Altered Visage

I lay there staring at the alien limb in front of my face. When I tried to move my arm, this black, holey appendage moved instead. My normal, hairy arm was nowhere in sight. I nudged the extremity with my muzzle. The plainly visible snout on my face likely would have furthered my confusion had I not been so preoccupied with the black, hole filled hoof in front of me. The leg felt as smooth as it looked, but was softer than I had expected it to be, more malleable too. Not as soft and malleable as human skin, but far from the hard and rigid carapace I had expected to find.

The gears in my head grinded slowly as I tried to piece together the situation I was in. I didn’t feel like I was asleep anymore, but couldn’t think of any other logical explanation. How do you pinch yourself without fingers? You can’t. Not really. Can you? My thoughts drifted to the now rather sharp fangs within my mouth and without taking a moment to think about the repercussions of such an act, I bit my leg.

“Ow, fuck!” Two streams of deep red trickled from two neat puncture wounds where my fangs had pierced my flesh, a few drops landing on the ground.

Funny, I had always thought that changeling blood would be green. As I rubbed my bloody leg on the grass until the bleeding slowed, my thoughts meandered to the unpleasant conclusion that I was not dreaming. I was a changeling bleeding in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres’ orchards and had just been discovered by Apple Bloom, who was at this very moment telling her big sister about the monster that was invading their farm.

I flipped myself off my back and got up onto my hooves, wobbling momentarily as I tried to get my balance. I searched for a place that I could hide, my eyes swiftly falling upon a nearby tree. The foliage looked thick enough to hide me, as long as nobody looked too closely.

Yeah, great idea, Victor. I’ll just climb right on up using my hands...oh wait!

I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. I doubted I could climb any tree in my current form, and the fact that I could barely stand without falling over did not inspire confidence in my ability to fly with my new wings. I needed something just a little less impossible. Continuing my search, I spotted a shed nearby.

“It was over there!”

Fear gripped me as my head jerked towards the cute little voice that signalled my impending doom as my ears flattened against my skull. Her voice was faint, and the trees blocked any view I had of the approaching sisters, as well as any view they could have had of me. The shed certainly wasn’t ideal what with being so close to where I had already been seen, but I didn’t have time to find anything better. I stumbled as quickly and quietly as I could towards it, nudging the door open with my irritatingly large muzzle and sneaked in. I winced at the sound the door made as it swung shut behind me, hoping that the Apple girls didn’t hear it too.

It seemed like an eternity as I waited in the darkness, trying desperately to slow my heart down to a less heart attack inducing pace. Finally, I heard the sound of hooves striking the ground a short distance away from my hiding place.

“Yer sure ya saw it out here? Yer not tryin’ to get a cutie mark in practical jokes now, are ya?” It was Applejack, her voice was somewhat muffled by the wall separating us, but I could still detect the warring emotions of hope and fear her question carried.

“It was right here, ah swear it! Ah’m not lyin’!”

I could barely hear them moving around out there over the drumming of my heart. Thoughts of what would happen if I were caught flooded my mind. Applejack could buck me hard enough to crush my skull, or I could be thrown into a dungeon to slowly rot, or given to Celestia and banished to the moon. Could I survive on the moon? Nightmare Moon did, but then again, she was more or less a deity, I was just a measly human. Or a changeling. Whatever.

“Applebloom, did ya cut yerself out here?” I was snapped out of my train of thought by this rather random question.

“No, why?”

“Somepony was bleedin’ here.” I suppressed a groan. Of course my blood would give me away.

“Ya mean that thing is hurt? Should ah go get a doctor?” The concern in her voice warmed my heart. Even after being terrified by me she was kind-hearted enough to worry about my well being. I wondered if even Fluttershy would be so kind towards a changeling.

“Ah don’t know why it’s hurt, but if what ya said is right, that thing is a changeling. They’re dangerous. Ya’d better get back to the house, find Big Mac and Granny Smith and lock up all the doors.”

“But-“

“No buts, this is fer yer own good. Ah’m gonna go warn the others that there’s a changeling on the loose.”

