The Cupcakes Anthologyby Waffle TownChaptersChapter One: The Beginning of the EndChapter Two: Regina AngelusChapter Three: Life, Light, TimeChapter One: The Beginning of the EndA scream of true despair rings through the night, but Rainbow Dash is the only soul awake to hear her own cry of terror. The cyan pegasus shudders, chilled, as the blanket of fear covering her is much thicker than the one under which she lies. Tears fall from Dash's face in copious amounts, welling up in her eyes and blurring her hazy vision. Long she waits like this, shivering, crying in silent dismay. Vivid images, those of splattering blood, long needles, and curved scalpels, seem even more real than Dash's own room. Even awake, keenly listening, the mare can still hear an ethereal laugh bouncing around inside the walls, mocking her. Just another nightmare, thinks Rainbow Dash. Another nightmare about being brutally dismantled, another night filled with a conscious recollection of her own dissection. These were the dreams that plagued her sleep; for many months, they had come and leeched at her sanity and well-being like a disease. A small part of herself believed that Princess Luna, the controller of such dreams, was playing some sick trick on her. However, Dash knows that the kind Princess would never stoop to such a level that she would abuse this dream for months on end. Feebly, her disheveled body slinks out of the cloud bed, and towards the bathroom. Into her mirror she stares, looking sorrowfully at the mare meeting her gaze. Heavy purple crescent moons hang under Rainbow Dash's eyes, and the eyes themselves are bloodshot, as though stained red. Even her polychromatic mane had a grayish luster, to match the wide, tired frown stretched across the mare's face. This is Rainbow Dash, but this is not the same Rainbow Dash that Equestria knows. With a sigh, she splashes cold water onto her face, then promptly dries it off, returning to bed. Flopping apathetically back down on her cloud mattress, the sky blue pony gazes up at the tall walls of her floating home, teeming with portraits and propaganda of the Wonderbolts. In a daze, her mind drifts to her good dreams; those of joining the honored team of pegasi, those of spending time with Scootaloo, and eventually, those of her friends. "Pinkie Pie represents an Element of Harmony," she whispers to her posters, "She'd never do something like... That. It's just a stupid dream, about some stupid basement... It's stupid." Dash, never the one to ask for help, begins to formulate an unsavory (albeit necessary) errand for the following day. Close to breaking under the stress of her nightmares, Dash decides to visit Twilight Sparkle for a brief talk the next morning. Rolling over onto her side, a stream of glasslike tears slides down her worn face, and onto her pillow. "Let it end," breathes Dash, "Please let all of this end." "Months...?" Princess Twilight Sparkle's eyebrows lift, as she shoots a look of disbelief at her tired friend. The alicorn sits across from Rainbow Dash, who is slumped uncomfortably on a small couch in the foyer of Twilight's castle. "I know, right?" Dash shakes her head, "It's the same dream, over and over..." For a moment, Twilight silently contemplates her companion's situation. The same dream, over and over, for months on end. A terrifying nightmare, at that. "Have you... Talked to Pinkie, lately?" she asks, taking a shot in the dark. "I... Well... No..." "Then I don't think I'll have to do much studying to help you. Rainbow Dash, I think the best solution is going to be facing your fears." "Fears? I'm not afraid of Pinkie Pie, she's my friend! I just... Just..." The mare's magenta eyes lose focus, hazily setting in on the crystal floor. Her mind goes blank, and her mouth parts a bit, as if paused in the middle of a word. Silently, she looks back up, and meets eyes with Twilight, who returns her gaze empathetically. "I'm really tired, Twilight. I don't know what to do." The Princess rises, and places a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "Pay Pinkie a visit. Trust me, it will make a difference." Outside, the residents of Ponyville merrily go about their daily routines, oblivious to Rainbow Dash's predicament. However, none are truly as oblivious as Dash, whom into a dark spiral plunges herself deeper. Things unimaginable to her would unfold soon, and continue to do so forevermore, but currently, the weary heroine is none the wiser about this maelstrom of confusion, approaching like a black cloud across the sun. And sealed is this fate as the door of Sugarcube Corner creaks open before her. A small, brass bell signals her entry, and Mrs. Cake issues her a kindly welcome from behind the register, unnoticed. Rainbow Dash's heart beats more quickly than usual, accompanying her rapidly thumping hoof. This she ignores with difficulty, as she approaches the counter. "Mrs. Cake, um... Where's... Where's Pinkie Pie?" "Oh, you came for a visit! I'm not sure where that pony got off to... Maybe she's upstairs?" Terrified, Dash expects the older mare to suggest that she make the trip upstairs herself. "I'll go check for you, hm?" Relieved, the pegasus nods, smiling at the baker. As the blue and pink pony ascends the stairs in the rear of the bakery, a calm silence falls over the autumn air, which flows cooly through the open windows. A milkshake plops down suddenly in front of the young mare, startling her. Across the table, a blur of pink slides into a chair before her, holding a platter of pastries. "...H-Hi, Pinkie...!" Dash musters some anxious enthusiasm, her eyes glued to the tray of cupcakes beside her guest. "Hey Dash!" Pinkie slurps her own milkshake, and giggles. "You look really hungry! Try a cupcake, huh? Will ya?" Hesitantly, Dash stammers, searching for words. A bead of sweat rolls down the side of her head, and down her neck, making her even more uncomfortable. "I... I'd rather not. That's... What I wanted to talk about, actually." Pinkie, genuinely concerned, withdraws the pan of confections, and gives her distressed friend a worried look. "What's wrong? There isn't anypony bothering you, is there Dashie?" "N-No, I've just been having some weird dreams," the blue mare reclines in her seat, taking a drink of her milkshake, then shaking her head, "Weird dreams where you're... Insane. Not just, like, crazy, like you normally are, but... Insane. You like... Cut me up, and bake me into cupcakes while I'm still awake. It's... It's not cool." "Oh," Pinkie rushes her cupcakes back to the kitchen apologetically, then returns to her guest, "That sounds terrifying, Dash! Can I do anything to help?" "I think I just needed to hang out with you for a little while. I-" Mid-sentence, a nauseous, uncomfortable sensation settles over Rainbow Dash's head. She closes her eyes for a moment, and then reopens them to see the world spinning around her, more and more quickly each second. Shaking, the pegasus braces herself against the table, and grits her teeth together. Facing Pinkie, her eyes plead for any sort of help, although she knows such a thing is far out the window now. "Why... How did you...?" "Those were some terrific milkshakes," says the pink pony smugly, "Gee, Dash, you look exhausted. Must be all those bad dreams! Why don't you take a nap?" The blue pony collapses to the wooden floorboards, her head throbbing. No. This can't be happening. Eyes closing, Dash's consciousness ebbs away rapidly. A wall of black approaches like a speeding train, and sleep takes the mare. Iron. The pungent odor of iron is the first fleeting grasp of the waking world that Rainbow Dash is able to wrap her brain around. The next is the dampness of the air around her body, and the strangling of cuffs around each of her limbs, plus her neck. Without openi ng her eyes, she reminds herself of what is to come. This situation is all too familiar, too similar to the only dream that she had been subjected to for the past few months. Biting her tongue, Dash takes an elongated breath in. I've seen this too many times to let it happen. Opening her eyes, the pegasus stares into the pitch blackness beyond her own hooves, her expression stony and unafraid. She spares herself the task of looking down at herself, and instead directs her vision towards the very spot that her captor will soon appear. And appear she does. Bearing a toothy smile, laden with a cape of raw, bleeding hide, Pinkie Pie thrusts herself into a column of light. A cart, displaying a wide array of scalpels, knives, and other bizarre torture utensils shares the spotlight with her, but Dash knows this only from memory, as her eyes remain locked with Pinkie's. Words come tumbling from the pink mare's mouth, but they go unheard, unheeded. Rainbow Dash's eyes glaze over, her mind focuses on something more important, and something inconsistent with her memory. Her right foreleg. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Scraping, jostling, sliding. It moves. The screw is loose. Dash is ripped from her silent jubilation by a howl of impatient rage, as Pinkie Pie grows angry at her unresponsive victim. Furiously, she casts a thin scalpel into Dash's thigh, straight into her cutiemark. The knife strikes home, all the way to the bone with a sickening wrenching sound. The bound mare rips her own vocal cords to shreds with a horrifying, ear-piercing shriek. Then suddenly, barely noticeably, a shiver rolls down the spine of not only the wounded pony; but the assailant as well. A feeling unknown by either before, yet so familiar that both seem to recognize it immediately. A third presence, very near. "Dashie," Pinkie begins, quietly, turning away from the table, "Whatever you're doing, whatever you know..." The pink mare looks back at Dash again, at first solemnly, but then with a pencil-thin smile, "It can't help you anymore." A second wind surging through her, Rainbow Dash rips the metal shackle violently out of the holes from which it came, slamming the freed appendage into the brace around her own neck, breaking it loose as well. Pinkie shrieks now, fumbling for some way to stop the escapee, but quickly finds herself met with a hoof to the face. Pinkie falters as Dash breaks free of her irons. Quickly afterward, however, she is brought to the floor by her injury in a heap, and tears form in her eyes. A gagged moan escapes her lips as she looks back at her impaled leg, which is frothing with black, syrupy cruor. The pink mare, clearly insane, towers over her former friend, and in her clenched teeth, yanks the knife clean from her hip, an action met with another howl of agony. Pinkie Pie takes the bloody scalpel again, this time plunging the blade into the base of the pegasus's wing. Dash, slipping into shock, flails her stabbed wing wildly, sending the knife flying. Before she can turn around, however, she barely has time to feel the slam of a hoof against her skull, knocking her out instantly. Shortly afterwards she reawakens, the pain from her fresh injuries even more pressing now. Pinkie Pie, her attacker, is nowhere in sight. Shudderingly, and with great effort, the mare is able to stand, and thankfully, walk. The dark, dank room in which her dreams had occurred is now fully illuminated, yielding curiously now a new inconsistency. The macabre decor and grotesque furnishings were nonexistent, in their place an empty stone room. Across from the wide pallet where her dissection was staged, a thick, metal door hangs ajar enticingly. Slowly and painfully, the mare's wounds elongate the short distance by miles, and the eventual sighting of a long, twisting hallway on the other side of the threshold brings Dash more tears. "Pinkie Pie, I-I don't know where you are," she pauses to cough, "But I won't d-die. N-Not today." After many yards of walking, exhaustion and searing pain crumple her body like paper, collapsing her legs, flooring her yet again. A mirror-like pool of blood forms beneath her, and a mirage before her. Dash now lies at the hooves of a small, orange filly. Wide, sad eyes stare back at her under a curled mane of purple. Scootaloo, her honorary little sister, was looking down upon her idol, who lie motionless on the cold, stone floor of a long corridor. "Get up, Dash," she cries out, "Get up! You can't lose yourself! You can't lose everything you'll be leaving behind! Get up, please!" A few drops of blood seep into the pony's magenta eyes, dripping idly from her kick to the head. Scootaloo has disappeared; all that remains is a dim light at the end of a short tunnel, and a few raised stairs at the end of the hall. "I can't," Dash whimpers, groaning as she rises again to her hooves, then leans against the wall, "I can't..." Slow and arduous, the steps meander on towards the small staircase, which holds the immediate likeness of a large mountain. "I... Can't..." Rainbow Dash ascends the stairs, and slings herself limply upwards through a wooden hatch, which gives way into delicious fresh air and moonlight. In a small meadow, the pegasus is boxed in by coniferous trees and the darkness of nighttime, and her limited awareness is focused on nothing but the moon, full and bright. "I can't." A small motor revs behind her, and