//------------------------------//
// The Show - Part 5 
// Story: Saving Equestria 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

Applejack squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, the image of Rarity still playing over and over in her head. Rather than cry, however, Applejack's jaw set like a steel trap. Standing up, she surveyed the edge of town, and then whistled.

Trotting along, patrolling the edge of town, Cheerilee had not a care in her head. The bridle she wore made sure of that. Until, of course, she heard the whistle. The tack wrapped around her head jingled softly as she turned. "Applejack! I'm so glad I saw you!"

Of the three kinds of pony Applejack could have startled, she was glad for it being an earth pony. "You should come quick, Cheerilee. There's somethin' important I gotta show ya." And, having said her best straight-line, Applejack turned and started to run.

Cheerilee was confused at first. When she saw somepony, she was supposed to lead them to the town center, but Applejack was going the wrong way. "Wait! Come back!"

Running after Applejack, Cheerilee got just within the edge of the Everfree Forest when something landed on her back. She was an earth pony, which meant that the heavy weight on her back wasn't as debilitating as it would have been to a pegasus or unicorn. "Get off me! You are being really naughty, and need to come back to the town!"

Eye Spy knew she wasn't the right bug for the job, but there were only three of them. Extra Sharp had headed back to take word to the approaching detachment of changelings, while Eye had opted to stay and help the locals. "A little help?"

Circling back around, Applejack came in out of Cheerilee's line of sight. Pulling out a coil of rope, she got it around one of Cheerilee's legs and pulled hard. "Th' trick with earth ponies is not to get in a tussle with 'em. Failin' that, ya gotta get 'em off their hooves fast."

Lacking the venom of a guardling and the overwhelming power of an underling, Eye Spy only had one thing left she could do to make herself useful. She called her magic, let it boil around her, and built up a royal guard pony form around herself. Shapechanging was the only game-changer an infiltrator had, but lucky for Eye Spy it was a really good one.

Cheerilee fell to her side and felt the weight of a big stallion land on her. "G-Get off me! We need to go to the town center right now!" While she yelled, Applejack took the time to tie her legs together. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"That's a might-good question." Applejack finished tying the knots to keep Cheerilee bound despite the strength she possessed, and looked up at a fourth figure. "Why're we doing this again?"

Zecora stepped from the shadows of the forest. She looked at the bridle on Cheerilee's head with obvious dislike. "The reason you already knew, the addition of a bridle we must undo."

Applejack couldn't help looking at Eye Spy, disguised as a royal guard, a little odd. Zecora inspecting the bridle pulled her attention away from the changeling. "Can we git it off her?" She reached down to tug at the bridle and froze.

Buzzing magic started to shoot up Applejack's leg, trailed by a strap leading from Cheerilee's bridle. She was stuck, her leg not responding to her desire to pull back from it. As the strap of the bridle almost reached her barrel, she opened her mouth to yell in panic.

Eye Spy had believed everything her mother had said. Eye trusted the ponies that accepted her. She offered help to them too. When she watched the unknown magic reaching for Applejack, she moved before having to think about it. Leaning into a shove, she knocked Applejack away with every bit of her assumed bulk.

The strap pulled free from Applejack's foreleg, and lashed around for a new target. With Zecora jumping back in shock, that only left Eye Spy. 

Grabbing the changeling, the magic spiraled up her foreleg quickly and shoved itself up her chest and around her head. Eye Spy squealed in panic and tried desperately to pull away, but it was too late. The straps settled, tugging taut around her muzzle, ears, jaw, and behind her head. 

Eye Spy shook her head, her mind filling with panic. She jumped back from Zecora and Applejack, scared that she might spread this thing to them too. "Stand back!"

Zecora kept watch on Eye while Applejack got to her hooves. She narrowed her eyes a little, and then a smile spread over her lips. "The bridle's power over changelings is sure, but on a changeling loyalty fails to ensure."

"It does tingle a little. How would I tell if it was controlling me?" Eye Spy still kept her distance from Applejack, but when Zecora approached, she held her ground.

