Uproar
The guards at the ground road to Canterlot have a boring, boring job. Most things enter Canterlot either by train or by air, and as thus the main thing at the main gate is young fillies going out to play, or young couples going out to have picnics, or the occasional mob of admirers chasing a terrified ex-supermodel out of the city.
It’s more common than you might think. The mob of admirers, that is, ex-supermodels are rarer.
The guards at the gate, both unicorns, perked up a bit when said ex-supermodel approached the gate alone. She must have ditched the mob, they figured to themselves, but she still looked very upset.
“Excuse me,” She said softly, “I hate to bug you gentlemen, but, um, I was attacked and I need to report it.”
“Are you sure it was with intent to harm?” One of the guards asked, “As opposed to accidental? Mobs of admirers can get rowdy, but rarely mean harm.”
The yellow pegasus slowly shook her head. “No, it was after I hid from them. And given that they tried to push me into their carriage, and then attacked me when I wouldn’t, I’m pretty sure that it falls under intent to harm.”
“Attempted foalnapping, then,” The guard said and pulled out a notepad and pencil. “Could you describe your assailants?”
“Oh, I could, yes, if you want me to, but I don’t think that would be very helpful, I’m afraid.” She stuttered hesitantly.
The guard raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”
“Well, they were changelings, so-”
The guard immediately perked up, as did his partner on the other side of the gate. “What? You were attacked and almost foalnapped by changelings?”
The other guard frowned. “This is bad. The changelings must be very bold if they think they can attack and kidnap one of the elements of harmony.”
The first guard’s stoic face slipped. “What? You’re an element of harmony?”
Fluttershy fidgeted and hid behind her mane. “Um… yes. I’m Fluttershy, it’s, um, nice to meet you.”
“Wait,” The other guard said, “We don’t know that she’s Fluttershy. If there’s Changelings in the area, we need to check.”
The first guard shook his head. “Why would a changeling tell us there’s changelings in the area?”
“I don’t know!” The second guard said, “But protocol is protocol. She needs to be scanned.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I-it’s okay. I don’t mind. I know you have to do what’s best for, you know, everyone.”
The pair of guards cast the spell together. Fluttershy felt it as it moved over her skin and through the feathers on her wings. She remembered what Twilight had said about the spell; it would disrupt a changeling’s magic, forcing them to revert to their true form. After the spell was cast, Fluttershy was still Fluttershy, proving that she was not a changeling.
The guards nodded, and the one with the notebook and pencil flipped to a new page. “If you’ll give me the full account, miss, we will forward the information to other guards throughout the city.”
Fluttershy readied herself. She could only hope she could do this right. “Well… I was on the road to Ponyville, the wooded part, and, um, there was a cart going toward Canterlot. They saw that I was an element of harmony, and said that they wanted to thank me by giving me something out of their cart… but the cart was just full of changelings. And the ponies driving and pulling the cart were changelings, too.”
“How did you escape?” The guard asked.
Fluttershy resisted the urge to panic. Was she allowed to tell the guards about Ohm? Right now, Ohm was hiding at the tree line, so it was safe, but the Pokémon were supposed to be a secret, right? “Uh… well, a friend of mine drove them off.”
The guard looked around. Fluttershy was alone. “Friend?” He asked, confused.
“Likely a bear,” The other guard concluded. “Fluttershy talks to animals, remember? Didn’t you pay attention in the briefing?”
“My wife was in labor that day,” The first guard grumbled, “Give me a break.”
“Um, congratulations, if you don’t mind me saying so, but… I need to tell the princess,” Fluttershy squeaked out.
The guard nodded. “Of course. Go right on in. I trust you know the way?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy said with a nod, “Thank you.”
She hoped that Ohm wouldn’t get bored waiting for her. She’d just have to hurry.
Iron Jaw was very proud of a few things in his life. One of them was getting promoted to captain of the guard after Shining Armor was promoted to governor. As the captain of the guard, his tactical and strategic prowess were put to the challenge. Similarly challenged were his skills with logistics and politics. Especially politics. Especially when Celestia herself came along and began to ask him to keep secrets.
