A long time ago when I lived in Manehatten, I encountered a mailmare who turned out to be a changeling, a terrifying creature that I thought facing once was terrifying enough, but back when I first saw the creature that haunted my nightmares for years, I was saved by somepony who at the time, remained a mystery.

So when I encountered the same terrifying creature in Sugarcube corner when I lived in the usually safe town of Ponyville... I didn't take it too well.

"A changeling?" Sweetie Belle’s mouth widened as she repeated the words I’d muttered in terror.

“Flick can you at least get out of this here laundry basket?” Apple Bloom kicked her hoof on the wooden basket I’d closed myself in.

"How can a changeling be here? Rainbow Dash and the others got rid of them things ages ago!" Scootaloo shook her head.

"Well there's clearly one left. “ Apple Bloom smiled smugly, leaning towards the basket. “Hey Flick, maybe it's chasing you. I mean you've seen that thing once before maybe it wants to get you and -"

Sweetie Belle hit Apple Bloom on the head with her hoof, giving her a stern stare as she did so.

“Ouch! What the hay Sweetie Belle?”

"Come on out Flick, it's okay, I'm sure Twilight can deal with it." Sweetie Belle spoke to me softly; she of all ponies knew my fear was always a daunting nightmare on my life.

I burst out the basket.  "Twilight? No! We wanted danger and this is our chance to stop evil!" I leaned over the edge of the basket looking at my fellow crusaders.

"Stop a changeling? Ourselves?” Scootaloo stared blankly at me.

The idea was somewhat ridiculous, hey; even the word changeling terrified me. "Eek! Changeling!" I cried, slamming the lid of the basket shut and hiding in there once more.

"So Mrs. Cake is a changeling? Please don't tell me you're not going to be terrified of her now," Apple Bloom sighed, cautiously looking behind her not willing to admit she might just be scared.

"No. I know who's to blame,” My muffled voice came from inside the basket. “The mailmare!"

"Where ever the mail mare is, danger and horribleness follows! She's evil! I knew she was just like the one I saw in Manehatten!" I buried myself deeper in the fresh fabrics.

"Oh come on it's just a coincidence!" Scootaloo tapped the basket trying to get through to me. "No changeling would show it's face around here with Rainbow Dash on the prowl!"

Apple Bloom laughed evilly. "Yeah, I mean what are the chances a changeling comes after you twice in a row!" ... “Ouch!”

Sweetie Belle had thumped Apple Bloom once more.

"It's the same one, I know it," I whispered to myself. I wrapped my hooves around myself as I lay under the fabrics, rocking myself slowly as if I was going insane.

"So what do we do? I mean it's not like we can stop this thing... Is it worth risking our lives just to try and earn our cutie marks?" Sweetie Belle had a pretty good point.

"So now we've established it's worth risking our lives to try and earn our cutie marks, we need a plan," My muffled voice came from the basket.

"I seriously can't believe you brought the basket with you,” Apple Bloom shook her head in disbelief.

Fuzzy sniffed the basket curiously, wondering why I was hiding inside it.

Sweetie Belle approached the basket and lifted the lid with her hoof, leaning over the edge looking down at me, “Flick, you know , I’m really scared this isn’t going to work out, what if we get in trouble? Like real trouble, fighting a changeling isn’t something we can do,” Sweetie Belle offered me her hoof.

I sighed and took my cousins hoof as she lifted me out of the basket.  “I suppose you’re right, but I wanted this to be our shot at doing something good. Maybe we could have found our cutie marks," I looked down at Fuzzy sadly; the small ferret hopped on to my back and hurriedly scurried up to my head.

"Did somepony say Changeling?" Pinkie Pie burst out of the basket scaring us all.

We all stepped back in disbelief, staring at the happy pink pony that was beaming down at us all from the basket.

"Pinkie how did you-?" I started.

"I was there! Oh it was awful, It was such a terrifying moment when I went to help Mrs. Cake with the cupcake baking and she was - " Pinkie’s eyes widened and her whole body started to shake.

My mouth was wide open, I stared between the basket and Pinkie. “That’s not physically possible! I was in the basket how did you –“

“My Pinkie sense was going just craaaaaaaazy! I mean I should have known there was something wrong!” Pinkie shook her head.

"Okay wait, so Miss Pinkie... You saw it you can help us!” I could hardly believe it; somepony else saw the entire thing.

"I thought you wanted us to sort this out by ourselves," The voice of Apple Bloom came.

I nodded slowly, but quickly thought about the whole situation. "Well, a little help from Miss Pinkie is okay!" I smiled looking over to Pinkie who seemed to be her usual happy self despite the whole situation. I stepped towards Pinkie and looked hopefully up at her, meeting her gaze, the small ferret on my head looked at Pinkie cautiously.  “So you left Sugarcube corner once you saw the changeling right?” I asked.

“Oh my yes, I ran, I didn’t even have some time to get any cupcakes…” Pinkie’s eyes filled with tears that threated to spill all over Rarity’s fabrics.