Keeping her distance from Cheerilee and Eye Spy, Applejack considered the situation in the blunt, direct way that she was well-known for. "So yer sayin' it ain't doing nothin'?"

"I can hear whispering. Sort of like a buzzing sound in the back of my head. It's trying to do something to me, but I don't think it's taking." Eye Spy shook her head, trying to clear the noise, but it was ever-present. "Might get annoying."

"Before you say it, I know what you're going to ask. And you're going to be right." Turning to look back at the town, Eye Spy shoved at the voices in her head, and while they quietened for a moment, they were back just as loud as ever. "No one is better suited to get in and take a look around than me." She turned to Applejack. "Be careful of that bridle. I won't be around next time." 

With a deep breath, Eye Spy set her hooves moving toward the town. "I just had to sign up to be the hero. What's wrong with me?" As Eye Spy broke through the edge of the forest, she spotted a pony already walking toward the spot. The closer they got to her, the louder the noise in the back of her head became. "H-Hi!"

"What happened to Cheerilee? Is she okay?" Looking back the way Eye Spy had come from, Caramel held a hoof up to his bridled head. In the back of his mind a small voice whispered that he needed to find out what happened. Caramel couldn't avoid listening to that voice, and he couldn't disobey it.

"Th-They captured her. Well, we did. But then her bridle grabbed me. I really want to go to the town square…" Admitting the truth was unavoidable, but in her disguise Eye Spy was perfectly situated to give as much false information as she could hope to. "C-Can you take me there?"

—Find out what happened.— Caramel's head turned to look at Eye. "What happened to her? How many of you are out there?" The voice in his head was insistent.

"Th-There was me and two others. They grabbed Ch-Cheerilee and took her deep into the forest. I managed to s-slip away!" Eye Spy cast a few longing looks toward the town. The buzzing in her head had settled into a background drone.

Caramel paused, waiting. He was just getting worried when the voice started whispering again. —Take her to town.— Sighing in relief, Caramel nodded to that voice. "Okay. I'll take you to town." He didn't expect Eye to misstep, or do anything out of the ordinary—she had a bridle on, after all; she had her own voice to listen to.

"S-So. What's actually going on here?" Eye Spy hoped the bridles were just commanding, and not fully controlling the ponies. If it was the latter, she was about to have a bad day, or so she thought.

"Oh! Queen Trixie and Empress Rarity are giving everypony bridles. Isn't it so much easier just listening to them, not having to think for yourself?" Caramel trotted along at Eye's side. —Find out everything about her.— "So, what's your name? I'm Caramel."

"Sure Guard. Err, my n-name's Sure Guard." As an infiltrator, picking a new alias was as smooth and easy as breathing for Eye Spy. The stutter had been her first choice to stand out by not standing out. A simple and silly name was the second. "It's lovely to be here with you, Caramel."

"You're a Royal Guard, huh? I thought they were all stallions?" Despite his words, Caramel was happy they weren't all stallions. Sure Guard looked quite attractive a mare to him.

"Y-Yeah. Since all that changeling takeover stuff, Queen Chrysalis has been l-letting anypony join. I always wanted to protect Equestria, but now I just want to protect Ponyville!" Eyes Spy didn't fail to notice that Caramel's eyes kept straying to her. Flattering as it was, she had a job to do.

As they drew ever closer to Ponyville, Eye started noticing the voice getting more insistent, and gaining in volume. She could make out words now. —Turn yourself in.— —Tell them you're a spy.— —Let them make you whole.— They weren't affecting her, still, but it was getting annoying.

—Lead her to the town center. Present her to your queen.— Glad that he didn't have to ask anymore pointed questions, Caramel relaxed a little more. "Your eyes are pretty."

"P-Pretty?" The statement was completely unlike everything else Caramel had said. Eye Spy thought about it, and she smiled a little. "Yours too." —Surrender.—

"… everypony come close! We are beginning the spell!" Rarity's voice resounded over the town, Trixie's amplification spell working perfectly. —Begin summoning. Make them help. This spell must be cast.—

—Give in.— Eye inadvertently (and uselessly) tucked her ears back. The voice was getting loud enough that it was really annoying. When she saw what was happening in the town center, however, she felt real panic. 

