TWILIGHT SPARKLE WALKED along the dusty path, her hooves dragging in the dirt. A bundle on a stick floated beside her.
She didn't want to leave Ponyville. But she had no choice.
Barnaby Doublecrosser had trotted jauntily into Ponyville the Saturday before. He was a cobalt blue unicorn with striking green eyes and a spiky green mane, and over the course of the following week, he had offered to play a special game with each member of the mane six. But in secret, he gave each of them a terrifying ultimatum - if they refused to play, or if they backed down at any point during the game, they would be killed.
Naturally, they had all accepted. They couldn't have declined if they'd tried, anyway - Barnaby had put a spell on himself, and one by one, day by day, the mane six found themselves lulled into accepting by those amazing eyes (especially Rarity). And then - and only then - the stakes had been revealed. If they lost the game, they would lose their home as well.
The game was trivia. A simple game with simple questions, that nopony could mess up on. Right? Wrong! Barnaby's questions were of things that didn't even exist in Equestria - but you weren't allowed to say so. They were yes or no questions, and each pony was bound to the truth (though none more so than Applejack) before the beginning of the game.
On Sunday, Rainbow Dash lost her cloud palace to one of Barnaby's friends, John Hoof. On Monday, Fluttershy was forced to give up her cottage to one Jeff Questhorn, who set all her animals free.
On Tuesday, Pinkie Pie lost her right to live in Sugarcube Corner's upstairs apartment, and it was rented out to a no-good mare who went by the alias Dagger. Business for the Cakes dropped through the basement the next day.
On Wednesday, Applejack and her family were evicted from Sweet Apple Acres (which was trashed), and separated. Granny Smith was sent to a nursing home, Big Mac was put on a train to Appleloosa, and little Apple Bloom went to live with Cheerilee.
On Thursday, Rarity lost Carousel Boutique, and she was sent to Canterlot - a bitter time for her most longed-for dream to come true. Sweetie Belle went to live with a mare called Bon Bon, who was forever lamenting her friend Lyra's obsession with strange creatures called "humans".
And all this time, Twilight Sparkle had no idea what was going on...because Barnaby himself enchanted her house so that she couldn't go out of it. She was very confused at this the first time she tried to step outside, but not knowing how to counteract this, she decided to live with it until she had done sufficient research. As a result, nothing from the outside world came in. So Twilight's surprise when Barnaby Doublecrosser entered her house on a sunny Friday afternoon and told her that her friends had all lost their homes and had been sent away was immense. In fact, she was so shocked, her first words were:
"What the hay?! How could you do this to my friends?!" she shouted.
Barnaby just smiled. "It is my gift to be this way, to do this to ponies," he said. "Can't you see my cutie mark - a double cross?"
Twilight's eyes narrowed. "You are the most despicable pony I've ever met!" she yelled. "How dare you do this to my friends?! How dare you abuse the true gift you were given?!"
Barnaby's smile faded. "And who's to say this isn't my gift?"
"Your gift is swindling and stealing?!" Twilight sighed exasperatedly. "Never mind. Just - get out. I never want to see your face again."
"Already?" Barnaby cried with mock surprise. "My handsome features have been in your presence for only three minutes and already you want me gone?" He shook his head; then, becoming serious at Twilight's unmoving expression of hatred, added, "Anyway, I can't leave. Not just yet. I have business to complete...very important business. What say you and I play a little game?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"A very simple game, really. Trivia."
Twilight blinked. "Trivia? That's it?"
He nodded. "Just five simple questions. Easy, really."
Cocking her head, Twilight Sparkle gazed contemplatingly at the cobalt stallion. "There's something else, isn't there?" she asked. "Some hidden catch...or maybe it's the stakes of the game. What will be at risk if I get an answer wrong?"
Barnaby leaned in close, his hypnotizing green eyes starting their magical work. "Your home. But...if you refuse...you will be killed without a second thought." He casually adjusted the collar on his black leather vest, not taking his eyes off Twilight's.
Normally, Twilight would have noticed right away that magic was involved with this stallion's gaze. But somehow, this time, she missed it. The world around her grew fainter and fainter as she stared into Barnaby's eyes. She didn't hear Spike frantically calling her name; she saw only those eyes of swirling green.
Barnaby waited a little while until he knew she was well and truly under; then he asked softly, "Do you accept, Twilight Sparkle?"
"I accept." Her voice was flat and monotone, her face devoid of expression.
Barnaby grinned and froze Spike, who had been rushing at him, with a single red flash of his horn - almost absentmindedly. Then he glanced at the clock. He had five minutes before Twilight came around. He would have to be quick.
The first question would have made anypony who wasn't under Barnaby's spell laugh. "Do small creatures called 'broombats' live in Equestria?"
The word "broombat" landed in Twilight's otherwise empty brain with a dull thunk, and somewhere registered as negative. "No."
"Is there a species of pony called the Two-Legged Marshmallows?"
"No."
Barnaby had nearly died with laughter when he first wrote these questions down. He had meant for them to be silly and obviously not true; they were so ludicrous that nopony could have answered yes to any of them, even without being hypnotized. But telling a participant they were wrong at the end of the game - that required a little...sedation.
"Do flipplehorns exist in the Equestrian city of Mooperdoop?" He was really getting into it now.
"No."
