A World Never Meant

Rainbow Dash awoke atop a cloud. It didn’t look like any cloud she had seen before. It was light pink in colour, with strange sparkly bits dotted about its surface, although it was as soft as a normal cloud. Her mind foggy, she slowly looked around at her surroundings. There didn’t seem to be anything apart from this strange cloud and an endless sky of deep purple dotted with billions of twinkling stars, swirling into their own galaxies. Rainbow Dash could see other clouds similar to her own; some above her, some below. Falling stars rocketed down from the purple expanse, the clouds catching them like big pink baseball gloves.

Whatever this place was, it certainly wasn’t Equestria.

Rainbow Dash’s mind gradually cleared, the fog of sleepiness gently easing away from her.

And then she remembered.

Horrific images of blood and organs flashed through her mind, each one accompanied by the memories of the dreadful smell of urine and body fluids, and terrible, agonising pain. The tormenting remarks and laughter of her once-friend Pinkie Pie rang in her ears. She jammed her hooves in her ears, screwed her eyes shut, and screamed, tears streaming down her face.

After a short while, she felt a pair of arms scoop her up, but didn’t dare to open her eyes out of fear for what she might see. Rainbow Dash felt the arms holding her in a hammock-like fashion, similar to the way one may tenderly hold a baby.

“Rainbow Dash.” She heard a voice say above her crying. The voice was calm and collected, the words coming out like audible silk. “It’s ok Rainbow Dash. Everything’s going to be alright.”

She felt something brush past her cheek, wiping her tears away. She flinched at the touch, her normally confident and headstrong nature completely shattered.

There was a horribly long silence. Then there was a sigh, and the voice spoke again.

“I thought you’d be tougher than this.”

By this point, Rainbow Dash had recovered her composure. ”How could you say tha-“She started abruptly. Her eyes snapped open. “Whoa…” The creature she saw before her was completely unlike any pony or creature she’d ever seen. The creature was dark grey in colour, and seemed to be covered in a very short and fine covering of hair. It had a slightly elongated head, ending in a rounded muzzle. Its eyes were entirely black with creamy yellow pupils. The creature gazed coolly at the pegasus, its calm facial expression not faltering for even a second. A pair of antenna-like (Or maybe tentacle-like?) protrusions sat upon the creature’s head, gently reaching towards the sky. A strange dark essence seemed to seep from one side of the protrusions, making them look fluffy.

Rainbow Dash squirmed out of the creature’s hold, its stubby arms falling to its sides as she did so. She flapped her wings in an attempt to flutter into the air, but couldn't get any lift.

“It’s interesting how even creatures with wings cannot fly here.” The creature said quizzically, looking up to the sky. Rainbow Dash stopped frantically flapping her wings and scowled at the creature.

“You could have told me that before I went and made an idiot of myself you know.” She said irritably. The creature turned its head to look at her. “And what the heck are you, anyway? Where am I? What’s going on?! Why did Pink-“She broke off awkwardly, shuddering at those horrible, horrible memories.

“You’re still quite shaken by that, aren’t you?” The creature mused, resting her head on a fingerless hand.

“Of course I am! Wouldn’t you?!” The blue pegasus snarled “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through? Now answer my questions!”

Breathing heavily from frustration, Rainbow Dash stared harshly at the creature as it stroked its chin, contemplating its response. Its calm expression irritated her.

Rainbow Dash had only just noticed that the creature stood upright, and not only that, but it also appeared to be floating a couple of centimetres off of the surface of the cloud. Stubby feet, similar to the hands, peeked out from the bottom of some sort of gown that the creature was wearing. A short tail was also visible. The gown was pitch black, and had the same peculiar, fuzzy edges that the head protrusions did.

“Well?!” The pegasus blurted. She was growing tired of waiting.

“I’m sorry if I seemed rude earlier.” The creature finally said. “I haven’t had a proper conversation in quite some time. It’s made me uncivil.”

Rainbow Dash could see the sadness in its eyes, but said nothing.

“Now, onto your questions. Firstly, I am a creature known as a Kirran.” It explained. “A female one at that.”

“A Kirran?” Rainbow asked.

“A Kirran.”

“What’s that?”

“That’s me.”

“Stop it.”

“Okay.” The creature smirked. “I’m sorry, I’ll be serious now. I promise.”

Rainbow Dash sat down to listen to what this ‘Kirran’ had to say. She’d certainly calmed down.

“Kirrans are creatures that exist to manage the flow of energy in the universe. We protect worlds and guide the spirits of the dead to a…better place.”

“So where are we now?” The blue pegasus asked.

“We,” The creature began. “are in a world between worlds. This place is where spirits await collection. It’s sort of a waiting room if you think about it.”

There was a brief moment of silence.

“Oh! I’ve just realised that I haven’t introduced myself yet! I was so caught up in all of this that I forgot!” The creature blurted. She looked embarrassed. “My name is Nira.” She held her hand out.

Rainbow Dash cautiously took it and shook it with her hoof. “I guess I don’t need to introduce myself, seeing as you somehow know my name anyway."

