When me and Applejack get back to the Library it's getting dark, and we find that the lights are turned off. This is either a depressing attempt at a surprise party, or something is wrong. "Be ready. Something doesn't feel right. No half-decent party planner would turn off the lights in a room with windows, especially if the guest knows that they are waiting there." I say, tensing up, and reaching into my saddle bag.
"Oh, I'm sure it's fine. Pinkie probably just wants to make it a really basic party, so you won't be stressed." she says, putting a hoof on my shoulder.
"Well, if that's the case, then I should go in first. Even if it isn't a party, I should go in first. If my instincts are correct, then I can go in and see what's wrong." I say pulling a pair of lensless goggles out of my bag, and putting them on.
"Naw, I'll come with ya. I ain't squeamish, so if something is wrong I aint afraid to fight." she says, taking off her hat, and pulling a bundle of rope out, and then placing her hat back on her head.
"Alright, I won't stop ya, but are you sure you can handle yourself?" I say, taking off my saddlebag and hiding it under a rock.
"I'm fine. come on, lets go." She says.
As we walk in the door, we are met with a few clatters and thumps as somepony tries to hide. I walk over to the lights, and turn them on. Another clatter sounds out behind me, and resounding thud follows. I turn around to see that a ski-masked pony is splayed out on the floor by the wall, and Applejack has one back leg out. "Well, I reckon you're right. What should we do?" She says.
"Hmm, you know this place better than me, so why don't you go find the girls. They must be holding them somewhere. I'm gonna check the rest out." I say, inspecting the apparently unconscious pony. Note to self: don't tick off Applejack.
As Applejack heads downstairs, I turn and head upstairs. While I am heading upstairs, my right hoof flicks up to the right side of the goggles, and everything turns bright again. Good, my spectra goggles still have some charge. These will prove extremely useful, considering that the always shifting lenses of pure spectra changes to counter the environment. This makes me be able to always see, in bright light, at night, and even underwater and in smoke. Even magically camouflaged ponies become highly visible outlines. All this, and I can still see every color. Well every color but plaid, and I don't know why. Maybe the fact that so many colors are crossing over each other makes the spectra lenses confused.
I walk into a bedroom and immediately see another ski masked pony in the corner. This one is holding a knife. I pretend to not notice while I make my way over to the lightswitch. Once I get there, I see a noteboard on the desk. Grabbing it, I flick on the lights, turn around and throw it at him before he even gets a chance to jump at me. It hits him in the shoulder, and he drops his knife. Taking the opportunity, I dash at full speed and headbutt him. The shocked look in his eyes tells me he didn't think I would be able to take him. I hit him and he slams into the wall because the speed of the hit. Though out of breath he gets back up. He tries to to headbutt me, but at the last second I drop down and dive forward, tripping him. He goes sailing over me and smashes into the bed. Unfortunately, that's where the knife was. Grabbing it, he charges at me again, this time with the knife in front of him, moving faster than I thought he could. I think I dodge him, but a hot flash of searing pain in my back left hoof tells me otherwise. I wince, and he takes the opportunity and charges at me once more, but this time I am ready. Rearing up, I smack the knife from his hand and swing my other hoof into his face, clothslining him. Before he can get up, I put a hoof down on his chest, and hit him in the jaw. After two more hits to the head, he finally passes out. For a pony, he sure was resilient.To make sure he that when he wakes up he can't run away, I use the bed lining to tihe him to the banister of the stairs. I then grab the knife, and hide it in the desk, so if he does escape, he won't have a weapon.
As I make my way down the stairs to check on Applejack, I hear a high pitched squeal from the cellar. Taking it as a signal of where the girls are is, I run down the stairs, and see the worst thing possible. Applejack is on the floor, scratched up and bruised. What I saw next was even more blood chilling: a Diamond Dog Fighter! A thousand questions exploded in my head. The one that bugged me the most was how rich are these guys anyway? To be able to hire a Diamond Dog mercenary! Whatever their goal is, they definitely want it done right.
Taking the advantage of surprise, I leap at the diamond dog, but he smells me coming, and backclaws me before I can get to him. Rolling from the hit, I struggle to keep track of the ground. Before I can get up, he grabs me and slams me back to the ground. The metalic taste of blood fills my mouth. "Wow! My first broken bone in more than a year!" I say, more to cheer myself up than to taunt him.
