Twilight was taking the time to get together with her parents. They did that occasionally, for several reasons. Primarily because since her brother got married to her old foalsitter... Without telling their parents... Somehow? Anyway, since then their parents liked to keep in touch with them, more to keep tabs on them. Speaking of, Shining Armor and Cadence were going to be there as well, this time, so there's a bonus.

There were other reasons, but that's not important right now.

What is important is that Twilight was just coming up to the doorstep. As soon as she opened the door, she was tackle hugged(1) by Cadence, being squeezed firmly.

"Heard about the incident, I take it?" Twilight guessed.

"Oh! Twilight I was so worried for all of you! You should have brought some guards with you or something!"

Shining Armor interceded. "Cadence? Honey? I'm sure that Twilight is also glad to see you, but it might be a good idea to give her some air."

Cadence linked twice and looked to her hug-ee. Sure enough, she was swiftly turning blue. "Oops! Sorry about that." He said, releasing Twilight from her grasp.

Twilight took a deep breath, then she said, "I'm glad to see you as well, Cadence. Both of you. But first!"

Sunshine, sunshine!
Ladybugs awake!
Clap your hooves
And do a little shake!

They did this pretty much every time they met. It was a little... Tradition of theirs, you might say. It was also one way to identify the other, because only the two of them really took the time to memorize it to do something so childish. If one of them didn't know it, there was a good chance that they weren't who they appeared to be. This was what first tipped Twilight off as to Chrysalis's Identity.

Next, the three of them went further into the house. Just after that, Twilight was tackle hugged again, this time by her mother, much to the amusement of the others.

"I'm getting the feeling this is going to be a running gag." Twilight said in a deadpan tone.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared from under the couch cushions. "Nope, nope, nope! Only twice in this chapter." She said.

Cadence was the one to ask. "Where did you come from? And what do you mean by chapters?"

"Eh, you know." Pinkie said, not answering the question at all. She giggled briefly before disappearing back the way she came.

There was a pause. Nopony was sure how to react. All except for Twilight, who just chuckled

"Ponyville rule number 16: Don't try to understand Pinkie Pie. I tried once and I nearly had a nervous breakdown."

"Well, to be fair..." Shining Armor was about to say something snarky, but a trio of glares stopped him. "On... second thought, I won't bother finishing that sentence."

Anyway, all of them sat down at the various seats that were arranged in the living room. Twilight's mother reached over with her magic and retrieved a bag with knitting supplies.

"Mom, you knit?" Twilight queried.

"I'm giving everypony sweaters for Hearth's Warming this year. These take a while to make, magic or no." She explained. "I thought I would do this while you explained about what happened, exactly. Not to sound cliche, but you have a fair bit of it to do."

Twilight chuckled, but began her story anyway. Over the next little while, she explained what had happened recently around Ponyville.

When she nearly finished, everypony was staring at her wide eyed.

"How did you get out of that mess?!" Cadence asked.

Twilight's ears drooped as she looked a bit downcast. "To be honest, I have no idea. None of us do."

"Well, you're alive now. There's that, anyway." Twilight's father, Night Light said. "How are you feeling since then?"

Twilight shrugged. "To be honest, I feel better than I have for a long time. Lately I've felt more energetic, stronger. I'm not entirely sure why, though. I nearly died out there, and instead all I felt when I got back home was really tired. And now I've been feeling better than ever." She replied.

Her mother frowned briefly. "Maybe we should do some experimentation? To see if we can figure out why."

"I also get the feeling that Princess Luna should know about this." Twilight added.

"Don't you mean both of the Princesses?" Night Light asked.

"Well, Princess Celestia as well, but I get the feeling mostly that Princess Luna should know. Not sure why." Twilight answered.

"Well, she should be holding Night Court right now."

As inem the family left the house, heading toward the castle. Every time Twilight looked up at the Half Moon above, she began to feel really itchy. But when she stopped looking, the itching quickly stopped as well.

As they continued, Twilight was beginning to feel really nervous. Something was about to happen; she could feel it. She wasn't sure what would come, but what was for sure was that when the other horseshoe dropped, it would be a BIG one.

At length, they made it to the castle. Fortunatekly, very few Ponies wanted to see the Lunar Princess tonight, so their wait wasn't long.

When their turn had come, Luna went so far as to come down and give Twilight a hug.

"Uh... what was that for?"

Luna smiled, "My sister gives her regards. But since she only works the day shift, as it were..."

There were some chuickles at that.

"So. What brings you to my court? Surely there's-"

Suddenly a guard rushed in, breathlessly. "Changelings! invading!"

"Chrysalis AGAIN?!" Cadence exclaimed curiously.

"No! Not her! Diff- a diff- hold on..."

They patiently waited for the guard to catch his breath.

"Whew! This is a different hive. The Changelings have red eyes, not blue!"

"You've been taught how to deal with those, haven't you?"

"We've been taught how to deal with the ones of Chrysalis' hive, yes. These ones are different. And instead of Love, they seem to prefer Fear. Also, many of them ae different horns; some like a rhinoceros beetle, some like a ram. And that's just for starters! Either way, WE NEED HELP!"

With that, the lot of thuem ran out to assist. Sure enough there were changelings at all levels of the city. When Luna shouted, "HALT!" several of them looked their way.

Twilight Velvet glared at the Lunar Princess. "Has that EVER worked?"

"Come to think of it..."

