Project Change

by The One With The Crystal

There's a Changeling in Our Store part 1

Tonight was suppose to be simple for Twilight Sparkle. Finish the plan to capture the changelings, get some questions answered, send the changeling back to where they came from, and then go about everyday life as if nothing happened. It was suppose to be that simple, but life had other the lavender unicorn or snake in her present state. Her life seemed to be spiraling out of control. Soon she was beginning to believe that somepony was doing this on purpose to torment her.

Hours passed by in the blink of an eye and Twilight's current situation wasn't getting any better. Having been transformed multiple times, then finally being placed in the body of a snake was really beginning to wear her down. Her horn missing and all of the energy in her body used up Twilight collapsed on the floor. Using the end of her tail she waved a white flag weakly to show that she surrendered her long hard fought battle against the young draconequus known as Sugar Rush before going completely limp next to her draconic assistant who had passed out not too long ago.

Sugar floated down and gently poked the poor tired out snake with a her talons."Twilight. Twilight! Are you dead?" She said. She received no response from the snake, but luckily she could see that Twilight was still breathing. Soon it began to get quiet without Twilight's constant yelling to turn her back and threatening to send her to the deepest depths of Tartarus. Sugar didn't like it when it was quiet because it gave time to think, time to remember. She hated bringing up past memories though it couldn't be helped. It was the way they all were.

Once they reached the surface of Pyxis's consciousness the memories that they all carried would resurface too. "At least thats what the Doc said." Sugar said to herself sadly. Then Sugar felt it. She hadn't realized it yet until now. All of her energy was burnt up running away from Twilight for half the night. Her time was running out and it was running out fast. Using the last bits of her magic she reverted Twilight back into her normal form. Sugar took extra care into erasing the lavender mare's memory as well as rip out and eating the pages that contained the spell to see through changeling disguises.

"Hmm. I didn't know that paper had such a distinct taste to it. Heh, you learn something new every day." Sugar said as she left the residence of the mare known as Twilight Sparkle

---

Sugar had to find a place to hide before her time was up. As she began to think about places to go she concluded that she wasn't going to make it in time if she headed to the Cutie Mark Crusader's club house, the Everfree Forest was out of the question, which left only one place left to hide. She knew that it wasn't going to end well, but the only thing that she could hope on was that the author knows what he is doing and headed to her final destination for tonight.

---

Morning came around fast that day. Faster than someponies would want, but there was nothing they could do about it now. The small town of Ponyville was beginning to wake up and start their day. Today was a Sunday meaning that the market would be in full swing today. Ponies liked to restock on their food supply on Sundays for many reasons, but mostly because the prices went down on Sunday mornings and by mid-day the prices became normal again. It was either wake up early for lower prices or buy stuff for the regular price which someponies can't afford at the moment.

Due to a small set back on plans Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were a little bit low on money. So much to the dismay of the 'party all night' D.J. she had to wake up early than she usually did. With bags under her eyes Vinyl fought the never ending battle to stay awake as she followed her friend to the market. "Come on Tavi. I'm sorry that I forgot that my gig was pushed back a week and I blew through all those bits, but do I have to be up so early? I didn't even know there was a six a.m.!" Vinyl pleaded.

Octavia scuffed at the pleas made by her tired friend. "Begging won't get you nowhere. Forgetting to wash the dishes after your done with them is one thing, but spending nearly all of our spending money on Pony-clo cards and booster packs is just plain immature and foolish. Not to mention forgetting when yours suppose to perform. You have to learn some responsibility." said Octavia in a strict manor.

"Okay first of all its called Pony-Oh not Pony-Clo and second its not my fault! Do you even know how much power Derpy Hooves has in those dueling cards of her's? She tricks you into thinking that her cards are weak, but before you know it she summons a muffin dragon with over four thousand attack points. No, I'm serious the mare summoned a MUFFIN DRAGON! Almost her entire deck is made out of muffin based characters! It makes me hungry just thinking about it." replied Vinyl Scratch.

Octavia just sighed in disappointment at her friend's input on this conversation. Her mind was on more important details as of the moment. If they didn't get enough money by the end of this month they would be evicted out of their home. Then it was back to the apartments on the east side of Canterlot. Octavia shivered at the memory of those apartments. There was so much trash and filth in that place that she could have sworn that she saw a family of rats living in there once. Paying a pony to disinfect the place costed them a hefty amount of money, but it was worth every bit in Octavia's opinion.

After shopping around with the money little of the money that was left the duo was met by the party mare herself, Pinkie Pie. She handed them a bag full of bits, saying that it was for the music Vinyl played at the party yesterday and also to cover the cost of repairing Octavia's cello. That last part gained a mixed reaction from the gray earth mare. She then proceeded to ask Pinkie Pie what did she mean by that and what did she do to her cello. Though she wanted a straight answer, but knowing Pinkie Pie she hoped that for once the mare would respond with some kind of maturity. Sadly her hopes were shot down in the blink of an eye.

"A friend is need of your help. He wonders beyond your musical door steps. At first you maybe scared, but no need to fret. This friend means no harm and you will see that your friendship will be put to the test. Now I'm afraid that I have to go and start bakin', but I'll leave you with some words of advice. Watch out for that muffin." Pinkie Pie said.

