I peeked out from behind Luna as I began to scan the room. There was a table covered with snacks and drinks, ponies all around the room with party hats, and none of them were glaring at me. There was a banner hanging over a really large cake that read 'Welcome to Ponyville, Sting Ray(and welcome back, Princess Luna) party'. There were games that I kinda recognized, and a piñata hanging around. Everybody seemed happy to be here, and then I fully stepped out from behind Luna with an awed expression.
"Come on everypony! Let's welcome Ray to Ponyville!" I was suddenly dragged into the center of the room by Pinkie Pie, and everybody's eyes fell on me. There were a lot of expressions, a lot of them were shocking, a couple of them were scared, and a few looked kinda mad. There were also a lot of emotions in the air, all of which mixed into one amalgamation of excitement, disgust, and anger. I really wanted to leave. Sure, a party sounded fun(since I've never been to any), but I didn't expect my first party to go like this. The only seven people in the room that looked happy that I was here was Twilight, her friends, and Luna.
I really would've expected to have my first party in high school, y'know, as a human being. I probably woulda got peered pressured into alcohol or weed, and I'd probably be that quiet kid in the party that watched everybody else have fun. Instead, I'm a Changeling(or just a monster in a lot of these ponies' eyes), in the middle of the room with the hostess of the party. I lowered my head and would've left if Pinkie didn't have an iron grip. Oh boy, I can't wait for this to end with me leaving in a body bag! Luna wouldn't let that happen though, right?
"Hi, I'm Ray," I managed before looking around the room for Luna again. After I got dragged away by Pinkie, I lost her. I don't know how, since I thought it'd be hard to miss a tall, dark blue alicorn that had a physics-defying mane and tail. Or the shiny regalia that Luna wore, but I somehow lost Luna in the crowd. I glanced at Pinkie. "Are you sure this was a good idea? Everybody's staring at me," Pinkie only nodded.
"So, who invited the freak to the party?" A little pony, a filly if I were one to judge pony biology. She looked smaller than everybody, sounded younger than most, and had a slight squeak to it. Her cutie mark… was a diamond tiara, and she was wearing a tiara that had very fake jewels in it. She had a light, purple coat, mane, and tail. The last two had a white streak going through both of them, and no horn or wings. "I mean, it probably wasn't invited and snuck in here. It probably locked the actual Sting Ray up somewhere, and is making a poor attempt of impersonating him."
"Actually," I raised my good hoof, and nearly fell over. "I am Ray. I'm a Changeling, wooo," I said with mild defeat. I couldn't even find it in myself to be mad. I mean, in smaller groups, I could, and usually get away with it. If I were to snap here, with many, many ponies in the room, then I was bound to get beaten to a pulp. "I… I dunno. If you guys want me to leave, then I'll leave. This can just be a 'welcome back to ponyville' party for Luna. I mean, we Changelings are pretty damn ugly if you ask me." I also wanted to leave before my anger started to rise… I didn't want to drop kick somebody half my size.
I chuckled humorlessly. "Anyways, thanks for welcoming me to Ponyville, I'll go hide under the nearest bridge, and maybe cosplay as a dead body. That sounds fun right now-"
"Shut it, Changeling, you're not fooling anypony around here. You're just acting sad, so that we'll actually accept you," the same filly interrupted me. "Nopony is going to fall for that, especially when you couldn't even be bothered to transform into the pony you probably foalnapped," the same filly walked up into my face, a filly walking behind her followed suit. The new filly was kinda… pink, with big, stupid looking glasses and a pearl necklace. Her gray mane was braided. If I had to guess that these two were friends, and I was about to get ganged up on by fillies.
"Hey now, it's not polite to insult anypony at their welcoming party!" Pinkie butted in.
"That isn't a pony, Pinkie. It's probably mind controlling you," Diamond Tiara turned to the rest of the crowd. "C'mon everypony, do you expect to enjoy a party when there's a Changeling in here?" A collective 'no' made my ears flatten… then I took a moment to process what was said. Of course, I wasn't a pony, or a person at all.
"Hey Pinkie, thanks for the party again, if you need me, well, I already said where you can find me."
A filly, a yellow one with red hair and a big, pink bow trotted forward and sat right in front of me. "So, you're a Changelog, right?" Her southern accent was really thick.
"Apple Bloom, what are you doin-" I looked up to see an orange pegasus filly and a minty green unicorn had managed to squeeze through the crowd, likely to stop their friend from being mauled by I, the nasty, pony eating beasts and steals your emotions for desert.
"Ah'm just saying hello to the Changeling."
