Reaching the top of town hall for the second time that day, Lyra open the door to the Magistracy office with renewed vigor.
"The green sun catastrophe has been resolved," Lyra announced.
"I know Lyra. I can see." Evening Glimmer was standing next of the window, looking down on the earth ponies below.
The mint unicorn gulped. "So have you decided what you are going to say to Celestia."
Evening's head turned around while her body remained motionless. Her hair sprung out of its precise placements as her head did this. It was like watching a horror film but in real life.
"No, I didn't Lyra. You know why?" Evening asked her assistant. Lyra shook her head. "Because she doesn't need to know. Nopony needs to know that there ever was a green sun over Ponyville. Everypony will just forget it happened, and Celestia will not be the wiser."
"But lying to the princess is highly illegal, Evening."
Evening almost had an aneurysm. "Do you think I don't know that? You are an ungifted unicorn, barely fit to clean my horseshoes."
Lyra shrunk into the floor as Evening towered over her, judging. Then Evening smiled. "Oh get up. Don't worry. I will take care of it. You just take care of whatever the mayor sent to your desk. It has been waiting there for you for about two hours. I will take care of the village wide memory wipe, and if anypony gets in trouble, I will say you had no part in it. Deal?"
Lyra nodded, happy that the Evening she knew was shining through somewhat. She went to her desk to look at this report the mayor had sent her way. She reviewed it and as she did so, everything that had happened that day started to make sense.
Apparently a horsefly, and based on the description, it was actually a changeling, had come into Ponyville, used its own biomass to create a ball of green flame that acted like a calm spell, and had 'adopted' a unicorn filly, the same filly she had seen not five minutes ago. Lyra felt like a complete idiot. Well, duh it was a changeling. You had first-pony experience with them a year ago, so you know that they use green flames for their magic. And horsefly, changeling, how more obvious could it be.
After beating herself up about it for a few seconds, Lyra got up and ran down the stairs. She knew that if she found the filly, she would find the changeling. If she did, Evening wouldn't need to go through with the memory wipe, and everypony would applaud her as the hero who saved Equestria from the second changeling invasion. Maybe Celestia would let Evening get to be a princess like Twilight.
Lyra would be so happy for her. As Evening's inferior friend, it was her duty to learn and succeed in all of the same tasks Evening had. When the time came, Lyra would stand on the sidelines in the princess crowning ceremony, as was her place as the inferior, while Celestia announced how much Evening had learned about harmony. If she was lucky, she would get to march with Evening during the parade right before the newly minted alicorn flew off into the sky without her. To Lyra, that was the dream of any ungifted pony.
By the time this fantasy was over, Lyra was already at Twilight's library. The mare suddenly realized she had galloped the whole distance in her excitement and was starting to feel light-headed. Opening the door, the sounds of heathens bombarded her. The library was full of explosive party poppers, loud techno music. and the games looked like they were designed for children. On that note, Lyra remembered the party was for children, it was just that most of the guests were random adults who had walked in off the street.
Lyra scanned the room for the tale-tell signs of a black changeling but couldn't seem to find it. "He must have taken a disguise," she guessed as she started to faint. Before blacking out, she saw some pink hooves before her. She guessed these were Pinkie Pie's since the colors matched.
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Ever sensed the mint color pony who had collapsed before zir pink hooves. She was covered in sweat, that much the horsefly could smell.
"Ei, you came," said a familiar voice. It was hard to hear through all the loud music, but when you lose a sense, the others often strengthen.
"Sophia, you are here. I knew I would be able to find you. It's hard to get lost in a small town like this one," Ever said going through the crowd. Sophia had somehow found herself in the center, having dozens of ponies ask her questions she couldn't understand. "Wow, wow. Give the girl some distance." The crowd obliged the daughter's parent.
"Hello again. I am Ei Rikr, or you may call me Ever. We met earlier and I am sorry for the poor impression I gave you all," Ever said to the crowd, causing the music to abruptly stop. Ze noticed that zir daughter still had the notepad and pencil held in her magic. "Again, this is my daughter Sophia. She doesn't know how to speak your language because I never thought she would need to learn it. However, she has taught herself how to read it. If you have questions for her, please write them down."
