Patriots of Equestria, Part 1

"And that's the whole story," said the father pony to Starlight and her friends. "We were simply trying to shelter two ponies who were exhausted and didn't have anywhere else to go. How were we supposed to know that they were Changelings?"

"You both didn't know," replied Sunset. "Believe me, every single one of us in this house have at least been deceived a few times in our lives. However, the Minister of Justice doesn't see that."

All the ponies nodded in agreement on Sunset's remark.

"Well, of course he doesn't," said Discord, knitting a Fluttershy sweater in her likeliness and holding it out for him to look at. "Everypony has been affected by this kind of chaos, especially Fluttershy."

"Who's Fluttershy?" asked the mother pony, holding her foal in her forelegs. "Was she one of the ponies killed in the blast?"

This struck a chord with Discord and he glared at the mother pony sharply, the irises in his eyes glowing a blood red color.

"No, she wasn't," he hissed fiercely. "But, she is fighting for her life, I'll have you know. So, if I were you…"

"Discord!" cried Starlight sharply. "Please! Leave her alone! She was just asking a question!"

Heeding Starlight's cry, Discord snapped his fingers and returned to working on the Fluttershy sweater, much to the annoyance of Starlight and her fellow unicorns.

"I'm very sorry about Discord," sympathized Starlight. "His friends was one of the ponies who were targeted for assassination. And yes, she is fighting for her life right now."

"If we had known that they were Changelings…" the father started to say, but couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Dear, we didn't know," finished the mother pony. "They were just…normal looking ponies to me and in fact, they were trying to sound friendly."

"Sounding friendly doesn't mean that they were trying to hide their true intentions," said Sunset, rising out of the seat she was in and walking over towards a window, looking out of the heavy security that continued to grow and grow. "All that matters is getting these two changelings off of the streets before it is too late. Who knows what they are planning right now?"

As her fellow unicorn continued to look out the window, Starlight reached down and grabbed the Changeling talisman with her magic that was found and put this innocent family in the situation that they were all in.

"Did they tell you anything?" she asked them. "Anything that involved going anywhere outside of Canterlot?"

"They did say that they had relatives in the Crystal Empire," answered the mother pony. "And then, they were going to visit more relatives in Ponyville."

Hearing this made Starlight and her friends feel a connection, a connection that meant that every city that Hopper and Thumper would visit would be another bomb that was planted and timed to go off at any moment.

"When you say relatives," asked Starlight again. "Did they mention anypony in particular?"

"No," answered the father pony. "They just said that they were going to visit relatives. We aren't very nosy ponies, so we just minded our own business. I still can't believe that these two ponies were the Changelings that bombed the marathon."

Hearing that the Changelings were keeping their plans secret brought back memories of when she was hiding her own feelings and intentions when Twilight visited her in Canterlot not too long ago. After all, it wasn't until that party Twilight and her Canterlot friends threw for her did the emotions come out.

Just then, Sunset noticed that the guardsponies that were guarding the house were dashing away along with several other ponies that were nearby.

"What's going on?" she cried as Starlight and Trixie raced over to the window.

"I don't know, Sunset," said Trixie, before turning back towards the family. "But, we'd better find out and if you get a chance to face the minister of justice, you can both proclaim your innocence."

…

Seizing this chance, all of them ran out of the house except for Discord who teleported out with a snap of his lion paw, following the guards. Soon, they all came towards Canterlot Castle where Instant Justice and several other high ranking ponies were outside and looking towards the bottom of the stairs at the front door.

"Those bastard Changelings," muttered Instant Justice as a pair of guardsponies in heavy armor pulled out the backpack containing the bombs. "They tried to set another bomb off here in Canterlot. Well, they aren't getting away with this. I want those ponies under house arrest brought here at once, so I can question them further."

"You don't need to!" cried Starlight as she and her friends arrived with the mother and father ponies. "Because they are right here!"

"My lord justice, we have come to say that we have nothing to do with all that is going on," said the father pony. "We weren't aware that these Changelings were planning anything like this."

Instant Justice was not convinced at all and felt as if Starlight and her friends were trying to cover up for these ponies. Being the high rank official that he was, Instant Justice motioned for several guards to arrest them all. However, Discord appeared and placed them all in a sphere.

"Sorry to do this to you," he sneered. "But, we have a pair of ponies that are just as innocent as they say they are. So, if you want to get out of your time out sphere, you will listen to what they had to say!"

But Instant Justice was not going to listen. As far as he was concerned, these ponies were aiding fugitives and needed to be kept under lock and key unless he said so. But, he had very little choice in the matter.

"They were just looking like normal ponies!" cried the mother pony. "We were deceived by their appearance, my lord justice! Had we known who they really were, then we would have turned them in to you."

Instant Justice continued to pound hard on the sphere, demanding to be let out of the prison that encased him and his colleagues.

"They are saying that they are visiting relatives in the Crystal Empire and in Ponyville!" cried Starlight. "Which is not true! They must be planning more attacks like the one in Manehattan."

One of Instant Justice's colleagues took notice of this and turned to face his furious boss, having felt sympathy for the two ponies that they were keeping in custody.

"She does have a point, Instant Justice," he remarked. "If these ponies say that they are innocent, then they are innocent. Furthermore, every minute we devote our attention towards them is another precious bit of time wasted in stopping the Changelings."

Realizing that they were right, Instant Justice sighed and allowed for Starlight to free him and his colleagues from the sphere.

"Very well," he sighed in impatience as he walked over to the ponies gathered in front of him. "If you say that you were indeed deceived by these Changelings, then I will drop the charges of being an accomplice to them against you. However, if I find out that you were lying to us, I will not only not drop the charges against you, but I will add charges against you four mares!"

Starlight and her friends stood steadfast on this, for they knew that they were not going to be threatened with charges. Instant Justice was just a pony like them and not a demigod like the four alicorn princesses.

"Then we must focus our attention on the Changelings before they reach the Crystal Empire," cried Starlight. "We must stop them before they get there and if they do, Sunburst and Flurry Heart are going to be in mortal danger!"

Heeding these words, Instant Justice motioned for a group of guardsponies to head towards the Crystal Empire. However, at that moment aboard the Friendship Express, the fears that their plans would backfire were starting to affect both Hopper and Thumper, leaving the both of them to start growing desperate.

"Something tells me that they are catching onto us," whispered Thumper. "What do we do, brother? Do we surrender?"

"No, desperate times call for desperate measures," replied Hopper, turning his attention towards the Crystal Empire's train station and in particular, the horse drawn taxi cabs as he branded a small spear in his claws. "If they want to capture us, Thumper, then they will have to take us dead!"