“I have been watching over your world for a long time. I’ve seen the adventures that you and your friends have had together. Your friendship is very strong.” Nira said, a smile appearing on her face.

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash mumbled, looking down at the ground. She wondered what had become of her friends. “So what’s happening now? What’s happening to everything now that I’m…gone?” She asked. It felt strange asking that question.

Nira’s smile fell. “The world has fallen into ruin.” She said sadly. “As far as I know, almost everypony is dead. Any survivors have either gone into hiding or have run away.”

Rainbow Dash stared at her, completely dumbstruck.

“What?”

“It’s true. And it’s all Pinkie Pie’s doing.” Nira turned away, her face a mixture of sadness and…shame?

“How could Pinkie Pie do something like this? The Pinkie I knew would never hurt anypony…” Rainbow Dash fell onto her flanks and looked at the ground.

“You now know that that’s not true, Rainbow Dash.”

“But…but why? Why did she do all those things? I don’t understand…” The blue pegasus held her face in her hooves.

Nira turned back to her.“Come with me, Rainbow Dash.” She said, holding out her hand once more. “I’ll show you what your world has become. I know that you have the power to set everything right again.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at Nira, but she still wore a downcast expression. “What? How can I possibly help you fix everything? I’m…I’m...” She stuttered, trying to force the word out. “…Dead.”

“I’ll tell you why all this has happened and how you can fix it, but only if you will agree to help me.” Nira said, looking straight into the blue mare’s eyes, her face serious.

Rainbow Dash sat and thought about it for a moment while she made her decision.

“I’ll do it.”

Nira’s expression softened, and she held out her hand. “Take my hand, and we’ll go. The sooner, the better.” She said softly.

Rainbow Dash took a breath, then blew it out again, readying herself for what she was going to do. She thrust out her foreleg and grasped Nira’s hand firmly in her own hoof.

She felt a sort of change in pressure, and then they both started to fall through a multicoloured tunnel that looked like it went on forever.

The tunnel abruptly ended. It was so sudden that Rainbow Dash barely had a chance to notice the ground rushing towards her before it hit her square in the face. Nira, however, had known where the tunnel was going to end, and so had up righted herself in anticipation. She had landed facing away from Rainbow Dash. She turned her head towards her and looked at her in the corner of her eye. “Rainbow Dash, stop playing around in the dirt.” She sighed “We’ve got a job to do.”

“Awwhrawwt, ahm comin’.” Rainbow Dash mumbled, her voice muffled by the soil that her face was partially submerged in. She pulled her head out of the ground and stood up, leaving a perfect imprint of her face in the soil. The pegasus wiped the muck from her face, then trotted over to where Nira was floating. Only then did she take notice of her surroundings.

The town was barely recognisable. It had become extremely run down, and some of the buildings had been partially damaged. They were not so much buildings as empty shells of buildings. Bits of rubble were scattered here and there, and the ground seemed to take on a reddish tinge in places. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to hazard a guess at what was causing the discolouration.

“We’re only in the outskirts of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash. The thing we need is right in the centre of town.” Nira said, gesturing towards the street before them. “Stay with me, and be sure not to stray.”

They started to walk.

“Why?” Rainbow Dash asked without thinking. “It’s not like anything’s gonna be able to hurt me or anything while I’m in this, uh, condition, right?”

“Not quite. Even though you have passed from this world, it doesn’t mean that you are gone.” Nira explained. “Right now, I am providing and sustaining your physical existence, so even though you are not technically alive, you have a physical presence. Does that make sense?”

Rainbow Dash thought about this for a moment. “So, what, like a zombie?”

“I guess so. But with less rotting flesh.” Nira reasoned. “But the technical term is ‘semi-alive’. “

“So, what’s this gotta do with stuff being able to hurt me?”

“Well, generally speaking, I’m keeping you ‘alive’, so it’s pretty much the same as actually being alive, meaning that things can hurt you, damage you, and kill you.” Nira rubbed her head as if all this was straining her mind. “And if you are without me for a prolonged amount of time, you expire.”

“Expire? What’s that all about?” Rainbow Dash asked as she sat down.

“In a sense, it means you die. You’ll lose your physical presence and you’ll get sent back to the place where you met me.”

“The place with the pink clouds?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s up with that place, anyway?”

“It’s sort of… a place where spirits wait to be collected.” Nira rubbed her temples. “Please don’t ask for the details, it’s complicated and I don’t think it’s necessary for you to know everything about it. My brain’s hurting as it is.” She said quickly.

“So I’ll get sent back to the place with the clouds if I die or expire…” Rainbow Dash mused. “So can’t you just zoom back there and bring me back again?”

Nira sighed. “I could do that, but I’d really rather not. It wastes energy and time. And, if I die or something, you’ll be stuck there until someone else can collect you. So I’d really appreciate it if you try to stay alive, as if it’s the only one you’ve got.”

“Okay.”

“And besides, you wouldn’t want to go through the pain and trauma of dying again, would you?”

