The 7th Element

Chapters

Things that just don't occur
Where am I? Oh...
Just how bad things have gotten
A long night
Rumors
If they didn't know I was here before...
...They do now

Things that just don't occur

Equestria is a far from perfect world. Anyone who regularly watches My Little Pony can tell you that. Weather it be the resurgence of jealous, revenge driven princesses, the resurrection of powerful, grudge wielding, entities defeated a thousand years ago; or even the continuous assault of mythological creatures on the peaceful establishments of the land.

The existence of Equestria itself has been at the brink of destruction more than once, and within the span of time that Twilight has spent learning the lessons of friendship the Elements of Harmony have been called in to action numerous times. Combined with the challenges of everyday life and personal struggles that each character faces one would conclude that Equestria despite its commitment to the values of friendship, and harmony could not be described as a utopia. However compared to our world it would seem a utopia indeed. Every instance of hardship and struggle sees a peaceful end and harmony and friendship always overcome darkness. The level of violence our world experiences on a daily basis is unheard of to the citizens of Equestria.

Flash forward to a time not too far into the future of Equestria; more like next Tuesday where once again a previously defeated enemy has made a recovery and is plotting vengeance on those who ruined her plans; (you know, something new)

The Queen of the changelings, Chrysalis, who fell to the power of love in an ironic twist of fate had resurfaced and gathered her forces. Her plan was far less subtle this go around however. She needed control of more than just one noble in Equestrian society. She planned to control Equestria through fear and disrupt the dreaded powers of harmony. Her plan was very familiar to our world; cells of changelings were to infiltrate various portions of society throughout Equestria working to destabilize the infrastructure and internal workings of the establishment. These cells would be the start of a much larger operation; where raids on trade caravans and farming settlements would be conducted. Occupying the members of the royal guard and causing chaos she would weaken the dreaded powers of harmony and friendship in a campaign of terror. With the region in complete disarray; she would make her final move to steal the Crystal Heart from the Crystal Empire on the day of the crystal fair. By absorbing its power of love she would be able to defeat Celestia, Luna, and that annoying purple menace, Twilight and claim Equestria once and for all.

Such a violent campaign was unheard of in Equestria but evil knows no boundaries. It wasn't long before reports of changeling sightings and raids outside the cities began pouring into Celestia's situation room from all over Equestria; Celestia prided herself in her ability to care for the well being of all her subjects; however the chaos of this new offensive unfolding before her was too much to handle. The royal guard was unprepared for this and rumors of changelings infiltrating important parts of government and military infrastructure were starting to make sense to her. Provided the disorganized nature of developing a strategy and communicating with officials everypony was terrified and nolonger felt safe within the walls of their own cities. Disheartened; Celestia called her sister Princess Luna and the only remaining weapon she had. The elements of harmony and a farfetched and desperate plan.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another universe I was chilling in my barracks room in Southern California getting ready to chase my beer with some whisky. Yea, another night of drinking before an early work day. That's how it goes around here; we are all alcoholics. Work sucks; specifically in the infantry and everyone I love is back home. There is only one other thing that makes me happy other than alcohol and that is ponies. That’s right, I'm a brony and everyone knows it; just walk into my room and the first thing you see in the four walled tiny two person room is my open locker desk with my TV, Xbox, and pony blind bag collection. I was actually just looking up at it just now. I don’t give two shits about people who think it's weird; I have nothing left to prove to anyone.

It’s not an interesting story when people ask why I like the show. Not a lot of things make me happy or provide much enjoyment after returning from Afghanistan. I just tell them it puts a smile on my face and that It is a good show and that I feel a sense of innocence when I watch it. Like I said its one of the only things that I really get enjoyment from. I learn from it and try to reflect the values of the show in my personal life. Having to switch to peacetime Marine Corps sucks and I'm pissed off and angry half the time and depressed for the other half. I don't really know why to be honest; things just seemed to slow down so fast leaving me high and dry. I miss Afghanistan; as much as it sucked I miss doing my actual job. I kind of felt separated from the world when I returned and that's how I was feeling tonight. Thinking about it just made me more depressed.

I wondered what kind of night it was and decided to step outside on the catwalk to take my mind off these depressing thoughts. I swung my red metal door open and stepped outside expecting to have a view of the mountains from the second deck of the barracks shrouded in the soft light of the full moon. I didn't have anywhere to go so I planned to just look over the edge of the concrete half wall and blank out my mind.

I was decently inebriated by this point and had brought my new bottle of Tennessee Sour Mash with me; the first thing I noticed was that the trees were gone along with everything else; including the cement floor of the catwalk. I can't be this drunk I thought. Maybe I'm blacking out I looked down only to realize I was standing on nothing; then the only sensation I could feel was of being streatched from the front of my face to my feet. This kind of thing just doesn't happen...

Far away, in a distant part of the multiverse; a sad, desperate Celestia, looking down from her palace balcony in Canterlot was pondering the same words.

* * *

Princess Twilight and her friends had hopped on the first train to Canterlot they could when spike delivered, or burped up Princess Celestia's message. Nopony was surprised by the urgency of the letter it had been a week since all hell started breaking loose and Ponyville had seen its share or trouble.

Pinkie Pie had discovered an attempt of a changeling group to replace Mayor Mare when she visited the Ponyville mayor's house to inquire about the Mayor not placing her usual order of tea cakes the previous day. She rounded up the gang, and with a bit of hoof biteing action the six friends had bagged two changelings and turned them over to the royal guard.

"I hope Celestia finally has a plan to deal with these attacks," said Applejack, "every night more and more food stores go missin and I'm starting to think that my cows may now be changelings!"

"She didn't say what she had planned," Twilight replied "She didn't want her secret to fall into the wrong hooves." "Besides she's had the whole Canterlot library staff searching for a week for anything that could help us against the changelings I'm sure they found something ."

Twilight was a little disappointed that she herself had not been asked to help find a spell or ward to help with the crisis but she understood why her mentor had asked her to keep a low profile. As a newly Christened Princess and the bearer of the Element of Magic she was defiantly a target of opportunity. It felt good to finally be let in on the action. News from all over Equestria arrived daily of raids on farms and villages along with imposters being discovered; and the sudden loss of contact with the neighboring Griffon kingdom. That last one made her worry however; had Chrysalis invaded them as well? Why would they not contact the Princesses and ask for aid? She looked around the train car, devoid of light and relatively empty save for her friends and a royal guardsman at the rear door. They had left early in the morning before day light and all but her and Applejack had elected to go to sleep.

Shutting the lights off on the car had been Rainbow's idea. Apart from wanting to go to sleep Rainbow insisted that keeping the lights off would make the car appear empty thus keeping a low profile and not giving any changeling raiders a reason to attack. "And I thought Twilight had all the smart ideas" she had teased.

Applejack's family had loaded half of their remaining food stores on the cargo car in order to supply Canterlot with what she could provide. The Raids were taking their toll and she was convinced that the train would come under attack any minute making sleep her second priority and standing guard over her shipment priority one. Twilight was just her usual self; to wrapped up in what was going on to even consider sleep. Outside her window the lights of Canterlot burned out the night and the dawn began over the horizon. Twilight let out a soft sigh. "What have you found, Celestia? What will it take to defeat an enemy so well hidden?"

* * *

"Where did you even find this spell sister?" asked Luna; staring at an open book with pages covered with glyphs and symbols. "This would require more concentration and magical energy than any one of us could provide" "I know it looks that way sister; Celestia replied "but the spell is designed to channel the energy of more than one pony." She pointed at a pile of books that were clean in comparrison to the dusty tomes that were the library's standard.
"It was here in the Starswirl the Bearded wing under a hiding spell."

The Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot library was a wreck. Books and scrolls covered the floors and tables where the Princesses along with their scholars had searched endlessly for anything helpful. Equestria had long since overcame war and unrest and distant history provided nothing usefull; defensive spells were non violent and the only spell they had found was an identity spell that revealed imposters. Though it was indeed useful it didn't help against the violent attacks plaguing the country side. It was infact an accident how they found the book of reality bending spells. Starswirl had consealed the book as a simple scroll of light. Celestia remembered that Starswirl and her had hid many of his spells and projects a thousand years ago because of their dangerous nature. She already had Discord running around changing reality and she didn't need foalish ponies getting their hooves on the ability as well; it was while initially casting the identity spell as a test that many scrolls suddenly turned into books. This one in particular was decorated with stars and planets superimposed over different stars and planets.

"I can see why it would be concealed” Luna said. "What is unclear is what it does; all I can decipher are the words branching out into the cosmos" "From what I understand from the workings of the spell" Celestia explained. "In a time of need the caster invokes the magic of reality itself and reaches into the multiverse; a concept where multiple realities exist all at once." Luna looked puzzled as Celestia continued. ”The spell is organic with a will of its own, of good nature, but of its own intentions. It sees the troubles of the caster's world and reaches out to another world for help."

"I have a hard time believing in this multiverse concept" Luna replied. "I don't claim to understand it either; Celestia said. We both know the limitless ability of magic and that all creation and reality revolve around it" "That we do sister. Including the limits of our own magic. I do not think we have the ability to meet its requirements.”

Celestia knew this but she had a plan to enhance her sister's and her magic. Along with Twilight; her student turned princess and the Elements of Harmony, the magic provided should be enough. It would be taxing however and would take some time to recover from.

"Princess Celestia!" A familiar voice chimed "we came as fast as we could!"
Celestia smiled for the first time in a week.

* * *

The Throne room; normally vast an empty was bustling with activity. Twice as many guards were stationed outside the great door and ordered to prevent anypony from leaving or entering without Luna or Celestia's permission. Twilight and her friends were gathered around the podium that the spell book Celestia had shown them was held. Celestia and Luna stood on their respected thrones above it the page open to the first incantation. Everypony wore their elements and stood in the standard formation they had become accustomed to when using the Elements of Harmony. Others stood by in attendance scholars from Celestia's school, high ranking members of the royal guard, and The Canterlot palace medical staff, all ready to leaned a hoof if need be. All had been briefed on what the spell supposedly did andTwilight was particularly eager to begin. She had a hard time standing still and her newly acquired wings flapped about anxiously.

"Ready girls?" She asked her friends.
"Ready" they all said in unison.
She turned to Celestia and gave her a nod.
"Now when we begin; channel the element's magic into me" Celestia said; "and repeat the incantation silently in your heads. Out to the cosmos we reach, through the fabric of space find the one that understands and may bring peace to our race" With that Celestia's horn began to glow Luna took her queue closed her eyes and channeled her magical energy to her sister. The Elements of each pony began to glow and the room was soon filled with a blinding white light.

* * *

My face and upper body was being pulled to the extent that I was sure if I was able look down I’d see myself as a spaghetti noodle. I started to sober up and as sense returned to me I became very afraid. This wasn’t a dream or it didn’t feel like one at least. As powerful as the force stretching me was I wasn’t in any sort of pain; that was odd indeed. All too soon my feet seemed to pull up to my head and I was rocketed forward. I landed on my knees on a brightly colored marble floor. "That hurt" I said; before I could look up my guitar, busted laptop, and various Items from my desk smashed into the back of my head. "So much for the previously painless experience" I thought to myself. Disoriented and sick to my stomach I puked and blacked out; that sort of thing did occur, a lot.

Author's Note

This is my first attempt at creative writing since highschool. I've had this idea since A Cantrlot Wedding, but due to my training schedual, I haven't had many opertunities to explore the idea of actually writing fiction. This will be the shortest chapter, its more of an introduction.

Where am I? Oh...

When I came too, I was laying in a bed way to short for a human; I had a headache from hell and felt the familiar dehydration of a hangover. My shirt was also missing..."I must have thrown up on it" I thought; then reality set in. I was staring at a brightly colored celing made of marble stone; just like the walls. I then realized I was in a small four walled bedroom; there were very few furnishings in the room aside from just a drawer and several red pillows. "Where the hell is the light coming from" I asked nobody in particular; "and where the hell am I" From an open door somebody heard me.

"Hey everypony!" A strangely familiar voice shouted. "I think the strange monkey creature is awake."

"Strange monkey wha..."

A pink pony bounced in from the doorway followed nervously by a group of ponies I knew all to well.
"Ok; I'm dreaming" I said. "You are?" Pinkie pie asked "but if your dreaming then I'm dreaming; and if I'm dreaming then I must be asleep; and if I'm asleep I'm actually still at home; which means-" "Your not dreaming Pinkie Pie," the purple alicorn I knew as Twilight from the show said, "and neither is...our friend here"

I was getting the weirdest stare from all the ponies; all except from Fluttershy; who had remained by the threshold of the door. I was defiantly dreaming; I usually had vivid dreams and I looked around the room still not saying a word. It was an awesome dream at least; too bad I had to wake up eventually.

"Where's my shirt" I finally asked.
"You understand us?" Twilight asked; studying me inquisitively.
"Yea of course I do."

I wasn't sure how to take the situation. Should I tell them that I know them? How would they react?

"What are you?" Rainbow Dash asked. It was weird knowing them so well and them not having a clue what I was or where I was from. But it was a dream; so whatever their reaction would be it wouldn't matter in the morning. I decided to play along and enjoy the dream.

"I'm a human," I replied, "from Earth"

"Never heard of that place, or what ever a human is." Applejack said.

"What's that red mark on your chest," Pinkie Pie chirped. Is that where hu..mans get their cutie marks?"

"No; but its hard to explain." I replied. I didn't think they would understand tattoos.

I scooted to the edge of the bed causing the quivering Fluttershy to back further away from the doorway. I noticed several of my things from my room and remembered being hit by a few things when I had landed on the marble floor. "That was weird" I thought, "but it's still got to be a dream." "So," I started to ask, "how did I get here? And where is my shirt?"

"You mean that tacky cloth you where wearing?" Rarity replied. "I don't think you'll wantting that back." she said in a rather disgusted tone.

"Thought so." I said to nobody.

"I think Princess Celestia could better explain why you are here" Twilight said. We should take you to go see her; she's been waiting for you to wake up."

Cool, I was going to meet dream Celestia. I wondered when I was going to wake up; dream or not I wasn't going to see the Princess shirtless, I still had manners after all. I felt a little embarrassed at the thought that my first appearance in dream Equestria was me passed out and covered in vomit. I could at least make a better appearance the second time around.

"I'd rather be wearing something if I'm going to meet your princess." I said.

Rarity was already going through the drawer with her magic "at least somepony has some manners; Ill see what I can find."

* * *

Two minutes later I was walking down a large hallway in what I presumed to be Canterlot Castle wearing jeans and a white robe; Apparently it was all they could find. Rarity was obviously sharing my concern; it wasn't just tacky; but it made me look ridiculous as well. The robe was designed for ponies, who in comparison to me were the size of a large adult dog. It was small on me; and painfully feminine. The stone hallway was surprisingly large for the size of the ponies that occupied it. "I must really be out right now," I thought to myself, "this dream is surprisingly accurate."

