Kestral walked out the back door of the third burglary that morning. He had gotten to all three houses marked on his map for him, but only the first two contained a changeling. The third had a pod, but no changeling was in it. He had let the pony out and laid him in his bed, but he could only hope it did not somehow fester the problem.

As far as stealing went, he managed to nab some food for the day, but money went scarce at the latter two houses. He doubted the amount was useful, so he simply went on instead of pestering 'Discord' for anything. He really needed to think on what equipment would be useful for a while.

That had to wait, though, as Kestral noticed that the sun was nearly up. He cursed himself for letting time slip by while he had gone through houses for items to nab. To make matters worse, he was on the opposite side of the town from the forest. If he was going to make it in time, he needed to high-tail it. It wouldn't be easy with the authorities probably patrolling for someone suspicious.

Kestral walked around the house and faced toward the sun, determining if he could make it before the town woke up. He decided he could, and began looking for any guards that may have been walking about. When none entered his vision he began jogging toward the large, central piece to the town, the town hall.

As he jogged, he noticed that the architecture changed some. The homes seemed to turn into businesses as he progressed towards the center. Buildings that advertized objects of interest surrounded him before long. A furniture shop passed him on the left, and then a jewelry shop on the right. Several others passed by him. Eventually, he had passed a tree that looked like it had been hollowed out. He passed by just close enough to read the words 'Golden Oaks Library' on a sign out front, before continuing onward toward the forest. He would have to remember that later.

As he was about to pass the first set of houses on that side of town, Kestral noticed that there were a couple ponies walking towards him from down the street. He ran off between the two nearest houses to ensure he was not seen. He hid behind next to a silver trash can on the wall and waited for the ponies to come and go.

They passed, and though they were talking the whole time, he could not tell what they were talking about. All he heard was indistinguishable speech, so at least he knew they didn't stray too close. He poked his head out from his hiding spot and began moving up towards the street again. He observed up and down the road, and cursed the fact that a couple more ponies dotted the path. Too many to not be spotted. He could probably run through without recognizing him as a human, but if it was reported to the local authorities it would leave him in a tight spot for safe havens.

The more he thought about it, the more Kestral realized that last part wasn't right. The forest was no safe haven. It had beasts that stalked the night and probably more than a few creatures he didn't want to run into during the day. The fact that he was only found by wolves once was a good thing. He was lucky the first time, but luck wasn't something he found often. Kestral changed his mind on going back to the forest, and decided he needed to find a place in the town.

He would have to hurry, though, because as he watched, more ponies were waking up and exiting their homes.

Kestral looked around for potential places, but he could not tell which homes were empty and which were not. He didn't need to look for a more permanent place of sanctuary at that time, just a place to hide for the day. As it occurred, he spotted a set of doors a few houses down. To him, they looked like they led directly to a basement, which would have been perfect. He stealthily made his way past the gap between each house and went along the wall. He passed over some rather tall grass and stopped right at the two doors spread out just past his feet.

The lock was just a board nailed down to one side so that it could swivel around and set into the metal catch on the other door. He pulled around on the wood and grabbed one of the doors' handle. He pulled it up and walked down into the basement, closing it once again when he got low enough. A slit between the doors provided a fracture of light along the steps, but had far too little to make anything visible.

He flicked on his flame and looked. A pile of tools were thrown up against one wall, and a barrel with a faucet was on the other wall. Not much else of interest was in the room, so he killed the flame and laid down along one of the walls.

It was time to catch up on some well deserved rest.

Mayor Mare was not always the happiest of ponies in the morning. Often, the time of day provided another impossible task or ridiculous situation involving several guards yelling at each other for being late for clocking in or out. She still managed to put on a smile, though, as she walked in the town hall. Her secretary called to her without looking. “You've got that meeting today, about fixing the roof. Twelve o' clock sharp.”

Mare gave a curt nod and trotted on by. She remembered that some water had once again leaked in and got the floor soaked. She was not very happy that the problem would sprout again so soon after the last repair. If it became recurring she would simply find another construction company to fix it.

She opened the door to her office, left it ajar and went straight to her desk. A few letters sat on her desk, one of which she promptly opened and began reading.

Dear Mayor Mare,

It has been told to me that you are in need of a new construction team, and as an adviser of one I can honestly say that my crew can easily handle any...

She skimmed through the rest of it before folding it back up and setting it aside. The secretary must have been on a search and dropped a hint to some ponies. Of course, it was typical for only the expensive crews to go search for work since the cheaper ones were too busy actually working. It was just another problem she would need to solve. She picked up another letter, removed the seal, and began again.

Do ponies make fun of your horn? Is it too dull for your taste? Come on by the-

She stopped reading and immediately chucked it into the nearby trash bin. It was truly the worlds greatest mystery; Why one would send mail for horn-sharpening to an earth pony. That was a matter for another time, though.

Dear Sister,

Mare skimmed through her sister's letter as well. She always had a bad habit of stating so many useless details and asking redundant questions. She really didn't see anything important until she got to the bottom.

...so may I ask if we could hang out while I'm off the job for the week?

Sincerely,

Sis

She folded up that letter as well and placed it on top of the first. It would be a long day for her, one way or another. She looked at the stack of bills and statements in her inbox and began immediately. She grabbed the top parchment but stopped as soon as she heard somepony walk into her office.

“Um, Mayor Mare? I have something for the C.D.O.” a timid voice told her. Mare looked up to see a bright yellow pegasus with pink hair at her doorway.

“Oh, come on in Fluttershy.” She pulled out a blank piece of paper and readied her quill. “Now, what could I do for you on behalf of the Committee for Dangerous Objects?”

