Different

I woke up to Celestia's morning sun shining warmly on my face from the window on the left side on my bedroom. This was the start of my first full day living my new life in Ponyville. The excitement of being able to get this far was enough to motivate me to get up with a large smile on my face. Waking up and not hearing the busy city outside my window was just the change I needed to go into work with the clearest mind possible.

I got up and stretched a little bit as the hard floor overpowered the rug, leaving my back slightly sore. Upon getting up I collected my things and headed downstairs. I trotted over to the kitchen sink to wash my face a little bit before work. Luckily, the utilities were paid for with the down payment, so I had lights and running water. I looked around my cottage one more time before changing back to my pony form and heading out the door. I really did have a lot that I needed to do before calling this cottage a true home.

The morning air felt nice and clean. Much better than the average morning air of the bustling city. I headed into town, now remembering where most things are. There were not many ponies awake yet. The streets were being patrolled by royal guards on their way to their shift. Seems as though the royal guards were very detailed in everything they did.

I made my way to the tea shop and knocked on the door. Izzy opened the door and looked out to see me. "Oh, good morning, Blue! I see you are here a tad bit earlier than expected but that is quite fine by me. Do you not have a clock or something in your new home?"

I looked at her with slight defeat in my eyes. "No, actually my house is very empty. I had to sleep on a rug last night, but even that was uncomfortable."

She seemed shocked at this. "Really? Most homes come furnished when you buy them. I guess no one was expecting anyone to actually buy the cottage. I can help you out just a tiny bit with paying you a little extra so you can save up for a bed at least. Come in and I will show you what I do in order to open the tea shop. Granted you should never really have to worry about opening as I live here. It is just useful for you to know in case I ever need help."

I walked through the door and waited for her to tell me what to do. "First things first, we need to take all the chairs off the tops of the tables and set them." She said this while moving to the tables. "After we are finished with that, you can wipe down all the tables and make sure the place gets a good sweep in. After you do that, I can show you what I do in the kitchen to prep for the day.

I nodded at her and got to work, setting all the chairs out. "So, where can I find the wipes and broom?" I asked this after setting down the last chair.

She pointed into the kitchen. "You can find them by going through the kitchen and opening the door on the left. There you will find a staircase that leads up to my room. I use that tiny room under the stairs as a supply closet."

With her saying that, I made my way there and opened the door. It was this really small space just large enough to be a broom closet. I found what I was looking for and continued to conduct a morning cleaning. This did not take me that long. After ensuring that everything was cleaned, I put everything away and headed into the kitchen.

Izzy smiled at me upon seeing how good of a job I was doing so far. "Ok, so normally the kitchen would be off limits to everyone, but since you work here now you can see how I do my job. First things first, if you notice I have five ovens. You heard that right, I am a mare who owns five ovens. Now, I do not boil tea like normal ponies do. Instead of using a tea pot, I boil the leaves down in open pots on the ovens. This is because it lets me add the ingredients and herbs as it is boiling. On the back wall is where I keep all of my tea leaves after collection from the garden. Everything is organized so I ask you not to touch it. I also have a fridge where I keep my sandwich making materials at. That's right, we don't just make tea here, we also make things such as cucumber sandwiches. First customer usually arrives in a few minutes, so if I were you, I would get your register set up."

I nodded and went behind the register, getting ready for my first day on the job. It was quite simple really. I just needed to get the order, write it down, collect this bits, give change, give them an order number, then call out their order for pick up once it was completed.

A few minutes after opening, my first customer walked in. It was a yellow coated mare with a long pink mane. She walked up to the counter semi-sheepishly. She seemed to have this sense of caution around her, but also seemed ready to handle anything. She looked up at me and started ordering her tea, without looking at the menu. I assumed she was a regular at the shop.

"Hello there sir, I see you are new here at Izzy's. I am Fluttershy. I come here every Friday and tend to get the same thing. I will have a nice Ginseng tea with a buttered scone on the side." She smiled and gave me the exact change.

"Of course!" I said this as I wrote up the order and sent it through the window into the kitchen. "You are order number one, I will call you up when your order is complete. Do you have any other questions while you wait?"

