The Time Ponies and the Cutie Mark Thief Vs. the Queen of Hearts

by My name is R

Rating: teen
Tags: Starlight Glimmer, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Violence, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Colgate, Alternate Universe, Other, Changelings
Length: 54783

Starlight discovers the timelines she helped make, and decides to fix them.

So, have you ever thought much about time? It's a fascinating topic. But as much as I would love to talk about it all day, the truth is that we know very little about it. So, what happens when somepony breaks time?
Well, that's what this story is about. For this is the story of the first big time crisis since Twilight sent a message to her past self. This is the story of how Starlight Glimmer broke the timeline, and of how she set out to fix it with our help. After all, who better to help fix the timeline than those who have been working with time for years?

- Extra Time, Keeper of the minutes for the Time Ponies.

For a story centered around time travel, paradoxes, and the like, the timeline is really straightforward. Probably because all the time travelers are trying to avoid causing any more paradoxes.
I will be going into the science of time mechanics, but don't worry, I'll stick with entry level stuff. I'm no Twilight, just a high school graduate with a collage physics textbook.
Also, the Queen of Hearts in the title is not the one from Alice in Wonderland, they are a canon character you likely know. No crossover tag after all.

- R, the actual author. The other guy is just an in-universe record keeper.

Now with a reading.

Published 2021-11-11 06:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-05-09 21:40:11 UTC

1 Troubling Time Tidbits and Disturbing Discoveries

Time.

What is time? Is it a dimension, like left and right, up and down? Or is it like a cloth, draped under all of reality, constantly stretched by any sufficiently massive object? Is it like a piece of thread, a river, or a fork? In truth, it is all of these things, and none. In the end, the most important thing about time... is that it's complicated. But don't worry, you have me! I'll help you understand the weave of time as we journey from the beginning to the end.

Even if those don't line up like normal. <<

One day Starlight was sitting in Twilight's library, studying magic. At this point you can probably discern that day was after Twilight took her on as a pupil. (Which is a wonderful time story, but that is a tale for another day.) In fact, this day was shortly after Starlight had reunited with her old friend, Sunburst. On this fine afternoon she was studying the leading theories on time travel when she came to a disturbing passage.

“Hold on, that can't be right,” Starlight said. She looked over the passage again.

‘It has been theorized that within the confines of one universe time travel can never alter the past substantially, as any change large enough to alter the reasons for the initial travel would cause a paradox. In order to avoid this the universe has multiple defenses. One way is to always have the travel, and the original reason for travel is misguided, possibly even caused by time travel. This is known as a closed loop, or stable loop. How the first travel occurred, or if it does indeed have a beginning, is as yet unknown.

‘Another possible defense is known as the duplication defense. This is when the timeline is so irreconcilable that the universe splits in two, with the time traveler coming from the original universe - the unaltered one - and passing into the new altered universe.’

“If that's true, then that timeline Twilight showed me, and all the others she saw…” Starlight stood up. “I need to check these theories.” Starlight trotted out of the library. She went along until she got to Twilight's room and knocked. But when the door opened she saw it was Spike's bedroom.

“Oh, hi Starlight!" Spike said cheerily. "What's up?”

“Oh, well I was actually trying to tell Twilight I'm going on a trip into town, but I still can't seem to find my way around. Heh heh heh…”

“No problem! I'll tell her for you,” Spike offered.

“Thanks Spike, and I think I can find my way to the exit. Bye!” Starlight headed through the castle, finding the large front doors without any trouble. At least they were distinct from all the other doors. Starlight decided to start her search at the post office. She had discovered a secret society based around time travel, known as the Time Ponies, back when she was planning her revenge on Twilight, and she thought they might be able to help with her concerns. All she had to do was find a member to talk to. Fortunately she had the identity of one, Dr. Time. All she had to do was see if he had a mailing address.

Once she had made her way to the post office she walked in and saw a gray pony with a blond mane standing at the counter. "Hello!" called the pony cheerfully. “How can I help?”

“I was wondering if you could help me find somepony called Dr. Time? I don't know where he lives.”

“If you have a letter, I can take it for you,” the mare answered with a smile.

“Actually, I kind of wanted to see him in person,” said Starlight. “Could you look up where he lives for me?”

The mare frowned. “I'm sorry, but the Ponyville Post has a strict policy not to share anypony's address. Sorry.”

“Oh. Sorry to bother you then.” Starlight laughed sheepishly and turned away. But then an idea hit her and she turned back. “Say, do you know who I should ask?”

“Hmm. You could try asking Miss Derpy Hooves. I know she could tell you,” the mare answered, smiling once more.

“Alright, where can I find her?” Starlight asked.

“Oh, I'm Derpy!” Derpy smiled broadly.

Starlight blinked. “So, can you tell me where to find him? Please?”

The mare frowned. “I'm sorry, but the Ponyville Post has a strict policy not to share anypony's address. Sorry.”

Starlight sighed. “Can you take me to see him when your shift is over?”

“Who?” asked Derpy, causing Starlight's eye to start twitching. Then Derpy shook her head. “Oh, you must mean Time Turner! Sure, I can take you as soon as my shift is over at five.”

Starlight took a deep breath, then let it out. “Thank you. I'll see you then.”

“Bye!”

At five o'clock Starlight was once more walking up to the post office. As she began crossing the street Derpy stepped outside. “Hello again!” she called out.

“So, can you please take me to see Time Turner?”

“Sure, I live right next door to him so it's on my way.” And at this Derpy began trotting off with Starlight following behind her. “So why do you want to see Doc anyway? Are you looking for an invention? He doesn't normally take requests.”

“Actually, I am curious about his work, and wanted to discuss it with him. I'm a bit of a natural with time spells. Thought maybe we could swap notes?” By the end Starlight was grinning nervously and avoiding eye contact.

“I bet he'll love that. He likes to talk about time whenever he gets the chance. I think you two will get along just great! Hey, we're here!” said Derpy, pointing at a large brown house with peeling paint. It sat between a smaller house with a cheerful yellow paint job and another larger house with lots of flowers. “Would you like me to introduce you?”

“No thank you, I'll just introduce myself.”

“Ok! Goodbye!” Derpy waved and walked into the little yellow house.

Starlight knocked on the door of the brown house and waited. And waited. “Hello? Is anypony home?" She knocked harder and the door popped open. “Hello!”

“What was that?” a voice called from the back of the house. “Derpy, is that you?” A light brown stallion with a dark brown mane walked into view. “Hello, do I know you?”

“No, I wanted to discuss the duplication defense theory, and I knew you were an expert in the field.”

“Ah, yes. Certainly, would you like a seat?” He gestured to three seats around a circular table with various mechanical bits scattered across the surface. “Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting company today.”

“Thank you,” said Starlight, taking a seat. "I'm sorry to drop in unexpectedly, I only realized I had a problem this afternoon.”

“Oh, what sort of problem?”

“I may have done, a tiny bit, of rewriting time and causing the desolation of Equestria.”

“Great whickering stallions! That does sound like a serious problem. Did you fix it?”

“See, that's the problem. I think that all that is over, but then I ran across that theory and I'm worried I may have left a big mess of things.”

“That theory?” said Time Turner, before shaking his head vigorously. “Oh right, the duplication defense theory! Yes, I'm not sure of that one, but it is certainly possible. Perhaps we could try to establish a connection with the other worlds that have been theoretically created through time travel.”

“Of course! Then if they are there we'll find them. I've heard that Starswirl did some work on finding other worlds. If we combine that with seeking the magical signature of my time spell…”

“Then we can make sure to find the right worlds! Brilliant! I'll send a letter to Minuette and ask for the relevant works from Starswirl, and one to Pace to help me build the machine!”

“Hold on, you know Minuette? And what machine? I thought we would just design a spell,” said Starlight.

“Minuette is one of the members of a... club I put together. As for the machine, while we will need a spell, the machine will focus it with greater precision than a unicorn. It will also help stabilize the spell. We wouldn't want any power fluctuations during spellwork this intense.”

“That's a good point. So, you put together the Time Ponies?”

“Oh, you've heard of us? Wonderful. I didn't think anypony other than friends of members knew.”

“Wait, it's not a secret?”

“Secret? No, it's just not a big group. I think we have about a dozen members at the moment.”

“Oh. Silly me, I thought it was this big secret organization. Controlling all sorts of time things from the shadows and stuff. Heh heh.”

“Not really. It's more of a club for ponies who like to discuss time's many intricacies. As far as I know I'm the only member who's actually tried to perform time travel. I was close, but I ended up scrapping that project. It was too temperamental, and I wasn't willing to risk destroying the planet.”

“De-destroying the planet?” asked Starlight, with shock written all over her face.

“Fortunately that project never made it past the blueprints. Otherwise we might not be here now.”

“Oh. Okay. So, I'll come see you again next week?”

“I'll send you a letter when we're ready to begin work.” Turner began rummaging through his cupboards.

“Right, I guess I'll wait for your letter then. It was nice meeting you.”

“Hmm? Oh yes, likewise. Cheerio!”

Starlight walked out of Turner's house and began heading toward Twilight's castle. “Well, that was an interesting outing.”

Author's Note

And so our journey begins. If you are interested in proofreading and either have a British accent or watch Doctor Who PM me. I already have a wonderful editor, but neither of us are very familiar with David Tennant. I am drawing from other Dr. Who/MLP crossovers for now.

I used an edited version of the cover picture for The Worst of All Possible Worlds. The author was cool with it.

I took inspiration from the video featured below. I've changed a few things though, like when she discovered the other worlds.
Channel went down, so no more video. Unfortunate. Let’s see how well I remember it.
Twilight and/or Starswirl realize that every time starilight traveled into the past it split the timeline, rather than overwriting it. Together they develop a spell to travel between the timelines and try to patch them up. But since it’s such a big job, they end up forming a task force, identified by their hourglass cutie marks. I think there was some explanation about how the group had retroactively always been there, but I’m not sure. Anyway, this obviously doesn’t use all of those pieces, that was just the start of the idea.

2 Research, Relativity, and Relief

Relativity.

They had proven, with much difficulty and more calculations than they could count, that Δt'=Δt/√(1-v2/c2) held true for any value of v. They knew this was important, they just had to figure out how…

They were on the cusp of success. Any day now... <<

“Alright, first concentrate on your destination,“ said Twilight.

Starlight concentrated on an empty table she saw on the other side of the library. “Check.”

“Then cast the spell, and you should appear in the location you're visualizing.”

A loud thump sound broke Starlight's concentration, causing her to teleport the table to her, rather than the other way around. “Aah!”

“That's odd, I wonder what it could be?” pondered Twilight as Starlight crawled out from under the table.

Thump thump! They both looked up at a stained glass window with a shadow on it that hadn't been there when they'd entered. “Hello!” called Twilight.

Thump thump! Twilight flew up to the window in question and opened it, revealing Derpy with her mailbags, hoof raised to knock again. “Oh, hello! I usually get letters by dragon.”

Derpy shook her head. “This is for Starlight,” said Derpy, pulling out a letter and holding it out towards Starlight, who was watching from the floor.

Starlight took the letter in her magic and saw it was from Time Turner. “Hey Twilight, do you mind if I go see to this and we finish teleportation later?”

“Not at all. What is it?”

“Oh, just somepony I spoke to last week. He wants to continue our conversation. Heh.” Starlight gave a huge toothy grin.

“Sounds great. I'm glad you’re meeting new ponies around town. We can practice teleportation tomorrow. Have fun!”

“Thanks. I'll see you later!” Starlight opened the letter as she headed out the door. It simply stated ‘I'm ready.’

And this sort of thing is why his club looks like a secret society. It just screams secret spy stuff. An entire letter for just two words, Starlight thought. At least it means he can probably keep this a secret. I don't want to give Twilight another reason why I'm a screw up. She's been very forgiving, but how far can forgiveness go?

After a short walk through the streets of Ponyville Starlight found herself on Time Turner's porch. She knocked and waited to see if he would respond this time.

The door swung open and revealed Minuette standing behind it. “Hey there! Are you Starlight?”

“Yes. I'm here to see Time Turner,” said Starlight, holding up her letter.

“Well come on in! He and Pace are in the basement. If you need to talk to him you can, but I'll be your partner for making the spell. The Doctor may be great with time and machines, but he can never seem to wrap his mind around spellcraft.” Minuette was talking a mile a minute as Starlight walked into the house. She saw the table had been cleared of the mechanical bits from her last visit and now held loose leaf pages with complex formulas and lots of tiny writing. Minuette leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “I think it's because he's confident science is superior.” She backed up and continued her loud cheerful chatter. “Which is silly. It's not a competition. At least he's willing to accept help, I don't know how he expected to bring time forward without magic. We use magic for everything.”

“Bringing time forward? How is that different from traveling back in time?”

“It had to do with how it interacts with other dimensions. Also that you can never bring time forward to you from inside of the place you are bringing time forward. He described it like a raft. You can only move the raft by pulling it from another body, like the shore. If you pull on the raft while you're on it you just break the raft. Then I asked him about paddling through the water, but he just said, ‘no analogy is perfect’.”

“Alright, let's get started on the dimension finding spell.”

“Yay! This is going to be great!" Minuette giggled and sat at the table. “I brought everything of Starswirl's work with other worlds I could find, but it wasn't much. Every time I thought I was close I just hit a dead end. I've heard some stories that say he could open portals to other worlds, but whenever I go looking there are no formulas. Either they were lost to time, or they're restricted.”

“I guess we'll just have to work that part out ourselves.” Starlight looked over at Minuette. “Think you're up for it?”

“Of course! This is going to be the greatest challenge since my dissertation. We're going to rediscover dimensional travel after over a thousand years. I wonder if we'll get a wing of the archives named after us. Isn't it exciting?”

“Well, for the time being I was planning on keeping this a secret. Don't need to cause a panic about a bunch of worlds in chaos.” Starlight looked down and lowered her voice. “Also, I don't really want to tell everypony I plunged Equestria into an era of fear, repeatedly.”

“Yeah that does sound pretty bad. It was an accident right?”

“Well, yes. But I did try to tear apart the group of friends who had saved the world repeatedly before they could save the world.”

“Hey, everypony makes mistakes.” Starlight looked up. “Although, most of us never threaten the whole world. I guess that makes you special.” Starlight rammed her head into the table and sighed.

After three hours Starlight and Minuette had a basic outline for what the spell was. They had yet to begin building the spell, but for spells this complex they had to be mapped out well before you could properly begin.

“I think we should probably stop there for today,” said Minuette. “Come back fresh another day.”

“I suppose, I hope it doesn't take too long though. From what Twilight said I don't know how long those worlds can hold out.” Starlight looked down. “I really did a number on them.”

“Oh! The Doctor didn't tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“We've already worked out a way to choose when we contact the other dimension. I helped him a bit with his previous efforts at bringing time forward, I told you about that right? Anyway we fixed it up so that it works, as long as you don't try to pull time forward further than you've already interacted with it. It's worthless for conventional time travel on it's own, but if used on another dimension you can go back until the last point somepony left that dimension.”

“So we can go to the point Twilight left each world?”

“Exactly! We have all the time in the world to figure out the dimension finding spell. Well, I'd like to finish the spell before I get all old and wrinkly, but you know what I mean.”

“Alright. Should we tell the others we're ready to stop?”

“Sounds great! I'll go tell Derpy. She said she'd bring muffins for everypony when we finished up.” And with that Minuette walked out the door.

Starlight walked into the back of the house. She hadn't seen Time Turner or Pace the whole time she and Minuette had been working on the spell, so she assumed they were still in the basement. When she got into the hallway she saw a pair of blue metal doors at the other side. There was a lever next to the doors labeled ‘Please pull to call box’. Starlight saw no other hints as to where the basement was, so she tried pulling the lever to see what happened.

Scrape! Starlight jumped back as a noise came from beyond the doors. Scrape! Scrape! She took another step back as the strange noise continued. Scrape! Scrape! She lowered her horn and readied herself for whatever would happen next. Scrape!

Then the doors folded to the sides, revealing a white metal box just big enough for two ponies to stand next to each other. There was another lever inside. Starlight relaxed and walked into the box. She pushed the lever from 1 to b1. The doors closed and she heard the scraping noise again. After about ten seconds the doors folded open and Starlight saw a small grey room with an open door on the opposite side. Inside she saw Time Turner and a blue Earth pony with an orange mane. She walked up to the door and said, "Hello! I came to tell you that Minuette and I finished up for today and Minuette went to tell Derpy.”

“Is it time for dinner already?” asked Time Turner, looking at one of the many clocks in the room. It read 6 o'clock. “My word, how the time does fly. Well, I think we can pack up for the day as well. I'd hate to miss Derpy's muffins.”

"I told you it was about dinner time half an hour ago! No wonder you kept starting on a new part, you forgot we were cleaning up,” said the blue pony, presumably Pace.

“Anyway, who'll wait for the second run?”

“I will," said Pace. "We wouldn't want you forgetting to follow us out.”

“Allons-y!” The Doctor began walking towards the box and Starlight followed.

After Time Turner had started up the box Starlight asked, “What is this?”

“It's a lift. I invented them to allow ponies to travel straight up and down. It uses less space than a staircase, so I didn't need to have as much digging done to have a large enough basement. Plus I'm rather fond of them.” The lift stopped moving and the doors folded open. Starlight and Time Turner walked into the kitchen while the lift closed and began its warbling descent.

In the kitchen Derpy was setting the table, while Minuette was taking the last chair out of the kitchen so everypony could fit around the little circlular table. “I hope you like muffins,” said Derpy. “I only made enough for everypony to have one, but I made them extra big to make up for it.”

Starlight thought back to the only muffins she could remember. Sugar Belle's muffins had been terrible, but was it because muffins were bad, or because of the sameness curse? Then she looked at the colorful soft plump muffins sitting in a basket on the table. “I’ve never had them.”

“Oh that’s just awful. Everypony should have a chance to try muffins! If you like them I'll be sure to send you a basket tomorrow.”

Perfect Pace walked in. “Well then, how about we get started?”

Derpy put a muffin on everypony's plate while they all sat at their spots. Starlight took a bite out of her muffin. "So, do you like it?" asked Derpy hopefully.

“They're delicious!”

“Hooray!”

Author's Note

While I was writing this story I realized that I tend to write grey, which is the British spelling, despite the fact that I am American. You may have noticed that I spell it both ways in this story. This is because I am reserving grey for things which are British. For example, the Doctor’s workshop is grey, not gray, because he is British, or at least the pony equivalent thereof. Derpy is a gray pegasus, because she is not British.

3 Pony Princess Party Participation

Change.

Time is like a river. If you make a little change upstream, the changes downstream can be both meaningful and unforeseen. Of course, in both cases there is also a chance that a little change upstream will be eroded away by the end, making the end result unchanged. In both cases it is far more widely observed for there to be great changes, but this could be an example of observation bias. After all, if no great change occurs then we never think to look. The only way to be sure is to follow the river to its end. <<

When Twilight asked Starlight to bring a friend to the dinner party Starlight was torn. On the one hoof it would be easiest to ask one of the Time Ponies to join her, but on the other hoof they might bring up the project. But after failing to find a new friend to bring with all 5 of Twilight's friends, Starlight was ready to bring a friend from their ranks. Now she sat by the fountain deciding who to ask. Minuette was friendly enough, but had no filter whatsoever. She would be sure to let slip their secret project. Perfect Pace had headed back to Canterlot to attend to his clock store. That left Time Turner and Derpy.

“I know how to decide. I'll ask Derpy if she knows what we've been doing. I don't think anypony has told her the details, which would mean she can't accidently tell Twilight. It's perfect.” Since Starlight didn't know if Derpy had work this Saturday she might as well start looking for her at home. Besides, if there was one thing Starlight had learned about Derpy in the past month, it was that she took her job as mailpony very seriously. Better to wait and ask once her shift was over if she had work today.

Once she reached Derpy's house she knocked on the door. A gray unicorn stallion with a purple mane cracked the door open. “Hello, may I help you?” he asked.

“I'm here to talk to Derpy, is she home?”

“I'm in the kitchen! Feel free to sit on the couch!” Derpy answered. The stallion opened the door the rest of the way and stepped aside to let Starlight pass. She walked into the house and walked over to a wall with pictures hanging on it.

Before she got a good look at the pictures the stallion cleared his throat and she turned to face him. “Hello Ms., my name is Written Script. May I ask for yours?"

“I'm Starlight Glimmer. I live in Twilight's castle.”

“How do you know my sister?”

“I met her at the post office and she took me to see Time Turner.”

“As a friend, not a mailmare!” Derpy said as she walked into the small entryway and living room. “I always remember, ‘the Ponyville Post has a strict policy not to share anypony's address’. But Doc said I could show anypony where he lives if they seem nice, so I took her home after work.”

Then two foals walked in behind Derpy and stood on either side. “Hello Ms.,” said the unicorn filly. “Would you like a muffin?”

“No thank you,” replied Starlight. “I just wanted to talk to Derpy about some things.” She looked at Derpy. “Do you mind if we step outside for a minute?”

Script raised an eyebrow but said nothing and Derpy shook her head. “Nope! As long as it won't take long, I want to be there when we take the muffins out.”

“This should only take a minute,” said Starlight, leading Derpy into the front yard. She looked around for anypony who might be watching, but it seemed clear. “Do you know what I'm working on with Time Turner?"

“Yep! He told me that when he asked me to send the letters the day after we met. But don't worry, the secret is safe with me. ‘Mailmares never give out personal information about their clients.’ I'd sooner give up muffins then break the Postal Code.”

“How many secrets do you keep?”

“I can't tell you that. I just told you, ‘Mailmares never give out personal information about their clients.’”

“Derpy, how would you like to come to a dinner party with Twilight and Celestia at the castle tonight?”

“That sounds great! When should I come? And which castle?”

“I'll come pick you up at six. Have fun with your family!” Starlight and Derpy waved and headed off in their separate directions.

Derpy walked back into her house where some of her siblings were waiting for her. Her big brother asked, "What was that all about?”

“She invited me out to dinner, isn't that nice?”

“What did you say?” asked Dinky and Ray.

“I told her that sounded great.”

“Where did she ask you to?” asked Script.

“She asked me out to the castle.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, I think she wanted me to come alone. She said she would pick me up here at six.”

“Dinky, Ray, go play outside, Derpy and I need to talk."

The other three seemed puzzled as to why the foals had to go for the adults to talk, but outside was fun so Dinky and Ray left without complaint. “What do we need to talk about?” asked Derpy.

“I thought you were seeing Time Turner? Why are you going out with Starlight?”

“Because Time Turner is busy tonight and I like Starlight. We'll have a wonderful evening and I can be with Time Turner tomorrow. There’s nothing that says I can only go out with one pony.”

“Alright, as long as you’re sure. Come see me if anything bad happens at dinner.”

“I will. You worry too much, it'll be great!” Derpy looked out the window. “It's time to come in and check the muffins!”

At about five Amethyst Star came home to find Derpy sitting in their front yard. “Hey sis, what's up?”

“I'm waiting for Starlight to pick me up at six! We're going to have dinner at the castle with Twilight and Celestia!”

Amethyst walked inside and looked at their wall clock. It read five fifteen. “You have half an hour to get ready, are you planning to wear anything in particular?”

“Well, I wasn't. Do you think I should wear my postal outfit? I like it, but I thought this was a casual dinner.”

“With not one, but two princesses? Why don't you borrow my skirt? It matches your mane and is just right for a party, regardless of whether it is a casual or fancy one. And I'll brush your hair too. It wouldn't do to leave it tangled.”

“Thanks! I don't know what I'd do without you.”

“Don't mention it. After all, what are sisters for?”

“Baking muffins together?”

“Ahh. Yes Derpy, that too.”

On Starlight's way to pick Derpy up she was stopped by Written Script stepping into the road ahead of her. “I want to talk to you about tonight,” he said, pointing to the side of the road.

She stepped off where he had pointed and said, “Why's that?” Please don't know about my past. Please don't know about my past.

“I don't want to see Derpy hurt. I don't know what your intentions are, but remember, treat her well.”

“I'm not going to hurt her! I don't do that anymore, I promise!”

“You'd better not,” he said, walking past Starlight and turning off the street out of sight.

Well that could have gone better. I guess they really do know about my past. She sighed. At least Derpy was willing to forgive her.

She continued on her path until she got to Derpy's house. Derpy was standing in her front yard in a little yellow skirt. When she saw Starlight she waved and trotted over.

“With your skirt suddenly I'm wondering if I should have found something to wear after all,” said Starlight with a chuckle.

“Is it too much? I wasn't sure, but Amethyst said it would be perfect…” Derpy looked down at the skirt.

“It's lovely,” Starlight reassured her. “Just don't bring up the project and it'll be fine. I already told Twilight I was bringing you and she seemed pleased. Relax, you don't have to do anything but be yourself.”

“Really?”

“Really. I even made sure we had muffins on the menu.”

Derpy hugged Starlight “Thank you!”

“Now let's get going before we're late.” Starlight started walking towards the castle.

“Yes ma’am!” Derpy said while bringing her right hoof up, nearly but not quite touching her head.

“Woah! What was that?”

Derpy brought her hoof back down and started following Starlight. “What was what?”

“That thing you did with your hoof.”

“That was a salute! A salute is how a soldier respectfully hails a superior officer, or occasionally a government official, such as a mayor or noble.”

“Okay.” They continued on their way to Twilight's castle in silence.

Written Script watched as Starlight led his sister into the castle. He knew he couldn't just walk right in and keep an eye on them, but there was a way he could observe them. He didn't like Starlight, and suspected Derpy might not fully understand the implications of somepony asking her to their residence for dinner alone. And the fact she admitted that she used to hurt ponies made him worried. Just what had Starlight done before, and was she truly past it?

He made his way from a bush to the back wall of the castle and put his ear to the wall. He didn't hear anything, and nopony could see him on the outside, so he grabbed the ladder from a bush under one of the windows where he had stashed it that afternoon. He set it up with his magic, cautiously made his way up to the window, and climbed through. Then he used his magic to fold the ladder back up and return it to the bush.

Once inside he looked around. He was in a hallway stretching in both directions straighter than the outside implied was possible. This could be a tricky search, but surely no harder than navigating Celestia's palace. He set off to the right and listened for anypony.

Starlight and Derpy arrived right on time. They had just sat down when Celestia arrived. Starlight bowed respectfully while Derpy gave another salute. Celestia chuckled and returned Derpy's salute. Only after Celestia had put her hoof all the way back down did Derpy lower her own. “It has been some time since anypony has saluted me. Normally they either bow or simply offer a greeting. May I ask why you chose that particular gesture?”

Derpy began another salute. “A salute is how a soldier respectfully hails a superior officer, or occasionally a government official, such as a mayor or noble. As a member of the E.U.P. reserves I salute you, Princess Celestia, Solar Diarch of Equestria, as the commander of all military ventures, should you require to do so personally.” Celestia returned her salute and Derpy lowered her hoof once more.

Twilight gaped. “Derpy, that was a rephrasing of section 12.3 of the E.U.P. official guidebook. Did you memorize it?” While Twilight and Derpy talked Starlight and Celestia started eating.

“No. I forget pieces of the book sometimes. That's why I make sure to read through it and the mailpony guidebook at least once a year.”

“Now I remember! You're the one who was always checking out the military history books. If you'd like you can check them out of the castle.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I've never officially opened up my private collection to the public, but any of my friends can borrow anything they want. And any friend of Starlight's is a friend of mine, right Starlight?”

“What? Oh, yes. The more the merrier! He he he.” Starlight thought back to Time Turner. She didn't like hiding anything from Twilight, but she couldn't tell her about the problem.

“Yay! I can reread the complete history of the Wonderbolts! I thought I had lost it forever when Tirek destroyed the library. Thank you so much!”

“So,” asked Twilight, “how long have you been in the E.U.P. reserves?”

“Ever since I turned seventeen. That's when I was old enough to sign up. I wanted to try out for the Wonderbolts, but I failed the medical exam.” Derpy frowned and looked down, her eyes drifting apart. Then she looked up and smiled, “But I passed the E.U.P. reserve test! Virtute Alisque!”

Written Script was about to give up and go home when he heard Derpy shout up ahead. It sounded happy, so he crept carefully forward. Soon he came to a large green stained glass window. He peered through and saw Princess Celestia sitting across a circlular table from his sister, with Princess Twilight on one side and Starlight on the other. He saw them share a laugh and he relaxed. Maybe Starlight really wasn't so bad. Now he just had to leave without getting spotted and all would be fine.

He turned around and saw Princess Twilight's assistant Spike looking at him. “Why are you sneaking around Twilight's castle?”

He sighed, “I misjudged Starlight. And I think I misunderstood my sister."

“Your sister?”

“Derpy. She said she was going to have dinner with Starlight, and I jumped to conclusions. I don't know what Starlight did, but I guess it really doesn't matter. She regrets it and doesn't do it anymore, plus Derpy trusts her. She seems to be a good pony. Would you tell her that Written Script sends his apologies? I'd tell her myself, but I don't want to interrupt the evening, and I should probably go.”

“Alright, I'll be sure to tell her. And next time just knock on the front door, it's always open.”

Written script nodded and went home.

Author's Note

These helped inspire me to make being a mailpony such a big part of Derpy's self image. However, I probably shouldn't have to tell any of you that these are not canon to this fic. I'm going to do it anyway, because I can't know when somebody is going to see that I linked something as an inspiration and assume I took the whole thing. To be clear, this Derpy has never kidnapped anypony at this point in the story. As of writing this note I do not know if she ever will, although it is not entirely unlikely.

Also Virtute Alisque is the motto of the 111th Fighter Wing and 103rd Fighter squadron based at Willow Grove Air Reserve Station. I feel the need to say I have never served in the armed forces. Any mistakes I have made were accidental and I have respect for those who serve any such cause they feel is just. You are braver than I. I hail you in the three fingered Boy Scout salute. War is terrible, but those face it often do so for noble reasons. You have my highest respects. Police, Firefighters, and other emergency responders too. They lay down their lives that we may live in peace. For God, for country, and for those they leave back home. Let us all take a moment to appreciate all they do for us. I've heard some people are unhappy with the police lately, but they're not bad people. I've known policemen, and they've always been nice and understanding. And before anybody accuses me of never having been harmed by one my father was arrested once. Even when they hurt me they were doing the right thing though. It makes me really sad that they don't seem to be respected these days. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places. Please everybody, they're not the bad guys.
To all those out there that fight so we don't have to, you shall be in my prayers tonight. I have only good wishes for you, now and forever. Thank you for everything you do in the service of others. I don't always agree with our civil government(I am American), but I highly respect you. And all those who have served in the past. Not just Americans, but those from any country who have served in order to protect those they care for. Farewell, good luck, and well wishes.

4 Meet the Time Ponies

The day after the party Starlight woke up feeling refreshed. The dinner party had actually been quite fun, and she had learned things about everypony there. Twilight used to run a library until it was destroyed by an evil magic eating centaur named Tirek, Celestia preferred those around her to act casually in private, and Derpy had served as a reserve in the royal guard since before Luna's return. Starlight had noticed Derpy's odd tendency to look in two places at once before, but she hadn't paid it much heed. Now she was fairly sure it had cost Derpy a shot at her dream. Derpy always seemed so cheerful and dedicated to her job that Starlight had thought being a mailmare was Derpy's dream.

Putting it out of her thoughts for now, she got up and started getting ready for the day. After brushing her teeth she saw a letter on her nightstand. She opened it and read, ‘We finished the spell! The Doctor is calling a club meeting next Sunday to discuss the project and he wanted to talk to you before then!’ I guess I'd better see if Twilight needs anything and then head over. She opened her door and started her search for the dining room, where Twilight would probably be having breakfast around now.

When she finally located the dining room she saw Rainbow Dash's rainbow contrail fading away in a streak from the still swinging dining room doors to the wide open front doors. She walked into the dining room where Spike and Twilight were starting to clean up from their breakfast. “What was that about?” she asked.

