And with that, he sets off again. Applejack is the first to follow him, picking up her pace to catch up with him.

"C'mon y'all! We got work to do!" she calls over her shoulder to the others, snapping them out of their confusion at Cartridges statement.

"What glowing tower?" Rainbow asks, "What is he talking about?"

"Well, ponies usually jus' call it 'the Tower', and… Well, you'll know when you see it, but don' look straight at it f'r more 'n a moment," Applejack answers.

"What sort of shit is thi-!"

"Keep it quiet back there!" Cartridge whisper shouts back, cutting Rainbow off of her outburst, "I'm fine wit' some conversation, just keep it to a low level."

They keep walking, abandoning the conversation, opting to simply walk in silence. Rainbow and the others that haven't been to the surface since D-day get increasingly on-edge as they walk further through the city, approaching a more spread-out, almost sub-urban area. They keep faithfully to the shadows, trusting in the protection they give.

Even through all their gear, coats, and movement, they start to get steadily colder, shivering lightly as they follow the still unfazed and unaffected Cartridge.

"Aren't you cold Mr. Stalker? I mean, you don't even have much of a jacket, and it's, like, negative fifty-brojillion degrees out here!" Pinkie asks from the rear.

"No." His simple answer is sharp and cold. He suddenly stops, holding up a single curled hoof in a 'halt' sign. Everypony stops, and, in the silence that follows, they can hear a slight rustling inside the mostly intact building they are clinging to the shadows of. Very carefully, he approaches the entrance to the structure. Pressing himself against the outside, he pulls his rifle up to his shoulder. He takes a deep breath and bolts in front of the open door, leveling his rifle as he does so.

Instantly, his rifle dips, his arms slacken, and his eyes lose their cold glare, adopting a calm, almost ethereally comforted look. He just stares in shock at what he sees. All of the others go the entrance, some holding their weapons level, some not. They are met with something none of them expect.

A small kid. He wears a hopeless look on his face and hugs his over-sized jacket for warmth and comfort.

"B-Buddy?" Cartridge's voice asks tentatively, as his rifle lowers the rest of the way, almost dragging along the ground as he steps forwards, kneeling before the child.

"Uh, Cartridge?" Applejack says, "Who's this?"

Cartridge doesn't respond, just backs up a little bit to get a better look at the little foal in front of them.

"I don't believe it…" he says, hardly above a whisper. The kid whimpers slightly, seeming to sink back a bit. "Hey, hey, hey. 'T's okay li'l guy. How did you get way out he-"

The kid cuts him off, bursting into a flash of green flame, leaping at him and letting out a chilling sound somewhere between a screech and a roar. The flame clears near instantly, revealing a gnarled, pony-esque figure bearing menacing fangs that drip with transparent green, viscous saliva.

Cartridge looks in startled horror as the beast flies through the air at him. He grabs at his rifle. No... I can't do this. Not to him, he thinks. But that's not him! That's some… something that impersonate-. His thoughts are cut short by five resounding claps. Five impacts rock the creature's small frame, knocking mass out of its back, while leaving little holes that look like they were made into wood on its front.

Looking back, Cartridge sees Rainbow Dash, gun at her hip, barrel steaming from stock to muzzle. Five still-warm bullet casings lie on the ground, little wisps of vapor trailing back to the gun.

"Okay," Rainbow starts, voice nonchalant and steady, "I saved you ass, now you have to tell us who that was."

"I-I would rather not talk about it…" Cartridge replies.

"Bullshit! Tell us who that was!" Rainbow says again, her voice now almost at a shout, ringing out, cold and demanding, through the now-empty house. "Whoever it was, it was obviously important enough to put the mission to save ponykind on hold for a while, and almost get the guide killed. How could you've been such a buckin' IDIOT?! You should know above everypony else that NOTHING up here is safe, but noooo," her voice drips with sarcasm as she holds out the 'o', extending the word into three syllables.

"Rainbow, I think that's enou-" Twilight tries to reason with her.

