Chapters The truth must be brought to light!
Scoop Story looked to his boss hopefully. "I feel it in my cutie mark, it's tingling! There is something big here!" The dun-colored earth pony was almost bouncing in the uncomfortable chair across from his boss, the editor of Canterlot Daily.
"Another conspiracy theory? Scoop, I love your fictional pieces, but you are asking me to reserve the front page, I need real proof this time. We cannot run with 'Princess Steals all the Cake' again, and although she did have a lot, she purchased it all." Perfect Copy rubbed her forehead, her horn always ached when she thought of what had happened. She had set up a little fund, now, that made sure a nice slice of cake was sent to the princess every Friday. "How about this, you get me proof, real proof, that there is a changeling conspiracy in the castle and I will give you front page rights."
The pink maned stallion nodded along to the mare. He just needed proof… that something wasn't right about the changeling invasion… that Celestia was covering something up… "Yes boss." Scoop didn't let it get him down, he had this!
Bouncing from the stiff and uncomfortable chair, he trotted from the room, infused with a new energy.
Perfect gave a sigh and got up, stepping around she checked the chair, twisting a few knobs. "This thing looked far too comfortable, gotta be a better way to discourage ponies from comin' in here."
"Oh, Snap!" Scoop reached a hoof out and curled it around the young mare's withers, pulling her along. "Got a job, we need to take a little trip, but first we gotta find out what the princess has in her dungeon, I bet there are changelings in there!"
Snap Shutter curled her wing up to protect her precious camera. "Scoop, last time I did a job with you we ended up actually tarred and feathered. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get tar OUT of feathers?" The bright purple pegasus shuddered a bit at the memory, her blue mane swishing to one side. "Tar is meant, specifically, to stick to feathers, that is why-"
"This will be different, you will see! I just know there is something going on and we can get to the bottom of it." Scoop raised a hoof and gestured to the castle. "Now, I am pretty sure they blocked up the way I got into the dungeons last time, and I know they blocked up the tunnel I used the time before that. I have heard there is a way into them from the crystal caverns under the castle, but I will need somepony that can fly and carry a rope…"
"No." Snap tucked her wings in tight, instinct making her want to protect them. "No no no…"
"I said no dammit!" Snap had the rope over her shoulder and spread her wings. "So why am I here?"
"The truth needs to be free!" Scoop used his normal battle-cry, pointing up to the high ledge. "If you can get up there I am pretty sure that is where the loose stones are."
Snap leaped into the air and started circling up toward the ledge. "Wait, pretty sure? How did you find out about this?"
"Oh, a thief told me. He spent a whole night drinking on my tab before he finally admitted he couldn't work out what else to do with the info." Scoop watched the mare land and tie the rope off on a thick stalagmite of crystal. Grasping the end that was tossed down, he started to climb. "I really think he was just happy getting a free night of drinks out of it."
When Scoop got to the top there was a more-angry-than-usual Snap waiting. "So we are here, breaking into the castle, because you got some information from a drunk criminal?"
Scoop tilted his head, a hoof rising up to tap his jaw. "Uh, yup!"
Anger, pure rage, Snap couldn't work out why she was even here and, if it wasn't for the infuriating stallion being pretty much stuck here without her help she would just fly off. She closed her eyes, started counting down. Five. Four. Three.
A piece of masonry fell on Snap's head and had her seeing stars. "SCOOP!"
But when she looked all she could see of the stallion was his plot squirming through the hole he had made, just above them. A wicked grin crossed the mare's snout and she jumped, using her wings to twirl her in mid air and landed a swift kick to Scoop's flank.
The thump as Scoop landed inside was accompanied by a, "thanks!" Scoop looked around, he was in what he knew to be the lowest part of the dungeon. It was empty. This really wasn't right, clearly there must be a new extension with the changelings all in it. "Snap, can you squeeze throu- oh, there you are."
Snap had tucked her wings tight and easily made it through the hole, the problem was there were voices coming, one of them was Celestia's!
Scoop looked around, then spotted the unlocked cell and, grabbing Snap with a hoof, darted in and hid in the darkness.
"… changelings all sorted? Good, good. Don't want any loose ends this time, it all needs to be sorted and squared away." Celestia was walking along with another pony at her side, one Scoop didn't recognize. There was the softest click from beside him as Snap held up an odd-looking camera in the dim light and took a photo. "Well, nothing else for it, lets go see that Chrysalis is dealt with…" the words trailed off as the princess and her stooge walked off.
"You got that, please tell me you got that." Scoop was bouncing from hoof to hoof.
