I look out at the horizon, thinking. I can't get my mind off Pinkie. Some days have been like that. Adjusting to her absence has been hard for everypony. She was beloved by everypony in Ponyville. I had decided to take a break from my studies today to speak with AJ a little. I had wanted to see if she could help me get things off my mind. She had helped, gave me some of that good farm pony honesty but... I can't stop thinking about Pinkie, about what happened, about the way it happened. The whole nature of it was so odd and unexpected.

I had come outside just a few moments ago to enjoy Celestia's work. Her sunsets are always beautiful. I had thought that it might distract me from my nagging mind, but even the sun is failing that. AJ probably thinks I'm odd, to say the least, for hanging on her fence staring out this late in the evening. I stretch out my wings and try to relax.

Six months. It makes no sense. Pinkie knew about a special flower that only grew in the Everfree Forest. Only she knew where it was, and she thought they would be the perfect present for Fluttershy's birthday. A singing flower, one of a kind, beauty in multiple ways. Pinkie had said that Fluttershy would "absamolutely love it." I had agreed. The flower sounded amazing. I had offered to help Pinkie gather them at the time, but Pinkie refused. She had said that it was an amazing flower and as the official party planner for Fluttershy, she was going to deliver a bouquet of these personally herself. It was stupid of me. I shouldn't have let her go by herself like that. She knew, and I know that it's dangerous to go alone. If only I had stopped her.

AJ approaches me, walks out next to me on the fence.

"Still bothered about it?" she says.

"Yeah. I just can't help thinking it's my fault, AJ. I should have said something. I should have stopped her."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You didn't know, and we were all responsible for what happened to Pinkie if that's the case. We all know how dangerous the forest is."

AJ puts her arm around me in a hug. It's comforting. It's needed. It helps me relax a little, but it doesn't ease my mind.

"It's just not right. Nothing about it is right."

"We went over this, sugarcube. It doesn't feel right for any o' us, but it is what happened, and it don't change the past."

"But it doesn't add up."

"I know."

"But it makes no-"

"What are ya tryin' to say, Twilight? That we need to bring back the search parties? Do 'nother investigation? Search again?"

"It seems like the only right thing to do. She was our friend, AJ."

"Was, Twilight. Was. It ain't healthy what you're doin'. She's gone. I know it don't make sense, but ya have to accept it, or you'll drive yerself crazy. We've investigated this to death. We searched all over Everfree. There's no sign o' nothin'. Even Celestia herself helped you look, and nothin' came up."

I throw up my hooves. "That's just it. It makes even less sense that they couldn't find her. Pinkie is the Element of Laughter and Celestia has a special connection with all of the elements. It's as though both Pinkie and her element just vanished off the face of Equestria. Doesn't that bother you?"

A loud slam on the fence throws me off balance. I jerk back. Her face is red and her lips are trembling. I look at her and she refuses to break her focus on the sunset. We both share silence. I don't dare interrupt it. Finally, the anger fades.

"Oh course it bothers me." She says it softly. "She could have been family, Twilight. And even if she wasn't, she was. We never found out." She takes a deep breath and shakes her head.

"It's tempting to keep searching for her, Twilight. It's a might tempting to keep lookin', but that's how a pony goes crazy. Better to just drop it and move on."

"But...you haven't moved on either."

"At least I'm trying."

I don't know what to say. She's right, but I suppose that's kind of her thing. But, what if there was more we could have done? Six months ago she went into the forest and never returned. We found nothing. No footsteps. No hairs. No trace. Weeks and weeks of search parties in the forest, and...nothing.

If she ran away, she chose an odd time to do it, just before Fluttershy's birthday. That's not like her. If she did run away, why? What possible reason could she have had? Was she in trouble? After about three months of searching we had finally declared her dead. We held a funeral, but we never so much as found a body, let alone confirmed her actual death. Her family, I didn't think it was possible to be more sober than they already were, but they proved me wrong. They all shed quiet tears at the time. It was a disturbingly quiet funeral, especially for a pony who was so...excitable.

"I...miss her."

"Me too, sugarcube. Me too."

"Thanks for talking, Applejack."

"Anytime, Twi."

We say our goodbyes and I set for home. The sun is almost set now. On the way back to my palace, I keep thinking about her, about how Rainbow had it the hardest. She's still in denial of the way she felt. Her and Pinkie were especially close. I also keep going back to the big question. Why did this happen, and what if she is somehow...okay?

I'm still getting used to my palace. It's larger and roomier than I'm used to. I mean, I appreciate the Elements of Harmony for giving me a new place to live, but it's kind of isolated and lonely. I still have Spike, of course, and I still have my books. It's just ironic that a palace of friendship can be so empty. In either case, I climb into bed. It's late and I have much to do. Spike is already asleep. Little dragon, he works so hard. Owlowiscious is out somewhere. Sometimes, he'll go out and get himself a dinner snack before returning to assist me with my research. Either way, the day's been rough and I have a long one ahead of me. I hop into bed, turn out the light and relax. Some time passes. and I relax more. I feel myself getting heavy. Everything is cloudy...