"I have a name," I muttered before taking a deep breath. Look at me, the big mighty Changeling was scared of two spoiled fillies, and was now fearing what three more thought of him. I'm kinda pathetic. How the heck did I manage to curse and yell at Princess Celestia, who to her subjects, is basically a god, and not have the will to yell at these children? I… guess there's only so much of this sort of treatment that I could take before I just give up. I went from being treated like a person, somebody who could dream and have thoughts. I could use with some beer right now.
"So Ray, what brings you to Ponyville?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Sting Ray, yes, the Changeling, is staying with me in Princess Twilight's castle." I took my eyes off the floor and almost ran to Luna in relief. I was so damn tired of being here, and now that I've found her, we could leave. Luna draped a wing over me. "And no, the real Ray has not foalnapped, and this Changeling is in fact Ray. Believe it or not, but Ray probably isn't much older than some of the foals in this room. He's only 14," Luna looked me in the eyes… She was sad. "If you feel uncomfortable, then we can leave. Maybe this welcoming party happened too soon."
"Can you change into Princess Celestia?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Wha?" I blurted.
"Well, you clearly know Princess Luna, so you've got to know who Princess Celestia is! You Changelings can shapeshift, right?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I… no. I can't shapeshift, well, I can, but I don't know how to. Never had anybody to teach me, I almost had Queen Chrysalis teach me, but she hasn't met up with me since she handed me over to the princesses. I'm a wee bit defective, ain't I? A Changeling that can't change?" My mood was beginning to lift after several ponies cringed at my pun. "I mean, how sad is that?" I chuckled a bit before sighing. "I guess I'm a really good at being used strangl'ling practice, eh? Who wants to throttle me right now?"
"To be clear, if anypony assaults Ray, you will hear from me. Believe or not, but Ray is of royal descent," Luna said.
"Is it because his mother's the Changeling Queen?" Somebody asked.
"Well, no. Queen Chrysalis did treat him like he was her child, however. The truth is, that me and my sister have… gotten him to sign some adoption papers, and now I'm his older sister. Well, it's not what the papers say, but I think he holds me in a manner similar to that. Ray didn't mind control us into adopting him, he isn't capable of it. We took Ray in for this exact reason. If he were in an orphanage, he'd probably be beaten within an inch if his life." The crowd started murmuring to each other as Twilight stepped out of the crowd.
"He's not a bad Changeling either, if anything, Ray is pretty nice. The only reason why Ray's even in Ponyville is because he wanted to get out of Canterlot for a little bit. It's a bit too stuffy for his tastes."
"I mean, the snobs were also kinda unbearable, and I barely even saw any," I glared at the first two fillies. "I… I guess I can't blame either of you for not liking me, but you both look a wee bit spoiled. I dunno how you treat other people, but I just want to give you a bit of advice," I thought of how I should word this for a moment. "Let's just say… if you've got the personality that has the same consistency of sandpaper, nobody's gonna wanna talk to you." I then began to scan the party room again, ignoring all the faces. Ignore the faces, tune out the whispers, live a good life.
I then saw apples bobbing up and down in a trow full of water, and completely forgot what the heck I was doing. It's been so damn long since I've seen an apple, and that was at lunch on the last day of school. And those apples are always kinda sad, rotten, and probably really fake. Something in my mind clicked, and my vision locked on a nice, green apple. I wanted a granny smith right now, and there it was, floating in front if me. I almost grabbed it until Pinkie held me back.
"Ah Ray, it's your party, but you still have to follow the rules of apple bobbing. You have one minute to grab as many apples with only your mouth!" Pinkie let me go and pulled a stop watch out of nowhere. She held a hoof over the start button, and stared at me. "Time starts as soon as you attempt to grab an apple!" I nodded and a small smile formed on my face. The other ponies around me seemed to either ignore me, or were watching me. Pinkie provided a basket for me. "Any apples you grab, you can drop in this basket, and you can keep any apples you grab. Have fun!"
I immediately snapped at the green apple and everything went hazy after I dropped it in my basket. Before I knew it, the timer went off, and I froze. The basket before me was filled to the brim with apples(all of which looked really good), and I smiled. I don't think I'd be getting a whole lot of apples compared to everybody else here, but I had apples. That was pretty cool. Pinkie seemed to have been keeping score, though.
"You grabbed thirty apples in a minute! That's the highest number anypony has gotten to date, not even Princess Luna could get that many!" I blinked a couple times and began to giggle like an idiot. I don't know what the hell took over me, but apparently it turned me into an apple bobbing beast. I don't even think I could grab that many so quickly with my hands if I still had them. I set a world record while being a defective Changeling drone… right?
"So I set a record?" I asked.