Rarity stood across from Trixie. Both unicorns wore similar bridles. Between them lay another bridle, black straps seemed to eat the light, but on the cross-piece where a strap passed above the wearers eyes a curved, red horn was attached. 

Around Rarity and Trixie, arrayed in a circle, was every unicorn in the town. One by one, each started channeling magic. Each pony built up their power and then sent it forth into either Trixie or Rarity.

Eye Spy didn't like what she saw one bit. She recognized the horn, and figured the rest was pretty obvious. If the bridles were making ponies do this, then it was important that it happen—or not happen as the case may be. —Put the bridle on.—

"Ohhh. They're starting!" Caramel walked closer to the ritual circle, milling up with the other non-unicorns gathered around. "Come on, Sure Guard!"

"C-Coming!" Moving to Caramel's side, Eye Spy could feel the strength of the voice in her head growing. —Present yourself. Take up the mantle.— "Shut up." Eye froze. The surrounding ponies were staring at her, although the unicorns seemed to be completely focused. "Err… Uh… What's that?!" She pointed a hoof back the way she had come.

Caramel was a smart stallion: he knew a ruse when he saw it. But he was the only one. "What are you doing?" 

—Surrender your will to me.— Eye Spy was wearing the form of an earth pony built on a large scale. She shoved with her back hooves, and leapt into a gallop. —Accept your fate.— There was five pony-lengths between her and the unicorn circle. When the gap was just one length, she planted her forehooves and shoved upward. —Be their ruler.—

"Shut up!" Eye repeated, her voice coming through clenched teeth as she soared into the air and over the unicorns. —Take me.— Ignoring the voice, Eye Spy's focus was on the bridle on the ground. Magic streamed from Trixie and Rarity into it, and the thing seemed to glow and writhe with power. —Become power.—

Eye Spy hadn't realized what was happening until it was too late. The voice was working, but it had taken proximity to others to have it really sink in. She slowed, walking toward the horned bridle. —Pick it up. Put it on. Become my avatar.—

The black bridle writhed, squirmed, and when Eye Spy's hoof reached out to it, it stretched tendril-like straps toward her. 

"Stop."

So focused was Eye, that she couldn't tell the commanding tone of the voice wasn't coming from inside her head. She froze in place, not quite making contact with the dark bridle. —Ignore them. Take it.—

Just as Eye Spy reached her hoof a little closer, another limb reached into her field of view and pulled the bridle away from her. Lifting her head, Eye Spy stared at Derpy Hooves. She watched as the bridle started crawling its way up the bat-winged pony's body, enshrining itself on her head.

"This wasn't your fight." Derpy shook her head, feeling the bridle pull tight and the base of the horn—that the strap parted around—kiss her forehead. A lance of pain stabbed through Derpy, and she threw up her defense as fast as she could.

Time seemed to stop as Derpy's focus slipped inward, and once more she was trapped in the fortress of her mind. There was no fire this time. Darkness wrapped around her bastion; cold, chilling darkness.

"Let me in. I promise to spare you and everypony you care for."

Derpy shook her head. "I don't care. You hurt a lot of ponies!" She didn't believe a word the darkness said. The darkness around Derpy's little fortress throbbed with power, and she watched as all her walls creaked in distress. Worry assuaged her, and she started rebuilding the walls of her mind.

The walls trembled, and Derpy Hooves struggled to hold them. But she didn't struggle alone.

"You look like you need some help." Fire Dancer stood beside Derpy, looking like her twin now. "I like the wings, by the way."

"Fire!" Derpy hugged Fire Dancer, using her forelegs and her wings together. "You're okay! I was worried he would do something to you."

"He should have. He's what was in the amulet, what I should be now. I don't know what stopped him from absorbing me." Leaning into the embrace, Fire Dancer pressed her cheek to Derpy's. "I'm glad you did this. Nopony else could stand up to him like this."

Derpy shrugged. "With both of us here it'll be a pushover. Let's—" Her voice died as darkness tumbled through her walls, spread around the two of them, and started contracting.