At Sugarcube Corner

Chapters

Chapter 1 (rewrite)
Chapter 2 (rewrite)
Chapter 3 (rewrite)
Chapter 4 (rewrite)
Chapter 5 (rewrite)
Chapter 6 (rewrite)
Chapter 7 (rewritten)
Chapter 8 (rewritten)
Chapter 9 (rewritten)
Chapter 10 (rewritten)
Epilogue: Twilight
Epilogue: Applejack
Epilogue: Fluttershy
Epilogue: Rarity

Chapter 1 (rewrite)

In the end I think it’s the smell that I’ll always remember. That horrible, awful smell. Not of blood, although there was plenty, and not of viscera or assorted… bits… though there was plenty of those things too. It smelled clean. It wasn’t the refreshing clean of a freshly swept and dusted home though. No, it was the smell of formaldehyde. It was alcohol, vinegar, and other cleaning agents. It was the smell of a hospital.

Or in this case, the smell of an asylum.

The Cakes left on the same week the horror was found. They just packed up their belongings and left quietly without a word to anypony. No pony blamed them but still I wasn’t terribly surprised by their decision, I don’t think anypony was really. Not after what happened in the basement of Sugarcube Corner.

I feel partially at fault since I was the one who found them. It had been almost three days since I had seen Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie, and although Rainbow Dash disappearing for a few days wasn’t really all that strange since her weather patrols were needed in more places than Ponyville, not seeing Pinkie Pie was like the sun not showing up. The bright pink party pony was more of a fixture of Ponyville than any of the actual fixtures. So I cast a spell to find her, innocent enough. Or so I thought.

****

I grimaced as I focused my native energies through my horn, shaking a few dark, night-colored strands of hair from my eyes as I concentrated. There was a flash of light and a feeling of ‘knowing’ that entered my mind telling me that I had cast the spell correctly. That was good, I reflected wryly, since miscasting a locator spell can take you to some really weird places. I had to make sure I used Pinkie Pie’s full name too otherwise I might’ve ended up looking for oddly colored baked goods no matter how correct the spell was, although in retrospect that probably would’ve landed me at Sugarcube Corner anyway. The spell took me to the Corner, it was in the later at night so I figured Pinkie must’ve come home from wherever it was she had gone. The door was locked and the light in Pinkie’s upstairs room was out, I felt a little bad trying to wake her up but I levitated a few pebbles against the window anyways, I knew she’d understand. There was no response. I felt a little uneasy at that point… but I decided to go inside anyway. The door was locked for the night but that was no barrier to a crafty enough unicorn. I concentrated on the door and a quick glimmer of light from my horn along with the tell-tale sound of clicking told me the lock had come undone. A useful little spell I made up when I while I was Celestia’s apprentice in the Castle. Mostly for nicking sweets after dark than for anything else. There are times I wish I had never made that spell.

The room inside was dark and smelled a little musty, which was strange since it was the main foyer where the Cakes did all their business. I started up towards Pinkie’s room when I felt the spell tug me down. She was in the basement? I shrugged, I hadn’t even realized Sugarcube Corner HAD a basement. Maybe the Cakes used it for storage or inventory? Was Pinkie Pie doing inventory? At this time of night? I shrugged again at the questions, maybe she had eaten too many sweets and couldn’t get to sleep, that certainly sounded like Pinkie. I focused on the locater spell. It pointed me towards the back corner, it wasn’t used for anything but extra space occasionally when the Cakes needed another table put out. I looked around but couldn’t see an obvious door or entrance to the basement, I was about to give up, go home, and recast the spell, figuring I was in fact in search of oddly colored baked goods after all, when my light glanced off an almost invisible metal rung set into the floor, it was so old and dull it hadn’t even shown up in the night-time dimness. Smiling to myself at my own clever discovery I trotted over and levitated the trap door open.

I instantly knew something was wrong.

That smell, the smell of terrible sins and the kind of soul-deep darkness that drives ponies mad wafted out. Panic welled up instinctively as revulsion filled my heart, something was wrong, very very wrong, and whatever it was that was wrong was down in that basement. I moved gingerly forward and my legs began to tremble a little, even though I didn’t know why at the time.

“P-p-pinkie?” I whispered softly, my voice weak as a filly’s, “Are y-you in here?” I continued down the stairs, they were short and only a single level down, ten steps at most. It felt like a hundred. “P-pinkie, come out, y-you know I don’t like scary pranks…” I called out, my voice a trifle louder this time.

I caught glimpse of a pink mane and started to take a breath of relief.

It turned into a full throated scream.

Pinkamena Diane Pie hung lifelessly from a rafter, swinging to and fro with a steady pendulum-like balance. I barely registered anything for a few minutes, my mind trying to convince itself that it was some kind of horrible cauchemar come to laugh at me until I woke up safe in my own bed. Then I started to notice things. That analytical part of my brain which Celestia so praised during my apprenticeship kick-started and began feeding me information. Her mane was thin and drooping, her normally vivaciously pink coat was dull and patched; she had been gone for days.

Then I started to register the room.

There were some kind of rubbery streamers hanging from the ceiling, vile looking cupcakes that stank to Canterlot and gone, something else on a slanted medical slab in the corner. Something with cyan fur and a multicolored…

“Oh. Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no no…” I whispered over and over as I was inexorably drawn over to what little remained of one of my precious friends. I emptied the contents of my stomach right there on the floor, hot steaming tears spilling out into the sick that now stained the already irrevocably stained stones. “Oh Dash… What in Equestria happened to you… what…” Then I saw the rest, I saw the tools.

The scalpels and razor knives, the hacksaw and the nails. I saw them all. I turned back to stare dumbly at what was left of Pinkie Pie, just as her interminable swing brought her around into view. Her face was stretched into a horrible rictus, eyes stretched open with a dead-pony’s gaze, and the flayed skin, wings, and horns of the dead hanging festively from her corpse. It was then, I think, that I put it all together. Pinkie Pie hanging herself… Rainbow Dash…. the… the streamers…

It had been Pinkie Pie all along.

The disappearances, it was Pinkie Pie, it had been her. Somewhere along the line my friend had utterly lost her mind and whatever it was that was left quite simply hadn’t been Pinkie Pie anymore; it hadn’t even been a pony.

I fell down.

And while I’m being honest I think that… just for a moment as I wept and vomited down there in that nightmarish place… I think lost my mind.

I don’t know how long I laid there, my knees had given out completely, my body couldn’t even keep me upright anymore after I’d realized what Pinkie Pie had done to all those ponies, what she had done to Rainbow Dash. Truthfully it couldn’t have been long before somepony came, it must’ve only been a few minutes. It felt like so much longer. I was carried to Ponyville General Care; despite being a small town Ponyville had good medical facilities, just ask Applejack, farm accidents were nothing to shake your hoof at. I don’t even remember the trip to be honest; there were faces, sounds and screams. They all blurred together as they took me to in, I remember seeing two black bags being wheeled past me at one point. I think I saw a strand of pink sticking out of one of them.

I was there when my friends came, what was left of them. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike were all clamoring around me, asking me what had happened. I remember telling them. I know Applejack fainted when I got to the part about Rainbow Dash, Rarity kept making this odd squeaking sound like she was trying to scream and couldn’t, Fluttershy just stood there staring, her eyes wide and her complexion going whiter and whiter in shock. Someone made Spike leave the room near the beginning, but he heard the part about Pinkie Pie. After I finished we all just sat there, me in my bed, the other on the floor or on the few chairs the room had. What else could we do?

****

I laid there in the hospital bed, it was late, Doctor Trotson said he wanted me to stay overnight. My friends all stayed with me. I’m glad of that, I don’t think I would’ve made it through the night without them. Applejack was asleep next to me, after she came to she begged me to tell her she had dreamed it, that I was a nightmare and Rainbow wasn’t really… Applejack cried herself into a fitful sleep after that. Fluttershy and Rarity were no more peacefully asleep on small cots that had been brought in by the nurses, and Spike was curled up loyally at the foot of the bed. I couldn’t sleep though, despite my mind being so worn and exhausted, I simply couldn’t sleep. My eyes burned from the exhaustion and I couldn’t focus, and the silence wasn’t helping. I kept imagining sounds in the shadows, bad sounds. I tried focusing on my friends, the sound of Applejack breathing; I smiled sadly as I realized that for once she wasn’t snoring.

The smile vanished as a thought entered my mind, ‘She must’ve cried so hard she lost the energy to even do that…’ I turned, lifting myself weakly to rest on my front hooves staring forward at the sterile metal head board and the white washed walls. The movement helped a little, my mind wasn’t so foggy, it’s probably the reason I noticed the creaking sound in the first place. A slow and almost measured sound, like metal being bent ever so slightly this way and that.

Creak…

Something in the back of my head screamed at me to ignore it, just ignore it, just let it be, just ignore the sound and go to sleep.

Creak…

It was no use. I turned my head slowly and caught a slight glimpse of something hanging from the ceiling, something pink and drab, clad in a ‘homemade’ party dress. I snapped my head back around to stare feverishly at the metal of the bed frame and the bland white walls, trying to ignore the image my mind had fed me.

Creak…

…

I felt something move up across the bed from the foot and settle next to me in my blind spot just behind my ear, I felt it rustle my mane softly as it moved closer to whisper…

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye… teeheehehee…”

I quaked beneath the covers before laying my head down on my hooves, my eyes wide and tears spilling silently out of them as I waited for morning to come.

Chapter 2 (rewrite)

The sun peeked over the hills, Celestia’s ancient magicks doing as they had always done and for a moment I let the morning warmth wash over me, banishing the terrors of the previous night. The moment passed too quickly though and I opened my bloodshot eyes, I hadn’t slept a wink last night, not after…

I shook my head, it was no wonder I was a little unhinged after seeing something like that. Imagining her voice, her tone, the smell of… cupcakes… a shiver rolled down between my haunches that has nothing to do with the balmy morning. It was enough to put anypony a little on edge. Or a lot. Or go put them into a fit of break-down-gibbering-in-the-darkness crying. I looked back at the ceiling, it had seemed so terrifyingly real. The sound of the rope swinging with a pendulum’s efficiency holding the weight of a single pink-haired mare who had lost her mind entirely. The smell of viscera scattering the floor of the floor. Except… I hadn’t smelled anything last night, so why was that coming back now like it was a memory? I shook my head again to clear it before quietly tiphoofing across and out of the room into the hallway of the Ponyville Clinic and made my way to the washroom. I splashed some icy water into my face in an effort to banish last nights gruesome memories.

Creak…

I let out a yelp as I whirl around, a fierce light pouring from my horn to illuminate… One terrified nurse exiting a bathroom stall. One with an unfortuitously creaky door. After an awkward moment during which I closed my mouth, dimmed my horn, and coughed politely, I barricaded myself in the now-unoccupied stall, staring at the ground in silence.

“Twilight get your head back on, remember what Celestia said, ‘A smart pony’s mind is more powerful than all the unicorn magic in Equestria, be mindful of that Twilight’,” I whisper to myself as I smile softly at the remembered words of my mentor.

“That was one of my better lines I do agree,” a musical voice interrupted my reverie.

Slowly pushing open the door I was treated to a calming, if incredibly embarrassing, sight. A stately and regal alicorn with a pure white coat and a prismatic mane. My princesses eyes were generous and warm, and set above them was a conservatively beautiful golden crown. I coughed again before scooting out of the stall and bowing my head to my hooves. “Princess Celestia… how did you know I was here?”

“I saw a rather shell-shocked-looking young nurse leaving the lavatory and assumed the worst… now, raise your head.” One perfectly shaped hoof met my chin softly, lifting my gaze to hers, a gaze filled with sadness and a thousand years of sorrows. There are times, I think, we ponies forget that our Princess is ageless, timeless, and immortal. That she’s truly seen mountains rise and fall, but then and there I was reminded of how old she was as she comforted me, tears came spilling out hot and fast.

“Princess….” I wept openly against her leg as she nuzzled against my shoulder, the tears that shock and terror had temporarily driven away returned with a vengeance.

“There there dearie… I know… I know… let it out…” She whispered and her voice calmed me, releasing another flood of grief.

“I couldn’t save them… Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie… the other ponies in that… that…” I gulped for air, “I couldn’t save any of them…” I said between sobs and gasps.

“Oh Twi....” was all she said. The last time she’d used my nickname was when I found out a foalhood friend of mine, Twinkle Star, had died. We had become friends because our names were so similar, for a time we’d been inseparable, and after I heard the news I had been beside myself. The Princess had done then as she was doing now, she held me and let me cry my grief out, even though my tears sullied her mane and her perfect coat, she cared only for the pain I felt, and I knew she felt it in kind.

****

We returned to the hospital room, Rarity and Fluttershy were still sleeping but Applejack was awake, she had taken my place on the balcony looking out across the sky. Celestia and I join her, watching the sunlight play over the awakening village.

“Ah keep thinkin she’s gonna jus’ wing in ta the room laughin’ an’ hootin’ like she usually does when she an…” Her voice hitched on the name we’re both thinking, “…when she pulls a good prank on us… y’know?” Applejack said without turning her head. I knew what, or rather for whom, she was looking for in the blue skies. My heart ached again knowing that none of us would ever see that familiar streak of rainbow doing loops in the sky again.

“I…” I started before Applejack puts a hoof to my mouth.

“Nah, I know whatcher gonna say and don’ say ih’, t’weren’t yor fault an’ Dash wouldn’ look kindly on ya blamin yerself fer a deed weren’t none o’ yer own doin.”

I closed my mouth and nodded, I saw a small sad smile appear on Celestia’s face, Applejack had always been the strongest of us, and no one but Applejack could’ve been out here looking at the sky, knowing what she knew.

****

Dash’s service was lovely despite the rain, Celestia and Luna were both in attendance and the Wonderbolts even made an appearance, they had been so impressed with her flying during the Best Young Fliers Tournament that they had been intending to offer Rainbow Dash a position after the tour season ended. It was a hard pill to swallow, we all said our words, Applejack gave the eulogy, and I don’t think anyone else could’ve gotten all the way through it without breaking down, but Jack saved her tears for the end.

Of course there were two bodies to bury, but the second would have to wait. We talked to Luna after the funeral when we’d all returned to the Library.

****

“I’m sorry Twilight, I know this is difficult but there can be no service for Ms. Pie until we have finished the investigation, Celestia has left the Nightwatch to me,” Luna said, her words stern but kind. Still though, the Nightwatch… Celestia’s investigation and cleanup team. I was one of the only ponies who’d ever met a member of the Nightwatch properly besides Celestia and Luna herself, and only because of my position as Celestia’s protégé. They were the best investigation crew in Equestria, I nodded amidst my friends protests.

“Please your highness, there must be another explanation, we all knew Pinkie Pie. She wasn’t, and could never be, capable of what you say she’s done…” Rarity’s clipped Manehatten accent cutting through above the others.

“Ah agree princess, Pinkie was random but she weren’t no killer” Applejack chimed in, it was a testament to our bonds of friendship that she would speak up even knowing what might very well have happened to Rainbow Dash down there.

“I will find the answers, this happened in the Night, my time, but more ponies than Rainbow Dash were lost down there… So for now I can’t promise anything resembling a proper funeral like Dash had today for Pinkamena… besides the obvious disrespect it would show the victims, the other ponies of Ponyville simply wouldn’t stand for it,” she said with obvious discomfort. “I am sorry though, I will try my best to find a solution, til then I need to Twilight to come with me, you were the first on the scene, I’m sorry to have to make you remember but I need to know what it looked like before anypony else barged in.”
I nodded, I had been afraid of this, but I knew proper procedure, Celestia had drilled me in it as thoroughly as she had magic and etiquette.

“Of course Princess Luna, sorry girls, I… I’ll tell you all what happened eventually but right now I’d rather you not hear any of this…” I say to my friends, my best friends, I turned my gaze down guiltily.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder and smelled fresh flowers, “Don’t worry Twilight… we’ll be here for you when you’re ready” said Fluttershy, her voice was strong but quiet as a whisper like usual. Her face had its usual beatific smile that calmed me somewhat, I nodded, feeling a bit better about it.

