//------------------------------// // A Toy Thief in Ponyville // Story: One Changeling, in a World of Foes // by Orkus //------------------------------// Chapter 7: A Toy Thief in Ponyville Outside of her tree house, Twilight Sparkle trotted away, over the dirt-laden ground, with a saddle around her back, and several scrolls, or rolls of paper pocketed in the two sacks that hung on its sides. Beside her, the purple form of Spike walked as well. The expression the princess wore on her face as she walked would have easily been interpreted as one of impatience, but at this point, it had evolved into one of pure frustration. Two days had passed since she sent the message to her mentor at Canterlot, and no response had come. She continued to reassure herself that Celestia was only busy with regal duties, but it didn't comfort her much. It wan't long before she came upon the figures of four of her friends in the distance. While she looked at each of them, she also noticed that the fifth shape of Pinkie Pie was absent, to her slight confusion. "Good morning, Twilight," Fluttershy greeted, once she was within earshot. "Did Princess Celestia write back to you last night?" "No..." she sighed, lowering her head and ears in a solemn way, before perking them both up again, and taking out the multiple folds of paper she had in her saddlebags. "...But I spent a lot of time planning for our next move against the changeling. Some of them are still in the beginning stage, but a few others are ready for use, and I've got a good feeling about them." "Ooh, then let's hear them!" Rarity said, in an enthusiastic tone. "I'm sure the first one will be a doozy!" As she spoke, Twilight finally saw the appropriately bright pink form of Pinkie Pie, hovering around in back of everyone, snout, eyes, and upper body to the ground as low as physically possible as she could perform, crawling along it as if looking for something, but in an extreme, and impractical way, reminding her of a pony-shaped bloodhound. Sitting on her rump, with a blank expression on his purple, reptilian eyes, was the small shape of her pet alligator, Gummy. On his head was a doll-sized deerstalker cap. Ignoring the usually strange behavior of her friend with a smirk, and a roll of the eyes, she flipped open one of the multiple papers, this one filled with the hastily scribbled writing detailing one of the multiple plans she formulated, when the sound of a belch suddenly interrupted her, coming from Spike's direction. When Twilight turned her head, she instantly saw, with a surprised smile on her face, that the dragon was holding a scroll of new design in his hand, wrapped in a red seal. "Uh... Twilight..." he started, as he handed it to her. "I think this is for you." "Finally, a response!" she cheered aloud, happily, as she clapped her hooves together with glee, instantly forgetting about the previous conversation, as seen by how she dropped all the notes she held in the air, letting them fall to the ground. She used her telekinetic magic to grab the scroll out of Spike's small hands, and brought it up to her face, tearing the seal off of the paper in her haste. "Does it say anything on how to catch a changeling?" Rainbow Dash asked, no sooner than the princess had begun reading. There was silence for the next few seconds, as she continued to examine what was written down. As she read on, her excited face quickly turned to a confused one, and once she finished, she looked back up to each of them. "No... It doesn't" the alicorn responded, in a lower voice. "All it says is that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna want us to come to Canterlot... Immediately." "What for?" Fluttershy inquired. "It doesn't say" she spoke again. "It just says that there's something of "extreme importance" they want to tell us... In person." "Well I've got nothing planned. Let's do it!" Rainbow Dash said, raising a hoof. "Everypony else in?" "I'm in!" Applejack shouted. "As am I" Rarity agreed. "I... Guess I can go, sure!" Fluttershy said, cheerfully. "Pinkie, what about you?" Twilight inquired, looking over her shoulder to the earth pony a few feet away, who had begun examining a small rock in her hoof, very closely, with a magnifying glass. "Can't" she replied, abruptly, continuing her enigmatic search without hesitation, tossing the pebble away, and moving to the other side of the road. "Well... Why not?" Applejack asked. "Because somebody stole all of Pound and Pumpkin Cake's toys last night, and it's driving Mr. and Mrs. Cake crazy! I'm willing to bet my cutie mark that it was the changeling!" she continued, as she spied under a nearby rock with her magnifying glass. "At first, I was all like "I'm okay with you just skulking around, Mr. changeling" ya'know, doing nothing really bad and everything, but now he's stolen my bosses's kid's toys! You know what it is now? Personal. You know what that means? WAR!" "Pinkie... What in tarnation would a changeling want with children's toys?" Applejack asked. "I don't know... Yet... But I'm going to find out!" she replied, confidently. "You girls go to Canterlot without me. I've got a toy thief to find!" Rainbow Dash shrugged, while Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight rolled their eyes. "Pinkie, darling, are you sure?" Rarity asked again. "Positively positive" she replied, with a finality to her voice. "Well, alright... If that's your final decision..." Twilight sighed, with a shrug, as she set to gathering up the fallen rolls of paper she previously spilled on the ground. "We should all get ready." "Meet back here in an hour?" Applejack asked. "Race ya!" Rainbow Dash laughed, in a competitive tone, playfully punching the earth pony next to her in the shoulder with her hoof. As she sped off, intent on winning the challenge, the others went off in their own directions, along with Twilight, who took only a few seconds to recollect her belongings, and turned, heading back to the treehouse with Spike in tow. Pinkie and Gummy were soon alone, and the pony took the baby alligator off her back, and placed him on the ground. "Gummy, you check around the school, and I'll check around the spa" she said, giving orders to her pet. The small reptile looked at her with its blank eyes in response, silence radiating off of him, until he let his forked tongue out, and slowly licked one of his glassy eyes with it. "Good" she