The griffons had agreed to take the larger of the groups’ occupants towards Ponyville. The fillies were in Pinkie’s balloon along with the dragons. Shadow Mirror and Rainbow had flown up ahead. Shyfrost had noticed that Spike had been scratching his head, as if deep in thought, and decided to ask him about it.
“What’s wrong?”
He finished scratching and smacked his head. “I think I just remembered a book that might talk about the artifacts.” He laughed bitterly, but he didn't sound mean to Shyfrost. “Yeah, it’s in Twilight’s library. I can’t believe I forgot, I used to spend day after day working through books, organizing stuff…”
Shyfrost looked at his amulet. “Do you remember what it said about them?”
“I think they were meant for a greater purpose, like the Elements of Harmony, only different. They can be used to contact leaders, I think... if that makes sense and something else… and- Rainbow?” They both looked up to see Rainbow hovering.
“Yeah, we got some bad news. Canterlot looks like it’s been enveloped in some weird black cloud. We need to get to Twilight and fast!”
Pinkie pondered this before smiling. “I got it!” She turned around and rummaged into her saddlebag before revealing the item of their salvation. “I always keep a harness on me at all times, in case of harness emergencies… maybe!”
Rainbow deadpanned, “...Maybe?”
“Shh, and strap it on!” Pinkie threw it over, and Rainbow obeyed. Then the pink mare tied the ends of the ropes to the balloon, double checking that the knots would hold tight.
Rainbow then looked back at the griffons now carrying the rest of the group and called out, “You both need to keep up with me, can you do that?”
Stoic expressions and stiff nods were all she got in return. Rainbow shrugged, furrowed her brow and then soared forward. The sheer speed at which she did it had caught the griffons off guard, including Garret, but they soon caught up. The group kept giving nervous glances directed towards Canterlot Castle, but knew there was nothing they could do yet. Twilight was in Ponyville and that’s where they were heading.
The fillies and practically everypony else were not sure how long the trip took. Perhaps this was because of the speed at which they traveled. Perhaps it was the difficult landing that left everyone without wings dazed and dizzy. They had landed right outside of Ponyville. Dash wasted no time in calling out to Spike.
“Get Twilight here, write her a letter!”
“Uh, but- oh right… I can write letters to her now…” He tried off and quickly scrawled out a simple letter, telling Twilight where they were in town. They watched him blow fire over it and soon the letter was off, only to turn around to their confusion and land nearby. “Huh?” They all turned around and found the ponies they were looking for. Spike had no chance as Twilight Sparkle sprinted towards him, and gathered him in her magic to reach for a hug.
Fluttershy did the same only much slower and gentler. “Don’t leave us again, please…” she whimpered.
“Um…” Shyfrost felt the warmth from her body and sighed in relief. “Okay.”
“Spike… I…”
Spike returned the hug awkwardly and sighed. “We need to talk about this stuff later, okay? We kind of have an emergency here.”
“Uh… yeah, yeah.” Twilight nodded quickly. “But we will talk!” She added sternly. Spike gulped nervously and nodded back. “Good.” She then smiled which quickly formed her muzzle back to confusion. “Who are they?”
“Oh, that’s Prince-”
“I know who he is!” Twilight interrupted, looking stressed. Spike looked up at her worried. “Um, sorry Spike. Keep talking, I’m sorry…”
“That’s Garret, remember the griffon who saved Shyfrost? That’s him.” Spike said matter of factly.
Twilight looked at him from a distance. “Wow…”
“Yeah, we met a few people along the way. One’s even a changeling!”
“Spike that’s, that’s… impossible?” She saw the changeling morph and then he heard him call out to her.
“Hey!”
“But, he’s not, he’s not…”
“Evil? Not really, no. Look, this is a long story, Twilight. It would take a while to explain everything.”
She nodded and looked back at the group again. She saw Pinkie helping the crusaders out. “I see you brought them…” Twilight’s eyes glazed over and then she looked back at Spike. “Spike,” she paused and shook her head a few times, “why did you leave?”
He could tell she sounded hurt, almost disappointed, but most of all stressed. “I needed a break,” he said simply.
“From the library?”
He placed his claws together in a nervous manner, something she noticed that he had never grown out of. “No, from you and from everything here.”
“Oh.” Twilight wouldn’t call herself the smartest pony in the world, even if others had given her that title. She watched her son twiddle his claws and tried to desperately think of some reason as to why he would run, other than the obvious of finding the dragons. She gave up, but not on him. Twilight hugged him one more time. “Why don’t we all head inside? We have a lot of talking to do and not a lot of time.”