As the pair made their way deeper into what was once Ponyville, the buildings began to look more decrepit, and everything started to take on a sickly, red hue. Rainbow Dash trotted alongside Nira, looking around at the town that used to be her home. She noticed how impenetrably quiet it was now. It was so quiet it was disturbing. The town seemed so lonely without its usual hustle and bustle. Rainbow Dash noticed something else.

There wasn’t a single pony to be seen.

“Hey Nira, why-“ She began, but then she remembered what Nira had said once before. “Oh, yeah. They all died or ran away…” She looked down at her hooves as loneliness started to flow into her.

And then she stepped on something squishy.

It was a most peculiar thing. It squelched sickeningly as some kind of ooze seeped from every possible gap. The horrid slime touched Rainbow Dash’s hoof.

“Ergh!” She cried out in disgust, jumping back and away from the squishy thing. She avidly wiped her hoof on the ground, desperately trying to get every last molecule of it off. “What in the name of Celestia is that thing?!”

Nira, upon hearing the pegasus’ exclamation, had stopped and turned to see what all the fuss was about. She regarded the object with a look of disinterest. “Ah, that’s nothing new ‘round here.” She said.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked up to face Nira.

That was when she noticed that the town was decorated with similar objects. They were strewn all over the place. On the street, across the rooftops, hanging out of windows, and even on shop signs! They were a hard thing to miss, that was for sure.

Rainbow Dash looked hard at them, trying to figure out what they were. And then it hit her like a brick wall.

…they were organs!

Looking on in horror at the spectacle, the blue pegasus tried to suppress her memories of where she had seen organs last. When she had seen her own organs.

“Urgh.” She shuddered. “Nira, why are there organs everywhere?!”

“She put them there.” Nira replied blankly. She kept on moving.

“Hey! Wait up!” Rainbow Dash called as she rushed to the Kirran’s side, taking extra care to not step on any entrails.

They came out into a small plaza that seemed to have been used previously as a marketplace. The torn remains of stalls stood eerily in the calm air. Some of the stalls were completely barren, appearing like skeletons of their past selves, with tiny scraps of rotten produce still scattered across them. Other stalls had had organs strung up and displayed on them, as if some sick pony out there had decided to make a twisted art project out of the mass murder that had ensued.

It smelled horrible, and a swarm of flies were clustered around it like it was a free all-you-can-eat buffet. Rainbow Dash tried to keep her mind off of it to prevent herself from retching.

She gulped uncomfortably, then dragged her eyes away from the stall to look at Nira, who was by her side, but at the same time ever-so-slightly ahead of her. “So, why do we need to go to the centre of Ponyville, anyw-“ Before she could finish, Nira grabbed her and whizzed into a small gap between two houses. “Hey, why’d you do tha-“

“Shh.” Nira interrupted, covering Rainbow Dash’s mouth with a hand.

Almost immediately afterwards, a light purple mare rushed into their line of sight, but was unable to see them. She stopped briefly in the middle of the plaza and looked around anxiously like a frightened animal. Rainbow Dash was about to call out to her, but Nira shushed her again and shook her head. The purple Earth mare, who Rainbow Dash had known to be called Berry Punch, swept some sweat from her brow with her foreleg. Her mulberry-coloured mane was matted with sweat, and she panted like she had been running a marathon.

Berry Punch quickly caught her breath, and soon after, she ran off and disappeared out of sight as fast as she had come in.

However, mere seconds after Berry Punch had run off, a familiar pink blur whizzed past Nira and Rainbow Dash’s hiding spot like a rocket in hot pursuit of the fleeing pony.

A disturbing silence hung in the air like a thick fog. It sat there for a few seconds, and it felt like time was standing still. Then, a blood-curdling scream shattered it like glass.

In that moment, Nira covered Rainbow Dash’s eyes. Surprised by this, the blue pegasus struggled and attempted to wrench Nira’s arms away from her face. “Hey! What the heck are you doing?! Lemme go!” She mumbled almost inaudibly behind Nira’s stubby hand. She felt several other limbs snake across her, wrapping around her own limbs and restricting her movement. In her ear, she could hear Nira whispering quietly in a way that, if she weren’t speaking directly into her earhole, no-one would ever be able to hear her.

“It’d be best if you didn’t see this. Trust me.”

The darkness of the motionless pegasus’s sight was then punctuated with the sounds of desperate crying and screaming, along with the subtle noises of dragging and clopping of hooves. She tried not to imagine what was happening to poor Berry Punch.

About a minute after the horrible sounds had finally faded away into the distance, Nira released her grip on Rainbow Dash, and the pair emerged from their hiding place.

The plaza had returned to its eerie calmness, and everything was exactly as it had been before.

All except for the trail of blood leading in the direction Berry Punch had been running away from, and some shallow ruts in the dirt, as if somepony had been clawing at it in a last attempt to get away.

