Echo stayed in Twilight's embrace for what felt like hours before there was a loud smashing sound on the library door. Twilight turned a quizzical gaze to the door and made a motion to open it when it came crashing in off its hinges. Laying in the resulting pile of debris was one miss Derpy Hooves.
“Sorry, Twilight,” she said, “I just don't know what went wr – Oh, Echo. Hello.” In a flash, Derpy transformed into Chrysalis, who stood up and brushed the dust from her chitin. “I didn't expect to see you here.”
“Chrys –” Twilight stuttered.
“Yes?”
“You –”
“Spit it out.”
“You just destroyed my door and half of a bookshelf! Why did you do that?”
“Well, I had to stay in character, now didn't I? Derpy doesn't knock, per-se.” Leaving Twilight stuttering at the ruined entrance to her library, Chrysalis turned to Echo and chittered in Changeling, “What are you doing here?”
“We're going to need Twilight's help to fix whatever is going on in this town, Mother,” Echo chittered back, “and you destroying her property certainly isn't going to help.”
“Oh, relax, Echo. Considering what I've done to these ponies and gotten away with, they'll probably just scold me for a moment and let me continue on with my rampage.”
“Oh for the love of – do you care about anything but yourself, Chrysalis?”
“You mean there's more to life than me?”
“Sometimes I really hate you, do you know that?”
“No hate for me, please, thank you. I'm on a diet.”
“Okay,” Twilight had managed to recover from her shock, “ignoring for now the wanton destruction that you have obviously been wreaking, Chrysalis, we have urgent matters which require our attention.”
“Which would be?”
“Well, the fact that nearly everypony in town is homicidal, for starters.”
“Hmm. I suppose that is a bit out of the ordinary for you ponies, isn't it?”
“Yes, Chrysalis, VERY.” Twilight sputtered incredulously.
“Very well. What do you propose?”
“Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were knocked unconscious when Scoot lost her temper,” Echo began, “Maybe you could try to change them back, Twilight?”
“Maybe,” Twilight mumbled as she rubbed her chin.
“It would mean the world to Scootaloo.”
“Yes, I don't doubt it, but the problem is that this spell becomes almost impossible to break whenever the pony you're trying to disillusion becomes cognizant of your efforts. That's why Spike is in the closet.”
“Your baby dragon is in the closet?” Chrysalis snickered, “What ever will Rarity think?”
Fed up, Echo snapped, “Can it, Chryssie.”
“Excuse me?” The queen's eyes narrowed. “Did you just say 'can it, Chryssie'? The fact that you would tell me to 'can it' alone is enough to incite my wrath, but calling me Chryssie? That's the last straw, girl.”
“Oh, what's the big bad excommunicated changeling queen gonna do? Execute her own daughter?” Now that I think of it, probably so, yeah. Echo realized with a gulp.
Chrysalis' eyes glinted as she stared her daughter down. A smile crept over her lips, and she sunk low to the ground. Echo thought that she looked like a cat getting ready to – pounce. Sure enough, the changeling queen launched herself at full speed straight into Echo with a growl. Echo buzzed her wings in an attempt to get out of the way, but wasn't fast enough. The queen slammed into her side and knocked her to the ground. Having pinned Echo, Chrysalis' horn began to glow. It cast a shadow down over her face, making the grin she sported seem exceptionally malevolent.
“Chrysalis,” Echo began, “Don't, you'll just knock yourself out!”
“Oh, I'm not using combat magic,” Chrysalis giggled. A bolt of green lightning shot from Chrysalis' horn and made contact with Echo's exposed underbelly. Echo twitched, expecting pain, but suddenly found herself writhing and laughing uncontrollably. She's... tickling me?
“Mother, stop, please,” Echo heaved through her bouts of laughter, “this is so undignified!”
“This spell never gets old,” Chrysalis laughed maniacally, a predatory stare still glossing her eyes.
“Chrysalis, that's enough!” Twilight stamped her hoof. “Let Echo go, we have things that we have to do.”
“Yes, and who says that I can't accomplish those goals while I restrain her?” The queen said with a Machiavellian grin.
“I do! I do!” Echo hollered.
“Shh, you don't count,” Chrysalis replied dismissively.
“THAT'S ENOUGH!” The normally demure Twilight bellowed, her eyes glowing solid white. “We have very important things to deal with right now, Chrysalis, and if you cannot behave like an adult, then I'll just have to tell the Princesses that you couldn't be reformed.”
Chrysalis sneered in shock, obviously preparing a retort, but softened her gaze begrudgingly and released Echo. Returning to her usual stoic gaze, the queen regarded Twilight. “I must admit, you've got quite the spirit in you, purple one.”
“CAN WE PLEASE,” Twilight accentuated each word with a stamp of her hoof, “get back to solving this problem?” She sighed, exhausted.
