A New Friend

Time Chaser opened her eyes and found herself in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar bed. The walls seemed to be made of stone, and held torches at various spots, keeping the room dimly lit. She hopped off the bed and accidentally hit her head on the ceilings odd anglement.
"Owchie," She grumbled, rubbing the sore part of her head with her hoof. She stood still and put her other hoof on her head, frantically moving both around in her mane. "Where is me fez?" She gasped, eyes shrinking in shock as she looked around the room for the missing piece of headgear. Time Chaser ignited her light blue magic, making the room bright as day, and only relaxed when she found it on the dresser to the far side of the room.

After placing her fez on her head, Time Chaser opened the door and poked her head out into the hallway.
The walls were all stone, and, like the room she was in, was only dimly lit by torch light. Closing the door behind her, she walked down the hallway, horn glowing slightly to brighten it up more.

Suddenly, she heard voices coming from around the corner.
"Let's go see if that little blue one is awake yet, I'm starving."

"Yeah, me too, Even if she isn't, we will have to just use what we have already. We have plenty, we can start without one mare, right?"

"Okay," Time Chaser thought, "time to hide." Looking around, however, she found nothing to hide behind. An idea sprung into her mind, and she jumped to the ceiling, hiding just as the two unicorns from the Everfree forest.
They walked to the room she was in and opened the door. The bigger one gasped and was about to shout when Time Chaser sent two quick shots of magic down to the unsuspecting colts, knocking them out.

After hiding them inside the room, Time Chaser nodded to herself.

"I've gotta save my friends. Nopony will be getting eaten on my watch!" She pulled a full black suit out of her saddle bag, which had been sitting next to the bed she was on.
She crept down the hallway, hiding in the shadows like a super spy pony in the movies.

Around the corner, she found many doors, leading to rooms very similar to the one she was in. A big, ornate door was at the end of the hallway. Laying her ear on the door, she could hear various voices, two.... three at most.

"Are they almost done Dad," one of the voices, most likely a young colt, asked eagerly, "We have been waiting for ages."

"Ah," Time Chaser mumbled, "so this is a family operation, huh?"

"Don't worry," An older voice, most likely the father, replied, "they will be done very soon. Then we will be able to eat."
Time Chaser leaned in closer on the door, unaware that the door itself was unlocked. Because of this unknown piece of information, when she leaned on the door, it opened, revealing the owners of the voices from the other side of the door.

Much to her surprise, they were a perfectly ordinary looking family of ponies,the mother and father standing by the door with a little colt and a mare close to Time Chasers age standing by another door. She knew first hand about the dangers of the Changelings, and how they could look like anypony they wanted to be. She immediately let loose a barrage of magic, shooting everything in the room except for the ponies standing in front of her.

"What the?" The elder stallion exclaimed, ducking down. The Mare charged at her, forcing her to step to the side. the mare hit her head against the wall with a thud, causing all the china from the wall to fall down and shatter around her.

Then, the door to the other room opened, revealing Candy Mellow and the rest of her friends, who were all sitting at the table, save for Candy, who opened the door.

"Is everything alright in here?" Candy asked, until she saw Time Chaser, and instantly understood what happened, "Time Chaser! Calm down."

"I will calm down as soon as you drop my friends shape you monster!"

Time Chaser suddenly felt herself get lifted off the ground by magic, which she instantly recognised as being Runa's, Jet's and Dreamie's. The three of them lifted her up, and floated her over to a spot next to the table, set and prepared for a dinner.

"I think," The older mare said, walking out of the kitchen, "that there has been a misunderstanding somewhere."

The father, a Blue stallion with a crazy brown mane, walked forward, extending a hoof warily.
"Let's try to start with introductions. I am Chancellor Spotting Swirl. No, I am not a real Chancellor, my parents seemed to have high hopes for me." He laughed at his own joke, hoof still extended.
TimeChaser looked from him to his hoof, then to her friends, "I'm not buying any of this you Changeling monsters. I want my friends back now! And not more of your trickery!"
"What are you talking about?!" The gredn "mare" screamed in fake confusion.
"Ha!" TimeChaser laughed, "I can see through a Changeling trick a mile away! You can fool me!"
The fake Cody began to laugh, "you think we are Changelings? What in Celestias name gave you that idea?"
"I heard you say you are going to cook them!"