"Yes actually, I have not met you before and am curious about you. Like, where are you from and what not?" Fluttershy asked as she stood to the side.

"I just moved down here from Manehattan. I moved down here mostly due to how cheap it is to live here. Also, because I was told this was the best place to go for a new start in life. I just moved in to the open cottage just up the way." I said this, awaiting another question.

Fluttershy looked at me with a strange look in her eyes. "Oh? That's makes you my new neighbor. I live in the other cottage not too far away from you." She then slightly changed her tone to a more curious one. "So, did you happen to see a strange flash of green light last night? I was walking home and saw a quick flash somewhere around your home. I could not see exactly where it came from as there were too many trees in the way. However, I knew it came from around your cottage as it is the only thing in that area."

I paused quickly before responding. "I am not sure what you are talking about. I spent a good bit of the night talking to Princess Twilight and looking around my new home. Neither of us saw any green flashes of light. I will let you know if I see one in the future."

Fluttershy calmed down a bit after hearing this, knowing well what that flash could have been. Though, after a second or two she had come to a realization that either she was seeing things or that something was out there by the fence.

A few seconds later, a bell could be heard in the kitchen as Izzy put the order on the window. I picked up the order, verified that it was correct, and handed it to Fluttershy. "Here you go! One Ginseng Tea with a side order of one buttered scone. Have a fantastic rest of your day."

"Thank you so much Mr..." Fluttershy paused for a second before continuing. "I am so sorry, I never got your name."

"Blue Shadow, but most folks just call me Blue for short." I said, as I smiled at her.

"Blue, I like that name. Simple, yet filled with personality. You also have a great day!" With that, Fluttershy walked to a table to sit and enjoy breakfast. As she did this, more customers had started to walk in. The day from that point on had gone fairly well. It was my first day of work, but luckily it would seemed that not that many ponies drank tea on Friday.

The work day was still a long one though. This luckily gave me time to meet a lot of new ponies and introduce myself to them. This gave me a chance to slightly become more known to the general population. I made sure to greet everyone in a manner where they left the tea shop in a good mood. I figured that this would have given ponies less chance of thinking I was a changeling, and give them more of a connection to me.

The work day eventually started to end some time around four in the afternoon. I had gotten to the point where I had cleaned up the last of the tables. As I did this, Izzy turned the sign by the window to closed. She then walked back into the kitchen.

After I had finished cleaning the dining room, I made my way back into the kitchen to see if she needed any help. Upon entering the kitchen, I had seen that she was already almost done anyways. Izzy turned to me with a grin, "Maybe if you were a tad bit faster with the broom mister. You can not compete with the fastest horn in town." As the had said this, she was washing the dishes, cleaning the stove, and restocking the pantry at the same time. "Speaking of which, how come I don't ever see you using your magic?"

"It is more of a personal thing." I explained, watching as she was multi-tasking. "Being a musician, you rely more on your hooves then your horn. I got so used to doing things the earth pony way, that sometimes I forget I even have a horn. I guess I just got used to not doing things the easy way."

"I suppose that does make sense. I ain't ever met a unicorn that choose not to use their magic. To each their own though. Anyways, what are you doing after this shift? I was thinking that we could get to know each other a little better by going out into town and seeing where the day takes us."

I looked up at her, not really sure what to say. "Uh.. I mean.. Sure, I suppose we could hang out. I have never been invited to hang out with someone after work before. Are you thinking of anything in particular?"

She smiled back at me. "There are a lot of things that we could do out in town. I was thinking that we start with something to eat. Do not worry about money, I'll pay. Think of it as a welcome to Ponyville gift from your new boss. I know you need to save as much money as possible to pay for common house items. This night will be on me."

"I appreciate that. Maybe after we eat, we can go window shopping and see if I can't buy anything already." I said, as I was just tossing out an idea

"Sounds great to me. Anyways, I was thinking of taking you to Ponyville Café. They serve pretty good food there. They are not too far from here so the walk should not take long. I just need to finish cleaning the kitchen first. Why don't you go sit down in one of the bench seats and wait? I won't be long now." Izzy said this as she was almost done with the dishes.

