~ 9~

Secrets Revealed

Walking into the cold and dark cave, everything seemed quiet.
"Oh, poor Twilight," Rarity said, her eyes resting on the grotesqueness of the cave's insides. "Being dragged to this disgusting place!" The white pegasus kicked a rock with her hoof, sending off tons of bats squealing in her face, and flying off into a different part of the cave. Rarity screamed hysterically, ducking in cover from the bats. All the ponies immediately shushed her. Rarity cleared her throat. "Sorry."

"Wow, this place is smelly!" Pinkie Pie covered her snout with her hooves.

"Where in tarnation could Twilight be?" Applejack questioned Shining Armor. He shrugged.

"I don't know, but it can't be good."

They continued walking inside the cave for a few hours, wrinkling their noses of the reek of the cave.

Rainbow Dash snorted.

"Okay, this is getting us nowhere! Let's just split up, and see if we can find her faster –" The wingless pony was interrupted by a familiar laughter.

Like a snake out of water, Chrysalis slowly walked up to them from the shadows, her eyes as sharp as knives, and her wings just barely glittering in the dim light.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" She studied them all. "The brother of whom I have captive, and the same stallion I took control of when I was pretending to be your beloved wife," Shining Armor glared at her, baring his teeth. Chrysalis just smirked. "Two ponies who should have wings, one pony who should have a horn, one pony who shouldn't have wings, and a pony who shouldn't have a horn. How wonderful."

"Where's my sister?" Shining Armor demanded. Chrysalis smiled deviously.

"Your sister? Oh! You mean..." Chrysalis looked over her shoulder when Twilight appeared, smiling dangerously. "... This sister?" Shining's eyes lit up when he saw Twilight.

"Twilie!" Shining Armor came charging at his younger sister, but skidded to a stop. Something was off about Twilight.

"Oh, hello, BBBFF," Twilight said, smiling manically, "Big Baby Buffoon Forever Feebleminded."

Shining Armor took a step back, astounded. He shot a nasty look at Chrysalis.

"WHAT did you do to her?!" Chrysalis looked at him, perfectly calm.

"Me? I didn't do anything to her." She glanced at Twilight. Twilight looked back at her. The evil queen nodded. Then, to everypony's horror, Twilight shape-shifted into a Changeling.

"W-What?! You're a Changeling?!" Rainbow Dash said, absolutely astonished.

"What did you think I was? A unicorn who'd been switched around just like you morons?" The Changeling replied in Twilight's voice. Chrysalis beamed brilliantly at them all. With the glow of her crooked horn, she slammed all exits shut.

"So, if that Twilight is a fake..." Applejack said, eyes widening.

"Then where's the real Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. Shining Armor whipped his head around to face Chrysalis.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" He howled with rage, his horn beginning to spark and surround itself in his aura.

Chrysalis walked around the six angry ponies, completely calm.

"Calm yourself down, Shining," Chrysalis said smoothly. "You might want to make me not tell you where she is." She laughed evilly. "Guards!" Many Changelings showed up at her order.

"Take these six to the lovely dungeon I've prepared for them." Several Changelings took the ponies into the dungeon.

"So much for that brilliant plan of yours!" Rarity hissed at Shining.

"I was under pressure!"

"Oh, yeah! Walking into the front entrance won't give anypony any suspicions at all!"

"I thought since lots of ponies sneak into places from the back, she wouldn't expect us coming from the front!"

"We probably should've gotten some disguises..." Rainbow said.

Chaining them all up in enchanted chains, they were thrown into a dungeon, filled with rats and spiders.

"Great. Now how are we going to help Twilight?" Rainbow asked.

"The more important question is how are we going to help ourselves?" Rarity said, backing away from the walls of the halls.

"Get back in line!" A Changeling barked at her. Rarity scoffed.
"May I remind you, that a lady should never be –"

"I SAID GET BACK IN LINE!" The Changeling roared at the winged pony. Rarity flattened her ears.

"Well, excuse me..."

The Changelings threw them all into the most gross, dark, and disgusting cage in the entire dungeon, leaving with laughter as retarded as Snips and Snails.

Rainbow pounded against the bars, trying to escape. She fell back, wounded.

"What are those things MADE out of?!" Shining Armor looked at them, then sighed.

"They're enchanted with a resistant spell. Try to escape, and it'll either hurt you, or sometimes kill you." Fluttershy began to inhale and exhale very fast, backing up into a wall, and covering her head, scared to death.

"Well, what if we just ask nicely?" Pinkie Pie asked. Shining Armor gave her a disgruntled look. Pinkie smiled sheepishly.

Rarity wasn't doing too well in the cage. Her eye twitching, her mane a bit messed up, as well as her tail, she looked as if going onto the first stage of going insane.

"We HAVE to get OUT of here..." Rarity barely whispered. Applejack looked at the bars.

"What if I try to buck our way out of here? Sometimes mah apple trees feel like hur'en' mah legs real bad, so all I have to do is hit them harder. Would that work?" Shining Armor looked at her strangely.

"I doubt it."

"Even if that would've worked," Rainbow said, "you're not an earth pony anymore. You don't have your strength."

"So then, what d-do we do?" Fluttershy asked.

All faces turned to Shining Armor.

He blinked, then sighed.

"I don't know."

All was silent for a moment.

Then Rarity whispered in Pinkie's ear, "By far. THE. Worst plan. Ever."

Sweetie Belle paced around in their cell, out of fear, boredom, and anger. She swiveled her head around to face the other Crusaders, who were lying down, and who pretty much lost all hope.

"Come on, you guys! We have to think of something!" Sweetie Belle pleaded.

