My eyelids were heavy when the morning came. Twilight had already left the bed, yelling orders at Spike down in the first floor. At first I thought I had barely slept, but as I moved about, I found there was something else weighing me down.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Twilight teleported up into the room to fetch something, giving me a smile. It was much like I expected my own to be; a way to hide the uncertainty and fear growing in the gut. With another teleportation, she landed right beside me and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I put out some clothes for you. They should be less restrictive than what you’ve been walking around in.”

With a flash of light, Twilight was gone again. Behind where she had stood, I saw a simple tshirt and black sweat pants. Not fashionable, but practical. A part of me cursed her for not getting people armor to use.

“Breakfast!” Spike yelled for me from down the stairs. With a shrug, I got clothed.

**

I felt my mouth open when I saw the state of the library, attempting to shut it close once I regained a sense of what was going on. There was a, and a rather impressive one at that, collection of knives of various lengths spread about the different tables of the room. Some of them could justifiably be called shortswords.

“I thought we might need some of these,” Twilight smiled. “After what happened. Alas, I could not get armor fitted for us in time. Do you have any sword training?”

“N-no. I never used anything of the sort.”

“Me neither,” Spike added, but that didn’t do anything for me.

“I’m confident that this will be better than nothing.”

“Where’d you get them?” it struck me that these were things we should have brought with us to the ambush.

“The metalworker, where else? I’ll be paying for them for a while, but we have larger issues than some debt. Spike has been running back and forth all morning. One moment,” she disappeared for a moment or two, before she appeared again. “I’m sorry, just had to check on Rarity. She’s still at the Carousel Boutique.”

“That teleporting, will that be enough to save us, if things go to hell?” from the night we left for Canterlot, I remembered her saying something about a limit to the spell.

“I don’t know. I’ve been in the tunnels before, and they go deep. We can’t rely on it.”

I nodded. So did Spike. Twilight glanced at the dragonling.

“Spike, why don’t you go over and tell Rarity that she can stop pacing now? We’re about to leave.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” for a moment it almost sounded like he said ‘mom’ to her. Or perhaps I just thought that because of the tone he used. Once the door was shut, I saw Twilight’s expression and posture change. No longer was she happy and confident. She fell into one of the chairs.

“That bad, huh?”

“The last time we were separated, it was disastrous, and even then my friends were just being brainwashed. Now Applejack is just missing. We don’t even know where she is!” she got up and started to pace, furious in her tone. “And with Sweetie Belle in the same position, Rarity is unstable at best! Spike told me she had been staring out of the window most of the night, refusing to talk or sleep or anything else! You and Rarity have both been shown to be under some influence of the Changelings, but there is no hope convincing either of you to stay behind!”

A feeling of guilt spread from my guts. Where there no way to keep me from going? I’d be lying if I said that there was no part of me that begged me to raise my voice and say that I was willing to stay behind. But I didn't. Twilight continued.

“And if that wasn’t enough, Spike has insisted on going too, despite his arm not being properly healed yet, so now pretty much everyone I know and care for are putting themselves in danger! If it was just me and my friends, and if Applejack was here, I would have had some fucking control over what the hell is going on! Without the Elements of Harmony, there isn’t a chance in hell to be certain about anything!”

“Couldn’t we get help from the Princesses?” I asked.

“Big help they would be, always being mysterious about everything! Having everything be some kind of test of my character, or if I have grown strong and smart enough! The Princesses used to do stuff all the time, you know. They banished Discord and defeated Sombra, united the different tribes to one people, but they can’t be fucking bothered to step in when the joke is old and my friends’ lives are at stake! The Princess is a fucking cunt who uses me and everyone else as playthings for her own amusement!”

Twilight stopped pacing. I could see the tears start to stream down her cheeks, but not a sound came from her. All I could do was to embrace her, stroke her hair. I tried to whisper that it was okay, but the lips wouldn’t move. Her wings spread out and embraced me in turn.

“I- I didn’t mean that,” she said, quietly. “I just… I just wish that for once in my life, she could be open and- and upfront with me. Not leaving me guessing and hoping she knew what she was doing. What I was doing.”

“Of course you know what you’re doing! You’re Twilight Sparkle! I don’t know this world, I don’t know what you’ve been through or how you managed it, but I’m not a complete idiot. Once is luck, two unlikely, three impossible and four is a pattern.”

“And I did all of that with a lot of help.”

“And…” I just shut my mouth. What could I say? What could anyone say? Only one that could get through to her now had to be Celestia herself.

