//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27: Memory and Mystery 
// Story: Converted 
// by Shaded Changeling 
//------------------------------//

	Last nights party was an interesting affair, It wasn’t completely awkward, just slightly. Shade could tell that everyone was slightly on edge after the whole Discord incident, but it wasn’t as much their primary thoughts as their secondary ones, Pinkie was still as enthusiastic about partying as ever.
The Party was still amazing, considering how small it was, it still was probably one of the best times for enjoyment. So much so that Shade actually just let himself absorb the ambient emotions, with just that he felt more full than he had in a looong time.
However something that was completely familiar to him was waking up with a headache. This time however, it was probably brought about by him falling off the couch he was sleeping on. Which would explain why he was looking at the floor.
“Ugh…” Shade groaned, “floors…why must you spite me.”
Shade pushed himself off the ground to look out the window, the sun was just starting to poke above the horizon line, casting an orange light across the sky. As he looked out, he saw that a few ponies were already walking, so he transformed into Sunstreak just in case.
He noticed a few ponies that just looked the rich and fancy types, holding their heads up in a pompous manner. Aside from them, there were some standard ponies that looked like they just wanted to see the place. He probably could have picked out details, but his mind was busy.
He was trying to figure out how to best use the time he has… He wanted to look for clues on Meadow…but the problem was, these ponies may put together the locations and figure out what he was. On the other hand, he did promise Silver he would look for some kind of lead.
Sunstreak had started pacing unconsciously, when he was far enough away from the window he dropped his disguise.
	How do I handle this? I can try to find some sort of lead…but then…I might not be able to help Sunglider… Then I’ll be stuck with his memories…And Silver may never have his brother back… Why am I getting dizzy?
“Shade?” He heard Twilight’s voice coming from… Above him? “What are you doing on the ceiling?”
Ceiling? Shade looked up, sure enough, above him was the couch he had slept on, a small table, and a lavender Unicorn. “I…have absolutely no idea.”
“Well get down from there before somepony notices.” Shade opened his wings and buzzed them to make sure he wouldn’t just plummet from the ceiling into the ground. After seeing that it did nothing, he decided to just walk down the wall.
“Sorry…I was just thinking…I must have walked up the wall when I wasn’t paying attention.” Shade kicked his hind legs to try and get the blood flowing again.
“What were you thinking about?” Twilight asked curiously.
“I’m trying to balance out my plans…” Shade replied. “I’m trying to find a way to transfer memories while looking for Meadow…and I can’t figure out how to do this without making it obvious to others that I’m a Changeling…”
Twilight looked at him curiously, trying to find a way to help. “I’ve got it!”
Shade looked up at Twilight. “Do tell.”
“I can help you find that spell you’re looking for. While Rainbow and Pinkie try to talk to the local Law Enforcement on anything to do with Meadow.”
“Can they do that?” Shade asked. “Isn’t it technically still an open case?”
“Well… I’m sure that Candlelight has found something in her house…” Twilight replied. “But which do you want to focus on right now?”
That was a question Shade wanted to ask himself, he swore he would protect Meadow no matter what…but the problem is he didn’t want to interfere with an ongoing investigation…especially if it contaminates evidence… It may lead them to think he did it.
“I really want to find Meadow…but the problem is, if there is an investigation, me trying to find something might interfere, and then I’ll get held responsible for everything… And then I’ll have gone in a huge circle.” Shade rubbed his temples. “I also told Silver Shield I would help him… and I had to promise Sunglider that-“
“Wait wait wait.” Twilight replied. “Isn’t Sunglider the Royal guard you nearly killed?”
“Yes…after I absorbed Cadence’s love, I managed to contact him through my memories, I told him I would try and fix him…and after that he left me alone. Now I have to find out how to fix this...” Shade looked at Twilight. “And to top it all off. I have no way to talk to Queen Acari about this.”
Twilight had listened to him calmly. “Well…I have an idea of where we can start looking.”
“Really? Where?”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Sunstreak replied as he looked at the Royal Library, it was huge! It looked like you could easily fit two full-grown Blue whales in there, and they would probably still have a ton of room left.
“How the hell are we going to find one spell in all these books? ECHO!” Sunstreak just listened for the echo. Which by his count echoed twelve times in a coherent way.
“Oh I’ve been in here enough times to have the books order memorized.” Twilight replied. There was a green wisp of green flame next to Twilight. “Shade. Put your disguise back on!”
Shade was dumbstruck, at the fact that Twilight was able to memorize every book in this enormous space that he dropped his disguise with his jaw hanging open. He quickly shook his head  and turned back into Sunstreak.
“How in the name of every deity did you memorize this library?” Sunstreak asked still surprised by this piece of information. “How much time did you spend in here? Do you even need sleep?”
