Changed(old edition. this is terrible)

“So, that whole disappearing act at the party,” Rainbow said as she landed beside me. “Why’d you randomly teleport out? Nopony was harassing you after you cut the cake, so why’d you leave? Don’t tell me a Changeling, one that apparently managed to take down a Royal Guard, would be scared of ponies watching him cut a cake.” Rainbow sighed. “You made quite a few ponies concerned about you, by the way.”

“Listen, I might have the body of a Changeling-“ I tapped my forehead. “But my brain is far from that of a regular Changeling. I knew what would've happened had that guard actually hit me across the head; I probably would have more than just a broken leg. So just imagine if I were to go up against a whole group of ponies, many of which were vocally clear about how little they liked Changelings, all decided to stare me down. I was scared of getting hurt again.

“And the whole teleporting thing? I didn’t even know that was possible, or that I could do that. I mean, I’m glad that I now have an out if things go south, but I probably can’t do that on a dime. I’m pretty sure a lot of my magic is going to be very emotionally charged; I can only do levitation because I nearly dropped my toothbrush in the toilet and didn't want to fish it out… I think this party was a bad idea, though.”

“Ray, we had to introduce you to Ponyville in some way. Not everypony is going to like you all the bat, heck, I was pretty untrusting of you the first time I met you. Just give it some time, and I’m sure these ponies will love ya. You managed to earn AJ’s trust, and you’ve got freakin’ Princess Luna! Heck, with just me and my friends, we can get most of Ponyville to trust and love you in a couple weeks. So just imagine how having a princess or two would help with that?”

I took a sigh and looked up at the sky. The moon rose in the east, and then I noticed that Luna was on the roof of Sugarcube Corner, raising it for all the onlookers to see. It was quite a funny little sight, since it was just like a really small moon raising princess standing on a really big slice of cake. Would the town like me? If one pony is to go off of, most ponies thought I was manipulating Luna and Princess Celestia in some way. Also, made ‘quite a few ponies’ worried? About me? Sounds very unlikely.

“So… Do you want me to come back to the party?” I sat on my rump. “Because… I guess I’ll go back simply because of how much effort probably went into setting this up. It is also Luna’s party, so it would make sense that as her friend, I should stay for her, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’d love it if you can come back. Heck, most of the ponies in there actually wanted to meet you after the princess said that she adopted you. They just didn’t know how to approach what they thought was a vicious, love stealing Changeling, y’know?” Rainbow then rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Say… why don’t you ever call Princess Luna… well, ‘Princess Luna’? Doesn’t that seem a bit rude to you? I mean, you call Princess Celestia a princess all the time.”

“I don’t really have a reason as to why. I started calling Princess Celestia as a princess simply because I can’t bring myself to refer to her as anything else. Take me back to when I first met Celestia, when she taught me how to get up when I was lying flat on my side? I’d probably be calling her Celly. I might’ve even started calling her ‘mom’ at some point. After I found out that she kept me from going home, by just not telling me I could go home to begin with after the means for me to go home stopped working? Yeah, no. I can’t bring myself to be comfortable or even friends with her.

“Luna, while I didn’t like her for a bit after that whole incident, I do still… love Luna? I dunno, it’s only been about a week since we met. I do think of her as a friend, so she’s just ‘Luna’ to me. Or Lulu, I sometimes call her that after I heard Princess Celestia say it a few times. Luna never told me to not refer to her as just ‘Luna’, so I never stopped. I think it’s because… she wants to show that we’re equals? I am, by law, her son. But it’d be weird to call her ‘Mom’ or ‘Ma’ when I can’t see her in such a way. So Luna it is!” I chuckled a little bit. “I’m kinda glad that Luna actually wants to take care of me, I’d probably just let myself die if I were stuck here alone.”

I jumped when a set of hooves touched the ground. “So you love me now, Ray?” It was Luna, of course. “Well, obviously not in a romantic way, but it is kinda nice to know that you do love me, or at the very least consider me a friend.” Luna’s face then darkened. “Ray, if you were uncomfortable with being in the center of the room to cut your cake, you could have said so. I am also a guest of honor, and I could have used that to keep you out of the spotlight.” She draped a wing over my back. “Now, let’s return to Twilight's castle for the night. You clearly aren’t comfortable with parties. Next time I will find a more comfortable way to get you out of your room.”

