Ben was following Fluttershy into town, in his Soarhorse form.
“Now where are we going again?”
Fluttershy smiled. “We’re going to my friend Twilight’s house. She’ll know what to do with you.”
Ben glared at Fluttershy. “What do you mean, ‘know what to do with me? And why do you all have such girly names?”
Fluttershy shot a glare back at Ben. “Well, we are mares.”
“Oh. Ok. As long as there aren’t any boys named Caramel…”
Fluttershy blushed. “We DO actually have a stallion in Ponyville by that name…”
Ben smacked his head. “Of course you do. And Ponyville? Why did you call the town Ponyville? That’d be like me naming a town Humanville!”
“You don’t have any towns named Humanville?”
Ben blushed. “Actually, there was this one town I saved named Humansville in Missouri…”
Fluttershy giggled. Ben shot a glare at Fluttershy. “What’s funny about that?”
“Well, we have a province named Maressouri just south of here.”
Ben raised an eyebrow at that. “Seriously? Maressouri?” He then shook his head. “That’s one heck of a coincidence.”
“I know, right? Anyway, we’re here.”
Ben looked around. “I don’t see a library...just a huge tree with windows…”
Fluttershy giggled. “That IS the library, silly!” She approached the door and knocked on it. A purple alicorn opened it.
“Hey, Fluttershy!” She said, looking behind Fluttershy at the green pegasus behind her. “Who’s your new friend?”
“His name is Ben-”
“-Soarhorse.”
Fluttershy shook her head and turned back to Ben. “It’s ok, Ben. She’s a friend.” She turned to the purple alicorn. “So, this is Ben, and he needs help getting home, Twilight.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. “That’s sad and all...but why do you need me for that?”
“I’ll have Ben explain that once we’re inside...your laboratory.”
Twilight shook her head. “Ok, Fluttershy...and Ben. Come inside."
The three ponies stepped inside the house, greeted by Spike. “Hey, who’s your new coltfriend, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy blushed at that. “Ben is not my coltfriend!”
Spike stared at the green pegasus. “Ben..weird name for a stallion. Well, I’ll leave your three to whatever you’re doing while I prepare lunch.” He then walked into the kitchen.
The three ponies stepped into Twilight’s windowless laboratory. Twilight then turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Alright, what’s so secret that you couldn’t show me in the main area?”
“You’ll see,” Fluttershy said. She then looked at Ben and nodded at him. He smiled and tapped the insignia on his flank, creating a green flash, revealing the hairless ape from before. Twilight staggered back in shock.
“What is this...I don’t even...WHAT ARE YOU!?” Twilight got out.
Ben extended a hand out to Twilight Sparkle. “Hi. I’m Ben Tennyson. Nice to meet you.” Twilight fearfully extended a hoof to his hand, him grasping and shaking it. “Can I scan you?”
Twilight smarted at that. “Scan me?”
“Yeah, it’s a painless process where I add your DNA to the Omnitrix. I did it to Fluttershy when she was sleeping.”
“HEY!”
Ben giggled. “It didn’t hurt, did it?”
Fluttershy looked down. “I...guess not.”
“See, she didn’t mind!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. “Fluttershy’s a bit of a pushover.”
Ben frowned. “C’mon! Like I said, it’s painless! Besides, I’d love to have wings AND a horn!”
Twilight frowned. “Ok...you can scan me.”
Ben grinned. “Ok! Omnitrix, scan life form!” The yellow beam sweeped across Twilight’s form.
“Error: Detecting mixed breed. Scanning Unicorn now,” and the beam did another sweep. Ben frowned at that.
“Aww…” he said.
Twilight frowned at that as well. “I suppose it’s because I wasn’t born an alicorn...but at least you have the option to use magic now!”
Ben stared at Twilight. “Magic?”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, try it on!”
Ben nodded and spun the dial to highlight the unicorn, then slammed the dial down. Instantly, a green flash of light swept over the lab, revealing a green unicorn stallion with a brown mane and tail.
