I hated leaving Flash and Trojan to fight that scary-looking changeling, but I knew he was right: I had to get Mr. Cake to safety and away from the fight. It wasn't until I tried to drag him away that I realized he was awkward to carry, and it would be awful to drag him across the dirt all the way to his house. It didn’t feel right to treat him like a sack of potatoes.
Once Flash and Trojan were gone, I decided to stay with Mr. Cake and wake him up. Before that changeling came out of nowhere, I recalled him starting to sound like his normal self. Maybe I could figure out what had happened once he was awake and find a clue to help us put an end to Chrysalis’s plans. It was the least I could do.
Thankfully I only had to wait a few minutes until his eyes fluttered open. “Mr. Cake?” I braced myself for the evil Mr. Cake to say something angry. There was no way to tell if he was finally back to his old self or not.
His eyes turned to me, blinking owlishly. “S-Spike? Is that you?” His voice was strained, but I couldn’t hear the venom that used to be in his tone. It was gentle and light, just like it was before the mess with the changeling. He looked worn out, but I knew this was the real Mr. Cake.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Awful. Like I was in a nightmare. At least, I wish I could say it was just that.”
“What do you mean, Mr. Cake?”
“Spike, I...” His eyes started welling up, his lips trembling. I’ve never seen him look so defeated. “I’ve been really terrible this past week, and I said such terrible things to everypony. Pinkie, my wife, even my own foals. I-I don’t know what got into me, but I have to go back and make this right!” As he stood up his legs wobbled, I managed to catch him just as he tripped and fell.
“Hey, hey, take it easy. That wasn’t really you this past week. It couldn’t be. You’re one of the sweetest ponies I know!”
“Heh, that was pretty clever. I appreciate that, and I want to believe that wasn’t me. But after this week, I just don’t know anymore.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “So all those awful things you said… you really meant them?”
“Goodness, no! It’s not that simple, Spike.” He paused to sigh, his brows furrowing with effort. “Sometimes in life, you’ll go through things that will make you stressed out or upset. Running a bakery, being a father, handling responsibilities—it can be tough on a pony. I’ll admit there were one or two times I had those kinds of thoughts when I was upset, but I always knew that was just the frustrations of life messing with my head. Whenever that happened, I always just tucked it away and tried to forget about it. Not sure what happened that caused all of it to just come out like that.”
I tried to think back to the first time Twilight and the others fought changelings. Whenever they drained a pony of their love, they usually collapsed out of exhaustion. But none of this sounded normal. And then there was that white stuff that the changeling had fed into Mr. Cake. Scary as this situation was, the idea all of this was going on when nopony knew any better was scarier.
“I don’t know what changed in me, but I did realize something important,” Mr. Cake continued. “If you’ve ever had a dark thought or negative feeling, it goes somewhere, Spike. Not sure what started it, but it felt like every little bad thought I had ever had just took over, and I couldn’t stop it. I love my wife. I love my foals. I love Pinkie Pie and everypony in Ponyville. I really do, no matter what I said or did.” Mr. Cake sighed, tears streaming down his face. “But now, I probably lost them all. During that week, it was as if I’d forgotten what it meant to love and only knew how to hate.”
Trojan’s words echoed in the back of my mind right then, how hatred was in everypony's heart. If somepony as nice as Mr. Cake had something like this in him, then who knew how many ponies had this going on in their hearts? What if this happened to Twilight?
That’s when it hit me: more than Twilight was at stake.
Everypony in Ponyville could be forced to go through what had happened with Mr. Cake if we didn’t do something about it. Any doubts I had about Flash and Trojan’s mission were gone. No matter what, I had to do everything I could to stop this. But first, I had to take care of Mr. Cake. I couldn't take watching him look so depressed when it was not really his fault.
“I don’t know if everypony has such hateful things in their hearts, but I know how it feels to have something terrible inside you." I almost destroyed Ponyville and hurt my friends because of my nature as a dragon. If it weren't for Rarity and the others, who knows what I would have done. "The things you said were horrible, I’m not going to ignore that. But I do understand that just because it's inside of us doesn’t mean it defines us. Maybe you do have some bad thoughts once in awhile, but so what? You’ve got good things too. And I’m sure if you explain things to Mrs. Cake and Pinkie Pie, they will forgive you. I know I forgive you, and I’ll help explain things to Mrs. Cake and Pinkie, so don’t worry.”
