Shâshâme’s party had begun to wind down and most of the guests had left, leaving only about a dozen or so ponies to help with cleanup, including Dawn Wings. After helping Shâshâme carry out some of her supplies, including a cannon of some sort, Vinemana Vishicta had pulled her aside and properly introduced her to the farmers. Dawn Wings was already familiar with the orange mare (Maeitechusho), yellow filly (Anaretechusho) and red stallion (Retelo Cameta), but made a show of feigning slight recognition of only the former two. The elderly green mare (Liléta Luthala), on the other wing, was new to her, though she did recognize her voice from her first visit.

Unfortunately, the entire process was painfully awkward for the corax, and she found herself fidgeting as Vinemana and Maeitechusho amicably chatted. With the few times that the unicorn flicked her head towards Dawn Wings, the corax got the sense that the conversation was about her.

‘I hate not being able to speak for myself.’ She thought bitterly as she listened to the two talk.

Her brooding was interrupted when she felt a slight poke on her foreleg. Looking down, she saw Anaretechusho staring up at her with youthful curiosity.

“Maliatha oshele tola tetha.” The filly said. “Nerelae yateleto baema lo?”

Dawn Wings simply regarded the filly for a moment, who continued to look up at her with expectant eyes and a cheerful smile.

‘You’re a brave little one, aren’t you?’ Dawn Wings thought. In her time around the humans, and her own chicks, she’d found that most children were either terribly skittish around strangers, or unfortunately courageous. The little redhead obviously was the latter.

“Sorry kid, can’t answer a question when I don’t know what you just asked.” Dawn Wings said in a warm tone.

To the filly’s credit, she didn’t flee in terror, instead only taking a small step back, her expression shifting from cheerful to slightly frightened.

“Tea tiata co venete lonathale. Vate cha atimi.” She said, her voice now tainted with a hint of nervousness.

“It’s fine kid, don’t worry about it.” Dawn Wings replied, trying to keep her voice gentle and reassuring as she put on a soft smile.

Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye, she glanced behind her, realizing many of the remaining guests had also been unnerved by the sound of her speaking. With the exception of Shâshâme and a few other ponies, most of the others were staring at her with mounting trepidation, a few having actually backed away from her.

Dawn Wings chuckled at their response.

‘Typical. Just like the monkeys.’ She thought. ‘Xenophobic bastards.’

As fun as it was to weird the ponies out, she just wanted to be shown to wherever she was going to bunk so she could get out of this ridiculous pony body and back into her own, far more comfortable natural one.

Spotting the little redhead stifling a yawn, Dawn Wings saw an opportunity. Sure, it’d mean ditching cleanup, but that wasn’t really her problem.

Feigning a casual yawn of her own, Dawn Wings shook her head slightly before wiping her eyes with a hoof, carful to make the action look as natural as possible despite not actually being that tired. It appeared to work, as the action drew the attention of the unicorn and apple farmer. As the former trotted over, she pointed to Dawn Wings with a hoof before repeating the same “sleep” gesture she made earlier.

Dawn Wings simply nodded and casually rolled her neck.

Taking the bait, Vinemana turned to Maeitechusho and spoke to her, prompting the farmer to nod and gesture for Dawn Wings to follow. Nodding herself, Dawn Wings rose with false lethargy and gestured for the farmer to wait a moment.

Trotting over to Shâshâme, Dawn Wings bowed her head to the pink mare and extended her hoof. Shâshâme face split into a giant smile before tackling the corax into a giant hug, much to Dawn Wings’ discomfort. The corax let out a startled squawk at the sudden invasion of her personal space and having the air crushed out of her lungs.

“Please let me go.” Dawn Wings hissed, her brow knit into a scowl.

Shâshâme looked up at Dawn Wings’, uttered a small, apologetic sound and released her before chuckling and rubbing the back of her head. Dawn Wings simply rolled her eyes and gave the pony a friendly tap on the top of the head with the back of her hoof before turning back to Maeitechusho and Vinemana.

Gesturing for the farmer to lead the way, Dawn Wings began to trot after the other pony, taking care to make sure her body language read slight exhaustion, a performance aided by the fact it wasn’t entirely an act. One she’d allowed her mind to process the idea of sleep, she realized that she was actually quite tired.

