Well, now that we are all here, this is the tale of a changeling's life. I'm sorry, that may have been a bit blunt. Here is the tale of a changeling who has torn himself away from his home. As most of you may know, changelings feed off of love. When they are present at their hive, Chrysalis, their queen, provides them with enough love (she has gathered) to get by. If he were to isolate himself from the rest of his species, then he would have to fend for himself. Thus meaning that he will have to find a mean of obtaining love.
Luckily, there is a little town called Ponyville filled with huge quantities of love right next to his residence. Only in fantasies right? Well, this town is merely a mirror image of paradise. What was that you say? Nothing can be so perfect? Well, I've only given you a taste of true paradise. Truth being, there is a little menace known as the Everfree forest just a few miles from Ponyville. It is the place of refuge for many different types of horrid animals. Animals that only an insane pony in their right mind could possibly imagine. Why did they construct something such as Ponyville so close to the forest? Lighten up and ask why not.
To straighten the path of explanation a bit, a changeling is one of those creatures that the infamous Everfree forest harbors. Believe it or not, they once tried to take over the poor village. I guess it's not that hard to picture, them being the most sentient villains to come from the nightmarish place and all.
Back to our story. A changeling separates himself from the group, in a state of careless rage. He had only just found out that one of his fellow amigos had just been thrown into Celestia's freak-show dungeon. It was usually filled to the brim with potentially dangerous creatures. It's not like the princess would want anybody to know about it though. This was the third prisoner she had taken this week. Equestria must have been cracking down hard on all of the changelings recently. They were taking in groups of scouts. Being a scout was quite the honorary duty in the hive. A scout's job is to scrutinize all of the inhabitants of Ponyville for the wholehearted ponies. The ones that would produce hefty amounts of love by simply befriending another pony. In this case, a changeling disguised as a pony.
Charles (our main character- original right?) flees to Ponyville in order to find a place of refuge there. Without a large army of changelings to depend on, Charles must find a way to feed himself. The thoughts going through his head were along the lines of "It can't be that hard right?" Although, those words were thrown into a pot with "Oh Chrysalis I'm going to die out here!" So it was nearly impossible for him to give his all in finding somewhere to sleep.
It was simple enough to conjure up a simple costume for his future life. Nothing but patchwork. As of now, Charles is hiding his true self behind a coat of messy dark blue hair. He sports a jet black mane and tail. For his iconic cutie mark? A mirror. A mirror could be interpreted in many ways. It could mean that he is really good fashion-wise. Perhaps it could mean he even took up a profession in making, polishing, or fixing glassware. The reality behind this scenario is that it stood for two different personalities with a dash of deceiving nature. That would be the last thing to expect in a loving village such as Ponyville though.
All he could hope to do is find a shelter. Things didn't look too good. It was a bit late in the evening so galloping around, albeit aimlessly, at this pace drew a little more attention than needed. There weren't many ponies out this late. The town slept soundly knowing that criminal activity was next to nothing. It may make Charles look like some sort of fugitive. The glances cast over at him were quickly discarded in his worried mind. At this point, a simple tree with a large canopy would do fine just to sleep the impending night away. Food is something to worry about another time. It wouldn't be that difficult to collect.
WHAM!
A shadowy figure slammed right into Charles' left side. Consequently, he flew a couple feet and fell to the ground. He was quick to get up though. He wanted a clear look at his assaulter. With the darkness closing in, it was very hard to make out anything.
"Ahm mighty sorry bout' that!" The unidentified speaker struck him as strongly southern. "Here take one of these apples as mah apology. I best be headed mah way though. I need ta be somewhere." No time was left for bickering. The speaker left none. They did however leave a token of apology in the form of an apple, like they said. Must have been a farmer or something, he thought to himself. She was indeed a farmer by the name of Applejack. She was carrying a basket stuffed with apples back to Sweet Apple Acres. None of this information was apparent to Charles though.
