I Gotta Axe You to Leave

This is it! Doctor Whooves thought to himself as he entered Carousel Boutique. The time had come for him to pick up his suit and hopefully, ask Rarity on a date, normally he had some opener, like 'The D'awwleks are trying to topple the Diamond Dog Khanate and I'd really like your help in stopping them.' On this occasion there was no such luck. Rarity turned to the Doctor as he trotted up.

"Ah, good to see you again, here is your suit." Rarity levitated the folded articles to the Doctor as he lay several bits on the counter. "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Please say yes, please say yes. Oh it was just so nice to work on something in the classical style! She though the last part.

"Actually there was something I was considering, maybe asking of you." The chestnut stallion stated.

"Yes?-" At this point the door to Carousel Boutique slammed open, letting in Spike, Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash in.

"Rarity, you have to help Twi and Pinkie!"

"Changelings attacked us while we were out in the woods!"

"They told us to get you and the others!"

A moment of silence passed before Doctor Whooves spoke. "Changelings, as in disgusting mimics that feed off of love?"

"YES!" Sweetie Belle yelled.

At this Rarity shook herself out of the daze that had consumed her. "My apologies Doctor, but I have to go."

"I'm afraid I have to insist I help out, alonsy!" The doctor yelled as he galloped out the door.

Rainbow at this point spoke up. "I'll get Applejack and Fluttershy, you go help the others." With that the cyan mare flew out the door.

Rarity turned to Spike and Sweetie Belle. "Stay here you two, I'll be back shortly and ... hang on, Sweetie Belle, is that a Cutie Mark?"

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "More important things sis."

Eyes widening Rarity dashed out the door as her sisters words drove her impetus to help her friends.

****

I saw before me two changelings, one had Twilight on the ground and the other pinned the blue mare to the tree. I charged at the one bearing down on Twilight and shoved the shaft of my axe into its body, forcing it off of her. A flash of blue  preceded the second changeling being flung into a tree in front of me. I decided to press the advantage and went for the downed changeling. I swung my axe in front of me and the changeling ducked its head, leaving me to embed my axe in a tree trunk. "Fast bugger aren't you?" I asked as grabbed its wispy mane and slammed its head into the solidly anchored axe handle. While the changeling was stunned, I pulled the axe out of the trunk and turned to face the other black carapaced monstrosity. It flew at me and I lifted my axe, driving the shaft into its jaws. The creature slavered over me as it tried to chew through the wood. The shaft stood firm as a bolt of magic struck the creature in the side, sending it careening off of me, with the axe still in its mouth. "Bloody hell." I stated as I stood up to see the first changeling standing in front of me. I raised my right foot and made contact with its body, stubbing my toe on the hard chitin. "Ow, bad idea." The changeling roared at me and it turned to buck me, but I dodged and grabbed its two rear hooves, my hands readily finding a solid grip among the many holes in the legs. I lifted and swung the changeling into a nearby tree, its horn embedding into the trunk. At this point the changeling's companion jumped at Pinkie Pie, and I lunged to retrieve my axe from the ground. "Oh no you don't!" I yelled as I charged.

The changeling's rear hoof bucked my in the chest, landing firm, and planting me on my ass. The changeling lifted from  Pinkie and faced me, circling as its compatriot pulled itself from the tree and began harassing Twilight and the blue unicorn. "You're one ugly mother-fucker ... you know that?" at this the changeling screeched and I yelled in response. We charged one another and met dead center in the glen, the edge of my axe swinging for the creature's head. I misjudged the height but was still rewarded as a piece of horn flew off of it eliciting a scream from the creature as it pounded its fore legs against me. I swung the handle into the side of the creature's head as a yelp sounded from the changeling facing the two unicorns. Glancing over, I saw that Pinkie had tossed a cloud of streamers at the creature while Twilight slammed the creature into the ground and the powder blue mare sent a flaring white spark at the creature's face. The glance was a moment to long as from the corner of my eye I notice my own changeling running for Pinkie Pie. I ran forward and swung my axe in an upward stroke, catching the insectoid in the left haunch and it flipped on top of its own onyx brother. The two extricated themselves and stared down at us when we heard a voice behind us.

"We're a comin' girls! Just hang on!" The Stetson-wearing mare burst through the bushes and the two changelings turned to take flight.

As the two horrors grew small in the distance, I turned to the farmer pony, noting that the remaining Elements of Harmony, and Doctor Whooves, had arrived on the scene. I grasped at my chest and grunted in pain, and Fluttershy flew up to me.

"Oh dear, are you hurt? Is there any bleeding? Anything broken?" The butter pegasus pressed.

"I'm  fine, but I think I'm gonna have a nasty bruise shortly, let's head back into town."

"Yes, I agree, I don't want to leave my sister and Spike for another moment. That said, our reasons for celebrating are twofold." Rarity quipped and Twilight turned to the alabaster mare.

