It was a very satisfied Carina that sat up in bed that morning. She had a small headache, and she made a note to herself to seriously cut down on cocoa, but she had a fun night after Elfilis finally got off his ass and joined her at the lake. The pink mare rolled off the bed, and winced as her sore legs hit the floor much sooner than she expected. She looked at the bed real-quick, the legs were still in-tact, before she caught sight of her boyfriend.

"Oh, hey Elfy. You good?" He was face down in his pillow, and his waist was elevated because of the pile of ice packs he had put on crotch. "... I'm sorry?" Yeah, she was done with dark chocolate. The sight of Elfilis with his butt in the air like that was cute, but he clearly didn't come out of last night as chipper as she did. "... You need anything?" He lifted a wing out of the way to see her.

"A break."

"Yeah, of course. We'll take a break." It was the least she could do for him. "Anything else? Can I do anything to help?"

"Hmm... You should probably go to Ponyville." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wow, trying to get rid of me too?" He rolled his one visible eye at her.

"You have a dress from Rarity to check up on. You need to see Twilight, she'll probably tell you why. And that white mare we met at that cafe a while ago is a changeling I think. Have fun." And then he portaled her away while her jaw was still dropped open.

"She's a wha- God, damn it Elfy!... Hi Twilight, hi Spike. How are you guys doing?" Said pony and dragon just looked up at her from their table. Looks like they were having breakfast. And, they also looked... "I got taller again, didn't I?" Spike just nodded as Twilight shoveled the rest of her cereal into her mouth before running off to grab her notes. "Well, I guess I'm starting here today."

Rarity put a mirror in front of Carina as Twilight and Spike ran around her with various tools and tape measures.

"Oooh~! Thats pretty." Her antlers had grown longer, and they now curved backwards and then towards each other. From the side they looked rather menacing, but from the front? A nice yellow outline of a heart. She also had longer wings, and their iridescence now went all the way down to cover her flanks like a shimmering cloak. Twilight interrupted her self-inspection for a moment.

"Carina, can you lift your tail for a second?" She thought that was funny, as it was Twilight asking all straight-laced, but it did make her aware that her gossamer tail was longer and heavier now as she tried to accommodate the lavender librarian. "... You couldn't have cleaned up before you got here?" Woops.

"Elfilis sent me here, and he isn't feeling well, so I didn't exactly have a chance. Sorry though. Yike!" She nearly jumped as Rarity started cleaning her rather suddenly with a warm cloth.

"Sorry darling, didn't mean to startle you."

"No it's fine, just wasn't expecting it. I can take over if you don't mind." Rarity just let Carina take the towel in her own magic before making her way to the changelings dress, which she was once again modifying. "You know, at this point if you want to stop designing that for me-"

"Nonsense. Unlike the disasters I had to show off last night, your dress is changing because you are changing. It wouldn't be fair to quit on you now?"

"Disasters? What disasters?" Rarity just gave a wry look at Twilight as said mare blushed and began to answer for her.

"The other girls and I kind of, uh, we were dumb and asked Rarity to make changes that weren't very good." They tried to tell the fashionista how to fashion their dresses?

"Quite. Thank Celestia for Fluttershy. Anywho-" It was at this point that Rarity pulled out a couple swaths of cloth. "Do you prefer alabaster or royal purple?"

"So what is this thing on my horn supposed to do again?" It was tight against her larger magic horn, it was clearly intended for smaller unicorns, but Twilight didn't have anything else on such short notice.

"It's to read pure output. Just, cast any spell, but try to overcast it as best you can. No offensive spells obviously, but trying to overcast your transformation into a unicorn should be a good start." Simple enough.

"Alright. You ready?" Twilight nodded as she put on some safety goggles. "Here I go then." As the green flames sprung around her, Carina attempted a true transformation into Rarity and immediately hit a snag. It was too small, she had officially outgrown the pony disguise. Regardless, she continued to pour magic into the spell. She figured, worse comes to worse, she looks like a big seamstress for a little bit. However, as she gathered all the magic she could hold at once and cast, she panicked. Crushing, it's crushing me! Oh fuck!. She felt the pain as it tried to compress her form even further, and further, and further. She had just opened her mouth to scream, when suddenly, with a soft pop she felt in her head more than she did on her body, all the force disappeared with her green flames. "... OW!" And then she fell over.

