Exploring Equestria

by A_guy_from_Earth

10. First Bad Signs

“Pinkie, if you keep jumping like this, you’ll hit a cloud with your head sooner or later,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Sorry. I can’t help myself. I’m sooooo excited!” Pinkie Pie chirped in the answer. “I just can’t forget how amazing the festival was!”
“Ah understand ya, Pinkie,” smiled Applejack. “It was really incredible!”
“Undoubtedly!” nodded Rarity. “I’ve never seen such gorgeous flower garlands! And there were so many of them! And those flower accessories were just magnificent! It’s a pity that they are so ephemeral…”
“And I really liked the parade,” said Fluttershy. “The carts were so beautiful! They were just like real flowerbeds! Well, except that they were on wheels.”
“Yes!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. “And the firework! I couldn’t even imagine that it is even possible to give them such shapes!”
“Yeah. They turned whole sky into a garden!” said Rainbow Dash. “That was awesome!”
“I’m glad that you liked it so much,” said Twilight, addressing her friends.
“We must thank princesses Celestia and Luna,” said Applejack.
“I agree.”
“Oh, and what did you like?” Pinkie Pie addressed to Twilight.
“Me? Well… Everything was wonderful, but… I think that I liked the parade the most.”
“And you, Spike?”
“Huh? Oh, the snacks.”
“Spike!” Twilight said in very dissatisfied voice.
“What? They looked good and were really tasty!”

Twilight sighed.

“And from the main program of the festival?” asked Applejack.
“Well, the fireworks. Oh, I wish I could do even the easiest such things with my fire breath…” he sighed and turned his head. “Oh, look! We’re met!” he pointed.

Bearers of the Elements looked at that direction. They were near the castle already. Two big figures of sentries stood at the entrance – Edez and Kor guarded the doors.

Friends smiled and went to them.

“Greetings, ladies, young master. How was your trip?” asked Edez.
“Guys, we told you not to be so formal,” said Twilight.
“Yeah,” nodded Spike. “It makes us feel awkward.”
“Sorry. It’s just a habit.”
“Indeed,” confirmed Kor. “So, how was it?”
“Oh, it was just amazing! Incredible! Wonderful!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie and started to gibber. “We took part in the opening ceremony, where we were just showered with flowers, then we shower other with flowers, we admired flowers, smelled flowers, even wore flowers! We congratulated ponies of Mountain Meadow, they congratulated us, we thanked them and took part in every event! The flower parade, flower games, carnival… And then the awesomest firework at the evening! And…”
“Um, Pinkie, I think it’s better to wait a little with the detailed story,” Rainbow Dash interrupted her, looking at absolutely confused faces of Kor and Edez.
“Guys? Are ya all right?” asked Applejack.
“Eh? Oh, excuse us,” apologized Edez.
“We didn’t want to offend you,” added Kor.
“Oh, that’s okay!” answered Pinkie Pie. “Such things happen sometimes. Even with my friends.”
“We see.”
“And how were you?” wondered Twilight. “Did anything happen when we were absent?”
“Well, except for one little incident everything was as usual,” answered Edez.
“Yes. The castle is safe, clean and protected,” confirmed Kor.
“What was that incident?” asked Spike.
“An attempt to penetrate the castle.”
“What? Penetration?” exclaimed Twilight, Spike, Applejack and Rarity.
“Yes, but don’t worry: it was prevented.”
“And who tried to penetrate?” wondered Rainbow Dash.
“Well, they looked quite unusual,” said Edez.
“We have never seen such creatures before,” added Kor.
“What creatures?” sincerely surprised all hosts of the castle.
“Their body shapes were those of ordinary ponies, but they had curved horns, blue eyes without irises and pupils, membranous wings…”
“They all had fangs?” asked Rainbow Dash, who started to guess.
“Yes.”
“They had holes in their hooves?” added Applejack.
“Ehm, yes.”
“And all of them were dark gray?” added Rarity.
“Yeah.”

