Different

Smoke and steam filled the air as the train ride approached the station. I looked out into the distance and saw the shining lights of the small town that would be my new home. The fences surrounding the town are tall to keep out unwanted guests. Placed up very rapidly if I remember correctly. The mostly empty train seemed a heavy glare to those guards who stood at the station to welcome us. As the train finally halted, those doors opened with one guard assigned to each door. They guided everyone off the train and into the station. It was only me and two others.

The fresh morning air took my breath for a second as I stepped out onto the concrete. Pushed along by the guards, I followed a strict path into the only way in or out of Ponyville. One of the guards looked at me with a serious look. They reached a hoof out to me asking, "Identification please sir."

As he said this, I reached into my saddle bag and pulled out a small notebook. Inside a pocket was my Equestrian Identification Card; or E.I.C for short. Only citizens of Equestria are given such cards to properly identify who they are. I placed the card in their hoof.

Once he grabbed it, he looked at it hard, then back at me. He then levitated an electronic card scanner and placed it over the card. This allowed the guard to see all the information in the card that isn't shown on the card. This process is used so that a random stranger cannot pick up the card and study it to lie their way through. Only thing shown on the E.I.C is a photo, name, cutie mark, a small photo stamp telling the guard where you are from, and a bar at the bottom that gets scanned to access the rest of the information. Engraved into the background is a picture of the two royal sisters circling around each other. This collectively makes it nearly impossible to make a false I.D.

"Thank you, citizen. I just need to ask some verification questions. First question, what is your full name?"

I responded quickly to avoid further questioning. "My name is Blue Shadow. I am coming from Manehattan."

He grinned a tiny bit, then looked at the screen at my information. "Ok, Blue Shadow, can you tell me your special card code, and intentions?"

"Yes sir, my special card code is AZUR. I intend to move to Ponyville, making it my forever home." As I said this, the guard leaned in a tiny bit.

"You do not seem to have a lot of things on you for a permanent move. Seems suspicious if you ask me. I am going to search your saddle bags and see what you are carrying."

I nodded my head in compliance and took off my saddle bags, placing it on a bench in front of him. I watched as he opened the bag and carefully took everything out one thing at a time. The inside of the bag held a large coin purse with a good amount of bits inside, a few documents, some food rations, some water, a few photos, and a large dagger. The guard points at the dagger. “Can you explain why you have such a large weapon with you?”

I looked at the dagger, then back at the guard. “Well, the same reason you are here right now. It is to protect from random changeling attacks. You want to have a tool that you know is going to do the job.”

The guard paused for a minute, then sighed a bit. “What about the bits in your bag? Why would you just be walking around with so much?”

“As I told you before, I plan to live here from now on. I have this money so that I could hopefully put a down payment on a home out here. I do not have any other intentions, and I earned every bit of it playing music in Manehattan.”

The guard seemed intrigued by this answer and had a calmer look about his stature.

“Very well, you are good to pack your things back up and standby by for a guard to guide you and the others into town.” As the guard said this, he gave me back my E.I.C. and I got back to packing. I didn’t have that much because I was always taught to travel light.

I looked over at the other two as they were still being interrogated. They had a few bags with them and didn’t seem as ready to answer questions as myself. I’m sure it wouldn’t take that much longer before we were on our way. As they were going through the entrance process, I sat down at the bench and began looking at the sky. The fresh morning sky was still radiating in a beautiful color scheme of the rising sun of Celestia. The breeze felt nice as I watched the trees sway gently. Such beauty this land holds, far different from the bustling city of Manehattan.

The other two finally finished and the guards rounded us back up. It was finally time to walk through the narrow opening of trees that led into town. The guards leading us were keeping a strange amount of focus on the tree line. They were on guard for the inevitable.

The walk to town honestly was not that bad. Once we had crossed the bridge into Ponyville, the guards posted up. We were finally in town.

Once I had finally entered Ponyville, I started to wander around. I was trying to get used to the layout of the place I was going to call home. I had noticed there had been a few citizens already awake and walking around. The town had seemed slow at that time. Once I had gotten a little bit into town, I had heard a high-pitched voice come from behind me. I had turned to see what the noise was and found a pink pony staring at me.