My eyelids flip open, but my body is frozen. It is now nearly pitch dark out. Something is wrong. I just instinctively feel that way. I look up. I can't tell what time of night it is but it has to be late. In my ears, I hear this weird, faint humming sound. It's just this strange buzz. I turn my eyes to the left and then I see it, in the corner of my room. It looks like a dark silhouette, an outline of a pony. It's too far to make out, but it's getting closer. It's pink. Pink? Pinkie Pie? Is that you?

I try to open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. I cannot move a muscle. I begin to try to move myself out of it, to scream, to move. Nothing is working. It's Pinkie alright. She's hunched over and smiling. She approaches me in a staggered manner, moving unnaturally between bouts of slow rocking and alarming speed. Finally she is mere feet away from me. She smiles. And then I hear her, but her voice is in my head.

"It's okay, Twilight. I'm smiling, and I want to see you smile, too."

She just stands there, smiling, and slowly her smile grows. It just keeps widening and widening. Her face itself warps to accommodate the growing grin. The smile stretches unnaturally past her nose, past her eyes and wider still. It is a joyless grin. I can't describe it. Her eyes penetrate through me, and past me. She giggles, but it isn't her usual Pinkie giggle. It almost sounds artificial, doll-like.

"Smile, smile, smile." Pinkie's voice taunts me.

I hear the giggle again. The giggle grows into outright laughter, mad laughter, but I only hear the laughter in my head. Her face isn't laughing. She just keeps smiling at me with the grin.

Suddenly a bright light flashes, and she is gone. Once again, I'm able to move. I bolt upright immediately. I go to the bathroom. Grab a cup of water. My hooves quaver. I'm not sure what just happened, but it felt so real. I drink the water. Take a few deep breaths. I'm still exhausted. Spike is still out. Owlowiscious is back, but I'm too tired to speak to her and everypony in town already thinks I'm batty. I lay back in bed and try to relax, but it isn't easy. I begin to drift off...

I'm outside. I just left a social gathering, it's like a small school house or something made up of two buildings. The first has a large meeting area and people are slowly fanning out of it. I'm older, and I'm searching for something or someone. It starts to rain. I look everywhere I can, and people are slowly starting to leave. I search all around the meeting area and I find nothing. There's a basement in the schoolhouse but I'm not sure if it's locked. I ask one of the people to hold the door open to the meeting area for me, just in case she turns up. They protest, say they are about to leave. But I insist, just for a moment. The schoolhouse has two doors. I run to the closest one. It's locked. "Hold on," I call. "Keep the door open."

"I'm sorry, we can't wait any longer. We have to go." is the response back. I hear the door shut. It doesn't matter. I run out in the rain to the back entrance. The stairwell is on the outside of the building. The stairs travel underground to an old-looking wooden door. I try it. It's unlocked. I step a few more steps in and hear a sound. At first I think it's a whisper, but then I hear it again. A giggle. That giggle. I breathe inward and freeze. I attempt to call out but my voice is horse. Finally, I swallow and squeeze it out.

"Hello? Who's there?"

The giggle again. It seems to be coming from the left hallway. There is a small maze of hallways each with various classrooms. The floor is lined with mustard-yellow tiles and...and...

"Oh sweet Celestia."

In the leftmost hallway there are streaks of blood, like something was dragged across the floor leading to a door 2 doors down. The florescent lighting above flickers wildly. I approach slowly, quietly. If something is here that's going to attack me, I'm not about to let it know I'm here. I walk softly toward the second door. I pass the first door. The door is dark, closed. I get closer. I look into the second door. I see her. I see Pinkie. She's standing in the corner, her back to me. She's looking at something, like a body. I duck back. I don't think she saw me. All I can think is that I need a plan. I need to have a plan.

That's when I hear the first door creak open behind me. I spin around, and out creeps a small filly. She has the same mane style that I do, a blue coat and a cutie mark that is similar to mine but with subtle differences. Hers too is a 6 pointed star, but the center of it almost seems like it's scribbled. Her face has the same wide, unnatural smile that Pinkie had before.

"Hi mommy, Pinkie wants to play."

Mommy? Did she just say mommy?

I stammer, confused. What do I say to that? Her whole body twitches around like a ragdoll. I can't explain it, but there's nothing in all of Equestria that can move the way she's moving. The closest I can think is the way a moth twitches when exposed to the light.

I slowly back up. Then I hear the giggle again, right behind me. It's Pinkie. Her smile the same.

"Hiya Twilight. You ready to start smiling yet?"

I stand there, petrified. She stands motionless. Then, the buzzing returns, louder and louder. Pain surges to my head. I cover my ears.

"Please, stop. Stop!"

I bolt upright in bed and look at the clock. Six a.m. I shudder.

Author's Note

So I'm super stoked about this. Initially it was going to be a one-shot that I planned to release all before Halloween, but then it started getting bigger, so I've expanded it into chapters for "Days" and this way I don't have to worry if the entire thing isn't completed before Halloween rolls around. I'm almost finished with Day 2 already by the way, so w00t. And yes, things will be getting much darker from here.