My Little Pony: Morphing is Magic

Chapter 6

by Tricondon

First published 27th of May, 2012

The Mane 6 team up with another Main 6 to fight a new threat.

Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony have saved the land of Equestria from Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling army, but now they face perhaps their biggest challenge yet. A challenge that lurks behind smiling faces and friendly eyes. A challenge that threatens to overtake the entirety of Equestria and enslave its inhabitants. But the ponies won’t face this threat alone. Help comes in the form of the most unlikely of companions: four teenagers, a hawk, and a blue centaur.

Chapter 1

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 1

Jake

My name is Jake. That’s my first name, obviously. I wish I could tell you my last name, or where I live, or the name of my school, but I can’t. It’s too dangerous. See, you may not know this, but Earth is not only inhabited by Humans any more. For a while now a secret alien invasion has been happening. They call themselves Yeerks: tiny little slugs who squeeze into your ear so they can take over a person’s body and mind. When they do this, you’re reduced to nothing but a bystander, a prisoner inside your own mind. You watch as the Yeerk goes to your school, lies to your family, speaks through your mouth and infests your friends. All while you can do nothing but scream and wail in the dark confines of your own mind. They’ve already taken countless worlds beyond our own, including the Taxxons and the Hork Bajir. And now they want us.

You might be wondering why we know about the invasion if it’s supposed to be secret. Well, some time ago, myself and some of my friends were walking home and we happened upon a dying alien. His name was Elfangor, an Andalite, a bizarre cross between a human, scorpion and a blue deer. He told us, that is me and my four friends, of the invasion. I bet you’re thinking, ‘So all we have is a bunch of teenagers against an army of advanced aliens? We’re so dead.'

Well, you’d be right, except for one thing. Elfangor, the alien, gave us one last gift to aid us in our fight: the power to morph into any animal we wish, once we’ve acquired its DNA. With this gift we’ve been able to strike major blows against the Yeerks. Not enough to drive them back, but enough to slow them down. Enough to give Earth a fighting chance.

Which is why you might find it odd that we’d leave Earth unprotected for a time as we fought a new threat. On an entirely new world in every meaning of the word.

“I still don’t understand why Erek called a meeting so suddenly. It’s not like him at all,” Marco complained as he rested against one of the barn’s old timbers. Marco’s been my best friend for as long as I can recall. Complaining is his favourite pastime, with making horrible jokes being a close second.

“If he wanted us to come so unannounced then it must be important,” Cassie said. Her parents owned the barn we were meeting in, since they use it as an Environmental Clinic. You know, they’d find injured foxes or deer or whatever and bring them back here to nurse them back to health. As such, Cassie’s grown up around animals and pretty much loves them. Having wild animals easily accessible has made it easy to acquire new morphs from time to time.

“I just wish he’d show up already. We got this call about forty minutes ago,” Rachel said. She’s my cousin, and at first may seem like your typical girly girl. She loves shopping, gymnastics and talking about guys, but pray to God that you never get her mad. Marco doesn’t call her Xena for nothing.

“Actually, you got the call thirty-seven of your minutes ago. Seven. Even. Minutes. Utes. Uuhhhtes.” Ax continued playing with sounds he found enjoyable. I should explain; Ax is another Andalite. We found him some time ago and rescued him. Andalites have no mouths and communicate via thought-speak, so whenever Ax is in his human morph, like he currently was, he gets distracted by various sounds he makes while speaking. And especially by taste.

“Ax, they are everyone’s minutes. They are my minutes, they are Cassie’s minutes, they are your minutes!” Marco cried.

“We now got the call thirty-eight of your minutes ago.” Marco collapsed into a nearby hay bale.

<Guys, someone’s coming up the path. They’ll be here in about three minutes,> Tobias said. He is what the Andalites call a nothlit, a being who is permanently trapped in morph. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. See, morphing has a time limit. Two hours in any morph, then you’re stuck. Forever. You can’t even try to re-quire a new morph. Luckily for Tobias however, he was able to regain his morphing powers. But his default form is still a red tailed hawk. From his perch up in the rafters, he could easily see the winding path leading to the barn, and was acting as lookout.

“Can you tell who it is?” I asked.

<No. If there was a bit more light, then yes, but I don’t see too well after sunset.>

I turned towards Cassie. “Are your parents due home anytime soon?”

She shook her head. “No, my mom got called in for some emergency, and dad’s out of town for a few days.”

We all turned to watch the door, somewhat apprehensively. Slowly the doors opened and a kind, brown eyed boy stepped in. I relaxed, not even realizing I had been holding my breath. “Hey Erek, how are things?”

“Oh you know, same old same old,” he said shrugging his shoulders. While he may look like a normal kid, it’s really an advanced hologram. Underneath it is an ivory coloured dog like android. Erek is part of a race known as the Chee, who were built by a pacifist race known as the Pemalites. As such the Chee are unable to commit the simplest act of violence. But I’ve seen what they could do. See a while back we found a Pemalite crystal that allowed Erek to rewrite his programming, and he destroyed a whole battalion of Yeerks in around ten seconds. And I don’t mean he just beat them bad, no, they were gone. After that he decided never to go down that path again. Even so, the Chee are invaluable to us as spies.

“So what’s the word? Have the Yeerks decided to call it quits yet?” Marco asked hopefully.

A sad smile formed on Erek’s face. “I wish that too, Marco. Unfortunately, we may have a bigger problem to deal with. I overheard a touching conversation between Visser Three and another one. Visser Seven I think. They were speaking of a new planet, one that could win them the war.”

Everyone in the room perked up at that. Even the various animals in their cages seemed to quiet down. “Do you know what inhabits this world?” Ax asked.

“No, they didn’t discuss it too much. But they did say that there are lots of potential host bodies, ripe for harvesting. But there is some good news. It seems Visser Seven needs more troops to take this planet, so Visser Three is sending some ships off today.”

“And? How does this help us?” Marco responded dryly, clearly unconcerned by what Erek was saying.

“Well, a certain group of ‘Andalite Bandits’ could potentially sabotage the ships while they’re still docked.” There was an air of smugness to Erek’s voice.

Rachel practically leapt from her seat. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s do this!”

“Yes ma’am, Xena Warrior Princess ma’am,” Marco said, and gave a mock salute. This got him a smack in the arm.

“Erek, do you know who is supposed to be on board the craft?” Cassie piped up. Erek, for his part, glanced downwards.

“There are going to be three ships that I know of. One will be stocked with all manner of weapons, while the other two will be filled with Taxxon, Hork Bajir, and Humans.” His voice was heavy with defeat. “From what I hear, there’s going to be about twenty thousand humans on board.”

Rachel spoke up again. “Well, that settles it. We have to sabotage those ships, keep those humans here on Earth.” She turned to me, looking for approval. Everyone else has appointed me their leader, and it’s usually up to me to make the calls. I hate it. Sometimes I wish I could pass the duty off to someone else. But most of the time, I can see why it was made me.

“Prince Jake, if what Erek says is true, then allowing such a planet to fall into Yeerk control will surely lead to our defeat,” Ax said.

“Ax, I already told you. Don’t call me ‘Prince.’”

“Yes, Prince Jake.”

After a moment of consideration I looked at them all. “Alright. We’ll go in, do what damage we can, and then get out.” I turned to Erek. “Do you know when the ships are scheduled to leave?”

Erek nodded. “They’re supposed to leave tomorrow, around midnight. Currently they are stationed in the mountains. A good distance from humans who might stumble upon them but close enough so they can get their troops up.”

I nodded back. “OK, then. After we finish school, we meet up here and set out.”

<I’ll fly by the launch site during the day, scout out the place for us,> Tobias volunteered. Rachel looked up at him.

“Just be careful, alright?”

Tobias swiveled his head around, looking at Rachel with those piercing hawk eyes.

