> The Blacksmith
>  by BlackMuffin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Blacksmith
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I'm certainly not normal by any means. My upbringing, my family, my mind; nothing about me is like what you will ever encounter. I proudly consider myself the strangest pony you have ever met.

Then again, I'm not a pony, am I?

I was born, or rather hatched, from an egg inside of a large hive. An oozing, black hive with spheres plastered into the walls. Spheres that, like mine, would have small, insect-like black creatures explode from, landing in one pile at the center of what was the "egg room".
This was the most disgusting part of the most disgusting place in the world. While this hive contained many rooms, halls, and wings, this room would always reek of birth fluids. Those that were forced to clean up after the hatchlings would usually die of disease or, even worse, be eaten by the hungry larvae.

Jobs around the hive were not given in spite or merit. There was no real sense of promotion when you were moved to a different job; all tasks were handed out randomly by the Taskmaster. This position, as well as the position of Queen, were not random, unlike the rest of the jobs. The position of Queen was hoof-picked by the Taskmaster himself, based on which Female would be more fertile. The process of choosing the Queen in this manner is something that I would rather not describe.

The Taskmaster was like a General, or even like a King. In fact, it was a position held even higher than that of Queen; whoever was Taskmaster had 'true' free will along with his Queen, and thus had inherent magical capabilities. This was also the most dangerous of positions, as one Taskmaster could be usurped as easily as he had usurped his former. The reign of all Taskmasters ended in assassination or combat. Therefore, only the most foolish of Changelings would attempt to gain such a position of power.

Fortunately, most Taskmasters were fair and provided for their Hive with Civilizations to feed on. There was hardly any reason to overthrow him unless one wanted to have an empty sense of accomplishment, which would soon be replaced with a pair of fangs in the chest.

This was our society for centuries, and we did a very good job of keeping ourselves under cover. There was hardly any change. Except, of course, Queen Chrysalis' death. Being launched at two hundred kilometers an hour off of a city built into the side of a mountain normally doesn't do good things for your spine once you land.

For some reason, the rest of us survived the violent impact with the ground. Despite most of us having our exoskeletons broken and some of us losing about half of our brain cells, we still managed to survive.

This begins my state of existence as it is now.

I woke up in a meadow, full of flowers and bushes and small animals going about their business for the day. Picking berries, taking them over to a large basket in a single-file line...

Wait, what?

I jumped up, landing on all four hooves. I started thinking about why those animals would be picking berries. I then started thinking about berries. I could actually think for myself now! I became an intelligent creature! I can hardly describe how much fun I thought it was to have real thoughts.

My mind began to race as all sorts of thoughts crashed into my head at once. Where I was, names of birds, animals, trees, bugs, my own name...
As soon as I reached the subject of my name my mind simply just froze. I realized I had no name. I never had a name. Apparently ponies could identify each other by a title given by their parents when they are born.

Once again my thoughts began to feed through like gatling gun ammunition. 
Ponies. The reason my Queen was dead. The reason my kind was gone. The reason why green fluid was running from my mouth and a large crack in my abdomen.

I'm not sure why exactly I did this next action. Maybe I was just frustrated, jealous, or maybe even a little grievous. I simply roared as I felt a huge amount of magic pulse through my veins, changing my form from a simple changeling to an individual.

A pony. 

A creature that I had been feeding off of my whole life. A creature that I had simply seen as something to sink my fangs into and devour when all of their love for others had been drained.

I felt a rigid structure begin to form inside my body. My exoskeleton turned to pale skin, and dark red fur began to grow. I felt my wings disintegrate while my horn straightened out and also became a dark red in color. My vision began to become clearer as I finally saw color. I felt a mane grow, and out of the corner of my eye I could see it was a navy blue in color. The holes in my hooves began to be filled, improving my balance a little.

Next thing I knew, I had become something I knew how to mimic perfectly. The difference was that this time, I was not mimicking anypony. I was mimicking myself. I had actually become a pony.

Another thought occurred to me then. What if being a changeling wasn't the optimal thing for me? What if this love I consumed was what I was longing for this whole time? What if I was actually, somewhere deep in my heart, jealous of the ponies? I had become one of them now. Even if I could have changed back then, I wouldn't have. I was too thrilled, too happy to realize that I was now something I was never intended to be. I could live my life on my own now. Live amongst those who were once my enemies.

Make friends. Make amends, if you will.

Unfortunately, it seemed that my new body had decided to put this off until another time, as I passed out with a smile on my face and a small chortle came out before my head made contact with the ground.


<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


"Is he awake yet?" I woke up to the sound of three mares talking to each other. No...arguing, actually. They sounded pretty agitated. I realized that I was probably lying on my back on a bed of some sort, seeing as nothing smelled of grass and I was actually on a rather soft surface.

"Who cares? He's kinda cute, and since he's out cold, we can pretty much do whatever we want with him, if you know what I mean." Oh dear.

"How uncivil, Vinyl. You should never treat a guest with such vulgar actions." This one had quite the accent. British, almost. I made a mental note to thank her later.

"Aww, come on, 'Tavi, admit it," I felt a hoof go up my hind leg, "this stallion's got a real nice..."

"Oh for Celestia's sake, cut that out!" Immediately the hoof came off. That was close.

"Twilight, how much longer do you think he'll be unconscious?" The british mare again.

"Well, he should have woken up about 5 minutes ago judging by his injuries." The one named Twilight said. I wondered at that point if I should reveal myself to be awake.

"Obviously you're wrong, since he's still very much unconscious. Here, let me prove it to you." I wondered what that meant when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left leg.

My eyes shot open as I sat up to see a pale-white mare with electric blue hair and magenta eyes stabbing my left leg with an empty syringe.	

What an incredible way to welcome me. In my foggy state of mind, I did the first thing I could really think of at the time. I attacked her. What happened right after was really just a blur. I remember pouncing on her, pinning her arms down to the ground and roaring as loud as I could, and that's about it.

Right after that my mind became clear. I stumbled back, bumping into a bedpost. I breathed deeply, trying to recollect my thoughts. The white mare hadn't gotten up, obviously from shock, while a grey earth pony wearing a bow tie and a purple unicorn just gaped at me.

"Not the best introduction, I'm guessing," I laughed nervously, "Sorry about that." I looked at them with an uncomfortable smile, hoping they wouldn't choose to suddenly kill me. This awkward silence continued for what felt like a half hour until the grey one spoke.

"That could have gone better," she said in the british accent I had heard earlier, "How long have you actually been awake?"

"Oh, the pain woke me up." That was true to some degree. It was what got me to reveal I was conscious.

"Aw, come on!" the purple one exclaimed, looking quite exasperated that her equation was wrong. The white unicorn just looked even more uncomfortable as she looked away, her face turning a deep shade of red.

"I assume this means introductions are in order," the grey one started, "My name is Octavia."

"I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm Princess Celestia's personal student studying the magic of Friendship here in Ponyville." The purple unicorn introduced herself. I recognized that name. She was the one that had uncovered Chrysalis' true identity and had caused the destruction of the Hivemind. I was really unsure as to whether I should be infuriated or grateful to this mare. At the moment I chose to stay neutral and simply nodded. The two then looked at the white mare, who had now stood up and was looking at the ground in shame. Octavia just sighed and introduced her instead.

"This is Vinyl Scratch. She's a DJ here at Ponyville, if you're the type that goes clubbing you're bound to run into her." Vinyl just mumbled and looked away.

"So, what's your name?" Twilight looked at me. 

Buck. I hadn't thought of formulating a name for myself yet, and wasn't normally used to coming up with names on the spot.

"I'm, uh..." I looked quickly at my new cutie mark for a possibility at linking my name to it. It was an anvil with a lightning bolt through it, probably reminiscent of my fondness of the armor smithing job I had at the Hive. I decided to leave my name as something simple. "I'm just the Blacksmith."


<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


"So, if you're a blacksmith, when did you learn to forge?" Twilight had been asking me a bunch of questions, trying to figure out where I was from. I had simply said that I didn't remember where I was from, but that only drove her to ask more questions. We were at some place called Sugarcube Corner, as Twilight had insisted that cupcakes would refresh my memory.

Octavia and Vinyl came along too, although Vinyl had to be dragged along a bit more. She was still very uncomfortable, not knowing if I was actually awake when she had attempted to... 'touch' me, if you will. Although I had tried to speak to her a few times on the way to the Corner, she refused to talk. After a while Octavia and Twilight had given up on getting her to say anything, and I had also given up. At the moment she just sat there, looking out the window, not eating her cupcake.

"I was very little, roughly five, when I started. My uncle owned a forge, so I asked him if he could teach me. He said yes, and soon enough I earned my cutie mark." I just made up a story right there. Of course, I never knew my uncle, and the smithing process was something all changelings went through at one point or another. It was true, however, that I had quite a knack at smithing. Unfortunately, of course, I didn't always hold that position. I would randomly get assigned jobs, like I said, and smithing came around every once in a while, sometimes twice in a row. It was hands-down my favorite job at the Hive.

"You earned your cutie mark at five years old? That's quite impressive!" Octavia seemed impressed as well. Vinyl, of course, simply sat there, looking out the window while Twilight kept asking me questions. After a while Twilight offered me something I didn't quite expect.

"There's an abandoned forge on the edge of town. I could ask Mayor Mare to lend it to you if you want," Twilight offered, "You could even make Ponyville your new home!"

I have to admit I was quite stunned at her offer. After being stabbed in the leg by her friend and me attacking her in return, she offers me a chance to do the one thing I truly ever enjoyed doing. My new life as a pony couldn't have been going any better. I had even found a way to convince them all that I was actually perfectly norma--

"What was up with the roaring?" Vinyl finally broke her silence.

I think Octavia and Twilight were just as surprised as I was by her sudden statement. They just gaped at her, looked at each other, then at me. I wasn't really quite sure what to answer myself. I stuttered a bit before improvising yet another story.