“Thank you Fluttershy, thank you all of you…”

I looked up as Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy all filed out and, with some protests, manage to drag Spike with them only to catch a glimpse of something at the back window, somepony watching through it in the rain.

“HEY!” I yelled as I galloped to the window, using my magic to push it open with a creak.

“Hun, wha’s got yer tail in such a twist?” Applejack asked as she trotted over to me staring out into the emptiness behind the Library.

“I… I thought, no, I know I saw somepony watching through this window…” I said slowly, unwilling to simply dismiss it as a phantasm. I did’t say that whoever I saw had crystal-blue eyes, for a moment that nameless fear came back but it vanished quickly as Applejack stopped beside me, “Maybe it was nothing…”

Applejacks eyes narrow, “Well if that don’ beat all, we was jus’ lookin’ fer some privacy an’ somepony come along n’ snoopin’ in business what ain’ theirs,” She says angrily, “tha’s just disrespec’ful…”

I turned around and walked back to Luna’s side, trying as I did not to think of the night at the clinic. I looked up to see Luna staring at me with those enigmatic eyes of hers, like she was looking through me. For a second I shivered again as I was forcibly reminded that, despite looking as young as any of us, Luna was still only a handful of years younger than Celestia herself, and in some ways just as powerful in the magical arts.

The others were stopped at the door as I returned, “Sorry girls, it was probably nothing bad, just a curious filly or something, not many in Ponyville get to see Luna often.” The explanation was a shaky one but they each nodded, accepting it, they knew I’d rather just get on with Luna’s interrogation. I mentally thanked Celestia for making me make friends once more.

As soon as the room was empty Luna rounded on me, “Twilight, I hall be honest, I did not come here to ask about that night," her direct words caught me off guard but I nodded. "My sister asked me to come here and have a look at you, she told me that she felt something was wrong and while she gave me no more than that the mystical senses of a goddess are not something to ignore,” Luna explained without fanfare. "I see what she meant, yet like her I cannot place a hoof on it, so if there is something please do not hesitate."

I stuttered for a second before I answered, frankly Luna wasn't the most personable pony in Equestria but I liked her, “Princess I feel… well, not fine… but I’m as well as can be expected I guess.”

“I would expect anypony to be grief-stricken after an incident like this, and while I see your sorrow, I also see something else. Tell me Twilight, what is it that has you so frightened?” Luna asks, she cut right to the quick of it.

“I… it's nothing, I’m just a bundle of nerves since… since that night, really it's nothing Princess Luna," I forced myself to look her in the eyes, "I’m not ok Princess but I’m not any worse than Applejack or Fluttershy or Rarity,” I explained. I was sure all I needed was to settle myself.

Luna nodded slowly, “Alright Twilight, if you’re sure, but, as I said, do not hesitate to call on either of us if something happens," she gives me a awkward smile, she still has about a thousand years of social mores to catch up on but she tries, still she surprises me when she says, "and... that goes for your friends too.”

“Thank you Princess, I appreciate all you’ve done”

The small smile still on her lips the princess bowed her head to me slightly, “I only wish I could have done more, if anypony must shoulder blame for this atrocity then let it be the one whose charge is the night,” she said sadly, “If you need me I’ll be at Sugarcube Corner for the next week or so with the Nightwatch.” With that Princess Luna strode regally out and took wing back to her post. I wanted to call the other girls back almost instantly, something about being alone didn’t sit well but instead I busied myself with tidying up the Library, it had gotten rather messy since I’d been gone and the work helped distract me.

All at once a thunderbolt clapped and I nearly leapt out of my skin.

I walked up to the balcony and gazed out at the storm, ‘It’s a storm Rainbow Dash would have been proud of…’ the thought crossed my mind unbidden and brought the threat of more tears to my eyes. It was while I was looking out over the storm that the lights flickered and went out.

I blinked for a second to acclimate to the darkness before huffing, “Without Dash those feather-brained weather ponies are going to let every lightning bolt knock out the power.”

I turned around and slowly made my way down the steps using my horn to give me some light. I was half way down when I heard it again.

Creak…

I froze, I didn’t look, I didn’t move, I just stood there staring straight ahead whispering to myself, “It’s not real, it’s all in your head Twilight, it’s not real, it’s just the shock…”

Creak…

…

“Twilight…”

I heard the voice and every nerve fired, pure uninhibited terror fueling my legs as I scrambled up the stairs and ran out onto the balcony, I guess it’s almost to my credit that I hesitated a full half of second before leaping.

“Teeheehehee”

I jumped, something primal in me told me to run. To run and run and run as fast as I could. It was the predator in the dark. the old bone-deep animal fear for survival and it told me that I needed to get away or else I would face something more terrible than anything I had ever seen or read about.

Something that threatened my very being.

I hit the ground hard, I guess it was a good thing it was raining, I landed in mud rather than the hard ground so it didn’t do any real damage. On the other hoof when I hit the ground my legs went out from under me and my head impacted hard. Everything blurred and began to go dark, but in those last moments…

“Cross my heart, hope to fly…”

Darkness, mercifully, took me before I heard or registered any more.

Chapter 3 (rewrite)

"…rse, will sh… ..ay?"

"…ok a bad fall… ow when she'll… up"

"Dear me… but sh… ive right?"

"Yes, she's in… diate dang…"

"…Stick a cupcake in my eye!"

"AHHHHHH" I lunged forward screaming, the voice in my ear, the primal fear kicked back through my body, two sets of hooves pushed me back down onto a bed while I struggled desperately to free myself.

"Nurse! NURSE! COME QUICK!"

"Oh Twilight… Please calm down... you're safe I promise…"

The sound of my friends voices finally registered, my eyes focused finally, three… no, only two... right? Rarity's amethyst locks are hanging a little wildly over her face, probably from my thrashing, but the one with the strongest grip holding me down was…

"Fluttershy? Rarity? Where am I?" I asked the two mares who were keeping me pinned to the bed.

They finally relaxed, Fluttershy had more strength in her than I gave her credit for but then again she was a vet, she must've had to deal with larger animals as well as small ones.

"You're in the clinic, and very lucky too darling, I don't know what would've happened if Fluttershy hadn't decided to come back after Princess Luna left, we might not have found you until morning!" Rarity said, her voice sharp with unconcealed worry.

Fluttershy blushed softly and looked down, "It w-wasn't that much... really... I found you lying on the ground with a sprained hoof and a mild concussion so I carried you here."

Leave it Fluttershy to give a diagnosis on a glance, but then she with her family line I knew she had more medical expertise than any two doctors in the clinic put together.

I smiled gratefully, she didn't know it but I dreaded what might've happened too for an entirely different reason.

"Thank you Fluttershy, and you too Rarity, uhm, how long have I…?"

"Oh, only a couple of hours, I got you here, they put you in the bed, then gave you some p-painkillers and bandaged your hoof..." Fluttershy explained, "the nurse was just ttelling us if you were going to be a-alright when you... woke up."

"Twilight darling what happened? It looked like you threw yourself off of your balcony!" Rarity finally touched on the point that I knew had been on both of their minds.

"I was running from… something…" I said softly, trying to dig out and explanation that didn't make me sound like I'd spilled my marbles all over the library floor.

"Running? Oh dear from who? Or what?" Rarity's voice of concern rose to another pitch.

'Great… how do I explain this…'

"I heard… someone talking… in the Library after Luna left. It freaked me out was all…" I started, but I saw the look in Fluttershys eyes, she wasn't buying it. Rarity might've just left it as is but the pastel pony was too worried.

"Twilight… who w-was in Library? W-who did you hear?"

"…I heard Pinkie Pie."

Silence met my answer as much as I had expected. Their gazes were one part pity, one part worry, and two parts awkward concern.

"Girls… it's just shock, I saw things down there… It affected me and I know that, it's all in my head. I just have to get over it," I was only too aware the kind of damage mental trauma could have on the psyche, "...and maybe go see someone about it."

"Twilight dear, I'm sorry; it's just a lot to take in… I'm glad you have such a calm view on it though, but perhaps Princess Celestia…"

"NO!" I cut Rarity off before she went any further, "I don't want… I don't need Celestia thinking her star pupil has gone hooves over handlebars… It's just something I need to deal with."

Fluttershy and Rarity glance at each other then back to me.

"A-alright Twilight… If you say so, but only on one condition." Fluttershy looked uncharacteristically adamant at this point.

"Sure girls, anything."

+=+

The clamour made it difficult to study; I was reading through yet another tome looking for help, a dry old number called Trauma: A Treatise on Shock and Its Detrimental Effects on the Pony Psyche.

CLANG

"Rarity, I know I agreed to have someone keep an eye on me so I don't take any more unwarranted flying lessons but…" I turned from where I was seated to look at her, "what in Celestia's MANE are you DOING?!" I had looked over my shoulder just in time to wince as another set of tomes tumbles off the shelf, Rarity having taken it upon herself to 'reorganize' the Library to be more aesthetically pleasing.

"Darling the colors in this place are terrible, the wood finish is fine but those curtains are practically screaming to be replaced," She trotted over to pull down one of the slight singed curtains. Admittedly sometimes my magical experiments got a little... enthusiastic. I was fairly sure that one was a victim of a sneezing spell I'd put on Spike and subsequently been unable to remove for a few hours. Spike hadn't said much since he got back, he spent most of his time downstairs, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were two of the ponies he'd gotten along with the best, he was taking their loss hard.

"…Besides," Rarity had apparently continued to speak as I spaced out, I felt a little guilty as I tuned back in, "I have to keep busy after all don't I? Since I'm not in my boutique I have to make due."

Her stiff upper lip was admirable, I knew she was having a hard time of it, she'd lost two friends the same as any of us but she was handling herself with all the grace and poise she was known for. She had even brought over a dozen rolls of fabric to make new curtains, I get the feeling she'd been looking for an excuse to redo the colors for some time since they all seemed suspiciously at-the-ready and all in complimentary forest tones.

"Tell me dear, what do you think? Emerald Green for the lower curtains? Or maybe a deeper color, nothing garish though, it would simply murd… That is to say it would far from compliment the earthy color of the wood."

I just smiled, listened, and nodded as she flips books around, changing their shelves to match colors to colors, I didn't mind, it's not as though they were in any real order anyway, so I figured if my were going to be out of order they might as well look good doing it.

****

The time passed quickly, to be honest I doubted any of us wanted to spend the night in our own houses. I knew Fluttershy was down at Sweet Apple Acres, ostensibly giving Applejack a hand pushing some rain clouds around. We all knew she could've gotten a proper weather pony to do it, Fluttershy wasn't exactly the best cloud-maker and she was a barely passable flier. We all needed company though, as strong as Applejack was even she knew better than to go it alone. Night fell quickly and I put away the seventh tome for the day intending to pick up another only to stifle a truly massive yawn. I shook my head and decided it was probably best to call it a night. Rarity had gone to bed almost an hour ago though she was undoubtedly still in the process of 'getting ready for bed'. I on the other hoof just crawled up the stairs and rolled onto the mattress, half-heartedly tugging the covers over with my magic before giving up. Spike was snoring contentedly in his bed at my side, I took a little comfort in that. I yawned again, letting the exhaustion of the day flood out of me as I found a comfortable spot on the bed.

Twilight…

I froze, all my muscles clamped up again, I could feel my teeth chatter as the smell of formaldehyde hit my nostrils.

Twiiiiliiiiight…

I felt a hoof touch my mane. It was like an electric jolt ran through my spine, I spun, nearly leaping out of bed with my horn aglow.

"Twilight?"

"Twilight darling, whatever is the matter?" Rarity pulled her hoof back, a look of pure concern painting her perfect features.

"I… I just… I'm sorry, I'm just really tired, it was probably just the exhaustion," I forced a small laugh "I barely made it up here I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep at the desk."

Rarity just nodded softly, "Well, hopefully you won't have any more nightmares, I've drawn a hot bath for you, go have a nice soak, and it will clear your head of all the cobwebs I promise."

The thought of a bath suddenly sounded wonderful, I could only shake my head, "Oh Rarity… I don't know what I'd have done without you here."

"Dearie I don't think any of us want to be alone tonight, and here is as good a place as any" She answered, echoing my thoughts from earlier, "Now, to your bath, before it gets cold." She chided.

I nod gratefully, "Don't let me fall asleep in there though."

Rarity smiles gesturing back to the wash room, "Of course dearie, now go on."

I walked into the wash room, it was steamy and pleasantly warm against my coat. I levitated my reading glasses which, incidentally, I'd nearly fallen asleep wearing onto the countertop, shook some of the tension out of my haunches, and stepped gingerly into the hot water.

"Ahhhh…" I sighed gratefully as I let the heat sink into my exhausted muscles, it was divine. Rarity certainly knew how to draw a perfect bath, the temperature was just right.

"Mmmm… this is what I've needed… Rarity was right; I can feel the cobwebs melting away." I slipped a little deeper into the water, letting it come right up to my nostrils before blowing a few bubbles, I giggled a little at the foalish act. I spent the next several minutes laboriously scrubbing my coat clean with the bubble bath Rarity had brought with her, the smell of Jasmine filled the heated air as I did.

I breathed in the smell, it was a relaxed and luxurious smell, definitely Rarity's thing. There was something else though, something beneath the smell of Jasmine salts, it smelled like… Sugar? The water suddenly felt ice cold as I tried to ignore it.

"R-rarity? C-could you come in here?" I called to my friend softly, my voice was a small foal of a whisper. A sickly sweet smell of sugar and baking started to get stronger and the heat was becoming like an oven, it was like I was in a kitchen, a very particular kitchen.

"Rarity… Rarity please come in here…" She didn't answer still, I knew I should raise my voice but I was afraid, I couldn't put my hoof on why but it felt like if I called out something else would hear me.

The bathtub shook slightly.

"R-rarity?" my voice smaller than ever.

Twilight…

"No… you're not… you're not real… you're just a figment…" I whispered, knowing it wouldn't make her go away, it hadn't before.

But Twilight… we're bestest best friends… teeheehehee

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" I screamed, clapping my hooves over my ears.

Twiiiiliiight…

The bathtub shook again and I heard something, like hooves scraping against the floor, trying to get out from under the low hanging porcelain.

"RARITY!" I scream just as the door slams open and the rattling and smell vanished like a ghost.

"Twilight whatever is wrong?!" She knelt and wrapped her forehooves around my neck pulling me out of the tub, wrapping a soft towel around me. "I was downstairs when I heard you screaming, I came as quickly as I could. Darling whatever is the matter?"

I sniffled, biting back tears of fear and shame, "I heard her again… I heard her... and I could smell her cooking and… and… It felt like the tub was shaking… like she was underneath it trying to get out."

For a moment I smelled the basement again, the stink of gore and sin badly concealed beneath the veneer of industrial cleansers. I sat there, shaking in Rarity's arms as I cried and bit back the vicious attempt by the contents of my stomach to make a second appearance.

"There there dear, no need to fret, I'm here, and she's gone," Rarity whispered, "she's gone forever." I watched a tear trace softly down her ivory cheek.

Chapter 4 (rewrite)

I didn't sleep well, I barely slept at all actually and neither did Rarity if the sound of her shifting around in the guest bed was any indication. We didn't talk much after the incident last night, we didn't really have anything left to say. The nightmares were bad, worse than usual, I woke up at the crack of dawn and got out of bed, I shivered as I stepped into the washroom though it was a fairly warm morning, I couldn't look at the bath tub so I just splashed some water on my face and went back to my desk. I saw that Rarity was sleeping on my way down, fitfully, but at least she was getting some rest. I tiphoofed past her and went downstairs, to my surprise I found Spike collecting a small pile of books, he looked unusually somber.

"Hey Spike, what are all these?"

"They're books on dreams and… mental disorders." He answered as he climbed the ladder to a higher shelf. "I woke up when Rarity slammed the wash room door open so…"

I felt a look of shame cross my features, I couldn't look him in the eye, "I'm sorry you had to hear that Spike… I'm so sorry I just-"

"Stop Twilight, I'm your number one assistant and… you've literally been my friend all my life, I want to help and… I want you not to hide things from me." He said, he looked angry with me, I hadn't really ever seen Spike genuinely angry before. He must have been worried sick about me.

