Super secret friendship meeting.

Twilight wouldn’t have woken up that morning if she had a choice. Last night was too much for anypony to deal with and it was still the weekend. Sadly the pink ball of fluff sharing her bed had other ideas. “Hey, Twilight! Time to rise and shine.”

After getting that blasted in her ears Twilight found herself tumbling out of her bed and onto the floor. Looking up from a tangled mess of blankets she could make out Pinkie grinning down at her from the edge of the bed.

“Was that really necessary?” She asked with a groan, rolling over and trying to disentangle herself. She rubbed at her eyes sleepily and let out a yawn

Twilight looked out over the library, all her books organized and in place just as she left them the night before. Just as she’d left them when she went out that day.

Pinkie was going a mile a minute in the background as she struggled to contemplate just how little these books would have changed if she had been taken that night. She didn’t mean to tune Pinkie out, but she just couldn’t process it all right now.

She eventually stumbled out of the room, Pinkie close behind. The halls were filled with the usual hustle and bustle of a busy castle. None of the maids called out to her, and the guards watched Pinkie closely but otherwise let her pass unhindered.

Twilight just kept moving forward, struggling to keep her mind calm. She figured she would feel better with something in her stomach, she could deal with all these emotions then.

Slipping into the kitchen, she sat down at one of the benches out front. At this hour the place was a beehive of activity, chefs and kitchen hoofs rushing back and forth to meet the orders of a castle full of ponies.

She didn’t have to wait long, these were professionals after all. Two big plates of blueberry pancakes were placed in front of them in short order. Pinkie Pie looked ecstatic, Twilight gave her thanks and focused her full attention on the meal.

She occasionally ate with the Princess, but she took most of her meals here. It was convenient and allowed her to get back to either of her library safe havens while avoiding most social niceties. Most of the castle was off limits to her anyway, too many political dealings behind closed doors for one little filly to be given free reign.

Twilight ate in silence, occasionally nodding or humming in reply to Pinkie’s many and varied questions. Twilight was feeling a lot more optimistic by the time she finished. She even had a few ideas for enchantments she might like to try out, some for her friends too.

Twilight was back in her personal haven. She had made a quick detour to the royal library to pick up some books. It was a bit of a struggle getting through the crowd to the front desk, but thankfully she had earned some loyalty from the librarian. They were happy enough to grab the books she needed for her.

Her own library wasn’t anything to scoff at, but most of the books were woefully out of date and what wasn’t was usually fiction. Just another one of the many repositories for old and unused books the Princess wanted to keep on hoof. At least she had plenty of room to keep the books she had borrowed.

She was currently pouring over a tome on passive enchantments. Things that would allow her to see in the dark, deflect projectiles, absorb magical attacks, and things like that. Sadly, a great many of the ones that she really wanted were beyond her. Some even required ingredients she’d never heard of, much less had on hoof.

She was currently writing down notes at a furious pace. Pinkie Pie was laying on her bed with a picture book held up over her face, quietly humming to herself. She had noted down a few enchantments she had the necessary ingredients and expertise for.

A hostile eyes charm like she’d used on her doll, combined with a vibration animation spell. A distress beacon that could be hooked up to a paper map, and a short distance visual distortion field that could be turned on and off.

She was currently crunching the numbers and trying to fit them all together into something that could be shoved into a crystal. She was hoping to make a set of necklaces that could be worn without too many questions being asked. They could even be slowly recharged by the wearers personal magic reservoir.

They would know if they were being watched, they could be found in case they went missing, and they could tap the crystal in a certain pattern to disorient nearby enemies. They would be perfect.

The few books she had managed to find on Changelings were decidedly less helpful. She had passed on what information she could to Pinkie Pie as well. But it mostly amounted to them being shapeshifters that fed on love. The only piece of information she hadn’t gotten from Celestia was the fact that they were sighted most often in the badlands. Which was pretty unhelpful when it came to combating them.

It wasn’t unexpected though, Changeling have been considered little more than a folk tale for a long time now. There had been reported sightings, but one had never officially been caught. Twilight wondered how they could manage something like that. Surely one of them would have had to slip up eventually right?

It took most of the afternoon, but she was finally done. She turned to Pinkie Pie with a tired smile on her face, hoofing over the necklace. It was a small pink gemstone attached to a thin wire cord. “Here you go Pinkie, this should give you some peace of mind.”

“Are you okay, Twilight?” Pinkie asked with concern. “You don’t look so good.”

Twilight waved her hoof in Pinkie’s general direction, her head swaying to the side slightly. “I’m fine, just a little tired.” She giggled before slumping softly against the table. She had made a few necklaces. One for each of her friends. It had taken more out of her than she thought it would, but it was worth it.

