Dear Princess Luna,
I’m reluctant to bring this up, given that I’d like to think of Mr. Deadlift as a friend, and I know it’s very important to keep a friends trust, and their secrets… but not when said friend is doing something dangerous, or that could get them in a lot of trouble. And I’m afraid that Deadlift and his friends are going to do exactly that.
...And… it’s kinda… in a way… my fault. I should explain.
I’ve been helping Mr. Deadlift try to figure out what happened to Carrot Plate after the attack in Baltimare. But we’ve run into numerous dead-ends, as the mare seems to have disappeared from Equestria without a trace. Thus far, no amount of research and no tracking spell I’ve been able to locate has been of any help. To pass the time, the stallion had taken to reading through some of my casebooks concerning past friendship problems my friends and I have helped to solve. Honestly, given Mr. Deadlift’s overall sour disposition, I couldn’t see learning more about friendship being anything but good for the pony.
Unfortunately, he came across a particular case that has alway, quite frankly bothered me in it’ various… unseemly implications. Furthermore, this particular case may have a very personal connection to Mr. Deadlift and his friends in Las Pegasus. If he’s right in his assumptions, it could well have implications into the recent troubles in Canterlot concerning the changeling who calls himself “The Nopony”. Though I’m not as sure about this as Mr. Deadlift, he seems quite certain about his conclusions. I’ve included a brief summary of the events concerning a mare by the name of Fetlock, who claimed that she could return lost ponies from the dead. Please be aware that some of this information is of a very sensitive nature, especially as it concerns the Apple family.
I won’t go to far into details here, as you can find all the relevant data in the summary, and I can make the case file itself available if you would like to see my own notes on the spells and magical processes involved. Suffice to say, Dr. Fetlock was not returning lost ponies at all, but rather abducting humans, transforming them into likenesses of her clients lost loved ones, and then brainwashing them to play the part. Again, I cannot stress enough the confidential nature of this information as it relates to the Apple Family. They have been through enough grief without the information in this file becoming public.
As bad as this was, in and off itself, it actually got worse. Dr. Fetlock was eventually no longer content with simply replacing lost loved ones, but began creating completely new ponies, and in one case a copy of a relatively famous pony to serve as companions for her clients. Yes, I am serious. And yes, it is exactly as bad as it sounds. I went to Manehattan with Applejack to confront the misguided doctor, after she confessed to me that she had been one of her clients (again, I won’t go into details here, but they are contained within the summary).
To make a long story short, we arrived just in time to save the Doctor from a crisis of her own making, as one of her victims had gained an alarming amount of control over her relative position within the space time continuum after Dr. Fetlock made the disastrous effect of trying t through the newly summoned and transformed human back into its own world. The resulting pony was enraged beyond reason, and in the end all I could do was to banish the poor creature (now a cacophony of mirror pools reflections of itself, flickering in and out of existence both at real and at random) to limbo to stop her (them?) from hurting any and everypony they came into contact with.
The one bright spot was that this seemed to be a wake-up call for Dr. Fetlock, who acknowledged that perhaps she had misinterpreted her place in Equestria and that there were better ways to fill the pony shaped voids represented by her cutie mark than summoning beings from other planes of existence.
So, having convinced another wayward pony to change her ways and embrace harmony, I made extensive copies of her own case files and returned to Ponyville. And this is where he current problem began. Mr. Deadlift was, understandably upset that a pony had been abducting and using humans in this manner, but what really set him off was Fetlock description of the human she summoned who became “Legion Scratch” (sorry, Rainbow Dash came up with that name after we told her what had happened, and the name just stuck).
According to Mr. Deadlift, her description of both the humans appearance and behavior matches that of a human from their own world. Also a human who had already died here in Equestria. Specifically the human generally referred to as “Charlie” who was confined by Surprise Pastel to have been this timelines version of the human who became Trainwreck Pastel.
I tried pointing out that the human in question was never transformed into a changeling, he was transformed into a copy of DJ Pon3. Deadlift however immediately jumped to the conclusion that the human had been a changeling before leaving it’s own world. Given what little we know about the human world that spawned Deadlift, Trainwreck, and their friends, it doesn’t seem entirely impossible. It was entirely impossible to discern Train Wreck’s original species from what Discord made him into, and since he seemingly vanished from existence there’s no way t ask him myself. I tried asking Discord himself, but he merely shrugged, insisting he “couldn’t be bothered to check at the time”. However, it is generally known to those ponies familiar with the Nopony that he was (or claimed to be) a former human who bore a striking resemblance to the human who became Trainwreck Pastel. And we honestly don’t have any idea when or how he became a changeling in the first place.
However if Mr. Deadlift is correct, then it is entirely possible that there are still copies, or perhaps versions of the Nopony out there. I have already advised my own guards to be on the lookout, but he shouldn’t be too hard to spot, given that hiding doesn’t seem to be his style.
I’m more concerned with what Mr. Deadlift and his friends may do when they confront Dr. Fetlock, in particular if she has continued or returned to her old ways. Mr. Deadlift is not a BAD pony, really, but I’ve never seen anypony so angry… and I guess I don’t blame him. It probably IS for the best that somepony should look in on the good doctor, but I was wondering if you could send a few of your guards, or perhaps one of the warlocks… just to make sure Mr. Deadlift and his friends don’t do something they might regret.
Thank you for your consideration.
Your Friend,
Twilight Sparkle