What Came Before

Chapters

The Last Laugh
Into The Night, Part 2
Malice
The Calm After The Storm
What Came Before
Reveille
A Fault in the Aether
Return to Ponyville, Part 1
Return to Ponyville, Part 2
Something Greater
As the Fire Burns
Graduation Day
Desperation
Awakening
Prologue
Into The Night, Part 1

The Last Laugh

The last month was an unbearable slog for Pinkamena Diane Pie. Yet the days blended with the nights, and if somepony were to ask her what day it was she'd be hard pressed to answer. Not even her memories were complete - she'd simply woken up in Canterlot Clinic with a pounding headache and no memory of the previous two days or nights.

She didn't know what surprised her the most: What she had done, or that it took Applejack putting her down to stop her. Aside from what she had heard second-hoof, she remembered nothing. Until that time, she had never wondered on the missing gaps in her memory; she'd assumed she was simply forgetful. But as the story was laid out for her, she found herself in disbelief at what she was suddenly remembering.

Pinkie had had bad dreams before, but in the past she'd been able to laugh the worries away. Now her nightmares had been placed into context. The screams she'd often heard over the sound of her own maniacal laughter were not the machinations of a stressed mind or an overactive imagination, but the last moments of ponies she had tormented breaching the divide between the time she could account for, and the time she couldn't.

It was knowledge she wished she didn't have.

The royal sisters had graciously taken her into a secret house arrest, believing fully in her innocence. Pinkie felt it was completely undeserved. She was watched and cared for at all hours of the day and night, lest she slip back into the trance that had caused so much pain, though she wondered if it was worth it. Didn't she deserve the worst punishment reserved for walking nightmares like her?

On her most vulnerable nights, she asked Princess Luna as much. "These are constructs of an evil far older and more powerful than you or I. It is hard to fight them, but remember that they are constructs. They have no power over you." She'd respond.

And yet they did have power over her. At night, she would toss and turn through her tenuous and uneasy sleep, hearing the cries of her most recently remembered victims. Feeling the resistance, then the sharp yielding rip of the flesh she dug into with all manner of sharp and scary looking tools. During the day, she aimlessly wandered the royal chambers like a zombie, seeking any relief from her own persecution. Perhaps owing to her own unwaivering guilt, none would come even on the brightest of days.

She no longer had a taste for parties or fun, though at one point she'd tried to liven up her room by requesting streamers and balloons to decorate it - the memories that brought up had her hiding under her covers for the better part of a week. Her hair had deflated with her spirits, hanging flat against her head and shoulders.

At the very least, she could take solace in the concealment it provided for the scar which ringed the right side of her face. It was a constant reminder of that day, and left her silently wishing that Applejack had finished the job.

The picture of what had happened during those lost periods only became more vivid as time wore on. They came to her in dreams most of the time. Other times they were revealed after long discussions with Princess Celestia or her sister.

Every new vision she had seemed to go back farther and farther in time. "How long had I been doing this?" she once asked, but nopony knew the answer. She was afraid she would find that it went back to the beginning, but the earliest unlocked memories seemed to hail from a time shortly after she had wielded the Element of Laughter against Nightmare Moon, more than one year ago.

Not that that was much of a consolation to her. "Over a year..." she'd reflected during her last talk with Princess Celestia. "How many ponies did I-?"

Princess Celestia pressed a hoof lightly against Pinkie's muzzle. "-Everypony lost is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy for which you are not to blame."

Pinkie pressed in on her temples with each hoof. "Princess, how am I not to blame? These memories are mine. How do I know I didn't just... block them out so I wouldn't have to live with what I'd done?"

"You know that's not true, Pinkie. Believe me when I say that you have done so much good in this world. It is part of who you are, and if you were not innocent I would not have seen you recover so promisingly these last few weeks. My sister and I are still searching for answers, but I promise you that soon all of this will make sense."

The princess's words were encouraging, to be sure. However, she was ever haunted by one of them in particular: Innocent? she thought. She'd never considered the possibility that she was, in fact, innocent. Those ponies in her dreams, they were innocent. Rainbow Dash, she was innocent. Applejack, who'd nearly ended Pinkie's life, even she was more innocent than Pinkie.

Then she remembered the laughter, forced through her own mouth, that she had always thought belonged to her. A nightmare worse than any other revealed the presence of something else that, until she'd woken up in Canterlot, lived deep inside her subconscious. "It wasn't just in my head... It felt like it was keeping me there," she had told the Princess the next morning.

She called it the Other.

From that morning on, every session with Celestia would involve questions about the Other which she didn't always know (or want to know) the answers to. "What did it say?" "What did it want?" "What did it make you do?" "Could you fight it?" "Did it fight back?" And each day since she'd be made to relive those experiences, one victim after another.

"Why did it choose Lily?"

"Why did it choose Singer?"

"Why did it choose Gilda?"

"Why did it choose this pony?"

"Why did it choose that pony?"

"Why did it choose Rainbow Dash?"

Why did it choose Rainbow Dash? she'd wonder. That question was the most painful of all of them. She knew every pony in Ponyville, and had thrown at least one party for all of them at one point or another, but Rainbow Dash was one of her best friends in the whole wide world!

"It is almost as if the first victims were just a warm up." Pinkie overheard Luna reflect one morning when she gave her daily report to her sister.

"Perhaps." Celestia agreed. "Perhaps it was collecting its strength. Weakening the Element of Laughter, and Pinkie's will. Maybe Rainbow Dash was the one it wanted. Surely an evil this ancient would have known that Pinkie would resist if it had tried to turn her against her friend straight away."

It was all painfully speculative, and Pinkie Pie didn't want to think about what she'd done to Rainbow Dash. Not because she didn't want to feel responsible, but because there was absolutely no way for her to not feel responsible. Princess Celestia could declare her innocence every day until the Summer Sun Celebration, but just the thought of Rainbow Dash brought about the vivid memories of blood, tears, and agony.

So she tried so hard to leave speculation behind, push Rainbow Dash from her mind and focus on her recovery. That meant forgetting her other friends as well. Maybe when she was better she would find a new town with new friends, and throw new parties, and she would never have to remember painful memories. That possibility, painful as it was, helped Pinkie stay optimistic and hopeful about the future. That was, until the morning that Princess Celestia approached her with a devastating proposal.

"I think it's time that we explained things to your friends."

The thought hit her like a falling brick. Whatever Pinkie was happy about before was instantly forgotten as her smile dropped away. "But-!"

"-Worry not, Pinkie. I believe you are recovered, and they have changed much since the last time you've seen them. I know that when all is said and done, they will forgive you and welcome you back. After all, you have done nothing wrong."

Pinkie buried her head beneath her hooves. "But, my friends!? Princess... I don't know about this..."

"Pinkie. I think it is time for you to be reunited."

"But... Will they understand?"

The princess placed a reassuring hoof on Pinkie's shoulder. "I will be there to ensure that they do." Pinkie was still unsure, but she did not believe that Princess Celestia could be wrong.

***

It was late in the evening when her fears became reality.

Pinkie stood behind the doors of her room, fearing the moment they finally opened. She knew that Princess Celestia was meeting with her friends (former friends? she asked herself) on the other side of it. Daring not to get too close, lest she have no place to hide when the doors finally did open, she found herself contorting herself into strange shapes just to catch any word that might have been spoken loudly enough.

It was several minutes before she realized that her legs were shaking, and she was having difficulty standing up. She eyed the bed uneasily, longing to hide beneath its sheets and disappear. But then she heard the unmistakable muffled voice of Princess Celestia through the crack in the door. It was faint, but she managed to hear what the princess was saying.

"My little ponies, come this way for we have much to discuss."

The gentle tapping of many hooves on granite belied her friends' presence, and Pinkie let out a pained whimper. Would all of her friends be there? Would Rainbow Dash? The continuing conversation outside drew her attention to the door.

"Your brother is in the library attempting to discover a spell which will protect Canterlot without alerting those we are seeking to protect it from."

"And who is that, Princess?" It was Twilight. Pinkie dropped to her forelegs and covered her eyes, but the new positioning made it easier to hear what they were saying.

"I must confess that I have only an inkling. Not anything I can state with certainty, but it is an ancient evil that once ruled this land. Any more than that, I cannot be sure of. All the more reason to proceed with caution."

"Does this have anything to do with the Ursa Major attack on Ponyville?" asked a voice that nearly made Pinkie's heart stop.

"I believe you have seen first hand that this is true, Rainbow Dash. You must both now know what this evil is capable of. Ursas are an intimidating, and highly dangerous species within our kingdom, but they are also very peaceful. The Ursa Major would not have attacked Ponyville of its own free will.

Twilight, I would like for you to research all you can about possession and control spells. Because their contents are so dangerous, the books you will need have been locked away for a long time in a forbidden section of the royal library. I will present you with a royal decree that you may access them."

"That... That's a very serious proposition, Princess. Are you sure I'm ready for it?"

"Twilight. You are my most faithful student. I would not trust this task to any other.

"Rainbow Dash, you were somehow able to break the Ursa Major free of whatever spell had been controlling it, so I would like you to assist her with any recollections you might have. Your encounters with this creature will also be a useful source of insight."

Pinkie glanced up. Did Rainbow Dash really manage to stop an Ursa Major? If anypony could do it, it'd be her. She found herself bearing a smile, which vanished when she remembered that Rainbow Dash probably would never want to be her friend any more.

"Thank you, Princess. But I hardly know what I saw. Applejack was there, too! Maybe she would be more helpful?"

Twilight spoke next. "Actually, Rainbow. Applejack's been hard to get a hold of the last few days. I've tried to visit her since the incident, but she hardly agrees to talk to me any more."

Princess Celestia intervened. "I have some thoughts of my own on that, but now is not the time. Twilight, I would like for you to wait outside. There is a matter I must discuss solely with Rainbow Dash."

"Yes, Princess. Of course." said Twilight, sounding puzzled. "And thank you!"

Pinkie heard Twilight exit the chambers as her entire body vibrated. Something big was surely about to happen, and already knowing what that would be certainly didn't help.

"Rainbow Dash," Princess Celestia began. "I hope I have already made it clear how proud of you I am."

"Thanks, Princess. But is this really why you wanted to talk to me?"

"In a way." Pinkie heard the princess's hoofsteps clip-clopping their way towards the door, stopping just shy of the threshold. "Because what I ask of you now may be more difficult than the trials you've faced thus far."

Rainbow Dash's voice strained with bemusement. "What more is there, Princess? I feel great now!"

Pinkie heard the door to her room turning and crashed to the ground, as though attempting to bury herself beneath its impenetrable surface. Her teeth were clattering off one another as she pressed down onto her eyes with her forelegs. If I can't see her, she can't see me... she thought, desperately.

"I am glad, Rainbow Dash." she heard Princess Celestia say. "But few things are as difficult as finding it in our hearts to forgive."

The door swung open, followed by the longest silence Pinkie had ever known.

After several seconds of hiding beneath her hooves, Pinkie allowed herself to peek out through the cleft in her hoof. Rainbow Dash stood several yards away, her jaw hanging in disbelief.

"H-Hi... Rainbow Dash." Pinkie said weakly.

Pinkie watched helplessly as Rainbow Dash collected herself. However, her voice betrayed that she was anything but. "P-Pinkie... It's..." She swallowed.

Princess Celestia broke the silence. "It is time for you to be reuinited. It is now more critical than ever for the Elements of Harmony to be together, but I knew this would be the most difficult for you. That is why I thought it best that you make amends privately."

"T-Thank you... Princess." Rainbow Dash squeaked.

"I would like to grant you that privacy now, but know that I shall not be too far away, in case either of you should need me." Celestia smiled at Pinkie. "You will do fine, young Pinkie Pie." She nodded at Rainbow Dash. "Come get me when you are ready."

Princess Celestia's hooves tapped elegantly on the granite as she exited. The doors closed behind her with a thud that echoed throughout the chambers for several seconds before giving way to silence. When it was gone, Pinkie realized she was still crouched on the floor, and stood up to collect herself.

"Rainbow Dash, I-" she started

"-You don't know..." Rainbow snarled. Pinkie decided to let her speak first, but she didn't. Not for a while. Pinkie took a gentle step towards her friend, but Rainbow Dash took a much larger step backwards. "This last month... You don't know what it was like. I saw you... For weeks, you tormented me!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie stammered, trying to speak quickly. "It wasn't me! I-"

"Please, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash implored. Pinkie could see tears starting to form in her eyes. "It was hard, but... I've seen things. Things that helped me understand..."

Pinkie's voice dropped to a whisper. "Understand what, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow finally forced her eyes shut to fight the onslaught of emotion that was suddenly welling up. "I can't..." She managed, trying to choke down heavy sobs before they could surface.

"C-Can't what, Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie was having difficulty finding her voice, she she tried to take another step towards her long lost friend. This time Rainbow Dash did not retreat.

"Princess Celestia says I can forgive you." Rainbow Dash glanced at the door, her composure regained. "She says doing that will be the hard... Harder than what I've already been through." She turned her gaze back at Pinkie.

Pinkie's was still finding it difficult to stand, so she sank back down to the floor and tried to pick out her dim reflection in its polished surface. Glancing back up at Rainbow Dash, all she could say was "I wouldn't blame you if you can't."

"That's not what I can't do, Pinkie."

Just then, some of the tension inside Pinkie let up. "So, you can forgive me?"

Rainbow Dash calmly trotted up to her. "Let me see your face," she demanded.

"M-My..." Pinkie breathed. Without another word she shook her head violently to the side, tossing her mane to the other side of her neck and baring the thick, round scar that Applejack's hoof had left. "There..."

Rainbow Dash poked it gently. "So it was you."

Pinkie felt her guard rise instantly. "NO! No, Rainbow Dash! It wasn't! You were like, one of my best friends in the whole wide, wide, wide world. I could never do to you what I did!"

"I know." Rainbow Dash pointed out as a matter of fact.

"You... You what?" Now Pinkie was confused.

"I know you could never do that to me."

"But you just said-"

Rainbow Dash turned and sat next to Pinkie on the cold, stone floor. "-Look Pinkie. I haven't just been kicking around wallowing the entire time you've been away. I've been out there, and I saw some things that... Well, now they make sense."

"Saw things? Like what?"

"You... For one thing."

"Me?"

"Yeah. It's a long story. For a while, I thought I was just haunted by what happened. I thought it was just the memory of you coming to get me." Even if it wasn't real, the that she was haunting her friend over the last month sat like a rotten apple in Pinkie's stomach. Nonetheless, Rainbow Dash continued.

"What's been made clear to me is that you are just as much a victim as I was. So I guess what I'm saying is I can't imagine why any... thing would want to do this to you." Pinkie looked over at Rainbow Dash and saw that a stream of tears was rolling down her face.

"Rainbow Dash, I didn't know what was happening. If I did I would have fought it. You know that... Right?"

Rainbow Dash blinked away her tears, and almost instantly her face was replaced with determination, and anger. "Oh, I know that, Pinkie. And believe me when I say that we are gonna fight it. Together. Because whatever did this... It's still out there."

Pinkie was startled by something in her friend's voice. Rainbow Dash sounded like a completely different pony whose arrogant boastfulness was replaced by confidence and dedication. Something in that voice reached Pinkie, and suddenly she no longer felt like a victim of her own persecution. "So... We're still friends?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. Before she could speak again, she was locked tightly in Pinkie's arms. Her mane was bright and poofy for the first time in over a month, and once again Pinkie's cheeriness could not be abated. "Rainbow Dash! That's the best, best news I could've ever asked for!"

When Rainbow Dash finally managed to pry herself free of Pinkie's grasp, she had a great smile brimming across her entire face. "Pinkie, I've been angry. I've been sad. I've been desperate. At one point I screamed at a couple of fillies in a school yard. But I'm past all that now. I'm a new mare, and I've already forgiven you! All I want now is to track down whatever did this, and stop it."

Pinkie bounced. "Well count me in!"

Into The Night, Part 2

They emerged in a pitch dark room, with no discernible signs of activity anywhere around them. Were it not for Twilight's coat pressed flush to Pinkie's, she would not have known she was there. "A-Applejack?" she squeaked as quietly as her nerves would let her.

She was met with a sharp jab to her left flank. "Quiet, Pinkie!" Twilight hissed.

"I don't think anypony's in here, Twilight," whispered Rainbow Dash.

"You're wrong."

"Uh, Twilight? Do you see something I don't?" Dash retorted.

"That wasn't me. What do you see, Pinkie?"

Pinkie turned around sharply, squinting against the darkness. "I didn't say anything, either!" An indistinguishable shade of grey flashed briefly against the imposing curtain of blackness ahead of her. "Wha-" It's nothing, Pinkie, she reassured herself, even as she instinctively backed away.

"Pinkie! Stay with us." Rainbow Dash cautioned.

"I'm... I'm right here, girls," she muttered as she backed into something that felt like an end table, setting it to wobble before something fragile crashed into the floor and shattered. Pinkie jumped with a shrill "EEK!" that rang off the unseen walls.

"Scared?" taunted the fourth voice.

"That's it!" Twilight declared as her horn lit, casting its glow dimly onto the dusty floor. The broken glass shards scattered at the penumbra's edge glinted like stars in the night sky. Mysteriously, the shadows receded before the light, seeming to ebb and flow across the splintery, wooden surfaces. Like water down a drain, the shadow disappeared through hitherto unseen fissures in its surface. It was most unlike any shadow Pinkie had ever seen.

"Who's there!?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Rainbow!" started Twilight, pointedly.

"What? This thing already knows we're here. Probably knew this whole time!"

"Help!" shouted somepony from beyond the wall. A shrill voice - feminine with shades of masculinity - drawling out the "e" in a most familiar way.

Jolting to her hooves, Pinkie dashed to the wall where the shadow had receded. "Applejack!?" she called back. There was no response.

Pinkie turned to her friends behind her, tapping her hoof at where the shadow had passed through. "Does anypony remember Applejack's house having a room in there?"

"There must be some kind of secret passage," Twilight began. "If we look around here long enough, I'm sure we'll fi-"

"-Out of my way!" Rainbow Dash suddenly charged full bore into the wall, cocking her head to the side and leaping into it with all of her strength. Pinkie had only just managed to dive off to the side in time to avoid the impact. In moments, a pattern of cracks spread from the point of Rainbow's attack, just before the wall crumbled to the ground with a thunderous racket.

The room beyond seemed too large to belong to the rest of the house. From the outside, there was no clue of its existence. The only light beyond the wall was provided by lit candles perched atop rusty, misshapen holders. With such little light, the walls seemed to extend infinitely into the shadows beyond. Before giving way to total darkness, the light bounced briefly from several silhouetted figures dangling lifelessly from the ceiling, mercifully shrouded in enough darkness that Pinkie could not see the horrors that had been done to them.

"It's... like some kind of pocket dimension." Twilight observed. "I've read about them, but I've never seen one before."

Pinkie looked up from where she had ducked to cover helf, and gulped. "I have." In fact, this place was all too familiar; she had once worked in a kill room exactly like it. She had never remembered building it - it was just always there.

The words "LIFE'S A PARTY" flashed in her memory, scrawled in blood across a patchwork of sewn pony hide. How long would it be until Applejack's projects could no longer be contained in this one room? Do you miss it? whispered the disembodied voice of the Other, this time from inside her own head. Its subtle intonations magnified a hundred times, feeling at once so familiar and yet so alien.

"NO!" she screamed, once again burrying her head beneath her hooves.

"You okay, Pinkie?" asked Rainbow Dash with a reassuring prod to the flank. Her concern was genuine, but her bravado failed to mask the fear in her voice.

"She's so at home, she's never been better," the Other answered on Pinkie's behalf. "Come ponies. Come see what I've been working on, just for you!" Just then, the room beyond brightened as the lit candles flared into harsh infernos that licked at the stale air above. Still more unlit candles perched upon unseen shelves seemed to will themselves to life, and the glow they cast pulled back the shadowy curtain on a grotesquerie of wrought iron cages - many of which berthed the lifeless form of somepony or another - and dangling carcasses relieved of their limbs, and their coats to varying degrees of fruition.

At the room's center was a drum-mounted table, laying flat. On it lay the pony from the yard, who Pinkie could now see was none other than Berryshine - a fun-loving pony whose company she'd only ever enjoyed. She suddenly found herself quagmired by an overwhelming soup of emotions: anger; sorrow; fear; and confusion.

In front of it all stood a stoic, unmoving Applejack, whose eyes were filled with a kind of hate that Pinkie had only ever seen in those worst of nightmares which the Other liked to occupy. She found herself frozen in place, not daring to move but a single inch any which way. Out of the periphery of her vision, she could see her friends similarly petrified.

"Applejack..." Rainbow Dash urged. "Put the knife down."

It was only then that Pinkie realized that Applejack stood over her brother, who laid before her weakly clutching the chains around his neck. Between the coils rested the sharp end of a large kitchen knife being held tightly between Applejack's bared teeth.

"Don'tcha take one step closer!" she snarled around its handle. "Or yer gonna have another pony's blood'n yer hooves!"

"Please! Please help us!" pleaded the pony who'd cried out earlier. In the dim light, Pinkie saw it was Applejack's sister, whose hooves clung to the bars of her cage with desperation.

"Shut up, Apple Bloom!" her sister sniped without moving a single inch. "This ain't about you!"

The Other let out an amused chuckle that reverberated from the walls of the kill room, and seemed to come from all directions at once. "I feel like we've been here before. Isn't that right?" Pinkie could not see where the voice had come from, but somehow she knew that it was speaking directly to her.

"Let go of my friend, monster!" Rainbow Dash cried.

"Monster? You wound me! I'm so disappointed that we never got to finish our game, Rainbow Dash. Perhaps I will get to make things up to you, and Applejack, here can finish what your other friend had started."

"We're going to stop you long before that happens!" Dash retorted.

"Sure ya can try," taunted Applejack. "But will ya get to me 'efore I get to my brother here? I know yer fast, RD... but are ya that fast?"

"Let! Her! Go!" Rainbow repeated, drawing Applejack's full attention.

It was a fraction of a second long enough for Twilight to teleport next to Applejack, horn charged with energy. The ensuing blast knocked both Big Macintosh, and the knife out of Applejack's grasp. Before the blade clattered to the ground, Rainbow Dash sprinted over to Big Macintosh and pulled him away to safety.

Pinkie was only just beginning to comprehend the scene around her when Applejack jumped to her hooves and reclaimed the knife with the cleft of her hoof. Its point thrust upward, tracing a line to Twilight's throat. Acting quickly, Pinkie closed the distance with a pair of quick leaps, crashing into Applejack with all of her momentum.

The gambit destabilized Applejack's aim, sparing Twilight by mere inches. "Why you!" Applejack snarled. Reversing her grip on the knife, she brought its blade down onto Pinkie's right haunch, embedding it deep in the soft flesh just inches above her cutie mark. With a cry of pure agony, Pinkie's body was seized by the overwhelming shock that pulsated from the hilt now protruding from her body.

"PINKIE!" Rainbow Dash called as she helped Big Macintosh sit against Apple Bloom's cage. She returned to her friends as quickly as she could, knocking Applejack harshly to the ground. She reached to the knife to remove it, only to be stopped by Twilight.

"Don't! It'll only hurt Pinkie even more."

Nodding, Rainbow Dash leapt onto Applejack, pinning her limbs to the ground as Twilight climbed to her hooves.

"T-Twilight. D-Do the memory spell..." Pinkie urged, weakly.

"Yes, Twilight. Do the memory spell!" mimicked the Other. "It's all you can do, isn't it?" Twilight skewed her face as she concentrated, carefully lowering her glowing horn to Applejack's forehead.

"Why the hesitation? Here... Let me HELP!" A spidery, black appendage burst from Applejack with lightning speed as five sharp, claw-like fingers closed themselves tightly around Twilight's horn. It yanked her head sharply forward as she let out a startled yelp.

Her horn's glow darkened from pink to putrid green, as the Other laughed its sickening, cackling laugh. Pinkie watched helplessly as Twilight's legs gave out, sending her collapsing to the ground next to the now motionless Applejack. There was only the briefest struggle to stand against the tightly wound fist that oppressed her. It was short-lived, however, as Twilight's eyes pressed to close. Then the kicking stopped, and she fell into what appeared to be a deeply tormented sleep.

"Let her go!" Rainbow Dash roared as she chomped down on the Other's wrist with what must have been all of her strength. Pinkie pulled herself by her forelegs to Rainbow's aid, seeking to jar Twilight from her trance by shaking her limp body side to side.

"Twilight..." Pinkie sobbed. "We need you! Please wake up!"

"She can't hear you," the Other answered"but I assure you she's quite alright, for now. In fact... I reason you should join her." Shadows lurking at the room's edge closed in on them like a tsunami from all directions. What little light there was left in the room dissolved before it as though swallowed by a swarm of locusts.

As it approached, the umbra split into a dozen of the same branch-like arms that claimed Twilight. The recently lit candles were either hidden behind the impenetrable curtain of the Other, or snuffed out by the unnatural, gusting wind that accompanied it as it closed in. "Now, now, my little ponies... Don't fight," it sang sweetly. "There is just no reason Twilight Sparkle here should be having all of the fun."

With a deep, guttural chuckle, the Other's arms bent down in unison, and reached out to clutch and grab manes, and tails, and limbs, and anything else they could get a hold of. Pinkie tried first to avoid them, but she and Rainbow Dash were soon overwhelmed by their assault. As her legs disappeared into the rising shadow, she felt as though she was being drowned in a pit of caustic, ice-cold mud.

Inch by inch, she was wrapped in a cocoon of tendrils that squeezed the air, and the life from her body. Groaning, and snarling as she struggled to get free, she realized that Rainbow Dash had already fallen to the creature. Knowing that there would be no escape, the fight drained from her body, and her consciousness was not far behind.

***

Pinkie awoke on a hard, damp, and cold surface; most likely stone, but she could not have known by its appearance, for she was surrounded by an impenetrable pitch blackness that masked everything around her. All she knew was that her flank burned, itched, and ached beneath what felt like a thick pad of bandages and gauze. Her legs wobbled uneasily as she rose to her hooves. "Where am I?" she wondered aloud.

She turned in place, scanning the room to no avail. With a probing hoof, she deduced that the room was barely wider than she was long. From what she could tell, no discernable features adorning the walls except for a small, metal door, flushed with the stone so tightly that it was only by its texture that she could distinguish it. Of course, no windows existed to admit any light into the small cell.

Am I in jail!? she wondered with a start. She'd seen jails before, in fiction mostly. Even the worst of those had bars, windows, even running water. This was a dungeon, and she could only think of one place that had dungeons...

The distant thud of metal door slamming open and shut reverberated through the walls and into the cell. It was followed immediately by the muffled clip, clop, clip of hoofsteps growing louder as they came closer. With a jarring, metallic clank the door unlocked and swung open, sighing as its rusty hinges creaked over one another. Where there had been absolutely no light before, the cell was now flooded with it.