Dash can't will herself to turn around. Upwards through her back comes an explosion of terrifying agony, unmatched by anything she had ever experienced. As she falls for the last time Rainbow Dash is able to catch a glimpse of a shining steel chainsaw, hoisted high into the air by Pinkie Pie. A waterfall of red diamonds catches the moonlight, and the dying cyan mare inhales deeply, filling her lungs with air to scream- "I can't lose!" Rainbow Dash wakes up. "Let me reassure you, before you ask," comes a warm, familiar voice, "that you were not experiencing a dream just then, as you previously have been." Beep. Beep. Beep. A heart monitor drones quietly through a cool room, painted white and tan. A blanket covers Dash, and a thick bandage is wrapped around her head. At the foot of her resting spot, which she discovers to be a hospital bed, sits Princess Luna, gazing kindly down on her. "You're okay, friend, just take it easy. You're going to need to rest for a bit before you'll be ready for any kind of action, but... Perhaps my magic has accelerated the process." The tingling of magic brushes the bedridden pony's head, as the Princess removes her bandage carefully. "Healed completely. Wonderful." "Wh-Why are you here...? Why are you healing me...?" "Because, Rainbow Dash, I require your assistance." "With... What...?" "My sister," Luna says, sorrowfully, "She has been overtaken by some terrible disease. Not like a virus, or an infection... A mental disease. The very same one that you saw in Pinkie Pie." "I... I can't help you. I can't deal with two ponies, Pinkie Pie was... She was like, my best friend! When I leave this hospital place, I don't think I'll ever sleep again. What if she comes back? What if she tries to finish the job? What if-" "Pinkie Pie is dead, Rainbow Dash." The blue mare gives the Princess a shocked look, and processes this. "D-Dead? Did you kill her?" "That's the real kicker," Luna turns, opening the door to leave, then meeting Dash's eyes, "Pinkie Pie was found impaled completely by a tree branch, run all the way through and suspended in midair. She was able to get out less than one complete sentence before we rushed her here, where she was pronounced dead on arrival." Princess Luna steps out, but before she can leave, she is caught by Rainbow Dash's words. "...Less than one complete sentence...?" "Ah, yes," Luna nods, looking away, then back at her smaller friend, "She bids you the most sincere apologies, and hopes for forgiveness." "About your sister," Dash says quietly after a few seconds of pondering the Princess's words, "You can count me in." Author's Note Oh, I have a good feeling about this one. If there are any formatimg errors (lack of italics, namely) don't bother telling me, it's because I copy/paste these from the pages app straight into FiMFiction. At some point I'll get around to making an animated trailer for this story, but today is not that day. Hang with me, dear reader. Chapter Two: Regina AngelusA Scootaloo lies alone, leafing through the worn pages of one of Rainbow Dash's "Daring Do" novels, stopping to look closely at each picture. The filly imagines Dash, her best friend, in these harrowing, death-defying situations that Daring Do encounters, and she smiles to herself. Many ponies avoided Dash after her return from the forest. Each came up with an excuse for why her incredible survival against Pinkie Pie was a comatose dream, or simply stopped talking to the mare whatsoever. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, couldn't be any more proud of her honorary older sister. Thus, she was the first and only to volunteer her help in the investigation of Pinkie's lair. The orange pegasus reclines in a small tent pitched in a green clearing of forest, and while vouching for her own fearlessness, elected to remain and 'guard' the campsite while the search party was away. Rainbow Dash, of course, was leading this expedition, with a couple of Luna's royal guards to accompany her. Quickly and steadily, much to Scootaloo's vexation, the sun meanders lazily towards the west horizon, which she can see as a blur through the thin roof of her tent. The chill of an autumn evening settles like a veil over the slowly dimming scene, and anxiety begins to gnaw at Scootaloo's chest as she continues to read. They'll be back soon, dummy, she reprimands herself internally, It takes a while to find an underground secret lair. Darkness covers the forest in less than an hour, without the return of the search brigade. Worried, the small pony worms her way outside, through the zipper of her tent, and steps out into the moonlit grass. Beyond the trees, the lunar body itself isn't yet visible, but thousands of beautiful stars grace the sky, burning brightly outside the boundaries of artificial luminance. Scootaloo, even in her concern, can't help but stop and gaze up at the glittering sky, whose innumerable eyes seem to look back at her kindly. Out of the corner of her peripheral vision, a glint of light reflects off the ground, sparking the filly's interest. Trotting over to this strange mirror-like disturbance, a sinking feeling comes over her. Embedded in the ground, sprinkled with a lone drop of blood, lies Rainbow Dash's gold "lead pony" pin from the Wonderbolt Academy. The pegasus took loads of pride from receiving this pin, and would never have left it lying around. The minuscule smarter of blood on the trinket is what unnerves Scootaloo, and the filly backs away from it slowly, a shudder going down her back. "Rainbow Dash?" She shouts the mare's name into the forest, eyes darting around rapidly, "Dash! Dash!" No response. The wind, cooled by the night, glides quietly by Scootaloo's ear, and whispers through the trees in front of her. The young pegasus closes her eyes as the wind rustles through the woods, forming an unusual chorus of percussion, creating an instrumental epitaph. After a moment or two of entrancement, Scootaloo's attention is grabbed yet again by the sound of creaking wood. Opening her eyes, she catches a glimpse of something truly odd. The trees, black underneath the rising moon, gnarl upwards and outwards, as if by invisible magic. The wood twists and bends, forming a natural archway that beckons the orange filly deeper into the forest. Awestruck, she stands at the threshold to this gaping entryway, staring into the black abyss before her. With haste she sprints back to her tent, retrieving a small oil lamp, but realizes she has no way to light it. With the unlit lantern, she returns to the arch. "I don't know what you are," she says to herself, looking over the intricately woven trellis, "but I've seen weirder, and I'm gonna find my big sister." Again, an uneasy silence falls over the forest as Scootaloo steps into the black of the shadow-draped land beyond the clearing. Slowly, fearfully, she trots deeper into the woods, and continues straight forward unguided until her face connects with a foreign object. Startled, the filly jumps back, and looks straight up at the disturbance. From a tall tree hangs a fraying rope, at the end of which is hung one of the guard stallions that accompanied Rainbow Dash. Shaken, the pony coughs violently, not yet dead. Scootaloo, terrified, lets out a wail of distress, receding away from the unsuccessfully executed guard. A root snags her hoof, tripping her up, sending her to the ground, where she looks up again at the stallion. As the archway before, the tree suspending the guard lowers itself slowly, until the pony falls to ground level, unable to stand. Paralyzed and on the ground, Scootaloo stares at him with wide eyes as saucers. "Don't run away," gags the stallion, "You..." He coughs violently, "You have to... find Rainbow Dash. Hng... Come here." Hesitantly, shaking all over, the filly complies. She expects a plea to untie the guard, but she is met with a much different sentiment. "There's... An angel... In the forest," he wheezes, his bloodied lips curling into a pained smile, "She's beautiful, look..." Limply, he raises his hoof, and gestures behind Scootaloo, who turns to see nothing but more trees. "S-Sir, I think y-you're seeing things," whispers the small pegasus, "I-I... I don't know what to..." "An angel... In the trees..." The larger pony collapses, his wheezing coming to an abrupt stop as he hits the ground. His eyelids hang limply open, fixed on the same spot behind Scootaloo. "S-Sir...?" The young filly suddenly realizes how alone she is- how terrifying this paradigm was becoming. The guard had been hanged, and Rainbow Dash and the other guard are nowhere to be found. Somewhere, in the same vicinity, lurks a pink, cold-blooded murderer. The woods are lit up suddenly by a warm, welcoming glow, which dances amongst the trees joyously, scaring away the shadows. Scootaloo looks down in disbelief, to see her oil lantern lit and glowing brightly, as if struck with a match. Dumbfounded, she looks around, seeing nothing but trees yet again. She traces the lifeless gaze of the guard to a single tree, and stares into that direction for a minute or two. "...An angel..." The tree branches rustle slightly, and then cease, "Cool." Turning back the other way, Scootaloo can see another slightly smaller clearing through the foliage, and the unnatural, petrifying fear that swamped her returns again. This feeling is accompanied by an underlying feeling of uneasy dread, reminding her less of fear, and more of some bad omen. Surreal, this feeling was, simultaneously beckoning her to this fateful clearing, and repelling her viciously from it. Thoughts in the back of her mind fade out, those of her friends and her cutiemark and flying, and her entire conscious focus pinpoints this phantasmagoric scenario. No fear, she thinks to herself, No fear. The filly converges on the center of this opening in the trees, regaining her composure, to find herself poised directly over a small trapdoor of rotting wood. In one of the planks, there is a small knot, forming a hole just large enough to see through. Scootaloo presses her face to this hole, and through this crevice, she can make out a smooth stone staircase. Her forelegs shaking, she slowly lifts the wooden hatch, and throws it back as quietly as possible, opening the dark, foreboding maw before her. Hesitantly, the young pegasus plunges one hoof onto the top step, then makes her way to the bottom at a breakneck pace, not wanting to be vulnerable for even a second. As she slips into the hallway below, the metallic stench of blood and rebar is barely noticeable. Scootaloo draws her eyes to the floor, where a crimson trail of blood is smattered across the concrete corridor. Suddenly, from close behind, the loud slam of the trapdoor closing grabs the filly's attention again. Shocked and worried, Scootaloo stares at the hatch for a moment or two, until she is convinced that she is alone. Turning back to face the hallway ahead, she is completely silent, and she listens carefully. Click, click, click. Furrowing her brow, she steps farther down the hallway, into an antechamber filled with steel lockers and an array of padlocked doors, furnished with thick chains. Clack, clack, clack. Faster, now, comes the noise again, louder, too. Hooves beating against the stone below, accompanied more quietly by the muffled heavy breathing of a running pony. Behind even that, there comes a sound that Scootaloo never expected to bring her such grief. A drumming, steady noise that hollows her insides, turns her brain to mush, and she isn't sure why. But as the noise draws closer, along with the running hoofbeats, she knows. This sound is a bad sound. With haste, she throws herself into an empty locker. The pegasus folds her small wings tightly against her body, closes her eyes tightly with all her will, and focuses all her energy on not looking out, not making a sound. She focuses on being somewhere else. For a moment, Scootaloo is on a boat. A large, sea-conquering fishing vessel, gleaming white against the deep cobalt water. The ship is tossed and batted by towering waves with ivory frothing caps atop them, but the turbulent ocean is showered with no rain. Instead, bright beams of sunshine break through the cloudless sky, glittering across the thrashing field of blue and white. On the bow of this boat, Scootaloo sits anxiously, waiting for... What? In the distance, there forms a mass of land, sculpted from brown and green on the horizon. On this island, close to the boat, a lighthouse extends from a cropping of boulders and sand, and from this lighthouse there stretches a wooden dock. An odd, unwarranted sense of fulfillment greets Scootaloo as the pier draws closer, as though she is being reunited with some old friend whom she has never met. At the end of the dock, a pretty mare sits oddly with her hind legs hanging off the edge of the platform. Her coat is as green as the foam atop the ocean, her forelegs clutch a beautiful golden harp, matching in color with her irises, as well as the magic that plucks the instrument's strings. As the boat pulls into the pier, Scootaloo dismounts the vessel to inquire about the whereabouts of this strange paradise. Her eyes drift to the island itself, dotted with humble cottages