Shifting Morals

by Leafdoggy

Chapter 1

*THUNK*

Something heavy lands on top of me and wakes me up. “Wake up, wake up!!” it yells. Prying my eyes open, I see a vague pink shape jumping on top of me. I groan, and the shape jumps again. “C’mon, we’ve got stuff to do! Getupgetupgetup!”

“Ugh, okay, okay.” I push Pinkie Pie off of me and yawn. “Geez, where’s the fire?”

“Fire? No, silly, today we’re gonna go meet some of my friends!”

“Huh? When was that decided?”

“Just now! C’mon, get ready!” She crouches down, threatening to pounce on me again.

I push myself groggily to my feet. “Hang on, hang on. I was planning to just go out and, like.. I don’t know, figure out what ponies do around here?” I frown at her. She doesn't notice.

“What we do around here is have fun! And to do that, first you need some more friends. You can’t just rely on me forever. Trust me, you’ll love my friends. Any friend of mine is a friend of.. Mine? I dunno, the point is you’re my friend, and my friends like each other.” She nods her head in agreement with herself.

It doesn’t seem like she’s gonna let up. “Fine, I give up,” I groan. “I’ll be your hostage.” Guess I’ll have to get creative if I wanna get my job done today.

The pink pony laughs and starts pushing me towards the stairs. “Alrighty! Let’s go, hostage!” Hopefully she at least knows where she’s taking me.

Wait, did she say I’m her friend? Huh.

I yawn and rub my eyes as we break out onto the empty streets. The sun is half-risen, painting the town in a comfy orange glow. “So, where are we going?” I ask as we start walking. “I’m kinda starting to think I should be worried.”

Pinkie giggles. “We’re gonna go see Rarity. She’s usually up pretty early, so I like to go hang out with her. She’s good at multitasking so she doesn’t tell me to go away while she works.”

“So people do work around here?” I’m genuinely a little surprised. “From what I’ve seen so far I just assumed people walked around and talked to each other.”

“Well, sure, there’s that. But we still need stuff, dummy.” She bumps against me playfully and just about knocks me over. “Rarity’s real into fashion, so she makes clothes for other ponies! Ooh, we should have her make you something! Then you’ll get to see how happy she gets when people like her work.”

“Ehh..” I give a conflicted noise. That’s closer than I’d like to get, but at this point I have to keep up appearances. “Maybe. I dunno, I’m not sure how I feel about fashion.”

“Aw, don’t be embarrassed,” she teases. “It’s fun. But you don’t gotta.” She shoots a bubbly grin in my direction.

We come up on a house I recognize from yesterday. “We’re here!” Pinkie announces. It’s garish, almost blinding, but at least it’s cohesive. That seems rare around here. Walking in, the interior is actually fairly quaint. Darker purples and blues make everything a lot less overwhelming. It’s still all utterly excessive, but it’s palatable. A bell above the door announces our visit.

“Coming, just a moment” comes a soft voice from the hallway, followed shortly by its owner. I’m starting to get better at differentiating this ponies; this one seems shorter than Pinkie, although still bigger than me. White fur and a purple mane; I appreciate the simplicity of it. She carries herself with a practiced poise, but lets out some tension when she sees Pinkie Pie. “Oh, Pinkie, this is a pleasant surprise. Come in, make yourselves comfortable. Who’s your friend?”

“This is Strawberry Tart!” Pinkie says, a bit too loudly. “They forgot who they are, so I’m helpin them out til they remember.”

“Oh, heavens, amnesia?” Rarity gives me a sad look. “You poor thing, that must be so difficult. If there’s anything at all I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Oh, um, thank you,” I reply. I’m a little thrown off. She’s a lot calmer and gentler than I expected a friend of Pinkie's to be. I take a moment to compose myself as Rarity leads us to a lounge and we get comfortable.

“Well, in the meantime, I’m Rarity, local fashionista extraordinaire. Let me speak for everybody in formally saying welcome to Ponyville. I’m positive you’ll absolutely love it here.” She’s very enthusiastic as she speaks, using her hooves for emphasis, but in an elegant way. “How did you come about meeting Pinkie?”

“Oh, I found them in the woods,” Pinkie interjects. “I thought they were playin some kinda game and wanted to join, but it turned out they were just lost. So now we’re friends! They’re staying in my basement for now, it’s a lotta fun.”

“Your.. basement?” Rarity shivers. “Well, don’t worry Strawberry, I’ll be sure to pop over when I can and spice it up into something livable for you. Any friend of Pinkie’s is a friend of mine, after all.”

I hear Pinkie mutter “oooh, that’s how it goes” under her breath.