“Let’s just go.”

**

I couldn’t make up my mind about whether or not the group moved too fast or too slow. No one were talking, but I saw nearly constant worried glances towards Rarity. Rainbow Dash too, for some reason.

I had been given two of the daggers, both hanging from a belt. One short and one longer. Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Spike had a similar upset. Rarity and Twilight didn’t carry any, on count of them having magic.

Every step I took was met with a wish that I had dragged on the conversation with Luna in my sleep. Perhaps it would have staved off this walk. If not in actual time, perhaps in my perception of it. There was a pain in my stomach; not so bad that it’d hinder me, but enough to constantly draw attention. It was maddening. The picture of my dream came to mind, and I felt that I threw more glances at Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy than I should have. Part of me wished that Luna would show up again, revealing this to me yet another dream.

“So,” I started, hesitantly. It felt unnatural to talk. “You’ve been down in this place before, right?”

Twilight nodded to me in response. None of the others said anything.

“Well, what can you tell me about it? I’m going in blind to this.”

“Hmm?” Twilight sounded like she hadn’t been listening fully. “Oh, right. Just an old diamond mine, but it splits off in a hundred different directions once we get underground. By now it has to be like an insect hive.”

I tried to get the image out of my head, but it wasn’t quite possible. A scene of Changelings crawling on and around one another, using the sound of their wings to communicate, in dark tunnels with larva and cocoons all around remained in my head, twisting my gut. I didn’t notice at first, but I rested my hand at the handle of the longer of the two blades I had been given. I prayed to the Maker that the Changelings’ wings were the most insect-like feature they had.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry!”

Lost within my own thoughts, I had bumped into Twilight as she stopped. Rainbow snickered at us, but the rest just rolled their eyes. The body of the Changeling that Rarity had killed yesterday was nowhere to be seen, but some of the blood seemed to have left a mark on the ground, mixing with the dirt. It had an awful stench, and flies swarming around it. We gave it a wide berth.

Our group approached the entrance to the mine. As we walked forward, Rarity and Twilight shot small beams of magic into the bushes around us. I assumed they were trying to prevent an ambush.

We stopped, only a few steps from the outermost inch of the cave. Inside there was no light, no sound to be heard after the rays of light from the sin could penetrate no more. I took my left hand off the handle of my blade; it was shaking.

“C’mon,” Rarity whispered, lighting her horn. The pale blue light added a few inches to our sight, but no one moved. Not even Rarity. I saw Spike rub against his arm, with an expression of repressed pain. Finally, Twilight was the one to make the first step, lighting her horn as well.

**

The tunnel had kept going straight, without any alternate paths, for ten or fifteen minutes. We could see maybe twenty meters in front of us, thanks to Rarity. Twilight had stopped projecting light, much to my relief. Her purple light was harder on the eyes than Rarity’s pale blue.

I tried to listen for the sound of anything that was not our own footsteps. Nothing. No signs of footprints either, from what I could see. Or, in these old tunnels, none that looked like the one we had been outside when we came knocking yesterday. And none that looked like they were recent.

I attributed this to the Changelings being winged creatures. The tunnel was wide and tall enough for Raindow and Fluttershy to fly through, though they went on foot at Twilight’s behest. The flapping of wings was harder to do silently than a slow-paced walk. I appreciated the slow pace we held; something made it harder than normal for me to move, be it fear or something far more unnerving.

Another twenty minutes or so passed before we reached the end of the tunnel that led to the exit. This room too was unlit, save for Rarity’s magic, but anything but silent. Maybe a dozen or more paths surrounded us, sending vague sounds of feet and the buzzing of wings our way. Loud enough to put us all on edge, but far enough away to not ready ourselves for a fight.

“Where to now?” Fluttershy whispered. No one answered. I assumed everyone had reached a silent agreement that fighting had to be our last resort. First we had to find Applejack and Sweetie Belle, if they were here at all.

Or Molly, my brain added as a possibility. Finding Molly would let us interrogate her to find out where they are.

No one answered, nor did it look like Fluttershy expected a verbal one. Twilight looked from one path to another, her eyes flickering all over the place, searching for something to give her a clue. I looked at Spike again; his obsession with rubbing his arm told me that it had to hurt, but no one else paid any attention to it.

“Greetings, you people look like you’re lost. I am from the Changeling Bureau of Tourism, may I be of assistance?”

Collectively we spun around, facing whoever talked. It was a Changeling, smirking at us. From the playful wave and wink she gave me, and the unmistakable burn mark on her forearm, I saw that it was Molly.