“Sunstreak…I spent many long nights studying in here. I must have read every book in here.”
“How old are you again?” Sunstreak asked. “Because if you are under one-hundred and thirty-five, I’m calling bullshit.”
Twilight laughed. “Would you be surprised if I told you that you weren’t the first pony to say that.”
“Not at all.” Sunstreak replied. “So where do we start?”
“Well…I haven’t rearranged the books in here since I left for Ponyville.” Going to ignore that for a minute. “But it should be somewhere in the far left corner. You can go check there, I’ll start trying to figure out where they moved everything.”
“Alright. Holler if you find something.” Sunstreak took off from the ground and flew towards the corner, which took about a minute.
Sunstreak began looking at the top of the bookshelves, looking for anything that could be even relatively close to something useful. Most of the books just seemed like old tomes and Sunstreak was sure that they hadn’t been touched in over a few hundred years.
J…K…L…N…Hold up. Sunstreak backup up in mid air. Looking over the books again. Sure enough, where there should have been a book with a title of ‘M’ there was just a large empty slot. Where about three books should have been. “Why must this world spite me…” Sunstreak said under his breath.
He looked down at the ground, trying to find someone who might know where the books went. The closest thing he found was a young looking blue unicorn. Worth a shot.
He slowly flew down next to her. “Um…Hello.”
The blue unicorn jumped a little. “Oh sorry I didn’t see you there.” She looked at Sunstreak for a second. “How did you get back here?”
“I’m here with Twilight Sparkle. I’m looking for a book on memory transference spells,” He remembered that he wasn’t a unicorn so that sentence made almost no sense. “It’s for a friend.” Sunstreak added a small smile.
“Oh…well they should be on the top shelf.”
“I didn’t see them…” Sunstreak replied.
“Oh…umm…” The Unicorn looked around the shelves. “If it isn’t here…then it may have been moved…check the right corner closest to the entrance. If it isn’t there…then Celestia may have it.”
“Thanks.” Sunstreak replied, flying higher in the area before starting to slowly fly over to the right corner, keeping his eye on the book titles for no other reason than curiosity.
A few of them were standard, things like basic spell tomes, law books, but as he passed one of them, something jumped out at him, quite literally. When he passed one of the books, some kind of ethereal hand grabbed him.
“THE HELL!” He shouted. He was not used to books trying to kill him. “Get off of me.” Sunstreak tried to fight against it, but couldn’t manage to move. Only one idea popped into his head, and he hated himself for it.
A wisp of flame surrounded his head as he gained a black curved horn and he instantly charged it with the same spell he tried to use on Twilight. The amount of electricity that flowed through his body was enough to cause the hand to drop him, but also too much for his wings to handle.
He fell towards the ground, he closed his eyes before hitting the ground, but when he thought there should have been a rather loud crash, he heard nothing. He opened his eye to look at what was stopping him from falling any further, and found Twilight breathing heavily.
“What…were…you doing?” She said panting. She must have run all the way here. “What…did you…do?”
“Nothing!” Sunstreak replied defensively. “The book grabbed me!”
“What book?” Twilight asked. “Is that why you have a horn?”
Sunstreak looked up on the top of his head, and saw the black curved horn he forgot to get rid of. “Whoops…” There was a flash of green light and the horn vanished. “Umm…I can’t feel my anything.”
Twilight dropped the spell holding him causing him to land upside down on the ground, with no ability to control his legs as they spastically swung everywhere. “What book?”
“Top shelf…third from the right.” Twilight rolled her eyes and pulled the book down. It was a rather old looking book, given how brown and torn the spine was, but that didn’t stop the red circular rune drawn on it from glowing like hot coals.
“You sure this old book grabbed you?” Twilight asked as she held it in front of her.
“Not a hundred percent, I was kind of focusing on not getting crushed by a hand made of blue mist.” As if on cue the same hand grabbed Sunstreak again. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He asked as the hand slowly tried to crush him. “Twilight…help…”
Twilight was looking astonished between the book and Sunstreak. “You going to help?” Sunstreak asked.
Twilight quickly threw the book across the hall, causing the hand to vanish. “What just happened?” Twilight asked shocked.
“How would I know?” Sunstreak retorted. “All I want to know is when can I burn that stupid book?”
Twilight glared at Sunstreak. “Did you see anything that would help me figure out what just happened?”
“No…” Sunstreak replied. “I was just flying past the book shelf and then the homicidal book decided to grab me.”
“But why?” Twilight asked, walking over to the book. “I don’t recognize this rune…”
“Well as long as it is far away from me I don’t care.” Sunstreak remembered why he was over here. “The memory tomes were moved.”
“Uh-huh.” Twilight replied absent mindedly, paying more attention to the rune.
