III. Einsatz
Solitary Locust
III. The Inquisitor
Normally, Rainbow Dash liked rainstorms. She liked to fly in them; not to the degree that her coworker Raindrops did, but enough that it was fun to do sometimes. Specifically, she liked to fly in storms that weren’t shooting lightning at her and dropping hail on her. Besides, thunderstorms were a lot more fun to wait out now that she’d started reading on a regular basis. So, logically, she should have been at home, safely anchored in the sky and reading Daring Do by the low light of her rainbow lamps, catching only the periphery of the gale as it swiped Ponyville—but she was in the dead center of it instead, laying flat against the ground, shivering and coated with mud, facing lightning strikes that could fry her to a crisp and winds even her unusually powerful wings couldn't fight against forever.
More thunder cracked directly overhead, accompanied by a flash that made Rainbow cringe. It was because of the lightning that she had to crawl through the field—she'd almost been fried while flying over it, and only the fact that she had been flying lower than the nearest tree at the time had kept her alive. Little pieces of hail pelted her head, back, and wings, stinging her skin and making her groan miserably. The icy rain had left her shivering and chilled to the point where she could hardly feel her extremities. She wanted nothing more than to find somewhere warm and dry to hide for a little while.
Rainbow resumed crawling through the muddy field she’d landed in, keeping herself as low to the ground as possible. It took her almost half an hour to slog through the mud to the other side of the open field. The soaked pegasus took a moment and made a halfhearted attempt to preen her filth-crusted feathers—with all the cold slime stuck to her, there was little chance that she would fly anyway—before heading off into the woods. Because the rain was so torrential, even the forest floor had been reduced to mud puddles in some places, despite the cover of trees.
She had some idea of where she was, having practiced stunts in the field she'd just come from in the past. The mare also had a very good idea of her orientation, since all pegasi possessed an innate internal compass that helped them navigate the often identical skies (the exception to this being Derpy, who, for some reason, couldn't tell north from south). If she headed to the east, she would end up in the Everfree. If she went west, she would walk right back into the open fields and probably get hit by lightning. South would lead her through an invading patch of the Everfree, and then into Sweet Apple Acres' orchards. North led to Fluttershy's cottage.
A frown crossed her face.
Of all the negative qualities Rainbow possessed (lazy, stubborn, insensitive, impulsive, and so on), flaky was not one of them. If she said she would do something, it would be done, no matter what it took. As much as she wanted to go somewhere warm and dry, like Applejack’s incredibly cozy guest room, she couldn’t just lay down and sleep like that knowing somepony she cared about was in danger. Twilight was her friend, and that meant Rainbow would go to whatever lengths were necessary in order to ensure that she came out safe and unharmed by her captor.
And that made her think... that stupid bucking changeling was responsible for all this. It, and the mayor. The whole storm could easily have been avoided if the weather team had been given adequate time to get rid of the clouds. Mayor Mare, however, seemed to think that pegasi were capable of dismantling storms as quickly as they put them together, and then re-assembling them all over again. Consequently, the weather team had been given no warning whatsoever about the need for a clear sky until about ten in the morning that day, when the mayor held a meeting with Ponyville’s weather committee.
The day before, Rainbow and the rest of the weather pegasi had hastily moved every cloud in the sky over next to the border of the Everfree Forest to prepare for the changeling's presentation. Bucking clouds out of the sky was one thing, and perhaps they could done something less dangerous with the clouds if they’ had more time to work, or at least some better options to choose from. Putting clouds full of pegasus magic on the edge of the Everfree, where they could be affected by the Everfree’s own strange magical interference, was a recipe for trouble that had cooked up a rather ugly result.
The sky lit up for a split second as more lightning flashed across it, followed almost instantaneously by a rumbling boom. Rainbow wasn't particularly startled by it, since being a weather pegasus meant working around thunder on a regular basis. Unfortunately, it distracted her from watching where she was going, so she was taken completely by surprise when her hoof suddenly sank through the sodden ground and ended up bearing all of her weight at an awkward angle. Although Rainbow was a lot lighter than most ponies, she also had the thin, fragile frame of a pegasus whose line had never once interbred with those of the more physically durable tribes, so it hurt nonetheless.
"Damn it!" the blue mare spat out, shuddering. "Oh, Faust Creator, I hate this stupid storm... and I hate stupid bureaucratic earth pony committees... and I hate changelings! Twilight, where the hell are you?"
Once she’d calmed down somewhat, though she was still swearing to herself under her breath, Rainbow gingerly extracted her hoof from the flooded burrow (or whatever it was... Oh, damn; Fluttershy was going to be so worried about her animals) and sat down heavily in the mud to examine her injured foreleg. After the initial burst when she had stepped in the hole, the pain had died down to a more manageable level, and there was no sign that anything had been twisted or broken.
Testing her leg resulted in a bit of pain, but she was able to take a step and stay upright. Encouraged, she took a few more. After limping a bit, Rainbow managed to get back into a relatively normal rhythm of steps through the forest, relieved that she hadn’t seriously damaged her leg beyond the mild pain she still felt. The cerulean pegasus didn’t like walking nearly as much as flying, but there was very little room to fly in the forest, and if she couldn’t walk, she was stuck in the rain and—
She suddenly slipped in the mud and landed on her back with a loud thunk, all the air knocked out of her. Her dazed magenta eyes remained fixed on the sky for a moment, blinking rapidly when big raindrops and the occasional chunk of hail fell on her face. Coughing and brushing the foul-smelling mud off herself with her wings, Rainbow finally struggled back to her hooves.
Could a changeling even survive in conditions like these? Rainbow was starting to doubt whether searching the storm wasn't just a complete waste of her time. Maybe it would be a better idea to get inside before she put herself out of commission by getting pneumonia or seriously hurting herself. Maybe Applejack would lend her a spare bed for the rest of the night.
Half of Rainbow practically demanded that she keep looking, while another part produced increasingly scary images of what could potentially happen to her if she stayed outside in the storm. Burns, crashes, body parts mangled, head split open, wings torn right off... the possibilities were endless. If Rainbow ended up crashing and knocking herself unconscious, who was to say the changeling couldn’t come upon her and take her prisoner as well, assuming she wasn’t already dead? Then her friends would have two friends to save, and a changeling wearing her skin hiding among them.
"Ughhh..." Rainbow mumbled to herself, almost drowned out by distant thunder. There was no way she was going to let a changeling put her friends in danger by pretending to be her—especially not a changeling that had already had the gall to hurt one of them.
