“What are you doing here, Shark?” Trixie asked as the changeling approached her, shooting him an untrusting glare. “And who said we’re going to kill Odysseus?”

“What, ya don’t know?” Shark asked as her stopped just short of the showmare. “Odysseus is a high-traitor. Even if he’s caught alive, there’s only one sentence he’ll receive: execution.”

Trixie looked down at Aura for confirmation and the youngling nodded her head solemnly. “… I guess that makes sense,” Trixie said. She began to feel uneasy about the whole mission all of a sudden.

“Hey,” Alexander called out, cautiously approaching the new changeling. “You’re Shark, aren’t ya?” Shark nodded, and Alexander gave him a hard glare. Aura wanted to interject, but she was afraid to get too close to both her brother and Shark. “… You protected Aura, from what I hear… You have my gratitude.”

Shark seemed taken aback by that. Clearly, it wasn’t what he was expecting to hear, and he let out a loud laugh in response. Trixie, on the other hoof, rolled her eyes and scoffed at Alexander’s kind words. ‘Quite a noticeable difference from how he thanked me.’

“So, is he an ally?” Shining Armor asked, still standing in front of Cadance and Luna with his guard at its maximum.

Alexander hesitated before nodding. “For now, at least,” he answered. “At the very least, he isn’t anything you ponies need to worry about.”

Shining Armor nodded and dispelled his built-up magic, but still kept his focus on the new visitor for the time being. “How did you know we would be here?” he asked Shark.

“I didn’t,” Shark said, surprising the captain. “I just happened to see the princess flying this way in her chariot, so I followed ya. That’s all.”

“You followed a chariot… on hoof?” Shining asked, not quite believing the changeling’s story.

“‘Course not,” Shark responded. “That’d be impossible. Nah, I just rented a chariot myself.”

“Well, ‘rented’ is an interesting way of putting it,” a new voice called out, and from behind Shark, another new changeling appeared.

“I’ll give it back to ‘em… maybe.”

The new changeling laughed and then addressed Trixie. “You’re still alive? I’m impressed… By the way, Applejack is looking for you. She’s not too happy about the damage you did to her farm.”

Trixie looked at the changeling in confusion for a second, before remembering the traps that she had laid at Applejack’s farm… and then a realisation hit her. “Ah,” she said, biting her lower lip. “Trixie didn’t remove those traps, did she?”

“Is that bad?” Aura enquired with a worrying look.

“Most of them will be fine,” Trixie said, “But the ones at the farm – unless they’re deactivated soon – run the risk of going off accidentally, as part of a chain reaction from activating the first set of traps.”

“They already have,” the new changeling told her. “A good portion of their farm is in pretty bad shape. She’s not gonna let you off so easily.”

Trixie scratched the back of her head. ‘Great,’ she thought, ‘Now I have two problems on my hooves.’

Luna cleared her throat to interrupt the conversation between Trixie and the changeling. “And what is your story? What is your name, and what information, if any, can you give us on our enemy?”

Shark and his partner exchanged quick glances, giving each other toothy grins, and then looked back at the group.

“Well,” Shark began, “Basically, I was an assassin, sent by Odysseus ta kill Aura. However, Odysseus sent one of his generals after me, so I turned on him.” The group nodded, minus those who already knew what Shark had just told them. “And then, after killing General Razor Tooth, I spent some time hidin’ out in the Everfree Forest ta let my injuries heal.

“When I saw Princess Luna flying over it in her chariot, I went ta investigate. Just ta be on the safe side.”

Shark watched from the shadows of the trees at the border of the Everfree Forest as Princess Luna disembarked from her chariot. Accompanying her were but two Royal Guards, following her as she neared a large tree-shaped house. “What’s she doin’ here? Could she be after me?”

Shark used his powers to disguise himself as a pink unicorn mare with a curly yellow mane and tail. “My last disguise might be recognisable. This one too, if I just suddenly show up in Ponyville out of the blue. But for now, it should be good enough to get me closer to the town without raisin’ any alarms.”

