Trixie let out a frustrated sigh as she splashed water from the stream into her face. It was enough to cool her down for a moment before her frustration rose again and she let out another sigh. Looking down the road ahead of her, Trixie could see that Ponyville was within sight and that they would reach it before noon.
Trixie thought about the drastic changes her life had taken in just one day. She had found out that she was harbouring a changeling, had decided to protect said changeling from two assassins, had almost lost her life to those same assassins and was also harbouring one of those assassins inside her trailer.
After drying her face with a towel, Trixie approached her trailer and entered it, looking around to see if the freeloaders had woken up yet. Shark was up and helping himself to some of Trixie’s food, but Aura was still fast asleep… and breathing rather heavily. This concerned Trixie for a moment, but she remembered that Aura had already had plenty of nightmares in just the short amount of time that she had known the youngling. ‘Can’t really blame her, after what she’s been through.’
“Trixie,” Shark started, “Before we enter this town, we need to talk about our situation.”
Trixie glanced at Shark, before turning her attention to his breakfast. It figures he would take all of her favourite foods just a day after she had bought them. Trixie sighed again. This was becoming a habit, she realised. “Trixie believes she suggested that we talk last night?”
“I was tired,” Shark said. Trixie groaned and rubbed her forehead with a hoof. “Anyway, it’s about Razor Tooth, the guy chasing us. I don’t think we’ve given him the slip.” Trixie stopped preparing her own breakfast for a moment, before continuing as she listened. “Just in case, I don’t think we should stick around for too long in this town. We need to keep moving, at least until we’ve recovered.”
“No,” Aura said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, “We can’t do that… We need to capture him, before he has a chance to regroup with my mother.”
Trixie and Shark exchanged surprised looks before turning to Aura in unison. “What do you mean, ‘capture him’?” Trixie asked.
Aura let out a loud yawn before answering. “I… made up my… my mind, yesterday…” Aura’s voice was weak and dreary, but she continued nonetheless. “I… I don’t wanna…”
“Are you ok?” Trixie asked, immediately stopping what she was doing and walking over to Aura. Aura nodded slowly, before falling onto her back. “AURA!”
“Relax, she’s fine,” Shark said. “She’s just a little low on energy, that’s all.”
“But she ate so much yesterday…” It suddenly hit Trixie. “Changelings consume love,” she mumbled to herself. “How exactly does it work?”
“I don’t really get it myself,” Shark admitted. “I only did basic Biology in school. Basically, there’s a type of energy that exists in all living creatures, but for the most part it’s a reserve energy. The kind used in ‘fight-or-flight’ situations that gives you that extra boost you need to survive. For a changeling, though, it’s essential.
“We use love as a gateway to access that energy. It’s not really consuming love itself, but it does leave the ‘victim’ feeling drained for a short time. As you can imagine, the strain causes the target to suffer mood swings and tantrums. That’s how the stories about changelings eating love started.”
Trixie put a hoof to her chin. “So you’re simply draining energy from your target? Is it lethal?”
Shark shook his head. “Like I said, for most creatures, this is a backup energy source. It’s only dangerous if a changeling drains that source dry and begins to drain the primary energy sources of the same target.”
Trixie watched Aura breathing in-and-out at irregular intervals for a few seconds. She then made her way to the back of the trailer. Aura slowly sat up and faced Trixie. “Miss… Trixie?”
“You need some energy to survive, right?” Trixie asked. Aura nodded. “Then… you can take some of Trixie’s.”
Aura gasped and quickly shook her head. “N-No, I couldn’t… I…”
“No arguing,” Trixie said sternly. “You need this to survive, Aura. Trixie will be just fine, so don’t worry. Just take what you need.” Aura was about to protest again, before Trixie stomped her hoof to silence her. “Now, Aura!”
Aura flinched slightly at Trixie’s raised voice. She wanted to protest some more, but then Trixie took out a photograph from her wardrobe and looked at it… and suddenly, Aura could feel herself being drawn towards the showmare. Or rather, to the love coming from Trixie’s body. She could feel it… the gateway into Trixie’s soul, opened up by Trixie’s love for someone.
