“Why is there fog? I thought everypony knew that today was supposed to be overcast?” Came a disgruntled voice, it’s owner masked in the fog.

“I don’t know Dash. But can’t we just make it lighter? It shouldn’t be too hard to lift it up afterward.” Came a male voice, coming from the left of Rainbow Dash.

“That would work, except that this certain cloud has merged with all the other clouds, pulling them down as well. We’d need to split this one into about forty others, or more. I’m not sure how big this mess has gotten since I last looked. Give me a second, and I mean that literally.” Dash said, preparing to take off and get above the fog bank.

“Okay, Dash, but be careful. You of all ponies should know how dangerous fast flying can get in any view restricted environment.” Came a warning from Dash’s left again.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it. I mean, I’m the best flier I know, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” Came the arrogant reply. Dash then proceeded to take off, at top speed, of course.

Dash sped along, spiraling upwards. She was out of the fog, and was trying to get an estimate on the size of the fog bank. She might be lazy sometimes, but weather business was something that she took pride in, and she did it right.

She stopped, and looked downwards on Ponyville. Well, at least she thought it was Ponyville. She couldn’t see any of it!

“Woah. Somepony seriously screwed up this time.” She said, slightly in awe of the size of this screw up. The fog had completely covered all of the town, including a good part of Sweet Apple Acres.

And that was a lot of clouds.This was the biggest mistake of the month so far. Or had somepony purposely done this?

Dash groaned, the pieces of the puzzle fitting together in her mind. Starting her descent back into town, she got lost in thought, thinking of some of the pranks she could play with Pinkie in the fog. The size of the low-flung cloud made it obviously clear to her that it wasn’t going anywhere soon. May as well enjoy it while she cou-.

Well, maybe she ran into it, but that was open for debate. But the fact was that she had crashed into Twilight’s library. Again.

Getting to her hooves, she trotted to the door on the balcony, the one that led into Twilight’s bedroom. Maybe she could find some refuge from the fog inside. But then she would have to explain to Twilight why she kept running into the tree.

Getting out of the fog won out over the eventual embarrassment. Pushing open the door, she quickly shut the door to stop the fog from spilling in.

“Twi? You in here? Sorry about crashing in like this, but have you seen outside? Somepony seriously messed up with cloud making 101. If I had to stay outside in that whiteness, I just might go crazy.”

“So, yeah, sorry. Can I crash here until later? That should give the cloud... time... to...”
She faltered. Twilight hadn’t shown up yet.

No reply from Twilight, at least. But Dash did get a reply from Twilight’s assistant, who she had woken up with her talking.

“Rainbow Dash? What’s up? Why are you here at-” A pause as Spike checks the wall clock.
“-six o’clock? You know that no one’s up at that time. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“Um, yeah, except today was my day to lead the weather crew. We had scheduled a slightly cloudy day today, but somepony made the clouds too heavy. We’re going to let the clouds simmer in the sun, to try to get rid of that excess weight. It should make the clouds hotter, and therefore, lighter!”

“Wow... you sure know a lot about clouds, don’t you?” Spike said after a minute.

“Yeah, I guess I sorta do. But probably not as much as Twilight knows. Of course, Twilight seems to know a lot more than I do.” Shut up Dash...

That got Spike’s attention. Sitting up, he looks up at Twilight’s bed. Upon seeing that Twilight was indeed not in her bed, he leans back down into his.

“Sorry Dash, but I guess she’s downstairs. If she’s there, she’s either asleep from studying all night, or she’s already up and eating breakfast.” Spike said sleepily.

“Twilight? You down here?” She whispered, then quietly scolded herself. “Why am I being quiet? There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

She stopped. She was talking to herself. That was never a good sign. Shaking her head to try to clear it, she continued down the stairs and into the main level of the library.

Speaking again, this time at a normal volume, she called Twilight’s name again.

Still, better check. Dash did a quick look through the library, which only confirmed her suspicions.

Time to leave then. Rainbow Dash just felt awkward staying in her friends house without her friend there. Starting towards the door, she stopped suddenly, her hoof half off the ground. She couldn’t been seen leaving Twilight’s house at six in the morning! But she had to leave, to do something. She would go stir crazy staying in the library with no-one except a sleeping baby dragon.

Well, this disaster had an easy fix. Time to go upstairs and leave via the balcony she came in through. No problem, right? Walking back up the stairs, she observed her surroundings. Things had changed when Twilight came to Ponyville. She couldn’t quite place it, but something had changed within the town. It seemed more.... alive.

But with that, of course, came the problems that arose with one of the most magically inclined unicorns, and the personal student of Celestia herself. Lots of problems, more that you would think, but she had also fixed some of her mistakes, along with all of her friends mistakes. Hell, the town probably would be quarantined or something by now if it weren’t for her.