Mr. Cake stared at me with his teary eyes. Slowly he smiled and gave me a hug. “You’re going to grow up to be a fine dragon someday. Thank you, Spike. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” I hugged him back, grateful to have good ol’ Mr. Cake back.
“I FORGIVE YOU TOO, MR. CAKE!”
We jumped up startled, staring at a wailing Pinkie Pie running towards us from the main road. Shocked, but grateful, we gave her room to join the heartfelt group hug.
“Pinkie Pie,” Mr. Cake started, “I’ve been so terrible to you. I don’t know what came over me, but I’m going to make it up to you however I can.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay again.” Pinkie said, teary-eyed. Finally everything was getting back to normal.
That is, until the heartwarming moment was interrupted by a distant roar from Everfree Forest.
“W-what was that?” Mr. Cake perked up, looking in the direction of the sound with Pinkie Pie. That did not sound good, and I already knew what that sound was.
“Oh no, Flash!” I gasped, remembering he and Trojan’s lives were in danger. “Pinkie, can you take Mr. Cake home for me? I have to be somewhere!”
Mr. Cake noticed my urgency and shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. You two go find your friends. Find me if you two need any help, okay?”
“Are you sure, Mr. Cake? I don’t mind helping you home. You look so tired,” Pinkie said.
“I’m sure. I’ve caused you two enough trouble already. Besides, I need some time alone to fix things. Don't worry, though, I won't let this happen again.” It was a rare sight, but I had never seen such resolve in Mr. Cake’s eyes. I wanted to tell him it was the changeling’s fault he was acting that way, but I made a promise not to tell, especially since Twilight’s life was at risk. Pinkie and I watched as Mr. Cake slowly trotted off.
“Hey Spike, where are Flash and Sassy? Didn’t you two go to get medicine?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Um…yeah, we did! But then, uh, this big monster came out of nowhere and attacked us and Mr. Cake! They went to chase it away into Everfree and had me take care of Mr. Cake.” It was as close to the truth as I could get. “Go ahead back to Sassy’s place, Pinkie. I’ll go and take care of them.”
“Nope! Not gonna happen! Come on, Spike, you and I are gonna save our pals!” Before I could stop her, Pinkie rushed ahead, forcing me to follow after her.
I had a bad feeling about this.
Entering the Everfree, I felt a chill go through me like the temperature had dropped to freezing point. I always hated entering this creepy forest. Sometimes I wished I could be as calm and happy as Pinkie. Outside the situation with Mr. Cake, I didn’t think there was much else that could rattle her, especially now that she was in high spirits.
As we delved further and tried calling out to them, we saw bright flashes of light and heard howling that shook me to my core. “Pinkie Pie, let’s go!”
“Right!” Pinkie Pie pressed forward, careful to not get caught up in the bushes and vines.
As we got closer, the lights and sounds died out, and everything went quiet. Too quiet. It was beginning to freak me out. “I wonder if they’re alright…”
“I’m sure they are fine. Let’s try calling them again.” Pinkie reassured me as she sucked in a deep breath. “Hello? Is anypony there?”
Just as we entered the clearing, we both froze as we saw a terror-stricken Mrs. Cake hobbling towards us.
“PINKIE, COME HELP! THIS CRAZY PONY IS TRYING TO KILL—” And then out of nowhere, Flash delivered a flying punch to Mrs. Cake’s face and sent her soaring into the bushes. My jaw dropped as I looked between the bushes where Mrs. Cake had been thrown and the frozen stiff Flash who stared at us like a deer caught in train lights. I knew Flash would never do such a terrible thing and had to assume it was that changeling from earlier. That did not make what we had just seen look any better, though. Even worse, Pinkie had no idea that was a changeling.
Dude, just run, was what I wanted to tell him, but I was too shocked to speak. Flash faced us and took a deep breath. I knew no matter what he said, this was going to get ugly.
“Pinkie—”
The poor guy didn’t get to finish whatever he was about to say before Pinkie flew at him and delivered a haymaker sucker punch to his face. Everything happened so fast I didn’t even catch the fact Pinkie had left my side until I saw her pummeling the world out of Flash.
“YOU DIRTY, ROTTEN JERK!” Pinkie roared.
After the first few lightning-fast punches, Flash recovered and started dodging and blocking her attacks as fast as they were coming. As awesome as Flash was at fighting, Pinkie tuned out to be far scarier of a fighter than I'd thought, her heavy punches cracking rocks and trees that happened to get in her way. I was thankful Flash did not try to fight back and hurt her, but disheartened as I realized he was forced to fight against one of the very ponies he was trying to protect. Even if he had his weird moments, deep down I knew he was a good pony trying to do what he could to save everypony. He proved that the moment he risked everything to save Mr. Cake.
