Guard: As you can see ma’am, they won’t be causing you any more trouble.
Granny Smith?: Chained and muzzled? Now that’s what I like to see! Serves you harlots right! Attackin’ a poor old lady.
Guard: If you could just step this way, ma’am.
Granny Smith?: What?
Guard: We need to have you checked out by a physician and document any injuries for prosecution while they’re still fresh.
Granny Smith?: Well alright, but only so they can throw the book at you five harpies! I hope they make this quick. I need to get back to Sweet Apple Acres. Was just mindin’ my own business, shopping in the market, and the moment I round a corner- WAM! Clocked me like a tee-ball, they did. Is this going to take long? Well? Why did everypony stop?

Guard: Well you see, ma’am, when you walked through that magic disabling device it seems to have turned you into a changeling.

Hissy McFit: Oh… Could… Could I just go quietly and… non-violently? Thisss hasn’t been a great day for me…
Guard: I don’t see why not.
Hissy McFit: I really did get hit in the head. And then stuffed in a trunk. And that was just today. The other changelingsss in Ponyville were pretty mean too.
Guard: Why don’t you get your thoughts together and tell us all about it in a few minutes? [Pause] Send a detachment to Ponyville and arrest the Elements of Harmony. Lyra, you and your friends are cleared for the throne room. All of you, spread word around the castle and secure the parameter around the throne room. Balcony included. The rest of you, on us. We’re going to bring two royal changeling imposters into custody.

Lyra: Thanks for trusting us enough to prove our innocence.
Guard: Foalnapping was never your M.O.. Now, you understand we can’t imprison the Princesses without explicit evidence of their involvement. At best we can occupy the throne room and follow them against their will.
Lyra: Yeah. This is the hard part.

Octavia: Vinyl-… Vinyl if you-… If you could just slow down a tad-! I can’t see a thing when you zoom the vision around like that! … Oh haha. Very funny.

Lyra: It all just looks like a lot of dreamscape nonsense. How does Princess Luna actually go in there?

Octavia: Different spell, different properties, I imagine.

Bon-Bon: Even when she holds it still I can’t make out anything.
Lyra: It’s like watching one of those time-lapse videos, through a telescope, from a foot away. What are we even looking for?
Octavia: Bare in mind I’ve only read about how this works when changelings are involved. Not much opportunity to practice it.

Raindrops: Woah.
Bon-Bon: Everything went dark.
Lyra: Did it break?
Octavia: Changeling dreams. Inky, amorphous blobs that draw in anything healthy and absorb it. They can fool us in the real world, but they can’t hide the darkness in their hearts.

Lyra: So it is changelings. That’s a relief. [Pause] I mean, at least we can fight back without hurting the ones we’re trying to save. Right?
Octavia: I’m not so sure. We’re three against seven. And that’s being generous.
Raindrops: Don’t you mean five against seven?
Octavia: I’m not counting ponies that can’t defend themselves.
Raindrops: That’s… That’s fair.

Bon-Bon: So what do we do? Round up as many ponies as we can and rush them?
Octavia: Ponyville ponies? If this were Cloudsdale or Manehattan perhaps. But Ponyville has about the meekest residents in Equestria.
Lyra: What about Zecora?
Bon-Bon: This is the last time we need somepony to get lost in the Everfree Forest.
Raindrops: So what do we do?

Octavia: I’m afraid I don’t have the answer… The only way S.M.I.L.E. could have been compromised is if the Seeker Network was taken down. And if the changelings got that far… They must have the princesses as well. Which means they have control over the entirety of the EUP. Even CUE… Whatever course of action we take had better work… Because we may be Equestria’s last line of defense…