Changing Love

Rarity was the first to speak up, “Cheerilee, darling? That’s wonderful!”

“It's super-duper amazing is what it is!” chimed in Pinkie. “This calls for a PARTY!”

“Uh, Pinkie? You do know we were doing something, right?” asked Rainbow.

Pinkie’s hair deflated slightly and her face fell into a slight pout. Suddenly, she perked back up and jumped into the air faster than was physically possible.

“That’s ok, I’ll just throw a really big party after we’re done here!” squealed Pinkie, prompting an eye roll from everyone else.

“Ahem, I think we’re getting off track here. Pinkie, seeing as you volunteered to be next, would you please enter the box?” asked Cadence, rather sternly.

“Okie dokie lokie!”said the pink party pony, and she leapt across the room, under the curtain, and into the box with the door shutting behind her before anypony else could move.

Once on the inside, Pinkie, as usual, could barely contain her excitement. “I wonder who my special somepony is? I hope they are someone as fun-loving as me. What if they don’t like cupcakes? That’s silly, everypony loves cupcakes! I sure hope that my special somepony likes parties! Ohmygosh, I’m so excited!”

Pinkie was so lost in her internal reverie that she didn’t register the changeling moving slowly towards her, nor the sickly sweet scent that entered her nose, causing her hair to fall limp and her mind to become cloudy.

Outside of the box, all of the attention turned to the purple Alicorn in the room.

“So Twilight darling, if you feel like sharing, would you please tell us all about your experience in the box?” asked Rarity.

Twilight was quiet for a moment as she tried to remember all of the details. Finally, after she had composed her thoughts, she began to tell of her experience.

“When I was standing at the entrance to the box, I was extremely nervous. I had a sense of foreboding that I couldn’t quite explain, but I pushed it aside and went in. When I got inside, I immediately noticed the changeling. He didn’t move an inch, but his eyes followed me, it was really creepy. At that point, the curtain dropped over the box and it was just him and I.”

All of the other ponies were staring at her with rapt attention, all except Cadence, who seemed to be deep in thought.

“I began to walk around the box to avoid the changeling’s gaze when I smelled something really odd, yet familiar. Now that I think about it, it smelled like a new book!” exclaimed Twilight as the realization hit her.

“New book smell, whatever do you mean by that?” asked the fashionista.

“It’s an awesome smell that comes from the fresh made paper and glue and other stuff in a book,” said Rainbow Dash. All of the present elements, save for one, stared directly at Rainbow, causing her to blush.

“What, all of my Daring Do books were new when I bought them,” said an embarrassed Rainbow.

However, Fluttershy’s attention was drawn to the Princess of Love. Cadence looked quite irritated about something. She had a frown on her face and was clearly deep in thought.

“That doesn’t seem right,” mused the shy yellow pegasus, “why would she be upset that Twilight found her true love, proving her experiment was a success?”

Fluttershy was about to bring this fact up to Twilight when the purple alicorn cleared her throat to continue her story, leading Fluttershy to remain quiet.

“Anyway, the new book scent caused me to black out and collapse,” continued Twilight, drawing a couple of looks of concern from her friends, “when I woke up, I felt hooves grabbing me and helping me up, I looked around, and the only pony standing there was Cheerilee. In that moment, I thought of all the times Cheerilee had been so kind to me and everything kind of clicked.”

“Why that’s wonderful sugarcube, I’m sure she’ll be real pleased to learn that you’ve taken a fancy to her,” said Applejack.

“Me too, believe me. I’m so nervous about it, but at the same time I’m relieved to know. I have to say Cadence, your experiment worked great!”

“Huh? What?” asked the pink alicorn as she was drug out of her deep concentration. Suddenly, she replaced her frown with a modest smile, “I’m so glad it worked for you Twilight, I really hoped it would.”

There was a quiet, happy moment that was soon broke by the bolder of the two pegasi present.

“Geez Pinkie’s taking a long time, I hope she’s alright,” said Rainbow.

Inside the box, Pinkie was in a state of euphoria. She was back in the Sugar Cube Corner kitchen baking dozens on tooth-rotting sweets. The scent of the sweets lingered heavy in the air. Baking was her second favorite activity to do, other than party of course. She never wanted to leave.

Suddenly, she had lifting feeling, she felt like she was flying! She closed her eyes and hoped the feeling would last. Alas, it did not, as she suddenly felt a falling sensation. Her eyes snapped open as reality came rushing back to her. She was lying flat on the floor of the box. However, she could not see the ceiling, as it was obscured by a very familiar set of deep blue eyes.

“Rarity, why did you come into the box? I thought only one of us was supposed to go in at one time,” queried Pinkie.

Rarity didn’t say anything, or even react for that matter; she just stood there with a small smile on her face.

Pinkie was about to ask Rarity again when it hit her: this wasn’t the real Rarity. Pinkie slowly felt a smile grow across her face as she kept staring into those eyes, those beautiful eyes. When Pinkie’s smile reached an impossible width, she jumped up and thought of and looked at the beauty of her new-found true love.

One glance back at the changeling-Rarity was all it took to have Pinkie bound out of the box and back to the room were her friends, and true love, awaited her.

When Pinkie literally threw herself out of the box, all of the ponies present jumped back a few paces.

“Pinkie!” exclaimed Twilight “what took you so long? We were so worried about you!”

Pinkie didn’t reply to Twilight. Honestly, she didn’t seem capable of replying to anyone as she looked to be moments away from a launch not unlike the one she performed after securing Cranky’s friendship. Rarity was the next pony to speak up.

“Darling, are you alright? Did you find out who your true love is?”

At the term “true love” Pinkie launched herself towards Rarity and gave her a bone-crushing hug.

“Well, Ah guess we know who Pinkie’s true love is,” said Applejack with a chuckle.

“Huh?” Rarity looked dazed, partially due to the confusion of the moment, partially due to the fact that her oxygen supply was completely cut off by the hug.

Twilight looked at them and smiled, and then she turned her attention to the other elements.

“Ok girls, who’s next? How about you Fluttershy?”

“That’s ok  I’m  fine.”

“Aww, come on Flutters, the changeling won’t hurt you, Twilight and Pinkie already proved that,” griped Rainbow Dash.

“It’s not that, it’s just that…” Whispered Fluttershy.

“It’s just what?” pressed Rainbow.

“It’s just that…I’ve already found my true love.”

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“What!?”