“Hello there! My name is Pinkie Pie. I see that you are new to Ponyville and seem a little lost. It is part of my job to get to know the new folk and show them around town. What brings you here stranger?” Pinkie Pie tilted her head a bit.

“I have come here to live a better life if I am being honest. I come from Manehattan. I am a musician who simply found out the hard way that I was not good enough to play with the big ones. This made money making overly complicated. I wanted a clean slate after getting to the point of too much trying with too little pay. You have any idea what the cost of living is in Manehattan?”

“I have some idea of how hard it can be up there.” Pinkie Pie said back as she smiled. “I have a friend who has a boutique there. Also, sorry but I forgot to ask for your name.”

“Blue Shadow, but you can just call me Blue for short. I’m sure it is an easy name for you to remember, seeing how I am essentially only covered in blue fur.” I let out a small chuckle.

“Well Blue, it is nice to meet you.” Pinkie Pie said, also letting out a small laugh. “Anyways, I am not sure how many musician jobs are open here with how tough times have been for everypony. You know, with all these talks of possible changeling attacks.”

“I am very aware about that. I don’t mind finding a different job here to sustain me. I am just happy to be able to start again.” I smiled as we started walking through the town.

Pinkie Pie started leading us through Ponyville. Turns out, it is much larger than I had originally known about. As we were walking, I noticed Pinkie Pie constantly looking at me. I had not yet given her a reason to not trust me, but I could feel as though she had a sense of noticing things that most couldn’t. Maybe she was given the job of introducing the town to all the new ponies just so she could get close enough to them to see if they could be trusted. I felt a little uneasy but did not let her see that.

The walk through Ponyville was especially useful as she showed me the entire layout. She had shown me everything from the main entrance, to the town hall, to Sweet Apple Acres and beyond. There were parts that no one was allowed to enter without authority, such as Twilight Sparkle’s castle. That place was very heavily guarded in this time of wary.

A few hours later we had come to the end of the tour. “Now that we are finished and acquainted with each other, do you have any more questions for me?” Pinkie Pie asked politely.

“Just one, do you know where I would go in order to look into buying a house or finding job offers?” I asked sincerely. Pinkie Pie just simply pointed back to the town hall.

“Talk with Mayor Mare, she might be able to help you out with those questions. You would need to be added to a registry of some sort so you can become an official citizen of Ponyville.”

“Thank you for that, I hope you have a good rest of the day” I smiled and waved as she started jumping back into town. I turned toward the town hall and started making my way there. The town hall was this large round building that looked like a two-story carousel without the animals attached. The door was this massive red slab almost the size of the entire wall. I walked up to the door and pushed it open.

Inside this building was this large open room, filled with balconies and ribbons. There was a sign above one of the doors reading ‘Mayors’ office down this hall’. It seemed strange hiding the mayor like this.

I finally got to the door and gently knocked, not sure what to expect. Behind the door I heard a faint voice.

“Come in, please come in! Take a seat.”

I slowly entered this room to be greeted by a Mare with tan fur, and a grey flowing mane. She was wearing glasses and a collar, despite not wearing a shirt. I gently closed the door behind me and took a seat in front of her desk. “Yes, hello! I was told to meet you regarding finding a place to live, and possibly a job. I was also told by Pinkie Pie that I needed to be added to a roster of some sort. You see, I am new here. Just came down from Manehattan to live in Ponyville.”

Mayor Mare looked up at me. “Ah, she was right in sending you my way. I am going to need your E.I.C before I continue. Do you mind?”

“Not at all!” I said this as I reached out to give her my card.

Once she had my card, she placed it into this large device on her desk. This device held a registry of all citizens of Equestria. I am not sure how the device works, but it was meant to review all the electronic information on my card and move it from the Manehattan section to the Ponyville section.

“This process may take a while and will cause you to need a new card with the Ponyville logo on top. Do you want to keep your old photo, or keep the one linked to your current card?”

“I will just keep the current one, help make this process go by faster” I said, watching the process take place.

She smiled and continued, “Now onto the house situation. Do you have anything in mind?”

“I do not, just as long as the down payment isn’t more than I have.”

