My heart sank at Twilight’s words. How could I really be a changeling? Discord did this to me!

“See! I told you!” Rainbow gloated, one hoof raised in triumph as she jumped into the air, where she stayed floating and smiled smugly at me.

“Yes, you did. It would seem we owe Discord an apology.” Twilight conceded, frown deepening. “But why would a changeling willingly go through this knowing that she’d get caught? It makes no sense!”

My mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came forth.

“Pfft! She was probably just stalling for time.” Dash dismissed her friend’s concerns with a wave of her hoof.

“You’re lying!”

The two mares turned to me at my sudden outburst. Rainbow dropped to the wooden floor with a loud clack, then marched right up to me.

“Oh, she’s lying is she?”

She was right up in my face, shoving a hoof painfully into my chest, or whatever the area between where my neck ends and my forelegs begin is called. “There’s only one pony lying here, and I’m looking at her.” My eye twitched at being called a ‘her’ again.

I backed away from her and she followed until I ran into a shelf full of books with my rump.

“Uh....I mean she’s mistaken?”

“No, I’m certain that I got the spell right. Discord did not turn you into a changeling.”

I was feeling awfully claustrophobic with a wall behind me and an angry blue and rainbow mare directly in front. My eyes darted about for anything that could give me a reprieve from the current situation, landing eventually upon a map on a table next to me with a big red X on it.

“Discord said he found me in the Everfree, maybe I got into some poison joke!” I offered pleadingly.

“I doubt it. Poison joke infection is a naturally occurring form of chaos magic. It’s not quite the same as Discord’s magic, but the spell still should have detected it.” Twilight countered.

A cyan hoof slammed into the shelving just to the right of my head. “We know you’re really a changeling, why don’t you just admit it already?”

Dash’s voice was loud enough to cause me to flinch. I could feel the hatred burning behind those words, which in turn sparked my own anger.

“I’m not a changeling, I’m human!”

My sudden shout caused my assailant to take an involuntary step back, followed by being tossed aside like a rag doll as Twilight shoved her out of the way to get close to me. The look of shock as she crashed into a wall was very satisfying.

“Wait, you’re a human?! Why didn’t you say so earlier?” She gripped my shoulders and began to examine me with renewed fascination.

“I, uh, it slipped my mind?”

This was perhaps the best news I could have hoped for. Twilight knew what humans were, and that meant that maybe I could finally convince her I was telling the truth.

“You mean those weird, monkey things you saw when you went through that mirror?

“Yes, exactly that!” I nodded enthusiastically.

“This explains everything! You fell through the portal, got turned into a changeling and.....ended up in the Everfree Forest?” The initially excited mare ended on a note of confusion.

“Uh, Twilight, how often does the portal open up?”

Rainbow obviously intended on leading her to a conclusion rather than being interested in learning the answer. I had an inkling of what she was getting at, and I did not like where this was headed.

“Hmmm...Once every thirty moons I think.”

“And how many moons ago did you use it?”

“That’s easy it was seven...oh.” Twilight stopped examining me and stepped back as realization struck her. “I guess that didn’t make sense anyway, the portal changes your species, not your gender.”

“I can’t believe you believed her.” Twilight stepped away and flushed in embarrassment while Dash trotted back in front of me, nose to nose. “Do you have any more lies to tell us?”

I felt a bead of sweat dripping down the side of my face as I sat there. I didn’t know I had sweat glands as a changeling. Too bad this newfound knowledge wasn’t much use in getting out of this mess. I needed to escape. I needed to come up with a distraction, and those magenta eyes staring into my soul weren’t helping.

Those beautiful magenta eyes.

A thought rose up like a skyscraper in my mind, built upon the foundation of three years of unhealthy obsession with candy coloured ponies, two days of soul crushing stress and one long night of sleep deprivation.

It was a bad idea.

It was a terrible idea.

It was the best fucking idea I’ve ever had in my life.

“Just one.” I responded to her previous question, half in a daze. Dash raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.

I grabbed both sides of her face and lunged forth, locking lips with her and pushing my tongue inside as her mouth opened in shock.

