Twilight Sparkle: Friendship Expert

Sunset was unceremoniously shoved to the side as she made her way to her locker. She just barely managed to catch herself, turning around and taking in the angry visage of one Rainbow Dash, captain of the soccer team.

“Hey, friend stealer,” said Rainbow with a disgusted look on her face.

Sunset’s face fell. “Are we really doing this again Dash?”

“I don’t know, are we?” Rainbow crossed her arms, leaning into Sunset’s face.

“I’ve already apologized, I don’t know what more you want from me.”

Sunset sighed, looking around at the near empty hallway. A few faces looked back in concern but she knew none of them would step forward to help either of them. She started to slowly back away with a neutral expression on her face.

Rainbow followed her step by step. “Why do you still show your face around here, you know you’re not welcome right? No one really wants you around.”

Sunset’s eye twitched, but she kept her expression blank. She was considering just making a break for it when she heard the sound of running footsteps coming towards her.

“Rainbow Dash!” called out Fluttershy, a panicked expression on her face.

Sunset watched as Rainbow flinched, before plastering a very fake looking smile on her face.

She turns around slowly, almost mechanically. “What is it Flutters? Can’t you see I’m just talking to my good ol friend Sunset.” Rainbow chuckles nervously, eyes darting around for any sign of escape.

“Rainbow, I can’t believe you, we’ve talked about this.” Fluttershy looked like she was about to break down crying.

Sunset took the opportunity to dash away. She wasn’t dealing with this nonsense again.

Pinkie stood in front of a small crowd. “All right people, you know why you’re here. Sunset’s birthday party is coming around, and I’ve got something epic planned.”

Bon Bon raised her hand. “I can handle the sweets, but I’m kinda busy with… stuff this week.”

“Of course, wouldn’t want you to keep you away from your… stuff.” Pinkie looks at her with a knowing grin, Bon Bon looking back with sudden suspicion.

Before she can say anything though, Pinkie has already moved on. “Hopefully Ditzy can handle transportation.” Ditzy gave her a thumbs up. “And I’ve talked to Principal Celestia, so we’re holding it at her house this time.”

Pinkie pulled out a white board and a marker, starting to scrawl a complicated series of symbols and pictures down. “We got DJPON3 on for the music,” Vinyl grins. “And Trixie can handle the entertainment.”

Trixie huffs. “Trixie is only agreeing so you don’t hire another one of those creepy clowns.” She mumbles under her breath. “Trixie still has nightmares sometimes…”

“I’ll handle whatever Bon Bon can’t on the food side of things, and the decorating. Now the real question is what flavour would be best for Sunset’s giant cake…”

Pinkie Pie was worried. This was strange for the usually carefree party pony, but even as she gave a big smile to the crowd there were thoughts that wouldn’t leave the back of her mind. Like the fact that her necklace was vibrating right now.

She continued to flip and twist about on the giant bouncy ball, juggling a number of improbable objects. One of the fillies was looking terrified as she completed yet another arc in the air, trying desperately to escape Pinkie’s juggling vortex. They were being pretty silly, after all, this Pie was an excellent juggler.

She was keeping an eye out on the ponies around her as she did so though. As much as she just wanted to let go and enjoy the party… She didn’t want to worry Twilight.

They had been passing letters back and forth since they parted, and Pinkie had already decided that Twilight was her best friend. None of the other ponies she met put in as much effort as she did, and Twilight never dismissed any of the things she said, no matter how silly they might sound.

It was kind of nice.

She flipped off of the ball, reveling in the accolades of her tiny peers. They were adorable really, and there was nothing she loved more than all those smiles. Another reason to take this seriously, she didn’t want any ponies to get hurt, a hurt pony was an unhappy pony, and this was a Pinkie Pie party.

There were only supposed to be smiles here.

Pinkie Pie sipped at her cup of punch. It was fruity and refreshing, she was impressed with her excellent party planning skills once again. She noted that she could probably improve the recipe with a little more sugar. She swiped a slice of cake and shoved it into her mouth wholesale, eyes still scanning the party. For danger, or frowny faces in need of cheering.