We continued down the hallway followed closely behind by the still silent and scarred Fluttershy; I didn't want to call them by name so I waited to address them until formal introductions had been made. I made eye contact with Twilight to get her attention.

"Is she scared of me?" I motioned to Fluttershy.

"Oh she'll come around," Twilight replied "We've never seen a creature like you before; and were all pretty scared when you suddely appeared and..ugh, violently heaved on the floor."

That didn't sit well in my head. I felt my still aching skull and found a bump on the back of it. This was starting to feel very real; that also didn't sit well. "What did she mean by suddenly appeared?" I thought to myself. I held my questions for now and We came to a stop at two massive overly decorated wooden doors; two unicorn ponies in armor flanked both sides and were stareing at me intently. "They are probably laughing at my unique style of clothing," I thought to myself, or perhaps they were waiting for me to make a threatening move; seeing as I towered over them a good two feet. Twilight addressed one of them and he used his magic to open the double doors. I waited for all the other ponies to enter; all that is except Fluttershy, who still hung back.

The Throne room was just like it was in the sho,; a long red carpet flanked by pillars and stain glass windows depicting Equestrian history, including the recent accomplishments of Twilight and her friends, led to a pair of thrones occupied by none other than Celestia and Luna. Two armored earth ponies flanked each side as well. There was a stain in the middle of the carpet. "I sure do know how to make an entrance." I thought, looking at the poor pony assigned to clean it up, a look of anger in his eyes.

The two regal sisters eyed me with emotionless faces, silently judging me as we approached. Celestia was the first to break the silence.

"Welcome back my little ponies, I see our new guest is awake."

I suppressed the urge to say "oh she said it she said it" in reference to a family guy joke I knew none of the ponies would understand. I was still convinced I was dreaming so "awake" didn't describe me; but I still played along. All the ponies bowed so I followed suit. When we stood again Celestia continued.

"Greetings to you creature of the cosmos; my sister Luna and I welcome you to Equestria. I'm sure you have many questions and we will do our best to answer them; However the magic used to summon you here is beyond our understanding and I'm afraid we can only explain why you are here, not how."

"Summoned? Why the hell would I be summoned here?" I reminded myself this was only a dream. The doors behind us closed and I heard a lock clink shut. Dream Celestia didn't trust me either; It only made sense. I probably struck them as a monster. I wasn't sure what to ask at first but as she explained; the magic used to summon me here was too much to explain anyway; so I didn't waste her time.

"I'd like to know why I'm here your highness." I finally asked.

"Very well then." she started to speak; and the more she did the more I understood possibly why I now was in Equestria.

* * *

I sat and listened to the current situation of Equestria as Celestia and Luna explained to me the resurgence of the changelings. The violent attacks on the outer settlements, the impostors infiltrating governmental infrastructure, and the inability of Equestria to respond properly to the situation due to the lack of experience the otherwise peaceful land of Equestria had with the whole ordeal. I was told of the spell that was cast to search for help from a world outside their own; and that it was the spell itself that had chosen me; not the casters. It made a bit of sense to me; for being a concept in a dream that is.

I all to well understood the situation that Equestria was now facing. Classic terrorism; control and weaken people through fear; operating in cells and attacking with precision and then retreating before a proper response could be organized. All this was horrifying to me; that these peaceful ponies who live to love and help each other were being subjected to this type of violence pissed me off quite a bit; in the way that seeing a man beat up his spouse or a parent abuse a kid would infuriate most people.

"But why me?" I inquired. "There are hundreds of more people, I mean humans in my world more qualified than me handle this situation princess."

"The spell has several criteria for summoning," She explained. "It searches for some..one who has knowledge of the crisis in our world and who has experience in the situation. It also searches for someone who has knowledge of our world"

She could see the surprise in my eyes.

"Which brings me to believe you have some understanding of our world; whatever it may be. I believe it is our turn to ask the questions now." She said to me.

"I didn't see this one coming," I thought as she waited for me to speak. She knew all along that I had some knowledge of where I was an yet had said nothing to anypony. All the other ponies looked surprised at this. Fluttershy looked up at me intently for the first time; it was time for me to get grilled for answers. I doubted they'd believe me or take my explanation well; then again this was a magical land full of talking ponies. I started to doubt this was a dream at all; despite the sheer impossibility of standing in a magical land that only existed as a cartoon for little girls in my world I had to determine dream from reality. I felt the bump on my head again; It defiantly hurt.

"If I may; your highness, this is almost impossible for me to believe, my being here that is. I feel like I'm in a dream!"

Pinkie Pie went into action quickly. "Its easy to see if your in a dream! Just have someone do this!"

She was in my face before I realized it.

"What the- ouch!" She pinched me; real hard; and with hooves somehow. "What was that for?" I demanded.

"If you think your dreaming have somepony in your dream pinch you" she said cheerfully. "if you don't wake up; then your not asleep! Wanna try again?"

"No!" I quickly retorted" "I mean, this has to be a dream! Your world only exists as a made up story in mine how is this possible?"

I didn't know how to feel. I was in shock; I felt my body over and looked around, everything did seem very real, at least all my senses were responding as they did in reality.

"There are other ways to tell too," Pinkie Pie continued. " If you fall off something; you usually-" I cut her off mid sentence.

"No, its ok Pinkie Pie, just give me a minute to take this all in."

At the sound of her name everpony gasped. They all appeared startled with the exception of Celestia; who continued to silently judge me. Luna spoke up next.

"Sister, if he were, if we were dreaming surly I would know. I am the warden of dreams"

"Our situation is very real I'm afraid dear sister." Celestia said.

Pinkie Pie's jaw extended to the floor WAY beyond the boundaries of physical possibility.
"You...know...my...name..." she stuttered.

"I do, I know all your names, I know a lot about Equestria" I explained. "I know your enemy as well. I'll explain, but I doubt you'll like the reason"

I noticed that Rarity had fainted. "My second impression was also a bust. Man I suck at introductions, I appear, soil myself, than scare everypony." I thought as I mentaly kicked myself. I owed them an explanation so I began. I didn't think they would understand what a TV show was so I did my best to relate to their world.

"Your world exists as a fairy tale of sorts in mine. Your stories are presented to us in order to teach us the lessons you learn throughout your struggles."

"Ya'll mean to tell me you know everything about us?" Applejack asked.

"Like every book I read?" Twilight added

"Or my supersecretspectacularlyamazing recipe for my birthday cakes?"

"Or howmany arguments Angle Bunny and I have" Squeaked a voice sofar unheard from. We all turned to Fluttershy who looked embarrassed. Rarity had recovered by now and had a look of uncertainty on her face; she had a secret she thought was compromised as well.

"No, you girls have it all wrong" I assured them. "these stories are chronicles of all the adventures you share together. I don't know anything private; just what you've overcome together and the lessons you've learned in friendship"
"So all the cool parts" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yup" I replied "especially the sonic rainboom"
"That's...so...awesome!" She squeed. "Does everybody love it?"

"Eeeyyuup!" I answered again; doing my best impression of Big Mac; getting a funny look from Applejack. I chuckled internally; I had to have some fun with this.

"This opens up even more questions then," Luna said, breaking the awkward pause. "Tell us, what sort of creature are these humans. What sort of world do you live in that would experience this level of violence on a daily basis?"

"How is it that our story has come into your world?" Celestia added.

"Well, in my world harmony and friendship are not values as upheld as they are in Equestria, we are a race inclined to selfishness and violence based on opposed ideals and identities."

I explained wars and survival, governments and crime; these things Equestria had seen but not on the level we see on a daily basis. I then explained my experience as a Marine; my time in Afghanistan, my struggles, and anything I thought was relevant. They all sat silently and took it in; and the look on Celestia's face showd that she had put it all together. After I was finished explaining she came to her conclusion on why the spell had chosen me.

"It appears that our worlds exist in a larger plane of reality," she started. I was familiar with the multiverse theory and apparently so was she, I noticed Twilight was taking notes. Everpony else was listening intently as well, everypony that was, except Rainbow who seemed bored out of her mind and was laying down with her hooves holding up her face.

"In this multiverse all realities exist at once. If we exist as a story in your world, we exist as your stories describe us in ours. The spell reached out to you because of your knowledge of our world, and your experiences in yours"

"As much sense as that makes your highness," I replied, "there are still many others with the same qualifications as me."

"As I said before, we don't understand the spell fully," she answered. "It may have found something else in you that tied you to this world. I assure you, further study is being conducted."

Twilight's face lit up, I knew she wanted in on the studying and I hated to pull her away from that, but I knew the longer we stood here, the more Equestria suffered.

"Well, if this really is all real, then the threat is real, so we need to get started right away" I said to everypony in the room. It was time to find out exactly what I was dealing with...

Just how bad things have gotten

As the Dawn rose in Caterlot, so did it's citizens. Due to the recent events, most ponies stayed indoors, and the majority of business were closed. Some ponies, however, found themselves quite busy in the wake of the current situation. Prince Blue Blood was no exception. He had many interests to protect, most importantly, himself.

Today he had scheduled an audience with Princess Celestia to request a small contingent of gaurdsman be stationed at Blue Blood Manor. Under normal circumstances, scheduling an audience would not be necessary, due to his ties with the royal blood line. The last week, however, the Princess had been so busy with the changeling threat, that she was forced to prioritize her time, and even the highest esteemed in Caterlot found it difficult to see Celestia. Prince Blue Blood was undignified by this. Surely being Celestia's nephew made him top priorty. He had spent the last couple of nights ranting about this atrocity.Regardless, he maintained his uptight composure this morning, and prepared for his meeting with Celestia that afternoon.

The process would indeed take all morning. The pampered unicorn pony required three servants to prepare his mane, coat, and dress him appropriately,. Three servants, he must have died of two. He then entered his private spa for a hoof shinning, as he did every morning, while his breakfast of fine oats would be served to him.
He sat down on the padded bench and rang the calling bell.

It wasn't answered.

"Perhaps my lazy servants didn't hear my call for service," he said in a rather annoyed tone.
He rang it again, no answer.

Angrily, he stood up and walked towards the service door at the back of the spa. Somepony was about to get it.
He opened the door with his magic and walked in. Nopony was there.

The door slammed shut, causing him to turn in alarm. The next thing he saw was a flash of green light from the corner of the room.

Prince Blue Blood screamed. Nopony heard him. A green cocoon started to envelope him. Terrified, he tried to call for help again. He could no longer speak or move. A bug/pony,like creature appeared from the corner of the room. With another flash of green light, it became a mirror like image of himself.
The world began to fade around him as the false Prince Blue Blood departed through the service door.

Shortly after, The false prince Blue Blood checked his daily schedual with his butler, and departed for Canterlot Castle.

* * *

Equestria had not seen war in over a thousand years. It didn't surprise me then, to discover from Luna that there was no room in Canterlot Palace dedicated to the purpose of strategic planning or defense. There were many meeting rooms, but all of them were of diminutive size, apparently not suitable for the needs of a command center.
Where we were headed was the royal dining hall, which I pictured would be a fancy table surrounded by red pillows. Ponies tend to sit on pillows, which I wasn't going to complain about. Imagine a world where every room of every building was furnished with pillows! I don't think I'd get anything done.

Luna was explaining each room and feature as we walked down the hall. Thank my lucky stars it wasn't a long walk. Not that I wasn't interested in every bit of furnishings and art the palace featured, I just thought there were more important things to talk about. I still wasn't sure what role I was supposed to be playing here, after all.
"...and this is the Dining hall," Luna was saying, as we approached another grand doorway. "Under normal circumstances, esteemed guests come to dine with us every night. It's always a wonderful occasion."
Her smile turned to a more serious gesture.

"Unfortunately now, you'll find it quite an unpleasant mess. Captain Iron Side of the royal guard has taken charge since the previous Captain, Shinning Armor, became the Prince of the Crystal Empire. "
I knew this story, but I was sure I'd be hearing it again in greater detail. "Right from the horse’s mouth," I thought to myself. It was a terrible pun.

With that, a yellow light enveloped the double doors, opening them to reveal the aftermath of a hurricane. The table had maps and papers strewn about, as well as pictures and a large globe with red and black markings scribbled all over it. Standing over a map at the end of the dining table was a large white earth pony clad in purple armor, flanked by a green Pegasus in dark blue, and a fellow earth pony of his in the royal guardsman standard. This must have been the first time Twilight and her friends had seen this room as well, they all shared my look of surprise.
Upon seeing us enter, he called the other two to attention and snapped a saluted.

"Good afternoon, your majesties." He said in a very respectful manor, " and too your guests."

He was eying me, of course, the tall monkey creature in the room.

"Good afternoon to you as well, Captain Iron Side," Celestia returned the greeting.

"I'd like to introduce you to someone."
She stepped over to me. "Hello captain," I addressed him, how goes the war?"

"Wow, you can talk," he said sarcastically. "I didn't know were capable of more than laying in your own filth, uh..." he must have been present for the summoning spell. I just realized I hadn't given anyone my name. Celestia realized proper introduction hadn't been made, and looked embarrassed.

"Louis," I said, ignoring his rude response.

"What an odd name, Louis, what kind of place do you hail from?"
I wasn't going to give to long version this time.

"A land that would make your changeling threat seem like fighting off a swarm of bees," I replied. They had bees in Equestria, right?

"Humph," he grunted, "then maybe you'll be of some use to us."

"In his world, he is a soldier who has experience on the battlefield," Celestia came in on my behalf. "I believe this is one of the reasons the spell chose him."

"Well, I apologize for the harsh introduction, things have been falling apart beyond our control, and it has everyopony on their last nerve." He turned to address Celestia and Luna. "We have some disturbing reports you may need to hear."
Celestia nodded in acknowledgment.

"Refugees from Appaloosa have stated that the town’s apple orchards were destroyed in a series of overnight raids. The town was unable to present a proper defense, and several ponies had begun to... disappear. A total evacuation has been conducted; Appaloosa has been crossed of the map."

"This is a critical loss," Luna responded,” Appaloosa was an important means of commerce between the buffalo tribes and the western settlements. "

"As well as a major supplier of food in the west,” Celestia added.

"The most troubling report, however," Iron Side continued, ”is the rumors from several refugees that griffons had been spotted by the night watch during the raids..."

"Griffons!?" Everpony in the room said.

"Then it is true," Celestia said.

"Yes, your highness, I believe our worst fears have come to pass"
Celestia looked as if she were about to cry. "This has gotten out of control, she said, in a hopeless tone."

"I knew all griffons were big mean Meany pantsess!!" Pink Pie shouted.
Twilight put her hoof over Pinkie's mouth.

"Now Pinkie, you know that's not how it is!"

I didn't have a clue what was going on.

"Excuse me for asking," I interrupted, "but what are griffons doing attacking Equestrian settlements?”

