Dear Diary,

Dash is alive… Not sure how to feel about that. Hopefully Twilight will know what to do…

How long was Twilight going to be gone? Trixie and I sat in silence, waiting for her to return, for some time. It felt like at least an hour had passed. Maybe Dash had awoken, or maybe Twilight had to tend to the wound.

In the absence of something to distract me, my mind started to attempt to recreate the scene from after I blacked out, based on what I had been told. How I had been able to deal with Dash the way I supposedly had was the hardest for me to picture. Dash was fast beyond anyone I had seen, and her little stunt in the forest before the whole Changeling nonsense began told me she probably had the precision to back it up. Mostly.

The differences between this and the first time the amulet activated struck me. When confronted by the Royal Guards in Twilight’s home, I had still retained some semblance of control. I had felt every detail of my surroundings, and I had supplied the will to stop the guards. Or perhaps I only thought I had. Regardless, this time I was already unconscious when it happened and my body had moved on its own. Had this amulet become an entity of its own, like “Molly” had been, as Twilight had suggested?

Then I was distracted from my thoughts for a moment. Trixie had started to blow on a lock of her hair hanging in front of her eye to pass the time. Her expression exposed how dreadfully bored she was. Again, like when she was at my bedside, I noticed that she had positioned herself so her cleavage was on display.

I tried not to let my mind go further down those lines, so I turned my head ever so slightly away to make it less convenient to stare. However, I had to admit, it was hard not to think about. Her earlier teasing had left me frustratingly susceptible to her current display. Something hardly needed to begin with.

Trixie made a sudden move I didn’t quite catch, but it served to draw my gaze back to her. She had moved her left arm, but for what purpose? The answer came almost immediately when I noticed that one of her nipples now rested gently at the edge of the neckline of her shirt. It had a slightly darker blue color to it than her skin. Blushing I looked away. Ugh, I was glad Twilight didn’t see that.

“It is a shame,” Trixie said simply, moving her garment back in place. Glancing to her I saw she had her devious little smile back, but showed no intention of continuing on her own.

Alright, I’ll bite, I grumbled to myself in the back of my head. “What’s a shame?”

“That you’re not Rarity’s boyfriend,” I did my best to retrieve my eyebrows from the back of my head, making her chuckle. “Then Trixie could take advantage of her being the Element of Generosity and make her share, to see what she saw in you.”

I for a moment I couldn’t decide which feeling was stronger: the frustration or the urge to laugh at what she had said. Also it hit me, rather strongly, that I would have a hard time imagining Rarity sharing in such a way, Element of Generosity or not.

In the end I chose to say nothing at all and hope the conversation turned back to silence for the time being. Trixie was attractive to be sure, but I liked to think I had a little more integrity than that. I wasn’t about to jump inside a girl I barely knew just because Twilight and I were in different rooms for a few hours.

My mind wandered back to the dream I had had of Dash and Luna. Something about it had made me start to wonder. Or, more aptly, something about the way Luna decided to handle our private meeting all the way back when I first visited Canterlot and the feeling of the dream. It had felt a lot like the dreams where I was visited by Sombra or Luna, which made me curious as to whether the Luna in this one was just that, a dream, or if what was left of Luna had…

I buried my face in my hands. Was I really thinking about that? No, that was probably Trixie’s teasing getting to me again. Then again, if she had the power to enter and affect dreams, there was no telling how much being in a dream, that is to say in a consequence free environment, affected how she acted in it. Grand Theft Auto came to mind, or perhaps Saints Row would be a more apt example, given the nature of dreams.

“Are you ignoring Trixie again?” the blue one raised her voice a bit, looking rather annoyed at me. I had to blink a few times before realizing what she had said, or even that I was looking at her. I halfway expected to find myself drooling absentmindedly, but luckily that hadn’t happened. It felt like I had been spacing out a lot these last few days.

“Yes,” I retorted, with a devilish grin at her narrowing eyes and huffed up cheeks. Felt a little better to say than it should have, but she deserved it.

“I think you should go and try to talk to Dash,” Twilight entered the room and carefully closed the door to Dash’s room behind her before she spoke up. Both Trixie and I turned our heads in her direction as soon as we heard the door move.

“Wait, why him?” Trixie objected.

“She won’t talk to me about how she feels,” the princess dumped herself down by the table, carefully avoiding eye contact. I nodded. Yeah, perhaps she would be more open to talk to me.

**

“Hey,” I said as the door closed behind me. Dash was in a bed much like the one I had woken up in, laying on her side. Those wings had to be annoying to sleep with. She raised her head to see who it was and I thought I saw a glimpse of something on her face. I couldn’t make out if it was that she was glad to see me, or terrified. She sat up in the bed and I noticed that she was bare-chested save for some slightly dirty bandages, as if they had been on for a little while, covering the midsection of her stomach. She didn’t seem bothered about having her chest on display for me though.

