Chapter 3
Stealing love is very simple if you have a disguise.
The main problem, however, was that the changeling did not, in fact, have a disguise.
Well, he was wearing a cloak and sunglasses. However, it turns out that ponies do not often wear those things whilst going out in public, and his appearance, all wrapped up in a cloak to conceal his changeling body parts, and wearing sunglasses to hide his eyes, was somewhat abnormal.
What made it particularly difficult to gather love in this state was that he didn’t look remotely like any pony in Ponyville. That meant he couldn’t masquerade as any pony, and covertly steal love.
That meant he would have to forcefully steal it. Go up to a couple, use his changeling magic and take their love. With some luck, they might not even notice it.
Okay, a lot of luck. Suddenly having your love going into a different direction than you meant is quite noticeable.
Considering the stares and odd looks some of the ponies were giving him, this might actually be sort of difficult. To steal love, you had to be close, and to be close, ponies had to be not creeped out by you. Wearing a cloak that covers your whole body is sometimes considered creepy, and thus didn’t really provide the changeling an advantage.
The next problem was that there was a frightening lack of actual loving couples walking around outside. As he walked down one of the larger roads of the village, towards the market, he noticed a lot of ponies walking together, but none actually seemed like lovers. Most of the villagers were out in groups of friends, chatting about the weather or something equally boring, or doing their early-morning grocery shopping.
He paused for a moment. Maybe he had to change his plan around a bit. No couples around meant he might have to try a different area of the village. Maybe a park? Or possibly a res-
A sudden impact of what must have been a meteor threw that particular train of thought off track, and the changeling bounded backwards, landing in the debris of space rock that had hit him.
As he stood up, shaking off his dizziness and fixing his cloak, he checked what had crashed into him.
He could see three fillies, all of them in varying states of consciousness. One of them was a yellow earth pony with a red mane and a blue helmet, currently hanging out of a red cart that was attached to a scooter.
Another filly was a white unicorn with a pink and purple, curly mane, and wearing a green helmet. She was currently lying on the ground, propped up against the side of the cart. The changeling recalled that this must’ve been Sweetie Belle, the little pony he had seen the day before, in the... boutique. Yuck.
Yet another of the three was an orange pegasus with a soft purple mane and a dark purple helmet with white racing stripes. Her eyes were lolling about as she was draped over the scooter.
The three stood up and shook their heads to clear the dizziness, probably grateful they were wearing helmets, and regarded the pony they just hit.
“Ohmigosh we’re so sorry!” the white one blurted out.
“We are?” the apparently dumb orange pegasus asked.
“Well of course we are, ya kinda ran him over, Scootaloo,” the yellow filly told her.
The pegasus, apparently named Scootaloo, rubbed the back of her head. “Oh. Sorry.” She apologized with an awkward smile.
“You should’ve watched where you were going,” the changeling chided her.
“What’s wrong with your voice?” Scootaloo asked, almost immediately receiving a whack to the shoulder from the earth pony. “Ow! Apple Bloom, what’d you do that for?”
Oops. The changeling almost covered his mouth with a hoof, remembering just in time that it would botch his disguise. A changeling didn’t merely look like a bug, they sounded like one too; flapping their wings would create a sometimes annoying buzz, and their voices had a low buzz to them as well. It sounded entirely unlike a pony’s voice. “Uh, I have a sore throat. A really, really sore throat?” Okay, that was a terrible excuse, there’s no way they’ll-
“Oh, okay,” Scootaloo said, satisfied by the response. This pony must be especially dumb for a pony.
“Well then, we should be going again,” Sweetie Belle said, “we’re really sorry for running you over, mister...” she trailed off, realizing she didn’t know his name.
“Hey!” the earth pony, Apple Bloom, called out. “Are ya new in Ponyville?” she asked the changeling.
He hesitantly nodded in reply.
The three fillies looked at each other. “Maybe we could try bein’ New Pony Greeters,” Applebloom said.
The other fillies nodded their agreement, and the three yelled out, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER NEW PONY GREETERS, YAY!” The force of their shout almost sent the changeling’s cloak flying.
“Welcome to Ponyville, mister!” Sweetie Belle greeted him. “I’m Sweetie Belle!” Like he didn’t know that yet. “That’s Apple Bloom,” she said as she pointed to the yellow earth pony, obviously, and then she pointed at the pegasus, adding, “and that’s Scootaloo! What’s your name?”
Double oops. Being disguised as a new pony required a name as well, which he had not-so-conveniently forgotten about. He needed a name, and fast. “Uh, my name is, uh...” Quick, think of a normal pony name! “It’s... uh...” Cloud-something? Blahblahblah-grass? No! Sweat was starting to collect on his forehead. Okay, something obvious... I’m wearing sunglasses! “It’s Sun... uh...” And a cloak! “Sun....cloak. Suncloak!” No, you idiot, that’s a terrible name, he thought, mentally slapping himself. He decided to add a grin. Ponies never thought you were lying if you were grinning.