Once out of the main living room, the pair climbed up a flight of stairs to the second floor, before walking down a short hallway towards the southern end of the house. As they reached the end of the hall, Maeitechusho pushed open a door and gestured for Dawn Wings to enter. The room itself was fairly spartan, only having a small bed, a desk and lamp, as well as a pair of windows facing south and east. Dawn Wings stepped inside, and taking a look around before turning back to the mare and nodding gratefully.

“Unalia tsua.” The farmer said. “Chucala manateala.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Dawn Wings replied, “Good night.”

The mare lingered for a moment, before shrugging and taking her leave. Pushing the door closed behind the farmer, Dawn Wings sighed and sank to the floor, choosing to just lay there for a few minutes and relax.

‘Alone at last.’ She thought. Looking back up at the door, she found that there wasn’t a lock.

‘Wyrm-piss.’ She thought. Not having a way to secure the door put a damper on her mood. Still, the bed looked like it might be comfortable, though she’d planned to sleep in the rafters rather than suffer resting in her pony body. Her irritation was offset by the fact that the room had windows. Even better, one was east facing, so she’d be able to properly watch the rising of the sun.

Trotting over to the window, she nosed the latch up and turned a small crank to open the portal. Dawn Wings happily noted that unlike the unicorn’s home, all of objects in this house were designed with the use of hooves and teeth in mind. It made sense, since the farmers were all normal ponies, not mages.

Taking in a breath of the cool night air, she looked up at the sky, but found the beauty of both Cerridwen and the stars was offset by the sky’s persistent, unnatural cloudlessness. Still, Bridgid’s sister was putting on a lovely show, and the corax found herself smiling as the night sky slowly melted away some of her anxiety. Looking down, she spotted the last few guests making their way home, including Vinemana and Tlectalae.

As she saw them making their way towards the gate of the farm, a sudden horrible thought hit her.

The two of them were making their way back to the library.

Alone.

In the dead of night.

And right back towards the ticks.

‘Gaia’s stony tits!’ Dawn Wings swore internally. With the other ponies all heading home after the party, she didn’t think the ticks would make a move. But, if they saw an opportunity that they couldn’t pass up…

Glancing back at the door, she hoped that her hosts weren’t going to come and check on her later. It’d be awkward if they did and found her missing.

However, the thought of the princess’s student and her pet being assassinated and replaced didn’t sit well with her either. From what the incarna and captain Ropeman told her, the changelings didn’t kill their targets, only took them hostage. From the corpse she found in the canyon, she knew that either they were wrong, or that the ticks had evolved their tactics after their earlier defeat.

Either way, it didn’t matter.

As much as she wanted to perch and get some sleep, Dawn Wings resigned herself to heading back out. Stealing one last glance back to the door, Dawn Wings closed and latched the window before trotting over to the desk lamp and switching it off. Once veiled in darkness, she called on the change and she shifted back into her natural form. Flexing her spiritual power, she stepped sideways through the veil into the spirit world and headed out into the night.

*The sky above Ponyville, material world*

‘They’re on the move. One… four… nine… two more since the last time. Or maybe they’ve just congregated.’ Dawn Wings thought as she drifted high above the rooftops of Ponyville, her powers warning her of multiple threats stirring throughout the town. In the distance, she could see the purple unicorn, and could sense at least three of them tailing her, but others were moving with similar purpose all across the village.

‘This is bad. This is very, very bad.’ She thought as she pumped her wings faster, rapidly gaining on the unicorn and lizard. Now gliding just above the pair, she could faintly hear them chatting amicably with one another, blissfully unaware of their imminent danger.

She could still sense the ticks nearby, but they were either being cautious and waiting for an opportunity, or they were still simply in reconnaissance mode.

Closing her eyelids, Dawn Wings pushed spiritual energy and her will into her eyes. As she opened them, the town now looked as though it were the middle of a clear, sunny day, rather than the dead of night.

‘Much better.’ She thought as flapped harder to gain some altitude and gain a wider vantage over the town. She could see ponies moving all through the village now, like so many Technicolor ants, nearly all of them guests at the party Shâshâme had thrown for her. She didn’t bother to recognize them though. Instead, she focused her attention onto Vinemana. Relaxing, Dawn Wings allowed her active mind to fade away as she entered her state of passive hyperfocus.

