//------------------------------// // Chapter 84 - Ponies in Disguise // Story: The Master Mev // by kazamacat //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle and Rarity walked down a hallway side by side. Chrysalis trailed them with Rainbow Dash hovering next to the disguised changeling. "You don't think they're running an actual friendship school, do you?" Twilight asked Rarity. "Darling, of course not," Rarity told her. Her eyes darted to Rainbow and Chrysalis, and she nodded in Twilight's direction. "Yeah, something does seem off about all of it," Rainbow concurred. "I suppose I could try to enroll today," Chrysalis offered with a sly smile. "Other ponies have seen me with the three of you, but Starswirl aside, they do not know me. I'm only here as a friend and to observe after all." At that, Twilight and Rarity paused in their walk. "Yes!" Rarity agreed excitedly with a sly smile of her own. "We need to investigate, but not just you." Twilight put a hoof to Rarity's chest. "I know Rainbow said we're scouting and investigating, but I'm really not comfortable with us poking around so openly. Other ponies will think I'm 'threatened by the competition,'" she said with a frown. "Then we can do it in disguise like Chrysalis," Rarity suggested. "Master at least can use the changeling feedback from Ocellus." "Oh yeah," Rainbow realized. "Pretty sure it's the last one." Rarity lit up again. "Oh! And maybe we could use the new changeling magic in the reserve!" "Ummm..." Twilight hesitated. She looked at Rainbow Dash. "Can we, really?" Rainbow rubbed a thoughtful hoof. "Well, we're more here for you than Chrysalis and might not really 'need' it in this case. The magic would stop us. My guess would be 'no'. But hey, just try it." Twilight took a deep breath, seemed to focus, and nothing happened. "Not for me...although that might be my own hesitance to use it." She looked at Rarity. The white unicorn also tried and could not transform. They both looked at Chrysalis. "Is there any trick to it?" Twilight asked. "You are at least envisioning the form, right?" Chrysalis asked. They both nodded. "Then I would say the magic has denied you," she told them. "Indeed, I think Rainbow and myself could handle it." "Perhaps so, but I think we can still manage," Rarity said. "We'll improvise another way." She gestured for Twilight to follow her into a supply closet. Rainbow Dash and Chrysalis waited outside. After some time, Rarity exited and declared proudly, "In these disguises, we could pass as students at our own school." She wore a blue baseball cap backwards. Her mane and tail had a few loose strands of hair. She wore a pink short-sleeved shirt over a cream-colored long-sleeved shirt. Underneath the cream shirt, she wore light blue shorts to match her cap. Additionally, she had a small cloth ankle band tied in a knot on her left rear hoof. "I don't know, Rarity," Twilight said from behind the door. "Ah-ah," Rarity said. "What did I say about using our real names?" The door opened and out walked a frowning Twilight Sparkle wearing an eye patch and sticky note over her cutie mark. "Sorry 'Plainity.' But I'm pretty sure this," she pointed at her eye patch and flexed her wings, "isn't enough of a disguise." Chrysalis laughed and shook her head. She quickly pulled them both back into the closet. Rainbow heard a lot of shuffling around, and finally, they returned. Twilight wore the long-sleeved cream colored shirt over her wings to hide them. Her mane and tail were done up into buns, and she still wore her eye patch. Rarity's ensemble was the same except for the missing extra shirt. Chrysalis quickly pulled Rainbow in too. "Ditch the rainbow mane and tail for thick black and purple waves. Change the cutie mark to a standard yellow lightning bolt. Make your eyes green." Rainbow obeyed and turned into a different pegasus pony with the features Chrysalis described while maintaining her sky blue coat. "There," Chrysalis told the three as she and Rainbow exited the closet. Twilight looked at herself. "I don't know. It's definitely better but…" The same pony they all saw when they arrived approached. "Hey, strangers. Are you three new here?" He gestured to all but Chrysalis. Rarity blew a bubble with bubblegum. "We sure are," she said with a lower pitch than usual in her voice. "Completely new," she assured him with firm eyes. "Yup, total newbies, that's us," Rainbow echoed. "Great!" He jumped in place. "See you in class." Rarity squealed in proud delight after he left. She grew serious. "Now, I've read enough Shadow Spade to know the key to going undercover is rehearsing your backstory." She cleared her throat. "I'm 'Plainity,' and I love bland-old-normal stuff. No frills for me." Rainbow snickered, barely able to contain her laughter. Rarity smiled proudly nonetheless. "Okay, your turn," she told Twilight. Twilight thought hard and finally looked to Chrysalis with a hopeful smile. "Bunny Study," Chrysalis said, patting the bun done up in her mane. "I'm sure you can come up with something from there." "I like to learn and am here to learn about friendship," Twilight said with slight hesitance to Rarity. "Perfect!" Rarity sang. "And you," Rarity pointed to Rainbow Dash. "I'm Bolt Shot," Rainbow said. "And I'm here on vacation, but my friends 'Plainity' and 'Bunny Study' and…" she looked at Chrysalis. "Lady," Chrysalis told her. "'Lady,' convinced me to check it out. I prefer kicking out bolts from the sky and a smooth flight, but sure, what's wrong with learning how to make friends?" Rainbow said with a casual shrug. "Lovely. And Lady, what about you?" Rarity wondered. "I'm here as an observer. I'm a photographer and journalist. I'm interested to know what this place is like, so I can report on it for The Canterlot Chronicle," Chrysalis said. "What a sensation to have Starswirl the Bearded here." "Now, how do we start our investigation?" Rarity asked Twilight. "I think we should split up. You and Lady enroll in some classes and find out what they're actually teaching. Bolt Shot and I will look around and see what we can find, assuming I'm not recognized," Twilight answered. Rarity quickly became the star pupil of Flam's class as he asked about