Dear Diary,

I just won…

“PARTY CANNON!”

Even through the dulling of my senses Molly had somehow inflicted on me, I could hear the familiar voice scream, followed by a loud “boom”. Pinkie had taken the bait after all.

Momentarily I was blinded as my sight returned to me and it was revealed that I hadn’t actually closed my eyes or move my arms. I took a few steps forward, hesitantly, before I could see again.

Pinkie Pie, with a furious, almost demonic, expression on her face, stood behind a light blue cannon that she clearly had just used to shoot the real Molly, who was on the grounds again. The other Changeling didn’t seem too bothered by this and helped her on her feet once more. She hadn’t sustained any wounds that I could see, unlike Molly, who had gotten several more burn marks and even a dislocated shoulder, presumable from Pinkie’s cannon.

Spike was down, lying on his back to the left of Twilight. His left arm was in a position that couldn’t be natural; I guessed he had broken it. However, I could see his chest move up and down, so he was alive for now. The clothes on his chest were slashed open, as if done by a sword, and the clothes were stained with blood. His wound was still visible to me, but already at the point of closing itself. Had to be something about being a Dragon.

I started to move towards Rarity. Molly, while back at her feet again, seemed entirely unaware of me having been freed from her control. Maybe she was too badly hit to maintain control at the moment?

On the way to the white unicorn, I glanced at Twilight. She wasn’t looking good. She had several wounds that looked like they were deep, and the only reason she didn’t bleed was because she had sealed the wounds with her magic. Her stance, where it had been upright and proud, was now tired and seemed to go up and down with her heavy inhales of breath. Her knees had something of a permanent bend to them, signaling that she had to exert great effort just to stay on her feet. Most of her clothes were torn and bloody. In her left arm she held a shield she had conjured from her own magic.

“Dear sister, finish off the know-it-all, will you?” the Sweetie Belle Changeling sounded so smug when she asked Molly, who just nodded in agreement. “I’ll deal with this pink nuisance.”

I was almost mesmerized when I saw that the Changeling conjured a sword of green magic in her hands, running towards Pinkie Pie. Another shot of the Party Cannon was fired, but the party decorations missed, forcing Pinkie to jump backwards to avoid the slash of her sword. I had to turn right and run between the two Changelings to not get caught up in the fight myself.

To my right, I saw Molly having conjured a similar sword and was about to charge at Twilight, possibly to use her physical strength to help her bring down the shield Twilight maintained. Doing what I could to help, I slammed my body into hers as hard as I could, knocking her off balance the same moment she lunged forward. Before Molly knew what hit her, Twilight had shot her with another ray of magic, turning Molly’s attention to herself again. Twilight didn’t waste any time, deciding to go on the offensive, shooting beam after beam at Molly. Hopefully she could hold up for a while yet.

To my left, as I picked up my pace again, I could hear the other Changeling talk as she mercilessly delivered swing after swing at Pinkie Pie, who barely escaped each by the hair.

“I made sure to study the six of you, in case it came to this. I know that you’ve got the ability to predict where something will hit, so I know there is no point in trying to shoot you from afar. But are you fast enough to deal with me up close?”

Just as she said this, her sword made brief contact across Pinkie’s left forearm. The pink one returned this by giving her a knuckle to the jaw and a kick to the stomach, temporarily stopping the Changeling in her tracks. However, the Changeling laughed it off and started to chase Pinkie again, with no signs of getting tired. Before Pinkie could jump back again, she sustained two more shallow cuts, but managed to land a powerful kick to the Changeling’s face as payback. The way it seemed to have to close her eyes and recollect her thoughts for two very long seconds told me that the kick had landed hard.

I had finally made my way over to Rarity, knocking her over in the process. She just stared up at me with glowing green eyes, lacking any signs of consciousness or life, save for her breathing. She didn’t make any effort to change her position at all after I had knocked her over.

“Rarity!” I screamed at her as quietly as I could, to not attract too much attention from the others. I started to shake her body, in hopes that she would show any signs of reaction. “Come on, Rarity! If you don’t get over this now, your sister and friends will die!”

“I… have had… enough of this!”