Soon conscious thought faded away. There was no Dawn Wings, no unicorn and lizard, no ticks, no freaky pony world. There was only the pattern of movement around a fulcrum.

At first, there was nothing. Only the fulcrum moving along its path. Yet, as she absorbed the world around her, a pattern began to emerge. It started with one shape, then two, then finally three. The three shapes moved around the fulcrum. Always circling at a distance, yet never closing in. As soon as the fulcrum would pass one of the three, another would move ahead. They never moved in front of the fulcrum, only behind, and always from far enough away that they wouldn’t be noticed. The circling ones never made a sound, but moved with nearly perfect coordination, as though they were wordlessly communicating with one another.

They stuck to the shadows, and would have been undetectable to any normal pair of eyes. Fortunately for Dawn Wings and unfortunately for them, her eyes were far from normal.

With a slow intake of breath, Dawn Wings broke out of her meditative trance, and focused her attention on the three ponies she could now clearly see following her tutor. With a shiver of disgust, she recognized them from the ponies she’d seen stalking the unicorn earlier in the day.

It was a confirmation of her fears. The ticks were targeting the unicorn. For what purpose, she had no idea, but that didn’t matter. They were a threat to the princess’s student, and to the ponies.

Still, as long as they didn’t try anything, Dawn Wings knew that she could get some vital intelligence out of these three. After all, while she knew the faces they wore, that wasn’t enough. She didn’t know where the ticks were holding up, and if she was going to help flush them out, she needed to know where they were hiding.

Slowly dropping in altitude, the corax landed on the thatched roof of a building behind one of the ticks. The unicorn would pass by soon, and the tick would be on the move again. But, it gave her an opportunity to see just how much she could learn from the creature.

Calling on her power, Dawn Wings once again focused her spiritual energy into her eyes. This time, however, she did not seek to improve her sight to view the world as though it were illuminated. Instead, she focused her eyes on a more abstract and ephemeral properties of the world: properties of truth behind form and on taint of the soul. On Gaia, these gifts allowed her to identify her fera brethren, as well as other beings that were not as they appeared. While her garou friends would use their sense of smell to “sniff out” other supernaturals hiding themselves in deception, she could use the same powers to “see” past them.

And as her sight pierced the lie around the “pony” before her, she got a brief glimpse of the truth beneath.

The creature had the same basic shape with the pony it was pretending to be, but beyond that, the similarities ended. Rather than fur, the creature’s body was sheathed in smooth black chitin, which was perforated in several places, particularly the bottom half of their legs. A pair of tattered, fly-like wings rested on the creature’s back, while a small, curved horn emerged from its forehead just above its eyes.

But almost as important as confirming that this creature was indeed a tick, the other sight she’d called on showed her something far worse.

All across the creature’s body, there was a spiritual effluence, like veins of festering puss writhing and swirling around the very core of its being. This spiritual contamination gnawed at the creature, as though it were seeking to devour the world through this mortal vessel.

It was confirmation of another of her hypothesis.

The ticks… the changelings… were wyrmspawn. And off all the heads of the hydra they had to be associated with, it just had to be the Eater-of-Souls.

‘Sometimes, it sucks to be right.’ She thought.

Eventually, the unicorn trotted past the hidden tick, which waited a few moments before breaking from cover and moving to get ahead of its target again. Dawn Wings waited for it to be far enough away to not hear her take off before launching herself into the air and circling back up into the sky.

‘I guess all that’s left to do now is see what their next move is.’ She thought as she regained her elevated vantage.

The remainder of the unicorn’s trek back to the library was, thankfully, uneventful. The ticks continued their circling, while Dawn Wings continued to observe them from the safety of the sky. If they just kept observing her and didn’t actually try anything, Dawn Wings would be a very happy corax.

Yet, as the unicorn got closer to her home, the ticks changed tactics. Two of them broke off and made their way around to the other side of the building before concealing themselves in the shadows of the adjacent houses. The third, however, stood up and was briefly engulfed with green flame, its original disguise being replaced by a familiar looking blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail.

Dawn Wings glared down at the creature as it took to the air and gained altitude before flying down towards the unicorn and called out to her as she reached her front door. Looking back over her shoulder, the unicorn’s face split into a smile and a warm greeting as she turned to wave at the marauder, who landed next to her and her pet lizard.

