Meteorology

Altonyc

Infiltration

“Twilight Sparkle, you have once again proven your immense value to Equestria. Not only did you discover an explanation for a mysterious aspect of our world, but your quick thinking may have quite possibly saved the land from the worst winter it has ever known.”

Twilight's heart swelled at the praise of her mentor. She was always modest, but that didn't stop her from taking pride in her abilities. After her run-in with Trixie, Twilight made sure to never be a show-off; she did, however, learn that it was perfectly acceptable to have powers to be proud of. Whatever did happen to that silly pony...

“Now, my student, I think it's time you get back to your friends in Ponyville. I believe they're expecting you,” the princess said with a knowing look.

She must have already sent Spike a letter. “What about Fluttershy? I thought the doctors said she was still a bit 'out of it'.”

“Oh, all ponies take some time getting readjusted when they haven't been on their hooves or wings for any length of time; I recall receiving a letter about a certain Rainbow Dash some time ago. In any case, Fluttershy is likely already at the train station waiting for you.”

“That's good to hear! I guess I'd better get going, then. Goodbye, Princess Celestia.”

“Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle. Don't forget to write!”

Fluttershy stood at the train station, expectantly watching the station entrance. As much as she wanted to get home, she didn't want to be rude to Twilight. Also, she didn't want to make such a journey alone, especially after this particular stay in Canterlot. Normally, she didn't mind the city because nopony seemed to give any attention to anypony else, making it easy to avoid notice. But, this particular time, she felt as if she was being watched the entire time. When she left to come to the train station, she had constantly checked to see if she was being followed, but never saw the same pony around. But I know I was being watched.

Upon seeing Twilight enter the station, Fluttershy hurried over to her friend, wings flapping strong as ever, and held her in a friendly embrace.

“Twilight, I heard about all you did! Facing down the windigos, that must have been so frightening!” She released her friend and trotted alongside her towards the train.

“Well, I knew my plan was going to work, but it was still disconcerting looking into all those eyes of the storm. The windigos are absolutely fearsome.”

As the two started to enter the train, they heard a galloping from behind them. Fluttershy looked, and saw a red mare running for the train. As the hurried mare entered, she bumped hard into Fluttershy, nearly knocking her down to the ground.

“Hey!” Twilight shouted. “That wasn't very polite! Come back here and...” Twilight looked around the train car and saw nopony in it. “...apologize? Come on, Fluttershy, let me help you up. Even around here, there are some crazy ponies.” She helped lift her friend to her feet, and the two sat down in the train car. Fluttershy took a glance around, and noticed an envelope laying on the floor.

“What's this?” she wondered aloud while picking it up.

“What's what?” Twilight got up from her seat and levitated the envelope in front of her face. “Hm... Not a normal envelope; I can't tell what it's made of, but it's not paper. At least, not the kind of paper we use in Equestria.”

“It probably belongs to that mare. She was in such a hurry; she must have dropped it. I'd better return it.”

“Yeah, and maybe you can get an apology out of her while you're at it. She wasn’t exactly thoughtful, plowing into you like that.”

Fluttershy shrugged tentatively. “Oh, I'm sure she had her reasons. I don't want to make a fuss—”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight curtly interrupted, “She wasn’t watching where she was going, and you could have been hurt. You can't just let everypony walk all over you... literally.”

“Oh... alright,” Fluttershy said in ironic submission. “Um... where did she go?”

“Let's go to the end of the train, then from there to the other end. We'll have to see her if we sweep the entire train.” She walked towards the back of the car, Fluttershy quietly following behind her, and began the search. At least it's something to pass the time.

However, after sweeping the car from back to front, the mare was still nowhere to be found. There were many ponies on the train, but none of them resembled her. Nopony they asked had any idea where she went; in fact, it was seeming as if she had disappeared into thin air. Ponies in one car said she had passed through, but there were none in the next cars that had even seen her.

“I don't believe it. It's not possible to just vanish without a trace. And she was an earth pony, so it isn't like she could have just flown away.” Twilight furrowed her brow, trying to puzzle the situation out. “It just doesn't make any sense.”

“Maybe she, um, left the train before it took off?”

