Dash being in such a state had somehow triggered something within the other ponies of Ponyville, especially with her friends. And it became very clear the next day something was terribly wrong, because none of them were even interested in talking. All their smiles had faded, all the joy had been sucked from their very being. They might as well have been colored grey, because their very mood was downcast and subdued, barely meeting Ben and the other's eyes as they approached.

Gwen tried to speak to Twilight, but she was lying outside her tree, looking up at it as she laid against the grass, blinking slowly. "Twilight?" Gwen spoke up, nervously approaching as Twilight faintly twitched, glancing ever-so-slightly in Gwen's direction before looking back at the library. "Twilight, is everything alright?"

"Every time I look at this tree I feel as though I've lost something of infinite value." Twilight muttered quietly. " A feeling so great and terrible it makes me want to cry. I feel...empty inside." She admitted, slightly rising up, brushing a hoof against the tree. "I don't understand."

"...I don't either." Gwen thought inwardly. Why were they all acting this way?

Kevin nervously poked his head into Fluttershy's home, glancing about. All of the animals were sitting around Fluttershy, who had her face in her hooves and was still as a corpse, Kevin carefully approaching. "Hey, um...I ain't good with touchy feely stuff. Are you okay?"

"I feel like I want to throw up, but I can't bring myself to." Fluttershy mumbled. "Everything about me feels...off. Derpy said she'd come by with some muffins to help me, said the animals would really like them." She admitted as Derpy the pony cheerily walked into the house, a large wagon loaded up with muffins behind her. She tugged it inside, passing them out to the animals as Fluttershy just quietly munched on one of her own. "Thanks, Derpy. I appreciate it."

"Anything for a friend." Derpy insisted, walking towards Fluttershy and hugging her, Fluttershy carefully returning the hug. "You alright? You feel cold."

"I feel that way inside and out." Fluttershy quietly remarked. "Derpy, I feel like I don't belong here. Like I'm just...filling in for someone and I don't deserve to be here. Do you ever feel that way?"

"I think we all feel that way sometimes." Derpy insisted, giving Fluttershy a pat on the shoulder before she and Kevin headed out the door, Derpy closing it behind her before she bit her lip. "I gotta go stop by Rarity's house, she's locked herself in her closet and I think a little wine tasting will cheer her up. But, um, Kevin? Can I ask you something? Is it...better to pretend and be truly happy, or to be honest and feel unhappy?" The slightly googly-eyed Pegasus inquired.

"What do you mean?"

"Say that you, well...um..." Derpy chewed her lip as she and Kevin made their way down the winding path through the forest, the sky slightly overcast as Derpy's blond mane flopped down by her side. "Say you were filling in for somebody. Claiming to be somebody else, and that made you popular with somebody you'd always wanted to like you. If you could keep them liking you just by keeping up the lie, would you? I mean, if nobody was really getting hurt, wouldn't that be okay?"

"Normally I might say 'yes'. But I stopped thinking like that." Kevin remarked. "Cuz if you really want somebody to care about you, you really shouldn't lie to them." He said, shaking his head. "Keeping secrets usually is a bad idea. USUALLY. Not always, but usually."

"Yeah. I suppose you're right." Derpy admitted. "...it can just be hard to be honest when you think the truth will hurt."

Elsewhere, Rook was approaching Applejack's farm, and he slowly pushed the gate open as he glanced about. It let out a soft CRRREEAAAAK as he made his way across the field, towards a slightly open barn door, hearing faint sounds coming from within. Nervously, he tiptoed towards the door, opening it further before peeking inside, seeing Applejack was sitting with her back turned to the door, head hung low, and with her hat lying to the side of her.

"Ms. Applejack? Are you feeling alright?" He inquired with a faint air of apprehension.

"This hat belonged to my dad, y'know." Applejack admitted, her voice...odd...as she held it up, Rook blinking slightly before a question came to mind.