She had noted a few ponies she hadn’t invited, or even seen before. Which was weird, because she’d been to ponyville before, and she never forgot a friend. One or two new ponies maybe made sense, but there were too many of them for that to make sense.

And their smiles... they didn’t sit right with Pinkie Pie at all.

A lonely statue in the middle of a beautiful garden shakes and shudders. Pieces of stone beginning to fall to the ground, slowly building up in size until a large cracking sound echoes through the small clearing.

With one final heave, spiderweb cracks spread out over the statue. In a single moment the entire thing falls to pieces, revealing a living and breathing figure where once was only stone.

Discord fell onto the hard stone surface panting, eyes wildly looking around from left to right for any sign of danger. He slowly pushed himself up, sitting down on the now empty podium covered in shards of stone.

He snapped his fingers, sparks coming out and fizzling on contact with the air. “Well, that’s not right.” He murmured to himself.

He tried to lift himself up into the air, falling to the ground in an undignified heap a moment later. He scowled, snapping his fingers and getting another few sparks. There was a sputtering noise before the sound of an engine starting filled the air.

It sounded really unhealthy.

Discords face shifted into a grimace, and he took a deep breath. A snap of his fingers had an exact replica of the statue in place, one more and he found himself in a dark alleyway near the castle. He grumbled to himself, glancing around to find his bearings.

Twilight woke up slowly, her brain suffering through a fuzzy haze as she snuggled into the warm yellow wing covering her. She could hear soft breathing nearby, but she slipped back into oblivion before she could think too much about it.

She woke up again, calling out a protest as the wing was withdrawn. She heard a squeak from behind her as she blindly reached out for the wing. After a few moments without success, her sleep addled brain gave her a reasonable course of action. She turned around fully and snuggled into the warm something behind her.

Twilight’s eyes finally snapped open when the shaking sensation got too much. She looked to the side at the yellow hooves on her shoulders, before they followed the forelegs up and across the neck into those big blue eyes.

Twilight lay there frozen as a blush started to rush to her cheeks. Her breathing started to become erratic as the shaking slowly subsided. Her world compressing itself to this one instant. She started to feel woozy before realizing that the hooves had moved.

She was pulled into a tight hug as she struggled to regain control of her breathing. Sinking into the embrace and just focusing on one breath after another in succession.

“Are you okay Twilight?” Asked a soft, concerned voice.

She hesitantly nodded against Fluttershy’s chest, remaining quiet. They stayed like that until Twilight’s mother called out that it was time for them to get up.

Twilight looked up at the sound of a bell going off. She was scribbling into a notebook, tucked into the corner of Pony Joe’s donut shop. A cup of coffee was sitting near a plate of donuts at her table.

The store was near empty as you’d expect from such an early morning. A few customers filtered in, but few decided to stay, ordering everything to go. It was mostly different variety of coffee, few bought donuts at this time of day.

The pony that walked through wore a patchwork tuxedo of many bright colors. Twilight was far from a fashion expert, but even she wouldn’t go near that thing. The top hat was alright, but she didn’t really understand the antlers and goat horn sticking out of it. Wasn’t that kind of offensive…?

He walked up to the counter with a slight bounce to his step, looking intently at all the confections hidden behind display cases. He dropped a rather heavy sack of bits in front of Joe and asked him to keep the donuts and coffee coming. After that he shuffled off to the back of the room, not that far from Twilight.

He looked over at her with a wry grin. “I’ve been told it’s not polite to stare.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she looked away quickly. She only looked up again when she heard him chuckling.

“Don’t worry, I’m not mad, at least not that kind of mad.” He gave her a grin.

She cocked her head curiously.

“Just a little something I’ve been told a time or two.” He waved her off.

They stayed like that for a while. The stallion content to wait for his sugary prizes, and Twilight too embarrassed to say a word. A few more customers trickled in over time, some of them stopped to stare at the garish tuxedo, others just ignored him entirely.