Pinkie squinted into the doorway as a silhouette adorned in glimmering armor edged through. "Prisoner. Back up against the far wall," it growled.

"P-Prisoner?" Pinkie stammered. "I don't even know why I'm-"

"-Save it for the princess!" interrupted the guard.

"P-Princess!?" Finally, a good sign. "Who? Luna? Celestia!? Tell her I don't know why I'm here. Tell her whatever it is she thinks I did, I did-NGH!" She was silenced with a swift knock from the guard.

"She's on her way, but you have me to worry about now."

"Y-You?" Pinkie gasped. "I don't even know what I'm doing h-HNG" The guard hit her again, harder this time. Her jaw ached from where his armored hoof had struck her. The sickly taste of blood crept over her tongue as it probed the spot she'd been struck. "Please..." she whimpered, crouching to the ground.

The guard's eyes shone as he kicked her. "You will not speak unless spoken to. Is that understood?" Pinkie nodded and remained silent, but was nonetheless met with another kick to the jaw. A whimper escaped, for which she was struck again, then again, then again after that.

As she writhed away from her attacker, one of the blows fell on her wounded flank, blinding her with its white-hot, searing pain. Her ears rang as more blows fell on her swelling hide.

"That's enough!" Princess Celestia commanded, her billowing locks trailing behind her as she entered into the cramped space of Pinkie's cell.

Pinkie eyed the princess through a tentative gap she allowed herself to make between her forelegs. Satisfied that the abuse had stopped, she uncurled herself and rolled onto her stomach, managing as much of a bow as she could with all of the pain she was feeling. "P-Princess... I don't-"

"-Pinkamena Diane Pie," the princess interrupted, eying her subject with equal parts disappointment and apathy. "You stand accused of the willful murder of your friends Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. Princess Luna and I have convened to discuss what we will do with-"

"-What!?" Pinkie cried. "Princess! I never even-"

"-Do not speak!" she snapped, stomping her bejeweled hoof inches away from Pinkie's nose. "You did not just betray your friends. You betrayed me, and all Equestrians who depended on you to embody their spirit of laughter. You have irrevokably damaged the balance of harmony in this land, what could you possibly say to address this grievous action you have taken?"

"I don't remember..."

"I believed you the last time. I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I took you in, helped you recover, reunited you with your friends, and gave you the chance to redeem yourself. You have failed in every conceivable way."

"But-"

"-You're weak, Pinkie!" Celestia accused. "You let yourself be corrupted all those moons ago, and I was a fool to think you wouldn't let yourself fall to evil this time."

Those words hit harder than any physical blow could have. Now her spirit ached to match her body. "Princess, please! Tell me what happened. I swear to you, I don't know!"

Celestia grinned down at Pinkie. "You will know... In your worst nightmares, Pinkie. Come tonight, and tomorrow, and all of the days thereafter. You will never leave this cell. You will fall into madness, and nopony will ever help you through it!"

"N-Never?" She scraped at the ground with her hoof. "I don't even know what I did..." she whimpered, eyeing the walls. In the light she could see that their surfaces were stained slick with dried blood, and other substances she didn't want to contemplate. How long would it be before those walls walls were her only salvation? How hard would she have to run into them? Pinkie retched at the thought.

The princess made things worse when she lowered her muzzle to Pinkie's and growled sadistically, "You will have plenty of time to remember, you miserable little filly."

"Wh-Why are you being so cruel?"

"It's what you deserve, Pinkie."

Never had the princess acted with such cruelty before. Pinkie blinked away her tears, and saw the blatant malice in Celestia's eyes. "You're not the princess." She convinced herself.

Celestia smiled from ear to ear with a grin that bared sharp fangs instead of teeth. "My dear? Whatever do you mean?"

Pinkie tried to stand, but felt too weak to muster it. "Princess Celestia was never so needlessly cruel."

Celestia tossed her head back and burst into a fit of mad laughter. "Does that make the pain any less delicious!?" the Other cackled, as Celestia's coat dissolved into shadowy flesh. It turned its gaze back to Pinkie, and as their eyes met Pinkie could see that Celestia's brilliant eyes had been replaced with deep, soulless pits that glowed pale white against the Other's colorless form.

"I have enjoyed the suffering of fillies like you for an eternity, child." The guard, door, and cell all vanished behind the demon's imposing form as it grew along the walls, bristling with its many limbs. One of them brushed its long, blade-like claws lightly across Pinkie's neck. "For what it's worth, yours is the most satisfying..."

The arms gathered around her, pressing inward from all directions. "W-What are you?" Pinkie whimpered. Claws unfurled and pulled away the bandages around her flank, probing into the open wound and searching for the spot that caused the most pain. "OW! OW OW OW! H-Hey, st-stop that... It hurts!"

"Oh, my dear. We're just getting started!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Twilight called from somewhere behind the darkness. A flash of pink light spread across the surface of the shadow like a spreading wildfire. The arms clutching at Pinkie burned away, and she fell to the ground.

"Twilight!" Pinkie cried. "Where did you-?"

"It's the Other," she explained, out of breath. "He somehow turned my own memory spell against me. I guess he pulled you and Rainbow Dash into this, uh, creation of his." Twilight gestured at the new surroundings.

They appeared to be in Twilight's library, but a library that had long been abandoned. Cobwebs and dust had gathered around the vacant cubbies that used to house so many books - now only twisted, moth-eaten husks. The dry stench of dust and stale paper saturated the dead air that clogged Pinkie's throat, as though she had swallowed a mouthful of dirt.

The structure itself creaked and groaned under its own weight. Much of the walls had been eaten away by time and termintes; the rafters flexed visibly downward, ringed in cracks about the midsection; the staircase spiralling up to Twilight's bedroom had long since collapsed into a chalky heap at the edge of the room.

Pinkie quietly absorbed the scene, distracting herself much as she could from the pain that saturated her from head to toe. Twilight, in contrast, paced uneasily around the chamber hastily coaching herself through the steps she needed to take. Pinkie heard the words, but in her distraction did not register their meaning: "...must find Rainbow Dash somewhere in this maze...", "...I'm lucky I managed to find you...", "...find Applejack. I think she's being held in here, somewhere..."

None of the words registered to Pinkie's heavily distracted mind. Instead, she was drawn to one of the library's few windows. Through it, Pinkie could see that the rest of Ponyville had not fared much better. Nearby buildings, long collapsed, had been grown over with invading plant life. Not a pony was to be seen in any direction.

"...Can't sense them anywhere, Pinkie..."

What struck Pinkie the most was the impossible sky that framed everything - Neither day, nor night. Everything from the sky down was tinted in a faintly shimmering blood-red hue, as though the entire world were burning just out of sight. It tore her heart to pieces seeing everything she loved so devastated. She pressed her nose lightly against the glass, sobbing quietly. All of the ponies she liked to see smile so much, gone without explanation.

"Pinkie," she half-heard Twilight say. "None of this is real! Whatever you are feeling right now - Whatever you are seeing - it's all in your head! The Other has no power over us here." Pinkie continued to stare blankly through the window at the alien landscape beyond. Twilight's voice only barely registered over the rapid beating of her own heart.

She was broken from her trance as Twilight shook her by the mane. "Pinkie!"

"I... I don't know," Pinkie finally answered. "It sure felt real..."

"Yeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss..." hissed the Other. "This is as real as life will ever get for you - A vision of things to come, when Equesssstria finally burnssssss at my hand." He spoke with a deliberate slowness that twisted each and every word into a threat as haunting and oppressive as the sky outside.

"Where's Rainbow Dash!? Show yourself!" Twilight demanded.

"She's reliving some of the fonder memories we've had together."

"Let her go!"

"Oh, but of course Master Twilight. Because you asked so nicely, I shall do exactly as you command. Oooh! Do you want to be my friend too? I'm really not that bad once you get to know me..."

Twilight responded with a blast of magic from her horn; a pink bolt that shot through the ceiling with a cataclysmic crash that sent a plume of wooden shrapnel and debris out into the sky. "Stop hiding!" she raged, her teeth gnashing at one another.

"Be careful what you wish for," he warned, as the library began to shake.

Pinkie's tail quivered as she looked up to see chunks of building crumble from the edges of the hole rended by Twilight's magic. A rush of adrenaline forced her to set aside her pain. "Twilight! Look out!" She knocked her friend away as one of the larger sections slammed into the ground where they'd just been standing.

The roof cracked and strained before buckling, sending the contents of Twilight's bedroom tumbling on top of them. "Get close to me!" Twilight urged as she cast a bubble-like shield around the two of them.

No sooner had it enclosed did the library collapse, in its entirety, over the top of them. Any light was blocked out by the avalanche of twisted furniture, shattered wooden sections, and the remains of the dead tree in which the library had been built.

Pinkie's eyes remained tightly shut as she felt a lifting sensation in her gut. The debris parted before them as the shield bubble rose through it, emerging into the light of day as a phoenix from the ashes.

The shield dissolved away as Pinkie and Twilight touched back down onto the small mountain of debris. Finally, Pinkie allowed herself to open her eyes. Ahead of them, the sun and moon mingled discordantly in the maroon sky - an eclipse that cast the world below in an eerie twilight.

Silhouetted against its glow was a slender, towering figure crowned with a ring of horns that grew at odd angles from its skull. Eleven arms bristled from its back, dangling at its side with fingers twitching and writhing to an unheard rhythm. Against the shadow, its pale, pupilless eyes narrowed as it studied the ponies before it with bemused disdain. Two unnaturally long arms extended down from its shoulders, effortlessly reaching the ground where their hands gently stroked the manes of Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie recognized them first. "Applejack! Dashie!" she called out.

They remained silent, staring blankly into the distance. "They're mine, now," the Other taunted. "Soon, you will all be mine."

Malice

The chasm that separated Pinkie and Twilight from their friends was too great to cover by hoof before the Other could act. Teleportation would have been the only way, but the Other had so far seemed to know every move they would make before they made it, and Pinkie couldn't see why now would be any different.

A sideways glance at Twilight confirmed that the she too had arrived at the same conclusion: It was a stalemate. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she turned her gaze pleadingly in the direction of her friends; a gaze which they returned without a shred of recognition.

"I'm so sorry," Pinkie whimpered, "I let you guys down..."

Despite the distance, the Other heard her well. "Yes you did, child, oh so completely," he grinned. "Believe me that, in time, you will certainly pay for that mistake. You see, everything happens in circles... Circles of anguish spin 'round and 'round across time. You hurt another, and they hurt you back. It's so... Magnificent."

"We will stop you! We have the Elements of-"

"-PEH!" he spat. "The 'Elements of Harmony'!? Useless rocks. Have you not seen the fruits of my work?" Pinkie could feel its pupilless eyes bearing down on her. "You surely think yourself innocent, but every being has a part of them that yearns to act on the basest desires that you bury so deep down, you forget they are there.

"You, child, submitted more readily than most. Do you remember all those nights you tossed and turned in the night, dreaming sweetly of the lives I willed you to take? While you were contented to blame me for your weakness, inside I could feel your essence grow with beautiful malice. Why? Because you liked it. Your so called 'Element of Harmony' is naught but a reflection of your own good nature... And now, it is mine."

He gave the ponies at his side a mocking pat on the head with the same dignity reserved for common pets. "Honesty and Loyalty are mine, as well." Throwing his head back, he laughed a terrible laugh that rumbled across the plain like a rolling thunder from a distant storm. "You can no more hurt me with your precious little 'Elements of Harmony' than you could burn the sun with a flame!"

"H-How?" Pinkie wondered aloud. "How could he-"

"-Oh, it's quite simple. This is my gift!" The Other's arms shot outward, bristling from his body like the spokes of a cartwheel. Darkness flowed from his fingertips and meshed together into a solid disk that spread across the sky. As the curtain closed around them, it morphed its color and texture into that of a mossy, cracked wall surrounding what must have once been a very grand throne room.

"The Castle of the Two Sisters!" Twilight gasped.

"Yes," the Other acknowledged, his voice pressing inward from all directions. "One year ago. The night you and your... friends-" he pronounced the word with distaste, as though the very idea of friendship was a poison to him. "-met one of my favorite little pets."

"-You mean-"

"-The sniveling whelp, Princess Luna. I prefer the name I gave her one thousand years ago. 'Nightmare Moon.'" Shadows leapt into the still air, twisting and bending into a ghostly Twilight Sparkle. She knelt across from a similarly rendered Nightmare Moon, wings extended in triumph.

"You little foal!" she gloated"Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!"

She was answered by the distant voices of Pinkie and her friends, echoing from the stairwell past the chamber's entryway. Their ghost forms gathered behind Twilight, standing united as she grinned to Nightmare Moon. "You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here!"

The past visions froze in place. "You..." the Other hissed. "...You practically handed me the Elements of Harmony on a silver platter." His bemused chortle reverberated through the walls of the castle.

"What!?" Pinkie cried. "You mean-"

"-Watch..."

The ghost forms shifted about the room before reanimating. Past Twilight had assembled with her past friends, and the Elements of Harmony glowed with their brilliant glow. "You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth Element: the Element of Magic!"

All at once, the Elements burst into action, reforming from their dusty shards as regalia about the necks of their rightful representees. The past visions levitated into the air, buoyed by the magical power of the Elements, which burst forth from their union as a great rainbow that arced through the air before striking its mark. "Nooo! Nooo!" Nightmare Moon cried as the past visions froze in place.

"I remember all of this." Twilight called, "But what does this-"

"-Twilight... Look." Pinkie pointed at the ground beneath where her past self, and friends, hovered amidst a halo of white light. A single shadow defied the radiance, and extended upward into the formation.

"You..." Twilight growled. "You were there!"

"But of course. Do you honestly think the weak and helpless Luna could have acted alone against her sister? Corrupting her was most entertaining. She screamed and begged me to stop the entire time. But I grew on her envy, and granted her the power she could never have had on her own.

"But the Elements of Harmony - those cursed trinkets - set my plans back by a thousand years... A thousand and one, that is." He chuckled knowingly."The irony is that you taking the Elements into your own being helped me more than you could have ever imagined. Ineffectual though she was, I could never have taken the Elements from Princess Celestia directly... With you, though..."

Shadowy hands materialized from the floor beneath Pinkie. One draped itself tenderly across her shoulders, as another poked at her muzzle accusingly. "I simply latched myself onto the one I felt would be the easiest to corrupt. And what is laughter if not disdain disguised as delight? You, dear, fed me more than a thousand Lunas could have."

Pinkie tried to back away, but was stopped by a thicket of shadowy limbs. "Oh, I'm not done yet. Let's travel to some time a little more recent... Shall we?" Twilight and Pinkie turned in unison as the arms shot over them and wrapped them in a cocoon of darkness. Pinkie's eyes pressed tightly shut, and when she opened them a moment later they were in a different room entirely.

It was her kill room. Before her, Rainbow Dash lay mutilated on a drum-mounted table. Her wings cast carelessly into the shadows beyond. Blood streamed from her many wounds, and it was plain from her expression that she had little hope to live. It was a thousand times more vivid than any dream she'd had of it since, and yet a part of her was grateful to know that Rainbow Dash would be okay.

She was jolted from her introspection as the scene she remembered well unfolded before her very eyes. It was strange hearing herself sound so... "vile" was the only word she could think to match her behavior. Of course, she knew it wasn't her. It was this creature who took so much joy in manipulating them, trapping them, and feeding off of their inner hatered. Even so, as she watched the knife - her knife - lash out with the goal of ending her friend's life, she was overcome with guilt, and fell to the ground in time with her past self.

"Pinkie! Remember, this isn't real!" Twilight urged.

"She lies," the Other assured her. "You remember this well. I can sense that the memories have never left you. How surprised do you think I would be to find that you indeed miss the rush of taking another life?"

Pinkie shook her head, hiding behind her hooves. "No!" she sobbed. "No, I didn't ask for any of this!" She forced herself to face the scene once more. All of the past visions had frozen in place; the faintest flash of shadow suspended in mid-leap between her lifeless heap, and Applejack. "You've been hurting her ever since that day... Haven't you?"

"Yes..." the Other whispered as it seeped from the walls of the kill room. "With your Element mine, your usefulness to me had ended. Your precious Applejack, however..." Twisting and writhing, the other coiled around Applejack's likeness like a giant snake, susurrating venemously as it spoke. "Why else would I have led her to you, but to help her to see things as I do?"

"Impossible! She came to help us!" Twilight reasoned.

"You?" the Other slithered towards the pair, incarcerating them within in a wide spiral."What do you honestly believe the odds are that she just wandered into your store on a whim? That she just happened to be there just in the nick of time to save the pegasus? Oh, but not soon enough to keep you from shattering her will to intervene. She was following a trail that I had left for her to follow! I can be quite subtle when I wish to be..."

The coil wound ever more tightly as the Other closed in. Its undulating movements set Pinkie off of her balance, though it was the violation that made her head spin.

For weeks, she had been forced to recollect every grusome detail of her actions. The barest modicum of solace she could take was in knowing that at least she had been stopped before she could take the life of anypony else. It may have been a cosmic coincidence, but at least it made Equestria a safer place!

Was all of it truly false hope? Yes, she realized, not willing to believe that she was just a vessel to bring this vile, evil, and incomprehensible thing straight to the friends she cared about the most. But the evidence was right there in front of her. She'd seen the shadow latch itself onto Applejack, and the other had made it fully clear that it wasn't going to let go this time...

Twilight was not so easily disoriented. Stamping a hoof angrily, she cast an expanding wall of energy around them which burst the swirling shadow into a fine mist that vanished into the air. "I've had enough of this! Tell us what you did to Applejack!"

"Why, my dear. I did not do a thing! She was the one who poisoned those apples and fed them to your unsuspecting town. She was the one who tortured her own family. The only thing I can admit was that I told her to do it."

"You're lying!" Pinkie shouted. "You made her do it!"

"You ponies are all too content to wallow in your own denial. It makes it too easy to feed..." The shadow reformed and shot up towards the ceiling, spreading its arms with a victorious flourish seemed to visibly dim all light from the room behind it. "But feed I did!" it roared, "And, at long last, my true purpose can begin!"

"And what purpose is that!?"

Once again, the Other blanketed itself over them, twisting the setting into something new. When the darkness finally gave way to light, it was from the eclipsed sun hanging once more in a blood-red sky.

This time the ruins of Ponyville were far beneath Twilight and Pinkie. They stood in the palm of the Other's open hand, its fingers curled upward like the legs of a waiting spider. The beast itself glared down at them from a great height, its eyes regarding them with the same deference reserved for insects, or small rocks.

"My purpose..." it grinned "...Is to weaken you, one by one, at your very core. You think you know fear? I will see that you are swimming in it, until you serve me. The Elements of Harmony are possessing of an ancient and powerful magic, fundamental to this land. I will make them beautiful, and with them consume Equestria and all the lands beyond." With many other hands, it gestured in all directions at once. "This planet will be my feeding ground, and all those on it will suffer to my satisfaction!"

"We won't let you!"

The Other laughed in her face. "It doesn't matter what you do, child. Any effort you put forth to stop me would only serve to make you desperate, and in your desperation you will lose everything you hold dear.

"But now, I must leave you. Your friends are so vulnerable - I wonder which I shall enjoy first."

"YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Pinkie roared.

The Other grimmaced. "No one makes demands of Malice."

Unceremoniously overturning his hand, the Other cast the two ponies away, many yards, to the ground below. Shrieking as her back hit, Pinkie was left stunned and unable to move. Somewhere past her tail she could see Rainbow Dash approaching her as Applejack closed in on a debilitated Twilight. The burning shimmer of hate was unmistakable in both of their eyes.

"Wake them up," Malice commanded. "Make it painful."

"Yes, master." Rainbow Dash agreed. Nodding, the towering shadow creature twisted into a dark whirlwind before vanishing into the sky above.

"R-Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie begged. She tried to edge away, but her paralyzed legs wouldn't let her. "Rainbow! It's- It's me! P-Pinkie? You remember me, right?"

"I remember when you tried to kill me." Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof harshly onto Pinkie's chest, knocking the wind out of her. Mounting her, Rainbow lowered her snarling face to Pinkie's and growled, "I'm gonna enjoy getting my payback."

Somewhere off to her right, she could see Applejack rearing up onto her hind legs. Twilight let out a terrified shriek cut short by an earthy crunch, and a fountain of squishy matter. Pinkie scrunched her eyes tightly as Applejack wound up for another blow. "Please, don't..." she whimpered.

"It's too late." Rainbow Dash replied pointedly.

Pinkie felt teeth close tightly around her jugular. Her eyes shot open as Rainbow Dash yanked hard, rending a mouthful of flesh from its rightful place, and casting a fountain of glistening red into the air. Pinkie tried to cry out, but the only sound she managed was a sickening gargle.

Instinctively, her hoof shot up to the jagged wound in the side of her neck, but she'd already begun feeling lightheaded. This isn't real, she thought urgently. Real or not, she was gripped by a numbness which spread from her extremities inward; searing pain gave way to an icy blanket of death.

Pinkie's gaze met Rainbow's, but while Pinkie writhed ever more slowly, Rainbow Dash stood tall and admired her handiwork. The last thing Pinkie saw was a proud smirk spreading across her long-time ally's blood-splattered face.

The Calm After The Storm

Pinkie shot from her trance with a violent start that jarred the knife buried in her leg. "AIEEE!" she yelped. Clasping at her neck satisfied Pinkie that it was still in one piece, though icy terror still gripped her from head to tail.

They were outside among the withering trees of Sweet Apple Acres. Dawn was breaking just over the horizon; the clouds above glowed dull red and yellow in the pressing daylight. Scanning the area, Pinkie saw that she and Twilight were alone; Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Malice were nowhere to be seen.

"H-How did we get here?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight looked just as disoriented as Pinkie. "I think the pocket dimension collapsed. The Oth... uh, I mean, Malice... He must have transported us here."

"Why not just let us die?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't think he's done with us yet..." Twilight shrugged uneasily, examining her surroundings more closely. "Look! there-" She pointing in the direction of the farmhouse. It had fallen into a heap of rubble that threatened to be swallowed by the surrounding bog. "Oh, I hope Applejack's family got out of there okay..."

Before Pinkie could respond, Twilight was answered by a rustling noise off at the edge of the clearing. "We're over here," whispered a frightened sounding filly. "Is it safe to come out yet?"

"Is that Apple Bloom?" Pinkie double checked the area. "Y-Yeah, I think it's clear."

"Okay," Apple Bloom whispered. "Come on, brother." A short, pink tail peeked out through the underbrush, followed by the pony rump it was attached to. Apple Bloom crawled backwards from the cover, escorting a very weak Big Macintosh. Twilight rushed to their aid, limping across the clearing with the stallion leaning uncertainly against her flank.

Sitting next to Pinkie, Apple Bloom continued. "After you guys, uh... After that thing, uh... After what happened, it din't look like y'all were comin' back! When the whole place started comin' down, my brother - I ain't seen 'im fight so hard in a long time - He pulled down the door to my cage an' we scadaddled on out of there. But big brother's too weak to walk very far, so we hid out here. We was gonna wait until sunup."

"E-Eyup," Big Macintosh agreed warily.

Twilight glanced around. "What about Granny Smith?"

Apple Bloom hung her head. "Granny di'nt make it..." she sighed.

"Nope." The stallion hung his head low, a tear falling from his gentle eye.

Pinkie gasped. She wanted to rush to Apple Bloom's side and cheer her up somehow, but with so much adrenaline still coursing through her veins, she wasn't entiely sure she remembered how to make herself laugh. It'd have only felt wrong anyway.

Twilight studied Pinkie's wound. "We must report what we've seen to the Princess, but this needs to be taken care of." She helped Pinkie sit upright as much as she could without injuring her further, then cast a glance to Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh. "You two should definitely get medical attention, too. Hang on to me." Apple Bloom helped steady her brother as much as she could while he placed a shaky hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

***

In the next instant, they were in the sterile waiting room of Canterlot Clinic. Surprised ponies gasped at the sight of four ponies dropping out of thin air, and more than a few had jumped for cover. Still more cried out at the terrible shape the new arrivals were in.

"Oh, by Celestia how awful!" one shrieked.

"Is that a-a-!?" some mare started to cry before fainting.

"Somepony get a nurse!" Twilight pleaded. "These three need help, now!"

Almost instantly, the waiting room was abuzz with frantic ponies scrambling to clear the path for hospital attendants. The swinging doors to the inner areas of the hospital burst open as two brown-drab unicorns with red-cross cutie marks trotted quickly towards Twilight's desperate crew. One of them cast a glowing cushion of magic around Apple Bloom's shivering body, transferring her gently onto the gurney they'd brought with them.

"No, no! Get big brother first!" Apple Bloom cried.

"It's okay!" announced one of the attendants. "There's another one right behind them."

True enough, no sooner had the gurney carrying Apple Bloom disappeared through the hospital doors had another emerged to take its place. Another pair of identical responders carried off Big Macintosh, before a third crew arrived to take Pinkie Pie. The unicorns worked together to carry her, so as not to disturb her injury.

Swiftly after that, she was being carted back through the swinging doors. Struggling to sit up enough to see past her hind legs, Pinkie waved weakly at Twilight, who returned the gesture with forlorn carriage.

Falling back onto the gurney, Pinkie was taken with how lightheaded she had become; even since waking up at the farm. Perhaps the adrenaline had worn off, or perhaps she had simply lost that much blood through the wound in her flank, but it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. "Please let me see my friends again," she muttered to the attendants as she allowed herself to pass out.

After that, Pinkie was seldom conscious to register what was happening. Most of the time, her eyes would flutter open for a moment and she would briefly glimpse some of the activity around her before slipping back into an uneasy syncope.

"We need plasma, stat!" called one of the nurses. "She's lost a lot of blood!"

A needle stuck into the cleft of her hoof, finding the vein that ran through it. Its prick stung like the bite of some large insect. She loosed a startled gasp, opening her eyes quickly only to be blinded by an oppressively bright lamp hanging overhead. She was at the center of a round room, surrounded by cloaked ponies wearing paper masks and mane-nets.

One of the nurses spotted her wandering gaze and met her with a reassuring "everything is going to be all right."

Another pony caught the nurse's attention with a gloved hoof, and spoke with an authority that marked him as the head doctor. "We have to get this out of her, and disinfect. Stand by with the gauze. Administer the local anesthetic."

There was another insect bite at her haunch, and soon after that the area went icy numb. She squinted down at where the doctors were carefully removing the blood-stained blade from her flank.

Even without the oppressive pain, the sight of it made Pinkie feel squeamish, and uneasy. A gush of smelly, red liquid flowed freely from the gash. "P-P-Please..." Pinkie muttered. The crew paid her no heed as he worked to stymie the flow with pads of gauze.