I nodded slowly, "I'm sorry then, you're right, I should never have left you out of the loop I just… I didn't want you to think less of me," I finally admitted. The fact that the little dragon looked up to me so much was important, I didn't want him to look at me like I was… crazy.

He stared at me for a second then let out a small huff of prismatic smoke, "It's not like anything's changed anyway, you've always been a few hairs short of a full mane. He finally smiled, "that's why we're friends, I've always been the sane one."

I stared back before letting out a small giggle, "You're right, thank you Spike."

"No problem," he said, back to his old self.

"Now then, let's hit the books!" I stated adamantly, stepping up to the desk. The first book in the pile Spike had laid out was entitled: The Inner Workings of the Horn: A Treatise on Unicorn Psychology.

"Ugh… this one's gonna be unpleasantly dry isn't it?"

Spike looked over at the book on the desk and nodded, "Yea, I'm not gonna lie, if that doesn't put you to sleep you really do have a problem."

I giggle again, suddenly more thankful for Spike's presence than ever, "Well, time to dive in."

+=+

Spike and I spend the next five hours poring over massive tomes, Rarity woke up soon after we started only to chide us for not having eaten and began cooking what she called a 'proper breakfast' which, true to form, was no less perfect than anything else she did. We were interrupted around noon by a knock at the front door.

"Hello? Is.. is anyone there?" Fluttershy's soft tones came in with her as she stepped into the Library.

"Fluttershy dear, come in!" Rarity was the first to the door before I could even pull my head out of Psychology and Pathology (vol. III). "How is Applejack?"

"Oh, she's alright, I mean, she's as alright as anypony might expect given the…" She stopped and looked down, tapping at the floor with her hoof for a moment before changing the subject. "I was just stopping to see how Twilight is," she trotted over and put a hoof to my forehead before putting the same hoof up in front of my eyes. "Follow my hoof with your eyes Twilight." She moved it back and forth before nodding, apparently pleased with whatever she had gleaned from her inspection.

"Good, you're fine then... I was afraid your concussion might have been more serious but…" She gave me one of her angelic smiles, "You're just fine, I'm so glad."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far…" Rarity said, a concerned look on her face, "Twilight?" she asked, the question was obvious so I nodded.

"Right well, Twilight had another… episode, last night." Rarity said softly, I grimaced at the sudden drop in Fluttershy's features.

"Oh no… what happened?"

I turn to face my friends, "Well, I was in the bath when I started to… smell things, like cooking or baking, the way… the way Her kitchen always used to smell." I stumble over my words for a minute before continuing, "It got stronger and stronger til it felt like I was really there, then I heard her voice, she was calling my name, then the bath tub felt like it started to shake a little, and I could hear something…" I stop for a minute to catch my breath as they both gestured for me to continue. "It sounded like… hooves, scraping against the tiles, like something was trying to crawl out from under the tub…"

"Oh… uhm… Well, what happened then?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"Then I came in, I heard her screaming from down the stairs and rushed there as fast as my hooves could take me." Rarity answered.

"And did you…?"

"No, I didn't see anything, the tub was still and there wasn't anything beneath it." I looked down, unwilling to face them for a moment, I felt like a foal who had been scared by her own shadow one too many times.

"Darling it's nothing to be ashamed of." I look up to see Rarity smiling kindly at me, she put a hoof on my shoulder and shook her head, "I don't want you feeling weak, you have to be strong to fight this."

Fluttershy nods, "If it is a hallucination maybe we can talk to Doctor Trotson at the Clinic, or maybe Luna can help, I think she's still at Sugarcube Corner, she might not be up to date on current medical knowledge yet but she's at least as powerful as Celestia."

Fluttershy was right, and besides, Celestia might be more powerful in her own way but Luna had purview over the night, and that included the dreams of ponies all over Equestria. Oneiromancy was an obscure magical art that only Luna and her chosen ever mastered but it was a close enough cousin to the differing schools of Cerebromancy that she might have some insight her mentor didn't.

"Alright, I'll talk to Luna…" As much as I didn't want this getting back to Celestia I needed help, I knew that, and Luna would probably have more insight into my condition anyway.

+=+

I tidied up the mess of tomes around my desk, I wanted to make a detour to Sweet Apple Acres, I needed to see Applejack before I talked to Luna, I knew that she had taken Rainbow Dash's death harder than most, they were the best of rivals and two sides of a coin. When we arrived she was in the fields apple-bucking, I took a moment to marvel at her strength of mind, that hard-boiled home grown strength you only find in earth ponies was no more strongly represented than in Applejack.

She spotted us coming down the hill to the grove she was working over, she looked like she might've been over-doing it though; the groves she had just finished had whole sloughs of bark gouged out from harder-than-necessary impacts. It was just her way of working things through in her own mind I supposed.

"G'afternoon girls, Twilight, how're ya doin? Heard ya took a tumble, sorry I didn' come 'round, didn' hear 'bout it til Fluttershy came by an' filled me in."

"Don't worry Applejack, Fluttershy and Doctor Trotson both say I'm fine," I answer honestly, as I walked up and gave her a hug. As we parted I saw the sad and distant look in her eyes.

"You be'er be sugar, I'm not set on losin' someone else," She said, her face lined with worry.

"I know, that's why…" I stopped for a second to gather my nerve, "We need to talk."

We all went into the farmhouse, Applejack sent Applebloom off to play in the treehouse with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo while we talked. Once we were there I told Applejack everything, all the problems with my head, the things I'd been seeing, I knew Fluttershy had filled in a few of the details but Applejack deserved to hear the whole story from the pony's mouth. All through it she didn't question me or look at me like I was a freak, she just say and listened, nodding and occasionally interrupting to ask me to clarify something, but other than that, she just heard me out. I don't think I'll ever be able to express what it meant to me. At the end she just nodded, I thought she would have a hard time of accepting that her friend might be losing her mind but she took it rather well.

"Well, reckon we shoul' go see 'bout talkin' to Princess Luna then, but you promise me this Twiligh', if Luna says she can't do nuthin we're goin ta see Celestia, no figh'in tha' alrigh'?" Applejack said with steel in her voice, I knew I wasn't going to be able to sway her, I didn't want to try either, she's already had to deal with losing Rainbow Dash.

"Alright Applejack, if Luna really can't do anything, we take it to Celestia. I promis-"

Cross my heart

I gulp and the words die in my mouth, I gave myself a mental shake before trying to continue.

"I promi-"

Hope to fly

"Twiligh'? You alrigh'?" Applejacks words seem far off and hazy as I work my mouth, the blood is pounding in my ears as I try to ignore the sudden perverse mixed smell of formaldehyde and baking sweets.

"I-I'm fine… I pro-"

STICK A CUPCAKE IN MY EYE!

"SHUT UP!" I screamed, the sudden shout caused everypony around me to jump back. Everypony except Rarity, she just stared. Big Macintosh peeked in the room at the noise.

"Ya'll o'kay in 'ere?" He asked, his voice the slow calming drawl it had always been, somehow the earthen laziness of it brought me back around. A look from Applejack and he nodded knowingly and left.

The haze was gone as quickly as it came, Applejack and Fluttershy both had mixed looks of worry and panic on their faces, but Rarity just stared straight forward, her features even more pale than usual.

"I'm sorry girls… it's getting worse… we should go see Luna as soon as-" I stop at the look on my friends face, "Rarity? Are you… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you I just…"

"Twilight?" She interrupted.

"Y-yes?"

"Cross my heart… Hope to fly…" She whispered; I think the look of horror that came over my face at those words must've been neatly mirrored on her.

"You didn't… Rarity… Tell me you didn't... didn't hear her."

She only stood there silently and shook, her hooves making soft scraping sounds as they quaked on the hardwood floor. There were tears of abject terror in her eyes as she nodded.

Chapter 5 (rewrite)

We were all a bit silent after that, none of us wanted to voice what was on the others minds. Rarity never went down to the basement, she never saw the horrible and visceral truth of what happened at Sugarcube Corner. If she heard Her then what did it mean? Was I really losing my mind or was there something more going on here. Whatever the case was it wasn't something anypony wanted to ponder on for too long.

"Ya'll, I don' preten' ta know wha' jus' happened with Rarity and Twiligh' bu' I reckon it don' change a darn thing except the questions we nee'ta ask, it's getting' on into nigh' now, we should talk ta Princess Luna afore she leaves with the mornin'."

As always Applejacks honest reason got through to the rest of us, Rarity just nodded, she was still a bit shocked and kept jumping at small noises, she didn't have the same strength of mind to deal with this, I had honed my will to a razor edge through my study of magic but Rarity had undergone no such training. I'll freely admit I was more worried for her now than I was for myself.

"You're right Applejack… we need to sort this out quickly, I don't even want to think about the consequences if we don't handle this…" I admitted, nodding a silent 'thank you' to the orange-cream colored mare. I stared out over the open plains and trees of the Sweet Apple Acres farm, I knew the answer was lurking somewhere close, the shadow that Pinkamena had cast over us with her death and Rainbow Dashs murder was like a curse…

A light clicked in my mind.

"Girls, I need to go and see Princess Luna right now, I need to ask her a question," I said adamantly. They all met my gaze, seeing the look in my eyes they each nodded, they didn't even need to know what I wanted to ask. All they needed to know was that I had an idea. I don't know what I did to deserve friends like these but I was suddenly very glad I did.

+=+

The trip down to Sugarcube corner didn't take long, it was only about a mile into town, I shivered, staring at the looming building, it was a reminder of something terrible where once it had been a place of such laughter. In a way it still was, but it was the laughter of an asylum mixed with screams of pain. I froze for a second staring at it, I could almost hear her again, smell the basement, feel the stained and tainted cement under my hooves, for a moment I could hear the sound of knives cutting, clinking against bone, all shadowed in the background by that laughter...

Teeheheeheehehehee

I shivered and tried to close my mind to the sound, I saw Rarity seize up at the same moment, we needed help, and quickly. As we approached I saw two heavy-set stallions standing in front of the cordoned off area, next to them was…

"Princess Luna! We were just coming down to see you" I called out to her as we approached, I shuddered again as we stepped into the shadow of Sugarcube Corner, the smell of baked goods was still present though I wasn't sure if it was real or… imagined.

Luna turned her graceful head towards us, smiling softly and moving to greet us.

"Good evening girls, you are in luck, I just finished raising the moon so I have a moment, what is it?"

Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack all looked to me for a moment and I nodded to them, "Princess… I want to know about curses."

Whatever Princess Luna had expected me to say it wasn't that, her jaw dropped open slightly before working for a moment before closing. She looked deep in thought as she composed herself again before answering.

"Twilight, curses are… no, I will not tell you they are simply old marestales because they are not, even though both I and my sister would prefer the rest of Equestria to go on believing that." Luna gestured for us to follow her into the store, I was reluctant but followed all the same. If anything Applejack seemed the least willing to enter but she did anyway, though she spit on the door frame before crossing it.

Once we were all inside Luna telekinetically closed the door before turning to us, "What I tell you shall stay in this building with all the other terrible secrets it holds do you understand girls?"

We all nodded a bit shakily, she looked at us sadly for a moment before beginning her explanation.

"A curse is the opposite of magic, it's evil, pure and simple. Well, that is not quite right is it? There's nothing simple about evil. A curse is malice incarnate, it's pure ill will directed at another pony." She gathered herself for a moment, looking pensive.

"Magic in and of itself can't intentionally harm another, yes you can levitate a pebble and launch it someones head but in the end magic is simply not effective as a weapon." She paused for moment, reluctant to continue. "Curses on the other hoof are perfect as weapons, they are intended to harm but… it is the side effects that are the worst of all. You see in order to curse somepony you must truly hate them, and letting yourself succumb to hate on that level… it twists who you are, in the past it could even cause ponies to… to lose their cutie marks."

Our mouths fell open at this last revelation, a cutie mark was a precious part of a pony, it was a signifier of who we were; it was the part of us that would always be. The idea of somepony losing their cutie mark because their hatred twisting them so badly was… vile.

"I'm only telling you this to give you an idea how horrible a curse truly is, to the one who calls it down as much as to the victim." She continued, "Now for a question of my own, why would you need to ask me such a question? I can only assume this has something to do with you Twilight?"

"…and me now, your highness," Rarity interjected.

Luna regarded both of us for a moment before saying, "Tell me everything."

So we did, it didn't take long, an hour or so, but I could feel the shame and the madness creeping up on me, I hated it; admitting what was happening, the voice, the laughter, the promise. The entire time I could smell baked goods cooking in the kitchen behind us, cakes, pies… cupcakes, it was distracting but I kept it off my face, Rarity wasn't doing quite so well, her eyes were wide and haunted the entire time. I wondered if she could hear the things I could at that moment, I pity her if she could.

Luna simply nodded as we explained what was happening, at the end she was quiet for a while, she looked deep in thought for almost a full five minutes before opening her eyes.

"This sounds… different from a curse, but I do not know much about them, no one does truly," She answered, it was a small mercy but not much of one. "I believe we should consult the tomes in the Canterlot library, it sounds like something magical but, in the end Pinkamena was not a unicorn, even had she known how to curse somepony… she couldn't have."

I nodded, I had thought of that but… Fluttershy piped up, she'd been very quiet since we had arrived, "Princess, uhm, Zecora once told me of her homeland, how no one amongst her people had horns but a few could use their own type of magic."

Luna shook her head, "The Zebra Tribes don't use magic, they use a highly ritualized for of science and alchemy, it's very esoteric in appearance but it's not truly magical in nature."

Fluttershy nodded looking a little defeated.

"Come girls we shall..." Luna's voice died as she telekinetically pulled the door open…

To reveal a long, dark, and foul-smelling hallway.

"Girls… stay close, there is something very wrong with this pla-" her words were cut off as the darkness within the hallway seemed to coil in on itself before launching into the room, blinding all of us, I heard Rarity screaming, but not at the darkness, she was screaming words, and worse yet, I heard a violently cheery voice answer her.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP PLEASE! YOU'RE DEAD! PLEASE SHUT UP!"

"But RARITY, we haven't had a PARTY yet! Come on Rarity I'll make you the most delicious cupcakes… hehheeheeheeheheee."

"NOOOOoooooooo…." Her voice trailed off, as though it was being dragged down an infinitely long hallway til it disappeared.

"RARITY!? FLUTTERSHY? APPLEJACK!!" I called into the tenebrous mists, the darkness was absolute, it was like a thick sheet of black paint was coating everything, shapes were distorted, faces loomed in and out of existence.

"TWILIGH'? Where are ye?" I heard Applejack for a moment before…

"Hey wha-? WHAT?! No… No… NO! AH'M SORRY, OH NO, AH'M SORRY… AH'M SO SOR-" a wet thump sound cut off Applejacks yells.

I heard an almost silent sobbing sound, like somepony breathing hard, almost hyperventilating.

"Fluttershy!? Are you there?!" I called out.

"I-I'm here t-t-twilight… please… make it stop… make it stop…"

I moved towards her, trying to discern her location by the sound of her voice, "I'm sorry Fluttershy… I can't do anything, I can't even make light, or… if I can it isn't enough to make a difference."

"P-please… it hurts Twilight… please make it stop… I just-" her voice vanished mid-word.

I made it to where I thought the sound had been coming from, nothing… there was no more sound, no more voices, I called for a while longer but no one answered.

I curled into a ball and started to cry, in that deep and endless darkness it was all I could really do.

Chapter 6 (rewrite)

Even now I can't tell how long I sat there in that endless dark, I think there was screaming, maybe it was just in my head. I wasn't anywhere near sane. When I was in the basement of Sugarcube corner, I thought for a moment that I might've lost my mind, this time I know I did. I was a gibbering mess. I would lay there quietly for a while before hearing something move in the darkness then I would start crying and shaking again and I wouldn't stop for hours, by the time I really came to I felt weak as a filly.