I heard one set of hooves hesitantly go back the way they had come, accompanied by a few expressions of displeasure over being sent away. Once that faded, the sound of significantly larger hooves started up as well, coming closer to my hiding spot. One of my legs began to twitch uncomfortably. I held my breath as the hooves passed right by the door, then continued on, presumably in the direction of Ponyville. When I could hear no signs of pony life anymore, I exhaled noisily and collapsed to the floor as my trembling legs gave out beneath me. The tension flowed out of my muscles, many of which I hadn’t had the day before, and a euphoric relaxation spread through my body. I was safe, though probably not for long.

A few calming moments and several steadying breaths later, I poked my head out of the door and was scanning for any potential trouble. Finding none, I exited the shed. I felt an urge to bolt away, to escape from this dangerous place and find a better hiding spot. Where would I go, though? I didn’t know my way around this place, it’s not like the cartoon had shown me a detailed map of Ponyville and the surrounding area. With my luck I wouldn’t doubt that I’d run straight into the Everfree Forest and get eaten by a pack of timber wolves. I needed a plan.

Maybe Twilight could help me get back home, or at least undo whatever Discord did to turn me into a changeling. Unfortunately, she was a prime candidate for pony who would be the most hostile towards changelings due to the Canterlot invasion. Actually, Cadance and Shining Armor would probably make up the first two spots on that list, but Twilight would likely be a close third. What else could I do, though? Hide in the wilderness until I inevitably starved? Wander the world as a travelling performer, feeding off the adoration of the crowds as I put on a dazzling show at each new town I came across? Kiss my humanity and home goodbye without so much as a token effort to fix things? No. I couldn’t do that. I was a terrible performer, anyway.

There was a bucket filled with water nearby, and I caught a glimpse of my reflection in it. Sharp fangs, a horn protruding from my shiny black forehead, and eyes a near solid bright blue with a gradually lightening patch that was nearly white in the center where my pupils should have been. Innocent or not, there was no way I was going to get anywhere near Twilight looking like that, the town folk would form a mob and tear me to pieces long before I could find her library. Or would it be castle now? When in the timeline was I? Pre or post Tirek? Either way, I needed a disguise.

I began to wonder how exactly a changeling changes. Would it be some complicated magical effort that would require years of experience and training which would force me to search for an alternate means of disguise, or would it be more like a natural instinct and come easily if I willed it? For my sake I hoped for the latter. The ponies of Ponyville may not be the most observant, but I somehow doubted that a trench coat and groucho glasses would fool them for long. Not that I knew where I would find those objects anyway. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate on a face that I was familiar with: Pinkie Pie.

“Be Pinkie, be Pinkie, be Pinkie.” I muttered to myself, not knowing if it would work. My eyes shot open as I heard the fwooshing sound of changeling fire engulf me and gave a high pitched yelp and jumped into the air. A grin that would be perfectly in place on Pinkie Pie spread across my face. It worked! I looked back at my reflection and saw that the creepy blue eyes of a changeling were replaced with Pinkie’s relatively natural looking blue eyes.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” I gave my new voice a test run. The voice of a changeling may sound pretty cool, but it’s quite unsettling when it’s coming from your own mouth. The much more solid sounding voice of a normal pony was considerably more comfortable, even if it was a few octaves higher than any man’s voice should be. I began wondering what else I could change into. If I could change into somepony this easily, would it be just as easy for me to change into somebody?

My eyes shut tight again as I concentrated on a mental image of my own face. Surely it would be easier to explain to Twilight that I was some sort of alien creature if I could show her what they looked like. Unless Equestria Girls was canon, then I suppose she’d know what humans are already and she might even assume that travelling between the two worlds transformed me into a changeling. Sure, it wasn’t true, but it would make it much easier to convince her I wasn’t really some sort of love sucking incubus that way, I could clear up any misconceptions about it when she wasn’t preparing to blast me into a million pieces with her spell of the week. I dimly realized that this may have been the first time anyone had ever hoped that Equestria Girls was actually canon. All these scattered thoughts probably weren’t helping me with my attempted transformation, though, as I quickly realized I was still very much a quadruped. I really need to work on keeping my concentration.

Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind as well as I could manage, and as often happens when I try not to think of anything I don’t want to, the thought of camels popped into my head thanks to a story I heard as a child about a held stone turning to gold if you can actively avoid thinking about camels.

Are there sentient camels in this world? No! Bad! Stop thinking and concentrate on being human again!