The stained rags piled up, and once more Pinkie lost consciousness.

***

"You did well, Ms. Sparkle," she had heard one of the doctors saying some time later. "If you had taken out that knife, she would have bled out more quickly and she might not have made it."

"I know," Twilight began. "I wish I could have acted faster but..."

"Yes?" asked the doctor inquisitively.

"I don't know..." She might have mentioned the demonic shadow monster who possessed her friends and trapped them inside their own heads, but Pinkie wasn't sure the doctor would have believed it. Pinkie could hardly believe it herself.

"Well, Ms. Sparkle," he encouraged. "I am certain that when Ms. Pie awakens, she will be very glad that you did what you did."

"I hope so!" Pinkie heard hoofsteps trailing away. "Wait!" Twilight called.

"Yes?"

"Can you move Pinkie to the wing with our friend, Fluttershy? They could use each other's company!"

"I will see what I can do," the doctor replied.

***

Pinkie wasn't sure when she had lost consciousness after that, but she eventually awoke in a lavishly decorated recovery room. The first thing that struck her was the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, but as Pinkie sat upright (trying her best to ignore the dull throbbing at her flanks) she could see that the rest of the room was adorned in such trappings that would have made Rarity proud.

Violet curtains striped with shimmering silver covered the large, open windows through which Pinkie could see the bustling Canterlot Square below. Several paintings along the walls depicted idylic landscapes; the sunlight glinting off their heavy brush strokes gave them away as originals. The bedding, soft to the touch, conformed seamlessly to the curvature of her body.

As an autumn breeze flowed into the room, it brought with it the smell of fall leaves and pumpkin. Canterlot must be preparing for Nightmare Night, Pinkie thought. She was unsure how to feel about that; Nightmare Night had long been her favorite holiday, but lately her nightmares had been all too real. Perhaps a bunch of monsters running around scaring each other wouldn't be as fun this year.

"Is this what Malice meant?" Pinkie refused to let herself fall victim to his machinations again, but this resolve crumbled along with the illusion that the choice to be strong would indeed be hers. How much had she changed since that fateful day she uncovered the details of her own secret life?

Her laughter was gone. Not just the Element she represented, but the very will to be optimistic; to laugh in the face of danger; to lift the spirits of every pony around her. It was as if the scars Malice had left on her spirit were still wide open and bleeding. The joy she once sought to spread, twisted into a distasteful mockery of all that was harmonious and good.

Was this the fate that was in store for her best friends? The rest of Equestria? "How can we stop him without the Elements of Harmony?" she asked herself. She had other questions, too, and still more branched off of those. The plethora of unknowable answers she sought only built upon the weighty pillar of doubt and uncertainty towering over her.

She was mercifully jogged from her grim thoughts by a muffled sigh from the next bed over. From beneath the opulent bedding peeked a small tuft of pale pink hair. As the huddled lump stirred, the covers slid away.

"Fluttershy?"

It was. The pegasus rolled over in her bed, eyelids parting slowly. "Y-Yes?" she yawned. "Do I kn-"

"-It's me, Fluttershy. Pinkie!"

Fluttershy rubbed the sleep from her eyes and squinted uncertainly. "Pinkie? B-But I thought you-"

"-It's a loooooong story!" Pinkie exclaimed, tabling the uneasiness she had felt just moments before. Being reunited with yet another friend was had already begun to raise her sunken spirits. "You wouldn't believe it even if I told you."

Fluttershy blinked. "I'm not sure I believe it now."

"What don't you believe!?"

"Are you real?"

Pinkie bit into her own foreleg and loosed a startled yip. "I think so. That hurt!" She pointed her tongue out at the bewildered pegasus, making her giggle.

"Well, I guess if you're here then you didn't really hurt Dashie? I'm glad. It felt so bad seeing her hurt like that, and I think we all wondered whether or not you could have really done what some ponies suspected you did."

Pinkie nodded. "I know. I wanted to tell everypony, but the princess had me here and-"

"-The princess?" Fluttershy gasped. "As in... Princess Celestia?"

"Yep! Luna, too."

"W-Why?" Fluttershy cocked her head curiously "What happened?"

Pinkie spent the next hour and a half explaining how the last several weeks had passed her by, and how she'd begun to remember things: The blackouts; the unexplained nightmares; the growing sense that she wasn't being true to herself; waking up in Canterlot; her house arrest; her daily discussions with Celestia; her night time bonding sessions with Luna; and, finally, her reunion with Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

Fluttershy listened faithfully, although some of the more distressing details of the story visibly frightened her as Pinkie recounted them. She smiled when Pinkie told her that she and Rainbow Dash had made amends.

"Wow," sighed Fluttershy after all had been said. "What happened after that?"

Pinkie didn't know how to tell Fluttershy about Applejack, and how Rainbow Dash had stormed off to rescue her. She certainly didn't know how to break the news of what happened at the farmhouse, even if she did fully understand it herself. Poor Fluttershy would take it so hard if she found out that Rainbow Dash had been brainwashed and disappeared into the night with It.

"Well, we, uh..." Pinkie shrugged. She didn't know how to lie about it either. What could she say? "We all went to a big celebration party without you. So sorry, but perhaps next time I come back from the dead you'll be invited?" Somehow, she didn't suspect that would go over very well.

Fortunately, Fluttershy seemed to get the idea. "You don't want to talk about it. I understand."

Pinkie nodded shyly, wishing to avoid the topic further. "What about you? Why are you here?"

Fluttershy looked up at the ceiling, fidgeting with her mane. "That's... Um... Well, didn't anypony tell you w-what-?"

"-A big scary, giant bear ripped up all of Ponyville!?"

"Well..." Fluttershy paused for several seconds. "Kind of. Yes."

"Nope!" She reflected on the various mentions of it, but realized that nopony had ever actually told her what happened. Where did it come from? How bad was the damage? How did Rainbow Dash manage to stop it? Fluttershy tried to answer her questions for her, but having been incapacitated for much of the incident left her with mostly second or third hoof information.

"There was this big flash... and a rainbow," Fluttershy mentioned. "It reminded me of Dashie's rainboom, but Princess Celestia said it was, um, some new magic that Dashie, uh, discovered... I guess?"

Pinkie mulled this over. Her first instinct was to doubt it, but she'd seen magic work in some truly surprising ways before. No other pegasus had managed a sonic rainboom until Rainbow Dash proved it was possible. Who was Pinkie to say that she hadn't earned her new destiny from this trial by fire that had been so unfairly thrust on her?

At least that thought gave Pinkie some hope for her own damaged spirits.

"Well, her thing is loyalty after all," Pinkie conceded. Or should I say 'was'? she wondered. No! Dashie's still out there somewhere, trapped inside her own head like I was. We have to help her!

Fluttershy continued to recount the events of the Ursa attack. In truth, however, Pinkie wasn't really listening. She continued to dwell on the whereabouts of her friends, wishing so desperately that she'd been able to wrest them away from Malice's shadowy clutches. But how could she have? He was everywhere, and nowhere at the same time; he knew their moves seemingly as they made them, if not before.

A trickle of blood wetted Pinkie's tongue when she realized that she'd been nervously chewing her lip. Fluttershy was proudly listing all of the injuries she'd sustained when the Ursa Major knocked her into the ground. "...two cracked ribs; punctured lung; dislocated wing; sprained- Um... Pinkie? Are you okay?"

"Oh! Yeah..." she forced a nervous laugh. Don't mention Rainbow Dash. Don't mention Applejack. Don't mention what happened at the farm. Don't-

"-So, um... You never said why you're here, Pinkie."

Crap! "Oh, uh... I just twisted my hip celebrating! Yeah... That's it."

Pinkie knew Fluttershy wasn't stupid, but it was an amusing enough lie that both ponies shared a lighthearted chuckle. "You don't have to tell me," Fluttershy offered. "I'm just happy all of my good friends are together again!"

Pinkie smiled in lieu of agreement. This time, Fluttershy bought into the lie.

***

The day came and went, with no visits from any pony except for the occasional checkup by the nursing staff. Pinkie realized that Twilight was probably briefing the princess on the events of the previous night, but where was Rarity?

At least Pinkie and Fluttershy had kept each other in pleasant company. When things got too boring, Pinkie tried to liven things up with a game of twenty questions, but Fluttershy kept guessing (or picking) animals as the answer, so that game got too easy.

As the sun descended for the evening, the nurse returned with dinner for two. The tray rested comfortably astride Pinkie's chest. On it was a veritable buffet of fruits and vegetables, a tuft of the most delicious-looking, golden hay Pinkie had ever seen, and a single red velvet cupcake with butterscotch frosting.

Pinkie had subsisted on a diet of pastries, cookies, cakes, and hard candy since she got her cutie mark, but she eyed the dessert item with suspicion and decided instead to start with the vegetables. The broccoli and asparagus made her gag on its way down, but she ate it anyway knowing she was probably dangerously malnourished, and needed some way of keeping up her energy. Besides, it was still better than anything she'd have gotten in Ponyville hospital.

The strawberries and hay more than made up for it. She scarfed them down in no time at all. "Nature's Candy," she explained to a horrified Fluttershy, before resuming her slaughter of a bunch of grapes. "Hey, Fluttershy. Do you want the cupcake?"

"W-What?" Fluttershy blinked. "I've never seen you turn down dessert before."

"Yeah. I know! I guess I just... Lost my taste for it, is all."

"Um... I guess, but it... it's just a cupcake, you know."

"I know that, but... Look, just take it. If you don't want it, I'm just gonna throw it out." She perched the offending confectionary on the end of her hoof and stretched her foreleg across the narrow gap separating their two beds.

Fluttershy submitted. "Oh... Alright, I guess," and she clamped down on the cupcake with her front teeth before drawing it away.

Pinkie eyed her empty plate, feeling a little hollow after not having taken her own dessert. This whole thing began with cupcakes, she reasoned. Malice took something good, and delicious, and fun, and turned it into something that I used to terrorize my friends and the ponies I care about. She didn't want to contemplate the damage his actions had wrought on her.

"Thank you, Pinkie." Fluttershy smiled with a frosting moustache across her muzzle. "That was delicious!"

Pinkie wanted to laugh, but her mind was otherwise preoccupied with the recounting of the unpleasant memories she collected while separated from her friends. She caught herself in her worry, and even managed to allow a smile, but something was missing.

It wasn't until nightfall that she realized what it was. She'd been thinking so long and hard about her experiences over the last several weeks, that she had forgotten to account for Rainbow's! Oh, how selfish I've been... she worried.

Fluttershy was already starting to drift to sleep, but Pinkie decided to ask her anyway: "How did Dashie do it? Get... Feel better, I mean."

Fluttershy rolled over to face her, though half buried under the covers as she was, her tired voice was all the more difficult to hear. "I did the best I could to help," Pinkie caught.

"Yeah, but... How?" Outwardly, Pinkie was merely curious. Inside, however, she wondered if knowing Rainbow's path to recovery would provide insight for how to start on her own.

Fluttershy straightened, now fully awake. "Well, I tried to give Dashie her space for a few days. I didn't want her to feel self conscious about not having her wings, and I felt like being there would have just reminded her of flying, and Cloudsdale. So I took care of her pet tortoise for her, instead."

"But you did see her eventually, right?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yes, but... I almost didn't."

Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"She almost..." Fluttershy whimpered. A tear shimmered in the moonlight against her big, teal eye. "She tried to come home too early. When I came back from getting some things, I found her at the edge of Cloudsdale..."

Pinkie gasped. "Then what!?"

"I startled her, and she fell... But I went after her. It was close, I mean... I almost... She almost didn't make it..." Her voice cracked, and soon she was sobbing lightly, where she couldn't quite find the words. Pinkie just watched, wishing to extend her hoof to help, but fearing that perhaps it would be inappropriate. After all, wasn't she at least partly to blame for everything that happened?

Finally, Fluttershy collected herself. With a heavy sigh, she straightened her sheets out and continued. "After that, we decided that it was for the best if she moved in... With me."

Pinkie felt relieved. If anypony would've been able to heal Rainbow Dash back to health, it was be Fluttershy. "Wha-What'd she say?" She already knew the answer, but she'd found herself gripped by the story her friend was telling.

"Oh, um... She said 'ok'..." Fluttershy paused. "But, she didn't go anywhere much after that. She wanted to help out around the house, and got along with the animals real well, but at night... She said she kept seeing... Oh."

"What!? What is it?"

"You..."

"Me!?"

"I asked her if, uh, maybe it was just bad dreams? But no. She said she was awake, and you were trying to hurt her."

Pinkie ground her teeth in anger. "It must have been Malice!"

"M-Mal-Who?" Fluttershy stammered.

Oh no! That's right. I didn't tell her! "Um... Do you remember those nightmares I told you about?" She paused for Fluttershy to reply with a tentative nod. "He... He's the one who did that... He's the one who did all of this!"

Fluttershy shivered despite the covers wrapping her. "H-How do you know that?"

"Because Twilight and I-" Oh, shoot... I said too much!

Fluttershy sank a little bit. "Y-You and Twilight... What?"

Oh, no. She's looking right at you. Quick! Make something up! Pinkie thought as a first instinct. She ruffled her own mane trying to find a suitable lie to cover it up. Don't lie, Pinkie... Fluttershy needs to know...

"We..." she continued uncertainly. "Twilight, Me... Rainbow Dash... We, uh... Ran into him... And Applejack."

Fluttershy blinked confusedly. "I'm... I'm so confused."

Pinkie cringed, knowing the hardest part was yet to come. "That's because... I might've fibbed... Just a little bit..." she sighed. "I have to tell you something, Fluttershy... I'm really sorry, but I don't think it'll be easy..."

What Came Before

Pinkie did not sleep well that night. How could she?

Fluttershy had not taken well to the news, and wept throughout the night. Even despite Pinkie's reassurances that they would bring her back, it was a vain effort to cheer her up. "Princess Celestia will know what to do, Fluttershy!" Pinkie urged. "She hasn't let us down yet, when we needed her."

But it was to no avail. Pinkie could understand why Fluttershy had taken this loss harder than she had. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had been inseparable as fillies, and Rainbow had stood her ground to defend her friend's honor on many occasions. They'd only grown closer since moving in together, and Pinkie wondered if perhaps Fluttershy needed Rainbow Dash around almost as much as the reverse.

"Where is she now?" Fluttershy pleaded.

Where is she now? Pinkie wondered. She'd only seen Rainbow Dash in her nightmare - if it could even be called that. What if it was all just some trick concocted by Malice, and she was still back there waiting on her friends? What if she was hurt?

But Pinkie had seen the look in Rainbow's eyes. There was evil, sure, but there was also conflict. Surely Malice couldn't fake that. As painful as it was, Rainbow Dash had to be in his clutches, somewhere. But she'll be fighting back, Pinkie realized hopefully. She'd have to be; the spirit of Loyalty would not allow her to simply turn on her friends like that!

Pinkie elected for the honest answer. "I wish I knew, really."

"Oh, Dashie..." she squeaked, before being caught in the grips of another spell of tears. Her sobs carried through the night for a time, before Fluttershy eventually did fall asleep. It was well past midnight when she curled tenderly around herself, facing Pinkie as her eyelids lazily drifted shut. The pale moonlight glinted dimly off of her drying tears.

I hope she doesn't blame me, Pinkie reflected about her friend, who had wailed so loudly an hour before. She was certain the entire ward would awaken, and the disgruntled nursing staff would come to calm her. But nopony came, and they were alone with each other, and their thoughts.

In the morning, she would seek an audience with the princess. She was feeling well enough anyway! Whatever magic the doctors had cast on her leg, it was already feeling much better.

She peeled back the dressing on her wound to sneak a peek, then reeled at the grusome sight of the stitches holding together her torn flank. Oh well, she thought hopefully. At least it feels better than it looks.

Feeling bold, she decided to roll over onto her good side. She'd been laying on her back ever since she woke up in the hospital, and was starting to feel sore. That certainly didn't help salve her restlessness.

She glanced over her should at where Fluttershy rested, her chest rising and falling in time with the barely audible whimpers carried on each and every breath. "You deserved better," Pinkie whispered, mournfully. "I promise, I'll make it up to you."

***

The sun rose over Canterlot a few hours later. Pinkie awoke to the sound of bustling in the streets outside of the still-open window, but her fatigue betrayed just how little sleep she'd gotten that night. Pinkie rolled over onto her other side, cringing as she applied weight to the scar on her haunch. Fluttershy was awake, but motionless, gazing forlornly onto the ground at the foot of Pinkie's bed.

"Aren't you tired?" Pinkie asked.

Fluttershy remained silent.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

Nothing.

"Fluttershy!" Her eyes darted to meet Pinkie's, but she remained still. It was a start. "We'll get her back. Okay?"

Fluttershy nodded imperceptibly. "Applejack, too?"

"Applejack, too," Pinkie agreed.

Fluttershy swallowed. "I... I still can't believe Applejack did those things."

Pinkie shot up in her bed. "It wasn't Applejack! She's under the same spell I was under... or something. She's not doing this!"

"Pinkie is quite right," affirmed an elegant voice from somewhere outside in the hallway. Multicolored hair poked through the open door, followed by the pristine white mare it was attached to.

Princess Celestia came accompanied by Twilight, standing just as regally at her mentor's side. "Hi, girls," she greeted awkwardly. "I'm sorry it's been so long since I could come visit you, Fluttershy. Are you feeling better?"

"Y-Yes. Quite a bit, actually. I'm just waiting for them to, um, let me out, I guess," Fluttershy replied humbly.

Pinkie, on the other hand, suddenly felt much more energetic. Bounding out of her bed, she ignored the throbbing in her flank and gave Twilight a great big hug. "I'm feeling much better too, Twilight. Thanks for asking!"

Twilight gave Pinkie an uncomfortable smile, "I was just about to ask-"

"-Princess! Princess!" Pinkie cried, giving her an equally generous hug. "I thought I was never gonna see you again. Wh-Why'd you come out here just to visit?"

The princess smiled as Pinkie let go. "My faithful student here told me of your condition, so I thought I'd drop in! I did not wish to disturb you yesterday, for you surely needed your rest."

Fluttershy slumped in her bed, and Twilight took notice. "Fluttershy? What's wrong?"

Pinkie took it upon herself to answer, suddenly feeling skittish in Celestia's regal presence. "That, uh... Well, I, um, might've told her about what happened to Applejack, and Dashie." She traced her hoof in circles on the ground beneath her, hoping that her friends wouldn't be angry at her for upsetting Fluttershy.

Princess Celestia nodded knowingly. "I could feel the tension from out in the hallway. Twilight has briefed me on your encounter at the farm. From the bottom of my heart, please accept my sincerest apologies. Had I known what I was sending you into, I would not have done so."

Twilight looked up to her mentor. "You didn't send us, Princess. I... I was the one who made the decision to follow Rainbow Dash out there."

"I must confess, I would have stopped you had I known. Malice is an evil spirit far older than I, but he is wily, and he is smart."

Pinkie's leg throbbed again as the princess mentioned that vile creature's name. Climbing back into bed helped, but something made her feel uneasy. "So... You knew him?"

"I'm afraid our paths have crossed in the past, but I could not know with certainty that it was him. In truth, I did not know he had returned - Not after all of these millenia."

"Millenia!?" the ponies chorused.

The princess bowed her head somberly. "Indeed, my little ponies. Some forget that I am very old. I've lived through long periods of peace and prosperity, but also war and violence. Over two thousand years ago, what happened to Applejack... It was not so uncommon.

Twilight scrunched her face, apparently working out some math in her head. "Princess. Two thousand years ago... There wasn't an Equestria back then, was there?"

"Very astute, Twilight; you have learned your history well. But you are correct. I was not always a princess, you see. Back in our younger days, my sister and I were adventurers, not unlike you. Perhaps we, too, were even a little reckess.

"We first encountered Malice a thousand years before Equestria was founded. We had learned of the uneasy peace that existed between earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus, which only masked the turmoil raging underneath. As alicorns, it was our responsibility to foster peace in this world. However, that peace was under attack by something we had never encountered before.

"In our travelings, my sister and I perchanced upon a town, where we discovered that one pony had taken the life of another. This was unprecented in those days, for peace was so widespread that the word 'murder' did not even exist in our lexicon.

"The council kept by Starswirl the Bearded convened for 15 days, and 15 nights before it was decided that the perpetrator be put to death. My sister and I urged against it, pleading the council to let us investigate further. If only we'd known what was behind it...

"Another body turned up three days after the public execution, and then another swiftly after that. The council declared more executions, and soon the entire town was placed under its authority. Overnight, shops were closed, curfews enforced, and only the barest of necessities allowed in or out of the town for trade.

"Before our eyes, we saw the town torn asunder by fear and doubt. Nopony trusted their neighbors, and soon the entire town had fallen into disrepair. Within a decade, every pony had either fled the town, or wasted away under the opressive fog of uncertainty that fell over it.

"Our investigation never turned up any leads."

Pinkie hugged the bunched up covers in front of her, as though to seek comfort in their warmth. "Is that... Is that what is going to happen? To Ponyville?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, Pinkie. It won't, because we're not going to let that happen!"

Fluttershy peeked out from behind the pillow she was hiding behind. "Um, Princess? Is there more?"

Celestia nodded. "Over the next century, we saw the same pattern occuring in towns all across the land. The council had begun to take our warnings seriously, even allowing us full access to the towns where violence and hate were spreading.

"However, we were unable to pinpoint the source. That was, until my sister began to have nightmares that matched descriptions we were hearing from the townsponies. Whatever force had grabbed a hold of them was also trying to take us. Ultimately, our magic was able to keep us safe against it for a time, but we discovered that it belonged to a tangible being. A spirit, who called itself Malice.

"We fought Malice over each and every town he tried to take, but he had grown too powerful in the time before we were able to react. You see, Malice has many hands, and can reach across all continents. Nopony was spared from the outbursts of violence and hatred that he would cause. Our magic was only just powerful enough to protect one town for a little while, and then he would attack another.

"This stalemate went on for almost five hundred years after that. Eventually, he had grown so powerful that my sister and I had to go into hiding. At that time, the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi of the land had grown used to the fear and distrust. This displeased Malice greatly, so he released the windigos - his pets - from the deepest bowels of Tartarus to feed off the excess negative energy, and fuel the unending cold which eventually fell across the land.

"The more ponies that suffered, the stronger his hold over the land grew. The songs we sing recall a quick resolution, but in reality it lasted another three hundred years. The Great Winter would have destroyed the pony race were it not for the will of Malice keeping it alive, that he might feed off of its despair."

Twilight raised her hoof to get Celestia's attention. "But, the Fire of Friendship-"

"-was a great victory for harmony in the world, ending the Great Winter and bringing hope to the downtrodden subjects under Malice's rule. But it did not stop him. However, the fact of its existence was an insult to him, which he took personally. In seeking to extinguish it, he made himself vulnerable.

"Sensing that the time was right, my sister and I confronted Malice at the gates of Tartarus itself. I had acquired a relic - a powerful amulet - in my travels, which greatly boosted my magical prowess. With it, I banished Malice deep into Tartarus where I hoped he would never see the light of day again."

"So," Twilight asked. "If we can find this amulet, we can use it to-"

"-I'm afraid not. You see, I would come to find that the amulet which served me so well in defeating him also weighed heavily on my soul. I soon found myself overcome with arrogance, greed, and lust for power. To spare me, my sister took the amulet from me and cast it away to where I would never find it.

"To this day, I know not where it is, or even if it still exists. Even if I did, I would have no desire to use it again."

A lengthy silence fell over the recovery room. Pinkie scanned her friends' faces to confirm that they were just as lost for words as she was. If Princess Celestia couldn't stop him, what hope do we have?

Twilight was the first to speak after several minutes. "Wha-What can we do, princess?"

This time, the princess merely shook her head. "I do not know for certain. We must continue our research. Perhaps discovering how he returned will yield a clue as to how we can defeat him."

"Um, Princess? What about the Elements of Harmony?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm afraid they would not be of use to us. Three of the elements are lost to us, and the rate of corruption is accelerating as Malice grows in power. I'm afraid the fourth will only fall faster if he is allowed to reach any of you."

The princess straightened with a steely resolve to make her next point as clear as possible. "That is why, from this point onward, you are each to be accompanied by one of my own personal guard when you venture outside the safety of Canterlot."

"A guard?" Pinkie gasped. "But, Princess... Is that really necessary? I don't think we're going anywhere soon." She shrugged her head in Fluttershy's direction. "And, I don't know if they'll let me go back to Ponyville, after everything."

Twilight answered before the princess. "I spoke to Doctor Steadyhooves. He said that both of you will be okay to go tomorrow. We'll discuss how to proceed then." She looked up to her mentor for a sign of agreement. "Princess?"

The princess responded with a nod, and a reassuring glance, before continuing. "If I could, I would not allow you to leave the safety of Canterlot again, but with so many things happening in Equestria, I may have need of you yet.

"The whereabouts of Applejack and Rainbow Dash are still unknown, and every second they are gone raises the chance that one of my subjects will fall victim to Malice by their hands. Every life they take will increase his hold on them, and make it easier for him to spread his will. We must bring them back to us as quickly as possible."

"Princess?" Pinkie asked. "What about Rarity? Where is she?"

The princess smiled. "Rarity went back to Ponyville yesterday to help rebuild. I have already discussed these measures with her, and she is safe in Day Break's company."

Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief, and she saw that she wasn't alone. "What do we do now, princess?"

"It is as my student says. Come tomorrow, find me in the Palace Sun Room. We will not be caught off guard again." With that, Princess Celestia bowed her head and retreated through the open door.

Twilight waved her goodbye to the princess, electing to stay with her friends. After making sure they were alone, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us, girls."

"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. "I think I'm good enough to fly, if that's what you need. But I don't know how to um... you know... fight?"

Pinkie clambered out of bed, testing the balance of her weight to see what hurt and what didn't. Carefully, she limped over to Fluttershy's bed and placed a hoof over hers. "It's okay, Fluttershy. I'unno anything about it either, but as long as we have each other I think we'll figure something out!"

Fluttershy smiled, spreading her wings as she kicked her hind legs over the side of the bed. "You're so right, Pinkie. I'll just have to be strong... for our friends who aren't here now."

Twilight closed in to complete the triangle. "I've been looking over some books, girls. The time the princess talked about wasn't very well documented, but there are some books in the really, really old book sections. Whenever I can, I will look through them to see if there are any clues as to how Malice came back from Tartarus. There's got to be a way to send him back there."

"And then we can all be happy again!" Pinkie cheered.

***

That evening, Fluttershy tested herself by flying up to the ceiling and hovering there for a few minutes. "Ow... My left wing still hurts a little bit. I hope it'll be okay."