Twilight looked on in awe. “What magic does THAT?”
Ben grinned. “It’s not magic. It’s science! Anyway, why does the Omnitrix symbol appear on my butt?”
Twilight blushed at the coarse word used. “It’s replacing your Cutie Mark.”
Ben looked wide-eyed at her. “Jeez, does everything have a girly name around here?”
Twilight glared at Ben. “Alright, now let’s try a simple spell…”
Ben held a hoof up to shut up Twilight. “Wait! I have to think of a name first!” Ben then sat on his haunches, deep in thought. He then stood up. “I’ve got it! Magichorn!”
Both Twilight and Fluttershy facehooved at that. “Fine, Magichorn,” Twilight said mockingly, “let’s put your magic to the test.” She then pointed to a beaker on a table. “Lift that beaker and bring it to me.”
“Ok,” Ben said as he nodded. He bore a look of concentration on his face, slowly lifting the beaker and shakily drifting it towards Twilight, whereupon it shattered over Twilight’s head. Ben blushed sheepishly at that while giggling. “Sorry.”
Twilight frowned as she lifted the shards of glass off of her and threw them into a wastebin. “It’s fine, you just need to work on your fine motor skills. What could possibly go wrong?”
Ben slapped his forehead. “Dude, you NEVER say that around me!”
----
Caramel was in the living room, waiting for his special somepony to come out. They had plans to go to a nice fancy restaurant, the Mouton d’Or. He had saved up all of his bits just so that he could take her out. He heard footsteps, his heart racing. But what walked out was not who he had expected. It wasn’t his marefriend, but a changeling!
“R-raindrops?”
The changeling nodded, and zapped Caramel with its love-draining magic, taking on a sickly glow for a second before it incorporated it into its being. It stared around for a second, its insectine wings flitting against its black carapace. Finding nothing of interest, it buzzed off into the sky to join its changeling bretheren.
----
“Why not?” Twilight asked.
Applejack then burst into the lab. “Twilight! Th’ changelins’re attackin’ Ponyville! They have sleeper agents all over town!”
“THAT is why!” Ben shouted.
“By th’ way, who’s yer coltfriend, Twi?” Applejack asked.
“He’s a friend.” Twilight said. She then turned to Ben. “Is there anyway you can help without anypony seeing you?”
Ben’s eyes flashed. “I have just the thing!” he declared as he tapped his insignia, reverting back to his human form with a green flash of light. Applejack stared goggle-eyed.
“What in tarnation…” Applejack said before she shook her head. “You know what, I don’t wanna know.” She then stared at Ben. “Now you said you could help us, monkey?”
Ben smarted at that. “Monkey?”
Applejack glared. “I’m callin ya monkey until ya provide me with a better name,” she said. Ben moved to open his mouth when Applejack shut him up with a wave of a hoof. “No time fer introductions. Now can ya help us or not?”
Ben smiled. “Well, of course I can!” he said as he turned the dial on his watch and slammed it down. A green flash was emitted from the Omnitrix, revealing a blue and black bipedal alien with balls in place of his feet. “XLR8 should do the trick!”
Twilight waved a hoof. “Wait, you called that alien accelerate?”
Ben shook his head. “No. XLR8. X-L-R-8.”
Twilight glared at Ben. “That seems a little unnecessary.”
Ben shook his head again. “It makes it sound edgy when you spell it out like that.”
Twilight fixated her glare on Ben. “That sounds like something a ten-year-old would come up with-”
“WILL YA STOP ARGUING ABOUT THE NAME AND HELP US!?”
Ben nodded. “Will do!” With that, a visor which nopony had noticed before slid down over his eyes and he zoomed off.
Everypony stared in shock at the empty space where Ben had been previously. “Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting that…” Fluttershy said.
----
Changelings!
Changelings were invading Carousel Boutique, where Rarity was trying to fend them off with whatever she had on hand. She lifted up a pincushion’s worth of needles and flung them at two nearby changelings, who fell down. She then picked up a couple of pairs of scissors.