"Rari- Carina! Are you okay!? That didn't look good!" Carina just grunted from the floor before taking a deep breath.

"Yeah, yeah I think I'm okay. Check me for any broken bones please?" She would have giggled hearing Rarity's voice acting so casually, but her ribs hurt. "I'm too big for a pony transformation now. The spell kept trying to push me into shape, but there was just too much of me." Twilight quit in her scanning spells for a moment.

"There was? You look to be as big as Rarity normally does." What? Wait a second...

"... Are you sure?" Twilight just nodded as she started her spells back up. "... Rad. I don't feel any of the discomfort of being in a small body at all. Just the pain of my bones being pushed through a tube. Suck it mother, I have broken the law of true transformation."

"I'm assuming that means changelings also have a less physical disguise to work with? Also, you seem to be okay. You can transform back if you think you're up for it. Just, less power this time. Please?" It was at that moment that Carina finally noticed the heat and looked around Twilights basement. The floor she was lying on was turned to charcoal and the ceiling had a spiral burned into it.

"Shit, the fire isn't supposed to be real."

"You want me to race with... who are you anyway? I've only seen you like, one time. And you were way smaller, not Princess Celestia-sized." Carina made a note to be more social in the future, she really only spoke with Elfilis nowadays.

"My name is Carina. It's nice to meet you Rainbow Dash. Like you said, I used to be pretty different, so Twilight wants to try to find my limits. We already tested magic, so we were hoping you would lend your expertise to try to find out how fast I can fly?" The pegasus snorted before landing on the ground.

"I'm always up for a race! If you want to find out how fast you are compared to most pegasus, I'll be happy to tell you how badly you lost." Carina wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she just kept her smile tight across her face as Twilight began mapping out the course for them. "Okay, so you want us to go from here, to Fluttershy's cottage, and then all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres? I can do that. You up for that pink... Yeah nevermind I'll come up with a better nickname."

"I'm willing to give it a try. Are you counting us down Twilight?"

"Yes, just get in line here and wait for me to say go." Rainbow zoomed into position as Carina took her time next to her. Soon though, they were both crouching, and Carina's wings were buzzing in preparation. "Alright. On your mark... Get set... GO!" And Carina felt it as she moved at maybe double her old speed, the way the wind fought her harder than it ever had before. Didn't make that rainbow spot off in the distance get any closer though.

"DAMN! You are fast!"

"Ain't you the mare that was showing off 'er teats to that Elfilis fella?" Twilight met them at the farm, probably having taken the faster, non-racing route to get there. It took Carina triple the time it took Rainbow Dash to complete the race, but the sky-blue pegasus assured her it was actually a pretty good time.

"Yes, that was me. He literally didn't know what they were, I was just teaching him anatomy."

"It's been awhile, but ah'm pretty sure that my ma didn't fondle 'erself to teach me about teats." Wow, okay. Applejack was as witty as Elfilis. Carina decided she liked her. "Ah well, I'm sure that wasn't what you girls wanted to talk about. How can I help?" Rainbow actually took over before Twilight could speak up.

"Teats over here wants to know how strong she is compared to the average pony, so Twilight thought it would be a good idea to make her compete against the strongest Earth Pony in Ponyville."

"I don't want to ask total strangers for help alright! I don't know everypony in town like that yet. I just moved here recently you know." Twilight was a little miffed, but she had a good point. On a another note...

"Is that my nickname now? Teats?"

"What? It fits, doesn't it? You're huge now!" Carina had a new idea.

"Hey Twilight? How about me and Applejack compete to see who can throw Rainbow Dash the farthest?"

"Uh oh."

"Hey Rainbow? Before I untie you, can I ask you a question?"

