A few weeks passed and it seemed that as we left Equestria as we knew it, the only thing in our wake was the evil Rabil was spreading. There weren’t any weird weather changes, or it just being night, or whatever, you could just feel it, kinda like when you can feel you’re not going into someplace right.

“So then, Shining Armor here, finally decided just to hoof me over the head, instead of using his magic.” Phalanx said as we walked along. In the distance we could see the jungle where the changelings resided, but it felt like we were just heading back into Equestria.

“Alright, let’s go over our responses again.” Shining Armor said, but Phalanx looked at him.

“Trying to get off topic, are we?” Phalanx asked. Shining Armor glared a little and continued.

“So if we suspect that one of us is a changeling, what do we ask?” Shining asked.

“What was the Element’s connectin’ event?” I replied.

“And the response is the Sonic Rainboom.” Dash finished, obviously excited she had been mentioned, specifically her record-breaking flight speed.

“And what was the name of Rarity’s supposed diamond?” Applejack asked smugly, Rarity embarrassed at the mention.

“Tom.” Scootaloo said with a grin.

“And what did you like about that Smartypants’?” I asked Sweetie Belle, and I saw Twilight blush a little.

“Her mane.” Sweetie Belle replied a bit mechanically.

“Good, at least we will have someway of getting away in the case the changelings turn foul.” My father said, shooting a glare at Phalanx. What was going on between those two?

“Well, we’re less than a day away, let’s set up camp.” Phalanx said, the sun was starting to set. Twilight got out some of the stuff while Diamond Tiara walked up to me. She had somewhat become a friend with Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and I.

“Aren’t you nervous, Apple Bloom?” She asked. We had all been dreading this, because it could go either way. They could help us, or they could kill us.

“Course Ah am, but we gotta do this.” I said as I got out some of the tent parts. I had very little visions of what was happening with Rabil, but when they did occur, it was him getting more and more furious he couldn’t find anything about Naqril’s plan for defeating him. My father walked over and as he got out part of the tent cover, I asked him the question, “What’s goin’ on between you and Phalanx?” My father stopped and took a second.

“He’s a very, at least in my opinion, arrogant and selfish colt.” He said, “And I don’t understand why Shining Armor trusts him so much even though he knows that.” That was definitely something I had not seen coming, in my opinion, Phalanx was a pretty decent colt. He took time to listen to everypony’s opinions, and was kind to everypony. I thought my dad was the teensiest bit crazy.

“Why do you say that? He’s been nice to everypony and doesn’t seem like that at all!” I replied. My father looked at me with an odd expression.

“I’m leaving it alone now, okay Apple Bloom?” He said. I sighed and helped put up the tent and I walked over to where Twilight was, and she was discussing something with her brother.

“You’re positive your spell won’t make us stick out like a sore hoof to them?” Shining Armor asked, and Twilight responded.

“Well, unless they have a Changeling equivalent of me, I highly doubt that.” Twilight said.

“It couldn’t hurt to -” Shining Armor said.

“I’m fine Shining, why don’t you go talk to Cadence?” She replied. Shining Armor walked off and Twilight noticed me. “How are you Apple Bloom?” She asked, and I just replied with a look, to which she said “Okay then.” I decided to ask her something.

“Twilight, what do ya think is gonna happen if we don’ get the changelings tuh help us?” I asked. She frowned a bit, and replied.

“I don’t know Apple Bloom, but if we get to that, we’ll figure out then, we can only hope for the best.” She said. I walked off and decided to go to sleep, I was going to have a long day ahead of me.

I woke up and Scootaloo was tapping her hoof, seemingly impatient. “Finally, everypony else is about ready to go.” She said. I smiled a bit and got up and as soon as I got out of the tent I jumped as the tent collapsed. Twilight walked up and got everything into a saddlebag and gestured she was ready. Everypony else was looking around waiting.

“Let’s go.” I said, and we started hiking towards the jungle. It took a couple of hours and nopony said a word during it. We all were scared, although Rainbow Dash refused to acknowledge it. Fluttershy seemed to be determined, and hardly scared at all, but I realized that she wanted to get Rabil back for killing her friends. Everypony had their own reasons for being here, but they all were ready to die for the cause of killing Rabil. As we got to the edge of the jungle, Rarity gulped, but for a different reason.

“I have to walk in that?” She exclaimed, “It’s so, dirty!”

“Of course she’s scared because of that.” Scootaloo whispered to me. Applejack went and nudged her.

“Come on, Rarity, maybe you’ll find another Tom.” She said, laughing slightly. That seemed to break her out of her cleanliness trance and she scowled at Applejack. I started walking into the jungle, and it was tough terrain. Every hoof or so there would be a root, plant or somethin’ else. The sky was obstructed by the tall trees, and it felt warmer, and much damper. Animals’ chirps and cries were in the background, and I started to wonder just how wise of an idea this was.

“You know, much of this jungle is unexplored. Only a few ponies have ever come here.” Phalanx said in a harsh whisper. “One of the few books that was written about it actually is still in print.”

“What book is that?” Twilight asked, curious about one of her favorite topics.