She was now faced with the challenge of finding a way out of the storm that wouldn’t lead her through an electrical death trap. If she kept going in the direction she was going, she would end up in the Everfree, which was a whole other bottle of thunder that Rainbow knew she wasn’t prepared to deal with. If she turned to the south, she’d eventually reach Sweet Apple Acres, but Rainbow didn’t fancy having to crawl through more mud and trek through the uneven woods in between.
The other option was going to Fluttershy’s house. Rainbow knew it wasn’t far from where she was at the moment; maybe a ten or fifteen minute walk at her current pace. There, she could wait out the worst of the storm in comfort, instead of shivering on the ground, sopping wet and her feathers weighed down by disgusting, smelly mud. She was certain Fluttershy would be all right with her borrowing the cottage for a few hours—it was Fluttershy, for Hurricane’s sake; she regularly used her house as a hotel for stray animals.
The cerulean pegasus trudged slowly through the muddy forest, fighting more than a bit of guilt. Though the rationalization of keeping her friends back in Ponyville safe helped, Rainbow still felt as though she ought to be out there, searching for her the friend who wasn't in Ponyville. She was still wrestling with this feeling when she came upon Fluttershy's cottage, the old house barely visible behind all the rain and beneath the moon-blocking storm clouds.
It had rained so much that the brook ringing the hill like a moat had overflowed, turning the dirt beside it into a small quagmire. Trying to muck through it was such a struggle that Rainbow impulsively decided to use her wings again, which in turn resulted in her light body being blown off-course before she could get herself oriented to fight against the wind. Fortunately, Rainbow was experienced when it came to riding out strong winds, and was able to make a wobbly landing in the water overflowing out of the brook.
Tucking her wings against her sides again, she got back onto her hooves, resigned to making her way one step at a time toward the cottage. To her surprise, it actually didn’t take as long as she had thought it would for her to reach the front door; mostly because there wasn’t half as much mud on the other side of the little bridge.
Not really expecting to get in easily due to Fluttershy’s fortifications of her cottage—not many ponies tried to dragon-proof their homes, after all, unless they were yellow and pink and had three butterflies for a cutie mark—Rainbow idly jiggled the doorknob with her wing while she considered how she might get through. She was surprised to find that the door was unlocked, as were the latches on the other side.
Really gotta talk to Fluttershy about home safety... not that I’m complaining, she thought as she pushed the door open.
Inside, Rainbow set about making a fire in Fluttershy’s fireplace as she listened to the howling wind outside and fought Angel Bunny off. Angel seemed to want her to do something for him, but the she wasn’t going to do anything more until she'd wiped some of the mud off her body and dried herself.
The small fire's warmth was unbelievably refreshing after slogging through freezing rain for who knew how long. Rainbow sat down on the floor in front of it, unwilling to abuse Fluttershy’s furniture despite (or, rather, because of) her knowledge that the kind mare would forgive her for it and offer about a dozen reasons why it was all right. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay in the warmth very long, because she had to get some of the mud off herself before it dried.
“Ugh. I’m gonna hafta preen for weeks to get all this out,” Rainbow mumbled disgustedly as she examined her spread wings, which were coated with mud. Some of it had already started to harden into a shell around her feathers, sticking them together. “Hey Angel, go get me some paper towels or somethin’.”
The rabbit shook his head and pointed at the bathroom with both paws. Rainbow Dash sighed resignedly.
“Some help you are.”
She stood up and trotted over to the bathroom door, assuming he meant there were paper towels in the bathroom. Come to think of it, it would actually be better for her to clean herself in the bathroom—Rainbow wasn’t exactly on the cutting edge of order and cleanliness most of the time, but she wasn’t a total slob. Maybe she could borrow Fluttershy’s bathtub for fifteen minutes.
Rainbow got about three steps through the doorway, and then she stopped, frowning deeply. There was something all over Fluttershy’s floor that she was pretty sure ought not to have been there in the first place. It was a pool of bright green that looked to have once been liquid, though now it was dried and clotted into a stain on the floorboards. Discarded items lay near the stain: some tangled, green-smeared bandages, some plastic wrapping, and a cloth, also smeared with green.
Hey, she thought to herself suddenly, don’t changelings have green blood?
Whatever her grade school report cards had implied, and occasionally stated outright through rather unflattering comments from her teachers, Rainbow Dash wasn't a stupid mare. She quickly put two and two together: there was changeling blood all over the floor, and that meant the changeling had been in Fluttershy’s house.
Oh. That’’s why the door was unlocked. Huh. Can’t believe I didn’t think of that bef—
Rainbow spun around as the implications caught up with her, half-expecting there to be a pitch-black alien shape sneaking up on her. She went over to the towel rack and removed both the towel and the bar from it. The bar was just a cheap piece of plastic, but it was a better weapon than nothing at all. Rainbow proceeded to (figuratively) tear Fluttershy’s cottage apart from top to bottom in search of the changeling; an activity made somewhat difficult by Angel’s incessant harassment. In the end, Rainbow found nothing except a lot of animals in the cottage, and managed to ruin Fluttershy’s towel by wiping herself down with it as she searched. It wasn’t that she’d normally use her friends’ things so carelessly, but she didn’t want to flood any of the rooms by making a raincloud and washing herself with it, and promised herself that she’d buy Fluttershy a new towel when she got the chance.
The prismatic pegasus shuddered as she thought about what might have happened if her friend had been home when the changeling broke in. Fluttershy’s animals would have defended her to the last, but even with Angel leading the charge, and the attacker injured, they wouldn’t have been a match for a monster that could use magic and had a hardened exoskeleton instead of skin. Then again, it had looked pretty banged-up when it finally teleported out of the town square...
For the first time, Rainbow actually thought about what the blood on the floor meant beyond that she wasn’t alone. There wasn’t really that much of it, but for the changeling to still be bleeding after such a long time meant it must have been hurt badly when it made its escape. It must have been headed for the Everfree Forest when it passed by the cottage and decided to take a chance to patch itself up.
If the changeling was hurt, it would probably be moving slowly. Maybe the storm had made travel impossible for a seriously injured animal. And that meant if Rainbow hurried, there was a chance she might be able to head it off before it got too far into the forest, or even in at all, since she had a reasonably good knowledge of the land and was (after all) the fastest pony in Equestria.
Quickly, she finished cleaning herself off and put out the fire. Then she stepped outside and turned to, once again, face the howling storm. Her earlier dejection had been replaced with excitement and enthusiasm, and she felt like she was brimming with energy again. She figured it must have been one of those thrill-of-the-hunt things, like some of her action novels talked about. With a cocky grin momentarily illuminated by a well-timed lightning flash, Rainbow plunged back into the rain, ready to kick some ass.