"Oh, right, that was just a reflex, you know, being stabbed in the leg after being unconscious doesn't exactly do good things for your communication skills." I probably shouldn't have brought up the subject of her stabbing me, but she didn't even seem to care about that. She looked away from the window and looked directly into my eyes. Instead of being magenta, they had turned red. Creepy.

"Ponies can't roar. Only manticores and lions can roar. Not ponies." Vinyl's eyes pierced my very soul at that point. I felt like the Royal Guard was going to burst down the door and drag me over to a pole to roast me alive.

Octavia must have noticed my discomfort as she suddenly switched the subject, although not in the greatest way possible.

"Vinyl, I just had a great thought! You should show Blacksmith around town! Get him introduced to everypony as he's going to be staying here now. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Vinyl turned her gaze away from me and just stared at Octavia in disbelief, then in pure seething rage. She looked like she could just send her to Tartarus with a clap of her hooves.

I really wasn't sure if that was the greatest idea. I looked at Twilight quizzically only to have her shrug in return.

Thinking quickly, I suggested something to pull us out of the predicament, "Well, we could all go. You could show me where you all prefer going most of the time, that way I have some good pointers as to where I should head first after settling in." Vinyl immediately relaxed and stopped glaring at Octavia. She looked at me for a split-second and started looking out the window again. I couldn't tell if she was relieved or just as frustrated as before. Hopefully I had calmed the situation a bit so she would stop prodding me about the incident.


<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


It was dark out when we had finished my tour of town. Octavia had shown me her favorite places to eat, and Twilight had shown me her library. Vinyl hadn't said a word the whole time. I think that at that point she was just giving me the silent treatment.

I hoped I would find out why eventually.

We had just arrived at my new home. It was, as they had described, a forge. Somehow, Twilight had managed to contact Mayor Mare about setting me up there. I could just pay for it once I had made enough bits. There was an outdoor furnace with an anvil and a water trough, accompanied by a crate full of iron and steel. There was a relatively small stone house connected to it, with a wooden door being directly behind the furnace. That could pose a fire hazard, but I'd have to tend to that a different time.

"Thanks for the tour, you three. I really appreciate it, I really don't know how I would have fared without that." I waved to them as they turned around and left. Twilight and Octavia didn't seem to notice that Vinyl had stayed behind and was still looking at me. 
Her eyes had become that soft magenta color again, and she didn't have that hard gaze she had when she was sulking. She almost looked sad, actually.

"How long were you actually awake?" She didn't change her expression one bit when asking me that. She didn't seem worried as to what I was about to answer. She just looked at me with those charismatic eyes of hers. I simply couldn't lie to her then.

"I regained consciousness about ten before you forcefully woke me up." I admitted. She didn't react for a while. Eventually, she broke the silence.

"That means you were awake when I ran my hoof up..." she couldn't finish her sentence and looked away. I couldn't stand to watch her beat herself up over it. I felt myself become attached to this mare. I felt like it was my fault she felt so guilty. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. It was wrong of me. There were so many things I wanted to say at once. So I just said something simple.

"Vinyl, don't worry, I'm not mad at you," I went up closer to her, "I know it was a pretty awkward situation, but I don't hate you for it. I don't think anypony would hate another pony just for one small slip-up." She looked up, her face slightly tearstained.

"I think I should go." She said, her voice cracked from crying.

"I'll see you around town when you're feeling better." I replied. Hopefully, she did feel better eventually.

Wait, since when did I actually feel compassion for anything else? Was it because I had friends? I felt some sort of warm feeling in my chest. Something I had never felt before. That must be what having friends was like. A warm feeling in your heart that accompanies you whenever they're around you.

I truly felt complete then, like some giant gap in my life had been filled. I walked into my house with a smile on my face.

It felt good to have friends.
> Maybe our Talent is Smithing!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	About a week after moving into my new home in Ponyville, I had already earned enough projects to keep me busy for a while. I was mostly asked to make household items such as lamps, chandeliers, and sometimes utensils. I did miss the liberty of making a good set of armor or maybe even a craftsman decoration falchion, but if anypony caught me making weapons they would probably begin panicking. I could never leave the forge for supplies at night for some reason, as nopony was ever outside at that point or running their shops. I didn’t understand why at first since there weren’t any monsters or aberrations running around at night, and the air was even more comfortable than during the day. My around-the-clock work meant I rarely left my forge, and even when I left I rarely spoke to anypony. I did run into Twilight and Octavia a few times, but Vinyl still eluded me.

This concerned me quite a bit, as I had always taken Vinyl to be the kind of pony who was outgoing, chatty, and really energetic. Then again, being a DJ must have been very difficult for her. Everypony needed their time alone, as I had figured out during my time there. Her time alone, however, seemed to take up forever. I made a mental note that I would have to ask Octavia about it at some point. Vinyl’s case truly did worry me greatly after a week, though. When I started questioning myself as to why, I just shook it off as my newfound emotions causing me to become unsettled by the littlest things. I figured that feeling would leave after a while.

My forge was my true and primary concern for the first few weeks. In fact, for about two weeks I worked around the clock on my orders, never really stopping, as that was what was customary in the Hive.

During that time, I had learned how to use magic. It really wasn’t such a difficult process, actually; my turning into a unicorn had given me an innate magical ability that didn’t seem to be connected to my Changeling abilities at all. I had first only been able to levitate one small object at a time, but I eventually progressed to the point that I could move all of my tools at once. I still preferred to use my hooves, but magic was definitely useful to hold my supplies in place when I was hammering a piece of metal. It reduced the risk of burning my hooves, as tongs were unheard of for some reason in pony society. I always figured I could make some myself, but I never really got around to it.

As time progressed, however, I found that it became more and more difficult to focus on my work. I became overtaken by a need to close my eyes and just stop everything I was doing. I would have no part of it, however, and I simply kept working as hard as I possibly could. I felt that it was my responsibility to provide for my clients.

One night, however, I simply gave in to this strange need for shutting my eyes. I went over to the chair I had nearby my forge, sat down, and simply closed my eyes. After what felt like about ten minutes, I felt a small, round pillow prod me on the shoulder.

Wait, a pillow?

My eyes popped open to find that three fillies were gathered around me. One white unicorn, one orange pegasus with a purple mane, and an off-yellow earth pony with a red mane and a pink bow tied in the back. The yellow one had been poking me, and as I rubbed my eyes I noticed that it was actually daytime. How did that happen?

“’Scuse me mister Blacksmith, but why were y’all sleeping during tha day?” she said in a cute little southern accent. I smiled to myself a little at her speaking tone when realization suddenly slapped me across the face.

What in the hoof was sleeping?

I decided that it didn’t matter at the moment. I’d find out more about it later. All that was really important was that my need to close my eyes was gone and I felt completely concentrated on what I was supposed to do that day, despite a sudden grumpiness. I remembered that I needed some iron, carbonated steel ingots, a new hammer, and—

“Hey, you know Applebloom just asked you a question,” the orange one was giving me a rather annoyed look.

In as calm of a tone as I could muster at the moment, I asked: “Alright, first of all, who are you and why are you all here and not in school?” All three of them gave me funny looks and then laughed.

“We’re not in school because it’s Saturday, silly!” the white one said through chortles, “You must have lost track of time! Anyways, I’m Sweetie Belle!”

“I’m Scootaloo!” the orange one beamed and buzzed her wings.

“And Ah’m Applebloom!” the yellow one jumped up and down, “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We try ta earn our cutie marks any way we can, and Miss Twilight said y’all just moved in!” So Twilight had sent them here? I’d definitely need to have a word with her.

Now, my method of “having a word with” somepony used to involve me yelling at them or maybe even having a fight. That was simply part of our aggressive nature as changelings. Unfortunately, showing any form of aggressivity to mares would easily get your flank kicked out of wherever you happened to be at that point and time. I learned that the hard way when Twilight took me to a bar and I became particularly aggravated at a certain purple mare that had too much to drink. The resulting drunken brawl I had with her coltfriend left me unable to use magic for a few days. Therefore, having a “word” with Twilight would probably involve me trying to tell her not to send small fillies and colts my way, but not finding the words for it and just storming out of her library. It had happened before, and she said herself she found it kind of cute. Being cute was really the last thing on my mind.

I was rather grumpy when I had opened my eyes for some reason, and this whole ordeal did stir me up a bit. I felt irritated and wanted to shoo the three of them off, but at the same time it seemed wrong to let down a few fillies who simply wanted to learn what I did. In the end I just decided to humour them and actually gave them a crash-course on forging.


<--------------------------------------------------->


“Alright, Applebloom, just make sure you hold the metal completely at the end; it could end up burning you if your grip is too close to the heated part. Now use the needle  to scratch your design in slowly.” About two hours after Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had given up, Applebloom was still sticking around. She was quite good at it, actually, and she was talking a lot about how she’d get her cutie mark in no time at this pace.

“Hey, Blacksmith, have ya ever met mah sister Applejack?” she asked suddenly.

“Who now?”

“Mah sister, Applejack,” she repeated, “She works down at Sweet Apple Acres with mah brother, Big Macintosh. I think she’d like ya, with yer being hardworking and all. Y’all could come down for supper, it’d give ya a nice opportunity to meet some new ponies, too.”

I really did want to go, but I couldn’t stand to leave my forge behind for even one day.

“I don’t think I can, I’ve got a lot of work to do and…”

“Another thing Twilight told us is that yer always workin’,” she cut me short, “Don’t ya think ya need a break every once in a while?” She gave me an adorable little pouting look. My heart exploded twice. I had to concede.

“Alright, alright, I’ll come down. But first let’s finish up what you’re making right now, okay?” Applebloom was making a small bowl with a bunch of carvings on the side, one of them being a large heart shape. I found it really cute, actually. While blacksmiths were usually useful only for war, her small bowl had a cute heart on it. It warmed my heart to know that ponies didn’t have to be exposed to cruelty at an age so you as Changelings had to.


