//------------------------------//
// XIII: Discovery 
// Story: The After Party 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight looked around the area, her eyes scanning for any magical trace of Rocket Sky. She wasn't going to banish him to some random location that would keep him there for a thousand years or more. She wasn't the kind of mare. She certainly wasn't going to kill him just because he had an intense amount of magical energy. And she wasn't going to let Celestia do the poor stallion in either.

Besides, none of the four Princesses had any luck finding any trace of Rocket. And that was really starting to irritate Princess Celestia, who was currently floating over the town on a huge white cloud. That was until they heard Spike shouting and went to investigate, finding him by Sugarcube Corner of all places.

"Twilight," the baby dragon exclaimed, hugging the mare as the four arrived, "There's been a break in at the library. I don't know who would break into a library, but he was still there when I left."

"Found you Dark Sky," Celestia growled, taking to teleporting the lot of them directly to the library, "Now it is time to...end you?"

They found no mess, no destruction, and no bloody mess. Instead they found the body of a sleeping stallion, who laid on the spare bed and seemed at peace with the world around him. Celestia's magic glowed and sharpened her horn, which she would then use to drive the point home with him. Even as she approached the stallion she found herself not opposed by Cadence or her sister, but her student of all ponies.

"Step aside Twilight," she commanded, "This must be done for the safety of all ponies."

"I can't just let you kill him," Twilight said, "Look at him; the chains are still intact. He isn't destroying the town or torturing anypony. He's just sleeping. He's thrown the monster back where it belongs. If you think the monster is waiting for us to lower our guard then take a look at his eyes and tell me that I'm wrong."

Celestia knew that whenever somepony was asked by Twilight to prove her wrong things tended to go wrong. So, being very careful, Celestia approached the sleeping stallion and used her magic to slowly open his eyes, just in case Dark was waiting for them. But when she opened his eyes she found the stallion staring back at her with his normal eyes and that dispelled her magic.

"Fine," Celestia softly said, "We'll leave him alone. I fully expect you to watch his power. We still might need to seal him away if things get out of hoof."

"I will watch over him," Twilight promised, "after all, he is part of my population now."

"We will come back in a week," Luna commented, "Take that time to analyze Rocket as much as you can. I'd hate for my sister to do something that she might regret later on."

"As would I," Cadence agreed, "Me and Shining have to get back to the Crystal Empire. It's nothing too serious, but one can never be too careful these days."

Twilight nodded and the three Princesses vanished, returning to Canterlot so they could prepare. She, however, was going to have to keep a close eye on Rocket in case something strange happened. And she also had to tell Spike about what she had learned about their guest.

Near where the dragons had once stood stirred a pony, but she wasn't like any pony that anypony had seen for a long time. 067 groaned and snapped her neck before making sure nothing was wrong with her body. Before anypony else woke up from their magical slumber she resumed her Rose Petal disguise, sighing to herself as she noticed a drunken Chrysalis on the ground.

Of course the Queen gets drunk, she thought, but why did she get drunk after working instead of waiting for Nightmare Night to come around?

The town looked like Nightmare Night had already happened, but she couldn't remember anything from the previous night no matter how hard she tried. That must have meant that Nightmare Night was going to happen soon and the town needed to be awake for that to happen. And Chrysalis needed to sleep off her drunken state before she could resume her disguise.

So Rose picked the body of the drunken Queen up and quickly moved to her house, where she could then lay her in bed before searching for the rest of the guards. They had to be somewhere around Ponyville. Or maybe they had already awoken and were waiting at her house before searching for the Queen.

Rose arrived at her house a few minutes later and found the door locked, which meant that nopony had entered it in the last couple of hours. It also meant that the Changeling Guards weren't inside waiting for her to arrive before they began their search. Rose also decided that the guards were just stupid and took the spare key from its hiding place behind the flower pot. Once inside she went upstairs and gently put Chrysalis on one of the beds, tucking her in slightly before turning around and heading back towards the front door.

Upon leaving her house she journeyed back to where she had awoken, hoping that she would find her new friends scattered about as she had seen earlier. She arrived quickly and found that Inner Wisdom, Tick Tock, and Peachy Keen were fast asleep like the rest of Ponyville. Rose smiled and gathered some water, lightly drenching the three of them and dispelling her magic before they would even notice.

"Buck," Tick shouted, shaking himself off as he got up, "Why does everypony decide that the best option for waking somepony up is to drench them in water?"

Rose left like laughing; it seemed like Tick was used to being drenched in water. Though he was still angry as he moved Peachy onto her side.

"Ugh, what happened?" Peachy asked, shaking her head to clear her mind, "My side hurts and I feel like a chunk of my memory has been removed or erased. Wasn't Nightmare Night supposed to be TONIGHT?"

"I thought the same thing," Rose answered, "but it seems that we all, meaning the whole of Ponyville, might have indulged in some sort of drunken party and can't remember what we did last night."

Rose knew that her assumption would only work for those who were in Ponyville during the previous night and not those who were, say, in the Everfree Forest. And seeing how she hadn't seen the Changeling guards yet she wondered if they had ventured into the Everfree and had yet to return. She thought about it so much that she heard Peachy say something and had to ask her to repeat it.

"I asked if you have seen Rocket around anywhere," Peachy repeated.

"I haven't seen him yet," Rose answered, her mind racing to remember where he could be at the moment, "I guess he might be in the library right now."

"Of course he is in the library," Wisdom piped up, appearing behind her, "He was assigned to live in the library with Princess Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike. Let's head over there."