<I’m always careful.>

For a moment no one spoke. Ax broke the silence first, saying that he had to demorph soon. With that, both him and Tobias headed out to the forest, with Erek departing as well. Cassie walked over to the stables, saying she had to administer some medicine to an injured raccoon. After some convincing Rachel agreed to stay with her. So that just left me and Marco to make the trek back home.

We walked in silence for a time, Marco being unusually quiet. That worried me a little, since Marco is rarely at a loss for words. “What’s up man?” I asked.

Marco sighed. “I just feel like we’re going to be really outnumbered tomorrow. And you can stake my life that they're going to be prepared for us.”

I could only nod. “True, but it’s not like we haven’t fought against impossible odds before.” I put my arm around his shoulders. “Listen, if we do get into trouble, I give you full permission to blame me.” I flashed Marco a grin, hoping I didn’t look as nervous as I felt.

Chapter 2

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 2

Rachel

I had a hard time focusing in school the next day. Thinking about a mission that we had planned always managed to distract me. It didn’t help that math never really excited me even before all this alien invasion stuff started anyways. I mean, who can understand this X=Y stuff? Well, Ax probably could, but I never really cared for it. Best to concentrate on the task at hand anyway.

It seemed like the day stretched on and on, as it always did on these kinds of days, but finally the end-of-class bell rang and I shot out of class like a missile. I met up with Cassie just outside the front door, and we began the hike over to her barn. We talked about boring things, you know, like who was getting cuter, maybe getting together to work on our homework, plus I tried to hint to her about getting some proper clothes. Again. But that girl is as stubborn as most of the animals she cared for when it comes to my amazing fashion suggestions.

We arrived at Cassie’s house and headed inside, dropping our stuff in her room. She figured it would still be some time before Jake and Marco showed up, since we did try to keep our meetings secret, and the boys would be taking a more roundabout way. So we decided to kill time by doing some math homework. Cassie’s mom poked her head in to say hi, but didn’t have too long to chat. She had to go to the Gardens, our town’s zoo/amusement park, to see the delivery of a new antelope.

It wasn’t long after she left before we heard the doorbell go off. Cassie headed downstairs and returned shortly after with Jake and Marco trailing behind. Marco had one of his usual dorky grins plastered on his face, while Jake just seemed somber. “So what’s up with you two?” I asked.

“Ah Jake’s just upset because he lost a little contest we had in the way over,” Marco said. While that may have been true, I could tell that something else was eating at Jake.

“You sure you’re alright, Jake?” Cassie asked. At the sound of her voice, Jake seemed to snap out of his thoughts. He gave an unconvincing grin.

“Yeah, just thinking, that's all.” Cassie was about to protest when a tapping sound came from her window. We all turned to see a hawk pecking at the glass. I sighed and opened the window.

“Hey, Tobias. Back from your daily hunt?” Marco quipped.

<Yeah, not too good of a day though. But I was able to check out the spaceships.>

“And?” Cassie inquired.

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Marco interrupted. “They’re just sitting out there in the open? No hangers, no underground facility?”

<Nope. It’s like what Erek said; they’re just in the mountains with a nice battalion of guards between standing in our way.>

Marco threw his hands into the air. “Alright, this is definitely one hundred and fifty percent a trap.”

“We all knew that from the beginning, Marco,” I said. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that we need to intervene.”

Jake nodded slowly. “Tobias, how long would it take us to fly there?”

“Alright, then, Tobias go get Ax. Everyone else, let’s get going, ” Jake commanded.

Everyone else headed outside before me, but I stayed behind for a moment to close the window after Tobias flew out. By the time I made it outside they had all stripped down to their morphing outfits. See the one flaw with morphing, aside from the whole stuck in morph deal, is that you can only morph skin tight clothing. So I was forced to give up my matching shirt and jeans for my black leotard.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on my chosen bird of prey, a bald eagle. I could feel my bones as they began to hollow and shrink, and the ground suddenly got a lot closer as I shrank. Now morphing might actually be cool, if it wasn’t so illogical. Luckily the Andalites found a way to numb the incredible pain that I’d be going through right now.

I glanced over at Marco, who was midway through his own morph, that of an osprey. I had to suppress a laugh, since he was only about two feet tall and had a giant beak sticking out of his face, but he was otherwise unchanged.

I looked at Jake, also about halfway into his peregrine falcon morph. He also had a giant beak sticking out of his face, and his arms were replaced with giant goofy looking wings. His chest was also covered in equally giant feathers.

And then I looked at Cassie. Now Ax had said a while ago that Cassie had a natural talent for morphing, and looking at her now you could easily see why. Unlike the rest of us who looked like a bunch of circus freaks Cassie was smoothly transitioning into her osprey morph. Feathers rippled and sprung up across her skin like droplets of water, and her wings grew smoothly from her arms.

After a few minutes the four of us were all in bird morph riding some midafternoon thermals. The eagle part of me was constantly scanning the ground far below, as easily as if I were reading the page of a book right in front of me. When I turned my head up again, I spotted a red tailed hawk and northern harrier flying towards us.

<Alright, Tobias,> Jake said, <lead the way.>

We all followed behind Tobias, spacing ourselves out appropriately. So many different kinds of birds of prey flying together, especially those that sometimes hunted each other, would likely draw attention.

We flew in silence for a while. It was Ax who spoke up first.

Ax was right. Looking at the area he mentioned, it was fairly easy to see how trees had been cut down irregularly. Silently we descended to the clearing and perched among the bordering trees.

<Alright, Hawk-boy. I see a nice wide-open clearing, but no spaceships,> Marco complained.

<Most likely the ships are concealed beneath a cloaking device, so as to avoid potential discovery by passing humans,> Ax pointed out.

<’Captain, suggest we engage our own cloaking device.’>

<It’s a joke, Ax,> Cassie explained patiently.

he replied after a moment.

<Guys,> Tobias interrupted,

We all stopped bickering and listened. Now that I was paying attention, I could easily hear two voices speaking below us.

“Are you sure this many troops are necessary?”

“According to Visser Seven they are. From what’s been shown to us in the reports, this species isn’t an easy one to take over.”

“I wish they’d give us a bit more information. Not easy to fight something you know very little about.”

“I hear you, but Visser Seven’s been very tight lipped about the whole place. Most likely so she can present the planet to the Council and get a nice big promotion.”

“Well, Visser Three’s being awfully nice to her, don’t you think? Not like him to willingly give up troops like this.”

“You obviously didn’t hear the transmission between the two. Trust me, he’s not too pleased about this one bit.”

“Now that’s more like him. Did you get a look at her new host body?”

“No, but I don’t think he did either. She said to Visser Three that she wanted this new host to be a surprise.”

<Perfect. Now we have Visser Three and Visser Seven to contend with. This war just gets better and better.>

<Marco, do you do anything beyond complain?> I said, somewhat angrily.

<Ax, what do you know of this Visser Seven?> Jake asked, before Marco could respond.

<Ha, she probably tricked Visser Three into lending her these troops then,> I said with a laugh.

<Ok everyone, demorph and go small. We need to sneak on board and do some damage,> Jake said once the controllers had passed.

<Let’s do it!> I said proudly.

<Have I ever told you that I hate it when you say that?> Marco said cynically.

After another quick morph, six flies were zipping around in the clearing. As best as we could we searched for the cloaked ships or any other sign of controllers, but fly vision is not the best. Try imagining a kaleidoscope as your main source of viewing the world, and you might come close.

<Hey, um, guys?> Cassie squeaked.

I spun around in midair and backtracked to her position. Sure enough a lone fly seemed to be resting in midair. I hovered close to the area and soon felt my spiny legs bang against something hard. <Guys, I think we found one.>

<Well, this was a brilliant plan. Now what, oh fearless leader?> Marco said.

For a moment there was silence. <Ax, think we could find a way in?>

<Perhaps, but it will take time, especially seeing as how the ship is cloaked to these primitive eyes.>

Suddenly there was a huge spike in vibrations from the ship. Looking at it as best I could, I saw something appearing in the air. It was like a door opened in the air itself.