I repeated a mantra of 'become human' in my mind as forcefully as I could, shoving any stray thoughts into the corner of my brain where I could mostly ignore them. Turning into Pinkie Pie had only taken a few seconds, but I had been standing in place for what seemed like forever now and all that seemed to earn me was a headache. I stared at my frowning, pink reflection as I sulked over not being able to return to my natural form. Maybe I didn’t have enough love energy? Or maybe humans were too different from changelings for me to imitate one?

“Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here? We’ve been looking for you all over!”

A tomboyish voice greeted me from somewhere both above and behind me. I found myself jumping nearly out of my temporary skin and gave out a girlish ‘eep’. I turned around and craned my neck up to see a sky blue Pegasus with rainbow mane and tail floating above me. This wasn’t good, I needed to think fast. What would Pinkie do in this situation?

“Oh, uh...Hi Rainbow Dash!” I cranked out as big a smile as I could muster as I began jumping excitedly in place, “I was looking for you too, well not just you, but all of you, though I was actually looking for Applejack right now because you see I was going to invite you all to my ‘It’s Thursday Party’, but then I saw my reflection in this bucket of water and was making funny faces at myself and I kinda lost track of time, but now you’re here and I can finally invite you!” I took in a deep breath after that longwinded and rapid explanation then sat down, beaming with hopefully authentic looking joy as Rainbow Dash landed in front of me, raising an eyebrow quizzically. At least I hoped it was quizzically and not suspiciously.

“But it’s Monday.” Rainbow deadpanned.

My smile faded and my eyes went wide at this. It figures that the day of the week wouldn’t be the same as back at home. I needed to fix this, fast. I let out an exaggerated gasp, much like I’d seen Pinkie do in the show several times over.

“You mean that I’ve missed the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday parties!?” I grasped Rainbow Dash with my hooves and shook her violently, I marveled at how easy it seemed to grab with fingerless extremities, then cranked up the hysterics in my voice as much as I could, “Why didn’t anypony tell me!? I have to go prepare for one super duper-ific Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday all in one party! I’m going to need more balloons!”

I tossed a terrified Rainbow Dash aside and ran in the general direction of Ponyville. I had the intention of finding someplace else to hide for awhile before actually arriving, but I needed to get out of Dash’s sight first. I doubted that going into Ponyville as Pinkie Pie when the mane six, including Pinkie herself, were likely to be gathering together to search for a changeling would be a wise decision. Unfortunately, I had forgotten how fast Dash really was and I didn’t exactly know how to take advantage of Pinkie’s seemingly impossible ability to teleport off screen to wherever she wants to be. That and I probably wasn’t moving that fast to begin with thanks to still being unused to moving as a quadruped.

“Hold it!” A rainbow blur appeared in front of me, blocking my path as I wondered if she had taken lessons from Phoenix Wright. "That can wait, Pinkie. Applejack says there’s a changeling around and we’re all to meet up at the library before we do anything.”

The news of the library still standing intrigued me, it meant that I had to have landed in Equestria before the Tirek attack. This of course assumed that the show was an accurate representation of what happened, or will happen, in this world.

“Good idea! I can throw the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and new pony in town party all at the same time in the library!”

“New pony in town party? We’re not gonna throw a party for it, Pinkie, it’s a changeling! We’re gonna kick its butt!”

“What?! But what if it’s a good changeling? It would be awfully bad if we attacked an innocent pony just because they were a little different.”

“Do you hear yourself, Pinkie? A good changeling? These are the same monsters that attacked Canterlot and eat your love until you’re a zombie! Remember?”

“But-“ I was cut off by a hoof being shoved into my mouth.

“Look, Pinkie, we don’t have time for this. Just go to the library. I promised Applejack that I would check up on her family, so I gotta go.” Rainbow looked impatiently at something in the distance behind me. I craned my neck around to see the farmhouse peeking through the rows of apple trees.

“Hmmmm,” I rubbed my hoof on my chin in an attempt to look thoughtful before smiling again, “okie dokie loki! I’ll go to the library and talk to Twilight about it and then we can throw a party!”

“Yeah, fine, whatever. I gotta go.” Rainbow rolled her eyes at my insistence on throwing a party, no doubt hoping Twilight could convince me just how grave the situation truly was. I watched as she flew off towards the Apple family home and when I was sure she wouldn’t see me, I dashed away in the general direction of the town.