Slowly, Shark left the protection of the Everfree forest and casually walked towards the town. On the way, he encountered a couple of ponies walking by, but they didn’t stop him or ask any questions; they simply waved at him and then moved on when he didn’t respond.

Once he was close to the town’s entrance, Shark looked around to make sure that nopony could see him and then ducked into a nearby alleyway. He watched from around a corner as Princess Luna began talking to some stallion.

‘Don’t I know him?’ Shark thought to himself, searching his memory for the stallions face. ‘Wait, he’s the one who interrupted my fight with Trixie! And he appeared at the farm, too.’

Luna walked back towards the library and the stallion ran off down the street. The two guards remained behind, and Shark began moving down the alleyway cautiously. He sneaked around the backs of the houses and shops that he passed by and stopped at a house that had its back window open.

He peeked up through the window and smiled when he saw that there was only one pony present inside: a white unicorn mare with a spiky blue mane. She was wearing some headphones that blasted out music so loud that Shark could hear from a distance as she washed some dishes with her magic, and Shark used the distraction to slip in unnoticed.

“Oh Octy you so fine, you so fine you blow my mind, hey Octy!” the mare sang to herself, blissfully unaware of the danger approaching her. The moment she put the plate she was washing down on the rack beside her, she was pulled back by some unknown force, and she could only struggle and attempt to scream out as her mouth was covered by her assailant’s hoof.

Shark considered simply killing the mare, but reasoned that complications could arise if her body was found later, and so instead he used his magic to make her lose consciousness. When he was sure that she was out, he used some nearby cloth to bind and gag her.

“I’ll just put her in here for now,” Shark muttered to himself as he placed the unicorn into a wardrobe at the side of the room. Afterwards, he used his powers to take her form. He grabbed her shades and put them on, then looked himself over in the mirror before moving out. ‘There we go. Now I should be able to move about with much less of a problem.’

Upon heading outside of the front door, Shark was immediately barraged with friendly greetings from various ponies around him. He simply waved and mumbled back as he headed down the street, attempting to catch up with the stallion from earlier.

It didn’t take long before Shark found his target standing outside of Trixie’s trailer, talking with two mares and with two more mares nearby. Shark quickly rushed over to a nearby orange stand, pretending that he was browsing through their wares whilst he listened in on the conversations behind him.

“Ah, darn it! She’s not in again?!”

“Applejack, darling, is it really necessary to keep coming back here every day?”

“You bet it is! Have ya seen the damage to our farm?! The repairs ain’t gonna pay for themselves, y’know?”

“Wasn’t she attacked by a changeling?”

“She still used the farm as a weapon! Twilight confirmed that it was Trixie’s magic that set all them traps, and there were more all ‘round Ponyville! Why, Ah don’t know, but she damaged our farm an’ we need compensation!”

“Hey, did you hear?”

“About Princess Luna coming to Ponyville?”

“Why would she come here? And in the daytime, no less.”

“I heard a rumour that she’s seeking the power of the Elements of Harmony.”

Shark grinned and put down the orange that he was holding in his magic. He turned around to see the orange mare walking by the stallion that Shark was tailing, stopping for a moment before running off down the street…

The stallion also began moving and Shark followed after him, making sure not to get too close as he did so. Whenever the stallion turned around, Shark would duck behind some kind of cover, drawing strange looks from the ponies around him.

Eventually, the stallion arrived at the library and stopped. Shark ducked behind some bushes and peered out from behind the leaves. Sometime later, Luna came out of the library and approached the stallion.

“Shock, I have a task for you.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“It doesn’t look like some of them are up to the task. We’ll need to ‘motivate’ them.”

“How many?”

“Just one should do. All we need is one casualty. That should be enough to provoke them into action.”

“Very well then. And anypony will do, right?”

“Yes. I’ll leave the target up to you, just make sure that you’re noticed.”

Shark grinned as he witnessed ‘Shock’ release his disguise and fly away. ‘So that’s their game, huh?’ he thought to himself before he began to consider his next move. ‘They’re not after me, so there’s no reason why I should get involved… Well, I can’t say it isn’t temptin’ ta try and off Odysseus for what he did to me, but then, the chance of seeing that queen fall is pretty tempting, too.’