<Alright, everyone move! Now!> Jake commanded, and we took to flying again, heading for the door as fast as we could.

It was dark inside the ship; the only light was coming from the open door. As best we could we navigated through the dark and hid on the ceiling. We waited attentively for about ten minutes, but nothing happened.

<This doesn’t seem right,> Marco said. <Where are all the people?>

<Alright, Ax, you find a secluded spot and demorph.>

Ax flew down and began to demorph. I tried to follow him, but the darkness combined with my uncooperative fly eyes made it difficult. The rest of us waited anxiously for Ax’s answer.

One by one we flew to the ground and returned to our normal selves. I was glad for the darkness during this. Watching a person emerge from a fly is not the most pleasant thing in the world. When we were finished I fumbled around for a bit until I hit the lights.

“Oh, wow, they’re really serious about fighting these things, aren’t they?” Cassie commented. All around us were racks of hand-held Dracon Beams, the Yeerks signature weapon, as well as bombs, missiles, and even a fair number of rifles and shotguns.

“Well, this is good,” said Jake. “We take out the weapon ship, which should slow them down a bit.”

“Am I the only one still wondering why the hangar opened so suddenly?” Marco asked.

As if on cue, we heard voices nearing the ship, coming from outside.

“Why do we have to check the ship again? This is the third time today!” One of the controllers from earlier was complaining, fairly loudly.

“Quiet, you fool. Do you really want the Visser to hear you whining? Plus, do you want to be the one that tells Visser Seven that her weapons ship crashed during takeoff?”

“Good point. So does everything check out?” He said after a pause.

“Looks like it. I guess we should head to the human’s ship and prepare for launch. We’ve only got ten minutes before liftoff.” The sound of the door closing behind him cut off the rest of whatever he was going to say.

“Please tell me he did not just say this ship is leaving now,” I asked. Before anyone could answer the computers began to flash to life and the engines roared as they powered up.

I scrambled around, finally noticing a door set into one of the walls. As I neared it, it opened automatically, and I found myself in what appeared to be the control room. Curiously, it was unoccupied. “Ax, get over here!” I called.

The bright blue Andalite calmly walked over, looking around the room. <It is the bridge of the ship,> he stated matter-of-factly. Ax walked over to a computer and stared at the screen for a few moments. <They are controlling the weapon ship via remote. Possibly because they fear one of the missiles or bombs exploding.> He examined the screen some more. <The signal is encrypted, and would take too long to break.>

“Guys, I think we’re in trouble,” Marco spoke up, walking into the control room. He pointed above the computer screen, out one of the windows I failed to notice earlier, and I looked up just in time to see the moon pass by.

<Have I mentioned that I hate being enclosed in enemy ships before?> Tobias said as he, Jake and Cassie came into the control room. He was perched on Cassie’s shoulder, since there wasn’t much flying space for a hawk.

“We are going to be so late for school tomorrow,” I said moments before the ship jumped into Z-space.

Chapter 3

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 3

Twilight

Have you ever had one of those days when your entire perspective of the world is shifted? I don’t mean something like finding out a big secret one of your friends was keeping from you, I mean something that shook your beliefs to the very core, something that you thought was impossible becoming reality.

What’s most funny about those days is that they start out like any other one. Take me for example. My day started with me waking up after a long night of studying. The smell of breakfast floated from the kitchen and tempted me out of my comfortable bed. As I entered the kitchen, still in that half-asleep phase, guided only by my nose, I heard the charming voice of my assistant, Spike.

“Good morning, Twilight! Finally managed to drag yourself out of bed, eh?” he asked looking up from his delicious smelling work.

“Why, what time is it?” I asked rubbing a hoof against my eye.

“About half past ten.”

My eyes shot open, as worry began to cloud my mind. “Oh, no! It’s already past ten?! I’m late! I promised Rarity I’d join her at the spa thirty minutes ago!”

“Chill Twilight, I’m sure she’ll understand,” Spike said as he brought a large plate of pancakes over. “Seriously, you get way too worked up over little things.”

I calmed down a little and began eating Spike’s beautiful breakfast. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“And that’s why I’m the number one assistant!” he said proudly. “By the way, what were you researching?”

“Oh, I found an old book in the archives. It’s got a few spells I’ve never even heard of before. The last one I was looking at was for finding spies. It was supposed to tell the caster how many ponies are in the room with them. I tried casting it last night, but I was alone, so I only found myself.”

“Seems like a weird thing to research,” Spike said while rolling his eyes.

I quickly finished my breakfast and headed for the door. “I’ve gotta go! I’ll be back later this afternoon.” I closed the door behind me and trotted in the direction of the spa.

It was a very pleasant day in Ponyville. The Pegasi had scheduled a partially cloudy day with lots of sun and low winds. I took a moment to enjoy the gentle breeze before I entered the spa. Rarity was already laying back on a massage table, some stallion working at her back, and she smiled when she saw me walk in.

“Ah, so glad you could make it, Twilight. I was afraid you had forgotten.”

“I’d never miss a meeting with friends,” I smiled. “I just slept in.” I trotted over to Rarity, getting onto the table next to her. Aloe, or maybe it was Lotus - I could never really tell them apart, to be honest - came over. Slowly she began to work on my shoulders and lower back, causing me to let out a long sigh of pure bliss. I hadn’t realized how tense I was.

“So, Twilight, how is my little Spikey-Wikey?”

“Oh he’s doing fine, although I think he’s trying to get good Samaritan points.”

“Perfect! Then you wouldn’t mind letting me borrow him tomorrow?” Rarity pursed her lips, taking on that I-have-a-huge-favour-to-ask pose. “I need a number of gems for a new dress I’m designing, and Spike is so much better at digging them up than I am.”

“Sure, I’m not overly busy tomorrow. Just make sure not to wear him out.”

Rarity squealed with delight. “Oh, thank you Twilight, thank you thank you!”

We spent close to two hours at the spa before finally exiting. It felt really good to have all that tension released. I said my farewell to Rarity and headed back to the library. On the way I decided to stop by the market to pick up some more ink and parchments.

As I walked in the front door of the library, I saw the tell-tale sign of green smoke fluttering out the window. I was confused, since that only happens when Spike sends a letter to Princess Celestia.

“Spike! I’m home!” The little dragon soon came bounding down the stairs.

“Heya Twilight! You’re home early. Everything go ok?”

“It was relaxing. Did you send a letter to the Princess?”

Spike shook his head. “No, I didn’t send a letter to anyone. Why do you ask?”

“Never mind. I was just curious.” I placed my supplies on the table and brought the book I had been reading from my room. “So, you want to help me test this spell?”

For a brief moment, I could have sworn Spike looked worried, but the moment passed as quickly as it had come, and he nodded, a large smile plastered on his face. “Sure, Twilight, I’ll help. What do I have to do?”

“Just stand perfectly still in the center of the room.” Nodding, he did as I instructed. I began to channel magic into my horn as I concentrated on my senses. The book instructed me to expand my natural abilities to their fullest potential.

It is so hard to describe what I felt next; I felt the wood beneath my hooves, stretching out to the walls. I felt the leaves in the tree blowing in the wind and the bees outside in their hive. I felt the beating of Spikes heart, as it slowly rose and fell like the tides. I felt the air moving as both of us breathed, heard the beating of my heart against Spike’s.

Wait, something wasn’t right. I was getting another feeling, another presence. It was small, and very strange, but also intelligent. I focused my thoughts, searching the room for this new life. Owlicious was in my room, sleeping, so it couldn’t be him. Again and again, my search led me to Spike, but I kept ignoring the dragon and continued to search for the third life.

Finally I was able to lock onto the foreign presence. Its level of intelligence was on par or even surpassed a pony, but from what I could tell it was very simplistic. But what shocked me about it most was where I found it: wrapped around Spike’s brain, seeping into all the dips and cracks.