"H-" I coughed as I got used to my voice again, it was parched and dry, "Hello?" I called out, in vain I knew but some part of me hoped…

I shook my head, concentrating I called up light by reflex only to quickly shut my eyes and banish it, I had spent too long in the darkness, the small ember I summoned had nearly blinded me.

I concentrated again. This spell was the very first I had ever learned, before telekinesis, before trans-location, I learned to call up light, and now I focused on it like I hadn't done since I was a filly in Celestia's tutoring chambers. Slowly, painstakingly, I summoned up a tiny flicker as I opened my eyes. I began to perspire from the effort of controlling the minute energy flow that was maintaining the little light. Carefully I increased its magnitude, slow enough to allow my eyes to adjust to the new light source, wherever I was I knew blinding myself at the start wouldn't be a good plan. As I summoned up light to see by I began to relax my control, the light was reaching a level I could manage on an instinctual level now. I started to notice other things about my environment, namely the stench. It stank of filth, not blood or viscera or any of the things the terrified part of my mind had begun to associate with Her. Just filth, like the stink of a trash heap in the summer sun. I tried in vain to shake the smell out of my nose, it wasn't horrifying, just immensely unpleasant, I will admit though that such a regular everyday smell set my mind at ease as much as it unnerved me. It was familiar, but something familiar in a place like this was strange in a wholly different manner.

Satisfied with the degree to which my eyes had adjusted I finally focused a bit more power into the light that sat at the tip of my horn, radiance bloomed but I quickly diffused it out so as to make the light in front my face less intense.

I choked back whatever was left in my stomach as I saw where I was.

Some kind of ruined building. It looked like the floors, walls, and ceiling were all rotting; there was a moldy mattress in the corner stained with something I didn't bother to define. Something about the building seemed familiar but I couldn't quite put my hoof on it, I shook my head again, now more to clear it of stray thoughts than of the smell which I was quickly learning to ignore.

*sniffle… sniffle…*

I froze at the sound, looked around but didn't see anypony.

*sniffle* I… ss my… ents…

The room was empty, completely empty, there was no furniture except the moldy mattress and there were no other outlying rooms. I craned my beck forward and listened, trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from. I stood there feeling foalish for a few moments before stepped back a few hooves.

"It must have just been in my head…" I laughed bitterly, "It's not exactly the most stable place anymore." I continued my observations of the room.

The more I looked at the structure now the more that nagging sense of familiarity plagued me though, regardless of that thought though I decided that I couldn't understand how this room or, if this was the state of affairs all over, how the building itself was still standing. By the volume of its decrepitude it should have fallen over long ago. A quick scan showed a door, still miraculously on its hinges, in the corner. As much as I feared leaving this known space I knew my friends were out there, I heard their distress before I blacked out, I couldn't leave them… I couldn't lose anypony else.

I gently nudged the door open hoping to sneak a peek into whatever lay beyond, a futile endeavor since at the pressure the door finally gave in to its natural inclination and fell inward with a resounding crash. I stood frozen for a moment, paralyzed with fear, my ears straining to detect any movement that might hint that the noise had been heard. I couldn't tell you what I was listening for exactly, some horrible imagined nightmare creature haunting the halls, a fearsome ghast ready to jump from the shadows and devour me.

'Move Twi.' I thought to myself, 'Come on… move, move, move, move.'

"Move!" I almost shouted before choking back the volume, if there was something out there it might have thought that door falling over was nothing, surely bits and pieces of this place must collapse on their own all the time, but a voice was a dead giveaway. Fortunately the shock actually shook me out of my own paralysis and I moved into the next room which, as it turns out, was in fact a long hallway. An incredibly dark and disgustingly rotted hallway but at least it wasn't the lair of some hungry thing. The light barely illuminated more than a few hooves in front of me, I could see bare shapes out in the shadows, there were no windows though, it's funny how no one really considers windows until they're trapped somewhere without them. It's incredibly claustrophobic.

I chose a direction and began walking. I took the left path, I knew it didn't matter, everything looked the same in the dark anyway. The feeling of oppressive weight didn't lift no matter how far I walked; I must have been walking for almost ten minutes before the passage branched.

'Left or right?' I thought to myself, I didn't like choosing at random, it felt so disorganized, but then again I had no idea where I was and no means of orienting myself so there wasn't a lot of choice. The smell and the shadows were cloying and my mind felt like a lump of lead was imbedded in my skull, I needed to find water or something, otherwise…

A noise interrupted my train of thought.

Drip

I blinked and shook my head. 'Impossible, I'm just hearing things again…' I thought, unwilling to readily believe such a coincidence.

Drip

It continued to the point that I decided I must be hearing something, I hoped it was water, partially for my thirst, partially because… I didn't want it to be anything liquid other than water…

The sound was coming from the right so I took the passage and followed the noise. The dripping was maddening with its consistency but I never seemed to be getting any closer, I got so frustrated that when I did reach the source I almost went right past it. I stopped as I realized the sound was suddenly coming from my right, I turned and put a little more power into the illumination spell to reveal a sullen looking doorway, the door being long since gone. The dripping sound continued, I moved into the room warily, casting my gaze about for the source of the dripping, at once seeking and fearing what it was I sought.

A faucet and a bucket.

I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding, it was just a leaky faucet dripping into a bucket. I smiled at myself and moved over to it, the water was viscous, dark, and it smelled foul. I grimaced but slowly tipped my horn to the water, submerging the tip of it into the liquid. With a concerted effort I surged magic into the water, purifying it as Celestia had taught me; I remembered her words fondly as I worked the magic.

"Now Twilight, this is the next spell you are to memorize, it's called 'The Boon of Purity' and it's used to clean water and make food edible despite its age or quality." The regal alicorn instructed as she sat a small book in front of my nose. I was barely tall enough to see over the desk.

I grimaced as I read over the spell, it wasn't hard, but the spell took several minutes to cast correctly even when you mastered it, making it very tedious, especially if the quantity of water or food you were trying to cleanse was great.

"But Cele-", her eyebrow crooked upward with such startling speed that it caused me to fake a fit of coughing before starting over, "But Princess Celestia, it's such a boring spell, and besides when would I ever use it? Our water comes from clean rivers and our food comes from farms. It's all very clean already."

She smiled that same beatific smile that always filled me with a sense of warmth,

"Twilight, you never can know what dangers you'll face in life, and I would be remiss in my own duties as both your sovereign and your mentor if I didn't give you the means to at least feed yourself in any situation."

I sighed and nodded, no getting out of this one... I sat down and grumpily began studying.

I counted down from four minutes before removing my horn and checking the water, it was crystal clear, and I silently thanked the Princess for being so strict with me during my training, I sipped at the water a bit before drinking down the whole bucketful, I mentally had to pace myself though, I knew drinking too much after being dehydrated could lead to some bad side effects even if the water is perfectly fine. It took a few minutes but I finished it all, I felt like a new pony, the headache was still there but it was manageable now, I called up the light again began searching the room I was in, it seemed to be a storage room… that sense of familiarity was stronger than ever here…

Heeheheee… sh… ver find m… re

The whisper set my haunches up and I whipped around, I knew I'd heard something; it had almost sounded like the voice of a filly… it sounded like the voice from the first room. I shivered for a moment before banishing images of ghostly fillies from my mind. No time for such thoughts, I had to get Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy and get out of this place.

I stepped out into the hall, turned to my right to continue forward…

And froze.

It was Her.

In her… 'dress'.

Smiling at me.

"Oh THERE you are Twilight! I thought I'd lost you silly-filly," she giggled maniacally for a moment, and then a moment more, and then her laughter overcame her and she fell to the floor in a fit of laughter.

"Heheheheeeeheeeehehehehehee, oh Twilight, you were almost late for the PARTY!" I couldn't move, I knew I should run but the idea of turn my back on that… thing… was out of the question, I settled for slowly backing away.

"Hehehe, silly-filly, the party isn't THAT way, it's THIS way," She twitches her head back gesturing behind her, and with a sickening *CRACK* her neck dislocated, sagging horrifically.

"Heehee, oops, I forgot that happens sometimes," she looked only slightly perturbed, I just stared for a moment before letting out the loudest shriek of my life, and hoofing it down the hall as fast as four legs could take me and damn the consequences.

"TWIIIIILIIIIIGHT" I heard her call out, the playful tone never leaving her voice. Is that how she sounded while she carved up Rainbow Dash? Is that bubbling laughter the last thing she heard before she… I choked back the water I'd drank earlier as it threatened to make a return. I couldn't afford to think about Dashie, not right now, I had to focus I had to-

*WHACK*

I saw stars for a moment as I dropped like a load of apples, Pinkie Pie stepped out of a side-room and leaned over me grinning, something crusty and… brownish-red… stained her lips, her eyes were lit with insanity.

"Geez Twilight, I TOLD you, the party isn't THIS way, I mean I know you're excited but you could at least go the right DIRECTION." She moved over me, I saw a bloody length of pipe resting on her left haunch, her head was back where it was supposed to be.

"ANYWAY I guess if you're going to be so excitable I should just TAKE you to the party, so you need to go to sleep now," she clambered on top of me and started trying to pry my mouth open with one hoof while brandishing a vile-looking cupcake in the other, I suddenly spasmed; I remembered the cupcakes on the table in the basement, I knew the foulness that created them. I felt her lose her grip in that moment, just long enough to…

I kicked out with all the force in my back legs catching her full in the chest, I felt a few of her ribs give way as she slammed against the wall, I got up, seized the dropped pipe and swung it savagely against her head, it cracked again, dislocating and flopping unnaturally to the side.

Despite all that punishment she started trying to get up again.

"Owie-ow… Twilight that hur-" I cut her off as I swing the pipe again, this time at her legs, I hear the sickening crunch of her kneecap collapsing and she falls to the floor again, I swung the pipe again and again all the time there was a constant droning in my ears.

Half-way through I realized it was me, whispering with every swing…

"I'm sorry" *CRACK*

"I'm sorry!" *CRACK*

"I'M SORRY!" *CRACK*

I finally stopped, she didn't move anymore, not that I left anything capable of movement.

"Oh Celestia… I'm so sorry Pinkie…" I started crying, hot tears streaming down my face as I stared down at the ruin of my friends' corpse. I turn my back on the wrecked mess I created towards the direction of the 'party' and start galloping, the tears kept falling as I tried desperately to ignore the conscious gurgling sounds coming from behind me.

Chapter 7 (rewritten)

The hallway seemed endless, but I refused to look back, I was afraid I'd see her again, smiling that unhinged smile of hers as she bore down on me effortlessly. I shook my head to clear the thoughts, even if by some dark and horrible miracle she was still… alive… she would never move again.

I choked back the urge to vomit once more, I had done unspeakable violence to her, even if she was crazy she was still, or used to be, one of my closest friends.

Tears threatened to overwhelm me again but I bit them back, losing myself now wouldn't do anypony any good. I had to find the others and I had to find them fast, Luna was probably trapped here too, if anypony would know what was going on it would be her. The walls rushed past as I galloped harder, and I was running full force when I heard a sound come from down the hall, it sounded like… crying. I dug my back hooves into the ground, skidding to a stop, and perked my ears up, carefully trying to locate the source the noise, I moved slowly forward looking this way and that until I finally reached a closed door. The sound was definitely crying and it sounded like…

"Fluttershy? A-are you in there?" I called softly, I was still afraid but my concern for my friend overrode the impulse to be quiet.

I concentrated, wrapping the doorknob in a telekinetic sheathe and slowly pushed it open, my headache started pounding a little harder as I did. The sobbing sounds became more pronounced but they still sounded distant. I looked in and saw a staircase leading down, I locked up for a moment; they were the same stairs from Sugarcube Corner. I choked back my fear and took the first few faltering steps down, my resolve hardened as I heard her voice.

"P-please… I'm sorry… we're so sorry… It's all my f-fault… it should have been m-me." I heard Fluttershy pleading with somepony, "Please… it hurts… p-please stop…"

My heart nearly gave out when I heard the voice that answered, a voice I never thought I'd hear again, but it was different now, twisted by rage and pain.

"You're right friend, it should have been you, but it wasn't, it was me!"

I got down to the door and peeked in.

A cyan colored Pegasus covered in stitchs and scars had her back to the door, her ragged mane was in disarray but still held some of its original color, a bright rainbow pattern. Her wings were the worst though; they hung limply and were missing most of their feathers, at the shoulder muscles were thick metal surgical staples keeping them haphazardly affixed to the pegasus's back. Where her cutie marks should've been was only a mass of discolored scar tissue. Fluttershy was strapped to a metal slab raised chest high, her wings were partially mangled, pastel feathers littered the floor around the slab itself. Thick needles were keeping Fluttershy's wings spread to their full span as the horrible revenant of our friend tore feathers out one by one with sickening viciousness.

I shook with fear and rage, Fluttershy didn't deserve this, if anypony deserved to be punished here it was me, I was the one who found them, I was the one who was too late…

"STOP RAINBOW DASH!" I had barged in before I even realized what I was thinking.

She did stop, and slowly turned to face me, I shuddered as I finally saw her face. It was a network of scars and pain, her right eye was stapled shut, a tiny trickle of blood leaked from the ruin of the tear duct, her left eye was barely any better, it was discolored and bloodshot. I had thought her wings were the worst but I was proven wrong in that moment, the worst part was her expression. Always I had known Rainbow Dash to be defiant and proud, ambitious and loyal, but her expression was an awful parody of that, it was an ugly thing, every line spoke of anger, her crooked and scarred lips were twisted in a partial sneer of miserable hate, and her single serviceable eye was narrowed and glaring.

Dash snorted, "Twilight… I was hoping you'd come along, wanna see a new trick I learned?" without waiting for an answer Dash lashed out with her back legs and slammed her hooves into Fluttershy's ribcage, I winced at the cracked sound and her scream of pain. "Neat huh?" that twisted sneer turned up in a grim parody of satisfaction.

"Dash… Please, you're dead… I'm sorry, I know I can never be forgiven for not finding you but don't take it out on Fluttershy." I said softly, I didn't want to have to repeat what I had to do to Pinkie.

"You think she's blameless?" Dash said in a dark whisper, "YOU THINK ANY OF YOU ARE BLAMELESS?!" her voice hit a roar so fast it made me jump.

"W-what do you mean? Fluttershy didn't do anything…" I said, unwilling to believe the gentle pony could ever have had anything to do with what happened at Sugarcube Corner.

"Heh, exactly, it's what she didn't do… why don't you tell the story 'Shy?" Rainbow Dash said with a crooked and painful-looking smile.

Fluttershy cried softly for a few minutes, neither I nor Rainbow Dash spoke, my stomach turned as I realized she even seemed to be enjoying her tears. Before long she lost patience though.

"TELL HER!" Dash roared before ripping out another feather.

With a small cry of pain Fluttershy started talking through her sobs.

"I-it was s-supposed to b-be… sniffle… me." She said weakly.

"C'mon 'Shy, give her more than that," Dash taunted.

"T-the day D-dash disappeared I w-was supposed to m-meet Pinkie Pie to help her… t-to help her b-bake c-cupcakes, she s-said she needed help…" She started to cry again but stopped with a muffled cry as Rainbow Dash delivered another blow to her ribs.

"B-but I had t-to… sniffle… c-cancel at the last m-minute because A-angel had come d-down with a c-cold and I… sniff... I needed t-to stay home to n-nurse him b-back to health…" As the truth slowly dawned on me I realized why Fluttershy had never spoken up, she knew what she had escaped when the truth came out. She knew it had almost been her and by some cosmic slip-up she had missed the headspony's axe by inches.

"P-Pinkie Pie sounded really disappointed when I t-told her… sniffle… b-but she said she m-might be able to g-get…get..." At this Fluttershy started crying, "Oh Dash I'm so sorry… I d-didn't know… I swear I d-didn't…"

Rainbow Dash glared at her with her one good eye, "Finish the story…" her voice was a deadly whisper.

"Pinkie Pie said i-it was ok… t-that she could p-probably g-get Rainbow Dash to h-help her instead… I n-never saw either of them again…" finally finished she broke down crying.