Twilight would be safe again in no time.
It was a sodden, sullen, exhausted, and thoroughly disgruntled pegasus that made her way out of the Everfree forest later that morning. The storm had not taken kindly to her reappearance, although it had been just decent enough not to break her wings in half. The rain had lightened until it was the equivalent of a normal storm, rather than the near-waterfall it had been during the night, and the hail had stopped entirely. Though the clouds remained, blocking much of the light, they no longer formed a thick black blanket across the sky.
None of this was much comfort to Rainbow. Finding the blood had given her hope that she might come upon the changeling, injured and too weak to fight back, and of course her mind had conjured up fantastic scenarios of violent interrogation to pass the time while she wove her way through the dangerous storm. But by morning, it was clear that she’d missed her chance, and the changeling had escaped into the forest.
She felt... frustrated. Being unable to protect her friends made Rainbow hurt in a way no physical injury ever could. It was bad enough when somepony she cared about was injured and she there to help; now she couldn't even find the friend who needed protecting, and that triggered the old internal monologue that came up whenever she failed: You're not good enough; you're pathetic; you're so weak you can't even help other ponies; you should be grounded forever for being such a failure; why can't you be a better fr—
"Stop," she told herself sharply. "Stop it."
This wasn't the time for self-pity—Twilight was counting on her to do something to help, and sitting around calling herself names in her head wasn't helpful. Rainbow took a deep breath and let it out again, and then she spread her wings. She was even dirtier and more disheveled than she'd been the first time around, caked with so much mud that the individual feathers were hardly discernible anymore. One wing at a time, she tried flaring her feathers, and suppressed a little gasp of discomfort as some of them strained a bit before popping free. After hastily preening herself as best she could, she took off.
Her dark thoughts and memories were unable to keep up with her now that she had the freedom of the air again. The pegasus passed through some thick pegasus-made rainclouds that had broken off from the main storm near the outskirts of Ponyville, soaking her entire body and washing most of the remaining mud off. Feeling a bit better, Rainbow headed into town, having decided around the time she went through her fifth cloud that the best thing to do would be to go find her friends and tell them what she saw in the cottage—starting with Fluttershy.
This plan was almost immediately derailed by her inability to stay focused after going so long without eating or sleeping. As she flew over the town square, she spotted a large carriage and several even larger tents set up in a field not far from the town hall. Rainbow’s curiosity got the better of her and she circled around it a few times. She had to fly low to make out the shapes moving around on the ground, since even she would’ve reluctantly agreed that she had poor eyesight.
They were mostly bulky, muscular white unicorns wearing golden armor; unmistakably Royal Guards from Canterlot. Rainbow guessed that they’d arrived shortly after she left Carousel Boutique the night before, and made a mental note to herself to go back and talk to them after she spoke to her friends.
There had been a tree between a jewelry store and a small restaurant along the path of the wide semicircle Rainbow made to turn back toward Carousel Boutique. Casually looking down, she saw it had fallen into the street, probably blown over by the storm. A couple of ponies were attempting to remove it from the window of the hardware store across the street. Rainbow cringed when she saw that Derpy was one of them. In spite of the feeling tugging her towards Carousel Boutique, she still felt obligated to stop and help, since she knew most of the ponies there as well as Derpy.
“You guys want any help?” she asked, fluttering down beside the earth pony who looked like he was in charge.
“Yeah, that would be great,” replied the earth pony wearily. He aimed a very brief glare at the oblivious Derpy. “All we’ve managed to do is get it further into the store. We asked the guards to help, but they haven’t shown up yet.”
With Rainbow’s help, and in spite of Derpy’s, they got the tree out of the window and turned it sideways along the street so ponies could still pass through. While the other ponies started stripping the branches off, Rainbow ducked between two stores so she could quickly straighten a couple of feathers that were starting to irritate her.
She suddenly got a strong feeling somepony was watching her, and froze with her tongue still pressed against her wing. Upon looking to the right, she discovered two white, golden-armored unicorn stallions not three meters away from her, both looking right at her. Rainbow’s face flushed red, and her wings instantly snapped tightly closed against her sides.
“Hey!” she shouted. “What the hay are you lookin’ at, you creepy featherheads?”
“We were looking for you, actually,” one of the guards said, sounding moderately irritated by her reaction. “Some ponies saw you fly into town from the west.”
Still feeling extremely self-conscious about being watched while she preened—one of the first things she ever learned in flight kindergarten was how to preen, and with that she’d also learned that it was a private activity that you shouldn't watch another pony do—Rainbow stepped back out into the road. “Yeah, I got stuck out in the storm all night.”
One of the guards levitated a large tome and pen out of his saddlebag. “We’re going to need your name.”
“Rainbow Dash,” replied the pegasus. “I can’t believe you haven’t heard of me. Listen, when I was out by the Everfree border, I fou—Hey, hey, hey! Quit checkin’ out my flank!”
“Hold still,” the guard ordered as the pen magically scratched away at the page in front of him. “I’m sketching your cutie mark.”
“The hay do you need that for? Look, there's no way you guys don't know who I am! Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria, Element of Loyalty, triple-sonic-rainboom—ring any bells?”
“We're doing this for our records, not for your ego,” replied the other, scowling a bit at Rainbow. “We’re keeping track of everypony going in or out of Ponyville from today on. In the future, if you want to leave town, you’ll have to clear it with the guard station first. When you come back, you check in. Anypony we can’t find when we need them is considered missing and will be subject to extra scrutiny.”
“What? That’s stupid. How’re ya gonna keep ponies from leaving?” asked Rainbow. She fluttered her wings, then snapped them shut again, when she remembered that the two had just watched her preen herself. “Forget it. I found ch—”
“You’ll be issued identification by the end of the day. If you go to another town without it or without checking in first, or if somepony reports you missing and you’re found elsewhere with no evidence of abduction, you’ll be arrested and charged with fleeing the Royal Guard of Equestria. Do you understand?”
Rainbow just nodded dumbly, too tired and too overwhelmed to put in the thought required to form an objection. “Whatever... Just... Is that all?”
“So, what kept you out so late in such weather?” asked the guard with the book in a casual tone, like Rainbow hadn't spoken at all. “I’d have been inside if it were me.”
“I was out looking for the changeling, over by the Everfree border. The stup... Uh, some ponies made some bad decisions and some stormclouds ended up near the border, and they started shooting lightning everywhere, and I got caught in it. So I stopped at my friend Fluttershy’s cottage for a sec, and I f—”
“And you’ve been doing that since last night. Why didn’t you just come back and wait until the storm died down?”