Rainbow Dash stared at the blood trail in horror and made sure not to step in it. “Poor Berry Punch…” She murmured sorrowfully as she looked out to where the trail led. She turned back to Nira, and rubbed one of her forelegs with the other. Nira’s harsh grip had left faint marks on her skin, and they were starting to ache. “Why’d you have to hold me so hard anyway, Nira?” She asked irritably. “That hurt, you know.”

“I had to keep you from moving so that they wouldn’t detect us.” Nira threw the pegasus a glance. “I had to hold you hard because you kept struggling.”

“I might not’ve struggled if you’d told me what the heck was going on!” Rainbow Dash spat. “And why wouldn’t you let me help Berry Punch?”

“Helping that mare would have pointlessly endangered you.” The Kirran replied simply.

“But we could have helped her, Nira!”

“Yes, but if we finish our job here,” She spoke calmly, and showed a little smile, “Then we can save them all.” She started to float off towards one of the paths that branched off from the plaza and beckoned for Rainbow Dash to follow. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

After walking on in silence for a couple of minutes, they came out into the town centre. In terms of “decoration”, the square was no different to the rest of the town. Rainbow Dash was starting to feel a little thirsty and, without thinking, she cantered over to the fountain in the middle of the square in hopes of satiating her thirst. She closed her eyes in anticipation of dunking her face into cool, refreshing water. She was yanked back by her ears.

“My, my, where have your wits gone, Rainbow Dash?” Nira chimed semi-mockingly. “It’s almost as if you want awful things to happen to you.”

“What’s the big idea, Nira?!” Rainbow Dash growled, opening her eyes to shoot an annoyed glare at the smirking Kirran.

“Would you really want to drink that?” Nira said, gesturing at the fountain as she released her hold on Rainbow’s ears. Scowling, she turned to look back into the fountain.

Red.

The fountain was filled almost to the brim with dirty, crimson blood. There were a few suspiciously entrail-shaped shadows lurking at the bottom of the pool, and Rainbow leapt back in disgust at the sight of it. She had just noticed the dreadful smell emanating from the tepid fluid, and put her hoof to her nose to prevent herself from retching. The thought of what could have happened if she had drunk from the fountain didn’t help, either.

“So why are we here, anyway?” The pegasus gulped, trying to keep her mind off of the stench. “Is this some sick trick of yours?”

Nira, completely unfazed by the stomach-turning odour, pointed to the statue of Princess Celestia that topped the fountain. “We’re here for that.”

Rainbow Dash turned to follow Nira’s outstretched arm and found that the statue had become more lifelike than she had ever seen it before. The head of the statue had been completely removed and replaced with Princess Celestia’s own head. The neck was raggedy, as if it had been sawed off, and the cut leaked the occasional drop of blood which fell to join the countless others in the pool. Her eyes stared soullessly into nothingness, the lids half closed.

The face of the blue pegasus at that moment could only be described as a mixture between disgust and complete and utter hopelessness. Not even Princess Celestia, whom everyone had thought of so highly, had been able to survive the catastrophe. Although, Rainbow thought, if she had survived, then surely none of this ruination and murder would have been allowed to happen. “This just isn’t getting any better, is it?” She said emotionlessly.

“No, it isn’t. And it won’t get any better until we fix this mess.” Nira replied flatly. She floated higher into the air and drifted over to pluck the head from the statue. It seemed that Celestia’s long horn had once been sawed off and then crudely stuck back on with sticky tape. A hardly noticeable hissing sound was escaping from gaps in the tape, and that piqued Rainbow’s curiosity.

Nira suddenly perked up and stared, listening intently, somewhere in the direction they had come. She stayed frozen in that position for several seconds, and Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up as she noticed the sound as well. It was laughter. Far from the joyful laughter the pair so craved, it was a horrible, manic laugh; the kind that only belonged to those who had completely lost their grip on all things sweet and true.

The good news was that it sounded like it was far, far away from them, which meant they were safe from the sadistic psychopath for a little while longer.

Nira peeled the bloodstained tape from the horn, and as she did so, the hissing became louder; the sound being akin to that of a depressurising water bottle. A sort of glittery gas seeped from the end of the horn, and it reminded Rainbow Dash of the fog machines she had seen at one of Vinyl Scratch’s concerts. “What is that?” She said in awe.

“That,” Nira replied, “is the essence of magic.” She allowed Rainbow Dash to take a closer look at the horn. “You see, when a unicorn, or alicorn in this case, is killed, the horn retains the magic inside for quite a while. As you can see here, the magic gradually seeps out as time goes on. Even though the owner of the horn is deceased, the horn and the magic inside can still be used if you know how to do it.” She gave the side of her nose a sly tap.

“So, are we gonna use Celestia’s magic to zap the world back to normal?” Rainbow Dash asked, her face looking hopeful again.

“No.”

The blue pegasus sighed. “Why not?!” She kicked a pebble in frustration.

“No amount of magic can fix our problem by itself.  This horn and its magic is only a stepping stone to getting everything back to normal.”

“Then what are we going to do with it?”