"Your parents? I don't believe I have ever seen them."

"We found out about five years back there was a tar pit in the well in the backyard. It's why we couldn't get fresh water from there and had to build a new one. But we didn't find that out until after Ma and Pa took a spill down into it." Applejack quietly informed Rook as he approached a little, as if afraid she'd snap. "When they died, though, I-I didn't let myself get mad. Cuz, well, I...I reckoned that no matter what, I'd always be able to hold my pa's hat in my hooves, and I could see him and ma's smilin' face when I turned it over. I could always think of their big, dumb grins and nothing could take that memory from me."

"That's a very beautiful sentiment." Rook admitted, or rather, was about to. Because then Applejack turned around, and he saw she had been crying for what appeared to be hours, her eyes bloodshot and cheeks tearstained, voice even more hoarse than he could have imagined.

"I can't remember what they looked like, Rook."

"I don't even think balloons can cheer me up." Pinkie Pie mumbled as she sat on a bench outside of Sugarcube Corner. Her hair was unusually long and flat at the moment, a visible funk surrounding her as she looked at the balloon that she had tied to the bench. She sighed, taking a marker and trying to draw a happy face on the balloon, only for it to pop on the spot. "Yeah. That's pretty much how I feel." She admitted as Ben cringed, walking over to her as Mr. Shinedown took notes in a notepad.

"You're exhibiting all the classic signs of survivor's guilt." He informed her. "Can you tell me what image comes to your mind?"

"I feel as though I'm drowning." Pinkie mumbled, her eyes becoming misty, her tone subdued as she spoke. "I'm entering a lake and just letting go, just...sinking away. I can feel it tingling all over me as I go deeper and deeper, and I don't want to leave."

"How...fascinating." Shinedown admitted, though with an obvious air of concern in his voice. He gave Ben a look. "I may need to put her on suicide watch. Derpy's going by Rarity's house to do the same for her. I don't trust her around all those scissors she has in her home."

"I need to pay a visit myself." Ben commented before he noticed a large throng of people were circulated around a bright white and pink tent, and Princess Celestia was inside, handing out various torches and pitchforks, dressed in full, majestic regal armor. Including the armor that Gwen had spoken about. The armor designed to make attention instantly get drawn to her chest  as she kept handing out various pitchforks to hand to different ponies.

"And here's one for you, and one for you, and one for you, now remember, they're a sneaky bunch, those Changelings, inkblooded little slime. We need to clean their clocks and fix their wagons for what they did to Dashie!" She proclaimed. "Don't forget your Changeling calls." She added with a wave of her golden-horseshoed hoof.

Indeed, various ponies in the crowd held up little red horns, blowing into it. "IMMA GONNA HUG YOU! IMMA GONNA HUG YOU" echoed out, Celestia beaming with pride before taking notice of an astonished Ben. "Why, Mr. Tennyson, how good to see you! I'm sorry I'm not fully dressed." She sighed, running a hoof down her chest and sighing as she hopped out of the tent and walked towards him, Ben noticing something was definitely different about her. A piece of her armor appeared to be gone, and he tilted his head to the side as he looked her over.

"Oh, your...um...your rear armor?"

"Yes, my "fanny pack" is gone." She sighed. "I noticed it missing when I was putting the rest of my armor on this morning." The princess sighed. She'd been sliding on her golden, glittering armor with a spring in her step, sashaying her way across the room, shaking her booty as music played on the nearby radio.

"Have you seen me? On the dance floor! I got the boom, shake the room, bring the lightning and the thunder! They wanna meet me...they wanna touch me! Hold on tight, for the ride, and then all of them will hunger!" She laughed aloud, slapping her behind with one hoof and chuckling as she sauntered over to the closet. Now where had she put her golden butt armor, she mused to herself as the radio kept playing. "I'm gonna show them how to work iiiiiiiii-"

She trailed off, mouth hanging open. It was gone! She tossed various clothes and robes and knickknacks from the mahogany closet aside as they landed on the deep purple bed and the bright red carpeted floor behind her, gasping as she kept digging. "But-but where...how did I...huh?! Where did I put it?" She muttered. "I KNOW I put it in my closet-"

Then she blinked. No, wait. Her closet had been full, so she'd gone to put the fanny pack in her second closet. The one next to...