“No, the train left rather soon after we got on. And why would she have been so rushed to get on if she was just going to get off? This all seems very suspicious.”

“Suspicious? I’m sure plenty of ponies are always in a hurry.”

Twilight shook her head. “Something just isn't adding up. And after the Changeling incident, I've learned to be a bit more wary of suspicious happenings.

Fluttershy dropped her eyes to the floor. “Well, we don’t know anything about her, so I guess we’ll just assume she’s normal, and not dangerous or scary at all.”

Twilight seemed to miss the hint. “Yeah, knowing more about that mare would help us to understand what's going on here. Wait! You have that letter, right?”

Fluttershy picked up the object the mare had left behind. “The one she dropped?” she spoke around the envelope.

“Yes, that one! Why don't we...you know...”

Fluttershy's eyes grew wide as she realized what her friend was suggesting. “Oh, Twilight, how could you even think about invading somepony's privacy like that? We can't just go reading somepony else's mail; what if it's something personal? What if she finds out?”

“I can reseal it with magic. Listen, I know this isn’t like me, but something about that mare just seemed... off. I know it’s not right, but I’ve just got a bad feeling about this. It would make me feel better knowing there’s just a trivial letter in here instead of something creepy or dangerous.” Twilight carefully applied her magic when opening the envelope, making sure that any telling tears wouldn’t be found on the envelope or its contents. She then levitated out of the envelope... a picture of a familiar pony.

Fluttershy paled and let out a quiet gasp as she found herself face to face with... her own face. “Wh-what? A picture of...me?” Twilight looked no less confused than she had before.

“Okay, this definitely isn't making any sense. Well, maybe it was just a picture from your time with Photo Finish?” Twilight looked as if she were really rasping for an idea, so Fluttershy spoke up.

“Twilight, these last few days, I've felt like I was being watched. Not since we got on the train, but, the whole time in Canterlot, it was like somepony was always looking at me. I figured I was just thinking things, but if there's somepony running around with pictures of me...”

“Well, there are a lot of ponies in Canterlot, and a lot of vigilant guards, so you probably just felt them watching you. And these pictures, well.... Photo Finish always said you had “ze magicks”, so maybe somepony else saw that too, and wanted pictures. The only things in this envelope are pictures, so it's difficult to tell why they're here.”

Fluttershy, noticeably disturbed, sank down in her seat. “Let's just put the pictures back in the envelope and pretend this never happened. The pony who left these behind is gone, so it's not like these pictures mean anything.”

Twilight complied; she could see that the photos were distressing Fluttershy, though Twilight was more intrigued than ever. Once the letters were in the envelope again, she studied the envelope, memorizing all she could about it. She would have to do some studying when she got back to the library.

Twilight walked up to the familiar wooden door. After all of the excitement during her time away, she wanted nothing more than to just lay down and relax. She opened the door, stepped inside, and—

“SURPRISE!” Something landed on Twilight, and her vision was obscured by pink. “Oops! Sorry 'bout that; guess I should've dropped sooner.” Pinkie Pie giggled as she rolled off of her still-dumbstruck friend. “You should've seen the look on your face though. Your eyes were huge!”

Twilight shakily rose to her feet, still a bit dazed. She looked around her, and saw a colorful assortment of balloons and streamers. A banner that was obviously of Rarity's handiwork was suspended over the middle of the room, declaring, “Welcome Home, Everypony!” Applejack, Rarity, and Spike were all behind Pinkie Pie, smiles on their faces.

“Spike shared yer letter with us, an' we decided to throw y'all a party.” Applejack offered Twilight a piece of cake which she politely declined. “Uh, if y'all don' mind me askin', where's Rainbow Dash?”

Rarity looked around and added, “And I don't see Fluttershy anywhere, either.”

“Rainbow Dash is still resting up in Canterlot; she took a real beating from the storm, and isn't quite ready for travel. And Fluttershy,” Twilight took a short pause to think of an unspecific way to explain her nervousness after the photos they found on the train, “She's still a little shaken from the whole ordeal.”

“Really? You said she had been resting a lot since that,” Rarity wondered aloud, slightly confused.

