A Surprising Changeling

by Pen Writer pony

Chapter 4

Fluttershy was flying up near the roof of her cottage, feeding seeds to her birds. “There you go, Mr. Robin.” she said to them as she poured seeds into their little food bowls. “Eat them up, Mrs. Hummingbird. Enjoy, Baby Mourning Dove.”

Suddenly, there was a caw from outside. “Calm down, Mr. Raven. I'll come out and feed you outside birds in a moment.” Fluttershy called out calmly. Mr. Raven lived outside with all the predator birds because he didn't like to live inside like the other insect-eating and seed-eating birds. It bothered the pegasus a bit to have meat-eating animals, but she had to love all the animals, even the ones that ate others. Still, she forbade them to hunt and only fed them animals that had died of old age already. She couldn't kill one animal for the well-being of another, and after all, she could get those picky-pants predators to eat salads if there was nothing else.

Suddenly, there was a knocking on the door. This startled Fluttershy, and she accidentally dropped the bag of food on the floor. The animals all swarmed for it, but she swooped down and grabbed it before they could. “No no, friends. You eat when it's your turn.” That assertiveness training did help! she thought. “Now please wait while I go answer the door.”

She landed next to the door and opened it to see a familiar pink pony there. “Oh, hello Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy greeted her friend.

“Hiya, 'shy.” Pinkie greeted back. She looked over the pegasus's shoulder and into the room of animals. “I need a pet for a friend.”

“Oh, really?” Fluttershy's eyes grew wide in excitement. “What do you need? A cute little bunny? A fluffy kitty? Oh, there are so many choices!”

“I need something that can fly.” Pinkie responded.

“Okay, how about a bat? A wasp? Oh, I know! How Squirrely?”

“It needs to be something cheery and brightly colored.”

“How a toucan or a flamingo?”

“Those are good, I should single out a few and have her pick.” Pinkie trotted right into the cottage, followed by Fluttershy.

“Well, here's a budgie.” Fluttershy suggested as her friend Ms. Parakeet flew over. Ms. Parakeet was a pretty yellow bird with a little pink nose over her curved beak. “She's colorful and a great flyer.”

“Great!” Pinkie bounced about, scaring away a lot of the animals. “So toucan, flamingo, and budgie?”

“Well, who needs the pet?”

“It's a surprise present for Surprise!” Pinkie whispered excitedly. “I'm throwing her a party, and I thought it would be totally-awesomely cool if she could get a pet! I want it to be perfect, since she's such a great friend of mine!”

“Does that mean you'll want the pet by this afternoon?” Fluttershy knew that Pinkie only started planning a party for the day she was going to throw it; it was half impatience and half that she would forget if it wasn't that big.

“Nope; it's in three days.” the party pony explained. “Because then she'll be able to fly again. The doctors said her wings should be a healed up by then, and what better time to give her a flying pet?”

“None better.” Fluttershy agreed. “So, here's a good one to give her; a Cardinal! Look, the male ones are a pretty red color, but the females are also a nice shade of brown.”

Suddenly, a green parrot flew down and landed on Fluttershy's head. “Pet!” he cawed.

“Oh, yes, Mr. Parrot here would also be a good choice.” the pegasus said. “Oh, there's so many good choices. Just wait; you'll see!”

-

Dinky stared at the purple pillow on her bed. It used to be blonde to match her hair, but now it was purple. She concentrated on it, horn glowing with magic. There was another flash of light, and when she opened her eyes, the pillow was blonde once more. She quickly casted another spell, turning it purple again.

“I'm not getting any practice with this.” she sighed to herself. It was too simple; she could use her anti-illusion spell to undo spells she's done because she knew exactly how she did them. However, it was much harder when other unicorns cast the spell, which is why she couldn't change the earmuffs yesterday.

She cast her spell again, turning the pillow back to its blonde color and laid her head upon it. She stared at her clock. It read , '6:00 am'. She knew her mother would be home in about half and hour. Derpy was the mailmare, which meant she had to get up really early to make sure everypony had their mail when they woke up.

Dinky loved her mother, and wanted to make her proud by learning as much magic as she could. She would be a great unicorn and make her mother proud. But how could she be a great unicorn when she couldn't even master one spell?

I need to learn this spell. Dinky thought. then I can make my mother proud by not only knowing a powerful spell, but also for exposing any changeling spies in Ponyville.

But Dinky had other responsibilities too. She had promised to help Sweetie Belle learn magic, and yesterday while they were chasing Pound Cake, Pinkie had asked her if she could help her plan a party for Surprise. She had to help her friends, and that should be at the top of her priority list.

