Changed

by Dream Seeker

Party Time

"Surprise! Were you surprised? Oh, you must be surprised! I'm Pinkie Pie? What are your names? Do you like playing pin the tail on the pony? What about cupcakes?" the pink blur, evidently named Pinkie Pie, said almost to quickly to understand.

"I'm Petal Blossom, and this is my daughter Rose Bloom." Petal Blossom responded. "Yes, I like playing pin the tail on the pony. I also like cupcakes, especially ones with lots and lots of frosting."

"I also like pin the tail on the pony." Rose Bloom added nervously. "I like cupcakes with hot sauce. It's kind of a weird combination, but..." she trailed off.

"Oh, I love hot sauce cupcakes! They're delicious!" Pinkie said, bouncing.

"Who's this party for?" asked Petal Blossom. "Twilight, or does some other pony live here?"

"Sillies! This party is for you! After all, you also live here now!" Pinkie giggled. "I have to go play pin the tail on the pony, see you later!" Pinkie bounced off to another corner, where a game was starting.

"A party for us?" Petal Blossom said thoughtfully. "We just got here, and there's already a party for us? This seems like a wonderful place to live."

"It sure is, sugacube." Applejack said, snapping her out of her trance. "Ah think we already met. Ah just wanted ta introduce you to mah lil sister, Applebloom."

"Hi, ah'm Applebloom." a filly standing next to Applejack smiled. "Pleased ta meet ya, Mrs. Blossom and Rose." she turned to Applejack. "Can ah show Rose the party?" asked Applebloom with a hopeful smile.

"Ask her mother, is she says yes, sure you can." Applejack replied.

Applebloom turned to Petal Blossom. "Can I? Please?" she asked with a cute smile.

"I don't know. Rose, do you think you can handle it?" she asked her daughter.

"I-I think so." Rose said softly.

"Then what are you waiting for? Let's go!" Applebloom exclaimed excitedly. "I'll introduce you to my friends!"

Applebloom and Rose ran off to go find Applebloom's friends, while Petal Blossom said her goodbyes with Applejack. Petal Blossom found a nice beverage to drink while she looked over where she would be living. Between the wooden walls and books, it looked like the entire tree-shaped building was flammable, which worried her. She quickly found Twilight and asked her about the flammability.

"It's not just built to look like a tree, it actually is a tree!" said Twilight cheerfully. "It's still alive, making it harder to catch on fire, and in addition everything that goes in here is fireproofed with a useful spell I can teach you and your daughter. Including the tree itself, of course. Wouldn't do much good if the house burnt down around the books." she grinned sheepishly. "I almost made that mistake once..." The two talked for a while.

Meanwhile, Rose Bloom was being led to Applebloom's friends. They were... under a table? They all sat down in a circle to welcome Rose Bloom.

"I'm Scootaloo!" a pegasus with stunted wings smiled.

"I'm Sweetie Belle!" a white unicorn said.

"Ah'm Applebloom!" Applebloom said.

"And we're the..." they all said, taking a deep breath. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"

Rose Bloom was deafened for a moment, and she could have sworn that the room shook somewhat. A book fell off of its shelf, and some punch sloshed out of its bowl. She cleared her ears and asked, "What do you do, as Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

"Hey, she doesn't have a Cutie Mark! Scootaloo said excitedly. Rose Bloom froze and covered the missing piece with her tail.

Uh, oh... How could I forget something so important? Everypony has a Cutie Mark! I've been discovered, what do I do now? she asked herself mentally.

"Ah know! She can be a Crusader too!" Applebloom said, smile growing. "Rose, don't worry! We havn't gotten our Cutie Marks yet either! That's what Crusading' is for! We try all sorts of new things we haven't done before, and try to get our Cutie Marks from it!"

Rose unfroze, realizing that she was not, in fact, caught. "Okay. Why not?" Rose smiled. She reasoned that their friendship would give her some energy. Also, she hadn't had fun in years. As Star Watcher, the last time he had fun was graduation party from college. She felt a warm feeling creep through her, warming her and reducing her hunger. By this point, the party was wrapping up, so Applebloom left with Applejack, Sweetie Belle left with a white unicorn with a purple mane, and Scootaloo left with a pegasus with a cyan body and a rainbow mane. After the last ponies left, Twilight began cleaning up the mess. Petal insisted on helping her, and Rose decided to help as well. Afterwards, Twilight showed Petal and Rose to their room, before leaving to get some sleep herself.

"How was today? Was it really that bad?" Petal asked with a smile, once the door was closed and a spell was put up so that nopony could listen in on their conversation. It could be potentially disastrous for a pony to overhear their conversation.

"It was pretty good. I made friends with some fillies without Cutie Marks, they were willing to let me into their club because I forgot mine..." Rose said sheepishly.

"You forgot yours?! Oh well, at least you're still of the right age to be still looking for one. Still, try to figure out what you'd like a Cutie Mark in, so we can stage you getting yours." replied Petal. "I know a spell that can replicate the flash caused by getting your Cutie Mark, if you use it while transforming a Cutie Mark it looks realistic."

"Good. Now, I have one question: How do we tell what emotions ponies are outputting?" Rose questioned.

"Here, I'll show you the spell, and then we'll sleep until the morning, we find jobs tomorrow. The spell takes very little energy to set up, and it will continue running until you cancel it. We have fairly stable sources of emotion now, so I can start teaching you magic. First, you have to..."

Author's Note:

For the purposes of this story, the CMC are one year from finishing school. Rose is just finished, so the age gap is a paltry one year, meaning the CMC are comfortable with her because she's so close to their age. She would be a helpful studying buddy as well...

I had to remove the Twilight tag in favor of the CMC tag, as they won't let me have all the tags I want. Twilight will still be used the most out of the Mane 6.

Mane 6 met: Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie
Mane 6 to meet: Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash

Yes, I Rainbow is Scootaloo's adopted mother.

See you next chapter: the big freakout is coming. It might take me a while to write a realistic one.

Comments

[Kersey475]

Question: Was Star Gazer an adult, teenager, or foal?

I ask because he's disguising himself as a filly, but he was living on his on in Canterlot in the start of the story

[Doukzor]

5189084 I assume an adult, as in the profile picture. But that`s all a thought. I`m pretty sure he would just be pretending to be a small filly, as he was a lot larger than the other changelings and such during school