Shock looked down from the Ponyville Clock Tower through his binoculars, at all of the happy ponies wandering through their town, blissfully unaware of the changeling threat right under their noses. All he needed to do was to pick one of them. One that just screamed weak, kind-hearted, and was the very picture of purity. One that would never harm even a fly, and was completely defenceless to an attack.

Then he would simply have to kill that one pony, making sure that he was caught whilst doing so. Changelings would be seen cold, blood-thirsty monsters, and the Spirits of Harmony would undoubtedly take whatever action was necessary to stop them, without asking even one question.

“Let’s see… that one with the lyre cutie mark seemed pretty close to Twilight… or maybe a family member might be a better choice. Would a foal be going too far? If it’s for Lord Odysseus, I’d do anything… No, there’s no reason why it has to be a child. A grown pony will do the job just fine.”

Shock noticed a purple earth pony leading a group of foals near to the clock tower. He ducked down and tried to hear what she was saying. From what little he could gather, she was a school teacher leading her students on some kind of educational tour around Ponyville. Shock considered this new mare for a moment and grinned wickedly as he rose to his hooves.

‘Killing a teacher? That sounds like a good plan… and she seems to really care for her students, too. She’s speaking to them with the most gentle voice, the most reassuring smile on her face. And they’re looking back at her with looks of adoration and admiration.’ Shock’s body started to release sparks of electricity and he climbed up onto the window, looking down at the teacher and her students below him.

‘And if I attack a few of the students, making it seem like I was after them, too… the Spirits of Harmony will definitely react from this.’

Shock jumped down and extended his wings, charging down at the teacher from above with electricity surging through his hooves. A few of the students noticed the incoming attack and pointed it out, telling their teacher to watch out. But it was too late; there was no time for the mare to move out of the way of the attack.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Shock crashed into the ground, creating a big hole as his charged hooves collided with the hard path beneath him. Upon realising that he had missed his target, Shock raised his head and checked his surroundings.

“Lookin’ for someone?” Shock gasped. Behind him was a white unicorn mare, holding the teacher in an aura of green magic.

“M-Ms. Scratch?” the teacher asked, before turning her attention to the changeling and suddenly flailing about in the magical field. “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!”

“Stop that already!” the white mare shouted before throwing the teacher into the tower. Behind Shock, all of the students had fled to the safety of ‘Ms. Scratch’, who was kicking her hooves to drive the foals away. “Damn brats… GET INSIDE ALREADY!”

The terrified foals quickly began fleeing into the tower, leaving the mare outside with the changeling.

“You’re the one who was following me earlier, aren’t you?” Shock asked, charging electricity into his hooves again. “So, did you know that I was a changeling? Or did that come as a surprise to you?”

“I thought you were an undercover guard,” the pony said, using her magic to levitate a pair of steel claws onto her hooves. “Didn’t think Odysseus would disguise himself as Princess Luna, though I gotta give the guy credit… he really has this whole thing planned out well, doesn’t he?”

“Ah, now I recognise you,” Shock said, focusing on the claws that the pony was now wearing. “You’re Shark. You were the changeling sent by Odysseus to make sure that Aura was dead, isn’t that right?”

“Yeah. D’ya think he knows that she’s still alive?”

Shock shrugged his shoulders. “If he hasn’t heard back from Razor, he won’t mark her off as dead just yet. He wants evidence of her death, after all.”

“He probably shouldn’t have sent Razor after me, then,” Shark said, undoing his disguise and flaring out his wings. “That fool always has to one-up me. There’s no way he would let me kill the target. But as it turned out, that showmare and that little princess made pretty good allies. For a couple of inexperienced greenhorns, that is.”

“Miss Trixie, I believe her name was,” Shock said, taking a step towards Shark. “Well, I made sure that Aura saw that newspaper article, and I witnessed that pony boarding an early train to Canterlot. I wouldn’t hold too much faith in them still being alive.”