“Oh, you know Fluttershy,” Twilight said uneasily, before quickly changing the subject. “So, how's the weather been?”

“Awful, jus' plain awful!” Applejack blurted out, stomping a hoof down to punctuate her sentence. “There ain't been any clouds to protect the plants from the sun, an' there's no rain to water them.”

“Oh.” Twilight had meant to ask a casual question, forgetting that the absence of the pegasi would have had serious effects on Ponyville. Canterlot's weather was mostly maintained by ancient unicorn magic, so all seemed well in the city while the crisis was going on. “Well, I know that some of the Ponyville pegasi weren't hurt too badly, so we should be getting some clouds from Cloudsdale very soon.”

Pinkie Pie took a bite of cake and asked Twilight, “So, did you meet anypony in Canterlot who might be important later on?”

“'Later on?' What are you talking about, Pinkie?”

“Oops, sorry. Don't want to spoil anything.”

“Spoil? Pinkie, you aren't making any sense. The food looks fine to me.”

“Never mind. So, windigos, huh? That must have been exciting.”

Twilight stood silent for a moment, still confused by the conversation. “Yes, it was pretty exciting—wait a minute, how do you know about that?”

Rarity broke in before Pinkie Pie could answer, “Oh, that's my fault.” Twilight turned to her in surprise. She had no idea how word could have spread so accurately and quickly from Canterlot without pegasi. “You see, Fluttershy overheard you and that green stallion arguing, and she told me what she heard. Then I heard some gossip that sounded related, put two and two together, and figured you extended your stay because you were dealing with whatever it was that was going on. Oh, and that letter you sent to Spike.”

“Oh, right. Forgot about that.” Twilight looked around the library, finally noticing the decorations—many wispy, white streamers were strung above, looking like faint clouds. The sight of streamers reminded Twilight that there was supposed to be a party going on. “Well, pass me some cake, please. I'm famished!” She hadn't eaten anything since leaving Canterlot, and was finally starting to feel it. Luckily for her, Applejack was more than willing to oblige.

“Here ya go. Fresh baked from Sugarcube Corner. Ahd've brought some apples, but we need ta' save 'em , what with the trees getting' scorched an' all.”

Twilight accepted the plate, and sat down in a chair with a sigh of contentment. Equestria was safe, her pegasi friends were fine, she was surrounded by her other friends, and to top it all off, there was even cake. The party was relatively low-key; Pinkie Pie and the others must have predicted that Twilight and the pegasi would be tired. She sat down and chatted with her friends, catching up on what had been going on in Ponyville while she was gone.

After they had been talking for some time, there was a knock on the door, and Twilight got up to answer it. Now who could that be? Upon opening the door, she was surprised to see Quill standing before her, already speaking before the door was entirely open.

“Hey, Twilight, I heard about the incident up north, good job and all that. Now listen, did anypony happen to give you anything? An envelope, specifically.”

“Nopony gave me a letter—”

Quill muttered an oath under his breath. “I really need that mail,” he said as he took off, leaving Twilight before she had a chance to say anything more.

“Who was that at the door?” Spike asked once she returned to the party.

“Quill. That green pony who brought those books over about a week ago.”

Pinkie Pie, of course, recognized the name. “Oh, that guy. Don't see him around much. Come to think of it, he's almost never at my parties...”

“He said something about a letter from Canterlot. He seemed very nervous, more than normal for a pony just missing some mail. Kind of weird.”

Rarity waved off the idea. “Oh, he's probably just impatient. I can get that way when the mailmare delivers my things to the wrong pony, especially if its something private.”

Twilight froze. “Wait a minute...” He didn't make it seem like he was expecting to receive the letter—actually, he said *envelope*—from the mailmare, but more of a personal courier. Why else would he ask me if I'd been “given anything”? There was only one piece of mail I saw in Canterlot—or rather, on the way back.

“Sorry, girls, but I just remembered there's something I have to look up. This party's been nice, but I need to be able to focus on my books, so—”

“Say no more, Twilight.” Rarity packed up a few things. “You must be tired anyway, so we'll let you have some time to yourself. I think this party might have been a bit better if the others showed up, too.”

