The Demon and his Daughter

One week has past since Trixie became the new magic teacher of Zelda. Everything happend the same way every day. Manic Moon went to work, Zelda to the Ponyville school and in the late evening hours Trixie teached her in the living room of the house. After that, all 3 sat together for a delicious meal. They chatted, they laughted and for everypony who watched them, they must have locked like a happy family. How should they know better?

Tonight was no difference. Trixie, Zelda and Manic Moon were sitting at the table in the kitchen and ate some muffins for dessert.

"How was todays lesson? Did you made some progress?" Manic asked.

"Oh yes! I´m still supprised how talented she is. We are doing this for barely a week and she already can levitate thing like an adult unicorn." Trixie explained.

"Only because I´ve got the best magic teacher in the whole wide world." Zelda said aloud. Trixie started to blush.

"Awww! Thanks Zelda! You´re pretty good as pupil too. ha ha ha!"

"Good to see that you two come along so nicely. You´re a realy big help Trixie." Manic said to stop them from prising each other.

"It´s the last I can do after you did so much for me. I only wish there would be more I could do in exchange." the great and powerful mare replyed.

"When you help my daughter to use her magic the right way that´s more than enough. I don´t want burn marks at the wall of this house too." Manic Moon said and gave his daughter a much saying smile.

"This happened just one time. You will use this against me for the rest of my life or what?" Zelda asked abashed. Her father and teacher started to laught and after some time she started too. They were interrupted by a little flame that flew trough the kitchen and stoped in front of Manic Moon. The flame transformed into a piece of paper and he captured it.

"Most come from the police station. I wonder what´s the problem." the demon pony explained and started to read.

"And? What is it daddy?" Zelda asked with awaiting eyes.

"Looks like Screwloose disappeared out of the hospital. One of the nurses forgot to close her door and she run of. They are starting a searching party and need me as the leader." Manic answered.

"Who is Screwloose?" Trixie asked.

"She is a patient of the hospital. A mare, who acts like she is a dog. I don´t thinks she is a danger for other ponies, but if she runs of into the Everfree Forrest it could end bad for her." he said.

"Oh no! Please help them find her daddy." Zelda said and looked at him with big eyes.

"Of course I will Zelda. Trixie! Could you do me a favor and stay with Zelda as long as I´m outside." he asked, while he stood up.

"Shore. We will stay here and practise some more until you come back. I think Zelda is ready to try a small version of my firework spell." Trixie answered with a smile.

"Realy? That´s so cool. And I promise this time nothing will get bourned." Zelda said happy and jumped around the table.

"I will hold you on that promise. Stay safe you two!" he said and left the house.

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An hour later a big group of ponies assembled at the Ponyville hospital. Manic Moon stood in front of them, in his complete uniform. Half of the town and the whole police team listened to his words.

"First of all, thank you all for coming. Nurse Red Heart showed you all the picture of the mare we are looking for. Screwloose acts like a dog, so be careful with her, when you find her. Since we don´t know where she ran of, we´ve got to search everywhere for her. We put you in teams of two ponies. Each team with a unicorn and an earth pony. When you find her the unicorn in the team will shoot green sparkles into the night sky. If you´re in danger or any need of help shoot red sparkles in the air. While the team will search the ground all pegasus will be in the sky. Make shore to always keep eye contact with at least one other pony. Major Mare will now give you your directions. If you don´t find her until sunrise, we will met again right here. Are there any questions left? No? Good! We will start in 3 minutes. Good luck for all of you." Manic explained and turned to his team.

"Cal! You will be in a team with Rarity. Crimson! You´re going with Big Macintosh. Lavender! I want you up in the sky with the other pegasus. I will go with Lyra. Be careful, cause you´re in the teams who will search the Everfree Forrest. If she realy run of into it we don´t know what happens, when she meet any wild animals." he said and all other members saluted.

"Yes Sir!" Lavender Shine said and took of.

"All right Manic!" Cal answered and walked to Rarity.

"Don´t you worry boss! We will find her soon." Crimson Tide said and went to Big Mac.

"I shore hope so." Manic said and looked at the forrest. "I shore hope so."

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Big Macintosh and Crimson Tide walked trough the forrest. The big red colt followed a small path with the red maned unicorn right behind him.

"Have you seen anything yet?" the mare asked.

"Nope!" he simply answered.

"Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Nope!" Big Mac replyed.

"Do you even listening to what I´m saying?" she asked anoyed.

"Eeyup!" was all he said in return. Crimson Tide started to get angry.

"I hope we find this mare soon or there will be another pony to be missing soon." she said more to herself, than to Big Macintosh. Suddenly a loud barking came from the left. Both ponies followed the voise and found Screwloose digging a hole under an old tree.

