A Study In Nonsense

by Professor Piggy

Unchanging

His name was Pouty. It hadn't always been – once upon a time, not so very long ago, he hadn't had a name at all. But of course, things changed - inevitably and ceaselessly - and by his very nature he changed more often than most. Still, Pouty couldn't help but wonder what that nameless, heartless thing he had been in the long ago would say if it could see him now, sitting in the middle of Fluttershy's garden with a cup of tea set in front of him, surrounded by laughing, smiling ponies.

A cynical voice in the back of his head chimed in that it'd be very likely to congratulate him on successfully passing himself off as a pony and earning their trust. And to be fair, he truly had done an absolutely marvelous job of it, and fully deserved all the praise and adoration his former self would have offered up – but he knew also that it would never have been able to imagine his true motives. Or motive, as the case was.

She sat across from him now, her pink coat sparkling in the midday sun and the smile on her face easing the tense, fluttering panic he felt in his hearts just ever so slightly. She had been laughing, a moment before – something that Rainbow Dash had said that left Applejack fuming, and perhaps a touch pinker herself, while Rarity pretended to try and hide a giggle behind her hoof. The unicorn was, Pouty had noticed, an exceptionally skilled actress – playing a part was hard enough, but pretending to be a bad actress pretending to be trying to maintain composure was almost impossible.

But he was getting distracted. Where a moment before Pinkie had been gracing the air with the sweet sound of her laughter she now sat silent, blindingly beautiful blue eyes staring steadily straight ahead. Directly at him. She was waiting. Waiting for him to keep his promise. But as he glanced around him at the friends he had made – that she had helped him to make – in his months in Ponyville, he knew he couldn't keep it. Not today.

Or the day before. Or the day before that. Or any of the close to a dozen times he had tried.

They all knew him, of course - the strange little unicorn who had stumbled into their lives by way of Pinkie Pie such a short time ago. They knew him from the bottom of his hooves to the tip of his immaculate mane. Part time actor, full time boyfriend. Loving, awkward, and perhaps just a touch too prone to sulking over little things that didn't really matter all that much. But though all of that was who he was, none of it was who he was.

The real Pouty was that hideous, frightening, soulless abomination that had crawled out of the ground alongside a thousand just like it to lay seige to the city of Canterlot. The thing that had tried to tear apart these very ponies in the name of its Queen only to be stopped dead by its first, fateful encounter with that perfect, perilous pink pony – and shortly after a purple pony slash projectile weapon. The real Pouty was the one that lurked below the surface, watching everypony around it. Studying them. Learning their behaviours and their patterns, so that it could manipulate them all and continue to feed.

The real Pouty was the Pouty that he no longer wanted to be. He didn't want to look at his friends and have to stop himself from seeing a meal. He didn't want to look at the pony he loved and wonder, for a single fleeting moment, if he only loved her for the endless source of delicious love she gave him. He didn't want to dream of draining every last drop of love from the town and seeing these ponies crumble to dust before him. But he did. And she knew it.

She knew it, and still she held him when he woke in tears and loved him beyond reason. Still she believed he was good. And maybe she was right. The hunger, the cruelty – it was getting less, every day. If he kept trying, maybe one day he could change the real Pouty into the Pouty he wished he was. Or maybe not. But she believed in him, and that made it worth trying.

He reached a hoof across the table and rested it on her own with a small, apologetic smile. He couldn't change today. Not before he himself knew he wasn't a monster. But one day he would, and they would all see him as he was.

All he had to do was keep believing that was a good thing.

Author's Note:

The Prompt: I need to change, but I don’t think that I can.

Why does every comedy I try to write turn into a poorly written existential crisis?

Comments

[Crimson Dawn]

Because that crises is so fun to read and write. Making you think is fun.

[ForSpite]

You tried to write this as a comedy? Really? That's... It doesn't even start off with a joke and then turn serious. It's all serious.

You might have broken your funny bone.

[Professor Piggy]

2204781 True enough.

2204956 That's cause I scrapped the comedy version when I realised it wasn't anymore.

[BenRG]

Why does every comedy I try to write turn into a poorly written existential crisis?

I wouldn't say "poorly written". I think this is one of the better 'Changeling attempting to reform' treatments that I've read. Pouty has a lot of instinctual baggage to overcome and he has to develop belief in himself that he can control himself and be more than a mindless predator.

He will either succeed and find that true love directed to you is the greatest of all or will fail and break Pinkie's Heart on his way to death.

[TheAlmightySage]

>poorly written

Blasphemy!!

Seriously though, this is pretty good. A bit bittersweet, but still good.

[Donnys Boy]

Poutyyyyyyy. <3