Run. Hide. Fly only when your horn is covered. Do magic only when your wings are bound. Change your color between each town.
Trust nopony...
The small, grey "unicorn" crept through Ponyville. Suddenly, a yellow blur zipped by. A purple unicorn came out into the open.
"Fluttershy! Fluttershy, come back!"
The gray pony crouched deeper in the alleyway. The purple unicorn walked toward a house that looked like it was made of cake.
"Pinkie, didn't we agree not to make any more of that after the caramel incident a few weeks ago?"
A pink pony stuck her head out and giggled.
"Ohhitwilightdoyouwantsomeesspressodaitsawesomeandtastyandreallyreallygoodandyummygottarunbye!" A pink blur shot right past the little grey pony. This is interesting, she thought. And I'm hungry... Alright. One day. The grey pony's horn sparkled with gray magic the exact color of an overcast day. And... She was lime green with a yellow mane! She couldn't do anything about her cutie mark, though. It remained a gray cloud with a yellow lightning bolt with a circle of mist behind it. She walked toward the bakery, her stomach growling. The green pony paused in front of the door. She brought her hoof up, and stopped. Then, gathering her courage, she opened the door. "Hello?" she asked. A pink pony was standing there. Well, maybe standing was the wrong word, because she was tied up and vibrating.
The purple unicorn was saying "Pinkie, you need to stay like that until the esspressoda gets out of your system. I don't need the library full of caramel again. Again! I had to buy a lot of books to replace those ruined, and some of those were expensive! Now, where's that apple... Ah! Found it!"
The pink pony, presumably Pinkie, said "Is that the sleepytime apple?"
"No, it's..." The unicorn sighed. "Yes Pinkie Pie, it's the sleepytime apple." The purple unicorn sighed. "Of course you wouldn't be interested in the Golden Apple of-" Mistmane. The disguised alicorn knew. This was where her apple was. The purple unicorn, however, was tied up, and Pinkie was bouncing around.
"Little berry cupcakes, little berry pies! Esspressoda, Spressoda, I will not lie!" Pinkie sang off key.
The purple unicorn sighed. "I should never have lent you that book of songs." Pinkie bounced out the door. Mistmane sighed. That was close. She walked into the library, hoping to hide amongst a crowd. The library was annoyingly bereft of crowds. The unicorn had managed to teleport there. She was looking with a quizzical...look at Mistmane's cutie mark.
"I-" Mistmane stammered. "I, uh, want to borrow a book!" she shouted. It was the only thing she could think of. The purple unicorn's horn glowed, and the ropes fell away.
"Sure thing! Always nice to meet another pony who likes to read! I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way." The purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle looked at Mistmane's cutie mark. "That seems familiar... I know I saw that somewhere... I just can't think where. Are you injured? Those bandages around your waist..." Twilight walked over and prodded at them. Mistmane looked nervously at the ceiling. Twilight had a confused look on her face. "It doesn't hurt?" the unicorn said quizzically.
Mistmane was visibly sweaty. "N-no. I, I just keep it there so nopony can see the scar. It's really ugly..."
Twilight grinned. "What's something like that among friends? Besides, I might have a helpful spell. Judging from your cutie mark, you probably do best with weather spells. Beauty spells probably aren't your specialty, if you put bandages around your scar instead of making it go away." Twilight started to unwrap the bandages.
"No! No, I tried those and they didn't work! Please, no!"
Twilight stopped and looked up. "Look, I'll take you to a specialist in beauty spells. She probably knows a bit more than you or I do about them, and at the very least can make you an outfit to hide the scar. Her name... is Rarity."
Mistmane lay on the guest bed in Twilight's library. In the last week or so, she had settled into a routine. Get up. Disguise- Rarity had made several wonderful outfits that could cover the wings. Read. Eat breakfast. Go for a walk. Eat lunch. Read. Practice magic. Eat dinner. Go for another walk. Turn out light. Conjure raincloud. Take shower. Go to bed. Sleep. Still, she had nagging doubts.
You know what the problem is. You're too cowardly to say it. You're a FAILURE AS AN ALICORN!
But she couldn't tell them. They wouldn't trust her. No. She could never tell them about... about Bleeding Haze.
Mistmane sighed. She couldn't keep doing this. Around all these ponies. She'd had a thousand years to regain her power. What if she lost control? That settled it. She couldn't tell them. After all, how could she trust others... when she couldn't even trust herself?
Rarity sat in her perfectly clean cushioned chair in Carousel Boutique. Her mane, tail, and manner were the product of immaculate grooming, as she dealt with this illogical, stubborn, fashionless pony.
"But I'm telling you, I can't take the bandages off! I just can't!"
Rarity sighed. "But you must! How do you expect me to find something that will cover your scar and still look stunning if you don't even take off your bandages? Really, we're looking for a replacement, not just something to cover the bandages."
The lime pony grimaced. "I can't take it off... I just... can't." Never again.
Rarity sighed. "I can't do this if you don't take those bandages off. I need to see what I'm working with." With that, a faint blue glow surrounded the bandages... they began to unravel... the lime pony shut her eyes, thinking, This is what comes of trusting. She slowly faded back to mist-gray, with a storm-gray mane. The bandages came undone... and with them, the spell that convinced ponies that there was naught there but a scar. Out of pure habit, the gray wings opened... and a pink pony, Pinkie, she remembered, said something shocking.
"Don't worry. I won't tell anypony your secret." Pinkie then did something strange. She spoke words that made no sense to the no-more-disguised alicorn. "Pinkie Pie swear! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." The two unicorns were nodding their heads along with her.
Twilight Sparkle smiled. "That goes for me too." Rarity looked slightly shocked. "And me!" Twilight looked down. "Well, at least now I know where I remembered that cutie mark from..."