GULP.

She nervously gulped, reaching for the secondary clothing closet, opening it up. No. It wasn't there. And that meant that, late last night, half drunk...she had put her rear armor into the "closet of unimaginable torment". She cringed as she looked at it, briefly opening it up-

"Care a loooot! Is a place we all can gooo!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!" She slammed it shut, wiping her brow, heart thumping in her chest. That thing was long gone, passed through the space between spaces. Who knew what insane, disturbing place it had ended up?

"I can only imagine where my poor armor is." She sighed to Ben, hanging her head as he scratched his. Unbeknownst to her, the armor was actually not as far off as she thought, because the greasy and green-haired queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis, was struggling to get the incredibly tight rear armor off her butt, howling as she tugged and tugged, gritting her fanged teeth and cringing.

"GET! THIS! THING! OFF ME!" She yelled out. "Heaven's above, it's chafing my ass!" She screeched at her Changeling troops, scraping her ass along the floor, scooting about and yelling. "OW OW OW OW! GET IT OFF ME!"

"I wish I could have nice armor randomly pop onto MY ass." Chief Advisor Pincer mumbled as he sighed and shook his head, going off to get a crowbar.

"This is too far." Ben inwardly thought, cringing visibly at all this. He didn't like the Changelings either, after all, you didn't care much for people that tried to eat you. But she was pretty much advocating for vigilante justice. And looking at her face, he began to wonder. What had he ever seen in her? Where had he gotten that impression of wisdom and sagely, maternalistic drive? This woman was just out of her mind. She was clearly nuttier than squirrel poo.

"Look, the Changelings can, well, CHANGE SHAPE. Your little ponies are, for the most part, going to do two things against them. Jack and squat! And Jack left town." He said, jabbing a thumb behind him. "They're gonna get their butts handed to them!"

"Well, perhaps you'd like to join us in the search for those rapscallions and ruffians?" Princess Celestia asked. "And then maybe, after, you could join me for victory cake!" She said, suddenly pulling out a large cake on a big, flowery plate and beaming.

"Er...um...maybe later." Ben said, nervously booking it away from her. Forget the Changelings, he couldn't help but think of Rainbow Dash. She was still in the hospital. As he made his way down the road towards it, he wondered if she'd be ready to talk. He had been sure she'd been on the verge of saying something very important before she passed out almost in his arms after walloping those Changelings. And he was dead set certain that he could get more of the truth out from her if he just approached things a liiiiittle cautiously.

It'd be difficult. He wasn't a very patient guy. But he'd gotten kind of smarter over the years and his technique was more than just "smash something until the bad thing fell down" now. He could do this.

...

...

...

... "Can I really do this?"

Green had been somewhat disgusted with how the nursing and residency staff in the hospital seemed to be slacking off. They were chatting too loudly, their coats had bloodstains on them to some degree, a few were stupidly playing cards, and the rooms where the patients were not in were a mess. Worse still, the smell of bleach for cleaning was too strong!

Green had ample experience in hospitals. She had to work there during the day when she wasn't bartending at night for years on end, and she knew that bleach was a smell that made patients instinctively despise being in hospitals. You never wanted the place to feel "super clean" so much as "super cozy". A hospital had to give off the feel of a hotel when it came to patient care. Which meant less-strong-smelling cleaning chemicals, chipper nursing staff, and above all, making sure the patients were comfortable and at peace. You certainly couldn't do that if you kept blabbing on and on about RK Yearling's latest book.