It was becoming increasingly harder for Aura to resist feasting on Trixie’s energy. Part of her felt guilty for constantly being helped by Trixie, but another part of her was telling her to just do whatever she could to survive. She chose to listen to that part and leaned her head towards Trixie, who moved closer to Aura.
‘It’s fine… It’s like Shark said; Miss Trixie will not be permanently harmed by this, and her love will not fade… And she’s offering it willingly, so it’s not like I’m robbing her of her energy or anything… So then, why do I still feel so guilty?’
Aura was about to pull back, but Trixie’s voice stopped her. “Don’t just take the bare minimum,” she said. “Take as much as you need and then some. After all, we don’t know when we’ll be attacked next and if you pass out on Trixie, it will be an inconvenience.”
“B-But-”
“Don’t worry about it,” Trixie said, this time with a smile. “If there’s one thing that Trixie has lots of, besides beauty and natural talent, it’s energy.”
“And ego,” Shark added.
Trixie ignored Shark’s comment. Aura reluctantly nodded and, as soon as she felt she felt that she had enough to last her another two to three days, she pulled her head back, the green energy connecting her horn to Trixie’s disappearing. Trixie stumbled backwards a bit and fell onto her haunches, muttering something unintelligible.
“Um… s-sorry,” Aura said, looking at Trixie nervously. “It won’t last long… You’ll be fine soon, just… don’t do any heavy lifting or complex magic for a while.”
Shark finished the last bite of his breakfast and turned to Aura, intent on getting straight down to business. “So,” he started, “You were saying something about capturing Razor?”
Aura turned to Shark and nodded, a serious look on her face. “This concerns you, too, Shark.” Aura took in a deep breath, braced herself, and then extended her hoof towards Shark. “I want you to join me in my quest.”
Shark titled his head to the side. “Eh?”
“Basically…” Aura shuffled her forehooves on Trixie’s bed nervously, trying to find the courage that she had worked up not too long ago. She cast a glance towards Trixie and found her courage again. “I want to bring peace between the ponies and the changelings!”
Shark’s confused look didn’t fade, and Trixie joined him. “You okay, kid?” Shark asked, poking her forehead with his hoof. “You get hit on the head or something?”
Aura batted away his hoof and glared at him. “I’m serious,” she said, turning to face Trixie. “I was willing to die yesterday, because I had given up on my dream, and because I had lost everything… but then Miss Trixie saved me. She risked her life to save mine, and even before then, she had spared her food and supplies to help me out.
“And then there’s Knight, and Iris, and Neon, and anyone else who might have died trying to protect me… If I had died yesterday, I would surely be apologizing to all of them right now, for wasting their noble sacrifices. And, once again, Miss Trixie has saved me, by giving me her energy.” Trixie blushed slightly, but still gave a proud grin at the praise she was receiving.
“Well, it’s not like Trixie could just leave you to die. Especially not after going through so much trouble to save you.”
“Exactly,” Aura said, turning back to Shark. “Miss Trixie has done so much for me, and I am not going to let it go to waste!” Shark seemed surprised by Aura’s sudden enthusiasm and silently let her continue. “I still have a dream! I want a world where ponies, changelings, and all other races live together in peace!”
Shark smirked at the youngling. “But how’re ya gonna accomplish that? You’re dead to the changelings, and your loyalists were surely killed, or at least have been dwindled down to nothing right now.” Aura’s determined look didn’t fade and Shark gave her an admiring stare. “Heh. Well, if that’s what you wanna do, go for it. Hell, if it brings down the queen then I wish you luck.
“You can count me out, though,” Shark finished, turning away and falling down onto his back whilst using his forehooves as makeshift pillows. “I just want my freedom. I don’t have any intention of getting involved in a full-on war.”
“But if there’s peace between our two races, you’ll have your freedom.”
“Will I? Even if such a thing were possible, it wouldn’t be in my lifetime, so why should I care?” Shark sat up and faced Aura once more, this time glaring at her with a scowl that broke the courage she had built up inside of her. “And that means I won’t go along with some ridiculous plan to capture Razor alive. I know the guy, and the best course of action is to challenge him on a battlefield set up by us beforehoof.”