Pinkie lay sprawled out over the top of her recently made bed. As she kicked her hind legs out repeatedly to try to alleviate the stiffness she was feeling, she watched admiringly at the pegasus as she batted her wings gracefully in the still air of their recovery room. "You're doing so swell, Fluttershy! Just don't let-" Oh gosh!

"-Woah, woah!" As soon as Pinkie had commented, Fluttershy had lost her balance and crashed face first into the stack of pillows on her bed. "Ow," groaned her muffled voice.

Pinkie hopped to and bounded over to her friend. "Fluttershy, wow! I didn't know you were an acrobat." She beamed with an intentionally stupid smile that made Fluttershy giggle as she straightened herself out.

"Well, I figure... Rainbow Dash isn't flying, and we aren't close enough to any other pegasi to ask them to help. I guess I should probably learn to fly better, since you might be needing me tomorrow."

Pinkie nodded. "I don't really know what we're gonna see tomorrow. I just hope that we aren't sitting around while Twilight and Princess Celestia do all the work. I wanna help, too!" Pinkie turned to head back to the bed, but a hoof placed on her shoulder told her not to go.

"Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked. "When you... When it..." Fluttershy squeaked as she tried to find the right words. "When Malice was... using you? Um. Were you able to fight it?"

Pinkie stared at the ground. She didn't want to think about those times, but she realized that she might very well have to given everything that was happening. She closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift back to the first instance she remembered not remembering.

What did it feel like? That time was a series of images, burned into her brain after it was all said and done. "I honestly don't remember feeling or thinking much. I guess I was not really noticing it." She paused to reflect. "The scariest part was the nightmares, when I could see everything I did. I could even feel it... But, they were nightmares. At least, I thought they were."

"So... While you were-"

Pinkie shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I was seeing it as it happened, but felt so helpless to do anything about it that I just thought I was dreaming. It was like I thought I was someplace else, when I wasn't..."

Fluttershy cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

Pinkie skewed her face in concentration once more, trying to remember. "It's like I didn't feel like I was really me. Isn't that weird? But the nightmares felt real enough, and so was how I felt about them... I laughed them off at first, but when I realized what they meant... I just couldn't anymore."

"Could you, um... Stop it?"

Pinkie thought about it, but there was really no question. The only debate she had with herself was whether or not to lie about it, but she'd travelled that road before. She shook her head glumly. "But," she added, "I didn't know about it at the time. Neither did Applejack, but maybe Dashie is aware of it. Maybe she's fighting it!"

Fluttershy nodded hopefully. "I've been in this room for too long. I am ready to go find out for myself what's going on."

"Me too!" Pinkie agreed, climbing back under her covers for the night.

Reveille

As promised, they were cleared the next day. Fluttershy had wanted to go straight to the palace, but Pinkie suggested that they spend the afternoon wandering the Canterlot square. "Comeon, Fluttershy! When do we get to see Canterlot!?"

Of course, their first stop had to be the sweets shop. Pinkie hadn't lost her taste for sugary treats entirely, though she did avoid the cupcakes with fervor. Fluttershy waited patiently in the corner as Pinkie picked out a dozen or so different candies, popping them into her mouth as they were handed to her.

The disparate flavors: Bubble gum, cotton candy, peppermint, strawberry, vanilla, and so on, melded together into what most ponies probably would have found to be a discordant stew of sugary juices, but to Pinkie it was mana from the heavens! She'd even begun to feel like her old self again when she'd recalled that this was her first time in nearly two moons when she was outside of the palace without fearing for her life.

"Yippee!" she cheered, when she'd finally swallowed it all. "Whatcha wanna do next? Whatcha wanna do next!?"

"Um, I really think we should head over to the-"

"-Look! Pumpkins! I forgot those were in season!" Pinkie got behind Fluttershy and pushed her towards a patch of plump, orange oblates that decorated the edge of the square in neat rows.

"Nightmare Night is coming." Pinkie cheered, for once not caring about the unpleasantries of the last few weeks. "Whatcha gonna go as? Oooh! I know. How about a bat? Flutterbat! Flutterbat! Oh that'd be so fun!"

"Um, I don't really know about-"

"-How much for this one here!?" Pinkie called out to the seller as she balanced perilously on top of a gourd as big as she was. "I wanna carve a big ol' smiley face into it!" She pressed her cheeks together and smiled widely, her candy-speckled teeth glinting in the sunlight.

For all of the genuine horror on the pumpkin seller's face, he managed to keep his composure remarkably well, as was befitting of a denizen of Canterlot. "Uhm... Miss, that will be 35 bits."

"35 BITS!?" Pinkie cried. "What is this? Highway robbery!? Come on, Fluttershy, we are leaving!"

Fluttershy had only just sat down on a nearby patch of grass when Pinkie snatched her up and all but carried her out of the square. As they rushed away, Fluttershy caught up with Pinkie and asked meekly. "So, um... Are we going to-EEP!"

Pinkie yanked Fluttershy off of the path and into a store with a large sign advertising for "Gala Gowns, Scents, & More!" "Oooh! I wanna know what the 'more' part is, don't you? Don't you!?"

"Um, I guess so?"

Fluttershy stood uncomfortably in the main lobby of the store while Pinkie swept up the brightest, loudest, most frilly dress she could find and tossed it on in front of the staff and everypony. She pranced over to the far wall which was adorned from floor to ceiling with colorful gala masks.

"This one's perfect for you!" She slapped a mask over Fluttershy's face which was adorned in bejeweled butterflies and a tuft of lillies sticking from the top. "Do they have wigs here?" Before any of the staff could respond, she caught the site of a giant barrister's headdress, poofy and white.

Gasping, she plucked it from its spot on the wall and pulled it down over her ears. "How do I look?" She asked, bouncing in place.

"Miss? When are you intending to pay for all of this?" Inquired the sales clerk in a stern tone.

"Me? Oh! Uh... How much is it?"

"That dress will be one thousand bits."

Pinkie was out of the dress in a heartbeat, bolting to place it back in its rightful spot on the wall. "All yours, Mr. Grumpy-Pants, sir! Come on, Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy took off her mask. "Okay, I'll just put this right-"

"-There's good!" Pinkie tossed the mask back onto the hook she'd found it and, sweeping up Fluttershy, was out of the store in a flash of pink and yellow.

They pressed out onto the main road, now decently crowded with smartly dressed mares and stallions going on about their day. "Okay, we can go meet the princess now," Pinkie conceded. "I forgot how boring Canterlot is! The princess has more fun than these ponies."

"Oh, um. Okay..." agreed Fluttershy.

***

The one thing Pinkie had always liked about Canterlot was just how nearby everything was. Unlike the sprawling Ponyville, Canterlot was built in tiers around the central ediface that was the royal palace. Great, spiralling stairways connected all of the teirs, and each one had its own squares, neighborhoods, and cultural flavour.

The tiers closest to the palace gates were regal enough on their own. The royal family tree had many roots, and the palace could not accomodate them all. Many took up their homes just outside of its walls and mingled with the rich and famous who also took up residence in Canterlot.

The result was a thick upper crust that existed simultaneously together with, and apart from, the rest of the city. It was not uncommon to find townsponies from the lower tiers sharing meals with the distant third, fourth, or fifth cousins of Starswirl the Bearded's great-great-grand nephew, or some other vaguely regal relation.

And so, despite the air of sophistication and grace that surrounded these environs, there was also a very comforting welcomeness that made new arrivals and passersby feel right at home. Even Fluttershy was glancing at the surroundings without her usual fretful expression.

"I don't think I've seen this side of Canterlot before. It's... really big," she remarked.

Pinkie silently nodded in agreement. High society was almost as stuffy and boring as her life on the rock farm used to be, but she couldn't deny basking in the milieu. High-rise townhomes lined the wide-open roads of the stratum; open storefronts brimmed with glistening, expensive-looking jewelry; and the ever present aroma of gourmet cuisine being prepared in the occasional nearby cafe made her mouth water.

They approached the palace gates, looming overhead. Every time Pinkie had seen the gates, they were left open as a symbol of the mutual trust between Celestia's court and the people of Canterlot, but on this day they were closed and barred tight. Pinkie decided it was a sign that Princess Celestia was taking the threat of Malice most seriously.

Two guards flanked the gate to either side. Even with their bulky frames and heavy armor, they were dwarfed by the gate itself. As they approached, the guards snapped to.

"Who goes there?" demanded the rightward guard.

Fluttershy muttered meekly in response. "We're, um... Here to see-"

"Princess Celestia wanted to see us! Our friend Twilight's with her." Pinkie answered with more confidence.

"You know Twilight Sparkle? Then the captain will be able to vouch for you. He will meet you at the gate." The guard nodded to a pony waiting at the top of the palace wall, who swiftly vanished behind the crenellations in the battlement.

Several minutes later, a pristine white unicorn with a sapphire blue mane approached. His armor was gilded and lined with royal violet. His chestpiece was emblazoned with the six-pointed starburst that Pinkie instantly recognized from Twilight's cutie mark.

"Good afternoon, ladies. I am Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Canterlot Guard." The large stallion spoke in a far gentler manner than his stature would have led Pinkie to believe he was capable of. Smiling warmly as he recognized them, he continued. "Oh, you must be Fluttershy... And Pinkie Pie? My sister's spoken so much about you!"

"S-sister?" Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie jumped giddily. "You're Twilight's brother? I didn't know her brother was a big shot guard captain!"

Shining Armor bowed his head humbly. "Yeah, I think she gets too caught up in her own research to talk about her dear old big brother much." He nodded to the guard. "Let them in."

"Open the gate for two!" called the guard to the gatehouse at the top of the wall. Shortly after that, the great, barred arms of the gate swung open, groaning as they shifted on their hinges. They stopped after parting just enough to allow Pinkie and Fluttershy to pass through abreast.

The gate closed with a thud behind them, as they followed Shining Armor up the great ivory pathway to the palace atrium. Gardens brimming with exotic plants lined either side of the walk at first, but the greenery fell away as they ascended higher and higher. The twisting path wound its way around the outer edge of the ediface, before the white stone walls gave way to tall pillars of solid granite.

Their hoofsteps echoed loudly under the domed roof of the atrium. A few guardsponies making their rounds passed from one hallway to another, but save for that the chamber was barren.

"It's... Really empty." Fluttershy observed.

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but yes," Shining Armor admitted. "At the request of Princess Celestia, the palace has been closed to the public. Only a handful besides the royal guard are allowed in or out."

"Including us?" Pinkie asked.

"Well, if you weren't allowed, you wouldn't be here. Twily's friends or not, my job is to protect the palace, which I've been doing to the best of my ability. I don't suppose you noticed the shield around Canterlot?"

Pinkie looked around, then she and Fluttershy shook their heads in unison.

Shining Armor laughed. "Well, I should hope not! It's a little spell Twily has been helping me with. It's an invisible shield that keeps out negative energy..." he paused before continuing. "I do hope you know what it's for."

Pinkie lowered her head. "I'm afraid so..."

"Well, that's why Princess Celestia wanted you here, I'd imagine. Come, let's go get Twily."

"Wh-where is she?" Fluttershy asked.

Shining Armor laughed. "Oh, I think you know where!"

***

"Welcome to the Palace Archives!" Shining Armor announced as they crossed the threshold of a large and very, very old door into a veritable alleyway of bookshelves lined with dusty, old tomes. The vaulted ceiling ringed with open floors towered so high overhead that it was hidden in shadow despite the ample lighting provided by hundreds of brightly-burning oil lamps.

Pinkie eyed the shadow suspiciously; she'd grown to mistrust shadows since what she'd seen at the farm. Hopefully the shield spell Shining Armor was casting would work to keep Malice away. She pushed the thoughts from her mind in time to realize that she was falling behind. She quickened her pace, limping as she tried to catch up with her friends.

"These are some of the oldest books in Equestria," Shining Armor was explaining. "Some even predate Equestria itself. These are one-of-a-kind volumes you wouldn't be able to find anywhere else!" His voice echoed from the as he doted on the historical significance of the place. "They say Starswirl the Bearded rarely left this place, and that he pored over the books day in and day out, trying to solve all of life's greatest mysteries."

He laughed at himself. "The funny thing is, I've never been overly fond of reading and studying myself, but I can't help but feel impressed when I walk through here. I guess Twily is rubbing off on me."

They approached the confluence of several alleys similar to the one they'd been walking along. Pinkie squinted to try to see how long each of them were, but was lost in the enormity of the chamber. She wondered how much history was stored in this room - at least a thousands of years' worth. Her curiosity gave way to hope that there was enough information stored there to help them fight Malice.

Her attention was brought back fully to the matter before her when Shining Armor stopped at one of the plain mahogany tables that ringed the junction. Stacks of books towered high over the ponies. Still others were laid to the side, open to one chapter or another and speckled with bookmarks. At the foot of the table was a pile of wrinkled old blankets, beneath which rested a snoring lavender unicorn.

Prodding the sheets with his hoof, Shining Armor smiled down. "Burning the midnight oil again. Huh, Twily?" He looked over his should at where Pinkie and Fluttershy stood side by side. "She practically lives here, nowadays!"

Twilight stirred wearily. "Oh... What time is it?"

"It's the afternoon, little sis. When did you fall asleep?"

Twilight climbed to her hooves, wobbling as she attempted to stand before stepping off from the sitting cushion she was using as a makeshift bed. "I don't remember." Her attention turned to Pinkie and Fluttershy. "I'm glad you made it here so quickly. Sorry I wasn't awake to meet you at the gate. I've been a little, uh... busy."

"Did you find out anything?" Pinkie asked curiously.

Twilight shook her head. "Just that most ponies believe that the period Princess Celestia spoke of was caused by some 'blight.' They thought it was an illness being spread around from town to town. I've only found one mention of anything even remotely similar to what we saw at the farm, and it was in a book written hundreds of years after the founding of Equestria, when the princess said she had already banished Malice to Tartarus.

"He called it 'the Walking Shadow'."

Pinkie scratched her head with the edge of her hoof. "I guess he found a way out of Tartarus after all. But how?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, Pinkie. If the author is to be believed, he was spotted just miles from the gates themselves. It is possible he managed to find a way around Cerberus, but that doesn't seem likely. From what I've read, Cerberus is merciless when it comes to keeping the imprisoned inside."

Shining Armor shrugged. "We can bring all of this to the princess. She'll be waiting in the Sun Room."

Twilight nodded before patting down her mane and setting off with her friends. "So, brother," she inquired, "how is Princess 'Mi Amore Cadenza'? That is what she calls herself now, right?"

"Mi Amore Who?" Pinkie asked.

"Oh, right. You don't know!" Twilight squealed. "Cadence was my foalsitter when I was just a little filly. She was my best friend before I really had any friends. My brother was talking about-"

"-I'm marrying her!" Shining Armor declared proudly. "Though, not as soon as I'd like... The wedding was actually scheduled for next month, and we were going to invite you all, but with everything that's been going on we decided it was for the best if we limited access to the palace as much as possible.

"Princess Cadence is, thankfully, far enough away from here that I don't need to worry. And she can take care of herself, at any rate. When all of this blows over, I'm certain she'll be glad to see you again, Twily."

***

They exited the archives, which were a mere hall's length away from the Royal Chambers, and a few twists and turns away from the Sun Room. A large gilded door, crested with the sun's likeness, awaited them.

Shining Armor opened the magnificent portal with his magic, but the heavy groans it made as it swung outward hinted at its great weight. The hallway was bathed in light, along with the echoes of a distant conversation.

"For the last time, big sister. I cannot advise this! We need our strength individually in this time of need. Your wishes to protect the kingdom are admirable, but it will serve us no use if we ourselves are unable to combat Malice!"

"Now, now, dear Luna. You must see that this is greater than both of us! If either one of us should fall, then Equestria will at least be bolstered against the tide of hate that will come. Should that happen, somepony else will need to lift the mantle against him. It is selfish of us to put ourselves before the ponies we seek to protect."

Each of the royal sisters' voices carried easily through the domed chamber of the sun room, coming from somewhere behind the tall obelisk that caught the sun's light from the refractive dome above. A sun-shaped crystal at its peak bathed the room in the brightest light of day, making it difficult to see anything on the other side of the room.

"You are wise," Luna argued, "but even you must see that this is a war of attrition. We must continue to touch each and every life that we can, and we won't be able to do that if the eclipse is consuming all of our strength and concentration. Please understand that!"

"I do understand, but I see no other choice. We tried it your way last time; it failed for us then, and it will fail for us now. However, I cannot do this without your support. Please help me protect our kingdom, no matter what the cost."

Luna sighed. "But of course, my sister. I trust you, but let that not mean that I agree with you. Come the morrow, if we are unable to agree upon a safer course of action, I will lend you my horn... But enough of that now. We have company."

The princesses emerged from either side of the obelisk. Celestia stopped to bow her head gracefully before Shining Armor and the ponies he'd brought, while Luna stormed past them haughtily, slamming the doors behind her as she left.

"Please forgive my sister her rudeness. She is understandably upset by what I have recommended."

"An eclipse, Princess?" Twilight asked, puzzled. "I don't understand."

The discussion of an eclipse over Equestria made Pinkie feel uneasy, although she couldn't quite place why.

"It is a simple matter, Twilight," the princess explained. "Just as the Elements of Harmony are extensions of yourselves, so too are the sun and moon extensions of us. Sleepless ponies and creatures of the night alike often behave recklessly, seeking exhilaration in all places. When my sister is feeling calmer, the kingdom sleeps well in response to her energy."

Pinkie had heard about eclipses, but never seen one herself. She wondered what that would even look like. The sun, and the moon, hanging in the sky together. Creepy.

"Likewise, the daytime brings wisdom, life, and reason - traits I seek to cultivate in myself, and my subjects. I will confess there are days when I am not as willing to carry out my duties, and on those days the kingdom finds itself getting into mischief of all sorts."

Pinkie closed her eyes, imagining the corona's weird glow; rays of light, flailing out from behind a perfectly black disk...

"During an eclipse, our best natures combine and we are able to cast our strengths across the land in harmony. We do so periodically, to renew the spirit of harmony and kinship in Equestria."

...Casting the sky in a blood-red hue.

"However, these times being what they are, that might not be enough on its own. For this to work, my sister and I must direct much of our magic and energy into speeding the conjunction, and amplifying its effects. A darkness this oppressive requires no less a sacrifice on our parts than that, though my sister fears it would cause more harm than it would be of benefit to us."

A darkness. Pinkie's eyes shot open. She had seen an eclipse before.

"For what it is worth, I believe we are prepared. One could say we've been preparing for this since we took the crown. Either way, I do not see a choice; we simply must spread unity wherever it is available to us."

"Twilight," she whispered, tapping her friend upon the shoulder, but she must not have noticed because she didn't respond.

"It might not be much, but it could be just enough of a push in the right direction that we can steer the tide in our favor."

"Twilight," Pinkie hissed, prodding her even harder.

"What is it, Pinkie?" All eyes were suddenly on her.

"The vision..." she warned.

"Wh-what vision is she talking about?" Fluttershy asked.

"The wha-?" Twilight's eyes widened with recognition. "The vision! You're right, Pinkie... Princess, I forgot to tell you in my report! When Malice took us to... wherever it was he took us, we saw what you're describing. An eclipse, hanging in the sky, over Ponyville... Only Ponyville was ruined! Your sister might be right, only it could be that the eclipse is part of what causes the problem, not fixes it."

The princess hung her head. "If we do not act, then surely there will not be enough will left in the hearts of Equestria's citizens to fight back against the haze of fear and doubt that will surely hang over all of us. The Elements of Harmony may not serve us for much longer, which is disheartening, for they were truly our best weapon against Malice.

"But enough of that, for we have more pressing matters to attend to. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are still in the hands of the enemy, and I have not heard from Rarity since yesterday. Her element remains untarnished, so I believe she is safe. However, I would still send you to them, but not unprepared.

"Twilight. There is a spell I would like to teach you, directly."

Twilight gasped. "Directly, princess? But you haven't- Not since-"

"-I know, my student. I had to meditate on it these last few nights, but I think I know enough to teach it to you. With it, you might be able to stun Malice's hold on your friends for long enough that they may push him out, with the right motivation."

"How is that possible, Princess?" Twilight pleaded.

"This is a spell of my own design, which I'd intended to use on my own sister in case she was turned by Malice. However, her own will was strong enough to prevail, and so I kept the spell with me of these years.

"You see, Malice is strong, but slow to adapt when caught off guard. We must use this to our advantage; he will not see it coming. If we can take this opportunity to wrest either Rainbow Dash or Applejack from him, I believe Malice's hold on their Element will weaken.

"Perhaps then, we will be able to reverse the corruption that has taken their Elements. The more of them that we return to the light, the safer Equestria will be."

"Oh, uh... Okay!" Twilight stammered. "When do we start?"

Celestia's eyes narrowed. "We start now."

A Fault in the Aether

Pinkie's eyes flitted open amidst the light that bathed the entirety of whatever strange room she was in. Recoiling at the brightness, she was able to assess that wherever she was, it was big, round, and bright. She was slumped against its wall, hind legs splayed out before her like the limbs of some marionette with severed strings.

A pale yellow pegasus flew in her direction, crying "Pinkie! Pinkie!" She touched down just inches away and, with a concerned expression plastered onto her face, inquired, "are you all right? You hit your head pretty badly."

"Do I know you?" Pinkie asked.

The pegasus blinked. "I- Um... What?"

A second pony - a light purple unicorn - appeared swiftly at her side. "Fluttershy, she doesn't remember. This happened last time! But for what it's worth, I think it worked a little better this time. Look at her cutie mark!"

Pinkie wearily gazed down at her haunches, instantly jolted from her daze by what she saw - or rather, what she didn't see. "Where's my cutie mark!?" she screamed.

"Do not fret, Pinkie Pie. It will return shortly." Pinkie's glance shot to a very tall, slim, but graceful figure approaching from the other side of the room. Her brilliantly colored mane waving, even in the still air. She was both a unicorn and a pegasus; the likes of which Pinkie had never seen before. But how, then, did this graceful figure know her?

Pinkie shrugged. "Who are all of you?"

"Let me use the memory spell, again," sighed the unicorn.

The tall one held up a hoof to stop her. "I don't believe that will be necessary, Twilight. Remember what happened the last time?" Suddenly, her horn was sheathed in a white light. Approaching, she tilted her head downward to gently place its end upon Pinkie's brow.

Pinkie then saw a bright light, resolving into mental images as vivid as reality itself. Then, she remembered: She had agreed to stand in as a target for the new spell that Princess Celestia had showed Twilight. Something about "disrupting magic" was all she could understand, but Twilight seemed to know better.

Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "What did happen last time!?"

Princess Celestia winked. "I left that one out on purpose."

Pinkie rose to her hooves and shook the cobwebs out of her head. "So, explain to me how giving somepony memory loss is going to stop Malice, again?"

"Well, it isn't really supposed to do that," Twilight explained uneasily. "It's difficult to explain, because most magic draws from the manætic aether, but doesn't actually interact with it."

"The magnetic what now?"

Twilight scrunched her face. "No, Pinkie. Manætic, not magnetic. It's the... uh, stuff that magic comes from - a quasi-tangible substance derived from the mana that- Uh, you're not following any of this, are you?"

Pinkie shook her head. "Nope! But, go on?"

Twilight thought for a second before trying a different explanation. "All magical creatures draw from it; it gives us the special traits that make us who we are. Princess Celestia was saying earlier that it's how ponies get their cutie marks, or how pegasi can walk on clouds."

"So... It's magic, then?"

"Kind of. Without it, we wouldn't have magic."

"I still don't get it."

Twilight shook her head. "You don't have to. I just need to find a way to prevent it from interacting with you."

Pinkie blinked. "Okay... But, why?"

"Because, um..." Twilight must have become very interested in the ceiling, because she tilted her head up to study it for several seconds. "Princess?"

Princess Celestia nodded. "It's okay, Twilight. This spell took me a long time to master. You see, Starswirl the Bearded discovered the aether long, long ago. He spent many centuries studying it, and although he realized that all ponies could readily draw from its infinite reservoir, he had never been able to devise a spell to actually affect it.

"That all changed when I first encountered Malice. Given enough time, I realized that although ponies, dragons, and chimeras alike were all affected by his scourge, some animals - roosters, snakes, frogs, birds, and insects - all seemed to carry on, unaware of the darkness hanging over them.

"At first I reasoned that Malice had no interest in such things, but then I came to see that Malice's hunger for pain and suffering extended to all living things. There had to be a reason why the darkness was not claiming these simple creatures.

"That answer was magic. Specifically, Malice's hold extends only to creatures that draw from the aether. I believe it is how he is able to extend his will across an entire nation without confusion.

"I brought this to the attention of Starswirl himself, and we combined our knowledge of the arcane to develop a spell which disrupts the flow of aether around the caster's target. If a pony's connection to the aether is severed, so is Malice's ability to reach them."

"Princess," Twilight began. "Didn't you say you never used it?"

"I never used it against Malice. The spell is only temporary, and once its effects have worn off, Malice can resume his attack. My fear was that seeing it once would be enough for him to devise a way to defend against it, and then it would be useless to us. As painful as it was, I decided to reserve it for my sister, in case she had fallen into his clutches."

Pinkie listened dutifully to the princess as she spoke, but her attention was starting to waver as her usual hyperactive energy returned. Looking back at her haunch, she saw her cutie mark was fading back into view.

"So, once we use it... What happens then?" Pinkie half-heard Twilight ask.

Her hair also felt perceptibly bouncier. She flexed the bob of hair sticking out before her, which she seldom thought twice of under normal circumstances. Thinking back on all she'd learned today, she realized that perhaps it was the aether's gift to her.

"Then..." the princess sighed. "Then, they have no choice but to fight back, I'm afraid. As I said, the effects are only temporary; at my best I've only been able to cast it for a few minutes. They will need to use that time to prepare themselves for the retribution that will come swiftly after that. Unfortunately, that is the best answer I have to give."

Twilight nodded heavily. "Well... I guess we'd better get back at it. Pinkie, I'll try not to wipe your memory this time!"

***

"Twilight. See to it that you are not casting the spell at Pinkie. Use your innate sense of the magical to detect the aether around her. When you hit her directly you are certainly going to disrupt the magic within her, but you will not sever her connection to the aether. The shock to her system is what is causing the amnesia."

Pinkie rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. "Who's the big, bossy one and why does she have a horn and wings!?"

Twilight sighed as her glowing horn tapped Pinkie's forehead.

"Oh..." Pinkie squeaked. "Sorry, Princess!"

Both ponies ignored her. "Princess!" Twilight groaned. "I don't know how! And we've been at this for hours! Isn't there an easier way? Like, maybe if I just focus on her hooves or something."

Even the princess's usually unflustered manner was beginning to show cracks in the veneer. "If it was so simple, then Malice would not be such a threat. I would have liked to teach this to all the unicorns I could find, but to spot the aether is a gift. However, I know you are capable of doing this, as I have seen you accomplish magical feats before that no other would dare try. Such is why I have chosen you as my student. We shall try again."

