When Luster Dawn first arrived in Ponyville, the locals were happy to give her the grand tour. First they took her to Sugarcube Corner, then to Sweet Apple Acres, then to the edge of the Everfree Forest, then past the palace.
“Hey,” Luster said, “that’s Princess Twilight’s old palace isn’t it? From before she moved to Canterlot?”
“Oh, no,” one of the local ponies laughed. “But it’s okay, lots of ponies make that mistake. That’s actually Princess Leg’s palace.”
For a moment, Luster hesitated, certain that she had misread. Her head tilted ever so faintly to one side. “I’m sorry, who?”
“Leg. Princess Leg,” one of her guides repeated. When Luster continued to stare, they added, “You know. The Princess of Ponyville. Princess Leg.”
When the silence grew overlong, one of them coughed. “She gets mistaken for Twilight a lot?”
Changelings could be named after insect body parts: Thorax, Cilia, Pharynx, Chrysalis, Pupae, etc. So Leg was a traditional changeling name. Technically. Sortof.
Leg wasn’t a bad changeling. Before she reformed, she was sometimes a little mean, but that was just to fit in. When reformation came, she embraced it wholeheartedly, and whiled away several happy years making flower necklaces and participating in drum circles.
However, in fairness, Leg did have several notable character flaws, and foremost among these was cowardice. Leg valued bravery and honor and dignity, she truly did, but she valued her own life much more highly. So, when a trade had to be made, well.
Bottom line, there was a specific point in time when it really looked like Chrysalis was going to win. She had new powers, she had Grogar’s Bell, she had Tirek and Cozy Glow. And since she threatened to impale any traitor-changelings she found on an iron spike and slow-roast them over a fire, at the particular point in time when it seemed Chrysalis was going to win, Leg took certain steps.
Like selling out all of Thorax’s friends, and publicly proclaiming loyalty to the old monarchy.
Made things real awkward after Chrysalis got turned to stone.
“Leg!” Pharynx had shouted, while he and a squad of warrior-changelings fanned out through the Everfree Forest. “We know you’re around here.”
Leg was closer thatn Pharynx knew, hiding not two feet away inside a thick clump of bushes. The squad searching for her had means of seeing through her magical disguises, but she could still cower the traditional way. She was good at cowering, and shook so hard inside her concealment it made the leaves rattle.
“It’s okay, you can come out,” Pharynx said. “We just want to give you a stern talking to, and definitely not feed you alive to the maulwurf.”
“Um,” one of the guards said. “But, King Thorax actually does just want to talk things over.”
“Right,” Pharynx replied. “That’s what I said. We’re just going to talk things over with her, and definitely not seal her in concrete so the worthless hooflicker can be the pedestal that Chrysalis stands on for the rest of eternity.”
Leg bit down on her own hoof to stop from screaming. Then, once the squad passed, she slipped deeper into the jungle.
The weather in the Everfree Forest was wild that night. Though Ponyville had scheduled clear skies, storm clouds had formed of their own accord. Wind whipped through the trees, joined by scattered rain and distant bouts of thunder. At first, Leg thought she might power through it and find shelter in the Castle of the Two Sisters, but as time passed and the clouds grew heavy, she realized she might not be the scariest monster in the Everfree Forest.
Lightning crackled. The sky opened up, and rain came down in sheets. It was so dark, Leg couldn’t see her own hoof in front of her face. But she could see a pair of glowing eyes in the distance, slowly swiveling to face her.
Her fear of being eaten overcame her fear of Pharynx. Leaping from tree, to branch, to the open air, she took the form of a pegasus. Risking detection by moving through the open air, she flew as fast as her wings would carry her. Rain blinded her, soaked and chilled her to the bone. She couldn’t see where she was going, and could barely maintain enough altitude to avoid crashing through the trees.
But then, to her left, she saw lights. Not wisp lights, not the ethereal spirits of the Everfree, but firefly lanterns in the distance. Ponyville. She banked hard, rushing towards salvation, and for a moment, relief set her heart aflutter.
But then she passed the pegasus air crew trying to clear the storm from Ponyville’s skies. Several of them looked at her when she passed, and she was instantly convinced she was caught.
They’d tell Thorax, she thought. She’d be dragged away and subject to all sorts of horrible torments.
The thought made her so stiff that she didn’t so much land in Ponyville as crash in the middle of a street. The rain was still coming down hard, chilling her, making it hard to breathe. And she was covered in mud. When she picked herself up, on a beautiful street full of warm and brightly lit homes, all she could see was danger. Ponies who would turn her in, ponies who would do her harm.
