The Phantom of Canterlot

by Azure Drache

A whiff of the past

A groan of pain escaped Twilight’s lips. She lay on the ground, her body sprawled on the cold stone floor.. She moved a hoof to her head and tried to recover from the impact a little more before she tried to stand up. Unsteady, she placed her hooves on the ground and misstepped to the side a bit before finding her hoofing again.

She wasn’t able to see them, but she had felt every single stone stair on her way down the spiral staircase.

“Where am I?” she thought. She groped for the pole of the staircase and placed her hoof on it. The last thing she remembered, before falling down the stairs, was the baron talking about Pencake and then, when she placed her hoof on the wall once more, it turned. Before she had been able to overcome her surprise and say something, she was hit by the former top of the wall and kicked down the stairs.

She looked up to where the entrance must be, somewhere in the darkness above. “Baron? Baron can you hear me?” She peeked up her ears but no answer came. “Baron?” she shouted louder but the answer was the same, nothing.

She was going to climb up the stairs when she finally received a reaction, even if it was not what she had expected. From behind her, in the opposite direction of the stairs, came a noise. “Wasn’t that?” She heard it again. “Yes, that's the Cockatrice. What is it doing here?”

When she focused in the direction the noise came from, she was able to notice a very weak shimmer of light.

She trotted towards it. “Hello, is somepony there?”

She didn’t get an answer, but the light got brighter with her every step. When she was close enough, she saw a room connected to the passage she was in.With a loud, “Hello?” she tried to make herself noticed once more, before peeking around the corner. When she did, she gasped. She didn’t expect this at all.

In front of her lay a medium sized room, furnished like the kaminzimmer in the Castle with an extra area for studying. In the light, emanating from a small lamp on the ceiling, she saw a desk covered in books and scrolls, some bookshelves, a few chests, an armchair in front of a little fireplace, a bed of smaller size and in one corner sat the Cockatrice in a padded basket. In front of the little one lay two bowls filled with water and fruits.

Astonished and curious, Twilight trotted in. “What is this place?” In the center she turned around and scanned the surroundings once more. “Some sort of cave home?” Her gaze wandered to the desk again. “Or a secret study?”

A soft ‘coo’ reminded her of the Cockatrice’s presence. “Looks like someone cares for it.” She gave its place a second look. “A padded basket and some food… maybe it is a pet? True or not, somepony has given it food. That means somepony had to be here just a short while ago.”

“Hello?” she shouted again. “Can somepony hear me?”

Now she noticed that she couldn’t see another exit. “Must be hidden,” she guessed.

An unhappy sound from the creature in the basket made it obvious that it disliked the noise Twilight caused. “Oops, sorry.” She gave it a smile and the Cockatrice cuddled back into its basket.

She was unsure what to do, the logical thing was to either go back to the top of the stairs and try to open the hidden entrance again or to search for an additional exit down here. On the emotional side however, her curiosity itched her to give the books on the shelves a closer look.

“One look couldn’t hurt...”

She brought her head closer and gave the covers of the first line a look. Most of it was about fantasy and heroes from the past it seemed, Twilight remembered the names of them from the times she had read bedtime stories to Spike.

A bit disappointed, she inspected the next level of the bookshelf. A few nonfiction books of different fields rested on the shelf. “Isn’t that?” She pulled out one and opened it. To her delight, she was right, it was ‘Magic and mechanic: An analysis,’ written by Rolling Gear. On the side of the pages were notes all over the place. “Are they?” She quickly flipped a few pages and repeated it several times, checking the notes. “They are!” A scream of joy escaped her. It was the original with the notes of Rolling Gear himself.

She placed the book back and swiftly took some of the others out of the shelf. It was always the same, all these books were originals.

“What a treasure!”

With fresh curiosity, she scanned the next level of the shelf, this time however there was only one large book stored horizontally in it. There wasn’t a title on this one, so Twilight pulled it out. She needed both hooves because of how heavy it was. She placed it on the desk and opened it in the middle.

It seemed to be a photo album, well, kind of. After she had turned some pages with photos, there were also some with drawings of ponies. And some of them seemed to be very old, maybe that was the reason they were hoof drawn.

The names under the photos didn’t tell her anything at first, but when she turned back several pages to the beginning, the name Pear Thrower showed up.