When I parted from Dash, she just stood there, like a twitching statue. Twilight’s jaw had dropped at the sight, nearly as stunned as her friend. I snatched the map from the table beside me with my teeth and made a run for the door, a slight giddiness in my step.

I just kissed Rainbow Dash! As I burst out into the early morning air, a small part of my brain told me that what I just did was sexual harassment, if not straight up assault, and that it was very wrong of me to do, but the rest of my desperate, sleep deprived mind didn’t care. I just kissed Rainbow fucking Dash!

“Get back here!”

I was knocked out of my thoughts by the furious screams of Rainbow Dash as she regained her motor functions. How was this plan supposed to work again? Did I really think I could outrun the fastest mare in Equestria and a teleporting unicorn with just a few seconds head start? I also noticed several other ponies cowering at the sight of a changeling running through the streets. Yup, this was definitely plan of the year material, that’s for sure.

I felt a pair of hooves dig into my back and I fell, dragging Dash with me. We were a writhing mass of black, blue and all the colours of the rainbow as her tremendous momentum had us tumbling rather painfully across several meters of grass and dirt and into the wall of a building. Fortunately for me, Dash cushioned the impact against said wall with her skull. As I scrambled back to my hooves, I could almost see the stars swirling around her head.

Hastily I grabbed the map again, which had been dropped during the struggle, rolled it up and slid it into one of my leg holes for safe keeping. I had always wondered what possible point there was to having legs full of holes, and I didn’t think this was really the intended use, but it worked surprisingly well.

I dashed away from Dash. Hopefully she would be out of it long enough for me to get away. Turning a corner I found myself blasting past Pinkie Pie. When she saw me fleeing for my life, she near effortlessly ran alongside me, providing me with an unpleasant reminder that I still couldn’t move very well in this body.

“Hi there, Chancey! Why are we running? Oh, I know! You’re being chased by ninjas!”

Rainbow Dash chasing me down dressed as a ninja flashed through my mind. I didn’t know whether to giggle or scream.

“I’m not finished with you!” The re-entry of Dash into the chase removed any semblance of humour I saw in the situation.

“She’s going to kill me!” I shouted at the pink mare beside me.

“What? We can’t have that! I haven’t even thrown you a party yet!”

Determination flashed in Pinkie’s eyes as she flipped herself around and hastily left my field of vision. Moments later there was a loud crash and exclamations of protest behind me.

“Rainbow Dash! Why would you want to hurt poor little Chancey?” Pinkie scolded her friend.

“She kissed me!” Yes. Yes I did, and I enjoyed it far more than I had any right to.

“I didn’t know you two were dating!” Though their voices were beginning to fade with distance, the genuine surprise in Pinkie’s voice was palpable.

“What?! We’re not! She......”

Much to my glee, I had reached far enough for their voices to be indecipherable. I ducked into an alleyway and hid. I needed to disguise myself, there’s no way I was going to escape looking like this. No time to create a new pony to change into, I decided to transform into the first background pony that came to mind: Lyra Heartstrings. Green flame surrounded my body and a mint green unicorn mare with a lyre cutie mark soon stood in my place, a slight shiver running down my spine as I completed the transformation.

The map I had slotted into my leg was now unfurled on the ground in front of me, having been forced out of my body as I had changed form. It was a crude drawing of Ponyville and the Everfree forest, the quality of which I would honestly have expected if I were the one to make it, now that I no longer had hands to draw with. It was still good enough for me to get an idea as to geography of the area, though.

If Discord really didn’t do this to me, something that I was beginning to begrudgingly accept thanks to Twilight’s confidence on the matter, then something else must have brought me to Equestria and turned me into a changeling. And a girl. I can’t forget that one.

The mirror from Equestria Girls served as a portal to a realm of humans. Admittedly, they were as colourful as the population of Equestria if the movie was accurate, but the fact of the matter was that portals to alternate universes or dimensions existed in this one. If there was one in the Crystal Empire, there was no reason there couldn’t be one hiding away in the Everfree Forest, and if these portals could change species, then who’s to say one couldn’t change my sex too? I was going to find it and prove to these girls that I wasn’t lying

Wait, no. That wasn’t right, was it? I was going to find it and go back home. Yes, that was it. Why would I ever want to stay in this magical land filled with characters I love, friendship and irresistible levels of diabetes inducing cuteness? That’d just be silly.

