//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 - Lockdown // Story: A Changing Perspective // by Dragrace //------------------------------// After finally arriving in town once more, Jack found himself amongst a group of ponies all travelling in one direction. It wasn't quite what he had expected, especially after being caught, to have everypony walking around so casually. Then again, they were all heading towards the same direction, most of them usually socialized and wandered about. He couldn't help but wonder where they were all heading towards, so he decided to join in the group. On his way back to town, he had not seen the grey mare, which was more than likely a good thing. If he hadn't been seen returning to the city after a changeling had been spotted just outside the city, nopony would assume he was the changeling. Well, at least that's what Jack thought. 'I wonder what Biggs knows about this...' Jack thought. He hadn't seen Biggs for a while, and he was wondering how he was doing on his own. Jack felt close to Biggs, as if he was his first close friend, despite him being their solely to observe his actions. It was a little strange how Biggs' behavior seemed to change as the two changelings spent time together. It was almost as if the changeling was bonding to him, although he had not seen any changelings show any sort of respect towards another changeling in the hive, with the sole exception being the Queen. Quickly noticing the crowd had stopped moving, he found himself amidst a mass of ponies, collected around town hall. On the entrance porch there was a stand with a microphone, behind it stood an older looking pony with a beige coat and greyish-white hair. Something was going to happen, and it was going to be big, especially if the whole town had gathered. >---< More ponies continued arriving; most of them were familiar to Jack although he wasn't quite sure of their names. He saw a few familiar faces in the crowd, like Twilight and Rainbow Dash, although they were too far away from him to get their attention. As the rate of growth of the crowd began to decrease, Jack saw another pony rise up to the stage as well, the same pony that had run away from him when he had first seen her. This time, Jack easily recognized who it was, seeing as she was much closer than the previous encounter. It was none other than the mailmare Derpy. With everypony in the town trying to talk over each other, Jack found it a little hard to concentrate. The mayor finally stepped up onto the stage, and spoke into the microphone. "Citizens of Ponyville," The mayor said, her voice echoing through the magically enchanted microphone, "I have gathered you all here today to discuss a certain situation." The crowd fell silent, before one voice amongst the group spoke. "Is this about the changeling that Twilight found the other day?" The voice said. The crowd broke out into whispers, although nopony around Jack seemed to care. "It is about more than just one changeling, you see," The mayor continued, "You see, Derpy here saw another changeling earlier today." "How do you know it's not the same one?" Came a different voice, one of a stallion this time. "I was getting to that," The mayor stated, staring at the stallion which had spoken. "Derpy says this one was definitely different than the first one, first of all it was slightly bigger, and the wings were significantly smaller. Those were the only two distinct features that sets the two apart." The mass of ponies began whispering amongst themselves, most of them expressing their fear of the current situation, and Jack could see many ponies looking around nervously, before one finally shouted something out. "So what do we do about this then?" Said an upset voice, shaking slightly. "I have consulted the unicorns of Ponyville, and they have all agreed that we cannot do anything until the princess arrives." This caused the ponies to begin yelling, and they seemed pretty upset. By this point, Jack had begun leaving, things were getting intense amongst the group and he didn't want to get involved in anything. Without further ado, Jack managed to squeeze his way out of the crowd. He had not noticed, however, that a certain purple unicorn had noticed him. >---< Twilight saw Jack leaving, and no other pony had bothered to leave the town hall. Nopony else seemed to mind the grey stallion leaving either, most of them were outraged at the inability to properly protect themselves. Since there were few unicorns in town, they could not individually check each pony, and Twilight knew that if there was in fact another changeling the town would be paranoid. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop the mayor from telling the rest of the town, all she could do was send a letter to Celestia in hopes of her being able to help the town. Still curious of where Jack was going, Twilight trailed behind from a distance, making sure not to be spotted. He wandered through town; his movements were calm and collected. He certainly didn't look lost, although he did end up wandering around the same areas quite a few times. 