I heard Twilight yell from my rear right, and my mind forced me to turn to see what was going on. Twilight’s magic had completely changed from the familiar purple light, to a much darker color. It was black, or perhaps blackish purple, and had a mist of sorts coming from it. The mist was at its thickest around her horn, looking almost solid. Her eyes had turned dark green, with more of the mist emerging from the edges of her eyes.

Molly trembled at the sight, appearing to have lost the ability to even attempt to get away, as she was hit by Twilight’s beam. As she fell to the ground, showing no signs of consciousness, my heart made a leap of happiness; Twilight stood above the dead or unconscious Changeling with rage in her eyes, staring at the one fighting Pinkie. Then my heart felt like it froze cold.

The dark magic Twilight had summoned flickered while Twilight stood still, unable to move, before it disappeared completely. Her eyes closed, Twilight fell backwards.

“Twilight!” I yelled, letting go of Rarity. She was no longer on my mind. The only thing that was on my mind now was to make sure the other Changeling couldn’t use this opportunity to hurt Twilight. Before I knew it, I was on my feet, walking towards Pinkie and her opponent. I couldn’t rush in blindly, even in my rage, in fear of running straight into one of her sword swings.

Pinkie had enough to do just avoiding each swing, let alone get in a counter attack that didn’t require letting herself become cut in the process. By now I could count maybe seven wounds of various depth, but none of them were seriously bleeding. I thought I saw an opening in her attack rhythm, so I started to run.

Throwing myself forward, I aimed for her knees and was met with muffled moans of pain from above. She had moved forward just in time for me to miss her knees, but her ankles had taken a pretty hard hit and she had landed on her knees on top of me. In her confusion over what had just happened, Pinkie Pie found her own opening and delivered a solid kick first to her stomach, then to her forehead, sending her to her back. Pinkie seemed to have been in more than one fight before, or perhaps have martial training, the way she delivered the blows.

As the Changeling’s weight was no longer on top of me, I managed to crawl out from underneath it and get back to my feet. Glancing at Pinkie, I didn’t see anything of the girl I thought I had started to come to know. All I saw was pure anger and determination.

“Dear sister,” the Changeling mumbled to herself, angrily. “You were supposed to keep your pet on a tighter leash than th- what the hell!?”

A ray of light blue hit her just as she was about to get to her feet. From my right I saw a Rarity with a similar expression as that Pinkie Pie had run towards us, shooting several beams at the creature. It, having been caught off guard, was unable to do more than barely deflect them with a magic shield akin to the one I had seen Twilight use. Pinkie, as if she and Rarity had planned this all along, ran forward and landed another kick at the Changeling, this time to the side of her head. I tried to move forward as well, but was almost hit by one of Rarity’s beams.

“You’re not getting away with harming a single hair on my sister’s head!” Rarity had come up to us now, standing above the creature, which was barely conscious at the moment. Before I could take another step, she had made a sword of her own and stabbed the creature in the chest. She pulled it out again, only to drive it down again. And again.

“Rarity!” both Pinkie and I yelled, trying to get any contact with her, but there wasn’t anything that seemed to be able to distract her. I could see that tears started to emerge from Rarity’s eyes. By the time she was unable to continue stabbing the creature because of the tears and cramps that overtook her body, the Changeling’s chest looked like it was nothing more than a hollowed hull of intestines, covered in green blood. I felt my gut turn, both at the carcass, and at Rarity’s reaction. She continued to sob the name “Sweetie Belle” over and over again. Pinkie pulled her away from the dead body and onto her feet, forcing her into a hug and patting her on the back. Pinkie was crying too. Her hair had turned straight and there was something in her eyes that told me that she was someone who knew exactly how Rarity felt right now.

Behind me I thought I heard something groan and my mind returned to Twilight, almost instantly blocking out the image of Rarity crying on Pinkie’s shoulder. She has been hurt in the fight, my mind kept reminding my feet. Hastily I turned around and ran over to her. I couldn’t see Molly’s body anywhere.

“What- what happened?”

“Not now,” I mumbled to her, tearing my short into as many pieces I needed to give some bandages to her wounds. There were many of them, but most of them were luckily rather shallow. Only a couple looked like they were deep enough to cause any significant problems. “We got to get back to town first.”

“Spike! And the girls!” Twilight yelled at me, furiously, and tried to push me aside. She didn’t have much strength in her arms to do much to me though. But her words sent my mind into hyper mode; I had already seen where Spike was, but where were the girls? I hadn’t seen Scootaloo or Applebloom since before I had to fight Molly’s control over me.