“That’s a nice name,” Apple Bloom said. Okay, maybe all ponies were this dumb. Or possibly only the little ones.
The changeling, or now apparently named Suncloak, released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “Well, I should get going. But watch out next time! Or warn other cha- I mean, ponies when you’re going too fast.” They probably wouldn’t catch his little slip. Still, these were ponies he was talking to, not other changelings. Proper terminology was required.
“Okay,” the three fillies said somewhat somber, and clambered onto the scooter and cart.
As he turned around to leave, his stomach grumbled again. Not eating for more than a week tends to make that happen.
Apple Bloom turned around and asked him, “Ya hungry, Mister Suncloak?”
Suncloak pondered his choices. Maybe these fillies could lead him to a restaurant, or otherwise a household with two parents. A restaurant could have a few couples of lovebirds, and two parents were always a good source of love. “As a matter of fact, yes,” he told them.
“Why don’t you come along with us then?” Sweetie Belle asked, “so we can make it up to you. For uh, running you over and everything.”
Excellent. This was turning out to work in his favour. “Sure,” he said as the two fillies in the cart scooted over. “But I’m not going to sit in that cart.”
Scootaloo turned her head. “But it’ll be a lot faster than just walking.”
Suncloak rolled his eyes. Whatever, as long as he could get a meal. “Fine.” He hopped into the cart, and they sped off.
A few moments later, they came up to Sweet Apple Acres. It wasn’t a place he had thought of visiting, but if there was love for him to eat there, it was worth a shot.
Couldn’t they at least have called it something a bit less sappy than Sweet Apple Acres?
Once in front of a quaint house, the fillies and changeling got off of their vehicle.
Apple Bloom opened the door. “We’re back!” she called out, “an’ we brought a guest!”
An orange mare with a hat came out of another room. Applejack, if he recalled correctly. “A guest? Why ain’t that nice!” She went over to Suncloak and gave him a fierce hoofshake. “The name’s Applejack!” She let go, but that didn’t stop the changeling from shaking like a pair of maracas.
“I’m Suncloak,” he said after he got his shaking under control. Still a stupid name though, he added in his thoughts. Still, he would have to stick with it.
“Nice to meetcha,” Applejack told him, then turned to Apple Bloom. “Ya didn’t tell me ya were bringing a guest though.”
The three fillies told the farm pony what had happened earlier.
As they finished, Applejack sighed. “Ah’m mighty sorry, mister, it won’t happen again.” She glared at three rather guilty-looking ponies. “Am ah right?”
“It won’t,” the three said with a sigh.
“Oh, it could’ve happened to anyling,” the changeling said with a dismissive wave of his hoof.
“Don’tcha mean anypony?” Applejack asked him.
“Yes, anypony! What’d I say? I thought I said anypony,” he corrected himself. Changelings didn’t use words like anypony or everypony, they said anyling and everyling. Ponies and changelings weren’t exactly on speaking terms, so they didn’t use the same terms. Ponies referred to their own species, changelings referred to their own species, that’s how it worked.
Except he’d forgotten for a moment that he was supposed to be talking like a pony now, not like a changeling. Was he always such a bad actor?
Applejack gave him an odd look for a moment. “Well, ya seem trustworthy enough.”
Suncloak breathed a sigh of relief. He was in the green, for now. From here, he could get to know more ponies, and potentially find a few lovers as well.
One thing that still bugged him, though, was that Applejack still seemed familiar to him. Had he seen her somewhere before?
“And Ah think Ah know a bit ‘bout trustworthiness, seeing as Ah’m the Element of Honesty and whatnot,” Applejack nonchalantly told him.
Oooooooooh. So that’s what he recognized her from.
That would probably make this a little bit more difficult. A little.
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Curious question do you use Google Docs?
Good chapter BTW
Yes, I do. Mostly because it automatically saves whatever I'm doing, since I'm one of those people who write an essay, then Word crashes, and then my stuff is gone.
Or I save it and can't find it in my documents. It's a bigger mess in there than in the average teenager's closet.
Thanks for the feedback!
Like the reactions from "Suncloak". Afterall, anyone that is not instantly paranoid of anything being a lie must be an idiot.
Great chap. Love the changeling's POV with everypony. Keep it up!
I love how wonderfully oblivious everyone is. That tends to lead into the funniest plots.
That changeling's lucky that everpony's so willing to accept what he says. Wonder how long he'll be able to keep it up.
Good chapter, hope to see more soon!