“Pinkie, stop!” I yelled out as I ran to Pinkie. She completely ignored me, too busy chasing Flash around the clearing, punching through and obliterating any tree or rock in her way. Flash did the smart thing and took off into the air. For a moment, Pinkie’s only answer to that was a sling of curses I don’t think I could ever unhear.
Pinkie Pie was an incredible pony, but even she could not handle a flying pega—was that her party cannon?
“GET BACK HERE, YOU COWARD!” Large fireworks shot out of the cannon and towards Flash. Poor guy had to dodge for his life, avoiding explosions I had no doubt would give him some serious burns.
"That was not the real Mrs. Cake! It was an imposter— whoa!" Flash tried to explain himself but it was cut short by the storm of explosions coming from the cannon.
"YOU LIAR!" Pinkie amped up the firing speed, throwing everything she had into knocking Flash out of the sky.
I rushed to Pinkie Pie, trying to pull her off the cannon. “Flash is innocent! He is telling the truth!”
“Don’t fall for his tricks, Spike! I know what I saw, and I saw him hurt poor Mrs. Cake. HASN’T SHE BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH!?” I had never seen Pinkie this mad before.
I was glad to not be Flash Sentry right now.
A muffled groan caught my attention from behind a tree that was riddled with burns. I quickly made my way to it, catching Trojan doubled over with pain. Just like with that other changeling, that white magic stuff was coming off of her body. “Trojan, are you okay? What happened?”
Her eyes cracked open as she looked at me. “W-what are you doing here, Spike? You have to get out of here.”
“I’m here to help you guys!” The energy leaking off her was going towards Pinkie Pie much like how that other changeling did. I couldn’t help but stare as I tried to help Trojan stand. “Why is that white stuff going to Pinkie Pie? What IS that white stuff?”
Trojan hesitated, then sighed with surrender. “It will take too long to explain, but the long and short of it is that it's magic that is fueled by hatred and aggression. I'm trying to contain it, but Pinkie's rage is too strong. I can't stop it from coming out.”
A terrifying thought occurred to me. I couldn't bear to picture Pinkie Pie turning into one of those things. “Is she going to turn into…”
“No. Changeling biology is different, which is why it happens to us. However, the effects are similar in how they empower whoever is infected. It will feed off their hatred and, in turn, make them more powerful.” Trojan slumped wearily, looking at me with a grim expression.
I glanced at Pinkie, noting that her cannon was no longer shooting fireworks. All kinds of sharp kitchen utensils were being launched out of it: cleavers, knives, forks, just about everything that would make somepony bleed. Flash was getting badly cut up, forced to go down into the forest. Pinkie Pie galloped into the thicket after him.
“How do we stop it?” I asked, doing my best to to force down the panic in my voice.
Trojan sucked in a breath as she stood up, the hate magic no longer coming out of her. All of it must have gone after Pinkie. On the bright side, she looked a lot healthier. “I have a way to stop it, but I need your help.”
“What can I do? Whatever it is, I’ll do it!”
Trojan placed her hooves on my shoulders and smirked. “Give me love, and lots of it.”
I’ve faced many dangers in my time: changeling swarms, timberwolves, chimeras, stalker griffons, and just recently a mutated, hate-powered changeling. None of them terrified me like Pinkie Pie.
My rigorous royal guard training was saving my life. Pinkie was clearly not a trained fighter—her attacks were wild and uncoordinated—but she easily made up for that with unpredictability and absurd strength. The cleavers in her fetlocks did not help, as I was weaponless and forced to run for my life while dodging her blade strokes. Once I was able to slip out of her view, I hid behind one of the thicker trees to buy time until I can figure out what to do. Unable to see her immediately, I strained my ears to listen for any movements or sounds.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are~" Thankfully Pinkie wasn't hard to listen for.
I didn't want to hurt Pinkie, but I had to do something to stop her. A pacifying attack like a sleeper hold was tempting, but her strength was far too overwhelming to risk getting close. Besides, I would rather not get near those cleavers she was holding. I'd earned enough gashes, bruises and burns for the night.
"Don't be shy, Flashy! I just want to...bake some cupcakes with you!"
I don't know what kind of cupcakes she was talking about, but it didn't take a genius to know that cupcake was a lie.