After several minutes of following a road passing row after row of apple trees, the orchards came to an end and I was met with an untended field of mostly grasses, weeds and bushes, with a few trees popping up here and there. On the other side of this field in the distance I could see some houses with yellow roofs, likely made of some kind of straw or hay or something. I never really thought about what those roofs might actually have been made of before this point. That was definitely Ponyville, though.

I performed a quick check around to ensure that I was alone, and then hid amongst the nearest clump of bushes where I could hopefully contemplate a new disguise without interruption. Any of the mane six were out, for previously stated reasons. I didn’t think that any high profile ponies would be a good choice either, as I didn’t want to garner too much attention, so none of the princesses or any celebrities. That left me two choices, either a background pony or I could try and create a new pony from scratch.

A new pony might get some attention from the locals merely for being new, but who knows where any of the background ponies may actually be. They appear pretty much everywhere, so even if I knew my way around town I couldn’t simply avoid going places they frequented. I didn’t doubt that with my luck I’d run straight into the inspiration for my disguise and be caught immediately. While it wasn’t ideal, a new pony in town seemed the lesser of the evils here.

I concentrated on the image I conjured up in my mind and was quickly engulfed once again in green flames. I was still amazed at how easy it was to change into ponies, and more than a little relieved that I could transform into one that I just made up on the spot. A slight chill graced my new body, despite the late afternoon sun heating up the world to a near uncomfortable temperature.

I gave myself a quick look over to confirm that it worked as I intended. I was an earth pony stallion, somewhat smaller than the ones I saw in the show as I wanted to be as unintimidating as possible while still maintaining a measure of my masculinity. My coat was a simple light brown colour while my tail and mane were a dark grey. Though I didn’t have a reflective surface to confirm it, if things went as I wanted my eyes would be a shade of dark green. I twisted my neck around to look at my flank and was greeted by a pair of white dice. I didn’t know if my choice of a cutie mark would be unusual, but I figured I could easily say that I got it from my enjoyment of games of chance if pressed. My disguise was complete. I wasn’t going to win any awards for character design, but hopefully the relatively tame colour scheme would help me avoid catching any unwanted attention.

Tentatively, I stepped out from my hiding place and looked back towards town. Somewhere in that mass of buildings was a little purple pony that could hopefully help me get back home. At a brisk trot, I made my way towards my destination. Movement on four limbs was growing much easier, a fact for which I was grateful for. The uneasiness of becoming comfortable in a body that was not my own was more than made up for by the increased mobility. Fearing that you’re going to fall on your face with every step is not a sensation I recommend.

My gait slowed considerably once I reached the edge of town. The few glances I received from the citizens were short and disinterested as they went about their daily routines. So far so good, now I just needed to find Twilight so I could talk to her in private and convince her to help me. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? She was bound to be around there somewhere. Looking for me. With all of her friends. With the intent of attacking me on sight. Okay, I clearly hadn’t thought this through.

Retreating into your head isn’t the best choice when what you really should be doing is paying attention to where you are walking. I did not realize this until I had bumped into a bushy wall of blue and pink.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” A creamy, off white earth pony mare glared back at me as I spit out her multi-hued tail. Realizing that I had essentially just face planted into a mare’s more intimate spots, I tried to scramble backwards, though only managed to fall onto my rump. A quick look at her flank to see a few wrapped up candies confirmed for me that I had just run into the hind end of Bon Bon, or Sweetie Drops, whichever name she actually went by.

“I’m, uh, I...” I stammered is what I did, as no doubt a profuse blush grew on my face which was now feeling uncomfortably warm. Bon Bon, now turned to face me properly, continued to stare daggers at me, obviously not appeased by my botched attempts at an apology. For my part, I stood up, swallowed my embarrassment and tried again.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to butt- bump! I didn’t mean to bump into you. I should have been watching where I was going, it won’t happen again, I swear it!” Real smooth, Victor, stick your face into her ass and you just had to say ‘butt’, didn’t you?

“Yeah, right, I bet you meant to ‘butt’ into me. You’re some kind of pervert, aren’t you?”