A loud snore ripped through the air; every pony snapped their heads sharply in the direction of its source. Fluttershy lay on her back, hooves twitching in the air as she slept. "I didn't know she was such a loud sleeper," Pinkie remarked. "How did Rainbow Dash get any sleep around that?"

Even Pinkie was starting to feel tired. Every time the spell hit her, it felt as though she'd been tackled by a stampeding bison. Not only that, but she'd been hit so often that he was beginning to forget what being herself felt like. It was as if in those brief periods before her cutie mark came back, her life's ambition was simply to curl into a fuzzy, pink ball and do nothing. She hoped that when the time came to actually use the spell, Rainbow Dash or Applejack would feel more empowered.

The dimly glowing sun crystal cast Twilight's face in a light that accentuated every crease and fold. "It's casting this spell over, and over, and over again. It's so exhausting. Princess... how did you do it?"

"I practiced, Twilight. As you must. We will resume our training tomorrow at first light. The sun has gone down, and I will need my rest if I am to raise it again in the morning. You are all welcome to stay in the royal chambers for the night. If you would come with me, I shall take you there myself."

Twilight followed Princess Celestia to the door, while Pinkie bounced over to where Fluttershy slept and prodded her repeatedly until she woke up. "Come on, sleepy head. We're gonna have a palace slumber party!"

***

"I think I felt it, Princess!" Twilight declared the next morning, during their practice. "The aether! I felt a connection to it, that time. I think I felt the aether itself!"

"Good, Twilight. This is wonderful progress." The princess placed a proud hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Now, try to use that connection to take hold of it. Go on, close your eyes and try it now."

Pinkie had already felt sore and exhausted when they started their training several hours earlier. Now, she could barely stand. Laying down, she yawned as courteously as possible, silently wishing she could join Fluttershy on her trip to Canterlot Square while Princess Celestia coached her student through re-establishing the connection.

Reflecting, she was grateful for not forgetting where she was or what she was doing.

"You need to hold onto it firmly," the princess explained. "Sway it back and forth and feel how it responds to your commands. The aether is a fluid, and just like any fluid, you can create ripples in its surface."

Twilight's placid expression gave way to intense focus as several beads of sweat formed on her brow. One dripped down over her eyelid, and then Twilight collapsed. Panting heavily, she looked up to her mentor and sighed. "I almost had it that time, Princess."

"I could feel it. It is a subtle thing, but once you are able to move it a little, you can move it a lot." Princess Celestia puffed her chest outward as she gazed up through the domed roof. Her horn brightened, slowly at first; eventually attaining a brilliant white glow that rivaled the sun directly overhead.

Pinkie squinted against its blinding glare, barely able to witness as the princess cast the ball of light skward with a great heave. Several seconds later, the room went pitch black but for the residual glow of the sun stone itself.

She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. "Woah..." she gasped in awe - the sun had disappeared from the sky. As Pinkie's eyes adapted to the renewed darkness, she could see the stars glowing as sharply as they would in the blackest of nights.

"The sun itself is a kind of magical entity. Its brightness is derived from the aether, just as our magic is here on this world. The magic of life... If I directed that burst at any pony, save for the most adept of magic users, they would certainly not survive."

After a minute of darkness, a new star appeared overhead - a pinprick of light from which fiery tendrils extended outward to reilluminate the day. Seconds later, it was as though nothing had happened.

"To do as I do, you must collect the aether around yourself, and thrust it forward. You will carve a channel through which Malice cannot exert his influence. You must concentrate on that, and that alone. Your surroundings must be secondary."

"Princess?" Pinkie asked sweetly.

"Yes, Pinkie?"

"What if we blindfolded her? I promise I won't move!"

Twilight nodded. "That might help me block out some of these distractions."

"You cannot rely on such clarity when you encounter Malice," the princess warned, "but it will suffice for now."

"Yippee!" Pinkie bounded off to the royal chambers to see what she could find among her personal effects. Inwardly, she was just grateful to get a break from the relentless training.

It wasn't a long jaunt, but it gave Pinkie time to reflect on how Princess Celestia had single-hoofedly blotted out the sun with her magic. Could she always do that? she wondered. Why can't she just hit Malice with something like that? Surely he couldn't be that strong.

She tried not to think about Malice or their training for the rest of her short break. She didn't have anything of her own that could be used to blindfold Twilight, but she did locate one of Twilight's scarves.

"Here!" she called when she returned to the sun room. In a few quick motions, she had tied the scarf tightly around Twilight's head.

"Is this my-?"

"-No time for questions!" Pinkie declared with a wide-faced grin. "Hit me."

"Oh, um... Okay. Let me just..." Twilight trailed off as she scrunched her forehead in concentration. She stomped her hooves down in a wide stance to steady herself, as a low whirlwind formed around her.

The glow around her horn collapsed into a point at its end. "I found it, princess. I've got the aether right where I need it!"

"Good, Twilight. Now, remember what I showed you: Cast the shockwave at Pinkie, but don't lose focus on the aether! That is the most important element of this spell. You must concentrate."

Pinkie was starting to lose her mettle about being used as a test dummy once more. Inwardly, she hoped that Twilight would miss and she'd be spared the impact. However, she realized how much hinged on her learning the spell. "Twilight!" she called, raising her voice to be heard over the loud thrum of the magical orb Twilight was holding. "I'm over here! Make sure you don't-"

THWOOOM!

Twilight's spell traversed the distance between her and Pinkie in the blink of an eye. What left Pinkie wishing she had, in fact, blinked was the brilliant flash that blinded her as the orb exploded just inches in front of her face. Pinkie let out a shriek, which cut short as she slammed against the ground with enough force to knock the air from her lungs.

"Did it work!?" Twilight begged before ripping the scarf from her face.

Pinkie rolled over, coughing up dust and smoke. "Um... cough cough... I don't think so." As she stood up, she realized that even though the explosion had hit her hard, browned her coat, and blew her mane back, she remembered everything that happened with crystalline clarity. "Hey! I don't have amnesia!"

"How do you feel, Pinkie?" inquired the princess.

"Besides the big boom!? Um... A little tingly, actually. But other than that no different from-OH!" she caught sight of her barren haunch, and realized with a start that the spell must have worked. Her connection to the aether must have been severed, but she didn't feel the usually sense of bewilderment or loss that had accompanied previous attempts at using the spell.

"Twilight! You did it!" she cheered, prancing over to her friend and tackling her with a great hug. As she pulled away, she noticed a fine layer of soot had transferred from her coat to Twilight's. "Oh... Uh, sorry! Heh, heh."

Twilight looked down at her sullied coat, then back to Pinkie, meeting her gaze with a smile. "I guess I did do it! I might need to work on the exploding bit, though..."

"Well," Pinkie offered thoughtfully, "I guess we'd better get started."

***

Six hours and innumerable fireballs later, Twilight finally managed to enact the spell without prompting a conflagration inches away from Pinkie's face. Pinkie was honestly amazed she had any hair left in her mane at all at that point, though she desperately craved a warm bath to wash all of the soot from her coat, and the tension from her shoulders.

"I think you did it that time, Twilight," she noted amidst a wide yawn.

"Thank you, Pinkie. The key was follow-through. I was losing my concentration as the spell expanded to engulf the targ-er, you... and I was cavitating the aetherial void to disastrous effect! But promoting destructive interference in the wave feedback patterns mitigated the-uh, Pinkie? Are you still listening?"

Pinkie fell into an awkward half-roll when Twilight saw her trying to brush the soot from her underbelly with her muzzle. "Oh, yeah. Definitely! You, uh... waves... Right?"

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed. "We'd better get going to sleep. I think I've had enough for tonight!"

Pinkie nodded. "Oh, uh... Where's the princess?"

"She left hours ago, Pinkie."

"You mean this entire time we were done!? I thought she just went to the, uh... little fillies' room or something."

Twilight let out a yawn of her own as she started for the door. "This spell is important, Pinkie. Think about our friends out there. I know I can't stop... And if I try to fall asleep with them on my mind, I'll only have nightmares. This training- It's the only way for me to rest easy knowing I'm doing everything I can to help!"

The doors to the sun room thudded behind them.

"What about me?" Pinkie asked. "I wish I could do more... But I don't have magic to help, or wings to fly with. I don't even know what I'm doing here..."

Twilight nudged her as they walked - a gesture Pinkie took as one of support. "You're helping me more than you realize. That blindfold idea of yours really made the difference! I think, now that I can concentrate on moving the aether, tomorrow I will be ready to practice without it... And then we'll be ready. This would not have happened as quickly without you. Trust me!"

The two ponies smiled at each other and walked in silence the rest of the way to the chambers. Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy all shared a room: a large one with two massive beds. Fluttershy kept a bed all to herself, and was sleeping soundly at the time Twilight and Pinkie came in. The lights were out, and the curtains drawn.

The room was lavish, though without the lights, it could not be seen. A large area rug bristling with soft fibres massaged their hooves as they stumbled and bumped their way against various pieces of ornate furniture to cross the room into the adjoining bathhouse.

Closing the door behind them and turning on a light, both ponies could finally relax for long enough to see how much of a mess the other was. Twilight's coat was sticky with a caked-on layer of sweat, and Pinkie's blackened mane still smelled thick of smoke. Staring into each others' eyes, they both suddenly burst into a wild fit of laughter.

"Haha! Pinkie, you should see yourself right now! They should call you 'Ashie Pie.'"

"Oh, you're one to talk, sweat monster! When was the last time you brushed your mane? Last Tuesday?"

Pinkie turned the water on, and climbed into the tub before it was halfway filled. The bath itself was large enough to accomodate at least four ponies standing side by side, with enough room for all of them to turn in any direction they wanted. It took several minutes for it to fill, at which time it was already darkened to a murky shade of brown from all of the dirt its occupants had accumulated.

"When you fired your spell at me, and it exploded. Oh, man! I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. And then you were all like 'did it work'? Like, 'DID IT WORK'!? Hahaha."

"Yeah. The look on your face was pretty priceless too, Pinkie. I'm just glad I didn't singe your mane off. You'd look so weird bald!"

"Heh. Yeah..." Pinkie sunk down into the water, letting its warmth carry away the pain of the day. "I can't believe we're doing this."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Doing what, Pinkie?"

"Getting ready!" Pinkie closed her eyes and dunked her entire head in the water before coming up. "Ever since the farm, I've been scared that we were going to lose ourselves to this... meanie... monster... thing! But we're going to get our friends back, and we'll all be together again!"

Twilight splashed some water over her own head and massaged her mane to pry loose the sweat and dirt that remained. "Yes, we will. And you know why?"

"Because we have a party cannon?" Pinkie suggested jokingly.

"Hah! No, Pinkie... Because we have each other. Each one of us would fight for the other, and that's exactly what we're doing. Malice thinks we're his playthings... But he's going to discover that he's dead wrong."

"Yeah," Pinkie agreed somberly. She looked down onto her own reflection, for once not recoiling at the sight of her scar. In fact, as she looked upon herself she could see the old Pinkie more clearly than she'd been able to at any point in the last two moons.

"But," she added with a grin, "also because we have a party cannon!"

***

Though the next day progressed as slowly as the last few, Pinkie knew the most difficult part of Twilight's training was behind them. There were a few more misfires, one or two fireballs, and - as far as she knew - at least one incident of short-term memory loss. But by the time the sun had peaked in the sky, Twilight was casting her "aether wave" with confidence and brevity.

At one point, Twilight had suggested that Pinkie dodge to avoid the spell, and provide distraction "by any means." Pinkie's interpretation of this request was to prance around the sun room pelting Twilight with tiny pebbles she'd collected from the gardens outside.

It took a few attempts for Twilight to perform in spite of the distractions, but she eventually did score a direct hit. Pinkie had attempted to leap directly over Twilight's head to avoid it, but a last-second readjustment sent the orb hurtling straight at her exposed underbelly. The orb exploded against her with a faint warmth that preceded the spell's usual tingling sensation.

With her balance thrown off, Pinkie thudded to the floor scattering pebbles across the entire chamber. When she got up, she checked her haunch to see that she had indeed been hit. "Wow, Twilight. That was amazing!"

Even Princess Celestia seemed impressed. "Indeed, Twilight. You have progressed much in these last few days. I dare say you have picked up this spell much faster than I."

Twilight bowed low. "I owe it all to you, Princess. You and my friends, of course."

Princess Celestia returned the gesture with a graceful flourish. "I appreciate your gratitude, Twilight Sparkle. However, we may not rest yet. Now is the time for action, for I fear Malice has finally showed his hand."

"His hand?" Pinkie wondered. "How?"

"Earlier this morning, I received a letter from Rarity suggesting that Ponyville is in dire condition."

Twilight scrambled to her feet. "Princess! When were you going to tell us this?" she demanded with far more authority than she had any right to claim.

"I intended to tell you when you were ready," the princess admitted, "and that is what I did." With a flash of light emanating from her horn, a piece of parchment materialized before her.

Twilight took the letter from the princess's magical grasp and read aloud: "'Friends. The reconstruction in Ponyville has halted. The numbers of missing have increased. Please send help, immediately. I do not know how safe I am here. Yours, Rarity.' Princess. What is she talking about when she says 'the missing'?"

Pinkie knew full well what Rarity meant. Her thoughts turned to the farm house, and the lair Malice had created from some other dimension. She couldn't forget the sight of ponies laying motionless inside of cages like the carcasses of long-neglected animals.

It would have been different for Twilight, having been so focused on the mission at hand. But, for Pinkie, she'd recognized - even knew - almost all of them by name and face. Maybe that was why she remembered, and Twilight didn't.

"It is as it sounds, Twilight," the princess said, plainly. "Ponyville's residents are disappearing, one by one. Perhaps now they are disappearing even faster. I knew this would happen when you first approached me with word that Malice had revealed himself. History is repeating itself, and in order to stop it I had to be sure you were ready the next time you faced him."

Pinkie could only see the lifeless body of Berryshine, strapped unceremoniously to a drum-mounted table. That kind, enterprising mare who had made such wonderful refreshment out of the goodness of her heart - she who liked to make ponies laugh almost as much as Pinkie herself; for whom Pinkie had celebrated countless birthdays, anniversaries, and special occasions alike - she was dead, and gone.

"So..." Twilight choked - her voice wavering, "You knew? You knew that this would happen? Why didn't you do anything? Why... Why aren't you doing anything!?"

Without her story told, nopony would know where Berryshine had gone or if she would ever return. How many others in Ponyville had met this fate? Would Pinkie ever know? Could she ever know?

The princess diverted her gaze; a pained expression rapidly eroding away the confident facade she had held up to that point. "I am, Twilight. This is my action... Preparing the eclipse, training you, and protecting this city.

"Please understand that we are facing a villain unlike any you have ever faced before, or read about in your books. You cannot counter hate with aggression - he lives off of it! To do so would only make him stronger."

Pinkie's gorge started to rise as she thought about it. How long had it been since the farmhouse? A week? How many ponies would Malice seek out in that time? How many monsters would he create? With so many unwilling servants, how many ponies would he kill?

Before long, she realized she was trembling with a visceral anger. Somewhere around her she could half-hear Twilight and Princess Celestia discussing what to do next, but all Pinkie could think was how blatantly unfair it was.

"They didn't have to die..." she grumbled, prompting both pairs of eyes to fall on her.

"What was that, Pinkie?" Twilight asked sincerely.

Pinkie's teeth ground together. "They. Didn't. Have. To. Die."

Twilight approached her calmly. "I know that, Pinkie. I'm as upset about this as you are but-"

"-NO!" Pinkie screamed. "You don't understand, Twilight! NEITHER OF YOU UNDERSTAND!"

"What... What don't we understand?"

"MY home, Twilight! He's destroying MY HOME! You lived there for a year, and hardly knew anypony after all that time! The ponies who are disappearing! I knew them long before I knew you! Long before your highness came into my life! Long before this... This monster came along!

"And now... you..." she jammed a shaky hoof in the princess's direction. "You're telling me that you knew any of them... ALL of them... That they would be hurt... That they would die? And you NEVER THOUGHT TO TELL US!?"

The regal princess never looked so small in all of the time Pinkie had known her. Her guilt was written all over her face, but she didn't back down. She didn't rebuke Pinkie either, even though Pinkie knew somewhere underneath all of her anger that the Princess wasn't to blame.

Several tense moments passed, during which the only sound echoing from the sun chamber walls was that of Pinkie's belabored exhalations. "Pinkie," the princess began, tentatively. "I cannot deny that I kept this information from you willingly, but please understand that I did so with a heavy heart, knowing that your focus would allow you to be better prepared to face him in the future.

"I have cared for Equestria and its citizens for over a thousand years. Do you not believe that I carry the weight of each and every loss as sadly as you? No. I carry the losses, but I do not accept them."

The princess stood tall once again - if she had seemed at a loss before, she didn't any longer. Although intimidating, Pinkie took a sort of comfort in her steely resolve. "When the time comes that we learn the true breadth of Malice's depravity, I will take an accounting of all the lives lost." She spoke each word with an undeniable certainty that made Pinkie's anger melt away. "I promise you that when that time comes, he will be made to answer for each and every one of them."

Pinkie brushed away the angry tears that clouded her vision and nodded silently. There was nothing left for her to say, so she met the princess with an apologetic embrace - half-expecting some sort of reprisal.

Instead, the princess folded her wings around Pinkie and reassured her with a motherly smile. "I understand the anger you feel. There is no need to apologize."

Twilight cleared her thoat. "I'm really sorry if I sounded insensitive earlier, Pinkie. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course!" Pinkie cried. "I'm... I'm really sorry I lost it like that."

"It's okay, Pinkie," Twilight insisted as she offered a smile of her own. "So, Princess... What happens now?"

"Now?" intoned the princess. "Now, we take the fight to Malice."

Return to Ponyville, Part 1

"All aboard!" shouted the conductor of the Friendship Express.

It was a formality, more than anything. The princess neglected to mention that she had temporarily suspended all train access to Ponyville since the incident at the farmhouse. The lack of trust bothered Pinkie - especially in light of their recent conversation - but she was beyond anger, and Celestia's caution was understandable.

However, she had made an exception for six ponies in particular: Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy boarded the train, each accompanied by one of Canterlot's royal guard as per Princess Celestia's mandate. As was her usual routine for meeting new ponies, Pinkie made it a point to learn each of their names, and at least one thing about them.

Fluttershy was trusted into the care of Stormy - a tall and muscular unicorn from Trottingham who, despite his intimidating outward appearance, spoke gently and walked softly.

Twilight's guardian was Sentinel Spark - another pegasus who liked to go by Sparky or Sentinel. His normal duties were to tend to the ancient artifacts held in Canterlot Keep, and ensure they remained locked away at all times. Pinkie learned that he had requested this assignment to escape the boredom of his normal job.

Finally, Pinkie herself was to be escorted by Night Rider - another pegasus. Although slight of frame, Night Rider was responsible for manning the palace gate from time to time - a job which required significant brute strength. He was a deathly serious pony, and not much fun at all to be around.

Why did I get the boring one? Pinkie wondered impatiently. "Psst. Twilight," she whispered. "Why can't you just teleport us?"

"There's too many of us to teleport so far, Pinkie. And I'm going to need to save my strength for... whatever we find there."

Pinkie nodded reluctantly. Shrugging, she resolved to make her guardian smile at least once before they reached Ponyville.

They traveled in a luxurious passenger car, lined on both sides with down feather cushions built into laquered wooden frames. Small chandeliers hung from the roof, spreading ample light when all of the ornate privacy curtains had been drawn. Pinkie was glad for the accomodations, because there were no other cars attached to the train. They had all been left behind to increase the speed with which they could reach Ponyville.

For the first several minutes of their journey, no pony dared to speak. There was an unspoken sense that they were not only heading into the unknown - they were heading into battle. Well, Pinkie wasn't going to have it! She'd grown tired of fear. If she was heading to her doom, she would live her last moments like she'd always had.

"Come on, everypony! Why don't we sing a song or something? I know a few good-"

"-Pinkie..." Twilight cautioned. "Not now."

"Okay..." she sighed before laying back down on her cushion.

Her commitment to silence lasted all of five minutes.

"So, Nighty. Where are you from?"

Her guardian spoke up. "Don't call me 'Nighty.' They called me that all through flight academy. I hated it."

Pinkie cocked her head. "Why?"

"Because 'Nighty Wighty, the Wittle Fwighty' is not a dignified chant for a pegasus of Cloudsdale."

Pinkie chuckled instinctively. "'Nighty Wighty'!? What kind of silly name is that!?"

Night Rider sighed. "They were making fun of my stature. I was a little smaller than most of my classmates. It was not appreciated."

"Oh, okay..." she snickered. "'Nighty Wighty'"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me that."

Pinkie saluted him in a mock fashion. "Sir, yes sir, sir!" she teased, adopting his gruff timbre.

"Pinkie! Stop teasing him," Twilight tossed playfully from across the carriage. "He's gonna be looking out for you when we get to Ponyville. Don't want to make him mad!"

"Aw, she's never gonna make him mad!" laughed Sentinel. "I've never seen a cooler head in all of my days on the Guard."

Stormy cleared his throat. "And what does that mean about me, Sparky?"

"It means I've seen you in training. I know you think you never get angry, but the way you tackle those straw dummies on the O-course doesn't have me fooled."

Pinkie watched Stormy blush as Fluttershy patted him gently on the shoulders. "I promise I won't get in so much trouble that you have to tackle anyone, mister."

That made everypony in the car smile a little - even serious Night Rider. Pinkie may not have been the one to make him do it, but it was close enough for her.

After sharing a lighthearted chuckle, Sentinel cleared his throat. "Well, little lady. If the time for action comes, he won't need to tackle. You are traveling in the company of one of the most accomplished casters of immobilization and pacification spells in the Canterlot Royal Guard."

"You don't need to build me up like that," countered Stormy. "I'm decent!"

"Don't be so modest! I've seen him stop a raging centaur before - dead in his tracks. Didn't even break a sweat!"

Twilight tapped Stormy on the shoulder. "Do we even know if that will work on Malice? I tried to cast a similar spell when he brought that Ursa Major to Ponyville, and it didn't seem to have any effect."

Stormy nodded. "That's why we have these," he explained, extending his wing out slowly and flexing it upward to show the layer of sharp, metal ridges hugging the feathers from underneath. "Wing blades: very sharp, and very precise. They're light weight, don't interfere with your flying, and they've got a better reach than anything you don't have to shoot or cast.

"Oh, um... Do you really think that will be necessary?" Fluttershy asked. "I really hope we don't need to, um... hurt anypony."

"Yeah," agreed Night Rider, "but we don't exactly know what we're gonna run up against out there. It's better to be safe than sorry. Even Princess Celestia understood as much when she told us to protect you at all costs."

Pinkie nodded silently in agreement, though the prospect of violence still sat poorly in the pit of her stomach. With that, she resolved to push it from her mind and relax for the remainder of the journey. For all she knew, it might be the last moment of peace she'd ever have.

***

The last hour or so of transit to Ponyville passed quickly, as the three mares got to know their stallion companions and vice versa. Sentinel Spark was definitely the talkative one, which made Pinkie wish she could switch guards.

He regaled them with stories of working for Princess Celestia, dwelling particularly on her occasionally forgetful nature. Other times he spoke of the artifacts which he tended: An empty book which wrote back to any pony who tried to write in it; a mirror portal to another world; a crystal chalice that turned water into flame. Pinkie wondered what any of them could actually be useful for.

Eventually, the buildup of rapport had to end. A hush fell over the car as the train pulled into Ponyville station. Pinkie wondered what would happen next: Would an angry mob burst down the door and drag them away? Would Rarity greet them and reveal that her entire letter to the princess was a sham?

It turned out that the conductor would open the doors to absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. The cool autumn air blew into the car, carrying with it little bits of crumpled up paper, but other than that nothing seemed amiss.

"Last stop! Welcome to Ponyville!"

The ponies didn't have any things to collect. Everything they needed was waiting for them back at Canterlot. However, as Pinkie stepped out of the car she found herself wishing she'd brought something warm to wear. An unnatural chill nipped at her hooves and muzzle, and her eyes watered against the dry wind.

Looking around, she could see that the platform was abandoned but for more crumpled up leaflets. She reasoned that perhaps that was just a consequence of the train being down for so long, but it still sent a chill down her spine which had nothing to do with the temperature.

"Let's go, girls," Twilight urged.

"Do... Do you see anyone?" Fluttershy asked nervously.

"No... It's strange."

Pinkie had been tucking her chin down for warmth, but she braved the cold for a moment to sneak a peek at the town she'd been missing for months. The buildings were all but husks: some half built, others barely extending upward from the ground. Very few structures seemed complete.

But what struck Pinkie the most was how empty the streets were. From the platform, extending all the way to the nearest bend in the road two blocks away. Perhaps the activity would be thicker near the town square, but Pinkie could never recall a time when even the outskirts were this lifeless.

Slowly trotting down the road, Pinkie could not shake the feeling that she was being watched. Their guards trailing behind them had likewise grown dead silent in the strange atmosphere, though looking back Pinkie could see that they studied their surroundings closely.

Tents set up within the footprints of each abandoned building swayed silently. Looking at them, Pinkie wondered if anyone was home. When they crossed one with a light faintly glowing inside, they stopped to take note.

Pinkie wanted to know what they'd do next, but Twilight seemed to already have an idea in mind. "Hello!?" she called. "Um... We see your light on. It's okay to come out!"

A violet mare crawled out through the tent flaps. Her mane was disheveled and her eyes bloodshot, as though she had not had a proper night's sleep for days. Pinkie barely recognized her, but for her cutie mark: three smiling flowers. "Ch-Cheerilee?"

"What do you want?" She asked nervously.

"We heard some disturbing news about Ponyville," Twilight explained. "We were hoping you could maybe tell us what's going on here?"

"I... I'm not sure what you mean," Cheerilee stammered. "Everything's fine. Could you please... please leave me alone?"

Before anypony could respond, she retreated back into her tent and siwftly zipped the flaps shut.

"Well. That was... weird," Twilight noted.

"Yeah..." agreed Night Rider. "Let's keep moving. See if we can find somepony a little more helpful."

The encounter with Cheerilee left a lump in Pinkie's throat. Why didn't she recognize me? she wondered. Cheerilee had sounded so distressed, as though danger would be coming for her at any moment. It isn't as though Pinkie and her friends looked overly intimidating either. Perhaps their armored entourage had spooked her.

Checking around nervously as she walked with the group, Pinkie saw that many of the tents occupying the unfinished buildings looked as though they were still lived in. That raised the question of why more ponies weren't out and about.

