Plain Old Chaos

A few hours later and Twilight was still debating what to do with the changeling, she had assumed they were only a myth and Twilight had no idea  what to do with her, a rapping on her door took her out of her reverie. Heading over and opening it she found Applejack and Pinkie Pie waiting outside.

"Hey Twi, Can Pinkie and I come in?"

Twilight giggled nervously, "C-could you come back later? I'm really busy now."Twilight began to close the door.

"It can't wait, Applejack said, pushing against the door and forcing her way into the library with Pinkie following in after, "Pinkie here said that you got some tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and that you can bring somepony along," Applejack gestured to herself. "We decided that it'd be best if I came along with you."

Twilight backed away from them,  "Didn't Pinkie tell you? I said that I could never choose between my friends so I wouldn't go at all, as a show of loyalty," Twilight pointed her hoof at the door, "So, I'm sorry to say that you can't go. Even if Pinkie does think that you should go to it, it just wouldn't be fair on the rest of our friends.

"You remember Nightmare Moon? We have a great chance to get rid of her now, we could stop her before she tries to take over Equestria. I was sure that  you were willing to help us stop her"

Pinkie bounced over, "Come on Twilight, it'll be great fun, we already have it all planned out. you don't even have to kill her yourself, we can do it for you! All you have to do is let Applejack go to the Gala with you." She continued bouncing excitedly on the spot, seemingly oblivious to the seriousness of her proposition.

"There is one other tiny thing you have to do for us though Twi, Pinkie and I, we got most of what we need already, but we need you to go get something from the griffins. It's just a little dagger that you need to kill an immortal, it'll be easy"

Twilight had heard terrible things about griffins, the ponies in Canterlot enjoyed occasionally gossiping about them occasionally and the books she had read went into detail about how primitive and warlike they were, committing atrocities in the many wars that they started or fighting each other whenever they weren't fighting another race.

"I don't think that's a good idea, aren't griffins really dangerous? Don't they get into wars constantly and fight each other for fun? You could probably get somepony better than me to take care of that."

Pinkie's mane deflated and she glared at Twilight. "Hey, now that you know this is happening you got to pull your weight or we can't trust you and then we would have to make sure you can't tell anypony about this, also, that's really racist, like, super racist. Are you a racist Twilight?"

"I am not racist! Wait... Did you just threaten me? Twilight said,feeling a bit intimidated by the pink pony, she feared her reality bending power and doubted that she could stop her if she actually tried to kill her.

Applejack put a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder "There's no need to get violent Pinkie, I'm sure that Twilight isn't racist and will help us kill Nightmare Moon." She focused her attention on Twilight. " But, yes, that was a threat. You understand that we can't trust you if you don't help us right?"

"I-I guess, Nightmare Moon does need to be stopped, and you did trust me a little by talking to me about this, I-I'll help you." Twilight was terrified, she hadn't a chance against Pinkie's ability to warp reality and Applejack could still probably finish her off if even she managed to hold Pinkie off.

Pinkie's mane re-inflated and Applejack beamed ecstatically. "Great, I knew we could count on you Twi, we would take care of it ourselves but we have a few other things to prepare. Anyway, you just head on over to the griffin lands, we don't really know where to get the dagger, but it'll probably be easy enough to find if you search around a bit. So, now that that's all sorted out, Pinkie and I will go and you can have some time to get ready, I guess you can bring Spike too if you can't leave him here on his own."

Applejack and Pinkie Pie left, leaving Twilight alone to deal with the task that had been pushed upon her, having almost no knowledge of the griffin lands, she doubted that she could find a tiny dagger. But she had to do her part to protect Equestria, a shout coming from her basement reminded Twilight of her prisoner.

Hatching a devilish scheme, Twilight figured that she might be able to sort out two of her problems at once. Calling Spike, she went to the basement door.

"It's very simple Spike, just send this letter to Princess Celestia if I don't come back up or you think it's the Changeling" Twilight explained impatiently to the dragon, She had already told the dragon about her encounter with Applejack and Pinkie Pie and what she wanted from the Changeling.

Spike scratched his head in confusion. "I don't get it, how do I know that it's you and not the Changeling? She could disguise as you and I could never tell the difference."

Twilight sighed in exasperation. "It's not that hard Spike! As long as there is only one of me and something that isn't me down there then it's fine, even if she does have some freaky powers to copy all my memories, she won't be able to make a

copy of herself, probably, so it shouldn't be hard for you to figure out if it's the real me or not. You probably have a concussion but it's not too hard, you'll be able to work it out"

Twilight opened the basement, heading down the stairs she kept alert for any sign of the Changeling, when she reached the bottom she found the changelings sitting in a corner, waiting for her. She looked to be as tall as Twilight and had holes littered through her hooves and mane, her body was completely black and she had a small spire rising out of the back of her head.

Twilight was brought out of her inspection by an interrupting voice. "So, are you going to kill me now?"

Twilight decided to be blunt. "No, I was just bluffing earlier, I didn't really expect you to try running like that."

The Changeling laughed. "What did you expect to happen when you threatened to kill me? That I would give up and tell you everything, perhaps?"

Twilight felt her cheeks reddening. "Actually that was kinda what I was hoping for," She recomposed herself as she continued, "But that's all in the past, I'm willing to let you go free and pretend this all never happened, I know you never killed Lyra anyway."

The Changeling raised an appraising eyebrow. "I'd like if we could put all this behind us too. So, tell me, what do you want in return for your generosity?" Sarcasm dripping from voice.

Twilight ignored the Changeling's tone."It's pretty simple really, A few ponies are planning to kill Nightmare Moon and I've been told to find an old dagger that's used for killing immortals, all you have to do is help me find it."

The Changeling's pupils narrowed and she waited a moment before responding "Where would this dagger be then, if you need to rely on something like me for help?"

Twilight shuffled her hooves. "Oh, it's nowhere dangerous, just somewhere in the griffin lands, I'm sure finding it will be easy." Twilight gave a beaming smile to get her point across.

The Changeling sat up and took a few steps closer to Twilight. "Fine, if you let me go and I'll help you get that dagger."

Twilight nodded ecstatically. "Great then, also, its probably best if you don't advertise us going together at all. I kinda got threatened and if they find out that I told you, Pinkie might kill us both."

The Changeling shuddered. "Pinkie Pie's involved in this? Okay, I'll keep this little trip to myself. When are you leaving?"

"Well, Spike and I are going to take the train to Baltimare tomorrow and then get a ship to take us to the griffins. You should take the same train and we won't have to hide after that."

Twilight started moving back toward the stairs motioning with her hoof for the Changeling to follow. Opening the door she found Spike looking back at her. "Twilight? Or are you the Changeling? Get back!"

"No, Spike, Lyra is right here," She pointed at the Changeling who had followed her closely up the stairs, "She's agreed to help us out and she'll just be going now."

"See you tomorrow then Twilight." She changed back into the form of a green mare and walked out of the library.