Especially when the secrets were completely insane.
“Princess,” He said slowly, “I’m not a slow pony, but I want to make sure I have this clear. There is someone in Equestria who was, in short, yanked from her home by some kind of odd magic. Okay, allright, odder things have happened. There’s some creatures that came through with her with bizarre magical powers. Now, that’s when I get worried. Now every report that comes across my desk, I’m going to have to look for little odd things in it, compare it to this list of descriptions you gave me, try to figure out if any of the events could be caused by the creatures, try to deal with it while this person comes by to pick up the creature... and last but not least, you want this whole thing to happen quietly.”
“Well, not totally quietly,” Celestia spoke to clarify, “More just muted. Rumors are allright as long as they don’t hurt anyone, but we don’t want the entire nation to know what’s going on. As long as no one makes a big deal of this, there shouldn’t be any issue… of course, that means that if there is a big deal, you’re going to have to convince people it’s not a big deal in a way that implies it really isn’t a big deal, not that it’s a big deal that we just want to keep from looking like a big deal. Does that make sense?”
Iron Jaw sighed. “After picking it apart in my head, sure. My main worry is what is on this list… or more exactly, what is not on it. We have crude descriptions of the critters, but I’m willing to bet that if I used these to sketch them, I would get it wrong. In addition, it makes mention of their powers, but no really in-depth information. Do we have to worry about these things taking down buildings? Could they take on a guard regiment if they want to? The first thing I need is information!”
Celestia frowned. “I understand your situation, Iron Jaw, but I can’t supply much more. I don’t know how much information can be shared at this point, and don’t have much more information myself. I should be getting more soon, but I’m not making any promises about whether any of it will be useful to you, much less available.”
Iron Jaw sighed. “This smells like international politics.”
Celestia shook her head. “This isn’t international politics.”
“It’s either international politics or whatever it is that Discord is classified under,” Iron Jaw retorted, “Shining Armor just had that listed as ‘EoH Shenanigans,’ which isn’t exactly descriptive.”
“Yes, that’s more accurate. It’s EoH Shenanigans,” Celestia said with a nod. She was about to carry on carry on when there was a knock on the door to the office.
Celestia used her magic to open the door, and there was Iron Jaw’s assistant, Pinpoint. While a good bit lither than most guard recruits, Pinpoint did the essential job of organization, summarization, and using certain magics that the earth pony captain could not. “A message came in marked emergency,” He explained, the envelope held in his sand blue magic. Celestia handed the note to Iron Jaw, who ripped it open and read it.
“A changeling has been spotted outside the city. By an element of harmony. Isn’t that just peachy?”
Celestia frowned. “Which one? Where is she now?”
“Fluttershy,” Iron Jaw replied, “And she’s likely on her way here now, apparently looking for you.”
Celestia immediately turned around and rushed from the office, flying out the first open window she came to. Pinpoint watched Celestia go (She was shockingly graceful for her size, and that had always perplexed him), and then saluted to the captain. “Awaiting orders, sir.”
Iron Jaw sighed. “Make sure that every guard in the city knows… and no civilians do. If this gets out, you know good and well that the populous might panic.”
Fluttershy galloped through the town as much as she could bring herself to. Sometimes she came across a thick crowd, and of course she didn’t gallop then because that would have been terribly rude. She sometimes took flight to get a bit closer to the castle, but she knew that the guards didn’t like it when people flew too close to the castle; everyone was supposed to go in through the gates out of respect.
Her competing worries of being fast and being nice were silenced as Celestia descended from above, her wings momentarily casting a shadow over Fluttershy. Celestia landed gracefully, almost immediately bending down to examine Fluttershy, concern on her face. “Are you hurt?” the princess asked, “I heard that you were attacked.”
“I’m fine,” Fluttershy replied, smiling at the upset princess, and then looked around and barely whispered, “Ohm protected me. It stayed in the forest, because-oh!” Fluttershy cut herself off as a pair of Pegasi guards landed nearby.