“Rainbow Dash just got invited into the Wonderbolts!” answered Spike. “She asked us to come over to talk while she packs.” Twilight walked out of the room and Spike beckoned Starlight over.

She walked up to him. “What is it Spike?”

“Somepony called Written Script asked me to tell you he was sorry. He was sneaking around at dinner last night. He said he was sorry for misjudging you.”

“He... he forgave me?”

“Yep! He said it didn't matter what you used to do, because that's not who you are anymore. Anyway, I'm headed off to Dash's with Twilight, I left you some pancakes in the kitchen.” And with that Spike left the castle.

After breakfast Starlight headed through the early autumn streets to Time Turner's house. When she got close enough to see it she decided to see if Derpy was home first. She walked up to the door and knocked, but nopony answered. She decided she could talk to Derpy later and went next door to Time Turner's house. This time her knock was answered by Time Turner in a matter of seconds, a first in all the times she had come by.

“Hullo Starlight! I was just about to go find you. Minuette finished the spell ere-yesterday. I gave Derpy letters for every member of the club telling them to meet here this evening, and I wanted to go over things with you one last time before we give the presentation.”

“I just read my letter this morning. She gave it to me last night, but it was getting late. Can I see the final spell?”

“Follow me, I left the papers in the basement.” Time Turner headed into the blue box and pulled the lever once Starlight was inside. He raised his voice to be heard clearly over the lift scraping along. “I've already got the machine integrated with the spell, but I thought you should double check it before activation.”

“Are you planning a demonstration at the meeting?” asked Starlight. The lift came to a stop and the doors opened. They began walking across the room.

“No, the basement is too small to house everypony and the machine is too hard to move.”

“I guess the lift is a bit small and slow to have everypony use it to observe the machine,” Starlight said as she followed the Doctor into his workshop. Along the back wall was a spot that had been cleared and ringed in a metal frame. Next to it was a hexagonal pillar made of bronze and glass with wires coming off it in many places. Halfway up the glass tube suspended by several wires was a green diamond. It glowed a soft color and shifted in and out of phase with the light around it, making it seem like it was moving.

“Oh, I don't host our meetings at my house,” said the Doctor. “It's far too cluttered, so we have our Ponyville meetings in the town hall. I already made the reservations, and Derpy and Minuette are doing the catering. All we have left to do is make sure the spell works and prepare for the discussion.”

Starlight walked over to a stack of papers on a counter. She picked them up in her magic and saw the top sheet had a version of the spell she and Minuette had been working on. It was circled and had ‘finished’ written under it. She began checking the calculations. “Are you sure none of the Time Ponies will tell anypony about this?”

“I have every confidence they can keep a secret. The club is not a secret but several of our projects thus far have been, and nopony has spilled any secret until it was declassified.”

“Good. And the spell appears to be perfect as well, though I don't know how we could get enough power to cast it. It takes more power to cast this spell than to raise the sun!”

“Don't worry about power, I have a way to make as much as we'll need. See that green gem?” Starlight nodded in response to the Doctor's question. “It holds more power in it than Celestia. I found it abandoned years ago and I've been using it as a power source ever since.”

“How does it work?”

“I have tried to find that answer more times than I care to admit, and yet it always eludes me. I do know that it does not use magic, but that it can easily be used to power magic spells. It is rather unstable, which is why I always keep it as isolated as feasible. Never open the glass while that machine is operating, I don't entirely know what would happen.”

“That... doesn't sound entirely safe.”

“Don't worry, as long as it stays in its glass casing it can do nothing but send power through the wires. Although I should warn you not to use magic on it.”

“Okay, whatever happens don't touch the glowing green gem. Got it. Any other parts of your machine that could cause untold disaster if bumped?”

“No, I wouldn't bodge a job like this. There are plenty of other parts that might cause a malfunction if tampered with, but none that will go off on you at a touch. And everything delicate is safely shielded from the outside,” Time Turner said, with just a hint of indignation.

“Okay, just making sure. Well the spell is good, so if you've got the power and the focus handled with your machine we should be good to go.”

“Brilliant! Let's see if we can confirm where we stand before holding the meeting then. Are you ready?” Starlight nodded. “Well then, allons-y!” The Doctor messed with the control panel on the hexagonal pillar and a strange humming started up. After about ten seconds the wall within the rectangular metal frame began to glow. A paper readout began coming out of one of the other machines in the room. The Doctor walked over and examined it. Then he went to the pillar and shut it off. “It works! We made contact with another dimension! We have simultaneously discovered dimensional travel, time travel, and proven a theory about temporal-dimensional mechanics!”

“Yep, four ponies challenging the universal assumptions of ponykind in the basement, just another day in this crazy town.”

“Things have been rather exciting ever since Luna's return. Bugbear attacks, crusader antics, and more activity from the Everfree than there's been since Ponyville became a town.” Time Turner paused and looked at Starlight. “Now, why did we come here again?”

“We're going to give a presentation this evening,” Starlight reminded him.

“Right! I was going to suggest we set up a team to go in and help improve the lot of the alternate timelines.”

“What?”

“Surely you didn't intend to go in alone? I happen to know at least two ponies associated with us who would be perfect for this mission. I thought we should offer our members an opportunity to pitch in and work as a team.”

“I suppose teamwork is a form of friendship... Alright, let's do it. We can explain the situation and ask for volunteers. Hey Doctor?”

“Hmm?”

“Does the bringing time forward work both ways?”

“Yes. No matter how long it takes you'll only be gone an instant. Try not to spend too long since you still age, but other than that you have as long as you need.”

“Marvelous.”

That evening the town hall's meeting hall had been stocked with baked goods and two dozen chairs. Two podiums had been set up next to each other on the central platform where Starlight and Time Turner would give the presentation. Minuette and Derpy had already finished setting up when Starlight and Time Turner had arrived.

After about five minutes ponies began filing in. First came a magenta mare with a purple and pink mane. Starlight noticed that she seemed to share Minuette and Time Turner's basic cutie mark concept of an hourglass. Then Perfect Pace came in, immediately followed by four more ponies, three of which also possessed the hourglass mark while the fourth had a dress which hid her cutie mark. “Just how many of you have an hourglass cutie mark?” she whispered.

“Currently every member does. It's not a requirement, but it tells us that a pony might be interested, and so far nopony without one has asked to join,” he whispered back.

“And you have two dozen members?”

The Doctor waved a grey-brown earth pony in a top hat over. When he arrived Time Turner asked him, “How many members are currently in the Time Ponies?”

“Twelve, counting the two of us. I take it this is an initiation for your new acquaintance?” he nodded his head at Starlight.

“Actually, it's a presentation of a series of discoveries we made and a call for volunteers. You'll learn all about it as soon as we begin.”

Starlight looked at the room where the guests were milling about, talking to one another and enjoying the baked goods. Then Starlight noticed something. “If there are twelve members, and you two are up here, then why are there twelve ponies down there?”

“The same reason we set out two dozen seats for one dozen members. The standard policy is to allow every member to bring a plus one. The only requirement is that the plus one be trusted to keep any secrets they learn here. I still remember the last time that was an issue. Minuette took months to prove she could hold her tongue. Who're you with?”

“Me”, answered the Doctor. “Minuette offered to take Derpy today.”

“Well, if you're ready I think it's time for me to perform the opening ceremonies.”

“This way,” the Doctor called to Starlight and walked over to the chairs. Starlight followed and sat on one side of him while Derpy came and sat on the other.

The stallion in the top hat cleared his throat as the last ponies sat down. “Let us begin this meeting of the Time Ponies.” He looked at a paper in front of him, then looked at the audience. “Derpy Hooves, please say here.”

“Here!”

“Starlight, last name unknown?” The stallion gave a deadpan look. “So Time Turner, did you never ask for her last name, or did you forget it?”

“I've had a lot on my mind this last month, it never came up.”

“It's Glimmer, Starlight Glimmer,” interjected Ms. Glimmer.

The stallion grabbed a quill from the podium and jotted something down on his paper. “Alright then, moving on. Mrs. Beyond?”

“Here,” answered a blue unicorn mare in a bored sounding voice.

“Excellent, every member here and everypony else is accounted for. Another perfect attendance. Now, Starlight Glimmer, do you solemnly swear to tell nopony of anything you learn here without the permission of all involved parties?”

“I do,” she answered.

“Well, that and the Doctor's okay is enough for me! Does anypony here have any objections?” He waited a few seconds, but nopony spoke up. “In that case let's get on to the first item on today’s agenda. Time Turner wishes to offer a speech; I cede the floor.” He stepped down and sat in one of the empty seats.

Time Turner got up and Starlight followed him to the stage. He took the left podium and she took the right one. Time Turner started them off. “My friends, I have news both dire and jubilant. Over the last month I have been working with Starlight,” he looked at his notes, “Minuette, and Pace. We have found a method of time travel which does not cause the usual problems. We have developed a method of crossing to alternate dimensions at any time after the last interaction between the two dimensions. This is the good news.” The Doctor nodded to Starlight. She had asked to present this part, she wouldn't have felt right if somepony else were to do it.

“That brings us to the bad news.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I accidently caused the creation of several alternate versions of Equestria, which are now in various states of disaster. I plan on fixing these timelines so that the locals can live their lives in peace and freedom as we all take for granted in our Equestria. If any of you are willing to provide assistance, I would be grateful.”

The Doctor took over again at this point. “The journeys into the alternate timelines will each happen in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, on our side, no matter how long the trip takes. This should help prevent any interruption to the daily lives of the volunteers. Perfect Pace and I will operate the machine. Are there any questions?”

“How were you able to copy our world?” asked a dark yellow earth pony stallion.

“She traveled back in time and changed things so that she was no longer able to time travel in the new timeline. So the world split to resolve the paradox,” Time Turner explained.

“At the time I thought I was changing this world, not making new ones. So when I went back and things played out how they did in our world and I went home I thought everything was back to normal. But then I found out that those other worlds are still suffering from my mistakes.” Starlight looked down to the floor.

The Doctor took over for her. “If you want to volunteer just write your name on this sheet of paper that will be left on the papers table for the mingling portion of the meeting. There will also be a paper describing some of the details next to it. Are there any more questions before we move on?” There was a moment of silence. Several ponies coughed or shifted in their seats, but nopony spoke up. “Well then, I believe our time with the floor is done. Starlight?”

She nodded and walked back to her seat, with Time Turner following. Then the stallion in the top hat from earlier walked up to the podium. “That was our only scheduled request for the floor in today's agenda. Does anypony object to proceeding to the free discussion period?”

“No, let's keep moving this along,” called Beyond.

“Very well. This meeting is now open floored. Feel free to enjoy the refreshments.” He stepped down and everypony else started getting up and moving around, with several wandering over to the buffet table. Time Turner walked over to one of the tables to put the sign up and detail papers on it.

The pony in the top hat walked up to Starlight and offered her his hoof. “Hello miss Starlight. I'm terribly sorry that I haven't introduced myself yet. In the excitement of the good Doctor's surprise I completely forgot. I'm Extra Time, and allow me to say, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Oh. You're… welcome?” she answered, while hesitantly shaking his hoof.

“Might I inquire as to when you first considered that other worlds might have been created?”

“I was reading through the Equestrian Journal of Science's temporal works compilation and found ‘An Article on the Nature of Paradoxes.’”

“I thought as much. It is a pleasure to know that my efforts played a part in this endeavor. When I published that article I never thought it would be used in applied sciences in my lifetime. Ever since our good friend the Doctor gave up on his time travel machine seven years ago I thought I would never see working time travel. Do you mind if I make a record of your efforts?” Starlight was about to protest but Extra held up a hoof. “For private use only, I assure you. The record will stay a secret until such a time as you and everypony else involved in the project all agree to declassify it.”

“And if I never want it to see the light of day?”

“Then I will find a suitable way of making sure it stays a secret after we are both long gone." Extra tilted his head for a moment. “I can already think of three different ponies I could trust to keep it a secret. And if none of those panned out we could burn the papers, but I don't like destroying knowledge that can never be reclaimed.”

“Well, if you're sure, then I guess you can keep a record.”

“Thank you madam.” He bowed. “I am confident you will not regret this.” As Extra Time walked off Starlight noticed that a brown earth pony stallion with a blond mane was walking up to her. Starlight took a deep breath and walked forward to meet him.

“Miss, I have a question about the volunteers that was not answered on the page. Do you plan on covering expenses? I'd be happy to help, but I don't know that I want to start missing more work days.”

“How much would that be?”

“I make about 20 bits a day, the train ticket is paid as part of membership in the Time Ponies.”

Starlight conjured a sheet of parchment and a quill to her. “Give me just a minute. I need to check my finances.” The brown earth stallion nodded and walked off. “Now let's see... Yearly stipend from Twilight, divide by days in a year…” Starlight muttered as she wrote the problem and began to solve it. In the end she saw she had about 45 bits a day. If she made sure to organize the outings only after some time to save up between each she could afford to offer 30 bits for each volunteer every expedition. She walked over to the table and wrote the payment down.

“Excuse me?” Starlight turned around to see a light green unicorn mare with a dark green mane. “Thank you.” The mare stepped over to the paper and wrote ‘Emerald’. “And thank you for offering this opportunity. It is everypony's duty to help others when we can, and you have offered us a chance to contribute. I look forward to helping make the world, well, worlds I suppose, better places. I'm not much of an adventurer, but I'll do my best.”

“I can help!” Starlight and Emerald looked over to see Derpy looking at them. “I can help you train like I do for the reserves' fitness test! It'll get anypony into great shape as long as they stick with it!”

“Thank you Derpy. I hadn't thought of that, but it would probably help everypony. Would you mind hosting a class for any of the volunteers who wish to participate? Perhaps right before we head back to Canterlot?”

“Not at all! I'll help anypony who wants to learn.”

While Derpy and Emerald discussed training, Starlight had begun trying some of the pastries. The muffins looked as delicious as they always did, but she decided not to have any. Muffins were good, but she was ready for a change of pace, since Derpy seldom made anything else to share at the research sessions. She found a nice little flat round slice of bread with strawberries and butter.

“I see you like the Trottingham muffins,” called a voice from right behind Starlight. She spun around to see a unicorn mare who looked surprisingly similar to Derpy.

“Does everypony sneak up on each other here?” Starlight asked while catching her breath.

“It's a busy room. If you don't stay vigilant then anypony can sneak up on you without even trying. You were focused on your food, so you didn't notice that one of the 15 ponies in the room was coming up behind you. You might want to work on being more observant in case you go to a world where something stealthy is causing the problems. You won't last five hours against changelings unless you keep your wits about you and observe everything. What are you expecting to face in the first world you go to?”

“Well, we decided that the Discord and Tirek timelines are way too much to start with. And the one that I... The one that was nothing but a barren wasteland also seems like an extra hard one. That left con ponies, Nightmare Moon, changelings, and King Sombra. The Doctor asked that we not start with Nightmare Moon because he ‘didn't want us to have to destroy her.’ I told him that wasn't the plan, but he said he would rather we test ourselves against a different foe to make sure we could bring her in unharmed. Does he normally talk about Luna with that much... protectiveness?”

“Has he told you about what we did when Luna first returned as Nightmare Moon?”

“No, what did you do?”

“I might tell you the whole story later, but the short version is that he led a quest into the Everfree to save her.”

“Save her? From what I've heard she wasn't the one who needed saving.”

“Like you said, he's rather protective of her. Almost like a father or a big brother. He always hated Nightmare Night, but that's the first time I learned why. He wanted to see her restored to being Princess Luna.”

“Any idea why?”

“He is the only one who can tell you why. So, which of the three remaining worlds are you planning on tackling first?”

“Changelings. Originally I wanted to go to them first because they were in the most immediate danger, and while that doesn't matter with the time manipulation I see no reason not to stick with that one being first.”

“What do you know about changelings?”

“They change shape and I think love hurts them like windigos.”

“No, changelings consume love. But somehow Princess Cadence can make a love shield which blocks them. I take it you've never had any problems with them?”

“No, I can't say that I have. Our Town never had any come by, and when I fell out of communication with the rest of Equestria nopony had ever heard of them.”

“What... never mind, that's your business. What are your personal feelings about changelings?”

“Well, Twilight said that the Everfree camp was under attack by them, so I suppose that makes them our enemies. But personally? Like I said, I've never had any interaction with them, so I don't really have much of an opinion about changelings.”

“So, how would you feel if, say, there was a changeling who left the hive and didn't kidnap anypony?”

“They would probably be a good place to get information on how the hive was set up, and could certainly be useful if we found such a changeling. That is definitely something to keep an eye out for.”

“I'll be sure to tell you if I find any. I'm Inquisitor by the way. I'm Ponyville's best detective. Well, Ponyville's only detective, but I am good at my job. I'll definitely be offering my services for your foray into the changeling world. I figure a detective will be quite handy. Also, make sure to have an easy way of telling whether somepony is really one of us, like a password, code phrase, or a quiz about this reality.”

“I was thinking we would use a password. We can decide on what it should be at the sendoff.”

“Sounds great. I'll go get some of my ‘4 tell-tale signs of a changeling’ pamphlets I got after the Canterlot wedding. It's not like anypony's actually shown any interest in them since Twilight became a princess,” Inquisitor's voice grew sharper at the last sentence. “Just because they haven't made any big moves since then doesn't mean they're gone. I've tried to get the mayor to call a speech to raise awareness, but she says she ‘doesn't want to cause a panic’. Politicians.”

“Panics are best handled carefully. If you present a problem and not a solution then ponies get anxious and doubt the leadership. Then they choose somepony new and all of a sudden you're out of a job.”

“You're a politician, aren't you?” Inquisitor stared intently at Starlight, likely taking in body language in an effort to test her claims. Not that Starlight planned on lying.

“I used to be. Not all politicians are bad, a decent chunk of them are decent ponies. Why do you dislike them?”

“A politician is a manipulator, they manipulate ponies into keeping them in office, sometimes to the detriment of their actual jobs. I think they should be appointed by somepony who truly understands the job, that way they could be judged by their skill at their job rather than their talent for manipulation.”

“Or they could be good at manipulating that one individual instead of manipulating everypony. And ultimately the best way of getting ponies to vote for you is to do your job well,” Starlight contested.

“I suppose. I still don't like the concept, but I get along well enough with Mayor Ivory Scrolls most of the time, so I think we can work together too. Anyway, I need to go talk to my deputy in preparation for our expedition. Could we talk sometime between now and departure?”

“I thought you said you were Ponyville's only detective? How do you have a deputy?” asked Starlight.

“I’m also the sheriff, and Perfect Timing is my deputy. She's over there,” Inquisitor pointed out a tan unicorn mare with a brown mane. “We've served as Ponyville's only resident peacekeeping force for 3 years now, ever since her father moved out to help settle Appleloosa. Ponyville's not really the sort of town where you can be a full time detective, but I would choose this town over being a detective any day of the month. The ponies are friendly, the food is plentiful, and there's some new adventure every other week these days. Luna's return and the Element’s awakening put some life back into this town. About time, just when it was starting to get boring, but I couldn't bear to leave it, things started happening again. I love this town.”

“Okay. I can swing by anytime, when’s good for you?”

“Can I speak with you on Saturday?” Starlight nodded. “Come by for lunch at noon, we'll provide the meal.”

“Oh, thank you. That sounds like a plan.”

Author's Note

Does anyone know what the green gem is? Please let me know if you recognize it.

Here's a picture of the Time Ponies:

In reading order they are: Infinity and Beyond(Infinity is the male, his wife is not actually a member.), Minuette, Inquisitor, Perfect Timing, Starlight(Not a member, but important to this project.), Red Rose, Emerald, Time Turner, Extra Time, Written Script(Derpy's brother is just in the picture to make a multiple of three.), Driver, feel free to vote on his name since I don't have one for him yet, Perfect Pace, Sandstorm, and Derpy! I had not noticed Infinity and Beyond until making this picture. I wonder if that Toy Story reference is on purpose?
Most of these names come from Fandom Wiki.

Here is a copy of the pamphlets Inquisitor mentioned, for any curious. I made it myself.

I just realized the Time Ponies have a significantly lower number of pegasi than the other two races. I sort of expected more than one in three to be unicorns, but I didn't see there being so many earth ponies coming. I wonder why earth ponies have a tendency for time cutie marks. It is probably a coincidence, and I'm just reading way to hard into minor animation oddities.

I am well aware that this is hardly universal, and the show itself was less than forthcoming about details, but I have developed a framework for currency in my works. I have equated 1 Equestrian bit to $0.10 in 1890s America, or $2.96 in 2021(about £2.2). I am using the basics of 1890-1900 America for Equestrian economics, technology, etc. This was harder than I anticipated. I was never great at economics and working with multiple currencies did not simplify things at all. But I feel like I have made a stable economic standard for Equestria. Fortunately this is not something I will need to repeat. The groundwork has been laid, now I can write Equestrian money consistently.
I use the University of Missouri Libraries website for the base prices. Some minor alterations have been made, much as different countries would have different values for different items. This list is merely a starting point. I decided that Twilight earns a congressional salary, it seemed appropriate.

5 Coming Out

Wrinkles.

Time is like a cloth. Imagine, if you will, a stretchable fabric held in place over an empty area. If you were to place any load of sufficient weight in the middle of it the fabric will dip around the load. Similarly if you move at incredibly high speeds time is stretched thin. This is why when a unicorn teleports they feel no time at all pass, while it can take them as long as a second to travel.

Taking this information, one can develop a manner of time travel. If you make something travel very quickly back and forth it no longer experiences time at any appreciable speed. Thus the vibrated object ‘goes into the future’. We have yet to manage this particular method of time travel in reverse, nor is there any reason to believe it will ever work in reverse. <<

“Starlight’s going to be here any minute! Is everything in place?” Inquisitor was pacing back and forth through the first floor of the Ponyville Sheriff's office, which doubled as the Ponyville jail and tripled as her and Perfect Timing's house.

“Just like it was the last six times you checked. We’ve been preparing your presentation for almost a week, it is going to be fine.”

“I hope so. But what if it goes poorly? I don’t think I could take it if I got ran out!”

“Look at me!” Perfect stood up from her stool and stepped in front of her roommate. “You are the Inquisitor! I don’t care what anypony else says, you and I can make this work! I think Starlight will be understanding, and if not then I’ll stun her and then you do your little mindwipe spell and we’ll tell her she fainted. We’ve practiced this a dozen times, either she’ll accept it or she won’t. And fretting up a storm won’t help our case. So take a deep breath… and let it out.”

Inquisitor took several slow deep breaths, and then sat down. “You’re right, it’s just frightening.”

“Well, regardless of how she takes the revelation, the doughnuts and waffles will be a great way of perking up everypony. Father swears by throwing food at somepony until they come to your way of seeing things.”

“Didn’t he mean that literally until two years ago when they had a huge food fight over territorial claims?”

“But even after that he kept the phrase with its new meaning. Some sweets to get her in a good mood, then we tell her, then we-”

Thump thump.

Starlight was glad that it wouldn’t snow before their trip tomorrow. She doubted anypony would cancel over the weather, but having the first snowfall right before their trip seemed like it could be seen as a poor omen. Much better for morale to leave on a sunny day.

Starlight reached her destination in under a minute of brisk trotting. It was in the ring of houses around the town hall. If it had been clearly labeled she would probably have noticed it sooner, but apparently Ponyville didn’t even feel the need to make finding the sheriff’s office easy. Maybe all the locals already knew where it was, and town square looked nicer without an obvious law enforcement presence.

Putting it out of her mind Starlight knocked on the door and waited for a response.

A green-gold aura enveloped the doorknob and the door popped open to reveal Inquisitor standing there, looking a little haggard. “Hello. Please come in and have a seat.” She beckoned Starlight with a wave of her hoof.

Starlight walked in and saw Time Turner and Perfect Timing sitting on one side of a large table with waffles and strange breads shaped into circles with the middles cut out. “Doctor? I didn’t know you’d be here. Did Sheriff Inquisitor invite you too?”

“Indeed. I think she should be the one to explain it.”

“But first try one of my doughnuts,” added Perfect Timing, patting the seat next to her. “I bet you’ve never had one before have you?”

Starlight sat in the spot next to her. “No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen doughnuts before. They look like sweets.”

“They are. I got the recipe from my grandfather, on my mother’s side. Same for the waffles. I’ll get you a drink.” She stood up and Inquisitor sat down across from Starlight.

“How are the doughnuts?”

“They’re alright. So, did you want to discuss the changeling preparations or talk about politics?”

“Neither. At least not directly. I wanted to show you something.” She stood and lit her horn with a blue aura.

“Your aura’s blue. How did you do that?”

Inquisitor just looked at Starlight and then closed her eyes. A swirl of blue magic came from the ground and obscured Inquisitor. When it passed she appeared to have cast a glamour or transfiguration spell, as she now appeared black with a smooth curved black horn, blue pupiless eyes, and a dark blue carapace with light blue glittery wings.

“You know a race change spell! Those will be a great help on our mission, I learned one recently just for our trip. They’re really rare, how did you find one?”

The others stared at Starlight for a second before Inquisitor answered, “I didn’t, my family taught me. I didn’t consider this in all my planning for this moment.”

“This is a really high level spell, and as far as I can see it’s unrelated to your cutie mark. Unless, is your talent learning ancient spells?” Starlight’s mind was buzzing with the possibilities. She figured Inquisitor had probably been to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Anypony who could pull this off would likely have gotten an invitation.

“See, that’s just the thing… This isn’t a race change spell. Well, I guess it is, but I just stopped using it.”

Starlight blinked. She took a moment and looked at the Doctor and Perfect Timing, noticing the tension in the room for the first time. Then she put two and two together. “Oh! You’re a changeling! That’s why you wanted to talk to me in private. I assume Perfect and Turner already knew?”

“Yes. Both of them have known for years. And no, there was never a ‘real’ Inquisitor. I built this life from the ground up when I moved to ponyville ten years ago.”

“Are you still in contact with the hive?”

“No. I cut all ties with them before I moved here. I even faked my death to keep them from looking for me.”

“Well, ten years is more recent than the point of divergence anyway. Are you planning on telling the other volunteers?”

“What? That’s it?”

“Well, that will change how we proceed. Should I ask you to explain the inner workings of the hive now, or can you explain it to us all tomorrow? Oh, you mean why am I taking this so well. Like I said, I’ve never had any particular issues with changelings, and we were already allies before, plus you revealed yourself. It seems like this could be a very convoluted plot, or a rather simple coming out.”

“Okay. Positie naar beneden.”

“Poe cici nar benada? What does that mean?”

Perfect Timing sat down next to Starlight and set four drinks down on the table. “It means we can relax. We were all a little nervous how you would take the news. And the plan was that if you took the news well then we would tell the other volunteers.”

Inquisitor nodded. “And I wrote down most of what I know. I thought it would help make sure I didn’t miss anything when the time comes. We can be reasonably sure Chrysalis is still in charge of the changelings, so I included a profile on her. I have one for Pharynx too, he’s the captain I knew best. Chances are he’ll be in a higher position now than when I left. The others I didn’t know well enough to bother with a profile.” She passed a sheaf of papers to Starlight in her blue aura.

“This is great! I was expecting to have hardly any information on the hive. This will help us greatly, thank you for sharing.”

“This probably goes without saying, but please don’t tell anypony about this. You’re the fourth pony I’ve told about this. I would much prefer for it to stay a secret.”

“Of course. And we probably shouldn’t tell the natives about it either, at least until they already trust us.”

“Yeah, changelings are mistrusted plenty here, I can only imagine how bad it would be if the queen had succeeded. Don’t worry about them figuring it out, I’ll make sure it stays a secret.”

“Well, if everything is good here then I’ll be off. Rose offered to help me tidy up and she won’t step inside if I’m not with her. Allons-y.”

“Yeah, I think we’ll be good Doctor,” answered Timing. The Doctor got up and walked outside.

“So, I’ve been thinking, do you have a nickname? Inquisitor is a little long for casual conversation.”

“Well, I like to call her Inky. It plays off her name and her natural colors.”

“Inky is fine. Though I’d have liked it if you’d asked first.”

“I knew you wouldn’t mind.”

“Can I take these papers home to look over? I’ll bring them back tomorrow.”

“Of course.”

“Alright. I’ll see you at the sendoff.” Starlight walked back out and headed back to Twilight’s castle. She wanted to read over everything about the changelings. After all, there was nothing written from an insider’s perspective available in the libraries. The better she understood them, the less likely anypony would get hurt tomorrow.

Roseluck was standing outside of the Doctor’s house, staring at it. On the one hoof, she had promised to help him clean up for his guests tomorrow, and the sooner she started the sooner she would finish. But on the other hoof she really didn’t want to wander in alone. She couldn’t understand half of what he got up to in there, but she knew that some of it was dangerous. Like his flameless fireworks, which not even he had known what would make them explode. Her roommates had never dared set hoof in his house, but she had always been the bravest of them. So she would enter his house… as soon as he came back to guide her.

“Hello Rose! Sorry to keep you waiting, but the sheriff called.” Rose turned around to see Time Turner trotting up to her.

“Inquisitor called you!” Rose gulped. “What for?”

“Moral support. Family matters, nothing to be concerned about.”

Rose sighed. “Thank Celestia. I hope everything went well.”

“When I left it looked like everything was well in hoof.” He walked up and opened his front door. “Now I believe it’s time for some spring cleaning. Why is it called that? Spring cleaning, it’s the middle of autumn, that’s the opposite of spring.”

“Because most ponies do their cleaning in the spring, since that’s when the weather is best for it,” Rose said as she followed him in and started opening the windows. “We can handle a little chill coming in while we air out your house though, right Doctor?”

“The basement needs to be cleaned the most, since that’s where most of the mess is. Why don’t we start there?” He started to walk towards the back of his house.

Rose froze and tried to think of a solution without panicking. She could stay in the relatively safe above ground, alone, or she could follow the Doctor down into the dangers of the basement.

Scrape! Rose jumped as the infernal contraption to the basement woke and began its thundering and clumsy ascent. Scrape! “Rose, are you coming?”

Scrape! “I think I’ll clean up here!” Scrape!

“Very well,” Scrape! “I’ll be in the basement,” Scrape! “if you need me.”

“And I’ll be up here.” There was a clattering of metal as the doors opened and then closed behind the Doctor. Then the machine started its screeching descent once more. “Alone but safe. I hope.”

Author's Note

The opening is incorrect about unicorn teleportation. Extra Time does not understand magic very well, a teleport takes some extra time for the phasing in and out, this is actually a bad example of the relativistic effects. The rest of what he said is accurate though.

This is Inquisitor’s natural form:

She is the changeling dubbed by the fandom as Kevin. Since all the changelings are presented on the wiki as male until the reformation I’ve decided that humans-and perhaps ponies-simply can’t tell the difference in unreformed changelings. Let me know if you want to see why she went to Cranky and Matilda’s wedding out of disguise.

The history of the doughnut is a surprisingly interesting tale. Wikipedia has it here. In this version of Equestria doughnuts are still primarily made by the ponies from the Neightherlands. Pony Joe is clearly inspired by them. Perhaps he has a Neighderlandic friend? Maybe his wife? He might be part Neighderlandic himself.

I think I used to spell them donuts before my research... Have I accidentally shifted into the traditional spelling now? Because I know that I didn’t do that on purpose, though I like it here. Ah well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Happy New Years!

6 Dangerous Departure

Truth.

I was in the invasion too Pace! But I didn’t verbally assault an innocent expatriate who just offered to help topple her own native country! She told us, we never would have figured it out on our own. What? Oh, that’s right, I was talking about time… This is a long story, there will be time for that later. <<

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Ponyville. The sun was shining as if Celestia wanted to give one last reminder of summer before autumn ended and winter began. The running of the leaves was just around the corner but today was bright and warm, full of promise. Which was great, because the team dynamic of the Time Ponies was in critical condition after Inquisitor’s secret had been revealed.

