It all started about five years ago, when you landed your dream job! Well, not exactly, but you've always dreamed of working at a traveling carnival, specifically Farrier's. Not P.T. Barneigh, not the Yearling Brothers, but Farrier's. It had only begun a few days ago, but there you were, pitching your tent alongside dozens of other carnies.
As you push the last pole through the tent fabric and into the ground, something pale catches the corner of your eye. You look up and see one of the other carnies, a female. Sweet Celestia, she's beautiful! She looks at you with brilliant diamond eyes. She smiles, and her full red lips stretch to either side of her face. And then she brushes some of her hair behind her ear! Her hair, so thick it could be a miniature forest of black.
There are butterflies in your stomach. You feel your heart skip a beat, as if your brain forgot how to function for a moment. Your cheeks get warm as you start to blush. You break the mutual stare, averting your gaze downward, because you can't stop grinning like a colt.
After a moment or two, you look back up, but she is nowhere in sight. Your smile fades, and you spend every spare moment the rest of the season trying to find her again. You ask around, but nopony else seems to know who you're talking about. Sighing, you wish you had at least said hello to her, if only to say goodbye.
A year later, you were hired to help maintain the carnival's finances. It was a job most carnival workers had to learn, and they noticed you had a bit of a knack for it. The bits piled up as another successful season drew on.
As you sit there counting bits, you hear a rustling outside the tent. You realize you've been sitting for a long time, so you get up and take a quick break. You open the flap and almost run into a pole! The pole moves, and you look up to see a mare. Of course, she's wearing stilts! Her face is painted in bright colors, and she’s wearing puffy clothes, signatures of the resident clowns.
You nearly strain your neck looking at her, yet you can't look away as she smiles sweetly, not saying a word.
It happens again; the butterflies, and the heart-skip. Finally, you can't take the strain anymore, and you rub your neck, which has gotten sore. Once your neck feels better, you look up, but once more, your new flame has disappeared. You curse at yourself under your breath as you reenter your tent to continue counting bits.
The next year, you were given to one of the main acts to help prepare for that night's show. You and a hoofful of other carnies were given the task of adjusting the lights as the various acts practiced among the rings. They paraded elephants, corralled the chimera and manticore; every act had a different setting.
Finally, when all the lights had been set up properly, you and the other carnies descended the ladders. As you fold yours up to put it away, you hear an odd sound, almost like a growling. The chimera and manticore don't growl like that. Then you turn, and suddenly remember the Ringmaster having said something about --
A wendigo! Not the windigo of Hearth’s Warming lore, but an actual wendigo! It just stands there, staring at you with its hollow eyes. It resembles the yetis that live scattered throughout the Frozen North.
Your heart stops and you're frozen, but it just stands there, growling. You loosen up and examine the creature. Its coat looks ashen, laying taut over a near-skeletal frame. What lips it had were tattered and bloody, dripping red as though she - yes, the wendigo was indeed female - as though she had recently fed. Then you turn your attention to its antlers, tall and firm. As you examine her head once more, her hollow eyes seem to draw you deeper into their darkness.
You blink, and suddenly the wendigo is gone. How odd, that such a beast would be so tame in that moment. You want to learn more, but alas, she was not in the final Big Top routine the rest of that season.
Later that night, as everypony else sleeps, you remain awake, wondering what kind of pony you are, that you fall in love with so many mares. For that matter, what kind of love do you have for them? Is it fickle? Is it grounded, or is it a kind that soars in the sky, floating whichever way the wind blows it?
Two years ago, you were walking in a nearby forest, when you find a sack laying there on the ground, with something wriggling inside. The sack is large, maybe even large enough to fit a few ponies. Sure enough, you open it and four unicorns spill out! They had been tied up, cloth covering their muzzles, and they had inhibiting collars on their horns.
You had no sooner freed them all and set them free when a creature approaches. You hide behind a boulder and take a peek. A succubus? You've never seen one in the flesh, only read about them in stories. She's facing away from you, and you take in her devilish majesty. Most notably, the mighty red bat-like wings that protrude from her back. You notice she also has two horns wrapping around her head, and cloven hooves. She turns toward your hiding place, and you slink back behind the rock.
You don't hide quick enough. She sees you hide yourself. She turns the corner and waves at you, smiling almost mischievously as a shiver runs down your spine. "Wow," you mutter as the chill surrounds you. Feels like a blizzard, you think.
You don't remember much else that happened in that forest. Somehow, deep within those trees, you knew you'd fallen in love. Too bad you'll never see her again. When you regained your senses at the edge of the forest, she was nowhere to be found.
Just like all the other mares.
As last season got nearer to its end, it was time to start cleaning things up. Especially since last week was our Nightmare Nights Festival week, there were plenty of decorations to put away. One poor sap was charged with taking down all the little ghost decorations that hung from the trees around the camp.
You were in your tent, in the middle of putting some rubber bats back in a bin, when a cavemare walks toward your tent. You don't recall seeing a cavemare at last night's party, but such a legendary thing intrigues you. She wore an animal skin (spotted, like some chimeras) draped across her back, tied around her barrel.
You smile at her, and she smiles back, not slowing her gait. You watch her go, and you must have been so distracted by the rest of her coat that wasn't covered by the animal skin, you didn't notice she had left.
You stare again and whisper a soft "goodbye" in the direction you had last seen her go.
Fast forward to the current season. After five years of fleeting romances, you finally decide not to go looking for it. And if it walks right up to you, well, you may or may not give it a shot.
The carnival owns a flock of sheep, and the pony in charge of them had been injured and sent to the hospital, so yesterday, you volunteered to take care of them. It was a beautiful evening, and the nightly routine dictated they needed a drink. You took the flock down the river, over to the pond. While they drank, you sat on the dock, admiring the moon and the stars
The pond wasn't too far from the camp, and soon, somepony sidles up to your spot on the wooden pier. You turn your head and see a tall white mare, dressed in the typical garments of pirate royalty from the Bitorion era. The butterflies return, you start blushing again, and you are determined, this time, that your seasonal carnival crush will not vanish without a conversation this year!
You stand and clear your throat, clearing away the butterflies. You speak.
"Well, hello there, captain."
"Hi." She smiles back at you.
"I don't know if I've seen you around yet this year, but you're somepony I think I'd like to get to know."
Then she started to laugh, and the hour chimed on the big clock in the center of the carnival. Twelve chimes, midnight. You were thoroughly shocked as she gazed into your eyes and explained, "Don't you realize who I am, my little pony? It's me." You were dumbfounded at her words, so she continued. "The last five years, don't you see?"
Then she stepped back and showed me what she meant. At first she was the pirate queen, but she quickly transformed her figure. The carnie. The clown girl. The wendigo. Succubus. Cavemare. And finally, she changed back into the pirate queen.
Of course, now it all makes sense! No wonder you fell in love with so many different mares. They weren't different mares at all, but a single changeling. With each of her transformations, the butterflies intesify and your heart skips many beats. You do not care if your heart beats straight out of your chest! And now that you know the reason, now that you know the secret, these feelings may never end.
"For the last five years, you've found me. I thought you were able to see through my disguises, so I avoided you after we met each year. But every year, without fault, you've found me."
You've fallen in love with a changeling. When you fall in love with a changeling, it is certain that they will change their form around you at some point. If you only know one thing about changelings, know that you'll have to learn to see through their disguise.
And your love? She lives her life in disguise.
Author's Note
Special thanks to VividSyntax and Moosetasm for their input, and of course to Aurelio Voltaire for his brilliant lyrics and musical prowess!