“Could that?” She read the names of ponies around the picture. High Pressure, Potato Cream, Oven Cloth... so it was true, this pony was the Pear Thrower from Burning Snowflake’s story.

“Does this mean this is her photo album?” She lifted her head and let her gaze wander around the room again. “Is this her room? Could that really be?” She scratched her chin. “Or is it just a collection made by a fan of hers, maybe one of Baron Snowflake’s ancestors? But why store it down here then, outside the Castle? Or could there…” she inspected the walls again, “...be a secret door leading from here to the Castle?”

“Mhh…” She wasn’t able to spot something suspicious. “I should check that in a minute.”

Turning her attention back to the album, she browsed through a few pages again, moving to the beginning of it. On the first page, there was only one big picture. In it were two mares sitting in front of a rainbow waterfall. One was light purple or pale rose or maybe even pink coloured, as far as Twilight could see in the dim light, and had a mane of dark heliotrope with wisps of light amber. Twilight felt as if she had seen her before, even if she didn’t remember where.

Wrapped around her were two orange wings and also two orange hooves, pulling her into a hug. A little smile played around the first mare’s lips, the rest of her body keeping an elegant pose. That didn’t count for the second mare, she was laughing on the picture freely, her head buried halfway into the first mare’s mane.

It was a warming moment of joy to look at. Whoever the first mare was, she surely shared a good moment with Burning Snowflake. It had to be Burning Snowflake, so much was now clear to Twilight.

“A friend? A member of her family?” Twilight thought, she knew she had seen that mare before. Was it during her stay at Castle Dragonbite? Maybe a distant relative of the Snowflakes that she had seen in an old picture?

On the second look, Twilight noticed a few special things about the first mare. First, she had fluffy ears. Twilight carefully examined the picture to make sure that it wasn’t an illusion. Second, she was a unicorn, her horn wasn’t clearly visible at first sight, but it was there. And last, she seemed to be a little short. She only had Burning Snowflake as a comparison, so she couldn’t be sure, but the impression stayed.

On Burning Snowflake however, she only saw a bit of a chest fluff, not usual for modern day pegasi, but not so uncommon either. Other than that, she looked quite normal.

The hint of a noise pulled Twilight's attention up from the album. She spun her ears around, but heard nothing. “Maybe the Cockatrice moved or something...”

Turning her attention back to the album, she flicked through the pages again. A lot of ponies had found their way in there. While she read the names below the pictures, Twilight began to remember some of them herself. Among them were a few very famous ponies, artists, poets, musicians and also some heroes from hundreds of years ago.

When she reached the middle of the album, the pony from the first picture showed up again. First a few pictures here and there, but then more and more, till she was nearly on every photo or drawing for some pages. It was then, looking at one picture, were the mare was wearing a specific hat, that the memory of who that pony was hit Twilight. This was Sherlay Hays! The famous detective from Canterlot, the mare who had solved tons of mysteries and crimes, together with her friend Dr. Oatsen, the stallion who had written all the books about her.

Twilight turned back to the frontpage, after a few looks back and forth there was no doubt. This was Sherlay Hays, cuddled by Burning Snowflake. Twilight shook her head in disbelief. “What?” she said baffled. “How, why…?”

Of course it was only logical that these two had to run into each other someday, considering the fact that both lived in Canterlot and both were quite active there, in front of, as well as behind the curtain. But never had Twilight thought about that simple consequence.

That these two had become friends, even with thinking about it, it did not come to her mind either.

She leaned back and looked into the bookshelf again. What hadn’t come to her attention before, came now. The two lowest shelves were full of books about Sherlay Hays’ cases.

Now Twilight took a moment to digest this new information. However, it didn’t take long for her curiosity to bring her back to reading further. Another few pages later, a little blue colt showed up, Compassion Snowflake. He also got a series of pictures of his own, slowly turning from a little colt to a full grown stallion.

Behind him, there followed a variety of ponies again. Most of them were unknown to Twilight, but she remembered a few of the Snowflakes the baron had showed her in the gallery. When she turned another page, a picture fell out and landed on the ground. Twilight picked it up and looked at it. On it was a shiny mulberry coloured mare with a silver mane, she looked a bit embarrassed, while happy at the same time. Her cheeks had turned a bit more red than they already were and it seemed she wasn’t used to smile so much at all. In her hoof, she held something. It wasn’t good to see because it was cut off by the end of the picture, but it could have been a plushie.

