Whitewashed

Chapters

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Part 1

The sun was setting by the time Sweetie Belle got home. Rarity was putting the finishing touches on yet another dress but immediately stopped to greet her little sister.

“Hello Sweetie!” Rarity greeted Sweetie with a smile. “Another hard day crusading I take it?”

“Yeah still no luck though, but I did manage to move a rock a full five meters with my magic!”

“Oh wow!” Rarity cheered. “That’s great Sweetie, I told you that your magic would get better soon.”

“Yeah, Midnight helped a lot; he’s definitely going to get his cutie mark for magic someday,” Sweetie Belle said as she sat down on some cushions.

“That’s the new colt that joined the school a few months back right? Good at magic I take it?”

“Yeah he was so super amazing. Applebloom said we shouldn’t bother inviting him to the Crusaders since it was clear what his talent is. But I said it would be mean not to! It would be really good to have a boy Crusader around,” the filly finished coyly.

“Oh my! The first potential male Cutie Mark Crusader and my sister is begging for him to join? Is he cute?” mocked Rarity with a wink.

“NO!” Sweetie Belle yelped, blushing furiously. She then giggled. “Well…maybe a little.” But her face drooped slightly before she continued, “Thing is though Cheerilee told us he has some mental health difficulties, and he is kinda odd. He got really weird and started babbling all kinds of things at Diamond Tiara the other day. It was kinda scary, he looked so angry… and then he just gave her a weird smile and walked away.”

Rarity smiled as she failed to suppress a small yawn. After declaring the approach of bedtime, the two chatted for a little longer before both heading for their rooms. The last thing Sweetie Belle remembered before falling asleep was that her flank felt tingly.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

The scream woke Sweetie Belle with a jolt. Wasting no time, she raced out of her bedroom towards the sound. Bolting down the stairs, Sweetie Belle found her sister, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and several ponies she didn’t know standing aghast in front of a mirror. The look on Rarity’s face was one of unimaginable horror. For a moment Sweetie Belle couldn’t see what the situation was; then it hit her like a tonne of snow.

Every single one of the adults was missing their cutie marks.

The group rushed along the road as a meeting was being called at the town hall. Sweetie Belle spotted Scootaloo, Applebloom and Midnight and waved them over.

“Those guys too?!” Scootaloo squeaked buzzing nervously in mid-air. “Do you think it’s just us or has the rest of the world gone blank as well?”

“I hope Twilight or the princesses can sort this out soon, “Applebloom sobbed slightly. “Mah sister spent the entire morning crying and bumping her head into a wall.”

“We shouldn’t go to the meeting.” Midnight said, so quietly that it was barely audible.

“Don’t be silly Midnight. Look, we’re getting left behind.”

The entire populace of the town was crowded around the town hall. Up on the stage, an extremely dishevelled Twilight was trying to produce some order. Eventually she gave up trying to get the ponies’ attention over the confused and frightened babble and motioned to Rainbow Dash. With a nod, Rainbow took in a deep breath and unleashed her powerful voice.

“QUIET!”

The crowd went silent and Twilight started her speech. “Okay, now I know everypony is a little scared and confused. But what it is important to know is that the princesses are working on the situation as we speak. They’re sure to come up with a solution and no-one is in any physical danger from the situation.”

“That’s easy for you say!” A Pegasus yelled from the back. “Most of us can barely fly straight!”

“You Pegasi should be used to that!” a Unicorn retorted. “My brother took his eyebrows off this morning trying to levitate toast!”

Next to Sweetie Belle, Midnight was starting to look genuinely nervous. “We need to go!” He whispered urgently tugging at Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle was inclined to agree as a sudden angry vibe began rippling through the crowd. The Pegasi and the Unicorns were angrily shouting at each other over who was in greater danger from the incident and the crowd was starting to split into their respective species. Twilight was muscling her way through the crowd, yelling exasperatedly for them to stop acting like idiots when a fateful line was yelled by a Unicorn:

“Well maybe you’re right! By the sounds of it, you’re all going to be flying around like Derpy! It really will be the end of the world if you’re all that crap at flying!”

For one endless moment the was a dead silence before;

“YOU MUFFIN HEAD!”

The simmering tension boiled over in an instant. Sweetie Belle shrieked as the crowd around her suddenly exploded like a Jack-in-the-Box. The three species were suddenly at each other’s throats as the crowd descended into a massive free for all. Somepony’s hoof lashed out wildly and connected with Sweetie Belles head. Almost instantly Sweetie Belle’s vision was covered in a black haze and all feeling dropped from her body as she was tossed into the air. For a horrible moment she thought she might be concussed, until she painfully bounced off another pony and was twizzled in mid-air. Flailing wildly, she could see Midnight directly below her.

The instant she had been struck he’d grabbed Sweetie with his magic and was now weaving through the mass of bodies with lightning speed. They were nearing the edge of the crowd when the brawling ponies suddenly closed in tight around them. The jet black colt dropped Sweetie bell and turned his horn against the adults. With a crack and the stink of ozone a wave of kinetic energy blasted out from Midnight; more powerful that Sweetie would have thought possible for a colt of his size. Bodies were thrown apart from each other like ragdolls while the two children raced from the insane fighting. Sweetie Belle turned back to see Rarity and Applejack charge through the wake Midnight had made. Sweetie’s heart did somersaults as she saw that Applebloom and Scootaloo were clinging to the older ponies’ backs.

“Mah word!” Applejack yelled over the cacophony “Thanks for that Midnight! Twilights got some competition!”

Midnight nodded in silent acceptance and levitated Applebloom and Scootaloo off of the mares’ backs. Both had fainted with shock.

“You two take them, and any other kids you find somewhere safe!” Rarity ordered, looking back at the rioting mob. “We’re going to help Twilight with riot control.”

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

It was dark when Sweetie Belle woke up; she had passed out shortly after they’d arrived at the tree house headquarters of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Hearing the crackling of fire, she dizzily stumbled outside to see Midnight, Applebloom, Scootaloo and an extremely dejected-looking Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon sitting around a camp fire.

“Hey sleepy head! It’s about time you woke up. We were the ones with concussions!” Applebloom called as Sweetie Belle descended. “Grab a cushion, we were about to start toasting marshmallows.”

“Better do mine for me.” Sweetie Belle smiled, plopping herself down between Scootaloo and Midnight. “Cooking and I definitely don’t get on.”

“Marshmallows?” spat Diamond Tiara caustically. “The worlds gone upside-down and you want to have a little campfire party?”

“Err....” Applebloom contemplated, “Well the fires already going...sooooo.....yeah! We’re hungry anyway.”

