Mother walked out fuming. "Spread out!" She bellowed. "Find him at once!" The group of ponies that surrounded the hospital saluted and marched back to the forest. Mother stayed behind and went on a rampage. "All of our work, gone!" She cried in anger and sadness. "He mustn't get far, lest he figure out his, abilities." She grumbled. Beat was scared now. How did they find him? How did they know he'd be at the hospital? He looked to Rainy with an urgent look on his face. "We need to go, quickly." She looked back at him and nodded. They flew in the direction of Ponyville and Beat looked back to see that Mother hadn't noticed.
As they approached Ponyville, a flash of green caused them both to stop. They landed behind a cottage, and peered around the corner to see large sheets of green goop covering the streets of Ponyville. Beat looked around and saw a sign of a bag of bits and a bag filled with supplies attached to a building. He turned to Rainy. "What is that building?" He asked. "That's the general store." She said while looking around in a panic. "Let's go then, I've never been to a general store before." Beat said with a smile. Rainy nodded but then asked "Do you have any bits?" Beat dug into his bag and pulled out a neatly woven pouch the size of his head. "Will this do?" He said opening the pouch to reveal several hundreds of bits. "Whaaaaat!?" She exclaimed as her eyes lit up. "Is it not enough?" Beat asked. "That's more than enough to feed a family of four for 6 months!" She said as her eyes turned into bit signs. "Then can we.." Beat was interrupted by a hoof to his mouth. "Where did you get this?" she asked accusingly. "It came with the bag I took from my captors." He replied. A small beep came from his bag. He jumped at the sound and recognized it instantly. "Tracking magic!" He said terrified. "I need a new bag." He looked to the general store. "I hope they have one."
As they trotted into the store, they were greeted by an angry mob. They yelled at them but too many ponies yelling all at once just sounds like gibberish. "Stop!" Beat screamed at the mob of ponies. "What's going on?!" He shouted as they stopped yelling. A small unicorn replied "There's changelings attacking, didn't you see any?" Beat shrugged and said "Nope, not one. But I came to buy supplies." The mob settled slightly but then the air stiffened. "Is he or she one of them?" A voice said from the middle. The small unicorn stepped up. "I'll cast a spell to turn changelings back." She said, frowning as if she had done it many times before. A faint glow came from the unicorn's horn, and extended to touch Beat and Rainy. Beat felt a slight pain throughout his body, but ignored it. Rainy looked fine though so he assumed he was just feeling an ache from his earlier crash. "They're clean!" Said the unicorn with a sigh added. The pain was now gone.
Beat stepped forewords. "Can I buy some things?" He asked. A pony walked to the register. "What can I get you?" The shop owner asked with a smile. Beat looked around and felt tired. He decided on picking up a new black saddlebag with a sign that showed it kept out water. He trotted over to a small shelf and picked up some matches and a first aid kit. He also saw the store was trying to introduce a new product, or at least Rainy told him that. She said they were emergency rations, for ponies to eat in the event of a flood or disaster. He picked up five bars and a raincoat on the way back to the register. As he walked over to the store owner, at the register a pack of two batteries caught his eye, and he chose them as well. He dropped the items onto the counter and waited for the store owner to calculate how much he owed. "That'll be about fifty bits sir." He said with a grin. Beat looked to rainy to see if she agreed with the price, and when she saw him looking she nodded. Beat counted out fifty bits and put them onto the counter. The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow, and Rainy quickly placed two bits on the counter alongside Beat's fifty. The shopkeep nodded and put all of Beat's items in his new bag. He then added a small sticker that had the store's logo on it, and waved them off.