“Uh…Twilight?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Oh Kaaay…” Sunstreak said to himself. “You are clearly busy, so I’m just gonna go look over there…”
“Uh-huh.” Twilight was too focused on the book. So Sunstreak took the long way around the bookcase and couldn’t fly as his wings were still sticking up from the electricity, so were his mane and tail. He also stayed away from any kind of metal, as he was afraid that it would discharge the remaining electricity all at once.
He managed to find the right corner, which happened to be much nicer…less of the books tried to kill him. One however did explode in his face… that wasn’t fun.
“Magic books… Not fun…” Sunstreak said as he put the book back before wiping the soot off his face. “What’s next… A book that electrocutes me?”
Sunstreak tried to grab the next book, but felt an electric current run down his spine. “Me and my big, fat…”
“Sunstreak.” Twilight called from the far side of the room. “I found out what this rune is.” She began walking closer with the book.
“No no no! Keep that demented thing away from me!” Sunstreak said as he backed away from Twilight. “Unless that book is on fire, do not bring it near me!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Drop your disguise Shade.” At the disapproving look on Sunstreak’s face, Twilight added, “It is an illusion detection rune, created to stop illusion spells. Just drop your disguise and you’ll be fine.”
Sunstreak sighed before transforming back into Shade. “You better be right about this…”
Twilight levitated the book up to Shade. There was no hand yet, but Shade kept that spell in his mind just in case. “So what is it?”
Twilight looked curiously surprised. “I’m not sure. I can’t make out any of the writing.”
“Well let me see it. Maybe I can make something out.” Twilight opened the book, and Shade recognized it instantly.
“That’s draconic writing!” Shade snatched the book out of Twilight’s magical hold and began looking over the pages. What is this doing here? He began reading through the dates. Nothing was useful, the writing was definitely Draconic, Shade wouldn’t forget the writing of his first race, but it was what was written that confused him.
“What is it?” Twilight asked seeing Shade’s confused expression.
“I’m not sure…” Shade replied. “It’s full of gibberish…”
“Are you sure that it is draconic?” Twilight asked looking over his shoulder.
“Yes… but I can’t make any of it out…” Shade began flipping through the pages, trying to find something he could recognize as coherent writings, but all he found was more random gibberish written in the draconic language. Which really just looked like someone scratched it into the book using a claw, but that is how the old Dragons wrote it.
He eventually came to a page with something he recognized. It was a single spell that he recognized…and it caused him to drop the book.
“What?” Twilight asked.
“This…This book shouldn’t be here…” Shade was getting nervous.
“What is it?” Twilight asked looking into the book.
“It’s a forbidden tome…That shouldn’t be here…” Shade was trying to think about how it could have gotten here… and he didn’t like any of them.
“Well what’s so ‘forbidden’ about it?” Twilight asked looking at the symbols. “I mean I can’t read it and I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t be able to cast any of these.”
“The spells were seen as too dangerous for anyone to cast… They…they shouldn’t be here. That’s why there was that protection rune… Anyone who may steal it is reprimanded…”
“So why did you freak out?” Twilight looked over the page Shade flipped to.
“It’s a portal to Tartarus, I-I just don’t feel comfortable around that book… It needs to be locked somewhere…or thrown into a fire…”
Twilight placed the book on a table nearby. “I’ll inform Celestia about it. In the meantime, you should be able to turn back…Oh and you have some soot on your face.”
Shade turned back into Sunstreak, and luckily the electricity had left enough for him to fly, he flew up towards the top shelf and read through the title, none of them were very useful.
“Find anything?” Sunstreak called down to Twilight.
“No.” Twilight called back, she was levitating about twenty books around her. “Are you sure this is where they moved it?”
“I don’t know Twilight…” Sunstreak replied. “It’s where the unicorn told me it was either that or someone has it.”
“Well I doubt that anypony took it out, the only ones who can take books from here are Castle staff and myself.” Twilight replied as Sunstreak flew down to the ground.
“So this has just been a dead end. Wonderful…”
“Oh come on Sunny,” Twilight replied full of optimism. “I’m sure we’ll find something useful. If not us than maybe Rainbow and Pinkie have found something.”
Sunstreak shook his head. “I wait with baited breath.”



“Listen, Miss Pie. For the last time.” The Royal Guard replied. “I cannot give you any information about the foalnapping. It’s an open case.”
“Please.” Pinkie said, fluttering her eyelids.
“No.” The Guard replied. “The Princess has requested that the case remain classified. Only the Captains know the details.”
“But we-”
“Miss Pie… Please leave, if you don’t I will be forced to escort you off the castle grounds.” The Guard’s horn began to glow.