Once he had gotten back up, Charles chucked the apple as far as he could, dusted himself off and zoomed away. It's not like he would need it any time soon. The sun was now descending over the distant hills until it would no longer be seen. He needed to find somewhere to stay quickly, otherwise he would run out of daylight. The eyes in his head darted furiously around himself to the speed of which I'm surprised they didn't just fall out. They settled on something but I couldn't quite place what he was staring at. It appears that his eyes work better in the dark than mine. I guess he should be used to living in the dark anyways.
His now silhouetted figure jumped at an unseen sight, and started to fly towards it. It would be impossible to hide the tiny bat wings he usually used without turning into a pegasus. The pegasus were prime suspects for changeling homes. Therefore he is obviously a pegasus. No further questions asked thank you. Charles slowed his pitch to where he could land comfortably. A couple last flaps from his blue wings and he settled on the ground in front of the mouth of an open cave. Well, I say cave. It was more of a little invention in the side of a small hill. Slowly, he walked towards the opening. Hopefully there were no current owners. If so, he would have to look elsewhere, but at this point elsewhere means under a rock. He scrutinized the walls of it for any sign of wildlife, then the floor. Nothing struck him as unusual, so he was able to lie down and close his tired eyes. Nothing like a good night's sleep to lower someone's guard.
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Charles woke up early next morning. It wasn't the fact that something had woken him. It was just his mind. It had been troubled with nightmares of being thrown into the dungeon, or being killed in his little rock hole by some timber wolves or something. Wave after wave of horrifying monsters plagued his dreams. He would rather have woken up earlier when they had actually started appearing. Reality is the happy medium.
It is this moment in time that Charles realizes he's as hungry as...a starved changeling. He needed to find someone to feed off of soon, but he was never one for the rituals of Chrysalis. She would hypnotize a pony and take mass amounts of love for the hive. Charles only wanted to make a friend. Why was hypnosis necessary? I will never know, and he will certainly never question it further.
Ponyville was only a short walk away. Last night, it had felt like miles. Turns out, he had been running in circles the whole time. He could even see the large sized doughnut in the grass. "Idiot," he mumbled under his breath. There was no moment that could embarrass him more than this. And the worst part was that he was all alone. He was the audience to his dimwitted misfortune. And yet, your own conscience is the worst audience to have at any similar sort of moment.
He slowed his pace as the clicking sound of his hooves on the cobblestone pathway reached his ears. It was soothing, but annoying and constant like a mosquito. There were many other residents walking among the streets. He wasn't a scout, and never dreamed of being one, but their main sense would have come in hand about now. That is tracking creatures that are surrounded by a large green hue. Only scouts could see the odd colors. It was almost just as easy to pick out the individuals that would potentially harbor that energy just by their look, but looks can be deceiving. No living thing could be trusted...well...except for maybe another changeling, but that's different.
BAM!
Again? Charles picked himself up. Who was it this time? Suddenly, something wide-eyed and pink blocked his vision.
"I'm super, very, very, so sorry! Oh! What's your name!? You must be new here!" Did this pony need to breathe? It looked like she had been hyped up on some forbidden magical drug. "What's your favorite sweet!? Do you like parties!? Ooh! We need to throw you a welcome party!" She turned away and bounced off before poor Charles got a chance to say anything. It's not like he had anything more, at that moment, to say than 'buck off'. Well, now he was invited to a party in which address had not been disclosed.
If there were any more sudden disruptions such as the two that had already happened, Celestia forbid they ever do. Not only was it painful, but it could cut the curtain of magic that disguised his former self. Charles was a new pony now. He would stick with it to the end. After regaining his bearings, he resumed his quest. To find (a) friend/food. Wait a second. There. Just there. On the other side of the walkway, trotted a happy pegasus, but there was something different about her that no pony else had. It was the most radiant and carefree smile walking around in Ponyville. Charles needed to meet her. As he drew near, he noticed that there was something else about her that was different from all the rest. Her eyes. One of them looked straight up, while the other drifted lazily off to the side. He stopped for a second to stare. The pony immediately broke out into tears and ran off. It is at this moment that I am glad he does not know I am narrating his life, because I lost it there. Sure chuckles had been plentiful watching him and his misfortunes, but this was ridiculous, almost to the point where I felt disappointed in myself.
