“Here we go,” the not-Peregrine said, levitating the shelves into position with her changeling magic. Her voice was recognisable, but raspy and metallic, with a slight slur from her not inconsequential fangs.

“Thanks,” Hoofcraft said, hurrying to screw the shelves to the wall. I left quietly before they could spot me.

A changeling! I thought as I hurried back to Spectrum's house, notepad and quill quite forgotten. Nopony’s seen a changeling in years! Not since the invasion! I have to tell the royal guard!

I skidded to a halt and sat down in the middle of the deserted road. No, that’s not right, I need to think this through carefully. Hoofcraft was totally at his ease, and if he was a changeling he would have either transformed to put the shelves up himself, or he would have chastised Perr-… not-Peregrine, for revealing itself.

I got up again. And I can’t think of any reason for the changelings to work with anypony they could just replace, it doesn’t make any sense! I need to think about this.

* * *

“Good morning.” It was the next day, whatever the Waveform pony had wanted, it had taken him and Spectrum all afternoon.

“Morning,” I replied, choosing my next words carefully. “Question?”

“Yes?”

“Did you notice anything, strange, about Peregrine yesterday?”

Spectrum looked at me, her eyes narrowed slightly. “To what are you referring?”

“I can’t remember, perhaps you might know?”

Her eyes narrowed further. Well, time to release the parachute!

“Ah, I remember what it is now!” I covered quickly. “Actually, it was Hoofcraft as well, what was that business when you first introduced me?”

Spectrum smiled, some inner tension evidently released. “Oh that, that was a bet,” she said, turning back to the cereal bowel she had been filling. “You see, Waveform has a habit of giving people nicknames, I’m Spec, Hoofcraft is Hack…” she turned back to the table and sat down with her cereal, “…Peregrine is Par, and Extralateral is Ex, he even nicknamed himself Wavs.” She waved her spoon at me. “There’s usually at least two nicknames he might give a pony, so your name ‘Literary Scroll’, could be Lit, or Scry. He chose Lit, and evidently Peregrine won the bet.”

“Ah, that explains Waveform’s reaction to being introduced as well, thanks.”

“Any time!” she replied, grinning around her cereal.

* * *

Ok, I thought, having escaped the room, so she knows about Peregrine, and she's ok with it, but doesn’t want me to know about it. I can’t imagine she’d mean anypony harm, unless she’s the world’s best actress, and judging by that performance out there, she isn’t. I paced. I trust Spectrum, I think I can trust Hoofcraft, the question is, do I trust Peregrine?

I stopped in the middle of the floor. Wait, if she’s here then that means… unless she… that would explain… but how would I… of course! Aloud, I said: “library!” then grabbed my saddle bags and took off.

* * *

I stared at the Ponyvile librarian before me, I didn’t know what I’d expected, I just knew that it wasn't a small green and purple dragon happily sucking a ruby.

“Hi! ” the dragon said, swallowing the ruby.

“Hi…” I replied, still staring at the dragon. It sighed.

“You want an explanation.”

“I do?”

“Yes, you want to know why a purple baby dragon is a part-time volunteer at the Ponyvile library.”

I flushed. “Yes, I was wondering that.” The dragon grinned at me.

“Don’t worry you’re hardly the first, and by no means the rudest. Basically, I act as assistant to the mare who used to run the Ponyvile library, then, after the whole ‘Terek’ business, there was a… shift, and she was no longer in charge of the library. She doesn’t need an assistant as much anymore, so I do part time here as a librarian, brings back a lot of good memories.” He smiled at the books around him, then looked back at me. “But that little story’s not what you came for is it?”

I mentally shook myself. “Yes, do you have a list of Ponyville residents?”

“Yep! This way,” the dragon said, leading me down the rows of shelves to a collection of books marked by year and pulling out the most recent one.

I flicked through the book and quickly found what I was looking for. Turning to the unnamed dragon, I said; “OK, now do you have a list of Flank residents?”

The dragon nodded and grabbed another book from a higher shelf and handed it to me.

I flicked through the second book and once again found what I wanted, a relieved smile appeared on my face.

“Thanks, Mister…”

“Spike,” the dragon answered, waving away the thanks. “No problem.”

I was out the library door before I stopped. “Wait, Spike?!”

* * *

As I made my way home (head still reeling slightly from the fact that I had just met the assistant of the Ailacorn princess Twilight Sparkle), I saw what looked like the start of a race being set up. A number of pegasi where lining up under a banner that had been set up across the street, the group included Peregrine.