“You’re a changeling!” shouted Perfect Pace, walking up to stare into Inky’s eyes. “All these years... I remember talking to you after the invasion!”

“And all those things I said were true, and still are. I do not in any way support the hive's attack on Equestria, or Canterlot specifically. I told you, I faked my own death to leave the hive!”

“Would you appreciate it if you were held responsible for a crime your grandfather committed after you had already disowned him?” asked Perfect Timing.

“No,” said Pace, taking a step back.

“And telling us what she knows about the hive should clearly show where her loyalties lie. Unless you wish to question her word?”

Pace looked at Timing and Inky. Starlight held her breath, this would be the deciding moment. Would they accept her easily, or would this be a wedge between them on their very first mission together.

“No.” Pace stepped up to offer Inky his hoof, which she shook. “Whatever else you are, you’re one of us. And the Time Ponies stick together, through thick and thin.”

“Yeah, you’re still you, even if you are a scary bugpony that parents tell their foals about on Nightmare Night,” added Minuette. Starlight facehoofed. Still, nopony seemed too upset, they could make this work.

“I’m glad you’re telling us. That’s important,” added Driver.

Starlight started heading downstairs with Time Turner to run one final check on the machine. She had planned this to give the others time to get used to the revelation and the information on the hive before going on their trip. She led the way into the lift but let the Doctor pull the lever. “That seems to be going well. I was worried there for a minute.”

“We are a tightly knit group, Starlight. Many of these ponies were unable to find anypony to share their hobby with until they found us. We have been meeting together for years, and not just in the official meetings. We’re as closely knit as a city block, or some extended families. I knew they’d be fine. The only one we were ever worried about was you.”

While they had been talking the lift had reached the basement and they walked into the workshop. Then the lift headed back up. “That’s odd,” said Time Turner, turning back. “I wonder who’s coming down so soon.”

Starlight looked around the workshop. It was cleaner than she had ever seen it. There were still a few machines that she didn’t understand, but the smaller ones had been removed and the big ones were all up against the walls, leaving enough room for all eleven of them. “Looks like you and Rose did a great job making room down here.”

“Actually she only cleaned up upstairs. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time she came down here.”

Just then the lift opened and Extra Time came out, wearing a pair of saddlebags. “Hello there my friends. I hope today finds you well?”

“I’m a little nervous about the mission, but mostly good,” answered Starlight.

“Excellent. Do you mind if I set up for recording in the room with the portal?”

“Not at all good chap, come on in.”

Extra reached back and placed an odd wooden contraption on his back and then followed the Doctor into the room. He walked over to an empty spot against the wall and took the wooden thing off his back and unfolded it, revealing it to be a table.

“That’s a neat table, did you come up with the idea yourself?” Starlight asked.

“No, I found it in a specialty furniture shop in Canterlot. I doubt they sell them in a country town like Ponyville.” He set a sheet of parchment and an ink bottle on the table, then placed a quill next to them. “Please don’t mind me, I’ll just record events as they transpire. Also I would appreciate it if any of you would tell me what happened when you come back.”

“Well then, let’s run the final tests.” The Doctor trotted over to the readout machine and pressed a few buttons. It began whirring and printing. When it stopped the Doctor looked over the results. “All the readings appear to be good. And I checked the machine itself this morning. Everything appears to be in jolly good order. There is one other thing I wanted to talk to you about. It will be easier on the machine if we let a little time pass on this side. I was thinking we could have one hour on this side correspond to 70 on the other side.”

“That should be fine. Shall we test the beacons? I was thinking we could use the wasteland world since it didn’t seem time sensitive.”

“A fine choice. They're in that box.” He pointed at an open box with the crystals Starlight had enchanted earlier that month. They would send a magical signal when activated that should be received by their matched receiver from any distance and even across realities, but be undetected by anything else. They had all been matched to one gem which the Doctor had hooked up to the readout machine since they normally required a unicorn to read them. The signal would include a time and place for him and Pace to lock in on and let them return.

She grabbed one in her magic and levitated it over next to the mirror that had been fitted into the metal frame which would house the portal. “Ready Doctor.”

He fiddled with the pillar and then the mirror began to glow a bright green, the shade of the diamond, and pure white in alternating circles moving too quickly to track. Then there was a flash of white so bright all three of them covered their eyes and looked away. When they looked back the portal had calmed down. It was a slowly swirling vortex of green and white.

“I say,” exclaimed Extra, “that was quite the show! Will it always do that?”

“I believe so. It is a bit bright, but no problems. Shall we continue? I’ve set it to a one to one ratio of time for this experiment.”

“Right.” Starlight levitated one of the crystals and set it to go off in five seconds. Then she tossed it through the portal. Time Turner closed the portal. Five seconds later the portal opened automatically upon receiving the beacon’s signal. “I’ll get it.” Starlight walked over to the portal, only for the Doctor to put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Are you sure?”

“There was nothing in sight of the map but dust and dead trees,” Starlight started to say confidently, but by the end she was looking dejectedly at the ground. “Nopony will see me, because there’s nopony to do the seeing.”

Time Turner started to say something, but then thought better of it. Then Extra Time said, “Maybe it was just Ponyville that was destroyed?”

“I hope so. Either way, I’ll be safe.” Then she stepped through.

There was a spinning sensation, coupled with tumbling, while the world around her was a riotous rainbow of colors. It was almost enough to make her want to vomit, but not quite. After just a few seconds she flew up and then tumbled out onto hard dusty ground. The wind was just as strong as she remembered. A few feet in front of her she saw the beacon glowing turquoise, indicating that it was activated. She turned it off and then turned back to the map, which they were using as the binding point. But then she saw a dark figure looming on the next hill. They were as big as Celestia, and somehow she knew they were as evil as Celestia was good. She jumped through the portal as fast as she could, terror overpowering any feelings of nausea on the return trip.

As soon as the world stopped being rainbows she shouted, “Close it! Close it now!” She held her eyes shut to help with the spinning in her head. “There’s something out there!”

“It’s okay, I closed it,” she heard Time Turner say, and she let herself relax.

“What did you see?” asked Extra Time, in a voice that seemed far too eager to Starlight.

“I don’t know. It was bigger than a pony, and very dark, but I left before I could see anything else. As soon as I saw them I knew they were evil. And powerful. It was like there was an aura of evil it was emanating, like Celestia radiates a warm comfort.”

She heard some scritching of a quill on parchment. Then the Doctor spoke up “Well, whatever it was it shouldn’t be able to reach us now. The portal is most definitely closed.”

“Shouldn’t? As in ‘unlikely but it could happen?’” asked Extra Time.

“Well, we can cross dimensions, as can Starswirl and Discord. However those are the only three powers we have ever known to manage the feat. Hopefully this mysterious foe is not one of the rare individuals who can solve the puzzle of interdimensional travel. Also, I doubt they know which dimension we came from. I am nearly certain they will not be a problem until we next go to that world. We might want to put that one off for now though.”

“Yes!” shouted Starlight. “That one is last. Definitely.”

“One of the other threats is Discord. Are you so sure this is worse?” asked the Doctor.

“I hate to disagree with you on this old sport, but I agree with Ms. Glimmer. Discord is a great threat, but we’ve seen him before, he is a known quantity. This fellow we know nothing about.”

Starlight opened her eyes and stood up. “I think we are ready to call the others down and start the mission.”

Time Turner walked over to the lift and started it up. “So,” asked Extra Time, “you said they were dark, did you mean dark colored or that they sucked up the light around them?”

“I just meant they were darkly colored. I don’t know what color though, the whole place looked gray and brown. When Twilight and I first went there we looked drab, and that was after only a few seconds of exposure to the dust.”

“So we have no hints as to who it was?”

“No. I’ve never felt anything like it, but I’ve also never met any of the likely candidates. I doubt it was Discord though. The wasteland was far too monotonous to be his doing.”

“Indeed.” A silence fell between them, broken only by the scraping of the lift. When it opened, Perfect Pace and Derpy walked out. Pace sent the lift back up and then they walked into the workshop.

“Hi Starlight! Inquisitor is doing great! Everypony’s being friendly and getting along,” said Derpy. Starlight noticed she was in a gold set of chainmail with golden shoes and cloak, carrying an iron tipped wooden spear.

“Indeed. I am sorry for my rash response. She has been a loyal friend for years, this changes nothing between us.”

“Glad to see you got that through your head,” shot Extra Time from behind his table.

“Not today Extra. Now is not the time.”

“Fair enough.”

Starlight looked between them. “Is there a problem between you two?”

Minuette stepped in with Perfect Timing following. “They’ve never gotten along. Nopony knows why, they’ve been at it longer than either’s been in the club.”

“But rest assured, we can work together in a professional context,” added Perfect Pace.

“The Time Ponies stick together, through thick and thin,” said Extra, drawing a look from Pace.

“Derpy, do you know how to use that spear?” Starlight asked.

“It’s part of the standard training for the E.U.P. guard, both active and reserve. We’re only supposed to use them in wartime, and there hasn’t been a war in a century, but we still practice just in case. And this sounds like a war we’re walking into. So I brought mine along.”

Starlight blinked. “Right.” She studied her paper saying who would be coming today. She was a powerful unicorn, Derpy was in the reserves, Inky was a changeling, Perfect Timing was a deputy, and Minuette was a graduate from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. These were ponies who could be useful in a fight. But then there were the others. Driver the cabby, Emerald the bookseller, and Sandstorm the weather pony. Starlight looked at the mirror. It was just large enough for two ponies to walk abreast through it without touching. She looked up and saw everypony was in the room.

“Alright everypony, here’s the plan. We’ll go in pairs. Me and Inky will go first.”

“Inky?” asked Minuette.

“She means me. It’s a nickname.”

“Right. After that will be Derpy and Perfect Timing. Then Minuette and Driver. Emerald and Sandstorm are up last. There is already a fight going on, so be ready to be spun around and then thrown at the enemy. It is a bit... okay it’s very disorienting but as long as nopony has motion sickness it should be fine.”

Time Turner chimed in, “I’ll wait to increase the time dilation until after everypony is through. Also, I’ll make sure to set the portal to open on one of the trees near the map. It’s easier when we can use a mirror, but not required. This way you will come out upright.”

“Are there any questions before we begin?” asked Starlight.

“What is our plan of attack?” asked Derpy.

“Um... try to save as many of the natives as we can. Twilight told me that the ones covered in mud are truly as they appear. Something about zebra magic.”

“None of the hostiles will be ponies covered in mud. Understood ma’am!”

“Isn’t that a bit much soldier talk?” asked Perfect Timing.

“I’m just trying to follow the E.U.P. guidebook. Did I do something wrong?”

“No Derpy, you did fine. It’s just a little surprising when you go from friendly mailmare to royal guard like that,” said Starlight. “Speaking of, have you ever been on active duty?”

“I served in the aerial assault on Lord Tirek.” Derpy looked down.

“Hey, that wasn’t your fault. Nopony could take on Discord and Tirek together,” Perfect Timing reassured her. “You're the best soldier I know.”

“Really?”

“Better than me or Inky. We've never seen combat.”

“Are there any more questions?” Starlight waited but nopony spoke up this time. “Alright then. Let’s get into position.” The team filed into the pairs they had been assigned in a column in front of the mirror. “Start the countdown. Everypony else close your eyes. Open them on go.”

The Doctor fiddled with the pillar. It began to activate, going through the same process as before. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Go!”

Author's Note

This is what I consider the end of the beginning. The first six chapters are about the preparation. Now we are about to start the adventure. And boy oh boy do they ever hit the ground running. Mission one is thwart a full scale changeling invasion. Things may get dicey, and I do not promise that they will succeed at first, but I don’t write tragedies. Significant protagonists are not immune to death though, be forewarned.
Here is a picture of Derpy’s outfit: Chainmail is more flexible than the breastplates worn by the Royal guard, but offers less protection. Fitting for those who don’t have the time to learn how to fight in heavier armors but might be getting attacked.
The history of the folding table on Wikipedia, for any who are curious.

7 The First Battle of the Changeling Campaign

“Five. Four. Three.” As the Doctor counted down Starlight readied herself to cast a shield spell when they passed through. “Two. One. Go!” She opened her eyes and started galloping towards the portal, which now appeared as a swirling green and white vortex again. As soon as she passed into it she felt the spinning tumbling sensation again, but it wasn’t as bad when she expected it. Then the world stopped being rainbow colored and became all green and brown.

“What? Where did the alicorn go!”

“Look! More ponies!”

Starlight shook her head and saw a dozen hovering changelings all turn to look at her and Inky. She had lost concentration on her shield! She tried to cast it but the nearest changeling swatted her horn, breaking her concentration again. “None of that! Who are you and how did you get here! I saw you fly out of a tree!” Starlight tried to think of something to say that would give her time to defend them.

“Aaahh!”

“For Equestria!”

Starlight watched in stunned silence as Perfect Timing flew out of a tree screaming and barrelled into two of the changelings, and then Derpy flew backward into four of them, two of whom flew into two more of the changelings.

“Now!” shouted Inky as she fired a bolt at the farthest changeling still in flight and then tackled one into the foliage surrounding them. Starlight blasted the last two changelings in flight with a stun spell and turned to Derpy and Timing. “Guard the portal until everypony’s through. I’ll stop Chrysalis.”

“Aye aye ma’am!” Derpy said before flying into one of the changelings who was getting up.

“Sounds good!” shouted Timing as she put another of the rising changelings in a chokehold.

Starlight turned away and began galloping towards the sounds of battle nearby. When she reached the treeline of the clearing Twilight had spoken of she saw a few dozen ponies fighting hundreds of changelings. In the center she saw a larger changeling standing over a battered and bloody zebra. Figuring these must be Queen Chrysalis and Zecora she raised a partial shield to block any stray blasts from the random changelings. Then she readied the strongest magical beam she could and fired at Chrysalis.

Chrysalis was readying a fatal ray to finish off Zecora when Starlight’s blast caught her in the side. She staggered, but remained upright. “Who did that!” she shouted, spinning in the direction of the attack. She saw Starlight just as she let loose another blast, but this time Chrysalis met it with one of her own. Starlight canceled her attack and levitated five feet up, letting the Queen’s beam continue unopposed into the trees behind her.

Several changelings began to approach Starlight from the air, but then Chrysalis spoke. “Wait. Surround her, but don’t attack. This one looks like a challenge. What do you say! Just you and me!”

“And why would you want that?”

“Because I can beat you myself and I don’t want you hurting my subjects. Besides, it’s been too long since I’ve had a good workout.” She fired another beam at Starlight, who floated to the right, only for Chrysalis to redirect the beam after her. Starlight brought her shield to protect the front just in time for the beam to hit her squarely. She felt her horn tiring at an alarming rate and shifted to a reflective shield, sending the Queen’s beam back at her. She stopped firing at Starlight and fired at the oncoming beam, causing both to dissipate. Starlight shot another beam while Chrysalis was distracted, hitting her again.

“Enough!” Chrysalis shouted. She fired another beam at Starlight, who met it with one of her own. She quickly saw this was a mistake, as Chrysalis’s beam slowly gained ground between them.

Derpy kicked the changeling with her front hooves and they rolled over, but then got up again. “Why won’t you stay down?” she asked. It leaped at her but she brought the spear around and hit it in the head as hard as she could. This time the changeling stayed down.

“Wheee!” Minuette shouted as she and Driver flew out of the tree. Then Derpy saw a changeling with a helmet bearing down on Minuette. She flew to intercept him, but she wasn’t quite fast enough! So Derpy did the only thing she could think of: she thrust her spear all the way towards the helmeted changeling. It pierced the side of the changeling and made it veer off and hit the ground. Then they started crawling away while Derpy pulled her spear back into a ready position and kept an eye out for any more threats.

Starlight knew she couldn’t keep this up long. She decided to try to teleport around behind Chrysalis. She looked across the clearing and started visualizing it when suddenly a changeling wrapped in vines flew into Chrysalis, causing her to falter and Starlight regained some of the ground in their duel. “Drones, find whoever did that!”

Just then a yellow pegasus streaked past and hit Chrysalis in the horn, breaking her concentration and allowing Starlight to hit her with her magic. “Argh! Where do you ponies keep coming from!” There was a loud growling and hissing as big jungle cats leaped out of the undergrowth and started attacking the changelings who had begun to close in on the yellow pegasus. “And cats too‽”

“You made yourself a foe of nature itself when your actions stole the days and seasons! The wilds will not suffer your presence!” Starlight and Chrysalis both turned to see a huge monkey cat thing stalk into the clearing, tossing a changeling back into the trees with a hand on the creature’s tail. Then he leaped at Chrysalis, only for her to fly to one side and then hit him with another blast of her magic. He didn’t even seem to notice, spinning around to face Chrysalis once more. Then Starlight made a bright flash of light right in front of Chrysalis to momentarily blind her. The strange monkey-cat leaped at Chrysalis again, but this time four changelings rammed him in midair, causing him to miss Chrysalis by a hair.

Starlight’s spell was not wasted, however, as two earth ponies ran up to Chrysalis and one leapt atop her while the other slammed a ring onto her twisted black horn. She threw the one on her back off and pointed her horn at him, only for nothing to happen. Then Starlight hit her with a stunning blast and this time she went down. The monkey-cat roared and the changelings scattered.

“Ahuizotl! Daring Do! I thought you were fictional characters! You’re real?” Starlight looked over to see the rest of her team had arrived and Emerald was looking between the monkey cat and the golden pegasus with disbelief written across her features.

The pegasus looked at her. “Yes, I’m real. No, you can’t have an autograph. Those changelings will be back soon, and everypony needs to be gone when they do.”

Starlight looked over at the fallen zebra, and was shocked as she saw that among the many gathered around her was Pinkie, and Fluttershy was helping a brown earth stallion bandage Zecora.

“They’re not all gone!” Everypony looked over to see Derpy being held down by two earth ponies. “This one’s impersonating my sister!” shouted the golden one with an orange mane.

“I am your sister! I think. I used to be your sister? No, that's not right.”

“Wait! We’re not changelings, but we’re not the ponies you might know either,” said Driver. “I know this might sound crazy, but we are from another world.”

Zecora got up with the help of Fluttershy and the brown stallion. She hoofed Fluttershy a brown bowl and Fluttershy flew over to Driver and smeared some green ointment over him. When she had finished he began to glow a dim white. While she moved on to the next of their team Zecora began to speak.

“Of your world I am well aware, you’re not the first ones to come here. Twilight Sparkle knew of our plight, and went to the past to make things right. Since you are here I must assume, something went wrong averting doom.”

“Yes and no.” Starlight rubbed the back of her neck. “She fixed the past and things went back to how they should have been. But it turns out that… the damage was already done. So we're here to help make this world better. We’re not going to try and turn you into a copy of our world, just help with the major problems. Like the changeling invasion.”

“The changelings will be back for Chrysalis soon. We can’t let them take her back. While they have no queen they will be off balance and confused, this is our best chance to defeat them,” said one of the two who had placed the ring on Chrysalis, a brown stallion with a graying mane and beard, in an accent Starlight couldn’t place.

“What if we take her back with us?” asked Perfect Timing. “Put her in a secluded part of Tartarus where nopony will find her and she can’t get up to trouble?”

“I say we kill her. She’s made her position clear,” growled the monkey cat, taking a step towards the downed queen.

“Now Ahuizotl, you know that’s not how we do things,” said the golden pegasus. “If they have access to Tartarus, the inescapable prison for the greatest threats Equestria has ever seen, then they can hold Chrysalis without killing her. We only kill when it’s necessary, not when it’s convenient.”

“Yeah, let’s not jump straight to killing, we’ll just take her off your hooves,” said Starlight.

“When you return here’s where you must go, for there is much more that you should know.” Zecora hoofed Fluttershy, who had finished painting all of them with the salve, a map. She took it to Starlight, who saw a path leading deeper into the jungle. “We should not speak very long here, that’s a place where we need not fear.”

“How long will it take for you to get there?”

“About an hour. Do you plan on stopping by before you take Chrysalis to your Tartarus?” asked the old stallion with the accent.

“We’ll drop Chrysalis off and then meet you there in an hour. We won’t be late,” said Starlight. “Time Ponies form up, let’s head back to the map.”

“Wait, where’s Inky?” said Perfect Timing. Starlight looked and saw that she was right, Inky was nowhere to be seen.

“The last I saw she tackled one of the changelings into the undergrowth, I thought she came back to the portal,” said Starlight.

“I’ll go look for her!” said Derpy.

“Alright.” Derpy took off in the way they had come from and Starlight looked back to the natives, who were packing things up as fast as they could. “Have any of you seen a gray unicorn with a blond mane and tail?” There was a general muttering that sounded negative. Starlight turned to Perfect Timing. “Any ideas what might have happened?”

“No, I… wait, what’s this?” Perfect Timing reached into her vest and pulled out a sheet of paper. She looked over it and said, “She’s not coming back today. She says to go on without her for now, I’ll tell you more back home.”

“Your friend is out here alone‽ Doesn’t she know how dangerous that is?” asked the younger of the two ringers, a light brown stallion with a short dark brown tail and a black hat.

“I hope she knows what she’s doing, but either way our coming now would make things worse. I’m going to have words for her when we find her though,” said Timing.

“Alright, good-bye, we’ll see you all again soon,” said Starlight. They began heading back to the map.

Derpy flew back to where the portal had been, next to a glowing crystal map. On her way she hit a couple branches, but none that gave her trouble. However when she saw the map she saw that two of the changelings were still at the site of the portal. As she flew up to them and landed she realized that they were the two she had hit with her spear. She walked over to the one she had stabbed and laid her head on his chest. He wasn’t breathing! Derpy jerked her head up and felt under the changeling’s jaw to check his pulse, but his heart wasn’t beating either! He was dead! Derpy was getting flustered, but she remembered her training and moved on to the other changeling, who she could see was still breathing.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” There was no response. Derpy looked around. Nopony was looking, she was all alone with the changeling. She picked him up carefully, making sure not to jostle his neck, and dragged him out of the clearing and fifteen feet into the trees. Then she took off her cloak and made a pillow for the injured changeling to keep his head propped in the right way. “Stay here, I’ll figure something out.” Then she trotted back into the clearing, only to see that the others were filing into it.

“Oh, there you are,” said Starlight. “I was just about to call you, Inky isn’t coming back, we’ll talk more back home.” Derpy was torn. On the one hoof she didn’t want to abandon Inky, but she didn’t want the others to find the injured changeling either.

Perfect Timing said “Don’t worry, she’s not gone forever, but we can’t help her now. She left a message I’ll share when we get back.”

“Okay, then we should get going. I’ll guard our retreat.”

“Okay Derpy.” Starlight activated her crystal and the map rippled. “Everypony else, single file. Wait a couple seconds for the last person to clear out. Reverse of our entry.”

The team did as instructed, and before long they were all safely back in Doc’s basement. “My word, is that Chrysalis?” asked Doc.

“Yes. Starlight and the main cast of Daring Do took her down,” Derpy answered.

“Daring Do? I’m fairly certain that is a work of fiction,” said Extra Time.

“That’s what I thought too, but Daring confirmed it and it’d be hard to fake Ahuizotl,” said Emerald.

“Does everypony but me know this story?” asked Starlight.

“In this room? Yes. In Equestria? Doubtful. In Ponyville? I wouldn’t be surprised either way,” said Perfect Pace.

“I can lend you some of the books,” said Emerald.

“Thanks for the offer, but if they’re that popular I’m sure Twilight has them in her library.”

“She does. She’s where I get mine from,” Derpy added.

“Shall I read the letter from Inky?” interjected Perfect Timing.

Doc looked around. “Great whickering stallions! Why isn’t she here with the rest of you?”

“That’s what the letter will tell you, if I can read it?”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

Perfect Timing took a folded letter out of her vest and began to read. “Dear friends. I am sorry to leave you like this, but I feel I can be most useful on the inside, gathering information. Make sure to test my knowledge of our home to check my true identity when we meet again. If I can’t contact you in three months on this side I’ll return to the map.” Perfect sighed. “And that’s all it says. I wish she had talked to me before, rather than running off like that. I’m worried about her.”

“Yeah. We’ve got to stick together in troubles,” said Derpy.

Author's Note

I’m... I’m sorry. I am so sorry I put you through this Derpy. This was supposed to be a happy day. The queen is captured, the enemy retreated, and none of your friends died. Even most of the natives lived. But I just had to do something to drive home the horrors you are going into, and this was the best way I thought of to do it. I hope you can forgive me. I wish you the best of luck in your recovery. This hurts me less than it does you, but more than anything else I have ever written.
To the audience: I have been reading up on the psychological effects of taking a life, and intend to do my best to portray this realistically. I intend no offense to those who have gone through such things, I hope that if anything this helps. I think reading Songs of the Spheres has made this even harder than it otherwise would have been, but I don’t regret it. This pain is what will keep me from ever going too far. It keeps me accountable. (And no, I don’t really believe this is truly happening somewhere because I wrote it, but I am a very superstitious person.)
Some stories kill off a friendly character of some importance to remind you not to count on plot armor. I killed off a random unnamed changeling to show the threats are real. It probably hurt me more than if I had killed off Sandstorm.
I use Throw It In and Reality Ensues a lot, frequently together. Like how I didn’t plan on Derpy killing a changeling until after I had finished writing the fight with Chrysalis. Then I realized how hard it would be to fight with a spear without causing serious injuries and death. That is why the guard is not to use them except in war after all. And when I went back to write that scene I intended that Derpy thwacked one over the head and knocked him out, end of story. But then I wrote that she hit him as hard as she could and I knew he wasn’t walking away from this uninjured, Derpy is strong and that stick gives her leverage. I twist my own expectations.
It doesn’t always lead to harsh consequences, Written’s detective side plot has a similar origin. I was writing Derpy’s lines and I didn’t intend the false implication of a date when I typed ‘She invited me out to dinner’. That was just me typing as I talk. That is one thing I like about writing Derpy, her problems with talking to ponies in this story are basically what happens when I don’t look back on what I said and offer clarification. I just take my own awkwardness and don’t avoid letting it out like I do for every other character and in my own speech.

8 Repercussions

Killing.

Equines don’t like killing. It isn’t natural, but sometimes it is necessary. Derpy, why don’t you talk to Infinity about this? He’s a psychologist, I feel he would be better suited to helping you. <<

Starlight and Minuette were standing in the Doctor’s living room staring at the unconscious Chrysalis. “What’s the circle do?” asked Minuette.

“I think it’s a magic suppressor ring,” Starlight answered. “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one before. They keep a unicorn from casting magic as long as they're worn, and up to several hours later, depending on the model.”

“Oh, I know about them! Some of them even lock on to the horn so only somepony with the key, or a code, or magic can remove them. I wonder what this one’s like?” They both began examining the ring. “Looks old!” Minuette grabbed the ring and pulled it off with her front hooves. “No lock then. I wonder how long it lasts?”

“Let’s just put it back on and leave it there until she’s in Tartarus, okay?”

“Okay.” Minuette put the ring back on. “How are we going to get there?”

“We’ll have to walk. The good news is that if we hurry I think we can make it back by nightfall. We just have to get her out of town without anypony noticing.”

“I can ask Lyra if we can borrow Bon Bon’s wagon, it’s big enough to fit her and we can lay a tarp over it.”

“Perfect. Bring it around to the back door. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“I think Perfect already went home. Plus Lyra doesn’t know her, so why don’t I go do that? See you soon!” And with that Minuette stepped outside and began walking towards her friend Lyra’s house.

“I meant your idea was perfect!” Starlight called after her.

It didn’t take Minuette long to get to Lyra’s house. When she got there she knocked on the door. “Hello! Anypony home?”

“Just a minute!” called Bon Bon. After a moment she opened the door. “I’m afraid Lyra isn’t home right now; she’s playing in the park.”

“That’s okay, I’m here for you today! Can I borrow your wagon? We need to carry something heavy out of town, and it would be a huge help!” Minuette smiled widely in excitement.

“Okay, it’s out back. Make sure to have it back and clean by noon tomorrow, ok?”

“Sure! Thanks!” Minuette trotted over behind the house and hitched herself to the wagon. Then she pulled it back to Doc’s house. “I’m back!”

The door opened part way and Starlight poked her head out, looking both ways. “Shh. This is still a secret, remember?”

“I brought the wagon.”

“And I have the tarp. Now help me get her in.” Starlight opened the door the rest of the way and they levitated Chrysalis into the wagon, then put the tarp over to cover her. “Now let’s get moving, that way,” Starlight pointed and Minuette headed off, with Starlight bringing up the rear.

Derpy had waited until everypony had left except her and Extra Time. She had listened as Perfect Timing and Starlight had described their experiences in the other world. Then she told him about the changeling she had killed and he suggested she talk to Infinity about it. So she headed home. When she got home she got out her stationery and began writing a letter in case her sister got home before her.

'Dear Amethyst:
I’m going to Canterlot. I should be home tonight on the last train. Love, Derpy.'

"That should be good. Now to the station.”

Derpy put the letter on the table and headed out. She took wing and flew towards the train station, but landed when she saw Extra Time walking the same way. “Hello.” She waved at him and then hurried over to walk beside him.

“Ah, hello Derpy. I take it you’ve decided to join us for a trip to Infinity?”

“Yep. I want to get this sorted out before we head out again.”

“Well, I’m no expert, but maybe we can all talk about it on the way to Canterlot. That seems like it might help.”

“Ok.”

Perfect Timing walked home. She opened the door and saw a rolled up scroll sitting on the table. She walked over and opened it.

‘Timing, I’m sorry about this, but it is something I have to do. I couldn’t bear to fight over my departure, so I won’t tell anypony. I hope you can forgive me. I promise I’ll come back safe. Love, Inky.’

As Perfect timing set the note down and walked upstairs she started to sing.

♪ “Last night while sitting by our window,
And gazing at the starry sky,
You wrote that you would not come home dear.
You wrote down that you would not say goodbye.
It hurts to know that you don't trust me.
You know it hurts me dear to cry.
Now I forgive you in my heart dear,
But still you didn't say goodbye. ♪

“If you thought I wouldn’t let you go, then why did you go? You left me without a word.” She sat on their bed and grabbed a picture of the two of them together.

♪ “At night I'll see you in my dreams dear,
And wish that I was by your side.
You wrote me that you didn't trust me.
You wrote that you would not say goodbye.
It hurts to know that you don't trust me.
It hurts me dear enough to cry.
Now I forgive you in my heart dear,
But still you didn't say goodbye. ♪

“I wouldn’t have stopped you. You’re brave and strong, and I won’t make you be who you’re not.

♪ “Some day dear when your foes surround you,
And you hang your head and cry.
Remember me and all your sorrow,
Remember that you didn't say goodbye.
It hurts to know that you don't trust me.
It hurts me dear enough to cry.
Now I forgive you in my heart dear,
But still you didn't say goodbye. ♪

“That you would think me so selfish, and refuse what you thought would be my greatest wish…

♪ “It hurts to know that you don't trust me.
It hurts me dear enough to cry.
Now I forgive you in my heart dear,
But still you didn't say goodbye.” ♪

“Thanks for telling me about your past!” said somepony in a high pitched, grating voice. “It was a great way of passing the time!”

“Remember, no telling anypony, alright?” a vaguely familiar voice answered.

“You got it! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

“What’s that?”

“Has Pinkie not shown you yet? That was a Pinkie promise. Nopony can break a Pinkie promise.”

“Okay.”

As Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, slowly began to regain consciousness she heard two ponies talking. Then she heard a steady creaking and groaning sound coming from below her. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in a small wooden box with a cloth roof. Just then the box jumped and she bit her tongue to stay silent.

“Okay, on three.” The familiar voice belonged to the unicorn that had been the first unexpected foe! “One. Two. Three!” The wagon began to glow turquoise and dark blue. Then she felt a sensation similar to flying, but not quite. She tried to destroy the wagon, but for some reason her magic did nothing. It couldn’t be that she was too starved, she felt only the moderate hunger that never truly went away, not the deep gnawing pain of starvation. Right as the wagon’s glow began to fade she saw a stone ring on her horn.