I shook my head. “Rainbow told me that she and a few ponies wanted me back in the party, so I’m going back in. It may… be a bit stressful, but if what I’m being told is true, then I’m down to go back in.” Luna nodded and the three of us trotted back into Sugarcube corner, well, I trotted. Rainbow hovered off the ground with her wings, and Luna walked at her normal pace and still outpaced me. I hated being short… If I were still human then I could run laps around Luna. Well, I still have her beat on apple bobbing!

We all walked back into the party, and everyone stopped and stared at me. “Hey, I’m back if anybody cares,” I sat myself beside the door and didn’t move a muscle. I really don’t care if these ponies actually hate me and Rainbow was just trying to get me to come back. This time, I would be next to the door, and I can leave if everybody in here suddenly hates me again. A normal pony, no wings, no horn, hobbled over to me with a cup of fruit punch and offered it to me. I almost immediately took it, but for all I know, it could be spiked with something.

“Hey… sorry about making you want to leave earlier. I wanted to come over to talk with you, but you’re kinda… scary. Also Princess Luna gave everypony who dared get near you, the stink eye. And… while Changelings are scary, an angry Princess is even more so,” he glanced at Luna. “I suppose if she isn’t being mind controlled, she wouldn’t want anypony potentially dangerous, near her newly adopted Changeling would she? I don’t want to find out what’d happen if somebody did try to hurt you.”

I chuckled. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t want anybody near me either. Y’know, my leg’s kinda broken, I just got out of the hospital. I already don’t trust most, if not all, of you ponies to not turn me into a news headline already…” I took up the offered fruit punch with thanks. “I dunno why you guys would find me scary though. I get Luna, she’s pretty scary, but I’m shorter than all of you, and I suck at fighting. A poodle could put me in the emergency room if one decided that it just really hated me for some reason. Heck, I think the only ponies I’m taller than, are literal children. And I’m probably not much taller than them. You could probably shove me over and I wouldn’t be able to stop you.”

“Well, I can kinda get that. You fought a Royal Guard and came out pretty bloody even if you knocked him out.”

“He didn’t even touch me!” I laughed. “All the blood? My leg, and even my nose? I ran into a wall at full speed, that’s how I got so fucked up,” I began to laugh even harder. “I managed to take down a Royal Guard with nothing more than a trash can, but I can’t stop myself from running into a wall,” I laughed as my new companion just gave me a quizzical expression.

“You say you’re bad at fighting? I couldn’t imagine being able to even pin a guard down, and you knocked him out with a trash can?”

“Well, only part of a fight is physical. If you know how to take up any advantage, you can probably beat up a Royal Guard like it’s nothing. I just figured that clubbing somebody’s head with a metal helmet on their head would hurt, so I went for it. If I didn't run into a wall and break my leg, the Guard probably wouldn’t have let me get anywhere near him,” I shrugged. “It’s pretty hard to take your opponent seriously after they manage to do that. Boy do I have a fun story for… all my friends at the Hive.”

We both chuckled as I took a sip of the punch after finally accepting it. As it turned out, it was pretty good, even if it did feel kinda watery. Then again, it’s not gourmet, it’s just a party drink. “I am not scary, Ray,” Luna said as she swatted me with a wing.

“Yes you are. You can raise the moon, which already weighs a few quintillion tons. I’ve yet to see what else you’re capable of, but you’re already capable of just squishing me if you wanted to.”

“I do not wish to, so you have nothing to fear. However, I was quite the force to be reckoned with during Equestria’s early years. Many duels I have partaken in, many I have come out unscathed. I even used to lead Equestria’s armies from the front lines and clear through rows and rows of enemy lines…” Luna then lifted her left leg and flexed it. It was as sharp as a diamond. “Me and my sister only look regal and dainty, but we can probably put most bodybuilders to shame. The guards in Canterlot aren’t for mine, or my sister’s protection.” She giggled when she noticed how my jaw was slacking; Luna could break my arm without even thinking about it.

Luna then glanced at the pony who was just talking to me. “However, none of our subjects have to fear from me or my sister, unless I get corrupted again, or my sister gets corrupted at some point. We obviously do not wish to massacre our subjects, behead them, or anything. I… do have a tendency to use the Canterlot Royal Voice and send ponies flying while angered, however. Luckily Twilight and her friends have helped me immensely in controlling that.” Now I want to learn how to do the “Royal Voice’, it sounds like something that could be helpful.