I broke the spell and looked at Spike. He was looking back at me, but I saw something different in his eyes. They no longer were the kind eyes of the dragon I had known my life, but dark and sinister. With a strangled hiss, he leapt at me. I ducked instinctively, causing him to impact with the wall. He was back on his feet in a flash, as steam began to form around his mouth and nostrils.

“Hold still, Twilight!” he taunted, “this won’t take long.” With another hiss he sprang forward, claws outstretched and gleaming fiercely in the light. Quickly I ducked my head as he lunged and thrust it back up with as much force as I could. Spike went sailing into one of the book shelves, knocking over all its neatly organized contents.

Rage was now boiling in the little dragon's eyes. He climbed to his feet, and with another hiss a small jet of purple fire sailed towards me. Quickly I conjured a barrier to repel the flames as he slowly advanced upon me. I didn’t know what to do, out of fear of hurting Spike. Unfortunately for me, he seemed to lack that restraint.

Suddenly the stream of fire Spike was hurling at me stopped, and I risked a glance; he was panting for breath and seemed to be struggling with himself. His claws were trembling, and it seemed like every move he made was as if he were resisting.

I took a chance to look around the room. The floor around me was burnt from the flames, but was otherwise undamaged. Books from the shelves had been scattered along the floor, and the far wall possessed slight cracks from impact. My gaze finally fell on a piece of fabric lying on the ground. Another look told me it was the window curtain, which I guessed must have come loose during the struggle. An idea quickly formed in my mind.

I flashed a glance at Spike, who seemed to be regaining control of himself. Seizing my opportunity while I still had one I captured the curtains in my magic. Using my horn as a director I wove them tightly around Spike’s arms and legs. He was tightly bound in seconds, though he still didn’t seem to be aware of it. I then levitated him onto a chair and wove another set of curtains tightly around his waist.

It was only once Spike had been placed on the chair he managed to recover.

“Hey! Lemme go, Twilight!” he said in such a sincere tone that I considered letting him go. But his eyes flicked back to that sinister look, so I stopped myself.

“Spike, I think there may be something wrong with you. I’m worried.” To my surprise, Spike glared at me, his voice taking on an eerie and forbidding tone.

“You should be worried little unicorn. You won’t be much of a threat soon enough.”

Now I knew what was going on. “What are you, and what have you done to Spike?” A thought crossed my mind. “Are you a Changeling? Can you copy dragons now?”

He let out a small humourless laugh. “No, I am part of something else.”

“Then what are you?” I asked angrily.

‘Spike’ laughed again. “I see no reason to tell you.” He looked up, those cold hardened eyes staring straight at me. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

I’m not sure why, but his last words frightened me. The library suddenly felt restrictive and confining. I decided to gag him so as to not listen to any more of his words, and to stop him from burning the curtains.

Satisfied that he couldn’t escape, I headed for the door. I had to get out, find my friends. Maybe one of them knew what had happened to the real Spike, although that also made me pause. If any of them knew about Spike, why wouldn’t they tell me? Unless they were also spies...

“No,” I said to myself. “I can’t start suspecting everypony right now.”

I walked outside, shut the door behind me, shutting off Spike’s plaintive wails, and crashed right into Pinkie Pie.

“OMIGOSH TWILIGHT! There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you! My Pinkie Sense was acting up again, just like last time! There’s a big doozy coming, and since last time it was about you, I figured it’d be about you this time too, so I’ve been running all over but nopony has seen you all day except for Rarity but she said she didn’t know where you were so I thought you went over to Applejack’s but you weren’t there...”

“Pinkie!” I yelled, partly to break through her unending rant, but mostly to relieve some of the stress regarding Spike. For once, Pinkie actually quieted down. I sighed. “Sorry, Pinkie, I didn’t mean to yell. I actually need to speak with you. It’s about Spike.”

“Oh! Is Spike hurt? Is he in trouble? Did he hurt his little paw? Maybe we should go get Fluttershy.” Pinkie paused, staring at me. “Hey, Twilight, why is your head bleeding?”

“What?” I lifted a hoof up to my head, and brought it back down, stained red. “Oh, wow. I didn’t even realize...I wonder if Spike did it.” Noticing Pinkie’s confused expression, I filled her in on everything ‘Spike’ had done.

“I knew it! I knew my Pinkie Sense was right about you! It is a doozy! Spike’s been kidnapped and replaced by a meanie copy!” She brought a hoof to her chin. “Only...that can’t be it. I’m still getting that feeling that something big is gonna happen.”

“What? How is Spike being kidnapped not important?”

As if in response, a huge crack of thunder split the air. Everypony in town looked skyward, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

“Twilight! Over there, look!” Pinkie yelled at me. I considered telling her there was no reason to yell, since I was right next to her, but as I turned towards her, I saw what she did, and felt like yelling myself.

Up in the sky above Canterlot Castle, a huge ball of fire was heading straight towards the mountain. I watched, unable to move; the ball of flame was dead on target for the castle. I felt weak in the knees; Celestia could protect the city, but if she didn’t know where the danger was...

To my surprise, the ball shifted direction in midair. It struck one of the towers of the castle, and even at this distance I could see large chunks of stone falling away, but nothing else seemed damaged. My worry for the castle dissipated, however, as I realized the fireball was now headed for Ponyville.

I felt my mouth open in a scream, but no sound came out. As the fireball neared us, the flames around it died out, and I saw that it was more like a giant metal wagon flying through the sky.

Once again, the strange object changed directions, flying just above Ponyville. Everypony on the ground followed it attentively, while any Pegasi unlucky enough to be in its path flew out of the way, too afraid to see if it missed them. We all watched the metal thing fly over the Everfree, eventually crashing into the side of the mountain beyond. Moments after, the sound hit the town, with ponies everywhere cupping their hooves to their ears, trying to block it out.

Once the sound died, I felt a reassuring tap on my back. I opened my eyes, finding myself staring into Pinkie’s face, an uncommon frown on it. She motioned towards the mountain, and I looked over at it. There was a big hole in the side, with a small fire and thick black smoke wafting from it. I found myself uncertain about the whole scenario, Spike’s case momentarily forgotten.

“Twilight,” Pinkie said softly. “That was the doozy.”

Chapter 4

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 4

Marco

There have been many times in my life when I’ve wanted to just turn around and go home. You know, leave the fighting for someone else and forget this stupid war even existed. Being trapped on an alien spacecraft hurtling through space towards some unknown planet with no idea how you're ever going to get home trumps all of those moments.

I looked out the ship’s window and into the white, fluxing void that is Z-space. Every time we end up here it never ends well.

“Can I just say that this was one of the stupidest plans we’ve come up with? Thus far?” I asked to no one in particular.

“That would make the list up to thirty somethingish by now?” Rachel replied sarcastically.

I made a face at Rachel, but she ignored me and turned back towards Ax, who was busy doing something with the computer. I recognized some things he brought up, like a star map and Z-space trajectory course, but most of the rest was your basic alien technobabble.

“Having any luck, Ax?” Jake asked.

<Negative, Prince Jake. The Yeerks have encrypted their codes tenfold since the last time we accessed them.>

<But you can still break them, right?> Tobias asked nervously.

“Yeah, well, we seem to have plenty of that, don’t we?” I said.

Cassie looked at me. “Marco, I know things aren’t looking too good right now, but getting on edge isn’t going to help the situation at all.”

I sighed and opted to lean against the back wall, watching and occasionally scowling at Rachel whenever she turned around. This lasted for what felt like days as we just kept sailing towards our unknown destination.

“Hey, what do you think this species is going to be like?” I said to break the silence.

Ax said, not even bothering to swing one of his stalk eyes off of his work. < But if the Yeerks have targeted them, they must be formidable to say the least. Something they could use alongside Hork Bajir and humans as shock troopers.>

<Or perhaps their planet is in a strategic location for them,> Tobias offered.

“Must be an awfully dangerous species, then,” Rachel said quietly.

“So what exactly is our plan for dealing with them?” I asked.

“First things first, we need to get control of this ship, or else we’ll be at the center of the Yeerks’ stronghold. And quite likely trapped in there, too,” Jake said after a moment’s thought.