The question struck a very sensitive nerve for the Element of Loyalty. “‘Cause my friend is out there, and she’s in danger, and apparently I’m the only pony who cares about her enough to go out of my way to look for her! Why are you asking me this crap instead of looking for Twilight, huh? Are you done wasting my time? I know where the changeling went, so will you let me tell you so I can go do something useful?”
“Look, calm down, kid,” said one guard in a voice that suggested he thought Rainbow Dash was insane and dangerous to society. “We’ll be done when we’re done. Now, if you were in—”
“No, screw this,” Rainbow cut in angrily. She opened her wings. “I’m not dealing with you guys right now. What I’m gonna do is go tell my friends that I found changeling blood near the Everfree, and we’ll go find Twilight together, since you obviously don’t give a sack of horseapples about what happens to her.”
She took off without waiting for a response. The liberating feeling of flight filled her again as the world started to rush by—but she only made it a few meters before she was surrounded by an orange glow that stopped her with a sharp jerk and began reeling her back in. Rainbow was pulled right into the mud, and and when she got up again, her wings were forced shut by the unicorn’s magic. She frantically tried to open them again, but the guard had a strong grip—too strong, in fact; his magic was crushing her feathers together in a way that might have been enjoyable under very different circumstances, but was just overloading her senses at the moment.
“H-hey, quit it!” she stammered, panicking. “Let me go! What are you doing?”
“I’ll go get Aurus and an Inquisitor,” said the guard who had been writing in the tome, sounding detached and indifferent. “Are you sure you’ve got this one secured? She’s pretty feisty.”
“Yeah. I got her. Go on. And get a real Inquisitor, not the attache.”
“Dude, let me go!” Rainbow yelled at her assailant as the other unicorn headed off. She stumbled sideways, straining with all her might to open her wings. But they were locked at her sides by his painfully tight grip. “What the buck is the matter with you! Get off my wings, you freakin’ psychopony!”
In older days, and, in fact, until only recently, pegasi lived almost exclusively in the clouds, coming down only occasionally for things like food. Because clouds often moved and broke apart, and because areas of pegasus settlements tended to have large spaces of empty air between them, a pegasus who was unable to open his or her wings was more or less already dead where they stood. Thus, pegasi were genetically programmed to avoid having their wings forced shut at all costs.
Rainbow’s reaction was exceptionally defensive; to a point where her captor had to stick her hooves to the ground to prevent her from bucking him in the chest, and her mouth shut when she began yelling for help. The cerulean mare ended up completely immobile, glaring fearfully at the guard. Driven by her uncomfortable anxiety, her mind began to put together terrifying scenarios in which she was accused of being a changeling and thrown in prison for the rest of her life—or worse, tortured and executed!
“Don’t touch the wings!” Rainbow yelled at the guard who was holding her captive. He had released her muzzle at some point while she was distracted. “I have rights!”
The unicorn looked at her with such bewilderment that she began to feel rather self-conscious about her outburst. “Nopony is going to do anything to your wings.”
“Well, then what are you gonna do?” she pressed, half-trying to cover up her embarrassment over having reacted the way she did.
“You really need to calm down.”
This statement seemed a bit contradictory to Rainbow, because immediately afterward he stuck her mouth shut again. The pegasus continued her futile struggle in silence until she heard hoofsteps coming toward them. Straining, she managed to turn her neck enough to see the newcomers.
Two were Royal Guards, the first being the unicorn who had taken down Rainbow’s information and the second being an almost identical clone—Rainbow had, on occasion, wondered if they actually were clones—who was distinguished by the rank insignias on his armor identifying him as a captain.
Behind them, almost like a dog following its master, there trailed a third unicorn. She was a white-coated, redheaded mare of about Rainbow’s age, wearing a black cloak with a hood on it and the symbol of Celestia's sun across the back. Small and kind of pudgy-looking, she was struggling to keep up with the guards. It was clear from her out-of-breath panting that she was unused to such physical exertion.
“What’s she doing here?” asked the guard binding Rainbow. “I thought we were going to get a real one to do the spell.”
“Inquisitor Leere has the other two in the meeting,” the third stallion explained as his female companion stopped beside him to catch her breath. “Moondancer was the only one available at the camp.”
The other two looked slightly exasperated as they waited for Moondancer to recover. In spite of her discomfort with the current situation, Rainbow would have snickered at this if she could. Moondancer was really out of shape if running that short distance had winded her so badly. She was obviously one of those prissy upper-class Canterlot unicorns who did everything by magic... kind of like Twilight, except that Twilight was an awesome egghead and a good friend as well.
And Twilight was still in danger, and Rainbow needed to help her, and these ponies were getting in her way...
“You... you want me to cast... the spell on her?” puffed Moondancer, jabbing a hoof at Rainbow.
“Do you see any other pegasi around?”
“Well, um, no,” she replied, looking mildly embarrassed with herself. “I just... thought...”
Moondancer trailed away into an awkward silence, then turned and she addressed Rainbow: “Just stand still and... Oh, I shouldn’t have said that. Um, just... uh...”
“Can you get on with it?” one of the guards prodded. “We have other duties we need to perform, you know.”
“I know! I’m new at this! Oh, whatever...” Moondancer’s horn lit up and glowed with magical energy. A sickly-green ball of light formed at the tip and grew to the size of a golf ball, then detached. It floated into Rainbow’s side and vanished.
Rainbow felt a peculiar tingle run through her entire body; the same sensation she’d felt when Twilight cast the changeling-revealing spell on her. She glowed green for a moment, and then returned to normal as the magic faded away and the tingling subsided. Moondancer looked expectantly at the guards.
“You can, ah... you can... let her go now...?” she said uncertainly.
“Is she a changeling or a pony?” demanded one of the guards. “Confirmation would be nice.”
“Right... procedure...” mumbled the white mare. When she next spoke, it was in a droning, almost inaudible monotone. “No, this is not a changeling. This is a pony. You can let her go.”
The magic binding Rainbow’s muzzle and hooves unwound, allowing her to open her mouth and speak at last. “Y’know, if you guys had just told me you all you wanted was to cast that stupid spell on me, I woulda sat and waited, no prob! “And get this crap off my wings!” the incensed pegasus added as she strained against the magical bindings still holding her wings shut.
“We’ll let you go when we’re done,” the magic-doing guard repeated slowly.
Rainbow took a long, deep breath and pressed her hooves against her closed eyes until little stars popped in the darkness. “And what else needs to be done?”
“We need to know about the changeling blood you mentioned.”