"Yup! And I think that means Princess Luna owes you something."
"Hold it, Pinkie, do I not get a chance to at least protect my title of Apple Bobbing Champion?" Luna asked. Pinkie shrugged.
"Okie dokie! Time starts when you start grabbing apples!" Luna quickly grabbed an apple and slowly began to fill her basket up. She was moving like a blur, and it was kinda hard to keep track of what was happening. The timer went off and Luna had a smug look on her face as she took an apple out of her newly filled basket. One quick bite and she ate the whole thing. How the heck does she do that? She'd probably be able to eat a whole watermelon in one bite.
"Luna, I hate to say this…" Pinkie said as she looked over a clipboard she… where the hell did that come from? Actually, where do these ponies keep stuff? Pinkie grabbed at least three different objects out of thin air. I know Luna has at least one compartment in her necklace, which has a pair of earplugs and a couple pieces of gum. "Luna, you grabbed 25 apples, Ray has you beat by five!" Pinkie said. Luna then magicked up a medal, which was made out of wood, and placed it upon my neck.
"You little Changeling… next time I will be much faster, and I will regain my honor. Until next time, at Nightmare Night!" she growled. I kinda winced as her voice began to rise in volume. Even despite the tone, I could genuinely tell that she was only playing… mostly thanks to my new found ability to sense others' emotions.
"You really should get into acting. I'd genuinely think you were mad if I couldn't feel what you're feeling," I said. "Like seriously, you can be a terrifying villain in some plays." Luna giggled.
"I appreciate the compliments, Ray, but I doubt I'm that good. Perhaps I could get Queen Chrysalis to teach me how to act? Surely the queen of a race? That gets by off of acting as other ponies, would be good at acting, yes?" I shrugged.
"I dunno, probably. I barely even know Queen Chrysalis, and for all I know, she could be plotting my death," we began to wander around the party room, and a few strangers actually waved at me… nah, they were probably waving at the princess beside me. I'm pretty sure if they continued to ignore me, then these ponies could enjoy their party without having to think of the stupid little Changeling in my midsts. "Say…" I finally got to take a bite out of the granny smith I won while apple bobbing. My brain was now having a meltdown… What the heck were these apples grown with? Crack? This was a damn good apple, fresh, sweet… I dunno, I'm not a food critic, but this is really good.
"I take it that you like apples?" Luna asked.
"Well… my family usually never goy apples, my parents just never went out of their way to buy them. It's really rare for me to even have an apple, let alone one that isn't artificial and really disgusting. Before you ask, I'm pretty sure my school got their apples out of a sewer, which is why they were artificial and bad. Whenever I manage to, I try to get an apple, because they're great. This apple's on another level, it's so… perfect. Perfect consistency, flavor, and… I dunno. Words cannot describe an apple like this."
"Well, I suppose that's a good thing you wanted to stay in Ponyville, Apple Jack's family owns an apple farm. Sweet Apple Acres, one of the best apple farms in all of Equestria, and I am willing to bet that it's the best. It's where these apples have came from. Almost nopony comes close to the Apples in terms of quality and consistency on said quality. I believe that Apple Jack would appreciate a new customer and a fan of what her family prides themselves off of," Luna paused for a moment. "Do you think you can handle yourself while I get a snack? I won't be long." I nodded, and just like that, I lost Luna in the crowd. Welp, time to aimlessly wander around in hopes that I can find something else to do.
"Hey Changeling!" I stopped for a second, remembering why I wanted to leave earlier. "So… how's mind controlling the princesses?" I glanced up to see the same couple of fillies from earlier.
"I'm not mind controlling Luna, and I can barely even tolerate Princess Celestia. Can you please, please let me enjoy my first party? I was almost starting to enjoy myself," I said, before promptly finishing off my apple. I didn't eat the core, as that just felt wrong. Sure, horses(and I guess ponies) could probably eat the core, but I didn't want to eat it. I'm human, and humans don't eat apple cores. Not without choking on the seeds at least.
"Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, if you can't leave Ray alone, I'll have to ask you to leave." Oh what a relief, Twilight was nearby… actually now she was standing beside me, how the heck did she get there? "Ray isn't controlling anybody, I'm pretty sure he has no idea what he's doing half the time, and I, as the Princess of Friendship can't sit back and watch my friend get harassed at his own party," Twilight then proceeded to stare down the two fillies, who began to back away. I guess a small alicorn was still an alicorn, and alicorns already seemed kinda scary(Luna could send me to the moon).
"So… how are you enjoying the party, Ray?" Twilight asked.