"Are dragoflagons currently roaming free in the Equestrian province of Jestiflib?" That one had come from his 3:00 A.M. not-quite-fully-awake brain.
"No."
And now for the final question. "Do ponies eat meepercake?"
"No."
Barnaby grinned broadly. Here was the moment he had waited for, all this time. "I am sorry to say that you are absolutely, completely, one hundred percent wrong!!" he cried triumphantly.
Instantly, Twilight Sparkle snapped alert. "None of those questions were true!!" she exclaimed. "Anypony could have known that they weren't true! But you hypnotize your 'victims' so they don't have a second thought when you tell them you were wrong! Isn't that right, Barnaby Doublecrosser?"
Barnaby's mouth was open, and he gawked at Twilight. Finally, he breathed in disbelief, "You were awake the whole time! You fooled me!! Nopony has ever done that before!"
Twilight eyes flashed. "I said this before, and I'll say it again!" she shouted. "You, Barnaby Doublecrosser, are the most despicable pony I've ever met in my entire life!!" Then she noticed his horn starting to glow red - and leaped, hooves outstretched, at the stallion.
Her front hooves hit him in the chest, and he toppled over, his horn's glow dying as he landed on the floor of the library with an "oof" and Twilight on top of him. She pinned him down with her magenta magic and shoved her face into his.
"I don't ever want to see you in Ponyville again," she growled.
Barnaby gazed up at her, his swirling green eyes wide. "You're beautiful," he breathed.
"Shut up!" Twilight snapped at him. And then, all of a sudden, she noticed something around Barnaby's neck, something she knew quite well. She gasped, her horn winking out as her eyes widened. No! It can't be!
Barnaby looked down at his neck. "Ah, I see you've noticed this beauty?" he asked as he levitated Twilight off him and into the air. He got to his feet and patted the Alicorn Amulet tenderly. It looked positively evil, glinting there in the light from the fixture on the ceiling. Twilight Sparkle saw her own reflected face in it, wide-eyed and terrified.
He smiled. "I got this from Zecora herself. Of course, I obtained it without her permission, but still...."
"You stole it?!" Twilight cried.
He ignored her question, and lifted Spike, who had been un-frozen a few minutes ago when Twilight hit Barnaby, and was about to rush at him again, into the air alongside Twilight.
"Didn't you tell me to shut up a little while ago?" he asked Twilight Sparkle, and he made her nod. "I think you're the one who's going to be doing the shutting up now, though..." He grinned, and slammed Twilight to the floor.
Spike gasped. "No!"
Barnaby slammed the baby dragon into the floor as well. Spike moaned, then lay there, completely still. Twilight, however, hadn't quite been knocked out yet. She raised her head woozily. "I hate you, Barnaby Doublecrosser," she mumbled.
He smiled. "Don't they all," he murmured almost soothingly as he lifted Twilight Sparkle gently into the air and slammed her down again. "Don't we all..."
Twilight vaguely felt her body hitting the floor, as though from some great distance. The last thing she saw through the dark haze that had become her vision was that she and Spike were suddenly outside Golden Oak Library, and a red force field shimmered around her beloved, yet former home. Then everything went black.
When Twilight woke up, the sun was beginning to set. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were carrying her on their backs, with a still-asleep Spike carried by Fluttershy.
"What happened?" Twilight mumbled, barely able to make her mouth move properly. Then she remembered everything that had happened. "Oh."
"Are you all right?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean, with what he did to you and everything."
"Not really," Twilight replied, wincing with every change in the road under her friends' trotting hooves. "Could we maybe stop for a while? Then when I'm strong enough I could heal myself."
"But that spell takes sooo much out of you!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "You can't do that!"
"If I get enough rest afterwards, I can," Twilight pointed out. "Besides, it's better than healing on my own."
"Are you sure about that?" Fluttershy asked timidly.
Twilight tried to nod, but thought better of it and said simply, "I'm sure."
So the three ponies stopped, and set Twilight Sparkle and Spike down gently, under a huge tree. It wasn't long before Twilight was indeed able to perform her spell. Pinkie, Dash and Fluttershy watched anxiously as her horn glowed brighter than it ever had before. Tendrils of magenta magic began to wrap themselves around both Twilight and Spike, lifting them into the air. As the others watched in awe, the cocoons of light that surrounded the unicorn and the dragon grew almost blindingly bright! Then a flash of searing white light finished the spell, and when Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, she felt exhausted, but otherwise perfectly fine.
The spell couldn't heal her mind, though. The five companions sat up late into the night around a crackling fire, talking about Barnaby's evil deeds and wondering what the rest of their friends were doing. None of them knew what had happened to Applejack, and they thought Rarity was in Canterlot...but they couldn't have been farther from the truth.
The night grew later and later, and still Twilight was wide awake. Rainbow Dash had been the first to slip into dreamland, and then Fluttershy. Pinkie talked on, but after a while even her head began to nod. "If you don't mind, Twilight," she murmured, yawning, "I think I'll just close my eyes...for just...a few moments..." In one second flat she, too, had succumbed to sleep.
Twilight and Spike continued to talk quietly, until at last Spike closed his eyes and dropped off as well. Then the unicorn lay down on her back, staring at the twinkling stars and the bright, nearly-full moon. How are we going to get the Alicorn Amulet away from Barnaby? she wondered. How...how...
And then, at last, she fell asleep.