<--------------------------------------------------->


Like I had promised, I went down to Sweet Apple Acres with Applebloom for supper with her family. When I came near the orchard, the first thing that went through my mind was just how in Tartarus were Applejack and her brother were able to take care of all those trees. What confused me more was how the two actually collected the apples.

All they did was buck a tree once and all the apples fell out into baskets. Even though my form was that of a unicorn, I easily matched the strength of most earth ponies, but this was absolutely confounding. I made a mental note to never, ever get on their bad side. I shuddered to think what they could do if I made them angry enough.

When we began to near the house, my nostrils immediately became filled with the smell of apples. What was strange about this particular smell was that it almost seemed to sting me a little. It was as if the apples had some sort of jolting spiciness to them. It confused me, but I decided that it would all be explained at some point.

“Why are you keeping all these dead trees?” I asked as we passed a patch of leafless trees.

“Ah, these trees ain’t dead,” Applebloom began to explain, “They’re Zap Apple trees! They only bloom for six days before they become leafless again, so we have to gather all the apples as fast as we can.”

“Zap Apples? What’s so special about them?” I gave her a quizzical look.

“Are ya kiddin’ me? Didn’t ya smell that weird static-y smell just now?”

“Wow. They must be pretty special! I’m glad I was lucky enough to come here on the day you guys harvested them.” My mouth watered just thinking about it.

“Actually, we harvested ‘em about two days ago, but this is the last day we’re doin’ anythin’ with ‘em before Applejack sells them at her apple stand.”

We arrived at the house then. It looked rather spacious, actually; I thought that a farm house would be smaller than the one they had. Then again, their farm was renowned for its cider, I heard. I really wanted to try some eventually.

An old, pale green mare with a white mane bundled back into a bun was sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch. Next to her was an orange mare who I assumed to be Applejack, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge red stallion pulling a cart into the barn.

“Hiya Applebloom! Who ya got there?” Applejack shared her younger sister’s southern accent, although it didn’t have that same heart-warming effect as Applebloom’s. Applebloom ran up to her sister and they shared a tight embrace. I never really knew my ‘siblings’, and such a display of sisterly affection made me wonder what my earlier years would have been like if I was born a pony.

“This is Blacksmith, he moved in a few weeks ago!”

“Blacksmith, eh? I’m surprised I never met you before, Pinkie usually throws a party every time a new pony comes around.” Applejack cocked her head to the side a little as she looked at me. I could tell she felt something was off about me. I tried to hold back anxiety.

She stepped down from her porch and came up to me. As she stepped closer to me I felt sweat trickle down my neck. When she was right in front of me I felt like I was going to explode. I just wanted to turn and run for the hills, possibly changing back to a changeling so I could fly away.

Please don’t find me out, please don’t find me out… I tried my best to keep a pokerface as I repeated that wish over and over in my head.

“Well then, Blacksmith, welcome ta ponyville! Although Ah doubt that ya really need any kind of introduction to the town.” She stuck her hoof out. I didn’t realize what she was doing at first. Was she pointing at me or something? Then I remembered that ponies usually involved some sort of ‘hoofshake’ when meeting others. I reached my hoof out and we shook.

The sheer relief I felt when I realized she wasn’t going to kill me made me feel like I was going to melt completely. I kind of wanted to ask for a bucket as a joke, but my realization that they hadn’t noticed my anxiety stopped me.

“Yeah, Applebloom told me about you guys. She’s really impressive with the forge, actually. I didn’t expect her to be that good at it.” Applebloom beamed at my compliment and looked at her sister, who seemed just as impressed as I was by Applebloom’s success.

“Wow, sugarcube, Ah bet that y’all get yer cutie mark in anytime now!” she nuzzled her sister’s head a little before turning to me again.

“Why don’t we all go inside and eat now? Dinner’s ready and Big Mac’ll be over any minute now.” Applejack turned and walked up to the door and went inside. I chuckled a little to myself at how well she actually took me. I should have felt thankful for being able to fool everypony thus far, but instead I just thought it was funny that it worked out so well. My sense of humour has always been strange, but even now when I look back I don't see why I found it funny at all.

I looked to my left to see Big Macintosh was arriving from the barn. I waved to him, but he didn’t wave back. Instead, he just stopped and looked at me. I could tell that he thought something was wrong. As I walked inside, I could see him frowning at me out of the corner of my eye.

I would have to watch myself around him.

> Silver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Alright, so we got apple pie, apple fritters, apple muffins, apple pancakes, apple strudels, and just good ol’ zap apple jam. Ah say ya should try tha jam first, that’ll definitely wake ya up!” Applejack had been outlining the contents of the meal. Literally everything was made out of apples in one way or another. Not that I complained; apples were, in fact, digestible by Changelings and they were considered a delicacy. I had never tasted Zap Apples, though, so I was quite eager to taste the jam.

Before anypony else could get what they wanted, I picked up the jam, took up a huge spoonful, and put it directly in my mouth.

Oh Celestia why.

“Heh… Ah think we fergot ta mention that the jam generally isn’t very tolerable when taken in large amounts. Sorry’ bout that…” Applejack admitted sheepishly. As soon as she was done talking, I felt a huge surge that felt like the inside of my mouth had been hit by lightning. I immediately swallowed all of it, but that didn’t keep my taste buds from suddenly going nuts. I had to admit, it tasted fine at first, but it then kept feeling like my mouth had been electrically charged and was getting shocked over and over again. The only thing I could do was start jumping and running in place while my tongue was being assaulted. Applebloom, Applejack and the old mare named Granny Smith were bending over with laughter at my display, but Big Mac just frowned.

I never took any more zap apple jam for the rest of the night. 


<---------------------------------------------------------------------->


As I was about to leave the house, my mouth still fried from the Zap Apples, Applebloom stopped me on the doorstep.

“Wait, Mister Blacksmith, I want ya to have this.” She handed me the bowl she had made that day. “Ah worked pretty hard on it, but Ah think y’all might need it more than Ah do, considerin’ ya just moved in and all.” I took the bowl and smiled. Nopony had ever given me anything as a gift before, and this show of generosity from a filly made me feel appreciated.

“Thanks a bunch, Applebloom. I’ll make sure to think of you whenever I see this.” I ruffled her mane a little and went on my way. After an hour, when I was about halfway through the orchard, Big Mac stopped me.

He stood roughly at my height, save a few inches that he had over me. He looked down at me with an intimidating scowl on his face. In his mane I could see a braid that had a silver circle tied to the end.

I knew exactly what he was stopping me for. One of the first things I learned when I became a pony was that there were some who were dedicated to killing those changelings who were still pretending to be ponies. Although this contradicted with ponies’ otherwise peaceful nature, they regarded it as necessary, and nopony ever really got in the way of their actions. One of their beliefs was that silver could easily kill Changelings faster than any other material. This was completely false, as Changelings had a complete immunity to all metals, including radioactive ones.

“I really don’t trust ya.” He said in a low, stoic voice. I could only look up at him and prepare for the worst. Nothing happened for a few minutes as we just looked at each other, waiting for the other to do something.

“Ah have every intention to keep ya away from mah family. Ah don’t like the looks of y’all, and Ah have every intention to find out who ya are.” His gaze suddenly shifted to being piercing, and I backed away a few steps. His point made, Big Mac walked calmly back in the direction of his home.

I ran like hell.


<---------------------------------------------------------------------->



The changeling stood proudly in front of his throne. His three horns curled back behind his head like a goat’s horns. He was much larger and much taller than all of his subjects, and a distorted crown of sorts sat on his head. His wings sat by his sides, pierced with holes that somehow did not affect his flight whatsoever. His hooves were also ridden with holes, and a long fiendish tail trailed behind his hollow form.

“ʼyẕt, myyn kyyww, ṗʼatşn myt dy hwngʻr pwn ʼa twyznt ʼarmyz, ʼaz myr zʼln lyygn ʼáṗpʼal ẕw dy ʻrd dy ṗʼányʻs gʻzwkt ẕw ʼáṗnʼarn ʼwndz pwn!” He bellowed, his voice shaking the very foundations of the hive. The Taskmaster, in all his power, stomped the ground, and the hive began to move. It pushed itself out of the ground, revealing eight legs and a twisted little head with eight eyes and gigantic mandibles capable of swallowing cities. The hive had begun moving. It had one command etched into its mind.

Feed.

I sat up in my bed, panting heavily. I started disliking these images that came whenever I closed my eyes at night. After some discreet research I found out that they were called ‘dreams’, vivid images that happen during ‘sleep’. I found the whole concept fascinating, although the only dreams I had ever had seemed to be dark and rather scary. I felt like all the Changelings left in the world knew where I was, knew of my heresy. I feared for my life, quite truthfully, although I obviously never spoke of it to anypony. 

It had been roughly nine weeks since I had arrived in Ponyville. During that time I had lost a bit of my ability to speak Chiddish (the Changeling tongue); I had to practice a bit with myself to retain some ability to read it if an opportunity ever came up. Despite that, I could not understand what the Taskmaster was saying in my dream. I knew exactly what sounds were coming out, but I had no idea what he meant. It was strange: shouldn’t I have been able to understand exactly what he was saying? That thought just made me even more terrified, but I forcefully pushed it out of my mind. The last thing I needed with my job was less sleep.

Despite my lack of sleep due to constantly waking up whenever I drifted off, I found enough time to find out Vinyl had gone on something called a ‘tour’. Being a celebrated electronic musician, she had fans all over Equestria and often traveled throughout the country to perform at various cities (to be honest, her music gave me bad headaches). I had no idea when she would be returning, but I felt really anxious to see her again. Every time I would think of her all I could think of was that I desperately wanted to see her again. I really couldn’t understand why. Do friends always think like this about each other? Of course, I cast this off as normal or simply my emotions acting up, but sooner or later I knew I would have to find out what was actually going on with me. I’m certain my emotions didn’t just come from free will. In fact, I’m still unsure to this day why I haven’t ever been able to turn back into a Changeling. No matter how hard I try, I can’t use any of my Changeling powers. I can’t channel any of my energy into polymorph spells like I used to; I’m limited to unicorn magic. Of course, Twilight would probably yell at me for saying that. By her standards, unicorn magic is one of the most powerful forces in the world. I shouldn’t really disagree, either. My skills with magic were still very limited at that point, but my pride held me from asking Twilight for help.