"Sure thing!" I said as I made my way back into the dining area. I took a seat by the bench closest to the door and waited. She had been correct in saying that it would not take her too much longer to clean as she had walked out of the kitchen only a few minutes later. Once she made sure that everything was taken care of she locked the door behind us and we started making our way into town.

The walk to the Café only lasted a few minutes as it was towards the middle of town. When we got there it was fairly empty as it was past normal lunch hours, yet still before normal dinner hours. We sat down at one of the many tables outside.

A male earth pony with a pale-cream coat and a two-toned blue mane and tail walked up to the table. "Bonjour, welcome to zé Ponyville Café. My name is Savoir Fare and I will be your waiter for today. Do we know what drinks we want to start off with?" After he said this, he placed some menus on the table and awaited our answer.

Izzy was the first one to respond. "Yes, I would like a Fruit smoothie. What would you like Blue?"

"I would like a Sarsaparilla please." I said this as I picked up a menu.

"Very well, I will be back to take your orders in a few moments." After Savoir said this, he went inside to prep and left us to talk. I took a good look at the menu, holding it in my hooves. As I was holding the menu, I noticed Izzy looking at me. I looked back up at her.

"You know, I am curious about something. What is your family like? We already spoke about what you did in Manehattan, but where did you come from family wise? I ask this because you do not have a Manehattan accent." Izzy said this, putting her menu down.

I looked up at her, thinking of what I should say. "Well, for starters I grew up in a big family. It was quite chaotic at times, and wasn't exactly the best living conditions for children. I never met my father, and our mother was always at work. We all had to help raise each other during the times when mother was away. Long story short, my childhood was rough. I decided to leave first chance I got. I moved to Manehattan as I had originally thought it was filled with opportunity. I figured since it had the highest population, there would be more for me to do. I eventually settled on music. I had found that it was really soothing in stressful times. As you know, I later found that it was a hard business when there are hundreds of other ponies doing the same thing for a living. I prefer not to talk about my family that much as it brings up memories that I would rather forget about."

Izzy had gone silent for a moment. "Oh, I am sorry. I did not realize it was a sensitive subject. I suppose we both had bad up risings. Do not worry though, stick with me and we will only have fun times ahead." Once she had said this, the waiter brought out our drinks

"Here are your drinks. Are you guys ready to order?" Savoir said this after he set the drinks down. I looked back at the menu before looking up and responding. "Yes, I would like a H.L.T please." Once I said this, Izzy then responded, "Yes, and I would like a Daffodil and Daisy sandwich." Savoir nods and goes back into the restaurant.

Izzy then looks back at me. "Ok, so how long have you been in Manehattan for?"

I looked back at her. "I was in Manehattan for about four years. The beginning years were ok, I was making a decent amount of money and was able to afford a small apartment. However, at some point there was a housing crisis and I was not able to maintain paying the bills. For a little while, I slept on the streets and saved up any money I got playing piano. I was eventually able to save up enough to move here and buy a house."

Izzy glanced at me with a semi-awkward stare. "So, you are telling me, that there was a time in which you were homeless?"

I nodded in response before continuing. "Yeah, but it wasn't so bad. I was able to find some old metal sheets and turned an alley way into a makeshift home. It was only bad when it was cold outside. That is all in the past now, as I made it here to start a new life."

Upon finishing the sentence, our food was brought outside to us. "Thank you for choosing us for your dining today. Once you are finished, please come inside and pay for the meal." Savoir bowed to us and walked away one final time.

We used that time to enjoy our meals. The food here was way better then the food you get up in Manehattan. The ingredients tasted fresher and the seasoning was on point. The only restaurants we really had were any restaurants that had a three hoof rating. They all tasted horrible in my opinion. It is good to finally have some real food.

After we had finished our food and paid, we were next on our way to the park. This was the same park that we had first met up at. The kids were playing, the sun was shining, and everything seemed ok with life at that point. We had sat down at one of the benches and were relaxing for a bit. After a tiny bit of silence, I was the one who started the conversation.

