Dear Diary,

What have I gotten myself into?

“So, where are we going?” I asked. Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at me funny, as if I had said something only an idiot would say. “I mean it. I only know you guys called it the Diamond Dog tunnels, but I don’t know what that means.”

“Hmm,” Twilight scratched her chin with her index finger and thumb, trying to remember something. “Aha! I remember now. The Diamond Vein is one of the richest diamond mines in this part of Equestria, but it was abandoned long ago after it wasn’t profitable to keep the operations going. There are still diamonds, so people like Rarity sometimes come to stock up on the jewels for some of her clothing.”

“We just call it the Diamond Dog tunnels since this was where the Diamond Dogs ambushed Rarity and kidnapped her,” Sweetie Belle added. “I got to hear all about how filthy they were and how it would take an age to get the mud out of her hair.”

“Yeah, and the way you told us, she really had those dogs on a tight leash the entire time,” Scootaloo snickered. “They must have been proper idiots.”

“Well, at least they weren’t chickens,” Applebloom said, laughing at the orange one. Sweetie Belle started to laugh too. I gave a glance to Twilight, who just shrugged.

“Hey, you leave the chicken thing alone!” Scootaloo sounded remarkably furious for such a harmless comment.

“C’mon, Scoots, we’re just messin’ with ya.”

“Fine,” she didn’t seem too happy with the others, so she came up beside me. “Hey, mister, what are you anyway? You don’t smell like us at all.”

“Homo Sapiens,” I replied, short and direct. I didn’t really want to pay too much attention to the Cutie Mark Crusaders right now; I was pretty sure that I should have seen a sign from Spike by now. We had been walking for almost fifteen minutes. Shouldn’t take him that long to go fetch something, right? An uneasy feeling spread from my stomach, more intense with every step.

“Homo what-now?” Scootaloo was dumbfounded.

“You’re gay?” Sweetie Belle asked, disappointed. Applebloom and Scootaloo responded to her outburst with a loud “Ooh”. “Then why you’ve been sleeping with mares, mister?”

“Girls, I am pretty sure that Homo Sapiens doesn’t mean he is ‘a homo’,” with a giggle at my blush Twilight answered for me. “It is probably the scientific name for his species back where he is from.”

“Ooh, you mean like you and Sweetie Belle are Unicorns, and I am a Pegasi?”

“Yes, Scootaloo, that is exactly what I mean.”

“So, mister,” Applebloom came up beside me too, on the opposite side of Scootaloo. “What does Homo Sapiens mean? Is that a form of Earth Pony?”

“Not exactly,” I had to keep myself from saying anything about calling themselves what they did. Ponies here and ponies back on earth were clearly not the same, so better just leave it be. “No, I’m an ape. A Primate to be exact.”

“Wait, you’re an ape!?” Twilight suddenly found herself inspecting every inch of my body she could without stripping me naked on the spot, with what I could only describe as ‘academic fanaticism’. Why was this an issue right now? Hello, people? Possible ambush incoming!!! Pay attention please! “You don’t look like an ape. You look so much more like a pony than an ape.”

“You ponies look a great deal like apes to me,” automatically my mouth decided to make a comeback.

“Hey, you take that back!”

“Yeah, you don’t go around calling people apes!”

“Especially not Princess Twilight Sparkle!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders seemed to have lost their shit, but calmed themselves when Twilight just giggled, raising their eyebrows and staring at her.

“Calm down, girls, I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that. Back where he is from ‘ape’ and ‘primate’ probably doesn’t mean the same as they do here. I mean, he doesn’t look like a gorilla, does he?”

“No, if you’re using the word ‘ape’ and ‘primate’ to describe gorillas, we’re using similar meanings for the words. Best we figured out back home, the gorillas are distant cousins of humans. As species anyway.”

“That is so great!” Twilight seemed out of herself. “When we get back, I have to do a full examination of your body, including x-ray so I can study the bone structure you have and compare it to that of a gorilla. And chimpanzees. And ponies. And I’m going to have to sequence your genes. And with you staying at my house, I don’t have to worry about running out of DNA samples to test, so I can try out some new methods…”

She continued to talk to herself, going more and more into the finer details of her hypothesizes and methods, most of which went right over my head, even though I recognized some of it from the knowledge of the Theory of Evolution I had picked up over the years. The Cutie Mark Crusaders seemed to be entirely lost on the topic too, having fallen behind again and started to talk quietly among themselves. Who knew what those rascals were up to this time?