Spike and Pinkie Pie froze.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Fluttershy and Rarity.
“Nonononononononono!” worried Twilight.
“Changelings!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
“Changelings? So that’s how they are called…” uttered researchers.
“You saw them here?” said Twilight in trembling voice.
“Yes. They tried to sneak in using magic cover, but we could detect them and chase away,” said Edez.
“Wait, you chase them away?” surprised Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
“Yeah. Luckily, there were only twenty eight of them, and we all fought,” said Kor.
“Yes. Not only me, Erő and Zicht, but all other our friends helped to defend the castle,” added Edez.
“Girls too?” surprised Spike.
“Oh yes.”
“Even Calma?” surprised Fluttershy.
“Thanks to her these changelings now will be afraid of scoops for the rest of their lives.”
“And Didinga?” surprised Rarity.
“You know, her kick can be as strong as ours.”
“Wow.”
“Oh yes. She has very strong hind legs.”
“You just… walloped all the changelings?” Twilight was taken aback.
“Well, yes. We gave them thorough dusting.”
“According to Zicht’s observations, we didn’t break their bones, but we provided them impressive amount of bruises and hematomas,” answered Edez.
“And cracks in their shells,” added Kor.
“Holy smoke!” exclaimed Applejack.
“You are monsters, guys,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Really,” added Spike.
“We had to protect the castle. It was our duty!” said Edez.
“Um, but walloping them so much is too harsh,” uttered Fluttershy.
“Well, at least we left them possibility to get away on their own hooves. Oh! Erő, show them your souvenir!”
“What souvenir?”

Kor lowered his gaze, sighed and… took a piece of membranous wing from under his armor.

“Is that?..”
“Yes. It is. A piece of changelings’ wing.”
“And… pardon me, but how did ya get it?” wondered Applejack.
“I… bit it off.”
“What?”
“How could you even come up with this?” exclaimed Twilight.
“When it comes to a really tough fight, there’s no time for rules. You have to act. Yes, I was taught martial arts in my Academy, but in reality it turns out that you have to use any possible ways, act like a street fighter. I was a street fighter when I was a teenager, and since those times I learned that my trump are strong jaws and sharp teeth. So I tend to use them during the fights. Because of this I once was almost excluded from the Academy, but still… It’s just a habit!”
“Well… It’s an odd and dangerous habit.”
“I know. But I can’t help myself.”
“Pardon me…” gently intervened Rarity. “But… could you tell whose is this?”
“I bit it off from their leader.”
“Ehm… Tall one with awry horn and green hair?” asked Rainbow Dash to precise.
“Yes. Is it something wrong with this?”

Hosts of the castle didn’t answer. For some seconds they were absolutely still, but then Spike and Pinkie Pie silently folded up, Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, Fluttershy uttered “Oh my…”, other just remained stunned.

“Bwahahahaha!!! You bit off queen Chrysalis’ wing! Hahahaha!” laughed Rainbow Dash. “Wow!”
“Nice. Just nice!” uttered Spike through laughter.
“That was severe,” said Applejack.
“And harsh,” added Rarity.
“But awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “Now these changelings know that it is dangerous to mess with us!”
“Undoubtedly,” nodded researchers.
“Well, that was… something,” said Twilight. “But there is one thing that puzzling me: how could you detect them?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. “Especially considering the fact that they, as you said, were disguised.”
“Oh, thank Erő and Zicht for this,” answered Edez.
“You detected them? How?”
“Honestly, by smell,” answered Kor.
“By smell?”
“Yeah. Me and Zicht have heightened sense of smell, so we are able to detect relatively faint scents. And when these guys were approaching, we sensed something really odd. The smell was very weak, it was almost at the limit of our possibilities, but we detected it. It was like a mix of smells of swamp and burning. It was strange because they didn’t look like they were in a swamp or a workshop recently. It alerted us, we stopped them, started to see into and then we had the conflict which you have heard about already.”
“Wow. You guys really are amazing!” exclaimed Twilight.
“Yeah! You are awesome!” added Rainbow Dash.
“You are true guards!” added Rarity.
“Thank you, but it’s not worth it. We’ve been just doing our job,” said Edez.
“Yes,” nodded Kor.
“Oh, don’t underestimate your merits!” said Rarity.
“Thank you once again.”
“Hey, why do we stand here?” suddenly exclaimed Edez. “Come on in! Our girls prepared surprise for you!”
“Really?” Pinkie’s eyes lit up.
“Oh yeah. You gonna love it.”

