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// CHAPTER 1  (AKA: What in the hay is goin' on here?) 
// Story: A thing or two about changelings and their habits saga 
// by Young discord 
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Went Applejack's hooves clopping against the path as she slowly trotted back to her hometown of Ponyville after the annual Equestria rodeo competition... ahhhhh yet another first place ribbon to put on her mantlepiece and she even managed to redeem herself after that last year's fiasco, where she promised mayor Mare she would use the first prize money she'd win in the contest to fix the town hall building... in retrospect, her reckless behaviour caused quite a BIT of trouble that week (if you pardon the pun).
As she was absent-mindedly trotting on (which was an unusual thing to happen to AJ) one of her hooves snagged on something on the path that shouldn't be there by any possible means... she tripped and smacked her face on the dirt.

Applejack got up quickly, thinking that this is what daydreaming gets ponies to and that she should have her mind set on what's around her more often than she usually does, she picked her hat up, incidentally revealing a more than likely dead changeling's face which would have been contorted in unbearable desparation and pain if he were still conscious.
"What in the hay is goin' on here?" thought out loud our little workaholic mare.
Normally this is the moment where our antagonist would be left to die by the passerby who thinks he is dead but fortunately for him, karma hasn't given up on our hero just yet.
in the most unlikely of possibilities and outcomes in the universe it had to be today that Fluttershy ran out of carrots for her dear little temperamental pet (no, not the fox... or the owl... or the eagle, bat, badger, beaver, kitty, bear, chicken, goldfish... for her rabbit, Angel) and it just so happened that no one in Ponyville had any fresh carrots, so she decided to go to another town nearby to get some and she was on her way back when she stumbled upon a flabbergasted Applejack.
Before AJ could even begin to formulate an explanation in her head, Fluttershy went into a flutterfrenzy, trying to get the floppy body (the same kind of floppy you get when you take a soggy sock off your foot) of the changeling on its cracked hooves and give it some of the carrots, or something to drink.

After 10 minutes of clowning around with the body trying to nurse it back to health to no avail and after another 10 minutes of trying to convince AJ that they should try and help the thing even though their kind tried to take over Equestria, they came to the conclusion that it would be best if they took him or her (most ponies can't tell the difference between a male and a female changeling) over to fluttershy's cottage, call the rest of the girls and discuss what to do with the changeling once it's nursed back to some of its former health.

Once Twilight Sparkle heard the news, she instantly threw- i mean she instantly put down the book she was reading, carefully and neatly next to the pile of alphabetized, chronologicalized (and other types of -ized) books and rushed to her
shelves to look for a book about changelings thinking that there's a book for that.
There was no book for that.
Having found nothing on the subject, she teleported (as there was no time to spare) to Fluttershy's cottage at once with the elements of harmony at hand in case something were to go out of hoof.

Rainbow dash, was having a good day today, because the new volume of "Daring Do's adventures" came out and she was so excited about it that when she finally got her hooves on it, she refused leave her cloudhouse until she read the entire story at least tenfold, but the moment she heard the news from a Pinkie Pie tied to a bunch of party balloons, Rainbow dashed out the window and dived towards Fluttershy's cottage so fast that she nearly caused a sonic rainboom on the way.
Rainbow Dash knew Fluttershy better than anypony else (after all, they have been ponyhood friends) and she knew that Fluttershy couldn't resist the urge to help a creature regardless of what it was (with the exception of dragons, of course), and that sometimes meant trouble.

When Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle reached the cottage, the rest of the girls already inside including Pinkie Pie (which surprised Rainbow Dash because just moments ago she was at her cloudhouse) and were in the middle of a heated discussion about what to do with the changeling (who was already tucked in a comfy bed, resting next to the girls).

"Look, all i'm sayin' is that we can't trust them critters, you saw what they did at the wedding, what if this is some sort of plan they came up with to catch us off-guard?" said Applejack
"Oh but Applejack, he is hurt, we can't just leave him like that" replied Fluttershy
"Unfortunately i agree with applejack here, must I remind you of the horrible HORRIBLE mess they made at the wedding, dear?"" butted in Rarity
"Yeah but-" began Fluttershy but was unexpectedly interrupted by Applejack
"So it's settled then, we won't help the nasty little thang"
That sentence was the spark that lit the fire between the ponies, as they flared up and began to mindlessly bicker, all at the same time
"Girls, GIRLS! we need to calm down, arguing isn't going to solve anything here" stated Twilight
"Well, what would you suggest we do then, Twilight?"
"I think we should help him BUT that doesn't mean we should keep our guard down, i took the elements with me, if he tries to do something funny, we will be ready"
"I don't think that would be necessary, twilight, look at him, he's so defenseless, poor little thing"
"Poor little thing? that ruffian? i think NOT" whipped out Rarity
"Maybe he's not so bad once we get to know him better, remember Discord?"
"Normally i would agree with you, Fluttershy but this is different, princess Celestia herself asked us  to reform Discord and she wouldn't ask us of something that she knew we couldn't handle, but in this case we are doing this without her permission"
"Twilight's right, we don't know for sure if we're not chewin' off more than we can handle"
"Until Fluttershy nurses the changeling back to health and we are able to release him, I think that it would be best if we all stayed over at her cottage" began Twilight
"That's very kind of you Twilight but I wouldn't want for any of you to waste your time here with me..."
"PFFFFF! I wasn't going to go out and fly any time soon anyway, i'm busy reading the new Daring Do book!, it's SOOOOOO AWESOME!!!" said Rainbow Dash as she entered into her own world of monsters and adventures, and began to do some kung-fu summersaults in the air.

Having agreed on the plan, the girls proceeded to prepare Fluttershy's cottage for the biggest slumber party in Ponyville history, because they might as well have some fun while they continue to guard the changeling.
Meanwhile, things began to look up for our changeling protagonist Mark, although near death, he began to slowly feed, off the compassion that Fluttershy showed towards him consequently saving him from certain vanishment from this world.
Perhaps Mark still had a role to play before he vanished into the non-existing clutches of nothingness...