“Is she always like that?” I fell behind Twilight too, asking Sweetie Belle, just to keep the conversation going. My mind was still on Spike’s absence.

“Well, she is something of an egghead,” Scootaloo admitted, met with a giggle from Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.

“Yeah, she’s always up to some experiment in the library.”

“Why do you ask, mister?”

“Oh, just wondering,” I have them a little wink. I hope that that would give them something to think about for the time being. Surprisingly fun to lead them on to conclusion like that though, I noted to myself. A little too fun.

“Hey, y’all,” my heart almost stopped when I heard the voice of someone I hadn’t planned on involving in this affair. Applejack. Just fucking perfect. Another person that could help us out, or the Changeling itself?

“Hi, Applejack. What are you doing here?” Twilight didn’t seem bothered by the newcomer, but a glance to me said that she wasn’t so sure either.

“Ah have just been lookin’ for Applebloom, then Pinkie told me you were goin’ to the Diamond Vein. So I thought maybe she came along with you. Turns out ah was right. Oh, hi Sugarcube.”

The last comment was directed at me, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. Applejack seemed to look oddly at Sweetie Belle for but a moment, but I was sure that that was nothing. I was just being paranoid.

“So, why are ya’ll going out to the Diamond Vein for? Fetching something for Rarity?”

“We’re showing them some really interesting tracks we found! Cutie Mark Crusader investigators!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders shouted, as they apparently liked to do, much to my annoyance. Applejack and Twilight didn’t seem too happy about the level of noise either.

“Track, eh? Well, that’s interesting. What sort of tracks did ya’ll find?”

“We don’t know, that is why we came to get Twilight!”

“Yeah, big sis, she’s sure to know what those tracks are.”

“Isn’t that right, Twilight?”

“Hehe, I don’t know girls. I am not a walking bestiary, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure something out about these tracks.”

I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of mythical creatures actually existed in this place. Spike was a Dragon, and there were apparently both a form of unicorn, pegasi and alicorn here. Then there was these Changelings. Pretty sure that I could pick out a creature from legend and find it somewhere in this world.

For the time being I had enough to do just listening in on the conversation the others held going, and worrying about Spike not showing up. Mostly about what could have shown up and made the tracks and Twilight giving reasons why she didn’t believe that was the case. I thought I heard Applejack say something about doing her chores when she got back home to Applebloom, met with grumbling.

**

“Here we are. So, were did you girls find the tracks?”

It was a barren land from the looks of it. A large open field of rock and dirt, with many holes in the ground. If this had ever been a mine, the entrance was long gone or out of sight from where we stood.

My heart was about to give in and I was sweating furiously. Spike hadn’t showed any signs of being around. I knew that Twilight trusted the fella, but this was far from trustworthy behavior. Maybe something had interfered?

“It’s over this way!” Sweetie Belle yelled and set off towards the far side of the area. Applejack, Scootaloo, Applebloom, Twilight and myself shot after her. I caught yet another glance from Twilight; she looked as worried as I felt. It was probably an even less certain situation for her; I hadn’t had time or opportunity to tell her about my plan.

“What in the hay do you think made those tracks?”

I had no clue. The tracks Sweetie Belle pointed at looked like they were feet, but they were all wrong. I had no way of describing why it was wrong, but something was, as if someone had altered them afterwards.

The tracks went on for several meters, starting out very human like, but by the end, they looked… What was the best way to describe it? Probably ‘incomplete’. Instead of toes, it ended in claws; and had gotten notably thinner. If it weren’t for all the stages that showed the human-looking tracks gradually change, no one would believe the first and last ones would come from the same creature.

“It looks like someone took off here,” Twilight pointed to some very fine lines of dirt that formed an almost perfect circle around the last set of footprints. “Unless someone did that afterwards. Scootaloo?”

“Umm,” the orange one was blushing terribly now, looking away, and she sounded so beat down. “I can’t really fly… my wings…”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Twilight’s voice was embarrassed, or so it sounded to me. Could have been some pity in there too. I knew that I got an uneasy gut feeling when I heard that she was unable to fly. “I should have remembered.”

