***Theme song. "Time Lords in Equestria"/"Written by SeanNetFiction"/"Part 2"***

Spike began moving in toward Twilight, who was too surprised by this turn of events to think clearly. She was cornered, of course, but she still had her magic at her disposal. Unfortunately, focus was not something that immediately available with her best friend staring her down with a maniacal look on his face.

"Spike, why are you doing this?" Twilight said in a very emotional state. It seemed like Spike was about to make his move when...

OOF!

Ditzy had picked up Jo and dropped her onto Spike. She had meant to bring her in close to buck him, but she was in a hurry and didn't get a firm enough grip when preparing to fly over the fire.

"Sorry about that," she said before turning to Spike. "Now what do you think you're doing? Twilight is your friend and she's been worried about you. Now what's this all about?"

Rather than answer, Spike kicked Jo off of his body and began shooting fireballs.

"Sorry. The Doctor already knows I can't carry ponies for very long."

"It's fine. At least we slowed him down."

Twilight, finally breaking out of her shock, began dodging the fireballs and tried to figure out what was going on.

"SPIKE! What do you think you're doing? Why are you doing this?!"

Spike was no longer responding, only blowing fire at Twilight fighting off Ditzy and Jo as they tried to subdue him.

"I know this can't be you, Spike, so who are you? What do you want?" Twilight used her magic to teleport over and tackle him, but Spike used her forward momentum to push her off balance. This allowed him to slip out from under Twilight and run off while she face-planted into the dirt.

"Twilight! Are you okay?" Ditzy asked, helping her out of the dirt.

"That can't be Spike. It has to be an impost- of course! It's a changeling! Come on, you two. We need to figure out where the real Spike is."

"What is a changeling?" Jo asked as the two tried to keep up with the now-determined and angry Twilight Sparkle.

"It's like this bug creature that can change its shape to look like anypony. We were dealing with one earlier today that looked like a bear," Ditzy replied.

"And they can breathe fire?"

Ditzy paused before speaking to think about that. "Actually, I don't know if they can. That may actually be Spike. Twilight!" Ditzy called out, but Twilight was combining her gallop with her teleportation and was now quite far ahead.

"Get over here, you imposter!" Twilight was pursuing Spike with one of the most focused looks of her life. She'd had Spike near her since she was a filly, and she was not about to give up on one of her oldest friends.

Spike dived behind a bunch of bushes. Seeing this, Twilight stopped in front of the bushes and began to walk through them, looking for movement. However, she didn't notice until too late that there was a trap to be sprung. Before Twilight knew what hit her, an electromagnetic field had shot up around and above her. She was caged.

Twilight tried to teleport, but to no avail. "Hey! What is this?! How is my magic being suppressed by this?" Twilight called out as Spike popped up.

Spike merely hit a button on the bottom, and the cage began to leave the ground. It then shot off toward the middle of the forest.

Spike looked on for a few moments before beginning to head in the same direction. But as he took a few steps, he was suddenly tackled by an incoming Pegasus.

She held him down tightly, telling him, “Don’t even try to kick me off, mister. I’ll just catch you again. Now I can’t catch Twilight, but I can make you tell me where that… thing… is taking her. Why would you do it, Spike? She’s one of your best friends.”

Spike tried to unleash a fireball, but Ditzy was able to dodge. So he tried a lower trajectory. That forced her off, but allowed him to roll away.

“Oh no you don’t!” Ditzy said as she tackled him. This time his back was to her. They struggled for a few moments until Jo ran over, panting.

“Okay… I need… to work on… that magic teleporting…” she eked out. After catching her breath, she asked, “So did he tell you anything?”

“No, he just keeps struggling against me.” Ditzy was getting frustrated.

“Let me see him,” Jo said, moving toward the dragon. He fired at her, but she was far enough to dodge. She immediately held his mouth shut while she looked him over. She quickly found what she feared.

“He’s been hypnotized.”

“He is? Who could do something like that? I don’t know of many skilled evil hypnotists in Equestria.”

Jo cringed. “I know someone we see a lot who could do this, but I’d like to root against it being him. In any case, I can fix this. Spike, I want you to follow my fi-“ Jo realized she had no hands.

“What’s wrong?” Ditzy said.

“I can’t snap with hooves.”

“Wow, you and the Doctor are really bad at using your pony bodies. Hold Spike, I’ll do it.”

After a momentary struggle, they had Spike back under control. Jo then talked to him while Ditzy held her hoof up.

“Okay, Spike, just follow the hoof. See how it moves. And…”

*snap*

Spike dropped to his knees. “How did you make that sound? Nothing happened.” Jo asked in confusion.