So guards opened the doors and with gestures invited the friends. They nodded in gratitude, smiled and went in.

And some time later, in an unfrequented part of Canterlot, another event was about to happen.

It was the most usual office: cabinets along the walls, five tables, arranged in a rectangle and covered with papers, folders, pens, pencils, rulers, clips and other stationery, couple of windows with green because of potted plants windowsills, and different junk everywhere. And workers of that office did typical things for afternoon: got bored and whiled away their time. Tea green stallion with coyote brown mane and tail tried to find how sharp his broken horn was, peach pegasus mare with titian mane in a light blue T-shirt read a newspaper, another mare, state gray unicorn with dark tan mane, was building some kind of blockhouse of pencils, tall and broad cobalt pegasus with indigo tail and mane was just sleeping and even snored a bit. Typical picture, but all this happened behind the door that has the following plate: “Hidden Path, Grace, Razor Edge, Dim Silhouette, Cloudbreaker. Special Service of Equestria, Second Department.”

Time passed. Peach mare almost finished reading all the articles, unicorn stallion found that shatter of his horn can easily pierce fifteen layers of paper, state gray unicorn had reached the second floor of the construction. And at this very moment the doors opened, and tall smoke earth pony with stormcloud mane, who wore a coat and held a folder in his hoof, entered.