"Well, We're trying to earn our cutie marks by becoming like you and Miss Princess Twilight and the others, so now we have you, can you keep it a secret and not tell anypony else?” I was nervous at the idea of asking Pinkie Pie of all ponies to keep a secret.

"The elements of harmony the next generation, that’s who we want to be!” Sweetie Belle stepped by me and winked.

“Sure I can keep a secret!” Pinkie Pie squeaked excitedly, quickly bringing her hooves to her mouth. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

And so your aunt Pinkie was here to help us solve this once and for all, of course first we all had to go since it was getting pretty late, so we all headed back to Carousel Boutique to be in the safety of mine and Sweetie Belle’s room.

I put my hoof to my mouth in deep thought. "So I wasn’t in Canterlot for that wedding, how were these things defeated last time?" I sat on my bed in front of my crusader friends, Fuzzy sat next to me.

"With the power of love..." Pinkie Pie sat on the floor, her voice trailed off as she smiled remembering the romance that stopped the previous changeling invasion.

"Hey maybe Flick and Fluttershy can do that then,” Scootaloo hit her hoof in to my side with force.

I groaned and rubbed where she had hit me. "I don't have a crush on Miss Fluttershy!" I argued, blushing slightly. "But hypothetically what if me and her got married?"

"Oh come on, can we just get a real plan together?" Apple Bloom spoke. "Applejack has told me how dangerous these here changeling things are, they could be anypony in the whole town and when they get us they'll -

Apple Bloom had quite a graphic imagination, I'll leave what she said to your imagination.

" - then after that, well we can't exactly stop them cause we'll all be a pile of rotting - "

"Erm, that's enough Apple Bloom." Scootaloo pointed over to me and Pinkie cuddling each other terrified.

"We need to get rid of that mailman,” My last few words became twisted with fear and anger as I cuddled Pinkie tightly.

Scootaloo sat in front of me and Pinkie. “Get rid of the mailmare? but the changeling was Mrs. Cake, you can't just assume every mailmare is a - "

I interrupted Scootaloo swiftly. "I'll complain to whoever it is who actually runs the mail service and tell them that silly mailmare is working with an evil changeling! And also mention for the record, that she's never on time with the mail, and delivers the wrong stuff!" I wiped the tears from my face and composed myself.

"Okay that's ridiculous," Apple Bloom waved her hooves at me to stop.

"Hey half my mail never gets here anyway, she's a bad mailmare! And you know, plotting evil with a terrifying creature that’s pretty bad too," I growled.

"Oh she can't be that bad, maybe you just lose all your mail, look there's even a letter stuck down there!" Scootaloo pointed by the bedside table to a small letter that had fallen behind it.

"Wait what is that?" I reached forward to take it.

Oh that special letter, addressed to a small cottage here in Ponyville, it had a pretty remarkable impact on everything later in the story.

I placed the letter on the bed in front of me. "Not sure where this place is, apparently it’s a cottage,” I spoke, reading the address.

"Why not go drop it off?" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"This letter is months old, I really doubt whoever this is for wants it,” I laughed. "But I suppose it's the right thing to do. I'll deliver it later, and this time I wont forget.” I nodded placing the letter down on the bed in front of me.

Before I could think, Rarity's loud voice came from the other room.  “Flicktailius Flufftail!"

Yeah, I knew I was in trouble when I was called by my horrifically embarrassing full name.

"Where is my laundry basket? I have some important fabrics in there that I need immediately!" Rarity walked in the room, sensing something was different, glancing at us all cautiously.

"Oh, I left it in the clubhouse. I guess you noticed I was in there all afternoon huh…"

“Yes, I did,” Rarity spoke slowly.

I gulped, hoping she wouldn’t ask any questions.

“You shall go and fetch it for me mister, I have some important fabrics in there I need for tomorrow morning," Rarity pointed her hoof to the door, gesturing me to leave immediately.

I nodded. “Sorry Rarity” I whimpered, my tail hung low. I’d always hated getting in trouble. “Fuzzy, you keep that letter safe. I’ll deliver it tomorrow when it’s early," The small ferret remained on the bed curled up next to the letter. I looked to my crusader friends as I prepared to hop off the bed.

"Why not just deliver it now?" Rarity asked, "Oh my, I asked you to deliver that so long ago now!"

"I'll deliver it when it's early, that way I can explain to whoever this is for the reason why it's so late," I coughed slightly glancing at my friends.

"Oh come on Flick do we need to go everywhere with you now?" Scootaloo whispered sharply.

“It could be out there, you have to all come," I panicked, hopping off the bed and running past Rarity.

“Oh! I’ll come too!” Pinkie Pie smiled happily and bounced following me, shortly followed by my crusader friends.

Rarity watched us leave somewhat confused by what was going on.

“So the last time you saw this Changeling, back in Manehatten, you said you were saved by somepony?” Sweetie Belle asked as we walked through the darkening street.

I simply nodded in response.

“I wonder who it was?” Scootaloo pondered.

I stopped for a moment and was lost in a memory, still so vivid in my mind. “I think… well I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Who knows?” I shook my head and attempted to change the subject. “Something I do know though, if we defeat this changeling, we’ll totally get our cutie marks.”

