Returning to the small town wasn't quite as exciting as Scootaloo had anticipated. There was nopony there that was happy to see her. As a matter of fact, everypony seemed suspicious of her finally seeing her in town again. Well, with the whole changeling problem occurring it wasn't hard to believe that she could be a changeling, especially since she was missing for a couple days and then suddenly reappered in town. Every single being Scootaloo passed glared at her, and just staying in town was making her feel uncomfortable. Despite everypony's staring, she pressed forward searching for the one unicorn she knew could help save Jack; Twilight Sparkle.
Scootaloo reached the Tree-brary relatively quickly, and knocked politely before entering. The library was a public building, but she always saw it more of Twilight's home. When she entered, she was greeted by an upset looking dragon.
"Hey, Spike! Have you seen Twilight around?" Scootaloo asked.
The dragon didn't respond, just stared back at her. He looked like he was going to cry, although Scootaloo doubted Spike would cry. She had never seen a dragon cry before.
"Spike, is everything okay?"
The dragon shook his head.
"What's wrong? Does this have to do with Twilight?"
"Yes! They... They just came in and took her away!" Spike exclaimed, his voice shaking.
'Woah, is this town really that paranoid over changelings? I know that not ALL changelings are bad... Hmm...' Scootaloo thought.
With Twilight missing, and Jack having not followed her into town, Scootaloo's fear was growing once more. Before, she had been afraid of Jack, afraid of the changeling. But now... Now she was afraid of the ponies she had lived her life growing up with. They turned against each other, or at least the few that still wandered the streets. Scootaloo was determined to help save both Jack and Twiight, but being a filly it would be difficult. She would need help the help of another fully grown pony. And she knew exactly who she was going to go to for help.
>---<
"Domina! Dominaaaaa!" Scootaloo yelled, hoping for a response.
The filly had been wandering around town for an hour or so by this point, but had found to luck when it came to tracking down the red mare. Scootaloo finally gave a sigh of defeat, she had checked around town, asking anypony who would actually acknowledge her if they had seen Twilight or Domina. Perhaps this was the point where she would just give up, and hope Jack would return to town safely. But he was outnumbered 5 to 1, and the odds of anything good happening to him were relatively low. Then again, she had no idea how the changeling system worked, but she assumed if that many changelings were looking for you it couldn't be a good thing. Maybe she should give up, though. She had nothing else she could really do that day, with all of her friends locked indoors by her parents crusading for cutie marks just didn't seem like something she could do. Without much hope left, she wandered towards Sugarcube Corner hoping that Pinkie could cheer her up.
Upon entering Sugarcube Corner, she was not greeted by the hyper pink mare as she expected. Instead, the place looked deserted, and unlike most of the other buildings it looked recently used. On the bright side, there were ponies still keeping the place in good shape, more than likely Pinkie and the Cakes.
"Hello?" Scootaloo called out. "Anypony here?"
"One moment, dear." Came a response from the stairs.
As Mrs. Cake walked down the stairs, Scootaloo knew that she wasn't in good shape. Her mane was a complete mess, her apron torn, and she didn't even walk straight down the stairs. Mrs. Cake stumbled behind the cash register before forcing on a smile.
"Have you seen Pinkie around anywhere? I wanted to ask her something."
Mrs. Cake's smile disappeared from her face, and she began frowning towards the filly.
"Of course. She's just upstairs, but ever since... Well, you get figure it out if you go talk to her."
"Okay, thanks."
Scootaloo got an unnerving feeling as she approached the stairs. The gleeful feeling that normally lingered in the air seemed to be absent, and an eerie feel filled the air in its place. She slowly trotted upstairs, in hope that Pinkie would be able to see the best of the current situation. Walking up to the only closed door in the entire hallway, Scootaloo gave a soft knock on the door. There was a creaking sound behind the filly, and she spun around to see what it was. But the hallway remained empty. Finally, the door was opened and Scootaloo walked in.