Nira turned the horn around in her hands “I happen to know the rough location of the source of all of this. We will use this horn to get there.”

A solitary bluebird flew through the air and landed on a tree that was drooping with neglect. It looked down at the pair and met Rainbow Dash’s gaze. Seeing the little splash of colour in the grey, dead world was a refreshing sight for Rainbow Dash. In fact, seeing that something, anything, had survived here was an instant pep boost for her.

“So, are you ready to go?” Nira asked, holding out her empty hand. In the other, the horn started to glow faintly.

Rainbow Dash reached out and took the hand with her hoof, and the horn’s glow intensified.

The bluebird watched bemusedly as they were swallowed by a flash of light and disappeared.

The light faded away, and the pair found themselves inside a bale of hay. Before Rainbow Dash could even comprehend asking a question, Nira reached over and tapped her leg. A weird buzzing sensation rushed through her body and left her feeling all tingly.

“Did you just electrocute me?!” She asked as she felt her body all over to make sure nothing had fallen off.

“Of course not. I have, however, made it so that no-one can see or hear us.”

“Why didn’t you do that earlier when we had to run and hide and stuff?”

“Because I had to conserve my energy. Besides, it’s far more important that we are invisible now.” She reached out and parted the hay, revealing a perfectly normal looking version of the town centre, complete with bustling crowds of ponies going about their day-to-day lives.

Nira stepped out of the hay bale, and Rainbow Dash followed. “So, have we gone back in time or something?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what we’ve done. The thing we are looking for seems to be most prominent in this particular point in time. Now we just have to find its location.”

They started to walk. It felt incredibly strange going from a bloodstained wasteland to being surrounded by ponies acting like nothing had happened, especially with the knowledge that most, if not all, of them would be killed in the near future. Rainbow Dash hopped to and fro to avoid them, and it seemed that Nira was moving along the only path that didn’t have anyone else in it.

“So,” Rainbow started as she dodged another pony. “What are we looking for anyway? What’s been causing all this mayhem?”

“I’m not sure how to explain this, but…“ Nira began, scratching behind one of her ‘ears’. “When they are assigned to a world, one of a Kirran’s jobs is to protect that world and make sure everything runs as it should.” She stopped scratching as they turned a corner, and her voice gained a saddened tone. “And the events that have affected you and the rest of the word were never supposed to occur. Normally, I would have been able to handle it, but…” She trailed off, and then continued to speak. “What triggered these events in the first place is what is called an anomaly in space-time. It’s like a bug in the coding of the universe, now that I think about it. Anyhow, it warps reality, making things happen that would never occur in the normal state of things.”

Rainbow Dash’s face blossomed with understanding. “So that’s why Pinkie Pie… became the way she is now, right?”

“Exactly.”

They wandered into the marketplace. The difference between how it looked then and how it was before they time travelled was truly astonishing. Everypony was so happy browsing the stalls, it was almost sickening. Even the clouds looked happy. A familiar-looking blue pegasus flew into their field of vision, smiling as she made her way to her imminent demise.

Rainbow Dash stared at her for a moment in awe. “H-hey! That’s me! And she’s going to Pinkie Pie’s!” She cried frantically. She flapped her wings wildly and burst into the air, then made to fly towards her other self. Nira quickly reached her arm out, grabbed Rainbow Dash’s tail and yanked her back to earth, much like Applejack used to do. Rainbow Dash turned, reared up and shook Nira’s shoulders.  “You’ve gotta let me save her or warn her or something! Please, Nira!”

Nira took a hold of the pegasus’s forehooves. “I know you want to save yourself, and you think that it’ll reverse all this damage, but the fact of the matter is that it won’t help at all. If anything, it will cause more problems for us and make our job a whole lot more difficult.”

Rainbow Dash fell back onto all of her hooves. “But…” She murmured, defeated.

Nira fell silent, and continued moving. Rainbow Dash gloomily followed behind her.

The pair had searched about a quarter of Ponyville before either of them spoke again. The mood had lifted itself a little, but was still quite dreary.

Rainbow Dash lifted her drooping head and looked up to Nira. “Hey. Before, when you were telling me about the anomaly thing, you said that you would normally have been able to handle it. Why couldn’t you handle it this time? Were you having an ‘off’ day or something?”

Nira didn’t respond.

“Was it just too powerful for you?”

Nira’s head dipped, and her ‘ears’ followed suit. Her frown deepened and she averted her eyes.

“…No, I…” She mumbled.

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked gently.

Nira said nothing for a few seconds. “Kirrans are normally never supposed to work alone…” She started. “Two is the absolute minimum for any world, and even then, that’s generally only for the smaller or more peaceful ones.”

Rainbow Dash listened as intently as she could as she side-stepped a few more ponies.

“I was part of a pair that was assigned to this world.  Together, my partner Tiri and I could handle anything the day-to-day proceedings of this world would throw at us. Even then, we’d be able to call in some help if things got out of hand.” Nira took a breath, then let it out slowly. “One day, Tiri went on a mission into the Everfree Forest. I was wrapped up in other things at the time, and I thought that she’d be fine by herself.” She paused briefly.

