The Hunt
Everything was in place. Twilight and Rainbow patrolled at ground level while Doppel and Fluttershy were doing it from roofs. The changeling went from roof to roof by changing momentarily his disguise for a pegasus' one. Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack were occupied with the preparations of the Princess' arrival.
--|-|--
“I've told you that there were changelings in town Twilight! You never believed me that that they were a threat,” Rainbow complained.
“And I've told you, I'm sorry! I should've listen to you. But for now, just take care of the changelings, would you?” She raised a hoof at Rainbow. “There, behind of you! It's not Doctor Whooves, it's a changeling.”
“Roger! I'll take care of it!” The cyan pegasus began to chase after the fake Doctor. Noticing that he was being chased, he jumped and start to run.
“Easy Rainbow! No panic remember?”
Rainbow thought about it a few seconds before blurted out a lie to explain her chase. “If I catch you, you're gonna regret using your blue box thingy on me!” The pursuit continued, but the attention from the ponies was diminished by knowing the cause of it.
“It's better than nothing,” Twilight sighed, watching the scene.
--|-|--
“I hope that we don't have to face a lot of changelings,” Fluttershy said as she landed on a roof.
“I'd like you to say the contrary, but...” Doppel turned round to see the pegasus. “It's an invasion. I doubt that they will be only a dozen.”
They continued to jump from roof to roof. The ambiance was now silent between them. Why won't she talk to me? I know that she's shy, but not anymore with me. I lived with her during more than an entire week. He turn around again to look at her in the eyes. Who have said that Doppel, the outlaw changeling, was gonna fall for a pony? Fluttershy looked away from him. Oh, she's trying to hide her feelings, that’s why she’s barely talking. I suppose it's because it's bothering her.
“Is something wrong?” the shy pegasus asked, feeling observed.
Doppel searched for an excuse for his behavior. He didn't have to look very far as he saw a brown pegasus with a gold mane randomly flying like if he was waiting for something. “There's a changeling behind you. It's the brown pegasus there.”
“How are we going to take him back to the library?” Fluttershy worried.
He thought about it some seconds. “I have an idea. We're gonna use my changeling's power to catch him.”
He whispered at her ear the plan he just found. She nodded before meeting the pegasus-changeling.
“What do you want?” he asked, in a conceited way.
“You see. If it didn't bother you, I would need your help,” Fluttershy stuttered. “My friend Lyra is stuck on the roof. She’s a unicorn and she can't fly. If it isn’t any trouble, could you help her down? I'm not strong enough. So I thought that... a strong pegasus like you could help.”
The false pegasus followed a little half-heartedly Fluttershy towards Doppel. As soon as he came close, Doppel caught him his hooves and wrapped him into a green bubble before taking him by magic to the library.
“One down!” he blurted, happy, despite the complaint of the caught changeling.
--|-|--
“Can't we go faster?” Rainbow Dash begged.
“No!” Twilight firmly answered. “I have to examine every pony and this spell isn't as easy it may seem. And we need to stay unnoticed.”
The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes. She thought having more action. But until now, they only found a couple of changelings. She was wondering if they were here because they had gotten lost. All Rainbow could do was to watch the crowd, fluttering alongside Twilight. Suddenly, something drew her attention. “It's Spitfire! Why didn't she tell me that she'd be here?”
She prepared to head to her idol, but is stopped by Twilight's magic. “Wait! It isn't Spitfire, it's a changeling!”
“Well this changeling has good taste.” More ponies came to ask the star an autograph. “How are we going to do? We can't kidnap her in front of everypony like this.”
“These are also changelings,” Twilight adjusted. “It seems that it's a group reunion.”
“I'm not strong enough to take out five in row while staying stealthy.”
They stayed there to think about the situation while continuing to watch the gathering of changelings.
“I'd rather not have to come to that. But this is all I have left for this situation,” Twilight said. Rainbow looked at her quizzically. “What I'm about to do isn't stealthy at all, but no one will understand what just happened.”
“So what am I going to do?”
“Do your best impersonation of the biggest fan of Spitfire, and let me do the job!”