“Come on Pinkie…There’s no point in arguing…” Rainbow replied pushing Pinkie towards the exit. “He clearly isn’t going to give us anything. So let’s just go.”
Once the two of them were outside the building, Pinkie looked back at Rainbow. “Come on Dashie, I was so close to…”
Rainbow Dash facehoofed. “Pinkie…The last thing we need is to be kicked out of the castle.” In any other circumstance, Rainbow would keep trying until they did throw them out, but Twilight told her to keep Pinkie under control, so that is what she had to do. “Come on Pinkie.”
“Where are we going?” Pinkie asked hopping alongside Rainbow.
“We’re going to find our own answers.” Rainbow replied.
“Oo! Oo! I know where to start!”

A short walk later and the two of them were standing outside one of the near identical looking houses; the only real thing that made it slightly different was the light blue door.
“Pinkie are you sure this is the right place?” Rainbow asked, looking at the buildings next to it.
“Of course Dashie. This is where I sent the Care package.”
“But how do you know this is actually Meadow’s house?” Rainbow asked. “Where did you get the Address?”
“Meadow told me silly.” Pinkie replied as she raised her hoof to knock on the door.
“Oh…right…” Rainbow replied as Pinkie knocked on the door, a few moments later it was opened by a light Cream colored Unicorn with a light purple and white mane.
“Can I help you?” The Unicorn asked looking at the two ponies.
“Hi. My name is Pinkie Pie. Are you Candlelight?”
“Yes…What is this about?” The Unicorn replied.
“You know about Sunstreak?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes… But why are you here?”
“We’re a few of his friends.” Pinkie replied bouncing up and down. “We want to help him look for Meadow.”
Candlelight’s eyes widened. “Is he out?” She asked stepping out of the door way to let the two mares in.
“Well…we can’t exactly tell you that.” Rainbow replied.
Pinkie leaned in to whisper in Candlelight’s ear. “It’s a secret…”
Candlelight moved away from Pinkie before closing the door with her magic. “Alright… But what are you doing here?”
“Well… Twilight and Sunny are looking for a way to help a Royal Guard in the Hospital get his memories back. Because he’s worried that he’ll be blamed for taking Meadow and thrown back in jail. Then he’ll never be able to find Meadow and…”
“Pinkie…Breathe.” Rainbow Dash said because Pinkie hadn’t breathed the entire time she was talking.
Pinkie took a deep breath. “And then he’ll make you sad, so we came here to try and find something that might help him figure out where Meadow was taken.”
“Alright… But I’m not sure what you’ll find.” Candlelight replied walking into the kitchen. “The Royal Guard took anything they could find that even had the slightest possibility of being in contact with a Changeling.”
“I take that as a challenge!” Pinkie Pie replied, as she flipped a black bowler hat onto her head and pulled a magnifying glass out of her mane.
Rainbow looked at the hat. “Pinkie…has that been in there since…”
“Yes…Yes it has. Why do you want the other one? I think I have that somewhere too.”
“I’m good Pinkie.” Rainbow replied as Pinkie began walking along the ground, searching it with her magnifying glass.
Candlelight walked back into the room to see Pinkie snaking along the ground underneath her couch. “Does…Does she do this often?” She asked as Pinkie crawled out from under the small space as easily as if she had just walked through a door.
“This specifically? Not that often.” Rainbow replied. “But usually it’s just as unexpected.” At that Pinkie walked into a side room and back out through a closet on the other side of the room.
“AH HA!” Pinkie replied as she held up a small clear ball.
“How did she…” Candlelight began to ask but Rainbow just shook her head.
“Don’t ask.” Rainbow replied. “What is it Pinkie?”
“It’s a crystal.” Pinkie replied. “And it looks almost exactly like those ones I saw at Tornado Dust’s place.”
“You mean his ice?” Rainbow replied. “It’s always looked kind of weird. But I don’t see why-”
“Look at it.” Pinkie said, shoving the magnifying glass into Rainbow’s face.
“Pinkie I-”
“Oh give it.” Candlelight grabbed the two objects with her magic. After a few seconds her eyes widened. “I’ll be damned…”
“What is it?” Rainbow asked.
“It’s a crystal... It seems to be a naturally created containment gem, probably made quickly given the rigid edges… I’ve only seen a few of these before…but never in this kind of condition.” She looked up from the crystal to see Rainbow Dash looking at her in surprise. “What?”
“How do you know that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Gems are a hobby of mine.” Candlelight replied floating the objects back to Pinkie. “I’ve traveled all over Equestria for my job, so I started gem collecting. Breaks up the monotony of business trips.”
“I was right about this being a gem? Sweet! I thought it would be weird for an ice ball to be in the closet and not to have melted, so I just thought it was a gem.”