The trailer was silent for a few moments, before Trixie broke the silence by clearing her throat. “Aura, how exactly do you plan on bringing peace between our two races? As Shark said, you can’t return to the Changeling Kingdom, you have no army… and although Trixie has agreed to look after you, she certainly does not intend to get washed up in political affairs.”
Aura concentrated her magic and took the form of the white filly that she had used when she had first met Trixie. “If I can’t change the world as a changeling… then I’ll change it as a pony.”
Trixie frowned at Aura’s response. “It’s not like you have much political influence here, though… Unless you take the form of somepony who does. But that’d be an incredibly risky move.”
“I’ll find a way,” Aura said, surprising both Trixie and Shark with just how sure she sounded of herself. “This dream of mine is all I have left. I will not let go of it.”
Trixie stared at Aura in wide-eyed amazement for a few seconds, before smiling and roughing up Aura’s mane playfully. “That’s the spirit!” she said. “Never let go of your dreams. They’re what make you you.” Trixie stared at her cutie mark, thinking about how, unlike changelings, a pony’s destiny was on full display to the whole world. “And your dream is never dead until you say it is.”
Aura smiled and slowly wrapped her forelegs around Trixie’s waist. Trixie wasn’t sure how to react, so she simply allowed to youngling to hug her for a moment. It didn’t exactly feel bad, at least.
When Aura was finished, Trixie cleared her throat and made her way to the front of her trailer. “W-Well then, shall we get going?” Shark was about to interject something, but Trixie anticipated this and cut him off. “Shark, we’ll discuss a battle plan later. But first, we’ll need to actually check out the area.”
Shark watched Trixie as she left the trailer. “You intend to fight him here?”
Trixie shook her head. “No. Trixie intends to trap him here.” She turned back to shark with a confident grin on her face. “After all, deceit and trickery are what Trixie does best. And the best way to defeat somepony…”
Shark grinned and finished Trixie’s train of thought. “Is with one swift strike while their guard is down, right? Interesting… but how do you intend to do that?”
“A magician does not reveal their secrets… You’ll just have to wait and marvel at Trixie’s grand performance.”
Luna closed her eyes and focused her magic. It was time for the sun to rise, which meant that the moon had to be lowered. As she was lowering the moon, she heard hoofsteps approaching her from behind, but their owner remained silent whilst the princess performed her task. Once she was finished, she turned around to find Shining Armor saluting her.
“At ease, Captain,” she said, and he obeyed. “Your report?”
Shining Armor levitated an item from his saddlebag into the air. It was the strange pair of goggles given to the princess by the changeling who had come to negotiate peace with them. “All tests show that there are no traps or bugging spells on these goggles or their owner, and they seem to do exactly what Odysseus said they would.”
“How sure are you that they are safe?” Luna asked, reaching out and grabbing hold of the goggles with her own magic.
“We used our finest resources, sir,” Shining Armor responded, “Though naturally, we are still suspicious… but as Odysseus has yet to make a single malicious move against us, we are treating him as a guest rather than a prisoner… Under strict surveillance, of course.”
Luna nodded and handed the goggles back to Shining Armor. “We see… Well, it is time for us to retire for the day. Please make sure to update our sister on the current situation.”
Shining Armor saluted as Luna trotted past him. He then turned his attention to the goggles.
“What are these?” Luna asked, holding the goggles in her magic.
“These, Princess, are a new invention of mine. Something that I have personally been working on for many years now… With these, you can see through a changeling’s disguise as if it weren’t even there.”
Shining Armor gave Odysseus a flat, unbelieving stare. “And you’re giving us such a useful thing, why?”
Odysseus smiled, but didn’t turn his gaze away from Princess Luna. “As I said, I wish for peace between our nations. These goggles serve two purposes.”
“The first being that, this way, we don’t have to feel threatened by your abilities to shapeshift, correct?” Luna asked, placing the goggles to one side.
“Indeed. And the other purpose is to prevent a catastrophe.” Odysseus predicted their next question and answered pre-emptively. “The day after tomorrow, at around mid-to-late evening Equestrian time, my mother, Queen Chrysalis, will lead her forces to this country with the intention of invading and conquering your land… followed by a widespread purging of all of ponykind.”