<Prince Jake, I believe I have gained access to ship controls,> Ax said, with a smug tone.

“Great job Ax!” Cassie said encouragingly.

Just then, the ship began to rumble and shake. The disturbance only lasted a few seconds, and the ship was once more flying steadily.

“What was that?” Rachel asked.

<Guys, I think we’ve left Z-space,> Tobias said. I looked out the window to a sea of stars and blackness, broken only by the large sun we were nearing. A fair distance away, probably about the same for Earth and its sun, stood a lone green and blue planet. If the continents weren’t completely different shapes, I might have mistaken it for Earth. It even had a satellite almost identical to our moon.

“Hmm, that’s odd,” Cassie mumbled. “Is there really only the one planet?”

“Though it is lucky that that planet is the right distance away to support life,” I commented.

“Turn us around, Ax. Take us back to Earth. No weapons means a short fight for the indigenous species, right?”

Just then, the ship shook madly, and all of us, save for Ax, fell to the floor.

“Oh, really? I wondered who was shooting at us!” I said sarcastically.

“Oh, this is bad,” Rachel said. “We’re carrying all sorts of explosives with us.”

The ship began to shake again, and two Yeerk craft shaped like large cockroaches came zooming by the window. It was a ship I’d seen all too often.

“We got Bug Fighters coming in fast!”

Ax’s fingers flew over the keypad, and our ship veered to the left.

TSEEEEW!

The sound of the Bug Fighter’s Dracon beams split the silence as it whizzed by, aimed for where we were milliseconds earlier.

“Ax! Turn us around! Take us back to Earth now!” Jake yelled, a hint of fear in his voice.

“Then we fight!” Rachel, of course.

Ax swung one of his stalk eyes towards her. <We have limited weapons, insufficient to defend ourselves.>

“What if we flew towards the planet?” Cassie suggested.

<And right into the Yeerks’ base?> Tobias protested.

“We don’t know how much of the planet they control, and it’s better than being up here where they can just take shots at us,” Jake reasoned, his previous fear seemingly gone.

TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!

Two more Dracon beams shot through space, narrowly missing our ship.

“Ok, I vote for landing,” I said.

With a nod from Jake, Ax turned back to the computer and the ship spun in place, the planet slowly coming into view. The Bug Fighters trailed us closely, firing whenever they got the chance. I just kept my eyes locked on the green and blue sphere slowly growing closer.

TSEEEEEW-BOOOOOOM!

The ship lurched forwards, and I cracked my head on the console beside Ax. I felt something dripping down my forehead, and when I checked my hand came back covered in blood.

<Prince Jake, our left engine has been destroyed and we are rapidly losing power,> Ax said looking up from the flashing consoles.

“Can you get us low enough to eject?”

<Possibly, but I do not favour our chances.>

TSEEEEW-BOOOM!

Another Dracon beam rocked the ship, and for a moment I thought I heard the sound of metal tearing.

<Prince Jake, I believe we may have lost one of our side wings,> Ax said, clinging to the control panel.

“What? You mean we’re out of control?!” I cried, holding on to the console I had cracked my skull on.

Rachel leapt to her feet. “Alright, I’m tired of playing the punching bag. Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine!”

“And how exactly do we go about that?” I asked.

Rachel gave me an ‘are you kidding me?’ look. “Hello, we’re on a ship filled with explosives.”

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?” Cassie asked nervously.

Rachel pumped her fist into the air.

“Yeah! Let’s toss a bomb or three at them!” she said excitedly.

Jake looked like he was considering our options. I don’t blame him. This was a totally idiotic plan.

“Alright, Ax, what’s the best way for us to pull this off?”

“Right. Rachel, Marco, go grab something and stuff it in the garbage chute.”

I slowly rose to my feet and followed Rachel back to the storage area. A few of the missiles and other weapons had come loose, bouncing and skidding around the floor.

I carefully maneuvered around the boxes, crates, and other strange items until I reached the back wall. The garbage chute was easy enough to spot. It had a nice large handle sticking out of it.

“I found the trash can!” I yelled to Rachel, who came walking up next to me, carrying what looked like a metallic black watermelon with bumps around the middle.

“I found the bomb. At least, I hope it’s a bomb,” she said with a grin.

“I don’t feel safe trusting our lives in your hunches, if you don’t mind.”

“Now when have I ever been wrong Marco?”

I decided not to answer that.

With a grunt, I opened the garbage door, and Rachel lifted the strange bomb and dropped it inside. I winced as it clattered against the metal, only relaxing when I shut the door. No sooner had I slammed the door shut than the entire ship shook.

<We have entered the planet’s exosphere,> Ax told us, somehow managing to sound perfectly calm.

“Well the bomb is ready and waiting!” Rachel called back.

There was a long time of silence, until finally Ax spoke again.

The ship groaned as the compartment in the rear of the ship opened, then silence again. Moments later, I heard a distant explosion.

<Direct hit.> Again, as calm as if he were simply reading a book.

“Well, what do you know? It was a bomb,” Rachel said, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

Normally I would have made a huge scene over that, but I was just so grateful to be alive.

The ship shuddered again, and I whipped my head around, wondering what had happened.

“Of course it is,” I muttered moments before the ship began lurching and shaking violently. I fell to the ground, unable to stand, and instead opted to crawl back to the bridge where the others were waiting. Most of them were on the floor, with the exception of Ax, who was hanging onto the console desperately.

Somehow, Jake managed to drag himself up, clinging to Ax for support. He looked through the window, peering down at the planet.

I opted to let that one slip radar, just this once.

“Well, Ax, might I suggest slowing us down?” I said as calmly as I could.

“Ax, we’re headed straight for an object. It’s called the ground!” I yelled, no longer able to stay calm.

“Actually, we’re heading for that!” Cassie said, pointing out the window. Turning around I was shocked to see a huge stone tower rising out from the side of a mountain.

“Oh, man. Ax, turn us! I don’t care how, just get us away from that!” Jake commanded.

We all got as low as we could and braced ourselves.

CRACK-GERUNCH!

We were tossed around the room like a bunch of ragdolls. I hit the back wall, getting a perfect view out the window. To my surprise, we were now flying relatively level to the ground. I could begin to make out the shapes of what looked like some form of settlement, most likely a rural village. Another shake forced my head up, giving me a nice look at where we were heading.

“Guys, mountain at twelve o’clock!”

“Morph! Go cockroach! Or fly! Just go small!” Cassie yelled.

As quickly as we could we all began morphing insect. But every second the mountain got closer and larger.

The floor of the ship got closer and larger to me too, until finally I could no longer look out the window. I felt my bones melt away into nothing, felt a thick carapace form over my back. Two whip-like antennae sprang from my forehead, and spiny jointed legs from my sides.

That was the last thing I remembered right before the ship collided with the mountainside, and my world exploded in a cacophony of light and pain.

Chapter 5

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 5

Twilight

The mountainside was dangerous. A slip or a trip, and one would fall all the way back down. That wasn’t much of a problem for Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy, but for those of us who were earthbound it made the climb difficult. I looked up the cliffside; the black smoke had nearly vanished by this point, though I could see a few lingering flames create odd flashes of light.

“Rainbow, can’t ya fly up, at least tell us if there’s anythin’ dangerous?” Applejack asked. As the most athletic, she was highest up the mountain, aside from Rainbow, of course, who was fluttering above us.

“I already told you!” Rainbow retorted. “It’s too hot! I can’t get very close without scorching my wings!”

“That was over an hour ago, Rainbow. Surely you could get closer by now!”

I sighed as Rainbow and Applejack continued bickering. I wasn’t that much surprised though; this whole situation seemed to have everypony on edge.

“So, what do you think is up there?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“I don’t know, that thing was unlike any celestial object I’ve ever read about. It looked almost like it had been built by somepony.”