"We found her! We´re the number on team!.....But what is she doing?" Crimson asked.

"Well, I guess she´s trying to dig something out. Pretty typical for a dog." Big Mac replied.

"I know, but.....WAIT! Now you finaly start to speak in complete sentences to me?" the blue mare asked.

"Eeyup!" he answered and Crimsons Eye started to twitch.

"I´m sending the green sparkles into the air, before I do something I´ll regret later." she said and shoot them in the night sky. While they waited for the others to arrive Screwloose kept on digging an big hole under the tree. A sudden yelp from the dog like mare made them turn around. Screwloose was backing away from her hole, a little bit of blood was dripping from her nose.

"What just..." before Crimson Tide could finish her question four changelings jumped out of the hole and hissed at them.

"Changelinge!" she screamed and took her taser in one hoof, while Big Mac stood himself protective in front of Screwloose.

"Stay away or you´re going to regret it!" Crimson said with a harsh voise, but the changelings just came closer to her.

"New food! We will take ponies for queen." one of the changelings hissed. All four of them jumped at once and tryed to get their prey. Crimson Tide managed to chain one with her magic in mid-air and a second one got hit by the full power of her taser. Both changelings fall to the ground, one unable to move because of the magical chains, the other one unbridled jerking. The remaining two changeling jumped with full force at the young mare and slamed her hard at the ground.

"AAAAAH!" was a she could scream out, when the pain of the attack run trough her body. One changeling pined her at the ground, while the other one was about to tough Crimson with his green shining horn. He was only a couple of centimeters away from her, when Big Macintosh tackled them away. They rolled over the dirty ground, but came back to their hooves pretty fast.

"Nope!" was all the big red stallion said, while he stood over Crimson Tide. Screwloose was standing next to him, snarling at the changelings. Crimson tryed to stand back up, but she couldn´t.

"Aaah! Buck! These stinking bugs broke my ribs. I can´t fight like this. I can´t even..." right in this moment a changeling attacked Big Macintosh from behind. Since Crimson was hurt her magic chains had disappeart and the third changeling used his new freedom for a supprise attack. He locked jaw in Big Macs neck. The strong farm pony did his best to get rid of the changeling by jumping up and down and shacking like crazy, but before his effort could lead to any success the other two changelings jumped at him too. Big Macintosh was strong, but with 3 raging pony bugs on him, he hardly could hold himself on his hooves.

"Big Macintosh! No!" Crimson screamed. She once again tryed to stand up, but the pain in her side was just to big. In the mean time Big Mac slowly lost his power. While one changeling was still on his back the other two attacked him from every side. Everytime he managed to blog one the other hit him from the other side. Screwloose wasn´t a help too. All she did was jumping around the fighters and barking like crazy. Big Mac was sinking to his knees and the changeling on his back used this to jump of and took of into the air. He made a turn and dashed back to the earth like a comet in green flames. His friends backed away, but Big Mac was to weak to make a move. A second before the changeling hit his target a black shadow hit him and both crashed into the scrub. Crimson looked to the side and saw multiple of team running to them.

"Thanks Celestia! The other teams." she said. Rainbow Dash, Lavender Shine and Road Rage came down from the sky and attacked one of the remaining changeling. Before Cal, Rarity, Lyra, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch could even make a step in the direction of the last changeling he started to scream in a very high tone. The ponies looked at each other confused and Cal shocked him with his taser. Out of the corner of her eyes Crimson could see how Manic Moon came back out of the scrub with a knocked out changeling on his back. He laid him to the other defeated bug ponies. Cal was helping Big Mac back on his hooves, while Lavender and Rarity stood by Crimson Tide.

"Oh darling! What did this ruffians to you?" Rarity asked with a worried look on her face.

"I´m pretty sure my ribs are broken. What about Big Macintosh? Is he all right?" Crimson answered. Big Mac came to her side, braced by Cal.

"Eeyup!" was all he answered.

"Please make him stop or I´m going to end him right here, right now!" she said at the top of her lungs.

"All right! Rarity! Use your magic to levitate Crimson Tide and bring her to the hospital. Cal! Keep on bracing Big Mac and bring him to the hospital too. Rainbow Dash, Lyra and Road Rage will escort you in case you meet any animals on your way out. Cal, as soon as your at the hospital go back to the police station and get the caravan with the cell. I want this changelings inprisoned before sun set." Manic ordered.

"On our way Manic." Cal answered and they walked out of the forrest.

"Manic! Could you come over? We found something interresting." Lavender said. He, Octavia and Vinyl were standing by Screwloose, who was sitting by her hole like a dog, who found the lost wallet of his master. She happily wagged her tail.