“Razor! Dim! Grace! CB! I have something for you,” he said loudly.
“Finally!” exclaimed Grace and put the newspaper aside.
“Huh?” Cloudbreaker woke up and sharply headed up.
“You’ve got something interesting, Hid?” grinned Razor Edge and removed his hooves from the horn.
“I hope that’s not even close to what we had been doing last week,” Dim Silhouette stopped the construction.
“Oh, you’ll like this, my friends,” grinned Hidden Path. “Now we have something really big.”
“So what is it?” asked Razor Edge.
“I’ve got piece of news from Ponyville. Remember, some weeks ago we were reported that princess Twilight Sparkle got servants and guards for her new castle?”
“Those nine europonians? Of course we remember!” answered Dim Silhouette.
“Well, it turns out so that it’s absolutely unclear who they are.”
“What do you mean?” surprised Cloudbreaker.
“They are not who they say they are.”
“Then are from Eastern Kingdoms, not Europonia?”
“No. Eh, the thing is that there is absolutely no clue to who they are. Our watchers in Ponyville kept an eye on them and… Well, they look like ponies and, moreover, like ordinary europonians: they spoke their languages, keep their traditions. They behave just like typical ponies, but some of their acts are very suspicious.”
“Suspicious? Maybe those were just some their customs, alien and strange for us?” supposed Dim Silhouette.
“No. They know a lot about customs of other nations, and what they had seen wasn’t even close to these.”
“And do they all show such behavior?” wondered Razor Edge.
“Watchers say that yes.”
“It can be just their little fads,” said Grace.
“Oh, it doesn’t look like fads. It’s something much more serious.”
“Okay. Then what are the examples?” asked Razor Edge.
“Yeah,” nodded Cloudbreaker. “Give a proof of such statements!”
“Well, our colleagues from Ponyville provided examples for each one. For instance, that arsenic giant, one of princess Twilight’s new guards. He can show real superequine abilities.”
“Like what?” asked Grace.
“Once he was ordered to deliver a message from the castle to one of the local farms, Sweet Apple Acres. Road between those two places takes about seventeen minutes of walk and approximately ten minutes of run. He delivered the message in a half of a minute.”
“Heh, that’s really fast.”
“Indeed. I’d say that it’s just incredible. No pony can run so fast.”
“Why? What about bearer of the Element of laughter? I heard that she is very nimble pony.”
“Yes, she is. But even she can’t compete with this guy. How did he do it? He’s an earth pony, he has no wings to fly and he can’t teleport. There’s just no answer.”
“Well, that’s quite a puzzle, but I don’t think that it is so suspicious. Maybe he’s just well-trained?” supposed Grace.
“Can be, can be. But it’s just a guess, there is no evidence.”
“Well, and what about others?” wondered Cloudbreaker.
“Let’s see,” Hidden Path started to look through the files. “Well, his colleague, another princess’ guard. Here are some recent news: a group of changelings tried to penetrate the castle, but they were detected and driven away. That brown giant was the one who detected them. Hid did it by smell.”
“What?”
“Yes. As he said. By smell.”
“This guy must has bloodhound’s sense of smell in that case,” uttered Razor Edge.
“That’s what I’m talking about! Superequine abilities. Like they are absolutely another species, masked as ponies.”
“Oh, it can’t be that… bad!” exclaimed Cloudbreaker.
“Oh, my friend, it’s only the beginning,” sighed Hidden Path. “Well, the third guard, who serves at night. His senses significantly surpass average level of ponies. For example, he doesn’t need eyes to walk and not hit the objects.”
“Bat ponies can do such trick too,” objected Dim Silhouette. “They’re able for echolocation.”
“But he isn’t a bat pony! He’s an earth pony, like all other workers of the castle. And, moreover, that’s not his only trick. He also was able to detect changelings by smell.”
“You know, such soldier would be incredibly useful for our guard,” Grace rubbed her chin.
“It’s so, but that’s strange and even frightening. And mares there are also strange. For instance, that turquoise one, the cook. As one of our watchers report, during her day off she went to local park. There she decided to swim in the river. She went into the water, dived in and… didn’t emerge!”
“Didn’t emerge?”
“Yes! Watcher had been waiting for half of an hour, and she didn’t appear anywhere along the river!”
“You’re right. That’s strange,” said Razor Edge.
“And maids there seem to be sources of, without belittling, devilry. Just look! There was one episode. One market seller was rude to that blond short one, she threatened him and went away. And in a couple of hours counter of that seller was destroyed by mighty poltergeist!”
“Well, I’ve heard that poltergeist is usually connected with some certain ponies…” spelled Dim Silhouette.
“I also heard about this, but I’ve never heard about controlled poltergeist. And that one seemed to be controlled. And what about the second maid… Well, once she had a conflict with two young stallions, who were rude to her. They quarreled and then went in different directions. But in an hour one of those stallions with tears on his eyes began to beg other to kill him because he’s an idiot and didn’t stop until he dozed off. Another one approached a tree and started to hit it with his head. And he continued to do this for ten minutes – until he felt down unconscious.”
“Wow.”
“Yes. Also, some of those guys show weird taste. That tall silver mare, for example, was once seen eating rocks in the local park.”
“Eating rocks? Well, I know that some ponies eat chalk, and some zebra tribes consider clay as a delicacy…” spelled Grace.
“Well, that’s the problem: she ate granite, spars and sandstones.”
“Ehm… Yeah, it is a problem.”
“And second example: another castle worker, the green stallion, once came in the park, dug a hole in the ground, waited until it got filled with water and then drank that mud!”
“What? Ew!” girls winced.
“Why?” exclaimed Cloudbreaker.
“I don’t know. But that’s the fact: he drank mud, she ate rocks.”
“Well, you were right, this is suspicious,” said Razor Edge.
“And about the last one from that team, the humpbacked coral stallion. There was one difficult situation in Appleloosa: buffaloes couldn’t leave the town because their traditional path was blocked by landslide. That stallion solved this problem by creating an explosive device that just wiped the blockage out. And that blockage was huge. We don’t know technologies of explosive devices that could be powerful enough to destroy such masses of rocks and sand. But he seemed to know them perfectly. He said that is was one of europonian developments, explosive device on energy crystals.”
“Hm… These crystals are very powerful. They contain a lot of energy,” said Razor Edge. “If it all will be released at one moment, you get a powerful explosion.”
“You see…” spelled Hidden Path. “I’m familiar with europonian military technologies. Yes, they really developed bombs based on energy crystals. But none of them was that powerful. The explosion what that stallion made surpasses typical explosion of energy crystal in times! There was something more than just energy from crystals. But what exactly – I don’t know.”

