Chapter 8
Twilight waited patiently, or as patient as she could be. But nothing happened. Her and Thread bonded, they were so alike, they both loved books and their jobs, Thread was a sewer and had sewed together so many dresses for royalty and upper-class ponies. No one came to them,telling them they were next. No one told them that they could go. No one gave them the answers they both very much needed.Twilight couldn't take it much longer. The others had only just been taken, but it seemed as if they had been gone for ages.
Twilight knew Celestia was in the drawing room with the machine and the unicorn. She had seen the guards walk away, so they would hopefully not catch her either. Twilight snuck out of her room and made her way to the corridor she knew that some Unicorns had gone down, and never come up again. She walked up to the majestic doors and ducked down. She curled herself up, and studied the door. It was very cleverly crafted, crafted so carefully that it would be hard to find a gap between the door and the wall. Even the keyhole was too small. Well,Twilight though.I can fix that. Just as Twilight was about to enlarge the keyhole, it lit up with magic. Twilight froze and then she glowered angrily at the keyhole and turned around.
"How did I know you were going to be here?" Crossed Sword said cheerfully as he made the keyhole big enough for two eyes to peek through.
"How did I know you'd come and ruin it?"
"Hey hey, no need to be so frosty," He said with a mock hurt tone. "I am coming to help."
"And you want to know yourself," Twilight sighed.
"Yes,that too," Crossed Sword added.
They both leaned in, their shoulders brushed each other and Twilight flinched, but Crossed Sword didn't seem to notice.
This is it, to see what the machine really does.
Twilight squinted her eyes and then her jaw dropped.
It can't be true.
The machine buzzed with life, the power bar at just about halfway. The unicorn taken earlier was nowhere to be seen, Twilight guessed she was in the machine right now. Around the edge of the machine stood Celesita, and all of the other 7 unicorns that had been taken earlier on during their stay. Even Rarity. They all stood, they all looked absoloutley stunning. It was hard for Twilight to admit, but they all looked beautiful. They seemed to glow. Twilight looked closer, actually, they did glow. Each one of them had a blue tint and a blue glow.
Obviously a side effect of the machine.
So, the machine did do as Princess Celestia had said. It still didn't feel right, but Twilight had to accept she was wrong. She hadn't believed her ruler, her teacher. A wave of shame engulfed Twilight, she hadn't trusted her leader. She removed her eye from the socket and shared a look with Crossed Sword. Guilt glinted in his eyes and she knew he felt the same. The machine gave a cough and a wheeze and the whirring began to slow down. Twilight peeked through the hole again, wanting to see how the unicorn had changed. The unicorns and Celestia blocked her view of the end point, but she did see a black leg step down, then three more. The legs looked rubbery and had what looked like holes by the hooves. Twilight peered closer, confused. The unicorn that went earlier hadn't been black. It had been blue.
Then Celestia's horn stopped glowing.
Wait? Celestia's horn had been glowing that whole time?
Then the unicorns seemed to lose a skin. The blue-tinted pony skin of their former selves seemed to drop away. Literally.
Twilight gasped in fear as she saw what was underneath the costumes.
Changelings.