Twilight turned the picture around, reading the name written on the backside.

“Summer Stars,” Twilight mumbled and gave the picture another look. “Doesn’t ring a bell.” She returned the picture into the album and inspected the last pictures, till she only skipped over empty pages.

It itched her in the hooves to go through the album again and look at every page, but she didn’t have the time to do so. She suppressed the urge and closed the album, putting it back into the bookshelf.

She was about to go on with her examination of the room when she stopped and blinked over her shoulder again. There were four lines of books, with fifteen books each on the lower shelves, all Sherlay Hays books. So sixty books at all, but, there was only fifty-seven Sherlay Hays’ books written by Dr. Oatsen. That meant there were three books to many. A quick check of the titles revealed Twilight was right, there were indeed three extra books, namely Sherlay Hays and the Phantom of Canterlot, part one to three.

“I have never heard about these.” Twilight took the first one and inspected the cover, there was no image on the front page, just the name. She turned it in her hooves, scanning the empty backside. She opened it and found a personal note of the author:

Dear Miss Burning Snowflake,

It has been a while since we last met and to be honest, I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing. Even after all those years Sherlay has been gone, I am… I can’t… Well I still have mixed feelings about you. I can’t pretend to blame you for her last bow.
But, when I look over to Mrs. Oatsen, playing with our little colt on the sofa… I… I understand. Love, love was your reason and for that, I can’t blame you.

With everything between us, it was a hard choice for me to make. But in the end, I decided to send these to you. What you hold in your hooves is my latest work about our closest friend, Sherlay.

So hard I tried to pretend it, I still confess I am biased about you and your actions, far more than I may be aware. Still I tried to write this down as objective and fair as my modest skills let me.

I was tempted to just publish it, like most of Sherlay’s other cases. I was fully aware that would tell all the world about you and your secrets as well as Sherlay’s biggest failure, indeed also a form of triumph. I know Sherlay wouldn’t mind what ponies think about her and her actions… but I am also aware she wouldn’t want me to spoil your secrets.

I believe you should be the owner of these books. That is what she would have wanted me to do.

In shared memory of a good friend,
Oatsen

Twilight let the book drop. “This makes two things clear, Oatsen knew Burning Snowflake, obviously and it seems a little bit closer than just a loose acquaintance. Second, Hays was friends with both of them but they were not friends with each other. Or at least they weren’t any longer after Sherlay left them.”

“Mhh…” She let out a sigh. “I don’t know what to do with this knowledge yet, but it might be useful later.”

She threw a short look at the first few pages of the actual story, just to see it was the same kind of introduction that all Sherlay Hays books shared; Oatsen speaking about his memory with Sherlay Hays and giving a little emotional background to his thoughts about the case.

“I would like to read these books, but now is not the right moment to do so. Sadly I can’t carry them with me either, I wish I had a saddlebag with me.”

Unable to do anything useful with the book at the moment, she placed it back into the shelf and moved on.

“Maybe there is a saddlebag or something I can borrow from one of those chests.” She moved over to the first one and opened it. The thought that she shouldn’t rummage through other ponies’ stuff flashed through her mind, but she shook it off.

In the chest she found some sort of clothes, or it looked like clothes at first. When she held them up, it appeared to be some kind of… she wasn’t sure. It was obviously some piece of garment, a mix of fabric, some metallic rings and straps and also a thin layer of some kind of rubber on the outer side. It was multipart too.

Twilight turned it around and looked at it from different angles, still none the wiser she put it back. She continued to explore the chest’s content. She found some crested clasps in shape of a Snowflake, two, no, four small vials, two times two connected to each other, a brown coat and a few small accessories.

Closing the chest, she moved over to the next. When she put her hooves on it, a sharp sting shot through her hind leg. “Ouch!” She turned her head around to see what was going on and found the Cockatrice standing behind her. It cocked its head to the side, its beak ready to peck her leg once more.

“Hey!” she shouted at it. “What are you doing?”

It hissed and hopped on the chest, protecting it from Twilight.

Twilight rubbed her hind leg. “You think I shouldn’t look into that one, don’t you?”

Another hiss was answer enough.

Taking a step back, Twilight tried to calm things down, “Alright, I will not open that chest if it is so important to you. But you don’t mind me looking around a bit more, do you?”

