"...And do you know what he said to me?" Rarity asked, her cup of tea held aloft in a glimmer of magic. Across the table, Fluttershy was taking a sip from her own cup, carefully using both hooves to bring it to her mouth. She set it down carefully, taking care that it was centered on the small saucer.
"What did he say?" she asked, her voice just above a whisper. It was all Rarity needed to continue her tirade.
"He said that the designs didn't 'pop' enough. I don't even know what that means! So I asked him, I said, 'what do you want me to change?' And he couldn't give me a single specific example. All he would tell me was that it needed to 'pop' more. I mean, seriously." She paused for breath, and Fluttershy nodded her consent. She had long since learned that when Rarity was angry, it was best to agree to everything the fashionista said until she ran out of steam.
"So I try redesigning the suit, giving it a sharper angle, and he comes back and tells me the same thing. 'I need it to pop a bit more.' And finally, after all of this, I'm so frustrated with the poor stallion that I just bring out the original design. And what does he do then?"
"Hmm," Fluttershy responded, taking a sip of the tea. It had cooled down a bit, and she was able to pick out the nuanced flavor. It was a Jasmine tea, and she could tell that it had been made from two different flowers, picked a few weeks apart. The two melded together perfectly, creating an interesting contrast between the bitterness of fresh flowers and the almost saccharine taste of the older ones. Overall, it was an excellent blend, but that was to be expected. Rarity never disappointed.
"He takes one look and tells me it's perfect, that this design 'really pops', and then he has the nerve to ask me why I didn't just show him these from the beginning. Never mind that I did show him those first! Some ponies." She punctuated this with a shake of the head, and Fluttershy nodded her agreement.
Rarity picked up her cup again, taking a sip. She set it back down, and then looked over it towards Fluttershy, smiling. "Well, that's enough about me. How have you been, my dear?"
"Oh, um, pretty good, I suppose," Fluttershy said, looking down into her tea cup. She could see her face reflected in the dark liquid, staring up from the depths. "Discord came over on Tuesday, but he didn't cause too many problems, so it wasn't that bad." She paused for a moment, and Rarity took the opportunity to take another sip of her tea. Finally, Fluttershy looked up. "A falcon with a hurt wing stopped by, but he healed pretty quickly, so he's back with his family now." She gave the other mare a little smile. "My week wasn't all that interesting, really."
"Nonsense!" Rarity said, reaching across the table and putting her hoof on the other mare's. "You have just as many stories to tell as the rest of us. And besides," she pulled away, giving the pegasus a sly look, "any day with Discord around couldn't have been that boring."
Fluttershy giggled. "That part wasn't too boring. But the rest of it was--"
She stopped mid-sentence as an almost tangible force slammed through her being. It was a peculiar feeling, one of darkness, evil, and general wrongness, mixed together with a strange sense of inevitability, of hopelessness. But the worst part was that deep inside herself, Fluttershy felt something stirring, reaching up to meet the wave of energy that was passing through her.
Her hoof shot out, slamming into the table and knocking some of the tea out of the tea cups, and her chair slid backwards as she abruptly stood up. On the other side of the table, Rarity flinched as well, then looked over at Fluttershy in confusion. Slowly, the feeling began to subside, but it didn't dissipate completely.
"What on earth was that?" she asked, looking perplexed. She noticed Fluttershy was trembling, and her eyes widened. "What is it, Fluttershy? What's going on?"
The pegasus didn't seem to hear her, instead staring off into the distance with an expression of horror. Rarity reached across the table, touching the other mare's shoulder. "Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy screamed, recoiling from the touch, and fell backwards. After a moment, she seemed to recover, standing up again. "R-Rarity?" she said, stumbling over the word. "What was that?"
"I don't know, darling, but you seemed to feel it a lot more than I did." She walked over to the pegasus. "Whatever happened, though... I must say, I didn't like that feeling, not one bit."
Fluttershy bit her lip, thinking hard. "I--," she started, and then stopped, looking up. "I might know what it was. The feeling, I mean."
"What was it?" Rarity asked, gripping Fluttershy's shoulders between her hooves.
"I-it would take too long to explain," Fluttershy said, not meeting Rarity's eyes. "But I think we should head to Twilight's just in case."
Rarity looked like she wanted to ask more, but instead all she said was, "All right, then. But I will want a full explanation when we have time."
Fluttershy gave her a weak smile. "Deal," she said, and then opened the door to the Boutique. Immediately, the feeling increased, and Fluttershy simultaneously felt more repulsed and more attracted to the force. Her breath hitched, and she turned to Rarity. "Um, I think we should hurry. If you don't mind."
Rarity's response was to start galloping out the door and towards the tree at the center of the town. Apparently Rarity felt it too, Fluttershy thought as she fell in line behind the unicorn. The two raced towards the library, their hooves sounding very loud in the silence that had enveloped the town. It seemed quieter than it normally would, with no sounds of ponies in the market or going about their day to day business.
Suddenly, Rarity came skidding to a halt. Fluttershy was barely able to stop in time, almost tripping over herself in the process, but Rarity didn't notice. "My word," she said, her voice almost a whisper. Fluttershy turned her head to look at whatever the unicorn was seeing and let out a gasp. Just over the top of a house, she could see what looked like a rip in the sky. It was as if some massive being had run a claw through the air, splitting the blue sky with a long tear that was as black as a moonless night. It looked so out of place that for a moment the pegasus had trouble believing it was real, but it was definitely there, and it was definitely not a good sign.
"What in Celestia's name is that thing?" Rarity asked, the earlier fear falling back into her voice.
"I have no idea," Fluttershy responded, but she was lying. She had a pretty good idea of what it might be, and she didn't like it one bit.
She turned, realizing that if she was right, getting Twilight was even more essential than she'd previously thought. Then she froze.
"Rarity," she said, her voice quieter than she'd ever been before. Fortunately, the silence that enveloped the town let her voice carry over to the other mare.
"Yes?" the unicorn said, tearing her gaze away from the black rip. The next moment, she saw what had stopped Fluttershy in her tracks. She screamed, and her voice carried through the whole town, echoing around buildings and down alleys. It reached every corner of the town, carried by the still air.
In front of the two mares, the creature turned its head to face them.
