An hour later, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Gary and Conrad were sitting around a table in Twilight's house. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were all nursing their heads and trying to block out the sunlight with varying degrees of success. Gary and Conrad walked around the table, delivering a cup of water and a painkiller to each of the ponies still dealing with the hangover.
Rainbow Dash blearily looked at Gary. "Didn't you die?" she asked.
"Nope," Gary responded. "You must be thinking of somebody else."
Rarity looked at Conrad. "Monster," she said dully. "No. Get away. Don't have your way with me."
Conrad passed her a plate with several slices of toast on it.
"Here," he said. "Eat up. You'll feel right as rain soon."
Rarity stopped half-heartedly panicking and started munching on the toast.
"Say, where's Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. "Weren't you two going to get her?"
Gary and Conrad shared a look. "Er..." "Um..."
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Gary and Conrad stood in front of Fluttershy's house. Loud yells came from inside.
"Oh! Oh! Oh, YES!" a female voice cried. "Give it to me harder! Beat me! Whip me! Spank me! I've been a bad pony!"
Gary turned to Conrad and mouthed, "What the fuck?"
"Treat me like the dirty, dirty pony that I am, Angel Bunny!"
Gary slowly backed away from the door. Conrad moved to knock at the door, but Gary grabbed him and dragged him away.
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"She must not have been there," Gary said, lying through his teeth.
"Really?" Conrad asked. "Then who was making those loud-OW!"
Gary stared at Conrad meaningfully.
"Did you just kick me?" Conrad asked.
"Impossible," Gary said through gritted teeth, "because I only kick the shins of people who don't stop talking about potentially embarrassing situations."
"Oh, okay," Conrad said. "So anyway, we went to Fluttershy's-OW!"
Gary glared at Conrad. "I swear to God, Conrad, you cannot possibly be this stupid."
"I can if I want to be!" Conrad said cheerily.
"Well, I guess we can get started without her," Twilight said. "One of you will just have to fill her in on what she's missed."
Pinkie Pie's head shot up. "Wait, you don't mean..."
"That's right! I'm going to go over our plans for getting to the Crystal Empire and dealing with Sombra."
Every pony groaned loudly.
Gary shared an amused look with Conrad. How bad could it be?
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"...refer to section 11.A.23.c in the event of pudding-based chaos magic. However, that all depends on Pinkie Pie and Conrad doing their parts, as outlined in..."
Twilight had been discussing her plans for over an hour so far. In excruciating detail.
A soft intermittent buzzing noise caught Conrad's attention. He got up from the table without disturbing anyone and followed the noise. He briefly looked around to make sure nobody was paying attention, then hopped out the first-story window. The buzzing came from a nearby decorative shrubbery. Conrad forced the vegetation aside. Hidden behind the shrubbery was a sleeping four-legged pony-like creature that had chitin instead of fur. It had a set of wings that buzzed every time it exhaled, creating the intermittent buzzing pattern that Conrad had heard.
The changeling opened its eyes blearily and looked at Conrad. "Five more minutes," she said, then closed her eyes and apparently went back to sleep.
Conrad chuckled softly and poked the changeling. "Sorry little one, but you really aren't supposed to be sleeping here."
The changeling yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Sorry. I was spying on my older sister and I guess I just fell asleep listening to Twilight's report. Could you not tell any pony you saw me?"
The changeling looked up at Conrad with solid blue puppy-dog eyes.
Conrad shrugged. "Sure. But aren't you supposed to be in school?"
The changeling laughed. "Trust me, I don't have to worry about that."
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"Button Mash?"
"Here."
"Silver Spoon?"
"Here."
"Sweetie Belle?"
No answer.
"Sweetie Belle? Oh, there she is."
Sitting in Sweetie Belle's seat was a stuffed life-size pony doll with a white coat and a purple-and-pink mane.
Apple Bloom leaned across the aisle and whispered to Sweetie Belle, "Did you do something with your mane today? You look different."
The Sweetie Belle doll flopped down and landed face-down on the desk.
"Huh. Guess not."
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"So, what are you guys going to be doing, anyways?" the changeling asked. "I know Twilight, and she only whips out the size-8 font for the really important stuff."
Conrad smiled wryly. "Weren't you paying attention?" he asked. "I'm sure if you asked her, Twilight would be more than willing to go over the entire thing again, just for you."
The changeling pouted. "I can't make heads or tails of what she says when she gets like this. Why don't you just give me the abridged version?"
"Sure, why not?" Conrad said cheerfully. "I don't see anything wrong with sharing personal information with a complete stranger who was hiding in the shrubbery and claims to be related to one of the ponies inside!"
The changeling frowned. "That was oddly specific," she said.
"It was, wasn't it?" Conrad said amicably. "Anyhow, we're going to be going to the Crystal Empire to deal with somebody named Sombra."
The changeling's eyes got wide. "The Crystal Empire? The place where Queen- sorry, Princess Cadence lives?"
Conrad shrugged. "Maybe? I don't really know much about it, except that it's an Empire, and is in some way, shape, or form related to crystals."
The changeling climbed out from behind the bushes and ran around to the front door. She threw the door open and yelled, "Rarity, you have to take me with you!"
Twilight yelled, "Changeling!"
The changeling's entire body stiffened. She touched her own face briefly then turned around and galloped away from Twilight's house. Soon she was out of sight.
Conrad picked up a floppy mask from the shrubbery.
"Huh," he said. "I wonder if she dropped this."