"I'll be honest, I was just sticking by Luna after apple bobbing. Nobody here seemed super fond of realizing that their newest resident was a Changeling, so I didn't bother to talk with anybody. I can be friendly, but I can't really go out and make friends, if that makes sense," I scratched the back of my head. "Like, I became friends with Time Turner and Ditzy, but they were already kinda friendly, and I was friendly in turn. Next thing I know, we're friends. I think I caught a few ponies staring me down, expecting me to do something bad… I don't trust anybody here to not rip my head off the very moment Luna isn't there to protect me.
"And I wasn't very social back at home either. I had my brother, and that was it. I talked to a few people when we got grouped together for a school project I could've solo'd, but the teachers wanted to try and get me to talk to people, and that's it. So imagine if I were to try and make friends with strangers, who already hate me, and then realize why I haven't talked to anybody here…" my eyes widened in recognition. Ditzy was here! The clumsy girl stumbled towards me.
"Hey Ray! I just got here, and you're still here! So that means everypony accepted you pretty quickly right?"
"Got bullied by two fillies, accused of mind controlling my adopters, and then told by the whole party that their, not mine, party didn't have a scuffed, defective Changeling in it. On the bright side, I learnt that I'm pretty good at apple bobbing. I got this cool medal for outpacing Luna!" I felt a bit of pride well in my chest.. the one thing I was good at was pretty useless, but I was good at something!" It was then that Twlight butted in.
"Actually, I think I know why you were so quick during apple bobbing… you see, Changelings are usually predators, so I'm guessing you entered some sort of 'hunting state' when you started grabbing apples. Your eyes went from blue to green, but not acid green, just a pleasant, light shade of green. You only snapped out of it because of the stop watch that Pinkie had."
"So… I have a cool little state that makes me hyper fixate on something, like 'fishing' for apples?" I asked.
"I believe so. We'll have to see when we do a few experiments, but I have learnt something pretty interesting about Changelings from you."
"Is it the fact that Ray's eye color changes with his mood?" Ditzy asked. Twilight looked a bit shocked, like she hadn't expected that to come out of my friend's mouth.
"How'd you figure that out?" Twilight asked.
"When I first met Ray, he had red eyes, and his mood was a bit… sour. So I could assume he was at a minimum, upset about something. I've asked Ray about what made him so upset, but he said he couldn't mention a word of it," Ditzy shrugged. "I'm just assuming, since he was leaving Canterlot in a hurry, that a guard must've chased him, and that made him mad. Anyways, as we talked, Rat's eyes slowly started turning into a deeper blue than what his eyes are right now, like he was starting to relax. And after I talked to Ray more, since my husband told me where he was, Ray's eyes have always been this color. And just when Ray saw me, his eyes went minty green, before returning to the color they are now."
Both Twilight and I blinked for different reasons. How the heck do my eyes change color, but I don't notice? I dunno, my vision never got affected, and I haven't looked in a mirror before.
"Ditzy, you might have just helped me crack the color code for Changeling's eyes. You're a smart mare," Twilight complimented. Ditzy even blushed.
"No I'm not… I probably don't know as much as you, or anypony that is in their fourth year of advanced learning, but I just noticed things. I have to be… kind of observant. My nickname 'Derpy' doesn't come from me being cute, after all. I can't walk into things if I pay attention, right?"
"Well, you are pretty cute. The reason why people call you 'derpy' sucks though. Like… you get called it for not being very well coordinated, when I think your crossed eyes are adorable…"
"Ray, stop it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were making a move on me. Luckily I do know you better than most, but please don't use those compliments often. You'll give my husband more material to embarrass me with," Ditzy said.
"You know Ditzy, you are pretty cute. Not just because of how your eyes are, but because of how beautiful they are…" Ditzy hid her face in her wings as she tried to keep herself from blushing. "I must say Ray, I thank you for giving me a whole range of compliments for the fairest lady in all of Equestria! How can I repay you?" However the hell Time Turner popped in out of nowhere, I dunno. "It's good to see you, by the way. I'm going to calm my wife down a bit, but I'll meet back up with you soon, mate! Allonsy-!" With that, the Doctor took Ditzy and wandered off into the crowd.
"I'm going to go find my friends, don't worry though, I'll be keeping an eye on you. So if something seems to be going a bit south, just let me know, and I will be there to help you out. Also, I can see Luna from the punch bowl, and she's giving the stink eye to Diamond Tiara and SIlver Spoon." I glanced over at the snack table, and there was Luna doing just as Twilight was said. I think. I dunno, I couldn't see what the heck Luna was glaring at.