Candlelight just shook her head. “I will never understand you Pinkie…”
“Me neither…” Pinkie replied. “Now let’s get some lunch, all this investigating is making me hungry.”
Both Rainbow Dash and Candlelight rolled their eyes.
“Alright… But then you have to bring me to Sunstreak.”
“Deal.”



“You sure about this Twilight?” Sunstreak asked as the two of them looked up at the waterfall Canterlot had flowing just outside the castle.
“Relatively.” She replied. “The books weren’t there but I’m sure this will help.”
“How?” Sunstreak asked. “How does me flying you up to the top of a waterfall help?” Twilight had an idea to try and recreate the clearest memory Shade had from Sunglider, which was also the most dangerous for both of them.
“I know it sounds dangerous.”
“That is the understatement of the year.” Sunstreak replied.
“But it is also the only thing we have that could help.” Twilight explained. “Maybe if we find out about Sunglider, then you can try and transfer the memories easier.”
“Assuming that I can even fly you up there, what is the plan? Are you going to walk off the cliff and make me skydive after you?”
“Yes actually.” Twilight replied. “I’ll catch myself if it becomes too dangerous.”
“I know that you can stop yourself… but what about if anyone sees me? I’m not even sure if this is…”
“I’ll say it was my idea.” Twilight replied cutting Sunstreak off. “Happy?”
“No.” Sunstreak replied. “But it is the only plan we have… So might as well get this over with.”
Sunstreak started flying. He picked up Twilight by grabbing under her forelegs, and began flying up the Waterfall. About halfway up, he realized how bad of an idea this was.
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she saw Sunstreak having a bit of trouble.
“Can’t… Talk…Focus…” Sunstreak grunted as he forced himself to ignore everything he was feeling.
When the two of them finally got above the waterfall, Sunstreak collapsed and dropped his disguise. “You…are…heavy…”
“Come on…you flew all the way around Canterlot with Meadow on your back.”
“When…I’m running…On adren…alin…Pain... can be… negated…” Shade pushed himself off the ground. “Plus…she’s a…Filly…she weighs less…”
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.
“I have a cramp….the size of the Sun…In my wings…Aside from that… I’m fine.” Shade replied. “Oh…and I…need a minute…”
Shade took several deep breaths, before he stretched his insect wings. “Alright…I think I’m good.”
“You sure?” Twilight replied. Looking over at Shade, who transformed back into Sunstreak.
“Yeah…just don’t make me fly you back up here…” Sunstreak replied. Flexing his wings. “Let’s get this over with before I change my mind…”
Twilight nodded, looked over the edge and swallowed audibly. “I’m starting to regret this decision…”
“You and me both…” Sunstreak replied. “So are you going to-?”
Twilight took a deep breath and stepped off the edge.
Sunstreak didn’t even wait to dive after her. “WINGLESS!”
Sunstreak dove off the cliff as fast as he could, rushing towards the Unicorn. He flapped his wings as fast as he could to catch up to the Unicorn. When he managed to get above the Unicorn, he grabbed her and began to slow himself, gradually tilting in order to have more time. When he slowed himself down enough to land effectively, he dropped Twilight on the ground and flew a few feet away before landing himself.
“Damn it Wingless! What were you thinking? Don’t you ever learn!” Sunstreak reprimanded Twilight. “As a Foal maybe but not as a grown Pony! Come on!”
“Sunstreak…I.”
“Wingless… I know what happened hit you hard…but think about he others before you pull some kind of…” Sunstreak turned to look at Twilight. “Who in Tartarus are you?”
“Sunstreak…I’m Twilight.”
“Twilight?” Sunstreak replied. “Sorry…I…” He looked down at himself. “Ah…”
“What is it?”
“I’m still that Changeling aren’t I?”
Twilight was confused. “Sunstreak what are you-?” She caught a look at Sunstreak’s right eye, which was now rounded and blue. “What?”
“My name is Sunglider.”
“Oh dear…”

“So…You’re telling me, that you and this, ‘Sunstreak’ decided it would be a good idea to fly you up to the top of the waterfall, have you walk off, and then have me fly after you like I did when my brother fell.”
Twilight had explained everything that happened in the plan to get a better idea of Sunglider. They were now sitting outside a small café in Canterlot, having a small lunch.
Twilight nodded.
“I expected better from Celestia’s personal student.” Sunglider replied. “What were you thinking doing that?”
“I was just trying to-”
“Help?” Sunglider finished.
“Yeah…” Twilight replied lowering her head.
Sunglider thought about what Twilight told him. He saw how sad she was about the whole incident. “Listen… I can understand that ‘Sunstreak’ is a friend, crazy as it sounds, and you want to help him fix me.” Twilight looked up at him. “So now you have two problems. I don’t know any of you, and ‘Sunstreak’ is now dormant.”
