Author's Note

Sorry about this being almost a week late. I wasn't able to get on the computer long enough to get around to posting this.

The Moon's Fight With Itself

The Moon’s Fight With Itself

Soft... was the first thing that Moonfire thought.

Confusion settled in before it was kicked out by Memory and stepped on by Realization.

That’s right... Fluttershy.

“Maybe I should just set this over here and let him sleep,” He heard from his right.

The changeling turned towards the voice and said, “Set what over where?”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I made you some lemon jam sandwiches and a cup of tea. You slept like a baby.”

Moonfire suppressed a grimace. Bleh, lemon. “It’s okay, I’m usually up before everypony else.”

“Well, you just rest up as much as you like and you can eat when you feel like it. I won’t make any more noise, you’ll hardly notice I’m here.”

He chuckled, “I guess you don’t know how sensitive a changeling’s hearing is. I won’t be able to get to sleep until tonight, anyways.”

“Oh. Good morning, then. Hope you had a good night’s sleep.”

“Best night’s sleep I’ve had in... Well, five years.” He took a bite from the sandwich. “When I went to a doctor to see why I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep, he said that I had insomnia.”

“Oh my,” she started, sitting down in front of the chewing changeling, “aren’t you a little young to have that?”

“Nah, it can happen to anyone. If they have enough stress or they’re sick.” He took a sip of tea, “There’s many things that can cause it.”

Fluttershy went still, looking at the boy.

He sighed, “That’s one more difference between Gambit and I.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond. She just looked at him with sympathy in her eyes.

Well, better than her fearing me. Moonfire tossed the last bite into his mouth and drank the last of his tea, “Thank you for breakfast.” He slid out of bed and walked to the door, “I believe there are others who want some.”

==========================

“Here you go, little mouse. Hope you get better,” Moonfire said as a mouse in a wheelchair went into it’s hole with a piece of cheese half its size.

That’s the last of them. He looked at the clock. Noon... Maybe I could-

“Moonfire!” Fluttershy called out as she flew back in. “Oh, there you are. It’s time for lunch.”

He chuckled, “I was just about to make something; seem less like a burden.”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes while the boy’s back was turned.

“You’re not a burden, Moonfire. Taking care of small animals is my job, after all.”

He looked back, “Want me to help you, or do you want to help me?”

The mare gave a warm smile.

“You say that you can’t have one without the other. If you really want to help out, it’s okay. If it makes you feel better.”

“No, seriously, I don’t know where anything is.”

Fluttershy chuckled and flew to a back room, her kitchen door mostly occluded by a large wooden beam. She came back with a tray of sandwiches and jars of jams and pastes.

“Oh, do you like cheese and honey?”

“I like peanut butter and honey, but I’ve never heard of cheese and honey.”

“Peanut butter for today, then,” Fluttershy decided, starting to smear a sandwich for him already. “You should try some fried goat’s cheese with honey, though: it’s yummy.”

“Fried goat cheese... mom liked to have some on toast for breakfast.” He sighed, “Probably still does. But Gambit, he hates it for some reason.”

Fluttershy looked up at the boy.

“Umm, Gambit is the boy living with your parents now, right? Don’t you think you could get him to help you? After all, he would want to know where his real family is eventually.”

Moonfire let out a bitter laugh, “Gambit? Help someone besides himself? No way that will happen. Besides, he already knows what happened; he’s the one who I fought with when I went to try to re-join my parents.”

Fluttershy tilted her head at him.

“You went back after your father tried to kill you, and then you fought the only boy who could prove what happened?”

“Yeah, I was trying to get my mom away from Him...”

==========================

Moonfire slid down from the curtain he was holding onto as the guard walked away down the hall. He was in his parents’ house, nearing his old room. And his mother’s.

“You must be Moonfire,” a voice said from behind.

Moonfire whirled to face the source. He struck a defensive pose, ready to pounce, before he recognized the colt that had startled him. Relief washed over him when the face registered. “Brave Gambit.” He took a step towards his look-alike. “Great, could you please help me-”

“Take your mother? Or should I say... my mother? In either case, you’re out of luck,” Gambit said as he stepped to his left.

“What do you mean? I’m trying to get my mom away from Him, out of danger that she doesn’t even know exists,” The disguised changeling mirrored the colt’s step.

“Wow, Fleetrain wasn’t kidding. You really are a little drama queen. You think there’s danger here? Do you have any idea how good you had it here? You leaving is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I’m not gonna let you mess this up.”

“You haven’t lived here for all of your life, you don’t know what I had, what I’ve given up.” His voice dropped in volume, “You don’t know what you’ve lost.”

“I don’t think you really understand me, pal. Get out. I’m fine here, I like it. I don’t know what you think you’ve given up, but I know what I’m getting. And you don’t get to take my mom.”

“My mother you mean, your parents -- your real parents -- are dead because of the monster I called father.”

“Oh, I know all about that; about how they didn’t want me to continue my dreams. But now? Now all I have to do is what ‘the monster’ tells me to and I’ll be able to continue what he does.”

Moonfire continued to slowly circle his opponent. “So you’re to be a raving lunatic as well?”

Gambit gave a snort of derision, “So you do know what it’s all about. Well, that doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t welcome here. They’ve completely replaced me for you. You’re nothing more than an insignificant piece in this game that spans millennia. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll take special care of Flare. You can’t imagine how much she’s been fawning over me, nearly losing the one she loves.”

Moonfire’s hoof wavered in the air before continuing on its path. “Don’t you da-”

“Hurt them? Unless they stumble onto something they weren’t supposed to know, they’ll be left alone. The only thing putting them at risk right now is you. If anyone ever finds out you took the real Moonfire....” The colt let that trail off. “Well, Fleetrain doesn’t do half work, I’m sure you noticed.”

