8

Today I visited Rainbow Dash in the asylum with my friends. She didn't know who I was. I had to watch as that pony, my sister, tried to run away in desperation. She is as good as dead.

The thing is, she left so suddenly. Too suddenly. I can't take this. It's way too much. It might seem petty to you, but to me, once Rainbow Dash was gone, so was my life. Without her, I don't know what to do. So there's only one thing I can do. I don't want to end up in here, but if I keep going on like this, I will. So there are only two choices left: insanity or death.

I'm sorry to whoever may be reading this. I'm sorry that I have such a stupid reason. I'm sorry that Rainbow Dash isn't here anymore.

-Scootaloo

Twilight dropped the note as she stared, too terrified to do anything about the still pegasus hanging from the ceiling in front of her. Her eyes were closed, and her face had dried tears, the last that would ever come from poor Scootaloo's eyes. It was terrible to see, but she couldn't look away. It was just too hard to comprehend. In this place, Scootaloo had grown into a young adult, but because Twilight had never seen her grow, to her, Scootaloo was still a child. Which meant that the corpse in front of her, the first corpse she had ever seen in her life, was of a suicidal child.

And it was all because of her. Scootaloo hung herself because Rainbow Dash was insane, Rainbow Dash was insane because she had thought too much about Twilight's disappearance, and Twilight disappeared because she decided to test her spell. It was somewhat of a good thing that she had accidentally taken Spike with her. Right now, she couldn't be alone. She lowered herself to the ground so she could cling to him. He looked at her with surprise as she kept staring at Scootaloo.

Some other ponies had come, including Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who were just as shocked as Twilight. They couldn't say anything to each other. There was no sound except for that of Apple Bloom picking up the note to read it.

Suddenly, the guard Twilight had seen earlier pushed through into the cluster. He turned and said, "Everyone run along and do whatever it is you do." He looked at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "Except you two. I'll need to talk to you."

Twilight managed to get to her hooves, but it was Spike who had to help pull her away from the scene. They managed to get out of the building before Twilight had to sit down again. "Everything that happened is my fault."

"No it isn't," Spike insisted. "It's not your fault the spell went wrong."

"Yes it is. I was revising it. I revised it incorrectly. And that's why the spell went wrong."

She remembered the moment she was performing the spell. At the last second, she had started panicking a little. That something like this would happen. And she had felt regret, but before she could stop she vanished from Golden Oak Library.

When she was revising the spell, Twilight had crossed out some writing on the bottom. She thought it was insignificant. She thought it was just some meaningless assurance. But now she realized it was written not as a kind message, but as a precaution.

The writing had read "Don't worry."

-

Pinkie was tired, but she'd decided to stay up until Twilight and Spike got back. They never decided where the two would sleep, so it was probably a good idea to be awake once they got here. Although Pound and Pumpkin had managed to put together a small bed for Spike in their room, so if he was willing he could sleep in there.

But it was nearly midnight and they still hadn't returned. She began to worry frantically. Had they forgotten about her? Why would they? Or maybe they'd found somewhere else to stay and had neglected to tell Pinkie. Which was rather disappointing. At a time like this, she really needed a friend with her. What would she do, then? Try to track them down?

Before she could overthink it any further, she heard a knock at the door. Hoping it was Twilight and Spike, she hurried over to open it. She sighed in relief. "How were they? Did Applejack tell you why she got arrested?" she asked. She didn't really need to ask, but if she did, it would seem more likely that Pinkie knew nothing about the incident last year. She hadn't seen Rarity since then, so maybe she had become less psychopathic, but she didn't want to take any chances.

Twilight hesitated before shaking her head. She and Spike walked in, Pinkie closing the door behind them. She turned to them and said to Spike, "You don't mind sleeping in Pound and Pumpkin's room, do you? There's already an extra bed in there that they set up for you."

"No, it's okay." Spike actually seemed pretty grateful. "Where is it?"

"Go upstairs. First door on your right."

As Spike hurried upstairs, Pinkie turned to Twilight. She realized that the alicorn seemed more exhausted than she was and said, "Are you okay?"

Twilight smiled, but Pinkie could tell it was forced. "I'm fine. I just had to walk a lot, that's all."

Surely something was wrong, but it could wait until morning. Pinkie took a few steps toward the stairs and asked, "Where do you want to sleep?"

Twilight hesitated. "Well, it's still a little hard to process that this morning was actually ten years ago, so I'm a little anxious about that." She blinked and looked away. "So, uh...if it's okay with you..."

Pinkie waited, staring at her curiously.

"I want to stay with you." Twilight looked a little ashamed of this. She glanced at Pinkie nervously.

Frankly, it was a little reassuring. At a time like this, having somepony with her at night would be comforting. So she nodded enthusiastically. "Okay." She headed toward the stairs and gestured for Twilight to follow.

Twilight seemed surprised that Pinkie had agreed so easily. She could see why. The idea of sleeping in the same bed as one of her friends had always been awkward to think about. Somepony could get the wrong idea. But it didn't really matter anymore. After Twilight and Spike disappeared, it'd been pretty hard for Pinkie to be independent. Watching Fluttershy get brutally beaten and finding Mr. and Mrs. Cake murdered didn't help much.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Twilight fall behind her. She turned, startled, to see Twilight back at the foot of the stairs, lying on her back.

Twilight smiled sheepishly. "I, uh, forgot about that missing stair."

Pinkie giggled and waited for Twilight to get back up before continuing upstairs. The alicorn was careful to step over the gap. She looked up and asked, "How did you manage to lose a stair, anyway?"

"It's not that big of a deal," Pinkie told her. "There was just a little accident a few years ago."

"I still don't see how that would--"

"It involved fireworks," Pinkie added. "Pound accidentally set one off inside the house and managed to destroy only one of the stairs." She turned forward. "Now come on, I'm tired from waiting for you."

Since Sugarcube Corner's reconstruction was never finished, the roof was rather unstable. It was strong enough not to collapse, but it creaked a little in the night breeze. When Pinkie led Twilight to her room, she saw again the broken window from the night of the murder. The opening was covered with cloth, making it quite dark. She headed to her bed and used her teeth to throw the covers forward. When she looked back at Twilight, the alicorn was glancing around the room in wonder.

"There's a hole in your wall," she said.

"I know." Pinkie tilted her head toward the bed. "Aren't you tired?"

The two mares settled under Pinkie's covers. Twilight glanced at her and asked, "Are you sure you're comfortable with this?"

Pinkie nodded, smiling at her before turning away. "Well, good night."

Twilight rested her head on the pillow, but she didn't close her eyes yet. Spike had managed to calm her down from the shock of finding Scootaloo's body, but now the guilt was returning. She had started the chain reaction leading to Scootaloo's suicide. She was a murderer.

Okay, maybe that was a little far-fetched. But nevertheless, Scootaloo died because of her. Because Twilight never returned when traveling to the future.

With that knowledge that destroyed the last glimmer of hope that lay in her heart, she covered her eyes and cried herself silently to sleep.