For science - Book two

by Znegil

10 Bad decision

Bon Bon was surprised when we entered and Lyra tackled her down with a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be?", she asked as she was able to breathe again.

"Because a shapeshifter replaced her yesterday.", Cadence explained to her.

Bon Bon was quite confused and looked around to see if she was joking. "Wait, this isn't a joke? The Lyra I kissed goodbye this morning was something else?" She shuddered and sat down.

"You only kissed, right?", Lyra asked very alarmed.

"I swear we only kissed, nothing else happened. You acted strange this morning... it acted strange, very unlike you."

"How so?", I asked.

"Well for starters unlike Lyra she didn't grab my flank at every possible moment."

"I'm very passionate.", Lyra defended herself with a grin. "I wonder how anyone else can resist touching this beautiful rump."

Bon Bon face got crimson red. After a few seconds, she coughed and continued. "Anyway, she also seemed to be quite confused since she didn't know a lot of stuff... which makes sense now that I know what I was talking to."

"Wait!", Lyra shouted suddenly and we all looked at her. "How do we know she isn't this shapeshifter right now?"

There was silence while we all stared at Bon Bon.

"It is a possibility.", Twilight stated.

Bon Bon walked next to Lyra and whispered something in her ear. The aquamarine pony blushed only a moment later, something I had never expected to see.

"No, everything is fine. This is totally Bon Bon."

I smiled at the situation but this was an important point, how could we be sure the creature wasn't among us when we talked to ponies.

"We should have some secret password to be safe from the shapeshifter.", I told them. "A quite normal sentence with a very unusual answer. Something to tell others, once we made sure they are themselves."

"Looks like winter will be here soon.", Lyra said. "Answer: Lemon cake."

"That should work well enough.", I replied.

...

Since it was late already we had decided to hurry home to write a letter to Princess Celestia. I had described in as much detail as possible what had happened and what I had seen. Spike had sent it away and we were now waiting for a response. Twilight had made a cup of tea for Cadence.

There was a knock on the door, curious who came to visit this late I opened it and was surprised to see Celestia.

I just stared at her for a few seconds before I moved to the side to make room for her to enter.

"I have to hear every little detail about the creature you saw.", she said while she entered and didn't waste any time with courtesy.

I was surprised but did as she had asked me. I sat down with her and described every little detail in appearance and behavior I had noticed.

Once I had ended explaining she went silent for a minute, patiently I waited until she spoke up again.

"What you have told me is very alarming.", she said. "You described 'Chrysalis' a changling and an old enemy of mine. We have battled before. I was able to defeat her but she was able to flee. We never had enough contact with changelings to learn much about them, which is why we don't know how to tell apart a pony from a disguised changling. The only thing I learned from my fight ages ago is that they lose their disguise when they get knocked unconscious, but we can't do that to everypony."

"Is there any book I can read about them?", Twilight asked.

"No, only my private notes, we didn't want to scare everypony. We are sure many changelings live among us unnoticed and we have no possibility to reveal them. We were able to ignore that problem since they behaved peacefully and we hadn't a case like this one for about a hundred years. To see them getting active again, Chrysalis in special deeply worries me. It means all this time of peace could have been about just gathering information about us and growing stronger. Last time Chrysalis underestimated my powers and directly attack me, she won't make this mistake again. I fear an attack could be imminent."

Her horn lid up and a scroll appeared on the table. "Here are my notes for you to study them." She turned towards her niece. "But first I have to talk with Cadence."

"You know how much I love you.", Celestia started. "I want you to know that I'm so sorry for this and I'm only doing it because I care so much about you."

Cadence was quite confused. "What are you talking about. Could you please tell me..."

That's when Celestia punched her in the face and knocked her out.

The rest of us took a step back in surprise. "What was that about?", Twilight screamed.

"There was a time window when she was alone in the woods where Chrysalis went. I had to be sure she wasn't replaced and was stored away in some cave. I will heal her right away." Her horn lid up and a beam connected to Cadence head.

"Why didn't you just ask her something only she could know, like we did with Bon Bon?", I shouted.

She looked absolutely flabbergasted. "You haven't told me that story. I make bad decisions under pressure! That's why I let others handle tricky situations, like Twilight handled Nightmare Moon."

"Wait.", Twilight said and looked confused. "Does that mean you haven't been magically sealed away or something like that back then? You could have helped me anytime?!"

The Celestia's eyes darted from side to side. "Well... Oh look, I think Cadence is waking up." She started to shake the pink princess which got a moan out of her.

"What happened? Why did you punch me?"

"Because I love you and I was worried you could have been replaced and captured somewhere. Totally reasonable, right?"

"I guess..."

Twilight looked at her mentor and I felt a surprising amount of disappointment through our connection.

Comments

[harts fire]

well road apples this changes every thing.
this story ark is going to get vary interesting as it plays out.

[Texus]

The Celestia's eyes darted from side to side. "Well... Oh look, I think Cadence is waking up." She started to shake the pink princess which got a moan out of her.

It is not like I would hate her, but I love it if someone is talking about what Celestia is doing "can be" wrong too.

Ich hasse Celestia nicht wirklich, aber ich liebe es wenn Jemand erwähnt das etwas was sie tut auch als schlechte Entscheidung oder falsch angesehen werden kann wenn mann sich mal davon entfernt das es eine Kindershow sein sollte. Dann kommt es nur noch drauf an wie man die Situation selbst sieht.

Good job.

[BurningLance]

lol Celestia makes bad decision when under pressure.

[Znegil]

8061017 I needed a good explanation why she lets others handle all important stuff, the show doesn't, so I had to do my own explanation.

Celestia braucht mehr Fehler, sie ist viel zu perfekt um real zu wirken.

[Znegil]

8060944 I sure hope so. I hope everything falls in place as I want to, but there are still a lot of blank spaces to fill.

[Znegil]

8061176 ... there was this one time I set the moon on fire by accident when I moved the sun to close to it to save some time...

[Hawkx1]

I lol'ed all the way from Celestia punching her in the face till the end and her explanations answers the NMM, Crystal Empire, and Tirek (especially Tirek). Also, scratch Cadence being switched off the list

[Znegil]

8062884 Your comment was responsible for giving me the idea for the punch
When the show itself doesn't explain Celestia's behavior I do it instead