I live in the wild, not because I choose to do so, but because I am forced to do so.
Anypony who's ever met me forces me out of town, either by setting an angry mob on me, or by simply banishing me by law. Every day I wish to have a real home, to be myself, and not a criminal, hiding in the harsh wilderness of dragon country.
I made a promise to myself I would never cry, unless I was happy.
So my eyes are dry.
Out in the deadly wilds of dragon country, I have honed my skills that are my birthright, for I am a Changeling.
Only the exotic animals that I protect ever really see me for who I am, a kind, gentle, and ever cautious pony. I am not kind to those of my enemies; I am not fair, or merciful.
The dragons that smash apart eggs of my friends, are the only ones that have any fear of me for the right reasons, for that, they are left with some dignity after punishment.
One day my sights fell upon a new dragon from the Great Dragon Migration, a small, purple/green dragon, I strained my ears to hear what the dragons were saying, and I caught the word "test", but nothing more.
A few hours later, I spy a rather ugly, clumsy dragon, and I decide it's time I figure out what is going on. I change my body's colors to the most transparent black I can conjure up, and try to walk as quietly as I can. I reach the dragon and see it's not a dragon at all, but rather cloth with a bunch of stitches up the side, I decide to observe the situation as quietly as I can. I follow it, and then see some dragons walk up to a phoenix nest as the phoenix parents run after the purple dragon, who just threw a rock at the nest after encouragement from other dragon. In doing so, they left their hatchlings behind. I know enough about phoenix hatchlings to leave them alone, as they can defend themselves and combust by command. The phoenix parents return, sweeping the hatchlings off with them. I watch as the dragons chase the phoenixes in vain.
I then turn my attention to the purple dragon, who just found a phoenix egg, I find myself getting ready to run at him, but he’s just standing there, clutching it… I decide to wait a wee bit longer. The other dragons show up, telling the purple dragon to smash the egg, and I’m right next to him, ready to change the ground to velvet before he can drop the egg on the ground. He then surprises me by screaming out a defiant “No!” The other dragons look ready to hit him when the fake dragon shows up behind the purple dragon. It throws off its guise, and it turns out three ponies were inside. As I back off from the scene, I find the ponies and the purple dragon run away, and then, in a flash of purple light, disappear.
I’ve no clue what could have happened to the phoenix egg after that. But I neglected to watch where I was going and a tree inexplicably falls on me before I black out. When I wake up, I find my changeling powers have kept me alive by turning myself into a tree in my unconsciousness, taking on only the need for sunlight, minerals, and water. I change back to my original form, but decide the holes in my legs and jagged horn have got to go, so I change my legs and horn to resemble ponies’ legs and horns. The gentleness that those particular changeling features imply don’t exactly appeal to me anymore.
I find myself alone in the wilderness, and now I am hopelessly lost. I decide to walk in one direction as long as possible as I sink into unawareness…
…Boom.
I have been mindlessly sleepwalking through the underbrush, until an enormous shockwave of pain rushed through me. I hear a growl, and turn around, expecting a dragon, until I realize I was the one making the growl, as I realize I’m hungry. I decide that, for the time being, food is my main priority. Now I’ve got to make a little checklist for myself to figure out exactly how I shall get food.
Trees? Nope.
Houses? Yes.
Shops? Yes.
Money? No.
Love? Plenty, but not the nourishment I desire.
Scared faces? Geez, a LOT of them.
I decide I must be in a town, and catch a question somepony threw out to me.
“How are you changelings still in Equestria?!” I look out towards the sound, and find a purple pony walking up to me. I know not the name of this pony, but she seems familiar.
My face twists in confusion, so rather than answer her question, I find myself asking this mare a question of my own. “What do you mean by that?”
Her face scrunches up in anger as she shouts “You know what I mean, CHANGELING, the rest of your kind were thrown out of this country by Cadence and Shining Armor’s spell!”
I end up slipping out a rather pitiful “My kind?”
Her face twists in confusion as I am overcome by hunger and black out.