<---------------------------------------------------------------------->


One day I was heading over to Twilight’s library to learn more about magic. I had finally worked up the courage and had swallowed my pride enough to ask her for help on the matter. I would just tell her that I had no real magic training when I was a colt, and I was certain she would understand. I kept thinking about my excuse the whole time as I walked over to the strange tree she lived in. These thoughts kept me from realizing who was trying to get my attention.

THWACK!

“Ah, what the Hay?!” I was suddenly hit on the head with quite a bit of force. As I reeled back from the impact, I saw that the pony who had just hit me was one that I had been waiting to see for a while.

“Can’t you listen when a mare’s trying to talk to you?” Vinyl wore some strange glasses, so I couldn’t really tell if she was actually angry at all. She did have some sort of smirk, but I wasn’t sure what that signified.

I was quite shocked from seeing her so suddenly. So shocked, in fact, that my first reaction was to give her an extremely tight hug.

That was probably not the best idea.

“Woah, woah…! Blacksmith, I can’t...breathe…!” She started turning slightly blue from my squeeze. I immediately let her go, feeling quite embarrassed and apologizing profusely. She giggled a little at my reaction, which made my heart jump a little. I felt like just making a little squealing noise, but that would probably attract unwanted attention.

There was an awkward silence for about twenty seconds.

“So how have you been?” I finally asked to break the silence.

“I’ve been okay,” She looked away from me for about a second when she said ‘okay’, “Touring’s not the easiest thing in the world. I prefer just staying here and playing at the clubs they have in Ponyville. It’s much less traveling and I can bring pretty much all my equipment if I want to.” She took off her sunglasses and slid them over her eyes into her mane.

“But enough about me. How have you been, Blacksmith?” She smiled and looked at me with those big, warm magenta eyes. My heart just melted and I wanted to rub my face all over her fur, smelling her and feeling her soft coat.

Wait. That’s kind of creepy.

I suppressed my thoughts and kept the conversation going as casually as I could.

“Just forging. Some filly named Applebloom came by and wanted to learn how to smith, and she was rather impressive at it! She gave me her ‘masterpiece’, so she calls it.” I replied to her question.

“That sounds just like her. I’m assuming she wanted to get her cutie mark that way?” Vinyl laughed an infectious laugh that got me laughing too. I really enjoyed her company.

“Hey listen…” she started, looking down a bit, “I was thinking since we got off on the wrong foot that we should probably, you know, hang out or something. Get to know each other better.” She looked at me again with a rather shy expression.

I felt like my heart would jump out of my throat and cannonball itself all the way to the Frozen North.

“Alright. What did you have in mind?” I replied as casually as I could. At this point, it was getting extremely difficult to keep myself from panicking. Something was definitely wrong with how I viewed this mare, and I was determined to find out what that was. 

One way or another.


<---------------------------------------------------------------------->


I walked a buzzed Vinyl back home. She had brought us to a club that she performed regularly at; the music was excruciatingly loud, and of course it was that strange electronic genre that I hated. Vinyl found it entertaining to watch me wince every time a “drop” occurred, or so she called it. Despite the background noise, we still managed to have a decent conversation. In between drinks she would tell me all about her career and her traveling schedules. I just sat and listened to her talk, fascinated by her voice. After her third drink or so she started looking a little woozy, at which point I paid and offered to walk her back home. I only then realized that I had not had anything to drink. Albeit it didn’t bother me too much; there’d be time for that later.

“Hey, Blacksmith,” She said, suddenly breaking the silence between us, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Ask away.” I said. I wasn’t really focusing on what her answer could be; I just basked in the warmth she gave off.

“Where are you even from? You said before that you didn’t remember where you came from, but is that true?” I stopped walking.

Well, Buck.

“I’m, uh…” I decided to formulate something close to the truth, since I couldn’t bring myself to tell a full-on lie to her, “I’m from a village in the badlands. It’s mostly earth ponies, but some unicorns live there too. No pegasi live there, though; that’s why it’s so dry. Nopony’s ever really left from there before, though, so I’m not sure how I arrived here.” It was true that the birthplace of the hive was in the Badlands, but there were absolutely no settlements in that region of Equestria. If there were any, they had been swallowed up centuries ago.

“Oh, that’s cool.” She said. I could tell she was drifting off slightly. Then something just hit me.

“Vinyl, where do you actually live?” I asked her. She just laughed.

“I’m Tavi’s roommate, I’m sure she showed you the house.” Vinyl chuckled a little. 

“Well that makes everything simpler.” The conversation at that point became really bland, and I felt that it was in part because I was taking an active part in it. I just decided to shut up for the rest of the way to her home.

When we arrived there, Vinyl thanked me for walking her home and opened the door, walking inside without shutting it. After about two minutes of me just sitting there and wondering why the hay she didn’t shut her own door, she popped her head back out, this time without her sunglasses.

“Well aren’t you gonna come in?” she asked with a rather questionable smile. I obliged and walked into her home.

“Tavi’s probably sleeping, so we shouldn’t make too much noise. I was just thinking that we could chat a bit more while watching TV or something.” I nodded in consent. I was fine with that idea. Nothing unexpected could come of that, could it?

It was roughly midnight. We had been watching a bunch of shows I had never even heard of, considering the fact that the television I had at my home only had about ten channels. Most covered topics I knew nothing about. Quite truthfully, I got bored after a while. I just sort of let my thoughts wander off until I felt something on my shoulder.

I looked to my right to see that Vinyl had just rested her head on me. She had just shut off the TV and her eyes were closed. She must have felt my head turn, as she opened her eyes and looked up at me. She giggled a little and scooted a little closer. I felt my face become completely flushed as I held her in my arms. I rested my head on hers as we drifted off to sleep, our dreams overtaking us.

For the first time, I slept through a night that was completely devoid of any nightmares.

> My Dark Kin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Light trickled through the windows slowly as Celestia rose her sun, a waking call for all the ponies in Equestria. The birds were chirping in the trees, and some ponies were already up and about their business.

I opened my eyes slowly as I awoke from my first peaceful sleep. I reveled in the fact that for once, I had not woken up sweating in the middle of the night. However this happened, I really didn't care at the moment. There had been too many restless nights before then, and just one peaceful sleep was enough for me. Nothing could possibly ruin this great morning. I started to get up, but was quickly stopped by something I did not expect.

I heard a mumble.

When I looked down I saw that I had my hooves wrapped around a white mare with an electric blue mane. She was still sleeping soundly, her soft breathing ruffling through my fur. Her comforting heat traveled through my body as I started to piece the events from the night before.

I remembered that I had taken Vinyl to a bar, where she drank quite a bit and told me all sorts of things about her life and career. I also remembered that she had invited me into her home, where we just watched TV for a while until she fell asleep on me.

I figured I had also fallen asleep in her home, which was why she had her head on my chest. I didn't dare to move, afraid that I might wake her up from her comfortable sleep.

Unfortunately, I was also worried that she might not remember the previous night's events and would be terrified to find that she had suddenly woken up on her friend's chest. Apparently too much alcohol caused "hangovers" with ponies, causing them to black out and suddenly come awake with amnesia and a terrible headache. Vinyl, however, would probably not have that problem, considering that she was a rave pony after all.

There was no telling, though.

Still, there was no reason to be worried at that particular moment. Vinyl had not woken up yet, and her presence was extremely comforting. In fact, my heart completely melted at seeing her curled up next to me, using me as her pillow. Thoughts about running my face through her chest started invading my mind, but I pushed them away. These thoughts were getting way too creepy, and I was convinced they were not normal for any sane pony.

I did settle for nuzzling and smelling her mane, though. Her smell was extremely unsettling, actually. Rather, it was the fact that she had absolutely no scent that unnerved me. I knew that ponies had a smell reminiscent of their color or special talent, but she completely lacked form of fragrance. I had assumed that she would have smelled like blueberries, but instead it was as if she didn't exist at all. As I looked up from her I saw a shadow slide across the windows. It did so quickly and without a sound as if it was just passing by, yet I couldn't help but feel that it was watching me.

"What the hell..." I said under my breath without thinking. This stirred Vinyl from her sleep, and I felt her breathe in deeply before she looked up at me. Her eyes widened for a few seconds as we just stared at each other.

I felt my heart drop. At this point, she was either going to completely flip out or we were going to stare at each other blankly until somepony came in and intervened. Could I have ruined our friendship? Had a simple hangover completely ruined her opinion of me?

"Mornin'," Vinyl's expression suddenly changed to a smile as she greeted me. I felt my heart come back up into my chest again. I smiled back.

"Good morning." She chuckled a little. I then realized that my face was completely flushed, and of course she found that humorous. I laughed as well; her laugh was so infectious that even in a situation like this I felt completely unable to resist laughing alongside her.

My spontaneous laughter made her laugh even harder, which in turn made me also laugh even more intensely. We were both rolling on the floor at that point when suddenly Vinyl jammed a hoof in my mouth. Before I could attempt to mumble anything in protest, she said:

"Did you hear that?" she said in a frantically hushed tone. I moved my ears around to hear what she was talking about, when I heard hoofsteps coming down the stairs. I could only assume that was Octavia.

It seemed that Vinyl had been too late in warning me as Octavia walked into the living room, where Vinyl and I were lying down face to face with her hoof in my mouth. Octavia blushed furiously at first before shaking her head and raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"I don't even want to assume what happened here." she simply said in her strangely superior tone. She then proceeded to walk out of the room, presumably to head to the kitchen and get breakfast. Vinyl and I looked at each other for a few silent seconds before bursting into laughter again from the sheer randomness of it all.