"And there you have it Twilight… So, still think she's so blameless?" Dash said hatefully.

I was stunned. I'd had no idea how close Fluttershy had come to being the one I found on the slab in that horrible basement. Or what she must have been dealing with all this time. I thought I had felt responsible because I hadn't seen it coming, because I hadn't gotten there in time, but Fluttershy…

"No, it's not her fault Dash," I said, unwilling to let Fluttershy suffer anymore, "She didn't know, and couldn't have known. You knew Fluttershy better than anyone, you went to flight school together, she gave everything into caring for the creatures around Ponyville, she only did what she always did, she put her duty and her kindness first!"

With that final word I forced a painful surge of magic forward, sheathing Dash in my telekinesis spell I slammed her into the blood-stained rack in the corner, with a twist of my head I snapped the restraints shut and locked them.

"NO! NO! NOT HERE! ANYWHERE BUT HERE!" I drowned out her words, whatever that thing was it wasn't Rainbow Dash, the Dash I knew wouldn't have blamed anyone, that thing was just some trick made to torment us. I undid the restraints on Fluttershy who had fainted and pulled her onto my back. As I made my way up the stairs the door behind me slammed shut on its own. I stopped and stared back as I heard Dash start screaming again, but what was worse was that I heard a second voice, playful and full of laughter.

"Hey Dashie… Why do you think they call it a HACKSAW? Heeheheheheeeheeheehe"

I dropped Fluttershy on one of the steps as softly as I could and ran back to the door.

"NO! PINKIE PLEASE-"

I slammed the door open.

The room was empty. No slab, no rack, no Rainbow Dash.

No Pinkie Pie.

I backed out and went back up the stairs, as I lifted Fluttershy's thin form onto my back I couldn't help wondering if I'd just damned whatever was left of my friend to a living hell of torment under the knife of a giggling psychopath.

Chapter 8 (rewritten)

I stood watch at the door of an unpleasant room. It had taken me the better part of an hour to find a bed I was willing to let my friend lay on but in the end my search was rewarded. It was dusty but serviceable and Fluttershy needed the rest after what she'd been through. The ambient light seemed brighter than before, maybe it meant some kind of day was dawning outside, wherever or whatever the outside was. Regardless of the reason I didn't need the light spell anymore, which was good because my headache was becoming unbearable. After a little while longer I stepped back into the room and crawled carefully into the bed next to Fluttershy. I had done my best to help her, what little healing magics I knew had been applied, and at least her wings were still intact. I'd mended some cracked ribs and regrew some of her more important feathers, but part of the power from the spell of healing comes from the wounded and I didn't want to tax her any more than was needed.

I knew I should be out looking for Rarity and Applejack but I was so exhausted from rescuing Fluttershy I knew I wouldn't be any good unless I got at least a little rest. I laid my head down and tried to relax, letting the worst of the pain fall away into a dull ache.

…incess… …y can't I us… …at spell?

I started, staring around the room looking for the source of the voice. It was the voice of that filly again, it was soft and almost impossible to detect but it was there, fading in and out like an old record.

…n't you tru… …e?

"W-who's there?" I whisper, "Why can't I see you? Why can I only hear you?"

Suddenly a thunderclap split the silence, I nearly leapt out of the bed, Fluttershy squeaked as her eyes shot open, shocked into wakefulness by the noise. I put my arm over her as she shook.

"There there… it's ok, I'm here, and you're safe. It's just lightning." Which it was, I recognized the sound the instant after I heard it, a literal thunderclap, I decided it must be storming outside.

"T-twilight? W-" she gulped as she met my tired gaze, I knew what her question was going to be.

"Yea… yea it was real… At least, it was as real as anything in whatever this place is." I answered.

Tears started pouring down her face as she was wracked with sobs, "I'm s-sorry… I should have s-said something, I was j-just so scared and ashamed… I f-felt like it was all m-my fault."

I pulled her close, "I know 'Shy, I know…"

The storm raged outside for a while as we sat there sharing the tears we needed to let out. After a few moments Fluttershy looked up, wincing as she did so. "When I found out what happened to Dash, what happened with Pinkie… I knew right away," she confessed, "I knew that what happened to Rainbow Dash… Pinkie had originally intended for me."

I had nothing to say, that kind of burden… Even though I was the one who found them I couldn't even imagine what it must have felt like to think: 'That was almost me'.

"Fluttershy, we need to get moving, we need to find Rarity and Applejack, if they were trapped like you were…"

Fluttershy nodded, "I'll try to keep up… Uhm… Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"W-… when everything went dark and we were all… taken… did you… uhm… see anything?" she asked hesitantly.

I shook my head, "No, everything went completely black for me, I could hear things, I heard Rarity and Applejack scream, I heard you pleading…"

Fluttershy nodded again, "I heard them too… but…"

"What is it Fluttershy?"

"Well… uhm… what happened to Luna? I didn't hear her or see her after the darkness came."
I stopped and thought back for a second before realizing she was right, the only sounds I heard came from the other ponies, Princess Luna was silent.

I didn't like where my thoughts were headed, "W-well maybe she was taken first? Or maybe something happened to her."

Fluttershy just looked down, "I didn't really have time to think about it until now but… Do you think…"

I shook my head, "Luna would never hurt us, we rescued her from evil when we banished Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony."

Fluttershy only answered with two words, "Did we?"

I didn't want to admit that the thought had crossed my mind, that maybe, just maybe, the tyrannical Nightmare Moon was still present in the Princess's mind.

"Fluttershy, I don't know if Luna, or Nightmare Moon, had a hoof in this, but I can't imagine Celestia wouldn't have noticed that Nightmare Moon wasn't gone completely…" I answered, unwilling to think that my mentor and our Princess had missed something like that.

Fluttershy gave me a small hopeful smile, "Yea, you're right…"

"Now" I stood up with a vigor I didn't really feel, "Let's find our friends and get out of here."

We walked for what seemed like another hour or so before finding a set of stairs going down, we followed the hallway it ended at for a while longer after that, neither of us felt like talking. Something about the place we were in discouraged sound, it was a dark and oppressive atmosphere, everything from the off-grey pseudo-illumination to the peeling wallpaper, the rotting floorboards and rusty or stained lamp sconces gave off a feeling of desolation. It was as if this place somehow inimical to life, like it denied everything a pony was supposed to be, where there should have been laughter there was grim silence, where care and love should be there was only decay and neglect. Finally after an hour of painful silence we came to what was obviously a foyer of some sort, I peered about trying to get a feel for the layout.

My breathe caught in my throat like a stone.

I knew this place.

It wasn't just eerily familiar.

I KNEW it.

I mean… how could I not? I'd all but grown up here.

"No… no no no… this can't be right…" I whispered mostly to myself.

"T-twilight? What's wrong?"

I broke into a staggering run towards where I knew the main entrance would be, the doors were closed but they were rotted and barely hanging onto their once-solid iron hinges, a sudden burst of telekinetic force was enough to shatter a hole through it, I hadn't even slowed down.

As soon as I was out I whipped around and stared upward dreading and knowing full well what I'd see. Fluttershy came out in a sort of limping trot.

"Uhm, Twilight? What was that? Whats wro-" her question died in her throat as she followed my gaze upward.

"Oh…" was all she said.

Oh.

I stared up at the ruined majesty of Canterlot Castle, my childhood home since I was a young filly under the wing of the Princess. Even in its dilapidated state it was impressive, still standing despite whatever terrible neglect it had suffered. I felt tears form in my eyes to match the rain drops that were falling in the storm, I hadn't wanted to see this, this was wrong… this was so very, very wrong.

Small wonder why every room I went into seemed strangely familiar. Then that first room, the one I woke up in, was that…?

"Twilight look!"

Interrupted from my train of thought I turned to see Fluttershy pointing down into the courtyard, there were many statues there, each representing something important, an event or belief held sacred by ponykind. There was a new one now though; it was a sculpture of a Pegasus in the midst of taking flight from the ground, ascending into the sky with a look of familiar pride and defiance on her face. It was how we all remembered Rainbow Dash, how she should be remembered. Fluttershy, though, was pointing to something else. More specifically to somepony else. At the base of the statue was an orange-cream colored pony, her blonde locks falling over her face and her old worn stetson held off her head against her chest out of respect for the dead.

"APPLEJACK!" we both cried out as we rushed down the broken stairs to the courtyard.

She barely moved, looking up at us she blinked slowly, her eyes were red from crying and her face seemed drawn and weak. A shadow of the strong and vital pony we all knew.

"Oh… h-hey everypony… sorry ah'm… ah'm jus'… y'know… payin' mah respec's tah d-" she choked for a second as though tears were about to overwhelm her again, "…tah Dashies monumen' an' all..." she looked back up at it and sniffed a little, "awful nice ain'it?"

Fluttershy and I both looked at each other sadly, "Y-yea… Applejack, it's beautiful…" I replied.

She wasn't here, not really, her mind was off somewhere else, lost in happier times probably.

"Applejack… uhm…" Fluttershy broke in after a few minutes of awkward silence, it seemed like Applejack had forgotten we were there since she started a little before turning back to us.

"Uhm… what happened to you? After the darkness swept in?"

Applejack shuddered a little before looking back up at the statue.

"Ah… ah don' really wanna talk bout tha'." She answered quietly.

"Well… uhm… it's just that… Well, I woke up in some… danger... did you?" Fluttershy asked softly, trying to pull her attention back.

"Nah, ah… ah woke up righ' here… righ' at the foot'o this here statue…" she answered dismally, "Had mahself a righ' good cry when ah saw it…"

She drifted away again, her attention caught up with the statue, it was then that I noticed something at her feet. The rain intensified, coming down a bit harder than before.

It was a length of rope.

"H-hey Applejack? Are… Are you okay?"

She scoffed, "Sure am, ah'm jus' dandy" she answered in a dark voice.

"Well… I just-"

"T'was mah faul' y'know…" she said, cutting me off.

"What was?" I asked, already fairly certain of the answer.

"Dashie… t'was mah faul' she wen' the way she did."

I shook my head, "Applejack… why would you say that?"

"SHE CAME TAH ME OK?" Applejack snapped harshly, her eyes red with grief-fueled rage.

"W-what do you m-mean?" I asked her, Fluttershy had back-pedaled at her sudden ferocity.

"Her… Pinkie... She came by while ah was workin', said she couldn' find Dashie and wondered if ah knew where she'd gah'en off tah."

The blood drained from my face as I realized what she meant.

"So you… you told her?" I asked.

New tears started coming down, "Yea, tha's righ', I didn't have no reason tah think nuthin' of it, it was jus' Pinkie Pie lookin for Dashie… So I told 'er… I told 'er she said she was gonna be ou' in the far mea'ows practicin' a new trick."

She looked absolutely miserable, "An' then she thank'd me an' went on a'bouncin away like she always did…" these last few words came through a choking rain of tears.

"Dashie was suppos'd tah come 'round fer supper tha' nigh', never made it… figured she an' Pinkie 'ad been out prankin' ponies again so I didn't think nuthin of it."

She turned back to the statue and stared at it as she finished.

"Ah told 'er, I told tha'… tha'… evil… murd'rin pony where mah best friend was… an' now…"

"Applejack… It wasn't… that wasn't your fault…" Fluttershy spoke up before I could.

"Yea Applejack… Rainbow Dash… she wasn't exactly subtle… Pinkie Pie would've-" I started before she cut me off again.

"YA'LL SHUT YER TRAPS!" she shouted, "I sold out mah bes' frien' to a kill'r an' now I gotta pay for it."

In a flash her legs snapped out and kicked my legs out from under me, my head slammed into the ground multiplying the headache I already had. I caught a glimpse of a rope fly up and wrap securely around the statues neck line. A lightning bolt crossed the sky at that moment, illuminating the horror I was witnessing and making it seem surreal in the painful haze of my consciousness.

"APPLEJACK, DON'T YOU DARE!" I heard Fluttershy scream, I'd never heard her that angry before, even at the Gala when she was filled with frustration, or when the dragon was nearly on top of us. I heard another impact as I tried to get up, my head spinning from the pain, I saw Fluttershy hit the ground, I looked up as a wave of vertigo. My legs dropped out from under me again; Why did it hurt so bad, why couldn't I concentrate?

I went down, my gaze went up, I saw Applejack had already woven the noose, it was tied and secure around her own neck, her tear-stained face was set in a hard line, her eyes were red and gleamed with a grim light.

I turned my head to see Fluttershy trying her best to get up, making it to her feet only stagger backward out my sight as she steadied herself, her wings were still in tatters so flying just wasn't an option. I mustered a telekinesis spell and shot it out with all my might, but it barely made a crack on the solid statue, the effort nearly blinded me. I saw a blur as another lightning bolt snapped a thunderclap across my ears.

Followed immediately by the sound of another snap of a rope going taut and an earsplitting crack.

Chapter 9 (rewritten)

"…light?... …n you hear m…. Twili…. …oming in"

My head felt like a lead weight, my eyelids were like heavy stones, the familiar ache in my head was gone in a way but it was replaced with a sort of hazy and disjointed feeling. Frankly it felt like someone had replaced my brain with a rock.

The voice cut through though, "Twi…t… I don't kn…. …ear me but I'm… in…"

"C-Celestia?" I whispered through the murkiness.

"Twilight?"

It sounded strange, off…

"Oh Twilight!"

That voice… no…

"Come on silly-filly! Wakey wakey!"

My eyelids were pulled open forcefully and assaulted with an almost offensive amount of pink.

"HA! You're finally awake! Goody, I was afraid I'd hafta stick a needle into you and pump you full of adrenaline!" Her voice still carried that same cheery tone it always did, even when talking about… those things. I struggled for a moment before realizing I was pinned to a table, my hooves stretched spread-eagled and locked down with thick leather restraints. I blinked the haze from my eyes and took in my surroundings, I saw Fluttershy hanging painfully by her hind legs from a rope attached somewhere in the darkness of the ceiling, and…

"Applejack!" I cried out, despite our situation I couldn't help but feel relief, she wasn't dead… she wasn't… I gulped back remembering the struggle at the memorial statue. She was tied to a vertical rack, her head hung limply but naturally, in a way it couldn't have were it truly snapped.

"B-but how?" I asked nopony in particular, trying to make sense of it all.

"Heehee, you wanna know how jacky survived her little attempt at some permanent gallows humor?" Pinkie Pie asked as she turned towards me, sharpening a blade on a long strap with the same mannerisms she might use while cleaning a dirty cup before use. "Heehee, can't you tell yet?" she badgered me, before stepping up to the table I was strapped to.

I shook my head, I couldn't… I didn't know what was going on.

Pinkie Pie sighed dejectedly, "Wow Twi, I always thought you were the clever pony, it's no FUN if nopony GETS IT!" she said, punctuating her words with a bounce, "Right Moony?"

Pinkie glanced over her shoulder, speaking to somepony out of sight, a slight popping sound was all the warning she had before her head slumped unnaturally to the left, "heehee, oops."

A curt and regal voice cut through the pink ponies laughter, "That's disgusting dear, you may have been one of the ponies that helped banish me but really, couldn't you have a bit more decorum?"

A tall stately dark mare stepped partially into my view, her silver armour glinted like the moon and her main was all but the night sky itself.

"C'mon Moony! I have plenty of decorum! See? LOOK AT ALL THE STREAMERS!" Pinkie Pie fell into a fit of raucous laughter as the armoured mare shook her head in disgust.

"N-Nightmare Moon? So Fluttershy was right… It is you doing this." I felt a deep anger, at both myself for not realizing my own failure and the wicked mare for inflicting this torment on us.

She smiled mirthlessly, "Doing what? Oh dear me Twilight you must be mistaken, this…" She gestured a perfect hoof grandly, encompassing the whole room, "…is none of MY doing, I'm simply a guest here, or if you would prefer a more… common…" She said the word in the same way another pony might reference a particularly unpleasant form of fungus, "…term, 'I just work here'."

I blinked slowly; none of this was making any sense, "What? What do you mean? If it's not you then who?"

Nightmare Moon started laughing cruelly, an effect that was almost wholly ruined by the bubbly and genuine laughter of Pinkie Pie as she joined in, Moon's laughter faded as she narrowed her eyes at her Pink companion.