"You're supposed to be the best, huh? Well, I think the best would've known to not trust anything you find up here, you… you.. you absolute, hell-bound, BUCKFACE!" she yells in his downcast face. The shocked silence is so heavy, even Dash herself wishes she hadn't put it quite that harshly or loudly.

"Alright," Cartridge's voice is cracky and soft, "if it's that important to ye… That was my lit'l brother." Rainbow softens a little at this, "He went missin' an' was assumed dead two weeks before D-day. I would give anythin' to see 'im again…" he finishes as two shiny tears fly to the ground, hitting the knee of his pants and soaking in to the material.

Dash walks over very slowly, kneels down in front of him, and gives him a loose hug, tapping his shoulder with her head once lightly. He just sits there, re-born grief muting the shock that is felt by everypony else. Some moments later, she simply stands back up, offering him a helping-hoof and hauling him back to his hooves.

"I'm sorry," she says simply, "I'm so sorry."

"I answered your question," Cartridge breaks the silence that had long hold over the group, "now yu answer mine: What… in blue hell was tha' thing?"

"That was something called a Changeling," Twilight answers immediately, eager to have a chance to explain something in almost painful detail, "They feed off of the energy of love, using it as a sort of food source. Several months before the End, they tried to take over Canterlot."

"So they would be considered parasitic by nature?"

"Exactly. It isn't just a simple sapping of the magical properties of love, though," Twilight says, getting more and more excited by the second, entering rant mode as her voice raises slightly, "It's also a magical tap into the specific electric pulses of the brain that are produced by feelings of love or pleasure. I did some research into how this works, actually, and I must say: it's very intere-"

"Hold!" Cartridge cuts in, stopping all speech and motion, his ears flicking through the air like radar beacons.

"Hmm, alright, keep moving, but cut the talk," he says as he starts forwards again, "we're entering dangerous territory."

They continue down the desolate path in silence. Suddenly, though, a prismatic streak bolts past them, making a bit of a breeze as it passes.

"Shit!" Cartridge exclaims at a loud whisper, "That pegasus is going to get us.. us all…" His voice trails off in confusion as he turns to find Rainbow Dash looking just as puzzled as he is. "Killed? Alright, does anypony know what the buck just happened?"

The silence that follows is answer enough. He sighs and facehoofs, simply shaking his head, turning, and walks along the path again.

"Well girls," he starts, again hardly above a whisper, "this here today is living breathing proof that A) the world has, in fact, gone straight to hell, and B) that the only thing that will ever be normal, is stuff not being normal."

"Now hold on jus' a sec there, Cart!" Applejack calls, making Cartridge wince at the less-than-wanted nick-name, "There could be a whole bunch o' these lil' things out there, jus' waitin' t' rip whatever comes along to bits. Maybe we should think of a plan first?"

Cartridge just stands in his spot for a bit, as if thinking the question through.

"No," he eventually replies, shaking his head slightly, "I think we'll be fine."

"Whaddaya mean 'I think we'll be fine'!?" Applejack cries, annoyed with the answer.

"Well, 'I' being the first person impersonal pronoun, and 'think' being the first person conjugation of the verb 'think'-"

"Oh, go buck yourself with an apple, ya know what I mean!" she cries again. Sighing in defeat she just shakes her head. "Go ahead, Ah guess, you're th' leader after all."

Smiling triumphantly, Cartridge turns around and starts off at a cautious trot.

"Oh." A voice behind him gets his attention. "My." He turns around to see what it is. "Princesses." Twilight's eyes are wide as she looks ahead in shock. Turning to look, he sees something he never expected to see.

---

It hasn't been four weeks, has it? I don't think so, but I'm bad with keeping track of days and weeks and crap. Anyway, I have introduced the dreaded, the feared, the Changelings. Hope you liked it, that's the only reason I'm here, after all. 'Til the next chapter, where I reveal the shocking (actually, it's probably somewhat predictable) revelation of the cliffhanger, peace off. /)*(\