<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


Octavia didn't really question what had happened. Vinyl explained it to her anyway, and for some reason Octavia seemed to ease up a bit when everything was explained, as if she had been tense before. It was possibly because it was still early morning and she hadn't fully woken up yet. Truly, I wouldn't be surprised. I often felt grumpy when waking up at first, and my muscles were all stiff and sore from work.

Which reminded me, I hadn't worked on the forge for almost a full week.

"Vinyl, Octavia, I really gotta head out. I haven't worked for a while and I'm probably way behind on my projects," I said as I headed out the door. Neither really had much of a chance to argue as I had already shut the door and was running towards the shop.

On the way there, I noticed Big Macintosh walking with a pegasus that had a really flashy yellow coat. Her mane was a bright pink which should have made her stand out even more. However, for some reason, she seemed to really be shrinking back from everything and everypony, as if trying to hide under Big Macintosh. I also noticed she was wearing one of those saddlebags used for carrying foals, in which sat a filly with bright yellow fur like the mare, yet with a red mane matching Big Macintosh's coat. I assumed that the pegasus was Big Macintosh's mate, and that the foal was theirs. I found the whole scene kind of cute, in fact.

I found myself smiling at the scene. Truly, I thought that it would be nice to have a family of my own at some point. Raise my own foals, have a mate, all that stuff that came with being a pony.

Of course, the only problem I had was falling in love. What did love even feel like? Was it even possible for me to fall in love? Really, I felt like it would probably be useless to actually consider it, so I kept walking. I'm pretty sure I saw Big Macintosh scowling at me.

The streets were strangely empty while I was on my way to the forge. The problem was that it was the weekend; nopony was at work at this time.

When I finally arrived at my forge I felt my heart sink into oblivion.

There was a yellow police line across the front of the house, most of the windows were broken, some of the walls had been destroyed, and most of the actual forge was ruined and in shambles. Some policeponies were gathering up the remaining hot coals as ponies gathered around my house, trying to see what happened.

"Excuse me, coming through, excuse me..." I pushed through the crowd of ponies to reach my home. An officer with a brown trenchcoat was holding a notepad and talking to a couple other officers. I slipped under the police line and walked up to him.

"What in blazing hay happened here?!" To say I was flustered at the moment would be underestimating my rage. The officer turned around and looked at me with a frown.

"Sir, I'm afraid you'll have to step out of this zone, this is an inspection zone and--" he started before I cut him off.

"I live here, officer. This is my house. I want to know what happened." I glared at him, trying to be intimidating. Although that didn't work, he still consented and explained to me what they knew so far.

"Apparently, this was either a case of vandalism or extreme theft. We're not sure why anypony would do this to your home, but we have reason to believe that they may or may not have been looking for something."

"How so?"

"Most of the drawers in your home are open, and many of them are completely empty save for one with an apron." This was bad. The only thing of value in my home was my journal (which was made of the hive's skin) which I used to practice writing Chiddish. However, beforehand it was a mandatory record of our lives which we used for some reason that I believe related to "improving" our lives (not that it was necessary). If anypony translated what was in that journal, my identity would be discovered, and I would most likely be executed.

"Did the apron have anything in it?" I asked hesitantly.

"No."

Oh dear Chrysalis no. I panicked. Although I tried to hold my anxiety, I couldn't withhold a few beads of sweat on my brow. Who would actually want anything to do with my book? Why would anypony actually try to find out anything about me? I was certain that nopony had any suspicions to who I was.

Nopony other than Big Macintosh.


<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


"Hey, Blacksmith, are you alright? Is the music still too loud?" Vinyl sat down next to me as I clutched my head in both of my hooves. It had only been two days since my home had been sacked, yet I still felt like anypony could suddenly raid wherever I was and kill me on the spot. In fact, I could barely hear the pounding rave music since I was so captured in my thoughts.

I was only trying to live a normal life. Why was this happening to me?

"No, it's not that." I muttered. Vinyl scowled.

"Look, stud, you're not going to fix anything if you keep your head in your ass," she turned my stool around to face her, "We'll get you out of this together, alright?" I couldn't tell if she was being sincere since I couldn't see her eyes, but it was a nice thought.

"I guess I'll recover eventually, Vinyl." I looked at her, trying to see through the glasses she almost always wore. "Say, why are you always wearing those sunglasses? The only times you ever take them off are when you're around me or Octavia. It's almost like you're a vampony or something! You afraid of light?" She froze at  what I intended to be a joke. Then she just scowled at me and walked out the door.

Well, that was certainly random.

"What in the hoof just happened?" I muttered to myself. The bartender looked at me for a few seconds.

"If you like her so much, why don't you go after her?" he asked. Wait, did he say like her?

"What?" I turned towards him and gave him a questioning look.

"Hey, it's obvious from how you talk to her that you're a bit smitten." He said bluntly, "Now get out there and make things right before you ruin your chances of being together for good."

I looked at him, then at the door, and then back to him before nodding and saying thanks, heading out myself.

When I got out onto the street, I looked everywhere for Vinyl. The streets were relatively empty, so I could see her stick out like a sore thumb in a small crowd of ponies down the street. I started running after her, shouting "excuse me" every two seconds as I ran against the crowd. Vinyl turned a corner, and I followed. When I saw her, she had just gone into an alley and had taken off her sunglasses. She was pretty much crying her eyes out.

I couldn't believe what I had done to her. Had my question really hurt her that much? Did I really make her cry just from one careless question? Really, the biggest question was: how could I make this right? I truly had no idea what to do here. I took a deep breath, gathered my thoughts, and headed into the alley.

Vinyl didn't react when I sat in front of her. She just kept crying like she had been before. I edged closer and closer to her, careful not to startle her. I just sat in front of her for what felt like hours before she finally looked up at me.

Her irises were blood red, and her eyes were completely bloodshot.

"How could you say that?" she asked in between sobs before she looked down again. I said nothing for a long time. My mind was blank. Eventually, I decided to just let my words come to me by themselves.

"Please, Vinyl. I don't know what I did wrong. Just explain to me what's wrong," I pleaded her, "Whatever I said, I want to be able to fix it."

"I've never told you why I'm like this, have I? The pale fur, the weird eye color..." She looked up at me again and edged closer, "I'm not like other ponies. I wasn't born with any of the colored genetics other ponies are born with."

"So..?"

"I'm an albino, you idiot." She laughed a little at my ignorance, but that didn't wipe the hurt from her face.

"So it's something you're really sensitive about?" She nodded. 
"So I should never have said anything regarding that?" She nodded again.

"That would have been a better idea." She mumbled.

"I just want you to know that I'm sorry. I'll never bring this topic again." I brought my face closer to hers and looked deep into her eyes as they started to fade back into a magenta color, "Just please don't be mad at me." I felt extremely awkward with my wording, although it was the only wording I could find to truly express how I felt.

"You know you sound like a school colt right now, right?"

"Yes. Yes I do." I smiled, "Let's go home now."

"Right."
> There Are No Words
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Vinyl and I were walking back to her home rather slowly. Not much was being said between us, and I could only assume that she was deep in her thoughts. She was looking down at the ground, looking rather dejected, but I didn't want to break the silence in fear of startling her. Every fiber of my body was yelling at me to say something to her, to make her feel better. Vinyl decided to break the silence first, though.

"Blacksmith--" she started, but didn't finish what she was going to say. She just looked the other direction in an attempt to conceal her face from me.

I edged closer to her as we walked until eventually our sides were touching. She felt cold. Really cold. It was mid-winter, and for some reason neither one of us had coats, so we just huddled to keep our warmth together. I only then started to realize just how cold it was outside, and I felt like I was going to freeze to death just by walking. I thought she was trying to scoot away from me, so I broke the huddle and stepped sideways a little to give her some room, but she quickly huddled back.

"No, don't leave me here!" she said in a rather panicked voice as she brushed up against me to huddle again. She realized just how much emphasis she had put into her demand and she blushed, stammering out an apology.

"You don't have to apologize, Vinyl," I leaned my head onto hers, "I actually really like being this close to you." Her eyes became wide as saucers, and I felt the cheek she had on my shoulder become completely flushed with heat. I couldn't keep myself from laughing, but I cut myself short when I saw Vinyl just staring at me.

"You laugh at a lot of things," she said before smiling, "That's what I really like about you."

She reached up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, stopping me dead in my tracks. I felt a strange emotion, similar to what I had felt when I had woken up with her on my chest, but...deeper. More prominent, warmer. It completely filled up my chest and made me all giddy and happy. Vinyl was giggling at my completely reddened face, and before I knew it I started laughing too. We huddled together during our laughter, and I felt like I could just be with her forever.

There are no words to describe just how much of a spring I had in my step the rest of the way home.


<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


"So what you're saying is that while I'm waiting for the forge to be rebuilt I should work at a bakery?" Octavia nodded. She told me that I should go work at a place called "Sugarcube Corner", a sweets shop of sorts somewhere at the middle of town. Apparently she had already arranged a job interview, and although I objected to the idea of making pastries she was completely adamant with making me work there. She probably wanted me to stop emptying their fridge while I just laid around all day with nothing to do, which is perfectly understandable.

"We might as well have you do something constructive. Slacking around all day certainly won't help you." I sighed in defeat. Octavia was right, as much as I hate to admit it. She seemed quite proud of herself, as well.

"So where is this 'Sugarcube Corner'?"


...


Sugarcube Corner looked nothing at all like what I thought it would.

"What the hay kind of building is this?!" In front of me was a gigantic gingerbread house-looking building that I was certain was edible. One atrocious taste test proved that wasn't the case.

"It's Sugarcube Corner. It's owned by Mr. and Mrs. Cake, considered by most of Ponyville's population to be the greatest bakers in Equestria." Octavia looked rather excited to go inside, so we walked up to the door, which I opened for her. When she went inside, I heard a high-pitched and hyperactive voice that seemed to be directed at her.

"OhmygoshOctaviait'sbeensolongsinceI'veseenyouwherehaveyoubeenImissedyousomuchI'vegotsomuchtotellyou!"

Woah.