“How wrong I was.” She spoke quietly, her voice laced with regret.

A lonesome tear threatened to brim in her eye. “Anyway, I think she was killed by a monster in there, because I never saw her again…” She stopped and put a hand to her face, then sighed. “It was alright at first, but then the anomaly appeared at some point out of the blue, and everything just spiralled out of control, and I couldn’t even request any help because I was so swamped with work.” She turned to Rainbow Dash. “That’s also why it took me so long to get around to asking you for help, in case you were wondering.”

Rainbow Dash said nothing for a while, then put her hoof to Nira’s free hand. “You’ve got me to help you, now.” She said. “We’ll fix this together.”

The light in Ponyville was starting to wane, and its residents had long since begun to pack away their things and head home. Rainbow Dash and Nira had scoured almost the entirety of the cosy town, and their weariness was showing through.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped and stamped her hoof on the ground. Her ears perked up and her eyes glittered for the first time in a long while. “Nira! I think I know where the thing might be!” She calmed herself. “Uh, the anomaly, I mean.”

Nira stopped and turned to face her. “Really? Where do you think it is?” Even Nira found the strength to get a little excited.

Rainbow Dash’s face fell a little. “I… I think it’s at Pinkie Pie’s… in her basement.” She shuddered. “When she was… doing things to me, I saw something weird in the corner of my eye. I think it might have been the anomaly.”

Nira nodded. “Yes, the presence of a space-time anomaly is known to cause subtle visual distortion.” She stated as if recalling the information from a textbook.

The pair steadily made their way to Sugarcube Corner. When they arrived, the windows of the bakery were dark, making the normally cute and inviting building dark and forbidding. Rainbow Dash jerked to a halt in front of the building.

Nira was less than pleased. She knew exactly what the problem was. “You ok, Dash? Come on, we’re nearly done.”

Rainbow Dash had frozen to the spot, and didn’t seem to be able to move, despite her best efforts. “I-I don’t think I can go in there. What if she does it again, or I can’t do it, or, or…” Her voice cracked a little as she spoke.

Nira floated over and stroked the scared pony’s head. She smoothed out her rainbow mane and found it to be pretty soft, all things considered. The gesture was therapeutic for the both of them.

“It’s going to be alright, Rainbow Dash.” Nira cooed, her voice gaining the same calming silky sound as when she and Rainbow Dash had first met. “When all of this is over, you will return to your normal life, as it should be. I can even completely erase your memories of your, erhem, death, if you so choose.” She tilted Rainbow Dash’s head up so that their eyes met. “Before we get there though, we’ve got to pull through this. For the good of all of Equestria.”

Nira got closer to Rainbow Dash’s face. “You. Will. Be. Fine. Trust me on this.”

“…Ok…ok.” Rainbow Dash replied softly, more for her own benefit than Nira’s. The pair tiptoed into the bakery.

The door to the basement was locked. “Pinkie must have the key.” Rainbow Dash whispered instinctively. The door was thick and much too strong to kick open. The noise would have attracted too much attention, anyway.

“On the bright side, it means that she’s not here right now.” Nira said. She bent down until she was a little above eye level with the lock, and then put her hand over the keyhole. Her body tensed for a moment, and the lock clicked open. Nira hefted the door open and the pair walked down the set of stairs that lay beyond it. As they made their way down the steps, they were met with a plastic sheet attached to the walls, floor and ceiling. The sheet had a zipper around three of the edges, forming a sort of plastic door. Nira unzipped the ‘door’, and the pair moved on.

They came to three more plastic ‘doors’ before they reached the bottom of the steps, but they passed through them without any problems.

When they eventually reached the bottom of the staircase, the stench of blood and guts hit them full on in their faces. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened and she almost started gagging. The dingy basement was just as she remembered it. The entrails dangling from the ceiling, the banner made from pony hides, the painted skulls, the cart of medical tools, the smell of several different body fluids. It was like revisiting a nightmare.

Nira edged further into the room, and Rainbow Dash shuffled uneasily behind her. “Those plastic sheets must have been to keep the smell from getting out.” Nira said through a grimace. She tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder and then pointed into the darkness. “Look, I think it’s the anomaly.” Rainbow Dash turned to see where Nira was pointing, but instead came face to face with a mounted version of her own corpse, complete with stitched up seams from where Pinkie Pie had carved her up. Rainbow Dash leapt back with an unholy screech, her face practically turning white. Her breathing turned frantic and she scuttled backwards underneath a table.

“Oh gosh, Dash! I’m so sorry!” Nira was starting to panic herself, and was fast running out of ways to calm the severely distressed pony. “It-it’s alright! It’s okay! We’re so close, Dash! J-just a bit more!”

Rainbow Dash was starting to feel very lightheaded, and the next few moments passed her by in a haze.

CRACK!

