Dear Diary,

Betrayal! …

I was lying on my back. That much I knew. A pain in - well, everywhere – left me believing that I was at least alive. What the hell had just happened? I had probably been in an accident and landed in a minor coma, having fucked up dreams while I were. Something about Equestria and a Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And something about shapeshifters.

For what felt like an eternity, I just lay there with my eyes closed. Wherever I were, it couldn’t be good for my back; it was hard and uneven. An urge to let myself fall asleep again crawled from my stomach.

Out of curiosity more than anything, I fought the urge. I could go to sleep later. Right now I wanted to know just what the fuck had happened, and where I was. My eyes began the reasonably painful experience of opening up.

It was midday, or maybe later. The sun was out, but hidden behind a veil of green. Around me I saw a forest, a sight that was met with an increased heart rate. What the fuck was I doing in a forest? Well, there were forests where I lived, but this one just looked strange. Out of place. The plants surely didn’t belong to any forest where I lived.

Had I been visiting somewhere? Holiday trip or something? I had no idea, and I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to find out what happened to me. An image of jet black skinned women with wings running towards me and some purple skinned, horned and winged girl popped into my head. I associated the name “Twilight Sparkle” with the purple one. Freakishly clear picture too. I had to be halfway asleep still.

With slow, shaking movements, I turned myself around. It would be easier to get up if I were on my hands and knees. Before I could do much more than turn my head, a surge of adrenaline made me practically jump to my feet, regardless of the pain. Twilight Sparkle laid on the ground besides me, her eyes closed and a small trail of blood coming from the tip of her horn.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” I mumbled, stumbling myself closer to her and mostly falling on my knees. I didn’t have energy to use on sitting down. My first thought was to try to feel her pulse, but she was breathing so heavily that I was assured she was still alive. Thank Many-Headed Talos!

“C’mon,” I said to myself, trying to get some contact with her, but Twilight didn’t react. My heart pounded heavily in my chest, causing a pulse of pain every time. Looking around, I saw that there weren’t much to go by as far as navigation went. If there was a road on this forest, we weren’t on it.

My attention turned back to Twiligth when a thought reappeared; her horn was bleeding. No longer did I concern myself with where we were. The stream of blood was small, but didn’t appear to coagulate quickly like a small wound should.

Looking around for something to bind it up with, my heart rate grew. I needed something to stop the bleeding! I couldn’t risk letting her die here!

Leaving her side for just a minute, I started to touch the various leaves on the plants around us, looking for something suited for bandaging. One of the plants, with a dark green color and thick leaves, would probably do better than anything else here. Now I just needed something to tie it with. Perhaps I had something in my clothes…

I hated myself for wasting time looking for a plant to solve my problems. My clothes, for fuck sake! Hastily I began ripping cloth from my shirt, making them as long as I could. Before long, I had enough to use.

After I tied the bandage, with some trouble, I moved Twilight over to her side and put her arm under her head for support. I crossed the legs, so that if she fell out of the position naturally, she’d lie on her stomach rather than back, to prevent her from chocking on her own vomit. If she vomited. Better to be on the safe side.

Once I assured myself that there was nothing more I could do, I sat down on the ground again, resting my arms on my knees and my head on my arms, keeping one eye on Twilight and the other searching for signs of life around us. My heart’s pace was eventually reduced to a bearable level.

“What to do when…” if… “Twilight wakes up?”

I asked the question aloud, perhaps no more audible than a whisper. With an imposter acting as Celestia-

Holy fucking Hell, the thought hit me, perhaps for the first time. We had been a puppeteer’s plaything for as long as Celestia had known about this. The way we were unable to trust one another after the “revelation” that I wasn’t the Changeling, then being sent back to Ponyville to look more into the matter.

We had been home for a couple of days now and our only saving grace was this. Me and Twilight being lost in some forest, one of us bleeding and unconscious. Our frien- Twilight’s friends – captured or dead. Celestia was captured too.

Something occurred to me; was Luna an imposter too? Assuming for the sake of it that the dream visit had not been done by Molly, wouldn’t Lune, the real Luna, have warned me if she was captur-

I froze up as I felt a cold tip against my neck. It was sharp, being pushed against me just enough to notice, and hard enough to ensure that I couldn’t make any move without a wound. I assumed it was a spear of sorts.

“What is this? A stranger, whose smell is a… miss…?” A woman’s voice, but deeper than usual. The spear tip left my neck. “It gave me quite a fright, daylight crackling and magic light. The Everfree Forest has its way; little stirs in the light of day. But perhaps I spoke too soon, we better move before the rise of the Moon.”

Author's Notes:

You didn't really think I'd leave this story where In Equestria ended, did you? Muahahahaha...