Chapter 130 - A Façade Uncovered

The screech of tyres on asphalt heralded the arrival of the Shadowbolts. Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, and Indigo Zap were still in their school uniforms, while Sunny Flare was clothed in some bizarre mixture of clashing colors. Personally to Sunny, it was absolutely dreadful, but like Lemon had said, it was better than just going around in half her costume. She just hoped no one else from school would see her. It would surely tarnish her already dropping reputation.

“This is the place, yeah?” Lemon said as she put the van into park. “Twilight’s house.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve been here before.” Indigo looked up at the building.

They got out of the van and walked up to the front door, ringing the doorbell. Not three seconds later, the door was flung open by a rather grim looking Sunset Shimmer.

“Thanks for coming over so quickly,” Sunset said. “Come on in. There’s a lot that we’ve learned since last night.” She looked at Sunny. “What are you wearing?”

Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap snickered and Sunny flipped around and glared at them.

“Don’t ask. Please,” she said to Sunset.

“So were you at a party last night too?” Sour Sweet asked. “Did Silver leave our awesome party and go to yours?”

“Not exactly…” Sunset said. She let them into the house and up into Twilight’s room where the other girls were. It was a crowded fit, as the boy who Sunny remembered was Moonglade’s boyfriend was lying on the bed with one of his pant legs rolled up so that it could be bandaged. His name was House Run or something, she kept forgetting. Twilight herself was sitting at her desk with a microscope and a bloodstained knife. Even more bizarrely, there was another Twilight sitting on the floor with a notebook in front of her.

“Woahhh, are we in limbo?” Lemon slid over to where the other Twilight was. “Dude, she looks just like you! Except without the glasses. That’s how I told you apart.”

“I’m from Equestria,” the Twilight on the floor said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Oh…” Indigo said slowly. “Right. Our Twilight almost ripped apart reality trying to get there. Nice.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Bespectacled Twilight waved a hand without looking at them. “But that’s not important right now. We’ve made some incredible discoveries.”

“Yeah, Sugarcoat almost wrecked her phone when you rang,” Sour Sweet told them. “So spill it. What’s this about Silver Rose?”

“Well, for starters…” The other Twilight closed her notebook and stood up. “She’s not human.”

All the Shadowbolts burst out with various degrees of exclamations.

“I knew it!” Indigo slammed a fist on a palm. “See, what I tell you. Witches.”

“Really, I still don’t see how you think they could be witches,” Sunset chuckled.

“Yeah, witches are still humans, ain’t it?” Applejack added in.

“We just surmised the Wings household were witches,” Sugarcoat started. “They cast some spell on Sunny and made her horny for-”

“Ah ah ah, too much information.” Sunny waved her arms between them. “We don’t need to go there.”

“Definitely not,” Lemon made a face. “So what’s your evidence? You must have some. We’ve been looking for some for months and come up with nothing.”

“And what’s wrong with him?” Sour Sweet grunted at the boy on the bed. “Halloween’s over.”

“Home Run got hurt by a dagger.” Sunset pointed to the table where this world’s Twilight was. “Thankfully it was just that. It could’ve been way worse.”

“Someone try to mug him?” Sunny asked.

“We were getting to that,” Twilight said. “But first of all, I’m more amazed that Home Run is still with us. The knife that he got stabbed with was coated in a lethal poison. I’ve been examining it with my microscope.”

“He saved my life,” Sunset gingerly touched a scratch on her face.

“Wait, wait, lethal poison?!” Indigo waited for the Canterlot High girls’ nods before she continued. “How the hay can someone survive something like that?”

“Of that I’m still unsure,” Twilight said with a scratch of her head. “While I work on that, maybe we should sort out the rest of the facts.”

“Alright. Go on, lay it on us.” Sugarcoat found a chair by the wall and sat herself down.

“We’ve already told you that the pink lady, who calls herself Mist Eerie, has been strongarming us into helping repair the sirens’ red gem pendants,” the Equestrian Twilight began. “At first, I had no idea who could be behind it all, as none of the people who came to work with us matched any descriptions of Equestrian villains. But last night, I think we might finally have our answer.”

“Yeah, seems we have another world ending plot on our hands!” Pinkie Pie suddenly edges out from under Sugarcoat’s chair, much to her surprise. “Oh, no offense, Sunset. And I guess Twilight.”

“You know how there are two of each person, one on each side of the portal?” Sunset called back to the conversation with the Shadowbolts before the Eastern Fair. “Well, in Equestria, Twilight’s had to deal with somepony called Queen Chrysalis.”

“Sounds nasty.” Sour Sweet stuck out her tongue.

“She is,” Equestrian Twilight said. “Queen Chrysalis is a changeling. That is, a creature that can shapeshift into other forms. She used this power to switch places with my brother’s fiance and almost conquer Canterlot.”

