Cinnamint was obviously a unicorn at first glance. This meant he had the potential for great feats of magical power, and that he wasn't meant for hard labor or flight. Unfortunately for Cinnamint, his best friends were a dragon and the spawn of chaos. Both Pearl and Screwball were quite accustomed to the sensation of flight, and had outvoted Cinnamint in their travel decisions.
The troublesome trio was currently flying high above the city of Canterlot in something Screwball had dubbed the helicopter. Screwball had used her magic to increase the size of the propeller on her beanie and affixed it to the top of the dashboard at the front of a chariot the group had borrowed. The spinning propeller extended a good five feet above them, ensuring their safety. Screwball claimed she had gotten the idea from Pinkie Pie's flying pedal-powered machine.
"Oooh, why did we have to do this? I'm feeling sick." Cinnamint groaned.
Pearl grabbed hold of Cinnamint, holding him upright as he wobbled. Screwball was too busy tending to the steering wheel, which she had added upon realizing they had no control over their makeshift craft without pegasi in front. With a quick look down Screwball saw that it wouldn't be very long at all until they were close to the factory district in lower Canterlot.
"We'll save loads of time this way. If we keep this up it'll only take like ten minutes. Otherwise we'd have to take a cab and wait on traffic or hoof it, which would take way longer. We need the helicopter specifically because I'm not strong enough to carry you that far." Pearl explained as Cinnamint lamented his situation.
Cinnamint would have normally conceded the point, but was far too busy trying to keep his lunch down. He was extremely glad Pearl was there, otherwise Cinnamint would have also been freaked out about being in a completely experimental flying-thing Screwball threw together. The only times Cinnamint had been flying this high up was on the back of Pearl's father Spike.
"We should have just had Screwball teleport us." Cinnamint concluded groggily.
"Too late now! Brace for impact!" Screwball cackled maniacally.
Very suddenly the chariot tilted to one direction, slamming Cinnamint into Pearl, and Pearl into the side of the chariot. Pearl was fine, but surprised by the sudden jostling. Pearl instinctively grabbed hold of the nearest thing in sight, which just happened to be Cinnamint. Cinnamint didn't hesitate to return the favor, equally concerned he was going to die.
Pearl couldn't have been any redder than she was upon realizing her close proximity to Cinnamint. Fortunately, Screwball was trying to keep them alive, and Cinnamint was to scared to open his eyes. With a sudden drop, Pearl rejoined the fear club and shut her own eyes tightly. Things seemed bad, what with all the rocking and falling, but suddenly a soft thud was heard and the sensation of movement disappeared. The only side-effect of their safe landing seemed to be a slight bounce the kids experienced, being boosted up a few inches and falling back down to the chariot floor.
Cinnamint and Pearl opened their eyes simultaneously, looking to see if they were dead. What they saw when they looked over the edge of the chariot best described as chaotic. They were about ten feet off the ground, still in the chariot. Underneath the chariot was a massive pile made up of a number of soft objects with many more strewn about. There were pillows, plush toys, ugly holiday sweaters, blankets, and other miscellaneous comfy items.
"Cool. Didn't know if that was gonna work out. I totally forgot to make something to help us land until like, literally five seconds ago." Screwball chuckled.
Upon hearing Screwball's voice, Pearl and Cinnamint looked over to see Screwball flat on her back only a foot away from them. She was looking at them with an upside-down crazy smile. It was about that time that Pearl and Cinnamint realized they were still holding onto each other for dear life. They separated,quickly, each moving to the other side of the chariot as fast as possible.
Screwball stuck her tongue out to feign disgust but found herself feeling quite stupid when gravity caused her tongue to hit her in the eye. All three of them laughed right then, conveniently erasing the tension that had been there only moments ago. Within the next couple of minutes the group made their way down the mountain of comfy objects, finding themselves in an alleyway.
Looking around, Pearl and Cinnamint both came to the conclusion that their intended target was nowhere in sight. The alleyway they were in sat between a cereal factory and a toothpaste factory, telling them that they were at least in the factory district.
"Screwball? Why aren't we at the right factory?" Cinnamint questioned their pilot.