A solid-looking wooden bat swing out from the shadows and whacked Nira square on the back of the head. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets, making it look like she only had two black holes in her face, and tumbled to the floor. Pinkie Pie stood behind her in her cutie mark patchwork gown, and dropped the bat on the floor with a heavy clunk. “Another one?” She mused. She grabbed Nira by her cloak and dragged her over to the wooden boards that had been used to torture and kill so many ponies previously. Nira was heavily dazed, and offered little resistance as Pinkie Pie strapped her ragdoll body to the boards.

Rainbow Dash felt a buzzing sensation flow through her body, much like the one that she had felt when Nira had made them both invisible, and she guessed that the invisibility had worn off. Somehow, Pinkie Pie hadn’t noticed her hiding under the table, despite the fact that she was pretty sure she was breathing really loudly. Now aware of this, she tried her best to quieten herself down.

Pinkie Pie kicked the cart over to the boards and whipped the cloth off of it, revealing the sharp tools that were subtly stained with blood. She picked up a tool, looked at how the light shimmered off of it, then set it back down. Nira was beginning to get her senses back, and her pretty cream pupils were lazily scanning the room, looking for Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow…” She murmured. “Pinpoint the anomaly…”

Pinkie Pie selected one of the many scalpels at her disposal, then stepped over to Nira. She looked her up and down, as if surveying a new and interesting project, and then yanked her pitch black cloak away from her. Oddly, it made no sound as it tore off of her body and floated almost weightlessly to the floor, where it seemed to blend in with the rest of the shadows. Pinkie Pie ran the scalpel down Nira’s belly like a knife through butter. Nira’s body tensed and her breath hissed in response as black blood started to drip from the huge cut. Pinkie Pie put her hooves into Nira’s chest cavity and fumbled around with her black innards, which were completely unlike those of a ‘normal’ creature.

“Pinpoint it, then fly straight up…” Nira continued, wincing. “Get up high, then come down on it as fast as you can.” She coughed up blood, and it started to dribble down her chin as Pinkie Pie yanked a peculiar black organ out into the light.

“Who’re you talking to?” The pink pony smirked. “The other one never talked as much as you. Although, they did spend most of their time screaming. I could cut out your tongue, but what fun would that be?”

Pinkie Pie inspected the organ, then went back to her cart and picked up a hack saw. She twirled it in her hoof and turned her head to Nira. “D’you know why they call it a hack saw? It doesn’t hack, so…” She trotted back over to her victim and started to grind away at the organ. Nira grunted loudly as the saw cut straight through it, causing more black fluids to spill over the floor.

“Y’know, the other one didn’t know the answer to that question either.” Pinkie Pie said casually as she mutilated Nira at her leisure. “Unfortunately, they didn’t stick around long enough to help me gather ingredients when we met in the Everfree…” She looked up from her ‘handiwork’ for a moment. “I mean, how rude is that?”

Nira’s eyes met Rainbow Dash’s. “…Don’t miss.” She panted. “Go. Make it your first priority. Save me after…if you can. Go…”

By now, Rainbow Dash had slowed her breathing and had calmed herself, but only a little below the level of her previous hysteria. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she forced herself to edge out of her hiding place and made her way over to the anomaly, which Nira was now staring at with half-closed eyes. She could feel the odd way that it seemed to repel her more and more as she got closer to its epicentre; like it was a physical thing and that she was a splinter being pushed out of its skin.

Suddenly, her hoof collided with a rusty bucket, and it unleashed a deafening clatter as it and its metal contents toppled over and onto the floor. Pinkie Pie’s head snapped round and her eyes became as wide as saucers. She dropped the tool she was using with a clang, and her face showed her immense mental turmoil like a television screen. “D-Dashie?!” She stammered uncontrollably, “B-but you’re, but I, but h-how?!” Her eyes flicked back and forth between Rainbow Dash and her mounted other self, over and over again with increasing frequency. She put her black-stained hooves to her head.

Nira’s eyelids flickered for a moment, and then she straightened up in a sudden jerking movement, as up she’d just been electrocuted. She gasped loudly. “RAINBOW DASH! GO!!” She shouted.

At that moment, Pinkie Pie snapped. In one swift motion, she snatched a large knife from the cart, wheeled round and rammed it into Nira’s chest. More blood spilled from her mouth, and she whispered something that sounded like a series of numbers.

Returning to her cart, Pinkie Pie grabbed a meat cleaver, and then rushed towards Rainbow Dash, swinging the cleaver in an arc. Rainbow Dash felt the giant blade skim over her head as she barely managed to duck beneath it. Seeing this as an opening, she kicked Pinkie Pie’s legs from under her, sending her tumbling to the floor. With Pinkie downed, Rainbow Dash shot into the air at high speed, crashing through the ceiling until she broke out into the open air above the bakery.

In the darkness, Pinkie Pie got to her feet, grasping the cleaver firmly in her hoof. Her necklace of broken unicorn horns started to glow, and the many wings she wore on her back started to move. They made a strange stretching sound, followed by several bone-crunching clacks as they became physically attached to her body. She groaned momentarily, as if a dislocated limb of hers had just been forced back into place. She flexed her wings, and then burst into flight.