“Conquer? That sounds a bit much.”

“Well, we managed to repel her at the end,” Twilight waved her hand. “That’s not important right now. What is important is that we saw her again last night. Or what I theorize to be this side’s version of her.”

“So Silver Rose is this Chrysalids?” Sunny deduced.

“No,” Sunset said. “That’s where things get murky. We met another changeling last night, all dressed in black with a sword. She and I had a duel.”

“Right okay, so there’s more than one changeling.”

“Y’all seem to be takin’ this real easy,” Applejack observed.

Sugarcoat shrugged. “After what you pulled during the Friendship Games, nothing can surprise us anymore.”

“In Equestria, there’s more than one changeling as well,” the Equestrian Twilight continued. “But most of them are drones who aren’t particularly smart. But after the invasion, I had an encounter with another changeling who was different from the rest.”

“Well, go on. Stop pausing.”

“To cut a long story short, this other changeling managed to break Chrysalis out of prison, and due to a long string of bad luck, managed to escape us herself. But in the short time that we had her as a prisoner, we learned that she was Queen Chrysalis’ younger sister. A changeling princess.”

“So this is Silver Rose?” Sunny cut in again.

Equestrian Twilight put her chin in her palm in thought. “Again, I don’t think so. Last night, Chrysalis referred to the one that Sunset fought as her daughter, not her sister. Here is where the trail goes cold. To my knowledge, Chrysalis doesn’t have a daughter in Equestria.”

Lemon Zest threw her arms up in the air. “So what does that mean?!” she exclaimed.

“It means we’re dealing with uncharted waters,” Rarity mused.

“So… you learnt nothing.” Sugarcoat folded her arms. “The only thing we now know is that Silver Rose is a changeling.”

“Well, I mean, that’s something, right?” Sunny shrugged. “At least we know they aren’t witches. Or vampires. They didn’t cast any spells on me.”

“We did learn one thing,” Sunset said with a sigh. “There’s a pretty good chance that Silver Rose and Moonglade are the same person.”

“Oh, oka- wait, what?” Indigo did a double take. “Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? How can they be the same person; they look nothing alike!”

“Wait a mo. I think she’s on to something.” Lemon Zest threw a palm at Indigo’s face. “Remember when we went snooping at Silver’s place? We didn’t find her room, but Moonglade had CPA uniforms in her closet.”

“Okay, that is a little bit strange,” Sugarcoat conceded. “But why do you girls think they’re the same person?” She addressed Sunset and her friends.

“The changeling I fought with last night had the same fighting style as Silver Rose; I recognized it from the fencing bout we had back at the Friendship Games. As for Moonglade…” she gestured to the knife on Twilight’s desk. “That knife is one of a kind.”

“Yeah…” Home Run said at last. They didn’t know when he had woken up, but then again, they were talking at quite a volume. He looked to still be in shock about something.

“What’s the matter with you?” Sour Sweet asked warily.

“That knife was a gift for Moonglade. I got it for her. And… I know her. That was her.”

“Well, it’s a bunch of assumptions to say it’s her just from a knife and a fighting style.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “Isn’t there anything more concrete?”

“That’s not good enough for you?” Rainbow Dash waved her arms. “We’re on the edge of a huge secret here and that’s not enough evidence for you?”

“I’m just saying, it seems a bit circumstantial to me,” Sugarcoat held up her hands.

“Besides, even if you’re right, what do we do with this info?” Lemon asked, looking at the knife on Twilight’s table. “Go to the cops? They’d laugh us out of the station.”

“Of course we’re not going to go to the police with this,” Indigo told Lemon. “This requires a more refined solution.”

“Because you’re known for refinement,” Sugarcoat snorted.

“Hey, I’m plenty refined!” Indigo retorted. “We just need to spy on them more. Now that we have a potential lead, we just need to examine that girl more, to see if she really is who you say she is. I mean, if Moonglade is really Silver Rose or not.”

“I don’t know…” Fluttershy said loudly enough to be heard by everyone. “Home Run and Sunset almost died because of this whole thing. What if we’re not so lucky next time?”

“These people already showed that they ain’t got a problem with tryin’ to kill us,” Applejack added. “We gotta ask ourselves, is any o’ this really worth it in the end?”

Surprisingly, it was Sunset who spoke up next.

“I know we’ve had our close shaves,” Sunset said firmly. “But we’ve had our successes too. Chrysalis isn’t entirely all-knowing; we managed to spy on them during that dinner with Home Run, and she didn’t catch him. I know it’s dangerous, and that we might end up like Mr. Pierce, but what kind of heroes would we be if we didn’t stand up for what’s right?”

