Weed 'em Out
"Ya gonna tell us why we're here now, Twilight?" Applejack demanded, having been interrupted whilst doing important farm work. She stood beside Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity, none of which appeared amused.
They were all at the park, in the midst of a field of daisies. Twilight chose here, so if the changeling attempted an escape, it would be easier to chase down, and in the event it made a successful escape, she'd be able to see the direction it left.
Twilight paced back and forth in front of them, squinting down at the ground as she thought. "Give me a moment."
Exasperated sighs emanated from her friends.
"Twilight, dear, you've been 'given a moment' for almost half an hour. Perhaps you've got something you'd like to tell us?" Rarity said, fluffing her mane and glaring at the sun.
Rainbow fluttered into the air, earning a gaze from Twilight. "Yeah, like why the heck we're here? That'd be a good start."
Twilight shook her head and turned to them. "Okay, so the reason I've gathered you all here today is because... Well..." She fell silent and scratched the back of her head nervously.
"Well?" Applejack prodded, slightly irritated.
Twilight took a deep breath. "One of you is a changeling."
Nopony said a word for a solid minute.
"What?" Rainbow asked incredulously. "Is your head screwed on all the way?"
Rarity stepped forward and placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Twilight, dear, whatever gave you such a preposterous idea?"
"And from the blue, I might add," Applejack chimed in, chewing a piece of hay.
Twilight sighed heavily. "I received word from Princess Celestia herself that one of my friends is a changeling, and has been since the wedding in Canterlot. There's no reason to be alarmed... Unless, of course, you're a changeling."
"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy spoke up for the first time, plodding at the ground nervously. "How are you going to figure out who's the changeling?"
Twilight stepped up to Fluttershy and studied her face closely, inciting the shy pegasus to retract her head and smile awkwardly. "You sound more nervous than usual, Fluttershy. Why is that?"
Rainbow landed and rolled her eyes. "Pfft. That's not abnormal behavior, Twilight. And you know it."
Twilight continued studying the now curled up yellow mare. "Hmmmmm... I suppose you're right... But there's only one way to find out!" Twilight took Fluttershy's hoof and led her to the edge of the woods. The others trailed along behind.
"What in Celestia's green earth are ya doin', Twi?" Applejack asked, spiting the hay out.
Twilight dragged the whimpering mare in front of the woods and let go of her. "If this is the real Fluttershy, she'll be able to call wild animals from the forest!" Twilight grinned deviously at the pony in question. "So, do it."
Fluttershy nodded rapidly and stood up on shaky legs, facing the dark woods before her. "U-um... A-a-animals... Uh... Unite?" She dropped to the ground and covered her head. "I don't do good under pressure!" she cried loudly.
Twilight smiled assuringly. "There's nothing to worry about. If you're really Fluttershy, something will show up."
"Twilight," Applejack slid up beside her. "These methods of yers ain't gonna be as unorthodox as they seem, are they?"
The unicorn stared into the woods, ignoring the country pony's question.
It didn't take long for the sound of something barreling out of the woods to capture the ponys' attention.
Twilight grinned. "See? Nothing to worry - "
A huge bear came lumbering out of the forest - and straight at Twilight.
Her heart sank. "Oh, dear..." She spun around and ran, yelling along the way. The bear chased her about while the others stood around with a variety of looks, including confused, humorous, and frightened. "It's her! It's her!" Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs.
Rainbow walked up to the cowering Fluttershy. "Uh, you gonna call that bear off, or..."
Twilight paced in front her friends yet again, thinking of a different approach.
"So, Twilight, what's the deal? Are you going to do this with each of us?" Rainbow questioned her, laying back in the grass with her hind legs crossed and her forelegs behind her head. The others sat or stood around
"I have to figure out who's the changeling. So why don't you come here, Rainbow Dash." Twilight stood in front of the lounging mare.
"I am here, Twilight."
She sighed. "Stand up please."
Rainbow growled and hopped up, facing her friend and pouting. "Now what?"
Twilight smiled innocently. "Nothing bad... But the real Rainbow is the best flier I know. So let's go ahead and see who's faster, shall we?"
Rainbow gawked at her. "You're kidding, right?"
"Uhhhh, I don't think she is, Dashie..." Pinkie answered for her.
Twilight grinned back at Rainbow, blinking.
"Weird... But okay, if you say so." She flew up to cloud level, and Twilight joined her.
"Okay," Twilight said. "Here's the plan. We fly and dodge all the clouds and fly back here. Whoever's fastest wins. If I win, you're clearly not Rainbow Dash. Got it?"
"This is going to be easy. Just letting you know."
"Go Dashie!" Pinkie exclaimed from the ground, hopping up and down.
Twilight and Rainbow assumed the position on a cloud, preparing to take off.
"Ready?" Twilight asked her friend, cocking an eyebrow and smirking.
"Born ready."
"Then go!" Twilight shouted, and in a flurry of wings and clouds, they were off.
Much to the surprise of both Twilight and her friends, she was ahead of Rainbow.
She glanced back and laughed. "Ha! I'm winning!"