"I'm telling you, her foray into adult mystery work is just not quite as gripping as her Daring Do novels." One of the nurses remarked, waving a hoof in the air as Green kept slinking through the vents overhead. "She should stick to what she knows."

"She can't write Daring Do novels all her life. You don't want to get pigeonholed, typecast, that kind of thing." A doctor insisted with a snort.

Still, Green thought. Was she really one to talk about doing what was best for the patients when she'd snuck into the hospital to put an end to Rainbow Dash's life?

It genuinely bothered her. Killing was supposed to be a taboo. Something you simply didn't DO back where she came from. Not even preferable as last resort. Yet the more she thought about it, the easier and simpler a solution it seemed. The Elements of Harmony were clearly messed up. Their leader who had given the people the Elements, Celestia, was a psycho with good publicity. And Green was even more worried about what they could do if left unchecked.

It had started when she'd first arrived, and at first, Green had been captivated. Everything about Equestria was bright, chipper and hopeful. The land beamed with optimism. It gave off a sense of pure, unbridled delight, as it from straight out of a children's cartoon. Eagerly shaking hands with Rainbow Dash, Green had explained where she came from and how eager she was to learn about the place.

"And I'd love to get to know you more." Dash told her with a big, slightly dopey grin. Green hadn't thought anything of it at the time. She'd just gone on the tour, perfectly unaware of what lay in store.

"This is Sweet Apple Acres." Rainbow Dash said as she trotted alongside Green on the dirt road that led to the farm, Green glancing about as she scratched her head. The smell of cider wafted through the air as Dash led her towards an open barn, an Earth pony with orange fur waiting for them as she began pouring some cider from a large tankard into glasses, a little table set up. "Applejack wanted to give you a classic Sweet Apple Acre welcome."

"Y'all gonna hafta excuse my brother, he's as dumb as dirt." Applejack admitted, the table being a large red Earth pony with a mat on top of his back as he stupidly stared ahead, tongue slightly hanging outside of his mouth.

"Yup!" He remarked.

"Tables don't talk, Big Mac." Applejack admonished, Big Mac lowering his head as Green sat down, taking a sip from a cup of cider as Rainbow Dash sat next to her, Applejack sitting across as she smiled warmly. "You enjoyin' your stay here?"

"The people here are very nice so far." Green admitted, putting a clawed hand on her chest.

"You aren't hot in that jacket? C'mon, take it off." Dash offered, giving her a playful nudge as Green shrugged, removing her blue and golden-trimmed jacket, swishing her head a bit, hair flopping about as Dash felt her arm. "Oh, WOW, you've got nice muscles here. Do you work out?"

"I have to break up a lot of bar fights as a bartender back home." Green admitted, slightly nervous at the way Dash felt her chest.

"You are like, sooooo warm." Rainbow Dash murmured.

"Warmer than me?" Applejack wanted to know, pouting a little, lip slightly stuck out as Dash chuckled at this and waved a hoof in the air.

"Oh, relax, Applejack! I'll be enjoying you with some milk later tonight, okay? Promise. Just let me have this." She said, scooting right up to Green and placing her head on her arm. "Please, tell me all about your home. I so wanna know what island life is like. I always wanted to travel. See the world, do incredible things!"

"Um, well, er..." Green was now considerably uncomfortable. She knew the tone Dash was using. She'd seen this behavior, heard this tone a thousand times. Dash was very clearly coming onto her. Her. A mother with half a dozen children! And with GRAND-KIDS!

"Maybe it's just their traditions to be this touchy-feely. Just try and ignore it for now." She'd reasoned to herself.

It became clear early on though, that she couldn't. Because the more time she spent in town, the more...uncomfortable she became. Especially when it came to talking about what they thought of as Harmony. It was as if every single other culture in Equestria was somehow ten times lesser just because they didn't have the Elements. And Celestia almost talked like-

It had seemed ludicrous. But Green had just assumed maybe she'd come at a bad time. Or perhaps, more likely, something was wrong with the Elements. She'd seen this kind of scenario a dozen times over: a magical doodad warping your mind. She had to get close. Had to see the Elements for herself and see if they were screwy.