She slowly rose to her hooves and went over to her school bag, pulling out some paper. She wrote down an explanation of how the necklaces worked and folded them into a few spare envelopes she had laying around. Then labeled each with the name of her friends.

Keeping in regular contact with her big brother had ensured she was well stocked with envelopes and stamps. She would still be delivering these personally though, some things were safer left out of a letter.

“Alright, I’m done for now.” She looked back at Pinkie with a slightly wild smile. “Keep that necklace on. It’ll vibrate if any of the baddies are watching us, and if you tap it three times they won’t be able to see you.” She giggled maniacally and rubbed her hooves together. She felt light as a feather right now.

Pinkie came up to her, the worried expression hadn’t left her face. “That’s nice Twilight, but I think you should probably lay down now.” She carefully led her to the bed and tucked her in. Twilight struggled a little, but ultimately settled down and let Pinkie do her thing.

Twilight looked at her with a steady gaze. “You gotta put it on Pinkie.” She waved her hoof wildly for emphasis. “It’ll stop the Changelings from getting you.”

Pinkie smiled at her and slipped the necklace on. “Alright Twilight, there you go, it’s on see?” She tugged on the cord, showing that the necklace wasn’t going anywhere. “Now you get some sleep, I’ll keep a lookout. Pinkie Pie’s on the case!”

Twilight smiled, feeling a lot more secure now that Pinkie had some form of defense. She clutched the necklace she’d made for herself tightly. She hoped that it would wake her up if anything happened.

It's not that she didn’t trust Pinkie. But she couldn't stay here forever, and then Twilight would be alone.

Again.

She sighed, her eyes slowly drifting shut as her body went limp. She wasn’t magically exhausted by any means, but she was running low.

Pinkie kept silent vigil over her new friend. Nopony would be getting past this party pony.

Twilight was sitting at the front of the classroom trying desperately not to look as bored as she felt. Occasionally her hoof would trace over the delicate gemstone around her neck, feeling for the thrum of arcane power just beneath the surface.

She checked her bag for the umpteenth time, making sure that she had the necklace filled envelopes on hoof. Then she looked up at the clock.

It was slowly ticking down. Another minute until the lunch period. Good, she didn’t think she could handle much more of this right now.

She was the first to leave the classroom. She slung her saddlebags forcefully onto her back and took off at a run, barely managing not to slam the door shut behind her. She had some things to discuss with Trixie.

The waiting was torture as she took finally reacher her seat.

She would have looked for Trixie on her own, but she had no idea which class she would be coming from today. She stewed in silence, worried expression on her face as she idly ran her hoof over the envelope meant for Trixie.

"Trixie confesses to being a little worried, Twilight Sparkle." Trixie said as she came up to the bench, glancing at the letter in her hooves. "Is everything alright with Trixie's most faithful assistant?"

She took a seat next to Twilight rather than across from her as she usually would. Twilight silently slid the envelope over to her, Trixie giving it a curious look. After noting her name written over the front, she quickly opened it and slid the necklace out.

Trixie stared at it for a moment before looking back to Twilight with an unreadable expression. "While Trixie is flattered, Trixie also admits she was not expecting such a thing from you."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked in confusion, taking a moment to think before blushing. "Oh... oh! No, I didn't mean it like that. Not that I don't like you like that, not that I do that is, but..." She waved her hooves around frantically before slumping against the table once she saw Trixie's amused grin.

"So, what is the special occasion?" She asked, carefully examining the necklace with her magic before reading through the accompanying note. "Giving a mare jewelry, enchanted at that." Trixie said with a smug grin.

"You're a bit young to be calling yourself a mare," grumbled Twilight. "Something big happened last night. I need to talk to you, but not out here. Do you have time after classes?"

Trixie slipped on the necklace, tucking it into her cloak. "Trixie is intrigued. She can make time today."

Twilight let out a breath of relief. "Thank you Trixie, its really important that we talk about this as soon as possible. But not out in the open." Twilight finally returned to her meal, dodging Trixie's probing questions for the rest of the lunch break.

All Trixie could get out of her was that she needed to talk to a few more ponies first.

She had informed Moon Dancer of the meeting as she made her way out. She was easy to find as they had compared schedules earlier. Luckily, Moon Dancer was also free today. She did seem really off at the time though. Twilight hoped nothing bad had happened to her as well, these Changelings couldn't possibly be that fast could they? She hoped not.