Diamond Tiara looked like she was about to throttle Applebloom but was restrained by Silver Spoon.

“Its fine to be a little mad,” Midnight spoke in his usual soft voice, kicking a hoof shyly. “You two had your marks so this is doubly rough. You all saw what happened to the adults; so if you want to blow off a little steam then feel free to go punch a tree or something.” Diamond Tiara grimaced at Midnight who squeaked and hid behind Sweetie Belle. With everyone staring harshly at her Diamond Tiara let out an exasperated sigh and apologised to Midnight before stalking back up to the tree house.

“So why did everyone suddenly freak out back in town?” Scootaloo wondered, skewering a marshmallow. “That escalated like crazy.”

“It was helplessness.” Midnight continued, his voice suddenly more projected and assured that usual. “A cutie mark is an expression of who a pony is and what their purpose in life is. With their mark gone it’s like someone’s just wiped away their purpose, ripped out a chunk of their soul. They are suddenly lost upstream with a paddle that just spontaneously combusted.”

“Cutie marks have been around since before forever,” Scootaloo commented. “Must’ve taken one powerful piece of magic to get rid of them.”

“Exactly!” Midnight agreed, jumping to his feet. “They felt like they were in danger. The potential threat sent the primitive bits of their brains into a frenzy. After that it was only natural that their pack instincts kicked in. I did say we shouldn’t have gone to the meeting. That was a powder keg waiting to explode. But if how I think this will go is.....”

Suddenly Midnight realized how much he had been talking, panicked and sat down breathing heavily. He didn’t like being the centre of attention. Sweetie Belle pulled him into a hug and stuttered out a finish. “Err...yeah....they should have g-g-gotten it out of their systems by tomorrow.”

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

It was the middle of the night when Midnight announced he was going to scout out whether it was safe in town. “Need to know how long we’re gonna have to stay out here,” he explained.

“You want us to come with you?” Scootaloo asked nervously; they had seen some smoke rising in the distance a while ago which raised serious questions about the sanity of the residents. Midnight said nothing and backed himself slowly into the bushes. Within moments his jet black coat and mane had melted into the shadows.

“I blend in better.” His voice emanated from the dark.

“Well...good luck then.”

There was a crackle of twigs as Midnight moved off. Sweetie Belle rushed after him. With a cry of “Wait!” she bumped into him and twisted him around to face her. “Sorry, it’s just that I never thanked you for saving me back in town. I don’t know what might have happened if you hadn’t grabbed me as quickly as you did.”

“Oh....err......ahhh...it was no problem...I just...err...anyone would have....” Midnight stared at his feet, embarrassed.

“Well I thought it was a very brave thing to do.” Sweetie Belle leaned forward and kissed Midnight on the cheek before blushing profusely and running back to the campfire. Midnight stood dazed for a second then, grinning like an idiot, slid off like a shadow through the night.

Part 2

Ponyville looked pretty torn up but--all things considered--it could have been a lot worse. Between Discord, the parasprites and few spectacular spells-gone-wrong from Twilight, the town had had the hell kicked out of it more times than anyone cared to count. But now it was deathly quiet. As the group of children walked slowly down the main road there was not a single sound to be heard.

“Where the hay is everyone?” Applebloom asked while looking through a shop window.

“Probably asleep,” Scootaloo answered. “Or inside licking their wounds. I hope Rainbow Dash is all right. There were more ponies going crazy even for her to handle.”

“How do you know she wasn’t part of that riot?” snorted Midnight, examining some lightning burns on a building’s side. “Hmmm, about one point two Megawatts,” he muttered to himself. Ever since he had returned from his scouting trip he had been incredibly irritable. The normally timid colt had actually left Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon magically glued to a tree.

“Hey!” Scootaloo yelled; outraged at any mention that her beloved Rainbow Dash might be less than perfect. “Dashie is the Element of Loyalty! She would have stuck with Twilight and the others even if it meant fighting every single pony in town!”

Midnight began growling but was cut short by a familiar voice from above. “Ha! You know me far too well kid.” Rainbow Dash fluttered down from the sky with her normal roguish grin. Scootaloo cheered and was immediately hugging Rainbow with a winding force. Sweetie Belle could see that Rainbow Dash was looking like the town; pretty beat up. Her tail had been cut off and her midriff was wrapped in a blood-spotted bandage.

“Did you actually have to fight the entire town? Cause there’s no-one around,” Sweetie Belle asked nervously. She was hoping that the older Pegasus would be able to disentangle herself from Scootaloo soon. Midnight had become, frankly, terrifying. His growling had intensified and taken on a more animalistic quality.

Pulling herself free, Rainbow Dash strode up to Midnight and glanced down curiously at the psychotic looking colt. “Well I didn’t have to fight Midnight’s brother. Lucky, since he was desperate for somebody to find you and give you this.” Dash pulled out a small plastic bottle from a fold in her bandages and passed it to Midnight. Immediately his eyes widened. He grabbed the bottle, unscrewed it and downed a dubious amount of pills.

There were a few moments where nobody moved. Midnight grimaced intensely before finally popping his head back and smiling nervously. “Ahh sorry about that growling, but two days without my medication…”

“Sorry to ask a silly question but what do you have?” Rainbow Dash asked cocking her head. Midnight lowered his head and started stuttering. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s lack of tact and swept in to save him.

“Not important right now! Rainbow Dash, where is everyone?”

Rainbow turned and indicated Twilight’s tree house, the building’s top branches peeping over the other houses. “Anypony who didn’t lose their wits is at Twilight’s house. Everypony else was put under a blanket sleeping spell; I spent 3 hours shuttling sleeping ponies around. We should get a move on, you all have some very concerned siblings waiting.”

************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Can you please let me down now?” Bon-Bon asked Twilight over the whir of machinery. “My back is really aching from this position.” Twilight looked up at Bon-Bon who was clamped upright into a vertical poison on a metal slab, various electrodes and sensors attached to her body.

“Yeah....all right,” Twilight conceded. “Lyra, you want to come down too?”

“Nah I’m fine,” replied Lyra from the adjacent sensor slab. “My spine’s more used to this position anyway.”

Behind them Rainbow Dash opened the door to let the kids in. Almost instantly Twilight had trussed up Scootaloo and was clamping her into the vacated slab before the filly could even get a ‘hello’ out.

“YAHHHH... err...good to see you too, Twilight?” Scootaloo asked in confusion. “What exactly is--” but Twilight had already bustled off and was working on a large control panel.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt,” Bon-Bon reassured as she stretched her back. “Twilight did the same thing to us when we arrived.”