"Like whut?" Applebloom asked. "It's not like we can just escape. We've tried that already."

"Ugh, I'm soo hungry, I can't think right now!" Scootaloo hit her forehead with her hoof.

Sweetie's ear twitched. She heard something.

"Sshh. Listen!" She leaned her ear against the bars, listening to a conversation two changelings were having, her friends joining her.

"So, do we have the new prisoners yet?" Said the first changeling.

"Yeah, we got them. In the most grossest cell you've ever seen."

"Heh heh. Yeah... when do we let them out?"

"WE don't let them out, you idiot! THEY let THEMSELVES out!"

"Oh. Why?"

"Its a good thing you're a good friend of mine, otherwise I'd have Chrysalis vaporize you in a second. ITS ALL PART OF THE PLAN. They let themselves out, they find the Elements of Harmony, they free Twilight and then they free themselves with the Rose. It'll turn them back to normal, but they also would've filled enough love in the Rose for Chrysalis to suck the love out of it, and we won't be able to loose with the enormous power we'll have!"

"So what do we do with the three fillies?"

"If something goes wrong in the plan, we can use them."

"For what?"

"Okay. I'm done talking with you. Go home."

"Aowww..."

The fillies gave each other horrified looks.

"We HAVE to warn them!" Scootaloo said.

"Yeah, but how? We can't just bust out of here and get them!" Sweetie Belle said.

Applebloom thought for a moment. Her eyes sparked up.

"Fillies! I have an idea!"

"And what idea would that be?" Scootaloo said with doubt.

"We could, uh, disguise ourselves as Changlings, and then convince them that we escaped, they'd let us out, and then we're home free!"

"How are we going to do that?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah, it's not like there's a convenient disguise just sitting where we are!"

"Yes, there is." Applebloom dug up one skin of a Changeling underneath a rock.

The other two crusaders gave her a disgusted look.

"I'm not wearing the skin of a Changeling!" Sweetie Belle yelled at her.

"How did that even GET here?!" Scootaloo asked.

"Haven't you noticed that Changelings shed their skin a lot?" Applebloom said.

"Okay, so that explains that, but that is still really, really, REALLY gross and dark!" Scoot replied.

"How else are we going to get out of here? I'd like to hear your brilliant idea!" Applebloom snarled.

Scootaloo stared at her earth pony friend for a while.

"Fine." She puffed. "So where are the other skins?"

"There's only one in here, so one of us will have to wear it, find the closest pony, and then warn them, and then try to free them, and then free everypony else, and then get the heck out of here!" Applebloom answered.

"And what do the rest of us do?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I don't know. Keep the guards distracted? Or, no, wait – you have to hide after somepony puts on this stupid thing, and then they can claim that the others have escaped, they'd be busy looking for them, and when no one – and I mean no one – is looking, then they'll let us free!" Applebloom said, delighted.

"Alright, so we got the plan down. Now... who's gonna wear it?" Scootaloo asked.

They all glanced at each other. They all shifted uncomfortably, obviously hesitant to volunteering.

"I say it should be Applebloom!" Scootaloo said.

"What? Why me?!" The earthpony frowned at the pegasus.

"Because you were the one who came up with the plan, so you should wear it."

"But I don't know where they are. This dungeon is huge! Somepony would spot me eventually, or worse, they'll ask me to do a chore or something! Scootaloo, you should do it."

"Why?"

"Because you have wings! Wings that could fit through these wing sockets of the Changeling!"

"That's a stupid reason!"

"Well, my horn can sense other unicorns. Especially Rarity's presence..." Sweetie Belle accidentally blurted out. The other crusaders glanced at her, then nodded to each other.

"Wait – I didn't mean to say that . . !" Sweetie Belle tried to get out of it, but the other girls put the skin on here as quick as lightning, showing that Sweetie was obviously going to do it.

"But Rarity's not a unicorn anymore!" Sweetie Belle complained.

"No, but you can find Twilight, or Fluttershy, or Applejack!" Scootaloo said.

"Listen, Sweetie Belle, you're the only one who can find the others and warn them. We trust you." Applebloom reassured the frightened unicorn. "Do you know what to do?" Applebloom looked at Sweetie Belle seriously.

The white unicorn filly sighed.

"Yeah, I know."

"Great! Scoot, get into a hiding spot – now!"

Scootaloo dodged into a corner, and disappeared out of sight. Sweetie Belle was left alone in the Changelings' skin, which was slightly larger than expected. She felt seriously grossed out at that very point. She took a deep breath, and in her best impression of a Changeling guard, she cried out,

"The three fillies have escaped!"

Two guards poked their head out, in questioning mode.

"What?! No! That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Its true! They tricked me and locked me in here! They could be anywhere by now!"

"You idiot!" The first guard growled. He turned to the second guard. "Search the dungeon! They couldn't have escaped this place easily!"

"Hey! Wait! Let me out of here!"

The guard hesitated, then unlocked the door.

"Search the entire perimeter!" He ordered Sweetie Belle. Before she could make her way out, the Changeling guard stopped her.

"Don't screw up this time, or your head will be mounted on the wall with the other decapitated Changelings." Her pupils smaller, Sweetie Belle nodded.

"Sir yes sir!"

Sweetie Belle watched him leave, then checked around the area.

"Hey, you guys!" She whispered to the cage. "Coast is clear!"

Scootaloo and Applebloom came out of hiding, then ran up to Sweetie Belle.

"I can't believe that worked!" Scootaloo exclaimed. Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle shushed her.

"Alraight, ya'll," Applebloom said, "let's go warn the others."