And she had figured out a simple way to do that.

Her tongue had slowly lapped over her lips as she'd turned to Dash. "Say...we're friends now, right?"

"Of course!"

"Well, it's just...it's such a big thing, but I'm so curious." Green had remarked in an innocent tone, sitting back on the bench, sighing in just the right way so as to let her breasts perfectly rise and fall before she caaaaarefully and purposefully turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash. "Those Elements of Harmony you all talk so highly about. I would really like to see them."

Dash was transfixed. It was as if she'd never seen breasts before, Green moving in closer, scooting in and smiling warmly. "You wouldn't mind showing me...right Dash? Just five minutes?"

Well, she'd fallen for it. Dash had let her into the main hall, the Elements on display in a glass case as Green approached, eyes wide at the sight as they glimmered and shone, Dash sitting in the back with a big grin on her face and a lipstick mark on her cheek. "So? Whaddya think?" The rainbow-haired Pegasus asked as Green put her hand on the glass case, tilting her head slightly to the side. Somehow, something wasn't quite...right. She had thought to sense something. But the air was dead still, there was no forboding aura around these things, there was just...nothing. There was literally nothing to these gems, they were just gems!

"Are they, like, a symbol of Harmony?"

"Symbol nothing, we used them to blast Discord, Spirit of Chaos, and turn him into stone again!" Dash proudly remarked. "SERVES HIM RIGHT after what he did." She glowered, a furious, disturbing glint passing over her face as Green glanced back at the Elements.

If it was just a gem, she'd just repair it later. But Green had to be sure. She HAD to know. She drew her fist back-

Green was jolted out of her memory as a doctor suddenly let out a long "Heyyy" below her. "Is somebody going into flashback!? You can't do that if you're not on break!" He remarked with a frown before a bell rang. "Oh! Lunchbreak. Nevermind, continue." He mused aloud, looking at the window. "You know, it's so nice out. I think we should take advantage of it. All surgeries will now be OUTSIDE today!" He proclaimed, Green watching as they began wheeling patients from various rooms out on top of carts, all whistling cheerily as she groaned inwardly. Because yeah! That was a great idea, taking people from a sterile and safe room and doing surgery out in the open in a land that had COCKATRICES!

Still, with all of them heading out, Green could exit the vent, sliding down to the ground and slinking through the halls, making for a nearby administrative "Patient List" board. Sure enough, Ms. Dash was alphabetically listed and in room A113, so Green made her way towards the long end of the white hallway, glancing about. The hospital was oddly empty except for those patients who'd just been wheeled out. She could only see one or two people in here. Maybe that was a good thing, it meant injury and death weren't common!

She flinched again, finding room A113, Dash lying on her side, facing the window, and evidently asleep as Green held her fist up and clenched it even more tightly. She could feel the sheer force of gravity coursing through her as she stepped forward. She'd just have to be quick about this, get it over with, end the threat the Elements-

A door opening nearby. She dived into the nearby closet and closed it behind her, waiting...waiting. Sure enough, the human came in, Ben Tennyson approaching Dash and nervously clearing his throat.

"Dash, you okay?" He wanted to know. "I thought I'd check in on you." He asked. "I mean, you didn't get a lot of cuts or bruises but you looked pretty crushed when-"

He stopped. Dash was shivering, and he realized why in an instant when she turned to look at him. She was crying quietly, mouth a taut line, eyes filled with pain as she looked up at him. "You're the only one who came to visit me." She said. "...I've been here all day and nobody came to visit."

"...not nobody." Green inwardly thought, guilt rising up in her.

"I...feel like a sham. I feel...fake." Dash murmured. "I don't understand."

"What do you remember?" Ben asked. "Anything at all. First thing that pops into your head."