“Well, if you are looking for something easy and cheap to get you started, I can offer you a few things. The first possibility I have for you is a small two-story home near the middle of town. It is centered on basically everything and is far away from the boundary of the fence. The second choice I have is a small one-story building near the main entrance into the town, nothing special about it. Lastly, the cheapest possibility we have available is a medium two-story cottage just on the outskirt of town. As you could guess, it is the cheapest choice because it is the biggest risk to live in, being so close to the Everfree Forest and all.” She pushed the information packets for each property close to me. I took a quick read into each property, but then got caught on the cottage.

“Wait, but if Ponyville is fenced off, why are ponies still not interested in buying this cottage? Is it because you don’t trust the fence, or is it because ponies feel safer when they are in the town?” I stated, slightly confused.

“A little bit of both if I am being honest. But, if you want it, and are brave enough, the cottage can be yours. I am not asking that much for it. The economy in Ponyville is good enough to where you can get a job doing anything and you’ll be able to buy the house in no time. Just keep in mind that if you get this house, it is a good walking distance away from the town center. In cases of emergency this building becomes a sort of safe house for the population.” she said calmly waiting for my response.

I smiled back at her. “For the price you are asking for in the information book, I'll take that risk. Besides, I could always teleport myself into town if I needed to. I know enough magic to not be defenseless.”

“Very well then, we just need your signature and payment, then the property is yours”, she said as she gave me a quill to write with.

I signed the deed and opened my saddlebags, giving her the required amount.

“Congratulations, you are now the owner of the cottage. Payments will be made on the first of every month. Your next step would be to go out and find a job. While we do not have any posted on the town hall board, I’m sure you would be able to find something. Granted, most companies here won’t hire folks who are new to town, as they may be changeling spies. While we have not yet come across one, these increasing quantities of rumors about the return of Chrysalis and her hive coming back leaves a lot of ponies paranoid. If I were you, I would just walk through town and ask around to see who is hiring.” She said this as her large device dings.

“Ah, it seems as though your new card has finished printing and you are now a citizen of Ponyville. Isn’t this innovative technology simply great? It is amazingly fast and efficient.” She said this as she handed me my new card and pushed me a copy of the deed and keys to the cottage after duplicating the deed with a different machine. Made sense for her to keep the original in case I managed to lose my copy in a house fire or something.

I thanked her and began my next task. I still had a few bits left over from the purchase. Granted I am now down almost all my money. I had to find a decent job that would be able to help me fill my coin purse again. Upon leaving the town hall, I had begun wandering around. The streets were so much busier than they had been upon first entry. I told myself that surely it wouldn’t take that long. But oh, how wrong I was.

I traveled through the town, going door to door asking anypony if they were hiring. I found that what I was told earlier was right. It would not be likely that getting a job was easy, for no one knew who to trust. The ponies of this town were right to think this way, for us changelings were naturally deceitful. Not me, however, I really did move to Equestria to be on their side. I was hoping to lay low and live as a pony would. This lifestyle is much better than living out in the wasteland under a tyrannical leader. Sure, mother just wanted to look out for us, but the way she was doing it would lead to the collapse of the hive. First things first though, I needed to lay low and give them no sign of me being a changeling. I felt as though the pink one might have already had a feeling, so I needed to be extra careful around her.

The search for a job ended up lasting a long time. I decided that it would be best if I were to take a small break and sit down. There were a few benches found at Ponyville Park. I sat down, watching the children play. Such a site isn’t often seen in the hive. It was also not often seen up in Manehattan for that matter. I really enjoyed this site as I had always wished that I had grown up this way. Free to play and do whatever you want. Instead, I was only allowed to study ways to kill ponies, take their form, and steal love from their lovers.

As I was sitting down, a mare unicorn sat down next to me. This was enough for me to be pulled back into reality. The mare had a beautiful white coat, and a lovely brown mane. Her cutie mark was that of a tea leaf. She was the one who started the conversation. “Hey there, I see you are new to town. Are one of these kids yours?”

“Oh no, I was just sitting here to get a break from walking around all day. What about you?” I responded in a slightly timid tone of voice.