Meanwhile Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were hugging their much-relieved sisters. Sweetie Belle extricated herself as a voice she didn’t recognise said “Midnight! Good to see yah bro! What’s this I hear about a little heroics?” Midnight was bro-hoofing an older Earth pony, presumably his brother. They did look alike; both had short tufty manes and tails but where Midnight’s coat and hair was as black as coal, his brother’s was slate grey.

“Ahh you must be Sweetie Belle and Rarity. My names Dusk.” Dusk turned and extended a hoof for the two to shake. But as he turned he went from profile to face on view and--despite all of Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s practice at poise and demeanour--neither could mask the shock at his appearance. The entire left side of his body was covered in a burn scar that stretched from his face all the way down to his flank. He held his hoof out for a whole 5 seconds before he and Midnight collapsed into fit of laughter.

“Bahahaha...oh...oh sorry.” Dusk gasped. Composing himself, he continued, “I’ll save you asking the questions. I’m an archaeologist; the day I got my cutie mark I was exploring some ruins that unfortunately happened to have a trap system which doused me in acid. It doesn’t hurt and I don’t really care anymore. Also I have the same mental condition as Midnight but far less severe.”

“Well.” Rarity said, regaining her composure. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Dusk.”

“Now can you confirm what I’ve been hearing about by little brother and your sister?” Midnight suddenly squeaked and ran off, diving under the table where Twilight was working. “Whoops,” Dusk groaned. “Shouldn’t have put him on the spot like that.”

“Not to be rude,” Rainbow Dash said entering the conversation, hovering overhead. “But what exactly is wrong with him? And....erm...you?”

Dusk looked slightly scared and started stuttering. He turned and walked into a corner where he remained for a few seconds before returning to the perplexed ponies.

“Sorry. It’s sort of like schizophrenia with some elements of autism. Sometimes I just can’t think straight or forget how to read, stuff like that. As you can see we both suffer from anxiety attacks around other ponies; especially girls.” Dusk knelt down to be on Sweetie Belles level and whispered “Try and stick with him, yeah? I know he’s scary sometimes but when you became his friend it was the first time he talked to a girl his age in 4 months.”

A yell of frustration cut across the room as Twilight hurled a book against the wall. “NOTHING! Horse-apples!” Twilight, with a face like a darkened storm, walked over to the other ponies. Everypony congregated round the storming alicorn, putting down the various books they had been scouring through. “Well,” Twilight announced, “I have put together every test I can think of but as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with anypony who has been tested. Whatever caused the cutie marks to vanish isn’t biological. If there is magic at work, it’s of a kind that I can’t detect or alter. Has anyone found anything in the library?”

All eyes turned to Pinkie. “What?” she said, looking around.

“Well this is usually when you point out the exact book we need for the situation.”

“OHHH right!” Pinkie said. “Yeah... no. I did try walking into several bookcases but none of the books that fell on me were in anyway helpful.”

Twilight let out a long sigh. “Okay okay…ahhh.” Suddenly Twilight lurched sideways, and was only saved from falling by Midnight, who popped out from under the table to prop Twilight up.

Fluttershy--who had been quiet up until now--pulled Twilight up and asked “Hey Twilight, when was the last time you slept?”

“Or ate for that matter?” Midnight grumbled. “I can hear your stomach from here.” He went to go back under the table but was grabbed by Sweetie Belle.

Twilight was laid down on a sofa while Rainbow Dash cleared her throat, to take control of the meeting. “Okay then. Well since we can’t put everypony’s cutie marks back we’re just gonna' have to live with it for now. Twilight, can we just make the rest of the town normal?”

“Uhh yeah. Can somepony get me some pancakes?”

“I’ll make some!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. With all the grown-up talk she was feeling slightly left out.

“Can somepony else make me pancakes?”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

It was late at night now. Thankfully Celestia and Luna hadn’t freaked out so the day-night cycle was carrying on as normal. Sweetie Belle’s and Midnight’s houses had been wrecked during the riot so both were bunking in Twilight’s house. Sweetie Belle awoke to find Midnight groaning and tossing in his sleeping bag.

“Don’t….don’t….don’t,” he repeated over and over. Sweetie Belle jumped as he rolled over to reveal both eyes wide open and pure white.

Sweetie Belle leapt over and shook him, terrified at his appearance. “Midnight? Are you okay? MIDNIGHT!”

Midnight eyes rolled forward and his pupils came back into view. For a few moments he sat breathing heavily before exclaiming.

“OH CELESTIA! Diamond Tiara is still glued to that tree!”

Part 3

A week had passed since the ‘incident’ and life was finally regaining some semblance of normality. That said, Sweetie Belle still likened the atmosphere around town to that of mourning. Ponyville seemed to have gone... greyish, like the depression had settled into a tangible mist, blanketing everything in a lethargy that leeched the life from everypony.

Sweetie Belle sat, looking out of Sugercube Corner’s window as ponies crept along at a sluggish pace outside. She waited for her friends to show up, if they planned to at all.

“Another milkshake?” Pinkie Pie asked, trotting over to the table. Sweetie Belle tried to suppress an involuntary flinch at the sight of the pink baker. While Pinkie appeared largely to have been unaffected by the mass psychotic episode that the ‘incident’ had brought on, the fact that her hair fell permanently flat was a cause for concern.

“Err no thanks,” Sweetie Belle replied. “I’ll wait to see if the others turn up.”

“Okay, here you go!” Pinkie Pie placed four new milkshakes on the table and bounced off, humming absent-mindedly. Sweetie Belle stared after Pinkie and -- like many before her -- wondered exactly what it was that made her so… Pinkie.
As if on cue, the cafe/bakery doors opened; Scootaloo, Applebloom and a rather bedraggled-looking Midnight walked in.

“Hey guys!” Sweetie Belle smiled, waving them over. She noticed that Midnight had twigs and leaves in his hair. “Midnight, did you get dragged backwards through a hedge?”

“Yes,” he confirmed quickly, before disappearing off the cafe’s bathrooms.

“We found him in an apple tree on the farm,” Applebloom explained, hopping onto one of the seats and taking a sip of milkshake. “Wouldn’t say what he had been up to.”

The group sat around chatting for a while. In the week following the ‘incident’ it had been quite hard for them to meet up; school had been suspended for the time being and the weather had been pretty poor. Like many other townsponies, they had remained inside where it was warm, and more importantly, safe.

Without warning, a commotion arose from the bakery kitchen. The door was flung open and black smoke billowed out, the unmistakable smell of burning pastry in its wake. “Horse-apples! Not again!” a voice yelled.