"Oh I'm sure it will eventually dawn on you, how I was ever defeated by such thick ponies I will never know." Nightmare Moon levitated one of the freshly sharpened blades, "hmmm, you know Twilight, as much as I dislike my companion here, she certainly does know how to care for her tools," She commented as she admired the weapons razor sharpness. "As to your initial question, you wondered how your friend survived her, ah, attempt? I will allow you the benefit of a… practical demonstration."

With those words she plunged the blade downward into my eye, the pain was unspeakable, I could feel the blood flowing, I think I was screaming, I don't really know. I think I felt it enter my brain, I knew I should be dead but I wasn't, my body was twitching and spasming uncontrollably as the blade sheared through gray matter like it was soft butter. After what seemed like an eternity Nightmare Moon withdrew the blade, the pain lingered for a time, I don't know how long, the damage skewed whatever sense of time I had left, all I know is that after a while it was as though it had never happened.

"Heeheeheee, see now? It's reeeaaaaally obvious if you think about it! I mean, what good is a party like this if you just DIE?! I mean DUH!" Pinkie Pie was standing on the other side of the table grinning from ear to ear.

I stare up at the ceiling trying to wrap my… my mind around what just happened, I had died, or at least I should have. Nightmare Moon simply smiled cruelly down at me. apparently pleased to be finally getting her vengeance. For a moment I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, it was only then that I realized I could hear a soft sobbing from somewhere in the corner of the room. I craned my neck and bent my back slight to get a good, if upside down, look. It was Luna in a cage suspended above the ground, there were very painful looking surgical needles jabbed into her back pinning her wings to her haunches.

"L-Luna!"

Nightmare Moon strode into my distorted sight to poke at the weeping pony, "Oh yes, my erstwhile prisoner and one-time host. She was so very glad to rid of me, which rendered her rather shocked and speechless when I rode down the hallway in a torrent of shadows to snatch her up." The would-be queen gestured for something that was out of my sight, a glowing hot poker floating into my vision. "I have so been enjoying reminding my little peanut here who is REALLY in charge." She began prodding Luna with the searing hot tip, eliciting small shrieks of pain from her. "Really, there was a reason I awoke in her heart in the first place, Luna has such a very dark streak in her, I mean, you saw what she did to Pinkie Pie."

"N-n-nooo… I'm sorry… please…" Luna pleaded as Nightmare Moon continued prodding her.

"Oh no dearie, don't bother yourself, I am perfectly capable of telling such an interesting story"

"Twilight… I'm so sorry…" Luna whispered before being silenced with another jab from the poker.

"Aw, poor little Luna…" Nightmare Moon cooed in an evil hiss. "Yes, she was quite distraught by the disappearances in Ponyville, foals and fillies, unicorns and pegasi alike, all vanishing under strange circumstances. She devoted so much time to discovering the truth, and when she finally got a lead she followed it up like a good little investigator."

"Twilight… I didn't mean to… I didn't mean to-" Luna's words were cut off by a swift blow to her muzzle from the levitating poker.

"DIDN'T MEAN TO? Oh peanut, what didn't you mean to do?" Nightmare Moon cackled in pleasure at her prisoners' pain. "You didn't mean to follow your tracer spell to Sugarcube Corner? Did you not mean to sneak in and make your way down to the basement?"

"No… please… I didn't…"

*CRACK*

Another blow from the poker silenced her.

"You didn't MEAN to pick the lock on the door and go inside?"

"Don't… please don't tell her…" she pleaded earning another smack across the head from the heated metal pole.

"You didn't mean to employ forbidden magics in a fit of pique and rage when you saw what Miss Pie had been doing under the cover of the night, YOUR NIGHT?!" Nightmare was shouting now, apparently immensely enjoying the horrible pain it was causing Luna.

"You didn't mean to enslave Pinkamena's will with your magic, or should I say MY magic since I was the first to use it in that body after all," Moon smirked with satisfaction as Luna winced and hung her head in silent shame. "You didn't mean to force Pinkamena to weave a noose from the 'streamers'? Didn't mean to make the poor sick pony HANG HERSELF FROM HER OWN RAFTERS?!"

"I… I was so… so angry… so ashamed… It was my fault… the night was mine… I couldn't… She was using it to cover her evils… I… I… Please… I'm so sorry…" Luna squeaked out her words in a weak and utterly defeated voice.

Nightmare Moon seemed satisfied with the damage she'd inflicted and moved back to Twilight, "Well, that was exhilarating, I think I'll pass the torch though, I'm going to go prod the little yellow one some more, she makes the most delightful shrieks. Bring the slave in here Dashie dear?"

I heard a door kicked open, "Yea yea… keep your bridle on," I saw Rainbow Dash… or her horrible revenant… step into view. She looked back through what I assumed was the open doorway, "Well? You coming or should we put you back on the rack?"

I heard a small broken voice answer, "N-no… I'm coming… just a moment…"

Rarity stepped into view, her coat was still well kept but her hair was a ragged mess and the trace of neatly healed scars criss-crossed her face like a road map. She choked a little when she saw her friends, "Oh… oh Twilight… I'm so sorry…" she walked over and began caressing my mane reassuringly, "I'm sorry for everything but... the pain won't last, it always goes away ok? Just remember that and it won't be so bad."

I gaped at her… her eyes were distant and bright with delusion.

I heard Nightmare Moons cruel laugh cut through, "Oh yes… Poor Rarity, how she screamed. You and Miss Pie spent hours of fun together right?"

I heard a shuffling in the background and Pinkie Pie re-entered the room, I didn't even remember her leaving, though it must've been sometime during Nightmare Moons tale. "Mmm.. yah! WE shpent lotsha timesh togezhur" she said through a mouthful of baked good, "Myum myum… *gulp* Heehehe, Hey Rarity! Remember that time I shoved an entire basting tube through your ear and… heehahahaehee, IT ACTUALLY CAME OUT THE OTHER SIDE?! HAAHAAHAHA HEEHEHEE… Oh that was hilarious, especially the popping sound it made."

I looked over to Rarity her eyes were glazed over and wide, staring off into the distance as she shook.

"Rarity… Rarity, it's ok, come back… we'll get out of this…" I whispered softly to her, her eyes found focus again and she stared down. "Oh Twilight… don't you know? We're dead… we have to be, look, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, even Nightmare Moon is here. And none of us can die… where else could we be?" She whispered back to me with tears of despair in her eyes.

"No, I refuse to believe it, even if Pinkie was crazy… Rainbow Dash wasn't like this. She was loyalty, you knew her, she would never blame us."

"But… but…"

"No buts… just do what they say for now," I grimace slightly, "Whatever they say, and know that… that I forgive you."

Tears started falling as her head hung, "O-ok Twilight…" in a much smaller voice she whispered… "thank you…"

At that moment something flickered, my consciousness, my sight, something on the edge of my vision moved.

I bent somewhat painfully to glimpse…

Myself?

As a filly… although it was gray and distorted, like a black and white photograph, I looked utterly dejected.

"Celestia… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…" the little filly said, tiny tears running from her face. I looked up and saw an equally distorted version of Celestia, as regal and unchanged by the years as ever.

"Oh Twilight… It wasn't your fault, I told you not to cast the telekinesis spell until I was there but really, I'm well over a thousand years old, I should've known better than to tell an excited filly not to do something," She laughed benevolently, "After all…" She leaned down to my younger self's ear, "It's most certainly what I would've done when I was your age." I laughed softly along with my younger self, I wondered if this was the last moment of peace I'd know before whatever hell these apparitions were preparing to inflict on me began.

"But… I wrecked the whole lab…" my filly self said; still upset.

"It's because you're powerful, much more powerful than I anticipated, once again my fault. So how about this, if you forgive me, I'll forgive you." Celestia said, I smiled as I saw my younger self's face light up and nod enthusiastically.

A sudden pain in my ribs brought me back to reality, I bit back a scream as I saw Rarity drive a knife into my side, and tears slid down her face as Rainbow Dash looked on in satisfaction through her one good eye.

When the pain subsided enough to speak I whispered, "It's ok, just do as I said…" to Rarity, "I forgive you Rarity…" I said with a pained grimace that I hoped counted for the smile I'd intended, she nodded and drove the blade in deeper, I gasped in pain.

"Heh, that's better, and I thought miss prissy-hooves would chicken out like usual." Rainbow said mockingly.

"Oh c'mon Dashie! That's rude, Rarity is trying her bestest!" Pinkie said with a bounce, her eerily familiar smile still made me shudder.

"Both of you be silent, you're ruining my fun," I heard the sound of something heavy being swung through the air and loud smack followed by the sound of weeping. "Oh Fluttershy, you're just too easy," Nightmare Moon's wicked laughter reached my ears and I found a new anger in my heart.

…ilight…

I turned my head around, that voice again, I was sure I'd heard it.

Twilight… open the way…

I whispered softly into the darkness, "I don't know what that means… I don't know how."

You must… it's the o… ay…

The voice began to fade again.

"Please… tell me what to do…" I whispered, begging the voice to give me something, anything. I couldn't see my friends hurt anymore, in the end all of this was my fault, if I had just seen Pinkie Pie for what she was becoming, if they wanted to hurt me then I would allow that, I deserved it, but my friends… they were my friends, they were everything to me.

"Please…" I asked softly to Pinkie, Dash, and Nightmare Moon, "please let them go, whatever you've done, just let them all go, you can keep me but let my friends go."

"NO!" Fluttershy screamed, "No Twilight! If you're here then I'm here, and Applejack too, none of us will leave you!"

"But… but it's my fault… in the end I should've seen it…"

*CRACK*

A pair of hooves snapped my head to the side, I was fairly sure it snapped my neck, but whatever dark magic was in this place wouldn't let us die.

"STOP IT DASH!" Fluttershy screamed again, "It's not your fault Twilight, we all share it, it's all of us…"

The sound of the poker being swung split the air and silenced Fluttershy.

I hung my head back as my spine slipped painfully back into position.

Tears burned against my eyes, maybe Fluttershy was right… maybe it was all of our faults… maybe we all did deserve what was happening to us…

"Hey Rarity, stab her again!" Rainbow Dash said with a hateful sneer.

"B-but… I don't…" Rarity answered, tears were coming from her own eyes.

"Do it you little priss," Dash said venomously.

"It's ok Rarity, remember?" I whispered.

She nodded, "a-and… Twilight…" she whispered back, "It wasn't your fault but… I forgive you too…" she said as she drove the blade into my stomach again.

I cried out, unable to bite back the scream this time. Maybe it was the pain, how it burned and seemed to drive every extraneous thought from my mind, but for a moment I had clarity. I saw the pain that we had all inflicted, I saw the sins we'd all committed; Luna's temper, my own pride, Rarity's weakness, Applejacks blame, and Fluttershys silent shame. We all did so much damage to each other without even knowing it.

I felt the blade pull from my stomach, I cried out again.

This was punishment… it was…

My eyes snapped open, I felt the bottom fall out of my heart.

It was my fault.

All of this was…

"Rarity," I whispered, "I know what we have to do."

Chapter 10 (rewritten)

To be honest, I'm not really sure how much time passed. In between the screams and the occasional bouts of merciful unconsciousness I had, it took a lot of time to formulate a plan. The constant jabs and stabbings didn't exactly help either. Pinkie Pie was almost equally distracting, bouncing between myself, Fluttershy, and eventually Applejack when she woke up. Luna was reserved wholly for Nightmare Moon to torment it seemed though that hardly stopped her from sparing us her less than tender attentions.

The thing that wasn't Dashie made Rarity take the first round on Applejack, out of pure spite I imagine, but it worked out, despite the pain it gave Rarity the opportunity to speak to both Fluttershy and Applejack since they were right next to each other. To this day I'll never know how she did it, hurting her friends while simultaneously giving them the slight glimmer of hope they needed to keep going. I think part of it was the need to make up for giving in to whatever tortures Pinkie had visited on her when we first arrived in this hell hole, she needed to redeem herself in her own eyes as well as ours. I don't think she ever fully recovered from some of the things she had to do to us that night, even at the very end…

Pinkie didn't really take much of a part in things, mostly bouncing around the room while singing or humming, sharpening tools and occasionally… baking… I didn't want to know what went into the cupcakes she was cooking but I had a fairly good idea, enough that I focused a good deal of effort on not thinking about it.

Rarity leaned in after a while, "I've told them all everything," she said as I gasped in pain, she was running a long thin-bladed knife along my ribs, the pain was sharp and intense. Dash looked on with an evil sneer as she turned back to AJ who was sobbing.

"Really 'jack, I'm starting to get kinda tired of your constant apologizing, I mean, it's not like I'm ever going to forgive you." Dash said cruelly as she took a pair of tongs to the spike she'd driven into Applejack's right foreleg and violently tore it out.

"Ah… Ah know… bu' ah'll say it all the same Dashie…" She huffed through what I knew must have been excruciating pain.

Dash glared for a moment before turning and bucking Applejack in the chest hard enough to splinter ribs.

*CRACK*

Applejack coughed up blood and struggled to get air into the ruin the blow had probably left of her lungs, as always though her breathing evened and she coughed out, "Heh… yer gettin' purdy good Dash, you'da made a right fine applebucker one day…"

Applejack had found a fragment of her former strength, even in the dismal condition she was in I felt some small relief, a darker part of me knew why though, Applejack was letting Rainbow Dash hurt her because she felt she deserved it. The pain the wraith of Dash was inflicting was payment, something Earth Ponies had a tendency to believe in whole-heartedly, that all debts must be repaid. Each blow, each red hot spike, each cut bled out some of the debt AJ felt she owed to Dash and, as sick as it was, it seemed to be helping.

I took whatever I could get at that point.

I turned back to Rarity as she finished, I had long since run out tears and my screams were born more of defiance than pain anymore. I knew they'd step up their infliction's soon, they couldn't remain amused by this forever; I had to act fast.

"Rarity, when I give the signal you do as I instructed, go get ready" I whispered to her. I had to time my speech carefully, Nightmare Moon was very keen-eared, but Fluttershy seemed to be playing her part as distraction well. I don't know if I'll ever feel forgiven for the horrors I knew Nightmare Moon must have visited on her but I trusted my friend, Fluttershy was stronger than AJ in her own way.

Rarity nodded almost invisibly; no eye contact, nothing perceptible, good girl. I silently gave thanks again for Rarity's knack for subtlety.

She turned and pulled a cart up next to the table; on it she methodically placed several of the thin blades, each of varying lengths, each in perfect order. She added a number of the smaller cleavers, spikes, a chisel, and a hammer.

"What the hay are you doing prissy-hooves?" Dash came over and watched her work.

Celestia bless her but she didn't bat an eyelash, "Getting ready for the next round," she answered, not pausing in her work.

"Heh… man, you're really getting into this."

Rarity looked up with ice in her eyes, "Something like that."

Dash narrowed her eyes at that.

Nightmare Moon's back was turned and Pinkie Pie was about to pass behind Rarity, I tapped my back hoof twice.

Dash's eyes went wide; she realized what was going on but too late, and for a brief moment Rarity glowed like a goddess. Every inch of her coat shone like opalescent fire, Rarity never had the power I did, or even the power that most unicorns would call their birthright, she had skill and finesse that suited her work, but raw strength was something she'd always lacked.

Not that you could tell in that instant.

It was a forced telekinesis spell that would've made Celestia proud, the blades didn't even need to rise, they fired out like shots from a cannon skewering Dash. Rarity's back legs kicked out and floored Pinkie as she passed, the cleavers flew out perfectly and cut the bonds restraining me, my magic flooded back to me and with it the familiar headache, but I knew what it was now, I knew that I could fight it.

"YOU STUPID LITTLE-" Dash barely had time to shout before another blade neatly severed her vocal chords.

Did I mention she had finesse?

A sudden storm of dark magic grew behind me, just as I expected, Nightmare Moon was joining the fray, I whipped around and poured all my magic into my horn and out into Nightmare Moon, suppressing her magic and immobilizing her, the effort made even the barest movement impossible.