Rainbow whizzed past her, the wind disturbance causing the purple pony to lose control and come careening to the earth, screaming incessantly until she landed face first into the ground, buried under the dirt.
Her friends ran over to see if she was okay.
"Twilight! I knew this was a bad idea!"
"For real?"
"Oh, my stars!"
Twilight groaned and crawled from the pit she'd made in her crash landing. Rainbow landed nearby and casually trotted over. "Well, I won. I guess I'm not a changeling, huh?"
Twilight glared up at her and spit out a wad of grassy dirt.
Not much later, she and Rarity sat at a table adorned with fabric and tools for making clothing.
"Twilight, dear, why must we do this?"
Twilight began digging around on the table. "If you can't make a better dress than me, you'd have to be a changeling. Simple as that."
Applejack moved forward from the others, who sat on a nearby bench. "Now, Twilight, suppose ya figure out she's not a changeling. Ya gonna do this crazy stuff fer each of us?"
Twilight spun around in her seat. "Yes! I am! Because it's the only way!" She turned back to the table. "Now, let's get started, Rarity."
"If that's what you wish, dear..."
Twilight began construction of her dress, whilst Rarity, directly across from her, began her own. Nearly two hours later, they finished.
The others were all asleep when Twilight excitedly announced they had finished and were ready to compare dresses.
Applejack yawned. "This had better be good..."
Rarity held up a magnificent article of clothing, worthy of a showroom. The others oohed and ahhed at the sight.
Twilight held up hers - and silence.
Rarity came up beside her friend. "Uh, Twilight, darling... All you did was sow together two squares of cloth and tape sequins to it..."
Twilight blushed and hugged it to her chest. "Well, maybe I like it...!"
Rainbow whistled innocently. "That wasn't part of the deal..." she said in singsong.
Rarity cleared her throat. "Now, as much as I'd hate to agree with her, Rainbow Dash is right. We were supposed to create beautiful dresses that everypony adores, not just ourselves..."
"And yours is butt ugly," Rainbow Dash blurted, earning a reprimanding elbow from Applejack.
Twilight tossed it to the side. "So what? Rarity's isn't that much better!"
Everypony looked away, falling silent.
Twilight stood up from the bench and stomped away. "Ugh!"
Applejack and Twilight now stood before a large cluster of trees, full of ripe, heavy apples. Buckets sat beneath them, ready to be filled with the delicious fruits.
"Are ya sure ya wanna do this, Twilight? You've never been one fer hard, physical labor," Applejack said rather honestly, not making eye contact with her.
"Today she has," Rainbow joked from afar, with the other friends around her.
Twilight stubbornly stared ahead. "Yes, I'm quite sure this is what I want to do."
"It's gettin' dark, though..." Applejack glanced over at the setting sun.
"Than let's hurry up and do this!" Twilight growled. "We kick and fill the buckets. If I win, you're not Applejack. Let's go." She ran forward and kicked a tree with both hind legs, inciting only a few apples to fall. Applejack ran over, kicking a tree the same way, and overfilling the bucket.
Twilight kicked the same tree she just had, over and over, frustrated. Only one apple fell after ten kicks.
"That's, uh... Pretty bad, Twilight..." Applejack commented quietly, already finished filling her buckets. She stood beside the overly angry unicorn as she continued bucking the tree senselessly.
No apples fell.
"Pinkie, you and I will have a bake off!" Twilight exclaimed, twitching and grinning strangely.
The sun had set, and the moon was full overhead, but here they all were, sitting at a picnic table about to watch a sweets cook off.
Rainbow leaned over to Fluttershy and whispered in her ear: "Twilight has lost her marbles."
Fluttershy nodded.
"Okie dokie, Twilight. This'll be fun!" Pinkie licked her lips at all the baking foods splayed across the table.
"No!" Twilight said. "Not fun! This is a test to see if you're evil!" She huffed and shook with fury. "Let's begin!"
Pinkie cocked her head to the side, looking concerned. "Um... Okay!" She grabbed her materials and got to mixing.
Meanwhile, on Twilight's side, batter for something slightly gross splattered everywhere, and the friends backed away a bit.
"Done!" Pinkie said happily a few minutes later, showing off her delectable cupcakes.
"Done!" Twilight shrieked, showing off... Piles of goop.
"What they hay is that?" Rainbow gagged, covering her nose. "Smells like Spikes bed."
"Hey!" Spike groused.
Twilight brought the plate of unidentifiable substance to each of her friends and offered them some, to which they politely declined.
"What's the matter? They're delicious!" Twilight yelled, shoving the plate in their faces.
"We're not even sure what 'it' is..." Fluttershy said softly, sticking her tongue out at the smell and sight of the stuff on the plate.
Twilight growled and threw the plate aside. "Here I thought we could do this easily, but noooooo... Look at the difficulty!" She pushed past her friends and over to Spike, who sat in the grass nearby. "Spike! Hand me my saddlebag! I'm going home!"
Freaked out, he grabbed it and brought it too her. She tore it from his claws, causing it to open and spill the contents, which included her Starswirl the Bearded beard.
