrified to actually say anything.

Derpy followed as well, but Dinky lingered for a moment. Strangely, she was the only pony who wasn’t absolutely disgusted with Suncloak’s story. “It wasn’t that gross,” she quickly remarked, before following her mother home.





“It should be right around here somewhere...” Suncloak muttered as he looked through the bushes, pushing them away left and right with his hooves. The changeling had been restored to his original black colour, courtesy of the spa treatment he got. Behind him was the group of six changelings who he had been meeting with and telling about friendship for the past few weeks.

“You’re the absolute worst at finding your way anywhere,” #14, the only present female, remarked.

“Shush,” Suncloak chided her whilst he weeded through the bushes. “This cave was hard to find in the first place.” Looking closely, he saw a small part of the cave’s entrance. “Ah, here! Follow me,” he told the others.

The group made its way through the narrow first part of the cave. “This cave is terrible, it’s way too narrow,” #14 complained.

“It gets better,” Suncloak said, without bothering to pause or look back. Stupid, selfish, complaining other changelings. “Though you might want to fly over this next part,” he said as they reached the large patch of flowers.

“Pfft, it’s just a bunch of flowers,” #21 scoffed, bumping aside the others and heading for the other side of the room. Well, it was his funeral, he wasn’t the smartest to begin with.

Suncloak smirked. “Some of those flowers are Poison Joke. They pull a nasty prank on you if you touch ‘em.”

“And how bad can that be? It’s just a flower,” #21 said. “What’s the worst it can do, make me trip?”

“It turned me white when I touched it,” Suncloak said.

Almost instantly, #21 was back at his place in the line again. “That’s only funny if it happens to someling who’s not me. I’m never touching those plants ever. Never ever forever.”

“Relax, you can just fly over,” Suncloak said, hopping up and flying to the other side. The other changelings followed soon thereafter, even the little #145, the youngest of the group, who bobbed up and down in the air, having less experience and strength in his wings.

#14 quickly went forward to take a look in the room with the pool of water in the middle. “Huh, this is a pretty nice cave, actually.” She dipped one hoof into the pool, pulling back quickly due to how cold the water was. “And it even has a swimming pool. Neat.” She turned back to Suncloak. “But, uh... what was that you were saying about being turned white?” she asked, having a lot of trouble to contain her laughter. As soon as she mentioned it, the others had to cover their mouths with their hooves, though the odd chuckle sometimes escaped their lips.

Suncloak groaned. “I touched one of the blue flowers there when I found this cave. Turns out it’s Poison Joke, a plant that plays a joke on you after you touch it. It turned me white, because apparently, that’s hilarious.” Plants simply have a great sense of humour, after all.

“It’s pretty funny if you ask me,” #14 remarked, “it’s too bad I didn’t see you like that.” Quite the contrary on Suncloak’s part, being seen by another changeling would’ve been the worst thing that could’ve happened.

“Anyway, this cave is a better meeting place than just outside in the Everfree Forest. Less chance of being found by ponies or predators,” Suncloak said. The only downside was the flowers, but that shouldn’t be too difficult to solve.

One of the other changelings, #45 of hive planning, who usually kept quiet, took a better look at the large patch of flowers. “I think I can solve this Poison Joke problem.” See? Easy, just let someling else handle your problem, and it’s solved.

“Wow, we’ll have our own hive and everything!” #145 said, running towards the pool and jumping in. As he emerged above water, he added, “This is great!”

“This is not ‘our hive’, this is just a meeting place,” Suncloak corrected. “We’re here to find out more about friendship, nothing more, nothing less. Speaking of friendship, I learned something new this week.”

The other changelings stopped looking around the cave, and gathered in front of Suncloak. “What is it, boss?” #21 asked. Wow. Either they were really eager to learn about friendship, or they had already accepted him as their leader and were no longer calling him ‘boss’ to mock him.

Obviously, it was the latter.

Suncloak cleared his throat. “It is important to know that, no matter how terrible or embarrassing the situation you’re in, your friends will understand, and they won’t make fun of you. In fact, even if you’re overreacting to the situation from their point of view, they’ll still try to understand.”

“So let me guess,” #14 said, “they found out that you were coloured white somehow, and didn’t understand at all that it was supposed to be funny?”

“Close, but you’re forgetting one thing,” Suncloak said. “It wasn’t funny.”

“Sounds funny to me,” #21 remarked.

Suncloak groaned. Why was he putting up with this, again? “Whatever, I’m going back home now. See you all next week,” he said as he flew up, toward the hole in the ceiling. Once outside, he peeked into the hole. “Just don’t touch those flowers!” he shouted down.

After a few dismissive confirmations from the other changelings, he turned to leave. 

“Wait!” a voice called out from behind him. Suncloak turned around again to find that #14 had followed him outside. “I, uh...” She seemed a bit embarrassed about something. “Thanks for warning us about those flowers. You could’ve just said nothing and laughed at us while we were all coloured white.”

Suncloak shrugged and turned to leave again. “No problem. I’m just keeping all of you out of trouble so the entire village won’t come knocking on my door, asking if I know anything about this whole group of changelings in town.”

#14 slyly went up to him. “Or maybe you’re just starting to care about us.”

“What? No, of course not!” Even the very notion was wrong! Other changelings were jerks, nothing more. No reason to care about them.

#14 stuck out her tongue and giggled. “Gotcha!” As she went back to the cave, she said, “I’m going to stick around the others for a while. See ya.” With that, she hopped back into the cave, with a presumably much smoother descent than when Suncloak first found the cave.

Suncloak snorted and headed in the direction of Ponyville. Thinking back, however, he did note that he found the other changelings at least a bit endearing, and fun to hang around with.

Okay, maybe he did care about them. But just a little.