"Ya know, this place is a lot more peaceful then the big city. You guys have the ability to walk from one end of town to the other without some rando screaming at you for getting in their way. Makes me wonder how I was able to survive in the big city so long before choosing to come here. I was also maybe thinking of moving to Canterlot, but I figured that with this upcoming war it would be more hectic. What was Appaloosa like?"

Izzy smiled, "Appaloosa was a great place to be. Everyone knew everyone because we were essentially one big family. It was one of my favorite places to be. That was before I moved here to start up my tea shop. Honestly, there are not that many differences between here and Appaloosa. Only real differences is that we had a different theme. Southern down there, homestead up here. I have never been up to Canterlot or Manehattan before, so I have no idea what that is like to go through. Appaloosa is also very cheap to live at, granted most homes in Appaloosa are made like log cabins then houses." Izzy looked towards the park.

The children were running around, almost no care in the world. It was sad to think that things would soon change, and there would be nothing anyone could do about it. I had hoped that things would stay this way as long as possible, and the rumors of an all out war were just rumors.

"I had always wondered what being a mother was like." Izzy said as she was watching the children. "Most ponies don't realize how much a mother goes through in order to help their children grow in life. Parents play a huge role in how someone grows up, don't you agree?"

I glanced back up towards her, before looking back at the children. "I think it depends on the type of family you have. Take me for example, I grew up in a large family. My mother was as supportive as possible, yet still most of my brothers and sisters grew up only taking in life. I grew up differently because I had other ponies in life to look up to. When I left and headed out on my own, I didn't really think anything of it. I had always been different from my brothers and sisters. I grew up more reliant on myself then on those around me. It took me living alone in Manehattan to fully realize this. Life is not based on the same equations for everyone, but rather the variables that life throws your way."

"I never thought about it like that." Izzy grinned, "I think you are doing fine in life. You had a goal, and you didn't stop until you got it. Now you have a house, a stable job, and a friend."

Izzy looked back at the park for a moment, then looked back to me once more. "So, we all know that the changelings will do almost anything to get what they want, no matter how many ponies have to suffer. What are your opinions on the changelings?"

I paused for a minute, thinking on what to say next. "Well, if I am being honest.." As soon as I had started the sentence, I had noticed in the background that there was a young filly who was leaning a bit too far over the top of the slide. My instincts over took me as I leapt up from the bench. I ran towards the filly right as they had started falling. Luckily, I was able to catch them in time using my body to cushion the fall.

The force of catching the young filly had send me to the ground. I did not care though, as the filly was safe. The older sister of the filly then ran up to make sure everything was ok. The filly was a yellow coated mare with red hair. She also had this huge bow on top of her head. Her sister was this orange coated mare with blonde hair. She had this cowboy hat on top of her head.

"Apple Bloom! Are you ok?" Apple Jack said as she was running up to asses the situation. Apple Bloom looked up at her sister. "Yes, I'm fine! This stallion just caught me." Apple Bloom said as she had gotten off of me."

"Thank you so much for savin' my sister sir, are you ok?" Apple Jack said this, reaching a hoof out to help me up.

I grabbed her hoof and stood up. I dusted myself off and looked back towards her. "Yes Ma'am, I'm alright. I was lucky enough to get to her before the fall had become worse for her." I then looked down towards Apple Bloom. "You got to be more careful around here, that was a high fall."

Apple Bloom looked up to me. "I will be more careful next time. I just thought that if I could climb on top of the slide, that I would be able to see more of the town from here. Thank you again for saving me."

Izzy then ran up to the group. "Woah Blue, those were some fast reflexes. How were you able to spot that she was in danger before she even started falling?"

"I am always scanning my surroundings for things like this." I said, smiling down at Apple Bloom. "I lead life by a motto. I try my best to avoid cases where I end up saying I could have done something. If I am able to make a difference in the world, no matter how small, I just get up and do it."

"Well that is much appreciated. What was your name again?" Apple Jack said, as she over looked up to see the distance that Apple Bloom had fallen.

"Blue Shadow, but most folks just call me Blue." I responded while I was making sure that I had not been hurt anywhere.