“Take this, ruffians!” She bellowed out as she launched the scissors at two nearby changelings, who also fell. However, changelings were still approaching at an alarming rate. She huddled down, prepared for the worst, when suddenly she felt a gust of wind blow by her. She stayed huddled down until she realized that the buzzing had stopped. She looked up to see that the changelings were all gone. However, all of her fabric was gone as well. She fumed silently and stepped outside to try and catch the vandal who had stolen her fabric. Instead, she was greeted to an ever-growing pile of changelings tied up in her fabric in Town Square. She watched in awe as a blue blur kept adding changelings to the pile. She supposed the fabric had gone to good use, then.
----
Queen Chrysalis was standing atop Town Hall, watching the chaos unfold, smiling with glee. Her plan had gone perfectly. She then noticed a blue blur pass by her. She looked around.
“Where are you!?” she shouted. She then looked behind her at an incredibly large pile of changelings wrapped in fabric.
“Wha-” she got out before she was roughly grabbed and dragged off. Her vision fixed itself, and she gazed upon the most peculiar creature carrying her. It appeared to be bipedal, like a monkey, and it had a visor on its face.
“What are you?” she asked.
“I could ask the same of-” BEEP!
Chrysalis was unceremoniously dropped on the ground and skidded to a stop. She lifted her head to see a different bipedal creature tumbling forward into to Everfree, where his back hit a tree. A green flash erupted from the creature, and in its place appeared a chubby creature with spikes coming out of it. It shook its head and charged towards Chrysalis. Chrysalis stood up and fired a magic charge at the creature. It then split into two exact copies of itself, evading the magic blast altogether.
“What sorcery is this?”
“Just Ditto!” one of the creatures said.
“Ditto!” the other copy said as he flung himself into Chrysalis, toppling her over. The first creature came behind her and started yanking on her mane.
“Ow! Stop that!”
“Nuh-uh! After the hair-raising experience you gave the townsfolk, I thought I’d go tit-for-tat!” the copy pulling her hair said.
“And we can stay like this as long as we’re not together!”
Chrysalis thought on this. This creature was powerful, if it could shapeshift without love, but in this form, it was dreadfully weak. So she grabbed the two of them in her magic and kept them apart. They tried struggling, but it was in vain.
“Hey, put us down!” The first copy said.
“Or you’re gonna be sorry!” The second copy said.
Chrysalis laughed. “Oh, am I?” She then trotted into the Everfree towards her secret hideout. “I’d say you and your little friend Twilight are the ones that are going to be sorry!”
“Wait…” the first copy said.
“...how do you know…” the second copy said.
“...that we know Twilight?”
Chrysalis giggled. “I didn’t until just now. Twilight and her little pony friends are going to come looking for you, and then I’ll be able to extract my revenge!”
“Aw, shucks!” both copies said simultaneously.
----
“Well, the changelings are rounded up,” Applejack said in wonder, staring at the multicolored pile in the center of town.
“It’s a shame...I’ll have to order all new fabric!” Rarity said. “Who was that that saved me, though?”
“It looked like Dashie!” Pinkie said, pronking onto the scene. Rainbow Dash then pulled in.
“Did anypony see that blue blur?” Dash said.
“I thought it was you!” Pinkie said.
Rainbow shooked her head.
“Oh, that would explain why you aren’t in the Everfree Forest beating the snot out of Chrysalis, then.”
Twilight said, “Wait, he went into the Everfree?”
Pinkie nodded.
“He?” Rarity asked. “You know this...fellow?”
Twilight nodded. “And with how fast he was going, he should have been out by now!”
“W-we should probably go in and find him…” Fluttershy said, to the shock of everypony.
“Wait, wait wait…” Dash said, “YOU want to go into the Everfree? Since when?”
“Since he crashed into my yard. I kind of feel responsible for him.” Fluttershy started trotting towards the forest. She then looked back at the ponies who were staring at her in awe. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Everypony then started trotting behind Fluttershy into the forest.