“Oh, yeah, the stuff I tried to tell you about, like, ten times,” Rainbow snapped, more irritated than ever. She breathed in and counted to ten; something she’d picked up from Twilight a while back. It would be better to just get the whole thing over with than to keep arguing with these ponies and wasting Twilight’s time. In spite of all this, she couldn’t help glowering at the three guards.
“Like I was trying to tell you before you started acting like total jerks, I went to my friend Fluttershy’s cottage to get out of the storm, and there was green blood all over the floor. An’ I know changelings have green blood. They do have green blood, right? I think it got hurt and went there for I-don’t-know-what.”
The guards looked at each other. “And where is this Buttershy pony?”
“Fluttershy,” Rainbow corrected, darkening even further. “She hasn’t been home since yesterday morning, ‘cuz she was too freaked out to go back there by herself. It didn’t get her. I think it went to her house ‘cause it was hurt, and then it went into the forest to hide.”
“We’ll find out when we speak to her, then,” one of them said.
“Look, dude, if you scare Fluttershy, I’m gonna make you wish you’d never signed up for the Royal Guard.”
“Are you threatening a Royal Guard?” asked the unicorn who’d gone to get the two newer participants in the conversation, leaning in very close and looking quite intimidating all of a sudden. Not one to take being menaced, Rainbow matched this by leaning just as close, until their noses were almost touching.
“Yeah, maybe I—” she began.
“Uh, why don’t I take Rainbow Dash to see Leere, like we’re supposed to do if we find a pony with useful information,” interrupted Moondancer. Her voice was somewhat higher and her words coming out faster than they had been the other times she’d spoken. “Wouldn’t that be better than beating the feathers out of each other over something trivial and irrelevant to the reason we’re here?”
"Be quiet."
“All of you stop acting like foals,” the captain-unicorn added. “Moondancer is right. Inquisitor Leere will want to see her if she found evidence of its escape. You two go back to your rounds. I’ll take her to the command tent.”
Both guards shot Rainbow a disapproving look, clearly annoyed at her earlier rudeness and disrespect and wanting to continue telling her off, but they stepped back and nodded. The orange bindings finally vanished from around Rainbow's wings, but she waited until they were out of sight before she stretched them.
“This Leere guy, he’s gonna help find Twilight, right?” Rainbow Dash asked—with a small but perfectly reasonable (in her opinion) amount of suspicion—as she followed Moondancer and the captain, whose name was apparently Aurus, toward the tents on the edge of town.
“That’s correct,” Moondancer replied. “He’s—well, I suppose you could call him the overseer of the Canterlot Inquisition. It’s his job to find changelings.”
“Oh. And you’re part of the Inquisition, too?”
She nodded; a weak, noncommittal gesture. “Yes. Well, no. Not normally. I’m here on orders... from Princess Celestia. She wanted a fourth unicorn who could cast the changeling spell to come to Ponyville.”
“Oh,” repeated Rainbow. Her questions now answered, she fell silent.
“I’m sorry about how the guards treated you,” said Moondancer suddenly; lamely.
Rainbow just grunted, not looking back at her. She was pretty sure she'd hurt something in her left wing while straining against the guard's magical hold, as it was now very sore and didn't want to be flapped very much.
“They’re not supposed to do that to you unless you’re, uh, a threat to other ponies... I, uh, I can try and get them to apologize later, if you want an apology...” the unicorn offered.
“Just keep them away from me. I don’t want to talk to them again.”
“Okay, I won’t get them to apologize,” she backtracked. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
After grunting again, Rainbow muttered, “I’m fine.”
“Oh, okay. That’s a relief. I’ve read that having your wings bound is a really scary experience for a pegasus. But, obviously, I’ve never actually had it happen to me. Because, uh, I don’t have any wings. But still, I can kind of relate. I had to have my magic suppressed with a limiter once, when I was sick and in the hospital, and it was awful. Oh, but Rainstorm had to have his wings bound after that fight in Cloudsdale. Did you hear about that? I wasn't there, but I read about it in the National Equinerer. Probably nothing like what you went through, though, since I—Oh, I’m rambling, aren’t I...”
“Yeah,” said Rainbow irritably as they came passed the carriage. “Stop it.”
Moondancer was beginning to remind her of Twilight. But there was something about her that made Rainbow dislike her—the pegasus couldn’t really put her hoof on it, but it was definitely there. Maybe it was that she lacked the endearing, friendly quality that Twilight possessed, and though her words sounded sincerely friendly, she just came off as annoying to Rainbow. She couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut for more than five seconds, constantly blabbing about this and that and periodically giggling at her own comments.
By the time they reached the entrance of the largest tent, her Twilight-like rambling had faded into tentative relations of Canterlot gossip. Though she had no doubt that Rarity would have gotten along splendidly with Moondancer, Rainbow couldn’t wait to get away from her, all the irrelevant information she was giving about a society to which the pegasus neither belonged nor wished to belong, and the discomfiting aura of out-of-place-ness that surrounded her.
The guard in front of the command tent saluted Aurus. He was a large pegasus with a body that looked like it was made of solid brass, which made for an imposing figure. This, combined with the dark gold of his mane and tail, brought to mind images of lions and griffons and such creatures—more the former than the latter, especially after Rainbow caught a glimpse of his lion's-head cutie mark. Aurus spoke to this guard for a moment, and then he stepped aside to allow them to enter the tent.
The inside of the tent was about the same size as the main room of Twilight’s library. There were several long tables holding devices Rainbow knew neither the name or purpose of, as well as maps and a big machine that looked like it was still being set up. A group of ponies was gathered around a table on the other side, looking over some documents that Rainbow guessed were probably maps.
Two unicorns, dressed in the same dark, embroidered cloak worn by Moondancer, were clearly aristocrats. They had the haughty, arrogant expressions characteristic of Canterlot nobles, their noses turned up in disgust at the rugged, dirt-floored setting they were in. Rainbow was almost surprised she didn’t recognize either of them as Prince Blueblood, so similar were their demeanors.
Also present was an almost-middle-aged pegasus mare with a mane like a plume of orange fire, dressed in a blue-and-gold flightsuit that was very, very familiar to Rainbow Dash. The younger pegasus could hardly hold in a squeal of ‘Ohmygosh!’ when her brain finally processed that she was in the presence of her lifelong idol, Spitfire.
Though she was able to avoid embarrassing herself in such a way, an excited squeak did escape the hooves she clapped over her mouth. All the attention in the room turned to her, and for once Rainbow felt slightly uncomfortable being in the spotlight. It wasn’t just Spitfire’s presence that was causing her discomfort, but that of the fourth and last unicorn as well. His intense gaze made her feel as if she were being x-rayed; as if he were looking straight through her and staring into her soul.