"Well Blue, I thank ya kindly for what you did today. Me and Apple Bloom are fixing to head home anyways. You should come over one day, maybe enjoy a nice southern meal. Izzy can come too if she wants."

"I'll have to think about that, but it sounds nice. It'll give me a chance to meet even more of my new fellow towns folk." I said smiling.

Izzy then looked up at the sky, realizing it was going to start getting dark in a few hours. "I suggest we head to the shops before they close up for the day."

As she said this, we all said goodbye and went on our way. The next stop was a store in town called Quills and Sofas. Despite their name, they sold more then just those two items. It was a generalized store where you could buy most things for your home. Upon entry we saw isles of different types of house ware.

"So, how much are you willing to help me get today? I only have so many bits." I asked Izzy this, while looking around the room.

Izzy replied, while looking at some curtains. "Do not worry about spending your money, I am not saying to look at big items though, just small things that will help your night be better. We can not buy a bed, however we can probably get you some pillow and blankets to sleep on. Again, think of it as a welcome gift."

After a brief moment of silence, Izzy could be heard laughing. "Hey Blue, come check this out!" I trotted over to her, wondering what was making her laugh. Izzy was busy laughing so she just pointed at the curtains. It would seem as though they had been made upside down. There was a butterfly print, but all the butterflies were flying downwards. I giggled a little bit at this too.

Izzy eventually calmed down long enough to get the attention of the store worker. A stallion walked up. He had a light brown coat, dark brown mane, and had on a blue and white collared shirt. "Hello there, my name is Davenport. How may I be of assistance today?"

Izzy pointed his attention to the curtains. "I was just wondering if you ever noticed the butterflies on these curtains were printed upside down." As she had pointed this out, Davenport had taken a closer look. "Well no, I can not say that I have noticed this before. You are the first to point this out to me. That is fine though, I'll just lower the price. Anything else I can help you with?"

Izzy answered, "Yes actually, I am helping my friend with some basic shopping for his new house. Do you know where we can find some thick blankets to help him sleep at night?"

Davenport nodded, leading us towards the back of the building. Once we had figured out where everything was, he headed back to help the other customers. Izzy and I started looking through to find something nice and warm, yet cheap. We had eventually settled on two blankets, one big to use as a makeshift bed and one small to use for comfort. The pillows were easy to choose from as they were all very cheap from the beginning. We decided on cotton filled rather then feather filled as they would last longer.

Once we had found what we were looking for in the back, we headed back to the front to look at the curtains again. There we settled on a handful of cheap blackout curtains, deciding it was cheaper then getting normal curtains and a bunch of blinds. I did not remember at the time how many windows my cottage had, so we just grabbed eight. It would later turn out that this was just enough for my cottage. All in all, it did not come out to that much and I knew that my sleep was going to be way better from that point on.

With that, we bought everything and started heading out to my home. The sky was already getting fairly dark, but we did not worry as the walk to the cottage was not that long. Upon getting up to the main dirt road leading up to the cottages we had seen a pony in the distance. Izzy and I had walked up to the pony. Turns out that it was Fluttershy on her way back home.

"Oh, hey Fluttershy! Nice to see you again." I said as we started walking along side her. "I forget that I am not the only one to live up in this area.

Fluttershy smiled as we started walking together. "Oh, Hello Blue, Hello Izzy. Nice to have some company on this walk. I usually have Angel Bunny with me, but he stayed home all day helping out with the house. How was your first day at work Blue?"

I answered after thinking a tiny bit. "Work was fine today. It is an easy enough job to get used to, plus I got to meet a new few faces. After work, me and Izzy went out to town for a little bit. Today was all in all a really good day. Wouldn't you say Izzy?"

As I said this and turned to Izzy, she had a smile on her face. "Of course! You did a very good job behind the register. Getting to know you a little better was also quite nice. Glad to have you as part of my crew." She then faced forward again, as we continued down the dirt path.

"How did your day go, Fluttershy?" Izzy asked, trying to continue the conversation.

