Chapter 2
The situation Leg was in was not without precedent. During Queen Chrysalis’s rule, she’d been trained for such an eventuality. “Remember,” her instructor had said, “if you are disguised as a pony you do not know well, and you encounter somepony who knows your cover, you must disengage from the situation quickly and calmly. Make an excuse, be polite, and leave. The goal is to get away from the pony as quickly as possible without arousing suspicion.”
Then, the instructor said, “Leg, are you listening? What did I just say?”
“Twilight?” Applejack asked, furrowing her brow. “What in tarnation are you doing here?”
“Well, uh, that is, I…” Leg stammered, her eyes darting every which way over the palace. Then she had an idea.
She slammed the door in Applejack’s face and ran away.
“Hey!” Gin Su called as Leg fled into the palace. Around a corner she went, down a hall, until she came to the room where her traveling supplies were being held. She grabbed items at random: rope, a parka, a sun hat, a ten-foot pole, two bundles of twine, a canteen, and some cookies that were allegedly baked with love.
Examining what she took for half a moment, she made a snap decision. “Yakyakistan it is. It’s fine. I love the cold. I’ll learn to play the fugelhorn.” There were saddlebags somewhere in the pile, but taking her time to find them would have required more self-control than she had. Everything went into one giant burlap sack, and she bolted for the castle’s rear doors.
She went up a flight of stairs, then down a flight of stairs, then around a corner, then up another hall. Then past an observatory, then by the library. She was lost. But then she saw a window, and thought, did it really matter if she used the back door? No. All that mattered was getting to the train station before Applejack could catch her.
So she swung her burlap sack like she was throwing a grenade, and shattered the window in front of her. Two hooves forward, she leapt out after it, planning to land nearly beside it on the ground and make good on her getaway.
She landed on Applejack, who was still by the front door, talking with Gin Su about what the heck was up with Twilight. Under most circumstances, such a landing would be painful for both creatures involved, but Applejack was an exceptionally solid earth pony, while Leg was an exceptionally waifish changeling.
And so, Leg bounced. Right off Applejack’s side, into the door, and shortly thereafter onto the ground.
“What the…!?” Applejack glared, turning to face the pile of purple pony that lay stunned before her. “Okay, that’s enough. You want to explain what the heck is going on here?”
Leg hadn’t survived Queen Chrysalis’s rule by being too proud to beg.
“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry,” she said as she roughly pulled herself up. She clasped her hooves together in the prayer position, eyes imploring Applejack for mercy. “I didn’t mean to -- that is. I know I’m not supposed to. I just, I got scared and overwhelmed. And sometimes when I’m scared I do stupid things. But I didn’t mean any harm.”
“You—”
“I know. I know. I shouldn’t have run away from you. I should have come out and told you.” She grasped Applejack’s shoulder. “But everything with Chrysalis, and Tirek, and Cozy Glow. It all happened so fast. And I was sure Equestria was going so lose. And I couldn’t. I was so scared.”
“That—” Applejack tried to pull away, but Leg’s grip was too tight.
Finally, pleading, desperate, Leg’s voice cracked and she shouted. “Please don’t tell any creature you caught me!”
“Okay okay okay!” Applejack raised her voice to put an end to Leg’s monologue. “It’s okay, Twilight. Alright? It’s okay. Take a breath.”
Leg did take a breath, if only because it took a moment for her to process what she’d just heard. “What?”
“It’s… okay.” Applejack gently laughed, reaching out to pat Twilight’s shoulder. “I really wasn’t expecting to see you here. You know, considering. But Gin Su here was telling me you made a spell to be in two places at once? And… well.” She smiled a smile that was friendly, if a bit awkward. “I guess I didn’t know how hard all this was hitting you.”
“Yes,” Leg said. After a moment, she remembered to stumble to her hooves. “Applejack. All this was hitting me very hard. I wanted to stay in Ponyville, to be close to you, my dear friend. Applejack. And others. And I am very embarrassed I did that which is why I didn’t want you to tell anypony I was here.”
“Right.” Applejack chuckled. “That’s about what I figured.”
“Okay, good.” Leg took in a slow, deep breath. “Well. Sorry. For um… freaking out. There.”
“It’s okay. I guess even the ruler of Equestrian can have Twilight moments now and again.” Applejack chuckled, Gin Su chuckled, Leg chuckled and wondered if it was self-deprecating or at Twilight’s expense. Probably the latter. If Twilight caught her, she thought, it was friendship lasers for sure.
“Well, uh…” Leg gestured at the door. “You want to come in? I mean, my cover’s blown now. Secret. Secret’s blown. Secret that I’m here. Now. You like sushi?” She glanced at Gin Su. “She makes sushi with love which makes the raw fish taste better.”