'I know a certain somepony that may be lost...' Twilight thought, as she continued to trail him. It looked as if he was only avoiding the mass of ponies near the center of town, every time he would wander towards town hall he would turn around and go in another direction. That is, until he turned around and looked directly at Twilight. She was hiding in a bush, and it would have been more effective if she didn't have a bright purple coat. Most of the time she had hid behind buildings, but this particular area was very open. Twilight froze, and hoped he wouldn't come. "Twilght..." Jack said releiving a sigh, "What are you doing?" Twilight didn't respond, she wanted to pretend she wasn't there, but she knew she had been caught. She hadn't done anything wrong though, Ponyville law didn't have anything particular against following anypony. "I know you're there, and I know you've been following me a while." Jack said. "Oh. Well... when I saw you leave the town meeting, I thought I should follow you. It isn't normal for just one pony to leave by themselves." Twilight responded. "You've been at it a while though..." Jack said, his voice trailing off. It was obvious Jack was looking at something, and he was staring pretty intensely at whatever it was. When Twilight looked behind her to see what Jack was looking at, she saw a purple protective shield slowly forming from town center, quite similar to the one used during the changeling invasion in the wedding two weeks prior to the current day. Within a few minutes, the protective semi-sphere would cover the entire town’s boundaries. Twilight assumed that Celestia had arrived with a few other unicorns; Twilight didn't know any other pony in Ponyville that could produce such a shield. As Jack began walking towards town center, Twilight followed closely behind. >---< The town was calmer around the massive building. After Jack’s long walk, he guessed that the ponies had figured that they would have to deal with it. Only one or two changelings weren’t much of a threat either, they wouldn’t be able to pull any big moves without somepony noticing. Luckily for Jack, he had arrived before changeling suspicions had raised to such a level, and he assumed he would be safe for a while. Now on the stage there were several ponies; Celestia, Luna, Mayor Mare, Derpy, two guards, and one pony Jack had never seen before. He looked quite important, and it was quite obvious it was his magic creating the shield. He had a dark yellow coat, with a very long white mane and tail. He had a beard, and was wearing a stereotypical magic hat, the rounded brim with the pointed tip. The hat itself was white with golden stars on it. His cutie mark was a bright yellow shield, with a single sparkle on the top right corner. As the two approached, everypony else seemed to be mesmerized by the shield. "This shield will last for two weeks." The elder pony said. His voice was deep, and had a sense of seniority. His inflexion used made it sound like he knew what he was doing, but it made him seem cocky as well. He held his head high, and seemed proud of his work. "But that means the changelings are trapped inside!" Somepony yelled, causing another minor riot. "Hush." The older stallion said. "That gives you all enough time to figure out who the changeling is, and deal with the issue amongst your own population. As for me, I will remain in this city to help bring any suspicious ponies to the truth. I know a detection spell, but it only works on individual ponies, and it may hurt quite a bit." The crowd was silent. A few ponies rolled their eyes, and a couple of them were asking each other why Celestia or Luna hadn't spoken. After a while, the crowd finally began to shrink, revealing a chariot near the stage. The princess of night and day both climbed into the carriage, as the two guards were hooked up by magic. They took off, not having said a single word during the entire visit. Jack watched as they just barely passed under the forming shield, and brought his attention back to the new visitor. He looked at him for a moment, then approached him, with Twilight following not too far behind. "Who might you be?" The yellow stallion asked. "I was about to ask you that as well, and I'm Jack." Jack said, extending a hoof. "I am minister Golden Aegis, personal protective spell caster of Celestia herself." He said, looking at Jack's hoof but not giving any motion to shake it. Now that the mass of ponies had been reduced to a small cluster, Jack saw Biggs and Applejack in a conversation, although he wasn't close enough to hear what was going on. "...And that is why Celestia assigned me to this particular changeling outbreak." The minister finished, once more raising his head as if proud of his work. 'Must have zoned out again...' Jack thought. 'I should have listened to him, he is the biggest threat to me right now...' The purple shield finished forming around the town. The minister had a sinister looking smile on his face before he spoke once more. "And this town is now under my control."