What had set her off? "Mares," he mumbled. This resulted in even more whoops from my decidedly devolved sense of humor. Then, his stomach growled. Once...twice...it sold to the next suitable pony he saw. By the end of the day, he would feel like a skeleton, if there was no food to be obliged.
"What's your name?" A sweet voice called out from behind him, taking him off of his poor excuse of a guard.
"Huh? Uh...Charles." Hopefully they couldn't trace his changeling form with that name, but he was kinda put on the spot there. The bearer of those words had a clean baby blue coat, with a faded sort of orange mane for accompaniment. Nothing that would stick out in a crowd.
"Oh. Nice name, but I was just wondering if you needed help. You looked like you were lost." Apparently the expected 'I'm only lost in your eyes,' went straight over his head.
"Oh, no I'm good." The response was up-front, but it sufficed as a way of escape. But then he saw something in her eyes. No, it was not her amber irises. It...it was...love. Something Charles hadn't yet seen in any other pony before. Maybe he had a slight bit of sense that the scouts had. "What's your name?" Charles asked innocently. He was half expecting her to run off with a huff.
"August." With the mention of her name, Charles could feel a spark of energy flow through his veins, pressing him to take it further. It was almost like an instinct. Hopefully that same instinct wouldn't betray him right then and there, by making him lean in to kiss. He'd easily be slapped upside the head, then dropped by a frenzy of hoof swipes. He wasn't the workout-and-get-into-fights kinda pony. He was the want-to-try-his-hand-at-a-friendship-but-is-too-socially-awkward-to-pull-through kinda pony. Since when had making a friend been this hard? Seriously.
"Hey, I actually need help getting to... Sugarcube Corner?" It was the first reasonable place to come to his mind, as he had passed it earlier when entering town. If he were lucky, she would accompany him there, and possibly open up a chance to ask to hang out sometime. Being hungry and knowing that you may not get fed if you can't make this simple arrangement makes a pony desperate. Thinking of being hungry, I'm surprised he didn't realize his mistake. The mistake being that he couldn't possibly eat any of the food available there. Changelings didn't have digestive systems, so the food they put in their mouth came right back out. If gag reflexes weren't in their nature, more than one of them would have fallen victim to one of these predicaments. That is with a consequence of dying from trying to swallow the food.
"Oh, I'd be happy to help. It's always nice to see a new face." Wait. How did she know he was new in Ponyville? She certainly didn't know his secret did she? No. Of course not. That would be silly. Silly is pretty much what defines the village though, so that wouldn't be much of a stretch. In fact, I would be surprised if the author didn't put some twist like that in. What? What about the fourth wall? Ah, never mind. I never liked the author for his work anyway. I'm more of a...uh...let's get back on track, shall we?
"How do you know I'm new?" He said with his face turning white, though unnoticeably.
"Well, all ponies that were here for a week or more know this place like the back of their hooves. That's what makes picking out new members so easy." The explanation seemed reasonable. No, just more believable. I hardly saw any reason to back up that statement. They started to trot in the general direction of the sugary bakery.
I believe a tour is now in order. What is hospitality like some good sightseeing? Neither of them said anything on the way. I guess that is aside from the few "Here is the town hall," and the rather simple "This is the fountain of Ponyville. It's at the heart of the village." Most of it was self explanatory, but she was a nice guide. Good thing she wasn't a taxi driver, because I'm pretty sure the counter would be up to about five-hundred by now. It's only hilarious because Sugarcube Corner was roughly two miles away from their previous location.
"Here we are. I'll be seeing you around." Charles breathed a sigh of relief. If he hadn't realized his flaw earlier, he had picked up on it some time during their little walk. And by some time, I mean about an hour. And by little walk, I mean enough distance to cover Equestria. At this point, he could walk in and not look suspicious. Then, when he was sure she had gone, he would sneak back out. Their bonding session gave him enough strength for the next day as well as the current one. If he could keep coming back to do this, he would do just fine.