and small businesses, but lacking completely in ponies. "Where...?" She turns back to the end of the dock, to find both the boat and the mare to have disappeared. Her mind begins to slip, this dream coming to a close. The smell of blood returns, the drops of sweat regaining their places atop her head, her heart rate accelerating again. The dream, however, remains. "Welcome," booms a tender voice from everywhere at once, "Welcome to Pax Magna." Scootaloo is convinced that her drumming heart can be heard from miles away as the lucid daydream dissipates, but her eyes remain glued shut. Hoofsteps, this time slow and rhythmic, echo through the very same room. With an iron will, Scootaloo lets her eyelids open a sliver, to see the unthinkable; the impossible. Pinkie Pie, alive, trots methodically through the small storage room, her eyes glued to the trapdoor at the top of the stairs. In an oddly designed saddlebag draped across her back, there hangs a holstered chainsaw, drenched and caked with browned, crimson crust. Pinkie herself has gore staining her forelegs, and, exponentially more disturbing, her jaws. Scootaloo feels tears of paralyzing horror slide down her cheeks as the mare slithers by her, and stares up at the sky through the opened hatch. She places a hoof on the first step, then waits, then places one on the second, and waits some more. Pinkie blinks, wrinkling her nose, and a shiver passes through her body. Then, like a spring, her entire body pivots around to face the row of lockers, her lips curled into a fiendish smile. "Ss...Staaaay," her ghastly, monstrous voice gags, and she returns to her ascent with a giggle. The pink pony slams the hatch as she exits the lair, and immediately, summoning otherworldly courage, Scootaloo bursts from the locker, in search of a weapon. However, her frantic search is put on standby as she hears the rev of Pinkie's chainsaw. "Rainbow Dash, I'm coming!" She gallops up the stairway and bursts into the cascade of moonlight, in perfect synchronization with an ear-piercing wail of agony. There, I'm the middle of the clearing, stands Rainbow Dash on her hind legs. A bleeding 'X' has been lacerated deep into her chest and stomach, roughly cut by what Scootaloo can only infer is a chainsaw. The mare's mouth is parted slightly, her eyes filled with unbearable, ungodly pain, and her stare locks with Scootaloo's. A trickle of scarlet drips from her chin, and she tries to form words, but they don't come. Instead, a long, serrated blade is cast through her heart from behind, crumpling her to the ground permanently. Behind her, smiling widely, stands Pinkie Pie. The handle of the knife protrudes from Dash's back, bleeding profusely, and Pinkie clutches the chainsaw between her two front hooves. "Y-Y-You..." Scootaloo, trembling uncontrollably, mumbles to the murderer, "Y-You killed h-her..." Pinkie's laughter echoes through the forest, a horrid sound that chills the blood of every sleeping pony in Equestria. Scootaloo, losing herself completely, screams unintelligible obscenities, and casts herself at the pink mare as hard as she can. Her forelegs slam into Pinkie's ribcage with a satisfying crunch, and the earth pony drops her chainsaw from the blow. Scootaloo swings her hoof up into Pinkie's chin, snapping her jaw out of place as well. Falling back, the orange filly breathes heavily, and looks furiously upon the injured mare before her. Pinkie gasps for air for a moment, then reveals her pause to be an act. With the strength of an ox, the older mare pins Scootaloo to the ground with unlikely force, rendering her immobile. She lifts one hoof, drawing the chainsaw closer to her body, then drapes the blade of the improvised weapon over the pinned filly's neck, her hoof pressing Scootaloo's hoof to the trigger. "I don't want to kill you," seethes Pinkie Pie, "I only wanted her. Only Rainbow Dash. I won't kill you." She presses the chainsaw harder into Scootaloo's trachea, "Only you can do it." Scootaloo, crying so hard that she blinds herself with tears, struggles against the mare, to no avail. Her head lulls back, letting the well of tears stored in her eyes empty, and restoring her vision to some degree. A silhouette of gold and white light illuminates the forest above the struggling ponies, and Pinkie Pie is caught off guard momentarily. "Wh-What...?" She looks up at the beautiful light, her eyes wide, her jaws agape, "N-No! This can't be...!" Like a rag doll, the psychopathic killer is lifted from the trapped filly, and hoisted into the air by a gnarled tree branch. Another branch of similar size wraps around her again, squeezing her tightly. Scootaloo cringes visibly as the two limbs rotate in opposite directions, snapping Pinkie Pie's spine like a twig. The branches then swiftly retract, blending back into the forest from which they came. The light behind Scootaloo disappears, leaving no trace of its existence but the second corpse lying in the clearing, dramatically dropped atop the first. The beating of wings is the next thing the traumatized filly hears, and a comforting hoof is placed around her shoulders as she sits, silently mourning over the dead bodies. "The worst is over, I believe," Comes the soft voice of Princess Luna, "We had... Better return to Ponyville. I'm afraid that although the death of these two innocent ponies is dealt with, there are many kind souls that must die before this ends." Scootaloo, lost in her own thoughts, looks up at the Princess, her expression empty. "Do you believe in angels?" Rainbow Dash's head aches miserably as she sits up, her eyes fluttering open to face the unexpected sunlight that greets her. Soft, dry grass acts as her bed, rather than cold, wet blades of grass where she had last been conscious. Rather than excruciating pain and sorrow, her spirits feel oddly lifted, her mind fresh and clear. Beside her, experiencing the same phenomena, lies Pinkie Pie. In silence, the two lift themselves to their hooves, and meet eyes. "P-Pinkie...?" Murmurs Dash, her eyes softly pleading, "Are... Are you in there...?" "Dash," The pink mare pauses, looking down, "I'm so, so sorry." Pinkie wraps her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's neck in an embrace, which Dash gladly returns. The two sit like this for a few minutes, maybe more, before Pinkie speaks again. "I don't want to hurt any more ponies," she breathes, "I don't want to be a part of whatever game this is. It isn't fun." Dash, silent, looks up at the ridiculously clear day above. As a weather pony, this lack of clouds is so complete it's unnatural. A small house stands empty nearby, and more vacant buildings stand around it. While comforting, the beautiful place seems all but deserted. The blue mare pulls away from Pinkie Pie, and wrinkles her brow. "Where are we?" The two turn towards the sound of churning waves, to face a towering lighthouse, gleaming with a huge light, even in the daytime. At the top, they can barely see two golden eyes peering eerily down at them, which disappear seconds later. "I have no clue, Dash," Pinkie says, drawing herself closer to her winged friend, "but I don't want to stay long." Author's Note Wow, let's see if I can actually get an update schedule going! Maybe every Tuesday night? Who knows? Chapter Three: Life, Light, Time"I need a warrior to accompany me," Princess Luna turns to a courier, clad with royal attire, "One that is ready to do battle in my name, not just willing, but able." "Ah, with all do respect, Your Highness," The messenger gives Luna a concerned gaze, "Don't you have an entire army of enlisted guards at your disposal, that are required by law to aid you?" The Princess shakes her head sternly, pacing concentratedly back and forth before her throne. "They are but figureheads," She says apathetically, "Guard dogs for the castle. You know as well as I do that Equestria has not seen war for ages. But tell me, Courier, is there not a stallion in Ponyville that has seen deadly combat through a soldier's eyes?" Puzzled, the messenger flips agitatedly through a thick record book, using one hoof to turn the worn pages, and the other to ward dust away from his face as it is cast off the pages. On one page he stops, nearing the back of the book, and he stares at this page for a moment, reading carefully over what the tome has to say. "Hmm," He clicks his tongue, "This looks like the only pony who has been in battle, at least that we have documented. An immigrant from... From...?" Scootaloo, who had been waiting silently by the messenger, peers over the stallion's shoulder to see what he wasn't saying. "It says he was still on active duty when he showed up in Ponyville," Scootaloo reads aloud, furrowing her brow, "He was stationed... Off... Planet?" The confused filly looks up at Luna, who gives an affirmative nod of the head in response, as if this was expected. "Let us fetch him, Scootaloo. Our poor Courier has been sent all over Equestria recently; he shall be spared this errand. I feel that it's necessary that we pay Ponyville a visit, whether or not our extraterrestrial friend decides to join us will be determined in time." Rainbow Dash apprehensively pushes open a creaky wooden door to a vacant house, completely unlocked and empty. Pinkie Pie follows closely behind her, her blue eyes darting around the house as the pair enter. Upon a quick inspection, the house appears completely unused, completely unfurnished, yet lit with small candles throughout the room. Each room has a window or two, each hung between two dusty curtains that look like they've been there for centuries. The soft resonating of a harp's song lies under the sound of the ocean, coming from somewhere nearby. "Is somepony there...?" Pinkie inquires, directing her eyes to the ceiling, where this song seems to emanate from. Almost immediately, the music comes to a halt, leaving the small house in an empty void of silence. Hoofsteps click slowly across the ceiling directly above the two, and Dash takes off after them, motioning for Pinkie to follow. They are led in a straight line directly out the front door, facing again out towards the lighthouse. The hooves, however, continue onward, as if an invisible figure is walking on the air above them. This trotting gets farther and farther away, until eventually the two puzzled mares that followed it give up. Silently, the two reenter the house, this time to find it completely furnished to be a home. In the room that they have entered, which they had presumed to be the living room of the house, has two comfy-looking couches and a beautifully carved table in the center. Continuing their search, and neglecting all of the typical furniture, the two turn up with: A worn, leather saddlebag, a magnifying glass with a broken handle, plenty of blankets, an unopened box of matches, and a wide variety of books found in a dusty bookshelf in the bedroom. The last item was the most unnerving, and frankly the only one with any significance whatsoever. In the singular bedroom that the house has, Pinkie Pie uncovered by happenstance a rectangular picture frame. Laid into the glass, a color photograph of the raging ocean at sunset stared back at her. In the center of this picture, with their backs to the camera, sit Pinkie and Dash, with their heads leaned together. "We never had our picture made," Rainbow Dash interjects, pointing an accusing hoof at the image, "And the sun's just now setting! I don't like this, Pinkie." The cyan pony yawns, and throws herself on the bed, which she finds to be extremely comfortable. "I'm so tired, though." Pinkie sits at the foot of the bed, remaining unusually quiet. Her blue eyes faze off into somewhere far away, and they leak tears slowly down her cheeks. "You probably hate me," she begins with a sigh, directing her attention to the ground, "You probably think I'm a murderer, and that you don't want to be my friend anymore." "C'mon Pinkie Pie," Dash shakes her head, "You know I don't think that." "I'm... I'm just really scared, Dash, and..." the mare covers her mouth with a hoof, stifling her crying, "I just need to talk to somepony sane for a little bit." Rainbow Dash slides herself over, and pats the bed beside herself, inviting Pinkie to join her. The mare does so, propping herself up beside her winged friend, and exhales deeply, punctuated by small hiccups from crying. "So Celestia was possessing you?" Dash asks just above a whisper. "Y-Yeah. I dunno. She was... In my head, and I... I couldn't get her out..." For a moment, Dash is silent. Beside her, she can feel the gentle rise and fall of Pinkie's slightly quickened breathing. Her breathing steadily slows, until it matches Rainbow Dash's almost perfectly. The pink mare turns her head to face the pegasus, who returns her gaze. "What do you think this place is?" The cyan pony asks, closing her eyes, and imagining the ocean outside, "It's really weird." "I dunno, but... Those weird eyes we saw earlier... Who else is here? I don't like it." "Y'know, after what you did to me," Dash can feel the other mare tense up, "I'm not afraid of much anymore... But this place scares me more and more the longer I stay. I'm... Glad I'm not here alone." "I wouldn't