"Well," the mother said, cutting in, " I don't know what you heard, but I promise you, we are not Changelings." She smiled and tilted her head slightly, the ultimate sign of an innocent motherly mare. But Time Chaser could see right through them all. She could see the vile creatures that hid as her friends.
"If you're really not Changelings," she said with a smirk, "tell me something only my friends would know."
Worry passed over the "Mares" face "What kind of thing?"
She pointed her hoof at Cody, almost waving it triumphantly, "What is his real name?"

"What?" Cody exclaims, "how can you use that as a question?"

"If you were the real Cody, you would know."

"His name is Code Breaker," Jet said, "but I don't get why that's such a big deal."

"Its the idea of the name," Cody grumbled, "people expect my talent to be hacking or theavery. My whole colthood, people were expecting the worst from me because of my name. That's why I changed my name when I moved to Ponyville. Only my friends know my real name."

"That," the green mare said, "is stupid." Everypony in the room turned to her, "What? It's just a name. I seriously can't see why he needs to get in a big fuss about it."

Runa giggled, "Yeah, I usually call him that when I am mad at him. After that, I usually get my way."

"Alright," Time Chaser interrupted,"so you're all really my friends, but that doesn't explain who these ponies are."

"Well as I said, I am Chancellor Spotting Swirl. This is my wife, Serenity Swirl. My daughter over there is Amity, my son over in the kitchen is Rainy, and you should have met my other two boys earlier. I sent them to go see if you were awake yet, I wonder what happened."

Time Chaser blushed, "Yeah, see that's back when I thought you guys were bad ponies....."

"Oh no,"Jet groaned, "T.C., what did you do to them?"

"Nothing horrible! I swear!" She looked at her friends, all of which were looking back at her, concern on their faces,"What? I thought they were attacking me!"
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After waking up the two colts, whose names were Gravel and Bright. Both of them were in the kitchen, getting their headaches treated by their unicorn mother, while everypony else sat around the table.

Almost immediately, Time Chaser asked the question that was nagging at her skull,"Alright, if you are not Changelings, then who are you guys?"

Mr.Swirl picked up his cup and took a few sips from it, "We are just a family of ponies that live in the Everfree Forest. We don't really have many visitors around here. When my kids found you yesterday, it kinda spooked them a little."

"Woah woah woah,"Time Chaser said, holding her hooves in a stop motion," so I was sleeping for an entire day?"

"Nearly two," Dreamie said," the rest of us woke up earlier this morning, you seemed to have slept all day today as well."

"What time is it, anyway?" Time Chaser around. For the first time, she noticed that the room they were currently in had no windows, neither did the kitchen.
"It is just after sunset, but the moon has not passed over us yet, so it is still pretty dark outside."

"Alright, so where exactly are we, and why do you guys live in the Everfree forest, and....." TimeChaser was cut off when Runa shoved an apple in her mouth, forcing her to become silent, "If you would let him speak, he is trying to explain everything to you, yah know."

Spotting Swirl took a sip of his drink, then a small breath.
"A long time ago, back when I was just a foal, my parents began acting very strange. Whenever my parents would leave to go to work, they would always make sure I locked the doors. They pulled me from my class at Ponyville Elementry School, and they had me stay inside at all times. I almost never got to see my friends, it was torture for me. I never asked questions, never second guessed my parents until a few years later."

"When I should have graduated from the Elementry School, my parents stopped leaving the house themselves. After that happened, I was barely allowed outside my room, let alone the whole house. I was very confused at the time, and alone. The only pony who I played with was my neighbor, who would seek in when my parents were forced to leave for food and medicine and stuff. With her influence, I gained the courage to ask my parents why we could not leave."

"My Dad became mad at me, while my Mom became scared. 'Just do what your told for once!' My Dad screamed 'Why can't you just shut up and do what your told?' I wanted to yell at him, but I chickened out. As more weeks went by, I grew restless, feeling the need to get out of the house. Every time I asked to go outside I would get yelled at or told it is to dangerous."