“Why would I care if they were alive or not?” Shark charged magic into his horn and unleashed it at Shock, forcing him to jump back a bit to avoid the attack. “I just wanna screw Odysseus over a little bit. That’s all. After you and him are dead, there’ll be no one left who might come after me. Those two being dead just means that all witnesses are gone, which would really be a bonus.”

Shock pointed his horn towards Shark and unleashed a spell of his own. A whirlpool of green magic surrounded Shark and closed in on him quickly. Shark blasted a hole through the whirlpool and charged towards Shock, who was already waiting with his hooves extended outwards.

A bolt of lightning shot out of Shock’s hooves and hit Shark directly. Shark let out a cry of pain as he felt electricity coursing throughout his body and fell to the ground when it was over, smoke rising from his body as a few final jolts worked their ways through his system.

Shark looked up at Shock with a furious look and saw the other changeling preparing to send another wave of electricity through his body. ‘Not giving ya the chance!’ Shark quickly rolled to the side as Shock let loose another blast of lightning, and then took the air. He used his magic to deflect Shock’s next electrical barrage and then threw one of his claws down towards his opponent.

Shock jumped back to avoid being hit by the sharp weapon but the claw stopped in mid-air and honed in on the retreating changeling. ‘He’s controlling it with his magic! I’ve got to strike him to make it stop!’

As Shock continued to jump back, he tripped over a rock behind him and just narrowly managed to avoid being skewered by the incoming claw by using his magic to knock it slightly off course. The claw slashed the side of his face, causing him to yelp and fall to his back onto the ground.

Shark landed on the ground in front of Shock and pulled his steel claw black, wielding it once more on his left forehoof. “Gotcha!” he shouted as he pounced towards the downed changeling, aiming at his throat…

What Shark instead hit, though, was the familiar white body of a unicorn with a spiky blue mane, which was slowly dyed red as blood poured out through the wound and began to soak into the unicorn’s fur.

“The hell?” Shark tossed the unicorn to the ground beside him and looked over at Shock, who seemed just as confused about the unicorn’s presence as he was.

“It’s a good thing you’re so careless, Shark.” Shark’s expression hardened and he looked up to find Princess Luna approaching him… Or rather, Prince Odysseus, disguised as Princess Luna. “But then, you didn’t know about these things, now did you?” Odysseus pointed to a pair of goggles that he was wearing on his head, letting out a soft chuckle. “After those two guards saw you sneaking about, I asked Twilight about the mare that you were disguised as. I checked her home, and sure enough, there she was.

“It’s a nice little present you gave me… because now, we have a pony on the verge of dying, by the hooves of a changeling, and an attempted massacre of a group of foals. Very well done, Shock.”

Shock rose to his hooves slowly and saluted his prince. “Thank you, my lor-” His thanks were cut short by the feel of steel pressing against his neck all of a sudden. Behind him, Shark had pinned his claws against Shock’s neck and was inhibiting Shock’s magic by enveloping his horn with a green aura.

“Well then, it seems you got what you wanted,” Shark said, slowly backing away. “Now how about you just summon the Spirits of Harmony, and I’ll be on my way? Unless you don’t care about losing another one of your precious troops.”

Shock looked at Odysseus with big, pleading eyes that were filled with fear. Odysseus looked back and simply shrugged. Shock stared at his prince with his mouth agape, wishing that he was just seeing things.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Odysseus said, his expression not changing. “He’s not one of my ‘precious troops’. From the beginning, his rank has been the same as yours: a disposable pawn, who is only a liability if kept alive. After all, his loyalty to me is false. So naturally, the best approach is to kill him, before he finds that out for himself.

“Kill him if you want. You’ll be saving me a job… Though it doesn’t matter, since both of you will die right here, right now.” Odysseus raised an eyebrow when he suddenly heard laughter coming from the direction of the two changelings. “You find something amusing, Shark? Or have you truly lost your mind?”

Shark couldn’t help but give Odysseus the biggest grin he could offer, his face beaming with self-satisfaction. “‘Soft and naïve, but strong-willed. Both ponies and changelings are so easily manipulated’.” Odysseus’ expression remained unchanged. “I know your type well, Odysseus… To you, everyone is either a ‘Shark’ or a ‘Razor Tooth’.