There were still a few classes left in the day, but she had gotten an exemption from the head office in record time. It was good to be the bookish filly who could do no wrong in cases like these. It was even easier to get a guard to come along with her, they had only barely stopped themselves from following her into the building as it was. Thanks to the disguise enchantment laid into the armor she couldn't tell who it was exactly, but given her necklace wasn't vibrating she was of the opinion that she would just have to take a leap of faith here.

She stepped out onto the street and came to a sudden stop. Her eyes roamed over the gravel paths. She took in the numerous ponies making their way back to work from the lunchbreak. She felt her limbs trembling against her will as she took a deep gulp of air. Try as she might, she couldn't fight this sense of sudden danger that was surrounding her. She looked, but couldn't see anything that was an immediate problem. Then it hit her.

She had been attacked last night, in a street just like this.

She forced herself to look ahead and take a few deep breaths until her limbs became steady once again. The guard had stood behind her stoicly, not making a sound as the filly gathered herself. For that she was grateful.

She kept out a watchful eye as she made her way to Vinyl's store. The necklace didn't vibrate once the entire walk there. Despite that, she couldn't help the uneasy feeling rising in her stomach. It was telling her she should just cut her losses and get out of there, but she couldn't. Her friends might be in danger, and she needed to make sure everypony was on the same page. Not to mention making sure they had some form of defense.

Finding Octavia would be harder, but hopefully Vinyl would know where to go.

She knocked at the door and waited, it didn't take long before Record Scratch appeared. "Hello? You do know this is a shop right?" she said, looking around for the pony at the door. "Hello?"

Twilight coughed politely, startling Record who finally looked down. "Oh, hello there, you're one of Vinyl and Octavia's friends aren't you?" she asked with a warm smile. "It's been a while since I've seen you here."

Twilight blushed, unused to the kind words from a pony she didn't know all that well. "Hello ma'am," she said politely. "I was wondering if Vinyl was in?"

She was quickly beckoned inside. "You're in luck actually, Octavia's come over for a visit as well. They're just upstairs."

She was quickly waved off as Record slipped back into her seat at the store counter. She gave Twilight an encouraging smile before leaning back and losing herself in the music once again.

Twilight hurried up to Vinyl's room, giving it a quick knock and waiting for a moment. She could hear the sounds of a Cello suddenly cutting off and then Vinyl was opening the door. Octavia poked her head out from behind the doorframe. "Darling? Is everything alright?"

When she finally stepping into the room she looked at the two ponies with a blank expression. She suddenly collapsed to the ground like a puppet with cut strings. She stayed there, trembling as the other two ponies in the room exchanged concerned glances. After a moment Octavia walked forward and pulled her into a hug. "There there, it's alright darling, everythings going to be okay."

She flashed a questioning look Vinyl's way over Twilight's shoulder. Vinyl in turn just shrugged with a baffled expression on her face. They stayed like that for an indeterminate amount of time before Twilight finally pulled back, wiping at her eyes with a hoof. "Sorry about that, something happened last night and I don't think I was ready to get back out into Canterlot just yet."

She took a deep shuddering breath. "Wait, shouldn't you two be in school at this hour?" She asked with her head tilted, she had just realized that it was a bit strange for them to be at home on a monday. She felt kind of stupid now, but they were here, so it looked like things had worked out?

Octavia chuckled awkwardly. "I wouldn't say my own evening was all that pleasant, at least not until I came here. The school we go to won't care much as long as our grades don't start slipping." She muttered something about them never caring, but it was too quiet for Twilight to catch.

"What can we do for you?" Octavia asked in a forcefully cheery tone. As much as Twilight wanted to pry she felt that it probably wouldn't end well for anypony involved right now.

"I... it's about what happened last night. I need to tell all my friends about what's going on. But we have to do it somewhere we can't be overheard." Twilight began, looking at them cautiously for a response.

She couldn't see behind her glasses but she felt like Vinyl was raising her eyebrows at her. Octavia simply cut to the chase. "It's a bit of a strange request, but we have time for a friend. Where do you want to meet?"

"Okay, thank you. I was thinking that we could do it in my room at the castle." said Twilight. "It's the safest place right now."

Octavia mouthed the word safe while looking in Vinyl's direction but ultimately turned back to Twilight. "Well, alright, I guess that's okay. Should we get going now?"

"Ah, if you like. Two of my friends won't be arriving until after school. One of them's already there though. It's up to you." Twilight said nervously, glancing around the room as if something dangerous could attack her at any moment. "Oh, and I made these for you." She pulled out two envelopes and hoofed them over quickly before running her hoof protectively over her own necklace.

There would be no more answers until later that afternoon, when they all came together.

Author's Note