She needed a building that was dark. Abandoned, ideally. A place to get shelter from the rain but where nobody would find her.
Then she saw the palace, locked up and dark. And she thought that nopony would dare break down the princess’s door to search for a runaway, and even if they did, the palace would offer a million rooms to hide in.
She spent ten minutes trying to pick the lock on the front door before she realized it was already open.
She didn’t even makde it to the bedroom. The adrenaline left her, she lay down on the floor of the entrance foyer, and in minutes, she was asleep.
The sound of a door handle turning instantly woke her from her rest. Her eyes flew open, she leapt to her hooves, and on pure instinct, she transformed. The entire motion took less than a second.
By the time Lyra finished opening the door and looked inside, Princess Twilight was standing in the foyer, at the end of a line of muddy hoofprints.
“Good morning,” Leg said, mimicking Twilight’s mannerisms as best she could. “What brings you over?”
“Oh, uh…” Lyra froze, squinting at the mare in front of her. “Hey, Twilight. Aren’t you supposed to be in Canterlot?”
“I am. Uh…” For half a second, she froze. “In Canterlot. That is. I… missed Ponyville so much I made a spell that lets me be in two places at once. So I can… still. Have fun. With my friends.”
“Huh.” Lyra thought about that for a moment. Then she shrugged. “Makes sense to me.”
“Uh, really?”
“What?” Lyra looked up, ears perking.
“Nevermind.” Leg stepped over Lyra’s way, peeking over her shoulder to see if anypony else was at the door. “What brings you over here?”
“You asked me to take care of the palace while you were away, remember? I was going to do some dusting, sweeping, you know, little chores.”
“Ah, yes, I did do that. Right.” Leg cleared her throat. “Uh… proceed. Then. I’m going to head into town. It’s a lovely morning.”
“It sure is.” Lyra beamed. “Have a nice day, Princess.”
Leg calmly exited the castle, shut the door behind her, and was immediately greeted by a half-dozen other ponies who all shouted: “Princess Twilight! Aren’t you supposed to be in Canterlot?”
“I have a spell that lets me be in two places at once.” Leg waved to them in what she hoped was a princess-y manner. “So, I’m here, but I’m in Canterlot too. So it’s not weird if you see two of me at once.”
“Oh that makes sense.”
Slowly, Leg squinted at the ponies in front of her.
She might have bolted then and there, taken to the skies and assumed a less noticeable form. It would have been the cautious move, certainly. But there were several reasons she stayed.
First, she was starving, and everypony loved Twilight. She could walk down the street in Twilight’s form, give a few hugs, bless a few babies, ennoble a few peasants, and then let out a loud belch from overeating. Given how hard she’d worked herself during her escape, it was a nice change.
Second, since the ponies of Ponyville were evidently extremely stupid, the town seemed like it might offer her shelter for at least a day or two while she figured out her next move. She needed to go somewhere Pharynx couldn’t reach her, but that left a lot of options, and she’d need to consider her journey carefully.
Third, wherever she went, she’d need traveling supplies. She didn’t have any money, and she wasn’t much of a thief.
“But I’m a Princess,” she said. “So you can like, spot me some supplies or something, right?”
“I don’t know,” Filthy Rich said. “I mean, don’t misunderstand, your Highness. I am so grateful for everything you’ve done for us. But, as the ruler of Equestria, shouldn’t you have a government expense account for official business?”
“Oh, um. Yes.” Leg bit her lip. “That. I have one of those.”
“Well, if you’d like, I’d be happy to bill the Crown for everything you need.”
“Perfect. Yes.” She nodded firmly. “Do that.”
“Great. I’ll just need some paperwork to prove you were here so I can invoice later. A writ, or a document with the royal seal, or anything like that.”
“Sure, I um… heh.” Leg smiled a stiff smile. “Left those in my other saddlebags. I’ll be right back.”
On her way out of Barnyard Bargains, she slipped a bundle of paper into her saddlebags. And a green pen. Then she hid in the alleyway behind the store for ten minutes, scribbling furiously.
“There! Just had to um… find my bags.” From within her saddlebags, which were very clearly the same bags she’d had ten minutes ago, Leg produced a thick bundle of paper. Little green rectangles. “I assume bank notes are fine?”