Keeping my wings folded tight, I slid up against the tree and peeked around the corner. I perplexed to find nothing where I knew I heard Pinkie. Where did she—
"HERE'S PINKIE!" A large cleaver embedded itself into the tree, half an inch away from severing my face. Terror and reflex galvanized me to shove her back, separating her from that blade. Catching a glimpse of moonlight in a nearby opening, I hurried towards it. I swear, her unpredictable nature was going to kill me long before her attacks did.
Once I reached the opening I skidded to a halt and turned about face towards Pinkie. "Pinkie, for the last time, that was not..." The words died on my lips when Pinkie stepped into the opening, the moonlight casting her in an eerie glow.
Her coat and deflated mane were drained of color and grayed out. The sight for nightmares was her eyes: her sclera turned black, similar to the hateling's eyes. A thick white aura leaked off her body, shifting around her like a ghostly veil. It was one nightmare after another with this crazy magic.
"Pinkie," I took on a fighting stance. Despite my unwillingness to hurt one of Twilight's closest friends, I could not afford to die here. I couldn't beat Pinkie’s strength, but her speed could not match mine. My only hope was to buy more time and see if I could shake her out of her berserk mode. "You need to stop and listen to me. I don't want to hurt you."
"But you can hurt nice ladies who would never hurt a fly?" Pinkie's vicious aura flared as she snarled.
"I already told you, that was not the real Mrs. Cake. I swear on my sacred oath to the Royal Guard that what you saw was not real. Until the day I die, protecting Equestrian citizens will always be my number one priority. Please Pinkie, allow a moment to clear up this misunderstanding." For a moment, her eyes shone with life before clouding over with anger.
"Y-you can't fool me! I will never forgive you, Flash!" The aura heightened in density, every synapse in my brain telling me to get the hay out of dodge. "I WILL KILL YOU!" Pinkie released an ear-splitting battle cry, the pressure from the raging magic pushing me back. Pinkie placed her hooves close together, a ball of black energy forming between them.
My senses pulsed.
...Oh shit.
"DIE!" A rushing wave of lethal magic force rushed towards me. Had I moved a second later, I would've been vaporized like the trees behind me. I had no time to pause, as Pinkie was upon me by the time I landed, unleashing a hurricane of strikes that were faster and stronger than ever.
The heat from the raging aura was like dueling in a sauna. Our exchanges moved like a karate film in fast forward; deflecting her blows and countering with hoof locks and stumbling tactics while she drove through my defenses with brute force and feral ferocity. Every blow that landed on me felt like a train crashing into me at full speed, forcing me to put space between us whenever I got hit.
Resolving to my previous tactic, I flew high above Everfree, hoping she might exhaust herself by throwing those energy beams at me. At first that was her plan, rapidly throwing energy beams at me. Other than a few close calls, I was able to avoid them.
But then that unpredictability kicked in, and Pinkie began flying up towards me at high speed.
I was so stunned with surprise, I couldn't dodge in time as she delivered a crushing punch to my gut, completely winding me. Pinkie followed up by grabbing my foreleg and spinning me around, going faster and faster until I could not tell what was up or down. After building enough momentum, I was thrown back down onto the earth at frightening velocity. If I didn’t break my fall, it would more than likely break my neck at the very least.
Forcing my wings to beat as hard as possible, I managed to glide at just the right angle for me to not shatter every bone in my body. Even still, this fall was not going to be a light landing. I crashed and bounced along the ground hard, gasping for air as the world spun around me and my body was wracked with agony. Looking blearily into the sky, I watched Pinkie charging up another massive energy blast.
I was too dazed to fly or move quickly. Standing was about all I could muster the strength to do. I knew this was it. There was no way I was going to dodge this attack. I would have to push through it and survive somehow. I refused to die here.
As I braced myself for the attack, I caught a glimpse of a small shadow in the middle of the moon, slowly growing larger as it got closer. I narrowed my eyes to focus.
Flying in at ludicrous speed was Trojan in her Sassy disguise, Spike riding along in her hooves. As Pinkie Pie prepared to let loose her destructive energy beam, Trojan spun around in the air and hurled Spike at Pinkie Pie like a missile. Half a second before Pinkie fired off the attack, Spike crashed into her back and wrapped his hands around her neck and eyes. The force of the landing startled Pinkie and caused her to prematurely fire off her attack. I hobbled as fast as I could to dodge it. Thankfully, I avoided the brunt of the attack, but the explosive magical shockwave sent me flying.