“Yeah…” They started to slowly walk and then Spike stopped her. “Its good to see you, Twilight.”
She smiled, brighter than Celestia’s sun.
It had taken a bit of time, but soon everypony had been introduced for the most part. It was a rather unfortunate situation that they all found themselves in. Everypony wanted to do something else, but they were all stuck in the library for the time being. Garret was fine with the situation; he knew Equestria was in trouble and exploring a new town would not save it. Shadow Mirror felt uncomfortable with the annoying stares he was getting from most of the ponies in the room; Pinkie and Rainbow being the only exception. Applejack wanted to punish both her little sister and Big Mac, but couldn’t yet. Rarity wanted to do the same to Sweetie Belle for a multitude of reasons, but again was stuck. Rover felt like the elephant in the room, though he had to admit the number of non ponies vs ponies was almost even. The Prince felt annoyed that a certain alabaster colored mare kept staring at him with an unnerving smile. Rainbow felt completely conflicted as to what to do with Blaze, when normally she was fully focused on a task when lives were at stake. The Cutie Mark Crusaders really wanted to sleep, but the excitement kept them awake. And finally, everypony was on edge, but not as much as Twilight.
Twilight would not stop pacing and thinking in silence, a silence that everyone in the entire room really wanted to break, but were not sure how (and had no intention of invoking her wrath). Well, all except for Spike, who decided that he was fed up with sitting on a beat up sofa, and broke it. The silence, not the couch.
“Twilight,” he said simply.
“What?” She broke out of her thoughts and looked at all of the visitors in her library, and all of them with worried faces. She ended up at Spike’s, who was looking up at her expecting a plan. There was hardly a plan, just a search and rescue. “I don’t know, Spike. There is no procedure for if the princesses are missing. There isn't…except to find them.”
They all looked at each other, but Shadow coughed once. “You know you could get extra help if you contacted the other leaders, like we were attempting to do.”
Twilight spent a moment, judging him but shook it off. To her, the changeling was an anomaly, yes; but not the primary focus for the current situation. “But I don’t know how, if only there was a spell or some way to do it quickly. And we need to act now!”
“Twi, why exactly are we lettin’ him in the same room?”
Shadow rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, read a book or two that were evil?”
“Well, Ah remember books sayin’ you're not exactly a friendly race!” she shot back.
He laughed a bit. “Oh and who wrote them? Ponies?”
“What kinda question is that? Of course ponies!” Applejack snapped.
“Maybe if you read some actual books written by changelings, you will know that most of our race are not unfriendly to others. Our books don’t have the biased that yours appear to hold,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Wait, there is an entire library written by changelings?!” Twilight asked hopefully, a new smile forming on her lips.
Shadow backed up as her muzzle almost touched his. “Um, yeah…”
They all watched Twilight smile with glee, just thinking of the possibilities!
“Twilight!” Fluttershy scolded.
“What? Oh right, sorry, sorry. Books later, the plan now.”
Fluttershy nodded sternly.
Twilight stepped forward confidently… and then wilted. “But there is no plan. It would help if we could contact other nations, but I don’t know how.”
Shyfrost, who had remained silent throughout, piped up. “Um, Spike knows how!”
Spike, who had drifted off realizing just how nice it was to be back in his own home, snapped to attention, and anxiety spiked through him for a moment until he realized that it was Shyfrost who called him. “What? I know what?”
“You said you knew something about our artifacts, about a book.”
Twilight raised one eyebrow and looked at the two dragons. Spike nodded and stood up and ran over to a nearby shelf, he tripped once however but quickly got back up. Spike… why are you so nervous around me? Twilight thought.
Spike blew on the cover, sending dust raining down from above. “There’s nothing on the cover, this is it,” he said, giving it to Twilight.
“I don’t remember this book being in our library, Spike. Where did you get it?”
“Its always been there, but it moves around a lot. You know, when you tell me to organize the place,” he replied.
She blinked and shook her head. “Okay, let’s see… it says these artifacts- wait!” She looked up and spotted Shyfrost, and without warning she levitated the dragon over to her side. “Let me see your amulet,” she ordered.
“Um, you could say please,” he protested, but he held it up. She studied it for a moment and then went back to the book and studied a single page. She paused for several moments and then sighed. “Oops.” Shyfrost looked confused. “Shyfrost, I was wrong when I said your amulet wasn’t special. It’s written right here.”
They all immediately gathered around the book, causing the poor dragon to become squashed into it. “Hey back off!” he barked. “Amulet of Determination? What does that mean?” he asked Twilight.