It's like you people enjoy giving me heart attacks in the morning
I mean, this is turning out to have been a good idea. The last time I had a 'good idea', I caused an energy spike in a USB port and my PC spontaneously shut down.
The way this is going, I'm fully expecting this fic to come alive and eat my face when it's done.
But I have to continue writing! I enjoy you people enjoying this, but if I continue, this'll be the end of me. YOU'RE TEARING ME APART READAHS
In other news, I'm at work, I'm bored, but I'm simultaneously very happy that people enjoy this so much!
You my fellow sir or madam, deserve a baker's dozen of cookies and candied bacon. Alas, my screen does not allow for objects of any kind to be sent through it to other people on the internet, only causes the screen to get dirty or broken.
I'm not a pro at grammar but I wasn't really looking for errors and stuff. So anywho, you still deserve cookies and bacon, or cookies and pie if you are a vegetarian.
Well I AM able to give likes, watches and tracking stars....so there ya go
(Typing up this comment started out full of energy then spiraled into awkwardness
)
I've got nothing else to say.
.
.
.
.
Crabby patties
"Suddenly having your love going into a different direction than you meant is quite noticeable." - Lol.
This story is fantastically entertaining so far, but there is one thing that has me wondering:
How did AJ not notice that his hooves have big holes through them when she shook hooves with him? You'd think she would have noticed.....
"I think I seen you before..."
"I kicked your entire race´s Plot back to the wild"
"...no, didn´t we met in school?"
I am REALLY liking this story. I've noticed other people mentioning that they checked for grammar errors and couldn't find any, so I'd like to confirm: I'm a self-proclaimed grammar nazi, and I found no issues with the grammar or syntax; it's beautifully written. Please keep up the amazing work!
Oh yeah, this is tracked.
"Suncloak rolled his eyes."
His... compound... eyes...?
778300 THAT I'd like to see.
And of course, he ends up at the one house in Equestria where the children are all orphans, and so there are no loving parents to feed on. This guy's luck couldn't get any better, could it?
Something tells me it's gonna be more than just a little bit more difficult #3-uh I mean Suncloak.
I'm loving this fic by the way, great job!
Dun dun duuunnnn!
And he just realized the Elements live in Ponyville. I predict a panic attack in the near future
714910
I bet a virtual cookie that everypony in town is just humoring him, waiting for him to make the first move.
I'm confused, if Applejack went over and shook his hoof, didn't she notice the holes in them at all?Even if she didn't, #37 didn't take note of it either?Edit: Finished story, I guess she did notice XD
631710
How did you know what my closet looks like? I told my mom one time "It's not messy it is organized chaos." Discord would be proud... i think...
1766427
Rarity understands...
I wonder how changeling #34 would be like...
1853448 Confusing. I think the word you're searching for is "confusing".
Changelings didn’t use words like anypony or everypony, they said anyling and everyling. Ponies and changelings weren’t exactly on speaking terms, so they didn’t use the same terms. Ponies referred to their own species, changelings referred to their own species, that’s how it worked.
You could probably cut this out. It's already obvious from his slipups that their terminology is a little different.
Cutting it out should make the pacing in this chapter a little more streamlined.
when the changeling gave applejack a hoofshake, wouldnt she have noticed the holes in his legs and hooves?
2448417
Hi! Hi, you!
And yeah, that's a plot hole.
2655825 I thought it was a leg hole?
2748580
Please don't...
2748580
That doesn't make it a hole lot better.
2917830
I'm gonna go ahead and say that i'm not comfortable with those jokes, being a changeling and all...
is he going to make fwiends?
3403169 btw what are they used for?
Aerodynamic or something's
4276869
3604700
Nah, Friendship is weird
I'm starting to agree with him; Ponies in that town ARE dumb!
2917830
I wonder if they could play their legs like an ocarina?
....
Please, someone with more artistry talent than me draw this!
translation: FUS RO DA
5989147 I would absolutely love to draw this, but I'm only just starting to figure changelings out. Only tried once, and it turned out pretty okay, but I dunno if I'll be able to do much without more practice first.
6097534
why? Why u do dis?
Ya think?
5989147 "play their legs like an ocarina"...i saw a silly story where someone wanted to do that at a talent show, and the changeling replied, "blow me."
and then there was a story where one of them used the holes in his legs like the "teeth" of a key to unlock a door.
7263922
i would like to know what story this was in
Heh, good old Applejack. Maybe she's holding her cards too close?
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reminds me of the other story, changeling waltz' into town undisguised and everyone just goes along with it. he thinks they don't know, but in the end they knew all along, but with him walking in out in the open they left him be.
10689888
Would you happen to have the link to that story?
Poor Changeling had to mrrt the CMC, a living force of nature.
👍
But he survived!
Magnificent