“Princess!” One said, stepping forward. “Are you all right? We heard-”
“I am fine,” The princess interrupted him, “As is Fluttershy. I will escort her back to Ponyville.”
The pegasus guard nodded. “Of course. We will prepare a chariot.”
Celestia hid a frown. Whether these guards were loyal or changelings, Celestia didn’t want to use the chariot. She shook her head, doing her best to leave no question in the guards’ minds. “No. I will escort her myself.” Her horn glowed, and a rainbow of colors washed over her and Fluttershy. The guards stepped back, never having seen this before. As the lights faded, neither Celestia nor Fluttershy was left there. The guards shared a look.
“You know… sometimes I forget that she’s a powerful magical alicorn princess. And then she does things like that.”
Celestia and Fluttershy re-appeared in the forest outside of Canterlot. Fluttershy looked around, trying to get her bearings after that. “I didn’t know you could teleport, Princess,” she said. That hadn’t been anything like Twilight’s teleports. “It was… very pretty. And very smooth.”
“Yes, thank you,” Celestia said absentmindedly. She looked around. “Now we need to find Ohm fast, I can teleport you two to Ponyville and you can tell Twilight. Ohm? It’s Celestia!”
“Come on out, Ohm,” Fluttershy said, looking around. This should be the right area, or close enough. “Princess Celestia is here. She has a fast way for us to get home!”
After a minute, Ohm hovered down from above. He eyed the pair of ponies, waiting to see what this method was.
Celestia nodded. “Excellent, now it will only be a moment…” and again, a rainbow flowed from Celestia’s horn and she and her guests disappeared.
Scarcely a few minutes later, Fluttershy hurried into Ponyville, having left Ohm at her home with Cica. Fluttershy was more interested in delivering that important message. She was looking for Twilight, or Liz, because she wanted to tell Liz that Ohm was back, and that she sent him to her cottage, but she had to tell Twilight about the changelings… oh no, Liz didn’t know anything about changelings, did she? A changeling cloud walk right up to Liz and she wouldn’t know any better. She obviously had to tell Liz about changelings, too… and Twilight likely wanted to know that Ohm was back so-
“Fluttershy!” The pegasus almost jumped at the sound of her name. She barely had time to look for the source before Rainbow Dash landed in front of her. “You’re back! Great! Where’s the new pokething?”
“Um,” Fluttershy said while arranging her thoughts. This wasn’t what she was expecting. “Ohm is back at my cottage, but did nurse Redheart say it was okay for you to fly? Even if she did, you should be taking it easy.”
“I am!” Rainbow Dash said with a huff, frowning grumpily. “That’s why I haven’t caught Liz yet!”
Fluttershy was taken aback by this. “Catch Liz? Why… why would you need to catch Liz?”
“Uh… I don’t really know,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a shrug, “You’d have to ask Applejack, but one way or the other she’s running around like a madpony! She’s fast, too. If you see her, let Twilight know okay? But I’m betting that I’ll find her first!” Rainbow Dash then leapt into the air, flying off.
“Rain… Rainbow Dash! Where is Twilight?” Fluttershy called after her friend, but it quickly became obvious that Rainbow couldn’t hear her. She couldn’t really blame Rainbow Dash, she’d been grounded for a few days and was no doubt eager to fly as much as she could. Fluttershy galloped further into town, and for all she understood Rainbow Dash’s energy, though, she couldn’t help but be upset by this. First changelings and now Liz is running around all over the place? Maybe… oh no, what if the changelings had caused that? Fluttershy would realize that was silly later, but at the moment it seemed possible.
Fluttershy was so busy running all over the place that she almost ran into Applejack. The pair came to a screeching halt in time, and Applejack smiled. “Fluttershy! It’s good to see you. Have you seen Liz around?”
“No, and Rainbow Dash said that she was running around all over the place. Why?”