>---<
The room was dark, far too dark for the room to belong to the energetic party pony Scootaloo remembered. The curtains had been pulled shut, and every small step Scootaloo took echoed through the room. She could hear breathing coming from one corner of the room and slowly approached what looked like a bed. There was a small flick and the room was engulfed in a bright light. Blinded by the sudden change in lighting, Scootaloo's eyes adjusted and saw a pink mare beside the small (now lit) table lamp.
"Pinkie! There you are!" Scootaloo exclaimed, finally happy to track her down.
"Hello." Pinkie said dully.
"Pinkie, is there something wrong?"
"Yes. Does it not seem like something is wrong? The entire town is in a complete state of chaos right now. If Discord's statue was here, there would be no doubt he would have been freed."
Upon closer inspection, Scootaloo noticed the pink pony's mane was no longer curled and poofy, by it was straightened and fell over top most of her face. She was not in a jumpy mood; as a matter of fact she actually looked in a neutral mood. Something Scootaloo thought she would never see.
"What brings you to MY room? Don't have anybody else to bother?" Pinkie said blandly.
Scootaloo flinched a little bit at the remark. This couldn't be Pinkie Pie; she had never been like this before... Right? Maybe it had something to do with the paranoia throughout town, but Scootaloo never thought it would put Pinkie down like that.
"I... Uhh... Have you seen Twilight or Domina, Pinkie?" Scootaloo asked.
"No." Pinkie replied. "And call me by my full name."
"You’re full what?"
"Pinkamena Dianna Pie, I'd prefer it if you at least mentioned me by my first name, not some idiotic shortened version."
'Okay, so not only is Twilight and Domina missing, but now somehow Pinkie has been replaced by some creepy depressing mare. I guess I'll have to do this on my own then...'
"Oookay then. I'll see you around, Pinkamena."
"No you won't."
"Alright then... Bye."
'Weird...'
>---<
Twilight had been trapped in the basement of Sugarcube corner for a while now. Every once and a while, another pony would be thrown into the room, locked with her. Most of them were suspected changelings, but apparently the minister had a busy schedule he was dealing with. Well, that's what one of the other mares had told her. The door began to creek open once more, and a familiar mare with a blue and pink mane was thrown in. Twilight knew exactly why they assumed Bon Bon to be a changeling, because it had been witnessed that there was a fake Bon Bon at the ministers welcome party the other day. Approaching to find out if she was okay, Twilight found herself a lot weaker than she remembered. Barely able to reach the collapsed mare, Twilight placed a hoof on her back and received a groan in return.
"Wh... Where am I?" Bon Bon asked without lifting her head.
"Sugarcube Corner, with the rest of us." Twilight responded.
"I still have no idea why I'm here!" Carrot Top yelled from behind Twilight.
"Yeah! Me too!" Said another voice.
"They can't just do this to us!"
The room quickly filled with complaints and bickering, which quickly built up to full arguments. Twilight ignored the fighting and continued examining Bon Bon for any possible injuries. She was in what seemed like a concussed state, she wasn't able to focus well and she claimed she didn't have enough energy to get up. It was hard to be certain that she was concussed, mostly because she didn't respond to most questions. If she really was in this poor condition, she could have some minor brain damage. The bickering in the room continued, before Bon Bon finally began to raise.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked, helping Bon Bon to her feet.
"Y... Yeah... I think so..." Bon Bon replied.
The room was silent after Bon Bon finally rose. Nopony had really taken notice to the collapsed pony until she had finally begun to rise. Then again, just about every hour another pony would be thrown into the dark cement room. Without much to do, a lot of arguing took place. Twilight would usually keep to herself, and it was quite frustrating for her not able to use magic.
"Wait just a minute..." Twilight said, "What the minister is doing is breaking several Equestrian laws! This isn't just!"
The crowd remained silent. Last time that Twilight had attempted to rally the population (albeit a small population) they continuously interrupted her and attacked her ideas. Now, they were willing to listen.
"You see, I have a plan. A plan to get us out of here." Twilight stated.
"Oh, then why didn't you tell us earlier?" Carrot top said.