“That’s strange, ah’ve never seen tracks that change like that before,” Applejack kept looking at the different stages. Something seemed off about her though.

“The apple orchard,” I said to her, swallowing some spit while I did it. My heart started to race again. Could I be right about this? I had no idea, but it was worth a shot. “That’s why you’re here.”

“Umm, excuse me, Sugarcube?” she just looked at me, confused. The others started to pay attention to me as well.

“Those tracks. I’ve seen them before. You managed to cover them up afterwards, but you couldn’t remove them after I saw you change.”

“What is he talkin’ about?” Applebloom asked the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, who just shrugged their shoulders. Distant minded Twilight positioned herself between Applejack and the girls; her attention was entirely focused on me and Applejack.

“Sugarcube, are you sure you didn’t hit your head? Or had a bad dream?”

“No, I didn’t. It was the night I saw Princess Luna in the skies, just before I saw you change into one of those black-skinned monsters. Then you bit me, pumping this vile poison into me. And… raped me…”

“You weren’t supposed to remember that!” the words just fell out of her, accompanied by a momentary look of desperation. Almost immediately she was hit by a ray of light that I recognized as Twilight’s magic.

“Hahahaha,” Applejack laughed as she got to her feet again. A green fire enveloped her body, and, when it receded, revealed the creature I had dubbed Molly. “So the food found me out. Tell me, how’d you do it?”

“I didn’t,” I smiled back, confidently. I had no idea why I was smiling, because this was bad. Very bad. It had to be, or else why would it laugh off Twilight’s attack like that? “I faked it. And you fell for it. I have no idea what happened that night.”

“What!?” Molly was furious. “I was outwitted by someone as pathetic as you!?”

“No, I had help. Lots of it too. Took a while to figure out when I started to lose memory, and where. Or that it happened at all. That you appeared in my head helped though, once I figured out what you were.”

Twilight continued to make the Cutie Mark Crusaders move further away from Molly. Her horn was glowing, ready for action, but she was unwilling to take the offensive. From what I gathered, I assumed it was because the girls were still there.

“In your head? I wasn’t in your… ah, I see,” Molly seemed like someone had just hit her in the face. Hard. Then she got back an expression of bemused contempt. “I didn’t think that someone like you would be strong enough to do that. You’ll make for a far better toy than I could have imagined back when I first met you. Speaking of which, I need to deal with the purple know-it-all over there, so be a good boy and stay out of my way.”

On pure instinct, I started to move to the left, to cover her route to Twilight. I could feel my body give shakes, and I could feel every movement so clearly. My heart rate spiked at every movement I saw her make. Then I just stopped unable to move.

“What did you do to him?” Twilight shouted. I saw another ray or purple light shoot at Molly, but she was able to dodge it, returning her own green one. I couldn’t see Twilight from my angle, but I heard no moans or cries of pain, so I could only assume she and the girls had evaded it somehow.

“I didn’t do anything. You saw that,” Molly laughed. How could she be so confident? Twilight, even on her own, must have been impressive. She was the student of one of the Princesses, right?

“Don’t give me that!” the purple girl ran forward, shooting out three rays of light that came at Molly from different angles. Molly barely managed to dodge two of them, but the last one hit her right in the chest, sending her flying. Mid-air she spread her insect-like wings, using them to land safely on her feet. “I can see his eye glow green! That is your magic, and I’ll make you pay for it!”

“She’s right, you know,” I felt a sharp pain on the left side of my neck. I wanted to scream, but my mouth wouldn’t move. I saw that a pair of black hands wrap gently around my chest from behind and move downwards towards my pants. “Now be a good little boy and take your mind of the fight in front of you.”

Molly? No, that was the poison thing in my mind. Just an illusion. Best ignored. As she started to unbutton my pants and massage my member, I saw that Spike was running towards the real Molly from behind. He came! And with him was Rarity… that had to be why he didn’t show himself! Ha, I had been right all along.

“Don’t ignore me!” the Molly in my head came around me, standing in front of the fight. I could only see a mix of blue, green and purple light, followed by a scream. Moreover, the Molly in my mind disappeared. I could move again.