"Looks like Screwloose found a secret outpost of the changelings. What should we do new boss?" Lavender asked. Manic Moon looked into the hole and could see some green lights in the dark.

"I guess it´s best to check what´s inside this hole. We must know if this is in any way a threat for Ponyville. Vinyl! Could you stay outside with Screwloose and watch these changelings. If they look like they wake up, do what needs to be done to change that." Manic said.

"Oh yeah! There is nothing that can stop me!" Vinyl Scratch answered and used her magic to levitate 4 big sticks over the heads of the changelings.

"If they try something funny, I will wub their world the hard way." she said.

"Good! The rest of us will go down and see what´s inside. If you need our help just scream and we´ll come back as fast as we can." Manic explained. With that said he, Lavender Shine and Octavia climbed into to changeling hideout.

The hole leaded into a small cave. The only light came from little green crystals at the ceiling. Manic liked this. It remembered him at his old home. Since demon ponies live so deep under the earth they only get light be crystals and torches too. The fealing of cold stone all around him waked up memories of his childhood. How he played with the other fillies in the dark, the trips through the nearly endless tunnels with his parents. He missed them, but he knew all to well that he could never go back again. They would call him a traitor for living with ponies surface.
Before he could think more about it, Octavias voise brought him back to reality.

"Guys! I found something. You´ve got to see this!" she said. The young mare was at the other end of the cave. In the corner before her were some kind of cocoon. Realy big cocoons. And inside them were ponies. Octavia stood before one with a blue pegasus mare inside.

"That´s Cloud Chaser." she said.

"They must have captured ponies all over Ponyville and took their places." Manic said.

"Wow! This must be over ten cocoons. How could they replace so many ponies without somepony noticing it?" Lavender asked.

"I don´t knew, but we´ve got to find out which ponies are in this cocoons. If they realy took their places we´ve got to know, who we can trust." Manic said with a serious face.

"That´s impossible!" Octavia said with horrified look on her face.

"No! All we´ve got to do is look in all these cocoons and...." Lavender started, but she cut him off.

"That´s not what I meant. Look at this cocoon! It´s Rose Luck. But that´s impossible! I´ve met her before I went to this searching party and we talked about something when we still were fillies. A changeling, who took her place could never know what she know." Octavia explained.

"That´s a realy good point Octavia. Do you got any ideas Manic?" Lavender asked.

"What? How should I know?" Manic Moon asked confused.

"Well. I just thought that you maybe know one or two things about changelings, since you had one as girlfriend." Lavender stated.

"Light never changed into other ponies and tryed to replace them. She only walked around in her pony form, so nopony found out what she is. She had never done such things to anypony!" Manic said angry.

"Sorry boss! I shoundn´t had said that. It was pretty stupid of me." Lavender apologized. Manic calmed down and shoke his head.

"No! No! No! It´s okey! I overreacted. I´m a little bit sensitiv, if it comes to Light." Manic answered.

"You realy loved her from the bottom of your heart right?" Octavia asked and laid a hoof on his shoulder.

"Yes!....But we´re geting of the topic. Let´s see who´s in this cocoons!" Manic said.

"Of course boss. Let´s go to work!" Lavender answered. They watched cocoon after cocoon.

"Okey! I´ve got Bon Bon, Lucky and the Spa Twins." Octavia stated.

"Here are Rose Luck, Raindrops, Twinklshine, Berry Punch and this worker pony you and Cal meet a while ago." Lavender said and pointed at a pretty big cocoon.

"I wonder who Cal shocked? The real one or the changeling. Ha ha ha! Now let´s see! In these cocoons are Matilda, Caramel, Cloud Chaser and Sea Swirl. We´ve got to find these ponies in town and lock them up." Manic said.

"And we should inform Princess Celestia about it. She will know what to do next." Octavia stated.

"Yes! Maybe there are other towns with replaced ponies. I guess it´s the best we tell Twilight Sparkle and she send a letter to Canterlot." Manic answered.

"Hey! Look! There is another cocoon over there." Lavender said an pointed at a green mass in a small seperate chamber of the cave.

"Hmm! That´s strange! Why is this one seperated from the others. Let´s see who´s in it!" Manic replayed and took a closer look. The next thing Octavia and Lavender could see was a demon pony, who lost all of his fur colour. He went completly pale.

"No!....Oh Luna! Please no! No! No! No! NO! NO! NO!" Manic screamed in pure panic. He turned around stormed through the cave, jumped out of the hole flew back to Ponyville as fast as he could. Lavender Shine and Octavia looked at each other in a mix of confussion and fear. What could be in this cocoon to frighten him so much. They steped closer to it and soon understood what Manic Moon feared.

In this cocoon was......Trixie.