“We'll just have to have another party when Rainbow gets back!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed enthusiastically. She somehow packed all the decorations into a few baskets, and bounded out the doorway. “I'll go welcome Fluttershy back.” Applejack and Rarity followed her out.

“That was fast,” Spike commented. “What's this all about, Twilight? You don't normally kick people out when you just want to read.”

“I didn't 'kick them out’, I just asked them to leave. Now, Spike, could you please fetch me the copy of Shining Armor's report on the Changelings?”

“What? Why do you need that?”

Twilight was already gathering several notes she had already taken, based on the report. “I have a bad feeling about something, and I need to know if I'm right.”

“That's not much of an explanation—”

“Please, Spike, this is really important!”

“Alright, alright,” Spike grumbled. He left briefly, then returned with the scrolls. Twilight had already begun writing furiously on a piece of parchment, explaining her thoughts aloud as she wrote.

“While Fluttershy and I were returning from Canterlot, we bumped into a mysterious red mare who dropped an envelope with pictures in it. When Fluttershy and I tried to find said mare to return the envelope, she seemed to have just disappeared. But what if... what if she was still there, and just looked like she wasn't there? Hand me that second page, would you?”

Spike gave her the piece of the report. “Hold on. You're telling me that just because you couldn't find somepony, you think she's a Changeling? I don't follow. There has to be something else.”

“It has to do with the pictures. They were all of the same pony, as if whoever took the pictures had been stalking her.”

“Stalking who?”

“I promised I wouldn't say. I don't think it matters at this point, but I still remember that breaking a friend's trust is the fastest way to...you know.”

“Lose a fr—”

“STOP!” Twilight put a hoof in Spike's mouth, immediately regretting the decision wen she felt his teeth on her hoof. She removed the hoof before continuing, “Sorry, I'm just a bit paranoid about Pinkie Pie popping up to finish sentences. She scared me half to death during the whole Photo Finish incident. Now, where was I?”

Twilight paused for a moment to collect herself before carrying on. “Right, the photos. It says here in this report that it was suspected Chrysalis had been masquerading as different ponies to get close to Cadance and study her before actually disguising as her. It seems a Changeling can disguise itself better if it is trying to imitate a pony it has already seen; otherwise, the forms it takes might have unusual colors, like certain shades of red. I'd never seen a pony with that particular colored coat before the mare on the train—it may have been a Changeling using a made-up disguise.”

“And the pictures were for the pony the Changeling was going to target and disguise as?”

“Yes. And that means... she might be in danger!” Twilight took off in full gallop, leaving a confused and bewildered Spike trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

The pegasi had already started a rainstorm by the time Twilight made it to the path leading to Fluttershy's cottage. The mud stuck to her hooves, adding weight to each step she took, making galloping a laborious process. However, after much effort, a soaked and bedraggled Twilight made it to Fluttershy's door, and proceeded to knock rapidly. After waiting what seemed forever, Twilight magically removed what mud she could from her hooves and opened the door, which she found to be unlocked.

Immediately upon entering, Twilight knew something was wrong. The windows were shut to keep the storm out, but there were no candles or lanterns burning—peculiar, given Fluttershy's fearful nature. But more telling than this was how still and quiet it was. There were always several different kinds of critters scurrying about the cottage on a given day, but now nothing was stirring, not even a mouse.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight called as she illuminated the room with her horn. She listened intently, but heard no response. Looking about the illuminated room, Twilight noticed a chair knocked over, and several pots and bags strewn across the floor. Twilight's pulse quickened as she headed up the stairs to the bedroom. “Fluttershy, are you alright?”

She swiftly slammed the bedroom door open, and screamed at the sight before her eyes. Hanging from the ceiling, suspended in a green cocoon, was Fluttershy. The frightened pony was still awake, and appeared to be screaming frantically, but no sound escaped the translucent pod. Twilight quickly cast her gaze across the room, and saw a black shape move rapidly toward her. She lashed out with her magic, sending the shadowy figure reeling across the room. The force of the figure against the wall knocked the window open, so Twilight put an immobilization spell on it to keep it from escaping.