Rainbow Dash zoomed towards the heavens. The familiar sound of wind rushing through her ears offered her a taste of normality and comfort. Then, she heard another noise coming from somewhere behind her. It was familiar, yet not at the same time. She turned her head to look behind her and saw Pinkie Pie rushing towards her, her many wings pounding the air with a force that Rainbow Dash feared would overcome her own. “No way.” She breathed.

“OH DAAASHIE!!!” Pinkie Pie shrieked through a grin. “HEEERE I COME!!!” With the flight power of three pegasi, she quickly caught up to Rainbow Dash. She resumed her assault on the blue pegasus, slashing wildly with her cleaver. Now in her element, Rainbow Dash dodged the attacks with ease. However, Pinkie Pie’s speed boost was making it impossible to get her own hits in. Every time she dodged an attack, another one would be just a moment away.

The cycle of attacking and dodging and chasing each other through the sky went on and on, and Rainbow Dash was starting to get tired. She quickly realised that there was no way that she was going to get away from Pinkie Pie long enough for her to destroy the anomaly. She decided that it was time for desperate measures, and she formed a plan in her mind.

Another attack came her way, but her dodge was late. She cried out as Pinkie Pie slashed her leg. Pinkie Pie attempted to grab Rainbow Dash’s leg in order to hack it to within an inch of its life, but she broke free and used the momentum to kick Pinkie Pie in the chin, followed by a kick to the cleaver, sending it flying out of Pinkie’s hoof. Now that she was free, she flew upwards as high as she could. Pinkie Pie was quick to pursue her, and easily caught up with her again.

With a complex manoeuvre, she changed direction and got Pinkie Pie in lock that made both of them incapable of using their wings. As they started to fall towards the ground, Rainbow Dash gripped one of Pinkie Pie’s wings and violently yanked it. Pinkie Pie screeched as it snapped in several places and became limp. She screamed as Rainbow Dash proceeded to break the rest of her wings one after the other. Finally, she released Pinkie Pie from the lock and grabbed the unicorn horn necklace as she started to flap her wings again. Under Pinkie’s weight, the necklace snapped, and she howled as she plummeted to her death.

Rainbow Dash panted from exertion and watched as her former friend fell and disappeared from sight. Summoning all of her strength, she flew up as high as she could, and then started to nosedive towards the hole in the bakery’s roof. As she gained speed, she focussed on hitting her target, as missing it would result in guaranteed death and the failure of her mission, given Nira’s condition.

Moments before re-entering the bakery, Rainbow Dash heard crackling in her ears as sparks gathered around her. The sparks converged into a point before her, and the brilliant colours and power of a sonic rainboom exploded outwards, lighting the dark skies like the sun itself. The floors of the bakery whizzed past her, and she crashed down on the anomaly like a rocket.

The anomaly started to glow as it spat Rainbow Dash across the room. She got to her feet and looked herself over. “Not a scratch.” She remarked. The anomaly’s presence was now more apparent than ever, as it was throwing out beams of white light around the dank basement. The light and the power it released fluctuated violently as it began to fall apart.

Rainbow Dash stared in awe at the spectacle, and then gasped as she caught sight of Nira, still strung up and bloodstained on the boards. She rushed to her side, almost slipping in the massive pool of blood beneath her. “Nira! Nira, can you hear me?!” She cried as she fumbled uselessly with the restraints. Nira opened her eyes halfway and took in the sight of the anomaly breaking down. Her eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, and she gave a weak smile. “You did it…” She whispered.

“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash sniffed, and she could feel tears running down her face. “Nira, what can I do? How can I save you? How can I help you?” In desperation, she grabbed the cloth that had covered the cart and wrapped it around Nira’s body, covering up her exposed innards. The cloth turned black almost instantly as it soaked up some of the blood. “I don’t want you to die.” She said quietly, knowing that it was far too late now.

“…I can erase those memories now…if you want…” Nira said through strangled breaths. Before Rainbow Dash could respond, however, Nira’s ‘ears’ drooped, her eyes slowly slid shut, and a final breath escaped her lips. Her body faded away to nothing more than a vague black form, and the cloth fell to the floor as it seeped and disappeared into the shadows.

The anomaly loosed a final blast of blinding light, and Rainbow Dash felt herself falling backwards down into where the floor should have been.

Then everything was swallowed by whiteness.

Rainbow Dash sat bolt upright in her bed, tears streaming down her face and gasping for breath. She looked around her bedroom to find it was as normal as it had always been. She looked at her Wonderbolts calendar. It was the same day she had gone to Pinkie Pie’s, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Even the birds were singing without a care in the world.

Rainbow Dash thought about what she had just been through. “…Did that really happen?” She wondered. “Or was it just a dream?”

“If it was real, then that means…” She worked it out in her head, and wiped away her tears. She went over to the window, and smiled up at the sky.

Unbeknownst to her, far above her, a pair of Kirrans looked down at her and smiled.