Rose smiled and followed the three ponies to the library, watching the sleeping ponies as they passed them and wondering if they would awaken soon. Peachy seemed worried that something big might have happened and none of them could remember it at all. Tick wasn't too worried; his guitar was whole and he seemed to enjoy plucking nameless tunes on it while they walked. Wisdom, on the other hoof, seemed to be looking around as if he suspected that somepony was going to jump out at him and attack him.

When they arrived at the library they found Twilight standing over the sleeping form of Rocket, but there was something strange about him. Attached to his legs, all four of them, were the cuffs of chains that were snapped. The cuffs were very much intact, but Twilight seemed unconcerned for the fact that they were on Rocket.

"Are we interrupting something?" Wisdom asked, startling Twilight and causing her to turn towards them, "Because it feels like we missed out on something."

"Oh, its nothing," Twilight said, turning away to face Wisdom floating in front of her, "It is nothing that you need to concern yourself with. I'm just making sure that he's safe the excitement of last night."

"A likely explanation," Wisdom countered, "but I know something happened last night that made you and the other princesses cast a memory wipe on the town."

"You shouldn't even remember that part," Twilight exclaimed.

"Hey Twilight," a voice came from upstairs, "When are we going to tell the others about the monstrous power that resides within...Rocket Sky?"

Spike stalled his question a bit as he reached the bottom of the stairs and stared at the assembled ponies already gathered in the library. Twilight cursed herself for telling the baby dragon and now she had to deal with the ponies that were Rocket's closest friends.

"Of course it's his power," Wisdom said, as if that summed everything up, "Something happened last night that awakened the power and saved his life, but in the process that has made Celestia fear him. So tell me Twilight, what happened last night?"

Twilight sighed and gave in, the stallion already knew too much about last night. When she finished the short tale she was shocked to see that Peachy was shaking, Wisdom was passive, Tick must have ignored her since he was playing with the guitar still, and Rose wasn't moved by the information.

"That explains it," Rocket said, getting up and staring at the now shocked assembly, "I can fake sleeping fairly easily, but now I know why those Changelings were after me a few days ago. They're after the power I contain."

"Wait, what Changelings?" Twilight asked, "There haven't been any Changeling sightings around Ponyville lately."

"Doesn't matter," Wisdom commented, "They chased him and now we know they're after him."

"I'm heading to the Everfree Forest," Rocket said, his horn glowing, "Don't expect to see me for a couple of hours."

Before Twilight could stop him Rocket was gone and the magic trace failed to hang in the air for once. His skill in magic was improving if he could erase his magical trace in a instant. Rose sighed, his friends seemed unsurprised by the fact that their friend had such powerful magic.

Rose was going to say something, but then she noticed the flash of a black coated Changeling. The guards were returning to the town and they needed to report to the Queen. Or report to the next in command since the Queen was drunk off her flank right now. Rose excused herself from the library and headed home, now seeing that some of the citizens were awakening at last.

When she returned to her house and opened the door she found all thirteen of the guards waiting for her inside her house, just standing around for anypony to see if the door was opened wider.

"About time you guys showed up," she angrily said, closing the door behind her as she focused on them, "In case you haven't noticed the entire town is waking up and the Queen is drunk."

"That explains why she wasn't responding to our calls," the leader of the capture team, 008, said, "We thought she was in disguise again and couldn't take the time to respond because she was chatting with somepony else. Though it appears that we have a slight...problem..."

"Yes?" Rose prompted, eager to hear what could be a problem for thirteen of the highest guards in the Changeling ranks, "And this problem would be what exactly?"

"The Princesses are keeping taps on Rocket Sky," 008 replied, "Apparently something happened last night with three teenage dragons and his power went crazy. We kind of had a guard follow them to Canterlot and listen in on their conversation before returning here to inform the rest of us."

"I already figured that out by following his friends and listening to Twilight," Rose told him, pausing as she heard a knock on her door, "Quickly, head upstairs and wait until I call for you all."

The thirteen Changelings turned invisible and headed upstairs, mainly because Rose didn't want anypony to accidentally see one head upstairs before the door was closed. When she heard the click she opened her door and found a fully awakened Derpy Hooves, dressed up for work, waiting for her.

"Ah, Miss Rose Petal," the mailmare said, lifting a letter out of her bag, "I have a letter for Miss Salad Top. Can I trust you give this to her?"

"Course you can," Rose answered, wondering how the mare had known Chrysalis was at her house anyway as she took the letter, "I will deliver it to her immediately."

"Good," Derpy said, popping a muffin into her mouth, "Well then, I'll be seeing you later Rose."

"Bye Derpy," Rose called, watching the mare vanish as she stared at the dark green seal on the letter and recognized it immediately.

She closed the door, locked it up tight, and headed upstairs to find all the guards standing around a now awakened Queen Chrysalis.

"About time you showed up," Chrysalis commented, "I have debriefed the guards and I know Rocket Sky is within my grasp still...what is that in your hoof?"

"A letter from the Elder Council," Rose answered, handing the letter over, "I can tell by the seal that was put on it."

"Faust almighty what do they want this time?" Chrysalis angrily said, tearing the letter open and beginning to read it out loud, "Take account for my actions, be questioned by the council, and be there in one weeks time? Dang it Zircon, why couldn't you leave me alone for once?"

"My Queen?" 008 asked, curious, "Is everything alright?"

"I must return to the Hive," Chrysalis said, the letter burning up in her anger, "The thirteen of you will be coming with me to the Hive while I answer the summons. Rose, stay here and do whatever you want."

As Chrysalis assumed her Salad Top disguise Rose couldn't help but wonder if something else was up besides what Chrysalis had said. And what was up with the council sending a letter directly to Chrysalis? Rose sighed and figured she would find out eventually.