The Discovery

Applejack walked from the shed down to where Shining, Dr. Whooves, and Dr. Stables were waiting.

"Now what?" Whooves asked.

"Twilight says to watch Fluttershy, says she could be one of those things." Applejack explained.

"We need a way to figure out who is a thing and who is a pony." Shining said, looking over to Stables.

"You got any ideas Doc?" Applejack asked. Stables thought for a few seconds before an idea came to mind.

"We could mix samples of the crew's blood with uncontaminated blood, that thing's blood is bound to be different, so it should be obvious." Stables explained. Shining nodded.

"Alright, here's the keys to the blood storage cooler..." Shining said as he gave the keys to Scopes, "..You two, gather the others in the rec room for the test, and keep an eye of Fluttershy." Shining said to Whooves and Applejack.

The entire crew except Shining and Dr. Stables gathered back in the rec room to prepare for the blood test. Each pony in the room gave each other suspicious glances, especially towards Fluttershy. Suddenly, Shining barged into the room.

"We have a problem, come on." He said, motioning for everyone to follow him. They all ran down the corridor to the infirmary, once inside they all looked to see what was wrong.

Dr. Stables was standing beside the cooler where the blood was stored, and saw that the blood bags had been cut, draining it all over the floor.

"The blood bank's been sabotaged?" Whooves said astounded.

"Looks like it, but who did it?" Rarity asked, looking at Shining and Dr. Stables.

"Who had access to it?" Applejack asked. Everyone looked at Stables who sighed.

"I guess I'm the only one." Stables said.

"But doesn't Shining keep the key ring on his belt?" Soarin asked.

"Yeah, but I just give them to Stables whenever he needs them." Shining tried to explain to keep the suspicion off of him.

"Could somepony have stolen the keys off you doc?" Applejack asked Stables.

"I don't see how, when I'm done I always return them right away." Stables responded.

The rest of the crew started getting angry, and the paranoia reached a breaking point.

"I'll bet he sabotaged it!" Fluttershy said, stepping forward and pointing at Shining.

"You should talk! You were alone with that dog, you could have stolen the keys and did this!" Rarity yelled back at Fluttershy. Eventually the argument started to get out of control, only stopping when Soarin saw Vinyl run out of the room and down the hallway.

"Hey, where's Vinyl going?" Soarin shouted. Then the crew immediately turned to follow her.

Vinyl ran down to the end of the corridor and turned to where the weapons locker was, she used a doorstop to smash the glass, and grabbed a shotgun. But then Shining rounded the corner with his gun drawn and aimed it at her. Vinyl backed up into the wall, with an expression of pure fear on her face. The rest of the crew finally caught up and gasped when they saw Shining aiming his gun.

"You guys really gonna let Shining do this? He could be one of those things!" Vinyl shouted as she slumped into the corner.

"Look Vinyl, just relax and put the shotgun down." Applejack said calmly, trying to diffuse the situation.

Vinyl took a few seconds to calm down before slowly sliding down to the floor and placing the shotgun carefully down.

"You too Shining." Applejack said, Shining still aiming at Vinyl.

Shinging turned quickly, the rest of the crew jumping back a bit, as Shining was now aiming his gun at them.

"Now I don't know about Stables, but I give you my word that I didn't go near that blood." Shining said before lowering the gun and setting it down on a stack of boxes.

"Maybe, you'd all be more comfortable if somepony else was in charge." Shining said, giving up his role as commander.

"Maud, you're the leader now, I don't see anypony objecting to you." Shining said, pointing to the geologist. Maud shook her head.

"Sorry sir, but I don't think I'm cut out to lead." Maud said.

Shining then looked around at each crew member, and decided that the one that seemed the most sane and trustworthy was Applejack.

"Applejack?" Shining said nodding to her. Applejack simply nodded and picked up the gun. She then cleared her throat.

"Okay, here's the plan, we are gonna go and burn the blood that's remaining in the cooler, then, we think of a new way forward from there, got it." Applejack said seriously, earning a nod from the rest of the crew.

The crew gathered outside around Applejack who had her flamethrower again, the crew placed the nearly empty blood bags in a pile in a hole they dug in the snow, and Applejack burned them with the flamer. Applejack looked back up to the 9 other ponies gathered around.

"I'm gonna lay down some logic now, I know I'm a pony, and if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still ponies. This thing doesn't want to be seen, it wants to hide inside an imitation, if it takes us all over, it has no more enemies, and it's won." Applejack explained, getting slight nods from them all.

"So here's the plan, we're gonna put Shining, Stables, and Fluttershy in the rec room and sedate them until Whooves can come up with a new way we can test them to see if they're ponies or not." Applejack explained.

"But I need doc's help." Whooves argued.

"Yeah, you don't wanna drug me." Stables said, trying and failing not to sound suspicious.

"I'm sorry Whooves, but we can't take any chances." Applejack explained to Dr. Whooves, who simply nodded in response.

"The rest of you, Soarin, Rarity, Pinkie, Maud, and myself will take turns watching over the ones sedated in the rec room, like I said, until we can find another way to test who's a thing." Applejack said, focusing on the expressions on all the Ponies before her, they seemed normal, but they could just be hiding really well...