“If Shock here was a ‘Razor Tooth’, I could simply kill him now and flee. But if he’s a ‘Shark’…”

“I see,” Odysseus said. “If he’s a ‘Shark’, the two of you could team up on me, is that it? While that is good logic, it seems that it has failed you this time… You’ve injured Shock too much for him to be an effective ally. Not to mention, Shock was always the most sensitive of his three siblings. Right now, I don’t think he has the mental drive to fight me.”

“Who said we’d be taking you out right now?” Shark asked, still grinning from ear-to-ear. Suddenly, smoke of various colours began to fill the area, catching Odysseus off-guard.

“W-What?!”

“D’ya like it?! That showmare had a whole bunch of useful crap just lying in her trailer!” Fireworks began to shoot into the air, along with firecrackers going off on the ground. Loud noises started to erupt from speakers hidden behind various trees and rocks, water began to shoot up from strange mechanism hidden in the grass, and flash bangs thrown into the fray by Shark blinded Odysseus for a few seconds.

Odysseus, gritting his teeth together in anger, used his magic to break every last strange gadget and gizmo that was planted around him. By the time everything had calmed down, Shark and Shock were nowhere to be seen. He heard voices behind him and quickly ran over to the body of the white unicorn mare. She was still alive. Odysseus began to use a healing spell on her, just in time for Twilight to teleport in behind him.

Meanwhile, a good distance away from Ponyville, Shark – now disguised as an elderly grey pegasus stallion – was carrying the body of a still shell-shocked Shock, who was mumbling pleas of mercy to ‘Lord Odysseus’.

‘Man, for a just a bunch of random stage props, those things sure came in handy.’

About half-an-hour later, after travelling nonstop through vast, empty fields, making sure to take cover whenever travellers seemed to be passing by, Shark decided to rest at a vacant spot next to a big lake and lay Shock down by a tree beside it.

Shark grunted as he began using magic to fix up the wound on Shock’s face. “Damnit, snap out of it already!” he shouted, seeing Shock’s face completely void of any and all emotions. “You’re a soldier, aren’t ya?! Stop being so damn pathetic already! He betrayed you, I get it… Doesn’t that just piss you off?! Make you wanna seek revenge?!”

Shock didn’t respond verbally, but did look up at Shark, who was done treating Shock’s wounds as best he could and was now looking out for any ponies that could have been nearby. Up in the sky, Shock noticed a series of chariots flying past. In one of them, he identified Princess Luna. Most likely, the real one. And in the one to its left, he saw… “Chill?”

Shark looked down at Shock. “What’s that?” Shock pointed up at the chariots flying by and Shark grinned when he saw Princess Luna in one of them.

“If the real one is there… Wait, isn’t that Alexander riding with her? Well, I don’t think Odysseus would impersonate her with the real one running free. They’ve got to be workin’ against him.”

“Chill is there,” Shock said, raising his binoculars to see better. “And Trixie and Aura, too… Why are they together? Chill and Blaze should be working for Lord Odysseus…”

Shark kicked the tree behind Shock hard, his hooves just inches away from the changeling’s head. “Why the hell’re you still callin’ him ‘Lord Odysseus’?! And who the hell are Chill and Blaze?!”

“… My older brother and sister,” Shock said. “We’re triplets, but I came out last, so I’m the youngest…”

“I didn’t ask for yer life story… So basically, you three are all on the same side, right?” Shock nodded slowly. “Well then, if they’re hangin’ with that showmare and the princess, what does that suggest to you?” Shock didn’t answer, because he didn’t need to. “They certainly don’t seem to trust Odysseus anymore.”

“…” Shock got up to his hooves and used his changeling powers to don a new disguise. This one was the form of the teacher that he had attempted to kill earlier. “That would be the logical conclusion,” he said, “But regardless of what is truly going on… if Odysseus intended to kill me, then he must have also intended to kill Chill and Blaze… and I will not allow that. No matter what.”