“Nah, I just like to sit down and watch the kids play.” She sighed lightly before continuing. “They remind me of all the innocence in the world. To think of what might happen to them if all these rumors of an all-out war with those damned changelings really did happen. I swear, those things only know how to kill.” She looked down for a bit before coming back into a proper headspace. “Anyways, why would you be walking around all day?”

I looked back at her, “Oh, I have been job searching. Seems no one wants to hire though.”

She slightly smiled as I said this, “No way, because I have been looking for a new assistant for a few weeks now. I run a tea shop just up the road if you are looking for something easy.”

I nodded and smiled in response. “Of course, I am happy to do whatever I need to fill my pockets.”

“Fantastic! Well, if you want, I can take you there and show you what kind of job you will be doing. My name is Izzy by the way, who are you?”

“Blue Shadow, however you can call me Blue for short.”

“Well then Blue, let me take you to the shop. It isn’t that far from here.” She said as she got up and started leading me. The walk would take about two minutes. The building was a relatively small shop. It was a two-story building near the edge of the town. A beautiful garden of many kinds of tea leaf surrounded the place on all four sides. There was a sign by the doorway that read ‘Izzy’s Tea Shop’. It was simple, but to the point.

Upon entering the shop, you are hit by this huge wave of lovely smells. The main room was large enough to fit around ten booths with five of them on each side of the wall, with about five tables in the center way. The walls had lovely pictures of different teacups and tea leaves. It was painted like a mural. Fine China in cases on the walls.

“Welcome to the shop, before you continue, I am going to ask to see if you have an E.I.C on you. Everyone knows that everypony gets one upon becoming an adult.”

I looked through my bag and gave her my new Ponyville card. “I just got this one today.”

Upon showing her the card, you could tell her emotions became more relaxed. She nodded and led me into the back area and kitchen. The kitchen was this small backroom area loaded with hot stoves and tea making equipment. There also was a fridge, sink, and a small place to store freshly made sandwiches. In between the kitchen and main dining room was a cash register. There was a large window behind the register used for giving the orders and taking the tea.

“Now that I have shown you everything, I will let you know what it is that you will be doing. You will be helping me by running the cash register and taking the orders to the ponies while they wait at the tables. It is a fairly simple job, but one that may take a lot as we get into the busy hours of the day. I tend to have a lot of the same ponies stop by every day, so you will notice some regulars. They tend to order the same thing as they have found what they like. This should make your job much easier.”

With that said, she ended up giving me a small lesson of instruction on everything that I needed to do. It really was simple and easy to get the hang of. While she was teaching me, she started asking me a few questions.

“Hey, so might I ask where you are from? I do not think I have asked yet.”

I nodded at her, “Sure, I don’t mind telling you. I am from Manehattan. I was a pianist, or at least wanted to be. I was really good at it, but it seems that if you want to make real money doing music in the big city, you need to be the best of the best. I found that it was more annoying than anything. I eventually gave up and tried looking for a different approach. I decided to move to Ponyville as I found myself not being able to support living in such an expensive city. I was always told that Ponyville was the place to go to start a new life. This place is certainly cheaper, as I was already able to buy property here. I just needed a new job so that I could afford the mortgage. I didn’t care what the job was. I didn’t think I was going to get a ‘new start’ just trying the same music thing in a different location.

She then looked back at me. “Interesting story, it just seems weird that you would move during this time of unrest. I understand though, I also moved to Ponyville for a new beginning. I am from Appaloosa where I lived with my parents. Everything was going great there. At least, it was until our family's dark day occurred. You see, my father was a royal guard in the active reserve unit. Upon hearing about the Royal Wedding between his Captain and Princess Cadance he was called in to protect the city walls. We thought he was just going to do his duty, protect the walls, and come back home.” She began looking upset and angry. “But those fucking changelings had to come in a ruin everything. Coming out of nowhere, killing and terrorizing many innocent ponies that day. The guards were just doing what they were trained to, which was to fight off these monsters who managed to make their way past the defenses. None of us could have ever guessed that father would have gone to a wedding just to be executed by the changelings.”

