A Changeling in Love

Most ponies think of the pink party pony living in Ponyville as eccentric, over the top, and exacerbating. Not to mention her friends who all knew her pretty well and never questioned her Pinkie Sense (except for a few times that is). Although that was perhaps to be expected, especially with new ponies who knew almost nothing about her sense and more likely than not would question her rather than follow through on her command whenever she felt a twitch. And so she could guess that when she got a Doozy warning in the middle of a party and tried to leave to follow her senses, the family that had hired her expertise for the afternoon begged her to stay and finish her work. Pinkie looked at them and gave them a bright smile, assuring them that she wouldn't leave on such short notice, all the while trying to push the Doozy out of her head. She could feel from the twitching that it was going to happen in the Whitetail Woods, and she knew that was a rather long trip, so she hurried to get the party ready. She made notes of what she'd need and hurried to the nearest store only to find that they didn't have ten pounds of taffy but that they could make some more if she wo-

She was off in an instant in search of the taffy and the rest of the supplies. Soon enough she had gathered all that she needed and rushed to the sight of the soon-to-be mega-ultra-party palooza (© 2012, Pinkie Pie), setting up the party as quickly as she could while also keeping as much of the fun that she could. Soon enough the party was ready and she collected her payment and left the party and the planner to Coco the clown. She packed the provisions she would need and immediately made way north towards Canterlot by train. She exited at the Canterlot station and continued on hoof, no tracks leading to the north past Canterlot due to the unanimous vote of the Pioneer cities wanting to brave the land that was still something of a desert. She gave a little huff as she continued, moving towards the forest growing off in the distance, only barely visible even after about a three day walk from Appleoosa, by far the furthest town out in the deserts of the outskirts of Equestria.

Pinkie arrived at the forest within the span of ten days, the desert having transformed to a grassland that was now becoming more and more of a forest the further she travelled. Eventually she found herself surrounded by trees with foliage so thick that it practically obscured all the sunlight falling from above. And yet the twitching kept her on track, helping her pick through the objects in her way. She wandered this way for another three days, finally reaching where the twitching was leading her on her thirteenth day out from Ponyville.

There was a Changeling. There was a rather frail looking Changeling just lying there on the forest floor. This had to be the Doozy, right? So why did she get the feeling that she hadn't exactly found out the Doozy yet? A dead Changeling was plenty cause-

Her train of thought was interrupted as the Changeling gulped in a rather large gasp of air. Pinkie felt a strange feeling run across her body for a second before disappearing and she suddenly felt as if she was a battery that had been drained. That metaphor was a valid one, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. Pinkie drew a connection from what she knew about Changelings and concluded that it was near the brink of starvation but by her appearing the Changeling had acquired a food source and had started to gain energy from her. She sat there for a few minutes and wondered just what she should do, before deciding to follow her instincts and throwing the Changeling over her back.

It was going to be a long walk back.

She was gone almost an entire month, and yet nothing had happened while she was away. She had sunk into Equestria with the Changeling, wondering why she was doing it and exactly what we was going to do once she'd gotten the Changeling to her town. And the feeling of the Doozy wasn't gone yet either and as a result she began to feel worried. The Changeling hadn't woken up yet, seemingly in a coma, but he looked to be getting better day by day, and by the time they arrived at Ponyville he looked a lot less like a skeleton and she felt a lot more tired, as though she could sleep for a week. And so when she stepped off the train in Ponyville and saw her friends waiting there for her she tightened the cloak around the Changeling and gave her five best friends in the whole world a tired smile.

"Pinkie, where have you been," Twilight asked, stepping up to her first and eyeing the bundle that was leaning more on Pinkie more than supporting itself. "And who's that?"

"Oh, uhh, this is," Pinkie paused for half a second as a thousand possible answers whirred through her mind and as a thousand possible outcomes presented themselves. For some reason she decided not to give away the truth and said, "This is my friend Neo, he needed some help and his house is, uhh, gone. He'll be staying with me for a few days."

"So his house is...gone," remarked Rainbow Dash, scrutinizing the cloth covering the Changeling.

"Yeah, totally, poof! Just like that," Pinkie said.

"Okay then," Applejack said, rolling her eyes. "How about we jus' leave Pinkie an' her friend to themselves."

"They've had an enti-" Rainbow Dash began, stopping as Rarity cut her off.

"Rainbow Dash," she said with a huff, "let Pinkie have some time with her friend."

Pinkie was glad of her friends support and she gave Rainbow Dash a small smile, "We'll hang out later, okay Dashie?"

Rainbow Dash gave a small nod and over the next few minutes Pinkie made her way across the town, exchanging pleasantries with the ponies she passed. She reached Sugarcube Corner and made a dash for her room upstairs as fast as she could with the Changeling, slamming the bedroom door closed and locking it as fast as possible. Pinkie gave a relieved and unbelieving sigh, sinking on the bed and closing her eyes. She was asleep in moments.