//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eight: A Dark and Stormy Night 
// Story: Dr. Hooves and the Broken Box 
// by Lyichir 
//------------------------------//


It was late in the evening, and still pouring rain when the Doctor came hobbling back to the house that Derpy and Golden Harvest called home.

When he opened the door, they were both there waiting there for him. Derpy rushed to the Doctor’s side. He looked like he was going to fall over any minute.
“Where were you?” asked Golden Harvest. She had an annoyed look on her face, but she couldn’t mask the concern in her voice. “What happened?”
“I can’t tell you where I was,” the Doctor replied. “Not yet.” If he had to lie to them, he could at least be honest about the lie itself. “What’s important is that I was attacked.”
Derpy gasped. “Attacked? By who?”
“By what would be a more apt question,” said the Doctor, “And I still don’t know. I need intel. Does this town have any sort of library?”
Golden Harvest nodded. “Yeah, we have a free library of sorts. It’s in the big tree in the middle of town. But we should wait until morning. This rainstorm’s scheduled to last all night!”
The Doctor scowled. “If the thing that attacked me is as dangerous as it seemed, it’s absolutely imperative that we deal with it as soon as possible.”
Derpy and Golden Harvest exchanged concerned glances. “Okay, we’ll come,” said the ginger-maned pony.
The Doctor was already out the door. Derpy and Golden Harvest hurried and put on clear ponchos before running out to catch up with him.

When they arrived at the library, someone was already there in the darkened building. A unicorn with a slick purple mane, a gray coat, and an image of a scroll on his flank was reading a book by the flickering light of a candle. The purple-maned pony looked up from his book and grinned. “Carrot Top!” he exclaimed. “And friends! Fancy seeing you here in the library on a stormy night like this!”
The Doctor looked at him quizzically. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”
Golden Harvest narrowed her eyes at the unicorn pony. “Don’t worry,” she said to the Doctor. “You’re not missing much. This is Written Script; amateur playwright and Ponyville’s biggest hipster.”
Written Script’s face fell. “Carrot Top… please!” he whined. “First impressions are important!”
“Well excuuuuuuse me, princess,” Golden Harvest replied. “Heck of a first impression to give by reading a book by candlelight…” She flipped a switch on the wall. “…in a room with working electric lights.”
“…It enhances the mood…” mumbled Written Script.
The Doctor cleared his throat. “Look, this is all nice and all, but we really need to find some information on the monster that attacked me.”
Written Script’s face lit up. “Oooh, a monster? What kind? I’m researching for a new play—a sort of a sci-fi serial, actually.” A violet aura surrounded the book he had been reading as he lifted it into the air with his unicorn magic. The title read 1001 Equestrian Monsters and Bugaboos. “I was just looking for a monster for the heroes to fight—“
“That’ll do!” exclaimed the Doctor. He pushed Written Script aside, and the book fell flat to the floor, open to pages 226 and 227.
The Doctor stared down at the open book. “Well,” he said, “that was almost too easy.”
Derpy and Golden Harvest moved over to where the Doctor was standing, to see what he was referring to. The page had a large illustration of a jet-black creature that looked like some dark hybrid of a pony and some sort of insect. It had large fangs, its eyes glowed blue, and it had holes going straight through each of its legs, like the leaves of a bush infested with caterpillars.
CHANGELING, read the picture caption. This creature disguises itself as a pony in order to feed on the love of their friends and family. It hides its host in a cocoon to so as to maintain its masquerade.
Golden Harvest’s jaw dropped. “That’s what you were attacked by?”
The Doctor nodded. “I think so. It tried to trap me in one of those cocoons as well. I tricked it, though. I switched places with it and it ended up trapped itself.”
“You trapped it?” exclaimed Derpy. “That’s great! We can take the cocoon and send it back where it came from!”
The Doctor grimaced. “I hope it’s still in the cocoon, Derpy. At that point I was just trying to get away from it. It might have worked its way free.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Written Script, rubbing his shoulder with his hoof where the Doctor had pushed him. “Are you all for real? No offense, but this sounds like something I’d write.”
The Doctor glared at him. “Yes, we are definitely for real. This is a real crisis, and unless we do something all of Ponyville could be in danger.
Written Script seemed genuinely scared now. “Well, the book says that they come from the Badlands far to the south of Equestria. I might be able to send it away with a teleport spell! It’ll be hard to send it with much accuracy if it’s so far away... but I can at least make sure it ends up closer to there than it is to here!” He gave the Doctor a nervous grin.
The Doctor gave a loud sigh. “I suppose that’s the best solution we can come up with on short notice. Where are maps and charts kept?”
Written Script looked over at a thick door on the far side of the library. “I think those sorts of documents are kept in storage in the basement.”
“Well.” The Doctor gave him a patronizing smile. “I think you ought to go down there and find some that can give you a sense of exactly how far you have to send it, and in which direction.”
“R-right!” stuttered Written Script as he made his way toward the door. He knew Golden Harvest well, and he knew Derpy was her roommate, but he had absolutely no idea who this chocolate-maned Earth Pony was. All he knew was that that pony was not the kind you wanted to cross.

“Dr. Hooves,” said Golden Harvest as Written Script rushed through the door and down the stairs, “What if the one that ambushed you wasn’t the only one of them?”
The Doctor shook his head. “I’m pretty sure it was,” he said with a hint of sadness. “I’ve dealt with creatures like that before. It seemed… scared. Like it was lost, and just wanted to find a way home. And if there were others, it wouldn’t have—”
He was interrupted by a scream coming from the basement.