“Twilight?” my heart made a leap when I heard Scootaloo’s voice. “What happened? Where are the black lad- AH!”

She and Applebloom screamed out at the sight of the body of fake Sweetie Belle, falling to their knees. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were quick to come and comfort them. Something must have triggered in Rarity to make her get to her senses, but I could still see the continuous flow of tears. I helped Twilight to her feet.

“Where is Spike? What happened to him?” Twilight wouldn’t let the issue go, with a loud and worried tone of voice. I turned her around so she could see the guy. His arm was still in a strange position that looked painful, but I couldn’t see any signs of the wound on his chest anymore. He was starting to come to.

“Twilight?” he said, trying to sit up, but collapsed back on the ground when he tried to put force on his left arm. Rarity hasted over to help him up. From what I could see, Scootaloo and Applebloom hadn’t suffered any harm, except maybe being thrown in the dirt. They, like everyone else, silently shed tears. Touching my free hand to my face, I felt that I too did cry.

“Come on,” I said, taking charge of the situation. “Le- let’s just go back. We have to get Twilight and Spike to a doctor…”

**

“How are they?” Rarity asked a woman with the same skin color as herself, wearing a nurses’ outfit and the nametag ‘Nurse Redcross’. We had arrived in Ponyville maybe a couple of hours ago, after having walked from the Diamond Vein in silence. No one, except to encourage Twilight and Spike to keep going despite their injuries, had said a thing to one another. We had sent Applebloom and Scootaloo home.

“The Princess will be fine, as long as she gets a day of rest. Her wounds were easy to fix, but how she strained herself while wounded takes a lot longer for the body to recover from. I’m amazed she was even conscious when she came here.”

“She already passed out earlier,” I mumbled. I didn’t cry any longer, but I had a cold lump in my throat, adding a sad tone to everything I said.

“Hmm, yes, I suppose she would have done so. You should just be glad you got her to me in time, so her injuries didn’t become permanent.”

“And what about Spikey-Wikey?” Rarity had stopped crying as well. “How is he?”

“The Dragonling is fine, but he did break his arm. Even for a dragon, that will take time to heal. And before you ask,” Nurse Redheart added, annoyed. “Pinkie Pie is fine as well. All she needed was a few stitched for her arms. What were you people doing anyway, to get like this? Knife-fighting?”

“Close enough,” I almost said, but Rarity shut my mouth with her magic before I could finish the first word.

“I am afraid that is privileged information about Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t prod the issue any further,” Rarity answered with as kind a voice as I believed she was able to muster at the moment. She hid her sorrow remarkably well.

“As you wish. Oh, and the Princess said she wanted you to go in and see her, and that I was to give you absolute privacy.”

“Why didn’t you say so immediately!?” Rarity changed from kind to furious in an instant, but was brushed off by the nurse.

“Because you two started to ask questions before I could. Now, good day!”

She went out of the room, slamming the door after her. Rarity and I looked at one another for a couple of seconds before we opened the door.

On the inside, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike were all awake, sitting up in their beds and smiling at us. Sad smiles without any joy in them; a false consolidation for the situation, clearly meant for Rarity.

“I just wanted to thank you,” Twilight began, looking from Rarity to Spike to Pinkie Pie. “If you three hadn’t showed up, I don’t think we would have made it out of that situation. It seems pure luck was on our side today.”

“Luck?” Pinkie Pie beamed. “I came because when I ran into your boyfriend, I got this strange feeling that he wanted me to come to find you two later. He told me you’d be at the Diamond Vein about an hour from then, and he asked me this really strange question about whether or not I was good at finding people, and then he gave me a hug, so I thought he wanted me to come.”

“Umm…” Twilight blushed at me being called her ‘boyfriend’, as did I. But neither of us mentioned it any further.

“And your boyfriend,” Rarity continued the tradition of calling me that already, it seemed. “He was acting so strange when he came to find Spike, even told me my sister would be in danger. And that I shouldn’t come. But then he left Spike behind as he went back.”

“He said he thought you’d be a danger if you came?” Spike sounded confused, looking from me to Rarity. “He didn’t say anything like that to me. He only said to make sure to not tell anyone I didn’t trust.”