The Cockatrice made itself comfortable on the chest, not making attempts to stop her while she trotted over to the last big chest and put her hooves on it.

“Well, if you don’t mind.” She opened the chest slowly. “Maybe it guards its food or something that belongs to it?” Twilight thought while she took a look into the last chest. There was a blanket, some socks and a pillow in it, next to various other things to make yourself comfortable on a good evening by the fireplace, like a bottle of cider and a box of sweets.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, glancing at the Cockatrice, then at the fireplace. It had some ash in it. Returning her gaze to the bottle, she took it and opened it. The cider was still fresh.

“I get the feeling this place is well visited, more than once or two times a season.”

She closed the chest, only to reopen it a moment later. A little grumble in her belly had reminded her that it was a while since she had eaten anything. She didn’t know how long will it take her to get out of this room and the caves, so with a bit of bad conscience, she took one of the sweets out of the box and ate it. She struggled with herself for a moment, then took two more. They were delicious.

“If I meet the owner of this box, I will pay them.” Closing the chest, she gave the room a last look. “Now I should try to get out of here, even if…” her thoughts trailed off when she remembered the scrolls on the desk she hadn’t examined yet. “Mhh… maybe there could be a plan of the caves in it.”

The sound of a small stone falling down the staircase grabbed her attention.

“Hello?” she called. “Is somepony there?”

She listened, but she could hear only the little noise the Cockatrice made from time to time. She trotted over to the entrance and repeated her call, but still no answer came. She thought about investigating further, but without a proper stable light source to carry with her, she doubted it would be a good idea to enter the staircase room at the moment.

At least she could throw a short look into it from where she was. She cast a light spell and peaked around the corner.

There was nothing to see.

She shook her head and let the light fade out. “Nothing. Just a pebble falling down from the ceiling or something. Well, where was I? Ah, yes...”

Twilight trotted over to the desk and started to examine the scrolls. The first she opened seemed to be some kind of letter, she read through its content quickly. To her surprise, it was some kind of travel information, describing the weather and special spots in some distant lands.

A little bit confused, she returned the scroll to the stack and opened the next one. This was even more confusing than the first one, it contained economic reports. A list of, it seemed, random companies all over Equestria with information about their production output and their connections between each other.

“Why was somepony collecting this?” Twilight wondered. “If this all belongs to Burning Snowflake, I don’t know what she would do with it. If it belonged to some of the other Snowflakes, shouldn’t it be inside the Castle and being of use there?”

When she reached out for the third scroll, she already expected it to contain something weird or confusing and she wasn’t let down. Her eyes quickly moved over the lines, while her surprise raised more and more with each word.

What she held in her hooves was a list of activities of Equestria’s secret service. A very detailed one, containing date, mission goals, involved agents and even a mark of success or failure at a few spots.

Twilight lay the scroll on the desk and examined it closer. “How in Celestia’s name did this get here?” She unrolled the scroll further and mumbled while she read on. “Las Pegasus, Canterlot, Griffonstone, Striped Rhymes,” as far as she knew a town in the land of the zebras and far further down, “Dragonbite Castle… What?” she stopped and double checked it.

There was indeed a mission report about Dragonbite Castle mentioned. The short summary on the scroll however, raised more questions than it answered. It said that five ponies were sent to the Castle two months ago.

Twilight gasped, and placed a hoof to her mouth.

Two of the names had a ‘MIA’ behind it, the shortcut for missing in action, while the other three were marked for injured.

“What happened?” Twilight wondered with a queasy feeling in her belly. She moved her hoof along the lines till she reached the mission goal.

Locate and, if present, identify ‘The Phantom’
Direct contact with target is not advised, target could be hostile.
Keep distance from the Snowflake family.

“They looked for Burning Snowflake.” Twilight removed her hoof from the scroll. It curled up and she reached out for the remaining stack of scrolls. “The entire report has to be here somewhere.”

She winced at the sudden noise of another stone falling down the staircase. Her gaze wandered without her intention back to the scroll with the note about several missing or injured agents.

“Just some pebble, Twilight, nothing to worry about,” she told herself. “No need to be worried.”

Reaching out for the next scroll, she froze when another noise came from the staircase room.

“Hello?” She turned around and faced the entrance to the stairs. “I know somepony is there,” she said a bit quieter till her voice nearly faded, “I heard you.”