When next I wake I find myself in a hospital bed. I get up and notice my body is flashing colors of the rainbow; I quickly force my body back to black. I look around and notice a cup of apple juice and a note. As I levitate the cup to my mouth and sip, I also levitate the note to reading distance. I finish the juice and set down the cup on the table as I begin reading.
“Mysterious Changeling, this is where you will stay until you gain a few pounds. Fluttershy will take care of you; the room you find yourself in now is her bedroom. Treat her kindly, and don’t try anything funny.
Fluttershy is a very busy mare, as she has a number of animals to take care of. She is also very sensitive, so again, no funny stuff.
Your very confused pony, Twilight Sparkle.”
I hear the clunk of a hoof on wood and look up and see a banana-yellow pony with pale pink hair in the entrance to the room. I keep quiet, hoping she’ll speak up. Unfortunately, my appearance still frightens her, but she doesn’t move, she just keeps staring at me. I suddenly notice my hooves are riddled with holes and my horn is jagged. I get rid of my holes and soften my horn with a burst of green flame.
Her expression softens when she gets a good look at me in my preferred form. She takes a tentative step towards me, then another, and then bursts into a walk towards me. She takes the empty cup from the table when I say “Hello.”
She drops the cup and it smashes across the floor into a million little pieces as she dashes straight downstairs. I shake my head and push off the blanket. I sweep up the glass pieces by magic and use my powers to transform the glass pieces into a cup; I walk downstairs and set the cup on another table. I look around and see a stripe of pink in the crack of a closet. I knock on it and hear a little gasp. I swing it open and try to appear as nice as possible. She attempts to run out the door, which I transform into a locked door. She pounds on the door and screams. I let out a scream of my own in frustration.
Why can’t I get through to this pony? I stomp the floor in anger and look up. She’s staring at me in paralyzed fear. Great, now I broke what little warmth I had from her. I push past her and open the door. I walk out into the sunshine. I am about to take off when somepony steps on my tail. I look behind me and am surprised to find that this easily frightened pony is holding me down. I stop trying to fly away and turn around. She opens her mouth as if to speak, but something in my eyes prevents her from doing so. I decide to just close my eyes and listen for her voice.
Finally she speaks “I Fluttershy, will not let anypony in need walk away from me.” I open my eyes again and stare at her for about five minutes. I finally let out a sharp guffaw as I roll around in hysterics. Geez, I’m laughing so hard I’m crying. I look up at her face as she stares at me, trying to keep a straight face. This just gets me going again. The moon has started to rise by the time I stop laughing.
Fluttershy then stuffs an apple in my mouth and drags me inside before I can start laughing again. I bite down on the apple in my mouth and proceed to eat the rest of it properly. When I’m done Fluttershy allows herself a small giggle when I glare at her. I realize then how dirty I am from rolling around in the dirt outside. I ask “Where’s the bathroom?” Fluttershy points me to a red door opposite the entrance. I trot over to the bathroom, take care of business, and scrub myself down with soap and water.
The next morning I wake up in Fluttershy's bed, Fluttershy has apparently finished being distant with me as she shook me awake. She doesn't even wait for me to rub the sleep from my eyes before I am dragged- quite literally I might add- out of bed. Out of instinct to being dragged away by somepony, my hooves transform into 10 ton weights. Big mistake.
The weight is too much for the poor floor, and it breaks under my hooves as fluttershy falls down over me. My hooves return to normal as we hit the ground. I groan in pain as I try to stand up, falling down again. What a brilliant way to start the day, break Fluttershy's home, check. That Twilight Sparkle is going to kill me.
I find Fluttershy is unconcious. I might as well fix the dang place up while I've got the opportunity to do it I begin by concentrating on restoring the floor of the room above, followed by the ceiling of this room, then sealing the cracks with a small pop. I find a bucket next to Fluttershy's door, put it in Fluttershy's sink, turn the cold water on, and let the bucket fill. I dump the contents of the bucket onto Fluttershy. What happened next could easily be described as pure cuteness. She turns over on the freshly cleaned floor and murmurs "But I dun wanna go to flight camp." I double over laughing, not caring that my sides are screaming for attention. This sudden outburst of sound makes fluttershy bolt into the wall, smashing her nose.