Twilight nearly dropped her notepad as she noticed the stallion standing over her shoulder.
“Entropy, by the way. How do you do?” He asked with a roguish grin, eyes flicking away from the notepad for only a second.

Twilight hesitated for a moment. “Uh… Twilight Sparkle, I’m alright?”

“Glad to hear it. You know, if you switched out that glyph for this one you’d increase the overall effect of the network with only a little lost power. Pretty good for a little filly though.” He hummed to himself with that same grin, scanning over her notes with disturbing speed.

Twilight took a moment to run that through her head, surprised to find that he was right.

“Are you a rune specialist of some kind?” Twilight asked slowly.

“Who me? Oh goodness no, it’s just a little hobby of mine. I like to travel you see, picked up a thing or two on my adventures.” He gave her a smug grin. “Spell casting is my specialty, I can do just about anything you know. Back in the day it used to get pretty chaotic when I was around.”

Twilight was a little wary, but curiosity won in the end. She got so stuck into the conversation, she almost didn’t notice Fluttershy knocking on the window when it was time to go.

Fleur and Cadence matched agent Sweet Treats stride as she carried the prisoner to the closest facility. Said prisoner was wrapped in an invisibility blanket, one of the weirder enchanted blanket varieties.

Bon Bon was struggling to look stoic from atop Cadence, occasionally letting out a small giggle. Cadence would have been more amused, if she wasn't so on edge at the moment.

"Hey, Fleur?" Cadence asked quietly.

"Mmm?" Fleur glanced at her before she returned to scanning the road ahead.

"I've never heard of a Changeling getting caught before. Isn't this a bit too easy?"

"Well," said Fleur after a moment. "I know they've been sighted, but we rarely have proof they outright attacked anyone. Most of the time, they get in and out after posing as a ponies loved one from what we can tell."

Sweet Treats glanced at them. "They also have mind control magic. Not just the simple cantrips but the heavily regulated stuff. A ponies mind might have strong enough defenses to keep a hold of anything long term without significant effort, but it would be easy to get rid of the last couple of hours."

Fleur nodded. "Long term mind control also tends to have more and more obvious effects over time. We naturally try to push the magic out and fighting it is draining. You can usually tell by the eyes, after a certain point you can see the magic exuding for them. Not to mention the dead look in them after a significant amount of time has passed."

"Well that's not terrifying or anything." Cadence chuckled nervously, glancing around a little more warily.

Before she could say anything further they had arrived at a nondescript office building. It was in the middle of the government district and Cadence could see a few ponies in suits with sunglasses coming in and out.

"That's not exactly subtle." Cadence muttered.

"Huh," said Fleur. "Did you say something?"

Cadence went to speak, but Sweet Treats had already swept into the front office. She dumped the prisoner onto the floor without a care and ran up to the counter. "Sunny! Been ages, when did you get back?" She called out to the mare behind the counter.

She had a sun yellow mane and a white coat, her expression was unamused. "You really do have no decorum Treats. Would it kill you to act like a professional?"

"I don't know, maybe," said Sweet with a goofy grin.

"Uh, are they alright?" Cadence whispered to Fleur.

Fleur waved a hoof dismissively. "They'll be fine, they always get like that."

Cadence looked on as Sweet continued badgering the stoic faced mare. She looked around surreptitiously, lighting her horn.

"Oh, oh my." Cadence muttered under her breath, blushing.

She turned away, deciding to watch the prisoner while they had their… fight.

Cadence cast her spell again because she was bored. It didn’t do much besides scan the ambient level of love in the area. It was unique to her as the Princess of Love, but it didn’t do all that much aside from telling her how ponies felt about the ponies around them.

The problem came when she started using it in the vicinity of the prisoner. When she lit up her horn and pointed it in her direction she felt a strange sucking sensation, as if her magic was being pulled away from her through a straw. She clutched her head with a hoof and struggled to shut the spell off.