“We should leave,” Midnight suggested quietly, hastily putting some bits on the counter to pay. “Don’t think they want to be disturbed.”

“Yeah...” Scootaloo added, before whispering, “Also... um... the way Pinkie’s holding that knife is a little worrying.”

“So, we actually going anywhere in particular?” Applebloom asked. After they’d beaten a hasty retreat from Sugercube Corner, the group had wandered aimlessly through the town in silence for a few minutes. Despite their chattiness in the cafe/bakery, it was harder to forget the seriousness of the situation when they were outside. The streets were deserted and the weather permanently overcast.

“Well,” Sweetie Belle said thoughtfully, lamenting the sight of the thick cloud cover above. “Maybe we could visit Cheerilee.
There’re a lot of ponies who could use cheering up, wouldn’t be a bad idea to start with--”

WHOOOOSH

The torrential downpour derailed Sweetie Belle’s train of thought. So sudden and hard was the rainfall that the ponies were knocked to the ground. They tried to pick themselves back up, but the volume of water falling was so severe that the ground beneath them rapidly turned to mud.

The world span as Sweetie Belle tried to pick herself up, but slid forward into the mush and cracked her head on some-pony’s hoof. Mud squelched up around her face, blocking her airways. Once again, she attempted to pull herself up as her chest began to tighten from a lack of oxygen, but the sheets of water pounding against her head threw all hope of orientation out the window.

There was a crackle and a stink of ozone. The volume of rain falling on her head abruptly lessened, though the sound of the raging torrent didn’t abate. Sweetie Belle rolled herself over, gasping as her airways cleared and saw a ragged force-field projected overhead. “You’re really making a habit of saving me, huh Midnight?” she laughed with relief as Midnight grunted his thanks.

“Hmph. Glad you find it amusing.”

As quickly as the rain had begun, they were cut out as the clouds above exploded into a rainbow shockwave. Rainbow Dash raced down and, after a quick once-over of the drenched fillies, rounded on the sheepish looking Weather Control Pegasus who had landed nearby.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash barked. “WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME WAS THAT?!”

“I was just trying to clear the...” the other Pegasus cowered.

“Clear the clouds? By setting off the mother of all rainstorms?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed incredulously. “These foals could have been hurt! How on earth could you screw up that badly?”

“But... but... without my C-Cuti--”

With a cry of frustration, Rainbow Dash shot into the air, her irritated voice projected back to the ground. “Just go home!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat together in a huddle as Midnight extracted and dried the moisture in their coats with his magic. “Hey Midnight,” Sweetie Belle shivered as a cold gust blew through the rapidly growing gaps in the cloud layer, “You thought that ponies would get over the mental block eventually, that’ll be soon right?”

“I really hope so.”

Part 4

Sweetie Belle was slightly perturbed when Midnight knocked on her window. Not that she minded him visiting, but her bedroom was on Carousel Boutique’s second floor. Sweetie Belle opened the window, but put a hoof out to stop him entering.

“What was wrong with the door?”

“Hmmm? What do you mean?”

“You’re trying to get in through my bedroom window...”

Midnight looked around like he’d only just realised where he was. “Oh... so I am. Sorry. Er... can you let me in anyway? I’m not sure how to get down.” Sweetie Belle studied his face for a second before sighing and letting him through. “You know, I can’t even remember how I got here!” Midnight laughed, pulling a saddle bag through the window with him.
Sweetie sighed again but grinned. This wasn’t the oddest thing he’d done recently: a few nights prior, she’d awoken to find him passed out in her bedroom with no memory of how he’d managed to get in. Rarity had politely suggested to Dusk that he up Midnight’s medication dosage.

“So, do you remember why you’re here, even if you can’t remember how?” Sweetie Belle asked. Midnight unfolded a large parchment sheet from his saddle bag, but held it so Sweetie couldn’t see.

“Do you have any charcoal?” he asked, putting the first sheet back and inspecting a second. “I ran out at home and all of the shops I thought might have some are closed.”

“Yeah, I think Rarity has some for marking fabric,” Sweetie Belle mused thoughtfully. She moved around to see a complex diagram on the parchment. “What’s it for?”

“It’s a lot easier to illustrate than using ink. Guess I could use pencils, but old habits die hard.”

Sweetie Belle retrieved a stick of charcoal from Rarity’s drawing desk and then hopped up on her bed. She watched in silence while Midnight spread out the canvas on the fool and proceeded to draw a series of snowflake like diagrams.

“What’re you working on?” Sweetie Belle asked, leaning over.

“It’s kinda secret,” Midnight mumbled. “But you’ll be the first one to know when I’ve finished.”

“Oooooh.”

“Well, maybe after Twilight.”

“Oh.”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Twilight awoke with a jolt as the door to her house clunked open. She had fallen asleep while browsing through yet another giant tome of great antiquity, dragged from the back-o-beyond of Canterlot’s royal library. So old was the text that the language within was almost totally indecipherable; even with her great love of books, decoding this monstrosity was severely trying Twilight’s patience.

The now permanently dishevelled pony turned around from her desk to see Sweetie Belle and Midnight entering. Midnight looked up and saw her, immediately falling silent.

“Hello there!” Twilight smiled, stifling a yawn. “What do I owe the pleasure of your visit tonight?” She was extremely glad to have some excuse to continue looking for something, anything, to help with the current disaster. There were a few moments of awkward silence, save for Midnight’s slight squeaking sound he made when he was too nervous to talk.

Twilight looked at Sweetie Belle, but she shrugged and mouthed “I have no idea.”

“So, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight said, breaking the monotony, “I heard that your friend Babs Seed was near those new riots in
Manehattan. I do hope she wasn’t too close.”

“Close enough,” Sweetie Belle said, wandering up to Twilights desk. “That entire branch of the Apple family’s moving out to Appleloosa now. Smaller population: less danger, or something.”

Twilight looked back at her desk and sighed. “Smart move. I wish I could tell you that they were over-reacting, but—”
There was a slight rustle behind them. Midnight had laid out some of his parchment pages on the floor and indicated silently for Twilight to take a look.

Twilight carefully inspected each of the diagrams. Sweetie Belle couldn’t make head nor tail of them herself, but Twilight’s expression was worrying. With every diagram, the alicorn’s expression grew more…disturbed? ...worried? ...frightened?

“So, what is all this?” Sweetie Belle asked, unable to stand the tension in the room.