Thinking that the party one would be the easiest and most fun, and that she was already too awake to fall back asleep, Dinky used her yellow magic to float her notebook and quill over to her. She sat on her bed and wrote in the notebook, thinking about what she could do for the party. After a moment of thought, she wrote down a few things:

'Purple balloons to match her cutie mark'

'Make pin the tail on the pony'

'Make cherry-filled chocolate treats'

Dinky licked her lips at the thought of cherry-filled chocolates. Surprise had said they were her favorites yesterday while they were playing around and making muffins. Suddenly she stopped; something had occurred to her. Earlier, Pinkie had told her that Surprise's favorite candy was candy corn, she even told her a story where Surprise and her were eating candy as fillies and and the pegasus had begged for candy corn instead of chocolate. Dinky just shrugged. Favorites can change. she thought, then wrote down, 'and candy corn' just in case.

After writing down as many things as she could think of for the party, Dinky levitated as many books on magic over to her as she could and started flipping through them. Once she found a few that seemed good, she flipped to a clean page in her notebook and wrote, 'Spells to teach Sweetie'. Then she listed many simple spells like 'Teleportation of inanimate objects'.

Once she was finished, she heard the door open and a loud sigh of relief. She dropped her notebook and trotted out of her room and into the living room, where her mother had tossed down her saddlebags and laid on the couch.

“Welcome home, mom!” Dinky greeted Derpy.

“Glad to be home, muffin.” Derpy said. She looked exhausted. She did have to fly all over Ponyville to deliver mail at 6:00am, so it was expected. Dinky trotted over and hugged her mother, who hugged her back. “I'm going to sleep, my little muffin.”

“Good night, mom.” Dinky said. Derpy stumbled sleepily into her room, leaving the filly sitting alone in the living room.

“I'm going to make her proud.” she said aloud once her mother had left the room. “I'm going to make her happy; I just want to lift the weight off her shoulders.”

-

Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom all sat at a picnic table next to the local restaurant. In front of them were daisy sandwiches and salads. The chatted happily, discussing Sweetie Belle's possible special talent.

“You could be a great magician!” Scootaloo said excitedly, “Then you could battle those evil changelings if they ever want to invade again!”

“That would be great!” Sweetie said cheerfully.

“We could be the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Changeling Hunters!” Scootaloo waved a hoof in the air for effect. “I could run 'em over with my scooter and Apple Bloom could... um... kick them?”

She looked over at Apple Bloom, who shrugged. At that moment, they spotted Dinky Hooves trotting up the street with saddlebags full of books.

“Uh oh.” Sweetie groaned, “I hope it won't be all reading books like school! I had enough of book reading when we were trying to become librarians.”

Having heard them from even that far away, Dinky raced over. “Not necessarily.” the unicorn filly said. She used her yellow magic to levitate some books out of her bags. “I'll just be trying to teach you; the books are mostly for reference in case I forget something.”

“Um... alright then.” Sweetie finished the last bit of her sandwich. “Well, what's first? Is it going to be so really awesome spell that can help fight off the changelings?”

“Not really.” Dinky flipped through what she had written down in her notebook. “We have to start with the simple stuff. Magic is hard, why do you think Ms. Sparkle always has her nose in a book? There's no way to get good at magic without studying.”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stood up. “This doesn't sound like stuff for us.” they both said, before they both trotted away.

-

“Today's the day, Surprise!” Pinkie said, grabbing the changeling and pointing at the sky. They were sitting outside Sugarcube Corner, ready to go walk around Ponyville.

“What am I supposed to look at?” Crystal asked, looking up at the sky where Pinkie was pointing.

“Not at the sky, but at my friends!” Pinkie let go of her the disguisied pony and pointed towards the center of town. “To Twilight's library! Today I'm going to introduce you to my bestest best friends!”

“Sounds great.” Crystal smiled, hoping she could enjoy this. She kept telling herself that it would be okay and that her mother would find her, and maybe going around to meet new ponies would help her feel better. After all, her only friends at the moment were Dinky and Pinkie Pie.

The two ponies traveled down the street, Pinkie bouncing and Crystal trotting after her. After realizing that Pinkie traveled a lot faster than her, the changeling had a thought. I'm pretending to be Pinkie's friend, who from the sounds of it, is just as silly and energetic as her. Would it be completely crazy if I bounced, too? She looked over at Pinkie, bouncing joyfully and humming. I might as well enjoy myself.

Mimicking the way Pinkie bent her legs than bounced forward, Crystal soon caught up to her. Pinkie opened her eyes and saw Crystal bouncing along with her. She smiled widely and the two bounced down the street, drawing odd looks from the other ponies.

Suddenly, Pinkie stopped. Crystal stopped too and opened her eyes. They were stnading in front of a big treehouse. No, not the treehouse that's built into the branches of a tree; a house itself was a tree. “This is where my friend Twilight Sparkle lives.” Pinkie explained, knocking on the door. “This is a library. She loves reading and magic and stuff, and she's the smartiest pony ever!”

The door started to glow with sparkling purple magic and was flung open to reveal a purple unicorn standing on the other side. If Crystal wasn't already completely white, the color would have drained from her face. She recognized this pony. This was the pony who had taken her armor.

