Harmony tried hard to stay quiet from her hiding place behind a bush. Through its bushy branches she could see the pony she had been following… no, not a pony, she corrected herself.
 
The smooth hide of the young changeling looked strange in the light of midday as she rested in the clearing. It was a texture Harmony didn’t quite recognize, not soft and velvety pony fur, or perfectly smooth like her big brother Spike’s scales, and it certainly wasn’t the overly plush fur like Spike’s wife Ruby. There were many more things about the changeling that perplexed Harmony, like her jagged horn and thin gossamer wings.
 
She’d seen pictures of changelings in some of her picture books. They were vicious looking images with black skin, big fangs, and empty eyes. The one in front of her however, had strange but lovely eyes which seemed to survey her surroundings with a calmness bordering on boredom. She didn’t seem to be full grown, not that Harmony had any clue how changelings aged, but by pony standards she still seemed to be a filly. One on the precipice of marehood, but a filly none the less.
 
Sunlight glistened off her sleek purple mane as she turned her gaze in Harmony’s direction. “Are you done staring, filly?” she asked, startling Harmony who had thought her presence a secret
 
After overcoming her surprise, and pushing back sheepishness at being found spying, Harmony strode out from behind the bush. “Um…. Hi.” she said, her head lowered a bit.
 
“Hi.” the changeling returned the greeting and regarded Harmony incredulously.
 
“Um…. You’re a changeling right?”
 
“Yeah. Gonna run back and rat me out so the big ponies can run me out of town?” She sighed, no fear in her voice, just a hint of tired annoyance.
 
The little lavender unicorn shook her head quickly. “No I was…. Wondering if you would be my friend.”
 
Those strange lovely eyes narrowed in suspicion and disbelief. “Friend? Aren’t you scared I’ll suck all the emotions out of you?”
 
“Will you?”
 
“No.”
 
“Then I’m not scared.” Harmony said easily. “You seem nice, and I thought…. You’re different too…. And I know being different makes it hard to make friends…” she tried to search for the right words to get her intentions across, bring one hoof up to rub her other leg nervously. “So…. So I thought maybe you would need one…”
 
There was a moment of silence as the changeling seemed to inspect the small filly. “You look different yourself.” she nodded toward the filly’s forehead. Harmony subconsciously reached up to rub her gently curved horn and the white gem below it. “…. Alright. I’m Violet.”
 
The little filly smiled widely at her new friend. Violet still seemed quite skeptical, but indulged Harmony my sitting with her and talking to get to know each other. Harmony told Violet about her six moms, her dragon brother, her dragon dog nephew, and some of the ponies she knew from around town. Violet noted that Harmony didn’t seem to be close to many ponies outside her family, though it was quite an extensive family.
 
She in turn told Harmony about her changeling homeland, how she was destined to be a queen and start a hive of her own, but how she shuttered at the thought of having to do that before getting the chance to spread her wings and explore first, to make her own experiences and be her own pony, before becoming tethered to a unit. She explained that’s why she was wandering through the Equestrian countryside. Harmony was fascinated by that, and kept the conversation going as long as she could.
 
After a bit Harmony’s ears perked up at the sound of her name being called. “Uh oh… Guess I’ve been gone too long, that’s probably my moms… two of them at least.” she seemed to nibble on the inside of her lip in contemplation. She looked at her new friend. “I’m gonna see you again, right? I know you’re traveling but… but we just met.”
 
Violet gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “I can stick around the area for a bit, but I’m sure once your moms catch a whiff that you’re hanging out with a changeling they won’t be too pleased about it.”
 
Harmony laughed. “Don’t be silly. If I like you, my moms will like you. “
 
“Riiiight… well, I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Violet said as the voices calling harmony drew closer. A purple ring of light ran down her form quickly, covering her in the guise of an attractive dark coated unicorn mare.
 
Harmony didn’t see, having turned her head to answer what she recognized to be the voices of her mothers, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “I’m out here Mamas!” she called, then turned back to see that her friend had been replaced. “You changed.”
 
“Well, yeah, I’m a changeling.” Violet laughed, using a hoof to push her still purple mane out of her face a bit. “Pretty good right?”
 
“…. Yeah…” Harmony didn’t seem as impressed as Violet thought she should be. “But I think you’re much prettier the other way.” The arrival of her two pegasus mothers distracted Harmony and prevented her from seeing the charcoal cheeks of her companion turn almost crimson in her surprise.
 
Yep… Harmony certainly wasn’t ‘normal.’