“WHAT?!” Shining Armor and Luna yelled in unison.
Odysseus nodded and looked down at the floor, a frown forming on his face. “It saddens me really… that Mother has become so corrupted, so maddened by her own thirst for power…” Odysseus let out a deep sigh and gave the princess before him a pleading look. “This is the last thing that I wanted to do, but after all of the crimes that she has committed, I have no choice… Just, please understand that not all changelings agree with her methods. Many are simply acting under duress or ignorance of her true goal.”
Luna glared at Odysseus, being careful not to trust him too easily. “So, you came to us to give us this item, so that we could battle your mother on equal grounds?”
Odysseus nodded. “Yes. The goggles are rather easy to make, you just need a certain ingredient that can only be found in our kingdom.” Odysseus turned to Shining Armor. “I brought an abundance of it. Your captain over there took it away from me.”
Luna nodded to Shining Armor, who saluted and ran off to fetch the changeling’s possessions. Upon returning, Shining Armor opened the bag that he had brought back to reveal a large supply of small green spheres.
“I’ve tried to reason with my mother, but it is hopeless now; she is beyond redemption.” Odysseus swallowed before continuing. “Please, take this gift, and with it, stop my mother’s injustices. Do not allow her to commit another catastrophe between our races!”
Shining Armor made his way down the castle, towards Princess Celestia’s room, ready to report to her about both Odysseus’ arrival in Equestria, and about the upcoming war. On the way, he stopped to get a progress report on the goggles. He was told that almost one thousand pairs had been manufactured. Shining Armor was surprised, but then remembered that the palace’s engineering department was famous for its fast and hard working ponies.
Upon reaching Princess Celestia’s bedchamber, Shining Armor braced himself, raised a hoof, and knocked.
Trixie ignored the looks pointed her way as her trailer passed through the streets of Ponyville. She was used to drawing attention as she entered towns with her showy trailer. It was kind of the point, really; she made sure her trailer drew the attention of the town’s inhabitants, so that she would have a huge crowd when she began her show. However, right now, she was resisting the urge to stop her trailer right there and put on a show for everypony around them.
“You might want to change now, Shark,” Trixie called into the trailer, “Unless you intend on staying in there all day?”
“You have this whole thing planned out, right?” Shark asked. “I think I’ll leave it to you.”
“Trixie will need some assistance setting the stage,” she said, “And it’s only natural that you pay Trixie back for the food you ate this morning.”
“Can I help?” Aura asked, sticking her head outside of the trailer’s door.
“Of course. It’s best if you stay with Trixie, anyway.”
Aura nodded and looked around the town as they passed through it. She saw many ponies looking at her. In truth, their eyes were drawn to the large trailer she was inside of, but to Aura, it felt as if they were staring at her alone. This made the young changeling very nervous, and it didn’t help that, unlike Manehatten, there didn’t seem to be any form of official guard in this town. Vigilante justice was a possibility that Aura dared to conceive.
‘Maybe I’m just thinking too hard. That kind of thing only happens in books, I’m certain. They surely won’t form an angry mob, armed with torches and pitchforks and-’
Aura’s thoughts descended into darker and darker places that caused her to shudder. Trixie noticed the youngling shivering next to her and looked down to find Aura’s eyes once again consumed by fear. ‘I should definitely keep her close to me… The bearers of the Elements of Harmony live in this town. At all costs, we must avoid running into any of them.’
“HI!” shouted a pink blur that appeared in front of Trixie the moment her trailer came to a stop in the town square. “You’re new in town, aren’t you? You met anypony yet? You need someone to show you around? You wanna be friends?”
Trixie and Aura retreated backwards a bit, startled by the sudden appearance of a pink earth pony who was standing on the ledge of Trixie’s trailer, her face mere inches away from the blue showmare’s. “W-Who?” Aura asked, too startled to say anything else.