"What do you mean Rarity? I mean, yeah, beating off two changelings is something to celebrate, but what's the second thing?"

At this Pinkie laughed. "Isn't it obvious, we sent two meanies flying, so that's two reasons to celebrate!"

"Actually Pinkie, the second reason pertains to Sweetie Belle, she ..." Rarity said, pausing for dramatic effect, but it was soon filled by the pink party pony once again.

"Oh! That's the second reason! We can have a 'we-beat-two-changelings-and-both-Spike-and-Sweetie Belle-are-safe' party!"

Rarity growled at this. "No, as I was saying, Sweetie Belle got her Cutie Mark!" At this the whole group broke out into a series of murmurs and congratulations. It was a minute before Twilight coughed, drawing attention to her and the blue mare.

"There's one last thing, girls, Doctor Whooves, Edmund, this is Trixie." The purple pony introduced us all and as we walked back to town Trixie told us about how she had reached Ponyville.

"It's impressive that you managed to figure things out on your own, its hard unlearning lessons from childhood." I stated to Trixie.

"Thanks, but it really isn't that big of a realization, I should have realized sooner." The blue illusionist replied.

Before us loomed Carousel Boutique, and we all entered. We saw Spike holding Sweetie Belle who was shaking when he saw us. "Twilight! Rarity! Man, are we glad to see you're alright!"

"Thank you Spike, but I have to ask what were you and Sweetie Belle doing so far from town, and why does Sweetie Belle have her Cutie Mark?" Twilight asked.

"We were ... uh." Sweetie Belle stuttered as she stepped forward.

"Go on Sweetie Belle, we're listening." Rarity offered.

The white filly filled her lungs and began rapidly, in retrospect, we would all know why she wanted to get it over with. "Me and Spike have been seeing each other for months now and we were sitting in the forest and I sang his favourite song cause he flew me onto a tree branch like I asked and when I was done I had a Cutie Mark!"

A few blinks and moments to process the rapidly fired statements, Twilight spoke first. "Oh, well if that's it I suppose no harm done."

It was now Sweetie Belle's turn to blink. "Huh? But Spike is practically your brother Twilight, not to mention the whole scales thing..."

"It's what's on the inside that counts Sweetie Belle, you and Spike share a special friendship, but we just want you both to be safe." Twilight said, smiling warmly between the filly and the dragon.

"See? I told you everything would be alright!" Spike piped in.

Together, we discussed many things, including my permission to gather lumber from the Everfree forest, and then the subject of what Trixie was going to do in Ponyville arose.

"I just don't know what I can do, I mean I can put on a good show, but what else am I good for?" Trixie asked.

Pinkie Pie raised a hoof to her chin. "Well, why can't you just continuing being an entertainer? I mean, its what your're good at!" Clever girl, she was prone to important insight despite her manic personality.

"Because it's not real, its just noise and shadows." Trixie added.

"Yes, but the feelings they elicit, joy and wonderment, pathos and sorrow, when a good performance is made are very real." I offered.

"I ..." Trixie began. "But where would I perform?"

Twilight now offered her advice. "Well, Edmund has permission to cut down trees in the Everfree, so using the wood he gathers, if he does it for long enough, we could build a theatre for Ponyville."

Trixie nodded her head up and down as she spoke. "Yes that could work, thank you all for helping me." With this issue resolved we each began to make our way out and to our respective homes.

I walked with Twilight and Spike back to the library, Trixie having agreed to stay with Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight spoke. "Its amazing to see how much Trixie's changed, but, her self-esteem has taken a real hit, I just wish why she's still so hard on her self."

"You'd be hard on yourself too if you spent your entire life misguided." I said.

"You say that like you have experience in it." Spike said.

"Briefly, very briefly. When Trixie feels she has done some good, she'll be fine." We continued onwards in silence.

****

Doctor Whooves was still at Carousel Boutique, having stayed behind to pick up his suit. Rarity had gone upstairs to assure Sweetie Belle that everything between them was alright. The Doctor decided to wait, he still wanted to tell Rarity how he felt, and if he had galloped full speed to the prospect of facing changelings for her, he was willing to wait a few more minutes. Rarity stepped downstairs to see the brown stallion. "Oh, is there something else, I'm terribly sorry about dragging you into all that happened today."

"Oh, its perfectly fine, the day isn't finished until I've run away from, or towards, something large and hungry." Doctor Whooves chuckled. "Now, I was wondering, you're fun to be around, so I figured if you wanted to, maybe, hang out again at some point?"

At this the purple maned fashionista replied. "Well, that sounds quite agreeable."

Yes! Two minds both thought at the same time.

Rarity spoke first. "How does next Wednesday at three o'clock sound."

"It sounds fantastic."