“Yeah, hard to not notice the hitmare after me. But that’s the problem: I’m his son, his real son, not some random colt that happens to look like him.”

“Maybe not. Maybe you’re a random changeling who happens to have taken his son’s form. You know, like the one that got the original. Kind of an amateur, though: tried to play the sympathy angle by pretending he’d mutated or something. I know what happened to the real Moonfire. You’re not him,” Brave Gambit taunted. “He’s probably stuck in a cocoon somewhere, being brainwashed to dream of his parents and drained of his love energy and magic. That’s what Fleetrain told me. You? You can’t be him. You’d have be near dead to come back after that.”

“Changelings? And besides, I almost did die.”

“Oh, you wanna play dumb? Alright, then: changelings are emotional vampires, they pretend to be someone who’s loved and feed off the energies that love gives. They’ve got these nasty holes in their legs and wings, ugly carapaces and hideous fangs. They don’t even have hair, just this web hanging from their heads and behinds. They’re parasites, they snatch up ponies and replace them. Sometimes the ponies get out... sometimes they don’t. Moonfire didn’t,” Gambit stated matter-of-factly.

“You know that for a fact? I’ve escaped from so many tight spots that I’ve nearly lost some of my mane on that last one, and the time before that,” Moonfire said, his temper flaring.

Gambit pressed his hoof to his face.

“Ugh. You know, if you’re gonna pretend to be a total drama queen, the courteous thing would be to tone it down a little. I mean, getting the act down is one thing, but you’re just painful to listen to, you know that? Nothing you say is gonna work. You are a fake, and there’s no way you can convince me otherwise. The real Moonfire had training from Garuda. The real Moonfire would have kicked me from one side of the house to the other by now. So if you really want me to believe you, you’re gonna have to do better than this,” Gambit goaded.

Moonfire snorted, “First rule of combat: never strike first; I’ll not start a fight, but I will end it.”

“Heavens above, I hope that wasn’t a lifted memory from the real one. That must be the dumbest thing I ever heard. Alright, then: I challenge you to a fight. We’ll settle this like in the old days. The real Moonfire deserves to be Fleetrain’s son. The real Moonfire wouldn’t need more than a few seconds to beat me into a pulp.”

A quick whiffing sound came from behind the pair, followed by a vague whistle. Before he had a chance to turn, Moonfire felt something stinging in his flank. His stomach started churning and his head swam.

“And the real Moonfire wouldn’t have any trouble being shot with changeling poison,” Gambit noted, sending power into his horn to shoot his would-be replacement against a wall. He looked down the hall at the pony who’d stepped in, before grinning at the damage his first shot had done. “That’ll be all, sir, thank you. I can handle it from here.”

Moonfire felt his disguise slip and shook his head, trying to clear his vision. The pounding in his head and the presence of hard wall behind him didn’t bode well. “Wh-what....”

Striding over confidently, Gambit grinned.

“Heart’s Desire. Very powerful medicinal plant: it helps a pony find their heart’s desire, makes them feel what they love. But for a creature that can’t feel love on its own, it’s poison. Still think you’re the real Moonfire? You sure don’t look like him.”

This is just like that petal I ate five weeks ago. “I am the real Moonfire.”

Crap, I won’t be able to last long with this. He stood up on shaky hooves, “I don’t need magic or complete control to defeat you. You’ll regret starting this.”

“Dude, seriously, you overfed on the real thing. You need to get all that dramatic flair out of your system, fast. Don’t worry: I’m sure if I keep hitting your head enough it’ll start puddling out eventually.” Gambit readied a volley to pepper the changeling with.

Moonfire took the full brunt of the onslaught, his forearms held up high as a makeshift barrier. He tried to put up a shield, but the ball of needles currently working its way through his intestinal system made it a little hard to concentrate. When the dust settled, the changeling looked at the marks in the wall.

“Heh... you think you can fight me? I’m standing still and half your shots didn’t even hit me.”

“Yeah, well, you try aiming for something that has holes in it.”

Moonfire knew he couldn’t last backed up against a wall, and Gambit had the advantage on range. Biting through the pain, Moonfire lunged for the unicorn. Bearing down his full weight on the boy, he got his hoof to connect with Gambit’s jaw, before pinning him down with a hoof on the neck.

“I’ve got you now.”

Gambit grinned.

“You know the lousy part of getting in close range?”

Another shot of pain wracked through the changeling’s body. Gambit didn’t need any more encouragement than that.

The shot came hard and fast, but Moonfire barely managed to roll to the side.

Stupid, stupid, stupid....

“Actually, I’m sure Fleetrain wouldn’t mind if you lived here, actually,” Gambit chuckled as he got up, readying his horn once more. “Whatever problems you have, I’m sure there’s a way to fix it. I wouldn’t mind having someone around who can turn into another Flare. You know, just to have a spare and all.”

What in Celestia’s name is wrong with this kid? He’s downright twisted. He’s... he’s more Fleetrain’s son than I was.

“What, that’s it? You’re hardly putting up a fight. I’d expect something a little more dramatic from such a perfect copy. Go on, say something, do something. I want to hear what you have to say before I break you and take you to get fixed.”

“You don’t even know how broken you are....” Moonfire muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Gambit stepped closer, “I couldn’t quite hear you.”

Moonfire motioned the other colt closer, closer... and bucked him across the hall.

“You’ve just fallen for the worst, and oldest, trick in the book,” Moonfire said before running and smashing through a window, landing on his back hooves and rolling when he hit the ground.

Moonfire looked back at the window and saw Gambit staring down at him.

“You won’t get far, Moonfire, I’ll make sure that you meet your end!” The colt in the window said.

You want my life so badly? It's all yours. Good luck, Gambit.