Twilight perked up. “I’m sure that we’ll-”
An old looking dark gray Earth pony walked up to the two of them. He had a small brown saddle bag and large glasses over his eyes. “I hate to interrupt you,” The stallion said as he pulled a small package out of the saddle bag.
“You weren’t interrupting much.” Sunglider replied.
“Well are either of you a… Mr. Sunstreak?” The stallion asked, looking at the bottom of the package.
“That’s what I’ve been called,” Sunglider replied. “So I guess that’s me.”
“Well this package is for you, I was given the directions to tell you that… Hold on.” The Earth pony pulled a small card out of his saddle bag. “You are not to open it in a public area, at night, or around other ponies. You should open it as soon as possible.” He put the card back in his saddle bag. “It is from the Honorable Just Sentence. So it is probably important.”
At the mention of just Sentence, both Twilight and Sunglider looked at each other in surprise. “You’re sure it was Just Sentence.”
“Well of course I am.” The Pony replied. “She was the one who gave me the package to deliver after all.” With that he walked down the street.
Both of them looked at the package in surprise. They stayed that way for a few seconds before Twilight broke the silence. “Did… Did Sunstreak ever-?”
“No idea…” Sunglider replied looking at the small package. “This probably isn’t a good thing…”



“Court is adjourned.” Just Sentence pronounced. The large group of nobles that had come to the court room got up to leave, along with Filthy Rich, a Ponyville resident very against how a certain Changeling wasn’t thrown into the badlands.
“If I have to listen to one more self-entitled pony, I am going to break something.” She said to Celestia, who was sitting next to her. “Thanks for coming on such short notice Princess.”
“It’s no trouble.” Celestia replied. “I was happy to talk down Filthy Rich for you.”
Just Sentence picked up her papers with her magic. “It’s been a struggle keeping these nobles in their place.” She told Celestia. “For the past three days, all I’ve been hearing is rumors and superstitions about Changelings in attempts to persuade me to take legal action.” She rubbed the side of her head. “Can’t they take a hint?”
“Nobles are second only to Minotaur’s for their stubbornness.” Celestia replied, to which Just Sentence nodded.
“Have you gotten any closer to finding that spell I asked for?” She asked Celestia.
“Sadly no, it seems as though it was moved from the Royal Library.”
“Strange.” Just Sentence replied, hopping down from her chair. “Anyway, this way Celestia, we have much to discuss.”
“Indeed we do.” Celestia replied turning and following the old Unicorn out of the room. They walked in silence until they reached Just Sentence’s office room.
“So what would you like to start with?” Just Sentence asked, opening a small filing cabinet and placing the folder of papers inside.
“I wanted to know how you were handling the Prisoners.” Celestia replied placing a silencing spell on the door.
“Well so far we have managed to get answers out of the assassin. His name is Bloodpool, he serves Queen Ceymi, and the reason he attacked was to destroy the traitor that caused Chrysi’s death.”
“Has her body been recovered yet?” Celestia asked.
“Not as of now… The problem isn’t that the body will disintegrate, we are more worried something ate her.” Just Sentence replied. “But as of now we have two fully conscious prisoners who are refusing to give up any information.” Just Sentence pulled out a small stack of papers and a quill, and began filling out the forms.
“What about Shade?” Celestia asked. “Have you gotten any closer to helping him?”
“The last time an incident like this happened, and it wasn’t a Nymph, was during my mother’s reign.” She replied. “I have the four changelings that couldn’t keep their cover searching now. But it may still take a while to dig through all those records.”
“What of Darkblaze?” Celestia asked. “Surly he could help.”
“He is busy looking after the Caretaker back at my Hive, he hasn’t left since she collapsed.” Just Sentence replied, looking over the files. “But enough about my exploits, what are you planning to do about-” There was a knock on the door.
“Come in.” Just Sentence called, when the door opened, a dark grey Earth Pony walked in.
“My Queen.” He said as he closed the door. “I have news.”
“Well don’t keep us waiting.”
“Shade has reverted to Sunglider again.” He said with a bow. “His form appears to be holding; however I have doubts as to how long.”
Just Sentence nodded. “Understandable.  Sunglider doesn’t understand feeding. Should I assume you gave him the package?”
“Of course my Queen,” He replied with a bow. “I assured him it was important.”
“Wonderful!” Just Sentence replied. “This should turn out nicely.”
Celestia looked at the Unicorn. “What are you planning Acari?”
“Well…assuming that Sunglider opens the package soon, we should have a duplicate of his memories.” Just Sentence explained, “Which should make a transfer easier if I can pinpoint the exact memory that I need to sync with Shade to avoid any possible scrambling.”