"Scoop, you are the worst journalist I have ever worked with, but somehow you have stumbled onto something. Yes I got it, my little nighteyes camera was worth every bit." Snap leaned in and kissed the stallion on the cheek. She hated to encourage him so much but darned if he wasn't right this time.
They stalked the princess, following her and her companion as silently as an earth pony and a pegasus could. They at last saw them enter a cell and disappear from sight. "Okay, if we want to know what is going on we need to get a look in there. If we need to…" Scoop took a deep breath. "I will charge in and distract them and you get out with your cameras… tell my story."
Snap looked a little shocked, it was genuine sentiment from the stallion and a little sweet, too. She gave his command a sharp nod and a little salute. Slowly, carefully, the pair of journalists worked their way along until they came to the edge of the… empty cell.
"What? We got all worked up for nothing?" Snap trotted out and then noticed a glint in the cell. There was a big mirror. "Hay Scoop, what's this?" The gate of the cell gave way easily, it wasn't locked.
Scoop trotted past the pegasus and lifted a hoof up to touch the surface of the mirror. It felt like something grabbed his hoof and started pulling. "Snap, uh… help?"
The stallion's words sounded so small from the usually fearless pony and Snap reached out to grab his tail and pull back. When something pulled really hard, however, the mare wasn't ready for it and with a cry she was dragged into the mirror with him!
"Well well well. By the pricking of my hooves. Something wicked this way moves." The voice sounded strange to Scoop as he slowly came back to his senses. He looked forward and saw hooves. Black hooves. Black hooves with holes in them.
"Scoop, what happened?" Snap's voice sounded shaky and Scoop reached a hoof to her, accidentally poking her in the eye. "Hay, that hurts!"
The deep gasp from above them was followed, swiftly, by both ponies being picked up in glowing green magic. "Oh drat, that looks bad, here let me get a cold compress!" Scoop finally worked out which way was up and looked at who was carrying them, or more to the point, what.
Chrysalis.
"Oh Celestia please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me, please don't… hurt… me?" Scoop and Snap had been set down on a soft couch and the pegasus mare felt something cool pressed over her sore eye.
"Uh, thank you…" Snap's other eye worked, and the great queen of the changelings stood before her, fangs on display, her eyes filled with wrath… wait, that isn't wrath. Snap blinked her good eye a few times. Concern?
"Oh trust me, I know how much that one hurts. One time, Princess Celestia was meant to raise her hoof and call down the sun to send me packing and, instead, she got me right in the eye. Her shoes are really solid. Oh, hold on." The changeling queen coughed and held her hoof up, revealing the dangerous-looking fangs were removable. "You know how it is, sometimes you just gotta play dress-ups! Oh, look at that, both asleep again."
Author's Note
Yay! A new short story (this will only be a few chapters). Like? Hate? Comment! Vote!
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The truth is free... well, only five bits.
"No, get back from her!" Scoop's brain was screaming at him to run but there was something in the little earth pony that wouldn't leave his friend to the evil clutches of Chrysalis'… tender… mercies…
The changeling queen had put her fake fangs aside and had found another scrape on Snap, treating it with a wet cloth to clean it.
"I simply won't leave her in pain. Do you have any idea what negative feelings have a tendency to do in a hive of changelings? Pretty soon everypony would be feeling down and we would have ponies wanting days off work to cope with it and… no, no I won't allow it." Chrysalis busied herself, humming reassuringly to Snap and leaving the mare looking more than a little dazed at the kind care of the 'evil queen'.
Scoop parked his flank and watched, unable to make out what he should really do. Technically the queen was helping his friend, but something didn't seem right. This wasn't how she was meant to act!
"Okay, now that is taken care of, how did you two get here?" Chrysalis levitated the timidly smiling pegasus up onto the soft couch and found her own seat. "I can take a guess that Princess Celestia left her own mirror-gate somewhere careless, like in her bedroom, and you scurried through it?"
The earth pony shook his head, this was all too odd. "No, she had it hidden in a dungeon, I thought she had changelings down there?" Scoop pulled his little notepad out, this wasn't the conspiracy he had expected but his cutie mark was practically on fire, there was a story here.
"She better not, that wouldn't be nice at all, and after I let her new princess win this time!" Chrysalis settled down in a nice pile of pillows, getting comfortable.
"Let her win? But the Elements of Harmony battled your hoard while Princess Cadance broke the spell you had on Shining Armor and their love blew you and your drones away!" Snap had shaken the comfortable feeling and cut in on the conversation.
"Oh, sure, from one angle it would look like that. Hay, why don't we get another angle, if you don't trust me. Cadance?" Chrysalis smiled and lifted her head to call out.