"Shortly before the invasion started, we lost contact with the Griffon Kingdom neighboring us in the west. We believe that is where the changelings began their campaign. This means that somehow, the changelings have been able to take control of their nation, a move that gives them a great advantage."

Well things had just gone from bad to worse. What the hell could I do to help?

"We're Doomed," squealed Rarity.

Rainbow looked dejected. I remembered the time where she had to tell her griffon friend off for her bad attitude. I'm sure she was worrying about her now. It took me a minute or two to put things together, but I came up with a theory of the changeling queen’s strategy.

"Well, it's obvious to me that there is a full scale invasion in the works here and these raids and infiltrators are here to weaken you before that happens. We call that the fifth column in my world. The raids are meant to cause chaos and fear, dividing the country through terror. "

Terrorism was something I had grown up with for the last 12 years. It was the reason I joined the military. That made me sick, especially to think that these peace loving, innocent ponies were being subjected to it. Again I felt a rage inside. I could handle it, but not them. They were never meant to see this. I suddenly wanted to do whatever it took to end this.
Iron Side looked a bit impressed.
"Are you certain of this?"

"It looks like the most probable course of action for the enemy," I replied, "they already lost once, they know the strongest weapons you ponies hold are harmony and love, why not work to destroy those?"

"But don’t changelings feed of love?" Applejack asked. "What's the use in destroying it?"

"I'm sure that is the main goal here, not just revenge," I said, "there has to be something else to it."

"Regardless, the captain said, the threat we need to deal with first is the one at our door."
"My thoughts exactly, captain," I agreed.

He turned to the green armored Pegasus.

"This is Emerald Wing, my lieutenant in charge of the patrols here in Canterlot. She runs the scheduling, route planning, and conduct of each patrol here. My other lieutenant here is Steady Hooves. It’s his unit’s responsibility to respond to any threat reported by a citizen, or provide back up for a patrol. As you can tell we are rather short hoofed here, we've had to send many of our guardsmen to various towns and cities in Equestria. This is all I have to work with."

I regarded them both. Between the two of them and captain Iron Side, it appeared they had few hours of rest in the last week. I didn't know ponies got bags under their eyes too. So we had a patrol rotation and a quick reaction force. We could work with that. I started to see how I could help.

"My sister and I must take our leave, I'm afraid," Celestia interrupted,”there are a few of the Canterlot upper class who have requested an audience with us today."

"Very well, your majesty," said Iron Side, "I promise to continue our efforts here without pause."

"Do try to get to get some sleep, Iron Side, Equestria needs you in good health," Celestia urged him.

"Please show...Louis to the guest rooms when you have finished your discussion,"
Luna said to Twilight.

"I will Princess."

With that, the they departed. I walked over to the map and pulled up one of the pillows. We had a lot of work to do.

* * *

Snakestalker was pleased his mission had go on without a hitch. Not that there was any doubt it wouldn’t have. He was good at what he did. He had studied his target for a week, learning all he could of his mannerisms and posture. This “Prince Blood” was a very habitual creature, and a slave to routine. Routines and ponies soft and easy prey. He could have taken the form of any of the prince’s servants to get close to him, but not even that was necessary. The prince was always so wrapped up in his daily activities, all Snakestalker had to do was stick to the shadows of the manor. Learning his speech patters was the easiest part. All the prince did was talk and talk. He’d talk to himself when none of his guests or servants were around. He was actually glad the studying part of the mission was over. Now that uptight, annoying pest was hidden away in a cocoon in the Canterlot caves.
According to the prince’s schedule, he had an audience with the princess that afternoon. This was a good chance to learn what he could about any efforts being made to counter the threat his kind had brought to Equestria. Things were running quite smoothly.

He trotted through the business district of Canterlot, headed for the castle. Despite his more than perfect guise, he was careful to avoid any royal guard patrols. News had spread through the cells operating in Canterlot that a spell of identification had been discovered in the archives. It had not been put into practice yet, as far as he knew, and the form he had assumed was high enough in Canterlot royalty to avoid any kind of suspicion. As he drew closer, he noticed the security had been doubled over night.

“Probably getting more paranoid,” he thought to himself. If they had begun using the identity spell, he would need a backup plan. “Shouldn’t be necessary, though,” he told himself, as he approached the gate guard.

“Excuse me guardsman,” he said in a haughty uptight voice, “I Prince Blue Blood have an audience with her majesty, and I’m afraid I’m very short on time.”

* * *
“Welcome nephew, what a pleasure to be in your company again,” Celestia said cheerfully. She always tried to show a positive face when formally addressing an audience, even when times were hard.

“Indeed it is, dear aunt. And it is good to see your sister Luna as well. You are surviving these troubles well. ”

They sat side by side in the throne room, presented in their formal crowns.

“Yes, we are both in good health, as I see you are,” Luna replied next, “It is good to see you unwavering even in the wake of all that has happened. We apologize for our tight schedule, but the protection of Equestria is our first priority. What is that brings you here today?”

“We’ll, it has come to my...”

He paused.

“Ah yes, excuse me, I have come to request security to be provided for my manor. I feel that I may be targeted, and that the daily patrols through Canterlot are not sufficient to assure my security.”

Celestia looked at her sister, who smiled. “Very well, Prince Blue Blood, We can provide a small group to stay at your manor. They will be under your charge when you leave here today.”

“Splendid!” he said cheerfully, “thank you my dear aunt.”

He turned to leave, then changed his mind.

“Is there any chance the two of you have time for any small talk?” he asked, “it has been a while since I’ve had time to meet with the two of you, and I suspect it will be a while till we can enjoy each other’s company again.”

“We are very busy, Celestia said, “but I suppose you could join us for dinner this evening. The royal dining room is indisposed at the moment, for the last week we have been using the Canterlot Garden as a temporary replacement.”

“Sounds excellent to me, dear aunt. I shall be looking forward to it. In the mean time, would it be ok to linger about the courtroom and lobby.”

“If you wish, my nephew.” Celestia replied.

“Then I bid you tow a good afternoon,” as he turned to leave.

Perfect, Snakestalker thought. He had all afternoon to snoop about the castle, and he was sure to gather more information at dinner tonight. What did the pony princess say about the dining room? Indisposed... It was probably worth checking out. He needed a new form. Perhaps there was a spider crawling around through the gardens.

* * *

In the dining room, we were making some good progress. Who was I kidding, we were getting nowhere. I still had a feeling that Chrysalis was after something more here, than just revenge. A full takeover of Equestria had to be well calculated. She had already subjugated an entire nation, which I learned was rather small in comparison to Equestria. I knew there were other steps to her plan. That wasn’t the main concern right now, however. We still had to deal with the threat here in Canterlot. I kept suggesting ideas, but we were working with a tight number of personnel. Lt. Steady Hooves had been called away to respond to an apparent sighting in the market district.

As I was thinking of a way to better organize a patrol rotation with Emerald Wing, Twilight interrupted by levitating a scroll in front of us.

“Excuse me captain, she said, but is this what I think it is?”

“If by that, you mean an identity spell, then yes, young filly, it is.”

“You have a way to uncover changeling?” I asked, “Have you put this into practice?”

“We have taught a few of our unicorns, but the spell was only uncovered two days ago, we haven’t had much time to focus on it.”
“This is really important!” I stammered, “Hold on, let me see that patrol roster, Emerald.”

She handed it over to me. After a quick study, I had an Idea.

“Captain, do you have the guard roster as well?”
“Yes,” Iron Side replied. He walked over to another stack of papers and sorted through it.

“Here it is!” Pinkie Pie shouted, holding it up with a hoof.

“Where ever did you find that?” Rarity inquired.

“I stepped on it on the way it!” she replied. “It still has my hoof mark on it.”
She handed it over to me. It indeed had a hoof make on it.

“Leave it to Pinky to pull something from nowhere,” said Rainbow Dash.
“I know how that goes, remember.” I said.

Fluttershy was playing with a spider in the corner. I guess war wasn’t the business of the element of kindness. Good, I didn’t know how she was taking all this, but I’d be sure to talk to her about it later. I hoped she didn’t have to get involved any further.

Twilight and Rarity had been trying to clean up what they could, while Pinkie Pie drew things, and egged on Apple Jack and Rainbow as they argued over who could kick a changelings hide better.

I made a few changes to both rosters on a separate sheet of paper. Now, each guard rotation and foot patrol had at least one unicorn. I also organized a rotation that divided the day into three duty stations, similar to what I was familiar with in Afghanistan. I explained my changes to Iron Side, showing him how this best utilized the full personnel roster, while providing the appropriate rest period for all.

“Each patrol and rotation has at least one unicorn,” I explained. “It’s important that this identity spell be taught to each one of them as soon as possible. Patrols can conduct spot checks at certain parts of town.”

This was another thing we did a lot in the Stan’ searching Vehicles and civilians was important to maintain our OA’s security bubble and disrupt the flow of drugs and weapons the enemy needed.

“We will do our best to get them all spun up,” He said, “but it will take a day or so.”
“Whatever it takes,” I replied, “the security of Canterlot depends on it.”

Emerald Wing took note of the changes. “This appears much more efficient now. You’ll have to forgive us, but we never had a need to run our ship so tight, except for the last changeling invasion. At least we were up to full personnel back then.”

Good, now we were getting somewhere. I was getting hungry. I wanted a nice juicy...shit, they didn’t eat meat in Equestria. I hoped I could get used to fruits and vegetables ever meal till I went home.

“What do you guys usually eat around here?” I asked.

As if on cue, a colt servant walked through the door.

“Their majesties princess Celestia and Luna ask that you join them in the Canterlot Garden courtyard for dinner shortly.” He said.

Awesome.

“And Celestia wishes to inform Captain Iron Side that he doesn’t have a choice in the matter.”
I took it he wasn’t one for formal gatherings.

* * *
Snakestalker had gathered more Intel than he knew how to handle. Hiding in the dining room as a spider worked out better than he imagined. He even got some attention from the filly that bared the element of kindness, and still went unnoticed by the others. The most important bit of information he had discovered, was the presence of a strange creature he had never seen before. This, thing, seemed to be taking the lead in organizing security and resistance in Canterlot. Fortunately, the creature would be attending the dinner. He would try to extract whatever information about it he could. After the dinner, he made a note to contact his fellow changelings in the Canterlot Intel cell. He had a report to make.

Author's Note

Things are getting busy again in my unit, so I don't have alot of time to work on the story as much as I want to. My laptop is also down, so I have to use the bases rec center to profread each chapter before submission. Chapter 4 is gonna take a few days.

A long night

A world full of talking ponies is also a world completely devoid of toilet paper, probably should have seen that one coming. Now I was leaning over a pit, way to shallow for my comfort, in a stall-like room on the bottom floor of the palace, asking myself why I hadn't thought this through. I hadn't felt comfortable asking any of my present company about where they conducted their “business”, so on our way to the garden, I had excused myself to “retrieve an item I had left in the dining room.”

I inquired a guard roving the hallway as to where the lavatory was located, and he had promptly escorted me. Fortunately, he didn’t ask questions when I asked him to retrieve some scroll paper from the dining hall. I never really put too much thought into just how or where the ponies of Equestria conducted their business. Over all, it was an unpleasant experience for a human. There was no door, no privacy, no place to wash your hands/hooves, and don’t get me started on the scroll paper…

Once I had concluded my use of the lavatory, I headed out into the hallway and asked the guard to lead me to the garden where everypony was assembling for dinner.

“Right this way, please,” he said, leading me left down the hallway. I made a quick note of the surrounding wall paintings to use as a reference for future visits to the bathroom. “This is going to be a long stay,” I thought to myself.

The walk was a long one, taking us through the atrium leading to the throne room, passing a series of numbered doors, and down another long hallway to a set of double glass doors leading out to the garden. We came up to the right one, which the guard held open for me and allowed me to pass. A large table was set up, surrounded by the usual red pillows, to the left of which, everypony was gathered around Celestia and Luna, talking amongst themselves. Everypony was there, plus one. A well dressed unicorn stallion I instantly recognized as Prince Blue Blood, the prissy pony from the gala episode. He eyed me as I walked in, probably at awe of my fashionable white robe and jeans. I was going to have to get some new cloths. Celestia took notice of my arrival.

“Greetings, Lou-”

“Well if it isn't the slow poke,” Rainbow Dash cut her off, “what took you so long? I need to eat.”

Celestia ignored Rainbow’s interruption and continued her greeting.

“Ahm, Welcome Louis, Dinner will be ready soon, please join us.”

“Yes, your majesty,” I replied politely, walking over to join the group. “I apologize for my tardiness; it seems my search was in vain, sorry to keep you all waiting.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said, “I assure you, you are not late,”

“He’s not?” Pinkie asked

“Shhh, Pinkie, “Rarity scolded, nudging her with her foreleg.

“I don’t believe I've been introduced to the well dressed stallion here,” I said, making eye contact with Blue Blood, pretending not to know him.

“Ah yes, this is our Nephew, Prince Blue Blood,” Luna said. “He asked to join us for dinner tonight. Due to the time constraints these days, it’s hard for my sister and I to have time for family.

Nephew, This is Louis, our special guest from… a far away land.”

“Humph, I’ve never seen, any sorts of creature like him, before”, he said smugly, “Tell me, where do you hail from?”

Obviously, nopony had informed him of my situation, which was probably a good thing. My presence here was probably sensitive information with changelings prowling around. I had to make up a story on the spot, which was something I wasn't good with. Iron Side looked at me, signaling to make a cover story as well. Thankfully, Luna stepped in for me.

“Louis is one of the last few of his race, known as hu..mans, who have lived in the far arctic north for centuries. He has come to Canterlot as a refugee, as Chrysalis forces have apparently occupied that land.”

“Hmm, most unfortunate, he said, ”I hope you fair better during your stay here.”

“I hope so too. And it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I replied. There was a hint of sarcasm in my voice, which nopony seemed to detect.

Celestia and Luna began walking to the head of the table. Prince Blue Blood took his place to the right flank of the two sisters, next to Luna, followed by Iron Side and Emerald Wing. Twilight sat down opposite of Blue Blood, followed by Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. Rarity had made it her goal to sit at the far end of the table, obviously away from Blue Blood. The only remaining seat was next to Emerald Wing, on the left end of the table.

“Whew wee!” Applejack said, “It’s about time, I’m feelin’ as hungry as a hor-”

DING DING!

A bell from the back of the garden rang out, and four colt servants came in from the entrance, carrying trays with several minuscule vegetable plates on each. How they were able to do so while walking upright on two hooves was downright impressive.

“Dinner is served,” the lead servant said.