I end up idly eating apples for the rest of the day, as the silence devours the hours before I go back to bed.
Five days pass and Twilight Sparkle walks in while I'm in the middle of a staring battle with the bunny Angel. She pushes me into a chair, forcing me to blink, Angel smirks and sticks his tongue out at me. Twilight takes a few measurements without saying anything, which suits me just fine.
The days turn to weeks, and Fluttershy becomes a very good friend of mine. My ribs no longer stand out in my mostly unchanged body. I have to admit that Fluttershy’s pet bunny Angel is not my favorite animal in Equestria though. Twilight Sparkle, The purple pony with deep violet hair containing pink highlights stops by every once in a while to check on my health.
Today Twilight Sparkle stopped by, and said “Okay, it’s been long enough since Fluttershy took you in for us to at least know your name by now.”
I reply “Sorry, I guess I’ve been isolated so long I never really had a name.”
Her eyes widen in surprise while Fluttershy says “Surely you must have a name of some kind.” They decide to take into town so I can figure out what my name is.
Hours pass as we walk past the Library, Carousal Boutique, Sugarcube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres, and many other places. Finally we come across a rather isolated part of town with a rather lonely-looking building. It is a huge building with two simple masks over the entrance. One mask shows a happy face, the other a sad face. I must have stopped walking because I find a hoof is shaking me. Twilight asks me “What’s wrong? Does that building interest you?” I nod quickly and find out the place is called a theatre.
I ask “What is a theatre?”
Twilight explains “It is a place where ponies act out characters in a play while other ponies watch.”
I ask “Why is it so… deserted-looking?”
Fluttershy looks down as Twilight says “It IS deserted, nopony goes to plays in ponyville anymore, and they all go out of town if anypony wants to see a play. On top of that, while this theatre could be used for other things, like talent shows for little fillies, it’s too far gone to use without years of work. They all prefer to set up a temporary stage for little events like that because it only takes a few hours without a unicorn helping.”
I snap at her “Years of work? I’d transform any piece of junk into a work of art with a thought!” I immediately transform the exterior to be completely new. As the green flames burn away fresh paint covers the walls, the wood is shined, and the cobwebs are swept away in seconds. The only thing that does not change is the interior, as I have no clue what could (or should) be inside.
Twilight and Fluttershy are staring in utter disbelief as I transform the exterior of the building with my changeling magic. They are frozen still as I walk in. I transform the place as I walk in, cleaning the skylights, brightening the entire mess of dirt and cobwebs as I clean that too. Green flames envelope the entire inside of the building as broken seats are fixed, curtains are sown together and cleaned. In the space of 15 minutes the entire place loses the griminess that has covered it over years of lack of use.
Twilight and Fluttershy walk in as the last of the flames burn away. They both gasp, but only Fluttershy faints. Twilight stares at the place for a while, and finally says in a hushed voice “It’s perfect.”
I say “It is?”
Twilight was in such a state of shock and amazement she jumped from the sound of my voice. She then says “Yes, it is in such a state of perfection we even leave hoofprints behind us.”
I look behind her, and yes, we do leave hoofprints in the lush red carpet. I take another look at the stage of the theatre, which I had merely glimpsed at before to clean up. Now that I see it in its full glory before me, I find myself admiring it too. I simply levitate Fluttershy and tap Twilight on the shoulder and say “Come on, you don’t want Fluttershy to be crippled from laying on the cold floor al day, do you?”
She simply nods and walks out the door as she takes Fluttershy with her. I glance at the stage once more before noting the red curtains that are meant to cover the stage during setup. I walk out the door after Twilight, saying nothing.
Once we get back to Fluttershy’s house, Twilight lays Fluttershy on her bed before turning to me and asking “Well, Miss Fancy flames, what are you going to call yourself?”
I think back to the theatre, and remember all the red fabric, and simply say “Red Curtain.”