Princess Cadance, wearing a cute little hat and a surprise, trotted in from another cave. "What is it Chrysy? Oh, we have guests?"
"Your auntie left her mirror laying around again. I swear, why doesn't she lock it up somewhere?" Chrysalis gestured to the pair. "Tell them what happened, they think the last play was all some big battle!"
"Well, it sort of was." Cadance trotted to a cabinet and rummaged around in it with her magic. "The ponies of Equestria need a little shake-up every now and again, monsters, beasts, changeling invasions. One of these things is not like the others. Ah, here it is."
A heavy, bound tome of loose papers landed before Scoop.
The Changeling Invasion of Cadance and Shining's Wedding
Snap reached a hoof out and turned the page over, a table of contents… or more, it was scenes. The pegasus started off reading through it. "This is a script!"
"It sure is, took us all a year to study it up. I think you really were the star, Chrysi." Cadance sat herself down beside the changeling. "You up for another game of hoof-ball?"
"But, this can't have all been a script, your fights, the Elements battle with the drones in the streets." Scoop batted a page where it clearly listed adlib by Cadance to encourage Twilight to help her . "No… but wait, why all this game? Why the charade?" He couldn't possibly be believing this, could he?
"How did the ponies of Canterlot react?" Chrysalis produced another copy of the script and flipped through it, pointing at one bit with a hoof.
"Oh, that was so fun! Our two-part aria was great!" Cadance clopped her hoof and lifted her voice in song. "This day is going to be perfect!"
"The kind I wished since the days that I was small…" Chrysalis had burnt in green flame a moment, becoming a copy of Cadance so she could sing the perfect duet. Both ended up giving a happy sigh as their memories recaptured the moment.
"They… they were overjoyed… their princesses had won, the Elements did their part…" Scoop's world was tilting and listing all over the place. If this was a lie, what else?
"Exactly!" Cadance replied and then got a bop on her head from the other Cadance, before burning in fire and becoming Chrysalis again. "Ponies have thankfully short memories, Celestia makes sure not much is recorded about changelings and nothing about the invasion and, in another few hundred years, I will come in again, beating down the defenses of the city and get thrown out or win. I love winning, we get to pretend to be evil dictators until some heroes show up and defeat me!"
This made the earth pony pump a hoof in the air excitedly. "There was a cover up! I knew it!"
Two sets of eyes focused on the pony, Cadance and Chrysalis both giving a sigh and turning to each other. "Nothing for it." Chrysalis raised her shoulders with a shrug.
Cadance nodded. "Yup, you have to stay here now. You know too much and if you ever got word of this out… well ol' sunbutt would flip her lid."
Shining Armor stepped into the room. "Hay Cadie, Chrysi, you coming back out-" He stopped when he saw the two ponies. "Hi… uh, what's going on?"
The pegasus threw her hooves in the air. "He went and did it big time. In the past it has been snakes, zebra, breezies, then the last time it was Celestia and her cakes. Scoop Story, you have really taken the cake this time, now we are trapped in this stinky hive and we can't go home!"
"My hive is stinky?" Chrysalis looked shocked but got a reassuring pat on the shoulder from Cadance.
"A little, but you get used to it." Shining smiled, taking the heat out of his words. "But yeah, you can't go back now, I know that look. The first pony you see and you will be screaming about crazy changeling conspiracies and you know what, somepony might just believe you."
"But… but my story…" Scoop was heartbroken. His purpose, his destiny. It was all being threatened to be stolen from him.
"Write it." Chrysalis was the first to move, empathy was built into changelings, if a pony felt sad they felt sad, if the pony was happy they were happy. She moved over and knelt before the little earth pony. "Write your story, please, I would adore there to be an actual written testimony to this."
Scoop, strangely, didn't feel intimidation from the 'dread queen' crouched before him. "You… you mean that? But who would read it?"
Hooves raised. Cadance lifted hers, Shining too. Chrysalis looked to Snap who reluctantly raised her own. "Only because nopony ever wants to edit his scrawl."
"Hay, I don't make mistakes! I just get caught up in the writing…" Scoop looked at the mare beside him and couldn't stop a smile. "Okay, I will do it. But I am going to need to do it properly. I need to investigate both here and in Canterlot, I need to have the freedom to see and talk to who I must."
"And you won't give the game away?" Chrysalis already believed that he wouldn't, but she figured he should at least say it.
"No, I won't." The earth pony took a deep breath. "But you have to promise that the book will get published and anypony who wants to read it can."
"Uh, Chrysi, we can't-" Cadance sounded unsure but the queen shook her head.
Chrysalis grinned and booped the journalists, each, on the nose. "Sure we can, it all comes down to the spin."