“So?” Shark asked.

“Therefore,” Shock responded, a strong look of determination on his face, “I will do whatever it takes… to stop Odysseus.” The two exchanged grins before looking back up at the sky, where the chariots had just finished passing by. “It seems joining up with them would be our best course of action.”

“Seems so,” Shark agreed. “I can see a small village in the distance. We might be able to find a wagon or something there.”

“And as luck would have it, a noble family just happened to be vacationing nearby, so we actually found a rather nice chariot!” Shock said, finishing up the story. Trixie looked behind the two changelings noticed a nice-looking chariot, with jewels embedded into the sides. Shock turned his attention to Chill. “That’s our story. What about you? And where’s Blaze?”

Chill looked down to the ground and simply shook his head. Shock’s expression turned to horror, and then to rage. His entire body began to shake as he resisted the urge to run off and find Odysseus by himself.

“She died trying to kill Odysseus,” Chill said. “She was trying to protect the two of us…”

“Damnit!” Shock shouted, stomping a hoof onto the ground.

Luna stepped towards Shark. “Well then, we suggest we all start forming our battle plan,” she said, ignoring Shock’s mourning. “We don’t suppose you know where Odysseus will lead the Spirits of Harmony, do you?”

Shock shook his head, but didn’t speak up. “Even if he did,” Alexander started, “It would do little good. Since Odysseus failed to confirm his death, he will alter his plans slightly. Instead, we’d do best sticking to our original plan.”

Luna nodded and turned to Shining Armor. “Captain, you know your troops better than us. We shall leave the task of sorting them into squads to you.”

“Yes, sir!” Shining Armor responded, walking away to organize the troops that they had brought along with them.

Whilst Shining Armor did that, Luna, Alexander, Mystic and Cadance began running Shark through their battle strategies, with Shark offering his own insight every now-and-then. To the side, Aura and Chill told Shock about what had happened on their end since Aura left Ponyville, with Trixie watching over the youngling attentively. Suddenly, a terrifying thought crossed her mind.

‘Shark! That bastard went through my things! No, moreso than that, he somehow broke through the magical lock on my trailer!’ She remembered how she had nearly got into a fight with him – twice – and then considered this new evidence of his strength. She shuddered whilst thinking about how lucky she was that those fights didn’t last long.

Twilight and her friends walked together in silence through the thick forest. None of them had the energy to say anything, considering the circumstances. Their one consolation was that Vinyl Scratch’s injuries were just short of being fatal, and that Princess Luna had managed to save her just in time. But if they had been even a moment later…

The changelings had proven themselves to be a menacing threat to Equestria and they had to be stopped, at any cost.

That was why the six friends had all agreed to travel with Princess Luna to the battlefield, where Princess Celestia was battling Queen Chrysalis. However, despite knowing how important the mission was, there was still something else on Twilight Sparkle’s mind. She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the princess leading them through the forest.

When Fluttershy began to fall behind, Luna sighed and decided to give the six ponies some time to rest in a nearby clearing. She herself went on ahead to scout out the area.

Twilight excused herself from the group minutes later, claiming that she needed to ‘answer nature’s call’. She used her magic to track Luna down, using a strand of hair that she had secretly plucked from the princess earlier that day.

“Continue your surveillance and make sure that not a single pony or changeling gets close to the battlefield without my permission.”

Twilight gasped when she saw Princess Luna ahead of her and quickly ducked behind a nearby tree. What she had just seen… Princess Luna wasn’t alone. She was talking to someone. A changeling.

‘I didn’t want to believe it,’ Twilight thought to herself, before attempting to poke her head around the tree… and stepping on a twig on the ground.

CRACK!

Luna turned around and stared in the direction that Twilight Sparkle was in. Twilight quickly ducked her head behind the tree and held her breath as well as she could. Hopefully, Luna would think it was just a rabbit or something and leave it alone. Maybe-

Twilight heard hoofsteps moving her way, and her blood froze. Not knowing what else to do, she acted pure instinct; she ran, as quickly as she could, away from the approaching princess.