Some of the crowd seemed pensive at the realization that the non-equine was the same one who had instilled panic in them only hours ago. Luckily Rainbow Dash was there. "Hey, everypony. She's cool." The crowd seemed to believe Rainbow and the music began again.
A few minutes passed and Ever decided the mint unicorn at the front of the door didn't deserve to be a doormat and asked dragon hosting where ze could put her. It was the third pony that Ever had carried in the last hour, and it was getting ridulous. Now ze was carrying a unicorn. Ze could tell because ze could feel the horn through zir telekinetic grip.
"Oh, she must be partied out already," Spike guessed. "You said that Twilight's in the hospital?" Spike rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmmm, well, I cannot get Twilight's direct permission but I am pretty sure she would be okay in letting the mare use her bed since she isn't using it right now." Spike selfishly did not mention that he could set up the king-sized guest bed because it would have been very difficult for him to get it out of the basement storage on his own.
"Lead the way, sir," Ever said politely.
When they arrived at the bed, Ever was extra careful to get the mare somewhat cleaned up before putting the smelly mare in someone else's bed. "Do you have wet towels and an extra pair of sheets to put beside the bed. Oh, and she might be thirsty when she wakes up. You organics tend to get thirsty in such states."
Spike jumped to these tasks as all of these commands seemed rather important.
"Thanks Spike for helping me, and I am sure the mare will appreciate it," Ever told the proud baby dragon while patting his sweat little head. Spike internally started to think of Ever as a new friend.
Spike and Ever walked down the stairs. As they did so, they past a workstation with a face-down portrait. "What is this?" Ever asked.
"Don't touch that!" Spike instantly told his new friend.
"Oh, is it supposed to be face down or is it some cultural taboo for me to lift it up?" Ever inquired.
Spike looked down at his feet, rubbing his ankles together in embarrassment. "No, I, um. This is just between you and me and Lyra."
"Lyra?"
"The pony we put in Twilight's bed," Spike quickly replied, eliciting and a confused 'oh' from the changeling. "That portrait is of a pony I love, or did love before your spell."
Ever blinked. "I never thought my spell would stop people from loving each other."
"Well, uh it wasn't really love. It was a crush, a terrible crush, and it was destroying me. Just whatever you do, keep that portrait face-down," Spike begged.
"You could always throw it away," Ever said touching the frame with a pink hoof.
Again, the reasonableness of the changeling astounded and impressed the baby dragon. "That is a good idea, but don't."
"Why?" Ever asked.
"I don't have a good reason," Spike said.
Sophia walked up to Ever, and the two made 'hmming' noises as they stroked their non-existing beard. Sophia had apparently gotten tired of the ponies and their questions and sought out her parent.
"Interesting, very interesting," Ever said. "You seem to have issues deciding what you want to do with what I assume is a portrait of some stallion or mare that you had fallen terribly in love with. You have not told me why seeing his or her photo will be so dangerous, but I assume you have some deep down belief that it is. Now you tell me you want to keep this dangerous photo with you." Ever and Sophia walked up to the baby dragon and got eye level with him. "Do you trust me?"
Spike stood very still.
"Do you trust me?"
Spike finally nodded.
"Good. I will be taking this photo then. In five days, I will bring it back to you and you will look at it. Use that time to prepare yourself. Remember I would not do this to you if I did not think it would help you."
Spike was speechless.
Ever took the portrait and put it in zir saddlebag. At this moment, ze remembered something important. "Oh, Spike if you could get me the Foreigner's Guide to Equestria book by Twilight, I would be very much appreciative. I have to read it apparently."
Spike just did what he was told. He couldn't really think at the time. When he came back to Ever, he was a huge tome.
"What the?" Ever almost exclaimed when ze tried to lift it with zir magic. The book weighed twice as much as the earth pony had. There was no way Ever could carry the weight.
"Allow me, Ei," Sophia said. She lifted the book without any indication of its weight.
Ei clicked zir hollow fangs together. "I will never get used to pony magic. So overpowered."
The two only stayed at the party for awhile longer before heading back to their cave atop a high mountain. They said goodbye to all the people they met, especially Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike.