“Oh, hello Pinkie Pie.” the unicorn said. “Who's your friend?”

“Twilight, meet Surprise. Surprise, meet Twilight.” Pinkie picked up their hooves and stuck them together, making them shake hooves. Crystal forced herself to keep the smile on her face and cheerfully shook Twilight's hoof. “Twilight, Surprise is an old foalhood friend of mine.”

“Great to meet you, Surprise.” Twilight said, smiling. “Are you new in town?”

“Yep.” Crystal replied cheerfully, trying to mimic Pinkie. “Just got here a few days ago.”

“A few days ago, you say?” Twilight asked, almost to herself as she tapped her chin with her hoof and looked lost in thought.

“Yup.” Crystal hoped Twilight wasn't going to pry; other than being Pinkie's foalhood friend, she had no backstory for her Surprise character.

But, before Twilight could say anything else, a rainbow streak passed above them in the sky. Pinkie gasped with excitement. “What's she doin' this time?” the pink mare asked, “I wonder if she's doing her Super Duper Rainbow Flash, or her Triple Rainbow Spin?”

“What are you talking about?” Crystal asked.

“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie pointed at the rainbow streak in the sky. Following where she was pointing, Crystal squinted at the end of the streak. She could barely see a cyan blur at the very end, drawing the rainbow out in the sky. “That's Rainbow Dash. She's the fastest flier in all of Ponyville!'

“A pony is making that?” Crystal gasped. “How quick is she moving?!”

“Very.” Twilight answered, watching the cyan pegasus blur flip around in a loop three times to make a rainbow ribbon in the sky. “She's flown so fast she broke the sound barrier before. She's done it three times; once as a filly, once at a competition, and once at the wedding in Canterlot a few days ago.”

Flinching at the mention of the wedding, Crystal decided to instead stare at the rainbow with her mouth agape. “She not only flew so fast she broke the sound barrier... but she did it as a filly?!”

“Exactly.” Twilight nodded.

Pinkie was dancing back and forth on her back hooves while clapping with her forehooves. “Woo! The Triple Rainbow Spin! Go Rainbow Dash! Woohoo!”

Crystal shrugged, then stood on her hind hooves as well, clapping and cheering along with Pinkie Pie. They weren't the only ones. Many ponies around them had stopped to stare at the beautiful flying trick, and were now stomping with applause.

The cyan and rainbow blur flipped around three more times, performing the trick again. The cheers grew louder. Finally, the blur slowed and flew towards the library. As she got closer and slowed down a bit, Crystal could see rainbow Dash fully. She was a blue-cyan color (if you didn't already get that...) with a rainbow mane and tail, magenta eyes, and a cutie mark that was a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it.

Rainbow landed gracefully directly in front of Pinkie.”'sup, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked smugly, “Just watching Ponyville's greatest flier, are we?”

“That was amazing!” Crystal cut in before Pinkie could speak, which was very quickly if you knew Pinkie Pie. “I've never seen anything like it!”

“Heh, thanks.” Rainbow said. “Who are you?”

“Dashie, this is Surprise, she's a foalhood friend of mine and she's in Ponyville now!” Pinkie Pie explained.

“Oh, are you the hurt pegasus Fluttershy took to the hospital?” Rainbow asked. Crystal nodded. “Yeah, Fluttershy was telling me about you. How did you get so busted up, anyway?”

“I... uh.. crashed.” Crystal lied lamely.

“Musta crashed real bad to get messed up that much.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “The worst crash I've ever had landed me in the hospital with one broken wing. You look like you broke both. And what's up with your eye?”

“I hurt that too.” Crystal reached up and felt the bandages over her right eye. She then lowered her hoof than looked back at Rainbow Dash. “But anyway; that flying was amazing! I don't think I could do that even if my wings were working.”

“Well, how about I give ya a lesson when your wings heal?” Rainbow offered. “You'd probably be great. I mean, not as great as me, of course, but still great!”

“That sounds awesome.” Crystal nodded. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Pinkie standing behind her.

“Come on, Surprise, we need to go to Rarity's next! Off this way!” Pinkie started bouncing off in one direction. Surprise followed her, bouncing along. Pinkie looked over at Crystal, and when she saw that her eyes were closed, she quietly snuck away and back over to Rainbow and Twilight.

“Guys!” Pinkie whispered to them, just before both left. They stopped to look at her. “I'm planning a surprise party for Surprise in three days when her wings heal! You're invited!” Then she dashed away to meet back up with Crystal, who hadn't noticed her absence.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

Awesome

[LunarGuardian]

. They were stnading in front of a big treehouse.
You missed an 'a' there.

I love the story. I'm always looking for it in my updates

[RubberBrony]

dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Soarin_dayum.png DAT CHAPTER!

[fferror]

Dinky used her yellow magic to float her notebook and quill over to her. She sat on her bed and wrote in the notebook, thinking about what she could do for the party.

Micro-Twilight is precious.