//------------------------------// // (FIXED) Episode 49: How Come I Didn't Know About This!?! // Story: The Life of a Wanted Changeling (Comment Driven Story) // by Down with Chrysalis //------------------------------// Theme You've tried everything with these six. You tried to help them; you've saved their lives multiple times, and saved three of their little sisters. But then the orange one continually hurls unprompted insults at you and outright tries to murder you where you were found; the yellow one refuses to listen to you even when your daughter is in mortal danger, and turns on you; the rainbow one mocks you and strikes you when you're down; the white one is an ungrateful monster who continually threatens to make you into her next pincushion; the purple one hits below the belt by disabling your magic so you can't defend yourself and flys into a murderous rage when the one pony in town who carED for you crys for your sake, and the pink one is so annoying she could drive you to insanity. Your grandbuggy's advice is not going to apply here. Either learn to keep away from them, or refuse to talk to them until they are begging for your forgiveness. Even then, there's no reason to trust them; just find out what business they have here and make them leave as soon as possible. You can't trust any of them. Just avoid them. You can't help but think in an angry tone, I've tried everything with these mares! I try to help them. I save their lives multiple times and how do they repay me?. Rainbow Dash mocks me and strikes me when I'm down, Rarity threatens to make me into her next pincushion, Twilight hits below the belt by disabling my magic so I can't defend myself and Nightshade and she even went into a murderous rage and blasted me across Equestria over a misunderstanding (to be fair, I don't think I should complain that much about that considering that I kinda did what she accused me of), Applejack continually hurls unprompted insults at me and outright tries to murder me on sight, and Pinkie Pie... well that hyperactive mare just freaks me out to be honest. Well, at least I still have Fluttershy, you think with your tone beginning to soften. I better stop thinking like that before I end up hurling another giant doom ball at them. You don't think your grandbuggy's advice is gonna cut it here, but you remember another piece of advice he told you... Listen here, @%^^#%, if someling wants to kill you, no matter what they try to do to ya. Remember this, there is always a motive to murder, so if you don't know what it is, FIND OUT! After he said that he began dance like a crazed miner while laughing like a maniac. Ahhhhhh... you always loved your visits to your grandbuggy, even if most of your traumatic repressed memories come from said visits. You glare in determination and say to yourself, "Okay, first I'm gonna find out why those mares always think I'm a bad guy even after all the times I've saved them. Then, after that, I'm gonna avoid them like how I avoid parties." (Long story involving a prank gone wrong. There was super glue, ducks, and fire... lots and lots of fire). You nod your head in agreement with your plan, and you begin to gallop where Braeburn usually is around this time with his tours... The cliff over looking the apple fields 15 SECONDS LATER While you are galloping you suddenly realize something, Wait a minute, even if my awesome coat is now brown, my hood still covers my face in darkness! They would be able to tell I was The Hooded Offender just by the fact that they can't see my face! I better do something about that... With that thought in mind, you go into the nearest clothing store. A minute later, you walk out with your hood down, your favorite stetson on your buggy head, and a orange bandanna wrapped around your snout. The only things visible are your changeling-blue eyes and some of your orange mane coming out of your stetson (if you couldn't tell, you really like the color orange). You're about to continue galloping to where Braeburn (and hopefully the mares) is when you see a bunch of the townsfolk loading pies into crates marked 'ammo'. You wonder why they are doing that, when you get the sudden urge to... Nightshade eats all of the apple pies at some point. Let Nightshade eat all those pies. You don't know why, but your gut tells you it will save you some trouble in the future. Well... my gut's pretty reliable (figuratively and literally, changelings can eat even the stalest and slightly rotten foods), so might as well follow it. With that thought in mind, you run into a nearby ally and you gently take Nightshade out. "Hey sweetie, time to wake up." You whisper to Nightshade in a loving tone. Nightshade opens her eyes and yawns in a adorable fashion and says, "Yes daddy *yawn* is breakfast ready yet?" She looks at you with the sleepy puppy dog eyes and you smile at her adorableness and say, "Yes sweetie, you see all those pies over there?" You point to where the townsfolk are loading pies into the boxes marked 'ammo'. "Yeah, what about them daddy?" Nightshade asks in a confused