I slammed hard into one of the trees that was somehow still standing, sliding down in a slump. Another explosion followed after that, this time with dirt and dust from Pinkie who fell, Spike still holding on for dear life.
"LET ME GO!" There was a warped echo in Pinkie's voice as she yelled. She bucked, jumped and spun wildly, unable to shake off the dragon.
"I'm not letting go until you calm down!" Spike cried out as he held on for dear life.
"FLASH MUST DIE!" Pinkie raged on, and with a major buck hurled Spike off her back and flying towards me. I manage to catch him in time, my body screaming at me to lie down and make the pain stop. Pinkie charged up another energy attack to throw at me, similar to the one that almost killed me a moment ago.
"Spike, you have to run." I placed him on his feet, using all of my willpower to remain conscious. I couldn’t help but make a small, fatalistic smile. No way I was going to survive this one, but he and Trojan could get away. Somepony had to save Twilight. “I need you to survive with Trojan to protect Twilight.”
Spike tossed me a shocked stare. "Are you crazy? You'll die!"
"Maybe. Maybe not." More like like no way in Tartarus I would survive, but I imagined he worked out that math pretty easily. "But as long as I have a heartbeat left in me and there's a life I can save, I will keep fighting. And if I die, I'm gonna die swinging and making sure you have the best damn chance possible at saving Twilight. We need you to live Spike. Twilight, hay, Equestria needs you."
An expression I couldn't define crossed his features as he stared at me. Then his jaw tighted as he turned to face Pinkie, spreading his arms defiantly. "I'm not going to let you die here, Flash. We still have to fight Chrysalis, and I don't believe Pinkie will hurt me to get to you."
That...was NOT the reaction I was hoping for.
"I won't take that risk." I struggled to move around Spike, but he continued playing interception between me and Pinkie. If I died, so be it, but I couldn’t let Spike die because I was too weak to stop Pinkie. "Spike! Get out the way! I won’t let you die!"
"Well I won't let you die, either! Pinkie can be crazy at times, but she values our friendship! I believe in her, and I know she believes in me! And I want you to believe in me like I believe in you!" I couldn't help but gawk at the little dragon. His heart and courage was outstanding and inspirational. Misguided as it was, seeing as Pinkie seemed to struggle with indecision between killing just me or both of us, it spurred me on to hang in there just a little longer. Seeing that I was not going to have my way, all I could do was rest my hopes in Spike.
"Alright, Spike. You're the dragon with the plan." If we got out of this alive, I was treating him out to whatever he wanted.
Pinkie Pie hesitated. Tears fell down her cheeks as she trembled, frozen in place. The tension was a hairline away from snapping. Either we survived this or would get erased by deadly laser beams. Trojan chose this time to fly from behind Pinkie and tap her on the shoulder.
"Hey Pinkie, wanna see a magic trick?"
"WHA—" Pinkie was about to snap at Trojan until she found her cheeks squished between two hooves, her face turned to meet Trojan's. "Sassy? What are you—" Without the slightest warning, Trojan brought their muzzles together, deeply kissing Pinkie.
....Luna, take the wheel.
The raging essence emanating from Pinkie blew off of her like mist buffeted by a strong wind. From the contact of the lips, a swirl of green energy swathed over Pinkie Pie, all remaining traces of the hate magic getting pushed out. Pinkie Pie’s legs buckled and her eyes rolled back, sinking into the ground while Trojan pressed on. When Trojan finally broke the kiss, Pinkie Pie collapsed, unconscious.
.
I was almost too distracted by the scene when I noticed a ghostly visage of something in the white magic that was pushed out of Pinkie. I could feel a sense of sentience of life in the magic. I knew this, because the way the magic shifted as almost as if the essence itself was glaring at me. As quickly as it formed it faded out of sight, leaving us with an unconscious Pinkie Pie who, for reasons I dared not imagine, had a goofy grin plastered on her sleeping face.
"Well, that went better than I expected." Trojan swayed drunkenly as she licked her lips. Her gaze fell on Spike and I, who were still frozen in disbelief. "What?"
It took a few moments for words to enter my lungs, still overcome at figuring out what happened. I had to remind myself to ask one question at a time, starting with the obvious absurdity that just happened. "What the hay was that!?"
"Oh, that?" Trojan's speech slurred as she pointed to the sleeping Pinkie Pie. "It's a changeling secret technique: the love love amnesia kiss."
Also known as the stupidest-sounding spell I’ve ever heard in my life.