Our trays were laid in front of us, along with a glass of pink liquid and a basket of rolls was placed by the center. I heard Rainbow Dash groan from across the table, which I completely understood. There wasn't very much on the plate, just a small number of mixed vegetables, and I was really hungry. Everypony began to eat in their own way; all the horned with magic, and everypony else the way I assumed a normal horse would eat.
I just had my hands. I know they had utensils here, but they were not here tonight. If everyone without magic was using their hooves and mouths, I could use my hands and not be impolite. I was sipping the sweet tasting pink liquid when Twilight began to inquire about myself.

“So, Louis, Tell me about what humans are like.”

Iron side and Emerald Wing shot her a cold look. Blue Blood was still here, something she probably forgot.

“Yes, tell us about how life was up in the arctic,” Celestia said, reminding me of Luna’s cover story.

“Oh, there’s not much to us,” I replied, “We tend to live very long lives, up to three hundred years or so. We live on our own, only gathering to trade with each other at the beginning of each new season. “

I pulled that one out of my ass, and it sounded fake as hell. I hoped Blue Blood would buy it. Emerald Wing quickly changed the subject.

“Prince Blue blood, I have three guardsman prepared to accompany you on your way home. They will be assigned to you by order of Princess Celestia for as long as you require their services.”

“Very well,” Blue blood said, “I shall be taking my leave soon after dinner. I trust they are of good stock”

“Some of the finest we have to offer,” Iron Side answered.

“Good, the prince said, “They will prove to be quite useful.”

“Of course his visit wasn’t just for pleasure,” I thought to myself. It kind of made sense, he was royalty, and with the threat of changelings replacing ponies, everybody with any access to the palace was in danger. I stared down at my empty plate, not satisfied. I didn’t feel like being the only one to ask for more, however. The rolls looked appetizing at least.

* * *

Shortly after, everypony had finished dinner, and we had gathered in the palace atrium to bid farewell to the prince. Iron side had assigned him his guards, and he made his way back to his manor.

“Well, then,” said Celestia, “I’d like all of you to stay here at the palace tonight. Eveypony, and I mean everypony, needs to get some rest. I’d like to hear about the progress you've made in the morning."

"I think you'll find we've made a lot of progress, Princess," said twilight.

"Progress, yes, but we have much work to be done, and we must start early," the captain added, "I shall retire for the night, your majesties."

"Good night, noble Captain," Celestia said, and good night everypony, My sister must now bring forth the night sky. Sweet Dreams my little ponies."

Luna turned to me.

"Twilight and her friends will show you to the guest rooms. They may not be suitable for a creature your size, but tomorrow we shall see what changes we can make. "I'd slept in worse conditions than a short bed, so I wasn't worried.

"Thank you, Princess, may I make a request?"

"Why, yes, Louis," Luna responded, "what is it that you require?"

"Nothing material, but I’ve always wanted to observe the creation of the night, since I first heard it was your duty in Equestria. That sort of spectacle is unheard of in my world, and I’m quit curious"

"Well of course, " she said, "I am happy to share the creation of the night with another. With theses hard times upon us, I take special care to make the night sky as beautiful of a spectacle as possible."

"Be sure to get some rest as well, stop by the guestrooms beforehand," Celestia added. What was she, my mom? "We cannot spare a minute in our efforts."

"Yes your highness," I replied.

I bowed and turned to follow Luna, who beckoned us all to follow her down the hall. I couldn't wait to see how the night sky was created.

* * *

"Now, before I return to my estate, I must make a stop at a fellow nobleman’s house." Snakestalker said in Blue Blood's voice to his newly acquired guards.

"Yes of course, sir," said the lead escort.

Perfect. Not only had he gathered a great deal of Intel from his visit to the palace, he had also acquired three new forms for his fellow changelings to take. These guardsmen should assure him and his comrades further access to the palace. He was leading them to a manor not too far from Blue Blood, formally owned by a rich stallion unicorn by the name of Fancy Pants. “Ponies and their ridiculous names… “

The house was now the meeting center for the Canterlot infiltrators Intel cell. All communication with the hive, and all operations were conducted there. The individual operating cells conducted their tasks from either the old Canterlot Crystal Caves or whatever households they managed to take control of. Information passed you the hive would have to be passed by word of mouth, by undercover operators, through various channels leading back to the hives base of operations. That location was far to the north, but only the final channels knew its exact location. This was to avoid it being revealed if any operators were caught and interrogated. Not that any one of his kind would ever give into interrogators, dispute what they were put through. They were loyal to their queen to the death, and only did what was beneficial to the hive. The information passing process would take a few days overall, but the sensitivity of the Intel Snakestalker had acquired would be important enough to expedite the process.

This, human creature, was indeed a good asset to the kingdom of Equestria. He seemed to have some knowledge about how their operations were being conducted. He had organized several counter measures, within a time span of a few hours, which would no doubt be a threat to their operations in Canterlot, if not the overall invasion. His story at dinner was obviously a cover-up to hide his true origin. Snakestalker had heard enough in the war room as a spider about who he was and the sort of world he hailed from. He would have to be dealt with soon, before order was restored again, and the Canterlot cells possibly uncovered.

He and his accompanying guards approached Fancy Pants manor. The grand door way was shrouded by the light of two lamp posts.

"Here we are," Snakestalker said, "this will only be brief, if the three of you would kindly accompany me inside..."

* * *
Luna and I stood on the balcony of the highest tower in the palace. The sky had become a dark blue sheet when Celestia had lowered her sun. Now, Luna began to use the sky as her canvas. Her wings outstretched, making her a prominent presence, and her eyes and horn began to glow. Over the horizon came a bright circle, which bathed the land with a soft lunar glow as it rose, slowly settling in place overhead. From the glow of the moon, tiny lights began to spiral outward, becoming stars, and falling into constellations and clusters. There were so many of them, brighter and more glorious than I had ever seen on earth. Luna closed her wings gracefully and the glow of her horn and eyes faded away. “It is complete,” she said.
I’ve always been one to look up at the sky and feel small. Creation, especially the night sky, always tends to fill me with wonder and awe. What I had just witnessed however, had just blown my mind. The sense of power and beauty of a night being “created” right before my eyes was incredible. Any more words could not express it any further. I also felt a bit hurt that the magical and beautiful world that Equestria was, would have to face the conflict it was. Leave it to me to focus on the negative side. They had done nothing to deserve this. They loved peace and harmony, they were in tune with magic, and they had a far greater potential to create than destroy.

I felt as though my own presence here would also threaten that existence. Apparently, the only reason I was here was to bring the knowledge of my world to theirs, the knowledge of conflict. I wasn’t god at much else, and I certainly felt I didn’t belong here…

“Is something wrong, Louis?” Luna startled me. I didn’t notice I had been starring off for a minute or so.
“You haven’t said a word, did you not like what you saw?”

“Oh…I’m sorry, Princess, it was amazing. We don’t have any event like this in my world.”

“You don’t have a night?” she asked, looking puzzled.

“No we have a night and day, but it’s creation took place millions of years before I came into existence. Seeing you work the night sky as if it were a painting was as if I was seeing the creation of my own universe at the moment it came to be.”

“I sense something is troubling you,” Luna said. “You have a woeful look in your eyes, one I know all too well not to recognize.”She was probably talking about her sister. Though they had forgiven one another for the tragedy that had taken place a thousand years ago, I’m sure both sisters harbored some regret and sorrow.

“My eyes tend to do that, they are just deep set, everyone makes that mistake,” I suggested. It was time to change the subject. Luna persisted, however.

“There is no reason to hide what ails you, doing so will only cause things to grow more hurtful inside oneself.” I couldn’t argue with the expert. Luna closed the distance between us and outstretched a wing over me.
“Well, Princess,” I said. “from all I know of this world, I can’t imagine the effect that the changeling attack has brought upon it. The stories of Equestria I have…read… have shown me a world where friendship and harmony rule over chaos and evil. But this new evil threatens not only your existence, but the very values you hold dear. No..pony can trust each other when they might be a fake. Nopony has ever had to go through a sleepless night wondering if they were going to be the next victim of a raid, or lose a loved one with no explanation. Worst of all, No pony has ever had to look up and wonder if they would ever be saved, or feel as if there was absolutely no hope. Something has always been there.“
I paused briefly, trying to collect myself. I felt anger well up in my again. “You shouldn’t have to face something like this. I almost feel guilty myself. I’m only here because some spell dragged me from my room, to apparently teach your kind how to deal with terror. The only solution I know isn’t any better than the problem itself. I feel I to threaten your world somehow.”

I continued to stare off into the distance.

You trouble yourself wrongly," she said. "Despite how a good a society may be, evil will always be present. It may manifest in a way differently here then your own world, but it is equal in the hurt it causes. Equestria was not always dedicated to the values of harmony. It was the founding and creation of the Elements of Harmony that finally quelled the chaos and division of its inhabitants."

I knew this, but sometimes I needed a reminder. In my reality, Equestria was created as a universe where peace existed as a result of harmony conquering division and uniting three tribes of ponies with many differences. It was an example to be learned from. Although it was just something we could only hope for in my world, in this reality, it really did exist.

"The magic of Equestria is like a benevolent force, with a will of its own. Everypony is in tune with it. It comes from the hearts of each pony, an embodiment of their needs and desires. The spell cast to summon you was also powered by the Elements of Harmony. Besides the basic criteria the spell was meant to search for, it found something in you that could specifically protect that which was most in danger. You may be unaware of it now, but one day, this will manifest in you somehow. I believe in the magic of the spell and the Elements. Over the long span of time I have lived, I've had no reason to believe otherwise, even when I fell to darkness, the Elements were my salvation."

Somehow, her words comforted me. I felt warm in her embrace now. To believe there was no hope was to give in to what a terrorist wanted. I would do what it took to preserve this world. I just hoped I possessed whatever it would require. "Thank you, Princess," I said. "I feel better now. If it’s all the same to you, I think I should be turning in soon."
I was rather tired. When I was summoned from my barracks room, it was close to one am, and I'd been dealing with a hangover all day.

"Very well, goodnight, Louis, may your dreams be peaceful."

"Good night, Princess." I replied, turning to leave.

* * *

I came down the hall where the numbered rooms lined both sides of the walls. I had been shown my room by Twilight on my way to up to the Tower with Luna. I looked at the gold embroidered numbers for 306, where all the items that got sucked up with me had been stashed. The room before mine was open, and Twilight was inside, reading a red covered book by candlelight. She noticed me and looked up at me.

"Hello Louis, forget where your room was already?" She teased.

"No, mines right next to yours. I just saw you were still awake, I assume everyone else is already asleep."

"Um, actually, about that, I think Pinkie Pie and Rainbow are going through your things. I was about to tell you." Shit, I hoped they hadn't opened my bottle of Jack or broke my guitar. This couldn't turn out well. Twilight and I quickly walked over to my room, and I pushed open the door expecting the worst.
“Hey Silly!” Pinkie Pie chirped. She was balancing my guitar on her head. “Pinkie, put that down, you don’t know what that it!” Twilight scolded. Rainbow Dash had managed to turn on my laptop and was staring at the screen, thank god it was broken.
“What’s this glowy thingy?” She asked putting a hoof down on the keyboard, “It doesn’t seem to do much.”
“It’s broken,” I replied, “but it’s hard to explain what it is. Now Pinkie can you please put my guitar dow-“
When I turned to face here, she was holding my bottle of Jack Denials over her head. “Is this some kind of potion or something?” I quickly snatched it up.
“Yes, it’s a drink, but only humans can handle it. You would hate it anyway, it’s bitter and sour.”

“Why would anypony want to drink that?” She asked . “That’s also hard to explain,” I said.
“This looks like some kind of instrument,” Twilight said, examining my guitar where pinkie had dropped it, “like a banjo or violin.”
“Yea, it’s like that” I said. I leaned the guitar next to the bed and sat down at the edge, hoping they would catch the hint.
“You should play something then!” Pinkie demanded. I wasn’t really in the mood tonight.
“Maybe, but not right now, I-“
“Hey, now that we are alone, you should tell us more about the human world!” Twilight interrupted. I also wasn’t in the mood for even more questions.
“Hey yea!” pinkie exclaimed. “Let me get the rest of the girls!”
“I Think they are asleep, Pinkie, you should leave them be.” Rainbow suggested.
“Asleep with all this racket?” That was Applejack, who was followed by Rarity and Fluttershy.
“Indeed! You four have been keeping me awake for the past five minutes! Whatever could be more important than sleep?”
“Louis is about to tell us more about the human world!” Twilight announced.
“Yea! And play his guh tar thingy for us!” Pinkie added. I wasn’t planning on doing either of those things at all. The six mares, however, looked hungry for knowledge. I thought back on my situation for a minute. Here was a chance to spend time with my six favorite ponies that until yesterday, only existed as cartoon creations, sleep could wait. They all planted their flanks on the ground around me. I let out a sigh and prepared for the proceeding series of endless questions I’m sure they had. “This is going to be a long night.” I thought to myself. “Ok, what would you girls like to know?”

* * *

A little over an hour later, we were still deep in our discussion. I had shared all the similarities and differences our two worlds had. I had chosen to leave out history, and just describe the world I currently hailed from to keep things simple. Of course, each answer led to another question, mostly “why?” which is the worst way to ask for an explanation ever.
“It’s sad what’s happening to all the plants and animals on your planet.“ Fluttershy said.
“Yes, but we do what we can to protect nature. Not every person is careless about the environment.
“And your description of human fashion styles intrigues me,” Rarity added, “I must admit I didn’t have a very good image of human clothing based on what you came into the throne room with. Do you really wear clothing everywhere you go?”
“Yes, we do, it’s not considered appropriate to be naked in public, or anywhere but in extreme privacy.”
“How odd,” she said, “but I can appreciate that. We need to do something about your current style though”
“Yea, actually, I was hoping you could design something for me the wear while I am here. This robe just isn’t me.”
“Well, I can’t do much here,” she replied, “but hopefully we can take a trip back to Ponyvill where I have my dress boutique. I’m sure I can make something that fits you there.”
“Sounds great!” I said. I couldn’t wait to wear something other than this ridiculous robe.
“I can’t believe you have ponies that don’t fly or talk, or use magic!” Applejack said.
“Well, in my reality, humans are the only sentient species. It’s just as strange to me that your world is full of ponies that do all those things.” She looked like she understood.
“I guess so,” she said, “Still boggles the mind.
“Still lame!” Rainbow Dash added. “Using machines to fly! Where’s the sport in that?”
“Controlling those machines,” I said. “It isn’t an easy thing. Plus, we can go way faster in them, fast enough to do a sonic rainboom ten times over.”
“Wow” she said, dumbfounded by the idea. I wasn’t sure if in Equestria, a sonic rainboom was really caused by her breaking the sound barrier, or if it was just another form of magic that a superfast Pegasus could use. She probably had no concept of that sort of speed.
“It amazes me how similar our two worlds actually are.” Twilight pointed out. She had done most of the questioning, writing down every word I had said in her journal.
“That’s why we love your stories so much in my world, we can relate quite a bit.” I said.
Tonight had been a lot of fun. I still couldn’t believe this was actually happening, but I had to except it one way or another. Even though they had just met me, I already knew them so well, so the questioning had been rather one sided. I let out a yawn and stretched.
“Wait! You can’t go to sleep yet!” Pinkie Pie protested, “You haven’t played us a song on your guhtar thingy yet!
She looked downright dejected, leaving me little choice in the matter. “I’m not too good at it really,” I said,” But I guess I could play a song, but only on.”
“YESSSS!” she exclaimed. I thought about what I should play. I thought about a lot of songs, but the simplest and most melodic one that came to mind was “house of The Rising Sun”, which was ok, since I wasn’t going to sing the lyrics. I retrieved my pick from the strings and inspected my guitar. It had a little body damage from being flung onto the floor after colliding with my head. I strummed it and found it surprisingly somewhat in tune.