"We're like, two blocks off. I thought it'd be a good idea to walk the rest of the way, otherwise the changelings might have seen or heard the landing." Screwball reasoned.
Neither Cinnamint nor Pearl could argue with the answer, as much as they would have liked to. Cinnamint pulled his invisibility blanket out of his saddlebags, draping it over the three of them again. The three of them whisper-griped at each other as the confined space was difficult to walk under with all three children trying to keep each others pace.
Though it took longer than they would have liked, the kids cleared the two blocks between them and the Mountain Magic soda factory unnoticed. They had even managed to slip past some confused factory workers who had come back from their breaks to find a chariot atop a plush mountain. As soon as they slipped around back and under the fire escape Cinnamint pulled off the blanket, glad to be out of the overly close huddle.
"Ugh. Next time we teleport. If Screwball breaks the time-space continuum moving us, it would still be better than our adventure so far." Pearl complained.
"Agreed." Screwball and Cinnamint droned simultaneously.
Pearl flapped her wings, giving herself enough lift to get onto the fire escape. Once on the fire escape Pearl found the ladder that could drop down and lowered it for her friends. Quickly and as quietly as possible Cinnamint and Screwball climbed the fire escape while Pearl waited on them. The trio decided to ignore the door leading directly into the factory's upper floor in case they would get spotted. Instead they continued up to the roof.
Cinnamint observed the layout of the roof, finding only a door leading down to the factory's upper level, an inactive smokestack, and a grate leading into the ventilation system. The stairwell could be guarded on the other end, and the smokestack would likely lead into something like a furnace that would likely kill two-thirds of the trio. It was plain to see that the vents were the best option.
"Pearl? Can you get us through that vent? I'd say it's the best way to get in without being noticed." Cinnamint asked politely.
"Also it'll be awesome, like one of those spy movies Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash love so much." Screwball added enthusiastically.
Pearl gave a quick salute before walking over to the grate casually. Pearl gave the grate a quick once over, finding it was secured with a sturdy lock. As with most locks in Equestria it was almost definitely magic-proof. Fortunately, Pearl wasn't a unicorn.
Leaning down, Pearl widened her jaw, slamming it shut quickly. Her powerful fangs tore right through the metal with no real effort. Pearl did sometimes enjoy the benefits of being a dragon, such as easily tearing through metals and gems. Spitting out the slightly rusty metal fragment, Pearl used her claws to open the grate.
"And. We. Are. In." Pearl nonchalantly praised herself.
"Good job Pearl." Cinnamint smiled, " Now who wants to go first?"
Without hesitation, Screwball dove for the vent. Instead of hitting the bottom she drifted down slowly, using her beanie to avoid alerting anyone in the factory below. Pearl and Cinnamint both looked down into the hole to see Screwball sitting waiting for them, though obviously anxious to get moving. Pearl decided she was next and folded her wings as close as she could to her back, making certain that she'd have enough room to maneuver through the vent.
Once Pearl carefully made her way down, using her hands to slow her descent it was Cinnamint's turn. Screwball and Pearl both had to help him in, considering he had no hands to help him like Pearl did and he didn't know any magic relevant to the situation. Once Cinnamint was safely on the bottom of the vent however, a new problem arose.
There were three paths to take from the intersection the grate had been covering. Splitting up was right out, considering they were in a factory likely very full of changelings. It was quite a choice, but none of them had any idea of which vent to pick since they were winging it.
Pearl stuck her head through each of the paths that lay ahead, tasting the air with her reptilian tongue like a snake. Pearl thought it was somewhat embarrassing, but it was a useful skill at times. After trying all three routes Pearl came to a decision.
"The one on the right. The air coming from that direction tastes like Mountain Magic stronger than the other two. We should start there." Pearl told her troops.
"I didn't know you could do that." Cinnamint told Pearl, sounding impressed.
Pearl blushed, but thanks to the dimmer light in the vent it went unnoticed.
"Yeah well, being a dragon is okay sometimes. We should hurry though, otherwise the grown-ups are gonna get here before we figure out how to sabotage the changeling's factory." Pearl replied.
"Is that what we're doing? I thought we were gonna blow it up?" Screwball pouted, sounding rather miffed.