Once the figure was secured, Twilight shifted her attention to the pod. Fluttershy still appeared to be screaming within, her face looking ever more despairing—It doesn't look like she can see me. With a single spell, the cocoon was broken open, and the pegasus came tumbling down to the ground. Fluttershy was scrabbling about frantically on the floor, and still giving off a deafening shriek.

“Fluttershy! Fluttershy, it's me, Twilight! It's alright!” Twilight shouted over her friend. Fluttershy stared at her wide-eyed, breathing heavily and rapidly.

“Twilight! I got home and the storm made everything dark and there was this pony waiting for me and I was scared and—”

“Fluttershy, please try to slow down. I need you to tell me what happened, but I need to be able to understand you.”

The frightened pony started to control her breathing. “When we got to Ponyville, I first went to check on all the animals. The weather team started moving the clouds into position for a rainstorm while I was checking up on some birds,  so I decided to come back home. By the time I got here, it was already dark because of all the clouds. When I got inside, there was a pony waiting for me. I couldn't tell who she—”

“Or he...” Twilight muttered.

“—was, but it was very startling. Then she ran at me, and she...she...turned into a Changeling. I tried to get away, but it caught me, and put me into that... thing,” Fluttershy motioned to the ruptured cocoon. “I couldn't see anything, or hear anything, and it was so small I could hardly move.” She shuddered. “It felt like I was in there forever, but I don't think it was really that long because it's still raining, and emergency rainstorms don't usually last that long. Thank you, Twilight, thank you for saving me.”

“Of course,” she replied. “I was hoping I'd be wrong, and there wouldn't be any monsters waiting for me, but looks like I just had to be right.”

“Monsters?” Twilight and Fluttershy jumped at the voice that came from the edge of the room. “Is that what you call us?” It it sounded neither female nor male, and had a strange quality to its voice, as if it did not speak aloud very often. “Good. Fear us.”

Twilight walked over to the figure she had put the immobilization spell on. The sight of those jagged black features, those featureless blue eyes, those fearsome fangs of the Changeling chilled her as much as the draft from the open window. She momentarily remembered the feelings o fear, despair, and feelings of loss her last encounter with the creatures brought.

“Quill,” Twilight said, addressing the Changeling.

“Quill? I know not this thing of which you speak.”

“Stop playing dumb, I know it's you.”

“A name? The unicorn thinks I have a name,” the creature said half to itself. “We do not bother with such things as names, save for the Queen and her most powerful subjects.”

Before she questioned further, Twilight heard shouts from downstairs. One of them sounded like Pinkie Pie, and the other sounded like... Quill? Wait... Pinkie would have mentioned if she had only recently met Quill... and I would remember if she'd thrown a welcome party since I got here, so he was telling the truth about being here before me. And I doubt a Changeling would last so long in one place. “Who are you?”

“You've already been told, we have no names. But you probably know me by this appearance.” the black creature morphed and changed into a mare with a deep red coat. “The envelope was for me. All I needed to do was confine the yellow one, take her identity, and—” The Changeling stopped abruptly. “—and I don't think you need to know anything more.”

Twilight was thinking about what she had just heard, when the shouts from below grew closer. Pinkie Pie and Quill ran in to the room.

“Twilight, I believe there may be a...” Quill trailed off as he saw the remains of the cocoon, and the mare at Twilight's hooves. “...Changeling?”

“Yep.” Twilight turned to face them. “It was lying in wait for Fluttershy when she arrived back home.”

Pinkie Pie bounced over to Fluttershy, who was still crying out of fear. “Cheer up, Fluttershy. Everything's fine now! And now we need to throw another “Welcome Home” party once Rainbow Dash gets back!” Her enthusiasm did not seem to be working very well, however, so she quieted down and simply sat next to her friend and put a foreleg around her. She then addressed Twilight, “I wanted to bring Fluttershy an invitation to the second “Welcome Home” party I was planning, and I ran into Quill on the way here. He said something about Fluttershy being in danger, so we galloped over here as fast as we could.”

Twilight nodded in acknowledgment. “Thank you, Pinkie. Quill, what's going on? How did you know about the Changeling? And what was that package you were expecting?”