“I just snapped,” Ditzy shrugged. “Spike, how are you feeling?”

Spike sat up, feeling a little woozy. “Whoa, what happened? Huh? Who are you? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you before, but I know I’d have seen that hairdo before.”

“What’s wrong with my hair?!” Jo asked, feeling a tad insulted.

“Nothing, it’s just… wait, I’m not in the prison anymore! How’d I get out here?”

The two looked at each other, unsure of how to approach telling him.

Ditzy began. “You see, Spike, you were kind of hypnotized to trap Twilight in a cage and send her to this prison you mentioned and…”

“WHAT?! I didn’t. Where is she?!” Spike began to panic.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find her,” she tried to reassure him.

“No, you don’t understand, they’re trying to get the Elements of Harmony!”

“Who are?”

“The Queen of the Changelings and… and… her changelings! She must be working with them for power!”

The stutter was not lost on Jo. “He’s been commanded to forget the queen’s partner. I have no doubt who is responsible. I’ll have to talk to my Doctor, and your Doctor too, about this. What are these Elements of Harmony, by the way?”

“Super-powerful magical jewels. Spike, would you be able to give our friends some more information? Something tells me they’ll need it,” Ditzy asked.

“If it gets Twilight back and protects my friends, absolutely. Where to?”

“They said they were going to Sweet Apple Acres, so let’s go!”

The trio began to make their push toward the farm.

Back at Sweet Apple Acres, Big Mac was just waking up. He was in a complete daze. As his vision started to clear up he realized he was tied to a chair. He turned his focus toward the pony responsible only to be met with a brown hoof that made a snapping noise, clearing his mind significantly.

"I honestly have no idea how you are able to snap with a hoof," Smith told Turner.

"I really don't either, but Derpy did it and I eventually figured it out."

"Do y'all always ramble on 'bout nothin'?" Applejack asked, a little frustrated at hearing the random conversations over the last few minutes. She turned her attention to her brother. "Now Big Mac, what in the hay happened?"

Big Mac had no memory of the last few minutes and was completely lost. "Uh..."

"Do you remember anything of what just happened, Mister, er, Mac?" Turner asked.

"Ee-nope."

"Do you remember being disruptive and angry over the last few days?" Smith added.

Mac raised an eyebrow. "Ee-nope."

"Whoever these changelings are, they must be incredible at hypnosis."

Mac's eyes finally widened with realization. Applejack immediately picked up on this.

"So ya do remember the changelings? Alright, Mac, who were they pretendin' to be?"

Suddenly, Big Mac's cheeks became flushed with a look of embarrassment. He also stopped looking directly at AJ.

AJ's voice went deadpan. "It was Cheerilee, wasn't it?"

"Ee-yup."

"Met her in town?"

"Ee-yup."

"Led you into a trap?"

"Ee-yup."

"Turned out to be a changeling in disguise?"

"Ee-yup."

"Did some shenanigans and now ya can't remember anything from the past few days?"

"Ee-yup."

"Alright, y'all can untie him," she said, addressing the Doctors, who stood surprised but somewhat impressed.

"Er, yes, I suppose we can do that. Turner, if you could help."

"Of course. Uh, thank you, Miss Applejack. How did you pick up on that so quickly?"

"Ah know my brother. It was pretty easy, actually."

"Well, now we know who is a changeling and we can visit this... Cheerilee," Smith said.

"Ee-nope."

"What do you mean, no?"

Mac's now-free hoof pointed out in the direction of the school, then to the sun in the sky.

"Ah think ah get it. School should've been happening when ya saw Cheerilee and the fake made some excuse. So the real Cheerilee is still there," AJ explained.

"Ee-yup."

"Blast! A dead end, then," Smith said.

"Well, I don't think we can get anything else from here. Let's go to see how Derpy and Jo are doing with Jo's magical unicorn training. EEEEE!" Turner had already set his mind to the new task and was anxious to see how unicorns trained to learn their magic.

"So unfocused. Oh, very well. Thank you for your assistance, Miss Applejack," Smith said.

"Not a problem! If y'all need any help with those changelings, ah got plenty experience dealin' with 'em."

"I shall keep that in mind, though I don't think it will be necessary. Come along, now, Turner."

The two took their leave of Sweet Apple Acres and began the walk to Twilight's library.

Author's Note

So first part is down. The opening scene of this had been done for a while, but I wanted to get Smith and Turner's scene written. I'm thinking of switching to releasing these as soon as a scene is complete, but then I don't want these to be too short. As it is, part 2 will probably be divided into three parts, possibly four. If I go by scene, the updates may be frequent, but they could be very short. Thoughts?