I folded up the map and hid it in my mane then took a tentative step out of the alleyway. Looking around for any sign of trouble, I was relieved to find none forthcoming. No Rainbow crashing into me, or Twilight teleporting right in my path, just a bunch of ponies going about their morning routines. Brushing aside my fears, I set myself at a brisk trot towards the edge of town, and eventually the Everfree Forest.

I could sense a general air of nervousness and fear as I went through streets, and could on occasion hear whispers of a changeling invasion. It appears that word of my presence and escape travelled significantly faster than I did. Many ponies eyed me suspiciously, but perhaps no more so than they eyed any of the others around them. I kept glancing about nervously myself, which inadvertently allowed for me to blend in better.

“Lyra? You’re back early! I thought you weren’t supposed to get back from Canterlot until tomorrow!” That voice, I knew it. Where had I heard that voice before?

My blood froze while my body simultaneously heated up as a pair of off white legs wrapped around my neck in a hug and I caught sight of a familiar blue and pink mane.

“Oh, hi Bon Bon.” Oh please be your name, please be your name, please!

“Are you okay, Lyra? You seem a little....stiff.”

“Oh, uh...it’s just the talk about changelings around town. It’s got me feeling kinda nervous.”

Bon Bon waved a hoof dismissively. “Oh, that. I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure Princess Twilight and her friends have it under control.”

Oh god, I hope not. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“So, what brings you home so early?”

“Oh...umm....I kind of felt that I wasn’t welcome anymore.” I hoped that my vague explanation would satisfy her.

“Why would your family make you feel unwelcome?” Bon Bon scrunched up her face.

Thank you Bon Bon, that’s exactly what I needed to know. “Oh, it’s just that my father fell ill and he didn’t want me around to catch whatever he had.”

“Your....father?” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at me.

Uh oh.....what aren’t you telling me, Bon Bon? I slowly nodded, worried that I just made a huge mistake.

“I see. That’s unfortunate. I know how much you were looking forward to spending time with your father.” A smile returned to her face, but it wasn’t a very convincing one, I could tell she didn’t trust me. “Anyway, I was wondering what you wanted for your birthday next week, have you made a list yet?”

Ha! I’m not falling for your tricks, Bon Bon! “Next week? My birthday isn’t next week, what are you talking about?” I put on my best confused face.

“Really? Huh....you’re right it was Octavia’s birthday next week, wasn’t it?” I gave the little me in my head a high five. “I’m sorry, I’m so forgetful. When was your birthday again? I wouldn’t want to miss it after all.”

Now I had the mini-me attempting to comfort me with an awkward pat on my back.

“Um,” my eyes darted down the street the way I had been going before, “November thirteenth?”

Bon Bon gave me a deadpanned look as if to say ‘I can’t believe you even tried.’

“I take it that my father is dead and that that is not my birthday.”

Bon Bon nodded.

“I don’t suppose I could convince you I’m a good changeling?”

Bon Bon shook her head.

And now my imaginary counterpart was giving a eulogy over my grave.

“So.....Nice weather we’re having, eh?” I pawed at the grass with a hoof, letting out a nervous chuckle.

The world slowed down to a crawl as the mare in front of me took a deep breath through her nose. I shoved a hoof into her mouth the moment she opened it to scream.

“HEEEEELP! SHE’S A CHANGELING.! SHE’S GONNA EAT ME!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, Bon Bon’s eyes widened as she realized what had just happened. I whispered an apology, removed my hoof and ran.

Many ponies around me were doing the same as I, running for their lives. Glancing back behind me, I noticed a few of the braver individuals had piled onto Bon Bon in a cartoonish heap, immobilizing her. With a grin, I turned my attention back to my journey.

My somewhat awkward gallop allowed me to reach the edge of town rather quickly, and soon I was approaching a rather familiar looking location: Fluttershy’s cottage. The map hadn’t labelled the building that was at the edge of the forest, but I figured it was unlikely to be anything but her cottage.