“Cloud seeding,” Twilight declared. “Know what that is?” Sweetie belle shook her head. Twilight indicated the outer branches of each of the crystal variations. “These crystals have a hydrophilic outer structure,”

“That means they attract water,” Midnight added.

“Put these in the atmosphere and they attract moisture until they became heavy enough to fall as rain. Pegasi use them occasionally,” Twilight continued.

“Right,” Sweetie Belle said, still confused. “And, this is making you look worried because...”

“Because...” Twilight said, giving Midnight a long hard look, “each of the nuclei of these crystals, in one form or another, is a chemical anaesthetic or tranquiliser.”

“What?!” Sweetie Belle yelped. She rounded angrily on Midnight. “Do you have any idea how creepy that is, Midnight?”
Flustered, Midnight backed away. “I know... but it’s not like we’d be drugging them all the time. I designed them so that they’d only attract water after being magically activated. It’s an anti-rioting measure—ponies flared up more than once in Manehattan, it could happen again... I can’t sit by and do not—ahhh...uhhhh…”

Midnight had started gasping for air; tears welled in his eyes as the emotional outburst overtook him. Sweetie Belle felt a pang of guilty for shouting at him. Maybe putting tranquilisers in the atmosphere was creepy, but his heart was in the right
place. And this clearly meant a lot to him.

“Oh no,” Sweetie Belle said, hugging Midnight. “It’s okay.”

“I just don’t want anypony else to get hurt,” Midnight muttered. “It was just an idea that popped into my head after I heard about your friend in Manehattan.”

“What it is...” Twilight said in a stern voice, the two turned to see that she had folded up the diagrams, now holding them above a candle. “What these represent are creepy, vaguely tyrannical ideas, and almost definitely a breach of pony-rights. And you know the worst part?”

For a long moment Twilight looked between the children and the parchment before letting out a forlorn, defeated sight and placing the parchment on her desk. “Right here, right now, it seems like a fairly reasonable precaution. Those with enough magic to subdue rioting on this scale can’t be everywhere at once, and our resources are at breaking point. I’ll bring it up with the Princesses this coming afternoon.”

“I don’t normally think up plans with population control strategies,” Midnight said quietly.

Twilight shook her head sadly. “Desperate times...”

Part 5

“Wait hang on.” Applejack said raising an eyebrow as she leaned out of her house’s window at the group outside. “Dusk has invited us all to a house warming party?”

“Yes.” Twilight replied as Sweetie Belle and Rarity nodded confirmation. Standing next Sweetie was Pinkie Pie, who was vibrating slightly on the spot. Sweetie Belle had her eyes locked on the baker’s currently flat mane while Twilight continued; “And you’re wondering why he’s doing four months after he moved here, Right?”

“...yeah that pretty much sums it up.”

“Apparently all of their possessions were in transit when the ‘event’ happened and went missing. Dusk’s spent all this time trying to track their stuff down. They’d actually not bought the house so the two of them have been in a tent this whole time.”

“Oh so that’s where that tent next to the school came from...” Applejack said, peering into the distance. “Ah was actually wondering…”

“PARTY!” Pinkie Pie suddenly whooped cutting across the conversation, jumping more feet into the air than should be technically possible for a non-Pegasus. Sweetie Belle giggled as Pinkies mane explosively sprang back into candyfloss mode and before anyone could say anything else Pinkie babbled something about cake and zoomed off into the distance in a pink haze.

*********************************************************************************

The next day seemed to roll around very quickly which made a nice change, Sweetie Belle had bugger all to do these days since Cherrilee’s nervous breakdown, so the days seemed to drag on and on. She’d been round to see the teacher a few times and they’d chatted amicably about this and that, but it was a matter of time before something set the older mare off and she was hit by wave of crippling depression.

Sweetie Belle sighed as she pottered about her bedroom getting ready, trying to push thoughts of Cherrilee’s mental condition from her mind. Sweetie began to hear slightly raised voiced coming from Carousel Boutiques main parlour, Rainbow Dash had arrived a quarter of an hour ago at Rarity’s insistence for a “Slight brushing up.” With one final sweep of her bedroom Sweetie Belle determined there was nothing more she could do to procrastinate and that she was going to have to go downstairs and face what she knew was going to be a highly disgruntled Rainbow.

As Sweetie belle descended she could hear the Rainbow in heated debate with Rarity, Sweetie Belle had been afraid of this. Just as she was opening the door Rainbow suddenly bellowed “NO! DAMN IT!” Sweetie Belle yelped and slammed the door shut milliseconds before the bottle of hair dye hit it with a wet slap.

Sweetie Belle waited for a few seconds before peeping her head round the door again. Rainbow Dash had her head buried in a pile of pillows, breathing heavily and trying desperately not to cry. Rarity was wiping gloop off herself with her magic whilst patting Rainbow Dash’s back.

“You ok Sweetie Belle?” Rainbow Dash asked forlornly, voice muffled and strained.

“Is anyone ok these days?” Sweetie Belle replied, hopping over the pooling red dye around the door.

“Good point.” Rainbow Dash chuckled pulling her head out from the pillows. The Pegasus let at a sheepish sigh, turning to Rarity “Don’t know why I’m getting so worked up, I mean I know I look awesome 24/7 no matter what…but still…maybe you could do something with my hair.”

“No dye?” Rarity said apprehensively. “Not your style?”

Rainbow looked in the mirror and ran a hoof over her rainbow mane, and the multitude stress induced of grey streaks shot through it. “Yeah…not my style.”

***************************************************************************

The late afternoon air was crisp and still, the sun just starting it’s descend towards the horizon. The three from Rarity’s house had picked up Twilight and Pinkie Pie and preceded leisurely up to the far north-east corner of town. Sweetie Belle hadn’t been up that way often, there were few shops and the north area of the town was home to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoons grand houses so she had avoided the area on principle.

“Nice weather.” Twilight commented, breathing in as a warm breeze, gently blew down the road. “Good job Rainbow.”

“Ehh,” Rainbow shrugged, “Clouds floating down from the Cloudsdale production lines are behaving themselves a bit more now.” Switching to in a mock conspiratorial tone, Rainbow leaned in and said. “I helped the managers replace all of the outdated equipment without that ancient fossil of a CEO noticing. Old Zephyr was in too much off a huff to notice what he was signing since he was already being forced to implement the machines needed for Midnight’s chem-clouds. I tell you he is one scary colt when he gets going, you always get the impression he’s going to beat you up with his cane if you do the slightest thing to upset his old-fashioned sensibilities.
“Anyway” rainbow continued, “He was all ‘blah-blah new-fangled blah-blah upstart blah-blah-blah if I had my way.’ Then he went on and on about how he couldn’t believe that the Princesses had allowed a matter of national security was being influenced by a ‘mere child’ and that it was ‘madness of a highest order’.”

Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and began leisurely flying backwards. “Well I wasn’t having any of that, so I told him that not only could I personally vouch for Midnight’s intelligence, the Princesses shared my opinion that just because an individual may not be an adult it does not mean you should treat their thoughts and ideas with any less respect. After that he gave up and signed all the papers, including the ones for the Las Pegasus weather tech he’s been staunchly vetoing from Cloudsdale for the past umpteen years. What an old fart bag.”

“Thanks for sticking up for Midnight!” Sweetie Belle grinned, jumping up to hoof bump Rainbow while the rest of the group giggled at Rainbows story.

“Don’t mention it.” Rainbow said smugly. “It was a royal order so he would have had to do the chem-clouds anyway. But I’m the Element of Loyalty, so I stick up for my friends, and by extension my friend’s sister’s looney boyfriend.”

“Midnight isn’t my ……….” Sweetie Belle started before sighing with resignation, “Ohh never mind.”

The directions given by Dusk veered off to the east and the fancy houses fell away until they reached the absolute outskirts of town. Tucked away from the rest of the town was a strange house that looked like it had started out as a small bungalow that had been subjected to various extensions over the past two hundred years, all of which had been carried out by ponies whom had all had wildly different architectural preferences and styles that the one preceding him. In other words:

“Suites them down to the letter doesn’t it?” Rarity said gazing in awe and the bizarre amalgamation in front of them.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said flying around it a few times. “Pretty big as well.”

“It needs to be big to store all the artefacts that I have.” Dusk said, having emerged unnoticed from the front door while everyone was taking in the house. “Welcome! Welcome!” He cried excitedly gesturing to the doorway. “Do come in and make yourself at home”

The group peered inside only to be met by boxes piled all around the hallway and stretching back into the house. “Err…yeah…I am afraid the House somewhat looks like the last scene of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ at the moment.” Dusk said blushing heavily, which had the unfortunate side effect of making his disfigured side look rather demonic. “See I did have a timetable sorted out… but I had a bit of a schizophrenic attack earlier, which among other things included throwing a table through the lounge window.”

“Plus there was this looney Unicorn harassing us non-stop yesterday.” Midnight said, popping out randomly from one of the boxes. “Think her name was Trixie? She was spouting all kinds of doomsday gobbledegook. Oh Dusk, I finally found the cutlery.”

“Yeah, so it was either sort out the boxes or fix the plumbing this morning.” Dusk continued leading them through. “Hopefully I can clear a few more seats before everyone else arrives, though I’m sure…” Dusk was suddenly cut off when a sudden ‘whoosh’ emanated from somewhere within. Midnight was suddenly next to Sweetie projecting a shield around the two of them.

“That’ll be the boiler again.” Dusk said, eyebrow twitching slightly with exasperation. “Could everyone wait outside for a minute?”

“Err Midnight?” Sweetie Belle said, gently tapping Midnight’s shoulder. “Is the shield really necessary?”

“You haven’t tried using the toilet in this place.” He replied carefully backing the two of them, still shielded, back into the garden.

Part 6

The party had been going largely well, on top of the Mane Six and the CMC, Derpy Hooves, Dinky and Sparkler had turned up shortly afterwards. Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra and Bon-Bon had all turned up on time with the only no show being the Mayor, who had been invited but no-one had seen her for about a day-and-half. Despite the labyrinthine assortment of boxes currently swamping the lower floors of the house the guests had made themselves very comfortable, the haphazard setup invoking a sense of joviality that had been sorely missing from the ponies recently.

The only thing that had gone wrong so far was minor. Midnight had gone a bit funny, stockpiled all the vegetables in the house, encamped himself in a box-fort atop one of the stacks and started throwing food at the guests. A spring roll had hit Derpy very painfully in the eye and the adults had retreated to a different room while the CMC sorted Midnight out.

Sweetie Belle peeked her head out from behind her makeshift barricade but had to quickly duck back again as another vegetable based snack flew past her head. She turned around to face the other fillies and began talking in her best army voice, “Ok ladies, we have a very difficult mission ahead of us. We’re facing an entrenched enemy on higher ground, but we must succeed! The grownups are counting on us!”

“Yeah!” Came the collective response from her four gathered troops, backed up by cheers from Sparkler and Applejack who were sitting off to one side watching the proceedings. “Remember your recovering the dessert platter from up there,” Sparkler added, “So if all else fails can you at least get me an éclair?”

“You hear that?” Sweetie Belle declared, trying her best to keep a straight face while her ‘troops’ giggled away. “There are innocent éclairs being held hostage! Forward! For honour! For dessert for the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

Dinkie Hooves shot a hoof into the air “Question: Am I in the Cutie Mark Crusaders now?”

“Err…Yeah I guess so.”

“Why wasn’t I in your club before?”

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo who looked at Applebloom who looked back to Sweetie Belle. “Err well… I have no idea.” Sweetie Belle eventually replied. “I guess before you were a bit young.”

“Actually,” Applebloom mused, “Now ah think about it we pencilled in asking you to calendar, but then I think it got lost after you-know-what.”

“Well then I think as our new inaugural member Dinkie is going out first, Right girls?” Sweetie Belle grinned. Dinkie cheeped in surprise and shook her head vigorously but before she knew what was happening Scootaloo had grabbed the smaller filly and hoisted her over the barricade. Sweetie Belle peered over the barricade in time to see Dinkie swan-dive to avoid being smacked by a thrown cabbage. “CHARGE!”

Sweetie Belle leapt forward, streaking after Dinkie straight towards Midnight’s stack while the other two flanked to the sides. Immediately the rate and intensity of the thrown vegetables increased, Sweetie Belle flinched as several carrot bounced off her back but managed to avoid the worst of the barrage and skidded into the bottom of the stack of boxes and out of Midnights line of sight.

Sweetie Belle looked back to see Applebloom pull off an impressive dive over a hefty looking watermelon. She nearly called out encouragement at Appleblooms acrobatics (usually notoriously bad) but right before the thrown melon hit the ground it crackled with a black aura and reversed course. It accelerated backwards and walloped into Applebloom right as she was landing. The impact lifted the unfortunate filly off her feet and sent her flying in a mushy explosion of pulp and pips.

Sweetie Belle hissed empathically, that looked painful.