I could notice her starting to breathe heavily as she continued. “I swear to Celestia herself that if I ever come across one of the fuckers, I will rip their chitin off and shove it where the sun don’t shine. If that doesn’t kill the bug, then I’ll pluck off the wings and choke them with it. I promised my father that I would avenge him. You see, before I moved here, my father was the sole bread winner in the house. The day he died my mother was so bedridden from depression that we could no longer pay the bills. My mother was lucky enough to have a friend who was caring enough to take her in and help her. I moved to Ponyville to start working on a business of my own, to help my mother get back on her hooves. That was the initial goal, but it turns out that my pour mother was so depressed that her heart couldn’t take it. They were best friends for life, and she just couldn’t take it anymore. She ended up dying from a depression induced heart attack. I was on my own from that point, not sure what to do. I, however, decided the best thing for me to do was keep pushing. I promised that I would work my dream job for my mother who loved tea, and that I would protect Ponyville from any changeling hoard attacks for my father.”

She took a deep breath and paused. Eventually, she glazed over her restaurant and came back to me. “Oh, I am so sorry for getting emotional on you. I do hope that wasn’t bothersome to hear.”

I simply nodded back to her, “Not at all, I understand that you have emotions that need to be let out. I completely agree that the hive needs to be taken care of.” I said this with a small sense of worry, feeling like I might have just made friends with the wrong pony. “I think maybe it is best we both just go home for the night, as the atmosphere is getting kind of thick with emotion.

She nodded, “You’re right. I will just clean up for a while. Not anywhere for me to go as I live here. The second floor is where I sleep and such. I could only afford the shop at first. You just be here in the morning, and I will show you how to open.”

With her saying this, I nodded in agreement and headed back through town towards my new cottage. I still needed to check it out anyway. My house and her shop were quite a distance away from each other. The walk would take an average of about ten minutes or so. This gave me plenty of time to clear my mind. While I was walking, it would seem as though I had been noticed again.

Coming from behind me was a strong yet light voice. I turned around to figure out who it was. I was met with this purple alicorn. I knew right away who it was and took my bow. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, it is my honor to be in your presence.” She looked down at me and chuckled.

“You do not need to be so formal. I am just here to greet you. I was in my office and heard my device ring. I saw that you had been added to the Ponyville roster as a citizen. As the princess, it is my duty to get to know all my citizens. Mind if I ask you a few questions?”

I got back up and nodded in agreement. “Of course, Princess Twilight.”

“Please, just call me Twilight. I have never been one to like boasting about my title.” She said this as she held a hoof out for a hoof shake.

I shook her hoof in response. “What kind of questions do you have for me?”

“Just some questions to help me get to know you better. We can walk and talk at the same time. Where are you headed?” Twilight asked this as they started walking through town.

I took out the deed to my new cottage and pointed at the address. “Wherever this place is. I just bought this cottage a little while ago, and now I am trying to find it.”

Twilight looked at the address and back at me. “I know where that is at. Good to see that cottage finally has an owner after all this time. I can lead you there as we are talking.” With this said, she turned in a different direction through town, and I started following her. Turns out I was headed in the wrong direction.

“So, first question. What brings you to Ponyville?” Twilight asked, with a calm look in her eye.

“I am here to essentially start again. I moved here from Manehattan as I found living up there was far too expensive. I was a pianist up there just trying to make a living. I was not the best, so it was harder for me. I decided to move down here to try something new in a new location.” I said this while looking around the town.

Twilight continued. “Very well, now onto the next question. Have you already gotten a job? I know that can be hard on your first day here.”

“Yes, I got a job at this place called Izzy’s Tea Shop. It is a simple job, but more than enough to help me afford to pay for my house. Izzy seems like a likable character, though she does tend to have small mood swings occasionally.”

Twilight looked back. “Oh yeah, Izzy can be a little emotional sometimes. She has been working mostly by herself ever since she first got here. She has had a few assistants help her, but none of them really stayed for that long. I’m sure you’ll do fine there.”

“Do you know why they haven’t stayed for too long?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Oh, it is nothing really. They just found a better paying job somewhere else. Most feel that the job Izzy gives is boring and look for other things to do.”

I let out a small sigh of relief. “Oh, is that all? I actually kind of like the job.”