"I.. don't think I can see those two kids, but I'll just believe you on that. New body, new eyes, they're probably worse than a set of human eyes. Though… if this is a party, why are all the lights on? All I see is a disco ball, and I can tell that some of the lights are on, but not all of them," I paused for a second. By all means, the party room should be dim as hell, but instead, I could see relatively fine. Maybe it was placebo, or I'm an idiot, but maybe I had night vision.
"Well, that's something I should've guessed from how Changelings live. You actually have night vision, since from what I can see, it's pretty dark. The only reason why I can see anything, is because of how Alicorns work. We're a mix of everything. Pegasi tend to have much, much better eyesight than other ponies, and by extension, we Alicorns have better eyesight. Albeit, there are a couple times where Rainbow Dash can spot something I couldn't, but she has had Pegasus Eyes long before I did." I tilted my head in confusion before Twilight luckily answered my question. "You see, I wasn't always an Alicorn, I was born as a unicorn. After some weird event where my friends' cutie marks got switched around, I… became an Alicorn? I'm not quite sure what the process is called, but I just woke up in the middle of town with wings."
"You make my new, exciting life that I'm glad to have, sound like an acid trip. What the fuck?"
Twilight giggled. "I know, I don't quite understand what's happening myself, especially if there isn't a book on it. I just hope me and my friends can muddle through. We usually do." Twilight waved goodbye, before wandering off towards… ah, Fluttershy. Anyway, Luna was still at the snack table, but her eyes were locked on me even if she knew if I could see her or not. Maybe this was some sort of test, to see how I would respond in a situation where I'm left in a room full of ponies who don't like me. Would I get my head cut off? Could I make a friend? No. My eyes slowly landed on the exit, and I figured it was time to go. I didn't want to risk anything being broken, I already broke my leg.
"Alright everypony! It's time to cut the cake, Ray, since you're the guest of honor, it would be an honor if you came up and received the first slice!" My head slowly turned with a crack(with the new neck, it kinda hurt). Great, now everybody is looking at me again, and I want to leave even more now. I nervously chuckled for a bit, before succumbing to the big smile on Pinkie's face. Without another thought, I walked over to where the most hyperactive thing on the planet was sitting. Then Pinkie started giving off some sort of speech at light speed, and the only words I caught was 'I'm so excited to finally introduce Ponyville's first Changeling to-" then the hyperdrive went off. Some time later, I was handed the knife. Now, how to cut a cake without hands? I spun the knife on my hoof for a bit as I contemplated it, and my brain finally began to work for the first time tonight.
I grabbed the knife with my magic, and began to cut the cake. The knife was shaking the whole time, since my magic sucked, but I was doing it. I found myself giggling like an idiot again; using magic felt… amazing. This was probably really basic magic for anybody with a horn and the ability to think, but I couldn't help but be giddy at the fact that my magic was actually holding out! Without thinking, I cut the cake into a bunch of surprisingly even slices, and lowered the knife onto the table with a 'clunk' from the blade. I didn't grab a slice though, the cake was for everyone to enjoy, and I'm not a part of that 'everyone' anymore. Now… I don't want to be here, everyone was staring at me again and I couldn't read any of them. I want to leave-
Any sort of excitement over my magic died, and I suddenly found myself sitting in the middle of Ponyville, away from the party… How the hell did I get here? Wait, where the heck was I? Y'know what, I can still see the Castle of Friendship, or as I dubbed it, Tree Castle, so if I keep walking towards that, then I could probably not get lost. Without another thought, I began to wander through town, and only then began to realize something really cool:
I can teleport!" I began to hop and skip, not really caring about the fact that my new found ability to teleport made me leave my own party. Whatever, it really wasn't my party anyways, I was just kinda there, and got stared at. I'm pretty sure most of the ponies, Twilight's friends included, were happy about my sudden disappearance. Maybe this is why I wasn't ever a social butterfly… so many people, and I could barely stand it. There must've been at least a hundred ponies in that party, and… maybe I just couldn't stand it because everybody hated me.
Again, I hated what I am, so how can anybody not hate what I am? I couldn't even blame anybody there for hating me. I'm a Changeling, and Twilight and Queen Chrysalis mentioned that we crashed the wedding of Cadence. Logically everybody was gonna hate Changelings! I don't even know what came over me, one moment, I was confidently walking around that party, and the next thing I know, I'm scared again?
Anyhow, after a few turns on each road, I somehow found myself outside of Sugarcube Corner again. As it turned out, the place was packed to the point that some ponies actually had to be outside so they wouldn't overcrowd the inside of the building. I think from here, I could find my way back to Twilight's castle… I could also just scare a hotel into letting me stay, fear won me a free train ride, after all.
"There you are!" I raised my head up as soon as I heard the voice. Rainbow Dash had found me.