“Oh, sorry! My name’s Pinkie Pie, and I’m friends with everypony in Ponyville! And even if you’re just passing through, if you’re in Ponyville, then I wanna be friends with you, too! Wanna come meet my other friends? They’re super nice ponies and I’m sure you’ll get along great with them! Or…”
‘Great… One of the Spirits of Harmony already… But this one seems like the least problematic. I should be able to get us out of this mess.’ Trixie pushed forward a bit, raising her head to look down at the pink pony. “Listen, Miss Pie-”
“Oh, you can just call me Pinkie!”
“… Pinkie, we are in a hurry, and do not have time for such nonsense. So if you understand, could you please get out of Trixie’s way?”
Pinkie Pie frowned and backed up a little bit, to allow Trixie and Aura to leave, followed by Shark, now in his pony form. Pinkie Pie’s face lit up again and she quickly resumed blocking Trixie’s path, startling the group once more. “Then how about later? We can have a party and you can meet all the ponies of Ponyville and we can all become the best of friends together!”
Trixie rubbed her forehead with a hoof. She could tell that the pink pony wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer… ‘So be it,’ she thought, bringing a hoof up to her hat and tilting it to the side. She mustered up the best fake smile she could and changed her tone to sound more friendly. “Why of course! We’d be happy to attend such an event!”
“We would?” Shark asked, looking at Trixie as if she had lost her mind.
“Of course! We just need some time to ourselves… Family stuff. I’m sure you understand.”
Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically before jumping into the air and… just floating there… It took all of Trixie’s energy not to break character and demand an explanation. “No problem! Just come by Sugar Cube Corner at six tonight! It’s that building over there!” she said, pointing a hoof at a nearby building decorated with cake, chocolate, and other assorted baked goods. She then took off in the opposite direction, leaving behind a cloud of smoke in the air.
Trixie gaped at the vanishing trail of smoke left by Pinkie Pie for a few seconds before she was snapped out of her daze by Shark. “Hey, we’re not really going, are we? I mean, I’m not goin’, that’s for sure.”
“Neither is Trixie,” Trixie replied, bringing her hat back down again and returning to her serious expression. “But we really do have matters to attend to and are in a hurry, and we needed to shut that pony up somehow.”
“Lying isn’t very nice,” Aura said with a frown.
“This coming from a creature who survives on deception,” Trixie retorted with a smirk.
“I can’t help my genes, and that’s not the point. Now that mare’s going to put together a party for nothing and she might even be hurt by it when you don’t show up.”
“She should’ve accepted Trixie’s first answer,” Trixie said with a shrug. “Besides, when your life is on the line, being nice is the absolute worst thing to do.”
“… Is that from experience?” Aura asked, to which Trixie simply nodded. “I see… I guess I can’t really argue against that, since I’ve never been in that situation before… but surely there must be some ponies out there who would help out those in a dire situation, and if you lose their trust, you’ll only make things harder for yourself.”
Trixie sighed and turned her back to Aura. “Lying has been Trixie’s means of surviving all these years and it has worked just fine.” She heard the sounds of a hoof scraping against the ground and turned to see Aura looking at the ground sadly, shuffling her forehoof against it. Aura looked up at Trixie for a brief moment and Trixie flinched when she saw the hurt look in the youngling’s eyes.
“I… kind of wanted to go…” Aura said, turning her head to the side and pouting.
“Then go,” Trixie said, trying to turn her attention away from Aura but failing for whatever reason. “Trixie will be done before the party starts so you can go if you want to… Just be careful, okay?” Trixie thought that that would have cheered Aura up, but the youngling was still pouting and shuffling her hoof against the ground. Shark had lost interest much earlier and was already wandering away on his own. Trixie realised what Aura wanted and let out a defeated groan. “Fine. Trixie will make an appearance. Happy?”
A smile and a nodfrom Aura answered Trixie’s question. “Yep!” she answered, any hint of sadness in her voice moments earlier now gone.
Trixie realised what was happening and quickly decided to save face. “But only long enough to sample their snacks! Trixie has heard good things about this bakery, after all!” Another lie. She hadn’t ever heard of Sugar Cube Corner before, but in a way, that was an incentive to go and check it out, too.
Aura agreed to Trixie’s condition and the two moved quickly to catch up to Shark.