“Actually, I figured if you were here, I was going to take you somewhere. There’s a party down in the diner to celebrate your coronation. There’s pie, music, somepony brought Trivia Trot cards.”
“Uh… gosh. I don’t know. I was-”
“Come on, Twilight,” Applejack nudged her. “Ain’t like you to pass on Trivia Trot.”
“Well I guess I’m going then,” Leg snapped, her body so stiff she involuntarily laughed. “Want to join us, Gin Su? The more the merrier.”
The whole walk there, Leg was screaming internally. Several times, she considered attacking Applejack and Gin Su when their backs were turned—knocking them out, taking to the skies and fleeing. But that would cross the line between pretending to be a bad changeling to survive, and actually being a bad changeling.
Also, she was pretty sure she couldn’t take Applejack in a fight. That pony’s muscles were like rocks.
Realistically, the second point might have played a greater part in her decision than the moral reservations. But at least she knew right from wrong.
When they arrived at the Ponyville Diner, the party was in full swing. There were tiki torches, a pony conga line, balloons, cake, and all the other colorful detruis that marked a pony party in full swing. When Leg and her two companions appeared, many ponies turned to point. A few gasped.
“Yes,” Leg waved. “Hello everypony.” Her voice was thin and reedy, her stress showing even through her disguise. “Don’t worry. I’m still in Canterlot. I missed you all so much I made a spell that lets me be in two places at once.”
“Oh that makes sense.”
“Yeah, sure it does.” She let out a faint whine, turning her head towards the ground. “Time to do the things I normally do at these events, surrounded by all the ponies I know and love.”
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were both there as well, and each asked questions of Leg that she skillfully deflected by stuffing a piece of cake into her mouth and then mumbling. There was singing and laughter and pin-the-tail-on-the-pony. And even dancing.
Yet, as she danced, Leg couldn’t help but notice ponies staring. Thinking quickly, she double-checked her form, but nothing was wrong that she could see. She was dancing the way everypony danced. It should have been unremarkable. And yet they stared.
“Uh,” she stilled her hooves at once. “That’s enough dancing. How about more games?”
“Oooh,” Sunburst called. “Trivia Trot?”
“Why not?”
Tables were arranged, cards were shuffled, and an audience hooted and hollered. Applejack finished off one cider, then set into another one, pounding her table with a hoof. “Come on!” she said. “Let’s get started.”
“Um, actually,” Sunburst said. “The rules say ponies can’t play while inebriated.” He lifted the book. “So I’m afraid you’re disqualified.”
“Oh, come on,” Leg waved Sunburst off. “Applejack can play, right?”
“It’s in the rules.”
“Yeah, but the rules exist to facilitate fun.” Leg spread her forehooves wide. “And Applejack getting kicked out of the game isn’t fun. We don’t need to be sticklers about every little detail, right?”
As Leg looked around the Trivia Trot game, she realized that quite a lot of ponies were staring.
“So, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said. “When exactly did you learn how to dance?”
And then, Leg found she couldn’t move. It was like she was paralyzed. Like the weight of everypony’s stares was pinning her to the spot. She had to run, had to lie, had to fight her way out, had to do something, but every move was wrong. A tremble that started in her heart spread to her hooves, and she broke out in a sweat.
“Um,” she said, so softly she was nearly whispering. “In Canterlot?”
It was at that exact moment that fate intervened. Its intervention took the form of two squads of former Storm Guard infantry, determined to avenge their vanquished king. They’d hoped to kidnap Applejack, but a greater opportunity had presented itself.
Their airship hit the ground like a meteor falling from the sky. It tore through Ponyville, shattering buildings and upending carts. Ponies screamed and leapt out of the way, abandoning party tables moments before they were crushed into splinters. And when the ship came to a stop, the front hatch blew open, releasing two dozen of the hulking beasts.
“Princess Twilight!” one of them called. At the base of the hatch lay a stunned filly, who had taken a blow to the head when the airship came down. With a single massive hand, he reached down and picked her up by her throat. “It’s time to answer for your crimes. Surrender, or the little one pays the price.”
That was when Leg realized her opportunity to escape had come. It was the perfect distraction. She knew how to fly an airship. And so, while these idiots were busy fighting the ponies of Ponyville, she could steal their ship and fly anywhere she wanted to go.
The first moments of the plan went so well. Her muscles tensed, she spread her wings, and when she kicked hard into the air, she caught the wind. A gust carried her up, up over the Storm Guard, towards the deck of the ship and the control rods in the back. She was the first to act, and Storm Guard and ponies alike could only stare as the seized the initiative.
But then she noticed that the top deck gun was manned, the tip of a harpoon sticking from its barrel. The gunner was tracking her flight. Fear raced through her limbs like electricity. She dived hard.