‘Not good.’ Dawn Wings thought.

*****

“Hey Rainbow!” Twilight called as her friend landed next to her.

“‘Sup Dash.” Spike said.

“Hey Twi. Hey Spike.” Rainbow said. “Did you have fun tonight?”

“Of course. Nothing quite beats one of Pinkie’s ‘welcome to Ponyville’ parties.” Twilight said, “How about you?”

“Hay yea!” Rainbow said before her voice dropped a little and she looked back towards Sweet Apple Acres, “That new mare’s kinda weird though. What was her name again?”

“Well, I’m not sure how to actually pronounce it in her native language, but I think it translates to Dawn Wings in Equish.” Twilight said, “And don’t call her ‘weird’ Rainbow.”

“Twilight, she is weird, and you know it.” Spike said.

“Spike, I’d expect you, of all dragons, to know better.” Twilight chided.

“Never said it was a bad thing. But she’s not exactly normal, now is she?” Spike said.

“Oh this I’ve got to hear.” Rainbow said with a sly grin.

“Rainbow, there’s nothing to hear. Sure, she’s not normal by Equestrian cultural standards,” Twilight said as she gave Spike a disapproving look, “but I’m sure she finds us strange and abnormal too. Its all about perspective.”

“Eh, fair enough.” Rainbow said with a wave of her hoof. “Kinda like Zecora then?”

“Exactly.” Twilight said as she turned towards the door. “In any case, I’ve got some stuff to do before I get to bed, so I’ll see you tomorrow Rainbow.”

“Actually…” Rainbow said sheepishly before looking around, and rubbing the back of her head, “I was wondering if you could come with me for bit. There’s something I need to talk to you about… in private.”

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked, her face twisting a bit with concern.

“Oh, no, nothing’s, well… wrong… exactly.” Rainbow said quickly. “Its just that, well, its that I kinda need some help with something, and I figure you’d be the best pony to give it to me.”

“What sort of help?” Twilight asked, confused about how evasive Rainbow was being.

“Look, it’s a little embarrassing.” Rainbow said. “And no offense to Spike, but I’m not sure he needs to hear it.”

“Why not?” Spike said as he crossed his arms.

“Because its something that’s between mares. Just… trust me Spike. I really just want to talk to Twilight. Alone.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Spike growled as he turned and trudged towards the door.

“Sorry Spike. This shouldn’t take too long.” Twilight said before turning back to Rainbow. “So, what’s wrong Rainbow?”

“Well, I can’t talk about it here. There’s a spot nearby.” Rainbow said as she turned and began to trot off.

Twilight looked at Rainbow for a moment before cantering up to her friend. “Rainbow, seriously, what’s going on? You’re starting to scare me a little.”

Rainbow was quiet for a little while, only looking over to Twilight as they neared some of the houses.

“Don’t worry about it Twilight. It won’t take lo…”

Fssssssst.

*Splack*

*Thunk*

Twilight blinked.

There was something wrong. She could feel a warm liquid on her face. And there was something wrong with Rainbow Dash. One second she was talking, and the next, she wasn’t. And for some reason, there was red all over her left eye.

Then Rainbow shuddered.

And fell to the ground.

Perfectly still.

Why wasn’t she moving?

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked as she poked the fallen pegasus, her mind still not quite registering what had just happened. Why wasn’t Rainbow moving?

Then it hit her. Rainbow wasn’t just not moving.

She wasn’t breathing.

Just as that revelation hit her, there was a flash as Rainbow’s body was engulfed in green flame. Twilight took a step back as the body of her friend immolated itself.

Because as the flames died, she saw that it wasn’t Rainbow Dash she’d been talking to.

It was a changeling.

A dead changeling.

Twilight's scream tore through the night air.

*****

Dawn Wings body rapidly shrank from her crinos form back to her natural avian one.

When the changeling impersonating Crayons had started to lead the unicorn towards the other nearby ticks, she knew she had to act, and act quickly. She couldn’t warn the unicorn, because, beyond the language problem, it’d leave her exposed. On the other wing, she couldn’t attack the changeling directly and hope that the unicorn wouldn’t intervene on behalf of the disguised bug. She wasn’t even sure if killing the thing would break its disguise, so even striking quickly wasn’t an option. Yet, when she saw the other ticks getting ready to spring their trap, she had to make a decision.