“That’s good.” Twilight continued. “On to the next question. I am sure you have probably not met a lot of ponies yet, but have the ones you have met so far been nice to you and such? I want you to feel as welcomed as possible.”

“A lot nicer than the folks up in Manehattan, that’s for sure.” I let out a small chuckle before continuing. “Yes, they have been fairly nice to be so far. Though, there was a pink pony by the name of Pinkie Pie who seemed a little bit off compared to everypony else.”

“Really?” Twilight paused for a second, “How so?”

“She seemed to start out our conversation very happily and with a lot of bounce in her step. Though, as she was giving me a tour of the place, I noticed that she started looking at me in very weird ways. Is she normally like this?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, she is Pinkie Pie so it would be in her normal behavior to be incredibly happy all the time. Though, the looking at you part does seem a little off, even for her. I’ll ask her later what that was about. For now, though, your cottage is just up the road.”

We walked up the road a tiny bit more before coming to my new cottage. I made my way to the front door and unlocked it. You could tell that the house was empty for a while as the doorknob had a cobweb on it. I cleaned it up and opened the door. The house was very empty. Upon me entering my house I came to the realization that it did not come with furniture.

As we stepped inside Twilight looked around. “Wow, at least it is very spacious here. I would suggest going to buy things for your house. You can look for a store called Quills and Sofas. It is run by someone named Davenport. Now, even though the store says they only sell Sofas and Quills, he has recently expanded to selling other basic house necessities such as beds and desks. He can also special order anything else you may need and supply shipping. Granted these things can get pricey.”

I looked down slightly. “I just used most of my money just to buy the house. Guess I better start saving even more money for the mortgage, utilities, and to fill up my house.”

Twilight looked back at me. “I am sure you can work something out with Izzy as she can be quite understanding. As for now though, do you have any questions for me?”

I sat and thought for a moment. “Do you know anything about these rumors of an all-out changeling war?”

She paused for a moment. “Yes, but there are a lot of things that I cannot tell you. The only thing you need to know that I know is that we are doing everything we can to ensure that all of Equestria is protected and safe.”

I let out a sigh and continued. "That is good to hear. Up in Manehattan there were a lot of talks about how such a big city can have almost invisible vulnerabilities. I understand that the fences keep changelings from coming in from the sides, but we were thinking about things like how children do not get looked at when entering the city limits. For all we know, a changeling could have kidnapped the child, taken its place, and entered town without identification. Or the fact that there are no guards around the sewer systems. You know how things are in the big city, rumors spread like wild fires."

Twilight seemed slightly concerned about this. "Oh, they aren't watching for those things? I told the city council to ensure they had all those grounds covered. I will bring this up with the city council at the next meeting. Granted it would be crazy for the changelings to attack such a big city. Canterlot on the other hoof is even more protected. We predict that they would try to attack the Royal Sisters directly in an attempt to over throw the government. Anyways, I should get going. It was nice to meet you."

With that, she left to go back to her castle. I noticed that it was very late outside. I turned back to look again at my empty house. I walked upstairs to try to figure out where everything was. Upstairs was just one single bedroom, with only a single large round rug in the middle. There was also a single mirror leaning against one of the walls.

I walked up to the mirror and looked upon my pony form, blue just like my unhidden form. Blue fur with blue eyes and mane to match. I looked upon my Mohawk styled mane. One small black streak of hair towards the front, with a perpendicular streak of black hair on my tail to match for style with my pony disguise. My cutie mark was a grey lightning bolt.

After ensuring that there was no one around a quick green flash of light filled the room as I transform back into my original changeling self. Looking back at the mirror, I gaze upon my true body. Still all blue, a birth defect that has tainted my early years. One of the reasons why I am no longer part of a hive. The other changelings thought I was too different. This is something that I have learned to accept over the past few years. That is the reason why my pony disguise is also blue. I took pride in my birth defect and wear the color proudly.

After I relaxed into my true self, I laid down on the rug to try to get comfortable. I knew this night was not going to be the best sleep, but at least the cottage was warm inside. Going to sleep was harder for me because that night my head was rushing with thought and emotions. Thinking about all the new friends I would end up making, and how many enemies I would get if they discovered my secret.