“I've got an idea,” Echo puffed, catching her breath, “why don't I go and grab Sweetie and 'Bloom? They're probably still unconscious on the floor of Scoots' bedroom. If you can't break the spell on them when they're awake, maybe you can do it if they're unconscious.”
“Maybe, though I suspect it'll be a bit more difficult than that. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom are as good a place to start as any though, since they would mean the most to Scootaloo.”
Echo nodded, and started for the ruined door. She could just hear the beginnings of an argument between Chrysalis and Twilight as she donned a disguise and took to the air.
After only a few minutes of flying, she saw a column of smoke rising up in front of her. Oh, sweet queens of the past, it can't be!
Another few seconds of top-speed flying realized Echo's fears. A good half or so of the angry mob had migrated outside of her home, and had set it aflame. The door was engulfed, and flames were licking up to the second story. Echo didn't hesitate another second. She charged at full speed toward Scootaloo's window. When she was about to make contact, she pulled her wings in tight and craned her neck so that the hardest part of her skull would strike the glass. She felt a sharp twang of pain as she broke through, and the sound of glass breaking echoed through her daughter's room, followed by a scream. She coughed through the smoke and huddled low to the ground, where she quickly located Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, huddled in the corner, crying.
“Girls,” She shouted over the roar of the flames below, “jump on my back! I'm going to get you out of here!”
“Who are you?” Sweetie Belle asked with terror in her voice.
“That doesn't matter, we don't have time. Just get on my back and grab on to whatever you can, okay?”
Sweetie Belle was quick to oblige, and grabbed on to Echo's mane with her teeth, wrapping her forelegs around Echo's neck so tightly that Echo almost couldn't breathe. Apple Bloom, though, was more cautious.
“Now wait just an apple-pickin' minute. I ain't ever seen you around before. How'd you even know we were in here?”
“'Bloom,” Echo reprimanded, “I will be happy to answer every last one of your questions just as soon as we are no longer in danger of burning to death. How does that sound?”
Apple Bloom opened her mouth as if to retort, but closed it again quickly. Her eyes widened, and she nodded succinctly before climbing onto Echo's back and gripping her midsection with all four limbs.
“Alright,” Echo chimed, “Hold on tight!” With a powerful flap of her wings, she was off through the window again. She glided back down to the ground softly, and both fillies climbed off her back quickly with several words of thanks.
“Oh my Celestia,” said one pony in the mob, “were those two in that house?”
“Yes, they were,” Echo tried to restrain her rage, but the volume in her voice increased with each word, “and you lot started a fire right underneath their hooves. You nearly KILLED two innocent fillies. How does that make you all feel, huh?” By this point, Echo was roaring. The entire mob had migrated to the side of the house, where Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.
“Good show, miss! How did you know they were in there?” A brown stallion with an hour glass cutie mark asked, stepping forward with a smile on his face.
“Uh...” Echo stammered. “Lucky guess, I suppose?”
“I doubt very that luck had anything to do with it.” Said one pony in the mob, who stared at Echo with eyes narrowed.
“Well,” the brown stallion said, drawing out the first word, “that depends on what you mean by luck. What one pers – pony calls luck, I might call the proper utilization of a T.A.R.D.I.S.”
“Tar what now?” Echo looked at him with confusion in her eyes.
He turned to her and whispered just loud enough for her to hear, “Just smile and nod. Listen to what I say, and everything will be okay, I promise. Trust me.”
“You know something, come to think of it, who are you?” Filthy Rich's voice came out of the crowd again, as he stepped forward. “Are you a changeling, too?”
“Changeling? No. Time Lord? Yeah, absolutely.”
“I think you're crazy.”
“Mad ma- pony - with a box, that's me.” He smiled at the crowd and whispered over his shoulder, “Echo, pick up the fillies and get ready to run.”
Echo nodded and obeyed. The two fillies were too exhausted to protest.
“Put those fillies down!” Filthy yelled.
“No, I don't think so.” The mysterious stallion said, still smiling.
“This is your last chance...” Filthy growled as he stepped forward.
“Oh, well, in that case,” The stallion whipped around on his hind legs, “RUN!”
Echo didn't question the strange stallion. She followed in his wake, galloping as quickly as her legs could carry her. He giggled as he ran, clouds of dust billowing up in his trail as he skidded around corners and bounded over barrels. She struggled to keep up, but managed to follow his hoofsteps precisely. Abruptly, he slid to a stop in the middle of an alley and slumped down against a wall. He struggled to catch his breath for a moment before he stood back up and extended a forehoof.
“Hello, Echo! I'm the Doctor. Pleasure to meet you!”
“Doctor?”
“Mmmhmm,” the stallion still smiled broadly, “that'd be me. The Doctor.”
“Okay... so why are you helping me?”
“Well, that was incidental really. Something's odd in this town -”
“Yeah, you.”
“No. Well, yeah, but no. Something else is odd, and I'm here to fix it.”