“Ohhh,” everypony cooed.
I fingered A minor and began to play. They all looked on; interested in the tune, the likes they had probably never heard before. Pinkie moved with the music but frowned, probably because it was a sad sounding song. When I had finished, I looked up at everypony, and saw an amusing look on their faces.
“That sounded kind of sad,” Pinkie said, as I expected, “You should play another!”
“Now, pinkie, I’m sure we all want to hear more songs, but it’s getting awful late now,” Rarity said, “We all need our sleep.”
“Just one more, maybe I can sing to it!”
“I’d like to hear another as well,” Said Fluttershy. That came as a surprise; she had hardly talked to me or even looked my direction at all since I arrived. I guessed I didn’t scare her as much now that she knew more about me. “Uh, if that’s ok with everyone.”

“Ok, another one I guess, if everypony insists.” I didn’t know what to play next, so I started strumming chords to warm up. Pinkie began humming along with my chord progression. Before I knew it, we were creating a song of our own, and every pony was smiling and moving with the music. It ended up being a long night indeed.

Author's Note

This chapter took sometime to write for a lot of reasons. I had a four day break to fly home and visit my family, fully intending to write more, but I got way to distracted. Following that, I had to spend four more days in the field for some trainning upon returning to base. I've also spent a lot of time reanalizing the way I write and trying to tie in some of the things I've learned from other autors. I've started storyboarding events, and most of the next few chapters have been drawn up in a way where all I have to do is fill in the details. I've taken alot of suggestions from the boards here as well. I've also realized that in order to properly tell this story, I'm going to have to write chapters a lot longer than three to four thousand words. You can expect each chapter from now on, save for maybe the epiloge, to include anywhere from four to seven thousand words.

Rumors

I found myself walking through a forest at night, the moon shinning through the tree canopy and illuminating the path before me. Up ahead, a faint light was visible, drawing me mysteriously towards it. As I walked further on, the light grew brighter, than began to accelerate towards me, until something impacted into my stomach. "Omffg!" was all I was able to let out, as the wind was knocked out of me. The scene suddenly changed to a bedroom, where I was laying down with a pink ball bouncing on my chest.

"Wake up, silly!" It said. I sat up letting Pinkie Pie fall of my stomach, and tried to take in another breath. "It's morning, everypony else is awake! You even missed breakfast."

"Shit," I thought, "I like breakfast..."

"Don't worry though," she continued, rolling of the bed and standing at the edge, "I brought some for you!"

On top of the drawer was a plate of cupcakes and cookies, of course. This, I assumed, was gonna be my diet here. I pushed the blankets away, still recovering from having the wind knocked out of me and tried to reply. "Thank... Pink...”

"Oh, no problem at all," she said.

"Now if you don't mind, I need to get ready..."
"Okey Doky, ever pony’s in the dining room planning and stuff, when you’re ready." That meant I was late again, at least I was consistent. I waited for her to walk out and shut the door, then got up and put on my pants and robe. I grabbed a cupcake and scarfed it down. Sweets here were a million times better. It amazed me that there weren’t a lot more fat ponies around. After eating another, I pocketed my knife and headed out into the hall.

Now that I had some general idea where everything in the palace was, it wasn't hard to find the dining room. It was down the hallway exiting left of the atrium, a short walk from where I was currently. The doors were flanked by two guards, unicorns, one of which used his magic to open the door for me. Inside, the scene was the same as it was yesterday, just slightly less cluttered. I noticed Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were absent. "Good morning, everyone," I said, smiling sheepishly. That got a stern look from both Iron Side and Emerald Wing.

"Well, you've certainly missed out on a lot," Emerald Wing said, "I was under the impression you were here to help us, not spend all day enjoying the comfort of your bed." She obviously didn't like me very much. I wasn't trying to step on anyone's toes, or hooves, here, just act in advisor capacity. I hadn't felt I was giving off that impression, but things here were falling apart, and it was clear they desperately needed my help. Not that I was, an expert on anything, but in this world I guess I was. The movie "Idiocracy" came to mind.

"Easily could have been avoided if I had an alarm clock," I said, moving over to the far end of the table next to Iron Side, "if you don't mind, I'd like to hear all about it."

"Well, for one, we've implemented the new patrol and post schedule. It’s too soon to know how effective it will be, but after a full rotation, we can collect enough data to know. Princess Sparkle has taken up the responsibility of teaching all the unicorn guard how to use the identification spell, but she is limited to all those who are not on patrol. She is also working with Princess Luna on an identification ward for the palace." Things were already starting to run smoothly.

"Ant reports of changelings being discovered yet?" I asked.

"None from any of the patrols this morning," said Emerald Wing, "but with the spell being put into practice, it’s only a matter of time before we uncover any impostors. The spell is still a secret right now."

They really had gotten a lot done today. Maybe I wasn't going to be here much longer. This was only Canterlot however, I reminded myself. The threat was to all Equestria itself, Canterlot was only the first step. I thought about what we'd do if we managed to capture a changeling here in the next few days. This was my next question.

"Hey, captain, what are your plans for any changelings we happen to capture?"

"Well, so far, we've detained a few. A magic inhibitor ward is cast around them, and they are brought to either Princess Celestia or Luna and banished immediately from our plain. Not really sure where that is, but they no longer pose a threat to us." They obviously had no idea about HUMINT, or PONINT, OR CHANGEINT, whatever you'd call it here. An important source of intel comes from interrogation of the enemy. Not always reliable, but when it is, you can learn quite a bit.

"We captured a few of those meanies back In Ponyvill!" Said Pinkie, "I caught them trying to copy the mayor and her staff. They weren't talkative at all, after we kicked their patooties, Twilight just held them there till the Royal Guard came and took them."

"You tried interrogation after capturing them?" I asked.

"My ponies have tried getting information from them, but to no avail, they just hiss or remain silent when asked questions, " said Emerald. Maybe they were not rough enough with them. "What about beating answers out of them?"

"Just more angry hissing." She said. A stubborn, dedicated enemy, that was familiar too. I didn't know much about the nature of changelings, they only appeared in one episode after all. I assumed they served the queen like any hive-like species. That meant they would be entirely devoted.

"Maybe Fluttershy can stare them into talking." I suggested.

"I don't feel comfortable staring at one of those things," Fluttershy said, "it makes me feel uncomfortable." She cowered a little, bowing her head.

"But you stared down a Cockatrice as it was turning you into stone!" Said Rarity, "and saved both my sister and Twilight."

"Well, I guess I could give it a try, um, as long as everypony is there to help me..."

"I'm going to guess all the ones you've captured so far have been banished already." I asked

"Unfortunately, yes, we don't like to keep them around long, obviously." Said Iron Side. That took care of that, hopefully with the identity spell in practice; a few more would turn up soon.

"Well, I hope one of the patrols or check points nags one soon. If we can successfully interrogate one, we can uncover at least part of their plan for Equestria and get an idea of what we are dealing with."

"That reminds me, Louis," Iron Side said, "Princess Celestia has ordered that you remain in the palace. Your presence must remain a secret for as long as necessary."

That was disappointing. I kind of wanted to see Canterlot and Ponyvill, but it did make sense. I knew this was probably the best idea since the dinner last night. I really wanted to go on a patrol though; I like to be involved, not just in the background.

"Even at night?" I asked.

"Yes, you will remain constantly informed by one of us, so you don't have any need to leave." Iron side informed me.

"Rainbow Dash has become my second in command for the aerial patrols. If I am unavailable, she will report to you," said Emerald, "she is currently out timing the aerial routes."

"Miss Applejack has chosen to aid in the ground Patrols and reports to Lt Steady Hooves," the captain added, "either He or Applejack will keep you informed on any occurrence of changelings being uncovered. You will be under the watch of either Princess Sparkle or I."

"Very well," I didn't have much of a choice, "I won't argue with that, I'm just happy to help. I will get to see any changelings we capture, though, right?"

"If you wish, "Iron Side replied, "I don't see the problem with that."

That was good at least; I couldn't wait to kick a changeling in the face. I'm not a bad guy, bit changelings in my mind were evil to the core, so it didn't bother me if they experienced a little pain for all the trouble they were causing. It wasn't the same as dealing with human POWs in my mind.

I became aware of my usual morning urge to use the facilities, and started searching for some blank scroll paper. "Excuse me Captain, but I need to excuse myself briefly..."

* * *

Snakestalker sat in a dark lit cider cellar under Fancy Pants Manor; in the company of the Canterlot intel cell Chief Darkshadow. Word of the outlander’s arrival had already been passed through the proper channels and was on its way to the hive's secret location. All that remained was finding a way to deal with the outlander until orders arrived.

"Hasss this creature been ssseen out of the palacess?" The chief asked

"Negative, chief, it isss my underssstanding from my infiltration of the palacess that the Princesssesss wisssh to keep his arrival a sssecret. He will mosst likely be limited to the palacesss asss long asss thisss remainsss ssso." This troubled Darkshadow. Snakestalker had informed him of the new identification spell being put into practice for ALL traffic entering the palace. While this creature would be unable to actively aid the pony guard, he would still be protected within the palace walls and be able to help from the inside. As Snakestalker had informed him, the creature had organized the guard to be more efficient, allowing them to crack down on their operations here. They needed to know more about this new enemy, and maybe even capture and replace him. Perhaps he wouldn't be subject to constant identification checks like all the ponies in Canterlot.

"I have a sssuggessstion, chief," Snakestalker said, "Maybe if hisss presssence wasss no longer a sssecret..."

"You are sssaying we ssshhould expossse him to the populace?" The chief asked.

"Yesss, ssspread rumorssss through Canterlot, ussing our asssumed formsss. Let them grow, and then encourage everypony to demand the Princesssesss reveal him. It isss posssible that he will be allowed to leave and operate on the outssside. All we have to do isss wait for our moment. "

"It ssseemsss a bit far off," said Darkshadow, "but we can try thisss. I like your sssugestion...ssspeak with your fellow operatorssss, inform them of thisss plan, and releassse them into the population under their asssumed formsss. We will ussse the influence of our own formsss to kindle the fire. For the love of the Queen."

"It will be done," Snakestalker replied, "long live the Queen, long live the hive."

* * *

Twilight's morning had been really busy. Every guard rotation that came through the gate had to check in with her, in order that any unicorn guardsmen that had not learned the identity spell could be taught. If an incoming patrol did not have any unicorns that had learned the spell, she took it upon herself to scan each one of them. It wasn't a hard spell to teach, but performing it so many times was taking a toll on her endurance. The roster she had been provided was largely unfinished, meaning she had a lot of work ahead of her. She spotted an incoming Pegasus patrol, and was relieved to see a familiar face among them.

"Hey there, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash flew over to her. Twilight focused on her and enveloped Rainbow in a purple aura of magic. "Hey, what gives?" After a moment, she was done, and she lifted her aura.
"Sorry, Dash, I have to scan everypony coming through, you know how it is."
She began scanning another pegasus.
"Hmm, looks like you're having a busy morning." Rainbow observed.

"Yea, you can say that, I've been up since five this morning trying to get this all done. It’s a lot more work than I thought."

"Five in the morning?" Rainbow asked, baffled, “we didn't hit the hay till around one last night! You really need to get some sleep, Twi, your no good if you can't think straight. "

"I wish we had time for that, but the security of Canterlot is more important. Besides, once I'm finished here, I'll be able to get all the sleep I want." Twilight moved on to the next pegasus.

"Can't we just find a spell that repels every evil creature in the area?" Rainbow asked, "like the one your brother used to defeat them the first time?"

"If I had the time to travel to the Crystal Empire, I would, but that spell is complicated, and requires constant focus to maintain. If he were to travel here, he would have to drop the protection spell over the Crystal Empire anyway." The last pegasus stepped forward, and Twilight began to scan him.

Rainbow put a hoof on her element necklace. "What about the elements, we use them all the time to fix the mess a bad guy causes."

"The elements need a specific target, remember? Each time we used them, we targeted the villain and undid the magic they had used. We don't even know where the changelings are until they strike." Twilight replied.

"Ah, phooey," said Rainbow, "well I guess we do have a lot of work to do, catch you later Twi, I have to go check in with Emerald Wing, good luck, and please try to take a break soon."

"I'll rest when the job is finished, I promise" Twilight replied. She waved her hoof to Rainbow Dash, then looked at the roster, twenty five more patrols remained. She let out a sigh and waited for the next patrol.

* * *

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. I was beginning to realize that being retained to the palace was going to be boring as hell. There were a total of four places I could visit, my room, the dining room, the garden, and the throne room. I wasn't going to argue with the Celestia or Luna's wishes, but I found myself dying to sneak out. The only view I had of Canterlot was at night on Luna's balcony. I decided I was going to make a habit of this every night. As the afternoon dragged on, I retired to my room to play with my guitar. Dinner would be in a few hours, and would probably be served in the actual dining hall since we had successfully organized the place. Iron Side wanted us to meet there this evening anyway to discuss the progress we had made. I had just started playing when Rarity entered the room, holding something behind her with her magic.

"Hello, dear, I hope I'm not interrupting your playing."

"Not at all, Rarity," I said, "what brings you back here?" Dumb question, she was obviously bringing me something, but I've been told I'm one for clichés.

"Well, I've had some time this afternoon to work on a few things, and I thought, why not find you something to match your... jeans." She levitated the box over to me. "I found some material I think goes good with blue. I hope it fits ok, I didn't have any way to accurately measure it."

I opened the box and pulled out a t-shirt looking clothing item that was dark blue and a little big. "Wow, Rarity, thanks!" It wasn't all that spectacular, but practical, more so than the robe, and did match my jeans. I took of the robe and put on the shirt. The soft fabric was a relief

"Like I said, I did not have much to work with. Perhaps when we find ourselves a bit of time, I can put together a nice ensemble for you."

"Your too generous, " I told her, which made her grin.

"I just wanted you to be spared the suffering of that odd, unlatching robe," She said. "I've been designing an insignia for guard to wear based on their patrols, Captain Iron Side told me you said it was better for organization. I'll present it at our diner meeting tonight."