‘Shit!’ She thought as her mind raced, desperate to come up with a course of action. A few fractions of a second later, she had a plan. It was a bad one. But it was the only one she could come up with that left the unicorn alive and that kept both of them out of the cross-hairs. But, it would probably cause a lot of panic, both among the ponies, and the changelings.

But between that and watching the pony potentially be murdered, it was the best option available.

Calling on the change, she’d shifted into crinos, and then summoned her gift to sharpen and harden her wing feathers. Then, maintaining lift with her uppermost wings, she grabbed one of the bladed pinions in her claws, and yanked the shaft free of her skin, wincing slightly from the sharp pain.

Holding the feather and drawing upon her rage, Dawn Wings poured the mystically enhanced emotion into the feather, empowering it with the desire to pierce and tear flesh. Looking at the changeling, she directed her rage at the wyrmspawn, and, winding back her arm, threw the feather directly at the creature’s head.

The feather, desperate to sink into the object of its fury, flew straight and true before striking the tick directly in the eye. Empowered by rage and the sharpened to a razor’s edge by the lingering spiritual energy of Dawn Wings’ other gift, the feather punched through the wyrmspawn’s eye like a high velocity flechette, passing through its head, and out the other side before embedding itself in the ground near the creature.

‘Gotcha.’ Dawn Wings thought as she watched the tick shudder for a moment as its body began to shut down. Quickly turning her attention to the other ticks, she was satisfied to see that they’d frozen in place, the looks on their disguised faces painted with shock and outrage. However, before either of them could move to intervene, Vinemana let out an ear-piercing scream.

The response was instantaneous. The lights flashed on from several of the nearest houses, and a few ponies threw open the shudders to see what was causing the commotion. At the library, the door burst open and the lizard came running out. Spotting the unicorn, Tlectalae broke into a sprint, before pulling up short upon seeing the body of the changeling. However, Tlectalae recovered quickly and ran up to Vinemana and began to try calming her down.

Soon, other ponies began to come out of their homes to see what was going on. Cursing, Dawn Wings shifted back into her natural shape, and landed in the uppermost bows of the unicorn’s tree. This was going to complicate things. Still, a crowd would probably keep the other ticks from trying something.

Looking towards the changelings, she noted that they were gone.

‘Shit, they’re going to get away.’ She thought.

Focusing her power, she reached out with her sight, desperately trying to pick up the spiritual effluence the ticks emitted. It took a moment, but she spotted one source of contamination quickly moving away from the scene. Not giving Vinemana a second thought, she launched into the air and began to follow the source of wyrmtaint, staying as high in the air as she could without losing the trace.

The creature made its way through town at a casual yet brisk pace, doing its best to keep out of sight. Twice, the tick ducked into cover, and shifted into a different pony’s form. Dawn Wings smiled to herself. She had to give credit where credit was due, it was a clever tactic to throw off a pursuer. And against anyone else, it might have worked. But against someone with the tools Dawn Wings had at her disposal, it wasn’t nearly enough.

As the tick ducked behind another building, Dawn Wings wyrmsense picked up another source of corruption approaching. It was soon joined by a third. Silently gliding down from the sky, the corax landed near the tick she’d been following. A few moments later, five other ticks arrived, and gathered up around the first. Scowling, the corax recognized at least two of them from Shâshâme’s party.

Dawn Wings cocked her head. Of the six ticks below her, she could only sense wyrmtaint on three of them. Then, it dawned on her: the two that had been at the party were not wyrmtainted.

‘What’s going on here?’ Dawn Wings thought, ‘Wait, could they be…’

Focusing her spirit into her eyes, she glared down at the assembled vermin. As her sight pierced their disguises, she only saw three ticks, though one was larger than the other two. But the other three, weren’t ticks.

They were fully normal ponies.

Dawn Wings scowled down at the gathering.

‘So, there are pony’s collaborating with the ticks. Color me not surprised.’ Dawn Wings thought bitterly as she committed their faces, coloration and buttoos to memory. If there were ponies collaborating with the ticks, she couldn’t rely on her gifts to easily pick them out. And that they were probably not the only ones in town.