“Right, I suppose some elucidation is in order. After you left for Canterlot, I tried to figure out what I should do with myself—I was a failure of a librarian, and that information acquisition I'd worked on for two years was finally done. It was a bit of a personal crisis, to be honest. I went back to the library to read a few books, maybe find something interesting. And that was when I happened across a most intriguing work—a collection of old tales and myths. I've always been one to love a good yarn, so I flipped through it in search of an entertaining tale. That was when a peculiar image caught my eye—a twisted perversion of a pony: it's eyes were featureless, it was fanged, and was blacker than night. The story told a cautionary tale about the value of knowing your friends, or some nonsense like that, and the name it bestowed upon the creature was... Changeling. I remembered hearing about their appearance at the Royal Wedding, and I also remembered that hardly anything was known about them.”

That’s true, Twilight thought, the Changelings’ appearance was widely talked about, but we lack any specific knowledge on them. Quill continued on, oblivious to the fact that Twilight was starting to lose interest in his long-winded explanation.

“So, I decided to look through records and see if there was any evidence of possible Changeling infiltrations in history. And, I think I found some examples. Nothing nearly as high-profile as a full scale invasion, or imitation of a princess, but seemingly insignificant cases of ponies suddenly changing personality, often with a domino effect of sorts. For example, there was a pegasus who was a dedicated weather controller, but had an apparent change of heart one day and sabotaged a sizable sum of clouds right at the factory. Instead of rain, they dropped damaging pieces of hail. When a search was instigated to investigate this pegasus, he seemed to disappear.”

“Quill, I don't have all night, and I'm not really interested in your life story. How did you know about this specific Changeling?” Twilight's impatience was very apparent in the tone of her voice.

“Right. This was actually a bit of an accident. I was expecting a package with some tissue samples from Changelings captured during the Canterlot attack. There's a guy I know who is a bit of a scientist, and I was wondering if there was any useful information to be had from an examination. That was what I was asking you about, and I was in a hurry because I didn't want to find a spoiled sample. Well, it turns out the old mail carrier was just taking a bit longer than usual to move around, so I got my sample, and gave it to the scientist. I went to your library to let you know I'd found it, but you had already left. I noticed the Changeling reports on your table, and I just couldn't help myself from scanning a few pages.”

“What I read reminded me of a pony I had seen earlier today, around the time when the train arrived in the station. I was hoping my package might come from somepony on the train, so I watched all the ponies disembarking, to see if any had envelopes of the sort I was looking for. What caught my eye was what I thought to be a yellow-blue pegasus. She looked... out of place. Particularly awkward, avoiding any physical contact, doing her best to not be noticed. I sympathized with her, since I've been that pony many a time—one that doesn't seem to belong. Well, I thought little of it at the time, but I had never seen her in Ponyville, yet she somehow made a beat right for Fluttershy's cottage, as if she knew where it was. After seeing that you had deliberately pulled out a report on Changelings, I made the connection and ran here as fast as I could.”

Twilight paused for a moment to re-tighten her spell on the captive Changeling. “Well, nice story. It makes enough sense, I suppose. Now, what do we want to do with the Changeling?”

“Please, GET IT OUT OF HERE! Um, if you feel up to it, that is...” Twilight looked with surprise at Fluttershy's outburst, but understood that the creature's presence must be rather stressful for the shaken pony.

“Hey, Twilight, why don'cha take it to that library basement where you ran those tests on me that one time?” Pinkie Pie suggested.

“Alright, it will work for now. I need to get a letter off to the Princess about this as soon as possible. Fluttershy, come with us and we'll make you some tea in the library.”

“O-okay.” Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie rose to their hooves, and started the walk back to the library with Twilight and Quill. The rain had stopped, but the ground was still soft and slippery, making walking with the Changeling in tow a laborious process. Eventually, they arrived back at the library, and Twilight and Quill moved the Changeling to the basement and tied it up. They moved back up to the main room of the library, where Spike was heating up some tea. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were sitting at a table, eating from a plate of cookies.

Everything looks so peaceful, given everything that's happened. I really hope Fluttershy isn't too scarred; being trapped in that tiny cocoon, where nopony can hear you scream—even I would be absolutely terrified. Twilight sat down with her friends at the table, and tried to figure out why the Changeling would come to Ponyville in the first place.