"Oh, today was quite busy actually. Had to take a look at Gummy after Pinkie had told me that he had eaten something bad earlier this morning. Pour guy was not feeling so well. I had to get with Dr. Fauna to see if she could help. However, upon getting to her clinic I found that she was already very busy with some other animals in her care. After helping her out, she was able to help me out. Long story short, all the animals had been taken care of and Dr. Fauna and I had both learned a little bit more about the strange foods that Pinkie feeds her alligator. We had told her what foods he does need and what food she should not feed him."

I perked up a tiny bit. "There is a pony here who owns an alligator? That doesn't seem very safe."

Fluttershy chuckled a tiny bit. "Do not worry, gummy is still very young. He is very harmless by nature. Even more so by the fact that he does not have teeth. That is why he is called Gummy in the first-"

Before she was able to finish her sentence, a strange noise was heard beyond the tree line where the fence was. We had all looked towards the strange sound and before us was a quick flash of green light. I knew exactly what that meant, and I could tell the others also knew what the light was.

Fluttershy then looked at me. "There is that light again! It came from the same direction as your cottage!"

Before Fluttershy could continue, Izzy had told us to be quiet and get down. Knowing that the green light was visible showed that the source was close. We all three hid in the tree line and got very low and quiet. We all scanned the area of the fence that we could see from the distance.

We could all hear what sounded like a small buzzing sound and knew that whatever it was saw the fence and just flew over it. We could tell that this part of the fence was not very well kept by the guards who patrol the circumference. After a tiny bit, we noticed that the buzzing sound had started to get quieter and quieter. Luckily it did not sound like the buzzing was getting closer to the town, but was rather following the inside of the fence.

Izzy whispered to us two. "Stay here, I'm going to teleport into town and get the first guard that I can find. We need to tell them that there was a breach and that we think it was a changeling. I could not see it, but I know that sound and color of flash anywhere."

With that said, she teleported away, leaving just myself and Fluttershy. We were both staring at each other in silence, listening to the buzzing sound in the distance. I could tell that they had not yet spotted or heard us.

A few minutes of silence goes by before it is broken by the sound of the buzzing stopping, hissing, and yelling. It would seem as though Izzy was able to tell the guards of the changelings presence in time. Fluttershy and I lifted our heads up as we heard someone walking up to our position. Izzy had approached along side two royal guards.

"Do not be afraid citizens, we were alerted by your friend here about the changeling. Do not worry as we are handling the situation. We are going to have to guide you back into your homes as we are not sure if there would be other changelings in this area. While my battle buddy and I guide you to your homes, other guards will be searching the area for others." The royal guard said this with a calm yet strong voice.

With that, Fluttershy got taken by one guard to her home while Izzy and I were taken to my home. Upon entry of my cottage we searched high and low to ensure there was no one hiding in it. Luckily it would seem that the changeling knew that this cottage now had someone living in it. This deterred the changeling from using it as a hiding spot, as it had been used many times before.

"It would seem as though your cottage is safe. Before we leave though, we must ensure that this really is your home. We do this for safety reasons. Please hand over your E.I.C so we can verify the address on the card." The guard said this as he held out a hoof.

I took out my card and placed it in his hoof. He scanned the card and handed it back after a few seconds. "Thank you citizen, please let us know if you see anything else suspicious and we will come check it out." After having said this, the guard went back outside with Izzy to ensure she made it back into town safely. I then locked all the doors and started putting up the curtains. Luckily I had enough for each window in my cottage and they blocked out everything. I then went up to my room and laid out my new pillows and blankets. I looked out each window and saw that there were no more guards. This told me that they finished a full scan of the area and had successfully captured the changeling.

I had waited a few minutes before ensuring the area was cleared and closed all the curtains. I played it smart this time and went into the closet in my bedroom. I transformed back into my true changeling form there. There was no possible way that anyone outside the cottage would have seen the flash.

I then laid down on the pile of blankets and pillows. It was extremely soft and warm. The way I folded the thicker blanket essentially made it into a mini bed. While laying down, I let out a small chuckle. They really had no idea that I am also what they were looking for. I have made it this far without anyone getting any idea of what I truly was.