Arriving upstairs, she was assaulted by the sound of Spike’s snoring. Glancing at him briefly, her eyes wandered the perfectly clean room. Twilight had to be one of the most OCD ponies she knew. Everything had to be in place. Heck, she had checklists for her checklists sometimes it seemed.

And with that said, Dash’s eyes were almost immediately drawn to the only mess in the room. Everything on the desk was messy. Sighing, she shook her head, slightly amused. Twilight must of have left in a hurry if she had left this mess behind. Probably expected Spike to clean it up later. Walking over to see if she could get a clue on where she had gone, she saw that she had been writing something.

But, the was an spill across some of the page, and the notes were messed up. The bottom had escaped, but nothing was written on it.

“What were you doing Twi, and why did you leave in the middle of it?” Dash said, playing detective for the moment.

Deciphering the words still legible on the page, Dash’s expression began to drop.

“No... They can’t be. Spike! Wake up now!” Dash said, starting out as a whisper, but turning into a full on yell at the end.

“Wa? Dash? Did you find Twilight?” Spike said, falling out of bed, startled at Dash’s loud yelling.

“No, and that’s not the worst of it. Read this.” Dash demanded, pushing the piece of parchment at him.

“Dash, what is this? It’s a piece of paper with an ink spill on it. What about it?” He said, giving the cyan mare a questioning glance.

“Read what’s left. She said, her eyes convincing Spike that this wasn’t one of her pranks.

“Okay? Changl- have- retu.” Spike said, pronouncing each word fragment with care.

“Don’t know about the first one, but the last two sound like ‘have returned’. What’s the first word, and why does it have you so freaked out? Who's returned?"

“Changelings. Spike, I think she was trying to say changelings. We need to tell the Princess.”

Spike’s eyes had gone wide at Dash’s statement. Nodding quickly, he reached for a piece of paper, and wrote a quick note to the Princess.

Green light colored the fog outside the upper stories of the library that was also a tree.

Celestia was was going through all the proposals that had arisen during her time at court. All those ponies requesting her permission to do this, asking for funding to do something else, or those just wanting a simple dispute settled. Those were the worst. Could they really not see the simple answer to their dispute? Or had the populace just become dependent on her, and now her sister again?

A puff of green smoke, almost out of her field of view, distracted her from the dull and boring requests. Turning to see a scroll falling out of the air, she caught it with a well practiced spell. Slitting the ribbon on it, she unfurled it, bringing it closer to her eyes to read it.

That was odd. It was from Spike. Not that Spike had never sent in a friendship report before, but he usually wasn’t up this early. She had just started to raise the sun, and it was still dawn.

Reading on, her face began to drop. Upon finishing the letter, she killed the telekinesis spell, and the scroll dropped to the floor near her feet, still open. Rising to her hooves, she went to the door and called through to the guards, her voice not betraying anything of her emotional turmoil.
“Guards, go to Shining Armor’s residence and wake him if necessary. Tell him to come to my quarters immediately. I need to talk to him about a matter that he care deeply about. Do it as quickly as possible. Send your fastest runner.” She said, her voice wavering at the end.

Princess Celestia waited at the door until the hoofsteps faded from the corridor. Walking slowly back to her place near the fire, she slowly lowered herself, until she was sitting. Grabbing the scroll with her magic again, she reread the letter. Even though she knew what it said, it still hurt.

Dear Princess,

This is Spike.

Twilight’s been taken

By changelings. Please help.

Please. We don’t know what to do.

-Spike/Rainbow Dash.

It seemed too formal for a cry for help, but it didn’t stop the pain. Twilight. Gone. The Princess had always been afraid of this. Not of Twilight being taken by Changelings, but being taken. Being her personal student, that made her a target.

“Princess? I was told that I was to come as soon as possible. What’s wrong?” Shining’s voice came through the wood.

Princess Celestia raised her head and enveloped the door with her golden magic and opened them, ushering Shining Armor in with a nod of her head. The captain of the guards came and stood in front of Celestia, asking a question with his eyes.

“Shining. I don’t know how to tell you this, but-” Her throat seized up. Swallowing hard, she started again, before Shining Armor made up his own problem in his head.

“Your... sister has been taken. We don’t know where she is, but we do know who has her.”

Shining eyes had gone wide at the news.
“Who!? Who has Twilight? Princess, please, just tell me.” He said, frantic.

“The changelings have her. And we’re going to do everything in our power to get her back, unharmed.”

“She’d better be unharmed.” Shining growled, anger at the changelings who would dare take his sister growing.

“Shining, I would give up the crown to make sure she was safe. I promise you this. We will get her back.”

Shining Armor nodded, anger mixing with his grief. For the first time in a while, he was afraid.

The Queen's Revenge

by Listener

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