Start with the prologue, please.
One month earlier...
Twilight Sparkle and her friends were enjoying a nice afternoon brunch, the six of them were having a wonderful time and everypony was getting full.
"Okay girls, I'm going to head home now," Twilight told her friends, "I'll see you all tomorrow!"
"Okay, twi! Take care of yerself now!" Applejack called after her.
"Goodbye, darling!" Rarity called.
"See ya!" Rainbow dash said.
"Goodbye." Fluttershy whispered.
"Say, do any of you know where Pinkie got to?" Twilight said.
"No. Strange, she usually shows up to these gettogethers." Rarity said.
"Yeah, strange." Twilight said to herself.
Twilight went to her library to catch up on her studies, but quickly found she'd rather take an afternoon nap.
So she took a quick nap and was surprised when spike was standing over her bed, a newspaper in his hand, looking very concerned.
"What's wrong, spike?" Twilight asked.
"Look at this!" Spike said, concern in his voice, holding the newspaper out to Twilight.
Twilight read the headline.
Four deaths so far, more to come?
So far, four ponies have been murdered by
the colt known to the world as 'The Menace'
The authorities have tried their best to find, and
subdue the criminal, but have not succeeded
as of now. The ponies killed are Derpy Hooves,
Scootaloo, Big Macintosh, and Pinkamena Diane Pie.
Twilight's face twisted into a shocked expression.
She kept reading.
Twilight's eyes widened in horror, "B-Big Mac? Pinkie?" Twilight said, tears forming in her eyes.
"Yeah." Spike said.
"How... how could he?" Twilight said, looking out of the window.
"There's a funeral being held this weekend." Spike said, trying to comfort Twilight.
Twilight sat down on her bed, and started crying.
"Girls, GIRLS!" Twilight was screaming at her friends, running up to them.
"What is it, Twi?" Applejack said, "Something wrong?"
"Pinkie's dead." Twilight said, bluntly.
Everypony stopped dead in their tracks and looked at Twilight like she'd just shot someone.
"Excuse me?" Rarity said.
"Pinkie. Is. Dead." Twilight said, a little louder.
"How do you know?!" Rainbow Dash said, on the verge of tears.
"Here, look." Twilight said, holding up the paper.
Applejack turned away, "I know." She said.
"You knew about this?" Twilight said, with concern.
"Well, about Big Mac, and Scootaloo, but I had no idea that... that..." She couldn't even finish the sentance.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash flew off in the direction of her cloud castle.
"Rainbow! Wait...!" Twilight started to say, but she was gone.
"I'll try to calm her down" Fluttershy said, as she flew after Rainbow Dash.
As Fluttershy came up to Dash's cloud castle, she could hear muffled sobbing.
"Um, Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked quietly.
No answer.
"Hello? Are you there, Dash?" Fluttershy said, a little louder.
Fluttershy entered Dash's cloud castle, to find a disturbing sight.
Dash was climbing out the window, when she got out, she flew in the direction of the Everfree forest.
***
Fluttershy knew that she couldn't even catch Rainbow Dash, much less convince her not to do this. She got back to her friends as fast as she could.
"Dash is gone!" She said to everyone, "She flew off in the direction of the Everfree forest! I couldn't catch her!"
"W-What?!" All three of the other ponies said simultaneously.
"We have to go after her! It's too dangerous!" Twilight said.
"Woah there, we can't just walk into that forest, that colt is still in there!" Applejack said.
"We have to! I can't lose another best friend!" Twilight said, tears in her eyes.
Applejack remained silent after that.
"Look, I'm going, whether anypony likes it or not." Twilight said.
"Ah understand, Twi'." Applejack had started to say.
"Thanks, Applej--"
"That's why we're goin' with ye." Applejack said.
"What?!" said Twilight, outraged, "You can't! It's too dangerous!"
"We can't lose another best friend, either!" Rarity said.
This made Twilight stop. She'd been acting selfish, thinking of what she wanted.
"Fine... You guys can come." Twilight said.
Fluttershy looked scared. Twilight could tell that she really didn't want to go, but she would for her love of Rainbow Dash.
"Alright, I guess we're all in this together." Twilight said, worried for her friends' safety.
"So, uh, how are we gonna do this?" Applejack said.
"Well, Fluttershy is the only one of us that can fly at the moment, so I think she should go overhead and try to spot Rainbow Dash from the clouds. Applejack is the fastest, so she should scout ahead and make sure it's safe for us to follow. Rarity, you and I can use magic. If we stick together and we end up finding him, then we might be able to use our magic together." Twilight knew her plan had flaws, a lot of them. So much can go wrong, but they had to get Dash back.
"Alright, everypony! Let's do it!"
Twilight, and Rarity were following about ten yards behind Applejack. There was no sign of any disturbance to the woods, but Twilight had never been this deep into the woods, so she really didn't know.
Fluttershy was flying overhead, she was looking down and was relieved that they had made it this far and are still okay.
"Um," Rarity started, "What exactly are we looking for, again?"
"Signs of camp, tents, huts, campfires." Twilight said, "Anything you wouldn't find in the woods naturally."
That's when they heard the scream.