want to be here with anypony else." Rainbow Dash smiles at this sentiment, and feels herself beginning to nod off into sleep. She lets her eyelids open slightly, and she sees Pinkie's blue irises staring back only a few inches away. "How did you die, Pinkie?" Dash asks her under her breath, resisting sleep. "I think," the pink pony yawns, and then continues, "I think an angel killed me, so you wouldn't be alone up here." "That's silly," The blue pegasus yawns as well, "But I guess that would fit right in with everything else so far, huh?" She chuckles softly. Pinkie smiles, and closes her eyes. Dash looks at the pony for a moment, and has a hard time believing that this mare had tried to kill her twice in cold blood. However, her face is detailed with lines of worry and sadness, and her perpetual grin has been replaced with a constant state of deep thought. Her mane is partially deflated from exhaustion and sorrow, and Dash realizes that this mare was a completely different pony than the one she knew only a few days prior. "Goodnight, Rainbow Dash." "Goodnight, Pinkie Pie." Pinkie Pie silently slinks from the bed she shares with Dash, and sneaks out of the small cottage into the wispy island night. In the cloudless sky above her, there are millions upon millions of stars- more than she'd ever seen before, even on the darkest of nights. There was no moon- Not just a new moon, but there was physically no moon present in the sky. The grass sways with a nonexistent breeze, and the constant thundering of waves slamming the shore is the only sound that can be heard. Pinkie looks with tired eyes up at the striped lighthouse, which casts its beam eerily towards the empty, frothing ocean. Without her usual enthusiastic skip, the mare trots absentmindedly to this column of radiant light, and starts up the winding staircase up its exterior. After a moment of climbing numbly, her blue eyes finally take a look at the stairs themselves- and find that they are made completely out of solid gold. Unwaveringly her ascent continues, punctuated occasionally by brief stops to admire the island from a higher vantage point. After what seems like an hour of monotonous stepping, Pinkie's hooves ring out against metal with a satisfying clang; the upper platform of the tower. Her attention goes first to the grassy field below, dotted with small structures and flowers. Then she stares blankly into the black abyss that is the ocean. Thoughts come rushing into her head immediately. What about my other friends? What else has Celestia done? When will I get off this island? What is this island? Who was that golden-eyed pony up here? Behind her, Pinkie hears a low hum, and she turns to see the tower's light much dimmer than it was previously. However, lost in her thoughts, she ignores this anomaly, letting herself become engulfed in tears. "I just wanted my friends to be happy," she cries towards the sky, "What's going on? Why is this happening to me?" In her anguish, she suddenly feels an invisible embrace take hold of her, the gentle squeeze of two forelegs around her, making her entire body feel warmer. Her attention finally captivated, the mare looks around the platform, puzzled. "Ah, don't cry, luv," comes a soft voice in an accent reminiscent of Rarity's, yet slightly less flamboyant, "You always hate when ponies cry...!" The sound of this voice alone calms Pinkie, in a strange maternal sense, filling her with even more inexplicable warmth. "H-Hello...?" She replies, continuing to search the area anxiously. Before her very eyes, a mare materializes out of thin air and props herself up against the railing around the platform. Her coat is a stark, pearly white, her mane glittering gold. From her shoulders, two delicate wings are folded down her back, her feathers incredibly well-kept. Two lavender eyes look down into the water below, filled with some sort of unearthly omniscient knowledge. A gentle smile graces her face, and she turns to face Pinkie, flashing her a wink. This mare, Thinks Pinkie Pie, her mind racing, is beautiful. "Y-You don't have gold eyes," she stammers, backing away a small step, "Wh-What?" "Well," replies the mare, regaining the steps that Pinkie took, "That's a fairly solid observation to make, have you nothing else to ask?" "Wh-Who are you?" "That's of little importance. But you're distraught; you need an answer," she raises her eyebrows, "I am the only permanent resident. Of where? I'm a perpetual tenant of both this realm and yours. Ego sum, however, a victim of terrible tragedy." "What tragedy?" Pinkie asks, now curious. "Oh, you'll discover in time. Or perhaps you won't. That's a story for another life. We have met before, though, even if you cannot recognize me. Yes, we have encountered each other many a time, and exchanged not a single word." "Have we met... Recently?" "Oh, sic, remarkably so! Now, I'm no mind reader by any stretch of the imagination, but I can sense that you're about to realize wha-" "...An angel." "Right on the money, Ms. Pie!" "Huh," The pink mare is silent for a moment, looking this pretty creature over quietly. "What all do you... Know?" "Sodet, you can't be so vague. Like... You want to know what I know about you?" "Um... Sure...?" I know you represent the Element of Laughter, and that you take pride in making friends with everypony you meet. Ah, but that's general knowledge. I know that you have a pet alligator named Gummy, and that sometimes you feel bad because he can't chew rock candy. I know that you're very nice to everything and never expect trouble, but for some reason you still keep a wooden bat under your bed. I know that you can't sleep in the rain. I know that you're not responsible for the terrible actions you've committed against Rainbow Dash, and that you think she still blames you for those things. On that note, you're in denial about your feelings for the mare, and you just wish you could put those emotions into words. You're terrified of the eyes you saw in this lighthouse earlier, but you're already trusting me completely. My knowledge extends further, but I see no reason that you would need more proof. Do you?" Pinkie Pie is silent for a moment, absorbing all of this information, then she narrows her eyes. "Okay, Dashie and I are ju-" "Come now, that isn't important. The important thing is, you'll be returning to the 'real world' come morning, and I have something that I want you to have." "Wait, I don't want to go back! Sure, this place is creepy, but at least I can't hurt anypony," she sighs, looking down, "I can't hurt Dash, I guess." "I wouldn't worry about hurting her." "Oh, really? Does that mean I won't be, like, possessed?" "No. You'll still be possessed, but Rainbow Dash will not be leaving with you." "O-Oh... So... Will you... Keep her company?" "I can't, I'm afraid. I have my own pressing business to attend to, but that's beside the point. I need you to hold out your hoof." Pinkie looks at the strange mare for a moment, then hesitantly raises a foreleg towards her. The white pegasus smiles, and suddenly a small burst of light appears before her face, bearing something small and shiny inside. The mare gingerly scoops the item out of the air, and hangs it delicately around Pinkie's hoof. "A... Necklace?" Dangling from a thin chain on her foreleg, there hangs a beautiful chrome locket in the shape of a heart. Light from the stars glitters off of the trinket, making a speckled light pattern on the two mares. The locket, although small, is oddly heavy, and a strange, noticeable feeling of serenity falls over her. "This is the power of a cosmic pony. As long as this piece of metal exists, you have incredible powers. It's only up to you to figure out how to use them. You, Miss Pie, are the living embodiment of Life itself." "Wh-What does that mean?" "Let me explain, and I'll share the prophecy with you as well." "There are many universes in our reality- some are incredibly similar, some are vastly different. The difference between universes could be as small as somepony making a choice in two different ways, or it could be as big as a nuclear war engulfing all of Equestria. Either way, each universe is different, and, as time progresses, has the capacity to become infinitely more different than it previously was. There is a guarantee, however, that one day, the prophecy I'm about to tell you will find a place in each universe." "There is one being that resides outside of these universes- They watch, waiting for the prophecy to surface in each one so that they can swiftly put each universe out of existence. Thus is the unfathomable power of this being. There is a single constant in each universe that allows for this to work- there is always a single group of three ponies, blessed with powers from generations passed, that are charged with stopping this inter-dimensional being from destroying their universe. This would mean permanently killing said deity." "These three ponies represent Life, Light, and Time. Life has powers that an touch all things living; the powers to heal or slay anything in their path. That's you. Then there is Light- yours truly-" With another flash, another locket of crystalline construction appears, but the mare magically casts it away again before Pinkie can get a close look. "-Who has the powers of the sun itself. Lastly, there is the almighty, unchallenged Time. The Time incarnate possesses only one power, but an ungodly one. Time has the sacred ability to rend its universe to smithereens by ripping holes in the time-space continuum. On that note, there used to be a theory that there was a fourth embodiment, Space, who was more powerful than Light and less powerful than Time, but I refuse to believe it." "Only the Time incarnation has the ability to kill the ultimate being, and that's where we run into issues." "Who's the Time pony?" Pinkie asks, hanging on to every word, "Do you know them?" "Ah, yes. I do know her. I also know that she's... Temporarily out of action." Pinkie continues to turn her heart locket around between her hooves, not entirely believing what the mare was telling her, but at the same time becoming excited at the promise of adventure. She smiles, and looks up at the angelic pony again, to find that her excitement isn't shared. "Protect that, Miss Pie," Says the pegasus with sincerity in her eyes, "You'll need it. We all will." Pinkie nods, and places the jewelry around her neck gently. When she looks up again, the strange mare is gone without a trace. Alone once more, the pink pony bounds down the lighthouse stairs with newfound energy. Quietly, she returns to the cottage, and eventually the bed that she shares with Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus stirs, her eyes opening just a sliver, enough for her to see Pinkie getting back into bed. "Where... Mmm..." She yawns while Pinkie worms her way into the bed beside her. "Just getting some water," she replies cheerfully, hiding her locket from view. For a moment, she stares at Rainbow Dash, her mind racing. You're in denial about your feelings for the mare, and you wish you could put those feeling into words. The white mare's words bounce through her head. "See you..." She whispers, pausing, "I-In the morning, Dash..." A stallion gazes out of a rectangular window in his humble Ponyville home, hooves pressed anxiously against the sill. Outside, he watches as a ballistic mare launches herself aggressively at a wooden door, yelling incoherent gibberish at whatever poor resident lived beyond it. The stallion, whose coat is light orange, his mane two shades of blue, steps away from the window, a fearful expression on his face. As he does, he hears a gentle knock on his front door, alarming him further. "Wh-Who is it?" He approaches the door, tensing up, and repeats himself, "Hey, I said 'who is it?'" "It's... Uh... I'm with the Princess Luna," comes a small voice from right outside. The voice, belonging obviously to a filly, shakes with the same fear as he feels. "What do you want...?" The stallion open the door slowly, to find an orange and purple filly stooped at his doorstep, her eyes glancing worriedly around the town. "Look, kid, this is no time for you to be outside, look at all this-" he gestures widely at the numerous insane ponies sauntering around, attempting all sorts of violence. "I don't see the Princess, either." "Sh-She's busy looking for Princess Twilight Sparkle, so she sent me on an errand..." "Uh, kid..." "...And my best friend, well, my honorary big sister, was killed by this mare that was..." "Hey, you, um... Might wanna...?" "...And so basically, do you know a stallion named-" "Look out!" The older stallion dives swiftly between a psychopathic earth pony, another stallion, and the terrified filly. His jaw is clipped by a flying hoof, but her delivers a punch to the assailant's gut, and then slams his other hoof into the attacking stallion's throat, putting him on the ground instantly. Behind him, the filly cowers in a ball, staring up at him. "Y-You wouldn't b-be a space soldier, would you...?" "Uh," the older pegasus takes a second to catch his breath, "The name's Waffle Town. Y-Yeah, I guess I was a space soldier. Author's Note Waffle Town isn't based off of me. I used his name for my account. That is all.