The lamp started to flicker. “Oh come on!” she complained. “Are you foaling me?”

She shot another look to the entrance, then back to the lamp. “There must be something that can produce light. If nothing else, there should be a piece of wood at the fireplace that can do the trick.”

Going to grab one of the logs, she stopped at the big chest. The Cockatrice hadn’t moved away, but its head had turned to the tunnel too.

“You heard it too, didn’t you?” She hadn't expected an answer but she got a little chicken sound.

An idea stroke her. “Good little Cockatrice,” she said, causing it to make another chicken sound. “Yes, you are a good Cockatrice, aren’t you?” She kept her voice calming and soft while she moved slowly closer.

Another flicker of the light drew her attention to the lamp again. “Just stay calm,” she said even more softly. “Just for a second longer.”

When she was close enough to it, she burst forward and grabbed the creature before it realised what she was up to.

With a sharp ‘hish’, it made its anger hearable.

“I am sorry, truly,” Twilight said nervously and lifted it up with one hoof while she held its head straight forward with the other.

The Cockatrice squirmed and hissed, making it hard to maintain a steady grip. One of its wings hit Twilight in the chest. “Ouch!” she yelled.

Her spontaneous plan to use the animal as a weapon was not as good at it seemed in the first place.

In need of a quick solution that wouldn’t end in her turned to stone, she galloped over to the tunnel and threw the angry Cockatrice in it. “Take this, whoever you are!”

A mix of sounds followed, one of the kind you get if you throw one of Trixie’s fireworks into a chicken coop.

Twilight never had thought one single Cockatrice could make so much noise, but to her misfortune, she clearly heard it wasn’t the only source of the commotion.. Somepony was struggling with it in there.

“I hope the little one doesn’t get hurt,” she thought with a hint of bad conscience. Still, she knew she didn’t have the time to see who will win this confrontation. No matter who, they would surely be angry at her. She had to get some lightsource and then get out of there real quick.

For a second she thought she had heard a voice, but she wasn’t sure. It could just be her imagination. Without longer hesitation she turned around once more and headed for the fireplace. Of course she was tempted to open the last closed chest, but she thought better about stopping for checking it out.

When she reached the fireplace, she just grabbed the first piece of wood she found and hold it up. With very much effort she cast an ignite spell on it, the wood catching a small flame on the tip. Unfortunately the stick she had grabbed was a very small one, one of the kind you use to start a fire, not to burn bright and long.

“Oh no!” She shook her head in realization. Immediately she dropped the stick into the fireplace and searched for a more suitable one. She found it on the side of the fireplace, there was a little recess with some bigger logs in it. Swiftly she grabbed one and repeated the ignite spell, sweat breaking out on her forehead while she did so. She was rewarded with a small flame which grew rapidly.

“Oh, I hope this will do,” she said and moved over to the wall, knocking on it with a hoof. There had to be an exit somewhere and she had to find it real quick. With haste she moved along the wall, knocking hectically on it high and low. Always the same dull sound was to hear.

For a moment she dared to look back and listen to how the fight was going. Silence… a really bad sign.

She increased her attempts to find an exit, now knocking nearly panicked on the wall.

“Reveal yourself you stupid secret door, I know you are here somewhere!” she yelled and bucked against the wall in frustration. It didn’t have any effect.

She tried to take a second to think this through and use her intellect to find the exit, but a growl from the tunnel entrance interrupted her attempt.

Pressing herself against the wall, she looked back and saw it. The head of a green dragon peaked around the corner, staring at her. His eyes had the colour of dark blue like the deepest part of the ocean and they were just as cold.

Twilight screamed in horror, even with more intensity when the lamp finally gave up and the light shrunk to the little bit the improvised torch was able to spent.

“Let me out of here!” she screamed and scratched over the wall with her hooves.

The dragon let out a little growl again and started moving in her direction. He moved ever so slowly, knowing his prey couldn’t escape. He took his time, enjoying her fear.

“Stay away from me!” Twilight yelled and moved along the wall to get as much distance from him as she could in the small room. When she was close to the fireplace again, she grabbed another log.

“Stay away!” She aimed for the dragon and threw the log in his direction. He just moved a bit to the side, avoiding the log with ease.