"Finally, my Dad got fed up. 'You want to go outside? Fine, we will go outside!' He packed up all of our stuff and threw it into a Shrink Box.[1] 'We are moving to the Everfree Forest, where it is safe!' I was scared that my parents lost their minds. I had to get out of there. I ran next door to my friend, Serenity. After a long talk, I decided to follow my parents and I went to live in the Everfree Forest. Serenity came to see me often, and married me a few years later."

He looked at the ponies sitting around him, a grin on his face, "And that's the story."

"Are you kidding me?"Jet groaned "that wasn't anything like I had hoped."

"What do you mean?" Serenity asked, "What did you expect?"

Jet blushed, "You know, more action and stuff, like a Daring Doo expedition or something."

"My question,"Dreamie interruped, "is why didn't you return to Ponyville after you became adults? Why did you stay here, in the most dangerous place around?"

"Because while the Everfree has many dangers you can see, Ponyville, and all of Equestria, is haunted by an evil they cannot hide from."
An erie quiet went through the room, sending a chill up Jet's spine.

It was oddly Candy Mellow that broke the quiet. "I have noticed that, while picking up some supplies for my store, many ponies are looking over their backs, like something is following them."

"Me and Dreamie have done some reserch,"Jet said,"and we have noticed that many ponies in the past have reported strange fealings of unease."

"Not just that, but someponies are saying they are seeing flashes of something before it fades away. Something dark and scary. Now I used to dismiss these as just some ponies looking for attention, that is till I saw it myself." Dreamie looked at her friends and smiled. "That's why we are going to the Pillars of Harmony. Something is wrong in Equestria, and I want to know how that is."

"What are the Pillars of Harmony?" the little Rainy Swirl asked.

Runa answered him, "They are the gravesites for the users of the Elements of Harmony. 100 years ago, they were known as the Mane 6. They defeated Nightmare Moon, vanquished King Sombra and Queen Chirsalis, and even sealed Discord."

"If they were so powerful, then how come they died?"

"None of them were immortal,"Amity interjected, "One of them had the choice to be, but declined it so she could die with her friends." She huffed, "What a waste, if it were me, I would say goodbye to those guys and take immortality."

"That is no way to think Amity," said her father,"friends are all Equestria stands for."

"And as you said, Equesrtia is corrupted."

"I said no such thing."

"Yes you did. What else were you saying besides the usual 'You cannot leave the forest, it is not safe'?"

"Now you know that's not....."

"I think," Serenity said, cutting off their argument, "that I have an idea."

"What's that?" Spotting asked.

"Maybe, if she leaves in a group, Amity could be able to leave the forest."

"Really?" She asked, joy in her face.

"Serenity, I think we should talk about this before we just-"

"We have talked about this Spotting, and we never get anywhere. I believe our daughter is old enough to make her own choices." She turned to the group of friends sitting at her table "Would you mind adding another pony to your group? She knows this forest like the back of her hoof, so she may be of some help."

"Hm... We need to think for a few minutes."

Time Chaser lifted everypony with her magic and pulled them into a circle, "Group Huddle!"

After a few seconds of hused conversation, they turned around to face the family, "We accpet."

Amity squeled and dissapeared, only to return moments later with a completely full saddle bag,a camera, a huge tourist hat, and sunglasses. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," Her Dad said chuckling, "For now, you should all eat up, then get a good nights sleep. The forest is very dangerous at night."

"We couldn't thank you enough." Dreamie said as Gravel and Bright came walking out of the kitchen with the food.

"Did we miss anything?" They asked, setting down the food. Everypony laughed except for Time Chaser, who was looking up, thinking.

"What's the matter?" Cody whispered to her.

"Well," She replied under her breath, "I just thought about it. I have been sleeping for almost two days. How come I gotta sleep now too?"

Cody chuckled and passed her a plate, "We all need to be well rested for what we are about to face."

Time Chaser thought for a second, shrugged, then dug into her meal. No pony noticed when, in the dark corner of the room, for a brief second, something was visable.

Author's Note

[1] A big box that will shrink after the lid is closed. It is a granchild of one of Pinkies and Rainbow Dashe's Prank toys.