Excitement stirred in the stallion again, Scoop feeling his destiny swirl and move him again. This was right, this was what he was meant to do, uncover the biggest conspiracy in Equestria!
The Secret History of the Changelings
Scoop had a foreleg around his special somepony. It had taken them quite a while but he and Snap had finally gotten the book not just written but published. Life wasn't so bad in the hive, the changelings were pretty chill on the whole and they loved to hear crazy stories about Canterlot.
Snap flipped the book open and giggled at there being a foreword by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza herself!
This might be a work of fiction, but gentle readers, you will soon be so immersed in the secret world of the changelings and their long-held pact with Princess Celestia that you won't care a bit. I read this story to my filly and now she wants to be a changeling when she grows up. Thank you, Scoop Story, for crafting the most devious and thrilling plot of all time.
"You aren't even mad that everypony will think it a foals tale?" Snap leaned a little more against Scoop.
"Nope, haven't got time to. I just got the most amazing letter from a pony who only signed it K Sombra. I think I have a new story brewing already!" Scoop gave the pegasus a hug and they started reading.
Author's Note
Short and sweet. Hope everypony liked this different look at the changeling queen, who turned out to be one of the nicest ponies in the whole story
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Scoop Story read the note again. It had been delivered by a changeling who had shrugged when he asked who had sent it.
Meet me in Ponyville, the truth must be told.
His flank tingled, right where his cutie mark was. "Honey? I think we might have a job." Scoop had called out to the mare of his dreams.
Snap trotted into the main cave of their little home. "What? You don't mean-"
"Yes, there is another mystery." Scoop was on his feet, one hoof raising to circle around his special somepony's withers while the other lifted, gesturing in the direction of 'fate'.
A wing snatched up the paper and Snap Shutter read the missive. "Ponyville? Oh this will be nice, we should pack for cool weather." The mare kissed Scoop's cheek and, like that, plans were made.
The journey felt like years, they had been forced to travel to Dodge City and then via the railway to Ponyville. "Why are you using blue ink to mark all over the nice map?" Snap poked Scoop with a wing as he was marking their journey with a dotted line. "Oh, and now you have smudged it."
"Ar rarr irr rrirriari- I don't know, it just seemed important to the story to lay it out." Scoop spat the quill out halfway into his sentence, the words prior to then coming out as gibberish.
The train gave a jerk and a shunt as it began to slow. "Ponyville! Ponyville next stop!" A conductor called.
"That's our stop." Snap looked out the window at the nearing town. She paid some attention to her collection of cameras. She had her basic, or Snapper as she called it. Then she had her favorite, the nighteyes camera that could take pictures in the dark. They had been joined by the newest toy, one she had saved up for. "My little Sourcerer." She stroked it gently with a wing, it could take pictures of magic.
Scoop was wearing a trench-cloak that hid most of his features, particularly with the matching hat. "Now, we need to find our informant."
"Hi!" The pair were greeted the moment they got off the train. "You look new, welcome to Ponyville!"
Both ponies turned to look at the mailmare who had greeted them; the fact they were a mailmare was interesting, did she send the message? Scoop was brooding even as Snap stepped up to the mare. "Hi, we are just visiting, my special stallion is looking for some inspiration for his new book. Somepony told us they had a great idea for it."
Muffins blinked her eyes. "Do you have something in your eye? You are winking a lot…" She tilted her head to the side as her own eyes seemed to scatter, looking at each of the two visitors.
"Oh, oh yes! Inspiration!" Scoop strode forward but it seemed the mailmare's eyes had decided that he wasn't interesting, they looked at everything but the stallion right in front of her nose.
"You are a writer?" Muffins caught back on to the conversation and looked around. "Nopony I know of has mentioned inviting a friend to town, you should ask around though!" She picked out the letters from the bag before her, securing them in her saddlebags.
"That's not our contact…" Snap nudged Scoop in the side as she whispered to him. Louder, the photographer said, "That is a great idea, let's go!"
Pulled away by one of the mare's wings, Scoop was reluctant but went with Snap's evasion. "What? She was just about to talk!"
Snap sighed. "No, she didn't know anything, probably a few changelings short of a hive."
Muffins watched the pair wander off, talking to themselves. Casually, she reached into her saddlebag and nosed at something. "Two strangers just arrived, they know something. Somepony must have talked." She nosed the object again and the cheerful smile hadn't even left her snout.
"Hi there! I'm Pinkie Pie. New in town? I bet you are! You look like you need a party!" Scoop and Snap both froze as they were assaulted with words that, try as they might, neither could fully understand, it was like the pink mare was talking faster than the world itself could properly take notice.