Not giving up so easily, Twilight grabbed another one and threw it too. It missed like the first one but she hit him with the third. It just made him release a light chuckle and nothing more.

In her rising panic she just pulled on her magic and threw a bunch of logs at him all at once. It didn’t do much to him, besides slowing him down a bit. The one that hit the secret button to open the door next to her, on the other hoof, was a lucky strike.

Twilight was baffled for a moment by the sudden appearance of her escape route and didn’t move at first. The new roar of anger from the dragon, who saw his prey had a real chance to escape, brought her back to her senses immediately.

She stormed through the door and right into the tunnel that followed. Her rapid hoofsteps echoed loudly from the walls. The tunnel wasn’t too long. Only it ended in another wall.

“No, no, no, no!” She punched the wall with her hooves. “Not another hidden door!”

A quick glance over her shoulder showed that the dragon hadn’t reached the tunnel yet, giving her the time to search for the opening mechanism.

“Think Twilight, it has to be in comfortable hoof range, or placed on the ground.” She calmed down a bit, moving her hoof to her snout. “If somepony is on this side already,” she pointed down on the ground, “it is clear they had come from the secret chamber, otherwise this door here would be open. There is no need to hide it well here, the only question is if it is easier to place it on the ground or the wall.” Remembering the books she read about simple mechanics and physics, as well as some about the history of the castle, she placed her hoof on the left wall and within a few seconds she managed to hit the button to open the door.

“There is no problem logic and study can’t fix!” she cheered while the door moved out of the way. With another look back, she entered the now open tunnel in front of her.

Only two ways lay before her, left and right. The secret door had brought her into the middle of another tunnel. Twilight swung the torch, illuminating the beginning of both ways. There was no real difference between them. She galloped into the left one, hoping it was the right choice.

She didn’t stop until she could see a crossway and felt a sharp pain in her head, growing which each step she took.

“What is that?” She reached out for her head, placing her hoof on the base of her horn. She shot a short look back to see if the dragon was still on her hooves. As far as the torchlight reached, he wasn’t in view. Twilight thought she could slow down a bit and trotted on slowly, but the pain increased as she did so. She dropped the torch and covered her horn with both hooves.

“Ouch!” She leaned against the wall. “I can’t stop yet, I have to trot on.”

She took in a few deep breaths and gritted her teeth, then she picked up the torch and straightened up, trotting into the crossway. Looking into the tunnel she saw that the tunnel got smaller and smaller, till only a foal could crawl through. Suddenly, the pain in her head exploded.

She fell on the ground, rolling back and forth, screaming in agony. It felt like eternity. She didn’t realise it was only for half a minute or less till her wild kicking hooves hit somedragon. She knew she should run away but she wasn’t even able to stop rolling and kicking around.

With a growl he evaded her hooves and grabbed her tail with his snout.

“Stupid alicorn!” he mumbled while he pulled her out of the crossway, back into the tunnel. Her hooves hit the top of his head several times but he ignored it.

“Oh look at you, the magic in your horn… ” he groaned mumbling with the effort, “is about to boil and…” he had to re-bite into her tail to not lost the grip on it, “it feels like it’s trying to kill you. But no…” they passed the tunnel entrance and the pain in Twilight's head lowered, “as an alicorn, far too stubborn to turn around, you never would run away from the source of it.”

He spat out her tail and gave her a second to recover before he grabbed her now harmless rear hooves, pulling her further into the tunnel.

Twilight's look fell on him, her vision blurred. She vaguely saw the little Cockatrice on his back before her gaze sunk to his hooves. “What?” she thought before she drifted slowly into unconsciousness.

Comments

[StarzGecko]

Yay more mystery and questions! Awesome chapter of world building and history of Equestria. I can’t wait for more

[Starlight Nova]

Did I already ask you if Cocoskatze does requests?

[Azure Drache]

8516590
Thank you

8516632
You did

[EverfreePony]

8537994
You don’t want to know how many comments of the slightly naughty variety pertaining to this part were in the Gdoc

[EverfreePony]

8546363
Yeah, I allowed Azure to use him... though now I’m slightly afraid

[Azure Drache]

8546527

8546363
Nope the plushy is the original one and I think Ever didn't know the full story behind it, why don't you tell her MV?
I have an idea were to place the other plushy

[EverfreePony]

8548303
Of course, it will change into...


... wait for it...


[REDACTED]

Oh my