"Great to hear, and yes, it will indeed help. Thanks again for all you work"

"Why thank you she said," anything I can do to help."

As soon as she left, I lay on the bed and unintentionally fell asleep.

* * *

Third squad, first platoon began their first patrol rotation late in the afternoon. The newly organized squad had received more than enough rest time than the previously existing rotation had allowed, increasing moral considerably. Applejack had joined them on request of Steady Hooves to speak with the populace about any suspicions they may have. The rout would take them down the main street in Canterlot, and through the residential district. There were not very many ponies out and about, so it came to a surprise to her when the patrol came across a group of arguing ponies outside a small cafe. The patrol's two unicorns had not learned the identification spell yet, so the squad leader intended to rigorously question any residents they came across. He halted the patrol up at the cafe, and approached the squabbling ponies along with Applejack. Upon spotting the patrol, everypony hushed up.

"Excuse me, citizens, but may I ask why you are gathered here with all this trouble about?" He inquired. No pony spoke up, so Applejack asked next.

"Come on now, spit it out, we heard y'all arguin' from down the street, it has to be something mighty important. We're just lookin' out for trouble, that's all."

A grey, intelligent looking unicorn stallion sporting glasses broke the, silence. "It's nothing sir, just a rumor we were discussing. Nothing of any particular interest to anypony."

"Well, I'm certainly interested," the squad leader said, sternly, "why not share it?"

Applejack didn't feel comfortable with his approach. He seemed a bit too harsh for just a little inquiry. It was probably about nothing anyhow.

"Well, um, sir," the grey unicorn started, "there's a rumor going around that Celes, ahem, the Princess, has had to summon a spirit from another world or something, to help combat the changeling threat. Merely a rumor, and I've been denouncing it the whole time we've been here."

"What? Where did you hear this nonsense?" The leader asked.

"It’s just a rumor going about. They say he's changing the way the guards work, and teaching them spells."

Another orange earth pony spoke up. "They also say he can see everything, and that he watches us from the highest tower of the palace."

"Ok, listen up, the lot of you, I want you all to return to your homes and dismiss this nonsense immediately! I'd better not see any of you when my patrol comes by again." The leader ordered.

"Ye, yes sir," the grey unicorn said. The crowd dispersed, leaving the patrol alone.

"How could this rumor have gotten out?" Applejack asked as the patrol picked up again.

"Some pony with access to the castle must have spoke to the wrong pony. This could be a major breach in security." Said the patrol leader.

"Well, darn it, we're gonna have ta report this," Applejack said, "what do you think they'll do about it?"

The patrol leader looked her in the eyes. "Deny it, what else? It will eventually blow over. If we hear anything else about it on our patrol, I want you to stay back with the other guards, I understand your not very good at lying."

* * *

Again, Pinkie Pie had woke me up, this time by shaking the bed violently. I remembered, happily, that I was no longer wearing the white robe anymore. That thing got hot during the day. I also realized I needed a shower. I was sure they had something like that here in the palace. Currently, I had to be present for the dinner meeting, where Celestia would be joining us to learn about the events of today. Everypony had assembled there, most of the documents and maps had been moved to accommodate our dinner plates. Twilight looked as though she had a rough day, her normally we combed main was a frizzy mess, and her eyes were deep sunk.

"Well, your new cloths fit you well," said Fluttershy.

"You can thank Rarity for that one." I replied, pointing towards her. She beamed at the recognition.

Steady Hooves was there, the first time I'd seen him since last night, sitting next to Applejack, looking over a sheet of paper with some locations written on it. I took my seat next to them, and realized my pillow was a little sunk it. "Hey, can I get a book or two over here?" I asked everyone, "any will do."

"Sure," answered Twilight, "why?" The book see had picked levitated over to me, and I snatched it out of the air. Twilight frowned as I placed it under my rump and sat down. "I needed a boost." I said, shrugging.

The doors opened up, and Celestia appeared, flanked by her usual guard entourage. Everypony bowed, save for the three officers, who snapped a salute, and me who lowered my head respectively.

"Good evening everypony," she said, walking in. She came to the front of the table and sat down. "I hear today has been rather busy for most of you."

"Yes, your majesty," said Iron Side, "reorganization has been-"

"Hold on Iron Side, let’s wait for our food to arrive," Celestia politely interrupted, "I want everypony to be in good spirits before we begin our discussion."

The food that was brought out certainly lifted my spirits. Along with a large helping of cooked vegetables, a large, pink cake with strawberries and marshmallows was placed at the center of the table. I drooled a little. Pinkie Pie looked like she was about to explode. Only Iron Side seemed unaffected by the delicious dreamy delicacy's presence.

"Well then," Celestia said, "please continue."

"Well as I was saying, your highness, Louis' patrol reorganization has increased efficiency and moral. We cover more ground with less ponies."

"We've also taught every single unicorn in the ranks the identification spell. Every gate in the palace will be scanning all incoming traffic." Twilight added.

"Glad to know, sounds like we are safe, I knew I could count on all of you." Celestia said, happily.

"There's just one tiny problem, your highness," Applejack stated.

"Yes, what is it, dear Applejack?" Celestia asked. A look of concern came over her face.

"Well, a few times on some of the patrols today, we came across groups of ponies talkin' about a rumor goin' about." She paused for a moment. This didn't sound good, I could tell it bothered her."Apparently, some pony has let the word out that Equestria has a new visitor. They say some really outlandish things about him, but they all believe he was summoned by you." This was news to me. "When were you planning on sharing this with me?" I asked.

Celestia gasped, looked over at me, than to the captain. "How could this have gotten out?"

"We don't know your highness, somepony may have leaked the information," the captain pointed out, "Most of the rumor is falsely absurd. There is an ongoing investigation."

"Your highness, Captain Iron Side informed me that you wanted me to remain within the palace. I promise you I have abided by your decision." I hoped she believed me, she was the wrong pony to cross.

"He most certainly has," Rarity said in my defense, "I can vouch for him all morning and afternoon."

"Do not worry, Louis, I believe you, "Celestia replied, "but we must do something to quash these rumors. You understand why I don't want everypony to know you're here?"

"I do your highness," I replied, "for my protection and to keep the enemy from thinking you are desperate."

"I suggest you address these rumors publicly tomorrow, " said Iron Side, "the citizens of Canterlot will listen to their princess."

Celestia stared of for a moment, thinking to herself. "Very well, I think your suggestion is our best course of action, I will write up a short speech tonight"

I changed the subject. "This morning, we discussed interrogating any changelings we happen to capture. It is my understanding that you have been unable to extract any information from ones you've previously detained."

"That is correct," said Celestia, "they have since been banished to beyond our plain."

I hoped she liked our idea. "Well, Fluttershy has agreed to use her stare ability to force them to answer our questions."

Celestia turned to Fluttershy. "Are you certain you are willing to do this, my pony?"

"Well, um, if I know I'm safe, and it is for the good of us all, I guess I could, um, use the stare, but I don't like being around those things." She shook a little. A delicate pony like herself was probably most affected by the fear the changelings had spread. I wondered if she could keep her composure face to face with one of them. However, in the face of danger, she had exhibited a measure of self discipline and saved her friends a few times. I assumed that's what it took the inspire bravery in her.

"If you feel uncomfortable about it, dear, there is no pressure on you," Celestia assured her, "don't feel like we are forcing anything upon you."

"Thank you, your highness." Fluttershy answered meekly.

I finished the last of my vegetables, feeling satisfied by tonight’s portion. I needed some protein eventually, but for now, my thoughts went to the cake. A unicorn colt servant came in from the back of the room and used his magic to evenly slice the cake. This time, I asked him for a fork, which he retrieved for me from the kitchen. I knew they had forks, I had seen unicorns use them in the show.

The cake was even more delicious than the cupcakes I had that morning. The icing was sweeter than I had ever tasted, there had to be a secret to how they made desserts in Equestria that humans had not discovered. "I'm going to need some exercise." I told myself. When I was finished, I asked Celestia if it would be ok to watch the night be arranged with Luna again. It was, after all the only view of the outside world I really had.

"Certainly, she'd be happy to have you accompany her again." She said.

* * *

As soon as Celestia had retired her sun, Luna began her work once more. I leaned over the balcony rail and watched the spectacle unfold, equally amazed as I was the night before. When Luna had finished, she came over to the edge with me.

"So, how have you faired since our last discussion?" She asked.

"Well, Princess, I haven't put too much thought into it today, but the negativity I felt before has defiantly been lifted." Our talk the night before had been quite helpful, that and the fun time I had with Twilight and her friends.

"Well, it pleases me t-"

"Look, it's true!" We both froze.

The voice came from down below. There was a group of ponies gathered in the street. "There's the spirit that Celestia has summoned!" They were all staring up at us. When we looked down, they all scattered.

"Shit!" I said loudly.

"Guards!!!" Luna screamed, then looked over at me. "Oh, my sister is not gonna like this."

Author's Note

I know it seems that my word count is getting larger with every chapter. I feel like I’ve reached my average chapter length with this one, so unless it becomes absolutely necessary for telling the story, all my following chapter should be around 5000 words, give or take. A special tanks to whomever placed my on the barracks duty roster for Saturday, you gave me the time to finish this chapter.

If they didn't know I was here before...

“How could you let him be spotted?!” Celestia shouted at her sister. She was pacing up and down the red carpet of the throne room, stopping only to give Luna and I an angry glare.
“I’m sorry sister, I was unaware of anypony being present below us in the street!” Luna protested. It was really my fault for hanging over the balcony, but I had done the same the night before, and nopony had seen us then.
“Well, surly you could have considered the rumors going about, and that ponies may be out and about searching for evidence to confirm them. Now, they have all they need.”

I decided speak up in Luna’s defense. “Princess Celestia, this is really my fault. I too failed to consider that ponies might be out wondering about and put myself in a position to be spotted.”

“It may be a fault on both your parts,” Celestia said, “But I trusted my sister to be more wary, especially since she took the risk of brining you out to the balcony to begin with.” She turned to one of the stained glass window and sighed. I felt bad for disappointing her, and getting Luna in trouble. I couldn’t help but think she was considering sending me back.

“Captain, were you able to round up any of the spectators on the street?” She asked Iron Side.

“No, your highness, none of the guards we dispatched could track down anypony who may have been out on the street tonight.” Celestia turned from the window and faced the three of us present in the room. “Tell me, then, what am I to say to everypony tomorrow?”

“Well, there is always the cover story we used on prince Blueblood, Princess.” I suggested. It seemed to work on him, and the ponies of equestrian would trust anything that their Princess and protector told them.

“Hmm, that you are a refugee, and are here to aid in protecting the city in exchange for asylum.” Iron Side added. “Princess, if I may, I think this is the best course of action for you to take. They will trust what you say.”

“I suppose you both are right,” She said, “I could dispel the rumor that you were summoned here, but I must have your promise that you will stick to this story, and this story only. I’m sure everypony can agree with this.”
“Of course, your highness.” I replied, bowing my head.

“Do you know why I didn’t want you to leave the palace during your stay here” Celestia asked me, walking back to her throne.

“Well, you said it was for my protection, before.” I said. I stared back at her, and saw her face take on the emotionless glance I had seen when I first arrived.

“In part, yes. I did not want to ask for your help, and then throw you into harm’s way. It was also advantageous to have an advisor like you, without the enemy knowing. However, I kept the full truth from you. While I believe that the spell we cast would summon the right individual, the things you’ve told me about your world, how strange you appear, I just wasn’t sure I could trust you completely.” She paused, and took on a sad expression. “Perhaps it was wrong, perhaps I should have told you outright, or should not have questioned the spell…”

This made a lot of sense to me; I didn’t feel angry about it at all. “Princess, I understand, I kinda, sorta, felt like that was the reason all along. I want you to know that you can trust me. I may have been brought here unwillingly, but I’m more than willing to help. I hope what I’ve done here so far can speak for me enough.”

Luna returned to her side of the throne as well, next to her sister. “I have discussed with Louis, during the last two nights, about his feelings about being here, I have sensed his heart is right and his intentions are honest. Sister, I do not feel he is of any threat to us here.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna” I said. “I do feel that I could be of greater aid, if I was allowed to at least accompany the guards on patrol outside the palace. There is a lot more to patrolling than being a passive watch. The Captain would understand more."

“My sister and I will consider it,” Celestia said, “But before any of this can take place, we must work on our speech for tomorrow. I want you to be present for it, so please wash up and get some rest tonight.”

“Will I have to say anything?” I asked. I’m not one for speeches, especially speeches in front of a huge crowed that is staring at you like you have a dick on your forehead, which I was certain would be the reaction tomorrow.

“Not if you don’t want to, you can just smile and wave.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” I bowed and dismissed myself from the room. “Good night, I heard Luna say as I went through the door.

I walked down the stairs and into the atrium, then took the left that lead to the guest rooms. Twilight was in the hall with Rarity, whispering. Rarity noticed me first. “Ah, your back, are you in trouble?” she asked excitedly. “Is the princess going to punish you?” Twilight also inquired. “I can talk to her, I’m sure it wasn’t your fault, uh, whatever you did.” They both looked very worried.

“No, everything is fine. I’m not in trouble.” I assured the two of them.

“But, the princess, She was so angry!” Rarity exclaimed. She put her hoof up on her forehead.

“She was angry that I was seen by other ponies outside the palace, but she decided that it was ok, and I’m now, possibly, going to be allowed to leave the castle on patrol with the guards”

“Well, that’s way better than I expected” Twilight said. “I’m glad you’re not in trouble.”

I ran my hand down my face and felt the scruff of a developing beard. “Hey, Twilight, you know growing magic, right?” I asked her.

“Yes, I most certainly do,” She answered, “why do you ask”

I pointed to the side of my face to illustrate. “Do you thing you can keep me from growing facial hair while I’m here?”

“Um, sure” She replied, “Hold on a second. Her horn lit up and my face felt warm suddenly. Before I could blink, I felt a slight jolt, and she was finished. I ran my hand down my face, feeling the smooth skin of my cheek. “Thank you, Twilight. I don’t really like facial hair, and there isn’t any place to shave or wash up here, I’ve noticed. The princess wants to present me to everypony tomorrow, using my cover story from the night before.”

“We actually do have a pool to wash up in, outside in the garden” Twilight said. “If you want, Rarity or I can show you were it is.” That didn’t sound like a good idea.

“No, thank you, I’ll find it on my own.”