'Of course,' she thought. 'That ring must have some sort of nullifying power. How very clever of them. But they weren't expecting me to wake up so soon.'

Very slowly, making sure not to make any noise that could be heard from outside the wagon she raised a hoof to her horn and tugged on the ring. It came off with only a trifling resistance.

“Wow, this path is in terrible condition! I wonder how long it’s been since somepony used it?”

“Then nopony will interrupt this time!” Queen Chrysalis thrust open the fabric and stood tall over the two unicorn ponies she had heard. “Without those other meddlers you stand no chance against me!” She looked around and saw they were in a rocky valley with scraggly trees and a cool autumn breeze, yet with not a sign of snow. “Where have you taken me?”

“You can’t use your magic and we outnumber you! Stand down!” said the troublemaker, but Chrysalis could taste her fear.

“I removed your little trinket. But if that’s your story then how about a demonstration?” She fired a blast of magic at the troublemaker…

“I think this one lasts a while after being removed,” said the annoying one as they all noted the lack of anything coming from her horn.

“Either put your disabling ring back on or I’ll just put you back to sleep,” the troublemaker threatened.

Chrysalis considered refusing but decided that if she stayed awake they might slip up and let her defeat them without magic. She reached down and grabbed the ring, but then she had an idea. She tried to transform. In a flash of green she took the form of a hummingbird and began flying away.

Derpy, Extra Time, and Perfect Pace were all sitting in the last coach. “So, what is it you wanted to talk about?” asked Pace.

“Derpy, would you like to share?” Extra Time offered.

“Well, I was told about the changeling invasion, and I thought it sounded like a war. That’s what it is, right?”

“Well, you’re the only one on this train who saw it, but from my interviews it certainly sounded like one,” answered Extra. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, we’re not supposed to use our spears when in active service except in times of war. So when I was grabbing my armor I had to decide if this counted.”

“Yes Derpy, bringing your spear was fine.” Perfect Pace interrupted. “Nopony’s going to get you in trouble for unauthorized use of government property. Was that all you needed?”

“No Pace, that wasn’t the issue. Derpy, please continue. If you feel comfortable.”

“So I went through the portal, and when I got out Starlight said to guard the portal. Then Minuette came through the portal and was dizzy. We were all dizzy after the portal, I forgot to mention that before.”

“It’s okay, keep going,” said Extra Time.

“So, after Minuette came through, a changeling came in from the main fight and flew straight for Minuette. Then I tried to stop him. First I tried to intercept him, but I was too slow, so I thrust my spear out to stop him. It hit him in the side and drew blood, but I was distracted at the time so I didn’t think much of it. When I came back later he was dead.”

Perfect Pace stared at Derpy for a moment. “I can see why they only use spears in times of war. Are you okay Derpy?”

“I just don’t know.”

Tall Order walked through Ponyville towards town hall. He wanted to look over any bill proposals that the Mayor had drafted last week, since he had been busy lately. It wouldn’t do to go into the meeting tomorrow without knowing what they would be voting on.

When he reached town hall he saw that there was a strip of recently swept area on the steps leading up to the main door. How odd, he thought. Why would somepony sweep only part of the steps? Putting the thought aside he walked up and unlocked the door, then stepped inside.

After several turns he reached the common area for the city council. On the table sat two scrolls rolled up with a seal on them. The one with the Mayor’s seal on it was broken, but the other one was still sealed and bore the Sheriff's seal.

“That’s odd. I can’t remember the last time Inquisitor bothered to use her seal of office.” He broke it open and began to read. Fellow council members. I regret to inform you that urgent business has called me away from town. I do not know when I will be back, so in the meantime I leave Perfect Timing as acting Sheriff until I return. I am sorry that I could not offer two weeks advance notice, but I only learned of it today. Sincerely, Sheriff Inquisitor.

“This must be new, or somepony else would have already opened it. I wonder if I can catch her before she leaves.” He rolled the scroll back up and headed back out into the Ponyville streets. It was only a few dozen feet before he was standing in front of the house that Inquisitor lived in.

He rapped on the door as loudly as was proper. “Hello! Miss Inquisitor, are you home!” A minute or so passed before he knocked again. “Is anypony home?!”

A call rang out from within the house. “Just a minute!” After a little while the door opened to reveal Miss Timing standing in the stairway. She sat down and called in a tired voice, “Hello councilor. What can I do for you today?”

“I just got a letter from the sheriff. Is she still here?”

“No. She left this morning. I take it she didn’t tell you before she left either?”

“She left without telling her deputy?”

“She…” Perfect Timing paused for a moment, then started again. “She left a note for me this morning. We didn’t talk before she left.”

“Well, she said in the note in town hall that she left you acting sheriff, so you need to come by tomorrow afternoon for the meeting.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Did she tell you why she left?”

“It’s... rather personal. I’m sure you understand.”

“Of course. Well in that case I’ll just be going then. Thank you for your time.” Tall Order stepped away from the door and Perfect Timing closed it. Then he headed back to the town hall to read up on tomorrow's agenda.

Starlight hit the hummingbird with a stunning spell and it went down immediately. After a moment Chrysalis returned to her true form.

“Well that was a close one huh? I’m glad you hit her, just imagine what would have happened if she’d gotten away.”

“Help me get her back in the wagon.”

They lifted her into the wagon and Minuette hooked herself up to the wagon again while Starlight lifted the ring. “I’m glad this was one of the ones which keeps you from casting magic for a prolonged period. Good to know that it doesn’t prevent shapeshifting. I wonder why they didn’t tell us, that would have been nice to know going in.”

“Maybe they’d never tested it?” Minuette suggested.

“I have an idea. Stand back.” Starlight summoned a glass jar and set it beside the wagon. Then she fired a pale green ray at Chrysalis. A black blob seeped out from her and gathered in Starlight’s telekinesis, which she then deposited into the jar, sealing it tightly.

"What was that?”

“A modified version of my cutie mark removal spell.” She stored the ring away in her extra-dimensional pocket. “I took away her magic, that should prevent her from doing any more shape-shifting."

They started off again. Starlight cleared her throat. “I read up on it last week, to open Tartarus only requires a fairly simple bit of spellwork, I’ll show you in case you need to work the lock later.”

“If it’s that easy then why is it the most secure prison ever?”

“Because Cerberus doesn’t let you take anypony out unless he knows you. So it’s easy to drop somecreature off, but hard to get them back out.”

“Does he know you?”

“No, but we’re dropping off so we should be fine.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes before they saw their destination. A huge pair of dark red doors with bright red patterning on them stood embedded in the side of a mountain.

“Spooky,” said Minuette as Starlight walked up to the door.

“Okay, all you have to do is channel your magic into the hole in the center of the lock, like so.” Starlight poured some of her magic into the hole and the black lines on the gold lock started to glow white. Then the four small diamonds on the corners each turned 90 degrees and the doors swung inward. “Now all we have to do is find a good spot to put her.”

As they walked in, the doors swung shut behind them. “Are they supposed to do that?” asked Minuette.

“I guess, I’ve never done this before.”

“As long as we can open them from inside. We can open them from inside, right?”

“Yes. As long as Cerberus lets you. Speaking of, where is he?”

Starlight and Minuette looked around, and then heard loud footfalls. A giant, three-headed black bulldog with red pupils and a spiked collar on each neck leapt into view. “There he is. Hi Cerberus!” Starlight called, putting on an award winning smile. “We were just wanting to drop off a very bad pony, can we do that?”

Cerberus growled threateningly, but then stood aside to let them pass. They walked by in silence. After a little longer they reached a twisting staircase over a bottomless chasm. Minuette unbuckled herself and then they used their magic together to carry Chrysalis over the chasm.

“It has been some time since I have received visitors,” a quiet voice called in a friendly, yet subtly sinister manner. “And I see you’ve brought a changeling.”

Starlight and Minuette stopped walking and stared at the frail and starving creature before them. “Woah, you look terrible,” said Minuette. “Are you alright mister? Wait a minute, you're the centaur that stole everypony’s magic! I was going to offer you some food, but not anymore. I want to keep my magic.” And with that Minuette stalked past the aging centaur.

“And what of you little pony? Does the name of Lord Tirek still haunt your nightmares? The memory of your magic being drained for my use?”

“Actually I don’t think we ever met.” Starlight answered. “I was out of touch at the time and only heard about you recently.”

Tirek huffed. “At any rate, I am curious why you are delivering a new prisoner. Normally either guards or one of the princesses does that. Are they all too busy?”

Starlight picked up Chrysalis and began walking around Tirek’s cage to the staircase opposite the one they had come up. “None of your business.”

“Oh but it is. You see, down here all I have to do is think. If the guards and princesses had been too busy to deal with a task so important to the safety of their precious ponies that would mean that things were in grave danger. But now I think they don’t even know you’re here.”

Starlight froze at the top of the stairs. “How did you know that?”

“I didn’t. I merely suspected from your tone. Now I know. My next question would be why this is a secret.” Starlight shook her head and began walking towards Minuette at the bottom of the steps.

“Maybe we were just in too much of a hurry to tell them,” Starlight shot back.

“And now I know that isn’t it. Ponies are so easy to read.”

“Just ignore him Starlight, he wants to hurt us.”

“Ahh yes,” said Tirek. “And you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you? You’ve probably hurt more with your words than I ever will.”

Minnuette was taken aback. “What! I’m never mean to ponies like you!”

“Of course not. When I’m mean to ponies it is because I want to hurt them, while you have a natural talent for it. It springs from your mouth without a second thought. I’ll bet that even those who call themselves your friends can’t stand to be around you for long. Tell me, do they claim to be busy, since they are capable of trying to spare your feelings?”

Minuette backed away and shook her head rapidly. “Y-you don’t know anything about me or my friends, what would you know!”

“I-”

“Nope, done talking to you!” Minuette shouted, before casting a spell that surrounded her ears in her aura.

Starlight had finished securing Chrysalis in a cage and decided it was time for them to get out of here before the nasty centaur could do any real damage. She walked up to Minuette and tapped her on the shoulder. When Minuette looked up to her Starlight raised a hoof towards the door and started walking.

“Time to go?” Minuette asked hopefully, and a little louder than called for. Starlight nodded.

As they passed Tirek’s cage again he called out, “Do come again some time, this is the most fun I've had in months.”

“Not planning on it!” Starlight shot back as they continued walking towards the door. Cerberus watched them closely, but made no move to stop them. Once they reached the door Starlight tried sending her magic into the door. The door began to glow brightly and, as though she were using telekinesis, it swung open. She and Minuette hurried out before the door slammed shut once more.

“I keep asking myself why they were attacking us. Did they want to, or were they just following orders? I can’t help but wonder if they were really bad ponies.”

Derpy was sitting in Infinity’s office in Canterlot, speaking to him about a subject he wished he had never worked with before. Interestingly enough, last time had also been about changelings. On the plus side, that meant he already had an idea how to help.

“Derpy, there is one thing I must ask of you. Never ask yourself if the dead deserved to die. Not unless you are prepared to deal with any answer you might find.”

Derpy blinked and looked concerned, so he decided to clarify. “You can ask if it is right in advance of course. To stop that invites all sorts of horrors. But don’t worry too hard about that which is already said and done. Even we cannot change the past, and trying to puzzle out the ‘correct’ choice will cause more harm than good. Minuette wouldn’t be here with us today without your quick action.”

Author's Note

Once again, I have never personally had to face the aftermath of a killing, and even if I had the views and advice here are the products of the characters, and do not always line up with my own beliefs. I mean no disrespect to any facing similar issues, but take any life advice from my stories with a grain of salt. Or send me your questions and I’ll tell you my true opinions, including when I know what I’m talking about and when I just researched it on the internet and cobbled together something that I felt was reasonable.
On that note, feel free to comment, I love to talk to my readers, tell me what you like and where my writing was weak. Or ask me about something you’re curious about in the story. As long as it isn’t a spoiler I’ll fill you in.

9 Diving Deeper

There was a light dusting of snow lying on the ground early one Thursday morn, a testament to the accuracy of Ponyville’s weather team. Winter was just peeking its head over the remainder of Autumn, and it would only get colder as time wore on. The running of the leaves had been the focus of most of the town, and with its passing it was time to head into the next season.

Perfect Timing didn’t care about all that this year. She had been preoccupied with thoughts of how to safely return Inky to her. She watched as Starlight talked to Time Turner and Extra Time about diplomacy with the Everfree refugees. She and Derpy had been invited into the discussion, due to them both holding government jobs, but they had both declined. Perfect had stepped up in town hall to keep Inky from having too many problems when she got back, but she wasn’t going to accept the leadership portion of acting sheriff from ponies who knew what had happened. And Derpy knew that all that stuff would just go right over her head.

“Alright, We’re ready to go,” said Starlight, strapping on her saddlebags. “This time we should be safe upon arrival, so we’ll go in any order that’s convenient.” Time Turner and Perfect Pace stood at the control pillar and then the portal fired up. First white and a soft green that sort of looked like Inky's eyes made a series of quickly shifting circles. Then a dramatic flash of white made Perfect Timing glance away. When she looked back the mirror was covered by a swirling pattern of the two colors that reminded her of Inky's transformation, if it had matched her unicorn irises instead of her changeling eyes.

Starlight was first through the mirror and Perfect followed next, after waiting a few seconds to let Starlight move out of the unloading zone. As with the previous trip there was a very disorienting moment that felt like spinning through a rainbow followed by the abrupt release into the new world. This time though she wasn't flying level with the ground but up into the air. It was only at that moment that she remembered something Time Turner said last time about making sure they would be upright. Apparently he only meant when they were heading straight into trouble.

“Aaa-ff. For Celestia's sake, I only thought it was bad the first time.” Perfect brushed herself off and stood up. Looking around she saw that she had been fired out of a lake into a cave with a few dozen ponies in it. There seemed to be far more light than there should have been, given she couldn't see the sky. It was also uncomfortably warm.

“You might not want to keep standing there,” called a familiar voice, bringing Perfect back to the moment at hoof. She trotted away from the pool toward her friend. No, she reminded herself. Towards this other Pinkie Pie.

“Hello there. Do you know who I am?”

“Of course not silly, we've never met before. You dooo look sorta like our old deputy Perfect Timing. You don't look nearly as panicked as she would be though.”

“Aha! I always suspected there was something about those six mares that attracted trouble, ever since that time when...” Perfect trailed off, not sure how much to share with this mare. She noticed that there was some sort of gathering going on on the other side of the cave, though about a third of the many ponies in the cave were wandering about, as if searching for something.

Pinkie gasped. “Did your Ponyville also get attacked by the changelings!”

“No, no. In our world the changelings never attacked Ponyville, but a lot of other things did. Tell me, did anything cause significant harm to Ponyville between Nightmare Moon's return and the changeling's assault?”

“Nightmare Moon? Who's that?”

“Did the sun refuse to come up for a long time in your world? Maybe about two years ago?” asked Perfect. She noticed that Fluttershy had approached them, though she remained silent.

Pinkie tilted her head. “Why would anypony keep the sun from coming up? Without the sun we would all be frozen in eternal ice.” Pinkie gasped. “Is Nightmare Moon working for the Windigos?”

“What? Windigos? Why windigos?”

Fluttershy stepped forward. “Because the windigos seek to freeze Equestria, and we know only two ways to stop them. One is love and friendship, and the other is heat. That’s why the sun never sets anymore.”

“What! The sun never sets? The windigos are back? When did that happen?”

“About a week after the changelings attacked,” answered Fluttershy. “Changelings feed on love, so ponies stopped being as loving. Then the windigos came back. After almost a month the sun simply stopped at its peak, and it has remained there since.”

“When did all this happen?” asked Perfect.

“Well it's hard to judge time without the sun,” said Pinkie, “but it happened after the one thousand, one hundred, and seventh Summer Sun Celebration.” Perfect blinked. “Ivory Scroll’s seventh reelection was that summer?” Perfect blinked again. “Two years after Sheriff Silverstar left Ponyville?”

“That I know. It was about a year ago, at least for us.”

“Is that when our pasts diverge?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well that was about a year after the long night, which we know is different. Come to think of it, I don’t know when the change happened. Let’s compare histories. Pinkie, when you were still a filly you moved to Ponyville from a rock farm, right?”

“No, I only moved to Ponyville after I finished growing up.”

“Was your version of Ponyville also started by earth ponies, starting the tradition of winter wrap-up, where we bring spring to the town without magic?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yes, and specifically by the Apples.”

“Oh, I just remembered, the purple alicorn said that somepony named Starlight went back in time to stop the alicorn’s friends from coming together,” said Pinkie. “Does that help?”

“Was the purple alicorn named Twilight?”

“She never said her name.”

“But her dragon did,” added Fluttershy. “How did you know that was her name?”

“Because I only know four alicorns, and no two are the same color.” Perfect raised an eyebrow. “How many purple alicorns do you know?”

“We only know two Alicorns, and both of them were captured in the opening strike against Canterlot. Why isn’t Twilight with you?”

“Hi everypony!” Minuette jumped over to them from somewhere, Perfect hadn’t been paying attention. “I’m Minuette and I’m so glad to meet you! Tell me Pinkie, did we ever meet in this world?”

“I don’t think so, but we have now. I think I’m going to like you.”

“Nice to keep the trend going.”

“Is she always like this?” asked Fluttershy while Minutte bounced off, Pinkie following behind and chattering pleasantly.

“Just about. Usually Pinkie would be matching or exceeding her enthusiasm, but your Pinkie seems to be a bit calmer than ours. Still fun to hang around with, I bet.”

And so the conversation drifted on, but the seeds of knowledge had been planted, and would not easily die out. Meanwhile, beneath the attention of any of the chatting mares, Driver sat contemplating what he had heard.

Emerald scanned the ponies in the cave. She noticed that while Daring Do was here, as were the other two ponies who had been with her, Ahuitzotl was nowhere to be seen. Daring Do and the older pony were busy talking with Starlight, Extra Time, Zecora, and a few other ponies who were probably from the Everfree camp; but the younger pony who had been with them was standing all by himself by the entrance. She decided to go talk to him, but just as she turned to go she saw Derpy looking up at the ceiling a few paces away.

“Hey Derpy?”

“Hmm?”

“I was going to talk to one of Daring’s companions, and I thought I would invite you to join me?” Derpy nodded, and the two of them set off toward the lone stallion. When Emerald and Derpy came close enough to speak to him casually Emerald cleared her throat. “Hi there. I’m Emerald and this is Derpy. Would you happen to be Biff, by any chance?”

“Yeah. So I guess Daring’s books are a thing in your world too? Let me guess, why am I helping Daring Do when I should be fighting her at every turn because I’m one of the bad guys?”

Emerald huffed indignantly. “Not every Daring Do fan blindly idolizes everything about her. Although I can think of a few ponies who are probably exactly what you’re thinking of. Maaaybe more than a few. But a decent portion of the fandom are fairly reasonable ponies who, while appreciative of the narrative, don’t make their favorite characters out as unimpeachable paragons of virtue while vilifying anypony who opposes them. Isn’t that right Derpy?”

Derpy’s eye slowly drifted apart, causing Biff to look away uncomfortably. “I don’t know all those words.” She grinned apologetically.

Emerald sighed. “Do you think Dr. Caballeron and his minions are all completely evil with no redeeming traits?”

“Of course not! They trust each other and have great teamwork. Plus they never leave one of their own behind. And really, leaving Rienda del Rey tells a lot about a pony.”

“I’m pretty sure Dr. C’s never been to Rienda," Biff interjected. "He just likes to pretend he has, but his parents left before he was born.”

“How long have you known him?” asked Emerald.

“He was my high school history teacher. So, I didn’t exactly grow up with him, but I’ve known him longer than anypony else I know of. I’m the only member of his crew who’s still with him. All the others left when he teamed up with Daring and Zotl to help bring the day and night back into balance.”

“What?” Emerald asked, with Derpy tilting her head and making a quizzical noise.

“Yeah, he is fighting the changelings, but he’s specifically trying to stop the windigoes so the sun and moon can go back to moving. I think Daring is the only one more upset about the changelings.”

“Speaking of, I saw Daring and Ahuizotl earlier, but where is Dr. Caballeron?”

At Emerald’s question Biff stiffened, glancing away. “I... I can’t say.”

“I thought you were still working with him?”

Derpy gasped. “Is he lost?”

“I can’t say,” Biff growled. “Now I’d better be off, goodbye.” And with that he turned tail and ran out of the cave.

Derpy lowered her head. “I thought everything was fine. I just don’t know what went wrong.”

“I think Biff may have known more than he was letting on,” Emerald whispered, looking at the gathering of what passed for the leaders in one area of the cave. She studied Daring’s third companion. He was a brown earth pony with a gray striped tail and green eyes. The longer she looked at him the more familiar he looked, though his cutie mark was covered up. “Hey Derpy, do you recognize that stallion?” she asked, pointing.

“The one who looks just like Filthy Rich’s father?”

“Maybe? I’m not familiar with that name.”

“Huh?” Derpy tilted her head. “Oh, of course, you don’t live in Ponyville! Dark brown with a gray mane?”

“Yes, is that stallion... whoever you said he looks like?”

“Well, he looks a little different, but I haven’t seen him in several years.”

“Huh. I think he looks like Dr. Caballeron.”

Derpy stared at the pony with both eyes. “You’re right. Does this mean Mr. Rich is secretly related to Dr. Caballeron?”

“I think it’s a coincidence, but who knows. I’m not sure if that is Caballeron, but he did come with Biff, and Biff is acting odd about Caballeron’s whereabouts, so it’s something to keep in mind.”

“Are you a detective?”

Emerald shook her head. “No, I run a bookstore, but I do read detective novels.”

“That’s helpful.”

“Most ponies respond to that by saying that the stories don’t mirror reality, and not to assume everything works like a novel.”

“Oh. That’s... not helpful?”

“Eh, as long as you don’t let literary conventions fog your judgment too hard it can still be good practice.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Isn’t it grand, how well ponies can get along if only they put their minds to it?” said Extra Time as the meeting between the various representatives was drawing to a close. “If only it could be like this all the time. This went by much faster and smoother than most talks between leaders I’ve been privy to.”

“A common foe does help keep things civil, and none of us have much time to spare,” said the older stallion. “Though I very much look forward to meeting you in less rushed circumstances, for now explanations must wait.”

“For the first time in months we have an actual goal beyond ‘fight the changelings’. That’s all I need. You do your thing, we’ll make sure to keep them busy.” Daring smirked as she and her companion turned and headed for the cave exit.

Zecora turned and called to the cave, “Please come here Pinkie and Fluttershy, there is one who needs you more than I.” After a few moments both mares stood at attention in front of Zecora and the others.

Starlight nodded. “I have a plan to help stop the changelings. By a castle hidden in this forest there is a collection of ancient artifacts that should help. Unfortunately I’ve never seen them in use myself and I’m not quite sure what they do, but I’ve heard firsthoof accounts that they can defeat gods and demons, so they should be sufficient to deal with the changelings. The hard part is that only those chosen by the Elements can use them. Since in my world you were two of the bearers we thought you might still be able to use them here.”

“We’ll do our best,” Pinkie said with a salute while Fluttershy nodded.

“If that is all we should away, I hope we meet again one day.” Zecora began rounding up her refugees and heading up into the surrounding jungles.

Extra Time walked into the central pool, causing Fluttershy to tilt her head. “Why is he leaving?”

“He’s not terribly handy on an adventure and he didn’t want to join. He offered to come for discussion but now that that’s done his task is complete.”

“I see...”

Author's Note

For any wondering the cave this meeting takes place in is the one with the mirror pool in it.
I know there was a little repetition of exposition, but I couldn’t see a good way of showing all the pieces I wanted to show you at this point without a little overlap. Hopefully the pacing isn’t too off.
Chapter 9 and we finally begin on the Quest for Harmony. I do have this arc mostly nailed down, so comments are unlikely to give me the sort of ideas I can borrow for the plot, but I would love to hear your guesses on how this plan pans out. (I probably will neither confirm nor deny, because spoilers, but I appreciate knowing what my audience is thinking.) I was kind of hoping someone would openly suspect Inky of being a changeling in advance, but now I guess I’ll never be sure if anyone saw that coming.

10 The Tree of Harmony

Destiny. Prophecies. Are they set in stone, or can they be changed? What happens if somepony is destined for greatness, and then the path is pulled out from under them? Will they always find the way anyway, or has their destiny been threatened? Neither answer is without concern. If destiny is constant, no matter what comes, then what of free will? If it is mutable then many of the things we take for granted on the grand scale are not as stable as we think…

In the heart of the Everfree, a blizzard raged. This blizzard was but one of many, as the Windigos did not face the same troubles from the Everfree as the changelings did; but there were two things about this particular blizzard that made it rather special. It was right over the Castle of the Two Sisters, and it had been raging off and on for the last several months. Sometimes snowing, sometimes calm, but never clear. Normally in uninhabited areas a storm might form, but it would quickly dissipate or migrate over wide stretches of land, but this storm was acting almost as though the castle was occupied.

“It’s so bad that nopony wants to venture into the territory. The changelings sent a few patrols in during the early stages of the invasion of Everfree, but after they figured out it was too tough for even our camp they abandoned further exploration.” Fluttershy finished up her presentation as they all peered over a wide chasm coated in snow. On the far side was a castle in a terrible state of disrepair. And also full of snow, coated in frost, and it probably would have had snow on the roof, if it had had a roof.

“Yeah, scary as the changelings are, not even they are scarier than having to live in a windo nest,” Pinkie chirped.

“Window?” asked Starlight.

“You know, windigo. Windo.”

“And that doesn’t get confusing?”

Minuette giggled. “Well, I haven’t seen any other windows in this forest to confuse them with!”

“Anyway, can everypony see that indention in the rocks?” Starlight asked, receiving a chorus of assent. “That’s the entrance to a cave, and inside is the Tree of Harmony. That’s where we’ll find the Elements. I don’t think we’ll have any serious problems getting there, but watch your step, ice is very slippery, after all.”

As they all started down a narrow rock staircase, Driver saw that Minuette seemed hesitant, so he waited and joined her at the end of the line. “Is something wrong?”

Minuette turned to him, but her gaze was unclear. “Have you ever had a thought dance just outside your grasp? Like, you know something’s wrong, but you can’t place your hoof on what?”

“No. Is that what’s got you worried? A vague feeling of oncoming doom?”

“Not that kind of wrong. More like we’re forgetting something.” Just then Minuette’s hoof fell on a patch of ice and she slipped, falling over the 40 foot drop. “Aah!” She panicked, closing her eyes and flailing her hooves, only to hit something softer than she was expecting.

“Do you mind? It’s easier to catch you if you don’t hit me.” Minuette opened her eyes to see that Driver had caught her mane in his teeth, leaving her leaning over the drop.

“Oops. Sorry.” He pulled her back onto the path. Sure, he tugged her hair hard enough to hurt, but it was far better than the alternative…

“Are you alright?” somepony called from up ahead.

“I’m fine, just slipped! Everything's good here.” She turned back to Driver and added in a quieter voice, “Thank you.”

“Maybe you should focus more on the path and less on worrying about the future. If it’s important then I’m sure you’ll remember eventually.”

“Yeah,” Minuette agreed, staring over the cliff. “I’ll do that.”

There were no more issues as they descended, and after a minute or two they had all reached the cave. Minuette looked at the dark green vines with spikes on them all over the inner half of the cave, every single one frozen in ice. Many were sitting on the tree. “Uh, Starrry? Are there supposed to be all those black vines? They look… evil.”

“Hey! I recognize these!” called Sandstorm. “They attacked Ponyville last Summer Sun Celebration.” She tapped one of the frozen vines. “Not so tough in there, are you?”

“That’s good to know, but does anypony else see the Elements?” asked Starlight, walking behind the tree. “It looks like those five depressions are where five of the Elements go, but if so they’re gone now.”

“That’s what we were missing!” shouted Minuette. “Pinkie told me about this.” She looked over at Pinkie. “Not you, the Pinkie from my world. She told me that she and her friends found the Elements in the castle right above us. Then last summer they had to put the Elements back in the tree to heal it.”

“Well then that’s where we need to go!” said Pinkie. “To the Castle!”

“I can’t help but feel like we should do something about these vines while they are docile,” said Perfect Timing. “Does anypony object to trying to break the ice?”

“Wouldn’t that release the vines?” asked Derpy.

“Vines should shatter at these temperatures, but I don’t know about these, since they’re magical. So, who thinks we should try to break them and who wants to leave them here?”

“I vote we break them now, so they won’t thaw if we get rid of the Windigos,” said Fluttershy.

“Me too!” added Derpy with a raise of her hoof.

“When we get rid of the Windigos,” said Minuette. “I’m sure that between all of us we can gather the Elements lickety split! And they always save the day!”

“I suggest we leave them for now, in case they merely revive when we shatter their icy shells,” said Emerald. “Though it looks as though I’ll be sorely outvoted. Is anypony else opposed to shattering the ice?”

After a moment of silence Starlight spoke up, “Alright, let’s start with one by the edge, and everypony be ready in case it fights back.” They all got into position around the furthest vine from the tree. “Derpy, would you smash the vine, whenever you’re ready?” Derpy nodded, stepped forward, spun around, and bucked the frozen vine. It shattered, vine and ice alike falling down, shattering, and spraying the gathered ponies.

“Brr. That’s really cold,” muttered Minuette.

“Well it is ice, silly,” answered Pinkie.

“Alright. Let’s get smashing,” said Sandstorm, walking over to another vine and starting to smash it. While she worked on her vine Fluttershy went to one and started bucking it. The others joined in in ones and twos until everypony was breaking the vines.

Sandstorm was on her third vine, going rather slowly as she had neither the magic of a unicorn nor great strength as earth ponies do, but she was steadfast in her resolution. She was slowly chipping off pieces of ice from the vine. Then, in the instant Driver shattered the second to last vine, Sandstorm's vine broke free of its icy prison, showering her in frozen shards and drawing a gasp of pain. Starlight raised a shield to protect herself, along with Emerald, Perfect Timing, and Minuette. Driver was across the tree from Sandstorm and the vine, so he was unaffected. Fluttershy flew back to a safe distance, Derpy simply braced against the icy burst, having pulled her cloak over her head and wings before they headed into the valley, and Pinkie dodged every shard that came her way, ending closer to the vine than before it broke.

“Cover me!” shouted Derpy as she galloped straight for Sandstorm where she had fallen only a few feet from the vine.

Pinkie appeared behind the vine and stabbed it with her spear, causing it to lash out at her, but she was too quick for it, pulling back and diving under the thrashing vine. “Can't catch me, slowpoke!” she taunted, galloping off.

While Pinkie was keeping the vine distracted, Derpy reached Sandstorm, picked her up, and rushed to the unicorns, who had been cautiously advancing. Derpy set Sandstorm down by the others and reported. “One woke up and I don't know what we can do! Sandstorm was hit pretty bad when the ice broke.” Then she galloped off to rejoin Pinkie.

“Hey!” called Emerald, “Ice worked before, maybe it'll work again! Can any of you do frost spells?” Starlight was already circling around the tree by the time Emerald finished her second sentence. She didn't know any frost spells, but she did know something that should be close enough. When she caught sight of the vine it appeared to be playing whack-a-pony with Pinkie, Derpy, and Fluttershy in a rough triangle, each darting in to stab it anytime it was too busy with the others. All the while Driver was shouting at it and occasionally bucking a rock at it.

Starlight trotted briskly around until she had a clear shot to the vine past Fluttershy. Then she fired a ray of light turquoise magic at the base of the monster. In an instant the plant was encased in a giant translucent purple crystal. “I should be able to hold this for several minutes, but when it breaks anything inside is unharmed! Does anypony have an idea?”

“I do,” answered Sandstorm.

