“WHAT?!”
Rainbow Dash slammed her hooves on the table, and then instantly regretted it.
“Eeep!”
Poor Fluttershy was now cowering under the table, having shot under there in terror because of the loud noises.
“I’m so sorry, Fluttershy.”
Rainbow Dash stuck her head under the table.
“I just didn’t expect to hear about a dangerous changeling encounter in the woods so soon, after what happened very recently.”
Fluttershy came out slowly.
“It’s okay, Rainbow. To tell the truth, I was very startled when I heard about it from Darcie and Buck earlier.”
The two squirrels nodded a lot and chattered urgently. Twilight leaned forward across the table.
“So, the changeling they saw was tall and fierce, with dark green hair?”
Fluttershy nodded.
“Chrysalis!” they all said at the same time.
“We’ve got to go and find her: she’s still a dangerous enemy for all of Equestria.”
Twilight stated everypony’s thoughts out loud.
“Well, I’m up for it.”
“Count me in!”
“I’m bright and ready!”
“And I as well.”
“Ah’ll come along to help defend us if she decides to fight.”
“Chrysalis has magic as well as strength, Applejack, so Starlight and I will be ready to counteract any spells that she might throw at us.”
Starlight smiled, her horn glowing with powerful magic.
“Don’t worry, Twilight. We’ll all work together and we’ll be alright.”
Rarity smiled. “That’s the spirit, darling. Let’s go then.”
The blue pegasus whooped suddenly. “Onwards!”
The seven ponies went out of Sugarcube Corner and ran towards the forest.
The ponies went as fast as they could through the woods, swerving past trees, through undergrowth … until Twilight suddenly skidded to a halt. The rest of the ponies had to do the same. Pinkie Pie unfortunately halted a bit too quickly and crashed into Rainbow Dash, making both of them fall to the ground.
“Quiet!” hissed Twilight, whose horn glimmered.
They were coming to the edge of an almost camouflaged clearing.
“What is it?” whispered Pinkie.
“My tracking spell tells me that there is a changeling in this clearing.”
Rainbow Dash flexed her hoofs and wings.
“Oh yeah, it’s go time.”
“Okay then”, Twilight said.
The ponies all tensed. “Here we go.”
They burst into the clearing … and stopped.
All seven ponies’ jaws dropped.
The former Changeling Queen was sprawled on the ground in front of them, moaning quietly in discomfort.
It certainly wasn’t what they’d expected to find … and now they presently didn’t know what to do. Applejack voiced what everyone was probably thinking.
“Ya’ll have any ideas? Ah sure don’t.”
Her friends all shook their heads, obviously as confused as she was.
Twilight quietly reviewed the present situation in her head:
We’re in a forest clearing. Chrysalis is in the same clearing, and she’s not moving very much. She is also groaning and moaning like she’s in a bad state … but that could be a very clever piece of deception. We’ll have to be careful.
Rainbow Dash was watching the changeling through narrowed eyes, ready to spring into action if Chrysalis tried to attack her friends.
Pinkie Pie and Rarity were looking at Twilight, ready to hear any suggestions that the purple alicorn might say.
Fluttershy, on the other hoof, was looking at Chrysalis with an expression that held confusion and oddly … sympathy. Slowly she began to move forward towards Chrysalis, trying to be cautious with each step.
“Fluttershy, what are you doing?!” Rainbow blurted out, and then lowered her voice. “That’s one of our worst enemies, and she’s very dangerous!”
Fluttershy turned her head and spoke. “I know … but she doesn’t look very well to me. In fact, she looks terrible!”
The yellow pegasus then turned back and carried on creeping toward Chrysalis. After a second, her friends all joined her, and together they walked until they were right next to the catatonic changeling.
Fluttershy leaned over Chrysalis: taking into account the changeling’s heavy breathing, pinched expression, and the small moans and groans that occasionally came out of her mouth.
The yellow pony gently brushed her right hoof against the changeling’s forehead … and gasped quietly.
“Oh, my goodness!”
“What? What is it, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.
“The poor thing’s ill, Twilight.” Fluttershy took Twilight’s hoof gently and put it next to hers on Chrysalis’s forehead. “She’s burning up with fever, and it’s a bad one.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Are ya sure, Fluttershy? She could be pretending … after all, she did fool a lot of ponies at Shining Armour and Cadence’s wedding.”
The yellow pegasus hesitated for a second and then nodded.
“She didn’t fool me though”, the purple alicorn stated emphatically.
“I’ll just check to see.”
While Twilight was casting a quick health check spell, Starlight was thinking about Chrysalis and her recent actions.
Chrysalis is a bit of an enigma in some ways … we don’t really know her past history (not counting the various conspiracies against Equestria), and don’t really know her as a pony. Oops … a changeling.
The pink unicorn winced a little.
Maybe I offered her friendship too quickly? I don’t know … I’ll ask Twilight about it later.
The health check spell complete, the purple alicorn turned to face her friends.
“Fluttershy’s right. Chrysalis is suffering from a pretty nasty fever.” Twilight’s face showed signs of sympathy and pity. “I know that she’s our enemy, but still: fevers can be terrible. I had one when I was little and it was awful.”
All the ponies nodded in agreement.
Fluttershy walked forward, a look of determination on her face.
“Everypony, Chrysalis needs medicines and healing spells right now. I think that we should take her to Ponyville Hospital.”
Rainbow Dash snorted.
“Yeah, right! Let’s bring a sick monster to the Ponyville Hospital: regardless of the fact that everypony in Ponyville will freak out when they see her!”
The meek but formidable pegasus stepped up her argument.
“But we have to take care of her … even though she’s a villain who tried to take over Equestria (twice), we can’t just leave her here, especially not as she’s unwell. That would be cruel.”
Applejack cocked her head, hat slightly askew.
“Ah agree with Fluttershy … and Rainbow Dash. We gotta take care of her, but we can’t be starting a stampede in Ponyville. We’ll have to sneak her in without anypony seein’.”
The Mane 6 and Starlight Glimmer looked at one another: each pony was thinking very hard. Suddenly, Starlight’s face lit up with inspiration.
“Aha!” She said.
She then shared her idea with her friends.
“I believe that I have a possible solution to our problem.”
She turned to face Twilight.
“Twilight, do you remember that spell you taught me in our last magic lesson?”
The purple alicorn nodded.
“Advanced teleportation spell: the one that allows multiple teleportations at the same time … oh, I see.”
The alicorn and her student grinned and said at the same time:
“We’ll use it to move Chrysalis to the castle!”
A sudden thought struck Twilight.
“It’ll take both of us to do it, since she’s bigger than us”, she said.
“Okay then”, replied Starlight.
The two mages looked at their friends.
“Coming the long way or the short way?” Twilight asked.
“Short, please … um, if that’s okay.”
“Ah shoot, maybe … just this once.”
“Ooh, new spell? It sounds fun … I’m in!”
“Well, if it’s comfortable and quick, and doesn’t leave any dirty marks, I’ll come.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the question.
“Sure, I can take whatever you two eggheads can do.”
Starlight frowned, but when she saw Twilight smiling, she relaxed. Oh, Rainbow. You really are an awful tease, you know.
The purple alicorn sighed and prepared herself.
“Stand still, everypony. You may feel several tingles all over your body during the casting, but that’s normal.”
Twilight looked at her student.
“Ready, Starlight?”
Starlight Glimmer smirked.
“Always, Twilight.”
The two powerful mages then put their horns together and cast the spell. Swirls of purplish turquoise light surrounded the group: the glow intensified, there was a big flash and then they were gone.
The clearing was now empty of ponies, and one changeling.