being thoughtful, which she linked to her generosity element. Chrysalis watched the class follow the leading example. She took note of the lesson herself. She wondered how Rainbow Dash and Twilight's side of things was going. Twilight peeked into a dark office. "Hello?" she called out to an empty room. Rainbow darted to one end of the hallway and the other. "You look. I'll stand guard." "The door is open, so I'll just assume it's okay to come in and look around, unless somepony says it's not," Twilight told the dark room. She grabbed a couple of sheets, and both of them sounded appropriately interesting and well-advised. "They're coming," Rainbow hissed. Twilight darted out to join her, and the two stood with fake smiles outside the door. "Oh why hello," Flam said with a sly smile as he peered closely at Twilight. He wore a camera slung around his neck. "Perhaps the two of you would like to speak to us in our office." Nervous sweat dripped down Twilight's temple. "Mm-hmm," she hesitantly agreed. Once inside, Flim pulled off the eye patch and undid her bun. Flam took a picture. "A-ha!" Flim said. "Did you really think an eye patch and a bun and a shirt was enough of a disguise?" Flim said to lecture her. "Okay, actually, when you put it like that, maybe it could fool some ponies, but still. Not us." "Indeed, I'm sure we agree that everypony will recognize the Princess of Friendship in this photo of you planning to sneak into our office," Flam said. "I can see the headline now," Flim said. "'Princess of Jealousy! Twilight Sparkle bent on ruining her competition!" "That is not what's going on here," Rainbow said forcefully to them, still in her other pegasus form. "So sad," Flam agreed with Flim, ignoring the pegasus he didn't recognize. "A news story like that could ruin your reputation. Not to mention involving yourself with an innocent student. Nopony will want to go to your school after that." Twilight's lip trembled. "Just wait until the papers get a hold of this," Flam went on. "Princess Unhinged!" Flim added. "It'll be the talk of Equestria." Rainbow was about to give them both a piece of her mind when Starswirl entered the room. "Well, gentleponies, I've finished another stack. The lessons in these worksheets are quite fascinating. Twilight? What's going on here? Where is your ma…I mean, where are your friends?" Rainbow stepped forward and shape-shifted to her usual daytime form. Flim and Flam's mouths fell open. "We were investigating, like I said, and these two were just threatening her for our efforts," Rainbow Dash pointed at the unicorn twins and sneered. "And you had to stoop to snooping in our office?" Flim asked. "The door was open, and the pages were laid out on your desks. Almost like a trap," Rainbow told them, narrowing her eyes. They both started to sweat nervously. "But you two entered in disguise," Flim argued. "Honestly Princess Twilight," Flam said, "envy does not look good on you." They showed the picture of them taking off her disguise. Starswirl looked disappointed and startled. "I'm not envious," Twilight insisted. "These two are up to something. I'm just trying to find out what!" "Master Rainbow Dash, I made my point to be respectful and this is the example you set?" Starswirl asked. "The only ponies I see up to something here are the two of you." "Did you just call her 'Master'?" Flim asked, perplexed. "It's a title," Starswirl said and waved the matter off with a hoof. "Well?" he prodded at Rainbow Dash. "Well what? We're scouting and investigating. I think they're up to something too, and yes, I did think we had to stoop to snooping. It was more discrete," Rainbow answered. Starswirl sighed in disappointment. "Twilight, you are not acting as the Princess I know." He left the room. Twilight's eyes watered with tears. Flim and Flam smiled wickedly. "Well, it's about to be the Princess all of Equestria knows," Flim said confidently. "Unless…" Flam offered, "you decided to drop the whole 'uncover the scam' thing." "Then we'll rip this silly picture up and not let it completely and utterly ruin you and your school," Flim finished. Twilight moaned with a forlorn look to the floor. Rainbow Dash glared at them. "Blackmail," she hissed. Her eyes flashed red, startling the two to back away in mild fear. She licked her lips before turning her attention to Twilight. She felt the best thing to do was to lead Twilight out, clear the air, and think. She'd rip the picture up herself if she had to, but before all that, she'd see if they and their friends could find a better solution. "Come on." Gathered in one of the halls of the school, several pony students listened intently to Rarity disguised as Plainity. She she told them, "You can be generous with all sorts of things. Gifts, compliments, your time." They chattered excitedly before running off, leaving Rarity and Chrysalis standing together. Twilight and Rainbow Dash approached. Both looked disappointed. "Hey Bunny Study," Rarity said. "Where are your buns? And your eye patch?" She gasped. "Was your cover blown?" "You could say that," Twilight replied dryly. "Flim and Flam took a picture of me as they removed the disguise, basically showing I was sneaking into their office. If I don't stop investigating, they're going to tell everypony that I'm trying to sabotage their school because I'm jealous." "But but but.." Rarity sputtered akin to cute broken record, "…that's ridiculous." "I don't know," Twilight replied. "Maybe I am just upset that Starswirl came here instead of my school. Flim and Flam may have actually turned over a new leaf. We should probably just go home." Chrysalis cleared her throat. The three ponies looked to her. "They charge for the worksheets," she told them all plainly and used a hoof to flip her orange mane. "They do?" Twilight asked. "Well, what's wrong with that?" Rarity asked. "I mean, I was thinking of returning the sewing machines to advance here, but they have to cover expenses. Flam insists everything extra goes to improving the school and...oh, I think you're onto something. That is the scam, isn't it?" "Let's find out," Twilight said with a smile. "Thanks Chrysalis." Chrysalis blinked with a startled blush and followed the group.