Well, I suppose I could start with a more specific question: why Fluttershy? It's obvious she was targeted in advance—why else would that Changeling have had pictures of her? But, Fluttershy doesn't do any particularly important jobs around here—take care of the animals, but that's not a task I could see a Changeling taking advantage of. Maybe because she's an Element of Harmony? I can't think of any other reason... Twilight continued her attempt to puzzle out the exact motive for the Changeling's attempted impersonation of Fluttershy, but couldn't narrow it down. She decided to simply enjoy the tea and cookies, and had Spike begin to write a letter.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight spoke as Spike wrote, “Today I write to you a letter not on the magic of friendship, but on a rather disturbing event that occurred to one of my friends. A Changeling has found its way into Ponyville, I suspect from Canterlot, and very nearly took the place of Fluttershy. I know that the windigo incident has commanded much of your attention this past week, but have there been any Changelings found left behind? I'm very worried that they may be returning, but in a more insidious fashion this time around. Additionally, what do you suggest we do with the Changeling in Ponyville? We captured it, and it is currently bound in the library basement. I await your instruction. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

After Spike sent the letter away, Pinkie Pie asked, “So, what now?  We can't throw the 'welcome home late' party, since Rainbow Dash isn't here yet.”

“How can you think about parties at a time like this? We first saw that Changeling on the train from Canterlot, which means it's entirely possible there are more. In the royal city, no less. What we do now is wait for Celestia to tell us what to do. We can't just keep a Changeling tied up in the basement forever.” Twilight just couldn’t understand Pinkie Pie’s thoughts sometimes.

“Okay.” Pinkie Pie turned her attention to Quill. “Hey you! You were that librarian guy, right?”

“Yes, that was me. What of it?”

“Why don't I ever see you at my parties?”

He looked at her with a brow raised. “Parties? What could those possibly have to do with Changelings?”

Pinkie Pie shrugged. “Nothing at all. I was just wondering.”

“Actually, your absence from common Ponyville events was one of the reasons I suspected you were a Changeling,” Twilight added.

“You suspected what?”

“Well, can you blame me? Everypony goes to Pinkie Pie's parties at some time or another. Yet in the years I've been here, I've never once seen you at such a party. And you just appear, seemingly out of nowhere, only a week before there's a Changeling in Ponyville? You have to admit, it makes sense.”

Quill seemed to think to himself a moment, then agreed. “You're right. And Pinkie, the reason I don't go to your parties is because quite frankly, I'd rather read and study than spend time making friends.  I feel like going to parties would just waste my time.”

Well, can't say I don't know what that feels like. “Well, I guess—” Twilight was interrupted from a belch by Spike. “Oh, that must be from the Princess!” She opened up the scroll, and read its contents aloud. “'Coming to Ponyville. Will be there shortly.' Why would Celestia come here?”

“Ooh, maybe there's some kind of crazy conspiracy, and Luna built an army of Changelings and took full control of the throne, and now Celestia has to run away to save herself and build an army, and there'll be a huge epic battle, and—”

“Pinkie, you've been reading too many fantasy novels. I'm sure that whatever the princess has to tell us, it won't be anything quite like that. What do you think, Quill?” Twilight had a hunch as to what Celestia's appearance could be about, but she hoped she was wrong.

“Well, I've heard that Celestia can send letters via magic, so she isn't traveling here due fear of interception. I postulate that her coming has to do with information she anticipates questioning about, and would prefer the immediacy of speech over the sending of letters.”

“Well, I think that's part of it, but I think the subject of the matter has to do with—” A thunderous knock came from the front door. Twilight sprinted to it, opening it up with her magic while bowing in anticipation.

Princess Celestia walked in, and smiled softly at her student. “Hello, Twilight Sparkle. I didn't think I would be seeing you again so soon. However, Canterlot—and possibly all of Equestria—finds itself in a state of crisis. The Changelings have returned.”

I knew it. Twilight pulled up her best chair for the Princess, and then sat herself down next to the others at the table. “Please, Princess Celestia, tell me everything.”