Molly, the real one, flew backwards towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders, landing on her back. From the look of her having to struggle some to get to her feet, she must have been hit hard. I could have sworn I saw a burnmark on her forearm.

Before I knew it, I had closed the distance between myself and the Changeling, landing a solid kick to her jaw. She screamed out in pain. Giving a quick glance to Twilight and the others, who were running towards us, I saw that Rarity had stopped. Her eyes had a strange green glow to it, like the one from Molly’s horn. Something hit me from the side, sending me flying a meter away.

I had to struggle to get up. The pain in my left side was intense, but fading, so no real damage done. I hoped. I could still stand and move. That had to be good enough for now.

“Dear sister, I was afraid that I would have to step in. I always knew you were too weak to deal with this by yourself.”

I couldn’t quite believe what I saw. Sweetie Belle walked forward, confident, with the green fire starting to envelop her. She took the hand of Molly and helped her up. Then Molly let out a laugh as I felt that I could no longer move. Not again!

“Dear sister,” Molly answered the other Changeling, using her hand to rub her jaw where I had kicked her. Then she made a gesture towards me. “I was afraid that you’d be too shy to join in. Seems the little urchin over there seems to be smarter than we gave him credit for. Weren’t you supposed to make sure they come here alone?”

“Yes, well,” Molly’s sister started to run towards Spike, while Molly herself aimed for Twilight. No one on either side got in any hits, rays of fire breaths on the other. They just passed one another and turned around. “The urchin was able to use know-it-all here, and my disguise, to make sure I couldn’t prevent it. He waited until the last minute to get help. I’d say he’ll be an amusing pet. He managed to convince me that he was asking know-it-all out on a date or something. I think he’ll be useful if we’re to ever increase our station.”

“You really shouldn’t trouble yourself with this fight, my dear,” imaginary Molly was back, blocking my vision and starting to undo my clothes all over again. The more of my clothes she got off, the harder it became for me to see anything else. By the time I was naked, it was all just a blur of colors and indistinguishable sounds.

I did my best to ignore her. Momentarily I felt that I could move again, which had to mean Real Molly took a hit, but it went over quickly. It occurred a few times, with a short amount of time between them. Without Rarity’s magic, Twilight and Spike probably couldn’t win this. Molly alone looked like she had been able to match her and Twilight herself said that I overestimated Spike’s usefulness. My only hope was that Molly was knocked out long enough for me to do something.

“Come now, join me in my fun,” Molly talked again, starting to rub against my member and got to her knees. She reached out a snake-like tongue and wrapped it around my growing erection. I wished to Dibella that I was able to control that thing right about now.

“Come on,” I said to myself. Or maybe I was thinking it. I had no idea if I could move my lips or not. All I knew was that I was able to breathe, and I only knew that because I wasn’t dead. “Ignore her. Just focus on breaking her control. Just for a little while. If I can do that, then I’ll know how to win this.”

“What’s wrong, dear? You don’t like my blowjobs? Such a shame, but I suppose I’ll have to work on those. But since they are clearly not enough for you, how about I give you a nice ide instead? I’ve been dying to do this position lately, but I’ve always been on top.”

She turned around and bent forward, positioning my member at her entrance and pushed back. I felt her warm embrace and I started to lose sight of even the blur of colors before me.

“No!” I screamed. Or thought. I still had no idea of which one was actually happening. “I won’t let you get full control!”

A headache started to develop. I had to be reaching the part where I was starting to challenge her control over my body. The more I struggled, the faster imaginary Molly moved, slamming against me with a look of ecstasy on her face. The colors of the world around faded in and out.

“Had enough yet?” Molly smirked at me. “Or do you want me to… pick up the pace of the game?”

Just as she said that she changed herself into Pinkie Pie, giving me a wide grin. Then into a Rarity with a deliciously seductive look on her face. Rainbow Dash. Applebloom. Twilight.

I closed my eyes with great effort. The sight of her changing all the time was too distracting. Wait, I could close my eyes? Something had changed. With all the strength I could muster, I tried to move my hands.

It was heavier than anything I had been exposed to during the irregular visits to the gym back home, and I felt that I was going to tear a muscle if I kept going, but I tried to anyway. The headache was getting worse, starting to send pulses of pain to the rest of my body.

“PARTY CANNON!”