The changeling sat down and rubbed his front hooves together.
A disguise is simple. Think of one, use your innate changeling magic and presto, you looked like a pony. He did so, and peered into the river to check his appearance.
The ripples in the water distorted his reflection a little, but he could clearly see a black face with a horn, two large, bright blue eyes and two fangs.
He blinked a few times. “That isn’t what a pony looks like,” he noted, “that’s just my regular appearance.” Baffled, he tried again, only to receive the same outcome. “What’s going on? Changing is easy, I should be a-” he was rudely interrupted by a particular sound; the sound of a rumbling stomach. A very loudly rumbling stomach.
Oh. Of course. He hadn’t had any love to feed on for quite some time, and he didn’t have enough energy to disguise himself now. That complicated things a bit.
Time for plan B, then: sneak into the village and... He hadn’t actually figured out what to do once he got there. That would come later. For now, he had to improvise.
He crossed the bridge and saw a sign that said ‘Ponyville ahead’. Ponyville? What a lousy and ridiculous name, he thought. At least changeling hives had names like Hive #3.14 and Hive #07734. Much, much easier.
He came past a cottage that was made out of... a hill? A tree? It looked preposterous. A yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail was tending to some animals around the house, singing some awful song about pets or something. It was a horribly sweet-sounding song, but the changeling could sense the love the pegasus had for the animals she cared for. If he could change into an animal right now, it would've been easy pickings for a meal.
However, bothering the pegasus at this moment would be a bad idea, considering he still looked like a changeling. Who knew what her reaction would be? He didn’t get the feeling that this pony would attack him, though. He also got the feeling he should recognize her from somewhere, but he couldn’t remember from where. It probably wasn’t important.
Checking around the perimeter of the house, he found a basket with a large, tattered, light-grey cloth in it. It was probably a bed for an animal of some kind, but it probably wouldn’t mind if the changeling took the cloth. Might make a good cloak, if I can find something to secure it with.
“There, now don’t eat too fast, everypony,” he heard the pegasus say, although very softly, “if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to feed the little animals inside the house now, okay?”
The changeling decided to leave the house. He didn’t want to get caught, nor did he want to get closer to the source of that awful singing.
Further down the road, he reached an apple orchard named Sweet Apple Acres, surrounded by a long, white fence. The name ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ itself was already horrid enough to turn him away from it.
He was about to continue toward the village, but the sound of two talking ponies made him jump into a nearby bush. Silently, he watched the two.
One of them was a cyan pegasus with a messy, rainbow-colored mane-do and a pair of sunglasses on her muzzle. She was flying around another pony, an orange pony with a cowgirl hat on her blonde mane and small, red bands in her mane and tail. These two ponies seemed familiar to him, just like the pegasus he saw earlier.
“I tell you, Applejack, I betcha nopony has ever seen another pony do so many loops and corkscrews,” the cyan one arrogantly said, “but of course, nopony saw me, the awesome and amazing Rainbow Dash, this morning while I was practicing. Shame.”
The orange one, apparently named Applejack, rolled her eyes. “Ya say that every day, Rainbow,” she said in a thick country accent, “and besides, Ah don’t think anypony’s gonna be surprised with ya after that Sonic Rainboom o’ yers.”
Rainbow Dash landed, took off her sunglasses and put them on the fence. “Pfff, some day I’ll make a super cool trick that makes the Sonic Rainboom look like a simple loop-dee-loop.”
“Ya think ya can do better than breaking the sound barrier and creating a rainbow at the same time?” Applejack gave her a deadpan look.
“Of course! I just don’t know how to yet. But I bet I’m going to think of something so cool, it’ll blow your mind. Twice!” Rainbow Dash jumped up and started flying towards the orchard. “But what about that apple pie you said you’d treat me to?”
The orange mare rolled her eyes again. “If it ain’t flying, it’s food with ya.” She went ahead of Rainbow Dash. “Sure, let’s go.”