* * *

Green Sentry stood with his fellow guards in a line encompassing the yard below the Canterlot Palace Balcony. Everypony had gathered here today to hear the Princesses’ speech on the rumors of the new arrival to the city. Green Sentry’s job was to maintain order and keep anypony from passing through the line in front of the palace that he was part of. Secretly, he was also supposed to be on the lookout for any strange activity or behavior. What the citizens of Canterlot had not been told, was that every member of the audience would be scanned after the speech with the identity spell, before they could leave.
He was a unicorn guardsman, and had learned the spell the day prior. He had conducted it on many of the servants in the castle already, so he fancied himself well skilled at using the spell. He began selecting several members of the crowd in front of him that he would scan as soon as the speech started.

“Hey, you started scanning yet?” The white earth pony guard next to him asked.

“No, but I have a few that I will scan as soon as the Princess appears. Keep your eye on the red and blue pegasus a few ponies back, she is standing behind a much taller earth pony, when she could be flying above him to get a better view. She may be hiding.”

“Roger, just give me the signal and I’ll go charging in.”

“I will, if we catch one, I hear Captain Iron Side wants to-“

Trumpets sounded from above, on the balcony, the signal that the Princesses would now be addressing the audience. Everypony began to cheer. Green Sentry looked behind him and only saw the two sisters. He had seen the stranger talking with the captain in the hall, and had been fully briefed on who he was and what he was here for. He also knew that the stranger was responsible for all the recent changes to procedure, changes that Green Sentry appreciated.

“Good morning, My Loyal Subjects!” Celestia announced, “My sister and I are happy to see you all gathered here in good spirits despite all that is happening in these dark times!” The crowd was silent.
“Now, it has come to our attention that there is a rumor between you, of a stranger in our land. This is partially true.”
The Stranger stepped forward, and Green Sentry went back to watching the crowd. Everypony gasped at the stranger’s appearance. Green Sentry expected that reaction. He reacted very similarly when he first saw him. He was more focused on the pegasus he had spotted earlier, as well as a few others. The speech continued.

“…He has come from far in the north, from a land where the changelings have taken over and destroyed his home…”

“Hey, you scanned her yet?” The earth pony next to Green Sentry asked.

“I’m about to, but I have to go through a few others in front of her, hold on.” Green Sentry prepped the spell and targeted a blue unicorn with glasses. He was clear, so he moved on to the next one.

“He has promised his aid in exchange for a home here in Canterlot. So far, he has done many things…” It was hard to focus on the speech and the spell at the same time. He finally scanned the pegasus. “She’s clear.” He said.

“Ok, move on to the next row.” the earth pony said.

A few ponies up in the front became aware they were being scanned, but did nothing in protest. The scanning policy had been in effect since yesterday, and was non invasive, so long as you weren’t a changeling imposter. Green Sentry looked down the line and saw his fellow unicorn guards doing the same. Most of them had moved on to the third or fourth row of ponies in front of them. The whole line was aglow from their horns. On the other side of him, a unicorn guard working with a pegasus was scanning into the fifth row, and found it necessary to push forward towards the crowd. Green Sentry also found himself having to do the same. He could hear Princess Luna take over for her sister.

“We welcome him into our home. He will be aiding the guards on patrol, and will answer any questions you may have about his homeland…”
“Hey, the pegasus stallion called to his unicorn partner, “I think I got one ducking out, he pointed towards the sixth row, causing green Sentry to break his concentration and look over to his right. “Gray Unicorn stallion, wearing glasses, casually moving back through the crowd.

“Bring him up here!” The Unicorn Guard said.

“You hear that?” Green Sentry said to his partner, “They have eyes on somepony trying to get away on the right”

“I hear you,” The earth pony said, "I’m standing by to charge in"

Green Sentry watched the pegasus descend into the crowd. Suddenly, a commotion erupted. “Stop!” somepony yelled. Green Sentry’s partner wasted no time. He barreled through the crowd in front of him. Green Sentry followed his lead, prepping a disabling spell. Attention quickly fell from the Princesses on the balcony, to the chase that had begun in the yard. Green Sentry quickly caught up to his partner, as ponies on either side scurried out of the pair’s way.

“Quick Silver is in front of him!” His partner yelled. “Prep your spell!”

He found his target, trying to evade the pegasus guard who’d spotted him. He triggered his disabling spell and made contact. The grey unicorn fell to the ground as another spell, and identity spell, enveloped him. The pony flashed from grey to green, then took on the familiar shape of a changeling. Everypony around gasped. Green Sentry’s partner and the pegasus stallion tackled the changeling.

“What do we do with it now?” The pegasus asked.

“I think I can take it from here, said a powerful voice. Everypony looked up and saw Princess Luna descending from above. They all bowed respectively, except for the two restraining the changeling.

Green Sentry saw her envelope the changeling in a blue aura, and then teleport away.

“Quick everypony, Clear the way!” Twilight shouted as she ran down the hall. Princess Celestia, the elements, and a plethora of guards were in pursuit, followed by Luna, still restraining the Changeling captured during the speech. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I assumed the had a dungeon of some sorts. This was confirmed when we came to a set of spiral stairs and descended them. They lead ro a dark lit hallway, flanked by cells, with a few guards stationed at the entrance. “Make Way!” Twilight shouted again.

We filed in, and Luna deposited the changeling into the first cell. A unicorn guard places a rope around its hooves and wings, making it immobile. Celestia placed another spell on it.

“Now, it is unable to change shape or mentally effect anypony,” She said, “It is completely harmless.”

The Changeling hissed and protruded it’s tounge in our direction.

“Can it speak? “ I asked.

“Yes,” Luna said, “but as Captain Iron Side and Emerald Wing have said, They simply chose not to.”

Captain Iron Side and Emerald Wing came running into the hallway just as Luna had finished talking. “We came as fast as we could!” Iron Side stated, snapping a salute. “Where is this bugger, Your highness?”

“In the first cell, already disabled as usual. What do you have planned this time, Captain?” She asked.

Well Princess,” He replied turning to Celestia, “Beatings don’t work, so we plan on doing what we said earlier and having dear Fluttershy here use the stare on it. That should make it talk.”

Twilight turned to Fluttershy with a look of concern. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” She asked her.

“Well, um, if, my friends, I mean, a..and everypony too, are here, standing with me, then yes, I am willing.” She stepped forward and took a deep breath.

“Take your time, Fluttershy,” Celestia Said, “Nopony is pressuring you, but we are all here to support you.”

Fluttershy approached it,, quivering, but then stood up and took on a dominating pose, and stared ito the changelings eyes. “It’s wrong to take somepony’s place and sneak around. You will tell us where you hid all the ponies you’ve been impersonating, and surrender to us now!”

Her sudden change of tone scared even me for a second. The Changeling stared back into her eyes, andf I was sure it was feeling the effects of Fluttershy’s stare. She held the gaze for a few more seconds but nothing happened. Then, it laughed, and spat in her face. Fluttershy was shocked and fell over backwards, covering her face. I ran over and kicked the bastard, and he flew into the wall, erupting in a fit of hissing and rocking. Fluttershy’s friends gathered around to comfort her. “It didn’t do anything, “ she was saying, “I failed.” Weak sobs came from under her hooves.

Celestia turned to Luna and Iron Side. “Now what should we do? None of our tactics seem to work. Perhaps it’s time to banish this one too.”

“Wait, Princess, I have an idea!” I stated, turning to Luna. “I know that Princess Luna is the warden of dreams, and that she can enter and effect a pony’s dream while they are asleep.”

Celestia spoke up. “yes, my sister does this, but how can this help?”

“Bear with me, Princess,” I said, “Princess Luna, do you think you could go into this changelings dream and extract information from it?” I stole that idea from the movie Inception. As cheesy as that was, it defiantly would help us in this situation. It felt really cool just to be suggestion the idea.

“Oh, well,” Luna said, “I suppose it is possible for me to do as you suggest, as scary as it sounds to go into a changelings dream. It is a burden I am willing to bear for the good of all. What would I be looking for it the dream?”

“Well, for any useful facts, memories of places, ponies, other changelings, plans he may be involved in,” I explained. “and anything specific to him, like his mission or who he operates with,”

“The subject, would of course, have to be asleep,” Luna pointed out.

“Don’t worry, my sister,” Celestia said, “I can make sure of that.” Her horn started to glow white, and enveloped the bug like pony. He struggled briefly, then closed his eyes and relaxed his body.

“I shall begin, then.” Said Luna. She closed her eyes as well, and lsat down by her sister. We all watched her and waited.

* * *

Only a few short minutes passed, and Luna awoke from her trance. We all looked intently toward her as she stood up.
“I wasn’t able to find much,” She said, “He resisted me even in the dream. I was able to uncover a street name and a door, however,. It seemed to be the most important secret he was trying to keep. “

“We’ll That gives us something to work with!” I said, “if you don’t mind, princess, what was the name of the street?”

“South Canterlot Avenue. ” She said.

“That’s the upper-class housing district,” Said the Captain. “I shall increase patrols in the area immediately.”

“Actually captain,” I interjected, “This is a perfect opportunity for a raid. The princess says she remembers a door. With this information, we may be able to pinpoint an area where changelings are operating and put a stop to it.”

“So you are saying we should just charge head long into this with no further INTEL?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“No, but with the information we have, we can find this area and stake it out. Once we observe any unusual activity in the area, we can act. I think we should post up in the area tonight.”

“If it is ok with the Princesses, I can organize a patrol soon. I suppose you’re going to want to tag along, now that you are allowed outside the palace walls.” The Captain asked.

“If I have the permission from the Princesses and you,” I replied.

“Very well, your highness, what should we do?”

“I believe Louis is right, this could be a great opportunity. We have had no reason to doubt him so far. I want you to approach this with caution, however. Don’t do anything rash, captain, and report everything to me immediately.”

“Yes, Your highness,” he replied, “If Princess Luna could describe this door, I think we could set things in motion, then.”

* * *

Darkshadow was pleased with how well Snakestalker’s plan was going. Not only had the rumor become viral in less than a day, but it had resulted in exactly what he wanted. This creature was now known to everypony in Canterlot and would be traveling around outside the palace. All he had to do was give his operators orders to follow him, and strike when the creature was unprotected or most vulnerable. There were plenty of places in Canterlot away from the public view. Then, they could learn about what he was and what he had done so far to aid the ponies. Of course, after gaining any INTEL from him, he would have to be disposed in order to no longer pose a threat.

“Sssnakestalker!” the chief called out to his subordinate.

“Yesss chief,” he responded, coming into the room.

“I want you to begin sssending operativesss to watch each patrol leaving the palace. Any patrol that thisss creature is a part of, I want them to follow, and to intercept if possible. Make ssssure they do not make an uncovered move, thisss isss our bessst ssshot.”

“Yesss, chief.” Snakestalker replied. “I have an unfortunate report, today.”

“What isss it?” The chief asked.

“One of my operatives was captured during the princesssscesss ssspeech today. He was brought to the palace.”

“Mossst unfortunate,” the chief said, “however, we have nothing to fear, and none of our operatives would even think of ssspilling any information. There are no meathodsss these ponies could possibly use to extract it from any of usssss.”

“True,” Snakestalker agreed, “we would never do anything to compromise the hive. I am relieved of concern.”

“Then you are dismissed, You have your mission, Snakestalker. For the hive!”

“Long live the queen,” he replied, trotting out the door.

...They do now

"Are you certain this is the place you saw in the dream, Princess?" Iron Side quietly asked. We were high atop the roof of an estate in the upper class housing district. Luna had teleported us here, along with Applejack, Twilight and a few members of the guard. The local patrols in the area had been informed of the stake out, and were ready to provide backup if need be.

"As said before, Captain,” the Princess answered him, "the alleyway up ahead leads to the door from the changeling’s memory. I am more than certain." She pulled herself next to me and poked her head over the roof. "Keep an eye on any pony traveling down it, it does not appear to be commonly used."

"Well, you’re right, Princess, it’s been several hours, and indeed, nopony has traveled down there." I said, adjusting my posture. This was uncomfortable as hell. The shingles of the roof were stone and pointy in design. We had been up here since Celestia had lowered the sun, and it was now somewhere closed to midnight.

Twilight and Applejack were next to Iron Side, also observing, though Twilight looked as if she was about to pass out. "Hey Applejack, I think Twilight's asleep." I told her.

"What, am not!" She said, a little too loud for our current situation. Applejack shushed her, tactfully.

""Keep it down, there, Twi! We don't want everypony knowin' we're up here now."

Twilight blushed and closed her wings. "Ahem, sorry, but I wasn't sleeping, as much as I want to."

"Nothing is going on anyway," I said, "we could probably take turns sleeping if you want. Between the five of us, and the other guards, we'll get plenty of sleep even if we are here all night." Iron Side nodded in approval of my idea.

"Well, just who gets tah sleep now, and who has tah stay up?" Applejack asked.

"I'm sure nopony will mind if I do," I said, "and I don't think Twilight would last five minutes right now!" I chuckled, as did Applejack and Luna.

"Hey, you want a moustache, buster?!" Twilight asked, obviously annoyed at joke.

"Ok, if you guys want to pass out, now's a good time then."

"Maybe not," the voice came from Iron Side, "look, coming in from the left." Everypony hushed up and turned their attention to the street. A shadowy figure of a pony was casually walking down the street from the left, occasionally looking back from where it came. I squinted and tried to focus on it, but it was too dark to distinguish whether it was a male or female.

""It's too dark to see," Twilight said before I could. "Shouldn't we be trying to ID them?"

"No, the plan is to wait for anypony to walk down that alley, " Iron Side explained, "then we move in."

Sure enough, the figure turned and headed down the alley, only pausing to take a quick glance behind him.

"Gotcha!" I said excitedly, "Princess, we should move in.:

Luna nodded, "As soon as he's out of sight, Twilight will signal the nearby patrols, and I will teleport us down. Prepare yourselves."

* * *

The courier checked once more over his shoulder before knocking on the door. He knocked three times, paused, and then repeated the knock. This was the "all clear" signal, letting the drones on the other end know it was safe to open the door. A lot of safety precautions were in order to conceal their work here. Even while inside the safe house, the changelings maintained their cover, in case anypony was able to briefly look inside. House searches had not been authorized by the Princesses, because they felt it was too much of an invasion of privacy.

The door cracked open, and a drone disguised as a blue pegasus allowed the courier to pass through. The door led into the kitchen of the manor, where food was always being prepared in order to maintain cover. As the courier walked inside, the leader of the watch, disguised as a colt servant, approached him.

"What business do you have, drone?" He asked in a normal pony voice.

"I have a message from the hive," He replied, using his covers voice as well, "it's to be delivered straight to the Intel Chief."

"The Intel Chief is in a meeting," the watch leader said. He pointed towards the atrium door. "You'll have to wait."

The courier shook his head. "It’s code four, sir"

Code four, this meant the courier had a directive for action. It was highly sensitive information, and took priority over all other operations. "Very well," the watch leader called to another disguised drone. "Escort him to meeting room immediately. "

The courier was taken through the atrium to a hallway. At the end of the hallway, a spiral staircase led down to a cellar, stocked with bottles and barrels labeled with various juices. At the far corner of the cellar, just below a coal shoot, a table was set up, covered in maps and pictures, and two changelings, undisguised, and sat around it. They took notice of the new arrival.