"Last time I tried everypony started arguing. Now just listen. You see, when they come back, what we have to do is..."
>---<
Scootaloo finally finished squeezing herself under the small hole going under the barrier. If Jack had been taken, there had to be some sort of path they followed. Even if they didn't take a path, there was five of them, and they were pretty big, so they would leave some sort of marks, right? But then again, Everfree forest was a scary place. It was rare for Scootaloo to enter the forest, usually with the other Cutie Mark Crusader members. Well, actually, it was rare for just about anypony to enter the Everfree forest, with the exception being to visit Zecora. The filly stood at the entrance to the forest contemplating if she should enter in search for the missing changeling or not.
'If I go in, I might not come back out! I could be eaten by a manticore, or get lost, or fall into poison joke! Even worse, I could get eaten by a manticore while lost AND under the effect of poison joke!' Scootaloo thought.
It wasn't quite what she had in plan, but judging by what was happening around town something even worse could happen if she stayed there. Especially since a lot of ponies had been disappearing, and many refused to leave their homes. Shaking off the possibilities of what could go wrong; Scootaloo finally stepped into the Everfree forest. Upon her first step, however, she was greeted by a loud cracking noise. With a loud "Eep!" She jumped backwards and stood extremely still. Looking down to where she had just been standing, she saw a broken stick.
'Comon, Scoot! You have to keep your cool! What would Rainbow Dash do...' She thought.
Stepping forward once more, she heard another crack. After flinching slightly, she took another step forward, this time without producing a loud noise. After taking one last deep breath, the orange filly stepped into the Everfree forest, carefully observing for any sort of hoof marks. Every once and a while, there would be a scary sound, or there would be an abnormally dark area amongst the trees. But Scootaloo continued forward, pressing on as would the awesome Rainbow Dash. And everything went just fine.
...Well, not quite. The orange pegasus did end up running several times from foreign creatures and plants alike. Yes, some plants did try to eat the poor thing. By this point Scootaloo didn't even trust her own shadow, and she knew she was lost. Collapsing on the ground, she gave out another sigh of disappointment.
"Maybe I should just go home..." She said, "I doubt I'm going to find..."
Looking just barely ahead of her, she saw an imprint in the grass. Her eyes went wide with excitement, and she ran right up to the mark. There were also several hoof prints in the grass around it. Happy that she had finally found some sort of trace of Jack, she cheered to herself out loud.
"Yeah! I found something! This is going to be great; maybe I'll get my cutie mark in tracking! Oooh! That would be pretty awesome! I can't wait to save Jack!"
Finally having found evidence that Jack was somewhere nearby, she gleefully pressed forward into the dark forest.
>---<
"Stop it! Stop it! Oooh that tickles!"
"Awww... But... Why? Why do I feel so sad?"
"Wait, never mind. I just want to party now! Wohoo! Grab all the confetti and eat it too!"
The changeling guard continued experimenting with Jack. Using various emotional prods, the guard was easily able to determine that Jack was no ordinary changeling. His gift would have to be utilized to its full potential, perhaps he could find a way to harvest the gift and spread it among certain gifted changelings.
"Why do we live... We live to die... Is that the meaning of life?"
The results were always different. Every ability the guard used seems to give out a different emotional result. The one emotion that changelings had never been able to manipulate was love. Perhaps with this new information on how emotions worked, they could finally figure out what 'love' really was.
"I swear, when I get free of this, I'm going to DESTROY YOU ALL!"
Well, that and the changeling was also learning what emotions to avoid. Luckily for the guard, he had been tied down to a post. Anger and sadness weren't typically consumed by changelings due to the strong distaste for them, however sometimes you just have to take what you can. The cavern fell silent, and that instantly caught the guard’s attention. Looking up towards the tied down changeling, he saw him in a meditative state. Strangely enough, he couldn't detect any emotions flowing from him; literally it seemed as if he wasn't alive anymore. Making yet another mental note to avoid that... Well... Lack of emotions, the guard continued to prod Jack with magic.