It wasn't until they were a few blocks from the town square that they encountered a free-roaming resident. It was Caramel, who Pinkie remembered from that night she had gone to the Grand Galloping Gala - him and his friend Lucky Clover had pulled the carriage for them. Back then he had seemed to happy and eager to please, but now he wandered aimlessly, stopping only to kick at a wadded up ball of paper on the ground.

His ears propped up when he saw the party approaching, but the unchanging expression on his face betrayed a complete indifference towards them. "Yes?" he asked glumly. "What do you want?"

Twlight opened her mouth to speak, but Fluttershy gave her a gentle nudge as though to suggest that it would be better if she tried this time. "Um... We were hoping that you could, uh... Tell us where everypony's gone to?"

"You're very funny, miss," he grumbled. "Only, I'm not laughing."

"No, honestly." Fluttershy implored. "We don't know. We've been, um... away."

"Eh," Caramel shrugged. "Ponies have been leaving town, or so they've been saying. A week ago these streets were packed, but now-" He stopped speaking so abruptly, that Pinkie had to look back to make sure nothing had happened to him. Caramel had slumped, his eyes scanning every which way as though he were expecting trouble to come from any direction.

Fluttershy seemed unaware of this drastic shift. "So... You don't know where?"

"No!" he cried, his voice cracking with fear. "I don't know, now please... Don't follow me!"

Caramel ran off down the street in the direction they'd just come from. When he was gone, Twilight said, "okay, that's the second time we've been brushed off like that. Malice is definitely here, so we'd better not let our guard down."

"We won't let you down either," Sentinel joked.

"Really?" commented Night Rider.

"What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

"I don't think that's possible," noted Stormy.

More wayward pieces of paper blew past on a gust of wind that emanated from the town center. "Let's move on to City Hall," Twilight suggested. "Surely we can find some answers from the mayor."

As they pressed onward, more residents came out of the woodwork. They all seemed to shamble about without a destination or a purpose, but none addressed the group as they passed.

Things didn't improve at the town square either. City Hall stood half-finished - its bottom levels looking almost as Pinkie had remembered it. The upper half, however, was an exposed mess of wooden trusses, leftover construction equipment, and dangling plastic sheets.

Four or five ponies were gathered at the base of the steps leading to the boarded-up doorway. Before them stood a bulletin board which must have been recently constructed in a hurry, judging by its skew and the loosely packed dirt around its base keeping it upright.

A low murmer rose from the second party, though it ceased as Twilight and her company approached. All at once, the ponies turned to face them. It was odd, but Pinkie didn't recognize them - they must have been new to town. Normally that would excite her, but not today; now she wasn't sure there was anyone left in ponyville who could be trusted.

"Hi there," she said nervously. "D-Do you know where we can find the mayor?"

The ponies all looked at each other warily, conversing inaudibly for a few moments. Without a word to Pinkie or her friends, they dispersed casually.

"Hey! Wait! We just wanted to-"

"-It's no use, Pinkie," Twilight sighed. "Nopony here is gonna tell us anything about what's going on."

"Uh, girls?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"It doesn't look like City Hall is open, so we have to find out where the town's being run from."

Fluttershy offered her own idea. "Perhaps we should check the board for-"

"-But where could that be?" Pinkie asked. "It doesn't look like anything is still standing!"

"Not true, Pinkie. Somehow, the library survived the Ursa Major attack - at least mostly," Twilight noted. "The mayor could be there, since I never actually owned it. I only rented out a room on the second floor, actually."

Fluttershy let out something that sounded like a cross between a gulp and a squeak. "Oh, no... It says here that the mayor-"

"-Um, Twilight. Couldn't we check that board over there? It'd probably say."

"Oh... Yeah," Twilight agreed as she wandered over to stand next to Fluttershy. "I should have thought of that, first. Good idea, Pinkie!"

Fluttershy's posture sunk a little bit. "Um. Actually, I... Oh, nevermind."

"Let's see... It says- Wait..." Twilight scratched her head. "These are all the same thing."

Pinkie didn't quite understand. "What?" She joined her friends at the board, every square inch of which was hidden by one or more sheets. Pinkie singled out one to read aloud:

"'Missing! Please notify if found. Green Jewel.' I... I know who this is..." Pinkie fought to surpress a frightened whimper before continuing heavily. "'Height: 43 inches. Coat: Green. Mane: Blue. Mark: Two Cut Diamond Gems, Blue. Last seen'-" Pinkie choked before she could finish. Her legs were trembling, and her throat suddenly felt so dry that it pained her just to draw breath.

Green Jewel wasn't the only pony with a flyer, either. There were others - countless others: Sunset Bliss, Sassaflash, Goldengrape, Granny Smith, Comet Tail, Nurse Redheart, and many, many more. Twilight gasped. "It... It say here that the mayor is missing, too!"

"Oh no... What are we going to do now?" Pinkie wondered.

Before anyone could answer, a gust of wind blew by, rustling all of the papers where they hung. Its chill pierced through Pinkie's coat, and down to her very core. A few of the pages ripped from their staples and trekked across the breeze to join the rest of them strewn across Ponyville.

"By Celestia..." Sentinel gasped. "The situation here is worse than I thought it'd be."

"We have to find Rarity," commanded Twilight. "She said she didn't feel safe here, and now I see why."

Fluttershy interjected. "But... Where will we find her? Didn't her house get destroyed?"

Twilight nodded. "But I think I know where she would have gone to..."

***

Although the Golden Oak Library still stood, it had not been completely spared in the attack. The hollowed out trunk that contained the library itself was intact, but several of the upper branches, including the one that contained Twilight's observatory, had been forcibly removed leaving behind jagged protrusions. At the tree's base sat large piles of splintery rubble, peppered with dead leaves that had fallen with the changing seasons.

Despite the bright sun glowing overhead, the curtains inside were drawn. Whoever was inside - be it Rarity or somepony else - they did not want to be discovered. In truth, none of them knew what would be waiting inside, and for that reason Pinkie and Fluttershy stood behind the poised Canterlot guardsponies as Twilight rapped her hoof against the door.

There was no response.

"Hello!?" Twilight called. "Rarity!?"

"Who is it!?" shouted back a muffled voice from the other side of the door. It clearly wasn't Rarity's - It sounded as though it belonged to a stallion.

"Hey. That sounds a little like Day Break," Sentinel noted. "She may be in there."

"Day Break?" Twilight asked pleasantly. "Is that you?"

"Who wants to know!?"

"We're friends of Rarity's! Can you let us in?"

"I don't know you!"

"I know that... But she'll know us. Can you please unlock the door and let us in?"

Silence. For several seconds, Pinkie wondered if their time in Ponyville was about to be cut short by a dead end. What if it wasn't Day Break? What if Rarity wasn't in there? Would they find her? Would her flyer appear on the bulletin board as well?

Her worries were put to rest when a stratching sound indicated the door being unlocked. There were hoofsteps on the other side of the door that faded into the distance. After a few more seconds, Twilight decided to try the door handle.

The library was dark on the inside. In addition to the drawn curtains, all of the lights inside had been extinguished. Pinkie could see a thin layer of dust forming on the oaken floor, the tops of the books, the tables, and any other flat surface.

The room was so dim that she had taken several steps into the central chamber before she witnessed the light from the open doorway glinting off an exposed blade. It was held by a mid-sized earth pony of golden complexion. He wore the same armor as the pegasi that came with them from Canterlot, but for some reason he did not lower his guard as they approached.

"Don't come any closer!" he hissed.

"Take it easy, Day Break," urged Stormy. "You know who we are."

"Trust no one..." Day Break warned. "That's what the princess herself said! How can I be sure it's really you?"

Sentinel Spark raised his forelegs as a gesture of good will. "Dude! Would we be calmly walking in here like this if we wanted to hurt you?"

"My life is unimportant here! My mission is to protect Rarity. I will do that by any means, if I have to." Day Break wore gauntlets with prongs at the end; Pinkie could see that they worked to pin the handle of his shortsword against the bottom of his hoof.

The sword had been pointed directly at them, but in one fluid motion he brought its blade over to his other side, sheathing it in a holster that hung against his flank. "If you try to hurt her, I will be forced to take this out again."

"I promise you, that's not going to happen," insisted Twilight. "So where is Rarity, anyway?"

"I'm up here!" rang out her voice from somewhere upstairs.

"Would you like for me to accompany them up?" Day Break offered.

"Oh, um... No... That's okay! You can, um... keep guarding the front door or something!" Day Break did not think twice, but to Pinkie's ear it sounded as though Rarity were worried about something dire.

"As you wish!" He turned his attention to Twilight and her company. "Remember. I won't be far," he growled.

Return to Ponyville, Part 2

They ascended the staircase in stunned silence, only broken when Rarity whispered through a crack in Twilight's bedroom door. "I'm in here. Please come in quickly. The-uh, guards can wait outside... If you don't mind."

"Rarity? What's the matter?" Twilight begged. "You sound distressed."

"Just... come in quickly. Please. Leave your guards outside."

Pinkie glanced over at the guards. Each one had a look of worry on their face, but when Twilight nodded at them to stay behind, they returned the gesture agreeably. "Be safe," Stormy whispered. Pinkie didn't think that they'd need to worry about safety, but after what she'd seen in Ponyville, she suspected that she'd be taking a risk no matter what she did.

Twilight pressed against the door, which opened but an inch or two before thumping against something heavy on the other side. "Oh, I'm sorry," said Rarity. "Let me get that for you." There was a sound like a rush of air, the scraping of wood on wood, and then nothing.

The door swung open as though on its own, but as Pinkie and Fluttershy followed Twilight into the room, she could see Rarity was behind it waiting to swiftly shut the way behind them. Using her magic, Rarity returned Twilight's bedroom chest to its place against the door before facing her friends and greeting them properly.

"There. Now we can talk."

"Rarity?" Twilight asked. "What is all of this about?"

"Yeah," agreed Pinkie. "Why are you hiding in here like this?"

"I... I'm not quite sure where to begin," she started. "When I came here to help, everything seemed normal enough. I had wanted to make sure they rebuilt my shop exactly as it was, you see. I'm very particular about my layout.

"But then things started happening. The workers just stopped coming, and I wasn't going to rebuild my home by myself. Day Break suggested we come here, but I had no way of getting word to you. I hope you don't mind, Twilight!"

Twilight shook her head. "It's not a problem, but are you okay? We got your letter this morning; you sounded really worried."

"Oh, yes. Spike sent that. He's sleeping in the-"

"-ACHOO!" The sneeze came from Twilight's closet. Pinkie wandered towards it and parted the doors. Spike was curled up in a pile of blankets that had been bunched together as sort of a makeshift bed. Looking up, Spike caught Pinkie's eye and said quietly, "oh, hi guys! I guess it's true that you sneeze when some pony's talking about you behind your back."

"Spike!" Twilight ran up to the closet, almost pushing Pinkie away as she lifted Spike up into the air with her magic and gave him a welcoming hug. "I've wondered where you were!"

Spike nodded as Twilight set him down. "I was waiting for you to come back, and looking after the place just like you asked. But then things got weird, then Rarity showed up with that pony downstairs. He's really scary!"

"Yeah... About that..." Twilight groaned. "What's his deal, anyway?"

Rarity spoke up. "I was just going to say, Twilight. He wasn't like this at all a few days ago! When we came in here, he insisted on standing watch. But then, he never went to sleep. He just stood in that room, watching the door.

"At first, I thought he was just being dutiful, but then I started hearing him say things. Then, at night, he was shouting at nothing. Just this morning he pulled out his sword in the kitchen and attacked the doorway, just as I was about to enter. He... He almost hit me! I-I'm afraid that he's going to hurt me... more than anything else in this town."

Fluttershy cleared her throat before anyone else could speak. "Um, if it was so bad here... well, why didn't you come back to Canterlot?"

Rarity sighed. "I wanted to take Spike and just run away, but the train wasn't running. And by that point, most of Ponyville had just up and vanished! It's the strangest thing... I started asking around, but it was like nopony cared.

"I did manage to find some of my sketching supplies, which I used to make some flyers for the town. I wanted somepony... anypony to care about those who'd gone mising! I thought... maybe it would help..." A lone tear traced its way along the curve of Rarity's muzzle, before falling gracefully to the floor.

Twilight patted Rarity reassuringly on the shoulder. "I'm sure it did, Rarity. We certainly noticed. I'm sure somepony else did, too."

"I... I just don't know, Twilight." Rarity shed a few more tears, and as Twilight placed her forelegs around to comfort her, broke down into a chorus of sobs. "I was just so scared... I didn't know if... If I would be... It was HORRIBLE!" She let out a pained cry that would surely have alerted Day Break downstairs.

Pinkie and Fluttershy both closed in on their wailing friend, offering up their own hugs to calm her down. "Rarity..." Pinkie whispered. "You're with us, now. We won't let those meanies hurt you!"

Sniffling, Rarity regained her composure, though her eyes were still shot with streaks of red; her blue mascara streaking down her otherwise pristine white coat. "T-Thank you... I just... I didn't know when, or even if I'd ever see you again. And Pinkie... It has been a long time. I would like to catch up on everything we missed together when all of this is over."

Pinkie smiled. "Oh, yeah! I'd like that a lot."

There was a loud bang on the floorboards outside which silenced all of the ponies in the room. "Let me in there! I heard her cry out! She needs me! She-"

"-Day Break! Have you gone daft? She's fine!"

The scrape of metal on metal accompanied the patter of hooves against the floorboards. There was another loud thunk, followed by the sound of shatering glass, and moar shouting.

"Stop! What are you doing!? No! Let me in there! RARITY! RARITYYY!" Rarity shrank within the cluster of her friends as a pounding against the door reverberated through the entire room. "Rarity! Please tell me you're okay! I was told to... the princess said... I..."

Thunk.

"Good work, Stormy," remarked Night Rider from outside.

Seconds later, there was a knocking at the door. "Uh, girls?" it was Sentinel Spark. "Not that there's anything to wory about, but we should probably get going. Assuming Rarity's okay in there, we should probably get her back to the Princess and tell her about everything we've seen here today."

Rarity looked up at Twilight. "Is that why you came back? To get me?"

Twilight nodded. "But we also want to find Applejack and Rainbow. The Princess told you about what happened to them, right?"

With a dejected glance aside, Rarity confirmed as much without needing to say a word. "I... I wish I knew where they were. I'm so useless..."

"No, Rarity!" Fluttershy encouraged. "You're not useless! Actually, you've helped us out quite a bit."

"I... I have?" she sniffled.

Twilight nodded as she helped Rarity stand. "You did. With those flyers you posted, we now have an idea of just how dire the situation here has become. We can convince the princess to commit more resources to fix our home."

There was another knock. "Ladies... I don't know how long Day Break's going to be out for. We really should go!"

"O-Okay!" Rarity called nervously. "We're... We're coming out!"

***

Rarity's confidence did not resurface until they were outside in the open air of Ponyville. "Oh, it feels so good to be out of that cave! Uh, no offense, Twilight. But, are you sure Day Break will be okay in there? He was acting strange, but I don't want anything bad to happen to him."

Sentinel shook his head. "I'm not sure of anything here, miss Rarity. But we have to keep light on our feet. We don't know what else to expect here, and if we're hauling his heavy butt around I'm afraid it might do more harm than good."

"Yeah," concurred Stormy. "Besides, I had to conjure up that last spell in a hurry. He could be waking up any min-"

"-Rarity!?"

"Aaaand, there he is."

Even outside, they could hear Day Break thundering down the stairs. "It's okay," commented Night Rider. "I hid his sword when he passed out."

Day Break appeared in the door, huffing angrily.

"S'okay there, hoss," Sentinel remarked pointedly. "See? Rarity's fine! Now, are you ready to get some air and calm down?"

Day Break cocked his head to the side, twitching his ears about as though trying to single out a particularly elusive noise. "Don't any of you hear that!?"

"Hear what?" groaned Sentinel. "I'm starting to lose my patience with you."

"He... He's calling me! He says for you to come! Come with me!" without a second's hesitation, Day Break galloped through the group, knocking Pinkie and Twilight to the ground.

"Oh, dear," groaned Stormy.

"Better go after him!" Night Rider declared.

"No!" cried Twilight. "Listen, if he's going after who I think he's going after, we can't... It's most definitely a trap!"

"Look, Twilight," he countered. "I appreciate your concern for our safety and all, and I know Day Break's acting really weird, but he's one of ours. We Canterlot Guard look after our own, understand?"

Pinkie prodded her friend to get her attention. "I think he may have a point, Twilight. Isn't this what we trained for?"

Twilight shrugged. "I don't think we should let him lead us."

"We don't have time to debate this!" Night Rider pressed. "We're gonna lose him!"

Fluttershy pitched in. "I don't see a choice, Twilight. Malice is going to find us, anyway. We might not be as prepared when he does."

After a second of hesitation, Twilight gave an acquiescing nod.

"Okay! Then let's go!"

All at once, the ponies took off after the fleeing Day Break, who was by that point a spot in the distance trailing a faint cloud of dust in his wake. "We're gonna lose him!" Sentinel called out to the ponies trailing behind him. "Where's he taking us, anyway?"

"I don't know!" Twilight shot back. "He's leaving town, that's for sure!"

Sure enough, Day Break disappeared over the crest of the next hill. Even though Pinkie's lungs ached from the running, and Fluttershy was struggling to keep up, they pressed onward. It seemed that they were running without a destination for hours, but as Pinkie looked back she could see that Ponyville was still well within sight.

It looked as though they were heading towards the Everfree Forest, which was a thought Pinkie didn't want to entertain. The forest was full of all kinds of dangerous and scary things - it would be just the kind of place for Malice to make his stand, and he would have a strong advantage if that was indeed where he was.

But their path veered clear of the forest, and after a few minutes their party slowed to a jog. "Huff... I think we, huff lost him," wheezed Twilight.

"Do you...huff Do you think so, Sparky?" Pinkie asked.

"I don't know, but he definitely came this way. There's only one track going this way. We'll keep following it."

"I don't think we need to," gasped Stormy, pointing a hoof down the road. "Look..."

Pinkie was studying the ground as though it would somehow grant her the energy to keep moving forward, but when she saw what Stormy was pointing at she suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline that would have certainly given her the strength to run much farther.

Out there, at the crest of the next hill, a hanging figure swayed from a line cast around a high tree branch. That alone would have left Pinkie breathless; the sight of another lifeless body dangling next to it - followed by another, and another, and another after that - nearly stopped her heart where she stood.

Was this the fate of all those who disappeared?

Was this their final resting ground?

They approached cautiously. Day Break was nowhere to be seen, but it was doubtless that this was where Malice had led him. "Malice... wanted us to see this..." Pinkie gasped.

None of their party replied. Even the guards stayed silent. There was nothing to say.

Drops of blood had stained the ground below each body. It appeared they did not die hanging, but the strips of flesh rended from muscle and bone alike left many of the bodies unrecognizable - not that Pinkie could suffer herself to look in the first place.

A chilling breeze blew in from the direction they were travelling in, bringing with it the cloying stench of decay. Pinkie cinched her nose against the assault, but she couldn't keep herself from retching. The sickening buzz of flies swarming over the violated carcasses of her neighbors and friends only made the horror of the situation even worse.

Twilight broke the eerie silence. "'Take them down... And join them'?" Pinkie looked to see what she was talking about, and saw the warning sign carved into the tree that bared the first piece of rotten, pony-shaped fruit.

"Why?" Pinkie implored, her voice straining. "Why would someone do this?"

"Malice..." Fluttershy growled through clenched teeth. Pinkie could see her legs trembling, her ears held back, and her eyes swimming with rage. Pinkie had never seen Fluttershy in such a way. "We need to stop him."

"We need to press on," urged Night Rider with an obvious effort to maintain his impeccable professionalism. Pinkie couldn't blame him for keeping focused - perhaps she even envied him for it.

However, something inside of her begged for the chance to lay these bodies to rest. "We... We can't just leave them like this! We can dig... We can put something up for them... We can't just leave them here!"

"I'm with Pinkie." Twilight declared, stepping next to her friend. "Malice wanted us to see this because he thought it would defeat us. Well, he's wrong! We will give the fallen the respect they deserve, and remember each and every one of them until the time comes to make him remember too."

Fluttershy and Rarity took their place next to Pinkie and Twilight, standing tall to declare their support. Even Stormy and Sentinel Spark looked convinced that this was the right thing to do.

Night Rider relented. "Very well. But come sundown, we will return to Ponyville for the night. I believe we'll be safe there if we keep a night watch in Twilight's library."

"Okay then," Twilight said. "Let's get-"

"-Wait," Pinkie interrupted. "I have a request."

"What's that?"

Pinkie scraped at the ground with her hoof thoughtfully. "I don't want us to use magic. These ponies... each and every one of them was important. Each and every one of them had their own life, friends, family, home... They deserve as much care putting them to rest as they put into living life."

All of her friends nodded in agreement. "Okay, Pinkie. No magic."

Even amidst all of the surrounding death, Pinkie felt comforted by the presence of her friends, and the knowledge that those Malice had so violently taken from them would be properly laid to rest.

"Thank you," she whispered.

***

The blue sky gave way to hues of yellow, orange, and red as the sun sank behind the endless field of trees beyond. Pinkie only took a second to appreciate it before turning her attention back to the dirt she had been moving for the last two and a half hours. Her hooves ached from the scraping, her coat was matted with sweat and tears, and even though her nose had grown used to the never-ending stench that wafted down from the trees above, her spirit had not.

Each and every pony that came down received a brief eulogy once Pinkie had identified who it was, though for some it was easier than others. Even the unknown - those Pinkie either didn't recognize, or whose bodies were too far desecrated to be recognized - received a few parting words of kindness in lieu of a proper speech.

Because time was short, the graves had to be shallow. Pinkie felt that, at the very least, it was better than nothing. She looked back on the progress they had made: a row of five heaping mounds lay side by side along the side of the road, where each one had been marked with a sun-shaped ornament that Rarity had fashioned from the nearby twigs and grass.

Five souls, properly laid to rest - Pinkie smiled at the good deed she had helped accomplish. And yet, as she looked farther down the path, she saw nothing but more death and suffering. "Will this nightmare ever end?" she asked herself.

"It has to," Twilight said, suddenly appearing next to her. "Look up in the sky." Pinkie did so, and saw a bright half-moon hanging directly overhead. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean, but Twilight explained before she could ask. "The moon is out much earlier than it should be. The eclipse is coming. Maybe it will be just what we need."

Pinkie shook her head. "It was in the vision, Twilight. Remember what Malice showed us? I'm scared that it'll only get worse."

"I know, Pinkie. I'm worried too, but here we are... There's no going back now."

Twilight wandered off to help Fluttershy take down the next victim, and to let Pinkie reflect. Their guards had already begun to dig the next series of graves, and Pinkie decided to help. It was the least she could do, since everypony else had a job to do.

Half an hour later, Pinkie was shoulder-high inside a hole she had dug on her own. She vaguely remembered Night Rider offering his assistance, but in her focus she must not have registered it until after the fact. Looking down at her cracked and bloody hooves, she was starting to wish she had taken him up on his offer.

She peeked from the hole and saw that hers was at the head of the line. Fluttershy and Twilight were helping the guards finish packing in the previous three, and she knew that pretty soon she would have to find as yet more words to convey how good these innocent ponies were, and why it was such a tragedy that they were taken.

Not that she minded - she honestly felt it was her solemn duty to do so - but every time she said her piece, it reminded her of the darkness and injustice that was being so unfairly thrust upon them.

She decided to join them before needing to be called. The other side of the grave was easier to climb out of, so she braced her forelegs and leapt up with little difficulty. As she straightened herself up, she found herself looking up at a much taller stallion who must have hitherto been hiding in the shadows of the waning daylight.

She let out a startled yelp as Day Break placed a hoof up to his muzzle.

"Shhhhh. Don't disturb them. They are resting," he whispered.

"D-D-Day Break..." she whimpered. "I t-thought you were-"

"-I said be quiet!" he screamed, with clear disregard for his own advice. Pinkie heard the digging behind her stop.

Day Break's eyes were wide yet vacant, as though he was seeing, but not noticing. His shrunken pupils flitted from Pinkie to the rest of her group, then to the bodies hanging from the trees, then back down to Pinkie. She wasn't sure where he'd come from, or how he'd snuck up on her so quietly, but his twitchy expression gave her the idea that she'd better not linger.

Edging backwards, Pinkie lost her footing and tumbled, tail first, into the grave she'd just climbed out of. As her back hit the ground, she found herself stunned long enough to see Day Break prepare to jump in after her.

"Stop it right there!" It sounded like Night Rider. Day Break hesitated long enough for Sentinel Spark to leap over Pinkie's head and tackle Day Break to the ground.

Day Break quickly tossed the smaller pegasus off of him, rolling to his side and jumping to his feet. "'Take them down and join them!' Don't you understand!? My master has burdened these servants of his with glorious purpose! He calls us to join them!"

"I'm getting really tired of hearing you talk," Sentinel groaned. "Stormy? Prepare your spell. He's clearly not right in the head!"

"I'm on it!" Stormy replied.

"Master is displeased that you have disrupted his good work!" Day Break cried, lunging forward to tackle Sentinel to the ground.

Sentinel unfurled his wings, but did not use his blades. He might have been smaller than Day Break, but he was more in control. "Look around you, Day Break! You think this is good work!?"

"'Take them down and join them!' Queen Death shall have her blood price paid!"

Sentinel wrapped his wings tightly around Day Break to steady him. "Stormy! The spell! Cast it n-AGH!" He was cut off by a sickening gurgle as Day Break bit down hard onto his neck and pulled away a large chunk of flesh. His wings fell limp to the ground as his hooves shot up to the wound, applying pressure.

There was a woosh as Stormy cast his spell over the pit, but Day Break had already leaped away from the downed Sentinel Spark - the spell missed him by mere inches. Pinkie rolled onto her legs and leapt out of the hole in time to see Day Break push Stormy to the ground.

"Malice shall inherit the earth!" he screamed, pounding his hoof hard against Stormy's face. "He has shown me a glorious vision of what's to come!"

Twilight rushed to aid the fallen Sentinel while Night Rider beat his wings hard to extricate the delusional Day Break from the fallen Stormy. "Stop this, now!"

Day Break did not relent in his attack. There was a sickening crack as Day Break bit down hard onto Stormy's horn, rending it and a sizeable patch of skin from his forehead with a violent yank. Stormy's blood-curdling shriek filled the night as his hooves shot up to the broken shard of horn still protruding from the bloody gash the tear had left behind.

Only then did Night Rider manage to wrestle Day Break to the ground, the latter cackling maniacally about visions of "beauty and suffering." "TWILIGHT!" Night Rider called "I need your magic, now!"

"I can't leave Sentinel! If I let go of his wound, he'll die! I need to take him to the hospital! I'm-I'm sorry!" And with that, Twilight and Sentinel Spark disappeared in a flash of light.

"He is coming now! Can't you see!? He can't be stopped! All of Equestria will BURN!"