“You're okay!” shouted Derpy and Minuette at the same time.

“Well, I wasn't about to let some overgrown weed kee-!” Sandstorm said, before Derpy’s hug caused her to squeal. Derpy backed up.

“What went wrong?”

“I'm still a bit sore, but we’re getting off topic. I suggest we dig it out. Does your spell extend underground?” Sandstorm asked Starlight.

“No, that's a great plan.”

Driver, Derpy, and Pinkie stepped up and began digging around the vine. After they reached the vine Derpy and Pinkie perforated it with their spears and slowly managed to cut it completely in two. “Alright miss,” said Driver as all three backed away. “I think we're ready.”

Starlight released her hold on the spell binding the vine, allowing it to fade. For a moment the vine thrashed, but it quickly grew still. Pinkie walked up and prodded it with her spear, but it remained motionless. With that taken care of, Starlight turned her attention to Sandstorm. The mare was being looked over by Perfect Timing and Fluttershy. When Starlight started to approach, Perfect walked over to meet her halfway.

“Sandstorm will make a full recovery, that's the good news,” said Perfect before Starlight could ask. “The bad news is that she won't be flying for a few days, but she'll be fine to walk. I don't think she should enter the castle though. If she were to fall on her wing... it probably wouldn't cause further harm, but I see no need to risk it.” She clapped her hooves. "Oh! I know, we could have her and Emerald stand watch at the entrance.”

“Do I want to know why I shouldn't be climbing the decrepit castle with the rest of our intrepid explorers?”

Perfect slowly looked over her shoulder at the annoyed bookkeeper. “Well, I thought it would be best if the lookouts had a unicorn to send a flare if quick warning was more important than remaining undetected.”

“I want to explore the temple though.”

“Temple?” asked Starlight.

Emerald blushed, though it quickly faded in the frigid air. “Just a Daring Do reference. This whole adventure feels like one of my stories. I know it's a bit silly, but, well, when is the next time I'll have an opportunity like this?”

“Hey, if it means all that to you I'll wait outside with Sandstorm,” offered Perfect.

“Oh, thank you!”

“No problem, I was never a big fan of that style of story anyway. I'm more into science fiction.”

“Not mystery?” Emerald asked.

“Neen. That's Inky's style, and I don't mind it now and again, but it's not my favorite.”

“I just assumed, since it's your job.”

“What?”

“You're a police officer, you solve mysteries and fight crime.”

Perfect Timing stared at Emerald. She opened her mouth, and shut it again, then she thought for a moment. “Okay, do you know Hemlock Stones?” Emerald nodded. “Who would you say I play the role of?”

“Watson, with Inky as Hemlock.”

Perfect nodded. “There are a few problems with that. First of all, Ponyville doesn't have nearly enough mysteries like that. And secondly, Inky loves solving mysteries and is fairly good at it, while I am both less capable and less interested, so she normally just does any detective work alone while I run the office. Anytime she calls me, it's to act as muscle, or because a solo stake out is boring, or because she's in a hurry and needs another pair of hooves. I’m not Watson, I'm the Shetland guard. And they aren't exactly portrayed favorably.”

“Well, they may not be shown as super great, but they do work better with Hemlock than if they were trying to compete with him,” said Pinkie. Then Emerald and Perfect Timing noticed everypony was watching them.

Perfect cleared her throat. “I think we're ready to head to the castle. Any objections?” Hearing no objections, and some amusement over her and Emerald’s conversation, she started for the cave entrance. The others all followed, and when they left the cave they saw the storm clouds dissipating. Derpy repositioned her armor so her wings were free.

“A brave band of friends has together vanquished a hidden evil,” said Emerald, as they all looked at the swiftly clearing sky. “Windigos shall not soon menace these grounds again.”

“Really?” asked Driver.

“What? I can wax poetic sometimes. It’s one of the perks of my job.”

“Yeah! What good adventure story doesn’t have metaphorical imagery?” added Pinkie.

“I meant running a bookstore, but you’re right; adventurers should also be able to wax poetic anytime it fits.”

Minuette tapped her chin. “I wonder. Were the Windigos so strong here because of the history of the castle? Or the vines? Or both?”

“What makes you think the castle has a history the Windigos would like?” asked Fluttershy.

“This is the castle the royal sisters shared before their fight.”

“Who’re they?” asked Pinkie.

“Okay, everypony; storytime. Gather 'round.”

Author's Note

As I was wrapping up the fight with the chaos vine I realized that I had slipped into third pony omniscient, instead of my usual third pony limited. I also tend to do that sometimes right at the beginning/ending of a point of view. Or does occasionally showing something they wouldn't see mean I'm always doing third pony omniscient? Maybe technically, but the practical effect is that I go back and forth between the two narrative styles. I think it works.

I kept wanting to use words like premonition for Driver, but he is a carriage driver! Bad mind, find a more common word for him. Just because that’s what I would say doesn’t make it the right thing for the character.

Also, I thought Sandstorm was a stallion for some reason... Nope, they are a mare. Fortunately this doesn’t change anything I had planned and I hadn’t specified in any of their earlier appearances.

Originally I had this in the story, but I felt it messed with immersion and pacing. I still felt it was interesting though, so here it is:

Science can be defined as: 'The systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical world through observation and experimentation.' It thrives when you repeat an experiment several times and consistently receive the same results. When they broke the first vine they didn't know what would happen because of the highly magical nature of the vines, but while magic can most certainly alter the natural way of the world it still has its rules and can be scientifically analyzed like anything else. (A fact that is surprisingly obscure among rural pegasi and earth ponies.) However, there is such a thing as wild magic, a term given to any magic that operates under different rules than we are familiar with. This is a fairly rare phenomenon, for though many species on our planet have different ways of using magic most of them follow the same underlying rules. However the Everfree Forest is a haven for such magics, and unbeknownst to our intrepid heroes these vines were an example of the forest's unusual nature. While such wild magic might one day be fully understood through scientific means, a fact that is still up for debate, at this point it has an unfortunate habit of dashing expectations.

All this is a rather roundabout way of saying things were about to go pear-shaped. It was the last vine, as such things do oft appear as firsts and lasts. Sandstorm was on her third vine, going rather slowly as she had neither the magic of a unicorn nor great strength as earth ponies do, but steadfast in her resolution. She had slowly been breaking off pieces of ice from the vine, a fact which by itself should have been a warning sign.

And then the part of the author's note that predates the change.

Discovery requires experimentation. -Doctor Werner Reinhardt

...No, Extra Time is not secretly a Nazi, the description of science just reminded me of him. Besides, everypony knows that the pony Nazis are generally unicorns. Earth ponies would never judge based on your race, or try to prevent you from practicing your magic...
It took me until after I had penned the Nazi unicorn sentence and was looking back over it to see the irony. Even funnier, in this story only the earth ponies have shown hints of racism to my knowledge.
I feel bad that I almost said a racial slur against earth ponies, and just a tiny bit odd that I even know such a word.

11 The Castle of the Two Sisters

After Minuette finished telling the origin story of Nightmare Moon, they climbed back up the staircase and worked their way slowly around the hole, careful not to have anypony fall in. After several minutes they made it to the castle. Starlight looked up to the sun, and then shook her head wearily. I wonder if these ponies got used to it, or if the frozen sun still messes with them too, thought Perfect.

“Hey, Derpy?” Perfect Timing spoke up as they reached the stairs leading to a doorway. The others stopped to give them time before the party split.

“Yes?” Derpy tilted her head quizzically.

“You know that spell Inky and I use to communicate sometimes?” Derpy nodded. “Would you be okay if I use it to talk to you, in case we spot something? If you’re not comfortable I can send a flare or shout into the castle, but if you don’t mind it would be easier to warn you without alerting anything out here of our presence.”

“Sure!” Derpy saluted.

Perfect lit her horn and set it on Derpy’s forehead. Then she closed her eyes and focused her thoughts. Can you hear me?

“Yep!” Derpy chirped.

“Good enough. Good luck; I’ll see you soon.”

Derpy turned back to the rest of the group and they headed off. There was a pile of rubble where the doorway had no doubt once been, but Starlight and Minuette simply started clearing it with their magic. Perfect turned back to watch the path that led to the bridge. With the storm gone, flight was no longer a hazard, and they couldn't assume that enemy changelings wouldn't wander nearby any more. A thought she wished she had had before saying they should get rid of the vines. Hopefully no changelings that had seen the storm dissipate would feel inclined to investigate.

“So, read any good books recently?” asked Sandstorm.

Perfect stared at her and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Look, I don't understand why you're embarrassed, there's nothing wrong with not liking a story whose main character has a similar job to you.”

Perfect sighed and continued scanning the horizon. “That's not the problem. I let myself get so swept up in our discussion I forgot everypony else. I let my guard down, and could have missed something important. We all need to stay observant in this land.”

There was a pause. “You didn't just decide somepony should stand watch to keep me safe after my injury, did you?” Sandstorm asked, although Perfect couldn't tell if it was rhetorical or not. She glanced at Sandstorm briefly before returning her gaze to the trees. “I thought you were just trying not to make me feel left out when you offered to join me, but this job really is more than just a way to keep me busy, isn't it?”

“I had already been planning to post a guard when I learned we would be entering the castle,” Perfect lied. “And since pegasi have good eyesight I thought you, or Fluttershy, should be on watch. I'm not going to pretend to know how the Elements work, but I figure the bearers should be with the group looking for them. Maybe they'll be the only ones who can open the vault, or they'll have some sort of sixth sense for finding them.” Perfect held her breath.

“What about Derpy?”

Perfect relaxed. “Three, two, one…”

“Oh, right.”

“Don't get me wrong, I love that mare like a little sister, but spotting duty? I may no-”

Just then Emerald’s voice cut through the air. “Are you kidding me!?”

“Wait here. I’ll go see what that's about.” Perfect hurried off to make sure Emerald didn't do anything else to draw attention to them.

It turned out to be a shorter trip than she had expected. The doorway had been cleared and the others were gathered around a giant stone mobile sitting about the length of her and Inky's house straight ahead of the doorway. “Excuse me, Emerald; why are you shouting in the middle of a forest full of things that want to eat us?”

“Sorry, everypony,” said Emerald to the group at large. Then she turned to Perfect. “Minuette said that these,” she pointed at the mobile, which consisted of four forelegs and a central pillar each holding a large stone sphere, “are the Elements of Harmony.”

“I suppose the Elements appearing to be dead after placing them as our best hope to fight the changelings is a bit shocking,” Perfect admitted.

Emerald looked down. “I, uh... I was upset that after working to be on the castle exploration we didn't even make it past the first room before finding our goal.” She tapped her hooves together nervously. Then she took a sharp breath. “Wait, are they not supposed to look like that?”

“Yeah. They look like ancient magic rocks to me,” added Pinkie. She hopped over and set her ear on one, tapped it, then licked it. “Yep, definitely a rock. Trust me, I grew up on a rock farm. We had tons of 'em around. Only less magic-y and round. Too bad Maud isn't here to see this; we're gonna save Equestria with rocks.”

“The Elements should be necklaces with a gemstone in the shape and color of the bearer's cutie mark,” said Minuette.

“What's wrong with them?” asked Fluttershy.

“This is what they were like when Pinkie first saw them in our world. Then she and her friends did something that woke them up and turned them into necklaces, but I don’t know what.”

As the others tried to work out what to do, Perfect headed back to the stairs and sat down next to Sandstorm.

“What was it?”

“Apparently the Elements were in the very first room, and Emerald had her heart set on exploring.”

“So why are they still in there?”

“Well you see…”

Minuette examined the mechanism the elements sat on, which Starlight thought looked oddly like an orrery. “I can’t tell which is which,” said Minnuette before turning to the others. “Pinkie, Fluttershy, why don’t you see if any call to you?”

Both of the mares approached the elements and tested them, Pinkie by tapping them and listening to the noise—though thankfully without any more tasting—and Fluttershy by running her wings over them. But after a minute or so, neither appeared to have felt a ‘call’ and they stepped back.

“Could it be they only awaken when the bearers demonstrate their Element?” suggested Driver.

“Or understand it?” asked Emerald.

Minuette shrugged. “Those might work. I don't think I know anything else about how to get these running.”

“Okay, let’s try it,” said Starlight. “Fluttershy, you represent Kindness. Try ‘tapping into’ your inner kindness, or something. I'm going to be honest, I don't think anypony knows how these things work.”

“I always want to protect my friends, is that Kindness?”

“No, that's really more of a loyalty thing,” quipped Minuette. “I think you'll do better focusing on what you feel when patching ponies up.”

“I thought you said you didn't know anything else?”

“About the Elements silly!” Minuette started to laugh, but then stopped short. “Sorry. I don't know anything else about the Elements, but I do know the bearers, at least second-hoof. And I know our Fluttershy can't fight, but she is a healer, so that seems like a good place to start.”

“Is she injured?” There was an awkward silence after Fluttershy's question.

“No, it's more mental than physical. Occasionally she'll get into a shouting match and stared down a dragon, but normally she's so afraid the wind can make her faint. At least, that's what I gathered from our Pinkie.”

Fluttershy stared at Minuette. “Are you sure we don't simply share a name?”

Minuette took a step to the side and cooked her head. “Is your cutie mark three butterflies?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Alright, I’ll try to recall all my feelings like when I heal somepony.”

“Ok, while she does that, Pinkie, why don’t you try to call up Laughter?” asked Starlight.

Pinkie grinned. “Okay… So, did you know I used to have an ant farm?” Starlight blinked and started to reply, but Pinkie kept going. “But I had to get rid of it because... I couldn't find tractors that small!” Minuette started snickering.

“The other day, I spilled spot remover on my dog... and now I can't find him!” This was met by a bit of laughter from the crowd. Pinkie looked at the elements. “Ok, now what?” Nopony seemed to have an answer to that.

Fluttershy reached out and picked up one of the Elements, which had started to glow a soft pink. Its glow swelled until the details became impossible to make out, and when it faded it was no longer a spherical stone, but a necklace. It was golden with a pink gem in the shape of a butterfly at the center. She smiled. “I think it worked.”

“What were you thinking?” asked Minuette.

“I was remembering my mission. ‘To help others until all rise together.’ It came together from an encounter with a unicorn when I was a filly in Cloudsdale. She talked to some bullies who were teasing me and shared some lessons with all of us.” Fluttershy looked directly at Starlight. “And I can’t say for sure, since it's been so long, but she looked a lot like you.”

Starlight coughed. “You remember that?”

“So it was you. I was trying to help bring about the world we sought-”

“Don’t!”

Fluttershy took a step back, startled by the sudden outcry. “Don’t? Why not?”

“I was wrong. I tried to force ponies to be the same, to give up what made them special. But deep down I think I just hated cutie marks enough to think a world without them would be better, and I was willing to do anything to get there. Don’t make the mistakes I did. I… I don’t think I could bear causing another pony to do what I did.”

Fluttershy looked back, confused. “A world without cutie marks? Is that what you meant?”

Starlight was taken aback. “What did you think I meant?”

“I was trying to make sure nopony was left behind. To help those who couldn’t make it on their own. Before the changelings attacked I ran a shelter for ponies who didn’t have anywhere else to be. How would you even try to make a world without cutie marks?”

“A cutie mark removal spell,” Starlight admitted.

“Well, I was trying to end social inequality, not individuality. Though, looking back I can see how I might have misunderstood your intent. I was just a filly, after all.”

“I… I guess that’s okay then?”

“So will you help me bring about-”

“No! I’m not entirely sure if what you took my preaching to mean is okay, but it feels too much like my old propaganda. I don’t trust it.”

Fluttershy looked away. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“As… what’s the word,” muttered Driver. “Enlightening, as this conversation has been, should we be headed out now? I doubt hanging around the castle is going to help.” Starlight nodded and Driver grabbed one of the Elements and set it atop his back. “Pinkie, Starlight, Derpy, think you can each grab one?”

Pinkie slipped one into her mane… somehow. Derpy walked under one and used her wing to roll it onto her back, and Starlight picked one up in her magic.

“Won’t that get tiring after hours of walking?” asked Emerald. “Why don’t we send them back to Time Turner and have him pass them back when we need them?”

There was a long pause wherein Starlight and Driver shared a look that plainly said Oops. “Yes, let’s find a mirror,” Starlight said.

“A mirror?” asked Fluttershy.

“Doc said that mirrors make his machine work better,” Derpy answered.

Emerald lit her horn with a grin. “I’ve got this one.” She faced the wall and a section about 8 feet high by 6 feet wide lit to match her blue aura. Dust and dirt quickly began falling off the glowing portion. After it was clean, the wall started to gleam as though polished. Emerald turned back to the group. “My talent is restoration. Usually of books, but it works on other things.”

Starlight took out her beacon and activated it. Immediately the wall rippled almost imperceptibly.

“Not as flashy on this side,” Minuette observed. Driver stepped through and Starlight followed. The trip was as disorienting as always, but she was starting to get used to it. As her vision cleared she saw Time Turner’s basement just as they’d left it.

“Back so soon?” the Doctor asked. “I hope nothing went amiss?”

Driver shook his head. “No, we’re just here to drop off some relics so we don’t have to carry them across the countryside.”

“Whee!” Pinkie shouted as she flew out of the mirror. “That was great! Do you get to do that every time you visit?”

“What, pray tell, is she doing here?” Extra Time asked, both he and Perfect Pace eying Pinkie warily.

“Just dropping off this suuuper important stone. Unless I can make a party for you! I’ve never tried an ‘other world party’! What would the theme be?”

“No need for that!” Starlight interrupted as Derpy flew in. “Let’s just leave the Elements and be on our way.”

“Those are the Elements?” asked the Doctor. “I thought they were smaller than that.”

“That’s part of the problem. We’re trying to figure that out. Short answer is that they’re out of commission, at least for now.”

“My word, that sounds dreadful. Any clues on how to get them fixed up?”

“I’ll tell you three all about it when we get back.”

“Ah, of course. Cheerio.”

Derpy waved. “See you soon!”

And with that the four adventurers headed back through the mirror, ready to continue their mission.

Author's Note

I planned on them crawling through the crumbling castle, using teamwork and all their respective skills to avoid falling prey to avalanching ceilings and collapsing floors, complete with a few of the booby traps we see in Castle Mane-ia. Then I realized the Elements were kept in the open in the first room. Emerald voiced my thoughts on the matter best.

Orrery: Noun. A mechanical model of the solar system.

12 Canterlot Caper

It had been a long day, both literally and figuratively. Perfect had never actually been to Canterlot before, but she knew it was a one hour journey by train. Obviously they weren’t traveling as fast as a train, but since the train went in circles to climb the mountain she had figured that they could take a shorter path. However, there were a few issues that she hadn’t anticipated. First of all, while they could take a more direct route, that meant a lot of hiking up steep mountain trails. In the sweltering midday sun. Except when there was a blizzard. Perfect honestly wasn’t sure if she appreciated the blizzards or not. They froze her worse than the sun burned her, but at least it wasn’t constant heat. She found herself thanking the fact that Perfect Pace and Extra Time hadn’t joined them, or the blizzards wouldn’t have been so quick to depart.

Another reason for their delay was that half their group, herself included, were unused to this kind of exercise. Emerald was trying, but her week of training with Derpy didn’t seem to have prepared her for hours of walking. Technically she was the one setting the pace as slowest, but between Perfect, Minuette, and Sandstorm they wouldn’t have been able to go much faster anyway. Sandstorm's wing had been hurting her less, but it still wasn’t ready to fly on. Not that flying was an option anyway.

Which brought her to the last obstacle, the changelings themselves. The team was currently hiding in one of the old railroad tunnels while a squad of changelings flew past. One stroke of luck was that there weren’t any actual guards. The changelings didn’t seem to be worried that anypony would try to attack them, the patrols were searching for ponies to capture, not trying to prevent invasion. Hmph, invasion. Did nine ponies, half civilian, even count as an invasion?

All in all, what should have been a day trip by distance alone had taken three days, with four calls to break for the night. Apparently the ponies of this land didn’t keep any semblance of a unified day/night cycle. According to Fluttershy they didn’t keep time beyond minutes and hours, and even those were merely estimates. Different groups kept separate cycles, depending on how strenuous their activities were.

Once the changelings had passed by, Starlight spoke to the group. “Okay, this is it.” She pointed at the city of Canterlot, a mere quarter mile’s trot down the tracks from where they were hiding. It was covered in a shimmering magenta forcefield which appeared to cover the entire city in a giant circle. “Perfect, did Inquisitor ever tell you about a forcefield around the hive?”

“No, the only defenses outside of the hive itself were the guards, the anti magic field, and the surrounding desert. This is new. And the wrong color.”

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.

“Changelings can make their aura any color they choose, but they all have a natural green aura. They seldom bother to alter it unless they are disguised.”

“Strange… Regardless, the patrols are getting more frequent as we get closer and I doubt we can make it to the city without getting spotted.” Starlight lit her horn and opened her saddlebags.

“I assume you have a plan?” asked Fluttershy, watching intently.

“Indeed,” Starlight answered, pulling a jar out and setting it on the ground in front of her. “Moving forward we’re not going to hide, we’re going to use disguises. How many of you are familiar with race change spells?”

Perfect and Minuette raised their hooves. “Wait,” asked Minuette, “I thought they needed somepony of the appropriate race to serve as the template?”

“Normally, yes. That’s what this is for.” Starlight gestured at the jar. “I stole Chrysalis’s magic after she tried to escape. Hopefully it will work as a substitute for a live changeling.”

“And if it doesn’t?” asked Minuette.

“Then nothing will happen. Who wants to go first?” Sandstorm stepped forward. “Alright, this might feel odd, but it should pass. Sandstorm, wipe off the salve. Everypony else, you might want to stand on the other side of the cave.” After the others stepped away Starlight lit her horn, causing a sphere of white and turquoise spirals to grow until it reached Sandstorm, almost reaching the cave exit on the other side before dissipating. Then Starlight raised Sandstorm in her magic, before firing a beam at her chest. Then, while still maintaining the first beam, she fired another beam at the jar. The second beam lasted only a moment, but even after she stopped the jar kept glowing turquoise and Perfect would have sworn there were strange runes of white dancing in the magic. Then there was a bright flash of white, and when Perfect refocused there was no sign of the magic except the changeling sitting where Sandstorm had been.

“Did it work?” asked Sandstorm.

“Look outside and see if anyling saw that flash,” Perfect told her.

Sandstorm looked out of the cave, scanning the countryside for any sign they had been spotted. “All clear.” Then she looked at her hooves. “Wow. Hey, does this mean I can transform?”

“It should,” Starlight answered. “Why don’t you try it?”

“Okay.” Sandstorm closed her eyes. Then she opened them again. “Uh, how?”

Perfect stepped forward. “Well, whenever Inky described it to me she said she imagines what she wants to look like, then makes it so.”

“Makes it so?”

“Just like telekinesis… right. Just… focus really hard.”

“Okay.” Sandstorm closed her eyes again, but this time after a moment there was a burst of green fire which passed to reveal Sandstorm as a unicorn.

Pinkie clapped her hooves. “Yay. You did it,” she whisper cheered.

Sandstorm examined her hoof. “I meant to look like Starlight.”

“Well, you got the right race,” Perfect said in what she hoped was a supportive tone. Sandstorm dropped the disguise. “That should be enough to blend in. They probably won’t expect us to transform at all. Although… is it just me or are your wings off?”

Sandstorm looked at her wings. “What’s wrong with them?”

“The angles are off. This fork should go away from the main wing, not parallel.” Perfect pointed her hoof at the offending anatomy. “And these should angle perpendicular to the leading edge, but instead they angle slightly along the wing.”

“Will the changelings notice?” asked Starlight.

“Not instantly, but they might if they inspect her.”

“And how likely is that?” asked Sandstorm.

Perfect shook her head. “I can't say. This hive is under very different circumstances than the one Inky left.”

“Are we sure Canterlot is still our best next step?” asked Emerald.

“When we checked Ponyville it was deserted,” answered Starlight. “We don't know where Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow were taken, and we don't have any leads at all to Twilight’s whereabouts. That leaves Inky. She said she was going to gather information, and the hive seems like a likely place she would go. And if we don't find her, maybe we can find where some of the remaining elements are. I'd rather not wait months before moving forward. Let’s all step a little deeper into the tunnel and I’ll cast the spell on the rest of us. Is that good with everypony?”

Perfect certainly wasn’t going to delay the search for Inky. A few of the others nodded, but then Fluttershy spoke up. “This feels… wrong. Turning ourselves into changelings to fight them. Does anypony else feel this is a deal with Tartarus situation?”

“Can I tell her?” Perfect whispered in Starlight’s ear.

Starlight took a deep breath, then nodded. “She’ll figure it out eventually, better now than when we meet back up.” Fluttershy looked at them with suspicion.

Perfect took a step toward the center of their group, facing Fluttershy and Pinkie. “These changelings are bad news, but some changelings are good ponies, just like us. Our friend, the one who’s out there spying on the hive? She’s a changeling, and I’ve known it for years.”

“How do you know she won’t betray you?” asked Fluttershy.

“Other than how well I’ve grown to know her over our time together? I know from how she responded to the changeling attack in our world. She helped set up some of the defenses against changelings, and I’ve seen her root out changeling imposters before.”

Fluttershy squinted at her for a long moment. “Ok. If we find her I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on her, but I’m ready to accept the spell.”

“I guess that’s good, then.” Perfect sighed. She supposed it would be naive to expect everypony to accept Inky as fast as Starlight had. They all stepped deeper into the tunnel.

The spell went much the same for the rest of them as it had for just Sandstorm, at least from what Perfect saw. After it was done all of them, including Starlight, looked like changelings. “Huh, that’s interesting,” Perfect muttered.

“What’s interesting?” Fluttershy asked.

“Only the pegasi’s wings are off, everypony else’s are perfect.” Perfect took a moment to inspect Starlight, then Emerald. “And the horn on a unicorn retains its shape, though they are smooth at least.”

“And earth pony limbs are whole,” added Driver.

“The spell only partially transforms the center of each tribe’s magic,” said Emerald.

“I wonder if that’s because of the false changeling base or a limitation of the spell,” Starlight pondered.

Perfect focused on Inky’s natural horn in her mind’s eye. There was a flash of green fire and Perfect looked up. “I can’t tell, did I get it?”

“Yep, your horn is curvy now,” said Minuette.

Starlight was engulfed in the transformative flames, followed by Fluttershy, both emerging as fully normal changelings. “Can everypony try to appear as the normal changelings?” Starlight asked.

Minuette and Emerald immediately transformed, followed a moment later by Pinkie. Sandstorm, Derpy, and Driver appeared to be straining themselves, but they produced no results.

“Everypony who can take on a perfect disguise should be on the edges, with the…” Perfect tried to come up with a nicer word than defective. “Others, in the center. I’ll take point, since I know changelings best.” They all got into their positions and headed towards the city.

As they approached the shield Minuette saw the last thing she was expecting. Somepony she knew. Certainly, she was aware that ponies she knew existed in this world, and she wouldn’t have been surprised to see them in a dungeon somewhere, coated in a green case. But Shining Armor was standing in plain view at one of the guard posts situated just past where the tracks met the shield. The other post had a canvas tarp covering the opening.

Minuette started to trot faster, but Perfect bit her tail, making her stop. “Don’t trust anything in a changeling hive,” she whispered. “He’s certainly a changeling, in what has got to be the laziest trap ever. A little odd to be transformed with so little benefit, but I guess they have more food here,” Perfect snarled. “Such a waste.”

When they reached the shield a changeling in royal guard armor stepped out of the second post with a newspaper. The headline read: CANTERLOT GARDENS RENOVATION PROJECT! Upon a quick study Minuette noticed the date was almost two years ago.

“Back from an unsuccessful hunt?” the changeling asked through the shield, clearly bored.

Perfect nodded. “You know that big castle in the jungle?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Minuette decided it sounded like a male.

“We saw the blizzard stop. Checked it out, saw some signs of recent activity, but by the time we got there whoever caused it was gone.

“In that case, you probably haven’t heard the news yet.” The guard perked up a bit.

Perfect cocked her head. “Do tell.”

“Chrysalis went missing in action on the big raid on the Everfree camp we found. I heard there was some kind of monster that did it, but the details vary depending on who you ask.” He raised his hooves and continued in a spooky voice. “Some say it was the biggest diamond dog you’ll ever see. Others say it was an alicorn.” Then he went back to his normal speech. “The craziest one I’ve heard so far is that the forest itself started attacking our forces, but between you and me? I think there’s more salt than substance to that one.”

“That is… unsettling. Thank you for informing us.”

“Not at all, thanks for stopping to talk. He’s no good for conversation at all.” The guard looked at Shining Armor and cleared his throat. “Captain Armor, open the gates!”

Minuette took a long look at Shining Armor. His pupils were green and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days, with a thousand-yard stare to match. He lit his horn and the shield between the guard posts shimmered, but other than that he didn’t seem to notice. Perfect led the way though. The shield felt cold as they walked through, sending a shiver down her spine, but nothing seemed to come of it.

“Close the gates!” the changeling ordered, before turning back to them. “You’d better report your find to the castle.” Perfect nodded and started to walk away. “Hey, one more thing. What’s your name?”

“Whorl.”

“Huh. That’s one I haven’t heard before. I’m Rhabdom. Have a nice day.”

They walked until they were out of sight of the guards, then Perfect led them into an abandoned alleyway. “That wasn’t a changeling, was it?” Minuette asked.

“No, that was a pony who’s been under the thrall of a changeling for a long time,” answered Perfect. “Likely since the invasion.”

“How can we wake him up?”

“The good news is that it’s temporary, the bad news is I don’t know anything for it except time, probably a few weeks for a case this long.”

“Was that some kind of test?” asked Fluttershy.

“No, he was probably just tired of reading old papers.”

“Then why did you give away that information? And why was he acting so friendly?”

“Changelings do tend to be rather aggressive, but not all of them,” Perfect answered. “After all, ponies are known across the world as unusually friendly, but there are still a few mean ponies. And the friendlier changelings tend to prefer solo jobs to avoid their meaner kin, so a solitary guard is likely to be fairly amiable. As for the report, I had two reasons. First of all, the information was fairly useless, possibly even detrimental. It made it look like they should investigate the castle, but they won’t find anything there. And secondly I didn’t know how to ask for entry. If there was a protocol, I don’t know it, so I gave us an excuse to break tradition with a report that sounded somewhat important.”

“That’s pretty clever. How’d you know to do all that?” asked Emerald.

“I may not be a big fan of mysteries or spy novels, but Inky is, and she likes to share what they get right and wrong. I’ve picked up a few tricks,” Perfect said with a smile. “Next we should search the castle. Hopefully they’ll have a records room.”

“Hopefully?” Fluttershy asked, with one eyebrow raised.

“Well, they didn’t in the old hive, but things obviously work differently here. If we’re lucky they just commandeered the castle’s record room.” Perfect blinked. “Does anypony here know where that might be?”

“The library?” Minuette suggested.

Perfect shrugged. “Maybe?”

“It’s as good a place to start as any,” Starlight said.

Minuette looked around. “I’ll lead the way, they haven’t changed the layout much.” She started off, the others all following behind.

“We’re lucky they aren’t operating out of the old hive.” Perfect whispered. “It was built to be an impossible maze to any non-changelings. But here they seem content to simply repurpose the pony city wholesale.” A group of changelings flew past, and everypony tensed. After a few moments the changelings had passed out of sight and they relaxed a bit.

For several tense minutes they snuck through the city, making their way towards the library as quickly as they could without attracting attention. It was a harrowing ordeal, but they made it to their goal without issue.

Minnuette stepped up the grand stone stairs and looked at the pair of unicorn statues flanking them. Each of them had had their legs perforated to resemble those of changelings. “Ok, that's just rude,” she commented.