“I think I read it before, it’s Joseph Coltrad’s ‘Heart of Dampness’, it’s a pretty interesting book. He was the first pony to ever establish recorded contact with the changelings. Think he was one of the few they liked.” Phalanx said. Just as he finished that, a branch snapped and we all stopped. A voice that sounded like a insect hummed.

“Prey, prey has come. Why has prey come?” It said. Then, a horde of changelings came out of the trees, and hovered above us. Shining Armor spoke up.

“We need to speak to your Queen. It’s of grave importance.” He replied.

“The ponies must have come to exact their revenge upon us.” One of the changelings said. Another one spoke up.

“They must want to kill our Queen, because she attempted to invade their land.” The other changeling said.

“He’s being honest, okay!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “Right now, some really evil thing has come back to this world and is ready to rule all of it with his evil. It doesn’t matter if you’re not Equestrian, right now we’re all in danger!” The changelings seemed to take it in for a moment, and then started to laugh. Things were going bad quickly.

“And why should we listen to a little filly’s mare tale?” One of them said over their hysterics.

“They may actually be telling the truth.” One of them said, with a different voice quality than the others, it sounded more gravelly. The others stopped and looked at the changeling, who flied towards us. “Don’t you remember the group that came earlier to tell us about them?” It asked the others. What? How could have anypony else known we were coming here. “Queen Chrysalis herself has heeded their advice and ordered the group before us to not be harmed.” The changeling offered its “hoof” and told us “Come with me, the Queen’s been expecting you.” We followed the changeling through the jungle while the others flew along, watching.

“Why did they all stop and listen to this changeling?” Twilight hissed to Phalanx.

“I think that this changeling is a drone. The changeling species is predominantly female, and the males have a special role, they’re drones. They carry out the Queen’s rule. I think Coltrad mentioned them at one point.” Phalanx whispered back, the changeling either didn’t hear the conversation or didn’t care.

After a few minutes, we walked into what seemed to be a clearing, but the trees still covered the top somehow. What was in the middle though, was surprising. It was a giant cocoon of sorts, which was in the middle of a large dip in the forest floor. It seemed kind of odd, yet beautiful in its own way. We walked towards the entrance, where two changelings stopped us. One of them asked the changeling who had saved us, “Why do you bring outsiders?”

“They are the ones Chrysalis ordered not to be harmed.” The changeling replied. The sentry changelings acknowledged that and let us in, and I walked up to the changeling.

“What’s yer name?” I asked him.

“I am Drone Cocoon, and yours is Apple Bloom, and your friends are Scootaloo, the young pegasus, and Sweetie Belle, the young unicorn.” He said matter-of-factly. I was about to reply with a “nice to meet you” when I realized he knew my name. And my friends’ names.

“How in the hay?” I asked him, but he replied quickly.

“Chrysalis will tell you.” He replied. I realized we had gone underground and we went into a large hollow. “Queen Chrysalis, they are here.” Cocoon informed her as he bowed. Chrysalis looked up and for a second had a look of relief, before she saw Shining Armor. Then, she saw Twilight and Cadence. I could tell she was not, eager, to see them. Cadence looked not happy to see her, along with Twilight and Shining.

“Well, hello Queen Chrysalis.” Sweetie Belle said, just as she was cut off by Rarity.

“Sweetie Belle, you don’t address royalty like that.” Rarity hissed, but Sweetie Belle shoved her off.

“Look, we all did not meet each other on the best of terms, but right now we need to focus on the task at hand.” Scootaloo said. Chrysalis took the opportunity to speak up, and answered my question.

“If you are wondering why I was expecting you, I will cut to the chase. About three weeks ago a group of ponies came here, and instructed me that I was to hold an audience with you, that our world relied on it, and that there would be no harm to come to you.” She explained.

“Wait, they just strolled right in?” I asked.

“Of course not, my changelings initially tried to attack them, but one of them gave a, shall I say, quite impressive display of why they should listen. The unicorn was obviously very skilled with magic.” Chrysalis said, and I noticed my father frown. The unicorn did sound kinda similar to the one who had threatened him in the first place.

“What kind of magic?” Twilight asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Somehow, they were able to manipulate sections of the forest into flame without themselves being harmed.” Chrysalis responded, “But why are you here?” We explained to her the events leading up to our departure, and she seemed just as worried as we were. “If you are heading to talk the dragons, then I would recommend you take Drone Cocoon with you, so he can inform us of when you are ready.”

“So you will help us?” Shining Armor asked, seemingly doubtful of Chrysalis’s easiness with this whole thing.

“I will help you, our survival depends upon it.” Chrysalis replied. “I must recommend you leave soon, though. Perhaps Rabil is trying to get the dragons under his control as well.”

“Well, then, let’s go!” I said, but Chrysalis responded.

“I can teleport you to a colony of ours near their homeland, it will make your trip much shorter.” She said, and Twilight looked doubtful.

“That’s not safe! Teleporting thousands of miles can kill you!” Twilight said, but Chrysalis laughed.

“Not if you’re the equivalent of an alicorn.” She said and everything went black momentarily.