“It doesn’t say. Um, I’m sorry when I said it wasn’t special though. But if I could, everypony, I have a bit of reading to do.” They let go of the book. “Thank you.” She continued reading the page, her eyes flicking back and forth faster than Shyfrost had thought possible. “It says the Amulet along with a few other ‘artifacts’ can be utilized to not only communicate with the world’s leaders, but connect them in some way. Hmm, but it also says they will only work right if each leader has come into contact with all of the artifacts before they can become useful…”
She trailed off and looked up, shocked to see several of the rooms occupants holding out an artifact of some kind. Slowly realization dawned on her and she nodded, almost smiling.
The prince stepped forward. “We were visiting as many as we could before all of this mess. We visited my kingdom,” he confirmed.
“And mine.” Garret said.
“Technically I used to be our leader…” Rover muttered.
“Uh, but we never visited any dragons...” Shyfrost mentioned.
“Or my ex-Queen.”
Spike watched Twilight go silent and ponder something. He almost chuckled when she snapped out of it. He could count how long it would take for her to do that in his head, and she was always right on the dot. “Rarity, how did your talk with the Diamond Dogs go?”
“Well, admittedly they haven’t changed much…” She muttered. “However, I did get them to agree to search for Princess Luna using their desert tunnels. They want, and I quote, ‘a butt load of gems in exchange’.”
“Thank you for that. Fluttershy, are they searching for Princess Celestia?”
“Oh, um, yes. It took a lot of convincing but quite a bit of sea creatures and fish are looking right now.”
“Good. We will have to make this a short journey…” She closed her eyes as a sign of frustration. “Although I would want nothing more than to leave the fillies and our dragons home...” She spoke motherly, at least her tone suggested so. “We don’t have time. Everyone will need to come as one group. Unless our books are wrong…” She said bitterly towards the changeling in the room. “If I’m not mistaken, the dragon realm and the changeling kingdom are near enough to each other that we should be able to make a short enough trip to activate these artifacts.”
Applejack raised a hoof in protest. “Uh, Twi? You want us to just go out on another journey? Just like that?” she asked.
“I know it does not sound ideal, but we need to prepare for the princesses’ return. Our only plan right now is to free them, but I think its obvious that without the Elements that we will need all the help we can get. Two Princesses aren’t enough to fight off two Discords. Our only hope is to contact Equestria’s leaders and plead for their assistance.”
Spike smiled up at her and she smiled back, the little dragon had missed moments like this.
“Sounds like a solid plan.” Shadow Mirror exclaimed cheerfully, before his voice dropped low. “If you want a death wish.”
“Excuse me?” Twilight asked, taken aback.
“Why do think I’m the only changeling around for miles? The Queen isn't exactly on the top ten list of friendliest Equestrians right now. Some say something changed her. The rumors are lack of love and she kept barking about ponies keeping it all for themselves. It got real bad so a lot of us fled. Some choose to steal love while others like myself earn it. Yes, the dragons are nearest to us, but a bunch of ponies and other creatures walking into the Changeling Empire is not the best idea in the world.”
“Interesting…” Twilight muttered. “It almost sounds like what happened with Princess Luna a thousand years ago. But its the only shot we have, it mentioned a changeling leader in the book.”
“Books can be wrong!” he argued.
“They can also be right!” Twilight retorted, matching his glare.
They continued staring angrily at each other until Rarity broke the silent showdown. “Shadow, is it?” Rarity asked, carefully inching her way over to the fuming duo. “While you did point out that it sounds dangerous, it would be a lot more dangerous if we didn't do anything at all. Discord wrecked havoc last time, I shudder to think what would happen with two of them.”
“We seem to be doing fine so far,” he pointed out.
The door to the library slammed open. A mare, who they recognized to be the actual mayor of Ponyville, came in. Her mane looked a mess, and she looked exhausted. “Twilight?!”
“Mayor?”
“Please, you all have to come see this, now!”
Twilight immediately stood up and ran after her. A silent moment passed before everypony in the room quickly decided that following her was better than waiting in boredom. Upon leaving the library, they all gasped on what they saw. Ponies, hundreds of them all walking towards Ponyville. A single glance told them they were from Canterlot, with the majority of the visitors being unicorns dressed in fancy clothes and all.
The mayor turned back to Twilight. “What is happening? I know you know something!” she snapped.
Twilight ignored her and turned back to Shadow. “How long before that happens to your old home, hmm? We are going to the Changeling territory, with you or not. Right?” She turned to her friends, who all nodded.
“I’m with ya…” Spike replied weakly, something Twilight really wanted to address at the moment but couldn’t.
“It would seem to be our best option…” the prince agreed, wondering just how many ponies were coming this way.
“Rover is with you.”