"Owie ow… that hurt Rarity!" Pinkie got up only to receive another pair of hooves to the side of the head causing it to snap backward completely in a darkly comical way. Rarity was in a trance, she was hemorrhaging power, as she threw blade after blade, four of them striking with perfect precision, severing the Applejack's bonds who was dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

In a second she was up, I saw the grimace of pain on her face, her legs must've felt like they were on fire but she moved like they didn't matter. Two lightning swift kicks and Fluttershy's cage was open, she flew over us and landed in front of Luna's prison.

Applejack looked towards Nightmare Moon, preparing to jump her but a sudden look of fear crossed her face as she looked past me, I managed not to flinch as she leapt over me and collided with something, Dash probably. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pinkie Pie get up, Rarity turn towards her but she was worn thin already. We were cutting it close, Rarity was nearly tapped out. A feeling of fear swept through my heart as I saw Pinkie Pie look around innocently before picking up one of the cleavers that had freed me and was now lying on the stained cobblestones of the floor. She grinned past the handle of the blade as she looked to me and Moon, then behind me to Rarity, then presumably to Applejack and Rainbow whom I could hear wrestling on the floor; apparently undecided as to who she would dismember first.

Pinkie looked incredibly pleased, like she was surrounded by sweets and didn't know which to sample first.

Rarity's knees were shaking from exhaustion, her eyes were barely staying focused, it was over… I turned back to Nightmare Moon, determined to push one last burst through when I heard the whisk of a well-sharpened blade being thrown, my hopes fell…

Then a cleaver lodged itself in Nightmare Moons skull with a sickening crunch.

Her eyes glazed over and the pent up force sent her rocketing back into the stone wall like a rag doll, I heard bones snap and crack, but even as she fell to the floor I saw the bones sliding back into place, pure hate bleeding through her gaze.

"Go on silly-filly, this party was getting boring anyway." Pinkie Pie said with a goofy smile. I could only blink in disbelief.

She whipped another blade down and it landed neatly between Rainbow's eyes, stopping her for the moment AJ needed to snatch a length of ragged rope from the counter top and secure her. Fluttershy staggered past carrying Luna out the door, as she did Pinkie Pie turn towards her.

"Luna, don't feel too bad 'kay? It's not like I really fought back," she said with one of those small, knowing, Pinkie Pie smiles. Luna only stared, her eyes wide and filled with tears, "I'm so sorry…" she whispered as she went past on Fluttershy's back as Pinkie grinned.

I just nodded and we raced out as fast as we could with Applejack carrying Rarity and Fluttershy carrying Luna, the last I saw of Pinkie Pie she was picking up another sharp blade and smiling maniacally as she kicked the door shut. The last thing I heard from that room was Nightmare Moon, roaring in rage. We made it up the stairs and staggered into the gray light of the hallway, I knew where we were now, I'd walked these halls a thousand times over for more than a decade. We ran like hell was on our hooves, it probably was now that I think about it. We made it to the throne room though and I could hear it, a soft humming in my mind.

"Girls, I need your help, just like before, when we used the Elements of Harmony, I need you all," I said, they all nodded, even Luna.

They closed their eyes and I reached out to them, our connection was as strong as ever, the Elements gave us power but it was our friendship that linked us together.

I released a surge of magical strength, feeling for the cracks in my own mind. Finding them in moments, I reached out and let the light in. It was like the first rays of dawn falling through an attic window after years of neglect, dust scattered at the sudden breeze, ancient books and chests were illuminated. I breathed in as the headache faded and a loving voice fell on my ears.

"Finally… my dearest Twilight… come, we're leaving." Celestia's voice carried us all away and blissful darkness swept over us.

+=+

I awoke a good while later in a bed made for a queen, or a princess in this case, I was in Celestia's private chambers, my friends all slept peacefully around me in what I imagined was likely a magic-induced and mercifully dreamless sleep. Celestia was lying down on the floor by the bed snoozing too, although that was probably just plain old exhaustion. I knew what she'd been doing and how difficult it must have been to get even those scant messages through to me in that place like she had done, waking the memories in my mind that would give us all a fighting chance.

She stirred quietly and looked up at me. "Ah, there you are, back at last," she said, genuinely pleased.

I nodded, "Teacher, I'm sorry, I was ashamed, if I had come to you earlier…" I said, unable to meet her gaze.

Celestia shook her head gracefully, "No Twilight, it is I that should have come to you, I knew something was wrong but in my desire to believe you were alright I blinded myself to what should have been obvious."

By now the others were waking, Applejack at first, then Fluttershy and Luna, Rarity was the last to come to but not by much.

I opened my mouth but Celestia interrupted me with a hoof, "No Twilight, this is my responsibility, you had no reason to think that what was going on was any more than nightmares and shock, had I been more attentive I would noticed the power you had begun to leak."

"L-leak?" I said hesitantly. I had guessed that whatever had happened was connected to me but I hadn't been able to figure out why.

"Please… Celestia, I need to know… what happened? Where were we… and… what did I do?" I asked hesitantly, I knew wasn't going to like the answer but I had to know, for my own peace of mind.

Celestia nodded, "First I should tell you Twilight, you have more power than you believe, in fact, in a contest of pure magical strength you probably outmatch me by a healthy stride," she said with a smile, my jaw dropped at this revelation, me? Stronger than the Princess?

"Of course what you lack… is control, and that is, in the end, what lead to this whole matter." I started felt my heart plummet but, seemingly hearing my thoughts Celestia shook her head.

"No Twilight, don't blame yourself, there was no way you could have been any more controlled than you are now, in fact you've far exceeded my expectations, I thought it would take another few years of training to bring you to where you are now. No, the fault lies with me, I am your teacher and it is my duty to know your limits better than you do, and in that I failed." With those words Celestia bowed her head in apology to each of us in turn.

After we'd gotten done assuring her that we forgave her and pleading with her to raise her head she looked up at us, her eyes filled with sadness.

"Luna told me that she explained curses to you, is that right?" We each nodded to this, "so you know, then, that curses require a great deal of hate, but you may not realize that hatred need not necessarily be directed outward."

I squinted my eyes at this trying to understand what she was getting at.

Rarity only took a moment before she gasped.

I followed on her hooves.

"You don't mean…" I started, horror dawning on my face.

"Yes, Twilight combine the trauma of losing two of your closest friends, the revelation that one of them was a murderer, with your over-developed responsibility complex and you have the ingredients you need for self-hatred." Her head fell as she continued, unable to meet our eyes, "You know that when a great trauma occurs in a unicorns life it can affect their magic, turning it wild or causing it to vanish entirely as they lose the will to use it correct?" I nodded to this, knowing where she was going.

"When you witnessed the horrible things Miss Pie had done it wrenched your mind; your entire world came down around your ears. In a sense your mind cracked and your power leaked through it. It reacted to your hatred, becoming a curse all its own. You felt that you needed to be punished for failing to see Pinkie Pie's descent into madness, so you unconsciously called up an apparition that would deliver the torment you were convinced you deserved. Once you were with your friends the curse became even stronger, feeding off of their own self-hatred, creating a world where their punishment awaited them. It wasn't until you went to see my sister however that things became truly terrible."

Luna bowed her own head at this, "I committed a terrible sin, not only using my magic to kill but using it to force her to do something so horrific, I couldn't handle it, I imagined myself no better than Nightmare Moon and it was killing me."

Celestia placed a hoof gently on her sister's shoulder. "When you went to see Luna the curse discovered yet another source of hatred, only this one had the power of a goddess." Luna flinched. "It's ok dear, you couldn't have known," she turned back to us and continued. "When the curse moved to Luna it found a source of divine power, combined with your own it was enough to rip a hole in the fabric of what was real, it briefly connected Sugarcube Corner; where the source of all the hatred had laid dormant until then, to that place the curse had slowly opened up to. It used Twilight's mind and memories as a template to craft a gate to a place where all the torments you felt you deserved would be ready and waiting for you, and the apparitions that dwelt there were only too happy to come and retrieve you."

"Celestia… when we finally did escape… Pinkie Pie… she helped us, she even forgave Luna in that weird Pinkie Pie way for killing her… does that mean she was… real?" I asked, I had dreaded asking this questing, remembering what I had done to her in the hallway.

Celestia looked pensive for a moment before answering, "I don't know for sure Twilight, given the staggering amount of power you hold and the fact that you were the progenitor of the curse, it's possible that something more than a mere apparition came from that phantasmal realm."

"But the rest of them?" I asked hesitantly.

"Luna told me of the Rainbow Dash and Nightmare Moon, and while my sisters power being near my own gives me suspicions about Moon, Rainbow Dash was most likely just a shadow, all the hatred and blame you imagined her spirit must hold over you given flesh."

I breathed a sigh of relief, out of all of them she had been the hardest to see, really it was everything I imagined her as in my worst nightmares after what happened at Sugarcube Corner.

'So… those headaches?" I asked softly, already suspecting the answer.

"Were the side-effect from the power leaking through the walls of your mind, I believe that the ruined Canterlot Castle represented the decay that the curse was inflicting on your sanity."

I nodded, I had been right then, the whole time it had been my own power sustaining that place, which lead me to my final question, one I needed to know.

"Princess? I need to ask… where were we?"

At this Celestia sighed as though she had known the question was coming. "To be honest Twilight, I don't truly know. There are a number of places outside this world and few of them are known to me, that place you were in was a real place though, perhaps created by your power, but where it was I truly do not know."

"So… so it wasn't all in my head?" which had been the answer I was expecting.

Celestia smiled sadly and shook her head.

"No, my dear, it wasn't, when you five vanished all of Sugarcube Corner and much of the surrounding block was caught in a slipstream of magical energy, it took all of my strength and skill to penetrate even the small amount that I managed, the stream lead… somewhere… but I don't know where. It was all I could do to cast you my thoughts out and try to reach out to you across that illimitable distance. You're very fortunate that Spike had the presence of mind to send for me, the slipstream had little to no presence, it was a sinkhole rather than having an energy all its own, I may not have noticed until the morning when I rose with the sun."

I mentally thanked Spike and reminded myself to bring him a huge bushel of gemstones.

"Princess…am I still…" I started, this was the question I was truly dreading the answer to, above all others.

"Cursed?" she guessed, "No, not as far as I can tell, I used my own magics to cleanse the curse from you and, if I had to venture a guess, I'd say that when you were in there you not only found it in your hearts to forgive each other, but on some degree to forgive yourselves, and without that self-hatred that birthed it the curse was starved of the power that gave it life, preventing it from resuming its former strength."

I released a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding in.

I wasn't crazy.

I wasn't cursed.

And we had all made it out.

Tears started falling again, tears of relief and happiness this time, my friends joined in and slowly but surely we let it out, all the pain, all the grief, all the sadness and sorrow that had been visited on us the last few days that now felt more like years. They all started to fall away, the sadness remained, a reminder of all we had lost and all we had experienced, but something else stayed with it, a strength of a sort, a reminder that as dark as the world became, we rose above it.

"Uhm, yer highness, er majesty… uh… Princess Celestia?" Applejack said softly.

"What is it Applejack?" she answered with a soft smile.

"Ah was just wonderin'… D'ya think… mebbe we coul' make a memorial sorta thing fer Dashie?"

I smiled at the idea, remembering the statue in the garden, I realized it must have been closer to the real Rainbow Dash than anything, it was the Rainbow my mind wanted to remember.

"That sounds lovely Applejack, what do you think it should?" she asked.

"Well… ah got'a few ah'deas…" she answered quietly.

Epilogue: Twilight

Dear Princess Celestia

It's been a week since we all got back to our lives and started putting the events that happened at Sugarcube Corner behind us. As requested I'm checking in with a report. Applejack and Rarity both are making regular trips to Trottingham on your advice to see Docter Marey Ainsworth, the head psychologist of the Trottingham Institute for Mental Health. I haven't had many chances to talk to them, Fluttershy has come around once or twice though, and she's quieter than ever. During the time we were imprisoned by the apparitions I couldn't see Fluttershy very well, I know Nightmare Moon did terrible things to her though, I still have nightmares about her screams some nights. Rarity hasn't spent much time around us, I saw her go into Sugarcube Corner one evening when nopony was around though, she had a bouquet of pink roses in her mouth; she came out about ten minutes later without them. Applejack has been more and more withdrawn, I'm really worried about her still, she's told me she wasn't going to do anything foolish, she just needed time, and I know Big Macintosh is keeping an eye on her, so the best I can do is trust her. Macintosh knows everything as far as I can tell, I've spoken to him a few times when I come by to visit, he's not the most talkative workhorse but it's a comfortable sort of silence, I can see why being around him would help Applejack, calmness and Big Macintosh seem to go hoof-in-hoof. He says he's going to make sure she doesn't do anything foolish, and I believe him. Fluttershy is the one I've seen the most I suppose; she's been going out more lately, I have a feeling it's because she's not as comfortable being alone out on the towns' fringe as much as she used to be. When she does talk it's always simple things, we've had tea in the afternoon almost every day since we got back; it's become something of a daily ritual for us.

I'm doing alright I suppose, I still have night terrors and there are nights I don't sleep at all. Spike has been helping me keep up with my work, I don't know what I'd do without him. He's there when I wake up screaming in the night, and sometimes in the day too when I doze off. I don't like sleeping. Spike made an appointment for me to see a counselor at the Ponyville Clinic named Juniper Sweets, I've only met her once or twice but she's a very nice pony, maybe it will help. My magic isn't quite what it used to be but I think it's my own fault; ever since I found out it was my own power that caused the curse I've been wary about using my magic, I know it's foalish but every time I cast a spell I know I'm unconsciously listening for… for Her voice… Fluttershy wondered if I was getting a cold because each time I levitated my glass I sniffed. I didn't even realize I was doing it until she pointed it out, it seems silly but ever since the curse I've not quite been right around freshly baked goods.

I suppose I should get to the real reason for the letter, what I learned. I suppose in a way I learned a lot about the nature of friendship from this event. I learned that sometimes, even if a pony seems ok, she's not, we hide things from ourselves and our friends because we're afraid. Sometimes it's because we're afraid of what other ponies will think of us, sometimes it's because we're afraid of admitting something to ourselves. No matter how I look at it though, ignoring it only causes problems. In friendship we have trust, if we can't admit something about ourselves to our friends without them leaving us, even if it's something awful, then they weren't truly our friends. Real friends will look past all the flaws, big and small, all the perfects, great and tiny, and see us for who were really are. Each of us was almost consumed with our own self-blame, me for not being able to stop Pinkie, Applejack for telling Pinkie where Rainbow was, Fluttershy for narrowly, if unwittingly, dodging the knife meant for her only to have it strike Dash. Rarity hasn't gotten over the things she did down in that dungeon, especially the things she was made to do to me, and she hasn't been able to look me in the eye no matter how many times I told her I've forgiven her.

How is Luna coping? I know that she did something terrible but I also know that she must have seen what was happening down there as it was occurring… I can't say I wouldn't have done something I would've regretted either. Give your sister my best and tell her she's in my wishes.

Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle

Epilogue: Applejack

The following is a transcript recorded from the offices of Marey Ainsworth, Doctor of Psychology at the Trottingham Institute for Mental Health. The patient name is Applejack Serenity Apple of the Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville concerning a traumatic event that occurred approximately one week and two days ago.

Marey Ainsworth: Applejack, I'm so glad we could meet, my name is Marey Ainsworth and I'll be your counselor and primary care physician for the time that you're with us, here's my card.

*rustling sound as MA passes her business card to patient*

Applejack: A'hem, well, thank ya kindly for seein' me an' all. Uhm, ah'm not really use'ta, well, talkin' ta folks abou'….

MA: *Laughs* Miss Apple, I've been a psychologist here for nearly sixteen years now, you're hardly the first one I've spoken to who has had trouble going to others for help, the point is that I AM here to help you.

AJ: Righ' well, I guess ya'll 'ave probably read wut 'appened huh?

MA: I have, Princess Celestia herself explained the matter, I must say it's not every day we have royalty in our offices, it was quite the occasion. In any case she wanted me to talk to you about how you're coping, I understand you had an… incident… while under the influence of the curse.