I spotted Spectrum, accompanied by Hoofcraft and a bored looking Waveform, standing beside the start/finish line, and wandered over to them.

“What’s goin’ on?” I asked.

“We’er ‘aving a race is whats goin’ on,” Hoofcraft answered. “Just a friendly one between th’ local pegasi.”

“You going to bet on who’s going to win?” I jibed, remembering his bet with Peregrine.

“Nah, I’m goin’ to bet on who's goin’ to come second, tha’ Rainbow Dash ‘as odds o’ 1-1 ta win, so it’s just a question of who’s going to come next.”

I grinned to myself as I made my way past Sugar Cube Corner, where two royal guards emerged weighed down with packets of cupcakes as an energetic pink mare jumped up and down on the step behind them. “Come back again soon!” she cried, and then; “OHHHH! Race!” before taking of towards the start/finish line.

I rounded the corner as from somewhere behind me the pink mare screamed; “Three! Two! One! Go!”

There was a sound like a cannon blast as a cyan mare shot past me and up over the trees, a rainbow trail streaking behind her. Then the other competitors flew past, Peregrine in the lead as the cyan pegasus pulled a huge loop-de-loop through a ring of cloud that had been positioned over the trees, then she came back down, just as the other pegasi were reaching the start of the loop. The rainbow maned mare tore through them, barely avoiding a collision, but her wake was enough to knock Peregrine into the trees. She crashed through the foliage before slamming head first into a tree trunk, the illusion spell she used broke, enveloping her in green fire as she shifted back into a changeling.

Fortunately, she was out of sight amongst the trees. I was the only one who could see her because I had wandered past Sugar Cube Corner.

Me, that is, and a small purple filly with a diamond tiara resting on her head.

“Oh,” Peregrine said in her raspy-metallic changeling voice. “Hi kid…”

The filly turned and ran, green fire enveloping Peregrine as she shifted back to pegasus form. She was in deep trouble.

“Help!” screamed the filly, attracting the attention of the two royal guards who where still outside Sugar Cube Corner.

“What is it?” one asked, as they both rushed up to the little filly.

“Her!” the filly said, pointing at Peregrine. “She’s a changeling!”

“What? That’s a very serious accusation,” the other guard said, frowning. “Do you have any proof?”

“I saw her just now! She changed when she hit the tree!”

“Do you deny this?” the second guard asked Peregrine as she rubbed her head.

She nodded.

“Hmm…” the guard rubbed his chin, before noticing me.

“You there! Did you see what happened?” the guard asked.

“Yes.”

“What did you see?”

I looked at the guard, in my peripheral vision, I could see Peregrine looking hopelessly at me, but he already knew my answer.

“I saw her crash though the canopy and hit the tree. I did not see her become a changeling.”

The guard nodded. “Thanks.”

The filly looked taken aback. “What? NO!” she said before turning to the guard and issuing a stream of argument, threats, and ‘my father’s’. I walked over to Peregrine.

“Why did you lie?” she asked “You saw me become a changeling, why did you lie?”

I grinned at her. “I saw you become a changeling when you helped Hoofcraft with those shelves. I almost called the guard, but something didn’t add up. So I carefully questioned Spectrum, from her reaction I was able to glean that she knew about your secret, and that she wanted to keep it. I may not have known her for very long, but I trust her, and I trust her to do the right thing, and then I had and idea.” My grin grew even wider. “So I went to the Ponyvile library and looked you up in the local records, they said that you moved here from a town called Flank over in the Hoofington area. But when I looked at the Flank records, you were nowhere to be found. It’s as if you just appeared from nowhere, which means you probably didn’t take the place of some other pony. If you meant us harm, you would have replaced somepony. Probably in a high-up position, like the mayor.” I frowned. “The only thing I don’t know is why you are here.”

She smiled. “The reason I’m here, put quite simply, is freedom. It’s not any fun, being hated and feared. Spectrum found me smuggling people out of Canterlot during the invasion, and she was able to convince me to come to Ponyvile with her. And she was able to convince her friends to keep my secret.” She spread her wings, showing off her form. “Do you like it? She designed it right down to the cutie mark. Two spread wings, freedom.” She folded her own wings. “So, are you going to keep my secret?” I nodded.

“It would be a bit vindictive of me to tell the guards now, wouldn’t it?”

“Maybe,” she grinned.

I grinned right back. “Let’s go tell the others.”

Author's Note

Hoofington and Flank are Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons references, they belong to Somber, FoE belongs to Kkat, and MLP:FIM belongs to Hazbro. All OCs are mine.