The three pony crusaders whipped to her side, synchronizing in the same motion to give a salute. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders are ready for orders!”
Rarity and Applejack looked down to their sides in shock to find both crusaders had somehow wiggled out of their grasp. Rainbow looked almost glad to be rid of Scootaloo.
Garret whistled at the multitude of ponies coming towards them and addressed the mayor. “I’d prepare a speech, kind of seems like they are being evacuated and you are this town’s mayor if I’m not mistaken… also yes, of course, I’m with anywhere that little dragon goes.” He pointed to Shyfrost, who was perched on top of Fluttershy’s back.
Shadow considered what was going on. He never, ever, wanted to go back to the queen for something. Twilight, however, seemed so sure of herself whenever she spoke. Still… “This is a really bad idea,” he pointed out again.
“Maybe, but its the only plan we have. Unless you have an extra pair of Harmony Stones on you, this is the plan we have to go with. Now, are you coming?” she asked, looking at the Mayor who seemed more lost than ever.
“If I die and you all don’t, I am going to haunt you until the day you die. Got it?” Shadow sarcastically said. “Let’s just go before we're neck deep in prissy unicorns…”
His bad attitude went ignored by Twiight. She addressed the mayor. “I’d prepare a speech, mayor. We kind of need to go…” she finished sheepishly.
“I don’t even know what’s going on!” the mayor protested, but by then Twilight and the gang had already started galloping away.
Twilight called back, “Good! Just stall them and tell the ponies the Elements of Harmony are working on it and panic is the worst thing you can do!”
The Mayor turned back just as the first set of Canterlot ponies had started to show up. She gulped.
“You know Twi, that wasn’t exactly the way you usually handle things…” Spike pointed out, walking along side her.
“I know, I know. I’m just stressed and we need to do this immediately.” She ignored Spike for a moment and addressed Shadow. “How long does it take to get to-”
“The Queen’s lair? It’s not far out from Ponyville, oddly enough. You would think that more changelings would end up in that town but she didn't want any there for some reason,” he said somberly.
Rarity shook the dirt off from a (formerly) white hoof. “I hope we get there soon, I hadn’t realized the Whitetail Woods could get this dirty-”
“-and spooky..” Sweetie commented from her sister’s back.
Rainbow had noticed Blaze was shaking a bit and reluctantly allowed her to ride on her back. She smiled slightly when she stopped.
Twilight sighed and watched the others, carefully analyzing the situation. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo seemed quiet enough, which usually meant bad things would not be heading their way. Shyfrost and Fluttershy were smiling at each other, with the former looking exhausted. The rest were chatting with themselves, this was her only chance. She started to walk slower away from her friends, with Spike taking her lead. She started to talk to him.
“Spike? Can we talk?”
“Hmm? Sure,” he replied slowly.
“Okay, you said you needed a break from everyone. Were there any other reasons you left?”
“Him. I know you said he’s not my brother, but he’s still a close friend. He was going to leave and he really wanted to see some dragons and, well, so did I.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense. If I was raised by dragons my whole life, I would want to see another pony someday, too,” she said, carefully choosing her words. “But, um, was I working you too hard?”
He winced and finally decided to say what he had wanted to for a long time. “I think so… every time I worked in the library, I felt proud to help you. But your studies started to take up so much time, you kind of stopped noticing me so much. I started to feel nervous, just waiting for you to say ‘Spike’ all day… I don’t know…” His voice cracked a view times and by the end Twilight could tell he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to say.
She wasted no time in levitating him up and onto her back. “I’m sorry. From now on, I promise not to ignore you anymore. You're a wonderful son, and I’ve been working far too hard. I’m sorry.”
He hugged her tightly. “It’s okay, anyone can make mistakes. Even Twilight Sparkle.”
She smiled back at him and the purple dragon felt a weight lifted from his mind and soul.
“Hey, Fluttershy.” Shyfrost called out from her back.
“Yes, little dragon?”
“Got any pearls?” he asked hopefully.
She rolled her eyes. “Check my saddlebag, sweetie.” She continued to walk but a quick second later she jumped right out of her skin.
“Yes! Thanks Fluttershy, you're the best!” he cheered as she was quickly hugged. Fluttershy blushed and kept a steady pace forward from then on.
“I am the best…” she muttered, feeling a rare feeling of smugness.
Twilight and Spike ran up to reach the group, she then turned to Shadow. “Um, how much farther you think? I can’t seem to make heads or tails of this map,” she admitted shamefully.
“Ponies aren’t supposed to, at least not this far out. It’s meant to drive you away, to look like its nothing but wildlife territory, kind of like the Everfree. Of course, this isn't the only place where Changelings reside…” He trailed off and seemed to notice something up ahead. Twilight looked in his direction but saw nothing.
