The town of Windshore slowly began to wind down for the day as the sunset turned the sky into several shades of oranges and reds. Merchants peddling their wares packed up, ponies began to head to their homes, and the sailors returned to their docked ships, ready to sail off to their next destinations. All in all, it was another normal, trouble-free day.
"Ngh, damn it all..."
But, of course, fate loves to play her games.
A black equine emerged from the forest surrounding Windshore. The curious creature was covered head-to-hoof in a black coating, similar to a beetle. Its' back, home to a pair of blue translucent wings, was covered in a harder blue shell, seeming to act as armor for its' spine. Its' hole-filled legs brought it forward, seemingly not caring that they were missing chunks.
"This isn't how a changeling is meant to live," mumbled the creature, a masculine voice escaping mouth.
He licked his fangs, trying to wet his mouth. His pupilless, blue eyes seemed to be looking down for a second before being raised upwards towards Windshore. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped slightly as he spotted the ponies milling through the streets.
After a few moments, his face returned to its' normal resting place. He sat down, looking at the ground for a full minute. He seemed to be in deep thought.
When he looked back up, he closed his eyes. Suddenly, green fire formed a ring around his hooves. As it slowly traveled upwards, his body began to change shape. His black, hole-filled legs turned into blue-furred ones, with the same happening to the rest of his black shell. His webbed mane and tail became an abundant amount of white hair. His translucent wings became larger, becoming covered in blue feathers. His fangs disappeared, pupils appeared in his eyes, and his horn disappeared.
In the course of a few seconds, the changeling had turned into a blue-furred, white-haired pegasus.
He opened his eyes and took a quick look over his body. Satisfied with what he had become, he rose into the air and flew down into the unsuspecting town.
"Honey, did you remember to grab some carrots for dinner," asked a red, pegasus mare, walking down a street with a blue, earth pony stallion beside her.
"Yes, dear," the stallion responded.
"And did you--"
"Yes, dear, I did."
"But you don't even know what I was going to ask," pouted the mare.
The stallion looked over to her and smiled. "You were going to ask me if I remembered to pay Muffin back for giving us some free treats."
She continued to frown at him, before breaking out into a giggle. "Okay, Blue, you got me this time. Maybe you can read my mind?"
"Years of marriage will do that, Cherry," he told her, before leaning over and nuzzling her. She hummed and returned his affections.
The married couple proceeded down the street towards the edge of town, carrying bags of groceries and other things. Their humble two-story home was located on the eastern edge of town, away from the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. As much as they loved the town's community and getting to see new faces coming in from the harbor, it was nice to be able to get away from it all when they just wanted to share each other's company.
The streets were emptying out as a few ponies made their own ways home. Everypony waved goodbyes to each other and wished all a good night.
Well, everypony except for a peculiar blue pegasus. The pegasus walked slowly, looking around the outskirts of the town. In fact, he seemed to be looking everywhere except for in front of him.
"Ow!"
The married couple, distracted with each other, and the pegasus collided.
The blue pegasus fell back on his rear, rubbing his head with his hooves. "Ngh... hey! Watch where you're going!"
Cherry was mirroring his actions, sitting down and rubbing her head. Blue recovered quickly, and took a look at the offending pegasus.
"What do you mean? You ran into us," Blue responded. "You should be walking on the other side of the road."
The blue pegasus looked around. Everypony walking in the same direction as him was on the other side of the road. He looked back to the stallion, who now looked more intimidating.
"Oh, well, u-um," he stammered. "My apologies, then. I'm a bit new here. Are you two alright?"
Cherry, recovering from the run-in, rose back up to her hooves. "I've been better, but I'll live. Are you alright, hon'?" She looked over to Blue, who nodded back at her. Satisfied, she turned back to the pegasus. "And it's no problem. We probably should have been looking where we were going." Blue was going to say something, but she shot him a quick look. "Did you say you were new here?"
"Ah, um, yes! Yes, I'm new here. I just came into town from that forest over there." He pointed back to the treeline that he came from. "I was travelling and got a bit lost." He scratched his head, awkwardly laughing at himself. "My name's..." He looked over into a window, seeing a reflection of himself. He stared at his mane for a few seconds. "...Whitemane! My name's Whitemane."
"Well, welcome to our little town of Windshore, Whitemane. I'm Cherry Blossom, and this is my husband Blue Moon. Do you know where you'll be spending the night? There's an inn a little bit thataways." She pointed somewhere further into town.
Whitemane's eyes widened a bit. "I, erm... don't know. I don't have any bits on me, and I don't think they'd let me stay there for free."
Cherry looked over to her husband. He looked back, staring at her for a few seconds. He glanced back to Whitemane, then back to her. Eventually, he sighed and nodded his head.
Cherry smiled and turned back to Whitemane. "Well, we'd be glad to house you for the time being. At least until you get your hooves off the ground."
"R-really? You'd do that for a complete stranger that just ran into you?"
"Well, sure. It wouldn't do my conscience any good if I knew you were out here in the cold all night. Besides, even if you did cause us any trouble, Blue here's a lot tougher than he looks." She tapped a hoof on Blue's chest.
"Ah... heh. I'll, uh, be sure to remember that."
"Well then, now that that's settled," Cherry exclaimed, walking off, "come along boys!"
Whitemane and Blue Moon looked at each other. Blue huffed before turning back to his wife and walking off.
"Well, then, this should be interesting," Whitemane said before following after them.