“Oh really Twilight, I have seen my fair share of airships and I can tell you, that thing was not like anything I’ve ever seen before,” Rarity piped up. “I don’t see why we’re up here so soon anyways. The recent rain has made this path all muddy. Do you know how long it’s going to take to get clean after this?”

“No, but you’re going to tell us anyway," Rainbow sighed.

“Pinkie, you’re being awfully quiet. Is everything ok?” Fluttershy asked timidly.

“I’ve been thinking, what if that thing was actually a gift from some form of space pony who just wanted to become friends?” She said optimistically. “I just can’t think of a good way to have a party for them!”

“Really Pinkie, that is just the craziest thing you have said yet. And that’s counting everything else you’ve said,” Rainbow said.

“Well do you have any evidence against it, hmmmm?”

“Well no, but-”

“Then I rest my case.”

“Girls! Stop arguing! We’re almost there!” I shouted, my patience wearing thin by this point. I looked upwards again; the flames seemed to have died out at last, and we were nearing the giant hole the thing had made.

It looked like a horde of dragons had raked the mountainside in search of gemstones. The impact site went deep into the solid rock, and the edges of it were warm to the touch.

Warily, I glanced into the depression, and stared dumbstruck for a few moments. At the base of the crater lay a giant metal bug, although it was bent and twisted from the crash. Its body seemed to be made entirely out of steel. This only served to bring up more questions; what built this thing, and how could it fly?

“Oh, my! It looks hurt!” Fluttershy said, her voice full of concern.

“Fluttershy, it was never alive to begin with,” I said in an oh-so-obvious tone.

A flash of blue shot past me, and before I could blink Rainbow was standing on top of the weird metal bug. She banged her hooves against it curiously, and the loud echoing noise suggested it was hollowed out inside.

“Rainbow, get offa there!” Applejack yelled. “We don’t even know if it’s safe!”

“Relax Applejack, this thing isn’t in any condition to do anything,” Rainbow shot back, waving a hoof dismissively. The metal object then gave a small groan, causing her to jump back. Rainbow hovered in the air, laughing sheepishly. “I-I meant to do that.”

Tentatively, we all approached the giant metal bug, with Fluttershy lagging behind. It seemed to just grow larger the more we approached it. I could hear Rarity complaining about the hot ground, but I sighed and tried to tune her out for the time being. Rainbow flew around it a couple times, looking at it intently.

“There aren’t any windows or doors on this thing.”

Pinkie gave a disappointed groan. “But how are we supposed to get the special present inside?”

Ignoring Pinkie for a moment, I also wondered how we were to get inside. “Maybe we could cut through it somehow.”

“Twilight, why don’t yah jes teleport us in?” Applejack asked. I shook my head.

“No, we don’t even know what’s inside. And besides that, I don’t like teleporting when I can’t see where I’m going to end up.”

With no other option open to us at the moment we decided to perform a thorough scanning of the ship. At this close proximity there was no denying that this object was not of pony design. The way the metal had been forged and welded was entirely different.

Suddenly Pinkie began hopping up and down excitedly. “I found something, I found something!” she chanted.

The rest of us all came over to examine her findings. At the very back of the object, or at least what seemed like it, were two pieces of metal that weren’t fully welded together. From the very thin line that separated them, it looked like one of the pieces was movable.

“Well at least there’s a way in,” I said optimistically. “Now, how to open it?”

Cassie

The first thing I noticed was the sunlight streaming in through the window. It felt warm and comforting against my roach body. At first I was surprised to be in roach morph, but then the memories came crashing back like a horrific wave.

<Jake, Marco, Ax, anybody!>

<Five more minutes please...> Marco, of course. I looked around as best I could with my roach eyes, but I couldn’t see much of anything. The ship itself was dark, save the sunlight streaming in. I could tell from the texture under my feet that I wouldn't behold anything magnificent if I could.

<Oh, man. I can’t believe we survived that.> Tobias spoke up next.

<Anyone know how long we’ve been in morph?> I asked.

<Let’s hope you’re right. Everyone demorph,> Jake ordered. I concentrated, focusing my thoughts on returning to my human self. I felt bones reforming, and gave a relaxed sigh at the knowledge that we could still morph back.

After a moment we were all back in our original forms. Ax fumbled around for the light switch, but when he flipped it sparks came off.

<We appear to have damaged the power converter,> Ax stated.

“So, wait, you’re telling me this ship won’t fly unless we can fix it?” Marco asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

“More importantly, can we even get out?” I asked. “Without power, how do we open the door?”

<The doors come with a manual disengage, which should pop the hatch off of its frame and allow it to be removed via physical force,> Ax said as he moved towards the door.

No sooner had he reached it, however, when a loud sound echoed and reverberated through the ship. We all looked up at the caved-in ceiling in anticipation. After a moment without a reply though we loosened up.

“It’s fine. Probably a rock fell on the roof, that’s all,” Jake reasoned. “We did hit a mountain, after all.”

“As well as whatever that tower was,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, do you think the locals are going to be happy about that?” Marco asked.

It had totally slipped my mind that we were on an alien planet right now. I crossed my arms, deep in thought. “Do you think any of the locals will come to investigate the ship?” I asked. “I know humans would definitely send someone to search the crash site.”

“Good point. Plus we don’t know how many of them are controllers or not,” Jake pointed out. “Ax, you open the door and see what’s out there. The rest of us will morph battle morphs and be out soon.”

While Ax began to detach the door we moved back into the control room. Once there I focused on my most common combat morph, a wolf. The first thing I felt was the coarse grey fur spread all over my body like a ripple. The bones in my legs cracked and shifted as my nose and mouth extended into the wolf’s killing jaws. Long knife like teeth slid out between my lips as I watched my hands reform into paws.

Soon a Siberian tiger, gorilla, grizzly bear and a second Andalite came with me to see Ax finally finish his work on the door. He was having difficulty moving it though, since Andalites aren’t the most physically powerful race around.

<Allow me Ax,> Rachel said happily. With one quick swing of her grizzly bear paw she plowed the door off effortlessly. The doorway was suddenly filled with fresh sunlight, which really did help to lift my spirits up.

And that’s when I noticed the smells. It was definitely alien, and yet somehow very familiar.

<There is something definitely here,> I said to the others.

Jake gave me a small nod. <Ax, you’re up>

Ax cautiously stepped from the ship, his stalk eyes darting in every direction.

he reported. Ax exited the ship, a slight drop down to the ground. Rachel followed him outside, then Marco. I hopped out after them and searched the area, sniffing the air. There was certainly a familiar scent, but I couldn’t quite place it. Finally Jake and Tobias exited and joined us.

I perked up my ears.

<Guys, I hear voices,> I told the others. I shifted my gaze towards the back of the ship and stepped towards it slowly. As I neared the corner, I could make out words.

“Rainbow, do be careful! There’s no way you can fit inside that thing! It’s simply too small.” One voice said, clearly female.

“Aw, pipe down Rarity. How do you know you can’t do it if you don’t try?” A second voice, slightly cocky and proud.

“I don’t think this is the best way to get inside the thing anyways.” A third voice chimed in, somewhat annoyed at the other two.

“Yeah! There’s gotta be a better way! Just think of what we’ll find inside! It could be so much fun!” A fourth voice piped up, full of excitement and energy.

Deciding I had heard enough, I growled menacingly and rounded the corner, prepared to attack...only to freeze in my tracks. There, standing behind the ship, stood six small, brightly colored horses. At my entrance, all six turned to stare at me in wonderment. The pink horse smiled and waved a hoof.

“Well hi!”

All my thoughts froze in place. The horse spoke to me, in perfect English. I slowly turned my gaze over the other horses, and felt my eyes widen in disbelief. Two of the horses sported wings from their backs, one of which was floating above the others. And to add to my shock and amazement, two others had horns.

I was dimly aware of the others running up behind me.

<Holy...what are they?> Marco asked.

<They appear to be equine in appearance, but the coloring is quite astounding,> Ax responded.

<This coming from a bright blue alien centaur,> Marco joked.