"Oh, uh, no! We are looking for a friend. They sent us a letter-" Scoop was trying to be circumspect but Pinkie cut in.
"That asked you to meet me here and I could tell you," Pinkie deepened her voice, "the terrible truth!" Both reporters blinked. "That was me, sillies. I thought it was important, there are lights out at the old castle of the two sisters. Last time there was something going on out there it was-"
"Nightmare Moon…" Scoop cut in, his eyes going wide as saucers.
"What? No. I was going to say Rarity was looking for some curtains. But before THAT, NIGHTMARE MOON!" Pinkie's voice raised louder and louder until she was shouting.
Snap and Scoop tried desperately to quieten the mare down. "Where is it?" Scoop asked, trying to pin down the one thing, apart from sub-atomic particles, that never can be. "Where is this castle?
Pinkie blinked, she had been hustled between two houses and she loved how Scoop's cloak seemed to hug the shadows. "Oh, I can show you… I don't suppose you have another coat do you? Mine is in the wash."
As the three ponies bounced out of Ponyville, along the path that led to the Everfree Forest, none of them noticed the gray-winged shadow they had gained.
"What is up with this town?" Snap Shutter gestured at the pink pony who was, right then, running between trees in the Everfree Forest and… laughing them into submission. "They are either crazy or deficient."
"It is a ploy, it has to be. Nopony is this crazy." Scoop had to admit that the forest was spooky, but it did set off his coat perfectly. The fact that Snap had a wing over his back, hugging tight to his side, was simply a bonus.
"Here we are!" Pinkie Pie bounced in place, her last song was the best one yet and she went back to humming it between words. Lightning speared down, illuminating the huge ruined castle. Of course, Pinkie giggled at that too.
Scoop strode up to the front door and froze, he could hear voices.
"Tia, it just isn't fair that you get the holiday this time." They were mid conversation and Scoop had immediately recognized Princess Luna's voice, although she was speaking in a much more relaxed manner than he had ever heard before. "I mean, mine was just over…"
"Lulu, you took a whole millennium." That was Princess Celestia's voice! "You know the spell, can you just work it, please?"
There was a deep sigh. "Alright, but I am totally going to tell everypony you went crazy and I had to exile you." Luna's voice slowly got harder to hear as the sound of gathering magic was heard.
"Snap, Sourcerer! Now!" Scoop held out a hoof but was shoved out of the way by a dashing pegasus. Denied the chance to take the picture himself, Scoop instead pushed the door wide just as the blast of white shot into the sky.
"Got it!" Snap exclaimed, doing a spin in place.
"Who is there?" Luna's voice grew angry immediately, and a little worried.
A blur of gray landed behind Snap and Scoop, two big wings halting any hope they might have for escape. "Princess Luna, the two I spoke of. Their informant was Pinkie Pie… she ran a little too quickly to catch." Muffins was glaring at the pair.
"The camera." Luna held out a hoof and Snap sighed deeply, she held out Snapper to the alicorn. The Princess of the Night knew how such devices worked, she opened the back and exposed all the film inside. "Now, what to do with… I know you. Scoop Story… I don't suppose there is any way I could bribe you not to write about this?"
Scoop looked defiant, he had faced down princesses before, although the Princess of Love had been a lot nicer about trying to intimidate him, even letting him publish his first big conspiracy. "The truth must be free!"
"Then there is nothing else for it. Agent Muffins, kill them both and dump their bodies." Luna began to turn, giving the softest of sobs.
"WAIT!" Both Scoop and Snap cut in, even as the gray menace behind them took a step closer.
"Look, when I said the truth… okay, you know what we did with the whole changeling invasion thing?" Scoop was rubbing a hoof in the dirt. "Well, what if we did that again? Even got a forward by Nightmare Moon herself?"
Luna turned back, eyes calculating. "Two stories. I want you to write about my history, real one." She grinned, with her sister gone to the sun, things would be much more relaxed.
Scoop sighed and gestured to Snap. "Hay, I worked hard to keep her from destroying the picture!" Luna's head snapped around to the duplicitous pegasus. "Please Your Highness, that spell looked… wow."
"My sister kept the freedom of the press to… manageable levels. I think she will be surprised when she gets back." Luna grinned and spread her wings, catching up the two investigators.
"And what would this other book be about?" Scoop would write the princess twenty books if it meant he got to tell the truth.
The Moon and Other Tourist Sites
Author's Note
Well, this happened. I was sitting here, thinking of Luna and Celestia on holiday, then I wondered, what would happen if Luna's thousand year exile was just a 'little break'. Of course, Scoop Story was the best pony to send in to find out!
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