“Hey,” she answered hesitantly as I made my way to the side of her bed. I sat on a small stool that Twilight had probably been using while she bandaged Dash. I gave her a smile I hoped was warm and forgiving, but I was distracted a bit by the bruises on her throat and back of her shoulders.

“How are you feeling?” She sighed and turned her gaze to the floor, swallowing. I continued to smile as best I could. “You can tell me at your own pace. If you want, we can talk about something else for a while.”

“No!” her voice rose, before she blushed and quieted down. “No. I- I want to talk about it. I just don’t know where to start. It’s just… I’m the Element of Loyalty damn it! I’m supposed to be the one who will never falter from my friends’ side, and still it is always I who do. So if you want to know how I feel; I feel like shit. And now I’ve got this Changeling creep that appears to me and… and I don’t even know how long I can resist her…”

“I know what that is like,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, but you still managed to save people. All I did was to kill Zecora.”

“You helped save us in the tunnels-“ I began to protest, but she interrupted me.

“No, you saved the two of you in the tunnels. And you are the one whose loyalty to Twilight has never wavered. You’re much more deserving of my Element than I am,” I took a deep breath, trying to think of something to say in response to this, but Dash didn’t give me much of a chance to come up with something. “See? You can’t even think of something to say to make me feel better. It would be better if you just left me here and did what you needed to do. I’m worthless.”

“I- but-“ I was taken aback at how serious her tone was and the tears that started to form in her eyes. What could I even say to that? I knew I hadn’t felt much better when Twilight tried to comfort me when I was down like that.

“Since I already have my tits out, you can just fondle them as you like. Or do anything else you’d like to me. I guess that’s all I’m good for now: some quick physical relief. Celestia knows I’ve caused you and Twilight enough trouble already. No!”

I was about to berate her for seeing herself that way when she mashed her teeth together and vehemently shook her head. Her eyes shot to over my shoulders frequently and she got a pleading look to her whenever our eyes met.

“This isn’t you, Rainbow Dash,” I said, doing the only thing I could think of; I took hold of her head on each side, forcing her as good as I could to look at me and only me. “All the shit you’ve said about yourself? That is just the Changeling trying to break you. You’re better than that. I know you are better than that. Even when you were down like this, the only thing you care about is being there for your friends. Stay with me, Dash!”

Our faces were merely a few inches from one another and I could see her struggle to keep focus. “You’re a good and loyal person, still putting us higher than yourself. The Changelings can’t change that if you don’t let them. You let yourself stay behind to be captured so that Twilight and I could escape; don’t lose the will to fight them now! I’ve learned that if you can see them in your head, you can fight them. If I can do it, you sure can. The Dash I know would never give up on such a challenge!”

She pulled my hands from her head. I was sure her eyes seemed to be more focused, more relaxed. It would probably take a lot more for her to break the control, but I hoped it was a start. She embraced me in a hug as best she could from the bedside.

As she let go, I brushed my hand by her chest. When she didn’t react, I hastily moved my fingers in and pinched her nipple.

“Hey! What was that for?” she fumed at me, but I just laughed.

“Sorry, I had to check if you were back to your more combative self,” I stuck out my tongue at her, jumping back a step or two from the bed.

“Once I get out of these bandages, I’ll show you my combative self,” she retorted, putting her hands up like it was a boxing match.

**

“How’d it go?” Twilight looked up from the table the moment I came out of Dash’s room. I had insisted that the walking LGBT flag stay in bed until Twilight gave the A-Okay for her to get out, a suggestion met with much pouting.

“Fine, I think,” I saw that Twilight was blushing a little and, glancing to Trixie, I saw she had a devilish grin. What had they been up to while I was away? “I just had to drill it into her head that she isn’t worthless.”

“Like I’ve tried with getting you to see you saved us back… back before we lost the others,” Twilight pouted at me. I chuckled.

“Excuse me, but that are you two keeping Trixie out of?”

“Private affairs, for one,” I mumbled, thinking about her earlier teasing.

“He used to be under the Changeling’s control, and he saved our lives before we left Ponyville,” Twilight summarized quickly. “But he can still be a stubborn jerk, so he doesn’t want to admit he did that.”

“It was a coincidence, honey,” I put an arm around the princess, kissing her forehead.

“See!?” she continued to Trixie, who giggled. “Sometimes I think he says that just to piss me off.”

“It’s getting late,” I said, taking the last free seat at the table. I put my elbows on its surface and rested my chin on my knuckles. “What do you think we should do?”

“Try to get a little sleep, then continue to the Crystal Empire tomorrow.”