Chapter One: The Beginning of the EndA scream of true despair rings through the night, but Rainbow Dash is the only soul awake to hear her own cry of terror. The cyan pegasus shudders, chilled, as the blanket of fear covering her is much thicker than the one under which she lies. Tears fall from Dash's face in copious amounts, welling up in her eyes and blurring her hazy vision. Long she waits like this, shivering, crying in silent dismay. Vivid images, those of splattering blood, long needles, and curved scalpels, seem even more real than Dash's own room. Even awake, keenly listening, the mare can still hear an ethereal laugh bouncing around inside the walls, mocking her. Just another nightmare, thinks Rainbow Dash. Another nightmare about being brutally dismantled, another night filled with a conscious recollection of her own dissection. These were the dreams that plagued her sleep; for many months, they had come and leeched at her sanity and well-being like a disease. A small part of herself believed that Princess Luna, the controller of such dreams, was playing some sick trick on her. However, Dash knows that the kind Princess would never stoop to such a level that she would abuse this dream for months on end. Feebly, her disheveled body slinks out of the cloud bed, and towards the bathroom. Into her mirror she stares, looking sorrowfully at the mare meeting her gaze. Heavy purple crescent moons hang under Rainbow Dash's eyes, and the eyes themselves are bloodshot, as though stained red. Even her polychromatic mane had a grayish luster, to match the wide, tired frown stretched across the mare's face. This is Rainbow Dash, but this is not the same Rainbow Dash that Equestria knows. With a sigh, she splashes cold water onto her face, then promptly dries it off, returning to bed. Flopping apathetically back down on her cloud mattress, the sky blue pony gazes up at the tall walls of her floating home, teeming with portraits and propaganda of the Wonderbolts. In a daze, her mind drifts to her good dreams; those of joining the honored team of pegasi, those of spending time with Scootaloo, and eventually, those of her friends. "Pinkie Pie represents an Element of Harmony," she whispers to her posters, "She'd never do something like... That. It's just a stupid dream, about some stupid basement... It's stupid." Dash, never the one to ask for help, begins to formulate an unsavory (albeit necessary) errand for the following day. Close to breaking under the stress of her nightmares, Dash decides to visit Twilight Sparkle for a brief talk the next morning. Rolling over onto her side, a stream of glasslike tears slides down her worn face, and onto her pillow. "Let it end," breathes Dash, "Please let all of this end." "Months...?" Princess Twilight Sparkle's eyebrows lift, as she shoots a look of disbelief at her tired friend. The alicorn sits across from Rainbow Dash, who is slumped uncomfortably on a small couch in the foyer of Twilight's castle. "I know, right?" Dash shakes her head, "It's the same dream, over and over..." For a moment, Twilight silently contemplates her companion's situation. The same dream, over and over, for months on end. A terrifying nightmare, at that. "Have you... Talked to Pinkie, lately?" she asks, taking a shot in the dark. "I... Well... No..." "Then I don't think I'll have to do much studying to help you. Rainbow Dash, I think the best solution is going to be facing your fears." "Fears? I'm not afraid of Pinkie Pie, she's my friend! I just... Just..." The mare's magenta eyes lose focus, hazily setting in on the crystal floor. Her mind goes blank, and her mouth parts a bit, as if paused in the middle of a word. Silently, she looks back up, and meets eyes with Twilight, who returns her gaze empathetically. "I'm really tired, Twilight. I don't know what to do." The Princess rises, and places a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "Pay Pinkie a visit. Trust me, it will make a difference." Outside, the residents of Ponyville merrily go about their daily routines, oblivious to Rainbow Dash's predicament. However, none are truly as oblivious as Dash, whom into a dark spiral plunges herself deeper. Things unimaginable to her would unfold soon, and continue to do so forevermore, but currently, the weary heroine is none the wiser about this maelstrom of confusion, approaching like a black cloud across the sun. And sealed is this fate as the door of Sugarcube Corner creaks open before her. A small, brass bell signals her entry, and Mrs. Cake issues her a kindly welcome from behind the register, unnoticed. Rainbow Dash's heart beats more quickly than usual, accompanying her rapidly thumping hoof. This she ignores with difficulty, as she approaches the counter. "Mrs. Cake, um... Where's... Where's Pinkie Pie?" "Oh, you came for a visit! I'm not sure where that pony got off to... Maybe she's upstairs?" Terrified, Dash expects the older mare to suggest that she make the trip upstairs herself. "I'll go check for you, hm?" Relieved, the pegasus nods, smiling at the baker. As the blue and pink pony ascends the stairs in the rear of the bakery, a calm silence falls over the autumn air, which flows cooly through the open windows. A milkshake plops down suddenly in front of the young mare, startling her. Across the table, a blur of pink slides into a chair before her, holding a platter of pastries. "...H-Hi, Pinkie...!" Dash musters some anxious enthusiasm, her eyes glued to the tray of cupcakes beside her guest. "Hey Dash!" Pinkie slurps her own milkshake, and giggles. "You look really hungry! Try a cupcake, huh? Will ya?" Hesitantly, Dash stammers, searching for words. A bead of sweat rolls down the side of her head, and down her neck, making her even more uncomfortable. "I... I'd rather not. That's... What I wanted to talk about, actually." Pinkie, genuinely concerned, withdraws the pan of confections, and gives her distressed friend a worried look. "What's wrong? There isn't anypony bothering you, is there Dashie?" "N-No, I've just been having some weird dreams," the blue mare reclines in her seat, taking a drink of her milkshake, then shaking her head, "Weird dreams where you're... Insane. Not just, like, crazy, like you normally are, but... Insane. You like... Cut me up, and bake me into cupcakes while I'm still awake. It's... It's not cool." "Oh," Pinkie rushes her cupcakes back to the kitchen apologetically, then returns to her guest, "That sounds terrifying, Dash! Can I do anything to help?" "I think I just needed to hang out with you for a little while. I-" Mid-sentence, a nauseous, uncomfortable sensation settles over Rainbow Dash's head. She closes her eyes for a moment, and then reopens them to see the world spinning around her, more and more quickly each second. Shaking, the pegasus braces herself against the table, and grits her teeth together. Facing Pinkie, her eyes plead for any sort of help, although she knows such a thing is far out the window now. "Why... How did you...?" "Those were some terrific milkshakes," says the pink pony smugly, "Gee, Dash, you look exhausted. Must be all those bad dreams! Why don't you take a nap?" The blue pony collapses to the wooden floorboards, her head throbbing. No. This can't be happening. Eyes closing, Dash's consciousness ebbs away rapidly. A wall of black approaches like a speeding train, and sleep takes the mare. Iron. The pungent odor of iron is the first fleeting grasp of the waking world that Rainbow Dash is able to wrap her brain around. The next is the dampness of the air around her body, and the strangling of cuffs around each of her limbs, plus her neck. Without openi ng her eyes, she reminds herself of what is to come. This situation is all too familiar, too similar to the only dream that she had been subjected to for the past few months. Biting her tongue, Dash takes an elongated breath in. I've seen this too many times to let it happen. Opening her eyes, the pegasus stares into the pitch blackness beyond her own hooves, her expression stony and unafraid. She spares herself the task of looking down at herself, and instead directs her vision towards the very spot that her captor will soon appear. And appear she does. Bearing a toothy smile, laden with a cape of raw, bleeding hide, Pinkie Pie thrusts herself into a column of light. A cart, displaying a wide array of scalpels, knives, and other bizarre torture utensils shares the spotlight with her, but Dash knows this only from memory, as her eyes remain locked with Pinkie's. Words come tumbling from the pink mare's mouth, but they go unheard, unheeded. Rainbow Dash's eyes glaze over, her mind focuses on something more important, and something inconsistent with her memory. Her right foreleg. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Scraping, jostling, sliding. It moves. The screw is loose. Dash is ripped from her silent jubilation by a howl of impatient rage, as Pinkie Pie grows angry at her unresponsive victim. Furiously, she casts a thin scalpel into Dash's thigh, straight into her cutiemark. The knife strikes home, all the way to the bone with a sickening wrenching sound. The bound mare rips her own vocal cords to shreds with a horrifying, ear-piercing shriek. Then suddenly, barely noticeably, a shiver rolls down the spine of not only the wounded pony; but the assailant as well. A feeling unknown by either before, yet so familiar that both seem to recognize it immediately. A third presence, very near. "Dashie," Pinkie begins, quietly, turning away from the table, "Whatever you're doing, whatever you know..." The pink mare looks back at Dash again, at first solemnly, but then with a pencil-thin smile, "It can't help you anymore." A second wind surging through her, Rainbow Dash rips the metal shackle violently out of the holes from which it came, slamming the freed appendage into the brace around her own neck, breaking it loose as well. Pinkie shrieks now, fumbling for some way to stop the escapee, but quickly finds herself met with a hoof to the face. Pinkie falters as Dash breaks free of her irons. Quickly afterward, however, she is brought to the floor by her injury in a heap, and tears form in her eyes. A gagged moan escapes her lips as she looks back at her impaled leg, which is frothing with black, syrupy cruor. The pink mare, clearly insane, towers over her former friend, and in her clenched teeth, yanks the knife clean from her hip, an action met with another howl of agony. Pinkie Pie takes the bloody scalpel again, this time plunging the blade into the base of the pegasus's wing. Dash, slipping into shock, flails her stabbed wing wildly, sending the knife flying. Before she can turn around, however, she barely has time to feel the slam of a hoof against her skull, knocking her out instantly. Shortly afterwards she reawakens, the pain from her fresh injuries even more pressing now. Pinkie Pie, her attacker, is nowhere in sight. Shudderingly, and with great effort, the mare is able to stand, and thankfully, walk. The dark, dank room in which her dreams had occurred is now fully illuminated, yielding curiously now a new inconsistency. The macabre decor and grotesque furnishings were nonexistent, in their place an empty stone room. Across from the wide pallet where her dissection was staged, a thick, metal door hangs ajar enticingly. Slowly and painfully, the mare's wounds elongate the short distance by miles, and the eventual sighting of a long, twisting hallway on the other side of the threshold brings Dash more tears. "Pinkie Pie, I-I don't know where you are," she pauses to cough, "But I won't d-die. N-Not today." After many yards of walking, exhaustion and searing pain crumple her body like paper, collapsing her legs, flooring her yet again. A mirror-like pool of blood forms beneath her, and a mirage before her. Dash now lies at the hooves of a small, orange filly. Wide, sad eyes stare back at her under a curled mane of purple. Scootaloo, her honorary little sister, was looking down upon her idol, who lie motionless on the cold, stone floor of a long corridor. "Get up, Dash," she cries out, "Get up! You can't lose yourself! You can't lose everything you'll be leaving behind! Get up, please!" A few drops of blood seep into the pony's magenta eyes, dripping idly from her kick to the head. Scootaloo has disappeared; all that remains is a dim light at the end of a short tunnel, and a few raised stairs at the end of the hall. "I can't," Dash whimpers, groaning as she rises again to her hooves, then leans against the wall, "I can't..." Slow and arduous, the steps meander on towards the small staircase, which holds the immediate likeness of a large mountain. "I... Can't..." Rainbow Dash ascends the stairs, and slings herself limply upwards through a wooden hatch, which gives way into delicious fresh air and moonlight. In a small meadow, the pegasus is boxed in by coniferous trees and the darkness of nighttime, and her limited awareness is focused on nothing but the moon, full and bright. "I can't." A small motor revs behind her, and Dash can't will herself to turn around. Upwards through her back comes