I walked inside to see an extremely bright pink mare with an incredibly curly mane that slightly resembled darkly colored cotton candy. As soon as she saw me, her eyes seemed to grow about nine times their actual size as her jaw dropped like a brick. Her expression suddenly changed into a huge smile as she turned back to Octavia and yelled:

"HE'S SO CUTE, IS HE YOUR COLTFRIEND?!" Octavia's jaw gaped, and I must admit so did mine. Octavia started blushing to the point where I could even see her face redden through her coat as she looked at me and back to the pink mare.

"No, I'm not her coltfriend. I'm a stallion, yes, and I am her friend, but we're not in any form of romantic relationship whatsoever." I explained to the mare. As soon as I was done talking, her expression suddenly dropped, and she looked disappointed, although somehow not embarrassed at all for her outburst, if it were an outburst at all.

Octavia, however, seemed more sad than anything. I would have thought her to just be ashamed from the pink mare's conclusion, but she actually seemed depressed and insulted by something. Was it something I said? Did I hurt her feelings or insult her somehow?

"Anyways, Mr. Octavia's-Not-Coltfriend, I'm Pinkie Pie and I'm friends with everypony in Ponyville, so I'm surprised I haven't met you yet because I usually meet everypony in Ponyville as soon as they arrive because I love everypony and I think you'll love it here!" Although her wording seemed to be slower in a way, I could still only barely grasp what she was trying to tell me.

"I'm Blacksmith, and I've been in Ponyville for about two months now." Pinkie's eyes became huge again, probably because she thought it was ridiculous that she hadn't met me yet. I thought her over-expressivity was kind of cute, actually.

"Ohmygosh I should totally show you around Ponyville! Have you gotten a tour yet? Haveyouhaveyouhaveyou?" The more she talked, the more jittery and bouncy she became. She was literally jackhammering the floor with her jumping in place so quickly.

"Yes, when I first arrived here Octavia and two of her friends gave me a tour." I just wanted to be able to get to the interview without this pink mare getting all over me.

"Oh. Okay." Her expression straightened out a bit.

"I'm actually here for a job interview, do you know where I'm supposed to be headed?"

"Yeah! Just head on over to that door behind the counter!" She pointed to a set of swinging doors like those at saloons in the back of the building.

"Alright, see ya Octavia." I looked over to her and saw she had her head up again.

"Good luck with your interview." she smiled and then walked out the door.

Why did she have her head down like that? She couldn't have only been embarrassed by Pinkie's comment. What was going on with her?


<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


"Wait, so you're working here because somepony destroyed your house?" Pinkie looked rather dumbstruck from my tale. Pinkie was the one interviewing me, and she had quite a bit of cupcakes on a platter while we talked. In between questions she would eat another one with a single bite. We were just about done with the interview when she asked me why I had left my old job, and I had told the whole story.

I'm certain that I was much, much too open, but it felt wrong to leave anything out.

Pinkie just stared at me for a few moments. I found that she had bright blue eyes that really complemented her personality; she was a really cute mare overall.

"I'm only intending to work here until I can get my home and forge rebuilt, if that's alright."

"Actually," she had a little twinkle in her eyes, "How about we also find out who did this while we're at it?" I had no idea how she intended to actually help out in the whole situation, but I really needed any and all help I could get, and I graciously accepted her offer.

As soon as I said yes, she ate all twenty of the remaining cupcakes in one shot, grabbed my hoof, and dragged me outside at a ridiculous speed. Ponies were staring at us as Pinkie dragged me along with her, and I saw a few mares giggle a little at the display.

Before long, Pinkie had managed to drag me all the way to Twilight's library.

"Pinkie, why did you bring me here?" Pinkie looked at me, dumbfounded, seemingly because to her the answer was so obvious.

"Twilight knows everything, silly!" she said with an adorable little chortle, "I'm sure she can help you out a little!" She then just sat down in front of the house and stared at me. I got the hint after a while that she wanted to wait for me outside.

When I walked in, I saw Twilight at a round table in the middle of her library, a bunch of books scattered all over the place around a single tome that she seemed to be concentrating heavily upon.

"Hello, how may I help you?" I heard a voice say from below me. I looked down to see a small purple dragon standing on his hind legs. He had green spines on his back, and two green fins that seemed to act as a form of ears.

"Yes, I'm here to speak with Twilight, if that's alright."

"Well, I don't think she'll be able to talk to you at the mo..."

"No, it's fine Spike, I can talk to him right now," Twilight interrupted the dragon as she walked up to me with a smile like she was particularly glad to see me, "How are you Blacksmith? What did you need to talk about?"

"I was actually wondering if you knew anything about who might have ransacked my home." Twilight looked shocked at my request, but eased up before long.

"I do have some official Ponyville citizen profiles. Maybe you could look and see if you know any of them? Has anypony  been acting suspicious around you lately?"

"Actually, only one that I know of, but I won't be naming any names." Twilight starting leading me back. As we passed the round table, I looked on it to see what she was reading.

I noticed that the tome she had was reading had a strange, black, and withered cover. The pages were yellowed, as if they had been either centuries old or made from some foreign substance. I found it to be curious, so I walked closer to read what was inside.

It was my hoofwriting.

It was written in Chiddish.

...

Twilight had my journal.

"Hey, Blacksmith, is everything all right?" she said from behind me. I could barely hear her over the sound of my own internal rage. 

I felt betrayed, and two prominent questions pierced my mind. Why did she have this? Was she the one who destroyed my home?

"...Blacksmith?"

"Where did you get this?" I tried my best to keep a straight and calm voice. I'm certain I was doing a rather poor job.

"What do you mean?" I turned around to face her and closed the distance between us so our snouts were touching while I glared at her. My height easily gave me an advantage in regards to intimidation, and I could see in her eyes that she was nervous. My more bestial instincts took over as I kept glaring at her, making her back away into a wall.

"What I mean is that this book is mine and I want to know how you got your hooves on it." A small spark appeared in her eyes as realization finally struck her.

"No! No! I didn't steal it I swear! There were a few stallions with weird silver ornaments in their manes who came in with this book and asked me to translate it, I had nothing to do with your house getting destroyed, I swear!" She was trembling in fear, and I suddenly felt a pang of guilt as my conscience suddenly kicked me in the face. I backed away and she let out a gasp, as if I had been restricting airflow.

"Twilight, I..." I couldn't put together any words to apologize to her. I felt terrible. I had just intimidated one of my only friends almost to the point of her passing out.

"Just take the book and go." Twilight didn't look at me, and she was still trembling. It seemed that I didn't move quick enough, because she screamed, "GET OUT!" I started a little, took my journal, and ran out of her library. The dragon looked quite dumbstruck at me, and before I closed the door behind me I could swear I heard some sobs coming from the back of the library.


<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


It was quite dark outside when I came out of the library. Pinkie was still there, and she looked at me expectingly.

"Well?" She asked with a huge smile. I felt a bit of pity for her strange giddiness and innocence, but I couldn't help but feel a little happier on the inside. Although, I would still have to tell her what had just happened.

"Well, I got what I wanted, but it seems I may have ruined my friendship with Twilight." I walked past her and she started scurrying up next to me, bouncing along instead of walking.

"What did you do? Did you make her mad? Did you call her an egghead?" She wasn't smiling anymore.

"No, I lost my temper when I saw that Twilight had my journal, and she just got mad at me and kicked me out. That's all." I didn't look at her as I kept walking.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" She asked me. She seemed like the kind of mare who was always willing to lend a helping hand, and that in itself made me smile.

"Yes, I'd appreciate it." I finally turned around to look at her with a small smile on my face. Before I could say anything else, she darted off in the direction of Twilight's library.

I only then realized that I had no idea if I had been accepted for the job at all.

I sighed in defeat, but decided to go check back at the Corner the next day. Either that, or Pinkie would come tell me herself.


<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


That night I made a very bad decision. It was a decision that set off a chain of events that would lead to the most life-changing moment I have ever experienced. To this very day, I regret this decision. This decision was something that I replay in my head every night, thinking of how it could have been changed. What would have happend if I didn't walk through that alley that night. I still wonder to myself every day: If Only...

I knew my way around town pretty well at this point, and I knew where all the buildings were in accord to each other. However, I had never tried taking any road other than the roads spanning off from the town square. However, since Twilight's library wasn't anywhere near the town square, I decided to take a different route.

This "route" was really an alleyway between two buildings. It didn't look too desolate as it was rather well lit, but it was an alleyway. There was a dumpster, a bit of garbage here and there, some cardboard boxes, and a couple scattered tin cans.

I didn't pay much thought to this, though. I only wanted to get back home, simple as that.

I was stopped dead in my tracks by a hoof on my shoulder.

"I suggest ya hand that back to me." I knew that voice.

"Big Macintosh, this is my journal, and I don't care what you want with it, destroying a home is no way to take anything from anypony." I didn't look at him, fear overtaking every fiber of my body despite my desperate attempts to remain calm.

"Why, 'Smith, ya don't actually think I'm the one who destroyed yer house, now do ya?" Big Macintosh wasn't the only  changeling hunter in Ponyville? I should have known. My foolishness kept me from looking out for members of his organization, and it cost me dearly. "I got a few of my associates to do the dirty work. All we needed to do was translate that ghastly tongue of yours and finally expose who you really are to everypony, and we would all be safe from your soul-suckin' kind."

I broke his hold on my shoulder, jumped forward, and whipped around to face him so there was about five feet of distance between us before hissing and rattling my vocal cords. My Changeling instincts had taken over for a split second, and I had performed a gesture of challenge. Against a pony, no less! I cursed my heritage under my breath as Big Macintosh pulled out a silver knife.

"Although, I think killing ya now would be a relatively simple alternative." I looked into his eyes and saw a glimmer of guilt, fear, and remorse.

I could tell Big Macintosh didn't actually want to kill me. Was he ordered to do this by one of his superiors?

Was he trying to trick me into attacking him?