I slowed my pace to avoid drawing any attention from the building’s inhabitant, in case she was home. Fluttershy probably wouldn’t be much of an issue if she did approach me what with being so timid, but I didn’t want to take the risk. Maybe she could use the stare on me, and that’s something I wanted to avoid if at all possible.

Turning away from the building, I followed the path past it and into the forest’s edge. I stopped, feeling a sense of dread beginning to wash over me. This was one of the most dangerous places in Equestria, filled with timberwolves, manticores, cockatrices and any number of other monstrosities that would eat me up for a snack. Chewing my bottom lip, I contemplated all the ways I could die in this place.

I couldn’t stop, though. I had come this far, and returning now would only result in my capture and imprisonment, or worse, execution. Somewhere in that forest was a portal that could take me back home and restore me to my proper form. What were a few big, scary, murderous monsters? I’m a scary monster too, right? I shed my disguise and stood there as a changeling again, hoping that the appearance of monstrosity could convince some of the terrors of the forest to keep away.

The map I had hid in my mane fell to the ground again, my fin-like changeling mane not being very suitable for holding anything. I really wished I had a saddlebag or something, dropping everything every time I changed forms was getting to be really annoying. Oh well, I needed to look at the map anyway.

The map wasn’t as detailed as I would have liked. I only had a general idea of where to go to get to where Discord had found me, combine that with the realization that the portal may be hidden away somewhere or, worse yet, closed, and I had begun to question the soundness of my plan. The map indicated I had been in a clearing, or at least my interpretation of the scratchy drawing led me to that conclusion. At least I had something to look out for. I slid the rolled up map into a hole again and ventured forth.

I didn’t make it very far, however. I felt a rope land around my neck and was painfully yanked off of my hooves and onto my side.

“Gotcha, ya little varmint!”

I groaned in pain as Applejack entered into my field of vision and wrapped me up in more ropes. Once I recovered from the initial assault, my legs were tied uncomfortably close to my torso and no amount of struggling did anything to change that.

“Good job, Applejack.” Twilight Sparkle praised the one who had just lassoed me.

“Ah, tweren’t nothin’.” AJ beamed with pride that went against her more humble words.

The rest of the element bearers were there too, all six of them were staring at the changeling that was now helpless before them. Rainbow Dash in particular looked pissed. I hoped that the others could stop her if she tried to stomp my skull into itty bitty pieces.

“Uh...hi Rainbow Dash. No hard feelings about that kiss, eh?” I greeted her with a nervous grin on my face, but her glare only darkened in response as she approached menacingly. I swallowed loudly and shrank back as much as my bindings would allow.

“Behave, Dash.” Twilight warned.

“Wait, you mean to say that this creature kissed Dash?” Rarity queried with a slight upward curl at the edges of her mouth.

“Yupperooni!” Pinkie confirmed with her usual cheer.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy added, a blush spreading on her cheeks.

Rainbow groaned and covered her face with a hoof, hiding her own blush. “Look, can we not talk about that?”

“How did you know where to find me? And how did you get here first?”

“You took the map. It wasn’t hard to figure out where you were going. As for getting here first, I used a teleportation spell to bring us here where we waited for you to arrive.”

“Yeah, and now we’re gonna go find the rest of your bug buddies and stomp them, too!” Rainbow taunted.

“I don’t have any bug buddies,” I muttered bitterly as I rolled over to where my legs were beneath me, “I was looking for the portal.”

“Portal?” Twilight’s brow twitched in confusion.

“Yeah. I figured if Discord didn’t turn me into a changeling and I couldn’t have come through that mirror of yours, then there must be some other sort of portal to my home in the forest.”

“Yeah, right. You’re still going on about being a human?” Dash snorted.

“I keep saying it because it’s true.” I grumbled, irritated.

“Do ya really expect us to believe that? Applejack raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“No,” I confessed, “which is precisely why I was looking for it by myself.”

“I, for one, believe him!” Pinkie bounced in place, “This is so exciting! Maybe we can all go through the portal this time and I can meet the human me and we can throw a big party!”