an explosion of terrifying agony, unmatched by anything she had ever experienced. As she falls for the last time Rainbow Dash is able to catch a glimpse of a shining steel chainsaw, hoisted high into the air by Pinkie Pie. A waterfall of red diamonds catches the moonlight, and the dying cyan mare inhales deeply, filling her lungs with air to scream- "I can't lose!" Rainbow Dash wakes up. "Let me reassure you, before you ask," comes a warm, familiar voice, "that you were not experiencing a dream just then, as you previously have been." Beep. Beep. Beep. A heart monitor drones quietly through a cool room, painted white and tan. A blanket covers Dash, and a thick bandage is wrapped around her head. At the foot of her resting spot, which she discovers to be a hospital bed, sits Princess Luna, gazing kindly down on her. "You're okay, friend, just take it easy. You're going to need to rest for a bit before you'll be ready for any kind of action, but... Perhaps my magic has accelerated the process." The tingling of magic brushes the bedridden pony's head, as the Princess removes her bandage carefully. "Healed completely. Wonderful." "Wh-Why are you here...? Why are you healing me...?" "Because, Rainbow Dash, I require your assistance." "With... What...?" "My sister," Luna says, sorrowfully, "She has been overtaken by some terrible disease. Not like a virus, or an infection... A mental disease. The very same one that you saw in Pinkie Pie." "I... I can't help you. I can't deal with two ponies, Pinkie Pie was... She was like, my best friend! When I leave this hospital place, I don't think I'll ever sleep again. What if she comes back? What if she tries to finish the job? What if-" "Pinkie Pie is dead, Rainbow Dash." The blue mare gives the Princess a shocked look, and processes this. "D-Dead? Did you kill her?" "That's the real kicker," Luna turns, opening the door to leave, then meeting Dash's eyes, "Pinkie Pie was found impaled completely by a tree branch, run all the way through and suspended in midair. She was able to get out less than one complete sentence before we rushed her here, where she was pronounced dead on arrival." Princess Luna steps out, but before she can leave, she is caught by Rainbow Dash's words. "...Less than one complete sentence...?" "Ah, yes," Luna nods, looking away, then back at her smaller friend, "She bids you the most sincere apologies, and hopes for forgiveness." "About your sister," Dash says quietly after a few seconds of pondering the Princess's words, "You can count me in." Author's Note Oh, I have a good feeling about this one. If there are any formatimg errors (lack of italics, namely) don't bother telling me, it's because I copy/paste these from the pages app straight into FiMFiction. At some point I'll get around to making an animated trailer for this story, but today is not that day. Hang with me, dear reader.
Chapter Two: Regina AngelusA Scootaloo lies alone, leafing through the worn pages of one of Rainbow Dash's "Daring Do" novels, stopping to look closely at each picture. The filly imagines Dash, her best friend, in these harrowing, death-defying situations that Daring Do encounters, and she smiles to herself. Many ponies avoided Dash after her return from the forest. Each came up with an excuse for why her incredible survival against Pinkie Pie was a comatose dream, or simply stopped talking to the mare whatsoever. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, couldn't be any more proud of her honorary older sister. Thus, she was the first and only to volunteer her help in the investigation of Pinkie's lair. The orange pegasus reclines in a small tent pitched in a green clearing of forest, and while vouching for her own fearlessness, elected to remain and 'guard' the campsite while the search party was away. Rainbow Dash, of course, was leading this expedition, with a couple of Luna's royal guards to accompany her. Quickly and steadily, much to Scootaloo's vexation, the sun meanders lazily towards the west horizon, which she can see as a blur through the thin roof of her tent. The chill of an autumn evening settles like a veil over the slowly dimming scene, and anxiety begins to gnaw at Scootaloo's chest as she continues to read. They'll be back soon, dummy, she reprimands herself internally, It takes a while to find an underground secret lair. Darkness covers the forest in less than an hour, without the return of the search brigade. Worried, the small pony worms her way outside, through the zipper of her tent, and steps out into the moonlit grass. Beyond the trees, the lunar body itself isn't yet visible, but thousands of beautiful stars grace the sky, burning brightly outside the boundaries of artificial luminance. Scootaloo, even in her concern, can't help but stop and gaze up at the glittering sky, whose innumerable eyes seem to look back at her kindly. Out of the corner of her peripheral vision, a glint of light reflects off the ground, sparking the filly's interest. Trotting over to this strange mirror-like disturbance, a sinking feeling comes over her. Embedded in the ground, sprinkled with a lone drop of blood, lies Rainbow Dash's gold "lead pony" pin from the Wonderbolt Academy. The pegasus took loads of pride from receiving this pin, and would never have left it lying around. The minuscule smarter of blood on the trinket is what unnerves Scootaloo, and the filly backs away from it slowly, a shudder going down her back. "Rainbow Dash?" She shouts the mare's name into the forest, eyes darting around rapidly, "Dash! Dash!" No response. The wind, cooled by the night, glides quietly by Scootaloo's ear, and whispers through the trees in front of her. The young pegasus closes her eyes as the wind rustles through the woods, forming an unusual chorus of percussion, creating an instrumental epitaph. After a moment or two of entrancement, Scootaloo's attention is grabbed yet again by the sound of creaking wood. Opening her eyes, she catches a glimpse of something truly odd. The trees, black underneath the rising moon, gnarl upwards and outwards, as if by invisible magic. The wood twists and bends, forming a natural archway that beckons the orange filly deeper into the forest. Awestruck, she stands at the threshold to this gaping entryway, staring into the black abyss before her. With haste she sprints back to her tent, retrieving a small oil lamp, but realizes she has no way to light it. With the unlit lantern, she returns to the arch. "I don't know what you are," she says to herself, looking over the intricately woven trellis, "but I've seen weirder, and I'm gonna find my big sister." Again, an uneasy silence falls over the forest as Scootaloo steps into the black of the shadow-draped land beyond the clearing. Slowly, fearfully, she trots deeper into the woods, and continues straight forward unguided until her face connects with a foreign object. Startled, the filly jumps back, and looks straight up at the disturbance. From a tall tree hangs a fraying rope, at the end of which is hung one of the guard stallions that accompanied Rainbow Dash. Shaken, the pony coughs violently, not yet dead. Scootaloo, terrified, lets out a wail of distress, receding away from the unsuccessfully executed guard. A root snags her hoof, tripping her up, sending her to the ground, where she looks up again at the stallion. As the archway before, the tree suspending the guard lowers itself slowly, until the pony falls to ground level, unable to stand. Paralyzed and on the ground, Scootaloo stares at him with wide eyes as saucers. "Don't run away," gags the stallion, "You..." He coughs violently, "You have to... find Rainbow Dash. Hng... Come here." Hesitantly, shaking all over, the filly complies. She expects a plea to untie the guard, but she is met with a much different sentiment. "There's... An angel... In the forest," he wheezes, his bloodied lips curling into a pained smile, "She's beautiful, look..." Limply, he raises his hoof, and gestures behind Scootaloo, who turns to see nothing but more trees. "S-Sir, I think y-you're seeing things," whispers the small pegasus, "I-I... I don't know what to..." "An angel... In the trees..." The larger pony collapses, his wheezing coming to an abrupt stop as he hits the ground. His eyelids hang limply open, fixed on the same spot behind Scootaloo. "S-Sir...?" The young filly suddenly realizes how alone she is- how terrifying this paradigm was becoming. The guard had been hanged, and Rainbow Dash and the other guard are nowhere to be found. Somewhere, in the same vicinity, lurks a pink, cold-blooded murderer. The woods are lit up suddenly by a warm, welcoming glow, which dances amongst the trees joyously, scaring away the shadows. Scootaloo looks down in disbelief, to see her oil lantern lit and glowing brightly, as if struck with a match. Dumbfounded, she looks around, seeing nothing but trees yet again. She traces the lifeless gaze of the guard to a single tree, and stares into that direction for a minute or two. "...An angel..." The tree branches rustle slightly, and then cease, "Cool." Turning back the other way, Scootaloo can see another slightly smaller clearing through the foliage, and the unnatural, petrifying fear that swamped her returns again. This feeling is accompanied by an underlying feeling of uneasy dread, reminding her less of fear, and more of some bad omen. Surreal, this feeling was, simultaneously beckoning her to this fateful clearing, and repelling her viciously from it. Thoughts in the back of her mind fade out, those of her friends and her cutiemark and flying, and her entire conscious focus pinpoints this phantasmagoric scenario. No fear, she thinks to herself, No fear. The filly converges on the center of this opening in the trees, regaining her composure, to find herself poised directly over a small trapdoor of rotting wood. In one of the planks, there is a small knot, forming a hole just large enough to see through. Scootaloo presses her face to this hole, and through this crevice, she can make out a smooth stone staircase. Her forelegs shaking, she slowly lifts the wooden hatch, and throws it back as quietly as possible, opening the dark, foreboding maw before her. Hesitantly, the young pegasus plunges one hoof onto the top step, then makes her way to the bottom at a breakneck pace, not wanting to be vulnerable for even a second. As she slips into the hallway below, the metallic stench of blood and rebar is barely noticeable. Scootaloo draws her eyes to the floor, where a crimson trail of blood is smattered across the concrete corridor. Suddenly, from close behind, the loud slam of the trapdoor closing grabs the filly's attention again. Shocked and worried, Scootaloo stares at the hatch for a moment or two, until she is convinced that she is alone. Turning back to face the hallway ahead, she is completely silent, and she listens carefully. Click, click, click. Furrowing her brow, she steps farther down the hallway, into an antechamber filled with steel lockers and an array of padlocked doors, furnished with thick chains. Clack, clack, clack. Faster, now, comes the noise again, louder, too. Hooves beating against the stone below, accompanied more quietly by the muffled heavy breathing of a running pony. Behind even that, there comes a sound that Scootaloo never expected to bring her such grief. A drumming, steady noise that hollows her insides, turns her brain to mush, and she isn't sure why. But as the noise draws closer, along with the running hoofbeats, she knows. This sound is a bad sound. With haste, she throws herself into an empty locker. The pegasus folds her small wings tightly against her body, closes her eyes tightly with all her will, and focuses all her energy on not looking out, not making a sound. She focuses on being somewhere else. For a moment, Scootaloo is on a boat. A large, sea-conquering fishing vessel, gleaming white against the deep cobalt water. The ship is tossed and batted by towering waves with ivory frothing caps atop them, but the turbulent ocean is showered with no rain. Instead, bright beams of sunshine break through the cloudless sky, glittering across the thrashing field of blue and white. On the bow of this boat, Scootaloo sits anxiously, waiting for... What? In the distance, there forms a mass of land, sculpted from brown and green on the horizon. On this island, close to the boat, a lighthouse extends from a cropping of boulders and sand, and from this lighthouse there stretches a wooden dock. An odd, unwarranted sense of fulfillment greets Scootaloo as the pier draws closer, as though she is being reunited with some old friend whom she has never met. At the end of the dock, a pretty mare sits oddly with her hind legs hanging off the edge of the platform. Her coat is as green as the foam atop the ocean, her forelegs clutch a beautiful golden harp, matching in color with her irises, as well as the magic that plucks the instrument's strings. As the boat pulls into the pier, Scootaloo dismounts the vessel to inquire about the whereabouts of this strange paradise. Her eyes drift to the island itself, dotted with humble cottages and small businesses, but lacking completely in ponies. "Where...?" She