After this there was a silence for some seconds.

“Well, that’s a mystery,” said Grace.
“Yeah,” nodded Cloudbreaker.
“So this is our task now?” asked Dim Silhouette.

Hidden Path gave a nod.

“Eh, it gonna be difficult.”
“You don’t say…” uttered Razor Edge.
“So, what do we do now?” Cloudbreaker looked at Hidden Path.
“Well, now it is our main aim. We have to solve this mystery and find out who these strange nine are. And there is only one way to do it. My friends, get ready. We are moving to Ponyville…”

Bluve was returning to the castle kitchen. Twilight and Spike were going to work until midnight today, so they asked for an extra bite after the supper. Well, cook up some sandwiches was matter of a couple of minutes. Only questions were what to put in them and what juice would be better to bring in addition. Bluve was choosing the juice when she walked past the balcony. She habitually looked there – from its aperture one could see a wonderful view of the town and hills and mountains that surrounded it – and noticed that four her friends, Affi, Karin, Max and Sheim, were standing there. They had been discussing something actively. Bluve got interested and went to them.

“Hey, guys! What’s happening?” she wondered.
“Oh, it’s you, Bluve,” Karin sighed with relief. “Oh, nothing extraordinary.”
“We just have some new neighbors,” said Affi and gently pointed to one of the nearest buildings. There was small group of ponies – two pegasi, two unicorns and one earth pony – who carried things from their cart in the house.
“Oh. That’s… nice,” Bluve uttered.
“You know, I’ve never seen them in town before,” said Sheim.
“Well, it’s most likely that they are new here,” said Karin. “Probably moved from some big city, decided to enjoy the flavor of small town.”
“Agree,” nodded Affi. “But only for some time. Judging be their luggage, they came here on vacation.”
“I don’t know about you, but for some reason I don’t like them,” said Max. “They look… suspicious. I have some associations with our group.”
“I’m not able to scan them completely from here,” spelled Affi. “Indeed, I feel some specific moments, like desire to remain unnoticed and strong wish to observe everything around, but I don’t sense anything so threatening in them for us. I see just ponies who came here to stay and have some rest in peace and quiet.”
“Yeah. They look just like nice group of old friends,” said Sheim.
“And some of them are quite handsome…” dreamily smiled Bluve.
“Which one?” wondered Karin.
“That gray stallion in coat. He looks… so mysterious!”
“Oh, Bluve…” sighed Affi. “You got very addicted to women’s novels.”
“Yeah,” nodded Max. “How many of them have you already read?”
“Well, quite a lot. I admit that my little weakness.”
“But, you know, these girls are pretty. Especially that one in T-shirt,” Sheim grinned.
“Oh, and you too!” sighed Affi.
“And, by the way, where is Oma? I haven’t seen her since afternoon,” wondered Bluve.
“Oh, that’s because our Zet finally succeeded and coaxed her to go to a restaurant and… spend some more time together after this,” answered Sheim.
“Yep. They won’t return soon,” added Max.
“Well, I guess we’ve seen enough,” said Karin, looking at how unicorns brought the last bags in the house. “Now there’s nothing to look at.”
“Agree.”
“Let’s go then,” said Max, and they left the balcony.

Author's Note:

Guys from Second Department: http://a-guy-from-earth.deviantart.com/art/Second-Department-577819848