Trying to ignore Midnights worryingly aggressive attacks Sweetie Belle and Dinkie quickly scaled the stack of boxes. Sweetie Belle grinned as she used her magic to create several small telekinetic footholds allowing the two to scramble up the last couple of boxes and into the fort, her lessons from Twilight and Midnight were paying off.

Midnight yelped slightly as Sweetie Belle and Dinkie advanced, his pupils had shrunk to pinpricks so he was still very much out of it. For a moment he threateningly waved a cucumber at them before it swung to close to Dinkies mouth and the small filly took bite out the end. Midnight regarded his broken ‘weapon’ for a seconds before shuffling backwards and picking up the big dessert tray as he went.

“Easy Midnight.” Sweetie Belle cooed as Midnight hefted the tray to the edge, balancing it precariously. “Let’s not do anything drastic ok?”

“Danger…” Midnight said, voice trembling. “Danger…”

“We’re not going to hurt you.” Sweetie Belle said soothingly, trying to edge closer. “Your brother just wants his desserts back.” At the mention of his brother Midnight seemed to focus slightly. His eyes refocused for a moment and he stared straight at Sweetie Belle, unfortunately Dinkie took this as an opportunity to make a grab for the tray. Midnight horn sparked and Dinkie stopped dead mid-grab, he made to shove the tray but his hoof met nothing but air.

Turning around he saw the tray bobbing downwards. Whilst Sweetie Belle had been keeping him distracted Scootaloo had silently looped round the back and grabbed the tray. The orange Pegasus was no parachuting down, wings flapping furiously to control the fall into the waiting hooves of Applejack and Sparkler. He let out one forlorn, “Danger?” before sagging exhaustedly.

“Why don’t you go have a lie down?” Sweetie Belle suggested to which Midnight nodded meekly. Sweetie began to climb back down the boxes, but before she could react Midnight heard Twilight enter the room asking how things were going. Midnight grinned manically and flashed his magic at an adjoining stack of boxes. Sweetie Belle could only watch bemused as Midnights entire stock of ammunition was sent spiralling out of site before landing with a mighty, wet slap.

******** *********** ***************** ********************************************************************************

With one final ruffle of a towel Sweetie Belle was satisfied she’d cleaned the last of the pulp from her coat. She exited the upstairs bathroom, the only one currently working in the house, and passed Scootaloo, Twilight and Applejack waiting to use the facilities. Before the older mares could react Scootaloo had slipped past Sweetie Belle and locked the door.

Chuckling to herself Sweetie Belle made her way back to the party, there was a considerable commotion coming from the lounge. She poked her head round the door to find all the furniture and boxes had been shifted to form a large clear area in the middle of the room except for what appeared to be a large log placed end-up. Sweetie Belle did a double take at the sight that presented itself to her. Dusk was stood balanced on his two back legs gripping a huge sword in his front hooves.

Dusk was stood side-on to Sweetie Belle affording her a breath-taking silhouette. The sword was being held straight up in front of him and from her angle she could see how the sword, which was nearly as long as Dusks body, curved forward giving it the appearance of a snakes fang especially when combined with the greenish tint of the blade.

Dusk began to move the sword in circular patterns around him, slowly at first but quickly picking up pace. There was hum of magic and small force field enveloped the area around Dusk, Lyra and Sparklers horns glowing as the sword began to blur in Dusks hooves. The sword was helicoptering around Dusk at an astonishing rate when he suddenly moved forward towards the log. In an instant the thick wood was cleft apart as the blade sliced through it like it wasn’t even there.
Dusk fell to his knees panting as the force shields dropped his audience burst into rapturous applause, Sweetie Belle adding in some whistles for good measure. Dusk straightened himself up and announced, “And that friends is how one handles a Makao kopis sword!” Dusk then carefully placed the sword back into a padded box as everyone crowded around to get a closer look at it.

“So that’s what you’ve been trying to find all evening” Sweetie Belle said to Dusk as he gulped down some water, his body dripping with sweat.

“Yeah,” He gasped between deep breaths, “That and the mystery instrument.” Dusk pointed to one corner of the room. Sweetie Belle followed his hoof and for one perplexing moment she through that Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were being eaten by a massive spider. Then it hit her that the huge tangled structure encompassing the two musicians was in fact the most complicated looking string instrument she’d ever seen. The huge structure of interlocking beams was host to dozens upon dozens of strings all connected to a horrendously complicated series of levers and keys. “That instrument hasn’t been used or indeed seen for thousands of years by any kind of musician but they’re convinced they can get it working.”

Sweetie Belle was fascinated as Octavia and Vinyl Scratch continued to fiddle around with the huge string instrument. Though the web like structure was slightly bent in placed and the carved beams badly worn, the kinks provided character and the ware was that of a well-used and loved instrument. “It’s so grand looking…” Sweetie Belle mumbled.

Octavia nodded in agreement but was far to enthralled in her work to reply. Vinyl smiled back and said, “It is pretty cool isn’t it?” Vinyl stopped working for a few moments looking ponderous before turning to Octavia, “I’ve been living with you far too long if I’m finding an old string instrument cool.”

“Maybe…” Octavia replied, “But I was going to say that it looks like some tried to build an analogue Theremin, it even got a horn port to apply a charge to the strings.”

Sweetie Belle wasn’t quite sure what a Theremin was but Vinyl looked overjoyed at Octavia so Sweetie left them to it and turned back to Dusk and his sword. She could get a better look now that everyone had tried and failed to lift it, the sword was longer the Sweetie Belles body and thickly built. Curiously Sweetie Belle noticed that its greenish sheen was identical to that of the string instruments beams. She ran a hoof along the flat of the blade, it didn’t feel like metal and felt strangely warm. Sweetie Belle looked at the sword, then at the instrument, then back at the sword before frowning.

“Dusk?” Sweetie Belle asked seeing the colt wasn’t talking to anyone, “Are the sword and the instrument made of the same material?”

“Well noticed.” Dusk replied, He’d probably already explained the whole story to everyone else but the look on his face made it clear that he was more than eager to go through it again. Considering the problems he and his brother had communicating with people this was probably a rare treat. “It made out of Ironwood, it very rare nowadays, I think the Canterlot Castle gardens have four or five and that’s the highest concentration in the known world. As the name suggests they have metallic properties and because it’s organic it remain very flexible. The wood from the tree is one of the most strong and durable naturally occurring materials known to pony kind”

Dusk effortlessly hefted the huge sword so that light ran across its edge, organic patterns and webs on the blade being picked out. “What makes these artefacts so special is that no pony today had any idea how craft something from ironwood. As far as scholar’s all items made from this substance all originate from the Makao Tribe.”