“Ok, so we set this up here… and there! The entire farm becomes one big trap!” Trixie held her head up high and beamed in pride at her work. She was standing in the midst of the town’s apple orchard with Shark and Aura, where she had just finished preparing the last of her traps for Razor Tooth.
“I don’t get it,” Shark said, looking around with a confused look on his face. “Where exactly is the trap?”
Trixie chuckled and motioned to the ground beneath her. “Why, all over the place! Trixie has prepared a sensory barrier all around the farm, which will automatically react the moment Razor sets one hoof in it. After that, we will be able to catch him by surprise.”
“But how does that work? How do you get it to react to only Razor?”
“Simple. Trixie just needs some changeling DNA.” Before Shark could respond, Trixie levitated a small syringe with her magic and jabbed it into Shark’s forehoof, who yelped out in pain at the sudden stabbing. “Thank you for volunteering! This will only take but a second!”
Shark grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but otherwise managed to keep his composure. After Trixie removed the syringe, she got to work mixing Shark’s blood into the barrier spell.
“Um… Miss Trixie?” Aura asked. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Trixie put a hoof to her chin as she thought. “This is quite thirsty work. Why don’t you go fetch Trixie a drink to cool herself down?”
“A… drink?” Aura asked, somewhat annoyed that she was being reduced to the role of a waiter. “But I want to do something more, Miss Trixie. Please?”
“Aura, truth-be-told, Trixie doesn’t need that much assistance, and Shark is more dependable than he first appeared.” Shark scoffed at the comment, but Trixie ignored it. “Besides, Trixie isn’t kidding. Magic of this level is tough, and you’d be surprised how far a nice, refreshing beverage can go towards performing such complex spells.”
“R-Really?” Aura asked, obviously sceptical of Trixie’s claim. She had never heard of anything like that before, but then she was still in school before she left the kingdom… “Well… okay then. What kind of drink should I get?”
“Hay smoothie, extra hay,” Trixie said, levitating a bag of bits to Aura. “Get something for yourself, too, if you want.”
“I’ll have a-” Shark began to say, but was interrupted by Trixie.
“You can buy your own drink, freeloader!” she shouted to Shark, earning a scowl from the disguised changeling. Aura ran off back towards the town to buy the drink for Trixie whilst the latter continued her work with the barrier.
“That was total bull, wasn’t it?” Shark asked, leaning against a nearby tree whilst Trixie worked.
“Indeed. She wanted to help, but Trixie doesn’t have any other jobs for her… At least with that story she won’t feel so bad about doing such a menial task.”
“Makes sense, but tell me, are we supposed to just wait here for her to return?” Shark asked, to which Trixie answered with silence. “‘Cause you said that we need to hurry this along, and we don’t know how long she’ll take.”
“…” Trixie mentally facehooved herself as she realised her mistake and thought about how to correct it. “… Ah, Trixie knows what to do.”
Before Shark could say anything, Trixie fired a beam of magic at the tree that he was leaning against, causing him to jump back and watch as she engraved a message into the trunk.
Aura, gone over to the southern bridge
“Well, I guess that could work,” Shark said, turning from the tree trunk to Trixie. “So, is this all we’re setting up? Just the detection barrier?”
“Trixie will not tell you. It will ruin the surprise.”
Shark sighed and was about to lean against the tree again, when Trixie suddenly rose to her hooves and told him that they were moving on. Hesitantly, Shark followed Trixie to their next location.
Aura walked through the streets of Ponyville, nervously looking around as she passed the various ponies in the street. Unlike earlier, nopony was paying attention to her, likely because she was no longer inside Trixie’s trailer. That helped a little bit, since it meant that nopony was suspicious of her and that she didn’t have to worry so much about blowing her cover.
It took her a few minutes to realise that she had no idea where was going and that she would have to ask somepony for directions. She looked around at the various ponies surrounding her. There was a green unicorn sitting oddly on a nearby bench… She looked strange. There was a blue pegasus sitting on a cloud up in the sky, but Aura couldn’t fly in the form that she was in. There was a baby dragon carrying some scrolls through town…
‘Wait, what?! A dragon?! Why is there a dragon here?! Oh no… If he found me, it would be even worse than if the ponies found me!’