Just Sentence reached into the bottom desk drawer and pulled out a pink crystal. “Assuming they took your advice, it should be starting any…Ah.” The Crystal began to glow a bright blue color. “There we go…”
Celestia looked at the crystal, on the outside of the prism, images flashed rapidly, almost like a sped up film. A few times it slowed down, showing a small silver unicorn foal. One of the memories showed him diving after the same foal only to have it float itself in place using its horn.
The memories quickly whizzed by again, until they slowed down again showing the silver Unicorn and a dark blue Pegasus. Before Celestia could make out what was going on, the memories sped up again, stopping at an image of all three of them saluting, two of them in Royal Guard Armor, and the third wearing Lunar Guard Armor.
The memories flew past again, this time stopping at what looked like an alabaster Unicorn mare with magenta eyes.
The next few images took Celestia by surprise. The first was of the invasion, a Changeling shoving Sunglider down. The next few couldn’t be Sunglider’s, as these appeared to be after he passed out. These were Shade’s, he flew above the city, looking around for something, saw Celestia in a cocoon, and then saw two ponies. The next image that could be made out was with a small light brown unicorn filly, then other Changelings, then  the images whizzed past again. The next few were of another Changeling talking to Shade, then him falling through the air, Spears at his throat, A Timber Wolf, Ponyville, and then the images all whizzed past too quick to catch any other ones.
“Wonderful…” Just Sentence said. “Some of the memories got mixed in… That is going to make this difficult.”
“What does that mean?” Celestia asked, amazed at the memories.
“It means that he changed back, and it means that I have a lot of work to do…”



Sunstreak looked at the strange pink crystal that just disintegrated in front of him. He felt really drained… Or rather, Drunk. He found himself in a pretty dark alleyway, and his vision was wobbling. “Where…Am I?”
Sunstreak wobbled towards the light at the end of the alley, and found Twilight waiting for him. “Oh Sunstreak…” She saw him wobbling. “Are you alright?”
“Oh…Hi there…My brain hurts…” Sunstreak replied. “AAAnd there go my legs.” Sunstreak’s legs started to buckle underneath him. Luckily Twilight ran up and caught him.
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” Sunstreak replied drunkenly.
Twilight frowned at him. “Okay….we need to wake you up.”
“But mom…” Sunstreak whined. “It’s the weekend.”
Twilight moved from underneath Sunstreak, making him fall to the ground. “Ow…” Sunstreak moaned. “Why am I on the ground?” He looked up to see Twilight. “Well…You’re still alive. So what happened?”
“You turned into Sunglider, yelled at me, then a delivery pony gave you some kind of package.”
From the alleyway, there was a small explosion. “Well…Whatever it is, it’s gone now. And I have a massive headache…”
“Well then…I assume you don’t want to go searching for anymore answers today.”
“I would prefer we don’t…” Sunstreak replied, pushing himself off the ground. “If anything…I want to sleep…”
“Alright…” Twilight sighed. “I guess I can look into it on my own.”
Sunstreak nodded. The last thing he wanted was to be a part of another of Twilight’s plans, especially if they center around him.
“Alright… I’ll help you get back.” Twilight replied, helping stabilize him. “Let’s go sleepy.”

As Twilight helped Sunstreak down the halls, Sunstreak couldn’t help but feel a little strange as they walked towards the door. Almost as if something was wrong.
“What’s up Sunny?” Twilight asked.
“It’s…Probably nothing. Just an odd feeling.” Sunstreak replied as Twilight opened the door. “Oh Holy mother of God!” Sunstreak said as he covered his nose. “What is that smell?”
Twilight sniffed in the air. “I don’t smell anything.”
“How do you not smell that? It smells like a Timber Wolf if someone decided to shove a pile of manure down it’s throat.” Sunstreak was turning green. “I’m gonna be sick…”
Twilight led Sunstreak into the room, and he quickly rushed over to the small sink and puked into it. “Okay…Something in here needs to be cleaned…” He looked around the room. “Candlelight?”
“Hello Shade.” Candlelight said with a wave.
“I’ll talk to you in a minute.” Sunstreak replied, looking around the room. He noticed that Pinkie was strangely green…
Sunstreak walked up to her, staring directly into her mane. He wasn’t mistaken, there was definitely something green in there. “Pinkie stand still.” He reached into Pinkie’s mane, he pulled out a magnifying glass, a hat, Pinkie’s box of crayons, and a strange looking spatula before he finally pulled out the strange green object.
“Pinkie…” Sunstreak said covering his nose. “Where did you get this?” Sunstreak was holding a small crystal ball, which inside had a swirling light green energy inside of it.
“I got it from Candie’s place.” Pinkie explained.