Her musings were interrupted by the sound of the six beginning a hushed conversation. Realizing that it might be important, Dawn Wings slowly made her way across the rooftop until she was close enough to make out what they were saying. Turning her head, Dawn Wings focused on memorizing everything. She might not know what they were saying, but she knew that there were others that would, and who might be interested in knowing.

The first was explaining something to the others, which was followed by a series of short, and angry responses. If she was to make an educated guess, Dawn Wings suspected that the one she’d been following had just told the others about the mysterious death of their ally, and the subsequent exposure of their presence in town.

There was a heated exchange of words between the tick she’d been trailing and the three ponies. However, before it became too heated, the largest tick stomped her hoof and hissed what sounded like a warning to the others, who instantly quieted down. Pointing her hoof at each of them in turn, she growled a series of instructions before flicking her wrist and appearing to order them to leave. The others shied away in submission, before turning and dispersing into the night. Only after the others had left did the authoritative one turn to depart.

Dawn Wings smiled. Waiting until they were unlikely to hear her taking to the air again, she spread her wings and launched herself into the sky once more. Instead of following her original target, she began following the one that had issued the orders to the others. If she was a higher ranked member of the nest, this was clearly the one Dawn Wings needed to tail.

Soon, the changeling arrived at a non-descript cottage near the northern part of town. Landing in a nearby tree, Dawn Wings watched as the tick skulked in the shadows. For a few moments, the tick kept herself hidden, most likely to ensure that there were no witnesses. Once it was confident that she was alone, her body briefly was wreathed in green flame as she changed her appearance, taking the shape of a young unicorn stallion before trotting up to the door, pulling a key out, and stepping inside.

Silently gliding from the treetop to the house’s thatched roof, Dawn Wings called on her power to detect threats, and found that while there were now only six in range, one was directly below her. What struck her most was that the magnitude of this tick’s threat was slightly higher than the others.

‘I guess this is where the tick’s hiding.’ She thought as she slowly paced across the roof. Looking around, she committed the location to memory before walking up to the chimney and defecating on the southwest corner of the brick structure. It wasn’t the most pleasant way to mark which house it was, but it was one that the home’s occupant wouldn’t likely notice. Or remove.

Still, she was not exactly enthusiastic about the next few days. Killing that tick was going to make them a lot more cautious, especially since she was sure they didn’t know who had done the deed. She had made sure to wait till the tick was in full view of its comrades when she’d put her feather through its head so it would be obvious that it wasn’t Vinemana. At the same time, this was going to escalate things. To start, she’d killed one of them, and she was certain that wasn’t something they were likely to forgive.

Then there was the matter of the ponies. Now, they were aware that there were changelings in their midst, and if these equines were anything like the apes, it would probably cause no small amount of panic. Not to mention the issue of the collaborators. Just how many of the town’s citizens were in league with the wyrmspawn?

It would probably put a bit of a crosshair on her, because she was the new mare in town. And a foreigner to boot. As unfortunate as it was, outsiders were often the first ones that were lynched when a mob got itself worked up.

Dawn Wings’ musings were interrupted when she heard a trio of voices from within the house. Straining her ears, she could hear a masculine voice, presumably the tick’s, as well as a pair of feminine ones, one that sounded very young. Focusing her mind, Dawn Wings called on her ability to see wyrmtaint. As she looked down towards the source of the voices, she could only see one point of contamination.

‘Whoever’s in there with the tick isn’t one of them.’ Dawn Wings thought. ‘More collaborators?’

Taking off, Dawn Wings landed on an adjacent roof, and peered into the windows nearest the voices. The changeling was there. Along with two other ponies. One, a young mare that looked only a little older than the currently disguised tick. The other was a filly, probably not much older than Maeitechusho’s little sister. The tick was currently sitting on a sofa with the little one curled up between his forelegs, chatting with the mare, with a warm look on his face.

Dawn Wings rage began to boil. If the ticks made a living by replacing ponies to feed on love, this one had obviously replaced the loved one of the non-changelings in the house. And if what she saw in the canyon said anything about how they were operating now, the stallion that the tick was impersonating was probably dead and discarded somewhere like unwanted trash.

Taking a calming breath, she focused her eyes on the tick, a low hiss escaping her throat. Now wasn’t the time to be vengeful.

Now was the time to be smart.

Staring at the wyrmspawn, Dawn Wings called on her spiritual energy and sent it lancing towards the tick like a javelin. As it connected with its target, Dawn Wings’ mind’s eye shifted.