The changeling watched them as they went by. Whoever these two ponies were, they must be incredibly dumb. The Sonic Rainboom was no more than a story for little changeling grubs, and most importantly of all, impossible. These two ponies must have been friends with each other, which was a ridiculous notion to the changeling as well; you couldn’t just give the love that came with it to each other indefinitely. You’d run out sometime, have to leave the hive and your 'friend' to forage some love, and once you got back, you’d probably have forgotten who they were.
Then again, these were ponies and didn’t feed on love. Such a strange concept.
He noted that the pegasus had left her sunglasses on the fence, and took them for himself. He’d return it later. He wasn’t a thief!
Well, not in that way. He stole love, yes, but stealing stuff from others was a whole different deal. Changelings have standards, y’know? At least he could use these sunglasses to cover up his big blue eyes, so the ponies couldn’t see them.
Now I’m getting somewhere, he thought as he continued down the road. He had entered Ponyville a few houses back, and had to carefully make his way around. He hadn’t found anything useful yet, though.
He stumbled onto a round building, decorated in colors ranging from white to purple, with a sign saying Carousel Boutique out front.
As he looked inside through a window, he could see what was probably the most horrible, revolting, downright ugly thing he had ever seen. This abomination was all white, or at least a very pale shade of grey, and had a purple, curled mane and tail which probably took the pony far too long to groom every day.
To top it off, she was talking to another pony, a very small one — a foal, they called them? — with a curly pink and purple mane and tail. This little pony was looking quite dejected as the elder gave her some kind of lecture about fashion. He’d gotten bored after about five words and took a look around the room.
His eyes couldn’t help but wander off toward the two talking ponies, however. They were white. Oh, so very white. The ugliest color imaginable for changelings. Good-looking changelings were black, which was obviously the prettiest color. Then again, all changelings were black, but that was just a minor detail, because it pretty much guaranteed that all changelings were good-looking.
While the elder pony was still lecturing the younger, something about roughhousing with her friends, or some other nonsense, the changeling spotted a safety pin lying just under the window he was looking through. He silently pulled open the window, which he noted was far too easy. Didn’t ponies worry about burglars or anything?
He quickly slid his hoof through and picked up the safety pin, trying to make as little noise as possible. He sat down and looked at the things he had collected. Sunglasses, to cover up his eyes, and a cloak and safety pin, to hide the rest of his body from view. Sure, he didn’t have a mane and tail, but he could probably make up an excuse for that. Judging from what he’d seen, these ponies had the intelligence of a door, if you combined the whole village. Surely, they'd fall for anything he told them.
As he stood up, he rather loudly banged his head on the window he had opened.
“Huh? What was that?” He heard a voice say from inside. He jumped up and flew to the roof. As he peered down, he could see the pony with the purple curls in her mane looking outside the window.
“I don’t know, Sweetie Belle. It was probably a bug flying against the window,” she said.
“Must’ve been a really big bug then, Rarity,” he could hear the younger pony, apparently named Sweetie Belle, say from inside the building.
As Rarity pulled her head back inside, she closed the window. “It’s funny though, I don’t remember opening this window today,” he softly heard coming from inside, followed by a loud gasp. “You don’t think I’m becoming old, do you, Sweetie Belle?” She proceeded to continue into some sort of hysterical rant about how she was becoming old and ugly.
Not that she could get any uglier in the changeling’s eyes, but he wasn’t exactly willing to find out. He rolled his eyes and jumped from the roof, using his bug wings to land softly. He threw the cloak around his body, making sure everything was concealed, then used the safety pin to fasten it. After putting on the sunglasses, he checked his reflection in another window. He would have to keep his eyes halfway shut because the glasses didn’t cover all of his eyes, but at least he could see. Aside from that, he could now probably pass for a pony, albeit a somewhat creepy one.
Sadly, it was getting late, and he was rather sleepy, so he decided to head back towards the forest. He didn’t want to be seen sleeping on the street by some pony. They might check what he looks like, or worse, pity him. That would’ve been completely beneath him.
But tomorrow? Tomorrow, it was time to forage.