"Big Macintosh, I don't want to fight you. I just want to live a life as a normal po--" I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence before the red stallion charged at me while squeezing his eyes shut. We barely had a difference in height, but his strength easily toppled me. The fact that he had his eyes closed did nothing to hinder his accuracy or strength.

However, I had learned enough magic to be able to push him off with a single shockwave. He didn't fly far at all, but it gave us enough distance for me to be able to get back up and in turn pin him down. I had fully shut off my rationality at this point as I simply let my more violent side take over as I pummeled Big Macintosh's face repeatedly with my hooves. I was strong, but so was he. I had only managed to create a single welt on his forehead before he pushed me off and pinned me down once more, this time with the knife in hoof. He swung it above his head, ready to stab me straight in the heart.

"Now you won't be able to torment this town any longer..!" Big Macintosh hesitated. His hoof trembled as it held the knife. I closed my eyes, accepting my fate and looking back at my brief existence as a pony.

I could only think of Vinyl. The beautiful, albino mare that I had quickly befriended despite our differences. Her face was all I could think of. Her amazing magenta eyes, her infectious laugh, her compassionate and kind smile. All I could think about was how much I wanted to see her again. But what was this feeling I got from her? Was it truly what I thought it was?

In the midst of my thoughts, I heard a clatter on the pavement as I snapped my eyes open. The knife was right next to me. Big Macintosh was looking down, shaking his head.

"What in Tartarus am I doin'..." He laughed a little. It wasn't a happy laugh, though. More of a disappointed laugh. He looked up at me before continuing, "Why am I trying to kill ya when ya haven't done anything wrong? Ye'r only tryin' to live among us..." Although it was unexpected, his sudden change of heart was a huge relief to me. I knew already that ponies were peaceful creatures; killing me would be going against every single one of his instincts, and Applebloom had described him as a "gentle giant". I shouldn't have been so scared of him.

But there was one thing I was still afraid of, and rightfully so.

SHCRSHK

Big Macintosh's eyes widened as his mouth started leaking blood. A few drops landed on my forehead. He tried speaking, but no words came out. Instead, all I heard was a raspy, chittering voice.

"It's just so much easier when they bleed, isn't it? Their love just goes out through the blood, and you can just lap all of that right up! The sound is so comforting, too... well, unless they start screaming."

No, this can't be happening...

Big Macintosh had a pleading look in his eyes. I could see his soul slowly leave his eyes, and I felt sickened at just how much pain and sorrow this would cause those he held dear. To think this was my life before I became a pony...

I was disgusted with myself.

"Come on, now, you've been doing this sort of thing your whole life! Don't tell me you've grown a soft spot for these creatures!" I heard the sickening sound of a weapon exiting a wound before Big Macintosh keeled over and landed in a pool of his own blood. I looked on, shocked at how the Changeling had his right hoof completely changed into something resembling a short sword.

He had somehow managed to do something no Changeling had ever achieved before. He had managed to polymorph a single part of his body into an object of his choice; in this case, some sort of twisted sword with holes in it. He chuckled a little at my dumbfounded expression before continuing, this time in Chiddish.

"I think you've succeeded pretty well in disappointing the Hive. It flew into quite a rage when it found out one you had betrayed us." So they did know. Rain started falling down, wetting my mane and coat and bouncing off of the Changeling's skeleton.

"I hold no allegiance to the Hive." I stated bluntly. The Changeling looked at me curiously before bursting into a cruel, raspy laughter.

"You've fallen in love haven't you?" He said in between laughs.

"What?"

"Oh, don't tell me you're too stupid to realize it yourself? You've fallen for a pony!" He started jumping in place, his hooves clacking against the pavement and splashing puddles of rain, "Ooh, ooh, I can just imagine her-- white coat, nice, huge magenta eyes, blue mane, perfect flank... Damn, she fine. You got yourself a nice one."

Was he talking about Vinyl? It couldn't be, she was just a friend of mine, a roommate...

But what if he was right? What if I had been hiding my thoughts from myself all along?

He continued, "Hold on, let me guess her name... uh, hold on... ooh! I got it! Vinyl Scratch!" I stared at him, dumbfounded. How in Equestria was he able to read my thoughts? What sort of powers did he get with his sentience?

"We're friends, not lovers, you prick." He laughed uncontrollably at my comment. He wasn't taking me seriously enough. Then again, why should he?

"You're lying to yourself, my friend. I can read your heart like a book. You're making me hungry...but I digress. I'm looking forward to having a bit of fun with you. We'll get along quite well, I believe. Don't worry, I won't tell anyling that you're here." He turned around, took a few steps, and before I knew it he was gone.

I felt my legs go weak. I just collapsed, and as I lay on the cold, wet pavement all I could think of was him saying I was in love with Vinyl.

Was he right? No, that was nonsense. Vinyl and I were friends, I couldn't possibly harbor any feelings for her.

My mind tried to cover for my heart, but it was useless. I could see nothing but Vinyl. I only saw the beautiful mare I had grown so attached to.

It became clear to me then that my sheer stupidity and ignorance had hidden me from this fact all along. My stubbornness had kept me from seeing the truth. There was only one word to describe everything I felt. To describe the warmth in my chest every time I was near her. To describe my giddiness when our sides were touching. To describe my heart melting when she woke up on my chest. To describe how I could just stare into her beautiful eyes for all eternity.

Love.

I was in love with Vinyl Scratch.

Look at me go, I'm sounding like I've got an elementary school crush, don't I?

In the midst of my thoughts, I looked over and saw Big Macintosh. He wasn't dead...but he was close. I crawled over to him, and as I did he wheezed out only a few words.

"Don't let me leave my family..." He was gone. His eyes had become dull. There was nothing left in him.

Big Macintosh was dead.

I managed to shakily get back up on my legs. Using as much magic as I could muster, I put the stallion on my back and attempted to start a long trek to the hospital.

I passed out before I even left the alleyway.
> Zharko
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I woke up in a white room, hooked up to various machines which had functions unknown to me. The only one which I could infer the purpose of was a machine that had a green, jagged line that ran along it in rhythm with my heartbeat. It was definitely used for tracking my heart rate.

My head was pounding intensely, as if I had been violently drugged before being knocked out. In an attempt to make myself concentrate on something other than the headache, I began to piece the events of the previous night in my head. I felt a little dumb for having picked up Big Mac and tried to save him. I didn't think he was alive; all life had left his eyes. Although, I wasn't one to tell; I couldn't trace ponies' spiritual essences anymore.

I tried to sit up, but quite a few tubes and needles tugged me back. I grunted a little in pain, not having realized that I had a bunch of needles inside of my skin. The thought disgusted me, and I whimpered, not caring for my pride at the moment. I decided to lay back again and just wait for somepony to come along.

After about two hours a pony with a white coat came in with a clipboard and a pencil. After eyeing me for a second he smiled and said, "You seem to be awake for real this time. Good to see you've finally woken up."

"How long was I out?" I cocked my head a little.

"You've been in a coma for about five months." I gasped, not even intending for a dramatic effect. How could I have been out for a that long? It felt like only the day before that I had been attacked by Big Macintosh. In fact, the Changeling didn't even attack me at all. How could I have been put into a coma if I had received no damage whatsoever?

"I know it's quite a surprise, and we're not quite sure how it happened either. We found you in an alleyway with a stallion on your back, both of you out cold." 

I cringed at how awkward that sounded.

He continued, "The stallion is still in a coma, but he's alive. You're both lucky somepony found you before you both...well, died." 

The news of Big Macintosh's survival had come as a surprise. I was certain that he had died, and that my attempt at bringing him to the hospital had been for naught. It was a huge relief to know that he was alive, but there was still something else on my mind...

"How long do I have to stay here?" I asked. Crossing my hooves, I wished to myself that I could leave soon enough.

"Two weeks, if you're lucky." Buck. I lay back against the bed again and sighed. Two weeks was a long time...although, it was nothing compared to the five months I was out. I figured that my forge could have been rebuilt by then if I had paid the bits. It would take a long time before I could start forging again. Thinking about that only deepened my depression, so I pushed it out of my mind and replaced it with a different thought.

"I had a book with me when I passed out. Is that still here, by any chance?"

The doctor shook his head, "No, a lavender mare came in about a week after you were found and insisted on taking it home with her. She somehow convinced us, and now she has the book. Do you know her?"

Dammit, Twilight!

"Yeah, I know her," I sighed and rolled my eyes. I wasn't too worried that she would translate anything, though. Chiddish was an extremely complicated language, and its very grammar would change between sentences. On top of that, it was impossible to spell the language phonetically as it used multiple sounds that were not used in Braytish and contained almost no vowels. It still bothered me that she had the book, though; it would take quite a bit of convincing on my part for her to give up the book again, especially considering I had been so violent the last time. Hopefully she wasn't too mad about that...

Wait a second. What the hay was wrong with my life? I had been put in a string of extremely unexpected and overly dark events in the past few weeks before the incident with Big Macintosh. What was going on? Did that Changeling have something to do with it?

Was he even really a Changeling at all?

The doctor's voice broke through my thoughts, "We'll be checking in on you once every day for the next three days, and then once every two days for the rest of your stay here. You will be unable to receive any visitors during your stay here due to hospital policy, unfortunately." He then turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him.

I did not look forward to the next few weeks.


<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->


Squeak, tok, tok, squeak, tok, tok, squeak, tok, tok, tok...

I was getting accustomed to hearing the ball hit my hoof, then the wall, then the floor, my hoof again, and so on. At first I was unsettled by the fact that my hoof made a strange squeaking sound every time it hit something, but eventually I got used to it and found the sound slightly humorous. There was a strange enjoyment in hitting that ball over and over again; I had probably been doing it for hours. Eventually, though, the ball had bounced off the wall and onto the floor, not reaching my hoof. Feeling too lazy to use magic and bring it back to me, I just lay back and tried to fall asleep.

Sleep never came, and when I snapped my eyes back open I saw it was still noon. I turned over with a groan, bored to death. The IV needles, as I learned they were called, had been removed within a week of my waking up. The doctor said I was recovering much, much faster than any other pony he had ever seen before.

