Building Suspense

Twilight charged the spell again, this would literally be her thousandth try at using this spell. She knew that, because she was keeping count. Because, she knew that somewhere along the line the number of attempts she made would be important, and maybe there was a little OCD involved in there too. But that was a debate for later. Now, something that sounded so easy as an exposure spell was extremely difficult for her, all that she could really summarize from what her books told her, was that it was like seeing something, without seeing it. Seeing as this would require immense imagination from such a brutally factual pony, it had been quiet the day of practice so far.

Twilight sat in the middle of her library floor, surrounded by all of the books and notes she could get her hooves on. Her illusion magic was spot on, so the orange in the middle of the room with her appeared to be, and felt as if it were a banana, however, actually peeling it or damaging it in any way would dispel the enchantment on it. And so she readied her exposure spell, aimed at the bewitched orange, and then proceeded to find herself contorting backwards as a pair of hard, round objects pushed her into the pedestal upon which the orange-banana fruit rested. Her spell had gone off in the process of being shoved forward by the unknown force.

"Heh, sorry Twi, I may have been going a bit fast through my routine today." Rainbow Dash confessed from behind her. "Hey, I didn't make this mess did I? 'Cause I know you were goin' for the world's longest-" Rainbow was cut off by a shrieking Twilight Sparkle, who was looking at the very reason she was learning this spell today. A changeling had replaced her dearest little Dashie Rainbow Dash. She began firing off every combative spell she knew at the wretched creature,not giving a moment's respite. Needless to say, the changeling was subdued, hog-tied, and for the sake of the town's morale, hidden in a garbage bag. Twilight never expected to use the 'Ropes 101' lesson Applejack gave her. I'll need to thank her after I turn this changeling in and we find out where the real Rainbow Dash is.

Twilight then proceeded to town hall, the large bag full of changeling remains in tow. Well, proceeded almost all the way to town hall, but Pinkie decided it would be a good idea to appear in Twilight's face with a loud, chipper, "HI TWILIGHT!". Stunned at the mare's sudden appearance, Twilight flinched and fell backwards onto her rump, a slight gasp leaving her mouth. "So Twilight, what happened to Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie eagerly inquired.

"What are you...how did-?"

"She flew in through your window silly!" Pinkie cut Twilight off, softly booping her on the nose with a hoof. "Unless her cover was blown and that's actually why I can't hear her thoughts in my head anymore maybe the girls can still hear her and I just have bad reception, but that wouldn't make any sense cause we don't need reception to be connected to the hive mind, maybe Rarity or AJ knows..." Pinkie continued to ramble for a while, but the words were lost to Twilight.

If she had been hearing Pinkie correctly during her brief listen, at least four of the ponies she knew had been swapped out with changelings, including Pinkie herself. But that wouldn't make any sense, because a changeling wouldn't sell out it's entire hive. Maybe Pinkie was just being Pinkie and this was only a one pony incident. How could Twilight tell? She couldn't just shoot a spell at her friend without reason. But what if she was right, and the entirety of four ponies was lost to the hive. "-Twilight that's ridiculous, its not just four ponies, its all of Ponyville!" Pinkie, cut into her thoughts.

"Pinkie what was that last part?" Twilight asked the pony(?) in front of her, whom was now heavily panting from all of her very plot thickening ramblings.

"Oh, you were thinking about how we were replaced by changelings, and I decided that our friend the author could be lazy and skip all the exposition, 'cause he's no good at any of that," Pinkie promptly responded, furthering Twilight's confusion. About thirty seconds of the two merely staring at each other went by, Pinkie's smile slowly lessening into a grimace. "Twilight, just zap me and get it over with so I can get out of this terribly written story and go home to my family," Pinkie deadpanned.

"But, you don't..." Twilight was severely thrown off. What was Pinkie talking about? Well, at least she knew she was going to hit her with a spell, so Twilight happily obliged, quickly zapping her normally happy friend with the exposure spell.

In a way Twilight knew it was coming, yet she was still awe struck by the fact that there was another changeling in Ponyville. Soon after, she attempted to compose herself, Twilight then charged up her horn for the first volley of fireballs. Pinkie stood there, patiently waiting for something to hit, while Twilight shot a few spells at her. Many of Twilight's shots missed in her panic, most whizzed by her recent friend, the rest merely skimmed over her. Shortly after making the realization that the changeling in front of her was in no hurry to get away, Twilight merely scooped it up in her magic, "Hey! You were supposed to kill me so I could go home! Now I'm stuck here in this dreadful, poorly written fanfiction..." The changeling shouted inside Twilight's telekinetic bubble.