“Are you saying you're hiding all over the place? Your entire race?!” she asked incredulously.
“Kind of tough not to do that when everyone else sees you as an enemy,” he said dryly.
She wanted to feel sympathy at that moment, but something else distracted her. “What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Those signs up there, can’t you s-” He paused talking and smacked his forehead. “Oops, I forgot. Only Changelings can see them. It’s kind of an illusion spell. It means we’re here, or at least were at the edge of our territory.”
A sense of unnerving washed over the group. They kept walking at the exact same pace, but Twilight felt odd. “Um, Shadow? Why is it that most see your race as an enemy?”
“I don’t know why it was that way centuries ago, but I can tell why it is that way now. We feed on emotions. The stupid thing is, though, we can do this without forcing it; but that’s not what you ponies see. Right now I’m feeding on Spike and Shyfrost’s energy ‘cause they’re friends.”
“You what?!” Twilight almost shrieked, before remembering they were in a not-so-friendly territory.
“Relax! It doesn’t harm them at all, that’s what’s so stupid. We can force it and drain a victim of pure love, sure. But all it does is give a changeling more energy, more raw power, and you would only need that power if you wanted to fight something off or something. But the only reason to fight something off is if you had enemies in the first place, and the only reason ponies and other species see us as enemies-”
“Is because some of you choose to drain love?” Twilight finished for him, a realization dawning.
“Exactly! It’s a vicious cycle, but one I find incredibly stupid. it could easily be broken if more of my race just acted friendlier to ponies and others. Like I am.” He said proudly.
“Or ya could be leading us into a trap…” Applejack muttered.
“Sis! Stop acting so mean to him!” Apple Bloom whined.
“But Ah-”
“No! You always said to treat others with kindness when they deserved it. Well, he hasn’t done nuffin to not deserve it!” Apple Bloom scolded, her voice sounding almost humorous by talking down to her big sister.
“Ah… hmm.” She remained quiet after that. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at Apple Bloom and her smug expression in total awe. How exactly did she do that?
“What exactly are your kind going to do to us when they discover our presence, Shadow?” Rarity asked while trying to get dirt off of her hoof by rubbing her hoof on some dirt.
“Most likely take us to the Queen, and once she discovers that you all are the Elements of Harmony she will laugh maniacally in triumph or something. Seriously, when I was here, she laughed like a crazy mare at least once a day. It was maddening… and kindof unnerving.”
Twilight paused for a moment and then continued to walk. “She won’t know its us, unless you say something. That could be to our advantage.” Shadow nodded, figuring it would be. “Is it common for changelings to always be close to your queen?”
“Well…. no, not really. Most of us work in different places for the Queen, but not normally with her.”
“But you did, right?” Twilight asked, causing him to stop walking.
“Yeah, I did. It wasn’t the best job I ever had, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t used to feel promising and rewarding. Things started to turn bad and then of course you have her snapping and all that, a lot of us fled. Including me of course.”
“Of course…” Twilight muttered. “She isn't going to be very happy to see you, is she?”
“I would be surprised if she does not knock my teeth in. By the way, do you have a protecting charm for that? ‘Cause it would be really helpful,” he said hopefully.
“I do not. No,” she said, and he sighed in defeat. “Where is everypony though? It feels like we’re getting closer.”
“Hmm, actually I was wondering that myself,” Shadow said, subconsciously slowing down a bit.
“Rover senses something…” The Diamond Dog’s ears twisted around. “We’re being surrounded,” he confirmed.
“Sounds like the Queen,” Shadow confirmed. “So, this is your plan. What now?”
Before she could respond, all of them heard a constant buzzing noise coming at them. They all looked up and spotted several of the changelings flying down. Each and every single one looked far taller than Shadow, and a whole lot meaner to boot. None wore disguises. Twilight counted and confirmed there was just enough to where fighting them head on might be an issue. At least, that’s what she thought at first, but then they simply kept coming and coming. A few moments later, the entire group was surrounded completely.
They hissed threateningly, but otherwise did not say a word. Twilight noted their horns had been glowing the entire time. Perhaps a way to communicate with each other? she wondered. After a single minute, the largest of the group spoke.
“You will come with us to see the queen.-”
Shadow waved a hoof for Twilight. “Told ya.”
“Silence, traitor!” he spat. “You will come with us as well.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “We will, on the grounds that none of us are to be harmed until we see your queen.”
“Very well…” The changeling said, much to Twilight’s relief; which quickly melted into frightened apprehension at his next words. “Come with us, Elements of Harmony.”