Fluttershy slapped shut the book she had been reading. A few murmurs rose from the library-visitors that occupied the small library she had found. She pinkened and gently set the book back where it came from. Despite her embarrassment, she moved with purpose right into Applejack just outside.
"Found the answer?" asked Applejack with a hopeful smile.
Fluttershy took a step backwards in surprise. "Oh! Hello, Applejack. Um, I think so. I'll have to wait until tonight to test it, but it's our best chance of--"
"--How good is that 'best chance'?" She hiked a brow at Fluttershy. "Are we talking 'almost sure thing' chance or 'probably won't, but worth a shot' chance?" She turned towards the orchard, only the tops of which were visible over the town in the way. "Look, Sugarcube, we need to fix this, yesterday."
"Tonight," repeated Fluttershy with more conviction. "If I can't fix it tonight, then... I guess I let you do it your way."
Applejack nodded firmly. "I'll take you up on that, but ah just want it clear that I tried it yer way first, right?"
Fluttershy quirked a little smile. "You're perfectly right to be worried about your family." She raised a hoof and pointed at the town, though a stallion that happened to be in the way looked confused a moment. "I won't give up on them, or the moths. I'm trying to help both. I know you... aren't very interested in the moths, but it's... what I do." She dipped her head towards Applejack. "Tonight."
"Tonight," echoed Applejack in agreement. "I'll tell the others then. Maybe it'll calm them down some."
The two mares trotted off on their different missions, both with the goal of saving the town.
Bon Bon paced around the room, a serious look on her face. "I need the truth and nothing but it." She pointed at the filly she knew to be a changeling, standing beside the queen-sized bed that filled most of the room. "What are your intentions?"
Spring Rain tilted her head a little, ears skewed. "Intentions?"
"Well, let's start." Bon Bon sat down facing the filly. "You are a rogue changeling."
Spring's fur fluffed up. "Good, so I have a brain! Why the others think Chrysalis is a good person to follow, I don't know."
Bon Bon pointed vaguely to the south. "Chrysalis was already deposed as queen of most changelings."
Spring's tension collapsed and she almost fell over. "What?"
"The new ruler is King Thorax, a naive but well-meaning changeling that brought about a dramatic change in the entire species." Bon Bon sounded like she was quoting a textbook somewhere. "You haven't heard of this?"
Spring blinked slowly before shaking her head left and right. "I don't... read newspapers. What kind of 'dramatic change'?" She took a timid step forward, bumping the bed with her unsure motion. "Is it a good one or a bad one?"
Bon Bon smiled gently. "Good, very good. They are becoming a kind people who wish to be friends, rather than monsters."
"Like me!?" Spring fell back on her rump and rose a hoof to her chest.
"Not quite like you, but close." Bon Bon approached the filly and reached, patting her on the head. "They're adults, not trying to... Wait a moment. Are you a grown changeling or not? I thought young changelings looked... dramatically different."
Spring looked away a moment. "I was trained to... take advantage of most species' love for young things. When I act the part, I get fed. Y-you gave some to me earlier when I rescued you from boredom. The stallion you saw gave me a treat too. Ponies... like it when a filly takes interest in them and they aren't too annoying."
Bon Bon frowned softly. "So you are an adult, which also means I can yell at you for making me swallow that key."
Spring quickly raised her hooves in a warding motion. "I fixed that!" She thrust her right hoof towards the large instrument resting against the corner. "See, you have it, and I rescued you. I wasn't trying to... do that. It was a mistake, honest!"
"Still, an adult..."
"I'm not an adult." Spring shook her head as flames overtook her, leaving her as a changeling not much different in size than what she started with. "You saw it before. I mean, I'm not a larvae... but I'll get bigger, I hope." She looked away nervously. "Besides... you play a role long enough... I don't know how to not be a filly."
Bon Bon shook her head slowly. "Well, I can tell you how to join the others, the nice changelings."
"You're sending me away?" Spring ran a hoof over the floor. "I thought..."
Bon Bon hiked a brow. "You thought what?"
"Nevermind," she sighed out dejectedly.
"Out with it."
Spring was quiet, shuffling in place as she resumed being a fluffy filly. "I thought you wanted to be my mom?"
Bon Bon pointed at Spring. "One, you said that. Two, returning you to your people is the nicest thing I can do. They're good people, and will welcome you." She moved for the sousaphone and wriggled back into it. "I need to be ready for tonight. I came here for a reason."
"And... that reason isn't me..." Spring hopped up onto the bed just to flop across it. "I understand. Um... thanks for not... thanks for believing me."
Bon Bon waved the thought away as she moved for the window, peeking out at the ponies passing by on the street. "Thank you for the timely rescue." A thought nagged at her. "Why was I in a closet, anyway?"
Spring blinked softly from the bed. "You don't remember?"
"I remember wanting to find Time Turner. Someone gave directions?" She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "Somehow, closet."
Spring looked uncomfortable a moment, but Bon Bon was facing away. "Oh, weird, um... well, you weren't hurt, so I guess it's alright."