Spike seemed equally caught off guard by the surprise kiss, as he was blushing up a storm. "W-wow. So when you said you could get the hate magic out of her..." He faltered as Trojan walked up to him and tilted up his chin with her hoof, shooting him bedroom eyes.
"I can teach you if you want. Among other things," Trojan teased as she planted a kiss on his lips.
I...I can't even...
Spike gulped. "I-I need an adult."
"I am an adult," Trojan whispered huskily.
"Trojan, please stop molesting the princess' assistant!" Yelling was a big mistake on my part. I felt my consciousness sway as my adrenaline from the fight started coming down.
Trojan backed away for a moment, blinking as she shook her head. For the first time since I've seen her, she looked embarrassed and unguarded. "Right, right. Sorry. The spell has certain...side effects."
“Side effects?” I asked.
“Ever heard the phrase drunk on love? That's an actual thing with changelings. Anyway—” Trojan waved off, changing the subject “—we need to clean up before some other pony decides to investigate.”
It was a good point. I was not going to ignore the fact we had quite the deadly light show going on with the deadly magic being thrown at me. “Right. We need to start capture protocols.” The moment I stepped forward, my head lulled, and I staggered. I would have slammed my face into the ground had Trojan not caught me.
“One step at a time, Buttermilk. I gotcha,” Trojan said as she kept me stabilized. “Hey, Spike, mind watching over Pinkie until we get back?”
“S-sure!” Still flustered from Trojan’s actions, Spike hurried over to Pinkie Pie while Trojan and I headed towards the changeling I'd knocked out. Hopefully for good this time.
The changeling was not too hard to find, sprawled just behind a bush with a badly twisted foreleg. Even if he was an enemy, I had to acknowledge that Trojan had stood against her own kind and helped me to take him down. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt Pinkie, yet Trojan had the fortitude to do what I couldn’t. “Thanks,” I said, almost more to myself than her.
“Thanks for what?”
“For saving my life.” We suddenly stopped, Trojan giving me a skeptical glance. "What?"
“Oh nothing," she grinned cheekily, "and don’t worry about it. Let’s just get this guy to Shiny.” I sat against a tree while Trojan did her part. Channeling her magic, the shield choker gained visibility and changed from green to pink as she initiated her spell, as did with mine. A pink aura enveloped the unconscious changeling and, after a few seconds, vanished. Our gems switched back to green and disappeared once the transportation spell finished.
Trojan helped me stand up as we began our walk to meet up with Spike. Most of the trek back was in companionable silence. That is, until I noticed a contemplative look on Trojan’s face as she looked in my direction. “What’s the matter?” My question seemed to catch her off guard at first, but then a shy smirk grew on her muzzle.
“Nothing. I just happened to notice something on your cheek.”
“My cheek? What do you—” To answer my question, Trojan moved forward and quickly kissed my cheek, wearing a goofy, lopsided grin.
“My gratitude.”
Was this the same changeling who had nearly strangled me only a few hours ago?
It was a sweet gesture, but I had no idea what to make of it. Was she still ‘drunk’? “Was that from the side effect as well?”
“Yeah. The side effect of dealing with a well-intentioned and heroic idiot.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “That was surprisingly sweet of you.”
“I’m full of surprises, Buttermilk.” You didn’t have to tell me twice. “But anyway, thanks.” For the first time since we’d met, I felt like I’d seen a good bit of the true Trojan lurking underneath. I felt conflicted by this, but decided to keep the thought in the back of my mind for now. I was in too much pain to think much on it.
After recovering Spike and Pinkie Pie, we made the slow, agonizing return to Ponyville. We emerged from the forest only to cross paths with Twilight and her friends, who froze at seeing our disheveled forms, especially mine. Now that I thought about it, between Pinkie’s fireworks and the changeling’s loud roars and attacks, I’m surprised the entire town didn’t run over to see the commotion.
“What in blazes happened?!” Twilight nearly shrieked with worry.
Trojan, Spike and I exchanged worried glances. How were we going to explain how a trip to the pharmacy had ended with me getting injured severely, Trojan looking completely exhausted, and all of us carrying a sleepy Pinkie Pie out of Everfree? I tried to think of an explanation, but I was having difficulty figuring out which of the three Twilight Sparkles I was seeing was real.
“There’s actually a rather good explanation for all of this.” As I tried to talk, I suddenly realized the world was spinning faster than I was growing accustomed to. The last thing I remembered was Twilight’s shouts getting drowned out by loud ringing and the earth rushing up to meet me.