"Eep!" Stella squealed.
Rylan had his sword in hand by the time she flew to his side.
"I... there was a spider on me," She blushed, embarrassed. Seeing the slight grin spread across his and Rainbow's faces, she pouted angrily. "Hey! It was a huge spider!"
"Sure it was," Rainbow said, vainly attempting to hold back her laughter, before noticing the same spider on her muzzle. "Ah! Gettitoff!"
This time the whole group laughed as the frightened mare scrambled at her face with her hooves. They'd continued deeper into the woods to investigate the area for further disturbances, but as of yet had come across none. Twilight only wanted to check one more area before they'd return to Ponyville for the night. Some sort of ruined castle, as she'd described it. It had been overrun by plants and worn down by the uncontrolled weather.
"Ah, here it is!" Twilight exclaimed as the group crossed over a rather rickety wooden bridge.
"Looks... familiar." Stella said. "Deja two, right Rylan?"
He nodded in agreement. The castle was very much reminiscent of Brigadoom, the lost kingdom. If it were raining and had healslimes wandering about, he could almost imagine it was. As it was, the crumbling ruin was equally eerie, if not quite as intimidating as the long abandoned land.
"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to rule from here, a long time ago," Twilight lectured as they neared the vegetation-covered towers. "They abandoned it when Luna was banished, and relocated to Canterlot."
"So they just left their posh castle to turn to dust?" Stella said, appalled. "Why would she go and do that?"
"The battle between the two kinda ruined most of the building," Twilight explained as they passed through the outlaying arches. "There was little reason to stay after that."
"In other words, they trashed their home and moved on." Rainbow surmised, earning a glare from the alicorn. "What?"
"They didn't 'trash' the castle, it was destroyed in their fight for the throne. And the structural damage was so severe that it would've been more costly to rebuild than to relocate to Canterlot."
Meanwhile, Rylan took the opportunity to scout the area out. Something about it felt... unnatural. as if the air itself was uneasy. His hand subconsciously drifted to the hilt of his sword as he ventured into the main hall.
A clip of a hoof on stone sounded behind him. Rylan spun around, drawing his sword, and was confronted with... Pinkie?
"Whatcha doin'?" She asked him.
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He was just being paranoid. The similar look of the ruin had brought back his wariness of Brigadoom. He had nothing to worry about.
At least, that's what he thought until the rest of the ponies came in- along with Pinkie Pie, again.
"Huh? Am I seeing doubled?" Stella said, rubbing her eyes as if to rid them of the twin.
The first Pinkie laughed nervously, and backed into a corner with her eyes narrowed. Momentarily, they flashed green. Rylan, confused by this strange event, looked back and forth between the two.
"Oh no," The second Pinkie said. "Did we miss one from the mirror hole?"
"Don' worry Pinkie," AppleJack reassured, advancing on the first. "We'll get her."
Twilight and Rainbow did the same, soon backing the copy into a corner. The copy gave a harsh chittering sound, as if laughing. A bright flash of green light surged from it's body, and when it faded, a shiny black creature with solidly blue eyes stood on all four hole-riddled hooves. Two transparent wings reminiscent of an insect's sprang from it's back, and a twisted horn jutted out from it's forehead.
"That's... that's a-" FlutterShy stammered.
"Changeling!" Rainbow finished.
The changeling burst between Twilight and AppleJack, skidding to a stop before Rylan. Rylan's hand immediately flew to the sword slung across his back. He slashed out at the changeling, but missed by an entire foot as it easily sidestepped him. It was too fast to strike at normally, a fact that became apparent as it slammed into him before he could block. It turned to FlutterShy, and advanced on the cowering yellow mare.
Rylan took a deep breath, and murmured the words of the decelerate spell, one of his first. The magic letter spiraled around him in two rings, and the spell flew forth, slowing the creature's movements and making it more sluggish with it's reactions. Rarity, having taken note of his actions, threw bricks and rubble from the crumbling wall at the creature, further damaging it. The Changeling hissed and flew high into the air to escape through a window, only to be blocked by Rainbow Dash, who bashed the hybrid creature to the ground with both hooves. As it struggled to rise back to it's naturally decimated hooves, it looked up into Pinkie's confetti cannon, which blew the creature across the room to AppleJack. The cowpony didn't even let it stop moving before kicking it airborne with her hind legs, where Twilight blasted it with a bolt of purple magic. The Changeling came to a stop in front of Rylan once more, barely conscious, it's shell cracked, scorched, and bloodied. It looked up at him one last time.
He swung once. The changeling vanished into purple mist, as all monsters he'd met had before.
"Where... did it go?" Rarity asked, walking up next to him.
Stella piped up to offer an explanation. "When monsters die, their essence disperses into near nothing. Usually they reform later in less inhabited places."
"So it's... dead?" FlutterShy squeaked.
"Hmm... Never really thought about it," Stella said, a hand on her chin. "I don't think so. They always come back, in some form."
"So they're like Phoenixes?" the yellow pegasus asked.
"What's a 'feenicks'?"
"That's not important now," Twilight interrupted. "Changelings aren't suppose to be here. we thought we'd sent them all to the badlands, after my brother's wedding, but apparently not. We need to look into this further. Right girls? And, uh, Rylan?"
"Right!" The group agreed simultaneously.