"Why are you helping them?" he says in a voice that sounds too dry and grainy to belong to a living anything."You don't even know them."
"Because I promised myself I wouldn't let anyone else be hurt if I can help." I say, trying to get up, but failing.
"Well then, I guess I'll have to make it so you can never help anypony again." He says, stretching his claws to full length. Then he just starts laughing
Darn it, I have no choice but to use my emergency plan. Reaching into my mane, I pull out a small blue gem. I smash it on the floor, and a blue smoke fills the room. Holding my breath and plugging my ears, I crawl to where the diamond dog is now enjoying a happy illusion. I grab his leg, pull him down, and slam his head into the ground, once, twice, thrice, and he finally slumps unconscious. I grab his headband, and tear a bit off. Using that bit to cover my mouth, I pull a red gem out of my mane, and smash that. Now a red smoke fills the room. A surge of fear overcomes me for a brief second, before the two smokes mix, then vanish. "They are all gone now. Where are you?" I call out, darkness creeping to the edge of my vision.
"Tied up in the closet on the left!" Twilight's voice calls out.
Pulling a sharp scrap of metal from the diamond dog's belt, I crawl to the cabinet in question. Feeling like i'm going to collapse, I open the door and drop the knife to the blur of colors, that hopefully is the girls, before passing out. The next few minutes are a blur. First, there was a short scream. Then followed by some dulled grunts that sounded like someone talking through a sheet of glass. Then movement. Now I'm being carried. Why is there a table under me? I thought I was in a tree. Theres a tickling sensation in my back hooves and my chest, wait, why does it hurt so much. Uh, wait, why am I on a bed? I don't remember walking here. Am I a unicorn? Was that how I got here? Did I teleport? Now I'm in a different bed. This one is yellow. Who is the kind looking white and pink blur? What is that little glass sharp thing? Why is the world spinning? Are my legs made of led, because I can't move them. Oh, hi darkness, what are you doing here?
Twilight had never seen somepony so badly injured as she had seen Food fighter: a broken rib, a gash in the leg, and a broken hoof. How he didn't pass out before he got to them, I don't know. Something else was interesting. How could he have gotten rare artifacts like Spectra goggles, or Red and Blue hallucinator mist gems. I knew he went after old ruins, but I never would've guessed that he found things like this. She would have to ask him when he wakes up. Poor thing, risking his life to help them. When he opened the closet, it took a bit for her eyes to adjust, but when she could see, he was there on the floor, blood leaking from his mouth and his hoof. He had a sharp shard of metal to cut us free, but he passed out from his injuries. When Fluttershy saw, she thought he was dead and screamed. He had dropped the shard, but I couldn't grab it with my magic the bullies who did this put a magic dampener on my horn. Luckily, it slid towards Rainbow Dash, and she got it with her wing. She then cut us all free. I wanted to examine his injuries before reviving him, in case if it would cause him pain.
Unfortunately, I was correct. When we found out what his injuries were, I tried a healing spell, and it sealed the cuts, but the rib remained broken. Judging where it broke, we had enough time to call a professional healer. I also sealed all of Applejack's cuts and scrapes. Applejack led me outside to where he had left his equipment. I was shocked to see all these old and still useable magical gadgets. How many places has he actually been? I feel terrible that he had to go through that pain. And what about the giant dog? Why did it attack us, and how did it beat Applejack so quickly? I've seen Applejack take down Big Mac time after time. Just who was in charge of this, and what were they trying to do? I sent a letter to the Princess, asking if she knew what happened. Hopefully she will respond soon, because we are getting worried. She might send some guards, in case if somepony is going against the Princesses, and are planning to use me as a hostage. Oh well, I should probably write a list for being prepared for any more attacks. I had hoped I would never have to learn attack spells, but I might need to. We might not be lucky enough to have Food Fighter coming back for things like Pinkie's party. Poor Pinkie, she'll have to move her plans to tomorrow. I have so many questions to ask him, but Nurse Redheart said she needed him to stay asleep so he doesn't freak out because of the pain, until the professional healer could get here. Nurse Redheart also said that the healer would come tomorrow at noon, if there were no delays. I just hope she gets here in time. No use waiting in a patients room. I should probably go tell Rarity what she missed. Wonder How she will react.