Each one had a flowery pattern all around the outside, a drawing of Twilight’s head in the center, and little highlights in the corners that read: “Redeemable for 100 Equestrian Bits.”
“Huh.” Filthy Rich considered the paper. “In some of these, you’re looking to the left, and in others you’re looking to the right.”
“Yeah I have an attention disorder or something.” Leg scratched the back of her head. Then quickly, she coughed and straightened up, assuming her most regal pose. “But, it’s no matter. I assume the word of Equestria’s ruler is good here?”
“Of course, your Highness. What was it you needed again?”
She handed Filthy Rich a list, and he slowly glanced it over. “Taking a long trip?”
She got supplies to go anywhere. Sleds for traveling to Yakyakistan, sun hats for Saddle Arabia, climbing gear for Timbucktu, airship tickets for Neighpon. It was partially because she hadn’t decided where she was going, but also to throw off the scent when the law came after her. Better that Filthy’s testimony offer them no clear leads.
When she got back to the palace, her muddy hoofprints were gone, and other things had arrived in their place: furniture, tapestries, a front table, flowers in a vase and more. The castle was furnished again, and Lyra stood on the upper level, carefully maneuvering a chest of drawers into place.
“Hey, Twilight,” she called downstairs as she finished her chore. “How was your walk?”
“Hey…” Leg paused. “You. It was good. What’s with all the stuff?”
“Well, since you’re going to be living here, I thought you’d want your things back so you didn’t have to sleep on the floor. Also I asked Gin Su if she could stop by to cook, since Spike isn’t around, and, you know!” Lyra giggled. “The Pasta Incident.”
“The what?”
“The incident. With the pasta.”
“Right.” Leg said once. Then again. “Right. Well. I’m expecting a big delivery from Barnyard Bargains soon, so be sure it all gets inside, and um… did you restock my library?”
“What do you mean? You never took the books out of the library.”
“Ah… hah.” She pointed with a hoof. “Right you are. I’m going to go… consult. My books! Particularly an atlas.”
Leg, having no idea where the library was, trotted off through the first door she saw.
It was a closet.
That night, as Gin Su prepared sushi, Leg consulted Twilight’s best atlas to find places she could flee. The sushi didn’t sustain her, but it was made with love, and Gin Su was good company. Apparently, she was one of the ponies of Ponyville who didn’t know Twilight well, so they could have a happy conversation without Leg constantly worrying about blowing her cover.
“And then…” Leg was laughing so hard she was nearly in tears. “My mother bit me, and get this, I bit her right back. It was hilarious. You should have seen everypony’s faces. I mean at the time I was terrified, of course. She kicked me so hard I left cracks in the wall and then locked me in the basement for a week. But in hindsight, it was amazing.”
“Oh. Gosh.” Gin Su stared, mouth agape. “Princess. I had no idea you and Prince Armor had such a… troubled youth.”
“Well, things were rough in the old days,” Leg agreed. “But don’t worry. I mean. It was fine. We escaped Mom’s clutches.”
“I’m… not really sure that is fine.” Gin Su bit her lip. “Princess, that really sounds like child a—”
A knock at the front door interrupted their conversation. Gin Su looked up, and Leg froze to the spot. Of the two, Gin Su reacted faster, standing and announcing, “I’ll get it,” before Leg could command her to ignore it. And what could Leg say, after that? There was no way to order her to sit without blowing her cover.
So she said nothing. She followed Gin Su to the door, even as she screamed internally, and every part of her fought against the motion. She’d have given anything not to be where she was.
“Oh, hello!” Gin Su said.
It was Applejack at the door.
The situation Leg was in was not without precedent. During Queen Chrysalis’s rule, she’d been trained for such an eventuality. “Remember,” her instructor had said, “if you are disguised as a pony you do not know well, and you encounter somepony who knows your cover, you must disengage from the situation quickly and calmly. Make an excuse, be polite, and leave. The goal is to get away from the pony as quickly as possible without arousing suspicion.”
Then, the instructor said, “Leg, are you listening? What did I just say?”
“Twilight?” Applejack asked, furrowing her brow. “What in tarnation are you doing here?”
“Well, uh, that is, I…” Leg stammered, her eyes darting every which way over the palace. Then she had an idea.
She slammed the door in Applejack’s face and ran away.
“Hey!” Gin Su called as Leg fled into the palace. Around a corner she went, down a hall, until she came to the room where her traveling supplies were being held. She grabbed items at random: rope, a parka, a sun hat, a ten-foot pole, two bundles of twine, a canteen, and some cookies that were allegedly baked with love.