Aura noticed the dragon looking her way and quickly sped off in a random direction, not caring where she wound up, just as long as she got away from the dragon before it could find out what she was. She stopped when she crashed into something in the middle of the street, causing her to fall down onto her stomach.
“Ow! Watch where you’re going!”
Aura rubbed her head and groaned as she tried to recover from her collision. When she heard a voice yelling at her, she realised that she must have crashed into somepony. She looked down to see an orange pegasus filly underneath her, glaring back at her and rubbing her own head.
“Could ya get off of me already?!”
Aura jumped up off the filly almost immediately and began apologizing. “I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going and… uh…” Aura bowed her head low. “Please forgive me!”
“Uh… sure…” the pegasus responded. “It’s not that big of a deal. Just pay more attention to where you’re going next time.”
“Like you have any right ta say that,” a voice called out. Both Aura and the pegasus turned to the source of the voice to find a yellow earth pony approaching the two of them. “Ye’re always crashin’ into things, Scootaloo.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Um…” Aura interrupted the two fillies’ argument,and they both turned to face her.
“Oh, sorry! We haven’t introduced ourselves,” the earth pony said. “Ah’m Apple Bloom, and this here’s Scootaloo!”
Scootaloo extended a hoof forward. “Hey there. Sorry for yelling at you, but that did kind of hurt…”
Aura extended her own hoof and shook it with Scootaloo’s. “Ah’ve never seen y’all around here before. You from outta town?” Apple Bloom asked, to which Aura nodded.
“Yes. I’m Aura, and I, um…” Aura tried to think of some kind of story to tell the two fillies. ‘What would Miss Trixie say? … And then maybe tone it down a bit…’ She smiled and pulled back her hoof, before reaching out and shaking Apple Bloom’s. “I’m here with my family on vacation. And I’m kind of lost…”
“Hey girls!” The three ponies turned to see a fourth filly approaching them. A white unicorn filly, who stopped in front of Aura and let out an excited gasp. “Oh boy! Is this a new member? That’s great! Now we have four crusaders!”
“New member?” Aura asked, looking between the three fillies with a confused look on her face.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo then noticed that Aura’s flank was blank and joined their friend in her excitement. “Hey, Sweetie Belle’s right! She has no cutie mark, like us!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
Apple Bloom nodded and, noticing Aura’s confusion, decided to explain things to her. “Y’see, Aura, like you, we haven’t found our special talents yet, either!”
‘Well, changelings don’t have cutie marks… Though it’s not like I can tell them that.'
“So we travel all over Equestria to find them!” Scootaloo added.
‘On their own? Wow… Younglings would never be allowed to leave their hometowns on their own… Maybe they have adults that travel with them?’
“And that’s why we’re called-” Sweetie Belle chimed in, before all three of them lined up together.
“-THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” they shouted in unison, causing Aura to take a few steps back and press her forehooves to her ears.
“So, you said you were lost?” Scootaloo asked, and Aura simply nodded, still trying to recover from their recent attack on her eardrums. “Hey, maybe we can help! We can get our cutie marks in being tour guides!”
“Hey, yeah!” Sweetie Belle agreed. “We can show her all around Ponyville and teach her our history! … Or, y’know, just make it up as we go!”
“Then it’s settled,” Apple Bloom said, “Today, we’re going to be-”
“-CUTIE MARK CRUSDER TOUR GUIDES! YAY!”
“Um… but I-”
“Come on, let’s go!” Apple Bloom shouted, pushing Aura forward as her two friends led the way. “Maybe you can find yer cutie mark in… um… being guided?”
Aura tried to say something, but the three fillies had already started talking about the wondrous history of their fair town, most of which seemed questionable at best. She tried many times to sneak away, but somehow, they would always catch her and bring her back.
‘All I wanted was to know where I can buy a hay smoothie…’ Aura thought about her situation and couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. ‘Wow. One of Mother’s top generals failed to capture me, and yet these three fillies have managed to take me prisoner with ease.’