"We can't blow it up. We'd blow up too, or the adults would blow up if they got here after we managed an escape." Cinnamint reasoned, once again raining on Screwball's parade.
Pearl rolled her eyes and got on her belly and began crawling through the vent, followed by Screwball, and then Cinnamint. It was fairly spacious, considering the three of them weren't full grown yet. It was musty and dirty, but the three of them soldiered through it until they came to another intersection with an open vent. It was just wide enough for them all to look through, down at the factory floor.
There were two rows of giant vats. One side containing swirling green liquid that glowed slightly, and the other vat contained what was easily recognizable as Mountain Magic soda. Besides the vats there were a large number of ponies in hard-hats, tending the vats and monitoring gauges or moving barrels of sugar and other ingredients around the factory.
On one side of the factory was a conveyor belt that was full of empty bottles that stopped in sequence to be filled with soda from a system of tubes. Each time a bottle reached the end of the line one of the ponies would levitate it into a crate with numerous others. It all seemed pretty standard for a factory, other than the glowing substance in half of the vats that was likely concentrated dreams. There were still no changelings to be seen, though it was likely the workers were changelings in disguise.
Okay, now what? Cinnamint asked hopefully in a hushed whisper.
Pearl thought it over, looking the factory layout over carefully. On the off chance they were wrong, it would look pretty bad if they totally wrecked a factory. It would be best to somehow get at least one of the workers to reveal themselves as a changeling to be sure.
Screwball, can you use your magic to make the changelings look like themselves again? Pearl asked.
I dunno. I've never tried. I'm not allowed to do magic on living things. Screwball replied uncertainly.
Cinnamint coughed into his hoof, garnering Pearl and Screwball's attention. Cinnamint looked rather guilty, but at the same time it looked like whatever he had to say was important.
I think I can do it. Mrs.Twilight's spell-book had a spell for that in it. I wasn't really supposed to look, but I sorta... peeked? Cinnamint admitted.
Pearl and Screwball were both surprised at their friend's actions, but in a good way. Screwball was happy Cinnamint was far from his normal stick in the mud self that day, and Pearl was finding she liked it when Cinnamint wasn't so reserved. Both Pearl and Screwball stood aside while Cinnamint took point at the vent.
Cinnamint lit his horn, preparing himself to cast the spell. Since he wasn't fully grown and had never performed the spell, Cinnamint took some time to focus. Just as he was about to let the spell loose a loud thud shook the vent, breaking Cinnamint's concentration.
"What was that?" Screwball asked in a panic, forgetting to whisper.
"HEY! STAY THERE A SECOND!" A particularly loud, distorted voice rang out from outside the vent as a series of louder thuds headed toward the group.
Pearl, Cinnamint, and Screwball all froze in terror as the black, chitinous face of a changeling appeared through the vent. It's echoey voice told the children he was male, and much to their confusion his smile was cheerful, not sinister. Lighting his horn with green energy, the changeling popped the grate off of the ventilation shaft. The changeling poked his head into the vent, not worried the kids might be hostile.
"I'm really sorry I scared you guys, but I felt some affection coming from this vent. Mom is gonna want me to bring you downstairs, so I'm gonna have to magic you unconscious, okay?" The changeling informed the trio regretfully.
"Wait, wha-" Cinnamint started.
Before the kids could react all three of them were hit with a green blast of energy that instantly put them to sleep. Cinnamint and Pearl both fell over on Screwball, using the crazy filly as a pillow. Screwball was too deeply asleep to notice, as she just snored away.
The changeling kicked off the vent his hole-riddled hooves were affixed to, buzzing his wings to keep him aloft. Using his magic the changeling levitated the trio out of the vent, lowering them and himself to the factory floor. As they descended, he took a better look at the kids in his aura.
"These kids look famaliar..." The drone thought aloud. "I bet Queen Mom knows who they are."
As the kids slumbered remarkably peacefully, the changeling signaled a worker on the factory floor with a series of clicks. The disguised changeling worker pressed a button near the conveyor belt controls. A trap door on the floor opened up, allowing the changeling entry into the secret basement with his guests. Within moments, the trap door had disappeared, no trace of it's existence remaining visible.
In no time at all, every worker returned to their business, as if nothing had ever happened.