“Oh no, they look angry!” the chestnut horse said. I noted she wore a cowboy hat.

“Then the only thing to do is to fight!” The blue horse spoke up next, and seconds later dashed past us, hitting Ax in the side. The two of them fell to the ground in a heap. The blue horse was quick to get up and took to the sky again. Once high enough she made a dive at Ax. Seconds before impact however he whipped his tail blade forward and hit her with its flat edge. The horse went veering off course and crashed into the ground.

Behind me I could hear Rachel give a roar. She ran past me and lunged at the other equines. They all scattered, except for the winged yellow one. She flew up into the air, hanging a few feet off the ground, and stared straight at Rachel. Moments before Rachel hit the horse with one of her paws, the horse spoke up in an unusually strong voice.

“No!”

And then Rachel did something I never thought she’d do. She froze. The horse’s eyes grew large and seemed to be concentrating hard, and every second they did Rachel seemed to grow more rigid.

<Rachel, what’s wrong?> I asked privately. I was met with an eerie silence.

The yellow horse smiled, floating over to Rachel and petting her on the head. It was all I could do not to laugh at the absurd situation as Rachel relaxed, letting her arms rest by her side and leaned into the horse’s attentions.

<Is she doing what I think she is?> Marco asked. I nodded in reply and he burst out laughing. <W-Wait until the guys back home hear about this! Mighty Xena bowing to a little horse!>

“There you go. You don’t really want to hurt us, do you big guy?” The yellow horse cooed softly. The others had all gathered together by this point, though the blue horse looked at Ax with great resentment.

“Do you think they came from the bug?” The orange horse spoke softly to the purple horned one, though my wolf senses could hear her just fine.

<Ax, do you think you can speak to them?> Jake asked.

<Am I the only one still weirded out that coloured horses are talking?> Marco asked.

I looked over the horses, a little more relaxed now. They came in several unusual colours, from pink to blue to purple, though the orange, yellow, and white ones were at least what I was accustomed to seeing. Something ate at the back of my mind, however, and I kept looking over the horses, trying to figure out what was so unusual about them, besides the colouring and the talking. I examined them closely, eying the wings on the floating ones, and the sharp-looking horns on the purple and white ones...

<Oh my God!> I said.

<What? What is it?> Tobias asked. I scolded myself, forgetting that they could hear me.

<Guys, look at them. Winged and horned horses. They look just like a Pegasus and a Unicorn.>

<Whoa, whoa, back up. How can they be mythological creatures from Earth? It doesn’t seem possible,> Marco said disbelievingly.

<It doesn’t matter. Right now we just need to clarify some things,> Jake spoke up. <Ax.>

Ax stepped in front of the rest of us and began open thought speak. <Greeting strange equines, my name is...> That was as far as he got before the pink horse popped up in front of him, a huge smile on her face.

“Oh, neat! I can hear you in my head! How are you doing that? Are you like a unicorn?” She gasped. “You have two horns! Are you a double-unicorn?! Can you cast twice as many spells? How do you eat without a mouth? What’s wrong with your tail?”

he said in private speech.

He turned from us and faced the pink horse again.

“Wow, that’s a funny name. Is that what you Space Ponies call yourself? I’m an Earth Pony! Welcome to Equestria! My name is Pinkie Pie!” She gasped again. “We need to have a party and celebrate you coming here!”

Marco let out another round of laughter. <Ok, so not only are they talking horses that look like they just stepped out of a dye factory, but now they have the cheesiest names I have ever heard?>

“Pinkie!” The purple unicorn spoke up. “Give him a chance to talk. Er, mind-talk, I guess.”

The horses all stared at Ax with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

“That...certainly is a mouthful,” the white unicorn said after a minute.

<Well, they don’t seem to be controllers,> Tobias said privately. <Otherwise we’d all be dead right now.>

Jake said. <Ax, ask them what they are.>

The purple unicorn stepped forward, and I assumed she was the leader of the group.

“I’m known as a unicorn, you already know Pinkie is an Earth Pony, and Rainbow and Fluttershy, the ones with wings, are both Pegasi.”

<Ok, they even have the same names as we call them on Earth?> Marco asked again. <Is this all some bizarre dream I’m having? Did I actually die in the spaceship crash?> I gave Marco a friendly nudge in the ribs.

I looked over at Rachel and the yellow Pegasus, which was still petting her gently. <Umm, Ax,> I said gesturing over to them.

As soon as he spoke, the yellow Pegasus quickly fluttered back, holding her forehooves behind her back and looking quite ashamed of herself. I pondered for a moment as to how she had the dexterity to move her feet like that, but didn’t have time to question it before Rachel started to move again.

<Ugh, wha? What happened?>

<Oh, you are going to love this Xena. Not only are we on a world inhabited by colored taking horses, but you were just in the embrace of one for about ten minutes straight!> Marco laughed.

<What?!> Rachel asked with a mixture of outrage and shock.

Rachel walked over to Marco and quickly slammed her paw gently into his face. Even so, gentle for Rachel still meant pain for Marco.

Chapter 6

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 6

Fluttershy

Um, my name is Fluttershy. I’m a Pegasus from Ponyville, but I’m not a very strong flier. I am in charge of looking after all the woodland animals. I know it seems like a strange job for a Pegasus to have, but it’s what I love.

About an hour ago this weird thing came flying down from the sky and crashed into one of the nearby mountains, and my friend, Twilight Sparkle, a Unicorn from Canterlot, rounded up me and our other friends to go investigate. What we discovered was some sort of metal bug filled with exotic animals and an odd blue pony.

Oh, I don’t mean he’s bad or anything like that. I just mean I’ve never seen a pony quite like him before. He’s totally new. His body looks like a cross between a pony and a skinny Minotaur with no mouth, two extra eyes and a scythed tail. Although he seemed friendly, and really smart. He seems to like animals, too, since he was travelling with five creatures who all obeyed him really well. Even I have trouble with bears sometimes.

Rainbow still didn’t seem to like him though. She was always shooting him odd looks as we headed back to town. I hope she wasn’t going to be like this to him forever. That would be really bad

I could see the edge of Ponyville up ahead, when Aximili, the blue pony, stopped.

<Is that your town, Twilight?> He asked. Aximili talked by using something he called thought-speech, where he communicates his words directly into your mind. I was a little afraid of it, to be honest. I’m not used to hearing voices in my head. Although on the other hoof, it is interesting that he evolved the ability to speak without a mouth.

“Yep, this is Ponyville,” Twilight said proudly. “Now I’m not sure it’s the best idea for you all to just waltz on in...”

<That would not be wise,> Ax interrupted Twilight. He turned to the tiger travelling with him, and the two seemed to be having a silent conversation. Did his animals have thought speak as well?

It was a few minutes before Ax turned back to Twilight.

<Is there somewhere nearby where my pets and I may stay without being interrupted or found?> The bear seemed to give an odd expression at his choice of words. I looked at Twilight, who was giving Ax an equally strange look.

“Is there some reason you don’t want to be found?” She asked carefully, and I thought I saw her glare at Ax, but she was smiling the rest of the time.

“Well ponies do tend to overreact a lot, but once they get to know you everything will be extra ok!” Pinkie said happily. Ax’s eyestalks seemed to curve into a confused expression. I guess that’s how he shows what he’s feeling.

<No, I think it would be best if we did not enter town for a while,> Ax said slowly, and I thought he had a bit of a nervous edge to his ‘voice.’

“Aw, is somepony shy?” Pinkie asked leaning in close to Ax. “You know what the best cure for shyness is? A PARTY!” As she yelled, a bunch of streamers and confetti burst out of Pinkie’s mane. Ax eyed her with what looked like disbelief. Even the animals, particularly the gorilla, were taken back by this.

<N-No. I do not think that is the best course to take,> Ax finally managed to say. <All we require is someplace inconspicuous and removed from residential areas.>

Twilight stepped towards Ax, glaring at him with suspicion. “Really, it would just take a moment to clear everything up with the ponies. Then you could come and go as you please.”