My eyes grew wide at being accused of such a thing by a pony, I thought this world was filled with sunshine, ladybugs, happiness, forgiveness and not accusing some random guy of being a pervert! I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

“P-p-pervert?! N-no, I-I just-I mean, it was an accident! I didn’t, I mean I wouldn’t...” Bon Bon took an aggressive step towards me, “Please don’t hurt me!”

I took a frightened step back as tears actively coursed down my face and my lower lip quivered. A small crowd of ponies had gathered around to watch the events unfolding in front of them. I could hear a few whispers of how terrible it was that she had made some poor stallion cry.

Oh god, I am terrible at avoiding attention!

“Uh, look, maybe I over reacted,” Bon Bon halted her approach and was fidgeting at the scrutiny the crowd was giving us, “Just, uh, stop crying, I believe you.”

“Really?” I blinked away the tears and stared at her like a hopeful little puppy.

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, do I have to repeat myself?” Her eye twitched, and her tone belied the sentiment of her previous words as anger radiated off of her. I flinched involuntarily, and then whimpered pathetically as I braced myself for her to strike me in an enraged frenzy. I heard a few gasps, but no attack came forth. Instead, Bon Bon’s jaw appeared to have dropped even further than the onlookers surrounding us.

“I, um,” it was Bon Bon’s turn to stutter, “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Please, stop looking at me like that. I’m not going to hurt you.” Her voice had raised an octave or so from the previous level she had spoken at, and wavered a bit. When I didn’t respond, she muttered something about having to go wash her cat and left as quickly as she could while trying to avoid the appearance of running away. After a few moments, the crowd of ponies awkwardly wandered off one at a time, leaving the strange stallion to dry his tears and attempt to regain some measure of composure.

Great. You just had to react like that, didn’t you? You couldn’t have just stammered out another lame apology and then walked away. You’re a god damned idiot. She should have hit you. Maybe it would’ve beat some sense into that stupid head of yours.

I stared down at a patch of grass forlornly as I berated myself. It had been a long time since I had an overreaction like that. No doubt the stresses that had piled onto me over the course of this day had left me particularly susceptible. I dimly noticed a fuzzy pink leg appearing in my field of vision as a hoof was placed on my shoulder.

“Heeeeey! What’s with the long face?” An energetic and near irritatingly perky voice interrupted my personal pity party.

“I suspect it might have something to do with me being an equine.” I responded in a low monotone. It was a lame joke, even if it was literally part of the reason I was so distressed. Lame though it may have been, it still got a girlish chuckle from my intruder. It was awfully contagious, actually. I could feel a bit of warmth spreading through me as I couldn’t help but giggle myself, I hadn’t realized just how cold my body had become during my encounter with Bon Bon.

The hoof moved to my chin and raised my face to meet a beautiful pair of blue eyes and the most genuine smile I had ever seen. It took a moment for me to realize I wasn’t looking at my reflection from earlier, it was actually Pinkie Pie, the real Pinkie Pie, and she was trying to cheer me up. I could feel renewed strength in my limbs as my spirits rose.

“That’s better, I knew you had a smile under that frowny face of yours!”

My vision blurred somewhat as new tears formed, this time of joy. I hadn’t been here long, but this joyous pink pony was the first to show me any kindness since I met Discord in my dreams last night. I threw my arms, or forehooves or whatever they’re called around her neck and hugged her, and much to my contented bliss, she hugged me back.

“Thanks, Pinkie.” I whispered.

“You’re welcome! Wait a minute....” Pinkie jumped into the air and gave out a gasp, sadly extricating herself from the hug I had been enjoying, “You know my name, but I don’t know yours! That means you’re new in town! Wait, how do you know my name?”

“Oh, right,” I snapped back to reality, realizing that I had just run into one of the worst ponies I could have possibly run into, “I’ve heard of you: element of laughter, greatest party pony in all of Equestria, helped defeat Nightmare Moon, Queen Chrysalis and the like.”

“Queen Chrysalis? That’s a funny name, who’s she?” Of course I would forget that her name was never mentioned in the show.

“Oh, ummm....I heard that was the name of the changeling Queen that attacked Canterlot.” I hoped she would buy that, because I couldn’t think of anything better.

“Really? I never knew that! Speaking of names, I’m Pinkie Pie, but you already knew that of course, what’s your name?”