Soon after, another pony walked up, greeted me, and went about their day. Then another, and another. The wild thing was, all of them were being genuinely friendly! One colt even gave me a hoof bump. I couldn’t help but let a small smile form on my face as I actually found myself enjoying the party. It turned out that ponies were pretty friendly after they figured that I was just as scared of them as they were of me. I couldn’t enjoy all of the games we had, since my leg was still not in any condition to be hitting anything with a hammer or baseball bat, but now it felt like people were actually starting to be okay with me being here. Sure, I wasn’t immediately making friends with anybody, but I was just happy if these guys didn’t hate me immediately. It was getting kinda late, and I was beginning to find it hard to keep my eyes open.

My eyes drooped once, twice, and the next thing I know, my leg wheel’s unstrapped. Suddenly I’m leaning against something nice and soft, with something nice and soft draped over me. I barely managed to open my eyes again, to realize that Luna was holding me again, before they shut tight once more. My body and brain were at odds, on one hand, I needed sleep, but my brain kept telling my body that I should be on high alert. I was in a room with strangers, afterall. Anyways, after that last eye droop, I was fast asleep.

At least until Pinkie shouted into a microphone, which isn't connected to anything, that it was karaoke time. Everybody in the room began to stomp on the ground, which I guess was another form of clapping? I dunno, I always assumed that hooves stomping meant that, whatever owned those hooves, was about to kill you. “Do you want to go home, Ray?” Luna asked. “Because you looked ready to pass out a moment ago. Do not push yourself to stay awake, it’s unhealthy.”

“Aren’t you the one that is only running off of 2 power naps all day and night?” I asked.

Luna giggled. “I suppose I cannot talk, but you’re in need of some sleep.”

“Trust me, I’m gonna be fine. I… I kinda wanna see what karaoke’s like. I always heard that, unless you had a home set up, karaoke was kinda expensive to do. Never got to watch, let alone do it myself. Where I’m from, we just sing the lyrics to a song while the instrument plays, so is anything different here?” I asked.

“Well, I haven’t done much karaoke myself, but I have seen a party or two where karaoke is one of the main events. I believe it’s very similar to how it works where you’re from, but if you don’t know the lyrics to a song, you just sing your heart out, and nopony would mind or care. It’s more about having fun than actually sounding good, so don’t worry too much. That’s if you even get brought up on stage, so you can just sit back and watch if you want.” I nodded before stomping on the small hope of being brought on stage.

As it turned out, most ponies could sing somewhat well? I dunno, nobody sounded terrible, but there were a few who stood out from the rest. Twilight, who was singing something that went ‘This day’ and sounded really good. Rainbow Dash sang a lot like a heavy rock vocalist, singing some rock song that I’ve never heard of, and it was kinda surprising to hear her voice go so low. Despite how a few ponies sang pretty terribly, everyone was having fun. I was perfectly happy to sit here and watch. Pinkie Pie even sang a simple, silly song, while Rarity did a full on opera performance. Fluttershy was the only pony of Twilight’s little friend group to not go on stage.

Apple Jack did a stereotypical country song, she even had a guitar ready.

There’s no way I’d be called up on stage. “Hey Ray! What are you doing? You’re not gonna do some karaoke at your own party?” Pinkie grabbed me by the hoof and proceeded to drag me across the entire room, and onto the little stage they had set up for this thing. So much for just listening and relaxing. That’s awesome. What kinda surprised me was how… advanced the sound system looked. Most of what I’ve seen so far, technology wise, was pretty barebones. Just lights, and some basic electricity. This was a full on speaker system, with a working karaoke machine, with a wireless microphone and everything.

Despite the fact that there was a working karaoke machine that could probably play any song on it, there was a small band behind me. One pony had a violin, there was another on a piano, and Pinkie was stationed on a set of drums. I think I saw Rainbow behind me with a bass guitar, which made me wonder how the heck you’d do chords without fingers. Maybe I shouldn’t question it, but now I was on stage… son of a bitch. What the hell do I even? Well, I was kinda hoping to sing one song, so that’s pretty cool. At least now I can say I did karaoke even if it’s not how I’d imagine myself doing it, but I kinda hated not having at least somebody from my family to make fun of my atrocious, ear aching singing voice.