Without a word said, both Twilight and Rarity shot beams of magic after her, which she almost managed to dodge perfectly. Twilight’s beam had still strafed her arm, nearly throwing her off balance.

Molly’s answer was to spin around and run the fastest she could into the tunnel. We followed, almost on instinct. Rainbow started to fly ahead, but was stopped by Twilight’s magic. She mumbled something about not allowing them to Divide and Conquer.

My movements were still less than ideal, being slowed down by something. It had to be the work of Molly’s influence. Whether this meant I had largely broken it, or she was playing with me, I couldn’t tell.

As we passed through the tunnel, no Molly in sight, it struck me that this couldn’t go well. It was obviously a trap to lead us down a particular path. But, as I was about to speak up, another thought struck me as well: If we didn’t follow, Molly would presumably just fetch some reinforcement and hunt us down. They had to be well-acquainted with the labyrinth of tunnels by now. The thought that this couldn’t end well repeated itself in my mind.

“Shit…” I breathed, having to draw my breath when the rest of the group stopped. The path split in three in front of us, and there was no sign of Molly. She had probably flow most of the way, to avoid leaving footprints. All, except Rainbow, breathed heavy as well.

Two of the new paths went forward, to the right and left, but the third one was oddly placed. It looked more recent, even though I wouldn’t trust my judgment for that, and went in an almost 90 degree turn from where we came. Twilight stood the closest to it, a little apart from the rest of the group.

“I think this is new,” she mumbled, just loud enough for me to hear it. “I don’t remember, but I don’t think this was here the last time we came down.”

Something didn’t sit right with me. Like before, I felt that I had to struggle more than usual to move, but the feeling had grown weaker when Molly fled. Now it was growing stronger again. The others were looking into the other paths, be they the ones leading ahead or back, listening for signs of anyone else.

The Changelings had wings, I reminded myself, looking up at the ceiling. I hadn’t heard anything there, and now I didn’t see anything. The stone was old, worn and didn’t hold any additional tunnels. Just a fruitless assumption.

Glancing over again, I thought I saw something. I tried to squint my eyes for a better view, but it seemed indistinguishable from Rarity’s light. I drew my breath, frustrated.

“Rarity,” I said, keeping one eye at the stop and the other at Twilight. She was almost right under it. “Can you turn down your light, just a little bit?”

“Umm, okay?” Rarity sounded confused. I assumed the others looked at me like I was insane or something.

“Christ!”

“Damned son-of-a-!”

“Twilight!”

“What happened?!”

“Get off me!” Twilight pushed me aside, lighting her horn up so we could see. When I saw the green light from the roof, I had jumped forward, forcing myself and Twilight into the path she had been studying for clues. Behind us the way was blocked by a rubble. The Changelings had tried to bring the ceiling down on us.

“Rarity? Pinkie? Spike? Can any of you hear me?” Twilight shouted as she helped me to my feet.

“We’re okay!” Pinkie pie shouted back, notably worried. Through the stone the shouts were unnervingly quiet. “No one were hit by the rocks.”

“I’m teleporting us back to you!” Twilight answered, but was cut off almost immediately.

“No!” Rainbow and Rarity yelled in unison. “Find another way around! We’ll try to find you!”

A feint buzz of wings told us that they had been joined by Changelings.

“Oh, what should I do?” Twilight looked out of herself. I raised my eyebrow; it had struck me as obvious that she’d go back and help them, regardless of what happened. Then she lowered her eyes and turned away, waving for me to follow her. Behind me I could hear someone, or something, being hit against the stone. Hard.

“Umm, shouldn’t we help them?” I asked. This felt wrong.

“That’d make everything worse…”

“But-“

“I can’t let them capture all of us again!” for the second time, I saw Twilight lose her temper. Tears silently ran down from her eyes. She swallowed and continued, more calmly. It sounded like she had to hold back wailing. “The last time we tried to fight our way through the Changelings, we were all captured. If it wasn’t for their queen keeping my brother and my sister-in-law in the same room, we would never have defeated them. It is either for us to get out now and get help from the Princess, or we’ll all be slaves. My friends knew the risks of coming here.”

My heart skipped a few beats, sending a cold chill through my spine. The attempts she made to distance her emotions from what she had done… it shook me to the core. Collecting myself as best I could, I caught up with her as she made her way through the tunnel.

Leaving her friends behind for some greater good? I had known these people for less than a month and I found it hard to leave them, even when the choice was completely out of my hands. Without Twilight’s magic, I couldn’t go back, and it still felt awful. My stomach turn again. I’d be engaging in involuntary protein spills if this continued.