“I’m Victor,” I responded before I realized that I was giving my actual name instead of one more appropriate for a pony. I pretended to clear my throat and started over with the first thing that came to mind, “Victory. Chance Victory. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to leave.”

I turned away from the bouncing pink pony and attempted to leave her behind, but was quickly stopped by a pink blur seeming to just appear in front of me. Why was every pony in this world so much faster than me?

“Nope! I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Chance!”

My ears splayed back against my skull. This was it. I had been discovered by Pinkie Pie because I knew the name of the changeling Queen. Of all the stupid ways to get caught, this was probably one of the stupidest.

“Not until I’ve cheered you up with a welcome to Ponyville Party!”

I blinked at this. Could it really be as innocent as that? Did she really just want to throw me a party?

“I wouldn’t want to impose. Anyway, I’m just passing through, really. I’m not moving here or anything, it would be a waste of time.”

“Don’t be silly, there’s always time for a party!”

“No, really, I’m only staying for a couple hours, by the time you’ve prepared the party I’ll be gone already.”

“Hmmmm....” Pinkie rubbed a hoof on her chin, eerily mirroring what I had done in front of Dash earlier, “then we’ll have to make it a quickie! We can do it at the library, some of my bestest friends are already going there for some reason, so we can have the party there right now and you can meet them!”

I conjured up a miniature version of me in my mind and punched him as hard as I could. Had I just let her throw a big party I may have been able to sneak away while she prepared for it, but now apparently I was invited to one that required no special planning whatsoever where all the most dangerous mares to me at the moment were gathered.

No matter how hard I struggled against her, Pinkie was able to drag me towards our destination with ease. She was far stronger than I had anticipated, either that or I was surprisingly weak. Then I got to thinking, maybe this was a blessing in disguise. I hadn’t previously known how I was going to approach Twilight, the closest to a plan I had was to hide somewhere in her home until they gave up the search and popping out when she came back alone to rest. I somehow doubted that surprising one of the most powerful magic users in Equestria would turn out well for me, especially when she was afraid that some monster had invaded her home town. Perhaps with Pinkie vouching for me I could have long enough to convince her that I didn’t mean any harm.

Shortly after I ceased my protests, our progress was interrupted by a feminine voice, one that was easily suited for melodramatic proclamations of the worst possible things.

“Pinkie Pie? Darling, you should be at the library by now, whatever are you doing traipsing about with this...stallion?”

Pinkie and I simultaneously turned to see a mare of pure white coat and lavishly styled purple mane and tail. Rarity’s nose wrinkled in disapproval at my presence. Or maybe it was disgust. I didn’t think that my appearance was that bad, but if anypony was going to be offended by my choice it would be the ever fashionable Rarity. I offered a weak, nervous smile in her direction.

“This is Chance Victory! I found him near the edge of town. He looked sad and he’s new so I’m going to throw him a party to cheer him up!”

Pinkie Pie gave a grin of face splitting proportions and let out the pony squeak that I had long associated with the show. Rarity, however, had a rather different reaction, staring blankly at both Pinkie and I.

“Darling, may I speak with you?” She glanced my way then added, “In private if you would be so kind.”

“Sure thing! Don’t you go anywhere Mister Frowny, I’ll be riiiight back!”

The pair of mares trotted off just far enough to hold a hushed conversation without me hearing it. Rarity’s ears twitched occasionally out of what I assumed to be annoyance as the two continued their heated debate, probably over me. I shifted my weight between my hooves, a sense of dread gripping me as I watched. I doubted this could be any good, and I briefly contemplated bolting. I decided against it, however, as Rarity had kept a suspicious eye on me throughout the entire conversation. I may be growing accustomed to my new body, but not enough to outrun a pair of mares who were native to quadruped motion, and if they somehow didn’t suspect me yet, running away would quickly change that. I waited patiently, if a bit nervously, for them to finish.

Soon enough, they seemed to come to some sort of agreement as I saw Pinkie going through the motions of her famous Pinkie promise. Based on the face hoof that Rarity had done right beforehand I had to guess that she was the party to make the greatest amount of concessions. The two parted, Rarity rushing off in the direction we had previously been moving while Pinkie returned to me, smiling as she always did.