tone. "Well sweetie, all those pies are for you." You say to your daughter in a happy tone. "REALLY!?" Nightshade says and she begins to jump up and down in excited happiness. You smile at her energy and say, "Eyup" (Somewhere in Ponyville a big red stallion says "Why do i get the feeling somepony's using mah catchphrase?") "All you got to do is not get caught while your eating them, okay?" Nightshade nods her head in excitement. You use the transformation spell to turn her into her into the unicorn version of herself. You nod your head in satisfaction and say, "Eat up kid." Before you could even finish that, Nightshade bolts off and dives into one of the crates. You smile at her appetite and you return to galloping towards where Braeburn is... hopefully. 12 MINUTES LATER You catch up to Braeburn and the rest as they look over the apple orchard and Applejack and her friends tell him about their run-in with the buffalo. Hearing about this, you have to ask "Wait, what Buffalo? I've been here for like 8 gorram weeks and never heard of this before." You manage to catch up with the others at the cliff that over looks the apple fields. You get there just when Braeburn finished standing on his back legs and saying "AAAAAPLE-LOOSA!" Yeah he likes to do that... alot. When you get over to them, Twilight looks at you suspiciously and asks, "Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Before you can answer, Braeburn chimes in, "Don't pay that no mind, Bugze just has an eye condition." (In keeping his promise not to rat you out, Braeburn often helps make up excuses to out-of-towners to help hide the fact that you're a changeling) Applejack then tries to say, "Brae-" "First harvest should be any day now!" Braeburn says, cutting off Applejack completely. Applejack gets an annoyed look on her face before trying to say again... "Brae-" "Good thing too." Braeburn cuts off Applejack... again. Applejack gets even more annoyed, and she tries... again "Brae-" "We need that grub to live on." Braeburn interrupts Applejack... again! Applejack looks like she's about to explode. Deciding you should save Braeburn from his cousin, you slap him in the back of his head lightly before you give a nervous chuckle and say, "Heh heh... sorry about Braeburn and his yap. Once you get him talking about Appleloosa, it's hard to get him to shut up. Anyway... you were saying something?" Braeburn glares at you but then turns to listen to Applejack. Applejack mouths "thank you" to you before explaining that apparently a group of buffalo have kidnapped a person named Spike and... an Apple tree? And apparently Rainbow want after them and Pinkie is now missing. Braeburn looked shocked when she mentions the buffalo, and he goes and explains how the buffalo want to get rid of the town's primary food source. You look at him in confusion and say, "Wait, wait, WAIT! What Buffalo? I've been here for like 8 gorram weeks and never heard of this before." The ponies look at you strangely at the word you said, and Braeburn just ignores you as he heads back to town. Fine, don't tell! I'll go find out for myself! You think to yourself in a annoyed tone. As you are about to go and ask someling if they know were the buffalo camp is, you overhear a whispering conversation between Twilight and Rarity... Twilight finally mentions her "changeling mind-control" theory (which explains why the CMC and Fluttershy (and later, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie) didn't clear Bugze's name). "...I'm telling you Rarity, that changeling has some sort of mind control spell to make ponies like him. That way, he can easily access an endless supply of love! It's also how he tricked you, Fluttershy, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and who knows how many other ponies into thinking that he's saved them." So that's why they won't respect or befriend me, they think I have some sort of 'mind-control spell' to control ponies... that's just stupid. You think to yourself in a deadpanned tone. Rarity replies to Twilight, "Well Twilight, darling, if that's the case, then why can't we just warn everypony that the Hooded Offender (who has a tacky taste in wardrobe) is a mind-controlling changeling?" "Because (as I've said before) Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and even my BBBFF have faced off against this Hooded Offender. There's no way that they couldn't have known that he's a changeling so they must have a very important reason for keeping that detail off of all the wanted posters. So you and the others must continue to keep the fact that the Hooded Offender is a changeling a secret Well that explains why the wanted posters never bring up the fact that I'm a changeling. (*) And my coat is not tacky! You think before deciding it's time to find that buffalo camp. 6 HOURS LATER You finally found the Buffalo camp after you got lost in the desert for the past six hours. Apparently the camp is right next to Appleloosa (go figure) Your on the outskirts of the camp and you have no idea as to what you should do. What do you do?