Examining what she took for half a moment, she made a snap decision. “Yakyakistan it is. It’s fine. I love the cold. I’ll learn to play the fugelhorn.” There were saddlebags somewhere in the pile, but taking her time to find them would have required more self-control than she had. Everything went into one giant burlap sack, and she bolted for the castle’s rear doors.
She went up a flight of stairs, then down a flight of stairs, then around a corner, then up another hall. Then past an observatory, then by the library. She was lost. But then she saw a window, and thought, did it really matter if she used the back door? No. All that mattered was getting to the train station before Applejack could catch her.
So she swung her burlap sack like she was throwing a grenade, and shattered the window in front of her. Two hooves forward, she leapt out after it, planning to land nearly beside it on the ground and make good on her getaway.
She landed on Applejack, who was still by the front door, talking with Gin Su about what the heck was up with Twilight. Under most circumstances, such a landing would be painful for both creatures involved, but Applejack was an exceptionally solid earth pony, while Leg was an exceptionally waifish changeling.
And so, Leg bounced. Right off Applejack’s side, into the door, and shortly thereafter onto the ground.
“What the…!?” Applejack glared, turning to face the pile of purple pony that lay stunned before her. “Okay, that’s enough. You want to explain what the heck is going on here?”
Leg hadn’t survived Queen Chrysalis’s rule by being too proud to beg.
“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry,” she said as she roughly pulled herself up. She clasped her hooves together in the prayer position, eyes imploring Applejack for mercy. “I didn’t mean to -- that is. I know I’m not supposed to. I just, I got scared and overwhelmed. And sometimes when I’m scared I do stupid things. But I didn’t mean any harm.”
“You—”
“I know. I know. I shouldn’t have run away from you. I should have come out and told you.” She grasped Applejack’s shoulder. “But everything with Chrysalis, and Tirek, and Cozy Glow. It all happened so fast. And I was sure Equestria was going so lose. And I couldn’t. I was so scared.”
“That—” Applejack tried to pull away, but Leg’s grip was too tight.
Finally, pleading, desperate, Leg’s voice cracked and she shouted. “Please don’t tell any creature you caught me!”
“Okay okay okay!” Applejack raised her voice to put an end to Leg’s monologue. “It’s okay, Twilight. Alright? It’s okay. Take a breath.”
Leg did take a breath, if only because it took a moment for her to process what she’d just heard. “What?”
“It’s… okay.” Applejack gently laughed, reaching out to pat Twilight’s shoulder. “I really wasn’t expecting to see you here. You know, considering. But Gin Su here was telling me you made a spell to be in two places at once? And… well.” She smiled a smile that was friendly, if a bit awkward. “I guess I didn’t know how hard all this was hitting you.”
“Yes,” Leg said. After a moment, she remembered to stumble to her hooves. “Applejack. All this was hitting me very hard. I wanted to stay in Ponyville, to be close to you, my dear friend. Applejack. And others. And I am very embarrassed I did that which is why I didn’t want you to tell anypony I was here.”
“Right.” Applejack chuckled. “That’s about what I figured.”
“Okay, good.” Leg took in a slow, deep breath. “Well. Sorry. For um… freaking out. There.”
“It’s okay. I guess even the ruler of Equestrian can have Twilight moments now and again.” Applejack chuckled, Gin Su chuckled, Leg chuckled and wondered if it was self-deprecating or at Twilight’s expense. Probably the latter. If Twilight caught her, she thought, it was friendship lasers for sure.
“Well, uh…” Leg gestured at the door. “You want to come in? I mean, my cover’s blown now. Secret. Secret’s blown. Secret that I’m here. Now. You like sushi?” She glanced at Gin Su. “She makes sushi with love which makes the raw fish taste better.”
“Actually, I figured if you were here, I was going to take you somewhere. There’s a party down in the diner to celebrate your coronation. There’s pie, music, somepony brought Trivia Trot cards.”
“Uh… gosh. I don’t know. I was-”
“Come on, Twilight,” Applejack nudged her. “Ain’t like you to pass on Trivia Trot.”
“Well I guess I’m going then,” Leg snapped, her body so stiff she involuntarily laughed. “Want to join us, Gin Su? The more the merrier.”