I swallowed down the uncomfortable lump that had been forming in my throat. “So...what was that about?”

“Rarity just told me there wasn’t time to waste on parties, but that’s silly! There’s always time to party!”

Huh, maybe she doesn’t suspect me after all.

“After I told her that I was going to throw the party at Twilight’s, she got much more enthusiastic and made me Pinkie promise to make sure you get there and then she went to let Twilight know we’re coming so she can make preparations for it. She’s probably blowing up all sorts of balloons and getting cake and everything! Usually I’m the one who does those sorts of things, and I get kinda nervous when others do it for me, but they're my friends, so it’s okay!”

“Pinkie...promise?” I felt any hope I had previously crushed beneath the weight of those words.

“Uh huh! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! That’s a Pinkie promise and once you’ve made one you can’t break it, or else!”

Yup, I was screwed. Rarity was off telling Twilight that a changeling was coming to the library, and a Pinkie promise ensured that I would arrive at the gallows on time.

“I’m not so sure about this anymore. I think I may be getting a little sick, maybe I could take a rain cheque?” I let out a depressingly fake cough.

“Uh uh, Chancey! That’s not how this works! I made a Pinkie promise, so you’re coming with me to your party and then we’ll play all sorts of games and then you’ll be happy and smile again. Trust me, it’ll be great!”

“I don’t know, I get the feeling that I won’t enjoy myself very much.”

I didn’t think my objections would really get me out of this, but I felt I had to do something. I fully expected Pinkie to ignore my protests and to go back to dragging me to the party, by the tail if need be. What I did not expect, however, was for Pinkie’s usual cheerful demeanor to be replaced by a great frown and watering eyes. Even her mane lost a bit of its poofiness, though thankfully not so much as to be straight like in the episode Party of One.

“You don’t trust me?”

A quivering lip joined the rest of the ensemble as she sat there, staring at me through her tears. My mouth opened and closed a few times as I tried to find words. I was not prepared for this! I could feel my heart tearing into little pieces as this adorable little creature appeared to be completely crushed by my actions.

“N-no! That’s not it, I trust you! I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.” A gleam of hope shone in Pinkie’s eyes.

“You mean you’ll come to my party?” At the barrage of adorably sad looks, I gave out a defeated sigh. There’s no way I could compete with these weapons of mass guilt.

“Yes. I’ll come.” I let out weakly. The effect of my words was instantaneous. Pinkie’s hair bounced back to its full volume as she jumped up and down.

“Yay!” Pinkie pulled a conical party hat out of...wherever it is that Pinkie pulls all her stuff out of and jammed it onto my head, “That wasn’t so hard, now follow me!”

Did I just get emotionally manipulated by Pinkie Pie? I pondered while I plodded along behind her as she bounced excitedly towards the library.

It wasn’t long before the library came into sight. Pinkie bounded up to the front door as I trudged along, a weight upon me growing with every step of my hooves. Despite my every effort to slow time to the point of never getting there, I reached the door surprisingly quickly while Pinkie beamed at me. Her bright demeanor could almost make me forget that I was about to step into a metaphorical lion’s den. Her joy was at least infectious enough for me to offer up a small smile, for her if not myself.

Pinkie reached up and knocked, a gesture that seemed far more polite than I would have expected from someone as rowdy as her, especially considering that this was technically public property that anybody could visit at any time. She didn’t wait for a response though, opening the door and saying something about me going in first. I wasn’t really listening. I stared inside for a moment, appreciating the beauty of a tree that was hollowed out to create a place of learning. I could see a few bookshelves lined with tomes of varying thicknesses, but no ponies could be seen from where I stood.

I took a deep breath and held my head high, scrounging for some measure of dignity. This is where the events of today had led me. Maybe I could have done things differently and avoided this, but there was no sense thinking about that now. It was time to face my fate, and I wouldn’t do so cowering like a little child no matter how much I wanted to. I took a tentative step into the building, far more timid than I had imagined myself doing in my mind a moment earlier. I also noted that my head wasn’t as high as I had initially thought and I was holding in that deep breath I had taken.

So much for dignity.

“Now!”

Several bodies crashed into me and I heard a squeal of shock coming from Pinkie just outside the door. My head slammed against something hard and the last thing I could remember was a flash of green flame as my body and consciousness both went black.