*****

Dawn Wings gently flapped her wings as she glided through a misty woodland. All around her, she could see trees filling the landscape into the distance, with only the faintest trail to guide her through the mist. Still, she pressed on. Moments later, she broke free from the treeline and spotted her goal, a gnarled, blackened tree covered with dozens of small, teardrop shaped fruits. Some of these fruits were blue, others were red, and a few were silver.

Upon seeing the tree, her mouth twisted into a sinister, malice filled grin. Unlike the unicorn, this tick had a lot to hide. On the one side, it meant so much delightful blackmail potential. On the other, it meant that she wasn’t as likely to get something immediately useful.

It was no matter. She was here to get a secret out of this tick.

Flying over the veritable wall of thorny brambles surrounding the tree, she gently alighted on one of the branches before taking stock of her choices. As she swept her head back and forth, her eyes fell onto one of the nearby branches, and she made her choice: a medium sized silver fruit.

Working her way up the branch, she snatched the fruit in her beak and swallowed it whole. Instantly, brilliant silvery light emerged from her eyes as she was consumed by a vision.

She found herself standing in front of the changeling, its disguise gone, and its eyes clouded over.

“I’ve always loathed the Queen.” The tick said mechanically. “She claims the majority of the love we collect for herself, and leaves us to starve. As one of her High Reavers, it was simple enough to steal some for myself. It was delicious. Not like the dregs she gives us, but pure, sweet and divine. Once I got a taste, I couldn’t give it up. When the others bring me love to tithe to the queen, I’ve been keeping 1/20th of the pure love for myself. I now keep two ledgers to track what is brought in: one with the amounts we've collected, one with the falsified amounts to be sent to the main hive. If she ever finds out, she’ll have me gutted on the spot. I have to be careful.”

An instant later, Dawn Wings found herself back in her own body. Turning away, the corax snorted through her nostrils as she took to the air and headed back towards the apple farm.

‘Oh, yes, I’m going to take a lot of pleasure in hunting down these bug-eyed freaks.’ She thought to herself.

*****

“Okay Twi, the letter’s been sent to the princess.” Spike said as he brought the mare another cup of tea. Twilight didn’t acknowledge her little brother’s comment beyond a small nod and a slight shift as she pulled the blanket draped over her shoulders a little tighter around her body.

Twilight’s mind drifted back to that awful moment. The sight of Rainbow Dash’s head impaled by some unknown force that completely destroyed one of her eyes and ripped a hole in the bottom of her jaw. Seeing one of her best friends go completely still. The horrid revelation that it wasn’t actually Rainbow, but a changeling.

And the blood.

There was so much blood, both leaking from the changeling’s gaping wounds. And on her face from when the impostor’s eye was obliterated.

Even after taking a shower, she could still feel it in her fur.

Twilight sniffled again. Spike had dragged her back inside and managed to calm her down enough to get her cleaned up and sit in front of the fireplace. He’d wrapped her up in the warmest, most comfy blanket he could find, and had prepared her favorite tea before writing a letter to princess Celestia letting her know what happened.

Turning her head to the side, she saw him standing next to her, a fresh cup of tea in hand. She could feel the tears starting again, but she was too shaken up to bother holding them in. With a hiccup, she bowed her head again and began to quietly sob.

Setting the cup and saucer down on the mantle of the fireplace, Spike waddled over to Twilight and wrapped his arms around her.

“Shh. Shhhh. Its alright Twilight. I’m right here. Okay?” He gently cooed as he stroked her back. “I’m right here.”

Twilight wrapped her foreleg around the little dragon and pulled him tight to her. He was so small, but also so warm and comforting. It was such a little thing: him holding onto her and telling her it was okay. But, right then and there, it was exactly what she needed. So she pulled him even closer and let him gently rock her back and forth.

‘Oh Spike.’ She thought as the baby dragon continued to hold her. ‘Thank you.’

Author's Note

Yea, so… that happened.

For the record, I really don't like stories where someone sees a friend or family member killed or hurt, and just walks it off. That's not how most civilians would react, especially those not accustomed to seeing that sort of violence. Twilight, for all of her adventures, has never witnessed someone die violently right in front of her, especially someone she thought was one of her friends.