Chapter 3: The Discovery

The journey to the library took much longer than I hoped... My house's location is exactly opposite to the library, but it doesn't take that long to walk across town. Normally, if you go the right way, it would take between 15 to 30 minutes. Today, everyone was on the streets. The townspeople were everywhere; Berry Punch's store was full of customers, Bon Bon's business was booming, and Sugar Cube Corner was packed with ponies. When I got to the library, I knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. I waited for 30 seconds, and knocked again. Why wasn't anyone answering? I totally forgot; it's a public library. No one is going to answer the door, and no one is going to scold me for walking in without permission.

I opened the door, and the smell of new and old books flowed towards me. The smell isn't a bad smell, but nothing that I would like to smell every day. I looked around in search of where anypony could be, but no one seemed to be there. I called out to see if anyone was in the building.

"Hello?"

Just then, I noticed a pile of books in the corner, and it was slowly moving up and down. It seemed to be alive, but that didn't seem legitimate, so I checked it out. As I got closer, I heard a snoring, and it sounded like a pony. When I got to the pile of books, I levitated them away to reveal the librarian, Twilight, was sleeping there. I poked here a few times with one of the books I was levitating to wake her. Suddenly, she screamed, and she scared the living daylights out of me.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I must've dozed off after my studies. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Umm... Yes, I need a favor of you. Do you happen to have any knowledge in identifying strange creatures?"

"I could see if I have a book on that..."

She started to madly pull out and levitate the books on her shelves, piling them into stacks next to her if it wasn't what she was looking for. Finally, she seemed to have found a book that was titled, "Outlandish Creatures And Their Origins, A Guide To Creatures Outside Of Equestria" She dropped all of the books that were still levitating and focused all of her attention on the one book.

"Here is the book you may be looking for. Why do you need a book like this, if you don't mind me asking?"

I pulled off my saddlebag and opened it. I flipped the bag over and the two insects flopped out, still unconscious. Twilight backed up, clearly not expecting to see two large animals that she had never seen before. She looked up at me in confusion, and looked back at the insects.

"What are they?" I asked.

"They definitely are not from here and they seem to have a similar body shape as us, meaning they might be a cousin to the Equestrian kind. For some reason they seem to be able to survive with all of these holes in their bodies and seem to be some form of an insect-pony hybrid. I am not too sure what these things are. Where did you find them?"

"They were in my basement, taking apart my family's generator for some reason."

"Do you know why they were taking apart your generator?"

"I didn't have any time to ask, and they did not seem to be friendly."

"Hmmm.... Let me see if there is anything about them in this book."

She started to flip through the book, searching for an entry that described these insects. I was surprised; she was flipping too fast through the book to be able to read it. The only possibility of this 'reading' to be possible is if she had been reading books since she was a filly. This was actually a very likely possibility because I had been devoted to electricity my entire life, so she must be devoted to learning.

"Aha! I found something. 'Changelings, a being that lives far outside the boundaries of Equestria and feeds off of other creature's love to survive. A Changeling has bulging eyes, holes in their feet, and sometimes appear to have a horn, wings, both, or neither. Changelings live in hives and live very similarly to bees and wasps. Changelings have workers, warriors, and a Queen to lead them all. Singularly, they are simple and easy to fight, but together, they are a force to be reckoned with.' They must have ventured from their hive to get that generator of yours, although, I'm not too sure what they would need a generator for if they live off of love. This doesn't make any sense... Why--"

She was cut off when the Changeling without armor started to stir.

"You need to get these Changelings out of here. I do not think they are too much of a threat because you were clearly able to take care of these two. If you encounter any others, tell me, and I will write a letter to Princess Celestia notifying her that we have a problem. Do you have any idea how to get rid of these Changelings?"

"I have no clue, does the book say anything?"

"It doesn't have anything else here, so I would suggest just to take them to the Everfree Forest and release them there."

Twilight helped me pack up the Changelings, and even she seemed to have trouble lifting them.

"Thank you for all the help, see you later."

"No problem. If you need any help, just find me."

I left as fast as I could. I had to get rid of these guys. I knew if I needed to, I could take them on again. I'm not too sure if it would go quite in my favor this time now that they know what to expect. I ran into the Everfree Forest and its thick foliage, being careful that I didn't take any wrong turns. I made sure to run past the little tree hut to ensure that the zebra that lived there wouldn't be bothered by these Changelings. About 300 yards after I ran past the little tree hut, the saddlebag began to jump up and down. I skidded to a stop, and the saddlebag burst open. The two Changelings flew out of the bag like a cannon, and landed in front of me. There I was again, face to face with the Changelings.

"You two must leave this place now, and never return."

"We have not finished our mission, we must retrieve the generator." Said the armored Changeling.

"You can't have that generator, that generator is a one-of-a-kind and powers my house."

"We will get that generator at all costs."

The armored one ran towards me and tried to tackle me, but I whipped my hind legs around and kicked him in the face. He flew into the air and hit against a tree, but this time when he got up, it looked like he had surrendered.

"Perhaps we don't need that generator. C'mon Grey, lets get out of here."

"B..b..but Blade... The Queen will--"

"Let's go Grey."

The two Changelings flew off into the sky, and I never saw them again. The journey out of the Everfree Forest wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I expected to be chased by some Timberwolves or some other strange creature, but I didn't see a single animal. I sure heard some animals though. The howls and screeches of the animals that lived there creeped me out; I had only been in the forest a few times. Once I exited the Everfree Forest, the sun shined down on me and it relieved me to have gotten out alive. It wasn't usual that you never got out, but you still had to be careful.

As I walked through town, I noticed that it wasn't quite as busy as it was when I had first traveled through. A few of the shops had even closed early for the day, probably because they ran out of stuff to sell. I had finally reached the corner where my house was, and I noticed that my dad was home. I ran inside and looked for him, and couldn't find him at first. I looked in my mom and dad's room, and there he was laying on the bed. He didn't look too good, but didn't seem to be hurt badly.

"Dad? You okay?"

My dad opened his eyes and looked at me.

"Your time to take my place at work is approaching."

Author's Note

For Chapter 3, it was interesting to get Twilight into the Fic. I had to be able to take her personality and match it as well as possible, and I think I did pretty well. Enjoy!

Chapter 4 is a work in progress, and I'll try to get it out by the end of the week. If not, it won't be out for a while thanks to a camp I'm going to next week. :/