Decapitating Harmony

Chapter 1 - Raise the Alarm!

Night fell upon Ponyville in the passing hours while Rainbow Dash tossed and turned in her bed. She wasn’t sleepy, but rather wished to hasten the transitory time between now and with Twilight. Her mind careened into the previous adventures that she enjoyed in the Daring Do series. Athletic as she was, she spent quite a bit of time reading and re-reading the tales of the A.K. Yearling books nearly memorizing word for word each passage of compelling literature.

She looked over to her pet tortoise that was retreated inside his shell sleeping suspended by the tiny whirring blades of the helicopter strapped to his middle. Dash thought about waking him up for a midnight flight lesson to get her attention off the books, but decided to leave him be. She crept from her bed bouncing with each step on the cloud floor as she made her way outside thinking Tank will be alright if she goes out for some brain clearing flight.

The sky was speckled with thin clouds brightly illuminated by the half moon over the dark blue grass and winding dirt routes leading north-west into town. Ponyville truly slept with light pollution only coming from the train station where commuters travelled to and from Canterlot to the north in all hours of day and night.

The pegasus leapt from the porch and zoomed south leaving behind a wake of rainbow. She straightened extending her hooves forward and accelerated feeling the wind screaming through her mane. She ascended sharply and barrel rolled downward in a spinning and looping display of acrobatics. A thought made its way into her mind that she wished somepony was there to see her tricks as she cut the sky south-bound.

A streaming rainbow streaked over the Everfree Forest as the pegasus reached sonic speeds. Sweat beaded and flew from her body while she squinted in the wind's resistance. Approaching Ghastly Gorge south of the Everfree Forest over Froggy Bottom Bogg, she thought back to her pet tortoise that helped her out from under a rock in the canyon during a silly pet competition. She came to a stop above the chasm observing the serene tranquility set in the dark hue of night with dead trees stippling the bank of the canyon creek and the moonlit Froggy Bottom Bogg’s eerie array of black swamps to the northwest. Further north, past the Everfree Forest, she could make out the Ponyville train station lights reduced to a tiny dot like a single star resting in the heart of the progressive town.

She wiped the moisture from her forehead as she treaded air with a steady beat of her wings. She had to be kilometers away from home, and she wondered if Tank had woke up finding that he was alone. He wouldn’t be worried; she thought to herself.

Logging in her mind that she shouldn’t stay out for very long, she came to the conclusion that if she was going to make her soothing venture a success, she’d need a to perform an awe inspiring finale as she fired toward the moon bursting tiny clouds on the way up. She arced backwards folding her wings and shooting herself downward with the force of gravity. She tucked her head between her hooves pointing them straight toward the ground making herself into a bullet speeding against the sound barrier. Her eyes struggled to stay open against the wind when she realized the ground was coming up a lot faster than she expected. The low light destroyed her depth perception.

She fanned her wings grabbing onto as much air as possible and kicking her legs in a futile attempt to stop. She extended her hooves to try to catch the earth, but crashed hard into the dirt bouncing a few meters and slamming head first into the grove of flowers that grow along the bank of the gorge. Her body lay perpendicular to the ground for a moment before her rear legs collapsed and she came to rest on her belly.

She spit a mouthful of flowers from her teeth and picked herself up craning her neck trying to remove the knot growing at the base of her skull. It wasn't the first time she'd wiped out, and it wouldn’t be the last. She dusted herself off and gave her wings a couple of good flaps.

"At least you guys are okay." She said to her wings while taking flight back to the Cloudominium. “Maybe just a relaxing stroll through the sky would have been smarter.”

Her joints ached more and more from the jarring impact they sustained, and the stiffness in her neck subsequent being forced to bend unnaturally upon collision endured throughout her flight home. As she set down on the porch and cantered to her bedroom with a slight limp finding Tank still asleep in his hovering shell, she was beginning to feel better already. Her back felt like it had been twisted in a taffy machine, her knees were still a bit sore, and her neck was tight, but she was able to get comfortable enough to doze. Unfortunately, she remained plagued with unrest laying in the silent darkness. Hours ensued with no sleep to quicken the passing time.

She sighed and decided that Twilight may be a brainiac book-worm, but they could find something interesting to do. Anything was better than simply watching the inside of her eyelids; so, she jumped from her bed and poised on her hooves stretching her back.

"I know it is a few hours earlier than Twilight and I agreed on, but I can't sleep!” She told the sleeping tortoise pausing as if he was going to respond. Tank blinked and swallowed slowly as he brought his head out from inside his shell. She rubbed the back of his head while scrunching her nose against his.

“Be back with the new one before you know it, buddy!" She said as she began to gallop to the exit slowed by her aching knee. She stopped at the front step before jumping into a spear and rocketing herself straight toward Twilight's Library. Cloud genocide resulted in the wake of her speed as they were sucked into non-existence and destroyed by head-on collisions while she rose above the rooftops of Ponyville.

A shrill from below that was unmistakably Pinkie Pie caught the pegasus' ears.

"Hey! It's Pinkie!" The pink earth pony shouted from outside Sugar Cube Corner. Rainbow Dash dropped rapidly and dug her hooves into the ground skidding herself to a halt. She shook out her foreleg and thought that she should take it easy on the knee.

"What's up?" Rainbow greeted.

"You're clearing the sky awfully early, you know. A little cloud cover is good in the morning, I think! It reminds me of cotton candy breakfasts!" Pinkie chattered quickly and some of her words came out combined.

"Cotton candy br-...?" Rainbow shook her head, dismissing the statement, "If you just want to say hi, I'm on my way to Twilight's and I'm trying to get there early.”

"Rainbow, it’s, like 2:30am. Why are you going to Twilight's at 2 am?" Pinkie asked.

"I couldn't sleep. We're going together to get the new Daring Do book." Rainbow Dash replied smiling, "I'm sure she is as excited as me. So, I'll be doing her a favor getting her up a few hours early."

Pinkie shrugged, "Okie, dokie, lokie!" and the pink earth pony bounced back toward Sugar Cube Corner.

"Wait. What are you doing up this early?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'm making the Secret Punch." Pinkie said turning around and leaning closely to Rainbow Dash's ear. "I'm using a secret ingredient that is..." She paused and checked for potential eavesdroppers before whispering, "... a secret."

The pegasus rolled her eyes. "That's great… See you!" She flapped her wings taking off for a brief moment.

Pinkie suddenly screamed in a voice that sounded painful like being electrocuted, "WAIIIIT!"

Rainbow Dash fluttered back down to the ground wondering what this disturbed pony could possibly need at this hour. The utmost disinterest in making punch tugged at Rainbow urging her to pretend she hadn't heard the excitable pink pony and continue onward.

"Okay, I'm not really in a rush, but I kind of want to get going." Rainbow stated flatly before noticing that Pinkie Pie was left peculiarly staring into space just past the pegasus. Pinkie’s face was frozen in chilling expression with her eyes wide as if she was seeing something daunting. Rainbow Dash turned around and looked into the distance trying to see what Pinkie was looking at, but there was nothing there; no ghosts nor monsters.

Facing Pinkie again, "What is it?" Rainbow Dash asked, but Pinkie remained completely still. Rainbow brought up a hoof and poked Pinkie in the shoulder observing no consequences like time had stopped around her.

Pinkie's rear legs gave out from under her as she plopped on her rump sending a small cloud of dust spiraling around them. Rainbow furrowed her brow and frowned asking the pony once more, "Pinkie. What is going on?"

Rainbow was petrified to spot Pinkie's ears vibrating, her eyes separating from center cocking outward slowly, and then Pinkie’s mouth dropped open unexpectedly sounding a gurgle from her throat.

Rainbow Dash stepped back from the extreme Pinkie Sense phenomenon while trying to block the idea of Pinkie Pie becoming so excited that she literally explodes taking the lives of anypony within the blast radius. Unluckily, to Rainbow Dash, it was becoming a more real possibility with each passing second.

Pinkie abruptly stood meeting Rainbow Dash eye to eye with a quizzical look washed over her and her pink fur appearing sweaty.

"Whoa." Pinkie rubbed a hoof behind her ear, "That was a doozy."

"Are you okay?" Rainbow asked trepidatiously.

"Yeah, I think so. Did anything happen?" Pinkie said shaking the dizziness.

"That was some extreme Pinkie Sense. Should we get help?" Rainbow Dash lifted Pinkie's chin with a hoof looking into her eyes with concern. She appeared to be okay, but Rainbow wasn't a doctor.

Pinkie looked down, "I've never blacked out during Pinkie Sense."

Rainbow Dash nudged Pinkie, "Come on, let's get you to the hospital."

* * *

Pinkie assured Rainbow that she was okay and probably didn't need any medical help while they walked south to Ponyville Medical University. The emergency room was nearly empty save for one pony that was cradling his right foreleg calmly as he awaited attention. Their hooves clopped on the tile as they made their way to the receptionist. Rainbow Dash checked them in and they waited.

The hospital was probably the largest building in town, and was the only building, in concurrence with the Ponyville Train Station, which remained in operations twenty-four seven. Each wing of the structure stretching west to east entered from the north and was labeled with a color coding of the ceramic floors, drapery, and furniture. Passages leading deeper into the hospital from the three main lobbies were lined with patient quarters, lecture galleries, and operating rooms. The trio of hallways convened in the southern cafeteria where students, doctors, and some patients could dine.

The white floors and walls of the ER lobby were accented with dull avocado colored couches, benches, and chairs placed in an ergonomic arrangement with faded emerald tiles marking the pathways that carved their way through the seats of the waiting area. They sat next to a small end table which hosted a very simple ivory lamp with a green shade over an assortment of outdated magazines and trash novels.

Pinkie Pie made small talk with the stallion about his assumed broken bone and insensitively joked about him being put down. The pink pony seemed completely like herself and, after what seemed like days of waiting, they made their way back to the doctor whom released her after a battery of testing finding nothing wrong.

Rainbow Dash hugged Pinkie, "Well, it looks like you're alright. I was genuinely freaked out by your little episode."

Pinkie hugged her back and patted her on the shoulder, "With you to escort me here, and make sure of my health, even when you were in such a rush, pro-"

Rainbow Dash shot off the floor, "Daring Do!" Her eyes locked onto the clock showing 6am before flying out of the door and speeding straight to Twilight's Tree House.

She weaved through buildings and trees catching many still waking ponies unfortunate enough to have come out to enjoy the warmth of the sunrise off guard. She fanned her wings catching a wall of air and slammed her hooves into the dirt uprooting weeds as she skidded across the ground. Her leg throbbed as she galloped to the door of the Library and knocked.

"I know I'm late, but do I have a story for..." She stopped as the door eased open from her knocking. She peered inside to the loft where Twilight's bed rests. No Twilight?

Rainbow Dash stepped inside where an overwhelming smell of lemon scented cleaner permeated the still air. Rainbow thought to herself that she was right in assuming Twilight couldn't sleep. She was up all night cleaning her house to bide the time. So much for dissertations.

She made her way upstairs to find Twilight's bed neatly made, and her dragon assistant's basket also unoccupied in a disorganized array of bedding.

The pegasus raised a brow in suspicion as a tightening of irritation and betrayal grew within her.

"She went without me!" She exclaimed before she drew her wings and bolted out the door. Soaring to the bookstore, she carved a quick line between the dwellings of Ponyville when suddenly a yellow blur popped up right in Dash's path. She broke right clipping a bush with enough force to turn her upside down as she crashed into the dirt. She slid on her head before coming to rest on her back while painful stinging and numbness on her forehead perpetuated the idea that her face had been torn from her skull. It just wasn't her day for flying.

A soft voice came from Rainbow's side, "Oh my! Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?"

The blue pegasus propped herself up. "I'm fine, Fluttershy. At least, I would be, if that traitor who represents the element of magic hadn't left without me to get the new Daring Do book!"

"She's not at the bookstore if that's what you mean." The yellow pegasus reassured.

Rainbow Dash twisted her face in confusion, "Well, she's not at her house."

Fluttershy shrugged, "I was at the bookstore for several hours tending to their garden. The owner asked me to try and draw in more humming birds. So far, no luck."

"You were there all morning?" Rainbow asked interrogatingly.

Fluttershy cowered, "Um... yes. I just left from there."

Rainbow shifted her eyes in thought searching her brain for any possible location that Twilight could be. She was so wrapped in her brain that she didn't notice Pinkie Pie trotting to them.

"Hey, fillies!" Pinkie greeted.

Fluttershy waved and smiled while Rainbow ignored her continuing to churn her mind selecting locations and silently evaluating the likelihood that Twilight would choose now to go to them.

Pinkie jumped in alarm, "Uh, oh. Is it contagious?" She covered her mouth quickly with both hooves, "Do you have Rainbow Sense?!"

Rainbow picked herself up and joined the collective conscience, "What? No. I just can't find Twilight anywhere. She wasn't at home and she's not at the bookstore."

Pinkie Pie shrugged with her entire body, "Well, you were late, so she went outside to enjoy the beautiful morning and smell the flowers that grow behind the Library just as you arrived. Then, you must've left assuming she left without you, and now she thinks you're super-duper luper late!"

The ponies stood in silence taking in the string of syllables spewed onto them. Rainbow looked at Fluttershy realizing that Pinkie Pie actually may have come up with a plausible scenario for once.

Rainbow Dash immediately made a beeline for Twilight's house leaving her friends squinting through the dust. She flew through the doorway landing in the middle of the library and quickly found that Pinkie wasn't correct. Twilight and Spike remained missing.

She looked over the house noting the ordinary cleanliness and the couple of books left out from what could have been assumed as the previous nights before bed reading. Questions circulated in her mind as the gears tried to crank out an answer to the missing pony and her assistant. Abruptly, a wrench was thrown into the machine by Pinkie announcing her entrance.

"Twilight!" Pinkie shouted looking up to the loft. She stopped bouncing as she swiveled her head around the room. "Huh. She's not here."

"Where could she be?" Fluttershy asked the room.

Rainbow Dash shrugged in disappointment and shook her head without answering the yellow pegasus' rhetoric. Where could that egg-head be? Had she the aforethought to wake that lazy dragon early enough to actually leave the house prior to Rainbow's arrival? It takes that girl so long to prepare for a grocery run it's not even funny; so, what caught her attention enough to leave without notifying her friends first?

The blue pegasus' goose egg growing on the right side of her forehead pounded like one of Vinyl's technical bass beats while the tension in her neck crawled up the back of her head. Her eyes squinted hard squeezing her face into a knot of cognitive effort through the dull ache of her recent wipeouts spreading a warm sting in her chest and foreleg.

"She keeps a pretty tight schedule of activities." Pinkie began as she scrunched her face at the tiny print on Twilight's schedule. "Maybe she moved on to the next thing on her list."

Fluttershy sauntered to Pinkie's side surveying the convoluted to-do list.

"Well... um... this says she's at the bookstore." Fluttershy said with a conquered expression. The next event which was to analyze a disquisition on the causation of migratory behavior in butterflies wasn't intended to begin for several hours, and it appeared that Twilight planned on researching entomology for a greater portion of the day. It was unnecessary to mention aloud that Twilight wasn't at the library reading about the regional climatic effects to aesthetically pleasing insects at the moment.

Pinkie Pie bounced to one of Twilight's magnifying glasses and began examining the residence exaggeratingly observing every crack in the floor and every speck of dust.

Rainbow Dash watched for a moment, "What are you doing?"

"It's simple. Twilight wouldn't have left home without something to tell us where she went. It's just uncharacteristic for her to up and leave." Pinkie reasoned.

Pinkie must be on her game today; another reasonable statement from the hyper-active pony that usually wastes her breath on nonsensical vernacular.

Rainbow Dash flew quickly to the door, "I'm going to Sweet Apple Acres. I'll ask Applejack if she's seen her. Fluttershy, you go to the Carousel Boutique and see if Rarity knows anything."

Fluttershy chirped in agreement before following Rainbow out of the library.

Pinkie stayed in the house wandering in a disorganized and careless search of the alicorn's home. A thought formulated beneath an image in her brain of frosting being freshly squeezed onto moist red velvet cupcakes: She didn't always understand Twilight's version of fun, but she could definitely see Twilight reading about something really neat while waiting for the tardy pegasus and going out to immediately begin experimenting to see the author's results in real time. Losing track of her appointments due to more recent despite less appealing activities is something Pinkie could wrap her mind around as she imagined crisp sprinkles falling regally into the frosting becoming embedded into the sugary green fluff. She examined all of the open books in the house. All two of them.

Well, that's a dead end. Pinkie doubted Twilight feeling the need to test the efficiency of various insulative materials or purchasing the services of a contractor to facilitate the installation of hydroelectricity with any amount of urgency while Pinkie's imaginary cupcakes were shaped with generous amounts of fondant into tiny edible tree house libraries.

Pinkie thought maybe Twilight got hungry and left for take-out. She bounced to the cooler which, to her disappointment, had more variety than the Ponyville Cafe so that couldn't be it. Maybe Twilight became ill, but she couldn't be at the doctor, because Pinkie was just there with Rainbow Dash. Although while she mentally sunk her teeth into the soft squishy miniature library, it occurred to her that it'd be all the more reason to find Twilight curled up in bed.

Conversation outside caught Pinkie's attention, but she wasn't relieved to see only four ponies enter.

"Y'all find anything?" Applejack asked in her natural drawl.

Pinkies ears drooped as the cupcakes vanished from her mind, "No."

Rarity swung her deep purple mane from her face, "Is it not a possibility," she began, "that Twilight simply was called to Canterlot on short notice by Princess Celestia?"

Applejack answered, "Something that serious would require all of us, right? Elements of Harmony and all that?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head, "No. We gave up the elements to the Tree of Harmony, remember?"

"But, the elements are present in all of us." Fluttershy retorted.

"Arguing!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration, "I'm going to look for her!"

"Rainbow's right. I say we just get out there and ask everypony we see." Applejack suggested as she made her way to the exit gesturing for the other ponies to follow.

The group departed the library leaving Pinkie again to hold down the fort, so to speak, as well as let Twilight know that they were looking for her if she were to return. The four scouting ponies agreed to meet back at the library in an allotted time as they broke away to search Ponyville. They approached businesses, questioned travelling salesponies, asked their friend's friends, and Applejack went to Zecora's home in the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy was the first to come back to the library sitting in the middle of the floor with her head hung in defeat. Applejack returned without useful information just before Rarity entered the library reporting that everypony's response was invariable in that they may have seen Twilight yesterday. Rainbow Dash hovered into the library and said that her numerous flyovers of Ponyville and the surrounding areas in conjunction with the interrogation of many ponies in town yielded no results.

Uncomfortable indecision amongst all of the ponies formed an emotional rigidity that manifested the inability to move. Everypony was trapped in a motionless stumble over their anxiety as wordless conversation of their worst fears drained from them and unknowingly was projected onto one another.

"I'm starting to get scared." Fluttershy said.

"Let's not panic, guys!" Rainbow Dash demanded. She flew to the loft and gestured to her friends vehemently above them, "Remain calm!" Her eyes grew wide as she darted to each of the others becoming more violently assertive in urging tranquility.

"Rainbow!" Applejack yelled snatching the pegasus' tail and dragging her from the air. Rainbow Dash jumped up and grabbed Applejack on her shoulders with a pained expression in her eyes.

"I was supposed to stay here last night!" She said inches from Applejack's nose. "I didn't because she wanted to do egg-head stuff. If I had just gone ahead with that inevitably boring sleepover, she wouldn't be missing!"

"You couldn't have known she was going to go missing and, you never know, she could think that we're all missing right now. We just need to find her." Rarity explicated.

Silence fell upon them again as Rainbow Dash dropped her hooves from Applejack and collapsed into a seated position on the floor. Guilt twisted the proverbial knife deeper into her heart.

Applejack studied her friends around her seeing their thoughts worn plainly on their faces as anxiety quickly overcame their hopes that this moment would be the funniest story to Twilight when she walked into her home to find them all standing in her study space staring at one another. Her element tugged at her vocal cords to say what they were all thinking despite the probability of causing more heartache.

Her voice quivered and nearly fell upon deaf ears over the screaming silence of discomforting imaginations run rampant, "We may have an emergency on our hooves, gals."

They all looked to Applejack who appeared to have read the tragic hopelessness straight from her friend's minds. They glanced amongst each other waiting for one of them to lift their spirit or crack a joke to reduce the weight of the room which Fluttershy had begun to believe was going to crush them into a mealy red paste at any moment.

Rarity looked away from everypony else and to Twilight's work bench settled in the far side of the loft near her bed with wet eyes. She began slowly up the stairs with weak steps as if she was making her way to the gallows. Her horn shined blue encompassing and levitating a quill and parchment from Twilight's bench beginning an alarming letter to Princess Celestia.