“Can I just say,” Rarity continues, “I absolutely love the colors of your coat, Strawberry. You simply must let me design something for you. It’s not often I get to design for such earthy tones.”

I smile politely. “I, um.. that would be nice.” Now that we’ve met, I’m coming around on the idea of getting to know her more. Nothing says I can’t enjoy myself before things go south. “Are all of Pinkie’s friends this friendly?”

Rarity laughs softly. “Oh, you’re too kind. Well, some of us are a bit more brash than others, but seeing as you’ve already befriended Pinkie Pie, I think you’ll find the rest of us quite tame.”

Pinkie pouts. “Hey, what does that mean?”

Rarity laughs more. “Just that you can be rather a lot sometimes. We all love you, Pinkie, but there is a lot of you to love.”

Pinkie tries to pout harder, but the effort makes her go cross-eyed, which makes her giggle. The giggles turn to laughter, and soon both ponies are laughing together, fueling each other. I just watch quietly. They certainly seem close, but they are naively kind. That sort of kindness has a way of leaving you vulnerable. Suddenly, I see the way forward; a perfect plan to set things off.

“Um, I’d like to go wash up a bit if you don’t mind,” I say, standing up. Excusing myself, I walk into Rarity’s washroom and lock the door. Looking into the mirror, I take another good look at myself, and then I change. My legs get longer, my frame lighter. My fur brightens, then shifts to a soft yellow. My mane grows and blends into a bright pink. Soon the face in the mirror is that of the kind, cowardly pony I met yesterday.

These wings should certainly come in handy. It takes a few tries to get used to them, but soon enough I’m able to fly out the washroom’s window. Floating around, I look through Rarity’s windows, trying to find a room where I can start things off. I consider the bedroom, but I don’t know these ponies well enough to know what drama that might kick up. The studio is close, but the finished clothes are too valuable. Too much too soon is a source of doubt. Then I spot a small storeroom, filled with equipment and supplies; the perfect target.

I rear back and brace myself, then fly full speed at the window, barreling through it with a loud crash. I lose control immediately and slam into a shelf, knocking it over onto a dusty sewing machine that breaks with a deafening crack. The textiles and tools from the shelf drop on top of me. It’s loud and chaotic; I couldn’t have hoped for a better landing. Right on cue I hear hooves racing towards me.

Rarity bursts into the room, frantic, all her grace left behind. She takes in the damaged supplies, the broken machine, and then sees me on the ground. I stand up shakily, torn fabrics falling off my back, and she looks at me in shock. I can see her trying to say something, anything, but she’s utterly speechless. This part is always my favorite; absolute shock, the pain of betrayal.

I shiver and make myself tear up, looking into Rarity’s eyes. “I-I’m.. Um.. I.. Sorry!” I stammer out, then shut my eyes tight and fly away. More glass shatters around me as I fly clumsily out the window. Exactly how I wanted things to happen. No answers, no meaning, just chaos and confusion. When I’m confident I’m out of sight, I double back into the washroom. I turn back into Strawberry Tart and wash the tears out of my eyes, then step out into the hall.

“-Just can’t imagine what got into her” I hear Rarity saying as I approach. I walk up to the storeroom door and cock my head. She’s standing in the wreckage, looking lost, Pinkie rubbing her shoulder.

“What happened?” I say. “I heard some kind of crash. Is everybody okay?”

Rarity shakes her head. “I’m not really sure. Something must have.. I don’t know.” She sighs. “I need to clean all this up. I’m truly sorry to cut our visit short, you two, but this demands my attention.”

Pinkie frowns and looks at me. “Would you like us to help?” I ask. “We’re already here, and this is a lot of work for just you.”

Rarity shakes her head and pushes us towards the exit. “No, no, I insist that you to go on and enjoy your day. You’ve many ponies to meet! I assure you I am quite accustomed to cleaning up messes. Go and see Twilight, she probably needs someone to make her take a break.” Pinkie shrugs at me and we relent, leaving Rarity to contend with her disaster.

I can’t help but smile to myself as we walk away. Rarity must be fuming; I can only imagine the earful she’ll give Fluttershy later. A perfect beginning to a rotten day.

Comments

[Emperor]

Huh. Well, that was quick. The protagonist even lucked out in getting a pony that Rarity is friends with. However, if this is post Season 2 (though there's nothing so far I think that indicates it), the ponies will also think of changelings if Fluttershy is confused when confronted by Rarity.

On another note, I'm somehow not surprised the protagonist prefers a neutral pronoun. Being able to shapeshift, I'm sure they would have lost sense of whatever was their birth gender, if they even had one.