“One, one two three!” Pinkie’s little band began to play a somewhat slow song, which surprised me given the fact that most of the songs played were more upbeat. It was kinda familiar, and the violin kinda sold me on what I should sing, since I have no idea what this song is. It did kinda sound like this one game that had a whole message about life and death or whatever. The first chord from the piano dropped and I decided to just wing it, singing a song that I knew to a completely different melody. I took a deep breath and began to sing.

“You and I were born, right here in the same world.” I let my Irish accent seep into my voice as I continued to sing, doing my best to shoehorn this song into an unfamiliar melody, and it turned out that I was doing a semi-decent job at it… so far. “Right here in the same world, for this one brief life, we’re beneath the same sky.” I paused for a second to take a deep breath and kept on singing, the rest of the lyrics became a blur until Rainbow started to play the bass towards… what I assumed was the end of the song. “In this brief life, we’ve managed to meet, treasure this gift, the precious time we have.” I paused for a moment as I realized there was something now that sounded like a bass solo… was the song going to end? Well, it did, so that was pretty cool. I definitely sounded like a chair being scooted on a wooden floor, but I just did some karaoke.

An even slower song was playing now. How the hell do I manage… you know what? One stupid song about the importance of life? I might as well sing one joke song. “So, I have a really funny story to tell,” I say as whoever the heck was on the piano dragged out what should've been shorter. “It’s really sad too, really it is. Think of what it’s like to sniff onion juice, and you’ll get how sad I was…” I then fell flat on my face and blacked out.

“Urgh…” I found myself lying in a bed, it was nice and soft, unlike the hospital bed, and I was in… a kinda fancy room. The ceiling was fairly high, there was a nice, tall window with clear glass instead of stained glass. There was a wardrobe, a coffee table and a neat little lamp with Twilight’s cutie mark on it. There were two doors, one that was closed, and had a good number of locks on it. The other was wide open and looked like it led into a bathroom. I rolled over onto my stomach, and sat up. The room had a nice purple and pink carpet covering the entire floor, and I can even see a small table to study on. There was a coffee table with a couple cushions, one of which was occupied. My vision was still kinda blurry.

“Good morning Ray, it is great to see you again,” I blinked a couple times as my sight began to be less blurry. Sitting at my table was Queen Chrysalis, with a cup of tea, and what looked like her idea of breakfast. Said breakfast was just a simple egg sandwich. “Don’t worry, Luna knows I am here, but Twilight and her friends don’t. I doubt they’d want to see me so soon, especially since they barely tolerated me having dinner with them. Come, we have much to discuss and so much to do.” I hopped down from my bed, and found that my leg wasn’t in a sling anymore.

“How’d my leg heal?”

“When exposed to love, or even something like friendship, Changelings heal much faster. Love heals faster, but friendship can expedite your healing. I can tell how Luna was keeping watch over you after you passed out at that party, she truly cares for your well being. I can only say that you shouldn't do anything to sour your relationship for her, since as long as you keep her around, you won’t go hungry.” Queen Chrysalis took a sip of her tea as I sat down on the other side of the coffee table.

“But I can eat food, I don’t need to feed on love,” I said. The queen just laughed.

“I know you can eat food, but food barely does anything for you. You can definitely live off of food, but love keeps you energized and has some nice benefits such as healing. It also empowers your magic. While you’re a Changeling, you should have magic that isn’t nearly as good as the average unicorn, but you can outlast a unicorn if you’re filled up on love. But that’s not too big of an issue, since we Changelings can fly and use magic, so it puts us on a more even ground with pegasi or unicorns. We are also quite capable physically, but nowhere near as strong as earth ponies.”

“So we’re just nerfed alicorns?” I asked,

“Well, you are. I, as the queen of my hive, can match the princesses in many cases, and sometimes overpower them if I have a good love supply. I am trying to move past doing that however, and hopefully I can begin making progress of integrating my Changelings through you, as you could be the catalyst for a new dawn for our kind. Ponies will be more trusting of Changelings if you put us in a good light… but let’s skip over potential political advantages you can provide. You’re only 14 years old, after all, so I assume you don’t care about that stuff.