She looked cautiously at the prisoner, trying to figure out what was happening. That was the only reason she had any warning when their eyes suddenly shot open. One second they were laying their unmoving, the next they were thrashing in their bonds trying to get closer to Cadence.

She was quickly dogpiled by a number of the agents hanging out in the lobby. Once the Changeling got knocked to the ground, Cadence was finally able to shut the spell off with a grunt. She shut her eyes in pain, feeling a headache building up.

“Are you alright?” Fleur asked with concerned eyes.

Cadence shook her head. “I think I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about why she reacted like that. I’ve never had that happen before.”

Fleur cocked her head to the side, narrowing her eyes. “What spell were you using?”

Cadence blushed. “Just the love scanner.”

Fleur rubbed her chin, sitting back on her haunches. “That’s one of the spells you can only use because of your… you know, right?”

Cadence nodded. “Yeah, do you think…?”

“Well, you are the Princess of Love right?”

Cadence looked at her for a moment. “Do you think we could use this somehow?

Hours later, the Changeling prisoner was sitting alone in a cell. The room was pitch dark and the walls were made of smooth grey stone. She looked up when a door slowly opened, flooding the room with light.

The stallion at the door grimaced. “Seriously? Do you know how much extra work I’m going to have to deal with because of this?”

“Oh shut up, it’s not like you do anything else around here.”

“I’m only a low level employee, I’m not even supposed to be here.” He pressed a hoof to his forehead, letting out a groan. “This is going to be so dangerous, and this disguise is basically ruined now.”

“So what? We couldn’t get the one we wanted, we’ll get something out of this.”

The stallion shook his head, remaining quiet as he moved over to break her bonds.

The Changeling slowly pushed herself up, stretching out. “You got any info for me?”

“The Princess will arrive soon, you can try to nab another agent if you want, but I’m gonna high tail it out of here first chance I get.” He fixed her with a stern expression. “Don’t screw it up, the queen is displeased as it is.”

She paused. “She’s already heard about this?”

“She was watching personally.”

The Changeling hissed, flashing with fire before resolving into the shape of a small mare with a rose red mane and butter yellow coat. “I’ll see what I can do. This disguise is still valid right?”

“It’ll do for the moment, she has been delayed by two hours, as per the backup plan.” The stallion scrutinized her for any missing details before nodding with satisfaction. “Now get going, we’re low enough on time as it is.”

The mare nodded, making her way out the door quickly.

The stallion cast a few spells, filling the room with a sickly green light. He scanned the room with both his magical senses and his eyes before making his way out the door as well. He had just moved to lock the door when he heard someone coming up behind him.

“Hey Shady, what are you doing out here?”

The stallion turned around, plastering on an innocent smile. “Oh, hey Priceless, just checking on the prisoner. You know how it is.”

Priceless fixed him with a look. “I didn’t know you had clearance for this area.”

He chuckled nervously. “Oh, I got an exception, guess the higher ups were feeling lazy today.”

Priceless stared him down for a moment before breaking into a smile. “Well, can’t say I haven’t been there before. Better hurry along though, I hear the Princess is on her way, wouldn’t want to break protocol in front of her of all ponies.”

“Shady” nodded and returned the smile. “I think I’ll take that advice, my shift is just about over anyway.” He turned to walk away.

And that was when his world turned to black.

Priceless walked over to stand above the prone body, shaking his head. “Trying to bluff a spy… I’m not sure you thought this one through.”

He lit his horn up in a minor communication spell, hooking it into the buildings network.

“Yes, this is agent Priceless Artifact. Passcode, Balefire. I’m going to need someone to come down to the holding area, I’ve caught some kind of infiltrator.” He paused to listen to the response before walking over to the door and peering inside. “Yeah, looks like they got away. Considering the timing, they might still be inside the building though.”

He scanned around the hallway, looking for any signs of danger. “Okay, I’ll bring him with me and keep an eye out. Keep me posted.” He cut off the spell before lifting the body onto his back and heading down the hallway.

His horn was lit and ready to zap anything in his way at a moments notice.