The two mares came closer to the group. Rainbow began to squeal like she usually did when she met her favorite idol.
“I see a very big fan there!” the false Spitfire exclaimed.
“Now!” the librarian shouted, before teleporting everypony inside the library.
As soon they arrived, Twilight trapped the changelings inside a purple magic bubble and sent them inside the purposed room. On the other side of the main room, Rainbow was still groggy from the travel, her coat smoking a little.
“Just warn me the next time you do those kind of things,” she said, trying to regain her balance.
“Not enough time,” the unicorn apologized. “We need to continue our round. The Princess will arriving soon.”
--|-|--
Doppel and Fluttershy, from the top of a roof, stared at three ponies who were in fact changelings. They were wandering in the street, meddling in the crowd, unaware that they were being watched.
“How are we going to catch them?” the shy pegasus asked.
“Three of them. We could use the trick of asking for help, but I don't think it would work this time. We need something that make all of them follow me.”
They both sighed. If only they could be outlaws, it'd be less difficult. And it's annoying to always my nose itching. “ACHOO!”
On a time of a half of a second, Doppel took Pinkie's form and then immediately put his Lyra's disguise back. Fluttershy rapidly looked everywhere if somepony saw her friend. Everypony seemed continuing what they were doing without noticing.
“Sorry,” he justified, “it's the remaining of my cold. We aren't noticed, that's something.” And then, an idea came to his mind. “Yeah, I know. I will take the most random pony we know and we're going to trick them into something they’ll remember. You still have the net, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy raised the net between her hooves to show him.
“Okay! We'll need it. I'm not sure that I’ll be able to trap all of three inside the bubble if they aren't immobile first.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “But be careful.” She blushed after looking at somewhere else. Doppel giggled slightly at the behavior of his friend. I need to go and stop watching her.
The changeling landed on the ground and hid behind barrels. He transformed into Pinkie Pie and began to prance around. Arrived at the center of the street, some meters behind his targets, he hold his breath and then shout, “Eh guys! I'm a changeling!”
Without the time to say anything else, the three fake ponies took him in a dark alley, their hooves on his nose to avoid him saying anything more.
“Are you completely nuts? Do you want that the invasion to fail?”
Doppel began to laugh. “You forgot a small detail.” He looked up to the roof. “Fluttershy, the net!”
Like if it was coming from nowhere, a huge net fell on the three changelings, the outlaw having time to avoid it. Groans could be heard from the net.
Coming from nowhere, the true Pinkie Pie jumped between the changelings and Doppel, still disguised. “Wow, you caught three of them? Good job! Do you want me to bring them back to the library?”
The two others stayed quiet, too afraid to move. The party pony stared at Doppel, expecting something. How can I explain that I look exactly like her? Nothing's gonna work!
“I can explain. He's not a bad changeling...” Fluttershy tried to explain.
“Duh!” Pinkie interrupted. “Obviously it's not a meanie changeling. If he was, he wouldn't help us to stop the invasion.”
She caught the net and took away the changelings. For each hop she did, cries and hisses could be heard from the net. Doppel and Fluttershy watched her leave dumbfound.
“I wonder if it wouldn't be better that I took them to the library. They must be suffering hopping in that net,” he joked.
“She knows... And she hasn't said anything.” She was staring at Pinkie.
“It's Pinkie Pie. If I learned something coming here, it's to not worry about understanding her.”
“And what if she was arrested because you said you were a changeling under her form?” she asked. “They could take her for you and...”
“Don't worry!” he reassured. “She says so much bizarre things that my statement would like to her usual eccentricities. After all, apart from us, nopony knows that it's going to have an invasion this afternoon.”
“I hope so...”
--|-|--
The hunt continued, both groups bringing back one or several changelings to Spike. However the sheer number of changelings seemed pretty low, even with Pinkie Pie who began to hunt with the others as reinforcements.
“It's not possible,” Doppel blurted out, under the disguise of Lyra. “They couldn't try to invade a town like Ponyville with a couple of changelings. They are more or less a dozen.”