"Ewwww! What the heck is that doing in my bag? Get that gross thing out of here!" She kicked it aside, tossing her saddlebag on.
Spike picked the beard up, looking confused. "Twilight - this is Starswirl the Beardeds' beard... Your favorite pony in history... I thought you liked it?"
Applejack took a few steps forward. "Yeah, surely you'd recognize it when ya saw it."
Twilight laughed nervously. "Bahaha! Of course! It slipped my mind! Silly me!" She snatched it from Spike and shoved it in the bag.
Applejack scratched her chin thoughtfully. "Twilight wouldn't forget about her favorite pony. Or his beard. Somethin' ain't right..." She narrowed her eyes at Twilight, who backed away, looking back and forth at the others as they closed in on her, also looking suspicious.
"Uh... It's been a long day?" she said innocently, grinning widely.
They all glared at her.
"Look! A distraction!" Twilight pointed off to the left, and the ponies all followed her pointing hoof. When they looked back, Twilight was flying away, and reverted into the changeling form.
Rainbow stepped up beside Applejack, who, amongst the others, was half surprised and confused. "Uhhhh... Shouldn't we go after it? The princess probably really is looking for this changeling."
Applejack sighed. "Nah... Let's go find Twilight. She'll know what to do. 'Sides, it's gettin' late an' I'm sure that thing ain't gonna cause no trouble around here for a mighty while."
"Good idea," Rainbow agreed. They all turned and walked away.
Twilight was later found bound and gagged in her own closet, in a magic-resistant box.
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I knew Twilight was acting strange, dumb strange, but strange nonetheless.
7498923
Your comment spoils it.
Can you put a spoiler over your comment so it doesn't spoil it for anyone else, please?
7498923
7498969
Both of these comments spoil it!
7498979
If he puts a spoil over it, mine wont.
thattardisblue.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/my-whole-brain-just-went-what-the-hell.gif?w=529
This was beautifully written, and had an interesting and quite original plot,
since most changeling stories don't have Twilight as the changelingGREAT WORK!!!If I had been the changeling, I'd have killed Twilight. Just saying.
I thought the changeling was going to be Spike. I thought he was acting odd, but the real changeling was a pleasant surprise.
7498979 This is completely appropriate.
7499877
Yes.
7499685
Then my plan worked.
7499455
For the sake of keeping this E rated, what has been done was necessary.
7499390
Thank you very much!
7500253
Good point. A flub on Celestia's part.
Ha!
7500259
Actually, having read the ending, it comes across a Fridge Brilliance in hindsight. The real Twilight should have caught that. As she didn't, Celestia now suspects that something is off. ...if she didn't before, that is. The whole point may very well have been to trick the Changeling into revealing herself without getting her own hooves dirty. And as we all know, Celestia can be quite the **** when she's trying to teach a lesson.
Works every time.
She was in there since the Canterlot Wedding. I hope she at least got watered (as in something to drink) and a good book to kill time.
At first I even suspected Spike to be the Changeling.
Say, will there be a sequel or ist that supposed to be a One-Shot?
7503117
Depends on how successful this one goes. I may just keep it a one-shot.
Well, and here I thought it was Spike. It would've been the perfect disguise! Nopony would've expected it, and it'd make sense of some of the inconsistencies in Spike's aptitude/ineptitude when written by different show-writers. ;-D
(Hasn't read it yet) I'm betting it's Pinkie. Would explain how she can do some of the things she can.
8102528
Two reasons:
1. Diversion of attention,
2. Framing an innocent pony so nopony grew suspicious of her.
8102565
It was much longer, in-depth mission.
8488452
The author has proved you wrong, or they are lying. One can never take anyone's word for granted, after all. Triptych!Applejack is interesting in that way. Honesty, yet a secret keeper by birth. But that is another story, separate from this universe. It is irrelevant at this moment in time.
8488488 8488762
Odd. Given the author's original reply to that post, it would have made sense that the spoiler note about timeline placement was added later. Otherwise the author should have called me out on missing it. As it stood, I clearly left this fic giving Celestia too much credit. See my reply to the author's initial reply. Either the author added that footnote after I left and forgot that it was edited in, or s/he was deliberately mocking me last year, and I choose to believe faulty memory over malicious intent in this case.
8488996
Alright. Goodbye.
8488997
Goodnight. *Goes back to watching DB Super*
8489066
*Goes back to reading diaper fics and chatting on Discord*
I actually sort of called it..
This is like a game of among us...
Applejack was not The Imposter
Rainbow Dash was not The Imposter
Fluttershy was not The Imposter
Pinkie Pie was not The Imposter
Rarity was not The Imposter
Twilight Sparkle was The Imposter
then a distraction appeared
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvpTs7t43x4
To be honest, fake Twilight's ideas were so stupid (Why wouldn't the replacements have at least some of the skills of the pony they replaced? Why are most of her tests comparing the rest of the mane 6 to her, when she lacks most of the skills they have?) that it was obviously her.
Sugoma
So... the changelings bright idea... was to spend the day trying to find itself?
When only two (that we know of) ponies knew there was a changeling.