“Oh geez, the day you earn your cutie mark, I’m not looking forward to it,” Apple Bloom directed her words towards me.

“What? Why?” I asked genuinely surprised stopping suddenly in my tracks.

“Come on Flick, you’re totally going to be a cutie mark nark!” Apple Bloom laughed.

Ah yes, a Cutie mark nark, that was a phrase that we’d come up with to describe a certain pony we knew at school, it all happened a few weeks earlier -

"So class please welcome our new student, Fulfilled Intellect, please make him feel welcome and I’m sure you’ll all become great friends!” Cheerilee smiled at the class.

The small pony next to her was a short Pegasus colt with a rather neat brown mane.

“Pfft, another a nerd,” Diamond Tiara snorted from the back of the class.

“Totally,” Silver Spoon scoffed.

"He hasn't got his cute mark!" Apple Bloom beamed to me and the other crusaders, eagerly looking between us all.

“And with a name like Fulfilled Intellect he could be super smart and could have some amazing ideas!” I eagerly spoke, gaining my fellow crusaders excitement.

“Guys do you think he'd join us?“ Scootaloo spoke excitedly.

Oh yeah, a new crusader, that's what we thought, and he was honestly an amazing pony.

He was kind.

I looked at the sheet of paper in front of me. “Pop quiz? Oh yeah! Wait, oh drat I forgot my quill,” I l turned around and looked at Fulfilled Intellect smiling. “Oh excuse me… I lost my quill, could I maybe – “

“Sure go ahead!” He beamed, pulling out a case full of several different quills.

“Wow! I had no idea one pony would need so many quills...” I was stunned by the amount the small case held. “… Thanks!”

He was overall polite.

He seemed like the perfect candidate for our group.

And yet, merely days later..

"We told you hanging out with us would help you get your cutie mark!" Diamond Tiara proudly walked in to the classroom.

"Yeah aren’t you glad you didn’t join the cutie mark losers now?" Silver Spoon sniggered.

"Hey everypony, I got my cutie mark!" Fulfilled Intellect beamed with pride walking in to the class.

Everypony turned to face the small pony proudly showing off his cutie mark, a piece of paper with an A+ stamped on it… like a great big… well, reminder that he was a top student.

And when somepony earns their cutie mark, they like to tell you about it... Constantly.

"You know when I found my cutie mark, It was amazing. I just feel complete you know,” Fulfilled Intellect smiled dreamily. “Not like a stupid blank flank whose hopes and dreams haven't even been fulfilled yet... No offence."

"Oh, None taken,” I muttered.

You get the idea.

A Cutie Mark Nark:  Somepony who after earning their cutie mark, brags to and tells everypony as much as possible when nopony gives a flying feather about it.

Example: That pony who just earned his/her cutie mark is bragging about it constantly, he/she is being a Cutie Mark Nark.

Additional notes: Ponies who do this are super annoying.

I shook my head. "Hey when I earn my cutie mark I'm not going to talk about it constantly, I'm not one to brag, you guys know me better than that. Hey I bet I'll probably get mine before you guys do though, but because I'm a super good friend, I still won't brag."

“Congratulations Flick!” Apple Bloom placed a blue ribbon on my chest. “Last place!"

Okay I was the last of us four to get my cutie mark, but I swear I didn't brag.

"You're so not earning your cutie mark before me," Apple Bloom turned her head away from me as we all walked on.

"I so am, and when you come last place I'll slap a huge ribbon on you that says last place!" I laughed. "Oh just you wait!"

“Sure thing Flick,” Apple Bloom said.

“Well anyway, here we are,” I said looking up at our clubhouse.

“It’s getting pretty late, I might have to head on home,” Apple Bloom yawned.

“Yeah me too,” Scootaloo nodded in agreement, attempting to not yawn.

So me, Sweetie Belle and your aunt Pinkie said goodbye to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and with Rarity’s laundry basket with us, we headed back to Carousel Boutique.

“Thanks for everything Miss Pinkie, you promise you wont tell Twilight?” I asked hopefully, as we finally approached Carousel Boutique.

“I crossed my heart remember!” Pinkie Pie grinned down at me.

I returned the smile happily.

“Okay! Well then, here we go,” Sweetie Belle took a deep breath as we finally prepared to go through the doors.

You see, with the whole changeling thing happening, we didn’t think it was a good idea for Pinkie to go back to Sugarcube corner, due to the potential danger… so -

“Oh you’re back finally!” Rarity happily greeted us at the door, happily looking at the basket.

Before she could stay content however, Pinkie Pie burst out the basket excitedly beaming with happiness. “Slumber party!” Pinkie raised her hooves in the air happily.

I noticed Rarity staring at us somewhat confused. “We forgot to ask… can Miss Pinkie stay over for a few days?” I grinned eagerly.

Rarity’s eyes widened.

“It’s going to be fun!” Pinkie beamed.

Rarity smiled a clearly fake smile. "Oh joy..." Next Chapter: Chapter 14: (ACT I Finale): Final Nightmare Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes