How Friends May Fall

Chapters

How Friends May Fall - Prologue
How Friends May Fall - Part 1
How Friends May Fall - Part 2
How Friends May Fall - Part 3
How Friends May Fall - Part 4
How Friends May Fall - Part 5
How Friends May Fall - Part 6
How Friends May Fall - Part 7
How Friends May Fall - Part 8
How Friends May Fall - Part 9
How Friends May Fall - Part 10

How Friends May Fall - Prologue

How Friends May Fall - Prologue

Two weeks had passed since the tragic accident in Sugarcube Corner. A terrible, unforgivable crime had been performed, unheard of for generations. Even Princess Celestia herself could not believe it when word of the incident had reached her ears. Yet, all ponies of Equestria eventually had to face the cold truth: For the first time in ages, murder had been committed.

The ceremony was about to begin when Twilight arrived. She was much later then she wanted to be, but it had been difficult to coerce Spike into staying at home. She didn’t believe her baby dragon could handle being confronted with death at his age, especially the death of a friend.

She scanned the chapel to see who had arrived to pay their respects. She witnessed Fluttershy and Scootaloo, who had been inconsolable after hearing the news, crying in the corner. Rarity, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle attempted to comfort them, but so far they had been unsuccessful. In another corner, she could see the devastated Mr. and Mrs. Cake, who were both fighting to keep back their tears. Many other ponies such as Zecora, Cheerilee, Trixie and even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had also arrived.

The overall mood of the crowd was gloomy and depressing. Really the kind of feelings she had expected at a funeral.

“Twilight?”

A familiar voice spoke to her from behind. She turned around to face Applejack, who for the occasion had left her hat at home. The days had not been kind for the workhorse; she too had been devastated by the news, and had trouble sleeping in ever since. Her skin had grown pale, and her mane was messy and uncombed; more so then usual.

“Hey, Applejack…” said Twilight. “How are you holding out?”

“Not too bad, I guess…” replied Applejack with a sigh. “How about you?”

Twilight turned her head to look at the coffin in the center of the chapel. She didn’t know how to take it all. She had researched everything she could about losing a friend, but nothing had managed to soften the impact. She felt sad, but her urge to cry was blocked by sheer confusion. Confusion, emanating from a single question that had haunted her mind ever since hearing the news.

“…Why?”

“What was that, Twilight?”

“Oh! Nothing.” said Twilight, turning her head back to Applejack. Without realizing it, she had asked that same question to herself again, but this time out loud. “I’m… alright, I think.”

The two ponies remained silent for what seemed to be like an eternity, until finally Applejack spoke up.

“…Ah’ve been asking myself the same thing.”

“Asking yourself what?” asked Twilight.

“How all of this could’ve happened.” replied Applejack. “And why. It jus’ makes no sense. The Rainbow Ah know would’ve never…”

She halted her sentence, and looked at Scootaloo. The poor filly was still heartbroken over what had happened. She had always looked at Rainbow Dash as a role model, a perfect example of who she wanted to be. And now, that image as her role model had been completely shattered. Applejack could only imagine what the filly must’ve felt when she heard the news.

“Let’s… not talk about her, okay?” said Applejack to Twilight, still looking at Scootaloo.

Twilight nodded, and continued to look across the room. During their conversation, a few more ponies had arrived. Snips and Snails had been perfectly groomed for a change. Lyra and Octavia had joined the band that played the music during the funeral, with Bon-bon just watching the band play from a distance. Berry Punch had, as usual, gone up to the drinks.

Many other ponies had also arrived, but somebody was missing… Somebody familiar.

“Applejack?” asked Twilight. “Where’s Big Macintosh? Isn’t he coming?”

“Um… Ah…”stuttered Applejack. “Ah… Ah don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? Is he--”

“AH DON’T KNOW!”

Twilight was startled by Applejack’s sudden outburst. The orange pony shut her eyes, and began to sniffle. She tried to fight back the tears, yet some managed to get through and run down her cheek. Twilight slowly moved closer to Applejack, and placed her hoof on her shoulder.

“Applejack…” she said quietly. “Is… Something wrong with Big Macintosh?”

“Ah… don’t know.” replied Applejack with a shivering voice, as she wiped her tears away. “He went out to buck some apples a few days ago… But he hasn’t come home! Ah’ve looked everywhere Ah could, but there ain’t no sign on him anywhere, and… And… ”

Applejack couldn’t fight it anymore. Tears streamed down her face, and she began to sob uncontrollably. Although she tried to hide it with her hooves, Twilight could clearly see the sorrow and sadness her friend was experiencing. She had never seen her friend in this state before… It was enough to bring tears to her own eyes, as well.

“First Pinkie dies, then Rainbow Dash gets institutionalized, and now Big Macintosh is gone!” Applejack barely managed to bring the sentence out between her sobs. “Everypony’s leaving me, Twilight! Everypony!”

“It’s okay, Applejack…” said Twilight, giving Applejack a reassuring hug. “Big Macintosh is a strong colt, he can take care of himself… I’m sure he’s just fine.”

Twilight let Applejack rest her head on her shoulder for a minute, until she began to calm down. She took a few deep breaths, and managed to get her emotions under control again. Never before had she broken down like this; she was usually so strong. Yet now, she felt weak... And it made her feel awful. She raised her head from Twilight’s shoulder, and gave her a grateful nod.

“Ah’m sorry for breaking down like that, Twilight.” she said, this time without a shiver in her voice, yet still with a gloomy undertone. “It’s just been so much lately…”

“Everypony has its limits, Applejack.” said Twilight with a weak smile. “And you’ve been through even more then all of us. Don’t feel bad about it. We’ll all help you with looking for Big Macintosh in the morning.”

“…Thank you, Twilight.”

The music suddenly halted as the priest walked into the chapel, followed by four colts in black suits. The colts lifted up the coffin together, and slowly moved it outside, towards an open spot in a field just a few yards away. The priest turned to the ponies, and motioned them to follow.

The coffin was laid on a white platform, placed right in-between two other graves. It seemed to be an elevator of some sorts; A device to slowly carry the coffin into the hole that would soon be its grave.

As the ponies gathered in front of the coffin, the priest rasped his throat and began to speak.

“Today, we bid farewell to Pinkamina Diane Pie. A pony of cheer. A pony of laughter. And, most importantly, a valued friend of us all…”

Twilight didn’t listen to the speech. She was too absent-minded. On and on, the question just kept repeating itself in her mind. Why? Why? Why? It went on and on, and it slowly grew louder. She just couldn’t stand not knowing what could have caused this horrible accident, and why it happened in the first place. Some would call it curiosity, but she found it a necessity. After all, she didn’t want to lose another friend this way… She would never be able to live with it.

Suddenly, the music began to play again, and the elevator slowly descended into the grave. Ponies all around Twilight burst into tears, or began to visibly struggle with holding them back. She too felt sadness completely overthrowing her absent-mindness, and all too soon she couldn’t hold it back anymore. Like many ponies around her, she broke down into tears, being unable to think about anything other than the passing of her beloved friend.

Just thirty minutes later, the grave had been completely sealed off, and had been decorated with a beautiful gravestone. One by one, ponies passed by to bid their last goodbyes or lay down flowers at the grave before they went home. Yet, a small group of ponies did not leave, and lingered at the grave. None of them said a word; all of them were just staring at the grave in complete silence, only broken by the occasional sniffle or the sound of a tear hitting the ground.

They all just stood there for what seemed to be an eternity. Still, none of them could believe that this had actually happened. They all hoped it was just a bad dream, or all a big prank that had gone out of hand.

“Twilight?”

The silence was suddenly broken by a familiar voice. The ponies turned around and faced none other than Princess Celestia, who too had remained at the grave, albeit from a distance.

“Twilight, can I speak to you… In private?”

Twilight nodded to the princess, and moved right next to her. The princess teleported both of them to the other side of the chapel, where they could talk together in peace.

“I’ve been watching you during the ceremony, Twilight.” said the princess, with a serious look in her eyes. “I can clearly see that something’s troubling you. Do you want to talk to me about it?”

“As a matter of fact, I was going to talk to you right after the funeral, princess.” replied Twilight. “I want your permission to visit Sugarcube Corner tomorrow.”

“Are you sure that’s wise, Twilight?” asked the princess, as she narrowed her eyes. “Coming there again to soon… Not to mention that it’s still a crime scene. I don’t want you interfering with police work.”

“I won’t interfere, I promise! I just… I need to find what caused all this. I need to know why it all happened!”

With a sigh, Princess Celestia turned around. For a moment, she was lost in thought. She was conflicted as to whether she should allow her student to go. She was convinced it was a bad idea, but Twilight seemed so terribly conflicted herself with all her questions…

“…Do you really, really want to find out what happened?” asked Princess Celestia, turning her head just enough to see Twilight from the corner of her eye.

“Yes! I’ll do anything!” She replied. “Just tell me what I need to do, as long as I can discover how to stop this from ever happening again!”

“The only thing I ask of you is not to interfere with any police work.” said the princess, turning her head away again. “Other than that, you have my permission. But, remember… Some questions are better left unanswered.”

The princess began to charge up a spell, and took a last glance in Twilight’s direction.

“If you learn more then you are willing to know… Then for your own sake, just live with the questions.”

She then teleported Twilight right back to her friends.

Twilight shook her head. She wasn’t used to being teleported around by others. It felt weird. Yet, as she came to her senses, she was immediately stuck by worry as she witnessed Fluttershy being unable to keep her balance. She looked even more pale then before, and she seemed to have trouble remaining conscious.

“Oh my gosh! Fluttershy, are you okay??” shouted Twilight, as she galloped towards her.

“Don’t worry, Twilight.” said Rarity, supporting the Pegasus with her magic. “The poor dear is just exhausted, that’s all.”

With a weak smile, Fluttershy nodded at Twilight before losing consciousness. Rarity motioned for Applejack to stand near her, and she gently laid the Pegasus on their backs.

“She’s awfully pale, Rarity…” said Applejack with a worried expression. “Are you sure she’s okay?”

“She’s been having trouble sleeping ever since the news.” replied Rarity. “Plus, she’s been crying all day. She must be completely worn out and dehydrated.”

Applejack nodded, and turned her attention to Twilight.

“Twi, me and Rarity are gonna bring Fluttershy home. You take care of yourself, okay?”

“Right.” said Twilight. “See you girls tomorrow.”

Applejack and Rarity motioned for Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to come. The two fillies hugged the calmed down Scootaloo, and bid her a good night before leaving with their big sisters. Seeing her all gloomy and alone, Twilight began to feel sorry for the tiny Pegasus. Nobody was going to pick her up. She was usually always near Rainbow Dash. Twilight didn’t even know if Scootaloo had any parents… She had never seen them, at least.

Twilight slowly walked to Scootaloo, but was halted by Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

“Don’t worry about her, dearie.” said Mrs. Cake to Twilight. Although she tried to sound a cheerful as always, Twilight could still clearly recognize the gloomy undertone in her voice. “We’ll take Scootaloo home. You just get yourself some rest.”

“Thank you, Mr. and Mr. s Cake.” said Twilight with a grateful nod.

She moved to the exit of the graveyard, and turned around to take a last look at the Cakes and Scootaloo. She was unable to make out what they were saying to eachother, but soon they managed to get Scootaloo to follow them to an exit on the other side of the graveyard.

“I hope Scootaloo’s alright…” thought Twilight, as she headed back towards the library. “She seems to be in the same state as Fluttershy…”

With a sigh, she opened the door of the library. She was greeted by the hooting of Owloysius and the snoring of Spike. She gave the owl some bird feed before going to bed herself. She wasn’t sleepy, especially with the chaos going on in her head, but she had to be wide awake the next day, both tp look for Big Macintosh with the rest of the ponies and to look for clues in Sugarcube Corner by herself.

With a sigh, she stares out of the window, into the clear Summer night.

“I’ll find out what happened.” she thought. “And I’ll make sure this never happens again…”

“…Even if it’s the last thing I’ll do.”

How Friends May Fall - Part 1

How Friends May Fall – Part 1

“Come on Twilight, you have to let me come with you!”

The next day had dawned. The sky was covered in dark clouds, and a layer of fog hung over Ponyville. Without Rainbow Dash, the pegasi had a hard time clearing the sky of clouds on days like this. As such, they had simply decided to let it rain some more often. Although certainly not everybody was happy with this sudden change, the local farmers thought of it as a nice opportunity to water the harvest. The crops and other vegetables would grow big, and so would the apples at Sweet Apple Acres.

Even after all that had happened in the last few days, life in Ponyville was steadily returning to normal. As if the residents had already forgotten all about it, or simply made an attempt to do so.

Twilight put her scars around her neck, and placed her saddlebags on her back. She filled then with a few basic tools; tweezers, a magnifying glass, a camera… Everything she thought could be helpful for finding any clues or evidence.

“I’m sorry, Spike.” said Twilight, as she was busy with packing her saddlebags. “I don’t think the princess or the policemen will allow you to come with me. I already had to convince the princess for my own approval.”

“But it’s not fair!” shouted Spike. “I want to find out what happened too! You already didn’t take me to the funeral!”

Twilight zipped up her bags and turned her head towards Spike. He too had trouble dealing with Pinkie Pie’s death and Rainbow Dash’s institutionalization, but he clearly didn’t know how to express it. At one time he would be indifferent, though at another time he would be angry, only to become sad later on.

“Pinkie was my friend, too…” he said with a somber tone in his voice, hanging his head to the ground.

Twilight rested her hoof on his shoulder to try and reassure him. With a sigh he raised his head, and stared deep into her eyes. Though he was still a youngling, he too could see that Twilight was still suffering from within. He suspected that trying to find the actual cause was just a way for her to block her own sadness and confusion.

“Look, Spike, I’m sorry I didn’t take you to the funeral yesterday.” said Twilight, withdrawing her hoof from Spike’s shoulder. “But I promise you that it was for your own good. I’m just not sure if you could have handled it.”

“I guess…” replied Spike, rubbing his shoulder. “Can I at least visit her at the graveyard?”

“Sure, with supervision.” replied Twilight, as she opened the door of the library. “Come on, I’ll take you to Rarity’s.”

Spike climbed on top of Twilight’s back, and together they trotted to Rarity’s boutique. For the past few days, the boutique had been closed. Today was no exception.

Twilight knocked on the door, and to her relief Rarity opened the door just a few seconds afterwards. She seemed perfectly fine, with the exception of her usually perfect make-up, which had turned a bit runny today. She too was still unable to forget about it, thought Twilight.

“Oh, hello Twilight.” said Rarity with a forced smile. “What can I help you with?”

“Hi, Rarity. I’m heading off somewhere for some research.” replied Twilight. “I was wondering if you could visit Pinkie Pie with him in the meantime.”

“But of course, darling.” replied Rarity with a nod. “I was just about to visit her myself in a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Rarity.”

Twilight patted Spike on the head for a last time, and turned around to walk into an alley. She didn’t want her friends to know where she was going. This was something she had to do on her own, to try and make some sense of the situation. Even right now, nothing seemed to add up. Why would Rainbow Dash ever hurt her friend? Why did Pinkie Pie become her victim? The longer she thought about it, the more questions popped up.

She couldn’t help but take the long road. As much as she wanted to discover what happened on that day, part of her was terrified by the thought of returning to the place where her friend gave her last breath just two weeks ago. It seemed too soon… But it was now or never.

As her mind began to clear, she realized that she had already reached Sugarcobe Corner. The entire street was under constant surveillance by police officers, and a number of ponies packed with equipment were researching parts of the area around Sugarcube Corner. As she walked closer towards the crime scene, a dark-maned colt with sunglasses halted her.

“Sorry, ma’am.” said the colt. “But you are not allowed to trespass In this area until our research is done.”

“I was granted permission by princess Celestia to take a look inside Sugarcube Corner, sir.” replied Twilight. “I promise not to interfere with any police business.”

The colt analyzed Twilight for a few seconds, and signed for another colt to come towards them. The two began to whisper against eachother, often peeking in Twilight’s location. She couldn’t make out what the two were saying, but they were most certainly doubting her story.

“Pardon, ma’am.” said the other colt suddenly, turning his head towards Twilight. “Could you tell me your name, please?”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

The colt turned back to the other, and nodded. The dark-maned colt turned away and went back to work, while the other moved towards Twilight.

“My apologies for the wait, miss Sparkle.” said the colt. “We were notified of your visit by princess Celestia, but we had to make sure that you were the one she wrote about. It’s just a formality.”

“I understand.” said Twilight with a nod. “Could take a look inside of Sugarcube Corner now, please?”

“Certainly.” said the colt, motioning for Twilight to follow. “Though I’ll be staying with you, to make sure that you do not hinder our own investigation.”

Twilight followed the colt to a small trailer set up near the crime scene. It was filled with all sorts of tools and equipment for the investigation of crime scenes, even including special clothing and spare sunglasses. The colt took eight gloves from a pile in the corner, and tossed four of them towards Twilight.

“Put these on.” he said. “Wouldn’t want to leave your hoofprints everywhere.”

As Twilight put the gloves on her hooves, she couldn’t help but notice how the colt was staring at her saddlebags. Although she had hoped that she could simply use whatever she wanted while researching the crime scene, the look on the colt’s face told a different story.

“I’m going to have to take a look inside your bags.” said the colt. “There’s certain items which we don’t allow to be used by people who don’t actually work for us.”

With a sigh, Twilight levitated the saddlebags off her back and laid them down in front of the colt. He began rummaging through her bags, and quickly found the tools she had packed within them. To her disappointment, he took out almost everything she had taken along with her. Only a piece of parchment, a quill with ink and a magnifying glass were left.

“I’m sorry, miss Sparkle.” said the colt, as he zipped the bags shut once again. “But I’m afraid that civilians are not allowed to use all these tools on a crime scene. And they’re especially not allowed to take pictures.”

“Plus, make sure not to spill that ink anywhere.” he continued, after taking a last quick glance at the items he had left behind.

Twilight closed the bags and levitated them back up on her back. She began to doubt the effectiveness of this research, especially now that she could only use her magnifying glass. There probably wasn’t much to discover with just that, and so there was especially no need to take notes. The colt could easily tell how disappointed Twilight was.

“Look, miss Sparkle. I’m sorry that I can’t allow you to do more.” he said. “But I’m not the one who makes these rules, and the fact that a civilian is allowed on a crime scene is in itself completely taboo in our field of work. Especially with a one-in-a-lifetime case like this, we have to make absolutely sure that the evidence is not tampered with. Do you understand?”

“Right…” replied Twilight with a sigh. Though still disappointed, she still couldn’t deny that the officer was right.

She followed the colt out of the trailer, and into the crime scene. As she approached Sugarcube Corner, she began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. Was she truly ready to do this? Was Celestia right that her questions would be better unanswered? As much as she tried to suppress her doubts, they only piled up and increased in strength.

She hesitated to step in when she reached the front door. Feelings rushed through her body, and memories rushed through her mind. She remembered the last time she was here, with Pinkie Pie joyfully eating most of the things that Mr. and Mrs. Cake had prepared for the day. She remembered the parties that Pinkie used to give in her room upstairs. She remembered the day when princess Celestia came to visit Ponyville. She remembered so much more.

Suddenly, Twilight’s memories were interrupted by the colt’s voice.

“If you’ve changed your mind, you can still go back.” he said, waiting for Twilight to either step down or follow him inside.

“No, no, I’m coming!” Said Twilight with a fake smile on her face, slowly stepping inside Sugarcube Corner.

Sugarcube Corner barely resembled the place that she remembered. The stalls were empty, almost all the furniture was gone, with the exception of a few that were covered by sheets. All sorts of equipment laid everywhere spread on tables, researchers were checking out every corner of the room for evidence. Just finding a good place to start looking would be hard, and the risk of interfering with somebody else’s work was too high.

“Excuse me, officer…”

“Lieutenant.” said the colt, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “Lieutenant Mane.”

“Right. Lieutenant.” she replied, rolling her eyes. “Is there a less crowded place for me to start?”

“Well, I’m researching the kitchen by myself.” he said, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. “You can help me there if you’d like. It’d save me some time with my own work.”

“Sounds good enough, I guess.”

The lieutenant turned around, and motioned for Twilight to follow. As they entered the kitchen, Twilight noticed how everything was uncovered, and how all objects seemed completely untouched. One of the ovens was still turned on, and a bowl of dough was standing on top of another, with a whisk still lying in the dough.

“I haven’t actually started yet, so we’re going to have to start from the beginning.” said the lieutenant. “How about you use the magnifying glass of yours to look around?”

“What exactly am I looking for?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t know…” he replied, turning away to work on the other side of the kitchen. “Hoofprints, signs of struggle, whatever.”

With a sigh, Twilight hovered the magnifying glass out of her saddlebags and began looking for clues. She silently cursed the lieutenant for making her do this. All she expected to find were hoofprints of Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Pinkie Pie, as well as the occasional stain on the floor. She felt like the lieutenant was just trying to keep her occupied so she wouldn’t interfere with the real work.

She was partially lost in thought as she continued her research, until the lieutenant accidentally bumped into her. The sudden startle caused a small shockwave to erupt from Twilight’s horn, throwing the magnifying glass to the floor and sliding it under one of the ovens.

“Oh, sorry.” said the lieutenant, approaching the oven that the magnifying glass had slid under. “Let me get that for you.”

The lieutenant lowered himself and stuck his hoof under the oven, attempting to grab the magnifying glass. He got a hold of it quite easily, but something seemed to bother him. Twilight didn’t know what he was doing, but she could hear him tapping his hoof on the tiles beneath the over.

“That’s strange…”

The lieutenant got back up, and pressed the magnifying glass into Twilight’s hooves.

“Miss Sparkle, think you can move this oven out of the way, please?”

“Why?” asked Twilight, placing the magnifying glass back in her saddlebags.

“Just do it, please.” said the lieutenant bluntly, turning back in the direction of the oven.

With a grunt, Twilight used her magic to levitate the oven, and place it down on the other side of the kitchen. To her surprise, it took minimal effort to move it. While an oven was usually difficult to move due to its weight, this one seemed to be nearly weight-less.

Suspicious, Twilight opened the oven, to find completely nothing inside. All the machinery had been taken out, and only a hollow casing had been left intact.

“It’s completely hollow!” said Twilight to the lieutenant.

“And these tiles are loose.” said the lieutenant, lifting them off the floor one by one. “This is unusual…”

As the lieutenant removed the tiles, they discovered a hole in the concrete base of the floor, filled up with a mixture of dirt and sand. The hole didn’t look like it was made by accident, it was far too large for that. This hole was made by someone of purpose.

As Twilight and the lieutenant removed the dirt and sand, they discovered a hidden trap door. The lieutenant opened it, and found a deep tunnel leading far beneath Sugarcube Corner, with a ladder down made of a strange white material.

“Hey, everypony!” shouted the lieutenant to the researchers in the living room. “I found something over here!”

One by one the researchers moved into the kitchen, signaling for more to come. This sudden discovery had surprised them all, and a few of them began to discuss as to whether or not they should call for additional support

As the lieutenant began to discuss something with the other researchers, Twilight remained at the trap door and looked down the hole. She could only barely see the bottom, but from there it lead into a hallway which was out of her sight. Wondering as to where it could lead, she shifted her attention to the strange ladder mounted to the trap door. She just couldn’t decipher what it was made from, but the material looked familiar in some way… The very least she could notice was that it was custom-made, as it looked rather shoddy and was kept together with pieces of string.

“Me and a few other researchers are going to climb down.” said the lieutenant to Twilight. “You can join us if you’d like, but you’re not allowed to touch anything.”

Without hesitation, Twilight accepted the lieutenant’s offer. She didn’t expect to find anything else in Sugarcube Corner with just a magnifying glass, especially with all the work the other researchers had already done. Although the idea of anything relevant to the case being down there was far-fetched, the least she could do was take a look.

The lieutenant handed her a flashlight, and soon she followed after the researchers into the hidden basement. The entire place seemed to be hand-made; the dirt walls and ceiling were kept from collapsing with wooden joists, and the floor was covered with holes and bumps. Whoever had dug this out had seemed to be in a hurry.

As she reached the end of the hallway, a terrible stench began to fill the air. It was potent enough to make her, as well as all the researchers, cringe in disgust. Never before had they smelled such a wretched odor.

“By Celestia!” said Twilight as she covered her nose, slowly moving into the room at the end of the hallway. “What in Equestria could possibly have this kind of--”

She didn’t finish her sentence. Her body had completely frozen. Frozen in disgust. Frozen in shock. Frozen in pure, raw terror. Not even her worst nightmares could have prepared her for this moment.

For as she stepped into the room, there was nothing to greet her but darkness, and dozens of mangled remains…

How Friends May Fall - Part 2

How Friends May Fall – Part 2

“No, no, no, no, no, no.” muttered Twilight under her breath. “This isn’t real. This all a nightmare. Just a bad dream. In Celestia’s name, let this be a bad dream.”

She closed her eyes as tight as she could, and opened them up again. Yet, the gruesome chamber was still there. She pinched herself all over, yet she felt it every time. As much as she wished it was a dream, she knew very well that this was all real. These were real corpses. Real blood. Real instruments used to kill all these ponies. An immense feeling of fear and disgust filled her every being, to the point that she felt like she was about to throw up.

“Miss Sparkle!” said the lieutenant with a determined, yet shaken tone in his voice. “Get a hold of yourself, please! I do not want to see you regurgitating all over the evidence!”

The lieutenant’s voice brought her back to her senses. She closed her eyes again, and took a few deep breaths. She began to adjust to the horrible smell, yet she refused to even look into the room again. What little she had seen would already haunt her for years to come. She turned herself away from the room, and simply stared at the hallway.

She cursed herself for her own curiosity. This was the exact thing that princess Celestia had warned her about! This discovery was far more than she ever wanted to know, despite not even knowing whether or not it was actually related to the incident. Yet, such a gruesome find in a place where such a thing had taken place… She couldn’t make a relation between the two, yet it couldn’t just be a coincidence. The chances of that would be second to none.

“I’m sorry, miss Sparkle.” said the lieutenant, moving himself in front of Twilight. “But this discovery changes everything. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Without a word, Twilight slowly trotted back into the hallway. She still couldn’t comprehend what she just saw. Never before had she witnessed such a horrific scene. Even in the most terrifying books she had read were things like these completely foreign. Yet now, she was confronted by this.. atrocity, directly in real life. She could’ve sworn she even slightly recognized some of the mangled bodies…

Yet, only when she reached the white ladder did the reality of the situation hit her. Its jagged structure, its shoddy appearance, and its color confused the purple unicorn a few minutes ago, but it was all too clear now. This wasn’t just any white material. It was bone!

Shivering in disgust and trying to fight back tears, she slowly climbed back up into Sugarcube Corner, and walked straight for the entrance. She moved with a slow trot. But as she moved through the entrance, she began to accelerate into a canter. She moved faster and faster, until she galloped as fast as she could. She pay any notice to where she was going, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to run. Run away from that horrible basement. Run away from Sugarcube Corner. Run away, and leave all those bad memories and discoveries behind her. Yet no matter how hard she galloped, the images would not leave her mind.

Eventually she started to get worn out, and her speed gradually began to decrease. She was breathing heavily, and drops of sweat had completely soaked her coat. She had no idea how long she had ran, or where she had run to. Her thoughts were chaotic and disoriented, the shock and fatigue taking its toll on her mind.

As she struggled to regain control of her common sense, she began to recognize her surroundings. She wasn’t too far away from the graveyard where Pinkie was buried. For a moment, she doubted as to whether or not she should visit. She didn’t know what to think of Pinkie anymore. Could she have done all those terrible things to those ponies? Did she have help? Or didn’t she even know about the basement at all?

Suddenly, her trance was broken by the sound of sobbing coming from the graveyard. She recognized the voice all too well. Following the noise, she entered the graveyard, and confirmed her suspicions. In the distance she spotted Rarity and Spike at Pinkie’s grave. Rarity just stood there, unmoving, while Spike had sunk to his knees and began to cry. Twilight started to regret allowing Rarity to take Spike to Pinkie’s grave. It really did look like it was too much for the poor dragon to handle.

Yet, at the same time, she came to a realization.

“No.” she said to herself. “Pinkie Pie can’t have anything to do with that horrible basement. She just can’t. The Pinkie Pie I know would never do such a thing, even if she did have an insane side.”

The gears in her mind started turning, and order finally returned to her mind. The basement had been completely sealed off when Pinkie died, and she wasn’t even anywhere near the kitchen to begin with. The two things probably weren’t even connected to eachother. Though such an unusual find was still out of the ordinary…

Then, it hit her. Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Had they known about the basement? Were they the ones who had committed all those atrocities? After all, Sugarcube Corner was their business, and they were always working in the kitchen…

She violently shook her head, and tried to focus. The police officers at Sugarcube Corner had probably assumed the same, and must have already detained the Cakes for interrogation. She had no option but to trust the officers in the fact that if the Cakes were guilty, they would find out.

She took a last glance towards Rarity and Spike before the left the graveyard. On the way back to the library, she pondered as to whether or not she should continue with her research. There were still so many unanswered questions, and her research had only just begun. But already had she encountered something that would haunt her for a lifetime. She already knew more then she wanted to know, but not about the case itself. Without access to Sugarcube Corner however, finding new evidence would be nearly impossible. If only there had been witnesses…

She froze as the touched the door of the library. There was a witness, she knew exactly where to find her. But is she reliable? That was the biggest doubt concerning her.

It was a long shot, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do at this point. She had to find Rainbow Dash in the asylum. She knew exactly what happened. In fact, she was the one who caused it all. Who did it all. Who would know more about the murder then the murderer herself?

Yet, Twilight doubted her decision. Not only had Rainbow Dash gone insane after, or perhaps even before the incident, would she even be willing to talk about it? Plus, Twilight still wasn’t sure whether or not to continue the investigation. Despite the absolutely shocking discovery, she knew very well that it may not even have been related to the incident. But what if it turned out to be related to the incident after all?

And who knows what terrible things Rainbow Dash would tell her? Rainbow Dash must have committed such an act for a terrible reason. It couldn’t have happened because of something minor.

With a weary sigh, she opened the door and entered the library. It was only two o’clock in the afternoon, yet all this thinking had made her completely worn out. The weather outside was bad enough to make it look like a stormy evening, anyway. All she wanted to do now is sleep. Get some rest, without lingering on all these thoughts and doubts.

Just as she wanted to lay down in bed, somebody suddenly knocked at her door. Reluctantly she shambled to the entrance, and opened the door. It was Rarity again, though Spike wasn’t with her.

“Hey, Rarity.” said Twilight with a soft voice. “Where’s Spike?”

“He’s at my boutique, playing with Sweetie Belle.” replied Rarity. “But are you okay, dear? You look awfully pale.”

Twilight turned her eyes away, and just shook her head.

“…I--”

“Please, don’t tell me anything.” said Rarity, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “If this is about your investigation, I don’t want to hear it. If the truth is that upsetting, then I don’t want to know it.”

“I don’t know exactly what’s happened yet.” replied Twilight. “I was actually thinking about talking to Rainbow Dash in the asylum, but… I’m not sure if I should.”

Rarity slightly turned her head away, and narrowed her eyes. She seemed to be pondering about what to say next. It was clear to Twilight however that she didn’t think it was a good idea. Her facial expression alone said enough.

“Twilight.” Said Rarity, after a moment of silence. “I think it’s a very, very bad idea. But, if you’re absolutely positive that it will help you in your research… Then go for it.”

Rarity placed her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, and looked straight into her eyes.

“But please, don’t overexert yourself. Don’t take on more than you can handle.”

She turned away to walk back to her boutique. After a few steps, she turned back for a last glance at Twilight.

“Stop by whenever you’re ready to pick up Spike. I’d rather not see him burn up any more of my fabric!”

With a chuckle, Twilight waved goodbye to Rarity. She thought what Rarity had said. Was she absolutely positive that talking to Rainbow Dash would get her anywhere? Did she really have no other options remaining? She made a mental list of all the places she could go to.

Due to the new discovery, she was sent away from Sugarcube Corner. Considering the nature of the discovery, it was likely that she wouldn’t get another permission from princess Celestia.

Then, Pinkie’s grave popped up in her mind. Yet she didn’t know what to do there, other than visiting Pinkie. She might be in a bind, but she wasn’t desperate enough yet to try her luck with a prayer.

She could also ask the Cakes about anything they might know… But could they be trusted? The discovery was right in their very kitchen, after all. It could’ve easily been theirs! She didn’t think it was worth the risk.

All of her friends knew that Rainbow Dash hadn’t been the same before the incident, and that she had always looked worn out and preoccupied in the days before it. Even Twilight herself had known about it. But did any of them really know anything else? She doubted it. They would’ve told her if they knew more.

She couldn’t find another option anymore. She had to visit Rainbow Dash in the Canterlot Asylum. She stepped out of the entrance, and locked the door behind her. She had to find a way to get to Canterlot. She could simply go to Rarity and have Spike send a request for a chariot to pricess Celestia, but she probably heard about the discovery by now. Likely, the princess was either too upset to work, or was completely swamped in it. She was going to have to find another way.

She recalled Pinkie owning a hot air balloon… But where had she kept it? She never saw it outside, and it could’ve never fit through the door in Sugarcube Corner. Yet, Sugarcube Corner was the place she visited the most. Not to mention that she lived there. It had to be around there, somewhere.

Reluctantly, she walked back to Sugarcube Corner. She dreaded to return to that place, and she didn’t expect a warm welcome after having been requested to leave. But if anybody would know where Pinkie’s hot air balloon was, it would be the researchers.

As she neared Sugarcube Corner, she was greeted by a terrible yet familiar stench. The exact same stench as she had smelled in the basement. She noticed several researchers going in and out of Sugarcube Corner, carrying bags from inside the shop into a van. They must’ve been clearing out the basement, and getting rid of the body parts…

“Miss Sparkle, I thought I asked you to leave the crime scene.”

Twilight was startled by the voice behind her. She turned her head, and saw Lieutenant Mane standing right behind her, backed up by two riot officers. They weren’t looking friendly, and the lieutenant wasn’t glad to see that Twilight had returned.

“I’m sorry, I’m just here to ask a question!” said Twilight with a panicking tone in her voice, clearly intimidated by the riot officers.

The lieutenant signaled something to the riot officers, who proceeded to take a few steps back. Although they remained at a distance, they kept an eye on Twilight, and held their hands on their batons.

“I’ll give you one question.” said the lieutenant. “But in return, I want you to leave immediately.”

“Of course.” replied Twilight, still a bit scared of the riot officers. “I’m just wondering if you’ve found a hot air balloon during your research.”

The lieutenant narrowed his eyes, and scratched the back of his head.

“Hm… Well…”

He turned his head towards Sugarcube Corner for a few seconds, before turning back to Twilight.

“Ah, yes. Yes, we found a hot air balloon in the garage. The garage hadn’t been entered for days though, and we didn’t find a single piece of evidence in that room.”

“I know this is an odd request… But could I borrow it?” asked Twilight. “I need it to get to Canterlot, as fast as possible!”

“You’d have to ask the mayor about that.” replied the lieutenant, nodding in the direction of the mayor’s office. “All of your friend’s possessions unrelated to the crime have been stored at the mayor’s office for safekeeping.”

“Thank you, lieutenant.” said Twilight with a grateful nod.

“No problem.” Replied the lieutenant as he turned away. “Now please, leave the crime scene.”

Taking another glance at the riot officers, Twilight got out of the crime scene as fast as she could. After a few blocks, she took a deep breath. Finally some fresh air. The stench at Sugarcube Corner had been almost unbearable. Enough to feel somewhat sorry for the researchers.

Eventually, Twilight reached the mayor’s office at the center of Ponyville, and knocked on the door. She could hear some rumbling coming from the inside, and it took quite a while for the mayor to open the door. When she did, Twilight noticed that the mayor was definitely overworked; there were big bags under her eyes, her skin looked pale, and her mane looked like it hadn’t been combed for days.

“I’m sorry, could you make it quick, please?” said the mayor. “I’m very busy at the moment.”

“I’m sorry for interrupting you, Mayor Mare.” said Twilight. “But I need to know if I can borrow Pinkie Pie’s balloon. I need it to get to Canterlot.”

“Is this relevant to the research that you’ve been doing?”

“Y-Yes, yes it is!” replied Twilight, surprised to know that the mayor had known about it.

With a deep sigh, the mayor signed for Twilight to come in. She led her to a room filled with junk, including some stuff which Twilight recognized.

“This is where we keep all possessions that have been found at crime scenes, which haven’t been reclaimed by their owners. Take whatever you want. I’m just glad to be rid of it.”

In the corner of the room, Twilight spotted a large basket with a pile of cloth and strings inside of it. She clearly recognized it as the hot air balloon, as she had flown in it once before. Thanking Mayor Mare for her time, she dragged the basket outside of her office, back into the marketplace around the office. It wasn’t very crowded today, almost desolate even, so she shouldn’t have any problems with taking off at that location.

After anchoring the basket to the ground, she used her magic to lift up the balloon and turn on the burner. Within just a matter of seconds, the balloon was ready to go, the anchor being the only thing that kept it from floating away.

Taking a final look back at Ponyville, she jumped into the basket and unanchored it from the ground. She flew up high into the air, headed straight towards Canterlot.

How Friends May Fall - Part 3

How Friends May Fall – Part 3

Twilight turned the burner off, and anchored the basket to the ground. She had found a nice, open spot to land the hot air balloon, easy to find back yet still largely hidden from sight. She knew that the ponies of Canterlot wouldn’t just steal it, but part of her urged her to mask her presence as much as possible. She didn’t know why, but ever since reaching Canterlot, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

She head out into the streets and looked around. The ponies were just doing their everyday business, completely unaffected by the recent events down in Ponyville. As if it had never happened to begin with. Perhaps they didn’t even know about the incident? She would have to compare to the behavior of Cloudsdale and compare the two to know the answer, but Cloudsdale was miles away.

She shook her head, and focused her mind. She shouldn’t let her mind wander while she was here. There was something more important to do then lament on the behavior of Canterlot and Cloudsdale.

She checked the nearby signs for directions. She knew that Rainbow Dash had been taken to an asylum in Canterlot, but she had no idea where it was. Even back when she lived in Canterlot herself had she never even heard of an asylum being located here. Nor had she even found one. And as she continued to check the signs, she discovered the reason why she had never heard of it before. Not a single one of them even mentioned anything about an asylum.

With the signs being unable to help her, she turned to the locals for directions. But…

“I’m sorry, but I have no idea.”

“There’s an asylum in Canterlot?”

“Please, as if they could let a bunch of lunatics stay in our city!”

“What’s an asylum?”

With a sigh, Twilight turned her head to the ground. She had asked over 20 people for directions, and all of them either didn’t know where it was, didn’t know it existed, or mocked her for believing there was one in Canterlot. She remembered those final elitist ponies well. She always disliked them.

“Ahem.”

Twilight heard a voice behind her. She turned around, and faced a burly, brown Pegasus clad in iron armor. It looked like the Royal Guard’s uniform, only without a mohawk on the helmet and with his mouth and nose covered up. She recognized it as the uniform of the regular guards, who were tasked with protecting the city rather than the royals.

“What seems to be the problem, sir?” asked Twilight, this time without the nervous tone in her voice. She had gotten used to talking to the officers these days.

“People have been complaining about you bothering others.” said the guard. “Something about an ‘asylum’, I hear?”

“Well, yes, but you see--”

“I’m sorry, Miss.” said the guard, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “But I’m here to escort you out of this district.”

“But--”

“No buts. Follow me, please.”

With a moan, Twilight reluctantly followed the guard through the streets, towards the exit of the district. Along the way, she noticed that several ponies were staring at her and whispering things to eachother. She even recognized some of them from back when she lived here. It felt like Ponyville all over again.

As they exited the district, the guard turned towards Twilight once more.

“I’m sorry for the charade, Miss Sparkle.”

With a look of surprise, she faced the guard.

“How did you--”

“Know your name?” said the guard with a smile. “Everypony on the force knows about what’s happened, and what you discovered. I’m terribly sorry for your loss, by the way.”

He turned away, and pointed towards a nearby hill.

“The asylum you’re looking for is just over that hill, blocked from sight for the rest of Canterlot.”

“T-Thank you.” said Twilight. “But why don’t the locals know about it?”

“Canterlot is home to a number of elitist people.” replied the guard, turning back to face Twilight. “Influential ones. If they found out that there was a ‘crazy home’ right near their city, they would demand it to be removed and placed somewhere else. But there aren’t many other suitable locations where we could place it without bothering anypony.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, and sighed. She wasn’t surprised by that answer at all. Some of the ponies she had questioned earlier seemed just the type to do such a thing.

“Thank you for your help, sir.” said Twilight, bowing her head for the guard.

“No need to be so humble, ma’am.” said the guard with a smile. “It’s all in a day’s work.”

With a grateful nod, Twilight around the hill, turning back one last time to wave goodbye to the guard.

As she reached the other side of the hill, she caught a glimpse of a structure hidden in the middle of a closely packed patch of trees. It was cleverly concealed; if she hadn’t known that the building was right there, she would’ve never found it. She saw a small passage in-between the trees, just wide enough for a single pony to cross.

Strangely, the passage looked like it hadn’t been used for a while. The ground was covered in dead leaves and mud, spider webs hung in-between the trees, and the occasional root was sticking out of the ground. Narrowing her eyes, she carefully crossed the path, gently pushing aside the spider webs with her magic. However, it didn’t stop a few spiders from dropping down into her mane. Startled, she burst into a gallop and shook her head to get the spiders out, only to slip in the mud and fall on her face.

“Ugh…” grunted Twilight, picking the spiders out of her mane, and rubbing the mud off of her face. She hadn’t even reached the asylum yet, and already she looked like a mess.

Several minutes later, she reached the end of the passage. More spiders had found their way into her mane, the mud on her body had crusted, and she had stepped in all sorts of things of which she’d rather not know what it was. The area was dark due to the trees, but she was able to clearly see the building due to the lights outside. It looked much different then she expected. It looked more like an apartment block then a hospital.

As she stepped into the entrance, she could see a nurse at the desk. The nurse widened her eyes, and turned her head towards the nearby break room.

“Hey, White Moon!” she yelled. “We’ve got another escapee!”

“No, no!” said Twilight quickly, crossing her hooves and shaking her head. “I’m just a visitor! One of my… Somebody I know has been taken in here.”

As much as she wanted to say ‘One of my friends’, she couldn’t. She didn’t know what to think about Rainbow Dash anymore. While she still doubted about Pinkie for obvious reasons, the fact that Rainbow Dash did commit murder was already known and proven. Could a murderer still be her friend? Did she want to be friends with a murderer herself?

With a sigh, the nurse as the desk placed her hoof in her face.

“You took the passage, didn’t you?” she said, still with her hoof in her face.

“Well, yes.” replied Twilight, somewhat offended by the nurse’s behavior. “It was the only route in here!”

“You could’ve just, like, teleported here.”

Twilight inhaled to say something, but just sighed and lowered her head, blushing slightly. She felt embarrassed about not thinking about it herself; teleporting herself to the entrance would’ve been child’s play.

“Jackie!” said another nurse with an angry tone in her voice, as she walked out of the break room. “What did I tell you about treating our guests and patients?”

“Whatever.” said the nurse at the desk, walking into the break room herself.

The other nurse took her place at the desk, and looked at Twilight.

“I’m sorry about her behavior, miss.” she said, taking a few files from under the desk and stacking them in front of her. “She’s new.”

“It’s okay. Thank you.” replied Twilight with a smile, glad to see that this nurse was much friendlier. “Could I just freshen up for a bit? I’m not too keen on seeing my f- I mean, that person I know like this.”

“Sure, we’ve got a shower right over there.” said the nurse, nodding towards a door just left of the desk. “You’re not the first one to have trouble with going through the passage. Probably not the last, either.”

“Thank you.” said Twilight gratefully, opening the door and entering the room.

The room looked surprisingly clean and neat, as if it was the bathroom of an actual house. There laid clean washcloths and towels for people to use, as well as soap, deodorant, shampoo and even perfume and cologne. She took a washcloth and a towel, and turned on the shower…

Fifteen minutes later she walked out of the room, clean once more. She noticed another dirt-stained colt waiting for her to finish, and walked into the bathroom himself when she cleared the way. She chuckled. It looked like she wasn’t the only one, indeed.

“There we go, all cleaned up are we?” said the nurse from behind the desk.

“Completely! Thank you once again for your help.” replied Twilight with a grateful smile.

She walked towards the desk, and faced the nurse.

“My name is nurse White Moon, by the way.” said the nurse. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m looking for Rainbow Dash.” said Twilight. “She was brought in recently.”

The nurse’s expression changed as soon as she heard that name. She stared at Twilight for a moment with wide eyes, as if she didn’t believe her.

Rasping her throat, she regained her composure and took a look at her papers.

“Sorry for that, Miss.” she said. “I just didn’t expect… her to have visitors.”

“I’ve got to ask her some questions.” said Twilight. “Is that possible?”

“Well, um, I don’t know…” said the nurse, narrowing her eyes while going through Rainbow Dash’s info. “I don’t know if it’s safe to do so under these conditions, especially considering her state of mind.”

“It’s important. Please let me talk to her.”

With a sigh, nurse White Moon took off her glasses and wiped her brow.

“W-Well… I guess I could let you talk to her, if you keep it brief… But I’ll have to send somebody with you in case it goes wrong. Please wait for a moment.”

The nurse left her papers on the desk, and walked into the break room. Curiously, Twilight took a quick glance at the files. Though she never saw most of the ponies, she recognized Rainbow Dash’s file. She didn’t have enough time to read through the details, but she could clearly make out a few words.

“…Hazard for society…”

“…Treat with caution…”

“…Solitary confinement…”

Before she could read anything else, the nurse walked out of the break room, a bulky colt following right behind her.

“This is doctor Dart.” said the nurse. “He will keep an eye on your conversation with Rainbow Dash. If something goes wrong, he’ll step in.”

“O-Okay.” said Twilight, hoping that his services wouldn’t be needed. He looked like the type that could easily restrain even a tough pony like Rainbow Dash.

“Follow me, please.” Said the doctor. “I’ll take you to Rainbow Dash’s room.”

Twilight followed the doctor, her mind slowly filling with doubt. All this security made her realize the state in which state Rainbow Dash could be in. What if Rainbow Dash was too far gone to remember anything? What if Rainbow Dash attacked her? What would Dart do if he ‘stepped in’? It could go wrong in directions she hadn’t even thought of yet.

“We’re here.”

Twilight’s mind quickly returned to reality. She and the doctor stood in front of a tightly sealed, reinforced door, almost enough to look like the door of a bank vault. The doctor typed in a code at a terminal next to it, causing the door to unlock and slowly open itself.

Behind the door were two rooms, separated by a strong wall, reinforced glass and a locked door. Through the reinforced glass, Twilight could that entire room was covered in soft, bouncy material. The kind used to prevent the people inside from hurting themselves.

She then saw Rainbow Dash, curled up in a corner of the room. She was completely locked in a stray jacket, with even her wings restrained to her back. The sole thing she could move was her head, tail and hind legs. Yet, she laid completely still, not even moving with the slightest twitch.

“Are you ready?” asked the doctor, taking a key ring out of his pocket.

Nervously, she nodded her head. Deep down, she knew she wasn’t ready. But she also knew that it was either now, or never. She wouldn’t even be more ready than this.

The doctor unlocked and opened the door. Rainbow Dash didn’t give a single reaction, until the doctor spoke to her.

“You have a visitor.”

Rainbow Dash slowly turned her head towards the doctor. Dried tears were still visible amongst the side of her head and cheeks, and she had big bags under her narrowed eyes.

As she noticed Twilight staring at her from behind the doctor, her eyes turned wider then Twilight had ever seen before, and a single whisper escaped her dehydrated mouth.

“Twilight…”

How Friends May Fall - Part 4

How Friends May Fall – Part 4

“Twilight…”

The coldest of chills she had ever felt ran down Twilight’s spine as she heard Rainbow Dash speak. It wasn’t the same tone she always spoke it. It somehow didn’t even seem to be the same voice. Like it had been partially distorted.

“H… Hello, Rainbow Dash.” daid Twilight softly, her voice shivering from fear and nervosity.

As she slowly walked into the room, Rainbow Dash got back up on her hind legs. She tightly pressed herself into the corner, as if she tried to escape from Twilight. But it was no use. The bouncy walls forcefully pushed her again, causing her to smack right back on the ground.

“Rainbow, please…” said Twilight. “I’m not going to hurt you, or do anything bad to you. I just want to talk.”

As she finished her sentence, Rainbow Dash notably calmed down. But instead of looking at her, she simply faced the ground, trying to hide her face out of shame. Despite her insanity, she seemed to be quite aware of the situation she was in.

“Doctor, can I speak to her in private, please?” asked Twilight, as she turned towards the doctor.

The doctor narrowed his eyes, and looked at the two ponies. With a grunt, he turned around and walked into the room.

“You have five minutes.” he said. “Try not to make her snap.”

The doctor closed the door behind him, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash alone in the room. Yet, he kept a close eye on the two ponies through the glass. Twilight could faintly see him holding on to something that he pulled out of his pocket, yet she could not make out what it was.

She turned back towards Rainbow Dash, who still sat in the same position. Her face was hidden behind her mane, yet Twilight could see drops of water falling down from her face. She couldn’t make out whether it was sweat, tears, or possibly even drool.

For a moment, the two ponies remained completely still, the sole noise coming from Rainbow Dash’s loud breathing. Even though Twilight knew exactly what she wanted to ask Rainbow Dash, she had trouble with finding the right words. She had to know what happened without driving Rainbow Dash mad, but still had to find out as much details as possible.

She took a deep breath to ask a first question, but was suddenly interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

“I know what I did.”

Rainbow Dash raised her head, and faced Twilight. Tears once again welled up in the Pegasus’ blood-shot eyes, yet she tried to hold them back as hard as she could. Unfortunately, her sorrowful expression was not as easy to mask.

“I know what I did. I… I murdered Pinkie Pie. One of my best friends. I… I…”

She bowed her head, and softly began to sob. A few tears streamed down past her cheeks, dripping of the soft floor. Feeling sorry for her friend, Twilight carefully came closer and stroked Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.” she said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. “But I need to know exactly what happened.”

Rainbow Dash calmed down for just a moment, yet burst into crying and turned her head away soon after. The memories of that night still haunted her, tormenting her with sorrow and anguish. Twilight could clearly notice it from her expression.

“I know it’s hard, Rainbow.” she said. “But please, I have to know. It’s important.”

Steadily, Rainbow Dash began to stop crying, and faced her face back towards Twilight.

“It… It was two weeks ago. During an afternoon.” She said with a soft voice. “P-Pinkie Pie invited me over at Sugarcube Corner, because I had felt so bad lately. She… She wanted to cheer me up with a treat. She…”

Her body began to shiver, and her eyes grew wide. Her expression changed to one of pure fear, as if she stared death right in the eyes. It was horrifying enough to even cause Twilight to back off.

“She gave me… Cupcakes…”

She began to grind her teeth, and tears again rolled down her face.

“Cupcakes… She gave me cupcakes… Cupcakes… Cupcakes! Cupcakes!!”

She began to scream loudly, bursting the word “Cupcakes” in-between her screams. The doctor prepared to move in, but Twilight signaled him to stay back. She could make out the item he was holding much clearer now. It was a blow dart. He was planning to sedate Rainbow Dash should this go out of control! She felt slightly relieved that he wasn’t going to use more drastic measures, but still hoped that he wouldn’t have to actually use it.

“Please, Rainbow!” Shouted Twilight, grabbing Rainbow Dash by her shoulders. “Calm down! What’s wrong with the cupcakes?”

Rainbow Dash stopped screaming, but the expression of fear did not leave her face. She was on the verge of a panic attack, and had trouble formulating her sentences.

“The cupcakes… They were drugged… She took me to the basement… Strapped me up… All the corpses! Corpses everywhere!”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as she heard Rainbow Dash say those words. So far, it sounded a lot like…

“Rainbow Dash!” said Twilight. “What--”

“The knife!” screamed Rainbow Dash, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “She took it… Came to me… Cut off my cutie mark! Cut off my legs! Cut open my stomach! Blood everywhere… Pinkie Pie… Killed me… She killed me… She killed me!”

With a fierce headbutt, Rainbow Dash knocked Twilight aside. Her fearful expression changed to one of pure anger, as she attempted to push herself towards Twilight with her hind legs.

“The nightmares warned me, Twilight!” She screamed hysterically. “Pinkie Pie killed me! She mercilessly cut me open and killed me! And now she wanted to do it again! So I killed her first! I’m not the murderer! She is!!”

Fearing for her life, Twilight got back up on her legs and tried to run gallop back to the door. But, Rainbow Dash tightly grabbed her tail with her teeth, and with all of her might threw her back against the wall. Dazed from the impact, she was unable to get away while Rainbow Dash crawled on top of her.

“Everybody blames me! Well guess what, I’m not the murderer! Pinkie Pie was! And I will kill every one of you for blaming me!”

Rainbow Dash tightly bit Twilight’s neck, closing the unicorn’s trachea. In a panic, she tried to push Rainbow Dash away from her. But Rainbow Dash’s grip was too strong, and only began stronger the harder she pushed. Everything slowly began to turn black, as she ran out of breath and began to suffocate…

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash loosened her grip. Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash off her and gasped for breath, hacking and coughing as she filled her lungs with fresh air. Still panting, she saw Rainbow Dash laying paralyzed on the ground, with a blow dart sticking out of her neck. The doctor had quickly stepped in as he saw Twilight getting choked.

As she regained her breath, Twilight stormed out of the room in fright. Although she knew beforehand that Rainbow Dash could attack her, she never thought that she would actually try to kill her. She didn’t know what hurt worse, the shock or the tooth marks in her neck.

“I warned you not to make her snap.” said the doctor angrily, as he locked the door behind him. “And yet you didn’t even last five minutes without making her attack you.”

“I-I’m sorry, doctor.” replied Twilight, still breathing heavily. “But I…”

“I don’t want to hear it.” he said. “You may have made her even more mad then she already is.”

The doctor opened the door to the hallway, and looked back to Twilight.

“I advise you to leave, now.” he said harshly. “And don’t come back to visit her again”

Fighting back tears, Twilight slowly walked back into the hallway. She looked back into the hallway once more, and saw Rainbow Dash laying in the same position as before, but with tears once again falling from her eyes. Tears of bitter anguish, of the knowledge that she had almost killed another one of her friends.

As Twilight walked through the hallways, she felt an immense feeling of dread crawling through her. Not only had Rainbow Dash tried to kill her, she had mentioned the exact same basement that Twilight had found before. The worst scenario she could possibly have ever thought of had occurred. The gruesome find was indeed related to the incident at Sugarcube Corner.

She began to sob softly as she continues through the hallways. She didn’t know what to do anymore. Everything she had learned about the incident so far had only turned out to be horrible, yet she knew too much to back out now. It wasn’t just curiosity bugging her anymore. Instead, it was a fiery hope urging her to learn more. Hope that there might still be a good end to this terrible nightmare. Hope that there was a good reason behind all of this. Hope that it wasn’t all as bad as it seemed… But she didn’t know if she could take it anymore. At this rate, she felt like she was going to lose her sanity herself should she keep going.

Whereas the desperate hope in her mind was pushing her to continue, the despair and sorrow she experienced begged for her to stop and go home. Go home, and somehow forget everything she had learned about the incident. Forget that the incident had occurred at all. Even forget that she had ever known Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.

As she walked through the door back into the entrance hall, her mind was suddenly forced back into reality as two guards ambushed her and forced her down to the ground. Before she could even realize what was going on, the guards had her in a stranglehold, and cuffed her hooves together.

“What is this? What’s going on??” shouted Twilight in a panic, her view shifting all across the room. “Somepony help me!”

Yet, everybody in the entrance hall simply stood there and watched as the two mute guards carried Twilight outside. She noticed several chariots which she hadn’t seen before parked around the asylum, and guards had blocked the entire entrance area for possible visitors. Still panicking, Twilight struggled to break free, but the guards’ grip was too strong for her to break.

As she was laid down right next to one of the chariots, a group of guards surrounded her to prevent her from getting away.

“What’s going on here? I didn’t do anything!”

“Calm down, miss Sparkle.”

Twilight heard a familiar voice coming from behind the guards. As the voice spoke, the guards cleared a path for another colt. The colt approaches Twilight, and stared right into her eyes.

Twilight instantly recognized the colt.

“Lieutenant Mane…” she said with a soft voice.

“I’m sorry, miss Sparkle.” he replied, as he blindfolded Twilight.

“You’re coming with us.”

How Friends May Fall - Part 5

How Friends May Fall – Part 5

As much as Twilight tried to struggle, it was of no use. There wasn’t much she could do. She couldn’t run away because of her cuffed hooves, and without sight she could not aim her magic. Even if she had been able to do both, she was still surrounded by far too many guards, and even more of them were still spread around the asylum grounds.

Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted from the floor, and being laid down elsewhere. Almost immediately, felt a disturbance in the surface below her, soon followed by rough winds and the sounds of flapping wings.

“W-What’s going on?” said Twilight, her voice slightly shivering in fear. “Where are you taking me?”

But there was no response. She couldn’t even hear if there was anybody else around, all she heard were the wind and the flapping wings.

She then realized what was going on. She had been loaded into one of the chariots, and the guards were taking her somewhere. A feeling of dread came over here as she came to this realization. Why did they take her away like this? Where were they going? What were they going to do with her? At least she knew that it had to be somehow involved with her research. Otherwise, Lieutenant Mane most likely wouldn’t have been there.

Knowing that there was no escape, she just laid down where she was. The only guards remaining now were most likely the ones carrying the chariot, but she had no idea how far above the surface they were. She did not want to risk falling to her death. With a sigh, she just began to count the second she was there.

One second… Ten seconds… A hundred seconds… Five hundred seconds… A thousand seconds… Five thousand seconds…

She slowly became woozy by the repetitive counting, and soon slipped away into slumber…

With a soft groan, Twilight opened her eyes. She didn’t feel the wind anymore, nor could she hear the wings. In fact, other than her own breathing, she couldn’t hear anything at all.

She rubbed her eyes, and took a good look at her surroundings. She found herself within a dark area, completely surrounded by black smoke, with just a tiny, magical sparkle hanging several feet above her.

Suddenly, she realized that she could move her hooves freely, and that she was able to see again. Her cuffs and blindfold were gone!

“What is this place?” she whispered to herself, as she got back up on her feet.

“Hello.”

Twilight was startled by a voice right behind her. As she turned around, she saw a white-maned yellow filly, standing right behind her.

“Um… Hi.” replied Twilight, feeling a little uneasy about this weird place. “Who are y--”

“Hello.”

Once more, she heard a voice behind her. This time, it had come from a red-maned white filly, who too was standing right behind her.

As innocent as the fillies seemed, Twilight began to feel very uncomfortable. Where had these two fillies come from? The yellow filly might have been there all along, but she was absolutely certain that she hadn’t seen the white filly coming her way. Had they come from beyond this weird black smoke?

“W-Where am I?” asked Twilight to the two fillies, backing up to face them both.

The two fillies looked at eachother for a moment, and then turned their heads back to Twilight. Instead of answering, they simply smiled at her and stared right into her eyes. Slowly, their smiles turned into grins. Both their grins and eyes grew wider, and wider, and…

In horror, Twilight watched as the fillies’ cheeks tore apart, blood pouring down from the wounds as their hind teeth and jaws became visible. Their eyes began to swell up and bleed, until they popped into a bloody mess. Completely distressed and frightened, Twilight wanted to turn around and ran as fast as she could. Yet, just as she wanted to do so, she suddenly heard the loudest and most terrifying howl she had ever heard right behind her. Cold sweat dripped from her back and forehead as she turned around and faced--

“Miss Sparkle, wake up!”

With a high-pitched scream, Twilight awoke from her sleep. She was breathing heavily, and her back and forehead were covered in sweat. She took a quick glance at her surroundings, and found herself lying in the back of a chariot, as she had assumed before. With a relieved sigh, she looked back at the colt that woke her. It was Lieutenant Mane, holding the blindfold that Twilight wore before in his hoof.

“What the hay were you dreaming about?” asked the lieutenant. “Your struggling almost caused the guards to lose control of the chariot!”

“It was nothing.” replied Twilight quickly. “Just a… bad dream.”

“I’m afraid that you’re going to have to tell us more than just that, Twilight.”

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind Lieutenant Mane. Twilight instantly recognized it, as well as the pony it originated from, who walked straight up to her. In front of Twilight stood none other than…

“Princess Luna!”

“I’m glad to see that you still recognize me, Twilight.” replied Princess Luna with a smile.

The princess turned her head towards Lieutenant Mane, and nodded. The lieutenant nodded back, and began to uncuff Twilight’s hooves.

“I’m sorry for the whole scare, Twilight.” said Princess Luna. “Lieutenant Mane here gets rather… thorough in his assignments. All he had to do was bring you here.”

“Bring me here? Why?” asked Twilight, as she rubbed her uncuffed hooves together to get the numbness out of them. “Does this have something to do with the research I’ve been doing?”

“I’m afraid so.” replied the princess with a nod. “We have reason to believe that the basement beneath Sugarcube Corner is somehow related to the incident. We also believe that you think the exact same thing, as one of our undercover officers spotted you within the Canterlot Asylum earlier today.”

Twilight thought back to her time in the Canterlot Asylum. She did recall seeing a colt in the entrance hall, who had entered the shower right after she had left. Had that colt been an undercover officer all along? And if so, how long had he been following her?

“But… Why are you here?” asked Twilight. “And why do you need me?”

Instead of answering Twilight’s question, Princess Luna turned around and took a few steps away, Lieutenant Mane following right behind her. She turned her head back at Twilight, and motioned for her to follow.

“We’ll discuss that elsewhere.” said the princess. “Please follow me.”

Somewhat reluctantly, Twilight stepped out of the chariot and followed the princess. As she followed her around, she took a better look at her surroundings. They seemed to be inside of a certain structure, yet it looked much different then what Twilight was used to. Instead of being colorful and made out of stone or wood, everything seemed to be made out of iron and glass, and some of the rooms they crossed were stocked with advanced equipment she had never seen before. It felt almost as if she had travelled a thousand years into the future!

However, everything had an eerie feeling about it. Why would the police force be in possession of such advanced equipment? After all, this single murder case was supposed to be the first one that had occurred in hundreds, if not thousands of years, and since that time this was the worst crime ever committed. But even so, all this technology seemed so… excessive. And how could this all be related to the basement she found beneath Sugarcube Corner?

“We’re here.”

They stopped in front of a door, which after a second automatically opened itself. A sign was placed right above the door, with the writing ‘interrogation room’.

Other than a single table with a lamp, the room was completely empty. There was a single window in the back of the room. Standing up on her hind legs and leaning against the wall with her hooves, she could only barely reach it. She found that they were in a skyscraper in a large city she had never seen before, almost at the top level of the building.

“We’re in Trotham City.” said Princess Luna, as she stepped to the window and stood beside Twilight. “It’s all the way on the other side of Equestria, at least several hundreds of miles away from Ponyville and Canterlot.”

“Several hundreds of miles away??” said Twilight, as she backed away from the window and faced Princess Luna. “How long was I out for?”

“Not too long, actually.” replied the princess, as she walked back to the table. “Only half an hour at best. We have small offices spread everywhere, including near Ponyville and Canterlot, which provide instant teleportation to our headquarters with the use of technology and magic.”

Baffled by the thought of such things being possible, Twilight followed Princess Luna to the table and stood at the other side. Lieutenant Mane shut the door, and positioned himself next to the princess.

“We need to talk about that dream of yours, in fact.” said the lieutenant, as he grabbed a notepad and a pencil from a drawer on his side of the table. “Could you tell us exactly what you dreamed about?”

“H-How is that relevant to anything at all?” asked Twilight confused.

“We’ll answer all of your questions soon, Twilight.” said Princess Luna. “But first, there are some questions we would like to have answered.”

With a sigh, Twilight began to tell about her dream in as much detail as she could remember. Although Lieutenant Mane simply nodded and scribbled some things down on his notepad, Princess Luna began to look ever more worried as her explanation dragged on. Almost as if she recognized Twilight’s dream as a bad omen.

“…and that’s when I woke up.”

Lieutenant Mane looked at Princess Luna, who simply remained silent and stared at Twilight for a few seconds. Her face had become a bit pale, and she truly looked like she was worried about something.

“And how do you feel right now?” asked the princess, with a clearly concerned tone in her voice.

“Well… I’m a bit upset about that dream, but otherwise I feel fine.” said Twilight, raising an eyebrow. “But like I said, what does my dream have to do with anything?”

Lieutenant Mane turned back to his notebook, and wrote something down. He then turned on the lamp, and aimed it straight for Twilight’s head.

“Hey! What is that for?!” said Twilight, disgruntled.

“Standard procedure for an interrogation, Miss Sparkle.” replied Lieutenant Mane. “We wouldn’t want you to lie about anything.”

“But why would I--”

“Miss Sparkle, you had just spoken with the Pegasus known as Rainbow Dash when you left the asylum, right?” said the lieutenant, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “Please tell us what she told you.”

Twilight thought back to her talk with Rainbow Dash. Other than the fact that the room was somehow related to the incident, she hadn’t learned much from her visit. However, she remembered Rainbow Dash shouting some other things that didn’t quite make sense…

“Well, I’m not sure what to believe.” she said somewhat hesitantly. “She told me that Pinkie invited her over for cupcakes, but that Pinkie murdered her instead of the other way around.”

Once more, Lieutenant Mane scribbled something on his notepad. It was making Twilight feel very uneasy, but Princess Luna tried to soothe her a bit.

“Please, Twilight, isn’t there anything else that she told you? Anything at all?”

Twilight lowered her head in thought. Rainbow Dash had said some other things, but she didn’t know if it was the right choice to tell that to them. After all, she still knew nothing of this whole organization that the lieutenant and Princess Luna seemed to be a part of, and she had no idea how this could possibly end for Rainbow Dash.

“I can’t tell you.”

“What?” said Princess Luna. “Why not? I assure you that you can absolutely and positively trust--”

“How could I possibly trust you?!” shouted Twilight, as she raised her head and stared in Princess Luna’s direction. “You kidnap me from the asylum, blindfolding and cuffing me in the process, only to take me to a strange place on the other side of Equestria, where you bombard me with questions while refusing to tell me anything about what’s going on!”

The lieutenant and the princess both backed away from the table, having not expected such an outburst. Twilight could see her words sinking in, as they began to doubt whether or not they should tell her about this supposed organization.

Princess Luna looked in Lieutenant Mane’s direction, who nodded at the princess in approval. The princess faced back in Twilight’s direction, and walked back up to the table.

“If we tell you everything that’s going on, will you tell us everything you know?”

“I will.” said Twilight. “But only if you will answer any and all of my questions.”

“Just one more thing.” said Princess Luna quickly, with a serious tone in her voice. “What we are about to tell you can drastically change your look on the case, if not all of Equestria in its entirety.”

Although she kept a firm and resolute expression on her face, Twilight began to doubt whether or not she had to continue this way. She remembered the warning that Princess Celestia had given before, and it seemed awfully and suspiciously applicable in this situation. Could Princess Celestia herself have known that this would’ve happened?

“Twilight.” said the Princess. “Are you absolutely and positively sure that you want to everything?”

Taking a deep breath, Twilight swallowed her doubts and fears and nodded her head. It was no longer about simple curiosity that drove her to know more. It was the fact that something big was clearly going on, something that could very well influence and change all of Equestria. And with everything that had occurred, it couldn’t be anything good, either.

She wanted her remaining friends to be safe… And for that, she had to know more.

“Very well.” said Princess Luna. “I will tell you all you need to know.”

How Friends May Fall - Part 6

How Friends May Fall – Part 6

An uncomfortable silence fell upon the room. The princess had gone mute, unable to determine where she would begin. Twilight couldn’t help but feel cold chills running down her spine. It felt like the tension was about to crush her. Even Lieutenant Mane began to show a spark of interest, his head slightly turned towards the princess as he stared towards her from the corner of his eyes.

The princess closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. With a look of determination on her face, she began to tell her tale.

“A little more than a thousand years ago, unicorns from all over Equestria suddenly went missing. Completely random individuals, having no connections to eachother other than being of the same race. There didn’t seem to be a reason for at least most of them to just disappear, either. Yet still, the police department, back then still consisting almost solely out of guards, received reports of unicorns having gone missing on a daily basis.

Although they tried to investigate the reports and track down the missing unicorns, their technology and knowledge was far inferior to what we have today. As such, most of these missing unicorns were never found back.”

“It wasn’t long before me and my sister received word of these recurring reports, and as the weeks passed it grew to become one of the greatest concerns of our kingdom. So, in order to prevent the country from turning into a state of panic, we took measures to make sure that each new report was processed as secretive and private as possible. Although we succeeded in doing so, the reports of unicorns having gone missing never ceased, though the amount of them did seem to decrease ever so slightly with each new week.”

“Yet, as the amount of reports decreased, the amount of nightmares I experienced during my sleep increased. It began with a single, truly horrifying nightmare, one which had me shivering for at least half a day. Then, roughly a week later, I dreamt the same dream once again. Then, I dreamt it twice a week. Three times a week. Four times a week. It wasn’t long before I would have the exact same nightmare every time I went to sleep.”

“Celestia however was still concerned about the missing unicorns, and so I decided not to tell her about my nightmares. I did my absolute best to stay alert and hide any traces of my rough nights, though sometimes I began to feel like I was drifting away. As if something else, or somebody else, was taking over my consciousness. At the time though, I simply blamed it on my lack of decent sleep.”

“And then, one day, everything took a turn for the worst. Celestia’s worries had taken the better of her, causing her to fall under a stress-induced illness. Despite my own hidden health problems, I promised her to continue the investigation as best as I could. That afternoon, I left for the city of Neigh Orleans, where the amount of reports had suddenly increased again during the past week.”

“With the aid of the guards, I went undercover as a fellow guard to investigate a spa, owned by the latest unicorn that had gone missing. It started out like all other investigations: There was plenty of evidence, yet none of it even gave a clue as to where to even look for her. We were about to give up and leave… Until suddenly, one of the guards broke a flask on the floor, causing all of us to black out on the spot.”

“The next thing I remember… is waking up, chained to a wall of the most horrific room I had ever seen. I-It was exactly like in my dreams. Blood and body parts everywhere, and… and…”

Princess Luna rasped her throat, and turned her head away as she wiped away a tear. Twilight could clearly see that it was very hard for the princess to talk about it, yet the story so far had left an immense amount of questions in her head. Could all of this truly have started over a thousand years ago? How did the princess escape that room? Was it related to her metamorphosis into Nightmare Moon? Did Princess Celestia know about all this?

“I-I’m sorry.” said Princess Luna with a shivering voice. “I… I can’t continue.”

“But, princess…” replied Twilight. “I… I need to…”

Twilight doubed as to whether or not she had to continue that sentence. She had been through a lot herself, but it began to look as if the princess had gone through a whole lot more. As much as Twilight wanted to protect her friends, was it justifiable to crush the princess’ spirit in the process?

Silence filled the room once more, until suddenly Lieutenant Mane spoke up.

“Your highness.” he said, his voice completely unshaken by the scene. “Mind if I continue the story in your stead?”

With a sniffle, Princess Luna nodded her head. She took a last look at Twilight, and then quietly turned around and left the room. She kept an eye on the conversation through the window, though she was no longer able to hear what the two were saying. Perhaps it was for the better, thought Twilight.

“As the princess was saying…” said Lieutenant Mane. “She was chained up on the wall of a room, similar to the one you found. Body parts of the other guards were scattered across the room, though one single guard was still alive, albeit tied down with leather straps. The surviving guard warned the princess about a traitor who dragged them all down there, in a secret basement hidden beneath the foundations of the spa, and had begun disemboweling them one by one to drain their blood.”

“A-And this is happening again?” asked Twilight with a concerned tone in her voice.

“We’re not quite certain.” replied the Lieutenant. “People have indeed been gruesomely murdered in the basement you found. Possibly even in the exact same way as a thousand years ago. However, although the room was practically covered in blood, we’ve found no traces of any kegs or other things to actually store it in.”

“But… Why did that traitor drain the other guards’ blood, anyway?”

“I was getting to that before you decided to interrupt me with your questions. In fact, I strongly advise you to stay your tongue until I’m done.”

Twilight could sense some hostility coming from the lieutenant. Clearly, he didn’t seem to trust her as much as Princess Luna. In fact, he seemed like he was telling the story reluctantly. She began to suspect that he had only offered to tell the story so he could hide certain parts about it. She decided to pay close attention to what he said. If there were indeed things that he was hiding from her, she had to be on guard for any unintentional clues.

“As I was saying, the traitor drained his victim’s blood, and stored it inside barrels with strange black markings painted on the surface. Her highness never managed to figure out what these black markings specifically meant, yet she described the looks of them as ‘sinister’. As if they were regular letters or marks, twisted in unnatural shapes and forms.”

“Alas, just as the guard had told her highness everything he knew, the traitor came back and took care of him like he had done to the other guards. The princess was forced to watch the guard die slowly, as more and more pieces of flesh, bone and organs were torn from his body. It was exactly like she had seen before in her dreams. Yet this time, she was very well aware that this was truly happening, right in front of her. This time, it was reality.”

“For the next several days, she remained chained in the basement with no food or water to survive on. She was capable of withstanding the hunger, but it wasn’t long before dehydration began to tear at her weakened body and consciousness. Although no more Unicorns or guards were gored in front of her, every day a number of mysterious figures would enter the basement to deliver more barrels of tapped blood. Her highness did and as of yet still does not remember how long she remained down there, yet one bleak day the same traitor that had imprisoned here there returned to face her.”

“It was then that her story would take a turn for the worst. In order to ‘relieve her of her thirst’, as they called it, they forced a funnel right down her throat and made her drink half a barrel of the blood. The next day, they made her drink the other half. Then, a whole barrel. Soon after, two barrels. It wasn’t long until they continuously pumped blood from the barrels right into her throat, forcing it right back into her esophagus if she even dared to regurgitate any of it.”

“This vile ritual ravaged her body, and shattered her sanity. Every day she would feel more of her sanity slipping, eventually reaching a point where she was unable to even think in coherent sentences. It was then that she was finally freed from her chains, and strapped into the exact same leather contraption where so many had died before her.”

“Her highness remembers little to nothing about the ritual itself, but as she laid bound in the leather straps, she could feel a dark corruption growing inside of her. Surging through every ounce of her body.”

The lieutenant’s eyes narrowed as he continued to speak, and he stared deep into Twilight’s eyes.

“This foul ritual would summon and infuse the princess with one of the most dark and sinister forces the world has ever seen. A force that, amongst commoners like you, is best known as the one and only ‘mare in the moon’… Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight’s eyes turned wide and her coat turned pale at the mention of that name. Nightmare Moon… Not even in her wildest dreams could she have possibly expected Nightmare Moon to be involved.

“B-But…” muttered Twilight with a shivering voice, still in disbelief of this shocking turn of events. “I thought we defeated Nightmare Moon… This ‘force’ you’re talking about should be gone!”

“It is very much gone, miss Sparkle.” replied the lieutenant. “Banished, to be more specific. Yet, it is not vanquished.”

Twilight turned her head towards Princess Luna, who still overlooked the conversation between the two. She could not stop the immense sympathy and pity she felt for the princess from welling up tears in her eyes. As a single tear ran past Twilight’s cheek, the princess shut her eyes and turned away from the glass window.

“We are certain that once more, some ponies are attempting to summon this same force back into Equestria, and host it into the body of their chosen victim.” continued the lieutenant, paying little attention to Twilight’s sadness. “Yet, considering the fact that we have found no traces of equipment to drain one’s blood, we are left completely in the dark as to what their new method could possibly be.”

Twilight turned her head back towards the lieutenant, and dug through her memories of the basement she had found. With her more determined mindset, she was able to stand through the memories of those gruesome sights. Yet, she too could not recall having seen anything that could possibly drain somebody’s blood.

“But, if they have truly found a different way to summon this force, then why would they slaughter innocent ponies? And how is this all related to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie--”

Before she could finish her sentence, Twilight came to a startling realization.

“You… You think Rainbow Dash is the next host, don’t you?”

Slightly to the relief of Twilight, the lieutenant shook his head.

“In order to bring forth eternal night, Nightmare Moon needs magical powers. And Rainbow Dash doesn’t even have a sliver of magic within her body. We doubt that she would even be a remotely fitting host for the new Nightmare Moon. As such, the reason why she would have experienced those nightmares is still a mystery to us.”

“How did you know about the nightmares?” asked Twilight curiously, as she raised an eyebrow.

“Rainbow Dash is the first Pegasus to ever break through the magic barrier with raw speed.” replied the lieutenant. ”With that technique… I believe she called it the ‘Sonic Rainbow’ or something? Anyhow, we’ve been keeping an eye on her for quite some time now to make sure that she wasn’t… abusing this unique capability. We simply overheard her talking both to her friends and to herself in her sleep.”

“The magic barrier? What’s--”

“I’m afraid that the rest is classified, and I believe that we were talking about something entirely different, miss Sparkle.”

Twilight nodded her head with a disgruntled sigh. The lieutenant had a fair point, but she didn’t like it one bit that he was hiding so much important information about their investigation on Rainbow Dash. For how long had they been spying on her? What did they discover in the meantime? Why did they consider Rainbow Dash going through this ‘magic barrier’ a threat?

“So… The host of Nightmare Moon needs to be able to use magic to be suitable?”

“More or less.” replied Lieutenant Mane. “However, other than that, we also believe that Nightmare Moon thrives on the magical energy coming from within the host. For example, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia both have an extraordinary amount of magical energy due to their alicorn heritage and royal bloodline. Princess Luna however was the weaker of the two, which made her an easier target.”

“And because Princess Luna now knows the symptoms, you believe that they will target Princess Celestia as the new host instead?”

“Their wretched rituals aren’t even nearly intense enough to touch my sister.”

In the midst of the conversation, Princess Luna had walked back into the room, apparently calmed down from her earlier breakdown. Now that the tragic story of her own descend had been told, she seemed much more determined to continue with the case.

“The amount of magical energy within Celestia is unfathomable.” she said. “Even if those foul forces could somehow affect Celestia, she sheer pressure of her magical energy would force it right out of her body, if not destroy it completely.”

“But if that is the case… Who could possibly be the new host?” said Twilight. “Another alicorn of the royal house?”

“Although it is true that royal alicorns are born with a significant amount of magical energy, only me and Celestia have truly learnt to harness it.” replied the princess. “Without practice, they are pretty much just regular unicorns with wings.”

The princess walked around the table, and stood still right in front of Twilight. She narrowed her eyes, and stared deep into the unicorn’s eyes.

“Instead, the Nightmare Moon will require the body of a different kind of pony. One of significant, if not extraordinary magical prowess. A prodigy, in other words.”

Princess Luna raised her head once more, and stared down upon Twilight with a cold look in her eyes.

“The fact that you just so happened to have a nightmare on the way here might not have been a coincidence, Twilight. And it goes a long way towards confirming our fears.”

“Twilight Sparkle, we believe that the next chosen host of Nightmare Moon…is you.”

How Friends May Fall - Part 7

How Friends May Fall – Part 7

Twilight stared at princess Luna and the lieutenant with a look of disbelief. She had read many books about Nightmare Moon before their first showdown, and she had read even more about the history of Equestria. But never before had she even heard rumors of anything like this happening in the past. She could only imagine the lengths the royal house had gone through to keep this information away from the public.

“But… Why me?” asked Twilight in a soft, scared voice. “There are other unicorns who are better at magic then me… Is it because I wield one of the Elements of Harmony as well?”

“You underestimate your own power, Twilight Sparkle.” replied the princess. “Your special talent itself is magic. You have the potential to exceed even me and my sister in magical prowess, and we believe that the Lunar Society recognizes this potential.”

“The Lunar Society?”

“The cult that worships the force of Nightmare Moon.”

“But, furthermore…” continued the princess, frowning in concern. “The Lunar Society prides itself on exploitation. The fact that you wield the Element of Magic is indeed another reason why they have targeted you.”

“There are already two wielders of the Elements of Harmony that are incapable of using them. And while the wielders can be replaced, finding the right ponies to bear their power is a very difficult task that may take months, if not years, to accomplish. So the more wielders they can take out, the better their chances become.”

“Without the Elements of Harmony, only me and my sister may stand a chance against the powers of Nightmare Moon. But they know that princess Celestia could never strike down her own apprentice, and I do not possess the power to take on Nightmare Moon on my own.”

“In other words, it’s safe to assume that you’re the new host.” said Lieutenant Mane, interrupting the princess. “With all those factors depending on you, they know that our chances are over once they’ve got you on their side.”

As the words began to sink in, Twilight slowly began to panic. She could have never imagined herself playing such a significant role in a grim scenario like this, let alone be a target of a cult with such a sinister and foul agenda.

Paranoid thoughts began to fill her mind as she turned her head towards the window. How many of those cultists are there, out there? Could they be spying on her right now, even here in Trotham City? Can anybody out there be trusted? Do they know who she is, and where she is?

“We’ve told enough.” said the lieutenant, pounding his hoof on the table. “Time for you to start answering our questions, Sparkle.”

“Lieutenant!” said Princess Luna, as she turned towards the lieutenant with a disapproving look in her face.

“Don’t give me that look, princess. This is still my case, and I intend to solve this thing instead of giving history lessons and speeches.”

Twilight turned back towards the lieutenant. The panic and paranoia that filled her was clearly visible in her expression, as if she was certain that a cultist could walk in right through the door to take her away. Yet while the princess bore a sad grimace of concern on her face, the cold lieutenant completely ignored her insecurity.

“As I’ve said before…” continued the lieutenant. “Tell us what Rainbow Dash told you. And this time, tell us everything.”

As the lieutenant stared deeply into her eyes, Twilight tried to swallow her fear and focus for just a moment. She closed her eyes, and tried to think back to her visit with Rainbow Dash. The recent shocks had left her memory a bit blurry, but she believed that she could still remember the majority of their brief conversation.

“She… She knows what she has done.”

“Yes, and?” replied the lieutenant impatiently.

Her thoughts and memories were chaotic and disorganized. Although she was trying to ignore it, paranoid thoughts and whispers kept on bothering her. Can Lieutenant Mane be trusted? Why is he so obsessed with rushing this case? Could he be…

Then, she finally remembered.

“She told me that Pinkie had invited her over for cupcakes.” she said. “But the cupcakes were drugged, and she passed out because of it. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the basement, and being disemboweled alive.”

She opened her eyes, and stared back at the lieutenant. For the first time, she could see a slight look of surprise on the lieutenant’s face.

“For a moment, she seemed convinced that Pinkie Pie tried to murder her, and that she only defended herself. She turned back to normal right when I left, but that’s all I got her to tell me.”

The lieutenant narrowed his eyes, and looked over his notes.

“The basement…” he said, still looking through his notes. “Do you mean--”

“Yes.” interrupted Twilight. “Or at least, I think she referred to the same. But it sounded awfully accurate.”

Lieutenant Mane and Princess Luna looked at eachother for a moment. The princess gave a nod to the lieutenant, who took his notebook and walked out of the room.

“Come with us for a moment, Twilight.” said princess Luna, as she too stepped out of the room.

Twilight followed the princess through a set of corridors and staircases, walking past and through several rooms full of researchers and police officers. She couldn’t help but wonder about how many ponies were actually involved in this situation, and if they all really knew about the Lunar Society and its origins. Most likely, the full details were just kept by the ponies in charge. Although it did remind her somebody else.

“Princess Luna?” said Twilight. “I was wondering… What about princess Celestia? Does she know about all this?”

The princess kept on walking, but slightly turned her head back towards Twilight as she replied.

“She knows of the Lunar Society and about what happened in the past, but she doesn’t know that this case involves them once more.”

She turned her head back forward to see where she was going, but she continued to speak.

“Considering that this is the first murder case in centuries, she’s currently dealing with a lot of stress and questions from the public. I thought it was wiser to wait with notifying her until we were completely sure that the Lunar Society was involved; Which we’ve only officially confirmed just now, thanks to you.”

“But… princess Celestia already warned me before I began my investigation. Could she have already known about it?”

“It’s a possibility.” replied the princess with a nod. “After all, the last murder case that we’ve dealt with was caused by the Lunar Society, as well. It would only be natural to assume that this case could be linked to them again.”

Suddenly princess Luna stopped in her tracks, causing Twilight to bump into her. They had arrived at the front doors of what appeared to be a laboratory, with a few packs of researchers working on their own experiments and formulas. Twilight closely followed the princess as she walked through the doors, though she was curious as to why they would go to this place. She couldn’t think of a way that chemistry was related to the case… Or was it? She had been surprised by a lot of things thus far.

She spotted one of the researchers talking to Lieutenant Mane, who had arrived at the laboratory just before Twilight and the princess had done so. The lieutenant soon took notice of the princess and Twilight, and sent the researcher in their direction. It was a chocolate brown-coated colt, with a spiked dark brown mohawk mane and an hourglass for a cutie mark.

“Good afternoon, princess Luna. And nice to meet you, Miss Sparkle.” said the researcher politely. “My name is Doctor Whooves. I’m the head researcher of this department.”

Twilight nodded, but was cut off by princess Luna before she could introduce herself.

“Doctor, I would like to ask some questions about the magic barrier. I have heard that you’ve been doing research on the subject as of late.”

The magic barrier. Hearing it being mentioned again at this time piqued Twilight’s curiousity. She had never heard about it before, but could it possibly be somehow related to the case?

“Indeed I have, princess. It’s quite an interesting subject, really, considering all the mysteries still surrounding--”

“Please, doctor. This is urgent.”

“Ah, right.” said Doctor Whooves, rasping his throat. “What would you like to know, princess?”

“Well, for starters, could you briefly explain what exactly the magic barrier is?”

“What? You don’t know what the magic barrier is? Surely somepony of your stature would--”

The doctor’s sentence was interrupted by an annoyed glare on the princess’ face, as she slightly nodded her head towards Twilight.

“Right.” he said, as he turned around in the other direction. “Follow me, please.”

The trio walked towards a chalkboard on the other side of the laboratory. It was filled with formulas and calculations, but before Twilight could even make any sense of them they were wiped away by the doctor.

The doctor drew a few shapes on the chalkboard, and began his explanation.

“It’s quite simple, really.” he said, rubbing his hooves together. “The magic barrier is simply the combined name for the latent magical energies in our world’s atmosphere. The purpose of these magical energies is to partially hold back the flora and fauna of our nature, to prevent certain areas from being overgrown. This comes at the cost of several natural processes being blocked as well, such as leaves dropping from the trees during fall or certain kinds of flora growing on their own. For this, we have events such as Winter Wrap-up and the Running of the Leaves. Some unprotected areas like the Everfree Forest do still have these natural processes, though they are significantly less habitable due to the overgrown flora and the often dangerous creatures.”

“And what exactly happens when the magic barrier is broken?” asked princess Luna.

“Well…” began the doctor, as he drew a line through one of the shapes on the chalkboard. “The magic barrier can only be broken by objects that disturb the air current hard enough to basically ‘blow’ the magical energies away. In other words, it has to move extremely fast. But when it is broken, it creates a temporary void around the object, in which there are neither natural nor magical energies. The magical energies race back to close this void, which causes them to collide into another; Creating various effects, depending on the angle, shape and size of the object.”

“So that’s how a Sonic Rainboom is made…” said Twilight to herself.

“A sonic what now?” asked the doctor.

Princess Luna shook her head, and instead asked a question herself.

“And how exactly do these magical energies end up in the air?”

“Well, the magical energies themselves decay over time, or they can be absorbed by whichever object breaks the magic barrier. But every time a unicorn casts a spell, a small amount of magical energy is leaked into the atmosphere. So, in a way, it’s thanks to the unicorns that some areas have become habitable!”

“And what if a unicorn is murdered?”

Both the doctor and Twilight were startled by the princess’ question. While it definitely seemed to be much more relevant to the case, it seemed to be thrown out right out of nowhere; Especially surprising the poor doctor, who seemed to be taken completely by surprise.

“W-Well, um…” stuttered the doctor. “When a unicorn is threatened, or… murdered… they get a certain reflect which gives them a temporary magic surge. Depending on the magical abilities of said unicorn, this will either just spill right into the magic barrier, or manifest itself into a spell of sorts.”

“And what if the unicorn happened to be intoxicated during this magic surge?”

“I’m not too sure about that, really… I suppose the unicorn in question will still get a magic surge, though only a small one due to its befuddled sense of perception.”

Princess Luna looked back at Twilight and Lieutenant Mane. While the lieutenant still bore the same cold and stern grimace as always, Twilight seemed to have been taken by surprise with the previous two questions, as she seemed stuck in a frozen stare towards the princess.

“Ahem.” coughed princess Luna, slightly embarrassed by the looks of Twilight and the doctor. “Thank you for your assistance, doctor. You can go back to work now.”

“A-Any time, princess.” replied Doctor Whooves, wiping his brow as he walked back to his chemistry tools.

Twilight followed close behind as princess Luna left the laboratory. Although the two didn’t speak a single word as they walked through the corridors again, Twilight began to see a certain pattern in the questions and answers she just heard. Every time Rainbow Dash would do a Sonic Rainboom, Buccaneer Blaze, or anything else that broke the magic barrier, she would unintentionally absorb some of the magical energies that were pulled towards her because of the void. If some of those magical energies had really come from murdered unicorns, would that explain the reason behind Rainbow Dash’s nightmares? It could be a plausible explanation...

But, if it's true... Then what was Pinkie doing in her dreams?

How Friends May Fall - Part 8

How Friends May Fall – Part 8

Twilight began to breathe heavily as she tried to keep up with princess Luna. She didn’t know how long they had been walking, going through corridors and walking up and down sets of stairs. She couldn’t make out whether it was just a huge building, whether it was magically enhanced, or if it was just faulty architecture.

“Are you okay back there?” asked princess Luna, as she slightly turned her head towards Twilight. “You look worn out.”

“I’m… I’m fine!” replied Twilight, still breathing heavily but weakly forcing a smile on her face.

The princess nodded, and turned her head back forwards. Yet, as she turned her head, she suddenly began to move faster. Taking in a deep breath, Twilight began to move faster as well. But the princess began to move even faster. Twilight did the same, but the princess began to move faster again, and again, and again… Despite still walking normally, the princess was suddenly moving much faster than Twilight could run in a full gallop.

“Princess, wait!” shouted Twilight. “I can’t keep up! I…”

Yet, the princess had moved too far away to hear her. She was just a mere dot on the horizon, barely visible from Twilight’s perspective.

But then, Twilight took note of her surroundings. The corridor seemed to span on far beyond the horizon, and the ceiling seemed to reach well beyond the clouds. Freaked out by this unnatural display, Twilight quickly turned around to walk back, but only found a brick wall right behind her.

“Wha.--”

The brick wall suddenly began to move rapidly towards Twilight, threatening to crash into her at any moment. Twilight immediately turned around to gallop away at full speed, but only found another brick wall heading in her direction.

“W-What’s going on here? Somepony, help!”

Her voice only echoed on through the hallway. Spikes slowly began to grow out of the brick wall, crusted blood and decaying gore forming itself upon them as they neared Twilight. With panic searing through her veins, she began to pound the walls in a desperate attempt to get out.

“No no no no no NO NO!!!”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

With a shock, Twilight opened her eyes to find princess Luna standing right in front of her. The princess rasped and held her hoof on her throat. It had been a while since she had used the Royal Canterlot Voice, and her vocal cords weren’t used to it anymore.

“Wh-What?” asked Twilight with a soft voice.

“I said, we’re here.” said the princess, her voice still sounding a bit hoarse from the shouting.

“B-But… I…”

Twilight looked backwards, and found a perfectly normal corridor right behind her. She could even see the doors of the laboratory on the other side of the corridor, with only a small set of steps separating the two halves.

It wasn’t at all like she had experienced it. Where had the endless corridor gone? How was she suddenly right next to the princess again? For that matter, where had all the corridors and stairs that she had already been through gone? Had she been…

“You’ve… been hallucinating, haven’t you?”

Twilight turned back towards princess Luna, bearing a sad and concerned look on her face. The two remained silent for a moment, and simply stared into each other’s eyes for the moment. Twilight felt like the princess was staring right into her soul. As if she was staring right into her subconscious, searching for abnormalities or corruptions.

“Listen, Twilight.” said the princess eventually, as she stepped closer towards Twilight. “The Lunar Society clearly has its eyes set on you, and the fact that you’re hallucinating confirms that you’re their target. I don’t know what you’ve seen, and I think that I’d prefer if you didn’t tell me… But no matter what you do, do not give in to them. Otherwise, they will only drive you towards madness.”

The princess narrowed her eyes, and formed a stern look upon her face.

“No matter what you may see, and no matter what may happen, you must remember to remain calm no matter what. Remember that it’s not real, and that it’s just going on inside your subconscious. Because the moment that you lose your sanity, the Lunar Society will be able to take full control over your mind. Do you understand?”

Twilight remained silent, but softly nodded her head. Although she tried to remain calm like the princess said, she could still feel cold chills and shivers running down her spine, and she could feel her heart beating at a rapid pace. She was freaking out about everything that was going on, and she could feel that she was on the verge of going back into panic.

As the princess turned back around and walked into another room, Twilight slowly followed her through the door. This room was much smaller than the laboratory they had entered earlier; In fact, only three ponies seemed to be at work here, in a small office filled with cabinets and loose files.

“Good day, princess! Miss Sparkle.” said one of the ponies, as she walked towards the duo. “What can I help you with?”

“Could you please give us the files of miss Pinkamina Diane Pie?” asked princess Luna.

“Ah, file 63B/8. Coming right up!”

The pony walked back to the two other workers, and began to shout orders at them.

“Parch Quill! Leaflet! Fetch me file 63B/8, and make it snappy!”

The two workers immediately began to dig through the cabinets and loose folders, in search of file 63B/8.

“Sorry about the mess, princess.” said the commanding pony, as she turned her head back towards princess Luna. “We haven’t really had the time to sort our stuff this week.”

The princess nodded, and waved the pony off. She too dived straight into a pile of folders, and began checking them one by one for the correct file.

“Princess, what is this room?” asked Twilight with a concerned voice. “Why do have files about Pinkie? And why do we need them?”

“Well, this is supposed to be our organized file room.” replied princess Luna with a sigh. “Whenever we find somepony with a certain special or unique ability or abnormality, we document it and keep track of their records. We’ve got files of you and all of your friends here.”

“So… You’re actually spying on ponies?”

“Actually, it’s more like background research and statistics and such.” said Parch Quill, still checking through the files of one folder. “And it’s not exactly specific, either. This one right here is documented just for having a mane that looks like freaking toothpaste.”

“Anyhow…” continued the princess. “We keep these files here in case something happens, and certain special things are given as testimony. For instance, if that toothpaste-maned pony would ever steal something or perform another mayor crime, the police force could immediately identify her.”

Feeling a little uneasy with the thought of so many ponies being documented by the authorities, Twilight just sat back and watched the three workers as they searched through the files. They seemed to scan through them relatively fast, though the sheer amount of folders made it look like it could take a--

“I found it!” shouted Leaflet, raising his head from one of the cabinet drawers and holding a folder in hoof. “File 63B/8, on page 3 of folder Y2K/85.”

Leaflet gave the folder to princess Luna, turned to page 3 and began to read the file immediately. However, she was interrupted by Twilight tugging her right hoof.

“Wait, princess.” said Twilight, with a concerned tone in her voice. “I still don’t understand. Why do we need Pinkie’s files?”

“Well, Rainbow Dash told you that she appeared in her dreams, right?” replied the princess, turning her head towards Twilight. “Because if that’s true, then she either must have had some kind of special attribute that placed her there… Or she must have been affiliated with the Lunar Society.”

“B-But Pinkie would never join a group of fanatics like them!”

“So would so many others, I’m afraid.” replied the princess with a sigh, as she turned her head back to the file. “But before we jump to any conclusions, I need to know if she had any sort of particular attributes that could have placed her in that position.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, and tried to focus her memories. Especially if ponies were already getting documented for small things like their mane color, there was probably a whole lot about Pinkie Pie that was documented. She remembered more of these special “attributes” that Pinkie had then she could count, but she couldn’t imagine that of them could possibly be used to place herself in somebody’s dream. Unless…

“Pinkie sense.”

“Hm?” said princess Luna, once more turning her head towards Twilight.

“Well, Pinkie was somehow able to predict the future through twitches and motions. I never found out how it actually works, but she just called it her ‘Pinkie sense’. I don’t know if it’s even related in the slightest, but it’s the only that I can think of.”

“Predict the future, you say? How accurate were these predictions?”

“Well, the one I have the most experience with is her twitchy tail, which means that something is going to fall out of the sky. That’s as specific as it gets, but she got it right every time I saw it.”

“Really? I wonder…”

The princess turned her attention back to the file, and began flipping through the pages rapidly. Twilight knew that the princess was looking for something, but she couldn’t think of what. But at least the princess did seem to have a lead on something… Could her Pinkie sense really be capable of doing such things, after all?

“As I expected!”

Princess Luna handed the file to Twilight, and laid her hoof the opened page. It was a detailed family tree of the Pie family, spanning back for well over 20 generations. The princess’ hoof was right next to a specific entry, acting as Pinkie’s great-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. The entry stood out from the other entries in the family tree, as it was surrounded by an elegantly drawn frame and the letters were finely decorated.

The entry read ‘Vertigo Flux, the Apprentice’.

“Who is Vertigo Flux?” asked Twilight, looking up towards princess Luna.

“Vertigo Flux is an apprentice of Star Swirl the Bearded.” said the princess. “The last one he had, in fact.”

“An apprentice of Star Swirl the Bearded? Did Pinkie really have such a powerful magician in her family?”

“Not quite.” replied the princess, shaking her head. “Vertigo Flux had great potential, which is why Star Swirl took him under his wing. However, Star Swirl passed away before he could start his advanced lessons. At best, Vertigo Flux had about as much magical expertise as a graduate student of the School for Gifted Unicorns.”

“Then why is he so important?”

“He was the first apprentice that Star Swirl taught in the arts of Chronomancy, back then a completely new kind of magic that Star Swirl had mastered. But because Star Swirl only had the chance to teach him the basics, all he was able to do was predict the near future by channeling jolts of magical energy through his surroundings.”

“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?” said the princess, as the two both turned their head to face eachother.

“But Pinkie is not a unicorn! How could she be able to do the same?”

“It’s a one in a thousand possibility, but perhaps your friend inherited Vertigo Flux’s potential and magical ability. But because she’s not a unicorn, she couldn’t control it, causing her to effectively ‘ooze’ magical energies all the time.”

As far-fetched as it sounded, Twilight did have to admit that the princess’ theory somehow made sense. The origins of Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie sense had always been a complete mystery, and she had seen Pinkie perform some normally impossible feats on more than one occasion. It even explained her nigh-unsurpassable eating habits, as constantly losing magical energies would greatly drain the energy of a unicorn after a while; Let alone the energy of an earth pony.

“But if her magical energies were to mix up with the distress signals of the tortured unicorns, would it be enough to place her within Rainbow’s dreams?”

“I don’t know.” replied the princess, as she took back the file and placed it back on a pile of folders. “But it’s the only lead we have right now, and even then it’s a pretty weak one. It’s just a guess, after all.”

With a sigh, the princess walked back into the corridor, Twilight following close behind her. Twilight realized as well as the princess that they were just grasping at straws right now, though a feeling in her gut told her that they were on to something. But even if it was true, could the Lunar Society have known about this? What if leading Rainbow Dash towards insanity had been their goal all along? After all, that way they had taken out two wielders of the Elements of Harmony, and as princess Luna had said before, the more wielders they take out, the better their chances become.

Suddenly, her thoughts flashed towards Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity. They still had no idea about what was going on, and if the Lunar Society was truly intent on taking them all out, they could easily be aiming to take out the others at the same time. And with Fluttershy having sunk into a depression, Applejack being concerned about her brother and Rarity clearly suffering from something as well, they were easy targets.

“Princess Luna! I--”

As she snapped out of her own thoughts, she noticed her wicked surroundings. She found herself standing within the center of a dark area, completely surrounded by black smoke, with just a tiny, magical sparkle hanging several feet above her.

A chill ran down her spine as she heard a filly’s voice behind her.

“Hello.”

How Friends May Fall - Part 9

How Friends May Fall – Part 9

“Hello.”

Twilight’s body completely froze in shock. She didn’t dare to look backwards. She didn’t dare to breathe. She didn’t dare to move even a single muscle. All she could think of was the terrible horrors she had experienced from her previous dream and the hallucination, and all she could feel was the chilling anticipation of terror lurking but seconds away.

“No, no, no…” she said softly, closing her eyes to help her focus. “This isn’t real. It’s just another hallucination. Nothing can hurt me here. Just--”

A loud, ear-shattering screech her interrupted her sentence. It came from right behind her, from the exact location where she knew the filly stood. Her body shivering all over, she forced her neck to turn her head, allowing her to only just look at the filly from the corner of her eye.

The moment she laid her eye on the filly, the screeching stopped. The filly was just standing there, her mouth shut and her eyes staring into Twilight’s. But her mouth was shut, as if she had never screeched at all. Or… hadn’t she?

“Hello.”

Twilight could hear the second filly’s voice. It was just like the dream she had before. The exact same area. The exact same fillies. The exact same voices. And she knew exactly what was going to happen next.

Every single emotion in her body was crying out for her not to turn back her head, but she believed that she would have to endure another one of those screeches in she didn’t. And so, despite her better judgment, she turned her head back and found both fillies staring right into her eyes. The fillies smiled as she looked them in the eyes. The smiles slowly turned to a grin, which got wider, and wider, and wider…

Twilight closed her eyes and covered them with her hooves so she wouldn’t have to witness what followed. But it was no use. The image was burnt into her eyes. No matter whether her eyes were open or closed, and no matter which way she turned her head, she always saw the two fillies. In terror, she once more witnessed their cheeks being torn apart, and their eyeballs swelling and bursting in their sockets. She could feel her stomach turning, and chills ran down her spine.

A deafening road echoed behind her. Yet overwhelming as it was, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. All she had to do was look backwards, and it was over. Just like the last time. With cold sweat dripping from her forehead, she turned back and--

She faced the most terrifying abomination she had ever seen. A being of no logical sense, created solely out of ponies’ mangled bodies, twisted in unnatural shapes and curves. A hunk of living gore and flesh, with ponies’ decapitated heads mounted on top of fleshy tentacles seemingly sprouted randomly upon its body. Just a mere look at the beast made her lose her lunch, which slowly seeped into nothingness. Hopelessly sitting down on her rump, she could do nothing but stare at the thing in pure terror.

“Why…” She whispered to herself.

Five tentacles slithered through the hunk of flesh, leaving behind a trail of blood and gore as they moved in Twilight’s direction. On each of them, a familiar head was mounted. The tentacles’ heads froze right in front of her, allowing her to take a closer look at them. But she didn’t need a closer look to know who they were. Even from far away, she could have seen their heads standing out.

“Why?”

The decapitated heads’ eyes opened widely, each reveling one empty socket and one dead, dried out eye still remaining in its socket. But, as if they were still alive, they all stared right into Twilight’s eyes.

“Why am I not waking up?!”

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain soaring through her front legs. The two fillies had both locked their teeth in one of Twilight’s front legs, penetrating her flesh and fiercely holding on. Screeching in pain, Twilight desperately tried to get them loose. Yet their jaws were too strong, and they bit straight through her bones, severing her front legs from her torso.

With a smack, Twilight’s disarmed torso landed on the inexistent floor. Crying out in pain and terror, she begged to be awoken from this terrible nightmare as she witnessed her front legs being torn apart and consumed by the two fillies. She was convinced that the hallucinations were never actually able to hurt her, but now that she had experienced otherwise, she was going crazy with fear and adrenaline.

“I DON’T WA--”

Before she could finish her sentence, a tentacle burst from the hunk of flesh and grabbed Twilight by her throat, forcing her trachea shut as it lifted her in the air. She struggled as much as she could, but she couldn’t do anything without her front legs. She tried to teleport away magic, but with all the panic surging through her body she could barely even conjure a spark.

She softly cried as another tentacle burst from the hunk of gore and slowly made its way towards her. Never before had she experienced such pain and terror in her life. But how could she be in so much pain during a mere hallucination? Was all of this real? Was this really the end for her?

As the tentacle pierced through her skin and into her intestines, all she could let out was a soft gurgle. She could feel the tentacle expanding inside of her, scraping against her insides and tearing them apart as it travelled upwards through her throat, where it exited her body through her mouth despite still being strangled. The terrible agony being the only thing to keep her from falling unconscious, she could only watch as the blood gushed from her stomach, running past the tentacle and being mixed with the flesh and gore it was tailored together with.

The decapitated heads of her friends began to cackle madly as the blood was being drained from her body. As they laughed, their razor sharp fangs became visible, large enough to tear apart their cheeks and dislocate their jaws. Blood and pus began to gush out of their empty eye sockets, forming a new gruesome tentacle as it touched the hunk of flesh they were attached to. The tentacle grabbed Twilight by her neck in an even tighter grip, crushing the two other tentacles in the process. She couldn’t even let out a gurgle anymore as she felt the muscles in her neck being crushed one by one, her body twitching heavily in the proce--

SNAP.

With a gasp and a hacking cough, Twilight jumped up from her bed. She felt completely out of breath, her entire body was aching, and her coat was completely soaked in cold sweat. Her heart was beating fiercely, and her body was shivering all over.

Still groggy and recuperating from the intense hallucination, Twilight stared blankly across the room. She seemed to be lying in some kind of hospital wards, or a medical wing. The room was dark and only faintly lit by the moonlight seeping through a window on the opposite side of the room, so she couldn’t make it out too well.

The shock and terror finally reaching through to her, she curled up in a fetal position and began to sob, tightly holding herself with her front legs. Never before had she felt so scared, so hopeless and weak. Never before had she experienced such agony and pain. She could still see the gruesome horrors in front of her when she closed her eyes. And she knew that such hallucinations were going to happens again, and again, and again… It was no wonder why Rainbow Dash had lost her mind. There was no way that she herself could endure this for long, either.

A door on the other side of the room opened, and the lights were switched on. Princess Luna was standing in the doorway, followed closely by Lieutenant Mane. With great worry reflected in the princess’ eyes, she and the lieutenant made their way to Twilight’s bed.

“Princess… I…” said Twilight, barely able to utter full words through her sobs.

“Don’t speak, Twilight.” said the princess, gently stroking Twilight’s mane. “You’ve been through enough. Please, rest.”

“I- I was just… so… so scared!”

For a moment the room fell silent, with the exception of Twilight’s soft sobbing. The princess stared at Twilight with pity and sorrow in her eyes. She knew all too well what Twilight was experiencing right now. The process had been much slower for herself then it had been for Twilight, but that feeling of terror and powerlessness was something she had never forgotten.

“Ahem.” said the lieutenant coldly, breaking the silence. “I think that it’s about time that we check on her friends, princess.”

“My friend?” said Twilight softly, raising her head to face him. “How… For how long was I out?”

“You’ve been out for half a day, at least.” replied the princess.

Upon hearing the princess’ answer, Twilight immediately sat up straight and tried to leave her bed. Yet the princess restrained her with her magic, forcing her to stay on her back.

“Let me go!” shouted Twilight, still struggling to get out.

“Calm down, Twilight Sparkle!” shouted the princess back, tightening her grip on Twilight. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Have you got any idea how weak my friends are right now? They could be in terrible danger! I must--”

“Quiet down, miss Sparkle.” interrupted the lieutenant. “I’ve already checked on them once while you were out, and they were still in the same condition as when we brought you here. We’re checking back every three hours to see if there are any changes.”

“But what--”

“AND there is no way that they could undergo worse changes then you’ve went through over the course of a whole day in just three hours, miss Sparkle.”

With a sigh, Twilight gave in to the princess’ magic and let her be slid down under the sheets. There was simply no arguing with this colt. He would either just interrupt her again, or he would ignore what she had to say entirely. She hadn’t seen him be anything else but stubborn ever since she met him.

“Just sleep, as much as you can.” said the princess, as the lieutenant left the room. “They can only hypnotize you once every few hours, and they cannot penetrate your subconscious when you’re dreaming.”

The princess turned around, and walked towards the doorway. She turned her head back towards Twilight once, and spoke.

“I promise you, we’re doing everything in our power to track down this cult. Just hang in there, and remember that despite what you may experience, none of it is real.”

She closed the door behind her. Twilight could faintly hear her hoofsteps as she walked off through the corridors, off to another floor, wing or room.

Lost in thought, Twilight just stared at the ceiling for a while. She couldn’t help but to still feel worried about her friends. Despite everything, she had to admit that it was unlikely for her friends to turn out as herself or worse within just a few hours. But although she trusted the princess’ word, she couldn’t trust the lieutenant’s as much. This whole time, he had just been cold, rude and distant. Almost suspicious, even. But even so, the princess was behaving naturally around him. And surely she would have known by now if the lieutenant was a traitor, or if he was even just acting a little bit different, right?

But whether he was a traitor or not, she still felt troubled about her friends. Even if they weren’t being hallucinated, who says that others surrounding them weren’t being hallucinated, or perhaps manipulated in some other way? In fact, what if the cultists in Ponyville decided to take a more direct approach?

Twilight sat up from her bed, and slowly stepped back on the floor. She felt that she simply couldn’t stay here; Not with this crisis going on. She had to be there for her friends. The worries regarding her own hallucinations would just have to wait for a while.