“I have a question... How did Pinkie manage to find hidden changelings?” Twilight wondered.
“It's very easy, in fact, I...” the party pony began before being cut by the unicorn.
“Actually, I don't want to know.”
“Maybe, we should make another round?” Fluttershy suggested.
“A new one?” Rainbow complained. “If it's for finding one or two more, what's the point?”
“Spike, still no news about when the Princess is coming?” Spike got out of the library and shrugged. “So we maybe have to use the Elements quickly. We should call back here Rarity and Applejack.”
“No need to call back Rarity, there she is!” Doppel exclaimed.
The alabaster unicorn was running to their friends. She arrived in front of them, panting. “Are somepony has seen Applejack?” The others shook their head. Rarity frowned. “She said that she need something but she never returned.”
“Spike, do you know something about it?”
“I heard her saying something like she need a book for pastry, so I didn't pay attention to it. Why?”
“We need to find Applejack, without her, we can't use the Elements!” Twilight ordered. “Rainbow, try to find her at Sweet Apple Acres!”
“Okay, Twilight!” Rainbow left in a multicolored streak.
“We should prepare the Elements already,” the lavender unicorn demanded. “As soon as Chrysalis reveals herself, we'll launch the attack!” Everypony nodded. “Lyra, could you not look at where the Elements are? It's only a precaution.”
“Do as you want!” Doppel, still disguised, turned around and looked at the street. Fluttershy sat just by his side, like if it was a reflex. I still don't know if she's aware of her crush, but coming right next to me is a pretty giveaway.
“So Fluttershy, it means that you're staying with Lyra?” Twilight asked.
Fluttershy jumped. “Oh-- hum-- Yes!”
“Okay, everypony, let's gather the Elements!”
Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity entered the library. The librarian caught a book at the top of a bookcase with her magic and put it at her level.
“I don't know if you noticed, but I think that Fluttershy may have a crush on Lyra,” Rarity suggested. “Isn't Lyra already engaged?”
“Wooh, does this mean that Fluttershy likes dangerous extramarital affairs?” Pinkie went one better.
“Girls!” the lavender unicorn shouted. “I'm trying to concentrate. This protection spell is harder to unlock that I thought.”
“Sorry...” they said.
“Oh no.” Twilight let the book fall on the floor. The book was now full open and nothing was inside. “I understand now why I couldn't unlock the book, it wasn't locked in the first place. Somepony has forced the lock and took the Elements. But who?”
She used a spell to detect the last users of the book. “Changeling's magic...” She stormed out of the library and stopped just behind Doppel. “Can you explain me why the Elements have disappeared and why there is a lot of changeling's magic all over it?”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” he defended. “I didn't even know where the Elements were!”
“Hum, Twilight? You are not making sense there,” Rarity worried.
“Who knew the exact place of the Elements?” Doppel reasoned, turning around to face Twilight.
“Only us six, and Spike.”
“You don't find strange that Applejack is not here now?” the changeling continued to think.
“You dare to think that Applejack could be allied with these beasts?” Rarity complained.
Doppel cringed a little at the words of the unicorn on changelings. “I'm not saying that Applejack is a traitor, far from it. I'm saying that the current Applejack may be...”
His sentence was cut by a soft shout from Fluttershy. “The Princess is here!”
On her golden chariot pulled by four white pegasi, Princess Celestia was coming down from the sky accompanied by an entire army.
“Is there a purpose of bringing her entire army to come here for a visit?” Twilight asked.
“Maybe she heard about needing help to defeat the Queen of the changelings?” Pinkie hoped.
The arrival of the Princess made come the ponies. Rapidly a crowd circled Celestia and her army. In a graceful jump, she got off of her chariot and started to walk, followed by the inhabitants.
“Shouldn't we welcome the Princess?” Fluttershy suggested.
As they were going to welcome her, Doppel put himself in front of them. “No, it isn't the Princess Celestia. It's Chrysalis!”
On these words, he jumped, or rather flew, to the center of the crowd. He stopped just before the hooves of what was supposed to be Chrysalis.