“Wait, you made sure they’d come to help us, without even letting them know what was going on?” Twilight was dumbfounded. Everyone in the room stared at me now. I had to fight back a smile.

“Not exactly, I did tell Spike,” I felt like I was being crossexamined, even though no one had asked any more questions yet. “I did want Pinkie Pie to find us though, and I assumed Rarity would make Spike tell her what was going on and come to help her sister.”

“But, darling, why didn’t you just say so?”

“I couldn’t,” I had to swallow some spit. “I didn’t know if the Changeling I saw in my mind was magically linked to the real one or not, so I couldn’t ask directly without… well, I feared that if I did, the Changelings would see it coming.”

“But how did you know it would be an ambush?” with a skeptical tone, she used her magic to force me closer to her bed, staring me dead in the eyes. It was a little scary.

“I didn’t. I just made the assumption that it was. Just like I assumed Applejack was the Changeling when I started to talk about the apple orchard, and how I assumed that seeing the Changelings in our heads meant that Rarity and I were able to put up some resistance against them, after the Changeling was surprised by hearing about that, saying something about ‘strength’.”

“But how did you know there would be two Changelings?” Pinkie seemed really impressed with what I was saying, in contrast to the others who just looked at me with empty faces.

“I didn’t. That took me by surprise too. It was just a coincident that they weren’t powerful enough to deal with all of us by themselves. It sounded like they didn’t count on reinforcement coming, or on us fighting their control. They talked a lot.”

“So, what you are saying is that you worked out a hypothesis and came up with a solution to it, saving our lives out there?” Twilight smiled now, with a slightly deeper blush than before. She rested her head on her left hand. “Looks like I landed myself a pretty great boyfriend.”

“I… umm,” I started to blush deeply as well, looking at the ground and unconsciously starting to rub the back of my head with my right hand. “You’re giving me too much credit… it was mostly just luck that it worked out that way.”

“I sincerely doubt it,” with a kind, polite laughter Rarity smiled and took my hand. “Princess Celestia has always been able to see what people are capable of long before they can themselves. I don’t think it is coincidence that she allowed you to stay with us.”

“I agree,” Twilight chimed in, taking my other hand. “It was always up to us to discover what the Princess truly meant when she said you’d be helpful in flushing out the Changeling, and you showed us that her faith in you wasn’t for nothing. Your realization of the situation allowed you to turn the tables on the Changelings, something I couldn’t have done alone.”

“I think I stick with thinking I am just lucky, okay?” I was sweating, uncomfortable in this situation. They were giving me way too much credit for this. It had been just lucky coincidences that allowed me to help them. “Please don’t think of this as something I did. I’m being serious; I just got lucky!”

“I felt like I had only gotten lucky too, after we defeated Nightmare Moon,” as Rarity let go of my hand, Twilight continued to talk and drew me closer to her bed. I grabbed one of the chairs in the room and sat down right next to her. She didn’t let go of my hand. “But the more I thought about it afterwards, I thought that maybe it was meant to go that way and that Celestia knew how to make it happen. Since then I’ve come to trust the Solar Princess on these matters completely. She hasn’t shown herself to be wrong yet.”

Princess Celestia did this sort of thing often? The thought struck me as somewhat shady, but it was quickly erased by Twilight’s words of trust in her.

“Mind explaining to me why Nurse Redheart came running up to me and asked me to find Flutershy, then come here?” the door was practically busted in, and through it came Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Once they saw the condition their friends were in, they got a worried expression on their faces.

“Calm down, girls,” Twilight said. She wasn’t smiling anymore. “Sit down. I need to tell you what happened.”

**

“Hey, you!”

I was out in the hallway. I had walked out sometime during Twilight’s telling of the story. She continued to give me far more credit for what happened than I deserved, and I didn’t want to interrupt her every other minute. I could only assume that the story was over, now that Rainbow Dash was out here in the hall, pointing a finger at me with a grin.

“What?”

“You’re a dufus, you know that? Walking out on us, so we can’t thank you for saving our friends without going out looking for you.”

“But I- I didn’t- It was just luck, okay!?”

“Hey,” she had already gone through the door back in and stuck her head out to talk to me. “Are you coming? We need to talk about what we’re going to do now!”