“Trixie will stand guard first,” the blue one said. “Trixie doesn’t want to be caught with her pants down if Rainbow Dash decides to act weird again.”

“That’s… probably a good idea,” I had to concede the point. I didn’t know how far gone Dash still was.

“You should go to sleep for now. I’ll just check on Dash quickly before I’ll join you,” Twilight smiled to me, casually throwing a glance at Trixie as she made her way towards Dash’s room again. I nodded and got up.

**

The ruins of the throne room of the castle in the Everfree Forest materialized around me, just as I wished of it. It was likely an imperfect recreation, but it had to suffice. I took my place in front of the remnants of the thrones.

“Luna,” I said, but nothing happened. I blinked. I knew I had gotten it to work before. Right, of course, wrong name. “Cer’Lola.” That worked.

“Oh, erh… Hey there,” Luna seemed surprised at first, looking at her surroundings, before she put on an obviously fake smile and pretense confidence.

“Hey,” I said back, with a warm smile, gesturing for her to take a seat on the throne beside me. She blushed a bit and looked at me strangely, but did as I instructed.

“Was there… anything in particular you wanted?” She asked, nervously, as she sat down.

“I have a question,” I finally said, slowly. I was scanning her face for reactions of any kind. She just nodded and didn’t meet my gaze. “About the last dream I had.”

“Oh, what did you dream about?”

“About Dash… and you.”

“A-about me?” her cheeks started to turn bright purple. I had halfway expected there to be some interference because we were in a dream, and I still had to be careful about trusting my eyes. So far I thought Luna was being honest in her appearance. I only had to sort out if she was blushing because I just said what I said, or if she knew exactly what I was thinking about because she was there.

“Yes, you showed up at a strange point in the dream, and… acted a lot like you did when we met in Canterlot. Was that just a dream, or did-”

**

“Hey, don’t fall asleep just yet,” someone gently touched my cheek before giving it a light slap. Twilight had climbed on top of my lower stomach. She was naked and grinned down at my face, with her left arm behind her back, groping a feel of my crotch. I had left my clothes by the side of the bed, something she seemed happy to take advantage off. And I was happy she was taking advantage of, as blood started to flow to the south of the navel.

“I’m awake, I’m awake. What’s going on?” I teased, feigning ignorance. Twilight leaned in onto my chest. I saw her arm fumble with something at the side of the bed.

“Payback,” she whispered as she pulled up a length of rope. “For our… castle tryst.”

“Payback? For what?” I ignored her newfound stage prop, putting my hands behind my head in such a way that she’d be able to bind them without much trouble. Smirking, I continued. “I don’t remember any tryst at the castle. We had a nice night’s rest? I think that was it.”

“Right, right,” Twilight inched her way up my stomach to get better access. She rested her chest on my face as she fumbled with the bindings, giving me the opportunity to motorboat her. She tried to hold back the giggles as she worked, but there was no point to it. “Hey, stop that! I’m trying to be dominant here!”

“Really!?” I said in an exaggerated shocked tone. “I am so sorry; I really couldn’t tell.”

Once my hands were bound, Twilight sat up and gave me another light slap to the face. As I tried to speak, she did it again. I tried a couple more times, but I never got out more than a word before she stopped me. She’s not going to back down, is she? I grinned to myself, which was met with another hit, this time harder.

“What do we say now?” Twilight said with a menacing tone in her voice.

“I was just going to say that I don’t think this is the most efficient way to do a massage.”

Smack! Ouch, that hurt. Not me, she didn’t hit that hard. But I could see her frustration start to boil over. I wondered how far I could push her; this was kinda fun.

“Oh, just use your mouth for something useful already!”

She stood up to adjust her position and sat down over my face. She used her legs to carry most of her weight, but shifted it over to me a little by little the longer I did nothing. I waited until I actually got uncomfortable to stick out my tongue and slowly eat her out.

Pushing inside her, I felt she had a bittersweet taste to her, but I couldn’t pin it down any further. The longer I kept at it, the more her juices flowed and the more she let her weight off me. On could see her legs tense to my sides. Digging my heels as best I could into the bed, I tried to push myself up a few centimeters.

Twilight looked startled at me for a moment; me changing my position ever so slightly had taken her aback. But it changed to suppressed moans as I began to suck and lick at her clit.

“Wah-“ she gasped. I had gently bit down to pinch it and was met with a flow of liquid. Her legs lost their strength, putting the full weight of the princess on my head.

“Geff off!” I barked into her slit. She giggled and crawled her way back down my body.

“Thank you,” she smiled and closed her eyes as she laid her head at my chest, her body lying partially on top of mine. “Maybe I’ll pay you back… tomorrow… Sleepy time…”