The two mares were dumbstruck upon hearing the mare's riddle. As they were about to ask what in Equestria was she going on about a soft object had dropped out of the sky, hitting Vinyl on the head. Using her magic she levitated the object into her field of view. "Its a blueberry muffin." Vinyl said. As she spoke those words a shadow began to form over her. She and Octavia looked up just in time to see a flash of grey and yellow before dirt flew up into the air.

As everything settled they could plainly see that the flash of grey and yellow was in fact Derpy Hooves. She had the blueberry muffin that was earlier in Vinyl's magic aura balanced perfectly on her head. Though she seemed to be unharmed, little could be said about the squashed unicorn under the grey pegasus. "Sorry Vinyl. I didn't see you there." Derpy apologized. "Are we still up for our duel tonight?"

Vinyl got off the ground and dusted herself off. "Its okay Derpy. Its just a couple of scrapes and bruises. As for our duel tonight, I think I'm going to have to back out for now, but I'll see you next time okay." said Vinyl with the small smile.

"Oh. okay see you next time." Derpy said as she flew of into the distance. Vinyl waved goodbye as she waited for the mare to be far enough to where she wouldn't be able to hear her. What followed next was the D.J. beginning to spew a massive amount of words that were not fit for young colts and fillies to hear. Luckily, Octavia was there to cover her friend's mouth just in time. After the unicorn had her fill in yelling muffled words, she and Octavio hurried to their music shop.

Once there they were met with none other than the cutie mark crusaders. When asked what they planned on doing they responded by saying that they wanted to return Pyxis's belt. He seemed to have left it at their clubhouse. Since they couldn't find him anywhere in town they suspected that he would be here. "I hate to ruin your plan, but there is no way that Pyxis could be in here. The door is locked up tighter than Tavi's stash of Pon Jovi records." said Vinyl.

"While that is true I would be very thankful if you didn't state my personal collection to the public." Octavia said as she grabbed the keys to the shop with her mouth. As she came closer to the door knob the door itself opened by itself. This made her along with Vinyle, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo slightly scared. For the most part it made the two adults all the more confused. Octavia herself made sure that the door was locked before she went home yesterday. How in the world did it get unlocked?

It took less that a fraction of a second for the gears in the two mares' heads to start working. There was a possiblilty, though it was a small one, that they could have been robbed. Quickly rushing in they scanned to see how bad the damage was, but to their surprise there wasn't a single bow out of place. All the records were still there as well, but upon closer inspection Vinyl discovered a terrifying secret. "Oh no." she said softly.

"What is it? Did somepony steal a priceless record?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Worse." responded Vinyl.

"Somepony broke a priceless record?" asked Scootaloo.

"Much worse."

"Oh for pete sake just tell us!" yelled Applebloom.

"Somepony........... alphabetized my whole collection of records." said a distraught Vinyl.

With the sound of four hooves meeting their owners' faces, Octavia along with the three fillies felt great disappointment at the d.j pony's lack of concentration. "Vinyl let me remind you that we could have been rob or worse! Who knows what somepony could have put in here during the night and your worried about your little precious record organization." Octavia said with a hint of anger.

"Hey it took me a long time to organize these things how I like 'em! Besides what you do if somepony touched your Pon Jovi record?!" yelled Vinyl.

"Do we really have to bring up my Pon Jovi collection?!" replied Octavia who was no in a full state of anger.

The two carried on for what seemed like hours, but in reality was actually three minutes. Within those three minutes certain words were said that the fillies had been told that they should never say. After another three minutes the clash of verbal assaults kept going. It seemed like there was to be no end in sight. Until Sweetie Belle looked over at Pyxis's belt. It was levitating.

With a poke to the side she managed to grab her friends attention and in turn they grabbed the adult mares' attention. The five of them watched as the belt floated through the air slowly before landing behind the woodwind section.

Slowly Octavia grabbed the closet thing to her to serve as a weapon. Unfortunately the item that she had acquired just happened to be a cello and one of her favorite ones too. She then felt her body being pushed towards the woodwinds section. Turning around she found that her friend along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders were pushing her forward. "Pray tell, what do you think your doing?" whispered Octavia.

"We're not going near who ever that is. Since we saw that you have a weapon, but couldn't move we thought it would be the right thing to do and give you a little push." explained Sweetie Belle.

"I have no intention of approaching this intruder!" said Octavia.

"Then why do you have a jello in your hooves? What you plan on playing a song or something?" asked Scootaloo

"For your information its called a cello and second of all its a means of self-defense."

"Yeah thats it Octavia. Now use some of that self-defense to knock some sense into that robber pony's head." said Vinyl.

"What are we talking about?" asked an unknown voice.

The five ponies stumbled over one another as they tried to get away from the source of the voice. They looked back to see who intruded the store. What they expected to see was a pony or at least some random unicorn who wanted to play a prank on them, a very very misinterpreted prank. Instead standing in from of them was a pitch black changeling with mismatched eyes and a confused look on it's face. "So uh........ anypony want to play a quick game of Pony-Oh?" it asked. No one responded, except for Vinyl who slowly raised her hoof.

Comments

[Asdera3485]

Thank you for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Reference.

[zaku666]

Lolz fear the Derpy and her muffins

[The1templar]

It was the way the all were.

It was the way they all were.