This unicorn, a stallion who was dusky-maned and white-coated, could only be described as enormous. He was the biggest unicorn—no, the biggest pony Rainbow Dash had ever laid eyes on save for the princesses. Though he lacked wings, he was clearly more than a mere unicorn: the wiry strength and massive size of an undiluted earth pony and a long, sharp spiral horn testified to that. The sheer sense of military discipline in his poise made him seem less a noble and more a legendary general of old. He, too, wore a cloak—having seen the symbol several times now, Rainbow realized it was actually the sun with an iris in the center of it, like a flaming eyeball.
“Good morning, Aurus,” said the huge unicorn to the smaller stallion. His voice was even and almost friendly, and yet it also contained a hint of something not as pleasant, as though he were trying very hard to cover it up and falling just short of his goal. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“This pegasus claims to know where the changeling escaped to,” Aurus replied, gesturing at Rainbow with his hoof. Like his apparent superior, his demeanor contained a hint of some unpleasant feelings, although in Aurus's case it was much more obvious and mingled with what seemed like uneasiness.
“I see…" The unicorn looked to Rainbow. "And your name would be…?”
“Uh, I-I’m Rainbow Dash,” the prismatic pegasus blurted out, feeling a bit self-conscious with him staring through her. He just seemed off, somehow. If she had to guess, Rainbow would have said Aurus's attitude toward him was born from the same discomfort. However, the unicorn himself was nothing but cordial.
“It’s exceedingly delightful to make your acquaintance, Rainbow Dash,” he told her, and bowed slightly. Rainbow was thankful he at least wasn’t ‘polite’ enough to come kiss her hoof, or anything weird like that. “I am Inquisitor Leere. The two gentlecolts beside me are Thistle and Flaveus. And, assuming you’re the same Rainbow Dash from the Best Young Flyers Competition—the one who performed a sonic rainboom—you’ve already met Spitfire.”
Spitfire made a little gesture of greeting with her wing, and Rainbow said, “O-oh, yes. We’ve, uh, met before. Wait, how’d you know about that spend-a-day-with-the-Wonderbolts thing at the competition? You’re not a pegasus.”
“As one of Her Majesty’s most dedicated servants, and as the pony charged with overseeing her kingdom’s defense in time of war, I feel it obligatory to know what sort of treachery goes on in Equestria,” Leere replied. “That includes knowing of those who stop said treachery... such as the Elements of Harmony. Defeaters of Nightmare Moon and Discord, yes? Ah, and of course, Queen Chrysalis...”
“Oh... y-yeah... that’s right...” Rainbow shook off her anxiety, telling herself Leere was one of the good guys. A very big, intimidating, scary good guy, but a good guy nonetheless.
“What, exactly, did you three wish to speak to me about?” the Inquisitor asked.
Before Rainbow could reply, Aurus said, “She claims to have found changeling blood in the Everfree Forest.”
“Near,” corrected Rainbow, annoyed at having her words spoken for her. “Near the Everfree Forest. I got caught in the storm over by the Everfree and hid in my friend Fluttershy’s house, ‘cause she was stayin’ with my other friend Rarity for the night. There was a buncha green blood on the floor in her bathroom—you know, and they have green blood, and stuff. I tried looking for it outside, but I think it went into the forest.”
“It’s the logical place to hide,” Leere commented thoughtfully. “Dark creatures seek out dark places. But are you sure it couldn’t have simply come back after hiding there?”
“I dunno why else it would go all the way out to Fluttershy’s cottage, ‘cause she lives alone near the border. There’s not much else out there.”
“And she wasn’t at home any time during the day, is that correct?”
“Uh, yeah. I just said that,” the cerulean pegasus said as Leere levitated a map off the table to read.
“We know it’s injured, at least,” he mused. “How much blood was there?”
“Uh... like... it wasn’t everywhere... but there was a lot of it.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her head with her hoof as she thought about the scene. “There were some bandages under the sink, though. Fluttershy takes care of animals, so she has that kind of stuff on hoof all the time. That’s why I think it stopped there to, y’know, patch itself up.”
“Let’s assume it hasn’t gone far into the forest, then,” Leere said, still looking at the map. “If it has, we’ve little chance of capturing it no matter what we do. We’d do well to search, say, the first thirty miles deep and wide, starting at the cottage—which you’ll have to show us, since there are no cottages near the Everfree marked on these maps.
“We’ll send in a couple of ground-based search parties—Flaveus, you’ll lead this time, and I may send Wheatgem as well—and use half the pegasi for support and half for an aerial search team.”
“Woah, woah, woah, hold up.” Spitfire held up a hoof in a ‘time-out’ gesture. “I’ve only got two other Wonderbolts with me. There’s no way we can cover that kind of range, with only three of us. And I’ve heard a little about the Everfree—sending in ponies on the ground without proper air support would just feed the monsters living there.”
“I’ll help,” said Rainbow quickly. “I’ll join the search party, or whatever.”
“So, two Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire amended, still frowning at Leere.
“So get volunteers. You and Soarin and Fleetfoot go around the town and find pegasi willing to assist in the search. In fact, there are three settlements near this one; go to them all and get yourself more pegasus ponies. I’m sure there are some here and there that would jump at the chance to fly with the Wonderbolts.”
At the words ‘fly with the Wonderbolts’, Rainbow’s ears perked up—a reaction that had become all but instinctive after a lifetime of obsession with the team. They flattened back, however, as she mentally berated herself for getting distracted again. She couldn’t afford to do that anymore; not with Twilight’s life on the line.
“You,” said Leere, and Rainbow jumped slightly.
“Yeah?”
“You’re a close friend of Sparkle’s, and you were present when the changeling revealed itself. I want to know exactly what happened that day; I’ve already spoken to your friend Applejack—”
“You talked to Applejack already?” Rainbow blurted out, eyebrows rising.
“—but I want to get more than one reliable perspective. And I also want you to tell me everything about what you saw in the cottage. It’ll be useful in determining how badly the creature was injured.”
She frowned. “What about the search?”
“When we’re done with you, you and the other Elements will go around the town and help find ponies to help you look in the woods until we have dedicated air support. I also know Sparkle has a dragon that can deliver letters instantly; I want him here so I can communicate with the Princess.”
“And take Moondancer with you,” added one of the other Inquisitors; the Flaveus one. “She’s been getting in the way. Maybe you can find something useful for her to do.”
Rainbow groaned at the prospect of having Moondancer as a tagalong, but she didn’t dare complain as Aurus led her to another tent to question her about the changeling’s injury. At least they were finally doing something to help find Twilight, even if it did involve saddling her with an airheaded Canterlot unicorn.