Fluttershy calmly walked over and pulled a few strange objects out of her bag, placing them on the desk for Mayor Mare to see. “I'm turning in an object.” A few pieces of brass metal and what looked like a piece of lead that was flattened out on one side. Some copper seemed to coat the lead at least partially.

Mare didn't know what to make of it, so she just went on with recording what Fluttershy knew of it. “And do you know anything about it? Any potential dangers?”

“Well,” she started, “I don't know much, but it doesn't look safe.”

Mare simply wrote that down instead of questioning intuition on the matter. “And how did you come across it?”

“Okay,” she paused, “I think one of my animals found it. Because when I came home from the market yesterday, I heard a loud...um... boom. And when I got to the kitchen, I found these in my pot of food I was boiling.”

Mare kept writing what she could. “Alright. Thank you for getting this to us Fluttershy, I’ll make sure to get this checked out for you. Anything else?” Fluttershy shook her head and began walking away. “Okay, you have a good time.”

“You too, Mayor Mare.”

Fluttershy made her way out, passed the secretary and went straight to the door. As she opened it, a lime green pegasus made her way in, before Fluttershy exited the building.

Mare watched the exchange, and followed the pony as she rushed to the office next to Mayor Mare's. She was only going to the local Warrant Officer, probably for a report on suspicious activity, so she didn't pay much mind to it. Only a minute later, though, Warrant Officer Longsword came into her office with his armor ready.

“Ma'am?” She nodded. “We got a special case, regarding a surprise changeling being killed already. I'm going to be taking one of the guards with me.”

Mare gave a curious look, but only nodded in response. Though the changelings had been defeated a few months ago, one popped up every now and again. The curious part, though, is that it somehow it had been killed. It was unusual, but investigating that was the guard's job, not hers.

As the pegasus and her unicorn escort began to exit, another pony barged in. A unicorn mare with chocolate fur. This time, Mayor Mare couldn't help but overheard the conversation.

“Sir! Sir, I need you to know. There's a dead changeling in my house!”

The officer just gave a perplexed look. “Really? Two in one morning?” He shook his head. “Okay, after I look at the situation for this mare's, we'll check out your house as well. Could you come with me while I do so?” The Mare nodded. “Alright. You two wait a second.”

The guard trotted over to the room next to his office. It was a bunk-room with nothing more than practical use in mind. Of course, it really is only used by transfers from other towns that don't care to find a better place to stay, so only a couple of ponies ever end up using it. He peered inside to see a Specialist putting on her armor, and smiled slightly. “You're off patrol duty today, Bash. You have two minutes to get ready before escort duty.”

Suddenly couple of surprised yelps escaped from behind the officer, causing him to whip his head around to see the cause of it. What he saw at the door was a bat-pony. He could recognize this mare as one of the night-guards. Next to the dark pony was a hog-tied figure on the ground, letting out loud breaths from its muffled mouth. He immediately went over to the two and watched as the bat-pony saluted. “Sir!”

“Sit-Rep. Now.”

“Sir,” the bat-pony started, “I woke from comatose in my own home, and after a while, my imposter came and I subdued it as needed.”

“How did you wake up?”

“I don't know sir.” She faltered slightly. “It looked like something had cut it open and drug me out of the pod. There was a trail of dried...uh, stuff from the pod to my furniture.” She had forgotten what the term for it was called, but it was unimportant to her at any rate.

“Well, shit. Go take it to the holding cell. We'll look at your place after I investigate these two ponies.” He said, referring to the civilians at his side. The bat-pony began dragging off the changeling towards a room in the back. The officer looked toward the secretary, whom had been watching the whole scene with surprise. “If anything else happens, tell ponies to wait here. I'll be back before lunch.” He didn't know what was going on, but he could tell that whatever it was, it was not going to be good for him.

And so, they walked out the front door.

“...and that's that full story? Are you sure there wasn't a memory wipe somewhere?” Longsword wrote down some last details on the story of the green mare in front of him.

After she woke up, the pegasus had recalled her last location being in the alley, taking out her trash. She spotted a trail of residue all over her couch and floor, and followed it back to her basement. She had flicked on the crystal lights and seen something out of a dying nightmare. Two gutted changeling pods were on the wall along with a changeling body sitting atop a mess of its own green gooey blood.

She had then gone to the safety of the town hall, screaming of course, before calming down and entering in a more polite fashion.

On another piece of paper, the Warrant Officer wrote down details describing the manner of the death. He noted that the one on the left had a jagged rip while the one on the right was cut perfectly clean. He also noted the trail of residue around the room. The changeling seemed to have run around the place before its predator nailed it next to the wall, and then carried off the mare into the living room.

Whoever it was, he or she seemed to come here before the bug got out of its cocoon. Else, the residue would have dried before the attack, or even, it wouldn't be there at all. This vigilante probably knew what he was looking for before he entered. The only thing that didn't add up was that there was also money missing. Perhaps the vigilante took it as payment, or worse, had a thieving friend with him.

He could only hope that the next incident of that night was somehow connected, so he could get more evidence to find this new threat to the town.

Longsword rolled up his papers as the mare finally responded. “I'm sure.” He nodded and motioned her up the stairs. “I'll get a team for cleanup later today. Thank you for your time.”

“Thank you.”

He didn't like changelings. No one did after the attack on Canterlot a couple of months ago. But this was out of his hooves. Capturing them was the usual method. Killing was only if it couldn't be avoided. If the vigilante knew of the changeling, it could have been reported, therefore he shall be arrested for circumventing authority, and it could have been captured, so first degree murder to boot. Breaking and entering, regardless of whether he knew of the changeling or not, and thievery or aiding a thief.

Whoever was responsible for this, was not going to get a very happy ending.