“Oh,” Applejack shifted back and forth a bit, scanning the street. “Well… Liz had some of Granny Smith’s special blend coffee. It made her awake, active, and once the caffeine kicked in she said that she was going for a walk and zipped off faster than you could say... most anything, really. That would have been okay, but then Twilight showed up and said that she needed to talk to Liz. I told her that Liz had run off, and she went off to find her saying it was urgent. Well, of course I was going to help, and I told Rainbow, who went off, and I think she’s begun to take it as a challenge. You know how she is.”
Fluttershy nodded, relieved. That was good. It meant that there wasn’t anything bad going on just… something weird. “Thank Celestia,” Fluttershy said with a sigh, “I was worried. Um, do you know where Twilight is right now?”
“Sorry, hun,” Applejack said with a shake of her head, “I don’t rightly know. Maybe try Whitetail Woods. Since Liz is an outdoorsy pony, Twilight thought she might go for a walk there.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy said with a nod. “I’ll look over that way. Thank you, Applejack!” Fluttershy rushed off. This was good, right? She could get to Whitetail Woods fast enough. She would find Twilight, and then together they would find Liz, and everything would be perfect!
It was immediately after that moment that Liz ran into Fluttershy, knocking both into the ground. Liz got up immediately, and looked around. When she saw Fluttershy she immediately helped the poor pony up. “I’m so sorry!” Liz said to Fluttershy. “I wasn’t looking where I was going and I have so much energy right now I didn’t even see you! You’re not hurt, are you? I’m really sorry. You’re really light.”
Fluttershy shook her head a bit, clearing it before she recognized the earth pony. “Oh, Liz! Yes, I’m fine. It’s okay-“
“I mean, REALLY light. I expected you to be heavier. I mean, you are heavy, but not all that heavy. I guess it’s kind of like how flying types are really light? Apperantly they have hollow bones or something, but I’m not really sure how that works.”
“Um, maybe? Ohm is ba-”
“OHM! You brought back Ohm? Great! Where is he?”
“Oh, it’s at my cottage, but do you know where-”
“Great! Thank you so much, Fluttershy! Thank you so so much! I’m going to go see him!”
“Um, yes, but I need to tell you…” Liz was already gone, having almost left skid marks on the ground. It was like Pinkie Pie on too much sugar, but with less vibrating and talking to fast to be understood… so, even less hyper than normal Pinkie Pie, but with a similar attention span.
Fluttershy sighed. This was so much more difficult than it should be.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight called from behind her. Fluttershy turned around to see the purple alicorn, finally calming down a bit. Of course, she let Twilight speak first, “Fluttershy, have you seen Liz? I need to talk to her about her home, and she’s hyped up on caffeine, so she’s being difficult and all.”
Fluttershy nodded, smiling. “Yes, she is headed to my cottage because Ohm is there.”
“Excellent!” Twilight, said, rearing up on her rear legs in excitement, “I can teleport there and beat her to it! Can’t escape forever!” and with a flash, Twilight was gone.
Fluttershy stared at the place where the princess had been, smile wiped from her face, before raising her voice for the first time all week. “But I need to talk to you!” Fluttershy turned around, and then launched back into a gallop, headed around town for her own cabin. Why was it so hard to tell anyone something so important? It was like anytime she really wanted to say something no one would listen to her.
As she approached her home, she saw the group of ponies. All of her friends were there, as were both Pokémon. Liz was on Ohm’s back, looking down at the other ponies. Cica was there and hovering near Rarity, who had a large white box under one hoof. Applejack was trying to talk to Liz, and so was Twilight, but about two different things, and Liz didn’t seem to be paying attention to them, but to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was talking to Liz, apparently about Ohm, and Pinkie was just... there, being very happy about something or other and Fluttershy was sure she’d she happy for her friend if she could only hear what was going on! She walked forward and tried to say what she had to say.