Ax swerved one of his eyestalks over to the tiger again. Now I was beginning to grow confident in my suspicions that his pets could thought-speak as well. Twilight must have thought the same thing, since she stepped over to the tiger and yelled in his face.

“Why don’t you want to be found?!”

The tiger was momentarily taken aback by this, but seemed to recover quickly. He looked at Twilight for a moment and seemed to be pondering something in those intelligent eyes. The others all waited around and watched attentively.

<Why do you not trust us?> A new ‘voice’ said. It had an underlying tone of authority.

“So now you want to talk?” Twilight asked, a definite edge to her voice. She was angry, but trying, unsuccessfully, to hide it.

<We had to make sure you were trustworthy individuals,> Ax said. he explained, motioning to the tiger.

All of the girls, including me, let out surprised gasps.

“You...you’re a Prince?” Rarity asked, her voice quavering.

<Ax, I already told you, don’t call me Prince,> the tiger said.

Twilight stepped back from the tiger, and bowed.

“I...I’m sorry, your Majesty. I had no idea.” I looked around as the others bowed as well, and realized I was the only one who wasn’t. With a tiny squeak, I quickly bowed too.

<Ax, shut up and let this play out,> a third voice said. I didn’t know who was talking, since I was still looking at the ground.

Finally we all rose from the ground and looked back at the tiger, who seemed to have an embarrassed look on his face.

Pinkie was shaking in place, though knowing her, it was most likely from excitement.

“OMIGOSH, you’re a Space Pony Prince! Are any of the others Princes and Princesses too?! We need to have a really big, super special party for this!”

<Thanks, but like we said, we’d prefer to avoid going into your town,> the tiger said.

“Yeah, and why’s that?” Rainbow asked. “The way you’re all acting I’m starting to think you’re fugitives on the run.” She landed and pressed her face against the tiger’s. “What’re you hiding?”

“Um, Rainbow. Is that really the best idea?” I asked. I didn’t want us to start fighting again, not after we were just making progress with them.

“So are you going to spill or not?” Rainbow said, oblivious to me. The tiger just stared her down, showing not even the slightest hint of intimidation.

“Rainbow Dash! Stop that!” Twilight yelled. I looked at her; I’d never seen Twilight so upset before. She looked like she was about to burst into flames. “I’m sure they have a very good reason, and I know we’d love to hear it. But tearing at each other’s throats isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

Rainbow retreated from the tiger and placed her hoof behind her head.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Twi,” she said reluctantly.

“Aww, does that mean there won’t be any party?” Pinkie asked sadly.

“Don’t worry, Ah’m sure we can throw ‘em one later,” Applejack said reassuringly. This seemed to cheer up Pinkie, who smiled broadly and bounced around.

<Getting back to the matter at hand, do you have an area we could remain hidden?> The tiger asked again.

“Well, there is the Everfree Forest on the other side of town,” Rarity said. “Nopony in their right mind would go in there, what with all the dreadful creatures that inhabit it.”

<Sounds perfect.> Another new voice, female this time. The bear stepped forward, slapping its front paws together.

<Uh, hey. There’s no way we can get there without being spotted. I can see plenty of, er, ponies all through town.> The tiger, Prince Jake, I think he was called, looked up. I followed his gaze to the bird flying above us in a large lazy circle.

<Do you mind if we step aside for a moment?> He asked calmly. The others nodded in approval, but I could see Rainbow trying to hold back looks of suspicion. Twilight didn’t seem all that trusting of them either, but I couldn’t really figure out what was going through her mind. Her face was curiously blank of any expression.

The five of them headed towards several large boulders and disappeared behind them. Rainbow waited until she was sure they were out of earshot before speaking to us.

“Now what are they hiding? I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust them at all.”

“Yes, it’s true they are being rather secretive with us, but you did attack them when we first met,” Rarity said. “I think you’re the reason they’re not being so open with us.”

“I git the feeling they’re not telling us the whole story,” Applejack commented. “Ah just know they’re hiding something big.”

“Of course they’re hiding something big!” Pinkie said rather loudly. “They’re weird ponies from space! They’ve come to stop me from throwing any more parties!”

“They didn’t even know you existed before today!” Rainbow retorted. I turned away from them as they continued to argue, and walked over to Twilight. She was staring at the ground, lost in her thoughts.

“You’re being awfully quiet, Twilight,” I said gently. Twilight jumped at the sound of my voice. “Oh my, was I too loud? I’m sorry...”

“It’s alright, Fluttershy. I was just thinking about S...something else.”

I moved a little closer to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. She turned her head towards me and I flashed her a friendly smile. Twilight smiled back, but I thought she was forcing herself to smile for my sake.

The sound of Ax’s voice made me give a tiny yell of fright. I turned around to see five birds fly out from behind the rock.

“How d-did you d-do that?” I asked. Rainbow took to the air, giving a yell.

“I knew it! They’re Changelings, all of them!”

<What’s a Changeling?> one of the voices asked. Before any answer could be given Rainbow shot towards them with her hooves outstretched. Before she could collide with them however, her wings were engulfed with purple magic.

“Rainbow, calm down,” Twilight said. “I’m pretty sure Changelings can’t become birds.” She looked over at them suspiciously. “Although this does bring up some questions.”

<Yes, I’m sure it does,> a peregrine falcon spoke with Prince Jake's voice. <None of which we’ll be telling you about right now.> He was silent before adding <It’s safer for you that way.>

“Safer for us or you?” Rainbow demanded.

<Both.>

There was a long and eerie pause before any of us spoke again.

“Oh, um, I’ll show you. It’s just past my house,” I said softly.

“Ah’m comin’ too. Mah farm’s along the way.” I got the feeling that Applejack didn’t trust Ax or his friends that much. I didn’t blame her at all, but we weren’t being the most welcoming ponies in Equestria at the moment.

We finally descended the mountain and returned to Ponyville. Several ponies waved to us as we walked by. I smiled and waved back, but Applejack didn’t appear to notice anypony else. Ax and the others were flying high above us while still staying within seeing distance.

It didn’t take us long to get through town and reach my cottage. I looked up and saw a northern harrier begin to descend towards me

<This is your domicile?> It was Ax. I guessed he was the royal speaker for Prince Jake or something like that.

“Yes, I know it's not much but it’s home.”

Ax said, quite impressed. <It is unlike any I have come across in recent times.>

“Oh, well thank you,” I said as politely as possible.

<We will be in the Everfree Forest. One of us will stop by your home twice a day, to keep you updated on our status. And Fluttershy, no one must know of our presence.> And with that, Ax flew off into the sky. I peered closely, but could only make out dim silhouettes of the others.

“I don’t like it, sugarcube,” Applejack said after the birds had vanished from sight. “They’re hiding somethin’ big, and Ah intend to find out. Even if he is a Prince, Princess Celestia deserves to know.”

“I know what you mean, but how are we going to contact her?” I asked. “Twilight said Spike wasn’t feeling too well. The poor dear.”

Applejack pondered for a moment.

“Well, we could always try the normal mail. Or maybe Rainbow Dash could git a message over to her. She can fly pretty fast, y’know?”

“Yes she can, but do you think she can make it all the way to Canterlot and back in one trip? She’d be exhausted.”

“Ah know, but Ah think it’s worth the risk. Ah don’t trust those shape-shifting folks.”

I let out a small sigh.

“Alright then, do you think we should tell the others?”

“Of course. Ah do trust Twilight and all of them,” Applejack said. “Ah think we should have a talk with the others in the morning. Without our new friends.” I whimpered softly. Applejack isn’t usually one to dislike other ponies so easily, so seeing her like this was kind of scary for me.

“I guess so. Well, it’s getting late,” I said, looking up at the sun as it fell beyond the horizon. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow Applejack.”

“Yep, g’night 'Shy,” she said before turning around and making the journey to Sweet Apple Acres.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7 Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 4 Minutes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

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