If they had stayed a little longer, they would have seen an anonymous earth pony come in and tell them that it the mayor was calling a town wide meeting and that everypony was required to come. This excluded, of course, Twilight and Lyra who were not conscious.
On Ever and Sophia's way back, they encountered a white bunny and an unconscious pegasus.
"Is every pony in this town unconscious and needing my help?" Ever exclaimed. Regardless, the changeling helped. Ever could tell that the white bunny cared a lot about the pegasus because he would constantly complain that ze was being too rough. If there was any upside to the situation, it seemed that pegasi were the lightest of the four kinds of ponies Ever had to carry today.
When they were done, Sophia noticed a large flash in the middle of town. It made her head itchy, but not much else.
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The sun was setting behind Ever Ruler and Sophia as they returned to their dragon cave. As they approach the top, they heard a foreboding tune. It seemed to get faster as they got closer and it echoed eerily down into the valley below.
When they finally reached the top, they saw Andrea was the one behind the tune.
"Where did you get that?" Sophia asked, as inquisitive as ever.
Andrea showed the filly what she was playing on. "It is a 27-string guitar."
"How did you get it?" Sophia inquired.
"A chimp named Glaucon gave it to me. He said he didn't need it anymore because he was going to learn fight."
At this, Ever interrupted. "Sophia, why don't you put that book over there with the others." The filly knew that she was being told to go away so Ever can talk to Andrea privately. This just made Sophia get into a hidden position so she could eavesdrop. It was easy to eavesdrop on Ever because Sophia didn't have an emotional signature for the changeling to track except when she was thinking.
"So is it getting bad down there in the valley?" Ever asked.
"Yes, more and more of the forest is deserting me and joining Rousseau because more and more refugees come in everyday," Andrea explained. "They are also realizing I cannot protect them all, so the awe I have commanded in the forest people's hearts is the only thing stopping them right now."
"Is there a way for you to avoid this?" Ever asked.
"These forest and the civilized people are too different. The forest people believe that the weak are food, and rightly so because they need meat to survive, and the civilized think the weak can be sustained through technology. As the civilize take out more and more of the forest to expand their settlements, there is less places for the predators to hunt for food. There will be a time when they have no choice but to eat the refugees. War is inevitable this time, Ever."
The changeling respected the buffalo's judgment, but ze had many years more with the technology that the refugees were using than Andrea. "You said that their settlements are taking up hunting space. Well, if they have portal guns, they could easily build their settlement spread out over this mountain and the surrounding area. The portals would reduce the amount of area they cover and no more forest would have to be cleared for settlements.
Andrea considered this. "I hadn't thought of that. I will suggest it, but I doubt that will stop the tensions. The idea that the two cultures cannot coexist has already permeated both sides despite my interference."
Ever stared unseeingly over the large expanse that was the valley below the mountain. "I wish my sibling was here. Ze would have had a solution I wouldn't have thought about because I am blinded by my idealism."
Andrea looked at the sky, watching as the clouds gathered. "No point in complaining about what cannot be changed. Are you going out again tonight to stand in the rain. It would be an easy way to clean that paint off."
Ever shook zir head, not even bothering to pretend to look at the sky. "It is not going to rain tonight, I can feel it in my holes. The storm will pass us and go to Equestria. Plus, I can just burn the paint off when I find a nice private place. I don't want to expose anyone to the possibly dangerous fumes."
"Very well. One more thing. The Zebra found our settlements. She was surprised that it existed only thirty kilometers north from where she looks for herbs and that she had not noticed the signs of its presence."
Ever looked at the buffalo beside zir. "Did she happen to give you something?"
The buffalo nodded and hoofed a large vial of liquid to the changeling. "She said you just need to pour it on the affected area for it to cleanse the poison."
The changeling held the vial close to zir core.
"You cannot keep protecting her from the horrors of the world," Andrea said getting up and going over to Sophia to see what she was pretending to do at the book corner of the cave.
"I...," Ever began to say but the words just could not come out.
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Far away, a legal question was being mailed by a Miss Derpy Hooves to the Canterlot Magistracy of Magic and Science. This legal question came from his Honorable Judge Right about the subject of a calm spell. In short, Celestia was going to know one way or another. It was just a matter of time.