“Excuse me, everyone, but I need to tell Twilight…” she couldn’t even hear her own voice. “I need to tell Twilight that…” Her herself talk? She could barely hear herself think! “It’s very important, Princess Celestia said that…” They didn’t hear her. They couldn’t hear her at all! She got closer into the circle. “Everyone, this is very important-” At that point in time, Pinkie Pie began screaming and jumping up and down. It was all just so frustrating. All the noise around her home, ponies here that she loves of course but right now they’re all being noisy all over the place and she couldn’t hear anything of what anyone was saying and she had to say,
“I WAS ATTACKED BY CHANGELINGS!”
Dead silence. Every eye was on Fluttershy. Everypony was suddenly paying attention to her. Pinkie Pie was stopped in mid-air, not letting anything about her landing disrupt the air. Fluttershy immediately regretted screaming, now everypony was completely focused on her.
“But, um, Ohm saved me, so… it’s okay.”
Suddenly, ponies converged around the shy Pegasus, to comfort her and make sure she was unhurt. Fluttershy tried to explain that she was fine, yes, completely unhurt, and that Celestia knew. Only Liz was left out of the sudden herd, looking on in confusion. “Hey,” she said carefully, “What’s a changeling?”
All the other ponies looked at her, and there was a moment of awkward silence. Twilight stepped forward, taking the explanation upon herself. “Changelings are a kind of creature that can change their shape into ponies, looking like anyone they want to.”
“So they’re like Dittos?” Liz extrapolated. After a minute of blank looks, Liz explained, “Ditto is a kind of Pokemon that can transform into other Pokemon, taking their appearance and abilities. I heard there was another kind of Pokemon that can do something similar with illusions, but I’m not familiar with it.”
“Do Dittos eat love?” Twilight asked, “Because changelings do.”
Liz blinked. “Uh… no. I am not aware of any Pokemon that eats love. I think there was one that eats anger? But that one doesn’t shapeshift… anyway, how can you tell whether a pony is actually a changeling?”
“You can’t,” Rarity said, stepping away from the group. “That’s why they’re so devious. We’ve made a spell that will reveal them if they’re changed into another pony, but that’s the only way. Well… assuming they’re actually decent actors. Their queen was… less than stellar in her own role.”
“Less than stellar my hoof, the queen wasn’t even trying,” Twilight grumped. “Let’s cast that spell, to make sure that no one here is a changeling.” Twilight’s horn glowed, and light covered everypony present. Nopony was revealed as a changeling. Twilight nodded as the light faded. “Simple enough! Now we can discuss this rationally, and calmly. Fluttershy, please tell us what happened.”
Fluttershy relayed the tale, getting chased out of the city by admirers, starting down the path, meeting the ponies along the path… who turned out to be changelings. Ohm’s fighting them off. Going back to Canterlot, letting the guards know, telling about Celestia’s teleporting, Liz listened as well as she could but she was missing something.
“These sound like bad news,” Liz said, peering down from her perch on Ohm’s back. She was very proud of him, having protected Fluttershy, but right now something else was bugging her. She thought a minute, trying to get through the coffee-induced hyperactivity fog in her mind. “You have experience with these? They sound like something you have a lot of experience with. Now that I think about it, I think Celestia mentioned them. Something about a wedding?”
Twilight snorted, not fond of the memories of that event. “They replaced the bride, brainwashed the groom, who is my brother, zapped the princess, and almost conquered Canterlot. Thankfully, I found the real bride, reunited her with her beloved, and together they used the power of love to vanquish the changeling army.”
Liz raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t deny it, apart from the bit about brainwashing, that sounded like the plot to a children’s book. “Seriously?”
“Yeah!” Rainbow dash said, “they rose into the air, horns crossing, and released a HUGE shockwave that blew the entire army out of the city! Way cool.”
Liz blinked. Shockwaves are not typically caused by love in children’s books. “I guess there are certain perks to having friendship be magic. And you’re worried about them trying again?”
“Or something,” Twilight said, “I’m not sure. There’s no way to know, not really. The most we can do right now is think of what to do about this… situation. We can’t just go around checking ponies. That might cause a panic.”
“So what are we going to do?” Applejack asked. “We can’t do nothing. We’ve got to do something.”