Bon Bon grunted in idle agreement.
As the sun sank beneath the horizon, ponies moved into different positions.
Time Turner trotted along beside Fluttershy. "I do hope this works," he confessed as he went.
"Your help will make it much more likely to." She smiled gently as she fluttered beside him, slow flaps keeping her just off the ground. "Is it ready?"
"As ready as it ever will be." He reached back and pulled out a microphone. "Here you are."
Fluttershy accepted the device and nodded. "It's been a while since I used one of these... I hope the moths enjoy it." She landed, cradling the microphone between two hooves. "Ready."
"Ready," echoed Time Turner with an emphatic hooves-up gesture.
Elsewhere, Bon Bon snuck onto the orchard with a filly trailing after her. "You don't have to come along," she muttered to her companion.
"But I want to." Rain smiled nervously as she ducked around a thick tree. "I won't be in the way."
Bon Bon didn't like it. The filly represented a very real security risk. She waited for an opportunity; any distraction at all, and then it came. Singing echoed through the trees. It sounded like a mare singing a soft lullaby. Was someone else trying to take care of the moths? Not a bad try, Bon Bon decided, but it was the perfect cover.
She lowered her mouth to the piece of her sousaphone and blew into it deep and long. She could feel it vibrating all around her, playing the one needed note that she couldn't hear, nor could any other pony. It was made specifically for the lunar moths.
Time Turner let out an amazed gasp. Rising from the branches of countless trees came little wisps of light. The moths were coming to vibrant life, their glows taking on many different colors. Soon the entire orchard was buried in a dizzying array of colors, moving and undulating. "Keep singing," he urged. "It's working!"
Spring giggled with building joy, her forehooves going wide as she did a spin on her hind-legs. "Look! Look look! Someone's singing a spell! Mom!" Bon Bon did not reply, still blowing into the instrument as she was.
Fluttershy's singing picked up, wishing the moths a good journey and a better home. A single tear escaped her eyes with relief, watching the colorful cloud start to depart. She was doing it. The ponies would be safe, and so would the moths. No one had to be hurt that night.
All through the town, ponies gaped at the dramatic display they could see even from there. The sky became a colorful mass of retreating forms. Braeburn nudged against Applejack, "That friend of yours is something else, huh?"
Applejack took off her hat and held it to her chest. "She sure is... Ah'll apologize fer pushin' her so hard."
"Apologize nothing." Breaburn reared up to throw his hooves wide. "This is time for a celebration, and she'll be the star of the whole thing."
Applejack laughed at the enthusiastic display. "Reckon she appreciates the thought, but being the star of a big ho down is exactly what she tries to avoid. Write a nice letter instead, she'll treasure it forever."
The lunar moths were sent away to find another nesting ground. Bon Bon slipped away with her small ward, no one knowing she was involved, even Spring Rain.
"I don't get it, weren't we going to do something? Why did we even go?!" she complained as they went, but Bon Bon offered no answers, just a one-hoofed hug.
When Time Turner and Fluttershy emerged from the orchard, they were met by a cheering crowd of townsponies. Several charged them, hefting them up into the air off their hooves and bouncing them up and down into the crowd's mass. The cheers were loud and enthusiastic, praising their saviors.
Fluttershy eventually managed to creep away, aided by her wings, but Time Turner had no such advantage. A party was rapidly assembled, and he was the star. All eyes were on him, with the other savior already vacated. They offered him cider and bumped against him and extolled his virtues.
It was a grand time. It was a happy time. It reminded Time Turner that he was an introvert. He was becoming drained, and the human inside wanted to come out. Every time he tried to scoot away, another pony would appear in his way, gushing about how thankful they were for what he and Fluttershy had done for them.
Food was shoved into his hooves when drinks weren't being offered. Mares spoke nicely about him and the stallions treated him like a brother. It should have been a wonderful evening, but all Time Turner could think about was the ticking bomb that was coiling ever tighter with every passing moment. He was going to change, with or without his consent. He knew it, could feel it.
He would become a monster in front of the entire town and they would chase him away and then everyone would know his secret. There would be nowhere in Equestria he could hide.
In a desperate bit, he crossed his hind legs. "That cider went right through me, good chaps. Can you point the way to the nearest outhouse?" As soon as a single hoof raised to point the way, he began to gallop. He had to duck and wave and bob to get through the crowd, but he got to the small outhouse... that was locked.
He banged on the door, his expression growing more desperate by the moment. He could feel his tail becoming more naked. He was slipping.
"One second," came a muffled tone from within.
"Oh... please... hurry," grunted Time Turner as he tried desperately to hold the human back. A glance at his left forehoof revealed the hoof was starting to split. "Please...."
"One... Ahhhh....." The door pushed open from within and a very relieved stallion walked into view.
Time Turner had no time for etiquette. In a blind panic, he shoved the other pony out of the way with a hand he had grown without wanting to. He threw himself into the outhouse and slammed the door shut behind himself, turning the lock even as change overwhelmed him.