Although the area Rainbow Dash had become trapped in the previous night was now being subjected to little more than a drizzle, it wasn't because the storm had lost momentum. The entire system had simply moved away, drawn further into the Everfree by one of the currents of mutated magic that flowed throughout it.
Animals were driven from their homes as the endless downpour of magically-replenished rain flooded the ground and turned acres of land into a temporary marsh. Streaks of electricity split the clouded sky in two, on rare occasions striking particularly tall trees and starting fires that were almost immediately extinguished again by the torrential rain. Even then, the storm continued to grow, expanding the storm further, and creeping closer to the point where it would finally collapse under its own size.
The old, run-down church was not spared the relentless assault. Hail and rain rattled off the ancient, decrepit roof, as well as the more recent but still several-year-old spells that had been cast to patch up the many places in it where the wood had rotted through. Thunder boomed and crackled overhead, and lightning flashes outside the windows lit every room up from time to time.
Safe, warm, and dry in her sleeping bag, Twilight Sparkle slept through it all. Even after the storm finally broke and began to disperse, she hardly stirred, too exhausted by her ordeal and her new body's recuperation to do so much as crack an eyelid open.
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woo! update!
Edit: amazing as always.
nastyhobbit.org/data/media/1/moar.jpg
Why is she going on about the weather factory getting the order wrong if the storm was messed up by the Everfree?…I guess there was never any problem ever.2047199
because i suck at editingi have no idea what you're talking about>Have seen this story floating around for a while
>Have never clicked on it
>Clicky
>Sees sex and gore tags
>mfw
memes.at/faces/epic_win.jpg
Rainbow Dash's view of her bosses!
Priceless!
Pretend that episode never happened.
(Joke) Alt. Title: Twilight Is A Changeling!: For Once, It's Not Chrysalis's Fault!
...You're featured. Just sayin'.
I loved the first part of the chapter, searching and grumbling was great. The part with the guard was also pretty good but i couldn't really feel them ocs, Dash was the driving force and the rest felt a bit cliche.
Now give us more Twibug.
Maybe we're butthurt and loved it?
YAY
2047275
mind fuck
She… didn't say anything about cutting… Was he having the same horrific vision as her?
And sorry about making two posts. While I'm here,
Extra space.
Missing word.
2047293
this is what i get for posting an update when i haven't slept
thanks for pointing that out
2047306
I edited it to say more. And now I've made three posts...
hello.jpg ?
Nopony expects the Celestial Inquisition! Our weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear. Fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency!.
2047317
i would love to link you to it, but i think it would most likely get me banned if i did, so here's the pussy wikipedia link
2047277
images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120610061731/mlpfanart/images/5/58/Roid_Rage_YEAAH_vector.png
2047215
Why is no one making the connection that no changeling would WILLINGLY REVEAL ITSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GOD DAMN TOWN?
Rainbow's rants seemed a little long-winded, but otherwise I loved it.
2047377
I know, right? Ponies... logic... oil and water.
2047381
rainbow imagines herself as a mary sue in the first one
and mary sues tend to make long-winded rants whenever someone foolishly disagrees with them
showing that they're 100x more rational and intelligent than the bureaucratic motherfuckers they're lecturing
The mere fact that Celestia has an "Inquisition" is kinda creepy.
Sounds like either a recent thing or a shadow organization that usually stays out of the limelight.
Great chapter though!
Here's hoping that whoever finds Twilight at least fairly listens to her- I can't stand it when stories take perfectly rational ponies and turn them into willfully ignorant morons for the sake of conflict.
2047449 Nopony expects the inquisition!
LMAO!!!!
Rainbow's views of the Mayor and the Weather Committee are PRICELESS!!!
The actions of the Guard ponies when Rainbow got into town have me concerned that the political and social climate of Equestria may be taking a rather dark, maybe even Orwellian, turn.
2047449
I would go for the first one, although you have to wonder what Leere and some of his cohorts were doing before the Inquisition came about. If I had to guess (I like to leave things unknown even to myself) I'd say they were imported from some other not-so-nice organization that existed before.
2047473
I think it's possible to write a good, serious story where everyone is OOC like that. I'm planning one where that's a major theme, in fact. But I also think it you have to do it in a very specific way and understand the cliches of OOC behavior to pull something like that off. I tried it to some degree in Listen & Learn, although it was neither particularly important to the story nor a successful attempt. This, however, isn't the right place for it, except maybe in Rainbow Dash's imagination. If someone acts a certain way here, I want them to have a good reason to do it.
Good story, VERY good story.
Don't worry, I'll stay out of your shed
I feel like there are way too much italiacs in this chaptwe. Rainbow must have some serious ADD to be having hour long Scrubs daydreams in the middle of the rain.
I find it hard to believe any "Royal Guard" has neglected to familiarize himself with who owns the keys to Equestria's super weapon.
It could be assumed that Moondancer was an old friend of Twilight's from magic school, given her mention. Still not sure how Trixie got nixed.
Not a lot happened from the perspective of time. If it's always going to be like this, you stand to not have the time to write all this.
The Sex and Gore tags are reader warnings for prominent elements of a story. I don't think saying one time two characters might have banged counts the same as a story in which one describes an exchnge of bodily fluids in extravagent detail and you throw people off when you do that.
Love the story but the speed at which it is moving is kinda frustrating! I want to see how Twilight attempts to convince them and the possible backlash of trying to...I think I'm just a sucker for stories that promise Twilight abuse. I will eager read each new chapter in hopes of seeing you make Twilight suffer
1833266
2047560
the revealing spell (as shown by Moondancer) is normally only used on one pony at a time
twilight tried to create a blanket effect with it instead, which caused it to affect the caster as well
and there was really no reason to use it on her before, since she was one of the ones fighting the changelings in the first place
so we don't know whether it was her experimentation that caused the change
or if she was one the entire time
we don't know
or maybe we will
2047558
i lol'd at the scrubs thing
that sentence was kind of weird and i'm not sure i know what you're talking about but i'll give it a go
if you're referring to the guards asking rainbow dash for her name, etc
that's something real law enforcement officers do
they ask questions they already know the answers to
because they want to see if your story changes
or doesn't match up
and anyway a changeling could have knocked her out in the forest
and taken her form without knowing anything about her
or something
they don't know
some people might not remember her
she's kind of not a very important character in canon, lol
so i clarified
trixie got moved around because magic duel changed her personality so much
i could have disregarded it i guess
but i don't think i can write her the way i wanted to after seeing it, regardless
yeah, i'm looking forward to writing about twilight again--this chapter was kind of tedious to write
hence the italic parts
they're mostly to entertain me
given the number of cloppers on this site i can't quite agree with that
sometimes innuendo is better than outright fucking
and more tasteful
2047626
you're going to love the next chapter then
Rainbow's freak-out about changeling sabotage and resulting civil war was hilarious.