“Shh,” Perfect whispered as she slipped over to the doors. She opened one and poked her head in. After a moment she gestured for them to follow her and stepped into the building. “Alright everypony, let's split up and see if we can find the records. To indicate you’re one of us say ‘Tut, tut, it looks like rain.’ If they seem confused, tell them it’s from a book you were reading. Any objections?”

“Tut, tut, it looks like rain,” Fluttershy muttered. “Okay.”

They all dispersed through the library, searching for clues to find their friends, old and new alike.

Author's Note

Whorl is the term for the pattern a snail’s shell, as well as many other Mollusks. (Among other definitions, but that was the important one.) I chose it for Perfect Timing’s changeling pseudonym because the shape also resembles a unicorn’s horn and many timepieces.

13 The Belly of the Beast

Nature vs. nurture. How much of somepony’s personality is determined by their circumstances and how much is determined by their innermost being, their heart of hearts, whatever you call it. Are cutie marks something set in stone, only to be discovered, or are they something that can be changed with outside intervention?

Obviously we cannot conclusively prove this one way or another at this time, because no two ponies are completely identical. As both cloning and time travel are heavily restricted we must rely on less precise methods, involving statistical probability, but even so…

As they entered the library Starlight considered how she could best help search the library. Minuette knew this place well, especially if her discussions with Perfect about how little Canterlot had changed were any indication, while Starlight had been out of touch with such things for years. But there was another way she could help search the library. When Perfect finished explaining their pass-phrase, Starlight walked up to Emerald and tapped her shoulder.

“Hey, can you help me find something?”

“Sure, what are you looking for?” Emerald offered.

“A book on practical spellcraft of divination magic.”

Emerald stared in awe. “You can cast divination magic?”

Starlight nodded. “I’ve used the spell I’m looking for before, but it’s been a long time and I never memorized it. I should be able to use it again with just a quick refresher.”

Emerald nodded and walked over to an officelike structure sitting on a wall. She looked around them, and vaulted over the counter, landing in a heap out of sight.

“Ow!” There was a short scuffle and she stood up. “I’m fine. Now, let’s see.” She examined something under the counter. “Divination. Practice. Ah, here it is. 1020.” Emerald bent low, but then stopped. She turned and opened the door. “Heh, heh, heh.” She walked out, closing the door behind her and headed off down the rightmost aisle. “This way.”

Starlight followed her, and after a short walk Emerald pulled a book off the shelves and offered it to Starlight. “So, what are you planning? A spell to find a pony across any distance? A new way to spot changelings?”

Starlight shook her head as she found the spell she sought. “Nothing fancy at the moment, actually. I’m just going to scan the library for magic. I don’t have anything specific I’m looking for, I just thought I’d try.”

“Cool. Mind if I join you?”

“Not particularly.” Starlight cast the spell, and Perfect looked to her eyes as though she had begun to glow, but Starlight knew that was something only she could see. She looked around, but nothing else started glowing, so she headed further into the library. “Do you have any thoughts on where to start?”

“The back wall. That’s the best place to put a secret passageway.”

Starlight shrugged and took a left when they got to the back. After they had gotten about halfway to the other side Starlight saw a bookcase on their right begin to glow. She walked up to it. “This bookcase has a spell on it. That, or it contains a magical object.”

Emerald scanned the shelf. “There,” she said, stepping close and pointing at a pair of books. One was yellow with a stylistic sun at the top, while the other was blue with a stylistic moon. Both had clouds of the same color at the bottom, feeding together as if they were the same picture. “I bet if we pull those a secret passage will open up.”

Starlight decided it was as good a plan as any, so she pulled the books out. Instead of floating off the shelf they tipped forward, the bottom of each spine refusing to leave the shelf. Starlight and Perfect waited, but after a few moments nothing happened. They looked at each other. “Maybe it takes a specific pony's magic?” Emerald suggested.

Starlight released the magic scanning spell. Then she lit her horn again and rested it against the place where the shelf hit the ground, closing her eyes. Then she felt the shelf as though she were trying to manipulate it with her telekinesis, yet applied no force. “There’s no wall behind this shelf. I’m going to see if I can teleport across and open it from inside. Please be quiet, this is still a new spell for me.”

Starlight focused on everything she knew about teleportation and the other side of this obstacle. She chose a point equally far from both the ceiling and the floor, just in case the passage rose or fell quickly. She didn’t want to think of what might happen if she teleported inside of something. When she was ready she took a deep breath, and cast the spell.

She appeared in darkness, and the first thing to happen was she fell and skinned her left back knee on cold rough stone. But she was on the other side, and mostly unharmed.

After a moment to collect herself she noticed it wasn’t completely dark. A faint light was coming from below, kept out of sight by a spiral staircase. In this dim lighting she examined the back of the shelf. To one side she saw a lever. She pulled it and the shelf slowly slid away, revealing Emerald.

“We make a pretty good team Starlight,” Emerald said, holding a hoof out. Starlight tapped it.

“Yep. What can you tell from this?”

Emerald leaned down, inspecting the ground. Then she peered around the passage they could see from the entrance. “It’s not abandoned. Somepony is keeping this place taken care of, sweeping the cobwebs and such.” She frowned. “Or someling.”

“Let’s see what they were guarding,” Starlight said, leading the way down the stairs. Emerald closed the secret door after them and they both used their hornlights to keep the passage from falling back into darkness.

“So, this is a pretty elaborate secret room, right?” Emerald asked. Starlight just nodded. It put her escape tunnel in the village to shame, that was certain. “And we’ve determined that the changelings aren’t big fans of making things, they just use things as they find them?”

“That does seem to be our expert’s opinion.”

“And this chamber is centuries old, if the wear and tear I’m seeing is any indication. Finally, the books were emblazoned with the royal sister’s crests. All together this leads me to a theory.” Emerald paused for a moment before continuing. “This place is no more of changeling construction than the library above.”

“I assumed it was built at the same time as the library. A construction project of this caliber would be hard to conceal, and it’s obviously a secret.”

“Yes, that’s another point in favor of my theory. Now the question is whether whoever is using this is with the changelings or an infiltrator like us.”

At this point they had reached the bottom floor. The stairs ended at a short hallway with two torches on each wall. They let their own lights go out, no longer necessary. At the far end of the hall were an ornate pair of wooden doors, with gold trim. Emerald grinned. “See! This is the sort of thing I was looking forward to at the old castle. We cheated past the first puzzle, but we’re unicorns, not pegasi. Nothing wrong with playing to our strengths.”

Starlight walked up to the door on the left. “Together?”

Emerald nodded. “Together.” They each grabbed their respective handle in their magic and pulled. Nothing happened. “Push?” Starlight shrugged and they pushed, both doors opening together, revealing a large cavern. There were books on shelves around the edges of the room, several red and gold banners Starlight didn’t recognize, and several other decorations. All this was lit by a fireplace on the far side.

They both wandered around the room, examining it in wonder. There were so many books Starlight didn’t think they’d have time to even read all their titles. This place was surely home to lots of rare and interesting knowledge, but with every passing moment Starlight was growing less and less hopeful of finding anything pertinent.

She turned to suggest they turn back, but then she saw something under the table in the center of the room. She walked over and pulled it out. It appeared to be an old and battered child’s stuffed doll.

“What are you two doing here?” called an angry voice. Starlight turned and saw Twilight standing in the doorway, staring at them. She was standing tall and imperious, holding a scroll in her magic.

“Twilight?” Starlight gasped. “Just give us a moment and we can explain! We’re not really changelings!” Emerald nodded.

“You’re not?” Twilight asked, anger fading into suspicion. “Prove it.”

“Of course.” Starlight closed her eyes and concentrated on the race change spell. Carefully she dismissed the spell only over her and Emerald. When she opened her eyes Twilight was writing furiously in her scroll.

“Fascinating. Few unicorns can pull off a spell of that caliber. Were you involved in defeating Chrysalis?”

“Yes, and we’ve come to ask for your help saving Equestria the rest of the way.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Really? How do you plan on doing that? I’m sure you’re a powerful mage, but I can personally attest it will take more than that to defeat the changelings.”

“We have a set of magic artifacts that should be capable of defeating the changelings, but they require the six bearers to work together to use them. We already have two, and you would be the third.”

“Should? How sure are you that these artifacts will work? More importantly, what can we do to assure a favorable outcome?”

“None of us have any firsthoof experience with them,” answered Emerald. “So we’re not quite sure how exactly they work. But we know they’ve defeated several ancient and terrible foes, so we believe they will work here as well.”

“What artifacts are we talking about?” Twilight asked.

“The Elements of Harmony,” answered Starlight and Emerald together.

Twilight teleported a book to her side and flipped through rapidly. Then she glanced between one of the pages and her scroll. “How do you know about the Elements? They have been lost to time, known only in passing even to scholars. The only surviving records speak of one bearer and one foe.”

Starlight sighed. “I know this can be hard to believe, but I have proof if you’ll bear with me.” Twilight nodded and readied her quill. “Our team comes from another reality. We’ve come here to help repel the changelings and windigoes. After that, we haven’t really made a plan. If you would like, I can open a portal to our home dimension.”

“First, could I see what you use to pass to this other world?” Starlight nodded and pulled out her beacon.

Twilight took it and scanned the crystal. “Incredible. Its enchantments are similar to the portal mirrors, but it’s evocation, not conjuration. How does it work?”

“We call our friend and ask him to open a portal on the nearest mirror,” Emerald explained.

“Thank you for helping me to understand,” Twilight said. Her horn flashed brightly and over a dozen changelings marched into the room. Twilight grinned smugly. “Surrender quietly and you won’t be harmed. I look forward to further discussions with you after the current crisis has been dealt with.”

“Why were you pretending to be a pony?” Emerald asked. “We looked like changelings!”

“Oh, I’m not pretending. We don’t let outsiders know this, but I’ve been working with the changelings ever since the invasion. Normally from the hive, but occasionally as a spy. It’s very nice to have a spy that can’t be revealed by divination.”

Starlight and Emerald stepped together back toward the fireplace. Twilight frowned. “I’d rather not have to use violence to bring you in, but I will if you won’t come quietly.” Starlight grabbed Emerald and cast a teleport spell to the library entrance, but nothing happened.

“You won’t be able to teleport out of this. I’m going to count to three, and then my guards and I will incapacitate you.” Emerald looked to Starlight. Starlight thought hard. Assuming this Twilight was about as powerful and talented as hers they would be evenly matched.

“One.”

She doubted Emerald could take on all the guards Twilight had brought, but some of them could have been with them.

“Two.”

Unfortunately they had no way of telling how many, or how many more might be outside.

“We surrender.”

“Good.” Twilight pointed at four of her guards. “Go bind their horns. No point in leaving unknowns in play.”

The guards stepped forward and put some sort of green slime on Starlight and Emerald’s horns. In mere moments it hardened.

“I know you’re new here, so I’ll give you a free hint. You can’t cast magic like that. Feel free to try, I won’t hold it against you. But don’t bother trying to overpower the guards.” She turned and headed for the stairs. “Follow me.”

Starlight and Emerald followed, guards taking positions before them and behind. It was a somber experience, and they could only hope the others would notice what had happened and find a way to rescue them. When they reached the top Starlight did a count and found a total of 19 changelings.

Twilight led them to the central area of the library, then she stopped and faced the group. “As I point to you, come forward and stand at attention.” She selected seven of the changelings and waited as they all trotted over to stand in front of her. Then she lit her horn and held the selected changelings in her telekinesis. After a brief moment they all flashed white and turned into the rest of the team. Pinkie, Driver, Fluttershy, Perfect, Sandstorm, Derpy, and Minuette, every single one held in place and revealed for all to see.

Perfect and Minuette fired beam spells at Twilight, who caught them in a shield. Half the changelings rushed forward and coated the unicorns’ horns and pegasi’s wings in the same slime they had used on Starlight and Emerald. Starlight just stared in mounting horror as their best escape plan went up in smoke.

Twilight hoofed one of the changelings Starlight’s beacon. “Take this to my chambers, I’ll need to study it further.” As the changeling flew off, Twilight grabbed Sandstorm in her magic and pulled her to her side. Then she conjured a knife and set it against Sandstorm’s throat. “I don’t need all of you alive, so I suggest nopony tries anything on our way to the dungeons. Do I make myself clear?”

Starlight hung her head. “Yes.” There was a chorus of similar answers from each of them except Sandstorm herself.

“Good.”

14 Dungeon Descent

Perfect Timing had an impeccable sense of… well, timing. She always knew how much time had passed, at least until she forgot. She also had a nigh perfect sense of when to do something, like dodge an attack, as long as she knew she should do it. These were sometimes very helpful and often mildly handy, but mostly they were part of her. A pony’s cutie mark was an extension of their being after all, not merely another tool to achieve their goals, but almost a goal themselves.

It was for these reasons that Perfect never wished she had mastery of spatial recognition instead while being led to the dungeons. The castle may not have been able to shift like the badlands hive, but it was a tricky maze in its own right. She tried to keep track of where they were, but by the time they reached the dungeons she was thoroughly lost.

When they arrived at the dungeons Twilight lit her horn and her eyes were lit in a pale pink aura matching her horn. After a moment she conjured three crystals beside her, never losing her grip of Sandstorm and the knife at her throat. In a moment Perfect realized those were their beacons and quickly checked her vest pocket, only to find it empty.

One of the changelings stepped forward and Twilight handed them the beacons. Then the prisoners were herded into one of the cells. There was a flurry of activity, and when things calmed down 15 seconds later they were all in a locked cell large enough that they could all stand without touching, but without much spare room. On the other side of the bars sat Twilight with a slight frown on her face.

“I would like nothing more than to study you and your fascinating world immediately, but unfortunately your little stunt in the Everfree puts a lot of pressure on my schedule, so I’ll make this quick. Where is the Queen?”

“She’s in Tartarus, and there is no way you can get her back!” Minuette shouted. “Cerberus would turn your soldiers into chew toys!”

Twilight nodded. “Then we’ll have to stabilize the situation here before bringing her back.” She summoned a scroll and quill to her side and strolled out of the room, mumbling to herself under her breath.

“Minuette, are you sure we should have told her that?” Emerald asked.

“She was going to learn it soon enough,” Fluttershy said. “None of us would have held our tongues if she threatened to kill somepony again.”

“Wasn’t she an alicorn before?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah, but she only became a princess after the changelings attacked in our world, and it had something to do with a spell about being a true friend, then she died and three hours later descended from the heavens as an alicorn in a glorious shower of light!” Minuette said, rising up on her hind legs and gesturing grandly at the end.

“You’re making that up,” Driver accused.

“No! It really happened! Ask Perfect and Sandstorm.”

“All I remember from that day is there was a lot of singing, and Twilight’s crew decided to try doing each other’s jobs for a day,” Perfect added. “That led to a starvation panic, a major storm hazard, and a bunch of angry ponies giving Inky a migraine. Then the next day we hear that Twilight’s a princess.”

“Rainbow once bragged that she earned her cutie mark again that day, but she didn’t go into much detail,” Sandstorm said.

“None of you actually know Twilight very well, do you?” Fluttershy asked.

“I was one of her first friends, way back before Ponyville. I bet we were even friends in this world.” Then Minuette frowned. “But here she’s evil.” She let out a gasp. “Does that mean that I’m evil here?”

“Or she just drifted away a little later here,” Starlight suggested. “You two weren’t very close, based on how your reunion went.”

“That’s true… Wait, how do you know that?”

Starlight blushed. “I was spying on Twilight when she went to Canterlot to make up with you.”

“I want to be indignant, but we were spying on Moon Dancer for about half that visit, so I guess I can’t be too mad,” Minuette conceded.

“Does anypony have experience with Canterlot dungeon security?” asked Emerald.

“I do,” Derpy answered. “There should always be at least two guards outside an occupied cellblock. This appears to be one of the group cells, slightly lower security used for nonviolent charges.” She pointed at the lock, which Perfect noticed had no keyhole, only a slight circular depression in the center. “Instead of keys they use the royal guard badges to lock and unlock the cells.” Derpy sat down and reached into her mane, pulling out a blue square of metal with a white sun. “I’m glad I decided to bring mine instead of leaving it with my armor outside Canterlot.” She reached out of the cell and pressed the badge into the depression.

After several moments she frowned and pulled back, sitting on her haunches. “I just don’t know what went wrong.”

Emerald set a hoof on Derpy’s withers. “It’s ok, you tried your best.”

“They probably changed the locks so they only open for changelings,” Perfect said. “Which might not be so bad, but our changeling is AWOL.” She shook her head and lowered it. “I think we lost.”

Pinkie stepped up onto the cot and faced the group. “Look, I know the changelings are super scary, and they’re a bunch of meaniepants who locked us up in their dungeon, but we can’t give up! My granny always told me the way to deal with your fears is to face them!”

“Yes, we tried that, and now we’re stuck in jail while Twilight’s doppelgänger figures out how to invade our homes,” Perfect answered.

“We’re not in those cocoons, so we can still try to do something. As long as we’re alive and well we can fight them! We can try to burrow through the stone, or loosen the bars. But if we give up we can’t do anything. You’ve got to keep trying! Not just for us, but for all our friends and family who are counting on us! It doesn’t matter how many obstacles jump in our way, we’ll keep our chins up and keep trying! Who’s with me?” As everypony stomped their hooves in support a stone sphere in a faint blue aura floated into sight outside the cell. It was slowly engulfed in a bright white light, and then it floated through the bars to Pinkie before the light faded to reveal her element. It was a necklace much like Fluttershy’s, the only difference being that the gem was light blue and in the shape of a balloon.

The door opened and a changeling stepped into the room, closing the door behind them. They faced the room with a smirk. “I thought that might wake up the rock.”

Perfect pushed her way to the cell door. “Inky, I’d recognize your voice anywhere, and if you want to keep it intact, then I suggest you open this door right now,” she growled.

Inky gulped. “I wasn’t pranking you, I just thought maybe Pinkie needed an opportunity to earn her element,” she said quickly, though she refrained from raising her voice. “No need to get angry.”

“Inky, you left without warning, specifically because you thought I wouldn’t allow it. I’m not angry about the prison therapy session, I’m ticked that you don’t trust me enough to confide in me. I thought we were past that.” Perfect’s voice started strong, but it started to break towards the end.

Inky averted her gaze and put her horn to the lock. In a moment the door gave a pop and Inky stepped back, allowing Perfect to step right in front of her. “We need to have a nice long talk about this, but not now. What do we need to know?” she said softly.

Inky turned to the others and cleared her throat. “They’ve stepped up security after they found you, so we can’t simply walk out the way we came, but I know another way out of the castle. Also, I grabbed these.” She lifted four of their beacons in her blue aura. “I replaced them with some regular gems I cast a fake aura on. They’ll seem like they have the right magic on them, but it won’t hold up to proper testing, so we’d better move fast. Any objections to heading out of the castle?”

“Did you find where the others are?” Starlight asked.

“Yes, and they aren’t in the castle.”

“Then let’s get going!” Pinkie shouted.

“Shh,” Perfect and Inky hissed.

“Sorry.”

Inky opened the door and the others all followed. After a few hallways they reached a dead end with a door to either side. “Where are we going?” Fluttershy asked.

“A cave deep in the mountains. The opening should be right here, if I’m remembering right.” She tapped a few places on the back wall, and it swung open, revealing a dark cave lined in crystals. “Yep, right where it was last time.”

“How long did the changelings know about this place?” Minuette wondered.

“Oh I didn’t learn it while I was with the hive. I was part of the team who explored this place after the wedding fiasco.” Inky shook her head. “Had to ask a friend of mine to pull a few strings, but I figured that I would be well qualified to check for clues.” She walked over to a cliff overlooking the cave and pointed with a hoof. “We’ll need to make our way across some chasms. Derpy, Fluttershy, Sandstorm, think you can fly ponies over?”

Sandstorm winced. “Actually, I hurt my wing when we fought some evil vines. I should be able to fly myself, but I don’t think I’m up for ferrying the others.”

“I can levitate a few ponies with me,” offered Starlight.

“That should work. If Fluttershy, Derpy, and I each carry somepony do you think you can carry the other… four, with Sandstorm flying herself?”

Fluttershy stepped in front of Inky and stared her in the eye. Inky sighed. “I broke you out of the dungeons, and I can prove I’m from their world. Is there something I can do to prove I’m not with the hive that I haven’t already done? I know I made some mistakes that I’ll be paying for, but not to you. Can we please… not have a problem?”

“I believe that you aren’t with them… But I don’t fully trust you yet. Maybe it’s not fair, but I’m sure you can understand my hesitance. However, I will work with you, and I hope that one day I’ll be able to trust you, and that it will be well placed.”

Inky nodded. “Fair enough, I’m glad you’re willing to give it a try.” She sighed. “You’re not the first to struggle with how they feel about me, and some of those I had known for years. I’ll carry Perfect… If that’s ok with you?” She looked to her deputy.

“I think I’ll fly with Derpy today, if you’ll have me?” Inky winced and Derpy nodded happily, not noticing anything amiss.

“I’ll fly with you,” Driver said.

“Hey Fluttershy, want to pair up?” Pinkie asked, and Fluttershy nodded.

Inky knelt down and let Driver climb atop her, then she stepped over to the edge. “This might feel a little weird, but it’s completely harmless,” she whispered to her passenger.

“What?” Driver asked. Inky shifted into a light brown coated pegasus mare with a reddish pink mane and deep blue eyes. On her flank she knew there was a tumbleweed. “Why transform?”

“Because I’ve hardly ever flown in my natural form for years. Way too easy to get spotted like that. And flying as a pegasus is not the same thing as flying as a changeling. If I were flying myself it would be fine, but I don’t think I could lift us both like that.” She spread her wings, tested that she had her full range of motion, and took off.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Is there any particular reason you chose this look?”

Inky nodded. “Because this is my usual pegasus form. I chose the appearance because it looks rather similar to Ponyville’s mayor, but not close enough for anypony to get suspicious.”

“Hmm… You normally look a lot like Derpy. Is she how you chose your unicorn look?”

“Yes. And the fact that even after I revealed myself as a changeling nopony seemed to notice means it was far enough off that nopony would get suspicious.”

Driver let out a grunt that Inky assumed was agreement. After a moment of silence he spoke again. “Perfect seems pretty mad about you leaving like that.”

Inky wobbled in the air for a moment, but quickly righted herself before they hit a wall. “I know,” she whimpered. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“I think she would have been hurt less if you had talked about it first.”

“I had to go!” Inky snapped back. “I split with the hive a long time ago, but they’re still my problem. I couldn’t let somepony else take the fall for that. Not my friends and especially not her.”

“And how do you think she would have felt if you had gotten hurt, or worse, trying to protect her? That she wouldn’t be ‘taking a fall’?”

“Just shut up!” Inky shouted. “If you just want to make me feel bad I’ll set you down and let Starlight take you the rest of the way.”

“I’m not trying to hurt you, I’m trying to teach you.”

“Oh yeah? Teach me what?”

“To stop hiding from your closest friends. Keeping secrets like that is one of the best ways to lose a friend. Or somepony else.”

Inky sputtered. “Somepony else‽”

“I’ve never told you about Cinnamon Chai. Are you up for a story?”

“Why do I get the impression that it’s going to simultaneously make me feel sad and guilty?”

“Because you’re sharp,” he grunted. “But that wasn’t a no.”

“I suppose it wasn’t.” Inky sighed. “Fine. Lay it on me.”

“A few months back I met a mare by the name of Cinnamon Chai. She was a unicorn who owned a fancy little tea & cake shop. I thought she was too classy to want to associate with a carriage driver like me, so I pretended I was a royal guard. After we’d been seeing each other for about a month she happened to see me while I was working. That night she confronted me about it, and told me that she couldn’t trust me after that. I’ve tried talking to her, but she’s made it clear that I’m not welcome around her shop.”

Inky sighed. “And the moral of today's story is that lying to you friends hurts them, and I shouldn’t do it.”

“Just because it’s simple doesn’t make it bad advice, or easy to do.”

“I know.” Inky sighed again. “Thanks, I’ll try to keep this in mind.”

Up ahead Inky saw the tunnel they needed and flew in, landing far enough in so that the others could join them without problem. After Driver got off of her, Inky transformed into her unicorn form, since they would never be able to pass themselves off as changelings right now. When the others had all landed she cleared her throat. “I don’t remember the exact layout of these caves, so I propose that we return to our world and take some time to prepare before we return here. Are there any objections?”

“How long will you be gone?” asked Fluttershy.

Inky opened her mouth, but Minuette answered first. “On our side who knows, but we’ve got a machine that lets us speed up and slow down time. We’ll be back here lickity split, even if it takes days or weeks over there.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Ok then. Shall we wait for you here?”

Inky shook her head and passed one of the beacons to her. “Keep this on you and stay in sight of a reflective surface and we won’t have any problem finding you.” She gestured at the mirror-like crystals covering the walls of the cave. Starlight walked over and Inky handed her the rest of the beacons. Starlight nodded and took the beacons over to one of the larger crystals to use it.

Fluttershy walked closer to Inky as the others followed Starlight. “Why did you choose to disguise yourself here?”

“It’s not a disguise, this is who I am now. I’m always in this form unless I have a reason not to be. Spend a few years wearing a disguise and I can guarantee it will color your own perception of yourself.” Inky smiled. “Every time I looked in a mirror, this is what I saw. It’s really grown on me.”

Fluttershy smiled. “I’m sorry if I was a bit… harsh, when we met. I look forward to working with you.”

“What changed your mind?”

“Overhearing your discussion with Driver.”

Inky’s smile disappeared. “What? How much did you hear? Did anyone else?”

“Not everything, but enough to appreciate your struggle. And your deputy was closer behind you than I was.”

Inky grimaced. “She wasn’t supposed to hear that…”

15 Debriefing

After they had all passed through the portal back to their own world Inky was surprised when Perfect Pace stepped forward and embraced her. “It’s good to see you’ve returned safely. I’d have hated for our last parting to have been such a terse one.”

“And I’m sorry if I worried you.” Inky sighed. “I’ll try to avoid leaving on such short notice again.”

“Yes, I do believe Miss Timing would appreciate that.”

“Did everyone but me know that she would be angrier about my hiding it than the fact I left in the first place?”

“I don’t know how angry she would have been if you had told her, but I saw the state she was in after you left.” Perfect pace leaned in and whispered softly. “And you might want to check how your standing is with the other council members. I don’t know exactly what the situation’s like, but I know you’re supposed to give warning when you leave town.”

“As long as nothing leapt out of nowhere, this… Wait, how long have I been gone?”

“Only four days. Our second expedition was hurried along so that you could be swiftly returned.”

“Well, that’s good. There shouldn’t be any problems with town hall. Do you know when the next expedition will be?”

“At least two weeks from now, I should hope. The last week has been quite adventurous enough, and I look forward to a few weeks in Canterlot, where the greatest stakes are an expensive commission or an invitation to a party. I’m far more accustomed to the games of high society than holding lives in my hooves.”

Inky snorted. “Can’t handle it when you’re doing something that actually matters?” she ribbed.

“Not everypony aspires to civil service. I may not normally save lives with my clocks, but my joy in my customer’s satisfaction is no less just because they wanted them, rather than needed them.”

“What happened to Chrysalis?”

“Chrysalis?” Perfect Pace repeated. “She was locked in Tartarus. Why do you ask?”

“There are a few things I’d like to ask her. I figured out a lot in there, but a few puzzle pieces are still missing.”

“What did you find?”

And for several minutes Inquisitor and Perfect Pace spoke, catching each other up on what had happened. Inquisitor glanced over at Perfect Timing several times, and occasionally their eyes met. Timing’s gaze was hurt, but the anger was quickly draining, much to Inky’s relief. When she finished talking to Pace she walked over to Timing. “Hey.”

“Hi Inky.”

“Do you mind if I stay for a while to tell Extra Time what I saw?”

“No, I don’t. I hope you found out plenty that can help us on your mission.”

“Look.” Inky opened her mouth, then closed it again with a sigh. “This evening, I’d like to talk with you about… What happened, and I… I want to apologize.”

Perfect Timing smiled. “I’d like that.”

That evening Perfect Timing made waffles for dinner and set the table for two. After two and a half hours Inky had popped by, grabbed her vest, and told Perfect that she would be at town hall, but that she would be back around six.

Sure enough, when six o’clock came it was mere minutes until Inky came home. She took off her vest and put it away before sitting at the table.

“Thanks for making dinner.”

Perfect nodded. “How was work?”

“They asked me not to leave on such short notice next time, and not during a major event, but I still have my job.”

“And you won’t be leaving so quickly again, will you?” Perfect said, tone sharp and brow raised at the last bit.

“To them, maybe. But I promise not to leave you secretly again. If there is time to tell you, I promise that I will.”

“Pinkie promise?”

Inky tilted her head and raised an eyebrow of her own. “You know I think that rhyme is silly.”

“Yep! But you’re gonna say it anyway, aren’t you?”

“Fine, I suppose I got myself into this mess.” Inky took a deep breath. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“And next time you try to avoid telling me about something you don’t think I approve of, try to remember that I do sometimes pay attention to your ramblings about how to be a detective. I’ll find out eventually, so it’s best if you tell me yourself, Sowvown.”

“Yes M; I’ll remember that,” Inky said with a snicker.

“M?”

“Double O Seven’s boss.”

Queen Chrysalis woke up in a stone cage in a greenish blue bowl. Ahead, there was a hole in the rim which led to a staircase. Aside from a cliff with a peak at the end of the stairs, she appeared to be in an empty cavern. “Insufferable peasants! How dare you cage me like some common circus beast! Do you mean to leave me here to starve?! I suppose you can’t stomach killing me yourself, and somehow thought this was more merciful!”

“Oh relax, you won’t starve,” a soft voice said from the peak. “Though you might find you would prefer if you could.”

“Are you to be my jailer?”

“Not at all. I am but a fellow prisoner. I humbly welcome you to Tartarus. I hope you enjoy your stay, for it will be a long one.” The voice was clearly amused by her plight, and doing a poor job of pretending to be friendly.

“My hive will crush those ponies and find where I have been hidden, then they will release me, and I will have my revenge!”

“Crush the ponies? And how exactly did that turn out last time?”

“We were ambushed by their strongest mage and some jungle monster. When we find them again, they won’t have that advantage,” Chrysalis snarled.

“What are you on about? You infiltrated the ponies, despite your terrible acting, and still failed to defeat them with surprise on your side!”

“Silence! We won at the wedding, and have been mopping up the sad remains of the ponies for months! The ponies must have lied to you to make you think they were strong.”

“That’s impossible. I was free when your little kidnapping scheme fell through.”

“It did not fail!” Chrysalis snapped. “It went perfectly! First I replaced the bride, then I subverted Shining’s sister to my side while draining Shining Armor of any complex thoughts.”

“Great, I finally have someone I can talk to, and they're insane.”

“Next thing you’ll tell me is that the eternal sun is because Celestia wanted to increase pineapple production? Or that the windigoes returned because Manehatton had a Hearth’s Warming Eve sale break into a riot?”

“…You really believe that, don’t you?” the voice asked in disbelief.

“Of course. Perhaps you have lost your mind stuck in this monotonous prison.”

“Why don’t you tell me more of what you believe has happened in the last decade?”

After several days in Tartarus Queen Chrysalis and Lord Tirek had roughly pinned down the differences in their stories. They were too far reaching to be mere boasting on the part of Tirek’s new acquaintance, but they all happened in the last three years. She claimed that she had never witnessed Nightmare Moon, Discord, or Tirek’s own return to the land, and the Elements of Harmony had never been gathered.

Tirek suspected she was from another world, and that she had been transported back to this world while she was unconscious. She insisted that he had been brainwashed by the ponies.

Tirek was contemplating whether there was any way to leverage the fact that the strange changeling royal was a secret when he heard the door grinding open. He looked up to see the night princess making her way toward him. Cerberus came forth, sniffed her, and headed away deeper into Tartarus. When she reached the summit where he was trapped he spoke. “Ah, the princess of nightmares. What can I do to be of service?” He grinned, hoping to hurt her feelings by reminding her of her past fall to darkness. It was petty and of no benefit to him, true, but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do than lash out at his jailers however he could.

“Keep quiet about this to the guardian and his masters, or you will have the wrath of the hive to contend with on top of your current struggles,” Luna hissed, her eyes flashing briefly with a green light.

Tirek looked to where Cerberus had wandered off, seeing that he was still gone. “A changeling? I think I know why you’re here.”

“I’m sure you do,” she said, walking around him and heading for the stairs to the queen. As she descended from view he saw a green burst of light.

Queen Chrysalis woke when somepony cleared their throat close by. She opened her eyes to see that it wasn’t a pony at all, but one of her changelings. “Excellent work finding me. Now let me out and report on how the hive is faring in my absence and what the ponies have been up to.”

The drone stepped back awkwardly. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Are you disobeying an order from your queen?” she asked, tone icy.

“Not at all!” the drone assured, forelimbs flailing in panic. “I mean that I can’t. I don’t know how to get this cage open.” She reached a hoof to the latch and pulled, but it did not move. Much as it had not when Chrysalis had tried.

“Fine,” she growled. “Then tell me what has happened in my absence.”

“I can’t do that either.”

“Why not?” Chrysalis asked, eyes narrowing.

The drone gulped. “Because I am not of your hive, Queen Chrysalis, but of another.”

“Impossible! There is only one changeling hive! I have made sure of that.”

“Your Highness, I am very sorry to bear such news, but this is not the Equestria you know.”

“I’ve been telling her that for days,” Tirek called.

“Please be quiet!” the drone hissed. “I would rather not have to deal with Cerberus today.”

“Are you alone?” Chrysalis asked.

“Yes. I was undercover when I saw two ponies carrying you off in a cart. I made sure that my queen was still well and at the hive before investigating your appearance. I managed to temporarily pass myself off as the blue unicorn and gather information. That is how I learned where you were and where you had come from.”

“Princess Celestia has a magic key that allows the bearer to open the cages of Tartarus. In my world she kept it in the Canterlot Tower vault.”

“It won’t be easy to get in there,” the drone thought aloud.

“Twilight Sparkle has the key in my world. If you go to her and tell her where I am, I’m sure she will free me.”

“Twilight Sparkle? Did you really manage to get one of the Elements of Harmony to help you in your world?”

“What are you talking about? The Elements don’t act on their own, they are tools Celestia once used, nothing more.”

“The Elements of Harmony have chosen new bearers in this world. Six mortal ponies, and their leader is this world’s Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic.”

“She is an impressive mage, second only to Celestia and myself. She is my royal wizard and civil organizer, and I am confident she will not betray me, no matter what this version of her might be like. I spent months pretending to be her closest confidant, poisoning her mind. I haven’t needed to rely on magic to keep her bound to my will since the original attack.”

“I will seek her out.” The drone turned to go, but then turned back. “If I may, how did you dispatch the princesses? Are they dead, or captured?”

“That is a secret, even among my hive. All you need to know is that they have both been dealt with.”

“Very well. Do you have any other messages you wish for me to relay to your hive?”

“Tell Pharynx to have a squad of elite guards to accompany her in disguise.” Chrysalis paused. “Are ponies likely to recognize her?”

“Indeed. I shall suggest she don a disguise.”

The drone turned around one last time; and let out a squeak at Cerberus’ three heads letting out a silent growl, slowly becoming audible.

Inky’s blood felt like ice as she stared at the guardian of the underworld. Minuette had said that Cerberus had acted mean at first, but was really just a sweet puppy underneath. When Inky smelled him there was no doubt in her mind that he didn’t want kind words and a scratch behind the ears; he wanted her blood.

“I don’t suppose you can fire through the bars?” she asked Chrysalis.

“They block any outgoing magic,” called Tirek. “You’re on your own, changeling. Though, if you would like, I can offer my significant knowledge of this beast. I think you’ll find it rather helpful.”

“That would be appreciated!”

“Enough that your Twilight will release me?”

'Ah, so that’s his angle, I figured he would have one.' “I don’t speak for her, but I can certainly tell her that you helped me find her to rescue her queen. I think she would appreciate it.”

“That will do. It gives me a lovely chance to get back at this oaf too. First off, don’t fly over the abyss; bad things dwell there that you don’t want to alert.”

“Well, there goes my easiest solution.” She didn’t want to imagine what sort of things he could be referring to. She considered that he might be lying to try to stop her. He always smelled of deception, since he was always scheming, so she couldn’t tell if this was a lie. In the end she decided not to risk it, since he had no apparent reason to fight her and every reason to hate Cerberus.

“What you should do is run along the ground until you are almost within reach, then fly over him, getting enough clearance that he can’t bite you.”

“Why not fly up now?”

“Because if he sees you preparing to fly over him he’ll run back to the door.”

She began stretching. 'Ok. All I’ve got to do is slip past an ancient guardian with as little room as I can manage, reach the door, and then open it before he eats me alive. No problem, right? I mean, Tux did it; how hard can it be?' She gulped, took a deep breath, and slipped into a ready stance. 'I have so much left to live for, and I refuse to let it end here! I AM THE INQUISITOR! I survived a week of infiltration in the very core of my greatest fear. I will NOT be eaten by a glorified watchdog! I will survive this, and I will do it for my family!' “Alright Cerberus! I don’t care how hard you want to protect this place, I refuse to die here! I’m going home, and you can’t stop me!” She was well aware that shouting at him had no effect on him, but it helped ease some of her nerves, so she did it anyway. This was going to be a close thing, and she needed any help she could get.

She transformed into Tumbleweed to help with her flight and began running up the stairs. When Cerberus began to lunge forward she kicked off the ground and beat her wings as fast as she could, barely clearing the vicious snap the left head made. As soon as she was over she angled down to the line where the door met the floor without slowing down at all. She flew as fast as she could, hearing Cerberus turn to give chase behind her. Getting to the door first was easy. Getting there in time to open it would not be.

Usually a pegasus had to come to a stop at least somewhat gradually. With her blood pounding in her ears and growls echoing through the cave, Inky chose not to. Instead she transformed into an earth pony right before the collision and simply took the impact with a roll. It still hit hard enough that she thought she felt bones breaking in her back legs, but she couldn’t stop. As she fell to the ground she dropped her disguise and channeled her changeling magic through her horn, willing the door open with every fiber of her being. As it began to creak open she looked back and saw Cerberus quickly closing the gap between them.

She couldn’t run like this, but as soon as the door was wide enough to fit her she crawled through with her forelegs. She felt the wind as Cerberus snapped right where she had been and immediately shut the door behind her. Then she started up her wings and floated away, barely keeping her limp rear legs up off the ground.

That afternoon Cranky was walking through the woods on his way back to his house. He had spent his morning out shopping for the groceries he and Matilda would need for the week, and he was looking forward to doing some scrapbooking when he heard some rustling coming from one of the trees by the path. “Hello? Is somepony there?” he called gruffly. Probably either the wind or Pinkie. He wasn’t sure which he would prefer today.

“Hi Cranky. How have you been?”

He looked up and saw a changeling laying on one of the lower limbs. At this point most ponies would run screaming for town, but Cranky stood his ground. Not just because he wasn’t about to be intimidated by something smaller than he was, though you don’t make it long as a wanderer without learning how to defend yourself. No, the main reason he was unmoved was because he knew this changeling. “Hi Whirligig. Haven’t seen you for a few weeks.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been busy. You know me, always doing something.”

“I’m surprised you showed up looking like that. Something wrong?”

Whirligig sighed. “I busted up my back legs pretty bad, and I was hoping I could stay with you for a bit?”

“Fine kid. But you’d better not break anything.”

“Of course not, I enjoy still having some working limbs.” Cranky started walking towards his house once more, Whirligig following behind him in the air. “This is so weird.”

“What, asking me for help?”

“No, flying like this.” Cranky opened his door and they both came in, Whirligig sitting on the couch. “I hate to impose, but could you send a message to my deputy? I don’t want her to worry about why I’m gone so long.”

Cranky slowly nodded. “Sure thing kid. I’ll invite her to come by and we can have a nice dinner too. But first let me see your legs.”

Whirligig obeyed, stretching out on the couch. He leaned in to examine them, gently rubbing them with a hoof. She hissed. “How bad is it doc?”

“You managed to sprain both your rear ankles. What did you do, have a skydiving accident?”

“Sort of. I’m glad they’re just sprained though.”

Author's Note

Sowvown is pronounced with both Os long. It is what happens if you swap the Es in seven with long Os phonetically. Double O seven, in a fashion.
007’s real name is Tuxedo. Shadowy Tuxedo.

16 Second Changes

Starlight put The Complete Adventures of Hemlock Stones: Volume 1 into her extradimensional pocket and led the way off the train. Twilight had decided to visit her niece, and Spike and Starlight had joined her. On the trip Spike had donned a disguise consisting of a fabrain coat, a large-brimmed hat, big red sunglasses, and a curly orange wig. Starlight didn’t think that anypony would mistake a dragon, even a baby one, for a pony except in the most casual of glances, but it made Spike happy, so she didn’t try to stop him too hard. Besides, it was pretty funny to see him ‘undercover’.

They stepped off the train and into the station. Oddly, there wasn’t a ticket collector at the desk, so they simply continued through to the exit. Once they were all standing side by side on the platform Starlight spoke up. “Uh, disguise or not, Spike, I don't think you need to worry about being mobbed. Nopony's here.”

They all stared at the train station’s platform and the path to the Crystal Empire proper. Not a pony was in sight, just an empty dirt path. There was even a real live tumbleweed rolling down the tracks. “It's like a ghost town,” Spike agreed.

“I’ve got a baaad feeling about this,” Twilight said as they headed toward the city. Starlight agreed, something fishy was definitely going on. “Wait a minute, a tumbleweed!? Those grow in deserts and occasionally somewhat dry prairies, not green hills!” Starlight and Spike looked at each other and stifled their laughter. “Well it couldn’t have blown in from the icy wastes! That makes even less sense!”

“You’re not going to go overboard on this are you?” Spike asked. At Twilight’s look he continued. “Like Pinkie’s Pinkie sense, or when our friends were suddenly hanging out with Discord, or finding the mathematically perfect organizational system?”

Twilight gave an indignant response as they made their way further into the eerie silence.

When they reached the city it was just as lifeless as the train station. There weren’t any signs of a struggle and there were no distant cries of panic. It was just empty.

“Yeah, this is weird,” Starlight said, as they stopped at an intersection.

“I guess I don't need the disguise after all,” Spike said glumly. But as soon as he took off his hat, wig, and glasses, a crowd of crystal ponies started to gather, zipping over from wherever they had been hiding.

They started chattering excitedly, and one shouted, “It's Spike the Brave and Glorious!”

“He's come to save us yet again!” another agreed.

The crowd picked Spike up and started tossing him in the air, taking a few steps away from Starlight and Twilight and chanting “Spike! Spike! Spike! Spike!”

“Save you from what?” Spike asked as soon as they quieted, though they continued their celebratory Spike tossing.

“Yeah, what's going on?” Starlight asked. First there was nopony, and then they got mobbed. Though she supposed that meant Spike’s disguise had been both effective and called for.

“Why was everypony hiding?” Twilight finished.

Two mares who were the closest to them turned at the questions, frowns replacing their smiles as soon as they noticed them. “Oh, it sure looks like Princess Twilight and her pupil,” the purple one said.

They looked at each other for a moment and the yellow one said “But how can we be sure?”

“We can’t!” an orange stallion next to them interjected. His face was filled with terror. “Either one of them could be the... you know!” He ran off and was soon out of sight.

Starlight and Twilight looked at each other, and Starlight pointed a hoof at the crowd. She was about to say something when the purple mare gasped loudly and grabbed her friend’s face. “What if this... isn't... the real Spike?!” she asked through her hyperventilating.

She dropped her friend, who fell to the ground. Then the yellow mare got up and stood on her rear legs, fore legs spread wide. “Everypony, run!” The crowd who was holding Spike in the air turned to her, stared with wide eyes for a split second, and then ran off, the whole crowd vanishing as fast as it had formed. Spike fell to the ground with a grunt of pain.

“Okay,” Twilight said. “Something strange is definitely going on.”

Spike groaned and rubbed his head. “Ya think?”

They started off toward the castle once more. Hmm. Not sure if someone is who they look like. Not the real Spike. Either of us could be the… something. Sounds like a mystery! And I was just reading one of the best mystery series out there, according to Inky at least, and she should know. Let’s see. It sounds like they're worried about somepony who pretends to be somepony else, but it would be hard for a mundane disguise to let a pony look like a dragon, so it’s probably a magical impersonator.

“Hey, Twilight?”

“Yes, Starlight?”

“You ran into changelings at your brother’s wedding, right?” Twilight nodded. “What happened to them?”

“Cadence and Shining Armor made a shield of love that ejected them out of the city. Why?”

“I meant what happened to them after that. Do we know where they are or what they’re up to?”

“Hmm. I’d have to ask Princess Celestia to be sure, but as far as I know, nopony’s seen any since then. You don’t think that’s what’s got everypony so nervous, do you?”

“Maybe…”

It wasn’t much further until they got to the castle. A pair of guards were standing watch at each of the roads leading to the central area under the castle. When they drew near the yellow guard held up a hoof in a ‘stop’ signal “Who goes there?”

“Um, you don't recognize the Princess of Friendship?” Starlight asked.

The guard put his hoof back on the ground, though it was clearly just so he could stand on it, and not an admission. “Of course we recognize her.”

The other guard put his hoof to his chin. “But that doesn't mean it's really her.”

“Then why did you ask who it was?” Starlight asked. “Whether it’s her or somepony pretending to be her, wouldn’t they both say the same thing?”

“It’s standard procedure anytime we’re on alert ma’am,” answered the yellow guard. “Regardless, we'll need to see some proof of identification.”

“We'll take care of things from here,” said Princess Cadence, walking up to them with Shining Armor by her side and Sunburst following behind with Flurry Heart.

“Oh, Cadence, thank goodness!” Twilight called, smiling brightly for a moment before returning to her worried frown. “What's going on?”

“We can explain, Twily... if it really is you,” Shining Armor said. Then he and Cadence shared a look and a nod.

Cadence trotted up to stand before Twilight and took a sharp breath. Then she started bouncing in place. “Sunshine, Sunshine,”

She dropped to the ground and covered her eyes with a foreleg, Twilight following suit. They both continued what was clearly an established rhyme and dance. “Ladybugs awake!” At awake they uncovered their eyes. Then they sat up and started playing pattycake. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” They turned until their bodies were parallel and wiggled. Then they hugged each other.

When they finished Cadence stepped backwards to be beside her husband again and he called, “It's okay, everypony. It's her.”

“Have you been having problems with changelings since we last saw you?” Starlight asked.

Sunburst nodded as he stepped forward with Flurry’s stroller. “One’s been spotted nearby.” Starlight walked over to stand next to him.

Spike held up a claw. “That’s not good.”

“No, it's not,” Cadence agreed. “After Queen Chrysalis took my place at our wedding and invaded Canterlot with her army of minions, we're not taking any chances.”

“Changelings feed off of love. And ever since Flurry Heart's Crystalling, the Empire is filled with more love than anywhere in Equestria. It's possible they've come for the baby,” Sunburst elaborated.

Shining Armor spoke next. “That's why we posted the extra guards, and why we're-”

“Checking everypony's identity,” Twilight finished.

Cadence sighed. “I'm sorry for all of this. Flurry Heart's really been looking forward to seeing you.”

Flurry made some baby noises and Twilight walked up to her. Flurry reached out to Twilight, who gave her a hoof to grab. “Oh, she's gotten so big! Starlight and I will do whatever we can to help protect her.”

“To be honest, having you here is already a big relief,” Cadence answered.

The yellow guard turned to Shining Armor and whispered something in his ear. “The royal guards were wondering if Spike the Brave and Glorious would like to join in the search for the changeling.” Both guards broke into smiles at this.

“Really?” Spike asked.

Twilight frowned. “Uh, I don't know if that's such a good idea, Spike. It sounds dangerous.”

“Come on, Twilight, this is Spike the Brave and Glorious you're talking to.” While walking past Twilight toward Shining Armor and the guards Spike held his arms up as if to show off big muscles, which he clearly didn’t have. “Have you ever known me to run from danger?” He stopped and put his hands on his hips, standing tall. Or at least as tall as he could, since only his frills went higher than Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight raised a hoof to her chin and averted her eyes upward. “Um…” Spike slouched and dropped his arms, looking disappointed.

Shining Armor leaned forward. “He'll be safe with our guards,” he assured her.

Spike turned to face him, taking up his previous pose. “Or will your guards be safe with me?” he boasted, pointing a thumb at his chest. Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes before grinning. Spike joined the guards, waving goodbye as they left.

After they had caught up, Twilight had suggested that she and Starlight craft a protection spell for Flurry Heart. As much as Starlight wanted to keep talking with Sunburst, she agreed that a strong protection spell would be an excellent deterrent if a changeling tried anything. Though, she was skeptical that there was only one changeling. If it had been spotted in its natural form then it probably wasn’t one of their infiltrators. From what she had learned from Inky, it was probably a youngling in training, and it would have been with its trainers. Then as soon as it had been spotted they would have left town on the next train. Even so, it might be for the best if they practiced caution for now. At the very least it would keep the changelings from coming back for a while.

After a while Twilight left to check on Spike and see if he wanted to join them and take notes. When she got back she was alone, but she seemed happy. “Hi Twilight. Did you find Spike?”

“Yep! He’s hanging out with his pen pal. Did you know he had a pen pal?” Twilight excitedly continued to talk about Spike’s new friend, and Starlight started pondering something mildly distressing. DId Spike have any friends in Ponyville aside from the bearers and herself? She wasn’t sure, but she couldn’t think of any.

“Hey Twilight, I’m going to head out for a bit. I’ll see you in a little while.”

“Have fun,” Twilight said, though Starlight wasn’t sure that she had actually heard her. She was once more absorbed in study as Starlight stepped out of the library, closing the door behind her.

While walking through the hallways on her way outside for some fresh air, she heard two of the guards talking.

“Did you hear about Spike’s joke?”

“The one where he pretended he had befriended a changeling? That was hilarious.”

“Too bad The Captain shut him down. But I can understand, given his history with them.”

Hmm. Spike has a new friend Twilight’s never heard of before, and he’s making jokes about being friends with a changeling? The game is ahoof!

“Excuse me?” she asked the guards, who immediately straightened to attention. Seriously, what was it about the Equestrian military that made its members jump back and forth from casual to formal so much? “When was that?”

“When he first came back from patrol, ma’am.”

Starlight nodded. That means it would have been before Twilight’s meeting with his new friend… “And where is he now?”

“Last I saw him he was leaving the castle.”

She continued on her way, intent upon solving this new mystery. She would have liked to ask the guards for details about Spike’s ‘joke’, but that might cause problems if it was a friendly changeling and she blew their cover.

When she got outside she saw a crowd of ponies gathered within sight of the castle, and as she approached she saw Spike among them, hoofing out autographs with a blue earth pony. No, not an earth pony, a crystal pony. She decided to wait until they left the crowd to talk to them, so she summoned her book and started reading, making sure to glance over at Spike and his friend every now and again.

Thorax was enjoying himself immensely. It had been nerve wracking to meet Spike’s friend Twilight, but after that he felt much easier around random ponies. Spike had helped gather a crowd by talking to them and having Thorax hoof out autographed pictures, but after a while Spike had stopped talking and the ponies had stuck around to speak to him! Thorax could hardly believe his luck, ponies actually wanted to hang out with him! Sure, he had to pretend to be a crystal pony, but he wasn’t faking anything else. They were really interested in him! Something he had never felt in the hive.

After they finished talking to the crowd and giving out pictures he and Spike started towards the castle, but they hadn’t made it a block before a pink unicorn with a purple mane stepped into their path. “Hi Spike. And what’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Crystal Hoof. Who are you?”

“I’m Starlight. It’s nice to meet you Crystal Hoof. Would you care to join me for a snack? I have some things I’d like to discuss with both of you.” She grinned and tilted her head.

“Sure. That good with you?” Spike asked Thorax.

“Sure, that sounds like fun.”

Starlight led them to a twisty alleyway, and at the end was a green house whose ceiling looked like a brown pointed hat.

“Sunburst’s house?” Spike asked. “I thought he was in the castle.”

“He is, but he won’t mind if we step inside for a bit. And I don’t want anypony to overhear us talking.”

“Oh?” Thorax asked, grinning as a bead sweat formed on his brow, “Why’s that?”

Starlight opened the door and gestured them in with a wave of her hoof. “Because I have some rather personal questions for you, and I don’t want to have random strangers hearing any of this if you don’t want them to know.”

Thorax was starting to panic. They hadn’t gone over Crystal Hoof’s history, all he knew was that he had met Spike at the Equestria games! He took a deep breath while Starlight wasn’t looking and tried to calm himself. He’d just have to improvise.

“Ok, I put some tea on to boil, and we can talk while it’s getting ready,” Starlight said as she trotted back into the room. “Would you like to sit down?” she asked, pointing at the wooden table in the center of the room. Thorax sat down, and Starlight sat across from him. “So, I know this might be awkward, but I promise that I have a plan that should help all of us.” Starlight’s horn lit up, followed by her eyes. Thorax squirmed uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure what Starlight was casting, but glowing eyes normally meant either really powerful magic or divination magic, neither of which were good news right now.

After a short pause the glow faded and Starlight continued. “How long has it been since you’ve seen your family?”

“Oh, um…” Not having a family would look suspicious, but what if she asked to meet them? “They moved to Equestria after the crystalling!”

“What’s your birth name?”

“Crystal Hoof? You already asked that.”

“Really? That’s an odd name in the Badlands,” Starlight said, her smile flattening and an intense stare replacing it. Thorax froze. There was no way… Even if she knew he was a changeling the ponies didn’t know where the hive was!

“Um… Starlight? Don’t you think calling the Crystal Empire ‘The Badlands’ is a little rude?” Spike asked, oblivious to the sudden tension. “Sure, it’s a little cold, but it’s pretty nice once you get to know it.”

“Does Spike know?” Starlight whispered. Thorax just nodded. This was it. Starlight would tell the guards, and then- “You're not with the hive anymore, are you?” she asked aloud.

“The hive?” Spike’s voice shot up an octave. “What are you talking about? There’s no hives up here!”

“Spike, I know Crystal Hoof’s a changeling, and I just want to talk.”

“Really?” Spike and Thorax both asked.

“Really. They aren’t even the first changeling I’ve found living their own lives away from the hive.”

“I’m… not?”

“No.” Starlight smiled. “I can’t tell you much about them until I ask if they’re ok with you knowing, but I do know another changeling who left the hive. Speaking of, how long have you been on your own?”

“I was part of the attack on Canterlot, but after I saw true friendship for the first time I couldn't just steal it and feed on its love. So I set off, looking for love to share. I couldn’t find anypony willing to give me a chance until Spike though.”

“I have to admit, I probably would have assumed the worst of you too, if I’d never met Innn… her first.”

“Inn?” Spike asked.

“Ignore that. My point is, maybe we should talk to them first. I know Spike already tried to tell some of the guards, but what if we try talking to Twilight instead? She’s the ‘Princess of Friendship’, I’m confident that she’ll appreciate your desire to make new friends.”

“Are you sure? My kind did some pretty terrible things at the wedding, what if she won’t forgive me for taking part?”

Spike and Starlight shared a look. “Nightmare Moon,” said Spike.

“Discord,” agreed Starlight.

“Well, she actually still can’t stand him, but I think it’s more his personality than his past.”

“Me.”

“And Sunset Shimmer, and probably more I can’t remember right now!” Spike finished.

“So yes, Crystal Hoof, I’m certain that Twilight will give you a chance.”

“Actually, my name’s Thorax.”

After a few minutes they had made their way to Twilight and Starlight’s room at the castle and settled down to wait for Twilight’s return. Before long she returned.

“Oh, hello again Crystal Hoof! It’s nice to see you again. How was your afternoon?”

“It was great, thanks,” Thorax said with a smile.

“Twilight, I have good news,” Starlight offered. When Twilight turned to face her she continued. “We found the changeling.”

“Really? That’s great! Did you capture it or did it flee?”

“Neither. We sat down and talked out our differences, just like you offered to me, and he wasn’t so scary once we got to talking.”

“Hmm… If they really are friendly that would be wonderful! But what if they were trying to trick us?”

Starlight took a deep breath. “Twilight, I have something important to tell you, and I have to ask that you don’t tell anypony. Pinkie promise?”

Twilight nodded. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Okay. So, Thorax isn’t the-”

“Who?”

“That’s the name of the changeling,” Spike answered.

“Right. He isn’t the first changeling who left the hive and tried to make friends with ponies.”

“If this is the part where you tell me you’re a changeling, I’m going to have to assume that either you’re lying, you replaced the real Starlight, or I’m dreaming,” Twilight deadpanned.

Starlight snorted. “What? No, I met her since I moved in with you. She told me that she was a changeling after we’d only known each other for about a week, and two of her other friends confirmed that she had been living in Ponyville for years.”

“That’s wonderful!” Twilight suddenly took a deep breath, a surefire warning of what was to come. “Why, just imagine how much we could learn about changeling culture! Do they have their own language, or…”

As Twilight continued to ponder the equuspological significance of a willing interviewee of an entirely new race, Thorax trotted up to Starlight. “Is she going to be like this for long?”

“No telling,” answered Spike. “It could be minutes or hours.”

“Hours!?” Thorax gasped.

“Sometimes days, but only rarely.”

“I thought ponies had to eat and drink? Is that really just a changeling thing?”

“No,” answered Starlight. “She just gets way too wrapped up in her research.”

“Well, if she’s going to stay like this for a while I guess I can drop my disguise.” Thorax returned to his natural form in a burst of blue fire, which instantly drew Twilight out of her reverie.

“You’re the changeling? It’s such a pleasure to meet you. Well, to meet you now that I know who you are. I have so many questions. Do you mind answering some?” She grinned as she conjured a notebook to her side.

“You’re extremely lucky that Spike was willing to talk things over, you know that, right?” Inky asked. She had invited Thorax (currently in the form of Crystal Hoof) to the office so they could discuss ‘changeling matters’. Inky had asked Perfect to leave the house for the afternoon, not because she wasn’t supposed to hear this, but just to help make Thorax more comfortable. At least, that was the plan.

“Y-yes ma’am!”

Inky rolled her eyes. “Look kid, I’m not gonna bite.” She blinked. “I meant that figuratively, I’m not going to put you into a headlock or anything either.”

“You can do that?” Thorax squeaked.

Inky sighed. “Look, I understand that you have had a hard time in the hive, but if you keep hitting me in the face with terror and submission I might end up hurting you without intending it. Where’s your spine, grub? You and I-and theoretical others like us-may be nicer than the cutthroats in the hive, but we’re still predators! Show me your warrior spirit!”

Thorax hissed, but it was less like a snake ready to strike, and more like a balloon that had finally given up on life.

“How are you still alive? The weak and timid don’t last long in the hive.”

“Pharynx.”

“Are you giving a reason why the weak and timid die off?”

“No, Pharynx is why I made it so long in the hive.”

“Are we talking about the same Pharynx? Purple wings and red fins?”

“Yep, that’s him. Pharynx is my elder broodmate, and he always protected me when the other grubs picked on me.”

“Huh. I never would have thought he had a soft side. But with a strong, ambitious young changeling like him watching your back. I can see how anyling could live through the hive.”

After a moment’s pause Thorax spoke up. “So, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“You want to move to Ponyville under the identity of Crystal Hoof. I have my deputy getting the necessary files ready, but there’s also the matter of where you’ll live. Have you ever lived alone for over a month?”

“No, not unless you count hiding after leaving the hive.”

“Only if you had a job and a house.” Thorax shook his head. “In that case you should stay with somepony who knows that you’re a changeling.” Inky tapped a hoof on the table in front of her. “I have several friends who are trustworthy, but none that could easily put you up. Talk to Twilight, maybe you can stay with her, or maybe she’ll refer you to somepony she thinks you should tell.”

Inky looked up at Twilight’s castle. Twilight’s castle. That was its only name, as far as she knew.

“Hmm. It belongs to the Princess of Friendship, so maybe ‘The Castle of Friendship?” she wondered aloud.

“Inky, you’ve been standing in front of Twilight’s castle for almost a minute,” Perfect Timing spoke from her place to the right and slightly behind Inky. “If you don’t want to tell her, you don’t have to.”

Inky shook her head. “When she accepted Thorax with a hesitant but genuine welcome she earned the truth. Plus, I’m starting to consider the possibility of organizing a raid on the hive; crush it once and for all to make sure that they never threaten Equestria again. Maybe, if we take out the leaders and scatter the rest, the survivors could learn to be better? I mean, look at Thorax. I straight up asked him how he could survive in the hive without toughening up, and it got me thinking. How much of changeling… hatred? Aggression? That’s it, how much of changeling aggression comes from our nature… and how much of it is because that’s how we’re raised?”

“You didn’t have a guardian watching out for you, and you turned out a decent pony.”

“Perfect… Some days I find myself working out exactly how best to steal as much love from this town as possible without alerting anypony. Which ponies wouldn’t be missed as much. I never act on it, but it’s there. I am a good pony, but only because I try really hard. Most ponies seem to be genuinely nice as a matter of course in small towns like Ponyville, but in Manehattan or Canterlot they can be quite cutthroat.” Inky sighed. “The more I think about it, the more I doubt my old viewpoint that every dark impulse I have is because of what I was born as, and I start to think that it is because of who I was raised by. Maybe, in a generation or two, changelings could go from being criminals by default to a sort of shady second-class emigrants. Eventually changelings who went straight would outnumber the feral ones, and we would no longer have to hide what we are, to show who we are.”

“That’s… quite a dream. And for what it’s worth I’m with you, helemaal.”

“Thanks Perfect, that means a lot.” Inky took a deep breath. “Anyway, we’ve been waiting long enough. Let’s go.”

Side by side they made their way to Twilight’s ‘Castle of Friendship’ for the first time. Inky knocked, and after several moments passed she checked the door. “It’s not even locked. I know that’s fairly normal in this town, but Princess Twilight Sparkle is the sort of pony I would have expected better from.”

“Just because she’s a princess it doesn’t mean that she’s perfect.”

“Not that, I meant that she has enemies, so she should keep her door locked. Nopony’s going to rob the grocery store, but Twilight probably has valuable magic stuff and she definitely has a reputation as one of Equestria’s heroes. If some creature wanted to attack Equestria, and it was fairly intelligent and had up to date information, taking Twilight out of the picture is an obvious first step. I can understand that she doesn’t want to spend money with guards, and they would be a bother around town, but could she at least lock the door?”

“Any threat that can’t sneak past a locked door isn’t trying for stealth. And nothing incapable of breaking the door down has any business going after an alicorn,” Perfect consoled.

“I suppose,” Inky conceded. “At any rate, an unlocked door to the castle of a princess could be considered an open invitation, and I doubt anypony heard us knock. Let’s see if we can find the princess ourselves.” Inky opened the door and led the way in. “Hello! Is anypony home?” In a few moments Spike came into the hallway. “Ah, Spike. Would you be so kind as to direct us to Princess Twilight?”

“Sure. She’s in the library. Head that way and enter the open doors.” He paused, taking them in. “You aren’t reporters, are you?”

Inky sighed. “How the mighty have fallen, that we are seen as nothing more than reporters. I suppose it could be worse, you could have called me a politician.”

Seeing Spike’s confusion, Perfect spoke up. “We’re from the Ponyville Sheriff's Department. We’re here to talk about Crystal Hoof.”

“What about him?” Spike asked in what was probably supposed to be nonchalance, but it clearly told Inky he was hiding something. Well, reminded her, since she already knew.

“You can come with, if you’d like,” she offered. “It’s about his status as a former member of an enemy of Equestria.”

“That’s not the crystal ponies' fault! Sombra used some nasty mind magic on them! Celestia welcomed them after he was defeated.” Spike's rebuttal had hints of anger and annoyance, though she also smelled his relief. Probably at no longer thinking that she was suspicious of Thorax’s hidden identity.

Inky closed her eyes and took a deep breathe, letting it out in a sigh. “Look. I don’t want to get into details until we have a secure room, okay? I’m not trying to make things harder on the poor colt, I really do just want to talk. Can the three of us go see Princess Twilight?”

Spike slowly nodded and led the way to the library. As they walked the hallways, Inky felt an odd sense of familiarity, even though she had never been inside of Twilight’s castle before. It concerned her slightly, but they had more important things to think about at the moment.

“Hey Twilight?” Spike called as they entered the library. Perfect shut the door.

“Yes Spike?” Twilight answered, turning to face them. “Oh. Who are you?”

“I am Sheriff Inquisitor, and this is my deputy, Perfect Pace.” As she was introduced Perfect bowed her head. “And we are here to discuss the peaceful cohabitation of changeling exiles in Equestria.”

“You’re coming to my castle to talk to me about matters of state? Hmm. I think you’re the first ponies to do that.”

Inky could tell that Spike’s fears were back in full swing. She didn’t need her extra sense, just functional eyes and a keen mind. And she wasn’t sure the second was a requirement. “Well let’s start by clearing the air of a few secrets, so we don’t keep beating around the bush. I spoke with Thorax about his new life, have you assigned him a roommate?”

“Yes, he’s staying with Fluttershy…” Twilight trailed off as she realized which name Inky had used.

Inky nodded. “I trust she is aware that he is a changeling?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. I’m glad that you two are also ready to accept him. It’ll be good for him to have friends around town.”

Inky nodded in agreement. Really, she wouldn’t say they were friends, as such, but telling the Princess of Friendship that you weren’t friends with somepony? That would be like telling Princess Celestia that you had planted an oak in your yard so you didn’t have to be in the sun. Or telling a cow you had a pet snake.

“Well, I spoke to Starlight and him about his history, and I assume that any crimes he committed prior to or during the wedding are to be forgiven in the eyes of the law?”

“Of course!” Twilight responded quickly, though without anger. “He was afraid of Chrysalis and the other changelings, and he left their way.”

“So… Since he has already seen the error of his kind’s ways, he need not pay for the things they made him do. I am glad you see things this way. Starlight told you that she knew another changeling who had left the hive, correct?”

“That’s right. She told you too?”

“No, she never told me,” Inky said, as she transformed into her native form. “I told her.”

After a pause which felt more like nopony felt the need to say anything than that they were stunned into silence Perfect spoke up. “This is a new record for the least shocking that revelation has ever been.”

“Yes,” Inky agreed. “Prior knowledge of other cases is a big help. Even more than being nearly strangers.”

“Wouldn’t being strangers make it harder to trust somepony?” Spike asked.

“Ah, but you’re forgetting the element of betrayal, my dear dragon.”

“I think you got your Elements mixed up. Loyalty is the opposite of betrayal.”

“Not the Elements of Harmony, she means the component,” Twilight clarified.

“Ah. …So, are you a changeling too?” he asked Perfect.

“No, I’m one hundred percent pony. Born and raised right here in Ponyville.

“Princess Twilight. I have to ask you to be careful about who you tell about us. I give you permission to tell any pony who I am if they have already known about and accepted Thorax for a month. I leave it to him who he is alright with knowing about him.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to Princess Celestia about this. If you want I can avoid telling her about your pony identity, but I do want to tell her about this meeting.” Twilight paused. “What’s your real name?”

“My real name is Inquisitor. I am the sheepdog, guarding my clan against my blood. I am a detective, rooting out both changeling imposters and ponies who have strayed from the guidance of the law. I am the appointed seeker of truths. My name is a truer name than many who have only one name throughout their whole lives.” Inky looked hard into the eyes of her newest alicorn princess, judging her response. “My name is Inquisitor, not because my parents chose it, nor by luck, or even destiny, but rather because that is what I am.”

“I’m sorry if I offended you. Thorax acted like his pony identity was nothing more than a mask, so I assumed that you did too.”

Inky nodded in approval. “He has only been away from the hive for three years, and he spent that time on the fringes of society. I have been living in one town, under one persona, for a decade.

“But if you wish to know my given name, it is Whirligig. Never speak that name to a changeling, for that drone died years ago. If they were to learn that I yet live… I do not care for the sort of paranoia that I would need to survive an assassin from the hive.

“That being said, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are already aware of me, so you can share any of this with them as well. I told them before the wedding fiasco.”

“Wait. Princess Celestia knows? She’s known about the existence of changelings since before Shining Armor’s wedding?!”

Inky took a step back, unsure of the cause of this sudden outburst. “She agreed only to tell those who both needed to know and could be trusted. I’m sorry if you are offended by her withholding information, but-”

“Everypony thought Cadence was fine, and that I was just paranoid, and she knew?”

“Just because she knew that changelings existed doesn’t mean she was considering them. If your friend started acting a bit crabby while starting a new project would you expect a changeling?”

Twilight shook her head. “I suppose not.”

“I do have a favor to ask you. Could you work towards telling either Princess Cadence or Shining Armor about the concept of friendly changelings? Perhaps with the aid of one of the other Princesses?”

“Ok. I’ll see if Luna and I can get together sometime this month.”

“Thank you.”

Author's Note

A fabrain coat is the term for a trench coat in Equestria. The reason for the name change is because trench warfare is where the name comes from, and that isn’t around in this world. Fabrain coat is a shortening of fabric raincoat, and saying the coat is optional.
I considered making this two chapters, but I decided not to for two reasons. Firstly that they tie into one another closer than either does to the chapters on either side, and secondly that I would feel bad about publishing a chapter that was just a minor rewrite of an existing episode, and the second half is where most of the new material was.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this universe’s take on ‘The Times They are a Changeling’.

17 The Calm Before the Storm

Fluttershy watched as the Time Ponies walked through their portal and out of the caves. They were… Well, they were helpful, and they seemed to be genuinely good ponies, but they were still outsiders in a way. They hadn’t been there when their home was ripped apart by the changelings, and they hadn’t had to survive in the harsh winters of the day. And even now they went back home to rest while her people suffered. True, they weren’t delaying thanks to their magic time portal, but it left a void between them. On one side were those who lived in constant fear, and had done so for months. On the other were those who always had a home to return to, and though they faced some trials they did so only when they were ready. She didn’t begrudge them that comfort, but it made it hard to form the bonds of shared conflict with them.

And then there was Inquisitor. A changeling, but one who seemed to genuinely want to help them overthrow Chrysalis. One who had hurt her friends… by trying to protect them. Who was willing to throw herself onto the fire to save her friends, and who had chosen them over her blood. She understood constant vigilance, and might have been on the run longer than the ponies of Ponyville.

And last of all… Starlight. The inspiration for all that Fluttershy had strove toward from flight camp to the invasion… and she had been a hateful vengeance seeker, not the loving bringer of peace that Fluttershy had seen. And yet… even if Fluttershy had made her mission herself out of a simple misunderstanding, that didn’t make it any less noble a mission. True, her inspiration was distrustful, but she had long ago grown beyond simply trying to emulate Starlight.

Fluttershy shook her head; now wasn’t the time to dwell on such things, they had a job to do. The Time Ponies would find a map, but she and Pinkie could still start looking for the exit. She turned to Pinke… and she was gone.

“Pinkie!”

“Hey, look what I found!”

Fluttershy followed the voice, and found it led to a hidden passage that appeared to be a solid wall unless one approached it. Inside Pinkie was poking at one of two changeling cocoons held within.

Fluttershy stifled her gasp upon seeing the ponies inside the cocoons. One was a pink alicorn that she assumed was Cadence. The other was Princess Celestia herself. Both appeared underfed. “Let’s get them out,” Fluttershy said, looking to Pinkie for confirmation. Pinkie nodded and pulled her spear out of her mane to work on Princess Cadence’s pod.

Fluttershy, regretfully, had to leave her own spear behind outside of Canterlot. But she had managed to hide her scalpel throughout their journey from the cave where they had transformed. Drawing it, she started work on Princess Celestia’s pod. It was a slow process; a scalpel was made for precision work, not hacking through thick membranes, but she wouldn’t risk tearing open the cocoon.

When she had managed to cut a line halfway around the top she heard Cadence gasp for air as Pinkie stepped back from her. Fluttershy motioned for them to swap places.

“What’s going on? Who are you?”

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said gently. “You’ve probably been unconscious for a long time. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Chrysalis trapped me under the castle and pretended to be me to marry Shining Armor. The day of the wedding is the last time I remember. How long has it been? Is Shining okay?”

Fluttershy took a deep breath. This was not going to be a pleasant waking. “I have good news, and bad news. The good news is that Shining Armor is alive. The bad news is that you've been trapped inside that cocoon for months.”

“Was Chrysalis defeated?”

“Yes…” Fluttershy said hesitantly.

“That's good. How long have you been trying to find me? Was anypony hurt when the changelings attacked before they were defeated?”

“We didn’t expect to find you here at all!” Pinkie answered. “We were running from the changelings and I felt a tingle in my frog. That means there’s a secret passage nearby.”

Cadence turned to ask about Pinkie’s story, but then she caught sight of Princess Celestia’s cocoon opening up.

“Aunt Celestia!?”

“Cadence!” Princess Celestia stepped out of the cocoon and turned to face Cadence. She started to step forward, but then she paused and stiffened. “How do I know it’s really you?”

How would Princess Cadence respond? A secret hoofshake? An obscure anecdote? It would forever remain a mystery for at this point Celestia was body slammed by Inky, shoving her into Cadence.

Inky shook her head and grumbled. “Doc swore we wouldn’t fly into…” She stopped short as she saw what she had hit. “Oh, princess! I am so sorry, I didn’t see you!” She bowed, though Fluttershy noticed that her eyes never left the princess’s. Then Inky looked to Fluttershy. “Do we know that she’s genuine?”

“Where did you come from, my little pony?” Celestia asked.

“My friends and I are… sort of a multiplanar relief agency,” Inky explained. “Also, we should step out of this room before-”

“Whoohoo!” Minuette shouted, landing in Cadence’s lap. “Oh. Um. Hi princess, fancy meeting you here.”

They quickly filed back into the main cave to wait for the rest. “As I was asking, do you have any evidence to support your claims,” Celestia asked once they were settled.

“Well, I can tell you things and you tell me whether or not they're still secrets here,” Inky answered. “How many changelings know about Luna?”

The name meant nothing to Fluttershy, but Celestia’s eyes widened upon hearing it. “Where did you hear that name?”

“In our world she lives with her sister in Canterlot. I’d rather not say more for now.”

“Very well. Can you speak for these two who freed us?”

“Yep!” Minuette said with a nod. “They were with us when we got arrested and then broke out of changeling jail! That’s Fluttershy and that’s Pinkie Pie. I’m Minuette and our rescuer here is Inquisitor.”

“Oh? You single hoofedly braved Canterlot and broke out some prisoners? How?”

“My Princess Celestia once told me that heroes are normal creatures who do what needs to be done when nopony around will. That any creature, from an arrogant dragon to a lowly diamond dog, can be a hero if they so choose, even if few have the strength. A hero is determined by their character, not their race or heritage.” Inky transformed, revealing her black carapace.

“She taught you well,” Celestia replied with a warm nod.

Starlight trotted into the room with them. “Oh, Princesses! Hold on, just a moment.” She lit her horn and her eyes glowed momentarily. “It’s great to see that you're alright!”

After a few minutes of discussion Celestia and Cadence had been brought up to speed on the current situation in Canterlot. It was decided that the princesses should make their way to the exit and rest for a while to regain their strength, meeting up with Daring Do and her team when they were feeling well.

Meanwhile their team would make their way as close as they could to the surface of the gardens and Starlight would teleport them up. Generally it was best to teleport to someplace you knew well, which would have been a problem except that Starlight had taken a day trip to Canterlot with Inky to familiarize herself with the destination.

As they made their way to the thin spot Inky trotted up alongside Starlight. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Sure. What is it about?”

“So, our plan is to free Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, right?”

Starlight nodded, a sinking feeling as she saw where this must be headed.

“And we’re freeing those specific prisoners because they are three of the Elements of Harmony. Who we hope will be able to awaken their elements in a somewhat timely manner. And then we use these Elements, which we are still missing one of, to do… something, which will vaguely make everything better?”

“I know there’s some holes, but it’s the best plan we’ve thought of so far.”

“I still vote plan B,” Inky muttered.

“I’m not willing to help commit genocide while there’s still a chance,” Starlight shot back in a whisper.

“It’s not genocide if we let them surrender. Think about it. They lost their queen and the ponies got the Princesses back. Well, the ones they had at the beginning. Give it a few months and we can turn things around, send the changelings back into the holes they came from.”

“And what’s to stop the ponies from burning those holes out? And how many ponies might die if the changelings get desperate? From what you and Fluttershy say they haven’t been going for the kill, since corpses can’t love. But if they’re backed into a corner…”

Inky tilted her head towards the ceiling for a moment, before turning back to Starlight. “That’s a good counterpoint. I guess we can stick to the vaguely defined Elements plan first and leave finishing the war the old-fashioned way for plan B.”

They continued on in relative silence until they reached the thin spot. Emerald and Perfect began to draw the runes Starlight would be using. Twilight could have teleported their whole group halfway across Canterlot, but Starlight was fairly certain that teleportation was a specialty of hers. Starlight was skilled in… other areas, so she would be relying on help from the runes to do a mass transport based on memory. While she sat down in the middle of the runic construction, Inky took the form of a mole and started digging up through a softer area to make sure no-ling was watching.

Closing her eyes, Starlight focused on her upcoming task. She had never quite managed teleportation back when she was on her own. Twilight had been a huge help in finally wrapping her mind around it. But even now teleportation -while possible- was very difficult. She used her magic to intimately probe the contours and patterns of the runes, a physical manifestation of the usually internal patterns of spells. When she heard somepony say that topside was clear she started putting power into the spell, slowly encompassing everypony within fifteen feet of her to include them in the jump. Physical contact was usually preferred, but with a group this large it was infeasible. With a final push Starlight sent them all into the spell, and in a flash they reappeared in a shady patch of trees.

After a moment to catch her breath Starlight began the second spell. This one was a far simpler one, just an illusion to make them all look like changelings. It was easier to cast and less flashy than the race-change spell, but they’d be found out the moment any changeling touched one of them. Except for Inky, who had reverted to her natural form now that they were undercover once more.

As they exited the royal gardens they saw the changelings were in more frantic action than before. About halfway from the gardens to the barracks they were stopped by a lone changeling at a hastily slapped together barricade.

“Halt! Under orders from High Captain Pharynx, all patrols require documents showing their orders until we have found the prisoners!”

As the guard was talking Perfect caught Inky’s eye, and Inky nodded her head toward a nearby doorway whose door was missing. As soon as the guard looked at the other side of their group, Perfect slipped through the doorway.

“If you have yet to receive your papers then I am authorized to call for an escort to accompany you back to the castle.” As silently as she could, Perfect made her way to a second story window looking over the barricade. She nudged it open and looked at the scene outside. Taking only half a second to steady her aim, she shot her knockout spell right at the guard’s chest as Inky was opening her mouth to respond.

“Good work deputy,” Inky said with a nod, while several of her friends glanced back and forth between Perfect and the guard.

“Wow, that’s a pretty cool ninja trick,” Minnuette said once Perfect stepped back out of the house. “One minute you were with us, and the next you’re zapping the bad guy from somepony’s balcony. Where’d you learn that?”

Perfect shrugged. “I knew when to make a break for cover, and Inky told me where to go. After that it wasn’t too hard.”

Inky stepped out of another house, where she had hidden the unconscious guard, and together they all made their way toward the barracks, and hopefully, toward freedom for this land.

As they did so, Perfect thought about that. Ultimately, only Starlight, Pinkie, and Fluttershy had any personal connection to this world. Everypony else was here because they wanted to do the right thing. It brought a smile to Perfect’s muzzle, even in the fallen city around them.

18 Canterlot Climax

But if day can turn to night!
And the darkness turn to light!

“Hold it! No-ling is allowed to feed on the prisoners until further notice. I don’t care what proof you might have that you were allowed to, it’s a new order since some of the purple freak’s toys broke out, apparently with the help of a traitor. So for now, buzz off!” The leader of the six guards protecting the barracks was the most abrasive changeling Starlight had met so far. Which was good, since if he’d been nice like the first sentry she would have felt worse for what they were about to do.

Starlight froze three of them in a crystal, Perfect zapped a fourth with her sleeping spell, and Fluttershy leapt forth to stab the leader in the chest. Starlight averted her gaze, not entirely comfortable with the lengths that her team had to go to. Unfortunately the last one managed to get one shot off before Inky took him down. It went sailing straight toward Sandstorm, who barely managed to twist out of the way.

Starlight took a deep breath and Inky faced everypony. “Ok, now let’s clean this mess up before-”

BOOM!

They all turned back, seeing the beautiful firework display caused by the lone shot.

“Change of plans; everypony inside, now!” Starlight called out, pulling open the doors and dashing inside. Once they were all inside, Pinkie quickly nailed some boards over the door to keep the changelings outside.

Dropping the illusion, Starlight trotted to the area where the cocooned ponies were being held, the others close behind. She levitated Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash over to herself, with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie joining her. While the others got to work freeing every other captive in the building, Starlight released the three bearers.

Applejack came out swinging, and Starlight was glad that they were all three standing several paces back. Rainbow fell to the ground, before quickly shaking herself off and standing up. Rarity fell out of the cocoon and landed gracefully on her hooves.

“Ow, what happened?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“It looks like a rescue, although I would wager that the war is hardly over,” said Rarity. “Do you have an extraction lined up, or have things already fallen apart?”

“We sorta have a plan, but it’s not to leave. We’re gonna use the Elements of Harmony and make all the meanie changelings run away!” Pinkie answered. “Quick, see if you can wake up the rocks of destiny!” Pinkie pulled the three dormant Elements out of her mane, even though Starlight was certain they were still in the basement back home.

“And how’re we supposed to wake up a bunch a rocks?” Applejack asked.

Pinkie hoofed them over to a rather confused Rarity. “Well, Rarity’s the element of Generosity, so maybe she should share them.”

“Pinkie, I don’t think that’s quite how they work,” Fluttershy admonished.

“Fluttershy!?” Rainbow shouted. “Is that really you?”

Fluttershy nodded and smiled. “Yes Rainbow. It’s good to see you again.”

Rainbow looked down. “I’m sorry that you had to come here.”

“What?”

“Well, I never wanted you to end up in the thick of everything. You were always trying to be nice to everypony, and I never wanted you to have to get involved in this mess.” She laughed softly. “Guess I failed at that too.”

Slowly one of the Elements rolled across the floor and bumped into Rainbow’s leg. “Ooh, it looks like that one likes you!” Pinkie pointed out.

“What, no! Shoo, go find somepony better.” Rainbow tried to shove the ball away, only for it to bounce off a wall and roll back, coming to a stop in front of her.

“Rainbow, I know you tried,” Fluttershy said softly. “But nopony’s perfect, and the war is everywhere in Equestria.”

“Then I should have stopped it!” Rainbow shouted back. “Whatever it took, to keep my friend from having to face this nightmare.” The orb started hovering and glowing red.

“It’s not about success. It’s about your determination to stand up for your friends, no matter what,” Starlight observed. “And whether you think you’re worthy or not, you are the bearer of Loyalty.”

“Well, I don’t see any way to demonstrate my generosity beyond what I’ve already done,” Rarity said. “I already threw everything I had into this war, and anypony would fight to help a group including themselves, it’s just common sense, really.” A second orb hovered over to before Rarity, this one glowing a pale blue, nearly white. “Apparently I don’t have to.”

Everypony looked to Applejack. “Aw shucks, I ain’t got the tiniest sliver of an idea what’s goin’ on! One day I’m tendin’ the crops, then the bugs went and got us all, and now I’m apparently one a three ‘chosen heroes’, and we gotta save the world by bein’ loyal and generous and stuff? Plus I see a changeling over there helping break folks outta cocoons, so I reckon I don’t know anything right now.” The final Element rose before her, emanating a soft orange glow. “I guess that’s enough?”

The three Elements all began to glow brighter, hiding the transformation into their awakened forms.

“That’s great, but we’re still missing the last one,” Driver pointed out.

“Well, who else do we need?” Rainbow called. “If you tell me where they are, I can find them and bring them back faster than you can say Wonderbolts’ Academy.” She smirked as she lifted off and began hovering halfway up the room.

“Well, it isn’t finding them that’s the hard part,” Inky began. “The real problem is that she’s working for the enemy.”

“Dear, do you mean to say that the final pony you need to work these ‘Elements of Harmony’, which you still have not adequately explained, is Twilight Sparkle?” Rarity asked.

“I know, things aren’t going like they’re supposed to,” Starlight admitted. “I’m trying really hard to fix things without a lot of ponies dying, and I know it’s a long-shot but I really hope that we can find a way to get the Elements to work.”

“Heh. I don’t know who you ponies are, but I can tell this is gonna be awesome,” Rainbow observed. “Whatever long-shot crazy plan you’ve got, count me in!”

“You have infiltrated the changeling’s strongest position in Equestria and freed dozens of ponies. I am confident that together we can find a way to make this work,” Rarity added. “Though I would still like to know what we’re making work, I understand that can wait until we have more time.”

“That’s right; together we’ve got this!” shouted Pinkie, slipping a hoof over Starlight.

Fluttershy nodded. “Together we will reclaim what we have lost. Together we will rise once more.”

Applejack swallowed hard and stared at the ground. “I reckon it’s about time that somepony showed them varmints a thing or two about messing with family.” She nodded. “Whatever we’re gonna do, I’m in.”

Starlight looked at everypony gathered together before her. Many were looking to her for guidance, some were wracking their brains, alone or in groups, for any possible way to make the Elements work without Twilight. Some of these ponies were here because they wanted to make things better, and others were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. But in the end, they were all here because of her mistakes and hubris. She took a deep breath, and let it out. Together they would find a way to make this better. She didn’t think she could fix her past mistakes all on her own, but together?

Together, they might just make it.

The final Element began to glow, and Starlight stepped before it. As the glow faded she saw that it had not become a necklace, as the others had. Instead, it had become a magenta star, free of any golden frame. Starlight was fairly certain that it was the same shape as the main part of Twilight’s cutie mark.

“Alright, woohoo!” Minuette shouted. “Rainbow laser time!”

“Well, the changelings are almost done breaking down the front door, so why don’t we see what these Elements can do?” suggested Inky.

Starlight trotted into the entryway of the barracks, followed by the others. She fell into a ready stance, Element of magic by her side, and the other bearers formed a line. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash stood to her right, while Rarity and Applejack stood to her left. Sandstorm and Derpy hovered above, while the rest of her new friends and the ponies they had just rescued stood behind them, ready to fight if the Elements didn’t work.

“If I remember right, to use the Elements all you need to do is focus,” began Minuette. “Think about why you need to do this, and about your friends by your side. I don’t know if that’s needed or just how Pinkie does it, but that’s a good place to start.”

They all watched as the doors began to buckle, wooden cross boards cracking down the middle or popping loose from the wall. “Excuse me, but while we are waiting for the changelings to break down the door to get us, do you think you could fill us in on what these ‘Elements’ are going to do?” Rarity asked.

“Make a rainbow laser that fixes stuff.”

“How precisely?”

“I dunno. It’s different each time. Turning ponies to stone, sending them to the moon, turning them not evil, that sort of thing.”

“Alright, I’m just gonna step out for a bit, call me if the Elements don’t work or when you’re done with them,” called Inky as a portal opened nearby.

“What, why?” Starlight asked.

“Because you’re trying to use an unknown quantity to ‘zap’ a bunch of changelings, and I don’t want to spend the next thousand years as a lawn ornament.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not evil, and the Elements only hurt evil things!” Derpy reassured.

“We don’t know if that’s a design feature or just because that’s who they’re pointed at. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you here.” With this Inky stepped into the portal, and after a moment it shut behind her.

Finally the last board gave out and the doors flung open, revealing dozens of changelings standing outside.

“Stand back!” Pinkie shouted at them. “We’re about to rock your world.” She held her bejewled necklace toward the changelings, who had paused to look at them.

“Oh please tell me that was not what I think it was,” asked one changeling in the front row.

“Pretty sure it was,” muttered one of their neighbors.

“We will never break under your lame puns!” the first shouted.

“Yeah, you’ll never erode our will with rock jokes!” a third in the second row agreed.

The other changelings all stared at him. “Really?” asked the first. “You just had to say it?”

“It was just dangling there! Someling had to!”

While the changelings were busy arguing about puns, Starlight was trying desperately to activate the Element of Magic. She tried focusing as Minuette suggested, and it started to glow, but then it stalled out. No matter how hard she focused, all it did was glow. She lifted it higher and she felt a tug on her magic. At first she froze, but it didn’t feel like an attack. It felt more like… somepony was asking her permission to use her magic for a ritual. She decided to trust the Element and just poured as much magic into it as she could, a shapeless wave of pure magic for the Element of Magic to use as it would.

The other five bearers slowly levitated off of the floor, enveloped in the white glow of the elements as they floated close, closing ranks. A rainbow beam shot forth into the swarm of changelings, and then the white glow was all Starlight could see.

If a pegasus were to have flown over the city, they would have bore witness to a truly magnificent scene. Outside the barracks a rainbow appeared, hitting roughly a troop of changelings, but it didn’t stop there. Rather, it split into several rainbows that continued their flight. Each one flew towards other changelings, and when they hit sometimes they would stop and sometimes they would split once more. In under a minute changelings all over Canterlot had been touched by the mysterious rainbow. The whole city went from bustling to a ghost town in one wave.

Rainbow dash groaned, sitting up and rubbing her skull. “Ohh, my head…”

Pinkie rolled over from her back while Applejack sat up as well, looking around at the other bearers. “Everypony okay?”

“I do believe so,” answered Rarity. “But what in Equestria happened to them?” She pointed her hoof at the changelings, most of whom were now brightly colored and lacking their distinctive holed aesthetic.

The changelings hadn’t fared any better from magical rainbow hangovers than the Element bearers, even those who hadn’t been transformed were just now recovering from an unknown time passed out.

“Ugh, I always said that ponies were offensively colorful, but I didn’t think they would actually attack us with a rainbow,” said an angry changeling in the front row. He had red fins and purple eyes and wings. “Alright, form up and let’s show those weaklings what a real attack looks like!” He turned behind him and saw the state of the other changelings. “What!?” He turned back to the barracks. “What did you do to us!” he roared.

“I… I have no idea!” Starlight admitted.

“Well, whatever you did we’ll fix it after we take you out. Soldiers, take your proper forms and get back into formation!”

“Wait!” a voice called out from over the space between them. Everypony and everyling looked up to see Inky in changeling form, but wearing her iconic vest. “You don’t have to fight! I’m certain that if you step back and try to work something out with the ponies then we can come to an agreement!”

“Oh yeah?” sneered the lead changeling, Starlight thought that it was probably Pharynx. “And why would we want to settle for that when we can just take all of their love?”

“Because you’re losing,” Inky answered. “That you lost the queen was bad enough, but by now the pony princesses have been released. In a matter of months you’ll be forced back into hiding at best.”

“Then we’ll take our prisoners back to the hive, where nopony could hope to stand against us. We will rebuild and-” he whipped around to the green changeling that had just cleared her throat. “What is it?” he growled.

“Well, it appears that along with the change of colors we are no longer hungry. We don’t have to fight anymore.”

“So what, you want to stop fighting as soon as your bellies are full?”

“Well, that was what we were fighting for,” the green changeling answered.

“And what about dominating the ponies? If we let them recover they’ll retaliate.”

“Well, she did just offer to make peace-”

“Never!” shouted Pharynx. “Tymbal, report for misconduct, the rest of you, form up!”

The three other changelings in the group that hadn’t transformed did as ordered, but most of them just stayed where they were. “Yeah, most of us don’t really want to fight,” said one.

Pharynx looked from his three supporters to the dozens of ponies arrayed against them. He snarled and flew off, taking his supporters with him.

“Well, I reckon that didn’t go too bad,” Applejack said, breathing a sigh of relief.

After a few hours of confusion and chaos, the changelings who had been transformed all -basically unanimously- decided that since they didn’t have to feed on ponies anymore -and their current queen wasn’t around to force them into it- they would cease their war on the ponies of Equestria.

The ponies, however, were not so easily convinced to bury the hatchet. Cadence in particular led the newly formed Anti-Changeling Holdouts of Equestria, or ACHE, a group lobbying for the banishment of hive citizens from Equestria entirely. There were also many ponies who were willing to accept changelings in Equestria, but demanded the return of Canterlot to pony hooves. Just about all of the nobility were in one or the other of these two camps, but a few, such as Fancy Pants, had joined with Celestia in a bid to work out a peaceful exchange in which the Changelings would keep Canterlot and in return they would return all the ponies still held captive there.

It took several weeks, but eventually Celestia and her supporters managed to find a set of compromises and promises that satisfied both the citizenry of Equestria and the Changelings, led by the ex-infiltration instructor Tymbal. Canterlot was to be the new Hive of Equestria’s capital, if a country of but one city could call it their capital. Meanwhile Celestia declared that Manehattan would be made into the new capital of Equestria.

And so began a new era in Equestria, Land of the Daybringer.

And as the seasons returned, into the darkness shone light for the first time in ages. And the darkness was displeased…

Author's Note

Sorry about the awkward cutoff, but this felt like a definite climax, and the action won’t be at a better breakoff point for a while. The next book will give more information about some of what happened at the end there, but I don’t plan on actually writing out the political movements in detail. Not my thing, politics.

I hope you’ve enjoyed and I hope you’ll keep a tracker on this or me so you’ll be able to read book two when I publish it. I don’t know exactly when that will be, since I’m gonna write up the first few chapters before I start publishing.

How to Spot a Changeling

4 tell-tale signs of a changeling

Out of Character activities and speech. The most important thing is to keep an eye on your friends and family. If they start behaving suspiciously they may be a changeling imposter. Do not panic! Contact someone you trust who you are sure has not been replaced and corner the suspect without harming them. Then ask them a question that they would know but few others would, the fewer the better. If they can answer the question then they are themselves, if not they are likely a changeling.

Inability to perform feats they used to. If the librarian can’t find a book in a sorted library, a baker doesn’t know how to bake, or a musician is tone deaf. Unlike #1 this can be used in the case of total strangers, but there is no easy way of using the inverse to prove they are who they say they are. After all, a changeling could be a skilled librarian, baker, singer, ect.

Entering a state of ecstasy around strong affection from one pony to another, even if neither is associated with the suspect. Sighing at young couples is an example, but be careful, this is a common practice among ponies as well. Particularly among young mares from 16 to 30.

If you see somepony walk into an area that only easily fits one pony and then a different pony walks out, or if you see somepony walk into somewhere and then when you look inside they are gone without an apparent escape route. Bear in mind that some unicorn mages can teleport and of course pegasi can fly.

If you uncover a changeling in such a way they know you are unto them then you must capture them to prevent them from escaping. At this point please contact the local authorities. If you uncover them in such a way they think their cover is intact then let them be and report the incident to the authorities. If you suspect the authorities of being changelings, regardless of whether you have a report to make, then please follow the ‘Instructions in case of changeling takeover of the authorities’. A copy can be found at your local peacekeepers office.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about this new threat. If everypony learns how to spot an imposter then hopefully, together, we can keep there from being another debacle like Princess Cadenza’s and Shining Armor’s wedding.

Author's Note

I decided to move this here, I think it will make eveyone lives easier than requiring offsite navigation.