As soon as they were out of the window's sight, Rainy pulled Beat aside and sighed. "I should have told you about taxes." She mumbled kicking a hoof into the ground. "Whenever a store sells something there's a four percent sales tax, which the customer is supposed to calculate and pay accordingly." "What?" Beat said confused. Rainy sighed and said "Come on, pay me back." Sticking her hoof out and grabbing for her two bits. Beat reached for his bits and got three bits out instead of two. "Here's your two bits back, plus one for the information." He pushed the bits into her hooves, and grinned. He then took everything from his old saddlebag and dumped it into his new one. He tossed the old saddlebag aside, looked to Rainy and said "let's go."
They started trotting to the center of town, but Rainy stopped Beat. "Wait, I forgot my stuff at the hospital." She said and excused herself. She flew to the window of the hospital to be greeted by a trio of changelings, two of which were wrapping an unconscious earth pony in a green chrysalis and the other was cowering an a corner, half transformed into Beat. As she touched down, the two changelings making a chrysalis whipped around and screeched at her, making a small yelp escape from her mouth. The changelings then jumped onto her and pinned her down, their mouths leaking a green liquid while they sniffed at her head.
Beat was sad to be alone again. He walked over to the town square and gasped as he saw at least twenty bug like ponies with fangs and holes all over their bodies. They all had faint coloring surrounding them, and they were integrated into the midst of a group of cowering ponies. The bug ponies looked at him funny, but didn't react otherwise. The other ponies however went wide eyed and started swiping at him with sticks and small gardening tools. Beat flinched as one came a few inches from hitting him in the jaw. He looked around puzzled as to why they would act like that when he only walked up. His eyes landed on a mirror and he walked over to it. He looked into the mirror to find that he looked like one of those creatures, or rather like a hybrid. He jumped as he saw the reflection, and started to faint when the small tingle of the battery faded away, leaving him almost limp. He quickly removed it and placed a new, larger battery where the smaller one used to be in his pocket. The tingle came back and he got up again, feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. He trotted back to the mirror to see that he was back to normal, and he looked over to the crowd of ponies to see them baffled at what had just happened.
Rainy shuddered as a changeling licked her ear. It inserted it's tongue and started draining something from her head. It felt wrong, like her brain was bleeding out and her feelings were leaving her. Then she remembered that they feed on love, but only if the pony were strongly in love or in a relationship with a powerful pony. She squirmed and struggled to escape, but she couldn't break free from their grasp. Suddenly the changelings feeding on her started coughing, gaging, and choking on the love they were draining from her. "What are you in love with?!" One changeling screeched at her. "What? I'm not in love!" She said back to the changelings, who looked at her with a frown. "Then what were we eating?" They said in unison. The changelings had a point, but she really hadn't the slightest clue as to how she was in love with him already. Or maybe he was just powerful. The changelings moved her over to a chair and tied her to it. "Well, let's wait for him to come, shall we?" One said while grabbing a small piece of fabric and tying it around her mouth.
Beat backed up as a jolt of pain went through his head. His knees buckled and he collapsed. The group of ponies kept swiping at him and one hit him in the flank where his cutie mark was, sending a strange pulse throughout his body. He could see that it affected the other ponies as well, because they shook from the pulse along with him. His headache worsened, and he cried out in pain as a new entry formed in his notebook. "Side effects: memory loss, extreme headaches, and need for sustained electrical power to keep psychic field operable. Some extreme mood swings may occur." It read aloud to Beat as he stood up, ready to begin his performance, his cutie mark pulsing steadily. Something was missing.
(I Can't Remember)
I, came from below, chained and tortured.
I, alone emerge from captivity to see the light of day.
We, are all in this world together, so why do we fight?
We can be so much more, we can be so many things
So why do we cru-
Beat was interrupted by a loud "klonk" sound from the back of his head. Somepony had thrown a rock at him. "A rock!? Seriously!?" Beat said while shaking. He was pissed. Or was it possessed? He galloped to the nearest pony and bashed his head with his hoof, making a loud crackle. The angry townspony flew into a tree from the blow, and fell to the ground dead. The rest of the ponies gasped as Beat turned around and grinned wildly with one eye blank. Beat chuckled. "Who's next?" He said in a playful tone.