“... okay, and it has something to do with these ponies wanting to kill me?”
“Maybe. Probably not, but maybe. I've been spending the past few days following a signal that sounded an awful lot like the Sontarans – and boy I tell you if they made it here, ponykind is in for quite the ride – but what's happening in this town isn't much like them. Nah, I'm thinking most of what's happening in this town is just good old fashioned magic.” The Doctor chuckled. “Magic, innit? Imagine me, talking about magic like it's something real. Well, I suppose it is real, isn't it? Least in this universe. Dimension? Quantum fluctuation? Here, anyway.”
“You really are insane, aren't you?”
“Yep, bonkers.” As he said this, something beeped in a small saddlebag he was carrying. He reached around and with his mouth grabbed a strange looking device with a flashing blue tip. “Eeh, ook et at!” He mumbled through the device before putting it back in his bag. “Seems I've got to go now, Echo! Pleasure meeting you and all, but I've got a signal to follow. Don't worry, shouldn't be related to your problem, and I'll make sure to take care of it. If all goes according to plan, you won't even know it happened. Keep on going to wherever it is you were going, I doubt that mob has followed us this far. I'll be seeing you around!”
“Wait, how do you know my name?”
“Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, I really haven't got time to explain. Allons-y!” With that, he had bounded off through the alley and turned a corner.
Echo stayed in the alley for a moment longer before she dared to move even a single hoof. As she was about to continue on her trek back to the library, she heard Sweetie Belle's voice on her back.
“Echo, is that you?”
“Yes. I realize that probably makes you want to kill me now, doesn't it?” Echo fought tears. My home has been destroyed. My life is being uprooted. I suppose I deserve this after everything I've done in life.
“What? Why would we want to kill you?”
“Because I'm a changeling.”
“Well, duh, you're a changeling. We've known that for a while now, Echo.” Apple Bloom chimed.
“Wait, you don't remember wanting to kill me and Scoots?”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gasped. “Kill you and Scootaloo?” They said together.
“I'm pretty sure we'd remember wanting to kill you, Echo,” Apple Bloom stammered through the apparent shock, “and why would we want to kill our best friend?”
“Because she's a changeling too. Do you really not remember any of this, girls?”
“Scootaloo isn't a changeling. She's been a pony for as long as we've known her. Isn't that right, AB?”
“Yep. Pegasus through-and-through, even if she can't fly yet.”
They don't remember. “Okay, girls. Look, we need to get to the library now. Don't tell anyone we meet on the way who I am, alright?”
“Can you explain what's happening, Echo?”
“I'll be sure to explain it to you as soon as I figure it out, Apple Bloom. Let's go, okay?”
They walked together in silence back to the library. They were all three covered in soot, and every now and then a black cloud would release itself from one of their coats, dissipating slowly into the air. Echo's mane – or rather, her disguise's mane – was a tangled mess with bits of glass lodged in it. All of their eyes were reddened – the fillies' by the ash that had infiltrated them, and Echo's by the emotional strain that the past few minutes had placed on her shoulders. As they approached the library, Echo could make out a glowing purple replica of the library's normal door. Obviously, this was a creation of Twilight's to serve as a stand-in for the door that Chrysalis had obliterated. Echo raised a hoof hesitantly, and knocked. Her hoof met resistance that was just like a door's, but her knock didn't create a sound. She tried again, knocking harder, but it was still silent. Only Twilight could create a door that can't be knocked on!
In no mood to shout, Echo instead dropped her disguise and plunged her horn through the door. A pulse of green energy disintegrated the door, and Echo stepped inside bearing her most bemused expression. “Leave it to you, Twilight, to make a door that won't let me knock.”
“Echo,” Twilight sighed, “that door was really hard to make! Ugh, can you changelings ever just enter some place without breaking something down?”
“What fun would that be?” Chrysalis laughed from somewhere else in the library.
“UGH!” Twilight grumbled as she set herself to fixing the door.
“Do you notice anything, Twi?” Echo asked, motioning to the slightly confused fillies behind her.
“Yes, yes, hello Apple Bloom, hello Sweetie Belle.” Twilight remained focused on the door.
“Twilight. They're back to normal.”
“Excellent. Good. Wonderful. That's great.” She plastered on layer after layer of magic as she rebuilt the door. “That's outstanding.”
“She'll be back,” Chrysalis' voice came from behind Echo, “she did the same thing to me the first time she build that door. Wouldn't respond to a thing I said. I even tried telling her intimate stories about her brother's performance in the bedro –”
“MOTHER! Fillies, remember?” Echo nodded to the young ones in question, whose faces bore confusion.
“Yes, well, at any rate, I can assure you that she won't respond until she's finished with that door.”
“Great. How long?”
“Twenty minutes or so.”
“Good. Watch the girls and wake me when Twi's done.” Echo walked over to the couch and collapsed, falling asleep immediately.