AJ: *silence*

MA: Please Miss Apple-

AJ: Call me Applejack ma'am, I ain't no Miss.

MA: Very well, Applejack, talk to me, that is why I am here, to listen to you and to help you through this.

AJ: Doc, when mah big brother Macintosh got hit by a bail'o hay on the eve'o applebuck season, that was an 'incident', when mah li'l sister Applebloom sprained her hoof tryin' ta applebuck a'fore she was e'en six years, that was an 'incident'. Ah tried ta take mah own life, that t'werent no 'incident'.

MA: The curse was affecting your faculties, it wasn't your fault.

AJ: *scoffs*, Ya'll think the notion hadn't occurred ta me a'fore that? T'was pretty much all ah was thinkin' 'bout when I was givin' the eulogy at…. At the funeral…

MA: You had just lost a dear friend to a terrible tragedy, grief and sorrow was to be expected.

AJ: Tragedy? T'was a damn murder'r tha' took Dashie away.

MA: I understand the killer was… a former friend of yours?

AJ: *silence*

MA: Applejack, you're here to talk and I'm here to listen, all of these things have already happened, I just want to clear the air, that's all.

AJ: Yea, her name was… Pinkamena Pie, Pinkie to her frien's.

MA: Yes, I read her posthumous profile, Celestia was kind enough to keep the story out of the media in respect for the victims as well as their families and loved ones.

AJ: Righ', ah owe tha princess somethin' fierce fer all she's done fer me an' mine.

MA: Could you tell about her as you knew her though? About Miss Pie?

AJ: I don' really….

MA: Applejack, I told you, the air needs to be cleared, things need to be put out in the open, and once they're there we can see them for what they are.

AJ: Ah know…

MA: So?

AJ: Pinkie Pie was always a bit… off. She was random, silly, al'ays throwin' parties fer one reason or 'nother. Heh, I think she once threw a party cuz it was Wednesday.

*patient becomes taciturn and angry for a few minutes before continuing*

AJ: I reckon Pinkie t'wasn't 'xactly wut you city folk would call "perfec'ly stable". She was in 'er own li'l world that one…. She an' Dashie got on better'n most though, they was al'ays pullin' pranks on ponies, all good fun, nuthin dangerous or foul, jus' good laughs. Nopony e'er got hurt. O'course that changed did'n it? Somethin' was broken in Pinkie what could'n be rightly fixed, an' fer some reason or 'nother she started…

MA: I received the report concerning the contents of the basement at Sugarcube Corner, I'm fairly certain I can venture a fair guess.

AJ: Righ', well, wut we saw in tha'… tha' place… It's like she weren't no different from normal, well normal fer Pinkie that is, 'cept she was dressed in tha' horrible dress, made'o ponies and wings'n horns. She was still smilin' though, that same silly Pinkie Pie smile like she 'ad a joke she was just a'bustin ta tell ya. That same smile she wore when she came ta me tha' day ta ask me where Dashie was…

*patient loses composure for a moment before continuing*

AJ: Pinkie was al'ays the one who could make ya laugh e'en when things was at their wors' y'know? She was a ray'o sunshine no matter what was happenin', no matter how dark thin's seem'd she was al'ays smilin' an' giggin' so as ya could'n help yerself. Ya jus' start'd laughin' right along with 'er.

MA: It sounds like you miss her.

AJ: I'LL NEVER MISS THA' MURDER'R!

MA: Applejack, I'm sorry I-

AJ: SHE TOOK DASHIE! SHE KILT 'ER IN A WAY NOPONY SHOUL' AFTA GO!

MA: Then why don't you hate her?

*patient stops and remains silent for a time while she struggles to regain composure*

AJ: Ah… Ah do… Ah hate her… she took Dashie… Ah hate her…. Ah hate her….

MA: Applejack… you're honest… it's a part of you. Celestia told me about the Elements, how you're the Element of Honesty and truth. So tell me why you're lying.

AJ: Because… because… ah miss her too… even though she did all those 'orrible things… even though everypony in Ponyville righ'ly hates 'er… I miss her… Doc… what am I suppos'd ta tell Dashie? All ah can do fer her now is ta hate the one tha' took 'er away. Doc… It's all ah got left'o her…

MA: Rainbow Dash was the spirit of Loyalty. I think that were she in your horseshoes, she would've stood up for Pinkamena despite knowing what she did. Do you really think that hating Miss Pie is right?

AJ: Rainbow Dash… yea… yer prolly righ'… that one was as stubborn as a mule when it came ta her frien's. Even if we did sumthin 'orrible, sumthin unforgivable… Dash'd still be there for us. Still… Ah can't… I can't jus' let it go…

MA: I know Applejack. I can only ask you to help me heal the pain in your heart. Regardless of what you can or cannot do, remember this. Whatever you do, don't lose yourself, remember what makes you who you are and hold to that. Your honesty to others is commendable, but you're in a difficult place at the moment and what you need now is to be honest with yourself. Think about that for next time ok Applejack? Same time, the day after tomorrow ok?

AJ: Yea… righ', I'll be here Doc. An' thank ye kindly fer bein here. Fer talkin' ta me… Ah know ah'm not gonna be an easy one… Granny Smith use'ta tell me… 'ell she still tells me I'm bull-headed enough that ah'm the next best thin' to a sack'o rocks.

MA: Hehehe, well, you are a stubborn one, but honest, that will make things a little easier for you I hope. Come on then, I'll walk you out, we can make your next appointment with the receptionist.

*recording continues uninterrupted for several minutes*

*silence*

???: cross my heart… hope to-

*Tape runs out of length and recording stops automatically*

Epilogue: Fluttershy

Oct. 4th

Dear Diary,

I'm starting this because Doctor Ainsworth told me it would be good to have a place to keep my thoughts. She said that when traumatic things happen to ponies, it's good to have a place to sort through them. I don't really know if it will help. Sorry Diary, I didn't mean to say you're useless, it's just that I've been through a lot lately.

The doctors in Trottingham tell me that I'm alright to stay on my own, but I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do. Doctor Ainsworth is a really nice pony; she said I was doing remarkably well, all things considered, and that unless I felt a personal need I didn't have to keep coming to the appointments. She told me she wanted to see me again in a month just to check up on me and once a month for awhile after that. She's so nice being so concerned about me, I'm sure she has lots of other patients but it's so kind of her to make sure I'm alright.

Well, I'm going to go to bed now Diary, thanks for listening.

Oct. 5th, 5:30am

Good Morning Diary,

I had a bad dream last night, it was about the place we were sent, I dreamt that Twilight never made it to me, that Rainbow Dash just kept doing terrible Sorry Diary, I guess there's no sense worrying about something like that. It was just a bad dream after all.

I'm going to see Twilight today, we're going to have lunch together, I'm bringing some of the new tea leaves I got from a nice merchant pony, he said they were from Fillydelphia, I'm sure they'll make delicious tea.

I don't like being along lately, I used to be ok with it, I liked the quiet and the feeling of solitude but now, I guess it feels like I'm being watched? I know that sounds silly Diary, thanks for listening anyway, if I get back before it gets too late I'll tell you all about my day. I'm off to do the chores and feed the animals, Angel has been hitting me with a carrot for the past two minutes; I think he's hungry. I'm not sure why he doesn't just eat the carrot.

Oct. 7th, 9:21pm

Dear Diary,

I think I'm probably not as well as Doctor Ainsworth thought, I feel like I'm being watched all the time and it's really hard to concentrate on anything. All the time I was at Twilights I kept watching out of the corner of my eye for something. I don't even know what I'm watching for.

Well, I'm sure if I wasn't at least mostly ok Doctor Ainsworth wouldn't have told me I was, I'm sure it's just nerves, she did say I should talk to you to keep my thoughts I order. I think it's working, I do feel better, I'm so glad I have you Diary, I guess Doctor Ainsworth knew what she was talking about huh?

Not that she wouldn't of course, I mean, she's a doctor and all.

Sorry Diary, I'm a little worn out, after tea I went to the spa with Rarity, she wasn't very talkative though, but it was nice being around her again. She likes Doctor Ainsworth too but she says her dress went out of fashion several years ago. I thought it was a very nice dress. I didn't say that though, you know how Rarity gets when she starts talking about fashion. She's been acting kind of strange lately, really distant, I'm worried about her Diary, but at least she's keeping up on her visits to Doctor Ainsworth. I'm probably just being worrisome, we all went through a terrible thing. Well, I'm going to bed now Diary, thanks for listening.

Oct. 10th, 4:45pm

Dear Diary,

Sorry I haven't written lately, I've been really busy. I don't think I'm okay at all. Ditzy Doo was just here, she's taking a letter from me to Doctor Ainsworth to make an appointment; I had more nightmares this morning. I'm really worried Diary, I guess it's okay to tell you. I decided to go over to Sugarcube Corner today, to pay my respects I guess, Pinkie Pie did save us after all, or whatever that was down there.

Anyway I walked up to it when I saw somepony moving inside, in the kitchen, I wondered if the Cakes had decided to come back so I went inside. It was dark and quiet, there was no sound at all, I figured I must have imagined it so I turned to leave and saw a streamer hanging from the doorway. It wasn't there when I came in, I know it wasn't because I would've seen it, it was hanging low enough.

I think it's all in my head but after what happened I'm not sure. I've been going to see Twilight more, we have tea and sit for a while, sometimes talk about things, it's nice, it feels like old times when things were quiet and everything was fine.

I'm going to go see Doctor Ainsworth the day after tomorrow; I'll tell you what happened at the appointment.

*Illegible scribbles*

Oct. 12th, 5:34pm

Where did those scribbles come from? I'm sure I didn't write those there. Has someone been reading this? Has someone been in my house? I'm scared Diary. Who's been writing in you? I'm going to talk to Twilight Sparkle, I'm sure she'll be able to tell me something about this. I'm bringing you with me too.

I guess in the meantime I'll tell you about the visit. I told Doctor Ainsworth about my worries, she seemed concerned. She gave me some sleeping pills that will make the nightmares go away, at least I hope they will, I haven't had a decent night of sleep in a while. Anyways I'm going to Twilight's and you're coming with me. I think this might be my last entry for a while.

*several pages of scribbles*

Oct. 15th, 4:50pm

I haven't made an entry in this stupid book since I opened it at Twilight's and found six pages covered in scribbles after my last entry. I don't like this book anymore. So I'm going to burn it behind my house. Goodbye Diary, thanks at least for the first few days, they helped at little.

*Charred sections of the book illegible*

*Last Entry*

I burned you, I know I did, why are you back in my room? Why are you still here? There wasn't anything left. Why won't you go away?

Epilogue: Rarity

*The following excerpts were taken from the remains of the diary found in the house are dated from events occurring between Oct. 4th and Oct. 15th from the Carousel Boutique of Ponyville, owned and managed by the Unicorn Rarity*

*Contains pertinent clues to be studied and archived for later use by the Nightwatch, Hail Celestia*

This Journal is the Property of Bella Elizabeth Rarity, founding member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders

So Don't Read It.

That means you Scootaloo.

Also give back my scarf; I know you still have it.

Day 47 by CMC reckoning

The CMC tried our hooves at rock-climbing today. I don't see what's dangerous about it, we spent all day climbing on top of the rocks out in the fields behind Appleblooms barn, it was kinda boring. We asked Applejack why anypony would go rock-climbing for fun, she just started laughing at us, I thought it was kinda rude.

Day 48 by CMC reckoning

Silver Spoon threw a muffin at my head today. It bounced off but it didn't really hurt. Still, who throws muffins? Anyway the CMC got together at the clubhouse after school to plan our next sleepover, I wanted to have it at my house but Rarity said no, she's been acting really weird lately, I'm a little worried about her, she hasn't really slept much. Actually I don't remember seeing her sleeping in a while, not since that weird thing happened at Sugarcube Corner. It was pretty cool getting to see Princess Celestia work magic though, I've never seen anything like it!

Day 49 by CMC reckoning

*Nightwatch addendum: Certain of the sentences required reconstruction since water-stains had damaged parts of the page, likely source is tears given source material of the entry*

Rarity yelled at me today, she never yells at me, when she's mad she usually just gets all quiet and tells me to go outside. I'm really worried, I think she should get some rest, I pretended to be asleep last night so I could sneak out and I was right, she's not sleeping, she was drinking that really bad-smelling brown stuff that she keeps in the high shelves of the kitchen. I think she drank the entire bottle, I've never had any but it smells bad enough that I don't think it's good. Went over to Appleblooms for the rest of the day, she wasn't there but Big Macintosh gave me some cider and talked to me, he's a really nice pony.

Day 50 by CMC reckoning

Spent the night at Appleblooms, when I told Applejack what happened she just looked really sad. Why won't adults tell us anything? Anyway she said she'd go talk to Rarity. I told Scootaloo and Applebloom about it, Scootaloo said I should stay away from home for a while. She said that the brown stuff was called whiskey and when adults drink it they get mean and hit stuff. I hope Rarity is ok, she's my sister, Applejack said she'd talk to her though so everything should be ok right?

Day 51 by CMC reckoning

*Nightwatch addendum: This entry is of interest, it may be the first hinting instance of the Event that occurred in Ponyville.*

Applejack came back this morning, she said she talked to Rarity, I went back home but I couldn't find her. I went all over town looking for her but she wasn't anywhere, I even begged Twilight to use a locator spell but it couldn't find her either. I'm worried, what if she left town? Did she leave me behind? Granny Smith said I could stay with them until Rarity showed up to collect me.

Day 52 by CMC reckoning

Rarity came to pick me up last night, she said she was sorry she had been so short with me lately, that she'd been going through some hard things. I'm just glad she's back and ok, she seemed a little strange though, anytime there was quiet it was like she was listening for something I think. She had a scar on her side that I didn't remember being there before, when I asked her about it she got a weird look on her face and told her it was nothing, just an accident. Scootaloo said she'd come by today with Applebloom and we'd do some more crusading, I'm looking forward to it.

Day 53 by CMC reckoning

Tried to ride Scootaloo's scooter but it doesn't really work without wings, I tried to move myself by using my horn but my magic is still weak. We all went down to Fluttershy's again, she's been really nice about letting us stay over there lately, I think she likes the company. She looked a little more jumpy than usual today though. She walked us all home after we spent the day there, I was the last one she dropped off, I saw her staring at Sugarcube Corner from my window after I got in though, she went in for a minute then came racing back out like she was scared or something. I wonder if it's haunted, everyone avoids it now.

*Nightwatch addendum: the following entries from Days "54-60 by CMC reckoning" to use the Diary's vernacular were deemed irrecoverable by our technicians, the following pages were recovered in part however they also bore some irreparable damage. The mark "****" will denote the unreadable sections, Hail Celestia.*

Day 61 b- **** -ckoning

-****- -ity is acting really weird, she's gotten even worse than yesterday, I've only seen her sleep a few times and I'm getting scared, she's been really short tempered lately. I've been spending more time over at Applebloom's, Applejack -****- -ing through a tough time, that we all are since Rainbow Dash passed away in that accident. They never did tell us what happened. Rarity disappeared again last night, I don't know where she goes but she always comes back limping or exhausted or with a new scar. I'm scared.

Day 62 by CMC reckoning

I saw something last night. It scared me more than I've ever been scared before, it felt like my heart was in my throat, I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe. I went down to see if Rarity was going to stay awake all night again, I saw her on the couch, I think she was asleep, but there was somepony else in the room too. I don't know if it was a ma- -****- colt, it was wearing a weird outfit like a dress, only it had wings coming off the back. It was dark so I couldn't see much, the pony just stood there and stared at Rarity. I don't know -****- I felt like if I moved or made a sound that I'd really die. That whoever that pony was they were going to hurt me bad. I think I must have passed out because I remember standing there peaking around the corner for a long time and then the stra- -****- gone.

*Nightwatch Footnote: The rest of the Diary was either illegible due to the damage or contained irrelevant data. The investigation is ongoing concerning the Event, updates will follow as they are uncovered. Hail Celestia.*