"Okay, big guy," Night Rider quipped. "You go 'night 'night, now." There was an audible crunch as Night Rider rapped his hoof hard against Day Break's forehead, rendering him instantly unconscious.

Pinkie wandered over to check on Stormy. He had passed out - probably from the pain - but was at least breathing. "Oh, oh, oh... What do we do now?" she asked frantically.

Night Rider recovered a length of rope from one of the trees they had visited. "Rarity!" he called. "It's safe, you can come out now."

Rarity - who had retreated behind the tree line with Fluttershy - poked her head out of the bushes and examined the scene on the road. She was still shaking with fear.

"Rarity," he continued. "Can you wrap this around Day Break? Tightly, if you don't mind. He's going to wake up again, and I do not want him getting away from us a second time."

Rarity nodded slowly, but otherwise did not move from her spot.

Night Rider dropped the rope and approached her. "Rarity. I need you to stay with me now. I know you're scared, but we're safe now. If we're to keep it that way, I need you to listen to me. Can you restrain Day Break?"

"Y-Yes... Yes, I think so..." she muttered, retreating back into the underbrush before re-emerging with an equally frightened Fluttershy. Her horn glowed as the rope lifted itself from the ground before swiftly coiling itself around Day Break. All at once, the rope tightened, pinning all four of his legs tightly against his underbelly. "Th-There," she sighed.

"Excellent. Good work," Night Rider encouraged.

"Uh, oh..." Fluttershy gasped.

"What?" Pinkie asked nervously. "What is it?"

Fluttershy pointed at the horizon, which glowed brightly against the newly fallen night. "What's that? The sunset?" Pinkie wondered.

"It shouldn't be," Night Rider answered. "Sunset was several minutes ago."

Batting her wings, Fluttershy ascended high into the air. "NO!" she shrieked before flying off in a flash.

"Fluttershy! DON'T!" Pinkie called after her, but it was too late and Fluttershy was out of earshot. Pinkie made as though to gallop after her, but was stopped by Night Rider.

"Pinkie, don't. It's not safe out there!"

"I can't just let Fluttershy go off into danger all by herself. She needs me!"

"I was sworn to protect you, and if you leave nopony will be here to look after Rarity and Stormy."

Pinkie looked around frantically. "Well, where's Twilight? She'll be coming back soon! You can wait for her, but I have to go after Fluttershy. There's only one thing I know that'd make her fly away like that, and if I'm right she's going to be in big, big trouble, and I have to stop her!"

Night Rider sighed. "I have to stay here in case Twilight comes back. It doesn't sound like I can stop you, but I won't let you go unarmed." Rider brought the end of his wing to his muzzle, and deftly worked to detach one of the razors that clung to its underside. "Here. Take this."

The blade was only one section of many that lined the trailing edge of his wing - about four inches wide by three inches long, and it glinted brightly in the moonlight. Pinkie bit down on the back end, trying to ignore the taste of sweat that filled her mouth.

"Good luck out there, Pinkie Pie," Night Rider commented.

She nodded without another word. Stepping around her faithful guardian, she set off down the road as quickly as she could. There wasn't a doubt in her mind; she knew exactly where the trail of hanging bodies was leading her.

Something Greater

Pinkie somehow found the courage to canter away the miles, following the grim procession of lifeless marionettes that seemed to blaze the trail ahead of her. It was as though Malice had known all along that they would be there.

It made sense, she realized. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight were the only bearers who hadn't fallen to his suggestive influence; the only ones yet to be given to enough fear and doubt to unwillingly surrender their Elements to Malice. If Pinkie was right, though, how much resistance would Fluttershy be able to offer? Kind as she was, Pinkie didn't doubt that an evil as pervasive as Malice could sway her as well.

The thought pushed Pinkie to run ever harder into the night. The sun was now completely gone below the horizon, yet the cloudy sky overhead glowed an unnatural orange. The very air itself grew warm and heavy as she approached Fluttershy's vale.

It wasn't until she'd rounded the next bend that she caught sight of the inferno - one that towered overhead. Its roar shook the trees, drowning out all else. It was as though the sun had visited the earth, bathing everything in a sickly orange-yellow light; casting harsh shadows over the land that it consumed so hungrily.

Groups of animals were still fleeing to escape the blaze, but Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. She would undoubtedly be trying to help by any means necessary, but with so much destruction blanketing the vale, where would she begin?

The house! she quickly realized.

Fluttershy's house was well clear of the burning trees, but the grass surrounding it was giving way to the flame; it would only be a matter of time before it, too, was engulfed.

Her tail quivered violently as an explosive crack brought Pinkie's attention to her immediate surroundings. An instinctive leap forward was followed by a cataclysmic bang that rattled her to the core. Dazed from the shock, she stumbled around to see the way behind her had been blocked by a burning oak tree twice as thick as she was tall.

No going back now!

She shook the stars from her head and galloped for the house, swerving to avoid the patches of flame which peppered the way. Clutching tightly to the hilt of her wing blade, she barreled through any impasse she came across. The pain in her hooves was great by that point, but a few more singes would not stand between her and her friend.

The bridge across the brook surrounding the house had collapsed, its unsubmerged portions still glowing red hot. Pinkie leaped over the shallow gully in a single bound, her momentum swiftly carrying her up the hill to the house itself. The fire had ascended the hill by the time she got there, licking the upper tiers with a fiery tongue.

Pinkie braced herself before slamming into the door with all of her strength. Its hinges gave as the flimsy wooden door splintered into several smaller pieces. Pinkie tumbled end-over-end into Fluttershy's living room, covered in scratches and scorch marks from the run.

The blade she'd held on to for the duration of her run skittered off, but she took no notice. Battered and weary as she was, she refused to rest. With a jolt, she climbed to her hooves and scanned the room quickly. Fluttershy was nowhere to be found. Perhaps she was upstairs, or had yet to arrive at the vale altogether. Pinkie silently hoped for the latter, but she wouldn't leave until she knew Fluttershy was safe.

She ascended the stair in leaps and bounds. Before she could reach the top, a pink tuft of hair peeking around the corner caught her eye. "Fluttershy!?" Pinkie gasped, just as her friend fell head-first against the wall of the stairwell.

Fluttershy rebounded, twirling perilously in place before falling on top of Pinkie. The two ponies entangled as they jounced from step to painful step. Pinkie retained the wherewithal to keep either of them from hitting their head too hard against the stairs or bannister, but Fluttershy was nearly unconscious when they reached the ground floor.

"P-Pink..." she mumbled wearily, unfurling her forelegs to reveal an equally dazed white rabbit. "T-take... Angel... G-Go... Go now..." her eyes closed and her head fell back against the wood floor.

Pinkie checked that she was still breathing. She was. "I'm not leaving without you," she declared to the unconscious Fluttershy.

Moving quickly but carefully, Pinkie shifted Fluttershy onto her back. She folded her own forelegs around Fluttershy, holding onto Angel even as he squirmed with discomfort. With a heave, she shifted her own weight onto her hind legs, getting just enough traction to pull Fluttershy backwards.

Pinkie could hear the roar of the fire up on the second floor. Before long, its flickering tendrils were peeking down through the ceiling above. She shuffled faster, hoping to make it to the door before the structure collapsed.

Then she ran up against something blocking the doorway.

"Where ya goin', sugarcube?"

"What!?" Pinkie had barely glimpsed Applejack before she found herself being thrust forcibly back into the center of the room. She carried Fluttershy with her, though when she looked back she saw that Angel had managed to extricate himself and flee through the gap between Applejack's hooves.

"Don't worry," she tauned. "I ain't gonna kill Fluttershy or her precious little bunny. You're gonna be far more entertainin'."

"W-What?" Pinkie snapped desperately. She'd barely managed to stand when something slammed into her flank with what felt like all the force of a freight train. "-ACK!"

She rolled along the ground before hitting the far wall. A picture fell off its hook before shattering against the back of her head. Her eyes clamped shut on instinct, though the thundering patter of hooves against the floor warned her to open them quickly.

No sooner had she done so did she witness Rainbow Dash - a hateful smirk spread across her face - lunging towards her for a second strike.

Diving quickly to the side in the last second before impact should have sent Rainbow Dash plowing into the wall. Being an adept athlete, however, Dash was able to slow her charge with a pair of outstretched hooves. She twisted her lithe body in the air as she rebounded, just swiftly enough to catch Pinkie's tail firmly in her strong jaw.

Blinding pain shot up along Pinkie's spine, filling her eyes tears of agony. Crying out, she tried to pull away, but that only made the pain so bad that her tired legs could not hold her up it. It was all she could do to clamber away from her assailant, but Dash's grip was just too strong.

She was being dragged back towards the center of the room, and there was nothing she could do. Splinters and shards of broken glass littered the floor, and every piece dug hard into her soft underbelly.

"OUCH! Please-OW-Pl-Please st-AH! Dashie, it's me!"

Applejack saunered calmly towards her as the surrounding blaze spread to the upper half of the staircase. "We gotta get outta here, Rainbow. Kill'er quick so we can bring Fluttershy back to master in one piece."

"In one piece?" chuckled Rainbow Dash.

"Well," Applejack surmised, "I s'pose he did say he only needs her alive." She pressed her hoof down against Fluttershy's leg, which bowed against the pressure.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Pinkie screamed, suddenly numb against her own agony. She twisted about, lashing out with her foreleg. The hoof caught Rainbow Dash off guard against the side of her head, sending her crumpling to the ground.

Applejack took her hoof off of Fluttershy and laughed hard. "Oho! We got ourselves a fighter, R.D.. this'll be more fun'n I thought!"

Pinkie rose to her hooves, teeth bared and ready for a fight.

Rainbow Dash rubbed the side of head. "Nopony gets the drop on me like that..."

Applejack grinned. "Looks like somepony just did. Whatcha gonna do about it?"

Without another word, Rainbow Dash lunged at Pinkie once more. This time, Pinkie lunged back. The two met at the center with a crash, just before Pinkie locked her hooves around Rainbow's chest and brought her down to the floor.

Pinkie wasn't trying to hurt Rainbow Dash, but she wanted to keep Rainbow Dash from hurting her. She pressed herself in tightly so as to not give any room for Dash to hit her with a body blow, but her flailing head caught Pinkie's at the temple, and the shock was enough that both ponies briefly let go of one another.

Falling to the ground, Pinkie rolled away just as Rainbow Dash stomped down hard on where her head had been moments before. Springing off the ground, Pinkie leaped on top of Rainbow Dash, sinking her teeth into the nape of her neck.

Both ponies fell hard against the ground, grunting and groaning as each fought to gain control over the other. Somehow - between their own vocalizations, the thunderous clatter of their wrestling frames smashing into walls and furniture alike, and the roar of the inferno rapidly spreading into the living room - Pinkie could hear herself being egged on, even encouraged, by Applejack's maniacal guffaw.

Enraged, Pinkie managed to heave Rainbow Dash hard aginst a wooden door to some other room, splintering its veneer on impact. For a fraction of a second, the fiery glow on the other side glimmered through the cracks, and then the door exploded with an ear-splitting BANG.

Rainbow Dash was on the windward side of the blowback, and was hit the hardest by the expanding shockwave. Crashing into Pinkie, the two ponies tumbled end over end across the wrecked living room.

It was by sheer happenstance that Pinkie came out on top. Rainbow Dash appeared dazed, and for a moment Pinkie considered mercy...

But what Dash had done deserved no mercy, and Pinkie knew that if the situation were reversed she would receive none in return. She hammered her hoof hard against the side of Rainbow's face, growling through bared teeth as she did.

"YOU WILL NOT!"

Then her other hoof came down.

"HURT!"

Then another.

"MY FRIENDS!"

Then another after that.

"EVER AGAIN!"

The pounding in her ears drowned out all else, as she hit Rainbow Dash harder, and harder. No longer stopping to consider where her blows might fall, she watched the blood pour from the open wounds in Rainbow's face.

And then she saw it out of the corner of her eye: the red light of the blaze glinting off of nearby steel.

Rainbow Dash was down, her eyes clamped shut. She wasn't going anywhere.

Pinkie stood and wandered over to the discarded wing blade, reclaiming it with vigor before returning to her fallen former friend. Steadying herself, her eyes met with Applejack's as she lowered the blade to Rainbow's throat.

Applejack was no longer laughing, but she bore a proud grin across her face.

"Do it, Pinkie," she urged sweetly.

Pinkie returned her gaze to the helpless Rainbow Dash, pressing down with ever more force. As Rainbow's flesh puckered around the thin edge of the blade, she knew it wouldn't take much more effort to break the surface, and end their fight once and for all.

"Just one slice, and it'll be done," Applejack hissed, treading carefully towards Pinkie, not once breaking eye contact. "Don't ya know what that means?"

The skin sighed as it gave, parting just enough to permit an enticing trickle of blood. The faintest drop managed to find a path to ground, tracing a slow curve down the side of Rainbow's neck.

Despite the choking blanket of smoke which filled that burning room, Pinkie's heightened senses registered its faint, cloying aroma. It was enough to trigger something visceral - yet oddly cathartic - deep within her conscious mind.

She could almost feel Rainbow's heartbeat pulsating through the blade at her neck, and it beat in unison with her own. Knowing how easy it would be to silence one forever reminded her just how easily it could have been her pressed against the razor's edge.

She wouldn't have to give Rainbow that chance. Not if she killed first.

Applejack extended her hoof towards Pinkie. "If you do it, you'll be one of us. Our master is forgiving; he'd surely welcome you back with open arms." She smiled. "Haven't you always wanted to belong to something greater?"

Something greater, she thought. It was true that Pinkie had always wanted to belong: from her days on the rock farm, wishing to find her place outside of the dirt she worked so dutifully; or in Ponyville, when all she wished was to throw the very best parties for the very best ponies; and then when she met her friends.

She remembered what Twilight had said the night before: "We have each other. Each one of us would fight for the other, and that's exactly what we're doing. Malice thinks we're his playthings... But he's going to discover that he's dead wrong."

That's right, she realized. In spite of everything Malice had done, or could ever possibly do, it was - and would always be - her friends that lived, loved, and laughed with her. Her friends were the ones she belonged to, and Rainbow Dash was still her friend.

"No..." she muttered, pulling the blade away from Rainbow's throat and chucking it into the spreading fire. "You think you understand us, Malice," she growled. "You think that you can control us like we're just your toys! But we're not, and we will NEVER! BE!"

"How disappointing," Applejack sighed, though it was with Malice's baritone voice.

Rainbow's eyes shot open, and with a snarl she leaped up and tackled the unsuspecting Pinkie, pushing her onto her back. Mounting her with vengeful fury, Rainbow Dash spat into Pinkie's face. "You made a big mistake, Pinkie Pie! YOU'LL PAY FOR IT WITH YOUR LIFE!"

THWOOOM

A flash of pink light caught Rainbow Dash against her left flank, sending her hurtling across the room. Bouncing once, then twice, she came to rest next to the still motionless Fluttershy.

"That's enough of that, Malice!" Twilight declared from the doorway.

Thirteen pitch black arms protruded from Applejack's back, and her pupils disappeared behind a veil of pale white. "Oh, Twilight Sparkle. It really was so thoughtful of you to bring yourself right to me, but I'm afraid I was just about to leave."

Twilight cantered over towards where Pinkie lay splayed out on the ground. "Not this time! We've been preparing to face you!"

"Oh, I do not doubt that you have. In fact, I have been counting on it." Malice grinned through Applejack's face. "You do know, of course, that this isn't over, but I am in no hurry to press things further. You see, soon I will have your pithy little 'Elements of Harmony,' and then no force on this planet will be able to stop me. There is nothing but time on my side, so believe me... when I am ready, I will come to you..."

He turned Applejack's head towards where Rainbow Dash sat, propping herself up onto her side. "Bring the pegasus," he commanded. "I have use for her, and this one here can do nothing to stop me."

Twilight smirked. "I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, Malice!"

Malice laughed. "I'm sorry! Exactly what power is it you think you have over me?"

"Wh-Wha... My head..." Rainbow Dash caught sight of Fluttershy laying next to her. "F-Fluttershy? What's goi-" then she saw the fire. "WHA!?" Jolting to her feet, she saw Applejack and dropped into her fighting stance. "MALICE!"

Malice laughed heartily. "OH! This is so rich. You put her into a little pocket of dead space just to keep her from me!? Well, it matters not. This house is coming down, and all of you will die in it. The remaining Elements of Harmony will find new bearers and I will only have to wait a little longer to make them mine."

"Not today, Malice!" Twilight warned, once more charging her horn for another spell. "We'll be taking Applejack back as well!" She stamped her hooves to the floor as her aether wave shout out at Malice.

All of Malice's hands shot forward as though to block the blast, though Pinkie could see the light in front of them warp perceptibly, as though there were some kind of shield there. Before the spell could connect, it disappeared into the manifold for but an instant before reforming, and reflecting back at the caster.

There simply wasn't enough time for Twilight to dodge, even if she had expected the reversal. The orb hit her full on, knocking her to the ground as her cutie mark vanished.

"Twilight!" Pinkie cried, low crawling to her fallen friend.

"Farewell, you pathetic whelps..." Malice spat. He turned as he passed through the doorway, as though to get one last look at what he had wrought. "This has been most entertaining, but I have an entire world to conquer."

Malice's many hands closed inward, forming a cocoon around Applejack that quickly disappeared beneath her coat. It was now Applejack's own eyes that met Pinkie's, and Applejack's voice which said, "goodbye, old friends..."

One strong buck against the door frame caused the entire structure to buckle. The upper floor collapsed with a raucous clatter, producing an impenetrable wall of flaming debris that barred their only means of escape.

"What do we do now!?" Pinkie yelled over the din of the roaring fire that surrounded them. "Twilight! Can't you teleport us out of here!?"

Twilight concentrated as though to summon a teleportation spell, but it was no use. She shook her head. "No... He must have hit me with my own spell, but... how?"

Pinkie turned her attention to Rainbow Dash, who was trying to jar Fluttershy back to consciousness. The smoke was, by now, so thick that they were barely visible mere yards away. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy! cough cough Wake up! cough We gotta go!"

Fluttershy stirred briefly, but her eyes did not open. "'S so... warm..." she muttered.

A crack like thunder shot out of the ceiling, just as the second story floor split open. Pinkie managed one last glimpse of her friends before an uproarious avalanche of burning rubble fell between them.

"NO!" she screamed. "RAINBOW DASH! FLUTTERSHY!" She wanted to run to it, dig down into the debris, and break down the wall. She knew if she did that, she would surely burn away, but that didn't matter to her in that moment. As she braced herself for a charge against the wall, but Twilight held her back.

"Pinkie!" she shouted, straining to be heard over the inferno. "We have to get out of here, right now!"

"NO!" Pinkie cried again. "I CAN STILL SAVE THEM!"

"No you can't, Pinkie! LOOK!" Twilight twisted Pinkie's head upwards. A spider-webbed pattern of fissures and cracks spread across the ceiling, as bits of wood and luminous embers showered down on them from above. It was as though the house were intending to swallow them whole. "This whole structure's going to collapse! We have to get out of here!"

In that moment, Pinkie didn't care if she lived or died. She studied the ceiling blankly, instead wondering how much it would hurt, and whether or not she'd be reunited with her friends in the afterlife.

"Pinkie! That window! We have to jump through that window!" Pinkie stared blankly at the wall, but Twilight shook her violently. "DO YOU SEE THE WINDOW!?"

That jarred Pinkie from her trance. The window seemed high, but Pinkie was a good jumper. She glanced over at the burning wall of wreckage one last time, but Twilight smacked her just hard enough to snap her out of it. "NOW, Pinkie!"

The flames were now closing in from all directions. In seconds, it would engulf them both. Grounding her attention, Pinkie shifted all of her weight onto her hind legs and jumped as hard as she could. With so much adrenaline coursing through her veins, she hadn't taken any time to predict the arc of her jump - she just let her body guide itself.

At least her body seemed to know where it was going. Pinkie's head reflexively cocked to the side as she crashed into the window, hitting it square on with her shoulder. The pane burst into a million tiny fragments that settled into her coat like sand, but left her otherwise unscathed.

Thudding to the ground on all fours with Twilight close in tow, the two of them scrambled away from the burning house. The horizon was consumed by a raging forest fire that transformed the night into a hellish day, though at least one part of the tree line appeared safe for the time being.

Twilight kept running even after they'd made it relative safety, but Pinkie simply couldn't bring herself to keep moving so far away from her friends. "Wait!" she cried.

"We can't! We have to get out of here!"

Pinkie leaped onto Twilight, tackling her to the ground. "NO! We can't just leave! They might still be in there!"

"UGH! No, Pinkie! I know you want them to be, but-"

"-DON'T SAY THAT!" Pinkie's eyes swelled with tears, and she didn't care that she was screaming at the top of her lungs. "THEY WOULDN'T GIVE UP ON US!"

"THEY'RE GONE!" Twilight shouted back. "It won't do anypony any good if we died with them! We have to get back to Canterlot and tell the Princess what happened, or all of this will be for nothing!"

"You're wrong, Twilight! They're both still in there! We have to save them! We need to stick together - all of us - or Malice is gonna win!"

Twilight climbed to her hooves. "Pinkie! Look around you! There's nothing there!"

Pinkie turned in place. Fluttershy's home had been completely engulfed by flame along with all of the once lush landscape surrounding it. "No!" she sobbed. "No! It's not... It's just not possible!"

She crashed to the ground. "NO!" she screamed, over and over again, pounding at the ground with her hooves. "Please don't let them be... There's already been too much of that! Please let them be okay!"

The hill groaned as though it were some living beast, just before the blazing heap at the top collapsed in on itself. That was the tipping point where Pinkie could no longer bear witness. She crossed her forelegs and buried her face deep inside it, sobbing relentlessly.

All she could do was listen as the roar of the flames reached a crescendo, then burst with a mighty KABOOM. A wave of warmth washed over her, but it provided no solace.

"Oh!" Twilight gasped. "Pinkie! Look!"

"I can't, Twilight," she sobbed. "I just can't!"

"You'll want to!"

Pinkie allowed herself one last glimpse, but where there had once been a great pyre marking the final resting spot of two of her closest friends, there now sat a large pit dug into the landscape. The remnants of a rainbow light faded into the night, along with the last bits of flaming debris that arced through the chilly night time air.

Although they were distant, it was unmistakable to Pinkie Pie: At the bottom of the crater, Rainbow Dash stood there in stunned silence, guarding over the unconscious - yet still alive - Fluttershy.

Somehow, Rainbow Dash had done it again.

Somehow, they were safe.

As the Fire Burns

There was not a part of Pinkie's body that wasn't blistered, burned, bruised, battered, or otherwise broken in some way. To make matters worse, her awareness of how much everything hurt only increased as the adrenaline wore off. However, seeing Rainbow Dash alive and well made her forget about all of that. Trampling down the hill towards her friends, it was possible she'd never run so fast a day in her life.

"DASHIE!" she'd cried, tackling her friend to the ground.

"Oh! Ugh! Hi... Pinkie..." Rainbow Dash struggled to breathe with Pinkie's forelegs wrapped so tightly around her chest, but she didn't offer any resistance. "Uh, good to see you too..."

The excitement just poured out of her. "Dashie! That was... well, I didn't actually see! What'd you do, huh!? Was it that rainbow thing!? Oh, do it again! Can you!? Do the rainbow thing! DO THE RAINBOW THING!"

"Um... I don't... It was like last time - I don't actually know how that happened."

Twilight materialized next to them in a burst of magic light. By the light of that still-raging inferno that engulfed the vale, Pinkie could see the conflicting mixture of worry and elation on her face. "Rainbow! I... I don't really know what to say! I'm just-" the crack of a tree falling not so far away made them all jump "-Uh, perhaps we should get back to Canterlot sooner rather than later."

Rainbow Dash patted Fluttershy's mane. "Let's get her to safety, first."

Twilight nodded in agreement, engulfing her friends in an orb of pink light.

They first stopped at Canterlot Clinic. The nursing staff seemed livid when Twilight and her company reappeared in the lobby. "Perhaps we should just suspend our ambulance services and let you bring in all of our patients, Twilight Sparkle," one of them deadpanned. "You seem to have no trouble finding them for us."

With a nervous laugh, Twilight vanished once more with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, leaving Fluttershy propped up in one of the waiting chairs. Re-appearing in the palace atrium without their guards had taken the night watch by surprise.

"HALT!" they shouted, quickly surrounding Twilight and her friends. Fortunately, Shining Armor was among them.

"T-Twily?" he asked, bewildered.

"Oh, hi..." she greeted hastily, ignoring the aggressive stance that the rest of the guards had collectively assumed. "We need to see the princess at once!"

"She's in the sun room, but what-"

"-No time to explain. Gotta go!" Twilight wasted no time before galloping off - Pinkie and Rainbow Dash in tow - darting past the guards with little regard. "Let them go!" Shining Armor commanded.

Both of the royal sisters were wide awake, apparently awaiting the ponies' return. Although apparently in the midst of conversation, Luna was quick to trail off and approach the company right as they returned - her eyes betraying her complete and utter shock.

"Sister, take heed! Look who's come back to us," she declared heartily as she crossed the chamber. Stopping before Twilight, she greeted them all at once with a courteous bow.

Princess Celestia turned in place as her sister trotted by. "Rainbow Dash! You have returned to us!" She took up her place at her sister's side, repeating the gesture. "I am so glad to see you, again. But where is Applejack? Is she-?"

The uneasy glance that Pinkie and Twilight exchanged was all of the confirmation that Celestia needed. "-I see. Well, what of Rarity and Fluttershy?"

Pinkie and Twilight each tried to tell the story over one another while Rainbow Dash covered her ears to shut out the din. "Girls, girls!" the princess pleaded, "Please. One at a time! Twilight, you can report first."

So, one after the other, Pinkie and Twilight relayed their own accountings of the whole sordid affair. Although there was much to be happy about, Princess Celestia was devastated by the news of what had befallen Ponyville. Much to Pinkie's surprise, she hung her head, and sobbed quietly.

"P-Princess!?" Pinkie had never seen her cry. She hadn't actually considered that the benevolent ruler of a nation would feel such emotion.

Luna rushed to her sister's side, placing a tender wing around her.

"I deeply regret not acting sooner," Celestia admitted woefully. "Those ponies deserved better. I wanted to protect them, but in not acting I let them down..."

"My sister," said Luna in a delicate tone. "You have lived long, and grown wise, but not even a princess is perfect. It was a mistake, but it is one for which Malice - not you - will be held accountable."

Celestia nodded hesitantly, drying her tears. "I was afraid... I was afraid that if we stationed guard units in Ponyville, that it would do more harm than good. I didn't want to put my subjects at risk, but that's exactly what I ended up doing. Now I see the folly of that mistake, which has cost the lives of so many."