“Go on!” Sweetie encouraged, intrigued at Dusks story. As Dusk took a ship from his drink to clear his throat Sweetie Belle absentmindedly saw Scootaloo had returned from the upstairs bathroom. There was a faint sound of muffled bumping and raised voices from upstairs followed by a few loud thumps, “Sounds like Applejack and Twilight are fighting over who uses the bathroom next.” Sweetie Belle giggled.

“The Makao Tribe are virtually fairy tales.” Dusk continued, “Only a very small number of their ruins are known to exists, scattered across the extreme south-west edge of Equestria all of which date back millennia before the tribes of the Earth, Pegasus and Unicorns where anywhere near this region of the world. They appeared to have magic and technology far in advance of what even Equestria has today, the ironwood artefacts are evidence of this. Anecdotal evidence suggests their kingdom stretched throughout the known world and beyond then one day… poof…they disappeared.”

“An ancient precursor civilisation with fantastical technology that were wiped out by some undescribed apocalypse?” Sweetie Belle said, eyebrow raised cynically, “Are you sure you’re not reading to prologue to some bad sci-fi?”

“Yeah I know how it sounds.” Dusk sighed, placing the sword back in its box. “The ruins are just so rare. I’ve spent my entire adult life researching the Makao tribe, huh, over half the information that is known came from me or my father. It was one of those expeditions that gave me this,” Dusk indicated his burned side, “Colleague walking along, steps on magically trapped tile, whoompf, acid bubbles materialise out of nowhere, I dive, push them out the way but get caught on the edge of the wave. No more dates for me.”

“I don’t know, rugged explorer is pretty attractive and manly.” Sweetie Belle shrugged, “Plus I’m told by my sister that chicks digs scars.”

“Not sure that’s applies to 50% deep tissue damage that makes me look like –Two Face.”

“Yeah but saving a friends life is an awesome story. You also seemed to know what you were doing with that long-sword, that’s pretty awesome, have you used it much in real life?”

“Firstly it’s a Kopis, not a long sword.” Dusk replied, “But to be fair…”

The conversation was cut short as Octavia said to Vinyl, “Ok think I’ve gotten a bit of it.” Everyone crowded around as she and Vinyl prepared to test the instrument. Octavia looked embarrassed and told them, “Don’t look so excited. It’s just the one, little bit of it that I think is tuned up properly…Provided this thing plays how I think it does.” Vinyl depress a couple of buttons shifting the tensions so several string and Octavia ran the tip of her hoof along a grouping of strings. The sound that emerged was like nothing anyone had heard before, the sonorous chord reverberated through the ironwood frame which began to vibrate and hum adding to the sound that seemed to permeate the floor then rise back up through their bodies. “This instrument could easily replace the entire string section of an orchestra by its left if that was the noise one simple strum makes…” Octavia gasped, “Ok, Ok Dusk, I know this is an important historical piece but you need to let us take this home and work through it properly. If this thing’s half as good as I suspect it is then….YAHH!” Octavia suddenly cried out in shock and jumped in her seat before throwing herself backwards out of it. For the briefest off moment Octavia’s flank flashed with magic and a faint image of her cutie mark appeared before blurring fading out.

Everyone stood silently, dumbstruck at what they had just witnessed. The total impermeable silence lasted for a good 30 seconds before someone mumbled, “Someone get Twilight.”

“She’s upstairs in the bathroom getting melon out of her hair.” Sweetie Belle quickly replied.

“Err I’m actually over here.” Twilight said from behind the group, hovering apprehensively on her wings. “Midnight got the downstairs bathroom working so I used that.”

Twilight brushed past the party guests and began furiously inspecting Octavia rear. Midnight, who had been standing next to her wandered over to Sweetie Belle and started saying something but she couldn’t hear him.

Oddly enough she wasn’t distracted by what had happened to Octavia. There was something bothering her, a voice at the back of her was telling Sweetie that something wasn’t adding up quite right. Ordinarily this was the kind of feeling most people ignored, after all she couldn’t quite place what seemed to be wrong. Ignoring Midnight, Sweetie Belle looked over at Twilight who was aglow with magic and scanning Octavia by every means she had. Suddenly Sweetie noticed a small clump of fruit pulp adhering to Twilights tail and her uneasy feeling snapped into focus.

“Wait Twilight!” Sweetie Belle yelped, eyes widening in panic. “If you were in the downstairs bathroom then who did I hear upstairs with Applejack?”

No sooner had the words left Sweetie Belles mouth the air was rent by a savage yell. There was a flash of azure magic from the doorway and orange blur came hurtling through. Twilight’s horn flared in self-defence but hesitated at the last second. Applejacks limp body ploughed into twilight like a freight train, slamming both mares through several piles boxes and smashing them into the wall with a sickening thud. They fell to the ground, surrounded by bit broken furniture, cardboard and packing foam. Twilights Alicorn physiology kicked in and she dragged herself back up, Applejack lay very, very still.

There was another flash of azure magic, Sweetie belle was blinded and thrown off her feet. Unable to stop her trajectory she bounced of the coffee table, miraculously not impaling herself on the ironwood sword, and crunched painfully into the base of an armchair. The flare was fading rapidly but still unable to see Sweetie belle could only lie still as the world shook around her, as a voice she had not seen heard for a long time began to jabber hysterically; “Though you win this? Huh? Huh? Did you? Thought I wouldn’t notice! Get back here!” Sweetie Belle blinked furiously trying to get some vision back as the voice moved closer and close with the crackle of magic hissing and spitting around it. “You’re all fools! The end is coming! You hear me! We are all dead and you let this happen! But I’m going to fix this! I’m going to finish this, I am is to finish this….” Sweetie Belles vision finally came back into focus, numb from shock she rolled over to look disbelievingly at their assailant. The hair was lank and uncut, the costume gone, the skin anaemic and the eyes crazed and bloodshot, but there was no mistaking The Great and Powerful Trixie.

Trixie stepped over Sweetie Belle, as she did so Sweetie felt something warm and thick dripping onto her as the crazed sorcerer passed. Sweetie Belles looked upwards and saw something that would haunt her for a very long time. Trixie’s flanks had been completely eviscerated. Flaps of flesh hung off her body, dripping half congealed blood downwards. Sweetie Belle was no medical expert, but even she could see what the angle of the slashes meant, there was no doubt that the wounds were self-inflicted. Worst of all there was felt patches stapled into the raw flesh, it drenched in blood and torn by the staples but the patch of fabric was clearly representing the wand and blue flourish of Trixie’s cutie mark.