“Her.” Twilight corrected.

“What?”

“Chance is a her.”

“My name isn’t really Chance.” I complained. A small piece of me died inside when I realized that I had objected to the name instead of the gender.

“Really? Why didn’t you tell me before, Chancey?” I sighed dejectedly at having my objection to the continued use of my fake name completely ignored.

“Because I wasn’t a girl before.” I felt my tail suddenly defy gravity as I realized Pinkie had disappeared from in front of me.

“It’s true! Chancey is a girl!”

I blushed furiously as I realized that Pinkie was behind me, lifting my tail to get her confirmation. I struggled to get away from the pink pony invading my very personal space, but succeeded in only falling back onto my side. I closed my eyes and groaned in embarrassment.

“Pinkie, that was incredibly rude! One does not simply lift a lady’s tail to confirm her sex.” Rarity chastised her friend, swatting her hoof from my tail.

“What? It’s not like it’s anything I haven’t seen before. You don’t mind, do you, Chancey?” Pinkie countered without a hint of remorse.

“Please, kill me now.” I whimpered.

“What? Why would I do that, we’re friends, right? And friends don’t kill each other, it’s in the rulebook! Or it would be if there was a rulebook. Oh! Maybe Twilight’s writing one! She should definitely put that in there as rule number one: ‘Do not kill your friends!’” I groaned in response.

“Ah don’t think she meant it literally, sugarcube.” Applejack explained to the overexcited Pinkie.

Twilight rolled her eyes and took the map I had stolen out of my leg with her magic. She spread it out in front of the other girls and they studied it. Rainbow Dash barely paid any attention to the drawings, choosing instead to give me suspicious looks with annoying frequency.

“Okay, girls, we all understand where we’re going now, right?” Nods of agreement followed the question. “Good. Now if there aren’t any questions-“

“I have one,” Dash interrupted and pointed a hoof my way, “what are we gonna do with her?

“Um, maybe we could leave her in my cottage?” Fluttershy offered.

“And let her escape while nopony is watching her?" Rainbow snorted. "I don’t think so. We should put her into a proper jail cell with guards."

“But if we do that, we’d have to go all the way back into town and then all the way back here, and then aaaaall the way there and back AGAIN to get Chancey to the portal when we find it!”

“Uh, sugar cube, do ya actually believe that there’s a way to another world inside the Everfree? Don’t ya think it a mite bit more likely that there’re more changelings that’ll ambush us?” AJ questioned.

“Yup! I mean no! I mean yes to the first thing but no to the other!” Pinkie responded, beaming.

“Maybe you could untie me and bring me along?” I offered. They were going to look for the portal anyway, or at least for some kind of explanation for how I got here, so I certainly wasn’t going to run away again.

“Oh, oh! I vote for that one!” Pinkie exclaimed, zipping over to me and reaching for my bindings.

“No, Pinkie, stop! We’ll take her with us, without untying her.” Pinkie frowned, but did as Twilight ordered. “If there really are other changelings in the forest, then maybe we can use her as some kind of hostage to dissuade them from attacking us. Applejack, could you carry her?”

Well, that would make for an interesting episode. I could see it now: ‘Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned the importance of negotiations in a hostage situation.’

“Sure thing, Twi.”

With her friend’s agreement, Twilight gently lowered me onto AJ’s back with her magic, the length of my body perpendicular to hers. With only some mild grumbling from Dash and some jovial humming from Pinkie Pie, we were going off into the big scary forest.

As I watched the ground pass by beneath me in a nigh hypnotic procession, I couldn’t help but notice just how soft AJ’s fur was. Or how warm she was. Or how her muscles moved beneath me, practically massaging my belly. A dim part of my mind blushed at some of the thoughts that crossed it. The rest of it, however, simply felt relaxed, despite being tied up as I was. It wasn’t long before the mostly gentle motions of her walking beneath me lulled me to a sorely needed sleep.

Author's Note

Merry Christmas, Happy Hearth's Warming, Happy Hannukah, and any other holiday you may or may not celebrate.