He opened the main door, and began to walk inside. The sound of a cannon firing rang out through the shop. Charles opened his surprised eyes to find a crowd of ponies staring at him. Confetti and streamers filled the air.
"SURPRISE!" Shouted out everyone in the cramped room. I immediately thought back to the point where Charles had been run over by Pinkie Pie. She mentioned the party. I assumed that he was still reeling from this sudden, yet merciless attack on his ears. So caught up in the moment that he wouldn't recall his encounter with the pink party animal. August came rushing into the building. It had to have passed it's maximum limit by now. Our main character was at a loss for words, so August voiced out her initial opinions.
"What happened? Is anyone hurt?" Then she saw the faces of every other being in the room lined up behind several desert tables. Then, she glanced over at her surprised acquaintance. Then, it all sunk in. The party was for Charles. Who else? This was normal for Pinkie, and all the townspeople knew it. That's why the majority of them was crammed into that one room.
The overexcited bouncing pony in the back bounded forward to answer the questions.
"We threw a big party for our super special guest! Would you like to join?"
"Uh...well," she tried to reply
"Oh cool! This'll be great!" I deduced from August's unsure reply that she did not want to join in, but how could she let down the crowd? It was a bit over the top, as it always is, but it was still too much for August. She would likely sneak out while nobody is looking.
Charles still stood by the door, unsure of what to do. Eating the desserts would blow his cover. Attempting a party game could possibly blow his cover. Then, there was also the fact the longer he stayed, the more energy he would obtain. The party was for him right? If he saw the same assets, I would be proud. All he had to do was distract everybody from the snacks and games. It'll be a piece of cake for him. That may have been a bit offensive. Uh...that would be a piece of...love? Wow that was bad.
He woke up in his little 'cave house' thing to greet another day. Last night's party was the worst. If he had been normal, he could have actually enjoyed himself. Nothing was normal though.
The first priority in his mind was now work. He needed to find an occupation in order to accumulate some bits. In doing so would allow him to actually live properly for once. Even a changeling shouldn't be treated with such harsh conditions.
Without much preparing, he waltzed back out into the town. The whole time, I had been trying to get his attention. His appearance made him seem like a bear of sorts. Charles' coat was ruffled and his mane would make a hairdresser faint. Nobody would be insane enough to show themselves in public with this type of eye catching style. Especially someone who wouldn't want to draw attention. It was all in vain. Oh well... Another half mile walk, and he had entered the little town's border. There was no stopping his atrocious looks now.
He slowly gravitated towards the center of Ponyville. There were many shops surrounding the area. It should be easier to find a job there than anywhere else. It was also the center of attention for consumers.
Something flashed out of the corner of my eye. Apparently, it had done the same to Charles. Curiosity entered his mind. Ditto for me. 'Carousel Boutique'. Well this should be good. He walked closer to the sign to read the smaller print under a bedazzled 'help wanted' sign. It read: 'Looking for applicants with experience in the field of sewing and salesmanship'. It looked like that one could safely be checked off of the list.
There were quite a few other vacant spots, but none of them seemed to pay enough, or even appeal to his interests. The employment rates in Equestria made open spats that much more abundant, but it seemed as though there were only a few jobs that could satisfy his needs. These being: the Apple family's apple stand, Quills and Sofas, and Sugarcube Corner. In the apple business, he was a good salesperson, considering his social assets. For Quills and Sofas, they needed someone to advertise, meaning getting out flyers and yes a mascot with a sign. As for Sugarcube Corner, the pay was good, but after last nights events it was fairly unlikely to be accepted into the employment roster.
He quite liked the idea of selling apples more than the sign twirler, and the bakery wasn't much of a choice. Apple stand it is then! He returned to the stand within a timely manner. The one maintaining it automatically asked him politely if he wanted to purchase any goods. He declined that offer, and explained his reason for showing up. While this was going on, Charles picked up similarities from the voice he had heard his first night. The one that had so rudely head-butted him, and offered a measly apple in brief apology.