“Today, I am going to simply chat with you, then the next time we meet, I will teach you how to fly. Then we’ll teach you how to properly use that magic of yours, which is mighty impressive for a drone at your age.” I tilted my head at that. “Most drones can barely even do levitation, but you can teleport. Albeit, not at will, but that’s to be expected of a being who originally didn’t even have access to magic. So, I assume you and Princess Celestia had a falling out, since you aren’t living in her castle anymore, yes?’

“Well, it turns out that I had a three day grace period, a period where I coulda go home. Princess Celestia didn’t tell me, and told anybody who knew about that grace period, that I could’ve gone home. Here I was, assuming I couldn’t go home, or had to wait for somebody to find a way for me to go home. Nope, I could’ve been home as soon as I realized I still had a way. Now I get to wait three years before I can even consider going home, and… I didn’t take that well. It’d be like if your Changelings tossed you out of your hive, and then proceeded to not tell you how to get in before night comes.”

“I suppose I would be pretty angry if somebody were to keep me from my home. Worry not, I believe that Princess Celestia has learnt her lesson, and won’t hold such crucial information from you next time. You’re just as important to her politically as you are to me, so she’ll wish to keep you close.”

“Oh yeah, she’s doing a real nice job at that. She’s such a fountain of honesty and transparency, that she took my property and left. Didn’t even ask, just swiped it and went to study it.”

The queen giggled. “I never said she was good at making amends, did I?”

“Worry not Ray, I have procured your backpack!” An echoey voice said. Moments later, Luna appeared with a flash of dark blue magic, with my bag on her back. “I may not have asked my sister for it though, but that will be my problem later. Tia shouldn’t have taken your bag to begin with, but I suppose she assumed that she could talk you into returning to Canterlot…” Luna handed me my bag, and I had an idea. I quickly rummaged through it and pulled out my Uno deck with a huge grin. “I assume that is one of the card games you’ve mentioned having.”

“Yup, you guys wanna try it out?” Both the queen and Princess nodded.

These two were going to hate me after this was said and done. I shuffled the deck and started handing out cards. “Alright, so the goal is to get rid of your deck. You start with 7 cards, and each player takes a turn. There’s 4 colors, and you can only play a card if it’s the same card that’s currently down unless it’s a black card, but we’ll get to that when we get there. Once you get down to a single card, shout ‘Uno!’ before anybody else can. If somebody beats you to it, you draw a couple cards. There’s special cards I’ll explain as we play.” I took the first card off the deck and placed it down. “Blue cards only, unless you’ve got a black card.”

Queen Chrysalis and I placed down our cards, as Luna brewed up hot cocoa for me with her magic. She was playing with her hooves. The alicorn placed down a black card… and it was a draw 4. “So… this means that I pick up four cards, lose my turn, and you get to choose a different color.”

“I pick red!” Luna declared as a cup of hot cocoa was placed in front of me.

Chrysalis put a skip down. “Luna loses a turn,” I said. “That card skips the next player.”

Luna simply nodded, and we all simultaneously took a sip of our drinks. I placed a draw 2, explained what it did, and then we managed around with no special cards. Then, Luna got skipped over six turns in a row, and Chrysalis had to pick up four cards. On the 7th, Luna declared war against the Hive after she got forced to draw 2 cards. “Hey Luna, do you have a draw 2?” I asked. I was grinning like a mad man.

“I do, why do you ask?”

“Put those two cards back into the deck somewhere, and place your draw 2. You can stack those on somebody.” Luna began to give a genuine malicious grin as she did as told. And… next thing I know, I get thrown into the wardrobe and locked into it after 5 drawl 2s got stacked on eachother and landed directly on Luna. “This game is stupid!” Luna’s muffled, Canterlot Voice pierced my ears. “That’s it, I am declaring war on Changelings!” Chrysalis chuckled as she let me out of the closet. “And Ray, you are banned from showing off your world’s games, they all seem torturous.”

“That’s Uno for you! Back at home, it’s also called the “Friendship Breaker’. Good thing I don’t have Monopoly on me, or you woulda sent me to the moon.” Before anybody could be sent to the moon, Luna magicked all the cards together, and put them back in the case I had them in. She then glared at me.

“You’re grounded for that stupid game, by the way.”

I laughed before I found myself chained to the bed by magical chains.