I should have felt proud, but in truth it bothered me more than anything. Changelings had an abnormally quick healing rate, among the fastest in existence. Maybe the lines between my being as a pony and a Changeling were beginning to blur?

Great, another unpleasant thought. Totally what I needed to help my mood. With another groan, I turned over and lay on my back again. The Hospital was easily the most boring place in existence, and their food certainly didn't help.

"Hello, Blacksmith. How are you doing today?" Right on cue, a nurse came in with a tray of a bland meal of bean stew on her back.

"Same as usual. Seriously, how much longer do I have to stay here?" I asked as I reached over and grabbed the tray from her back, eliciting a shudder from her as my hooves brushed against her back. The doctor had strictly forbidden me from using magic while I was recovering, so whenever any of the staff was around I made sure not to use any.

The problem with that was Nurse Redheart, who seemed to have a particular fondness for me. It seemed she purposefully positioned herself so I'd graze across her every time I took something from her. It's not that I disliked her or anything. In fact, she was kinda cute. I still preferred Vinyl, though, and I intended to stay a one-mare stallion until I learned whether or not Vinyl felt the same about me as I did about her. Forgive me for having old-fashioned views on romance.

Before I knew it, I was daydreaming about the rave mare.

"Blacksmith? Are you alright? I don't think you heard my answer." Redheart looked at me with her head cocked slightly to the side. I snapped myself out of it and apologized.

"Sorry, I zoned out a bit. It happens to me sometimes, I have attention deficities or whatever they're called..." I grinned sheepishly while Nurse Redheart giggled.

"Oh, it's fine," she said as she watched me eat, "You should be clear to leave soon enough. Probably within five days." Five days seemed like a long time to me, but it wasn't really the end of the world. I'd be out of there soon enough if I didn't really think about it. I grunted in consent as I kept eating the bland meal, finishing and putting it on the tray next to my bed. Thank Chrysalis that there was a glass of water nearby to wash the taste down.

"Is there any reason why I can't be visited? I'm pretty sure this Hospital's never had that policy as far as I've heard."

Redheart cocked her head at my statement, "What kind of pony learns things about hospitals they've never been to?" she shook her head, "No matter. I'll leave you here now. I'll be back soon..." She winked at me before walking out of the room with a swish of her tail.

Damn, that flank...stop it brain.

I was almost giddy with excitement at the news that I'd be leaving relatively soon. Five days wasn't the end of the world. Only about 120 hours, which also can be interpreted as 7200 minutes, or 432000 seconds. No time at all.

"Urgh, I feel like I'm going to wait forever," I groaned, falling back in defeat. It would feel like ages before I could leave this gods-damned hospital.

"Really, I think you should consider it more of a blessing. Not everypony gets through a coma and lives to tell the tale." I almost whiplashed as I stumbled a bit and snapped my head towards the sound.

Sitting next to my bed was a changeling, trimming his hooves with a scalpel he must have gotten from the surgical tray in the far corner.

"You're acting surprised to see me. Seriously, after I threw you and that huge redneck into a coma you don't recognize me?" He let out a melodramatic sigh, "I'm so hurt. Especially since I thought you'd recognize this face pretty well." He turned his head to face me. At first, I didn't catch his meaning, but upon closer inspection of his face I could see just how easily I should have recognized him.

"Surprised to see your own body talking to you?" He said as he flashed a toothy smile, "I personally like it, you were a very characteristic changeling, if I do say so myself."

It was indeed my old body that he was in possession of. I had seen my reflection enough to recognize the oversized right canine and the scar that trailed down his tongue as he spoke.

Until then I had never really thought about what I looked like when I was a changeling. We had no sense of individuality; appearance meant nothing. You were who you were; nothing changed that, not even what you looked like.

I could barely string words into a sentence, "But how? I polymorphed, I couldn't possibly have left behind my old body for some crazy spirit to take over, I-"

The changeling put up a hoof to silence me, "Wrong. I'm not a spirit, and you weren't polymorphed. We merely switched bodies."

Completely dumbfounded, I asked for him to elaborate. He assented by telling me his life story.

"My original form was that of a unicorn, like you are now. My parents always said I was a strapping young colt, powerful both in mind and body. I was more physically powerful than a normal unicorn, and as an added bonus I had a strange knack for the more arcane form of unicorn magic.

I was more interested in Necromancy and Alchemic Transmutation, unlike other colts my age who wanted to learn about battle spells. My interest for transforming lead into gold and bringing back the dead drove off quite a few of my peers, and when I turned eighteen I was sent off by my parents."

He then looked straight at me, "The most humiliating part of my banishment was that I still had a blank flank.

No cutie mark. Nothing to signify my love for the arcane. I found myself a nice cave to dwell in, and continued my studies. Fortunately, I had brought along all of my belongings, which included my entire library which included forgotten tomes of lore and journals I had kept over my years of studies."

His tone of voice heightened, and he began acting agitated, "I had made a grave mistake though. Instead of continuing my research of how to turn lead into more refined metals and changing the very laws of our biology, I sought out to transform myself. I sought to become the most powerful of ponies; an Alicorn. I wanted to change myself into a deity, no longer desiring to be stuck as a simple unicorn. I kept studying, and after five more years I found out a way to polymorph myself--but I should have waited longer. I was too impatient. On my twenty-third birthday, all my preparations were complete. The circles were drawn, the elixirs consumed, the spells prepared."

He sighed, "I should have studied longer. Even if I was forty when I finally got it right, it would have been all worth it. My impatience and immaturity led me to cast the spell too soon. I did not know enough about pony transmutation.

Yes, the spell that transformed me was meant to be a polymorph spell. However, instead it did not create a new body for me like I wanted it to. It transferred my body over to a different soul, swapping my own body with theirs."

His face deathly close, I could smell his rotten breath as pointed a hoof at me, "We swapped bodies because of my blundering in a spell that was meant to change my life for the better. It seems, though, that my spell did manage to get me my cutie mark at last..."

I sat there, bewildered at his revelation. Was my change by accident? Was my whole transformation pure chance and not a surge of my own power that made me turn into a pony? I started trembling, my lip quivering as I tried to piece his story together. Would he kill me to take his body back?

"Now, don't take this the wrong way. I certainly don't mean to be much of a pain in the ass," he smiled widely, "In fact, if anything I'm grateful for this body! The ability to change into anypony I want is glorious!"

"So why are you telling me all of this? Why did you attack us in the alleyway if you're not my enemy?" I asked. To this, he leaned back with a serious expression replacing his once maniacal grin.

"The spell is wearing off. You feel it too, don't you? The lines between pony and changeling are blurring for both of us. The fact that you decided to carry that stallion was no mere coincidence. You knew he was still alive. Deep within you, that part of you that is becoming more and more like your old self has started acting up," he looked out the window, a solemn look in his eyes, "The same is happening for me, too. I need more and more love to satisfy my thirsts, and it is becoming harder and harder to get a hold of. I don't want to have to kill anypony. I want to stay like this. In a way, my spell gave me exactly what I wanted. I have become something different; something more, if you can call it that. Really, my only reason for attacking you was to make sure you were isolated in a hospital room. It would make speaking to you easier. You never know who would listen in."

"So what do we do to solve this?"

"It's something a bit complicated. Our souls are still somewhat bound together for the spell. My assumption is that this will not be permanent, and therefore my solution will most likely not be in effect too long..."

"Just cut to the chase." I asked, irritated at his extending of his phrases. I had been transformed into a unicorn, but that did not mean my patience had changed. Besides, I did not know if I could trust this changeling yet. I took everything he had said until then with a grain of salt, in fact.

"I think that I'll have to feed off of your love for Vinyl Scratch."

"...what."

He groaned, "You heard me, lovebird, I'm going to feed off of your love for Vinyl Scratch."

"You mean you're going to sap all of my feelings for her?" I was shocked at his proposition. How could I completely abandon the mare I loved just to save myself?

"No, not all," he clarified, "I'm going to sap you little by little, at intervals, letting your emotions come back naturally. For now I only need to feed once every week or so, and if I drain half of your love for her then I should be satiated for about that long. It'll take six days for you to replenish fully, if I'm correct."

"Alright, awesome, now get out of my room before-" He shoved a hoof in my mouth to keep me from talking. It tasted like bugs.

"I'm not done yet. This will let me survive long enough so the spell can be complete. So long as you stay completely a pony and I stay completely a changeling while we connect our souls, we will eventually be able to disconnect from each other."

I pushed his hoof out of my mouth, "That makes no sense."

"Supernatural physics make no sense in general. Magic is something supernatural, it's not something we can predict. In fact, as far as we know it's sentient."

"That's actually kind of interesting. So does that mean you can leave now?"

He rolled his eyes, "One more thing I have to say. Your love for Vinyl is the only thing that can ensure success in what we're doing. Therefore, openly admitting your feelings to her might ruin the relationship between the two of you if she doesn't feel the same way."

"Wouldn't you be able to tell if she feels the same way about me, though?"

He shook his head, "No, unfortunately. My powers as a Changeling aren't in full effect yet. It'll take a while until I can know for sure."

Not knowing a lot about mares at the time, I decided to take his word for it and nodded. He clapped his hooves together and smiled.

"Wonderful! Looks like we have a deal then. Don't worry, I'll only be sapping you once a week and you probably won't notice when it happens," he proceeded to hold out his hoof, "I don't think I caught your name, by the way."

I reached out and we shook, "My name's Blacksmith."

The changeling smiled before saying, "It's great to meet you, Blacksmith. You can call me Zharko."

I felt a twinge in my stomach as I shook hooves with him. I slowly felt myself become tired and grumpy as he did what I assumed to be draining my love. I started to feel dizzy as my heart rate monitor started to slow down. Apparently he had lied when he said I wouldn't notice the draining.

I realized then that as long as Zharko was around, life in Ponyville was going to take a turn for the worse.