She sneaked over to the door, and tried to open it. But the door was locked. Fortunately though, it was locked for a simple lock instead of a magic spell; Simple enough for a unicorn to break through. Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes, and tried to focus her magic. Her magic seemed to work fine again, and with the least bit of effort she opened the door and walked into the corridor.

She was unfamiliar with this wing of the building, and her hoofsteps echoed across the corridors during the silence of the night. In order to not be caught, he had to remain as silent as possi-

A sudden gust of wind went through the window of the medical room, and closed the door behind Twilight with a loud bang. Almost immediately she could hear multiple sets of hoofsteps and voices rushing to her location, and she could see lights being turned on in the corridors around her. Wasting no time with making a clever scheme, Twilight burst into a full gallop into the nearest dark branch of the corridor. She could still hear the hoofsteps behind her, but they were not going after her. Instead, they all seemed to stop at Twilight’s door, where the other ponies began to murmur with eachother.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

The sound of princess Luna’s voice echoed from the door’s location. The princess was been amongst the crowd that the door’s bang had attracted, and almost immediately she could hear the echoes of their hoofsteps again, scattering around the entire floor. The princess must have ordered them to track her down.

Twilight slowed down, and sneaked forward through the corridor. Now that the officers were looking for her, drawing attention with her own hoofsteps was the worst thing she could do. Instead, she decided to take a stealthy approach, sneaking across the floors and hiding in the shadows. Fortunately, her purple coat and dark mane blended in well with the darkness, making her difficult to spot.

But still, she had no idea where to go. She had only seen a few of the many floors in the building, and while she had paid a close attention to her surroundings while she followed the princess, the current floor she was on seemed completely unfamiliar to her.

Suddenly, the lights in Twilight’s corridor turned on. Blinded and startled by the sudden flash of light, Twilight lost her balance and fell down on the ground, hitting her head on the wall in the process. She closed her eyes and gentle rubbed the sore spot on her head, until she suddenly heard hoofsteps coming from in front of her.

She opened her eyes, and saw a big, light-brown coated colt with a short blonde mane standing just a few steps away from her, staring right into her eyes. The colt slowly approached her, narrowing his eyes in a frown as he drew close to her.

“Where are we going, miss Sparkle?”

How Friends May Fall - Part 10

How Friends May Fall – Part 10

Of all the officers that could have found her. Of all the officers that she could have stumbled upon. Of all the officers that she could have encountered, it had to be the Lieutenant Mane. Twilight cursed her luck as she slowly stepped backwards to distance herself from the approaching stallion.

“I asked you a question, miss Sparkle.”

She had seen the Lieutenant bear a frown on his face before, but never had she experienced it like this before. It felt as if his amber eyes penetrated her mind. As if he was trying to peer directly into her subconscious, to find the answer for himself.

Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. She knew what was going on here. The Lieutenant was surely just trying to intimidate her into staying put. But she wasn’t going to let him do that. She had to escape before more officers arrived, and she had to do it now!

She halted her steps backwards, and braced her hind legs as the Lieutenant continued to move closer towards her, trying to ignore the Lieutenant’s immovable gaze. All this time, he hadn’t even blinked a single time. Or at least, she didn’t think he had. With a deep breath, she forced all thoughts out of her mind, and focused on a single thing.

“I’m glad that you settled for the easy way.” said the Lieutenant, as a smile crept on his face. “I was almost worried that--”

Moving as fast as her legs could carry her, Twilight burst into a full gallop past the Lieutenant, taking as many corners as she could to make him lose her trail. Yet, her untrained body couldn’t sustain the gallop for long; Not after all the running she had already done today and the stress that was still pushing on her body.

“You can’t escape me, Sparkle!”

The Lieutenant’s voice and hoofsteps rapidly began to catch up on Twilight, and she could hear multiple guards moving towards the Lieutenant’s position. He was deliberately trying to get as many guards to her as possible, so she couldn’t escape again. Yet, as hard as Twilight tried, she simply couldn’t run any farther.

As she stopped in place and panted for breath, she could see the Lieutenant moving around the corner, closely followed by at least five guards. Too worn out to gallop any further, she attempted to canter to the other side of the hall, only to witness three more guards coming up the stairs.

“Restrain her!” shouted the Lieutenant, as he and the other guards sped into a full gallop towards Twilight.

Looking around in panic, she tried to find another way out. But she didn’t have time to check all the doors around her, and there was no way for her to get past all these guards. Even if she used magic to push the guards on one side away, the guards on the other side would catch up and seize her.

Wait… Magic!

Closing her eyes, she focused all of her remaining power in her horn.

“She’s trying to teleport!” shouted the Lieutenant. “Get her, before she--”

With a bright flash of light, she teleported as far as she possibly could.

Her surroundings had gone completely quiet, with the exception of a soft breeze blowing past her ears. She couldn’t hear any hoofsteps anymore. She couldn’t hear shouting or even murmurs anymore. Just the wind.

As she opened her eyes, she found herself sitting on a concrete floor. There was no ceiling, and there were no walls; Just a dark-blue magical barrier surrounding the platform, the night sky being only faintly visible through its surface. Instead of teleporting outside of the building, she had only teleported onto the roof. The barrier must have been blocking her spell from reaching any further.

She didn’t know what floor she had been on before, but it was a large and tall building. With any luck, she wouldn’t be found here for at least an hour or more. With a sigh, she laid down on the concrete and stares into the night sky, as far as she was able to see it. Even though her spell had only taken her so far, her body was exhausted from running all the time with so little rest. Even though she had been out for a long time before, her hallucinations hadn’t exactly been restful.

It was difficult for her to stay awake. She needed rest so badly… But she couldn’t afford to go asleep. Even if she had the time, the hallucinations would just leave her restless once more. Undoubtedly, this was the cult’s way of draining her resistance. Tearing at both her physical stamina and her mind at the same time to overwhelm her senses.

All the more of a reason that she had no time for rest.

Taking a deep breath, she got back onto her hooves and slowly stumbled towards the staircase that lead back into the building. There were no noises coming from downstairs, so she assumed that at least the top few floors were safe areas. She slowly made her way towards the top floor to investigate; It was as good as choice as any. It was unlikely that she would find a way out all the way up here, but she could as least try to find a map of the building, or hide from the guards for a while if they began to search through the other floors.

This floor however seemed deserted for now, with the exception of one lit laboratory near the floor’s entrance. As she snuck closer towards the windows, she could hear a voice coming from within. The voice sounded familiar, but it was too soft to tell whom it came from.

She slightly raised her head, and peered through the window into the library. The voice had come from Doctor Whooves; the same doctor that had spoken with princess Luna before. He was alone in the library, apparently writing down some data in his notes while muttering to himself. Twilight recalled him mentioning that he was the head researcher of his floor. Surely he would know a way out of here, but how could she convince him into telling her?

Suddenly, the doctor glanced into Twilight’s direction. She quickly withdrew her head from the window, and hid herself behind the surrounding wall.

“Hello? Is anypony there?”

She could hear the doctor’s hoofsteps leading towards the doors into the laboratory. There was no way that she could get away in time; Not without making too much noise. No, there was only one way to get out of this situation.

“Who is--”

As soon as the doctor walked through the door, he was jumped by Twilight and knocked on his back. She immediately pinned him down, and focused her magic through her horn.

“D-Don’t hurt me! Gua--”

“If you call for the guards, I will hurt you.” said Twilight, trying to sound as menacing as possible. “However, if you cooperate and answer all of my questions, you can leave unharmed.”

The doctor nodded silently, with an expression of fear upon his face. Twilight felt sorry for the poor stallion, but she didn’t have another choice. It was either this, or be captured by the guards.

“I need to get back to Ponyville as fast as possible.” she said, aiming her horn towards the doctor’s face. “How do I escape this place without being caught by the guards downstairs, and how do I get back to Ponyville from there?”

“Without the assistance of guards to use a chariot, you can’t use the portals within our hangar downstairs.” replied the doctor softly. “However, we have smaller, pony-sized portals in our test area. They are highly experimental however, and--”

“How do I get to them?”

“There is an elevator leading directly towards the test area in every head researcher’s office. But you can’t get in without any head researcher’s key!”

“Aren’t you a head researcher?”

“N-No! Of course not! I’m just a regular, everyday--”

Twilight moved her horn closer towards the doctor’s face, and conjured some sparks.

“YES! Yes, I’m a head researcher!”

“Good. Where can I find the head researcher’s office?”

“There is one on every floor. If you let me go, I’ll lead you there!”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, and slowly stepped off of the doctor. However, she kept her horn aimed towards him as he stood up from the floor.

“Lead ahead. Don’t make any funny moves.”

The doctor turned around and walked towards the corridors, Twilight following close behind him. She kept her horn aimed towards him, but she stopped channeling her magic. It required everything she had right now to mask her fatigue. Even just conjuring those sparks had taken almost everything she had left, and just keeping up with the doctor right now took a lot of her remaining strength.

As they walked through the hallways, Twilight began to wonder what to do next. Although escaping here was still her first priority, how was she going to help her friends? How could she defend them from the hallucinations they might get, while she was having them herself as well? Especially with her body and magic worn out like this, she almost began to feel like her efforts were futile.

Yet, she couldn’t hold on to those thoughts. The more she began to doubt her decision, the more her thoughts seemed to slip away. She couldn’t tell for sure what was driving her to do this anymore. Was it the worry? The rush of escaping? Perhaps something else? All she knew was that she just couldn’t stop now.

“Here is it.” said the doctor, taking a key out of his pocket and opening the door next to him.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

“W-what? I lead you to the elevator! Why won’t you--”

“I never said that I would let you go once we got here. I need somepony to help me with operating those portals you mentioned. And besides, the moment I let you out of my sight, you’re just going to alert the guards.”

With a sigh the doctor walked into the room, Twilight following close behind him. It was a messy place, with papers, books and other materials scattered everywhere. It looked like the place hadn’t been cleaned up in months.

The doors of the elevator were on the other side of the room, in-between two empty bookshelves. But instead of buttons, all it had was a keyhole.

“So, you were planning on just leaving me without the key?” said Twilight, glaring at the doctor.

The doctor merely swallowed, and turned his eyes the other way.

“Just get to it. The sooner I’m out of here, the better.”

Once more the doctor took his key, twisted it in the keyhole. The doors of the elevator opened, revealing a small elevator in the wall with just two buttons inside. The top button was flickering, yet the bottom button gave off a continuous red light.

“How are we both going to fit in that?” said Twilight.

“I suppose we could both stand on our hind legs…” replied the doctor, with an uneasy tone in his voice.

Twilight nodded, and walked inside the elevator. Standing on just her two hind legs placed a lot of pressure on her legs, but she held out well by leaning on the elevator wall. The doctor then moved into the elevator as well, apparently much more at ease then Twilight with standing on just his hind legs.

The doctor pressed the bottom button, and the elevator doors closed. To Twilight’s relief, the elevator seemed to move almost completely without making any noise. The loudest thing she could hear was the elevator music, which itself had been mute outside of the elevator doors before.

“We keep the elevators mute, so nopony knows when certain head researchers are in the test chambers.” said the doctor.

“Why would that be important?” asked Twilight.

“Our test projects are often top secret, and each head researcher has a different specialization.”

“What’s yours?”

“The scientology of time and space.”

Twilight remained silent for a moment. As interested as that topic was, there was one thing she wasn’t certain of…

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Hm?”

“I just kidnapped you, and I’m forcing you to help with my escape. So why are you making small talk with me in the elevator?”

The doctor remained silent for a moment, lost in thought. He seemed to be pondering out something himself this time, as if he wasn’t sure whether or not to answer that question.

With a sigh, he turned his towards Twilight, and looked into her eyes.

“I’ve worked on the portals myself, and I know how they work. So if you truly have to use them, then you’ve kidnapped the right guy to help you. However, do you know what those portals actually are?”

“Well…” said Twilight, with an uncertain tone in her voice. “I assumed that they have something to do with teleportation spells.”

The doctor shook his head.

“The portals itself are rifts in time and space. Very difficult to maintain, even more difficult to configure the right way, and at the moment almost impossible to be considered reliable.”

“What do you mean? Don’t they work?”

“They work, but they aren’t specific. We’ve managed to narrow down the location to where it teleports you to a mile radius, and the time in a period of four weeks. In other words, you can go to Ponyville with the portals, but it’ll literally teleport you in a random position. You could end up lodged inside of an object or in-between two flat surfaces, which means that your body would be instantly crushed to pulp. Or you could end up a mile in the air and fall to your death. You could even end up being buried underground with no way out. In other words, there is a significant chance that just using those portals could kill you.”

“B-But what about the portals in the hangar?” said Twilight, a hint of doubt sounding in her voice.

“Those portals are much bigger, and are thus easier to configure. And once they were configured the right way, they were never closed again. The pony-sized portals downstairs are much harder to configure correctly, and we have to set the specifics right each time we open it.”

The doctor narrowed his eyes, with a slight expression of worry appearing on his face.

“It’s not too late to change your mind. Are you certain that you’d rather take such a risk, instead of staying here with us? Our scientists and magicians can help you, I promise.”

“….B-But… But what about my friends?”

“I... don’t know the specifics surrounding them. Sorry.”

A soft beep sounded though the speakers that played the elevator music, and the doors opened before them. They found themselves in a large room, almost as big as an entire floor, completely covered in white tiles on the floor, walls and ceiling, with just one single door on the opposite side of the room leading elsewhere. All kinds of different pieces of equipment were scattered in different parts of the room, some of which Twilight had no idea what they were meant for. However, a few piles of equipment away from the elevators, she noticed three different pedestals standing right next to eachother with archways mounted on top of them; Just big enough for an average-sized pony to fit through.

“That’s them.” said the doctor, noticing Twilight’s interest towards the pedestals. “Those are the portals we have made. Unfortunately, we never got the first two to work.”

As they walked over to the portals, Twilight took a closer look at the faulty ones. Like most of the equipment in this room, they were dusty and gray; They seemed to have been here for quite a long time. The newest one however seemed very well maintained, and was coated in chromatic white paint. The console next to it however was, like the rest, poorly maintained and dirty. It must have been used for the previous portals, as well.

“You guys sure aren’t janitors.” said Twilight.

The doctor just coughed, and began to type in some codes on the console. Twilight couldn’t understand a thing of all the codes he typed in, but she hoped that her earlier intimidation had worked. She depended on him to get home; He was easily able to sabotage her this way, if he was able to either see through her lies or willing to take the risk.

“Done.” said the doctor, backing away from the console. “I hope you’ve got enough some juice left.”

“Huh? What for?” asked Twilight, turning her head towards the doctor.

“You can’t just open a portal with some codes, you know. I can only set its destination. In order to actually open the portal, you’ll have to channel enough raw magic energy through the frame. The frame will convert the magic energy into Chronometric energy, and will then use it to manifest the portal. However, it will rapidly drain the energy, so you must get through the moment it opens.”

Twilight felt an aura of dread overcoming her as she turned back to the pedestal. She only just had regained enough magic energy to conjure those sparks, but that couldn’t possibly be enough to even fuel the machine, let alone open the portal. It seemed like she really was stuck.

“What’s the matter?” said the doctor, a frown slowly forming on his face. “You seemed to eager to use your magic before.”

“W-Well, um…” stuttered Twilight.

As Twilight looked at the machine again, trying to think of a way to get out of this situation. Without her magic, she couldn’t take on an adult earth pony stallion.

“You… You stopped channeling those sparks while you were following me through the halls…”

Twilight turned her head back towards the doctor, whose face had turned into a furious expression of anger.

“You don’t have any remaining magic, do you?!” he shouted in anger, ready to pounce Twilight.

“Good. That means that I won’t have to do this the hard way.”

Twilight and the doctor turned their attention towards the door, where the voice had come from. In the door opening they saw Princess Luna, bearing a calm yet annoyed expression on her face.

“I knew that you would try to make your way over here, Twilight.” said the princess, as she walked towards the duo.

“But you’re not getting any further than this.”