The harpoon sailed through the air where she’d been a moment ago. Out of control, she stuck out her hoof in a desperate attempt to put something between herself and the ground.
She hit the Storm Guard holding the little filly.
Specifically, she kicked him in the face.
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Changelings*
How the fuck did you write 4,300 words in one hour?!?!
Coverart sauce: https://www.deviantart.com/zutheskunk/art/Commission-Changeling-is-interested-722209244 (SFW)
9894210
Fixed!
9894217
The contest had two parts, so I wrote each chapter in 1 hour.
9894231
Thanks! I added attribution to FiMFic so others can find it.
9894217
It's not that hard if you're hyper focused and know what you're going to write.
Well, getting a 'Leg' up on life shouldn't be too hard, especially when this changeling didn't skip her birthday.
Dressing for the job you want works especially well for changelings.
That's going to be mean to anyone who has to listen.
And so we see the gradual and completely accidental rise of Princess Leg the Heroic. Accidentally heroic is still kind of heroic, right?!?
Hah! :D
Alright, let's see what's past the title and description... :)
[finishes reading]
Delightful. :D
I can already tell this will be leg-endary.
sun9-14.userapi.com/c858236/v858236413/b60b4/i8BCb1MOciM.jpg
All hail princess Leg!
I bet Gin Su told Applejack everything, she figured it out, Applejack told the rest of the Mane 6 and are try to get Leg to calm down and reveal herself.
Yeah!
Perceptive Pinkie is awesome Pinkie!
----
Typo:
ruler of Equestrian > ruler of Equestria
9894351
Leg: flee
The Everfree
Ponyville's a temporary sanctury
Pon-y
Idiocy
Result: she is heroic accidentally
Think-y
Pink-ie
Picking up what might be a discrepancy
Princess T
may-be?
Dancing well's an idiosyncracy
Take: place
Hide from chase
Twilight's empty palace is a new home base
Storm Guard:
test case?
Result: a flying hero-hoof direct to the face!
And that's where we get the phrase 'leg it'?
I think Pinkie's Pinkie sense may have detected a Changeling!
Amazing to think that "spell that allows her to be in twi places because I miss it" is more believable than "Twiggles learning how to dance"
Could have been worse. She could have been named “Ovipositor”
Hey look, featured.
Say hi to my new changeling oc: Telescoping Penis
What is Leg?
I can just picture all of those ponies saying that in complete unison.
At the end of this chapter: A changeling puts her best part forwards saving a filly.
I love everything about this. Leg is best.
Ah, seems like its going towards the ever delightful Flashman premise.
This is almost like the Changeling version of Commissar Cain. Always in the places where momentous things happen, never actually wanting to be there.
9896626
The opposite of Caito Sicarious - always at important events and nobody wants him there. Events like "existence".
So if somepony carries this Changeling does that mean they have a Leg up on everypony else?
What happens if they don't meet with them? Does that mean they skip Leg day?
What about if they break off their interactions completely? Does that mean they Lego of their history that they built?
9896633
Yeah, but nobody really wants the Smurfs around anyway.
9896760
Boooo!!!!
I am so glad that there's even more of this. Looking forward to the next installment.
9894217
Very quickly.
9897415
i.imgur.com/G1F1ECNg.png
What are you on and where can I find it?
Asking for a friend.
Mein Gott. This changeling is the hottest of hot messes. 🤣
9897415
This would require typing over 70 WPM
Lots of people can type that fast, but creating it too?
I’m guessing that they had the story prewritten & just copied & pasted it
9897957
I wrote each chapter in a speed-writing contest, so I had 2 hours total, not 1.
9897957
Dreams are a wonderful thing. Lots of the scenes I write come to me in that brief period between being asleep and being awake in the morning. And, sometimes, everything just . . . flows.
I presume he had a situation like that.
I really like Leg so far. I hope you intend to continue this even after the speedwriting contest!
(I wonder if Leg would get along with Valvula, a minor changeling character of mine who was bullied out of the hive for her unfortunate name.)
9898257
As a child, I had nightmares & taught myself lucid dreaming to control it
(IDK it was a thing until decades later)
Point is, I often rewrite stories & TV shows in my dreams
A very fun story so far, looking forward to more!
9898362
Interesting and fun, right? At least, once the nightmares stop being a nuisance. My turning point was when I turned around and ran up the tail to start riding the dinosaur that was chasing me.
9896760
The most unfortunate pun is: "Break a leg!"
So if changelings are named after body parts could one, in theory, be named Scrotum?
9899071
No, insects don't have that part.
9898547
Really? You're going with that? Do you really want that to be your... Legacy?
Why's this marked 'incomplete'?