turns back to the end of the dock, to find both the boat and the mare to have disappeared. Her mind begins to slip, this dream coming to a close. The smell of blood returns, the drops of sweat regaining their places atop her head, her heart rate accelerating again. The dream, however, remains. "Welcome," booms a tender voice from everywhere at once, "Welcome to Pax Magna." Scootaloo is convinced that her drumming heart can be heard from miles away as the lucid daydream dissipates, but her eyes remain glued shut. Hoofsteps, this time slow and rhythmic, echo through the very same room. With an iron will, Scootaloo lets her eyelids open a sliver, to see the unthinkable; the impossible. Pinkie Pie, alive, trots methodically through the small storage room, her eyes glued to the trapdoor at the top of the stairs. In an oddly designed saddlebag draped across her back, there hangs a holstered chainsaw, drenched and caked with browned, crimson crust. Pinkie herself has gore staining her forelegs, and, exponentially more disturbing, her jaws. Scootaloo feels tears of paralyzing horror slide down her cheeks as the mare slithers by her, and stares up at the sky through the opened hatch. She places a hoof on the first step, then waits, then places one on the second, and waits some more. Pinkie blinks, wrinkling her nose, and a shiver passes through her body. Then, like a spring, her entire body pivots around to face the row of lockers, her lips curled into a fiendish smile. "Ss...Staaaay," her ghastly, monstrous voice gags, and she returns to her ascent with a giggle. The pink pony slams the hatch as she exits the lair, and immediately, summoning otherworldly courage, Scootaloo bursts from the locker, in search of a weapon. However, her frantic search is put on standby as she hears the rev of Pinkie's chainsaw. "Rainbow Dash, I'm coming!" She gallops up the stairway and bursts into the cascade of moonlight, in perfect synchronization with an ear-piercing wail of agony. There, I'm the middle of the clearing, stands Rainbow Dash on her hind legs. A bleeding 'X' has been lacerated deep into her chest and stomach, roughly cut by what Scootaloo can only infer is a chainsaw. The mare's mouth is parted slightly, her eyes filled with unbearable, ungodly pain, and her stare locks with Scootaloo's. A trickle of scarlet drips from her chin, and she tries to form words, but they don't come. Instead, a long, serrated blade is cast through her heart from behind, crumpling her to the ground permanently. Behind her, smiling widely, stands Pinkie Pie. The handle of the knife protrudes from Dash's back, bleeding profusely, and Pinkie clutches the chainsaw between her two front hooves. "Y-Y-You..." Scootaloo, trembling uncontrollably, mumbles to the murderer, "Y-You killed h-her..." Pinkie's laughter echoes through the forest, a horrid sound that chills the blood of every sleeping pony in Equestria. Scootaloo, losing herself completely, screams unintelligible obscenities, and casts herself at the pink mare as hard as she can. Her forelegs slam into Pinkie's ribcage with a satisfying crunch, and the earth pony drops her chainsaw from the blow. Scootaloo swings her hoof up into Pinkie's chin, snapping her jaw out of place as well. Falling back, the orange filly breathes heavily, and looks furiously upon the injured mare before her. Pinkie gasps for air for a moment, then reveals her pause to be an act. With the strength of an ox, the older mare pins Scootaloo to the ground with unlikely force, rendering her immobile. She lifts one hoof, drawing the chainsaw closer to her body, then drapes the blade of the improvised weapon over the pinned filly's neck, her hoof pressing Scootaloo's hoof to the trigger. "I don't want to kill you," seethes Pinkie Pie, "I only wanted her. Only Rainbow Dash. I won't kill you." She presses the chainsaw harder into Scootaloo's trachea, "Only you can do it." Scootaloo, crying so hard that she blinds herself with tears, struggles against the mare, to no avail. Her head lulls back, letting the well of tears stored in her eyes empty, and restoring her vision to some degree. A silhouette of gold and white light illuminates the forest above the struggling ponies, and Pinkie Pie is caught off guard momentarily. "Wh-What...?" She looks up at the beautiful light, her eyes wide, her jaws agape, "N-No! This can't be...!" Like a rag doll, the psychopathic killer is lifted from the trapped filly, and hoisted into the air by a gnarled tree branch. Another branch of similar size wraps around her again, squeezing her tightly. Scootaloo cringes visibly as the two limbs rotate in opposite directions, snapping Pinkie Pie's spine like a twig. The branches then swiftly retract, blending back into the forest from which they came. The light behind Scootaloo disappears, leaving no trace of its existence but the second corpse lying in the clearing, dramatically dropped atop the first. The beating of wings is the next thing the traumatized filly hears, and a comforting hoof is placed around her shoulders as she sits, silently mourning over the dead bodies. "The worst is over, I believe," Comes the soft voice of Princess Luna, "We had... Better return to Ponyville. I'm afraid that although the death of these two innocent ponies is dealt with, there are many kind souls that must die before this ends." Scootaloo, lost in her own thoughts, looks up at the Princess, her expression empty. "Do you believe in angels?" Rainbow Dash's head aches miserably as she sits up, her eyes fluttering open to face the unexpected sunlight that greets her. Soft, dry grass acts as her bed, rather than cold, wet blades of grass where she had last been conscious. Rather than excruciating pain and sorrow, her spirits feel oddly lifted, her mind fresh and clear. Beside her, experiencing the same phenomena, lies Pinkie Pie. In silence, the two lift themselves to their hooves, and meet eyes. "P-Pinkie...?" Murmurs Dash, her eyes softly pleading, "Are... Are you in there...?" "Dash," The pink mare pauses, looking down, "I'm so, so sorry." Pinkie wraps her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's neck in an embrace, which Dash gladly returns. The two sit like this for a few minutes, maybe more, before Pinkie speaks again. "I don't want to hurt any more ponies," she breathes, "I don't want to be a part of whatever game this is. It isn't fun." Dash, silent, looks up at the ridiculously clear day above. As a weather pony, this lack of clouds is so complete it's unnatural. A small house stands empty nearby, and more vacant buildings stand around it. While comforting, the beautiful place seems all but deserted. The blue mare pulls away from Pinkie Pie, and wrinkles her brow. "Where are we?" The two turn towards the sound of churning waves, to face a towering lighthouse, gleaming with a huge light, even in the daytime. At the top, they can barely see two golden eyes peering eerily down at them, which disappear seconds later. "I have no clue, Dash," Pinkie says, drawing herself closer to her winged friend, "but I don't want to stay long." Author's Note Wow, let's see if I can actually get an update schedule going! Maybe every Tuesday night? Who knows?
Chapter Three: Life, Light, Time"I need a warrior to accompany me," Princess Luna turns to a courier, clad with royal attire, "One that is ready to do battle in my name, not just willing, but able." "Ah, with all do respect, Your Highness," The messenger gives Luna a concerned gaze, "Don't you have an entire army of enlisted guards at your disposal, that are required by law to aid you?" The Princess shakes her head sternly, pacing concentratedly back and forth before her throne. "They are but figureheads," She says apathetically, "Guard dogs for the castle. You know as well as I do that Equestria has not seen war for ages. But tell me, Courier, is there not a stallion in Ponyville that has seen deadly combat through a soldier's eyes?" Puzzled, the messenger flips agitatedly through a thick record book, using one hoof to turn the worn pages, and the other to ward dust away from his face as it is cast off the pages. On one page he stops, nearing the back of the book, and he stares at this page for a moment, reading carefully over what the tome has to say. "Hmm," He clicks his tongue, "This looks like the only pony who has been in battle, at least that we have documented. An immigrant from... From...?" Scootaloo, who had been waiting silently by the messenger, peers over the stallion's shoulder to see what he wasn't saying. "It says he was still on active duty when he showed up in Ponyville," Scootaloo reads aloud, furrowing her brow, "He was stationed... Off... Planet?" The confused filly looks up at Luna, who gives an affirmative nod of the head in response, as if this was expected. "Let us fetch him, Scootaloo. Our poor Courier has been sent all over Equestria recently; he shall be spared this errand. I feel that it's necessary that we pay Ponyville a visit, whether or not our extraterrestrial friend decides to join us will be determined in time." Rainbow Dash apprehensively pushes open a creaky wooden door to a vacant house, completely unlocked and empty. Pinkie Pie follows closely behind her, her blue eyes darting around the house as the pair enter. Upon a quick inspection, the house appears completely unused, completely unfurnished, yet lit with small candles throughout the room. Each room has a window or two, each hung between two dusty curtains that look like they've been there for centuries. The soft resonating of a harp's song lies under the sound of the ocean, coming from somewhere nearby. "Is somepony there...?" Pinkie inquires, directing her eyes to the ceiling, where this song seems to emanate from. Almost immediately, the music comes to a halt, leaving the small house in an empty void of silence. Hoofsteps click slowly across the ceiling directly above the two, and Dash takes off after them, motioning for Pinkie to follow. They are led in a straight line directly out the front door, facing again out towards the lighthouse. The hooves, however, continue onward, as if an invisible figure is walking on the air above them. This trotting gets farther and farther away, until eventually the two puzzled mares that followed it give up. Silently, the two reenter the house, this time to find it completely furnished to be a home. In the room that they have entered, which they had presumed to be the living room of the house, has two comfy-looking couches and a beautifully carved table in the center. Continuing their search, and neglecting all of the typical furniture, the two turn up with: A worn, leather saddlebag, a magnifying glass with a broken handle, plenty of blankets, an unopened box of matches, and a wide variety of books found in a dusty bookshelf in the bedroom. The last item was the most unnerving, and frankly the only one with any significance whatsoever. In the singular bedroom that the house has, Pinkie Pie uncovered by happenstance a rectangular picture frame. Laid into the glass, a color photograph of the raging ocean at sunset stared back at her. In the center of this picture, with their backs to the camera, sit Pinkie and Dash, with their heads leaned together. "We never had our picture made," Rainbow Dash interjects, pointing an accusing hoof at the image, "And the sun's just now setting! I don't like this, Pinkie." The cyan pony yawns, and throws herself on the bed, which she finds to be extremely comfortable. "I'm so tired, though." Pinkie sits at the foot of the bed, remaining unusually quiet. Her blue eyes faze off into somewhere far away, and they leak tears slowly down her cheeks. "You probably hate me," she begins with a sigh, directing her attention to the ground, "You probably think I'm a murderer, and that you don't want to be my friend anymore." "C'mon Pinkie Pie," Dash shakes her head, "You know I don't think that." "I'm... I'm just really scared, Dash, and..." the mare covers her mouth with a hoof, stifling her crying, "I just need to talk to somepony sane for a little bit." Rainbow Dash slides herself over, and pats the bed beside herself, inviting Pinkie to join her. The mare does so, propping herself up beside her winged friend, and exhales deeply, punctuated by small hiccups from crying. "So Celestia was possessing you?" Dash asks just above a whisper. "Y-Yeah. I dunno. She was... In my head, and I... I couldn't get her out..." For a moment, Dash is silent. Beside her, she can feel the gentle rise and fall of Pinkie's slightly quickened breathing. Her breathing steadily slows, until it matches Rainbow Dash's almost perfectly. The pink mare turns her head to face the pegasus, who returns her gaze. "What do you think this place is?" The cyan pony asks, closing her eyes, and imagining the ocean outside, "It's really weird." "I dunno, but... Those weird eyes we saw earlier... Who else is here? I don't like it." "Y'know, after what you did to me," Dash can feel the other mare tense up, "I'm not afraid of much anymore... But this place scares me more and more the longer I stay. I'm... Glad I'm not here alone." "I wouldn't want to be here with anypony else." Rainbow Dash smiles at this