"I'm...I'm staring at myself." Dash said, her eyes becoming misty. "I'm...speaking to myself. And I'm telling me that my lips are sealed."

"Your lips are sealed. It's a spell, isn't it?" Ben asked, sitting in a nearby chair, hands behind his head as he bit his lip. A spell. Gwen, he had to call Gwen up. Dash seemed the closest to spilling the beans. But maybe he could get more. He had a theory. "Do you remember anything about Changelings?"

Dash scratched her head, trying to sit up. She looked genuinely confused. "I know I don't like them. I know I like beating them up because they...um, they...they imitate you and...something about...Canterlot? Yeah, it was something to do with Canterlot."

Somehow, Ben didn't think this Dash was a changeling who had simply forgotten she was a Changeling. It didn't make sense she'd erase her own memory. Perhaps all of the Element Bearers?

No, that didn't make a lot of sense either because Celestia acted so wrong as well, and so did others in the town. There was no way the entire town could be Changelings nor that Dash could be. If they were, the ones in the forest wouldn't have tried to attack them. Or they would have tried to get Dash to listen by appealing to her Changeling nature. It didn't make sense! What was she, some kind of-

Wait. Another possibility. So simple. So easy. A classic staple of the cartoons he loved watching when he was younger.

"Dash, what do you know about clones?" He wanted to know.

"OH! Clones. Geez, Pinkie did something so silly one time!" Dash said, a sense of warmness entering her voice as she chuckled. "Oh, she cloned herself cuz she wanted to spend time with all of us and there just weren't enough hours in the day. Can you believe that? Ohhh, Pink. She can be so stupid sometimes, but we love her all the same. Don't know how she pulled it off, she's not got any magic-" She blinekd, tilting her head to the side. "...wait, I...was it...didn't she tell me she used some..." She trailed off, blinking some more. "What was I talking about?"

Ben smiled broadly. Now they had a real lead. Who SAID constantly watching cartoons didn't teach you anything?

"Dash, you just gave me the best news I've heard all day."

"Princess Celestia, we managed to track down the Changelings to their cave lair." A slightly worn-out Ms. Cheerliee admitted as she trotted towards Princess Celestia, who was sitting on a portable throne, hooves resting on Big Mac whilst she munched on some Pre-Victory cake, frosting covering her lips. She beamed with delight at this, standing up off the throne and swallowing down the cake slice in a single gulp.

"You've just given me the best news I've heard all day!" She said, the other posse who had been with her ambling along after her, all chatting eagerly amongst themselves as a few prepared a small box of white doves to release in celebration. "So where are our conquering heroes?" Celestia inquired, waving a hoof in the air before a small 'He-hem' echoed out. The crowd stopped, Dr. Whooves dropping his box of doves and gaping as a VERY disheveled and slightly chewed Mr and Mrs. Cake came forward, Fancy Pants and the Mayor following after with various burn marks on their body, a few claw marks down their back and, inexplicably, drawing a cart behind them. The mayor sighed before removing the sheet that was over the cart, revealing a stunned and near-comatose-looking goateed pony with blond hair who had a sausage in his mouth, his eyes bugged out and was half-naked, covered in...stuff.

"The dude does not abide." He muttered as Celestia removed the sausage, looking at the party.

"What HAPPENED?!" She demanded to know.

"Well, we got into their lair. But they were very nice about it, and only beat us up a little." Fancy Pants said, giving a small grin, several teeth knocked out of his mouth...before another fell out. "Woop. There goes my last molar." He sighed, Celestia beginning to grow red in the face."Miss, miss you're turning red."

"OHHHH!"

"Princess, you're turning BLUE!"

"Ohhhhhhhh...ohhhhhhhh!"

"Um...cake?" Dr. Whooves offered, holding up another cake as Celestia slowly, agonizingly turned to look at him, face almost purple now, her voice sounding as though she was on the very edge of-

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"SHADDAP!"