spoke again, as if replying to something Gummy said. Turning her pink snout to the ground once more, she began to crawl off, leaving no stone, no matter the size, unturned, as she traveled to her destination on the other side of Ponyville. Gummy just continued to stand there, unmoving, the deerstalker cap he wore shifting to the side of his head as a gust of wind went by. In the dug-in den, underneath the foundation of the rickety old house, laid the ghastly form of Moredread, each of his phantom legs lying beneath his own body. His wings were tucked by his side, and his helmeted head was looking in the direction of the egg he had been guarding over for the majority of the day, which was sitting on a rather comfy-looking, and secure pile that was a mixture of mud, dirt, and fuzzy children's toys, right next to him. Still not understanding as to why the changeling had stolen the latter objects from the night before, but not arguing against it, he remained there, patiently watching the small, studded egg, with a stalwart, twinkling seriousness and somewhat zeal in his red-and-green eyes. A look only a parent would normally have had. A look he once remembered wearing, many, many ages ago... The sudden sound of the creaky old door on the surface caused him to finally, albeit slowly, drag his eyes away from the precious object. He looked to the base of the tunnel, and, as he expected, saw a pony-sized shape, with an added feature lumped over its back, descending into the tunnel he and the egg rested in. The shape was Thoraxis. The undisguised changeling appeared to be carrying something behind himself, over his back, which the phantom quickly realized was a sack, and an apparently filled one, at that, judging by the volume it possessed. "How is the little one?" the changeling asked, once his glowing, blue eyes focused on him, and the egg next to him. "The egg is well. Nothing touched, or moved it while you were gone" Moredread replied, looking back at it in a caring manner, as he, himself, began to stand up. "I did, however, perform several, small tests on it while you were gone, each absolutely harmless, I assure you." "They better have been..." Thoraxis growled, his face changing to one of slight vexation, before lighting up again, once he was close enough to see it was alright for himself. He plopped the sack next to the makeshift nest where the egg was, and began to sift through the brown, stitched-together, raggy satchel. Out of it, the changeling pulled out a plush, red dragon doll, and put it with the others items, fixating it in place. "Might I dare ask, what you are doing with those foal's playthings?" he asked, speaking to the changeling once more, as he watched the smaller creature adding the objects on the pile. "Because these are the only things that can incubate the egg" Thoraxis said, as he pulled out a teddy bear, and put it down. "These toys were either given with the care only a parent could have for their child, or handled with the affection and attachment that only that young foal could produce. Without my queen to raise it herself, only this kind of care can hatch a changeling egg." "Ah, yes... Love. The emotion you creatures apparently feed on, or so I've read" Moredread chuckled. "So... Even in the first stage of your lives, you creatures depend on it?" "Only when my queen is not around to care for the eggs in her way, by herself" Thoraxis said again, as he made sure the last item, an old, gray, stuffing-filled pony doll, complete with button eyes, a yarn mane, and blue-and-white polkadotted pants, was out of the sack, and placed in a position of best comfort on the small nest-pile. "Without the queen to directly take care of them, they'll wither and die." "So... These toys are they only thing that will hatch her successfully?" Moredread asked once more, as he neared the tunnel's entrance. "Yes, that's what I'm say- wait... What do you mean by "her?"" Thoraxis asked, catching easily-missable word that the shade said at the last moment, causing him to turn back. Moredread only stared back at Thoraxis in response, a cold, bland, stony expression on his otherwise transparent face, as if mocking him in some way, while his ethereal mane he bore shimmered behind him. The silence that came between them was broken as the revenant suddenly let a long, drawn-out, low, obviously entertained, and somewhat threatening laugh escape his mouth, that slowly escalated in volume as it went on, rattling the surrounding, tunneled-in environment they were both in with its echo, even a minute after he finally stopped. The changeling's neck cricked to the side, and his face bore a confused expression, reflecting his perturbed reaction to what Moredread was hinting at, before his mind began to think of what "harmless" experiments he truly performed. It was at this point he shook his head, trying to rid it of the nightmarish, fabricated thoughts that entered it, as he looked back at the egg, noticing how it looked absolutely untouched. "Gender... Doesn't really matter in a changeling society anyway..." he said, anxiously, in an attempt to change the conversation, watching as Moredread turned once more to leave. "I shall be reading more on the latter-day history, should you need me" he said, his voice returning to its previous commanding, and controlled tone. "Golden Oak library, surprisingly enough, is the perfect source of information for my needs. I am ponderous as to what stallion or mare maintains the place..." Even as Moredread left, still talking to himself, and leaving Thoraxis alone with his charge, the changeling couldn't remove the worrying thoughts of what his ghastly alicorn "roommate" (for lack of a better term) did to the egg, harmless or not. He checked it over once more, and sighed in reassuring relief as he saw it was perfectly fine. He slowly lied down next to the rather soft nest, and curled up against it, after making sure the egg was comfy enough. With his head on the ground, he looked up at the spherical object, which he now realized was slightly larger than it was two days prior. "So, you're going to be a girl, huh?" he asked it, as he yawned, and his eyes began to close, as he drifted off into sleep. "I gotta... Think of a name for you, don't I?" Less than a few minutes later, Thoraxis, unable to think of any in his drowsy state, fell soundly asleep, next to the precious object, hugging the nest.