sentiment, and feels herself beginning to nod off into sleep. She lets her eyelids open slightly, and she sees Pinkie's blue irises staring back only a few inches away. "How did you die, Pinkie?" Dash asks her under her breath, resisting sleep. "I think," the pink pony yawns, and then continues, "I think an angel killed me, so you wouldn't be alone up here." "That's silly," The blue pegasus yawns as well, "But I guess that would fit right in with everything else so far, huh?" She chuckles softly. Pinkie smiles, and closes her eyes. Dash looks at the pony for a moment, and has a hard time believing that this mare had tried to kill her twice in cold blood. However, her face is detailed with lines of worry and sadness, and her perpetual grin has been replaced with a constant state of deep thought. Her mane is partially deflated from exhaustion and sorrow, and Dash realizes that this mare was a completely different pony than the one she knew only a few days prior. "Goodnight, Rainbow Dash." "Goodnight, Pinkie Pie." Pinkie Pie silently slinks from the bed she shares with Dash, and sneaks out of the small cottage into the wispy island night. In the cloudless sky above her, there are millions upon millions of stars- more than she'd ever seen before, even on the darkest of nights. There was no moon- Not just a new moon, but there was physically no moon present in the sky. The grass sways with a nonexistent breeze, and the constant thundering of waves slamming the shore is the only sound that can be heard. Pinkie looks with tired eyes up at the striped lighthouse, which casts its beam eerily towards the empty, frothing ocean. Without her usual enthusiastic skip, the mare trots absentmindedly to this column of radiant light, and starts up the winding staircase up its exterior. After a moment of climbing numbly, her blue eyes finally take a look at the stairs themselves- and find that they are made completely out of solid gold. Unwaveringly her ascent continues, punctuated occasionally by brief stops to admire the island from a higher vantage point. After what seems like an hour of monotonous stepping, Pinkie's hooves ring out against metal with a satisfying clang; the upper platform of the tower. Her attention goes first to the grassy field below, dotted with small structures and flowers. Then she stares blankly into the black abyss that is the ocean. Thoughts come rushing into her head immediately. What about my other friends? What else has Celestia done? When will I get off this island? What is this island? Who was that golden-eyed pony up here? Behind her, Pinkie hears a low hum, and she turns to see the tower's light much dimmer than it was previously. However, lost in her thoughts, she ignores this anomaly, letting herself become engulfed in tears. "I just wanted my friends to be happy," she cries towards the sky, "What's going on? Why is this happening to me?" In her anguish, she suddenly feels an invisible embrace take hold of her, the gentle squeeze of two forelegs around her, making her entire body feel warmer. Her attention finally captivated, the mare looks around the platform, puzzled. "Ah, don't cry, luv," comes a soft voice in an accent reminiscent of Rarity's, yet slightly less flamboyant, "You always hate when ponies cry...!" The sound of this voice alone calms Pinkie, in a strange maternal sense, filling her with even more inexplicable warmth. "H-Hello...?" She replies, continuing to search the area anxiously. Before her very eyes, a mare materializes out of thin air and props herself up against the railing around the platform. Her coat is a stark, pearly white, her mane glittering gold. From her shoulders, two delicate wings are folded down her back, her feathers incredibly well-kept. Two lavender eyes look down into the water below, filled with some sort of unearthly omniscient knowledge. A gentle smile graces her face, and she turns to face Pinkie, flashing her a wink. This mare, Thinks Pinkie Pie, her mind racing, is beautiful. "Y-You don't have gold eyes," she stammers, backing away a small step, "Wh-What?" "Well," replies the mare, regaining the steps that Pinkie took, "That's a fairly solid observation to make, have you nothing else to ask?" "Wh-Who are you?" "That's of little importance. But you're distraught; you need an answer," she raises her eyebrows, "I am the only permanent resident. Of where? I'm a perpetual tenant of both this realm and yours. Ego sum, however, a victim of terrible tragedy." "What tragedy?" Pinkie asks, now curious. "Oh, you'll discover in time. Or perhaps you won't. That's a story for another life. We have met before, though, even if you cannot recognize me. Yes, we have encountered each other many a time, and exchanged not a single word." "Have we met... Recently?" "Oh, sic, remarkably so! Now, I'm no mind reader by any stretch of the imagination, but I can sense that you're about to realize wha-" "...An angel." "Right on the money, Ms. Pie!" "Huh," The pink mare is silent for a moment, looking this pretty creature over quietly. "What all do you... Know?" "Sodet, you can't be so vague. Like... You want to know what I know about you?" "Um... Sure...?" I know you represent the Element of Laughter, and that you take pride in making friends with everypony you meet. Ah, but that's general knowledge. I know that you have a pet alligator named Gummy, and that sometimes you feel bad because he can't chew rock candy. I know that you're very nice to everything and never expect trouble, but for some reason you still keep a wooden bat under your bed. I know that you can't sleep in the rain. I know that you're not responsible for the terrible actions you've committed against Rainbow Dash, and that you think she still blames you for those things. On that note, you're in denial about your feelings for the mare, and you just wish you could put those emotions into words. You're terrified of the eyes you saw in this lighthouse earlier, but you're already trusting me completely. My knowledge extends further, but I see no reason that you would need more proof. Do you?" Pinkie Pie is silent for a moment, absorbing all of this information, then she narrows her eyes. "Okay, Dashie and I are ju-" "Come now, that isn't important. The important thing is, you'll be returning to the 'real world' come morning, and I have something that I want you to have." "Wait, I don't want to go back! Sure, this place is creepy, but at least I can't hurt anypony," she sighs, looking down, "I can't hurt Dash, I guess." "I wouldn't worry about hurting her." "Oh, really? Does that mean I won't be, like, possessed?" "No. You'll still be possessed, but Rainbow Dash will not be leaving with you." "O-Oh... So... Will you... Keep her company?" "I can't, I'm afraid. I have my own pressing business to attend to, but that's beside the point. I need you to hold out your hoof." Pinkie looks at the strange mare for a moment, then hesitantly raises a foreleg towards her. The white pegasus smiles, and suddenly a small burst of light appears before her face, bearing something small and shiny inside. The mare gingerly scoops the item out of the air, and hangs it delicately around Pinkie's hoof. "A... Necklace?" Dangling from a thin chain on her foreleg, there hangs a beautiful chrome locket in the shape of a heart. Light from the stars glitters off of the trinket, making a speckled light pattern on the two mares. The locket, although small, is oddly heavy, and a strange, noticeable feeling of serenity falls over her. "This is the power of a cosmic pony. As long as this piece of metal exists, you have incredible powers. It's only up to you to figure out how to use them. You, Miss Pie, are the living embodiment of Life itself." "Wh-What does that mean?" "Let me explain, and I'll share the prophecy with you as well." "There are many universes in our reality- some are incredibly similar, some are vastly different. The difference between universes could be as small as somepony making a choice in two different ways, or it could be as big as a nuclear war engulfing all of Equestria. Either way, each universe is different, and, as time progresses, has the capacity to become infinitely more different than it previously was. There is a guarantee, however, that one day, the prophecy I'm about to tell you will find a place in each universe." "There is one being that resides outside of these universes- They watch, waiting for the prophecy to surface in each one so that they can swiftly put each universe out of existence. Thus is the unfathomable power of this being. There is a single constant in each universe that allows for this to work- there is always a single group of three ponies, blessed with powers from generations passed, that are charged with stopping this inter-dimensional being from destroying their universe. This would mean permanently killing said deity." "These three ponies represent Life, Light, and Time. Life has powers that an touch all things living; the powers to heal or slay anything in their path. That's you. Then there is Light- yours truly-" With another flash, another locket of crystalline construction appears, but the mare magically casts it away again before Pinkie can get a close look. "-Who has the powers of the sun itself. Lastly, there is the almighty, unchallenged Time. The Time incarnate possesses only one power, but an ungodly one. Time has the sacred ability to rend its universe to smithereens by ripping holes in the time-space continuum. On that note, there used to be a theory that there was a fourth embodiment, Space, who was more powerful than Light and less powerful than Time, but I refuse to believe it." "Only the Time incarnation has the ability to kill the ultimate being, and that's where we run into issues." "Who's the Time pony?" Pinkie asks, hanging on to every word, "Do you know them?" "Ah, yes. I do know her. I also know that she's... Temporarily out of action." Pinkie continues to turn her heart locket around between her hooves, not entirely believing what the mare was telling her, but at the same time becoming excited at the promise of adventure. She smiles, and looks up at the angelic pony again, to find that her excitement isn't shared. "Protect that, Miss Pie," Says the pegasus with sincerity in her eyes, "You'll need it. We all will." Pinkie nods, and places the jewelry around her neck gently. When she looks up again, the strange mare is gone without a trace. Alone once more, the pink pony bounds down the lighthouse stairs with newfound energy. Quietly, she returns to the cottage, and eventually the bed that she shares with Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus stirs, her eyes opening just a sliver, enough for her to see Pinkie getting back into bed. "Where... Mmm..." She yawns while Pinkie worms her way into the bed beside her. "Just getting some water," she replies cheerfully, hiding her locket from view. For a moment, she stares at Rainbow Dash, her mind racing. You're in denial about your feelings for the mare, and you wish you could put those feeling into words. The white mare's words bounce through her head. "See you..." She whispers, pausing, "I-In the morning, Dash..." A stallion gazes out of a rectangular window in his humble Ponyville home, hooves pressed anxiously against the sill. Outside, he watches as a ballistic mare launches herself aggressively at a wooden door, yelling incoherent gibberish at whatever poor resident lived beyond it. The stallion, whose coat is light orange, his mane two shades of blue, steps away from the window, a fearful expression on his face. As he does, he hears a gentle knock on his front door, alarming him further. "Wh-Who is it?" He approaches the door, tensing up, and repeats himself, "Hey, I said 'who is it?'" "It's... Uh... I'm with the Princess Luna," comes a small voice from right outside. The voice, belonging obviously to a filly, shakes with the same fear as he feels. "What do you want...?" The stallion open the door slowly, to find an orange and purple filly stooped at his doorstep, her eyes glancing worriedly around the town. "Look, kid, this is no time for you to be outside, look at all this-" he gestures widely at the numerous insane ponies sauntering around, attempting all sorts of violence. "I don't see the Princess, either." "Sh-She's busy looking for Princess Twilight Sparkle, so she sent me on an errand..." "Uh, kid..." "...And my best friend, well, my honorary big sister, was killed by this mare that was..." "Hey, you, um... Might wanna...?" "...And so basically, do you know a stallion named-" "Look out!" The older stallion dives swiftly between a psychopathic earth pony, another stallion, and the terrified filly. His jaw is clipped by a flying hoof, but her delivers a punch to the assailant's gut, and then slams his other hoof into the attacking stallion's throat, putting him on the ground instantly. Behind him, the filly cowers in a ball, staring up at him. "Y-You wouldn't b-be a space soldier, would you...?" "Uh," the older pegasus takes a second to catch his breath, "The name's Waffle Town. Y-Yeah, I guess I was a space soldier. Author's Note Waffle Town isn't based off of me. I used his name for my account. That is all.