After a couple minutes of conversing, the manager shock hands with Charles and he stepped behind the counter. He was hired right there on the spot. The prior cashier needed a well-deserved rest. Who could blame them? A job without a required resume was possibly the best to come upon. Hired on such short notice. Something that contained questioning was probably not the best to come upon, knowing the fact that he had only been there for two days.
Dismissing the fact that they had left without giving him proper training, he tried to imitate what he had seen her doing earlier. A customer came up to him with a smile.
"One apple fritter please! I need it for my sister. She's feeling a bit sick. Did you know that apples help the I mines system to fend off the sickness? I really hope she'll be better soon..."
Charles was able to tune him out while he searched around for the fritters. It felt wrong to just ignore him though. Oh well. The story bridged over to his personal life as well. That probably wouldn't interest anybody in particular. Laying his eyes on something that looked of resemblance, he handed it to the customer.
"Thanks! I'll be seeing you around." They dropped a few bits onto the counter, which Charles placed into the basket they had been briefly designated for. A small clink sound was music to his ears. They hadn't mentioned the pay grade, so all he could do is wait till the day was done and hope for something worthwhile.
Another customer walked up, this time not smiling.
"Get me a basket of apples and be quick about it." Each basket had the capacity of ten apples at the most, so he handed a full on to the disgruntled mare. "Ugh, thanks it guess." She dropped the respective amount of bits onto the counter. It seemed like easy money. She should work on her manners a bit. Geez.
Pretty soon, there was a line leading up to the counter. It stretched for as far as the eye could see. The familiar farm pony worked her way up to the stand.
"What happened!? Ah haven't had this much business in forever! What did ya do?"
"I-I was selling the items to everypony, when a mob of them came running in!" For some reason, this made me wheeze for air as I laughed. The explanation was just so innocent.
"What do they all want?"
"Apples!" Applejack jumped behind the counter, and took in the first customer. They were out of the crowd before five seconds had elapsed, with everything they needed. She fed them all what they needed at such a cartoonish speed. Dust began to fly up where her hooves were placed. By then end of ten minutes, the whole crowd had gone off somewhere. At least they were satisfied.
"Thank you...er-" It was obvious that he was trying to search for the name she had mentioned only once in the briefing before.
"Applejack."
"Thank you Applejack. I couldn't have done that myself. If you hadn't shown up, I likely would have been injured by some other fed up pony."
"Don't mention it. Ah wouldn't expect a large pay though." Was this a job where the amount of hours worked has no meaning? Only the judging of performance? These were my least favorited types of jobs, I hated the principal almost as much as I hated the one who would determine the amount of capital the workers obtain. It always just seemed unfair to me.
By now, it was fairly dark out. She resumed her post and left Charles to wander about. He was pretty good at it. With the knowledge of the tour August had given him, he was easily able to navigate the streets from memory. In had been printed to the back of his eyelids from a bird's eye view.
First, he walked past the town centerpiece, then the street lined with shops, then finally back to his cave. It wasn't the best day he had had this week. But no doubt, he had made some progress. Not one bit had he missed the hive since he had left. The only thing that bothered him that night was the fact the he would have to face the same thing tomorrow. The only rewards given to him for his labour were fifteen bits, give or take a few.
Once the morning sun had again, hit his face, he was ready to start the day with a smile. Not a single care crossed his mind, except for the impending clutch of a day shift. His first question, no doubt, when he got to see Applejack again was how long it would last. He needed to find a way to obtain mass amounts of quote unquote food. He would be ready to pass out by the end of the day if something didn't come up.
Coming upon the stand, he could clearly see a line of consumers leading down to the next intersection. This seemed to be the most popular food business in town. Was there nothing better to eat? It would probably be best not to question it near his assumed boss. Come to think of it, I had no further knowledge of this business, or how far down the industrial/farming line it went. Only time would tell.