The tiny truth about civilization, the gears turn on and on and on. And if something odd or strange DOES turn up, it is torn to shreds by those same gears. Twilight doesn't have a prayer.
you want either: as they came past or as they passed.
I'm sorry. I've just seen passed where past should be too much recently and its killing me.
2047558
This. The gore works, kinda, but the Sex tag isn't necessary.
Otherwise, more.
2047648
it's mob tiem
2047719
i kind of like it that way
unlike a lot of other people, i'm not afraid of conformity
2047696
yeah garbo said he woke up his mother or something because that part made him laugh so much
2047741
hey it's cool
thanks for pointing that out, i didn't even notice it
(obviously or i would have fixed it)
This story sadly enough is going to be show inaccurate to the max because alicorn twilight.
Great chapter.
when did this turn into a comedy?? -.-
otherwise it was okay.
2047473
I also hope those who find Twilight will at last listen to her, she already had to deal with angry mob and experienced unbelievable pain for 2 chapters, maybe Inquisitor will be more willing to listen and not start torture to already heavy tortured Twilight.
As much as word ' Inquisitor ' right away bring me the idea that they are blindly loyal ponies who are ready to burn, torture and do dirty work for Celestia, the fact that Inquisitor Leere know about RainbowDash, elements, knew they were heroes and showed respect, I must say I like him, because seriously, mane 6 do all dirty work and no one even know about they achievements or show them respect, more or less help them.
Also
RainbowDash: " I did not expected Equestria Inquisition ",
Inquisitor Leere: " nopony expect Equestira Inquisition ",
RainbowDash: " No, seriously, who are you guys, I did not knew Equestria had Inquisition and I bet no pony in Equestria do ".
Amongst the choices you presented in your AN, I'm butthurt (it's been a long time since the last chapter, and Twilight doesn't even get mentioned til the last paragraph). I also loved it, however. Usually, I kind of shy away from OC-heavy stories, but your writing's been consistently good enough to pull it off, I think. Rainbow's overactive imagination is hilarious, and the Royal Guards acted like, you know, actual cops. Still hope the next chapter's a little more Twilight-centric. In any case, loved it all the same, and I'm looking forward to the next update.
2047395
>Ponies... logic... oil and water.
At least oil on water is pretty, and has less mob justice. But then, what's an idyllic small town without a savage, gory, entire-sodding-town-versus-one-terrified-loner murder? It just wouldn't make any sense; charming villages have to have a massive, ugly secret before they're allowed to file the proper paperwork to upgrade their classification.
>mary sues tend to make long-winded rants whenever someone foolishly disagrees with them
To be fair, long-winded rants are incredibly satisfying, and great stress relief.
This is the best chapter thus far. I don't know if I said that during the editing, but it is. It's more cohesive than the first one, but still retains the raw darkness than I wish I could replicate (I guess Flying With Angels came close, sort of). You've also started using a lot of humor, and I might need to reference this portrayal of Rainbow Dash, because it's one of the best out there.
Rainbow has something of an overactive imagination, it seems.
Ever seen Bobby's World? Rainbow sure has one heck of an elaborate imagination.
Given that this focuses on Rainbow Dash Meets The Bureaucrats rather than Twilight's ongoing excruciation, this feels kind of like a "comic relief" chapter. Not that that's a bad thing, far from it; some levity where Dashie flies headlong into the red tape is welcome after two chapters of Twilight being physically and mentally pulverized. That said, you handle everything in this story really well: you really feel for Twilight, and the dynamic of Rainbow Dash hunting the changeling without realizing that it's actually Twilight is really working for me.
Looking forward to more!
Nopony expects the Equestrian Inquisition!
I really hate to admit that this is where the story started going downhill for me
, there were hints of it in the last chapter but here it approaches the center stage. The major plot hole that nopony and I mean nopony questions what happened on that stage and immediately go for the closest conclusion. I'd understand some like Rainbow Dash in particular would go straight to conclusions. Not Rarity, not AppleJack, not Fluttershy, not a single pony out of these nitwits questions why a creature so focused on keeping up a disguise would create a presentation about EXACTLY HOW TO SPOT ONE OF THEM OUT? Not even stoping there that they voluntarily, VOLUNTARILY cast a spell to reveal Changelings knowing full well it would incapacitate them, when they could have easily cast a fake spell in its' place.
Anypony with their eyes open and a logical mindset could figure some things out:
A) That the subject was unaware of what they are
B) The subject holds little hostility since they only began to run WHEN YOU FREAKING GANG UP ON THEM AND TRY TO RIP OFF THEIR GODDAMN HORN
This is the equivalent of a man doing an hour long seminar about vampires. Detailing common traits, feeding patterns, general ways to spot them out, and every way to harm them and for none of them to have some questions for the guy when he's starting to burst into flames by eating garlic bread.
Aside from this I think the strength of this fic has been when you're in Twilight's point of view, just the pain, anxiety, and confusion she's facing comes off really powerful stuff. The scene where she is resetting the bone was really gut wrenching and that works toward your advantage, In the future I would like a little less focus on the other Ponies (or at least give some of the other mane 6 some light) since it draws me from the focus and brings to the front how everyone is handling this situation wrong; they all just come off as mean spirited. Which I can understand rainbow being cranky there would be few who wouldn't in her situation, but we need to see somepony approaching this with some sense and compassion.
I'll keep an eye open for future chapters and I hope to see it get really good, I have some ideas for the reasons behind Twilight's recent tranformation but I'll keep it to myself until I see where you're going with this.
Good Luck!
How this story made me feel : Gusta.
2047788
nuuh
she cud jus growe wgins
cuz shes a cahnglin lololoolool
2047809
last thursday
i was going for some tarantino style fuckery
with dash's imagination
2047826
yeah
leere originally had some images to go with descriptions of his expressions
but i felt that would reveal too much about his character
2047831
you're in luck
chapter 4 is all twilight all the time
2047841
yeah just look at deliverance
2047869
that reminds me
i still need to send you the responses
to your questions
Oh dear; here comes the Bad Heroes.
Regardless, this was excellent!
Awaiting further releases.
2047906
wait until chapter 5 rolls around
you might get something you want
maybe
no promises
the only reason i'm so but hurt right now is because there was so little Changeling Twi.
other than that the plot is getting impressive.
Another Great Update!
Loved the internal dialogue with Rainbow Dash.