“Candie?” Sunstreak replied.
“That’s me.” Candlelight replied.
“Deal with it later…” Sunstreak replied. “Now where specifically?”
“In the closet.” Pinkie replied. “Why?”
“Because this thing smells like a Dumpster.” Sunstreak replied. “And I can feel my nose burning off.” Sunstreak said, flying over to a cabinet and tossing the crystal in it.
“What was that thing doing in your house?” Sunstreak asked, the smell was still lingering in the air, but it was at least bearable now.
“I’m not sure…” Candlelight replied. “It was the closet, that’s all I know.”
“Could it have been left there by the other Changelings?” Twilight asked. “I mean given how you are reacting they must have hated the stuff.”
“The problem is that they had to create it from something…” Sunstreak replied. “So one of them must have been starving to try and eat…whatever that was.”
“Can’t you tell what emotion it is?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I mean… Isn’t that what you do?”
Sunstreak glared at her. “I’ve managed to figure out a few emotions, but I’m not an expert on it.” Sunstreak dropped his disguise.
“So…when did you get out?” Candlelight asked trying to change the subject.
“Yesterday actually.” Shade replied. “And in that time I have been attacked by a book, and was a part of a really stupid plan courtesy of Celestia’s personal student here.”
“I agree,” Twilight conceded, “It wasn’t the best plan I’ve ever had. But it was worth a try.”
“What plan was that Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked as she put everything back into her mane.
Twilight began explaining her plan and what happened afterwards, up until Sunstreak wandered out of the alleyway.
“Twilight… I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about that.” Rainbow Dash said when Twilight had finished. “I could have helped.”
“Well….I figured you would be busy dealing with the…”
“We almost got thrown out.” Pinkie replied before Twilight could finish.
While the two of them explained what happened to Twilight, Shade walked over to Candlelight. “So how have you been holding up?”
“As well as I am going to.” Candlelight replied. “I was worried about Meadow when I lost her before, but now I’m just afraid of what will happen to her.”
“I get it…”  Shade replied. “But if it helps, I don’t think Spine will try anything.”
“What makes you say that?” Candlelight replied. “If what you told me about him was true, then he wouldn’t think twice about hurting her.”
“This isn’t just a battle of morals now, it’s personal.” Shade replied. “He wants to pay me back for cracking his chest, I’m his target…Meadow is just my incentive.”
“Is it working?”
“Let’s put it this way.” Shade replied. “If I find him, I’m going to pay him back for what he did to me.” Shade turned to look at Candlelight. “And if he hurt Meadow, I’ll make sure he will never be at peace again.”
Candlelight had no idea what Shade was planning, but the fact he was so determined to find Meadow made her feel better about placing her trust in him. “If you ever need help, my door is always open.”
“Thanks Candlelight.” Shade replied, looking back at the three Mares. “You ever wonder what they would be like if they never met?”
Candlelight turned to look at the group. “Well…I would figure that Equestria would still be in trouble, since the Elements wouldn’t have bearers.”
“That is true… So how did you get dragged into this?”
“Those two came to my door and said they knew you.” She pointed at Rainbow and Pinkie. “Then Pinkie looked around my house and found that containment gem.”
“You mean the Sewer stone?” Shade replied. He was not happy about that thing still being around, but it could be useful at some point…Maybe as a Stink bomb…
“Yes…that… well I have a hobby of collecting gems, and I had never seen anything like it…”
“When I learn how to make them I’ll give you few…”
Candlelight blinked at him. “You can make those?” She asked surprised.
“Yeah…I was getting taught how to by another Changeling, before…Well…the Invasion. It’s sort of like a… ration of emotion if you can think of it that way. We store excess emotions into them and then save it for later.”
“Interesting…” Candlelight replied. “So what do you plan on doing now?”
“Now?” Shade repeated. “Well… Now I plan on sleeping off the cramp and headache I have for the rest of the day… then I may try to find where the Changelings have been storing all their supplies…”
Candlelight nodded. “If you find anything new, feel free to tell me about it. Just remember, my door is always open.”
“I’ll tell you if I find something. And don’t worry…I’ll find her.”
Candlelight walked over to the door. “I know you will.”

	Dear Shining Armor,
There is not much to report on today, when I woke up, Shade was pacing on the ceiling trying to sort out his plans to handle his two current problems. We are planning to come up with a schedule for him to work around; however it has been hard as he is currently asleep from today’s exploits. We did discover that Changelings can contain excess emotions inside of naturally created crystals for a food source later, and that one emotion is absolutely putrid to them. What this emotion is, I have no idea. However Rainbow Dash and Shade are going to try and find any hidden Caches of these crystals tomorrow.
From,
Twilight Sparkle.