“Well, what are we gonna do?” Sugarcoat asked. “What are you going to do once we find out the truth about Silver Rose? Are we going to stop them? Stop them from what?”

Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She sat back down on Twilight’s bed and lowered her head.

“I… don’t know, to be honest. The only crime we have any leads on is the death of CHS’s old computer teacher, and even that isn’t really solid evidence. It wouldn’t hold up in a court of law.”

Sunny Flare clenched her fist. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to get to the bottom of this even if there’s a risk. I’ve had enough of being played; I want the truth.”

“Enough of being played…” Indigo snickered, then bumped Lemon Zest, who joined in in muted laughter. “Sure, Sunny. Sure.”

“Anyway, what do we even want to find out?” Sugarcoat sighed and looked unimpressed. “That Silver and her family are shape changing monsters? Don’t we already know that? This other Twilight has basically confirmed it.”

“I want to know why they went to such troubles to repair the sirens’ pendants,” Rarity said with a serious look. “If this is some world domination plot, then we may have just given the changelings the weapons they need to enact it.”

“You’ve stopped them before.” Indigo waved a hand in the air. “Can’t you just, uh, stop them again? You’ve got all that magic hocus pocus.”

“We don’t know how many other changelings or other magical creatures might be lurking around,” Sunset sighed. “If it was just the sirens, I could be confident about victory. But without knowing how many people we’re dealing with here, I can’t guarantee that we could win.”

“And besides,” Princess Twilight intoned ominously. “Equestria’s Chrysalis already managed to take over Canterlot once, albeit for a very short time. If this world’s Chrysalis is like mine, then she could be anyone.”

“Anyone?” Lemon repeated, looking uneasy at this suggestion.

“She impersonated my fillyhood foalsitter, and fooled everyone except me,” Princess Twilight told her.

“Her what?”

“Childhood babysitter,” Sunset translated for the Shadowbolt’s benefit.

“Ah. I knew that.”

“And we’ve seen at least four different people who claim to have been working together to fix the pendants. Who knows how many more of them there may be,” Sunset continued moodily.

“But… what if… what if it isn’t four different people?” All eyes turned to Home Run. “You said so yourself. If they’re uh, what did you say it was, chimplings?”

“Changelings, dear,” Rarity corrected.

“That’s right. Changelings. They can change shape. What if we’re not even dealing with a group of people? What if it’s just one? We found that out earlier, with that Mist something having a resemblance to Ivory Wings.”

“It’s true that the bone structure of Mist Eerie and Ivory Wings does match up,” Twilight agreed. “Sunset, do you have any pictures of these other people you met with?”

Sunset shook her head.

“Well, nuts,” Lemon sighed. “What do we do now?”

“We have a small few advantages,” Princess Twilight said. “For one thing, we’ve figured out what they are, so we can plan accordingly. In addition, they probably think they’ve killed Home Run. That’s obviously not the case, so the changelings won’t be expecting him.”

“But what am I supposed to do?” Home Run exclaimed. “I just found out my girlfriend is some kind of shapeshifting magical creature. Not to mention what that means for the rest of her family. And I just took a knife to the leg; how am I supposed to explain that to my parents?”

“Silver Rose as well?” Indigo gasped in horror. Sugarcoat smacked her on the back of the head.

“We already knew something was up with Silver Rose,” Sugarcoat snapped. “We should have known better from the moment she ripped the locker room door off.”

“Well, we should have known something was wrong from the moment you two started dating,” Rainbow Dash mumbled grimly. “How much of it was for real, do you think? I’m betting none.”

“You mean… What we had. It could’ve been fake?” Home Run was shaken by that.

“Changelings are masters of deception,” Princess Twilight told him. “And we don’t know how many other personas this daughter of Chrysalis might have. We already have a confirmed two, and they were dating two different people here.”

“Moonglade… she wouldn’t do that to me… Would she?”

“Home Run, I’m sorry.” Sunset put a hand on his shoulder. “I really don’t know, but it could be true. I think we… we just need some answers now.”

Sunny Flare, in an unusual display of empathy, put her hand on Home Run’s leg. “If it makes you feel better, I thought I was the only one too.”

There was an awkward moment of silence.

“Man, you know what?” Lemon stuck her tongue out after breaking that silence. “Is it weird to know that your girlfriend’s been running her tongue all over Sunny? And that Sunny’s been doing the same thing?”

“Sh-Shut up!” Sunny pushed her friend’s shoulder. “I-I haven’t even put my tongue up her- It doesn’t matter! I was under some weird spell, okay?”

“Well, they’re changelings. Not witches,” Twilight reminded her from the computer. “Chances are, there weren’t any spells.”

“You mean all this crazy was from Sunny and Sunny alone?”

“Possibly.”

Sunny screeched through her teeth, then fell back and fainted.