The whole walk there, Leg was screaming internally. Several times, she considered attacking Applejack and Gin Su when their backs were turned—knocking them out, taking to the skies and fleeing. But that would cross the line between pretending to be a bad changeling to survive, and actually being a bad changeling.
Also, she was pretty sure she couldn’t take Applejack in a fight. That pony’s muscles were like rocks.
Realistically, the second point might have played a greater part in her decision than the moral reservations. But at least she knew right from wrong.
When they arrived at the Ponyville Diner, the party was in full swing. There were tiki torches, a pony conga line, balloons, cake, and all the other colorful detruis that marked a pony party in full swing. When Leg and her two companions appeared, many ponies turned to point. A few gasped.
“Yes,” Leg waved. “Hello everypony.” Her voice was thin and reedy, her stress showing even through her disguise. “Don’t worry. I’m still in Canterlot. I missed you all so much I made a spell that lets me be in two places at once.”
“Oh that makes sense.”
“Yeah, sure it does.” She let out a faint whine, turning her head towards the ground. “Time to do the things I normally do at these events, surrounded by all the ponies I know and love.”
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were both there as well, and each asked questions of Leg that she skillfully deflected by stuffing a piece of cake into her mouth and then mumbling. There was singing and laughter and pin-the-tail-on-the-pony. And even dancing.
Yet, as she danced, Leg couldn’t help but notice ponies staring. Thinking quickly, she double-checked her form, but nothing was wrong that she could see. She was dancing the way everypony danced. It should have been unremarkable. And yet they stared.
“Uh,” she stilled her hooves at once. “That’s enough dancing. How about more games?”
“Oooh,” Sunburst called. “Trivia Trot?”
“Why not?”
Tables were arranged, cards were shuffled, and an audience hooted and hollered. Applejack finished off one cider, then set into another one, pounding her table with a hoof. “Come on!” she said. “Let’s get started.”
“Um, actually,” Sunburst said. “The rules say ponies can’t play while inebriated.” He lifted the book. “So I’m afraid you’re disqualified.”
“Oh, come on,” Leg waved Sunburst off. “Applejack can play, right?”
“It’s in the rules.”
“Yeah, but the rules exist to facilitate fun.” Leg spread her forehooves wide. “And Applejack getting kicked out of the game isn’t fun. We don’t need to be sticklers about every little detail, right?”
As Leg looked around the Trivia Trot game, she realized that quite a lot of ponies were staring.
“So, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said. “When exactly did you learn how to dance?”
And then, Leg found she couldn’t move. It was like she was paralyzed. Like the weight of everypony’s stares was pinning her to the spot. She had to run, had to lie, had to fight her way out, had to do something, but every move was wrong. A tremble that started in her heart spread to her hooves, and she broke out in a sweat.
“Um,” she said, so softly she was nearly whispering. “In Canterlot?”
It was at that exact moment that fate intervened. Its intervention took the form of two squads of former Storm Guard infantry, determined to avenge their vanquished king. They’d hoped to kidnap Applejack, but a greater opportunity had presented itself.
Their airship hit the ground like a meteor falling from the sky. It tore through Ponyville, shattering buildings and upending carts. Ponies screamed and leapt out of the way, abandoning party tables moments before they were crushed into splinters. And when the ship came to a stop, the front hatch blew open, releasing two dozen of the hulking beasts.
“Princess Twilight!” one of them called. At the base of the hatch lay a stunned filly, who had taken a blow to the head when the airship came down. With a single massive hand, he reached down and picked her up by her throat. “It’s time to answer for your crimes. Surrender, or the little one pays the price.”
That was when Leg realized her opportunity to escape had come. It was the perfect distraction. She knew how to fly an airship. And so, while these idiots were busy fighting the ponies of Ponyville, she could steal their ship and fly anywhere she wanted to go.
The first moments of the plan went so well. Her muscles tensed, she spread her wings, and when she kicked hard into the air, she caught the wind. A gust carried her up, up over the Storm Guard, towards the deck of the ship and the control rods in the back. She was the first to act, and Storm Guard and ponies alike could only stare as the seized the initiative.
But then she noticed that the top deck gun was manned, the tip of a harpoon sticking from its barrel. The gunner was tracking her flight. Fear raced through her limbs like electricity. She dived hard.
The harpoon sailed through the air where she’d been a moment ago. Out of control, she stuck out her hoof in a desperate attempt to put something between herself and the ground.
She hit the Storm Guard holding the little filly.
Specifically, she kicked him in the face.