"What isss the meaning of thisss interruption?" The larger of the two inquired.

The courier bowed and addressed them, changing form. "Ordersss directly from the hive, code four." He said.

Both of the changelings at the table dropped what they were doing. "Well, don't jussst ssstand there, courier, what isss our Queen'sss will?"

The courier had recited what he had been passed from the last station before heading out. To him, it was as if he was reading from an actual letter. This was the best way to pass information without leaving a paper trail.

"The Queen hears of your recent discovery, and approves of your plan to capture this creature. She asks you retrieve all possible intel from him before disposing him. She also states that operations in Canterlot need to continue despite the recent increase in security. The final stages of the invasion are underway, and there is only a month’s time till the Crystal Ponies celebrate their Fair. The Pony Princesses need to be distracted with matters in Canterlot when the Crystal Heart is powered up. Once it has been retrieved by the Queen, the Canterlot cell is authorized to openly attack the city. Such is the will of our Queen."

The two at the table took it all in, the larger one writing it down on scroll paper. "Issss thiasss all the newssss you bring?" The smaller one asked.

The courier nodded.

"Then return to your ssstation and await any outgoing messsagessss. Be careful on your way back to the operationsss cell, patrolsss have increasssed recently."

The courier bowed to his superiors and was escorted back into the atrium. The walk over to the operations safe house was short, but it required him to walk across the open street to the manor facing the one he was currently in. He assumed his cover once more and headed for the service entrance in the kitchen. The drone on duty nodded to him as the courier walked over to the door. He turned the knob with his magic...

*BOOM!*

* * *

With a loud smack, Applejack bucked the shit out of the door. It gave way instantly, flying off its hinges, and into the room. Immediately, the squad of guards under Iron Side's command rushed in, followed by the captain himself, Applejack, Twilight, Luna, and I. When we entered the room, I looked around and saw, we were in some kind of kitchen. The guards fanned out and pinned the residents, who all looked shocked and disoriented. Others looked in from a doorway at the end of the room, equally surprised as their comrades. I could smell food being prepared, and for a moment, I thought we had made a mistake. Twilight quickly confirmed we had hit the right house by firing up an ID spell.

"Hold on, let me scan them!" She yelled, lighting up her horn. She targeted one of the ponies who had been knocked out by the door. Sure enough the pony lit up in a green light and took on the form of a changeling.

The remaining residents smiled and quickly changed. Before we could react, they moved in on us from the other room, hurling green energy beams at us. One of the guards pinning a changeling was immediately struck down as a beam made contact with him.

"Twilight, call support up!" I yelled, pulling out my knife. She nodded and shot a purple beam of energy straight through the roof of the building that would be visible to all patrols in the area. She then turned her focus to the incoming changelings.

One of the bugs broke free from the guard holding him and hopped up in front of me. I reacted quickly and smashed its face in with the back of my knife. He fell back, and I gave him a swift kick. Iron Side pushed him and a few of his guards through the second doorway following Twilight's blast of energy. Applejack and I followed through the doorway, dodging a beam of green light. "Wow, Nelly!" Applejack exclaimed, ducking. It struck the wall behind us, covering it with a layer of green slime. "Note to self, don't get hit by that." I said out loud.

Luna and Twilight entered in behind us, and just as the guards were tangling with the changelings in the atrium, both Luna and Twilight enveloped the bugs in their magic and lifted them in air. One by one, they closed their eyes, and were dropped on the ground. "They are asleep now," Luna told us,
Start rounding them up."

"You heard the princess, pile em up!" Iron Side barked. The guards began gathering up the now sleeping changelings as Twilight cast the magic nullifying spell I had seen Celestia use in the dungeon. Through the doorway, a squad that had no doubt seen our signal filed in.

"First squad, second platoon reporting," the lead guard said to the Captain, where do you need us?"

"Help the others in gathering up the prisoners." He said.

"Actually, Captain," I said, we need to finish clearing this house, you should send your men to the upstairs and lower floors to search for any changelings left behind." I gestured to the stairwell leading up.

Iron Side gave me a stern look, but then nodded. "Very well, take your squad upstairs, clear each room and yell if you need support. "

"Yes sir!" the squad leader replied. He motioned to his men to follow him, and then charged up the stairs.

I looked around the room and saw a hallway on the left, under the stairs. "We need to search over there as well." I pointed to it.

Iron Side saw where I was pointing and called over two of his squad. "Go with Louis, clear any rooms down that hallway, and report back."

They acknowledged the order and followed behind me.

"Hold your horses, ahm goin' too! Don't think you're gettin' all the action now." Applejack said, running up next to me.

I chuckled at that. “The more the merrier, let’s go!”

We moved under the stairwell and into the hall. It had four doors, two on the left, one on the right, and an open door leading to what looked like spiral staircase. “Let's split up,” I told the group, “you to clear the two smaller rooms, Applejack and I will get the larger one, and then move to the one at the end of the hall.”

“Sounds good to me, one of the guards said.’ He and his buddy moved to the door and bucked it open before running inside. “Clear!” he shouted a second later.

Applejack and I moved to our door. “I’ll buck it down again,” Applejack said, taking her bucking stance. I stood ready, holding my knife in my right hand. “Ready when you are.” I told her.

*BOOM!*

We rushed in. There was a table with places set, a few paintings, and a drawer. Light from the moon shown in through a stained glass window. Other than that, the room was empty. “Looks like it’s clear.” Applejack said.

“Yea, time to move on.” I turned and went back through the door.

“Second room clear!” I heard the guard shout from across the hall. We came out at the same time and the four of us moved to the final doorway. It was open, and did in fact lead to a spiral staircase as I had assumed. With no door to buck, we headed down, single file. I took point, which was probably not the best choice, seeing as I had no armor and only my small Gerber, but I was really getting caught up in the moment. I realized this, and took a few slow breaths, telling myself to calm down.

At the bottom of the stairwell, we found ourselves entering a dark lit cellar, full of shelves with bottles and barrels. “Fan out>” I said quietly, motioning with my arms. The three ponies did, and we moved forward. The shelves blocked our view of the rest of the cellar, so we moved up to them. When I reached the shelf in front of me, I peered around the edge. The first thing I saw was a flash of green light. I snapped my head out from around the corner and saw a table ablaze with green fire. Applejack saw the flash as well and moved over behind me.

“What is it!?” she asked, trying to get a peek herself. In doing so, she knocked me off balance, causing me to step out of my cover. Instantly, I spotted a large changeling next to the table, apparently generating the magical fire that was consuming the table. He spotted me and Hissed. I squared my body with him, but an instant later, I saw another flash of green, and I was flung back.

“AAARRRGGHH!” I yelled, hitting the wall. It was ok, my extreme ninja skills enabled me to stop myself with my backbone, totally a smooth and skillful move. When the pain hit, I tried to roll over, but found myself stuck to the wall by a blob of green slime. “Fuck, Applejack, get him!” I shouted. I saw her move around the shelf, but a moment later, she and the two guards came back around.

“He’s gone,” she said, shaking her head, “Through the coal shoot.”

“Motherfucker!” I tried to twist free. “Help me get out of this shit.”

* * *

The sun was rising as we entered the throne room. Celestia was waiting for us to give our report. All of the changeling prisoners had been brought to the dungeon as usual, and were undergoing the “dream interrogation” process I had suggested. Iron Side and I both brought in a few scraps of paper that we had managed to recover from the burning table. Unfortunately, most of what was there before had been completely incinerated, and the only thing we had recovered was a picture of a patrol, a list of food a noble would eat for dinner, and a bunch of names scribbled down.
“I am happy to see you have all returned in one piece,” Celestia said, descending the stairs from her throne, “please tell me how the raid went.

Iron Side answered for us, bowing. “Well, your highness, we discovered that there was indeed a group of changelings hiding out under cover in the manor Princess Luna found in the changelings dream.”

“Yes, I am aware, my sister and a number of your guards brought quite a few of them down to the dungeon. Good job on your capture.”

“Thank you, your highness, however, we were unable to recover any information on their plan here. They destroyed almost everything they could before we could recover anything useful.”

“I’m afraid a few of them escaped as well,” I said, “Applejack and I failed to stop one of them, and it headed out through an alternate exit.”

Celestia didn’t look to bothered by any of this news, she instead, maintained a smile.

“Princess?” Twilight asked, “Aren’t you a little disappointed?”

“No, Twilight, my dear, I want to congratulate you on the wonderful job you did. Every Changeling you captured is another one of the streets, and another pony’s live saved. “

It occurred to me that this may have been the first good new Celestia had heard in a while. That explained why she was taking this so well. Ultimately, without having recovered any information, we were no closer to stopping the changeling invasion than before.

“Now wait just a minute,” Applejack said, putting a hoof down , “We still have the captured changelings. Ah know Princess Luna is searchin’ their dreams and what not. Don’t you all think something will turn up from that?” That was a good point.
“As I said, I am happy with the raids results. Applejack is right, There is a great chance we will come up with something thanks to Louis’s Idea.”

“Well, Thank you again, you Highness, other than that, everypony has returned un injured. It appears the changeling’s most common attack is to launch immobilizing goo at their enemies. A few were hit by this attack but nopony was otherwise affected.” Iron Side explained to her.

I bloused, having been hit by this attack myself, the only injury to me was my pride.

“Well, now we shall wait on what Luna discovers, I suppose.” Celestia said., returning to her throne. “I believe tonight calls for a special dinner, one that I’m sure Pinkie Pie would be happy to host.”

*POOF*

A flash of Blue light quickly illuminated the room, leaving Luna standing in the center as it faded.

“Sister, we need to talk, you’re not going to like this.”

* * *
I sat with Twilight and her friends in the dining room, struggling to keep my eyes open. Luna had told us to gather there and wait for her and her sister. Captain Iron Side was there as well, writing notes on the events of the night raid. Twilight had given up the fight and gone to sleep. While Applejack was nodding off as I was. Everypony else had enjoyed a full night’s sleep, and had no trouble staying awake. They all, however, had trouble not worrying about what was going on.

“Oooh, all this waiting is making me so nervous!” Pinkie said. She was passing back and forth. In fact, she had been doing that since we first entered the room. It was one of the things keeping me awake. Rarity was trying to help her settle down.

“Please calm down, dear, worrying about it is only going to make things worse. I’m sure they are simply trying to find the best way to inform us of the situation.”

“Bu…But what if it’s about Ponyville? Or our friends back home?” Fluttershy stuttered, burying her face in her hooves.

“I’m sure it’s in relation to the raid we conducted,” I assured her, “It probably has nothing to do with Ponyville or anypony outside of Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash was just angry we had left her behind for the raid. "I still can't believe you didn't take me with you guys!" She stammered.

"Rainbow Dash, you were asleep." Applejack told here.

"And you told us not to wake you up for anything, " I added, "Everypony has told me it's a bad idea to wake you up."

"Well, you should have done it anyway, I wanted to kick some serious flank!" She started kicking and twirling in the air. This is why nopony wanted to wake her up in the first place. I'd prefer not to get kicked in the face by and alarmed and disoriented Dash.

I sat on the floor and put my head against the wall. "I know this might be a bad time, but I've been up all night. Can somepony wake me up when the Princess comes in? I can't keep my damn eyes open."

"Certainly, darling..." I heard as I closed my eyes and started to nod off.

Unfortunately for me, my rest was short lived. It felt like an only a few seconds had passed by before the sound of the dining room door opening jolted me awake. I turned my attention to the door and saw the two royal sisters stroll in. Everypony engaged in their usual formalities, while I just rubbed my eye s and stood. I hopped I could pass out for a few hours after this.

Celestia and Luna both looked rather serious, Celestia holding the same expression she had shown when the reports of griffons came in. You always know when bad news is coming your way. I was used to hearing nothing but bad news. I always figured, if you always expect the worst, you will never be disappointed, a logic that had yet to fail me.

Luna was the first to speak. "I must thank you for your actions during the raid, the number of drones you were able to capture has allowed me to gather a great deal of information. " she took a deep breath. "Now I believe I am able to piece together at least partially what their plan may be."

Celestia's horn glowed, and an image of a city I recognized as the Crystal Empire appeared. In the center, tiny images of ponies stood around the Crystal Palace, which glowed in the center with a blue light.

"From what I have gathered through my dream interrogation, the changeling queen has targeted the Crystal Empire as the center of the invasion. Since changelings feed of love, my sister and I believe the goal is the Crystal Heart, the center of the Empire."

Celestia spoke next, letting the image fade. "In less than a few weeks, the Chrystal Empire will celebrate its Chrystal Fair, in which they will power the Crystal heart with their light and love. Such an act is necessary for the empire's protection and must be done."

A new image appeared, showing the Chrystal Heart itself, glowing brightly and illuminating the room. Celestia continued.

"At the moment that the heart is powered, it will contain the full potential love of an entire empire. The changelings and their queen will most likely seek to capture the heart before it's power can be reflected outward to all of Equestria. Feeding of its power will make them more powerful than ever."

"But you can still stand against them, right?" Twilight asked, "together with you and Luna, the queen couldn't take both of you on."

"If we are able to stop her first, than yes, she is weaker than before, no doubt, and Luna and I should have no trouble defeating her. However, if she were able to obtain the heart on its moment of being powered, there is no telling how strong she might become, as well as her drones."

"Well, this sounds like a ridiculous plan," Iron Side remarked, "she'd have to somehow infiltrate Captain Armor’s protective shield, stay undercover, and be close enough to grab the Crystal Heart at the moment it is powered up. Really sounds like a longshot to me."

"I'm aware from what I know of your history," I said, "that she was able to infiltrate this shield before, so I suggest you enact the same measures we have here over there."

"We're going to do more than that, " Celestia said, "I don't want to take any chances this time. I will be sending the Elements of Harmony to stand guard over the Heart on the day of the Chrystal Fair. I would like you, Louis, to travel with the elements and aid Princess Cadence and Shining Armor as you have aided us here. I'm sure they have need of your insight."

"You here that, everypony! We're going to the Chrystal Empire again! For the Fair!" Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down, despite the seriousness of the situation. Everypony seemed happy about going to the Crystal Empire, though they contained their excitement better than Pinkie.

"Are we to Travel immediately?" Twilight asked, "I have a few things back at the Library I need."

"You all have plenty of time to make the trip back to Ponyville and say goodbye to your families, you will be staying at the Crystal Empire for a few weeks. I will be sending you with a few escorts to ensure your safety. Early tomorrow morning, before I raise the sun, you will depart by train."

"But what about the party?" Pinkie asked, ceasing her bouncing and taking on a frown.

"Do not worry, Pinkie Pie," Luna said, "the dinner is still set for tonight."