"Did Blueblood specify why we're here?"
Stepping off the flying carriage outside the Ponyville town hall, Raven Inkwell turned to ask her good friend.
"Nope." Starlight Glimmer answered simply as the two mares walked towards the center of Ponyville, "He disappears for a week because of something related to his Everfree Fiasco that he doesn't tell anypony about, and now that he's presumably done with whatever that was, he's telling us to come here and clean up a mess."
"Well, seeing as it's Ponyville, it's probably fair to assume it wouldn't be too bad." Raven said as Starlight pushed open the doors to the building, "It's probably just a magical experiment gone wrong because of the Elements of Harmony's aversion to safety regulations-" Raven Inkwell stopped mid-sentence as she looked at the sight before her.
"Changelings..." Starlight Glimmer groaned as the word left her mouth, "Why did it have to be Changelings?"
"And Blueblood isn't here anymore..." Raven Inkwell pointed out, causing Starlight's eyes to light up in realization.
"Shit!" The Unicorn said, ignoring the small dragon that walked up towards the two mares as her horn began to shine with a turquoise light.
"You're the help Prince Blue- woah!" Spike the Dragon began to speak as he walked up to the two older mares, only to find a wave of magic washing over the town hall. "What was that?"
"That was me trying to figure out what happened here," Starlight said as her horn began to shine brighter as the spell she cast started to take effect.
"Wha-" Spike began to ask, only to pause as he looked behind him, watching a somewhat translucent copy of himself walk backwards from where he stood, as if copying his movements in reverse.
Raven Inkwell turned to look behind her, watching translucent copies of herself and Starlight walk back out of the town hall, the door shutting behind them.
Before their very eyes, the small group watched the events of that day begin to play out in reverse, like a tape recording being rewound.
They watched as the Changelings in the middle of the room got tied up in reverse. They watched the janitorial crew of the building come and wash the building, only for the rewinding illusion to make it seem like they were smearing grime and green sludge all over the building.
They watched as Prince Blueblood and the Elements of Harmony left the town hall. They watched as-
"Pause!" Starlight yelled, the rewinding illusion freezing in place, allowing her to walk closer to the illusion of the green orb that the Wielders of the Elements of Harmony were surrounding, watching a now annoyingly familiar face appear in the orb.
"Queen Chrysalis..." Raven Inkwell said with a hint of worry in her tone, "This is much worse than a simple mess to clean up..."
"Fuck!" Starlight blurted out, "Stars Dammit!" She turned away from the illusion and began walking in circles around the mostly empty town hall lobby.
"Starlight!" Raven Inkwell spoke up, "I know the situation is difficult right now, but as a representative of the crown, even if you're just a temporary assistant until Blueblood returns, you need to-"
"Don't you get it, Raven?" Starlight turned to look at her friend, "Chrysalis is involved, and she just gave Blueblood a map to find her! Knowingly or not!"
"I'm going to need you to explain..." Raven asked the Unicorn.
"Is.. Is Blueblood joining the girls a bad thing?" Spike spoke up, still confused as to how he should be taking the entire thing.
"Bad?" Starlight repeated the word, "It's catastrophic, is what it is!" Starlight's horn stopped glowing as the illusion faded back into the cleaned-up town hall.
"Why is it bad?" A changeling asked, tilting his head innocently as if he truly did not understand the situation.
"Because the Queen and the Bloody Prince love to hate each other, doofus!" Another Changeling responded to the first.
"It's bad because I know Blueblood," Starlight spoke up, "And Blueblood hates losing!" Starlight resumed her walk, circling the lobby, "And last time he fought Chrysalis, he lost. Which means that he wants to get back at her, which is not a good thing!"
"Wouldn't defeating Chrysalis be a good thing?" Spike asked, "That way she won't be able to do things like this again, right?"
"It would be a good thing, sure." Starlight nodded, agreeing with the baby dragon's point, "However, that is counting on Blueblood being able to win!" Starlight Glimmer stomped her hoof onto the floor in frustration, "Every time those two fight, they end up worse than last time. Blueblood gets more injured, and Chrysalis just grows stronger and stronger. It hasn't even been a month since Blueblood fought Sombra in the Crystal Empire, and he's spent the last week in the Everfree Forest doing who knows what!"
Starlight turned to the crowd of spectators consisting of an Earth Pony, a Baby Dragon, and around forty tied up changelings, "Whenever Chrysalis comes up, it's as if Blueblood loses all sense of self-preservation as some primal corner of his brain urges him to punch her in the face as hard as he can! He doesn't plan ahead; he doesn't strategize. The last time he fought her, he spent the better part of a month as her prisoner!"
"...We need to get back to Celestia-"
"No!" Starlight interrupted Raven Inkwell, "If Celestia hears about this, she'll abandon Canterlot and rush out to fight Chrysalis herself!"
"Isn't that a good thing for you?" One of the Changelings asked.
"Yeah, Princess Celestia is really strong!" Another Changeling spoke up.
"NO!" Starlight stomped her hooves, "It's not a good thing! Celestia needs to focus on preparing Canterlot for the Secretariat Comet! If she leaves, who knows what kind of magical disaster could happen!"
"Ooohh..." The Changelings quieted down for a moment, "Wait a minute, that's good for us, right?"
"Yeah! If Canterlot is destroyed, that means we win! I think..." Another Changeling agreed with him.
"WILL YOU PEANUT GALLERY SHUT UP ALREADY!" Starlight shouted at the tied-up Changelings, a soundproof bubble appearing around them, "Raven! We need to tell Princess Luna to prepare a rescue mission!"
"You mean I need to prepare a rescue mission, and Princess Luna needs to be there to make things seem legitimate?" Raven Inkwell said tiredly, "Very well, let's go. I'll send some guards to pick up these changelings once we get back."
"Wait for me, I'm coming with!" Spike the Dragon spoke up as she followed the two mares, "I'm sure there's something I can help with!"
And without waiting any longer, the group of three left the Ponyville town hall, entered the flying carriage, and were flown back to Canterlot Castle.
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The Elements of Harmony stood at the foot of a mountain, and before them stood an ancient path dug into the mountain hundreds of years prior.
"Do we really need to go through there?" Fluttershy asked her friends as they walked towards the ancient mine.
"It would be the fastest way for you six to pass the mountains," Prince Blueblood said as he looked up at the mountain and squinted at it, as if judging its height.
"Hey! What do you mean You Six?" Rainbow Dash turned to the Unicorn that spent the last couple of hours with them, just quietly following and observing things, "Are you just leaving now? Huh?" The Pegasus scowled at the Prince, "Did a little bit of danger suddenly scare you?"
"Banish the thought~" Prince Blueblood waved her words off, "I merely have some matters I must prepare that would require me to take a detour," The Unicorn turned back to looking at the mountain, "Best of luck to you all, knowing Chrysalis, you're going to need it." And with a simple flicker of light blue magic from his horn, he disappeared. Vanishing from their sight as if he were merely a hallucination.
"Show off..." Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight Sparkle, watching her look at the map shown in the green orb, "So, what are we waiting for?"
"If the Prince needs to do something else, that's fine with me!" Applejack said loudly, "I'm still going to save Apple Bloom!" And without waiting for her friends to say something, Applejack walked into the ancient tunnel system, urging her friends to pick up the pace.
She was going to save her sister, with or without the Crown's help!