As if on cue, the Changelings charged as one. Twilight Velvet said, "This could actually be fun. It's been a while since I was able to do this!" With that, she burst into blue flames.

Few knew that Velvet was part Kirin. Though she was mostly unicorn, she had enough of that bloodline to allow her power as a flame adept. She could and would comfortably wade through lava, with Spike. This was also why Twilight could achieve a similar transformation, if to a lesser extent.

Cadence, for her part, was frozen stiff. Seeing those Changelings was giving her PTSD, basically. Shining Armor shook her. "Cadence! Snap out of it!" Some of the Changelings saw the easy target. As they charged, Velvet's flaming figure slammed into one of them,. sending the others flying as well.

Stay away from my daughter-in-law! She threatened, in a very changed voice.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was trying her best to fight, but the moon overhead was giving her difficulty. Keeping her eyes to the sky for other attackers was REALLY uncomfortable.

Shining Armor winced. "Cadence, forgive me for this." He slapped his stunned wife across her muzzle, snapping her out of her trance.

Surprisingly, Cadence was thankful. "Thanks hon. I needed that." she said, giving her husband a hug.

"I suggest that you go back inside." Shining suggested. "If you freeze up again, you'll be a liability."

Begrudgingly, Cadence agreed. "Okay. But can I request #7?"

"The shield bubble? Sure."

Concentrating, Shining put a bubble of magical energy around his wife. Not even a ballista bolt would crack that shield.

As the Princess of Love returned ingoots, much more protected than before, the battle was rejoined.

Though they were fighting fiercely, they were vastly outnumbered. The overwhelming odds against them soon began to take their toll.

Eventually, a small group of Changelings slammed into Shining Armor, knocking him to the ground.

Twilight could feel a heat rising within her. She felt her coat starting to bush out, her tail doing the same, her teeth becoming sharper.

Still lucid,she was able to say, "What's... happening... to... me?"

Her ears became more finely tuned, her hooves shifting into paws. Her horn and wings withdrew as well. Other changes occurred as well

Where Twilight Sparkle onc stood was now a powerful Wolf.

{Warcry!}

Looking toward the moon overhead, she let out a howl of near-deafining volume.

AOWOOOOOO!!!

Many of the Changelings looked her way as she growled. She opened her eyes, which glowed green.

She leapt at one target, that was upon her brother, tearing it to pieces, which oozed green blood.

{Pack Triumphs Together!}

With another howl of a different sort, her family was strengthened, their wounds beginning to close.

Twilight returned her attention to the attackers. She leapt from one to another to another, never stopping for more than half a second. She slashed, bit, swatted her way through the attacking Changelings. Now THEY were the ones feeling the Fear!

Suddenly, much larger ones appeared. With a different coat colour, they could have been mistaken for a carbon copy of Grogar.

{Urshul Form!}

Twilight shifted to one of her two-legged forms, now towering over the lesser Changelings.

{Totemic Empowerment!}

Twilight began to glow a deep blue in several places, Princess Luna beginning to do the same, runic symbols appearing over her body. After that, Twilight leapt into the fray once more.

Velvet, for her part, was just watching her daughter tear into the enemy. Luna, still glowing, said, "All in favour of not ticking Twilight off again?"

"I."
"Me too."
"Me three."

Twilight couldn't tell what was going on. She was kind of busy.

{Ensnare Spirit!}

Suddenly, two of the Changelings were trapped in deep violet crystals of Twilight's making. Their bodies crumbled to dust.

"Who wants more? Any volunteers?"

Several of the Changelings began to back away.

"Pity. In that case, I'll come to you, then."

She leapt at the nearest ones, tearing into them. Eventually, the remaining Changelings bowed in supplication. Twilight's strength had caused dominance over them. "We yield. The Ruby Hive will serve you." they said as one.

Twilight was about to slay the remainder, in her fury. Howeverm her mother called out, "TWILIGHT, NO! They've given up! That's enough. That's enough."

Twilight looked to the prostrated Changelings. Glaring at them, she growled, "Those of you who wish to stay, prepare for some changes. The rest of you, kindly PISS OFF and NEVER RETURN."

The assembled Changelings tried to bow even further, if that were possible.

Canterlot was safe once more.

With that, Twilight reverted to her base form and fell onto her side, unconscious.

As it turned out, the remaining Changelings were true to their word. What was left of them (approximately 47 of 300) now referred to Twilight as their leader. Strangely enough, several of them changed to grow fur, much like Twilight's wolven form earlier.

Twilight herself was taken to the local hospital. The next day, Celestia had come to see her, still unconscious. Luna was also present, a mug of extra strong coffee in her magical grasp. She'd just finished relting the story to Celestia (in between sips).

"And there you have it."

Celestia nodded in understanding. "I see. What of yourself, Luna? Are you alright?"

"Verily. Strangely enough, i feel stronger than before. I suppose I was chosen as Twilight's Totem, of sorts. Appropriate, methinks."

With that, they left Twilight to whatever dreams she had. By all appearances (if her smile was anything to jusge by) her dreams would be relatively pleasant.

"Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle. You are now a Bone Shadow; A noble PonWolf. Use this power to fix this broken world."

Author's Note

1: This is also known as glomping, as I remember.

By the way, to those who might be thinking, "Wouldn't they be Wereponies?" Apparently Were is a word for Man in a foreign language. They'd only be Wereponies if they were human and became Ponies at night, or something,

Side note: Someone get on that; that has story potential in itself.