“Look,” I said, taking a gentle hold of her shoulder. “I just want to say that I’ll trust that you’re doing the right thing.”

She just nodded in return, without saying a word, before she almost tore herself from my grip. I thought I saw anger.

**

The tunnel took many turns, letting us walk with little light. There was no way back. I found an odd comfort in it, knowing that whatever came next we had no way of avoiding it. I tried my best to put the others out of my mind, telling myself that I didn’t even get a hand in choosing their fate. Another part of my mind, which I felt a burning hatred for, told me that I probably would have left them even if I did have the choice.

After some time, the tunnel widened out, before it turned again. I had to force down the contents of my stomach again at the sight of what was before us; the room was large, round with a tall ceiling. On the other side of the room, there was another entrance. Along the walls there were pods, slowly expanding and retracting, as if they were breathing. The closest was on my left, barely an arm’s each away. Hesitantly, I took a step in its direction. Twilight followed my lead, without a word.

It was impossible to see anything through them, as they seemed to be covered with something. Drawing my knife, I started to scrape some of it off, and… nothing? It was empty. I touched my hand to the now-clear surface; it was cold.

I could feel Twilight use her magic to snatch the knife from me, taking it over to the next pod. I drew the other blade I had been given and started on the opposite side of the room.

“Twilight,” I said. “I- I think I found something.”

I had found something. From inside the second pod I’d scraped clear, I saw the face of Applejack. I could feel that the pod was warm even as I scraped it.

“Applejack!” Twilight teleported over, starting to look around the contraption frantically. I moved on to the next one, feeling for warmth. When I didn’t feel it, I moved on. And again.

The third pod I touched was warm, more so than the others. Sweetie Belle, I said to myself, and started the process to remove the slime again.

“I can’t seem to open this,” I heard Twilight say to herself. As I continued the process, I saw that the one trapped inside had white skin. I had been right about the pod, it contained… Sweetie Be…

“Heh-“ this was bad. Awful. My unconscious expulsion of air, faintly sounding like a laugh, went unnoticed by Twilight. She was busy trying to find a way to free Applejack. “Twi- Twilight? You better come see this…”

“What!?” she answered with a frustrated snap, then her face turned to horror. “Nononono!”

I looked back at what I had uncovered. The person inside had indeed white skin, but the size, the face, horn and wings belonged to someone else.

“Princess!” Twilight became frantic, scraping off the last of the slime with her hands, prying at the prison, yelling at the inhabitant of the pod. But it was unrelenting, no answer was given. It continued its breathing rhythm as it had. Celestia didn’t even open her eyes.

I was cold, unsure of what to make of this. Dizzy even. The sound of calm footsteps, and many of them, came from the doorway we hadn’t reached yet. The buzzing of wings followed suit.

“Twilight?” I said, trying to get through to her. She didn’t react. The sounds became stronger and more intense. “Twilight!”

The girl continued to ignore me, focusing all her efforts on the pod. My blood froze as a large group of Changelings, maybe fifteen, entered the room. Molly walked in front of them, still smirking. With a kind voice she spoke to me.

“Nowhere to run now, pet.”

“TWILIGHT!” I roared at the top of my lounges, talking a hold of her, forcing her to face the Changeling group. She didn’t seem able to do much, so I made a decision.

“After them,” Molly spoke calmly when I dragged Twiligth after me the fastest I could, in the direction we had come from. At first she resisted, but she came to her senses. Or maybe her survival instincts kicked in, I didn’t really give a fuck which it was.

I knew we were running into a dead end, but what options did we have? If we were in the tunnels, maybe we could bottleneck them, take them on one or two at a time. It was a foolish endeavor, but what else was there?

“Twilight,” I tried to establish contact with her. We had nowhere left to run. Now the only thing left was to make a last stand. Maybe at least get them to remember us for something before we lost this. She blinked up at me, distant-minded. “Twilight! Magic! Now!”

“Yes… magic… have to try… close your eyes!” I didn’t know if she had snapped out of it, or snapped, but I did as she said. I felt her embrace me, firmly. I couldn’t even tell how far away the Changelings were anymore, but they had to reach us any minute now. Something hit me in the head, and I heard what I thought was fireworks. Or perhaps it happened the other way around. Regardless of which it was, I felt my consciousness slip.

Everything spun around me, and I was unable to make out one sound from another. I opened my eyes, but everything was just a blur, before it became black.