"You can ask me after you untie me Tea- uh Carina." Said changeling snorted as she undid the knots keeping the pegasus in a bind.

"I don't actually mind the nickname, but I'm sure some of our mutual friends won't be as enthused." Rainbow stretched and popped her joints as she got up.

"Yeah, Rarity especially right? Oh, you can do whatever you want and lift tails to measure flanks all day, but the moment you joke about taking a peek at some puss? Total downer."

"I was thinking of Twilight actually. Rarity wanted me to tell her about my time with Elfy, and she started cleaning my 'puss' earlier without prompting."

"No shit? Wow. What did you want to ask me anyway? I do kind of have a job to get back too, so..."

"Oh, right. Uh, white mare, messy blue mane, and some party shades covering her eyes. Sound familiar?"

"Rarity on a bad hair day? Snrk, seriously though. That sounds like Vinyl Scratch. She's a DJ, I usually see her at Pinkie's bigger parties. If you're looking for her, Pinks could find her."

"Thanks Rainbow. And thank you for being a good sport about all this too."

Luckily enough, upon ditching Twilight and heading for the bakery, Carina found Vinyl Scratch going the same way.

"Hey! Vinyl! Hold up a second!" Said unicorn stopped and turned to see who had spoken to her.

"Hey- Woah girl! Your huge! How did that happen between yesterday and today?" Carina skidded to a stop in front of her.

"You saw me yesterday?"

"Heard you too. Whats up gigantor?" Carina didn't know how to go about this subtly, but she would try.

"Is mother a gigantor too?" Vinyl just looked at her in shock before laughing and taking off her shades, revealing red eyes.

"Yeah, it's you alright princess. Least subtle changeling in the hive." Ouch. "You want to take this to my place? I have to pick up a cake from the Cakes, but then we have a few hours to ourselves." Carina just nodded.

"Lead the way."

"How did you escape the hive? I practically got taken out of it while I was in Canterlot." Vinyls now green eyes opened up in shock.

"The hive is in Canterlot?" Carina realized she must have been gone a long time.

"They were in Canterlot. Elfilis got them all out."

"Lover boy, right? That's good. Well, to answer your question, mother doesn't pay as much attention to what us 'drones' are up too. So long as the hive is up and running, who cares if a few disappear?"

"Is she really that bad?"

"Well, no. Not really. She thinks it's inevitable that a number of us will kick the bucket every so often, so she just assumes that's what happens if any of us noticeably drop off the radar." Vinyl kicked back on her couch before continuing. "Still hurts to find out that mother only kind of cares about you..."

"... This is a nice place though... You've done well for yourself." Carina didn't really know what to say to that, so she opted to try to change the subject.

"Thanks. I know it looks a little off, but it's how me and Octi like it." It certainly was an odd house, it's colors were split down the middle and the style of each half was tailored to match the two mares who lived within its walls. "You still need to work on subtlety Carina."

"Oh fuck off, I want to be myself, not what mother wanted us to act like to catch the pony of the day." Vinyl nodded to her.

"I dig that. You got the looks for it now. I wasn't so lucky, but all's well and all that crap. You should still learn about pony culture though. I told your boyfriend that ponies are generally open about sex and stuff, but I wasn't sure how to tell him that you are super sexual compared to both ponies and other changelings, bar mother."

"Am I really that bad?" She thought she was relatively normal.

"Oh yeah. You weren't wrong, it's not illegal and there are some pretty damn open ponies, but open displays like your cocoagasm last night would still leave a good number of younger ponies uncomfortable." Well damn. She still wasn't going to change, but now she knew. "Enough about that though, you haven't seen Ponyville's nightlife yet right?"

"No? This old town has a nightlife?" That didn't sound right.

"Of course, its where us wild ponies get to get sexy without worrying about any the rare super-prudes paradeing in on our fun. Want to invite a few of your new mare friends and go out for drinks later?"

"Oh hell yeah!"

Author's Note

I lied, it comes out today. Carina focused episode, hope you enjoyed her shenanigans.