“But what can we do?” Twilight asked, clearly upset about it herself, “Whatever we can do, we want to keep the element of surprise. We don’t want the changelings to just leave town, that doesn’t solve anything. I’m going to wait for the princesses’ to make a plan, or at least send me a message. They have far more experience with this.”
Liz hmmed. “There isn’t a way to tell changelings from normal ponies when they’re disguised? What was that spell you cast?”
“It was a disruption spell,” Twilight explained, “It would force the changeling back into its natural state. Simple detection spells don’t work; changeling shape shifting is made to be undetectable. In theory, sometimes changelings forget details, like cutie marks or eye colors, but that information is only in legends from books I’ve read.”
“So, they smell right when shapeshifted?” Liz asked, “And they have the right body temperature?”
Twilight blinked. “I… don’t know. I’ll have to check. What gives you that idea?”
“Pokemon have a lower base body temperature than humans, so the few Pokemon that can change to look like humans can be told apart that way, and apart from a few special cases I don’t think any Pokemon can change their scent. Even if a ditto looks like a Charizard, it apparently still smells like a ditto.”
“What’s a Charizard?” Fluttershy asked, raising her voice enough that Liz could hear.
“Uh, it’s like a big, orange, winged lizard that breathes fire.”
“There are dragon Pokemon?”
“Yeah, there are. Charizard isn’t one of them, though.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
1,073 users online
24,608 hits today, 1,960,719 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Nice to see an update I had almost forgotten about this it didn't show up on my fave list until I clicked view all.
So what's next? A ghost-type? A non-biological? A rock-type? Has to be something non-animal like for the Frankenstein shtick to make sense. I'm guessing either a Ghost or Rock-type considering Liz already has one non-biological but I wouldn't rule out another one. Then there's the possibilty that the Professor's just crazy, to some extenet. People and ponies tend to freak out when confronted with creatues that change the definition of "life" Like if it's a slime based 'mon like Grimer, or something along the lines of Castform, more plasmic than corporal, which again brings us back to Ghost-Types.
P.S. Glad you're not dead
Wonder if its going to turn out that Pokemon can easily detect Changlings due to the Ditto sence, but does Zorua etc beat that because of its specfic illusions?
I still think Charizard shouldve been bigger, to make up for Pidgys having to fly the trainer around.
I was hoping that Liz would have a Ditto on her team, but I'm sure she would have mentioned when she was talking about them if she did.
That tidbit about Changelings being detectable to enhanced senses though... there are a number of Pokemon who have abilities like that, so the chances of Liz having one or 2 who can do so are pretty high right?
As long as she can find them that is. Or maybe...they'll find her?
As usual, I'm not going to post spoilers, and I'm quite flattered by all the attention! It's good to be back!
4325941
I use the a headcannon for that which is a mix of the anime Charizard and 'The person who first filled out the Pokedex was a REALLY bad estimator.'
Fun fact: using the numbers listed in the Pokedex, Wailord's density is lower than that of air. I did some calculations on that at some point, which made a few assumptions, yes, but as far as I can tell, for that height and weight? A Wailord's natural habitat is the upper stratosphere.
4327294
Ah, so as the Muppets declare it, Wailords In Spaaaace?
I like it so far. I'll keep an eye on this story.
4327294
Well it is called the float whale and is flying in its animation...
So Twilight cast a changeling reveal spell hmmm? What about her being a changeling. She could even have covered for other Element Bearer's who were changelings. Of course she did just teleport so maybe she is Twilight.
I think someone has a Ditto, if that professor's line is anything to go by. You know the mad scientists when they finally get a experiment to work and they shout that line. It's either the undead, or blob monsters.
THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN MODIFIED.
I removed the stupid teaser bit at the end. It was like the worst kind of teaser. You know what I mean. Vague, supplied unneeded hype, poor quality foreshadowing, it was sickening.
Still not happy with the end of this chapter, but at least it doesn't fill me with an urge to facepalm whenever I think about it.
Unless it Mega Evolves a certain way, but that's a temporary thing...