Her manner shifted suddenly, as the weight sadness in her voice gave way to steely resolve - perhaps even anger. "I shall not err on such caution again. Malice will pay for what he's done! We will send units out at first light to guard over the rest of Ponyville, Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and any other cities for which we can spare the resources!"

"Is Cloudsdale in danger!?" cried Rainbow Dash. "If that monster so much as looks at Cloudsdale, I'm gonna-"

"-Easy, Rainbow," Twilight hushed.

"We have not received word that Cloudsdale, or any other jurisdiction of Equestria is in imminent danger, aside from Ponyville itself, which I shall seek to remedy immediately. Sister: Would you please notify the guard? They are to assemble a unit to march immediately for Ponyville. I am henceforth instituting martial law for that region."

Luna nodded and, without another word, headed for the door. Before she could leave, Twilight held up her hoof. "Wait!" she called. "C-can you please send a weather team to put out that fire? Fluttershy wouldn't want any more animals to die, and the fire could spread to Ponyville if we let it. There's been enough death!"

"Very well, Twilight," Celestia agreed before telling her sister, "do it."

"Yes, big sister. We shall reconvene in the morning!"

When Luna was gone, Celestia turned to Twilight. "You have taken on far more responsibility in this matter than I initially sought to place upon you. I'm grateful for your initiative, but you deserve a night's rest. You may hold off on your research until the morning light if you please. Actually, I encourage it."

"I appreciate that, Princess, but I really should be getting back to the archives. I have tracked down the collective writings of Galloping Graymane, the reknowned travelling historian. His writings suggest he had an encounter with Malice - though he called it the 'walking shadow' - some time after you banished him! I think the answer to why might be in those books."

The princess nodded reluctantly. "Very well, Twilight. I have learned I cannot keep such a faithful student from her studies."

"Thank you, Princess." Twilight bowed, then took her leave - though not before stopping to say goodbye to her friends. "Pinkie, you did amazing tonight. Thank you for everything! And Rainbow? I'm so glad you're back!"

"Well, then," sighed the princess once Twilight had left. "What say you, Pinkie? Is there more work you'd like to do as well?"

Pinkie examined herself, recoiling at the sight of how messy she looked. Patches of hair had been singed off; her hooves were cracked and aching; and her mane seemed to be in tangles. "Actually, all I want right now is a bath!"

"Very well," the princess chortled. "And what say you, Rainbow Dash?"

"I... I'm not really sure I'm gonna be able to sleep so well tonight, Princess. This all happened way too fast!"

"I understand. If you would come with me, please, perhaps I can help."

With long, graceful strides, the princess led Pinkie and Rainbow Dash to the chambers. She stopped outside of the room in which Pinkie had stayed for a month following her first encounter with Malice. "You may share this room with Pinkie for as long as is necessary," she offered.

"She remembers well what it was like to be in your position; you can surely rely on her to understand what you are feeling. I shall return tomorrow to discuss the events of this night in more detail, but for now you should rest. Sleep well, my little ponies."

The doors to the bedroom opened by the power of Celestia's magic. After paying their respects, Princess Celestia departed through the grand doors at the end of the hall.

Once they had closed the doors behind them, Rainbow Dash slumped to the floor.

"Dashie? Are you okay?"

"How did you do it, Pinkie?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"I mean... How did you go through this? I... I didn't want to say anything, because the princess already has enough things going on, but I still feel... really weird."

"Like everything that happened was a bad, bad dream that you just can't stop thinking about?" Rainbow Dash nodded. "Like it's a giant weight you just can't stop carrying around?" she nodded again. "Like you're not totally sure who you are, anymore?" This time, Rainbow merely stared at the ground.

Pinkie put her foreleg around Rainbow's shoulder, helping her stand up again and escorting her over to the bed. Sitting down on its edge, she tried to cheer Rainbow up with her biggest, brightest smile. "It gets better once you have your friends back with you!"

Rainbow mulled that over. "You know, after you- I mean... after he hurt me that first time, I felt very similar to how I feel now. Fluttershy told me the same thing you're telling me now, and she was right..."

Pinkie nodded. "You see-?"

"-But," she added, "it's different this time, because I wasn't the one who got hurt. I was the one who hurt them..." Pinkie could see her eyes welling with tears. "Pinkie... I saw them... I heard them scream! I just... I watched myself try to kill Fluttershy, and you! Every time I hurt... it was like a part of me died inside... I never meant to... I never wanted..."

Rainbow threw her forelegs around Pinkie and sobbed into her shoulder, and although Pinkie felt bad for her anguishishing friend, it wasn't nearly as difficult as not knowing the word to make her see that she was going to be alright in the end.

***

Pinkie awoke late the next day, feeling much rested after her bath and a good night's sleep. Rainbow Dash had already left by then - presumably to seek out Princess Celestia. Pinkie hoped that she was as forthcoming with the princess as she'd been with Pinkie the night before.

She considered helping Twilight in the library, but when she saw what a beautiful day awaited her outside, she decided that Twilight would probably do well enough on her own. Pinkie also considered that Twilight probably didn't need enabling if she'd stayed awake the entire night, anyway.

It was the perfect opportunity to go visit Fluttershy!

Giddily, she made her way outside to the gates below, where she flagged down a guard to let her through. In a blur of dark fur and piercing, golden eyes, Night Rider swooped down from the ramparts to offer up his greetings.

"They sure didn't waste any time putting you to work, did they?" Pinkie asked.

"Well, four guards went out and I was the only one who came back in one piece, so I guess you could say they were a little short hoofed," he shrugged. "How are you doing, anyway?"

"Everything still hurts!" Pinkie exclaimed. "But at least we got Dashie back. H-How's, uh... You know." She was referring to Sentinel Spark and Stormy, but somehow couldn't bring herself to mention it directly. Just the thought of what happened to them both sent shivers down her spine.

Night Rider looked away uncomfortably. "Well, Stormy's alive and awake, but his horn is gone and they won't be able to re-attach. They managed to remove the lump and graft over everything else, so he'll heal up to look relatively normal. He'll still be a member of the guard, but he'll never use magic again.

"Sparky's still in critical condition. Last time I was there, the doctors said he'd make it, but he won't be back to health for a while. It'll be a miracle if he does heal up fully, though; I'm afraid his days on the guard are over. Still, if you see Twilight, tell her she saved his life, and we are all very grateful!"

"Okay," Pinkie said, nodding. "I will!".

A cool fall breeze blew by, carrying with it the scents of pumpkin and spice from the commercial district just outside the gate. It helped lift her spirits, but what had really made her happy was knowing that, even though damage had been done, at least the news from Canterlot Clinic wasn't all bad.

She had begun to reflect on how silly it was that all it took to constitute "good" news these days was word that somepony did not die, when Rider asked her, "so, where are you headed?" The question was posed with part professionalism, but also part curiosity.

"Oh, I'm going to the clinic. Fluttershy got hurt, too."

"Oh, okay. Say, Pinkie. The changing of the guard is in a few minutes. Would you like to wait around for me, so I can walk you there?"

Pinkie mulled it over for a second. "Uuuummm... Okay, sure!"

"Great!" Night Rider took off back to his perch at the top of the gate, calling over his shoulder as he flew, "don't run off anywhere!"

Watching him fly away, Pinkie couldn't help but to smile.

In fact, she found it funny how much he'd opened up to her. When she met him, he had been so curt. Not so, since their return: He was more talkative than usual, nicer, perhaps even a bit jovial.

"I have to tell you, Pinkie: It's so good to get out of the palace and stretch my legs out. I'd been standing on that blasted wall since zero-dark-thirty."

Pinkie blinked. "Z-Zero, dark?"

He chuckled. "Really freakin' early."

"Oh!" She reflected briefly before deciding not to mention that she'd only woken up a couple of hours prior. Even then, it was only because she'd been awoken by Rainbow Dash, who'd wanted Pinkie by her side as she visited with the princesses.

"How's Rainbow Dash?" Night Rider asked, as though he could read her mind.

"Oh, um... She's good, I suppose. A bit confused. I know I was..."

Night Rider shrugged. "You were what?"

Oh, right. I never told him, she realized. "Uuuum, it's not really something I want to talk about too much."

Night Rider blushed. "Oh, okay. I won't pry, then!"

Pinkie dropped the subject quickly, but only because she was surprised by his response. "Are you blushing, mister!?" she teased.

That only made the dark brown coat around his cheeks turn an even brighter shade of maroon. "What can I say, Pinkie? Ever since yesterday, I've been thinking a lot about life. What we saw... it just goes to show you that you can't take anything for granted.

"Equestria's known peace and harmony for a thousand years, and I always thought it would continue for another thousand... But now we're seeing it fall apart all around us, and all I can think is how much I want to live." He stopped suddenly, and Pinkie nearly stumbled as she turned to see where he'd gone. He was scraping his hoof against the cobblestone road, his eyes distantly regarding the pebbles. "Isn't that silly?"

Pinkie trotted over to him and shook her head. "Nope! You're just like me. That's why I have so much fun! Well... used to. Things haven't been much fun ever since that big, bad meanie showed up.

"I used to throw parties for every pony in town because I just wanted to see them smile, smile, smile. It worked, most of the time! But even then, maybe I could have appreciated them just a teensy weensy bit more. I guess I'd feel that way no matter how much I appreciated them. Seeing them the way they were left like that... I don't think there's any way that doesn't make you think about things."

"I guess," Night Rider agreed before resuming his march alongside Pinkie. "I wonder if Day Break feels guilty," he mused.

Pinkie shook her head. "It wasn't his fault, Nighty-"

"-Ahem..."

"I mean, it wasn't his fault, Rider. M-Mal... He gets into your head, and it's almost like you know what's happening, b-but..." her voice quivered with fear at the mention, and she realized that this was why she didn't want to talk about it in the first place.

The words, however, poured on. "It feels like just another vivid nightmare. Like one you just c-can't wake up from. Sometimes you can see what you're doing, but you can never stop it... And when he makes you... you do th-things you don't want to do, it's like... It's... It's like..."

Night Rider extended his wing over Pinkie's back. The warm feathers pressed against her had a calming effect, almost like she was hiding within her childhood blanket. Her tears dried away, and she looked over at him while they walked. "Thank you," she whispered.

"I get it," he said authoritatively. "This is what we're up against, and I suppose I can accept that there are going to be casualties. I just never thought my friends would be among them." He sighed, looking up to the calm, blue sky. "I suppose we have to stick it out, and keep pressing onward. We have to do it for Sparky, and Stormy..."

His eyes met Pinkie's. "...and Applejack," he added.

***

Pinkie's visit to Fluttershy had been inconsequential, though mostly because of how little damage she'd actually sustained. In fact, barring anything unforseen, Fluttershy was cleared for release the very next day. She was, however, genuinely awestruck when Pinkie had told her the full tale of what had happened after she lost consciousness.

"Wow... Did you really fight off Rainbow Dash all by yourself, just to keep me safe?"

Pinkie shrugged. She didn't want to think of it that way. It was Malice who influenced Dashie's actions, so if anything she was fighting him. That only seemed to impress Fluttershy even more.

"Oh please, oh please don't feel like you owe me anything, Fluttershy!" Pinkie pleaded. "I know you'd have done the same!"

After Fluttershy's release, Pinkie'd had no need to visit the clinic. She did, however, continue her visits to the gate, on the chance that Night Rider was there.

Over the next few days, they'd shared similar walks about the garden, reflecting on what it meant to be alive and at peace. During their walks, Malice would become an afterthought. It became easier and easier to disregard the weightiness of the situation outside of Canterlot, especially as the moon continued to rise in the daytime sky.

In fact, the effects of the impending eclipse were clear from her recent explorations around the city. Even though word of the disaster in Ponyville had spread through the captial like wildfire, there was a remarkable persistence in the day-to-day goings on that made the trouble seem so far away. It was as though the citizens - stuffy and regal as they were - seemed buoyed by optimism and renewed faith in themselves, and one another.

Rainbow Dash continued to seek out Pinkie's company, and the two bonded over shared experience. Dashie's mood had improved dramatically since she'd come back, which was likely a product of her conversations with Luna, Celestia, and Pinkie herself.

Furthermore, she'd begun to recall facts about Malice that the princesses would surely find useful: His presence had scarcely extended outside of Ponyville; he did not appear to be ready, or willing to spread himself thin.

Pinkie overheard the princess declare this to be an advantage, dispatching guard units to surrounding townships and municipalities. "We will not allow another Ponyville-level takeover!"

Despite the action, word of progress reached Canterlot slowly. No pony was allowed in or out of towns under martial law, and any who appeared influenced by Malice were placed under immediate quarantine for observation by some of Canterlot's brightest magisters.

For Pinkie's own part, there was little she felt she could actually do. Twilight had all but barred herself within the archives, receiving occasional help from her brother and the princesses themselves. Pinkie's previous attempts to help usually ended in her frustrated at the dearth of information relevant to Malice himself.

Her routine had received a shake-up the following week, when Night Rider disappeared on an assignment. Pinkie didn't know where he'd gone, or what he was up to, but no longer being able to carry on their conversations reminded her of how lonely Canterlot was with everypony else so busy.

Feeling frustrated, she went to Princess Celestia. "Everypony is doing something, but I don't think I can do anything to help! I feel so useless, just waiting for something to happen."

"Now, Pinkie. You know you are far from useless. Your positivity and optimism is surely helping to hold us all together in these troubled times. Would you like for me to let you in on something?"

Pinkie was perplexed. "Oh, um... sure, Princess!"

Celestia smiled. "Rainbow Dash came to me just the other day. She said that you have helped her to recover more than most. Just by being there, and being a good friend, you are making a world of difference! You see, you have matured so much in these recent weeks, and I cannot express my pride in you enough!"

Were it not for her pink coat, the princess might have seen her blushing. "Oh! Well thanks, Princess! I-I guess I didn't really think of it that way!"

"It is my pleasure to help, Pinkie. Now, if you do not mind, I would like to ask a question about a personal matter. Actually, somepony in particular."

Pinkie was taken aback. Since when did the eldest ruler of all Equestria take an interest in her social life? For a second she was afraid the princess might call attention to all of the time she'd been spending with Night Rider, but that was quickly put to rest when she said, "Let's talk about Twilight."

"T-Twilight? Oh, okay. I'm not sure what I could say that you don't know already."

"I have noticed she has all but moved into the Palace Archives with her brother. The two of them have been spending long nights poring over old scrolls."

Pinkie reacted with a puzzled expression. "Isn't that what you wanted her to do?"

"Indeed it is," she agreed. "But I wanted your opinion on the matter."

"She's, uh... She's working really hard, I guess. Um, forgive me, Princess, but I'm not entirely sure what you're asking," Pinkie admitted.

"Oh, forgive me. I'm trying too hard not to be blunt, again! I suppose I'm mostly inquiring about her leadership. How do you feel she has adapted to this mission? Do you feel as though she's entrusted you with enough responsibility?"

"Oh, uh... Well I guess I never really thought of that, Princess." Pinkie studied the wall as she thought deeply. "It's not like she's made me feel useless or anything, if that's what you're asking. Actually, ever since I've been back, Twilight has been keeping all of us together. It isn't easy knowing a baddie like Malice is out there, but having Twilight there keeps us from... I guess, from losing it, really."

She paused to let the princess speak, but Celestia calmly waited for her to continue. Perhaps she'd sensed that there was more, and as Pinkie delved inward, she reflected on just how more there was. "It's like at the farm... How long's it been? Half a month!? I still can't forget how she helped me. No... saved me! Princess, I wouldn't be here if she hadn't been there - Malice was going to take me, too.

"And then, even after all of that, when I thought Dashie and Flutters were goners... she wouldn't let me join them. She pulled me out of there when I didn't think... that I'd make it. She was so... smart!"

She thought back to her previous interactions with Twilight. "I guess all I can say is that... well, she's a true, true friend! She doesn't give up on me, or anypony else. She never gave up on Rainbow Dash, and she still hasn't given up on Applejack. If it were me, she wouldn't give up either."

Their eyes met, but it seemed as though the princess was seeing past Pinkie's bright blue eyes, delving directly into her deepest thoughts. So long was the silence, that Pinkie started to worry. "Uh, Princess? Is that-"

Celestia nodded suddenly. "-Yes, Pinkie. Indeed, you have given me much to think about. I shall need these next few days to meditate. If you should need me, please seek out Shining Armor. He will relay your message."

Pinkie flustered. "Oh, okay! But, uh... Princess? May I ask why?"

"All will make sense in time, Pinkie. Genuinely... thank you." Princess Celestia bowed, leaving Pinkie aghast. With no other obvious recourse, she returned the gesture before exiting the chamber swiftly.

Graduation Day

Pinkie made an honest effort to sleep on Celestia's impromptu questions about Twilight's leadership. However, something about the encounter had bothered her. It wasn't until well after she'd resolved to not think about it any more that it hit her.

Why had the princess seemed so distressed?

Her eyes opened again, and as she sat up she saw Rainbow Dash sleeping soundly next to her. Lucky, Pinkie thought bitterly, wishing she could sleep so easily. She stared down at the covers musing on what was about to happen.

The eclipse was coming: The sun and moon grew closer together with every passing day. Princess Luna had - at least for now - shed her role as overseer of the night, instead running Equestria side-by-side with her sister. Pinkie supposed the sight of both princesses would galvanize the citizens of Canterlot, but with so many distractions and the gates remaining ever-closed, it was as though nothing had changed.

In fact, Princess Celestia seemed more preoccupied than ever. It was the first time Pinkie had seen Equestria's fearless leader show so much vulnerability, though she refused to call it weakness.

But what if it was weakness?

Princess Celestia was not perfect - that much had become clear. Was Malice somehow behind all of this? Pulling the strings of one of the most powerful ponies to ever live? Where was he, and why hadn't he made his move since their encounter with him in Ponyville?

It was like he was biding his time. Waiting for the opportune moment.

She held onto that thought as her eyes closed.

"Wake up," whispered a voice next to her.

Her eyes shot open. "Dashie?" she gasped. She shook the lump in the bed next to her, but it was empty space beneath the covers. Rainbow Dash was gone.

Her heart was pounding. She looked around the room, but saw nothing. She decided that it was her mind playing tricks on her.

Thump, thump.

A sound like a heartbeat reverberated through the chamber doors. It might have been a knock, but who would come visiting at this hour of the night?

Thump, thump.

The sound rattled in Pinkie's teeth. She quickly climbed down from the bed, placing it safely between her and the door.

Thump, thump.

The beat was too distant to be a doorknock. Peeking around the corner, she satisfied herself that she was still alone. "What would Twilight do?" she muttered to herself.

"She'd follow," the voice whispered between heartbeats.

Gulping, Pinkie steeled herself, approaching the doors with caution. Cracking them just wide enough to see through, she peeked out into the main hallway. Surely enough, there was no sign of activity.

Thump, thump.

The sound was coming from outside the chambers.

"Hello!?" Pinkie cried.

"Come see..." said the voice, once more. It was behind her.

There was a thud behind her as the door slammed shut on its own. Jumping in place, Pinkie twisted around to see that a curtain of shadow had fallen over it - barring her path. "Malice..." she snarled.

"But of course. Surely you could not think I had forgotten you. We worked so well together, you and I."

"Keep telling yourself that!" Pinkie yelled.

"I do not have to. It has already begun..."

The shadow disappeared.

"Yeah! You'd better run!"

Thump, thump.

Pinkie cringed. She knew that wherever that sound was coming from, the chances of it being good were displeasingly small. Nonetheless, she felt compelled to follow the sound out into the palace atrium.

The horizon beyond glowed red under the night sky.

"Oh, no..." Pinkie's heart nearly stopped. Through the columns, she could see the fire was coming from the city of Canterlot. Its ivory spires were alight, the warm air carrying screams of terror from the streets beyond.

A lone figure guarded the way, staring out over the burning city of Canterlot. The princess? No. This one was too small. A pegasus, perhaps - silhouetted against the blaze, wings spread taking in radiant heat from the violent inferno raging beyond the palace walls.

Thump, thump.

Pinkie knew now - the heartbeat belonged to it.

Thump, thump.

Its pace quickened as Pinkie approached the figure, step by step, yet she could not tell who it was, even as she tapped it on the shoulder. It was Twilight who turned her head, grinning maliciously at Pinkie, who recoiled in fear.

Thump, thump.

"Do you understand now?" Malice asked, using Twilight as her mouthpiece. "Remember well: 'It doesn't matter what you do, child. Any effort you put forth to stop me would only serve to make you desperate, and in your desperation you will lose everything you hold dear.'"

"Wh-why!?" Pinkie cried. "Why are you doing this!?"

Thump, thump.

"This will serve as your awakening. Your true purpose is to serve, and you will..."

Thump, thump.

"My friends will never do what you want!"

Thump, thump.

"Not me..." Malice intoned with a chuckle beneath his voice."You will serve her..."

Thump, thump.

"What!?"

Thump, thump.

"Wake up." Malice grinned through Twilight's face, breaking out into mad laughter as the fire outside the palace stretched towards the sky. "Wake up to the inevitability of your own failure and submit, or you will all perish!"

Thump, thump.

Pinkie grabbed a hold of Twilight and shook her, as though it would serve free her. "Twilight! Twilight, fight it! If anypony can, it's you!"

Twilight only laughed. "You're so pathetic, Pinkie! Fighting is useless, don't you see?You honestly believe that fighting is the answer? Well, then fight. Fight, and die! Fight, and die!"

"Twilight!" Pinkie cried, tears filling her eyes. "Twilight, no! Please! We need you!"

"Wake up! Fight, and die, Pinkie! Pinkie! Wake up!"

"Pinkie! Wake up! Pinkie!"

Pinkie opened her eyes, peeling back the caked-on layer of tears that had formed beneath her eyelids. Rainbow Dash stood over her, muzzle inches from her own. "Pinkie, thank goodness. I was so worried!"

"Wha-what happened?" Pinkie asked, her own voice quivering.

"I could ask you the same question... You were crying in your sleep, and then screaming. It sounded like..." her voice trailed off. "Oh..."

Pinkie scanned the room frantically. There was no sign of anything wrong, but the nightmare from which she'd awoken felt so real. And yet sunlight streamed in through the high windows, and the distant melodies of chirping song birds heralded the new day.

"I don't understand," Pinkie admitted. "It felt like M-Mal... like, he was reaching out to me again. It's like he wanted to send me another message."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I thought that shield Twilight's brother was casting would keep him away from Canterlot."

Pinkie shook her head. "I don't know if that was him... I just saw... things. It's hard to explain."

"What'd you see, Pinkie? Tell me."

"Canterlot... Canterlot was burning, and Twilight... Twilight was watching it happen."

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Well then it must have just been a dream. Twilight would never let that bully get that close. I believe in her, and so should you!"

Pinkie nodded reluctantly. She knew Rainbow's bravado when she saw it, but at that moment a little blind confidence was welcome. Besides, she didn't need to worry any more or she feared she might give herself a heart attack.

"I think I'm gonna go find her," Pinkie said. "Do you want to come with me?"

Rainbow Dash thought about it for a moment. "You know, I'd love to, but I've got training to get to."

"'Training'?" Pinkie asked. "What training?"

Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest. "I've been meeting with Shining Armor to practice my, uh... fighting style! You know? In case we need it..."

Pinkie thought back to their scuffle in Fluttershy's living room. "I'm not sure you need to practice that, Dashie," she offered with an uneasy grin.

Dash blushed. "That was different, then. It wasn't me, and I wasn't exactly trying to take you prisoner... What I'm learning now might actually save lives. Twilight's brother is teaching me how to take down the attacker without hurting them too bad. I'd like to say it's easy, but..." She turned sideways and pointed at a large bruse that extended the length of her back. "It's hard work!"

Pinkie blinked. "Wow, Dashie... Just make sure you don't hurt yourself. Okay?"

Rainbow Dash gallantly chuckled, before nuzzling Pinkie lightly on the forehead. "Thanks for caring, Pinks! I'll be fine. I promise!" She winked reassuringly before rounding the bed and heading for the door.

Watching her leave, Pinkie decided she would go visit Twilight alone.

***

Some combination of the high ceiling, the labyrinthine network of aisles between the shelves, and the rows upon rows of books that stacked for as far as the eye could see still made Pinkie deeply uneasy. Fortunately, she didn't have to travel far to find Twilight. She was studying at her workstation in the library's center, which had expanded considerably since the last time Pinkie had seen it.

For one thing, Twilight had somehow convinced the princess to allow a proper cot on which Twilight could sleep when she was not studying. For another, multiple tables had been stacked next to each other, with books piled as high as the shelves surrounding them.

Suspended in a warm, lavender glow of magic, two lamps hovered in the air directly overhead. They cast their light down upon the parchment on which Twilight so hastily scratched.

She didn't seem aware that Pinkie was right behind her.

"Hi, Twilight!" Pinkie cheered - her voice carried much farther than she thought it would, echoing from the rafters and coming back to her ears a time or two more. Twilight jumped with a start, letting the lanterns slam down onto the table - their magical glow extinguished.

"Oh, uh... hi, Pinkie."

"H-How are y-I'm sorry I startled you..." Pinkie trailed off, suddenly feeling out of her depth.

"I've been better, but then again, I've been worse." Twilight said cautiously. "Are you okay? You sound worried!"

Pinkie thought back to her nightmare. Her gaze dropped to Twilight's wingless flank. She doesn't even have wings, silly, she thought. Suddenly faking a very large smile, she bounced in place, chirping "Oh, no! I'm right as rain, yup! Nothing wrong with me!"

Twilight's face skewed with suspicion, but she inevitably shrugged and turned back to her table. "Well, thanks for stopping by Pinkie, but I really gotta get back to these books."

Pinkie hopped over to the the side of the table and pressed her face close to Twilight's. "Oh yeah!? Whatcha readin', huh?"

Twilight backed away slowly. "I'm, uh... I'm still looking through the works of Galloping Graymane. I didn't realize how prolific he was - his writings cover over 1,200 years of Equestrian history - and I've only spotted seven mentions of Malice in the more than 50 books of his that I've read... It's a little frustrating."

"Oh, cool..." Pinkie said, suddenly overtly self-conscious about how unhelpful she was feeling. "Uuuuum, have you tried that one?" she jabbed her hoof at a random book in the pile.

Twilight sighed in mild frustration. "Only about a dozen times. If there were any useful books here, I'd have found it."

As Twilight returned to her writing, Pinkie bounced over to the desk and carefully removed it from the stack. She'd done a good job of keeping the books from toppling over - at least for a few seconds. Twilight looked at the stack just before it came tumbling down on top of them. "AIEE!" they both shrieked, suddenly buried beneath a pile of leather and parchment.

"Pinkie!" Twilight growled as she magically directed the books back to where they were. "This is important! And I know you want to help, but right now you're just getting in the way!"

The words stung. "Oh, okay, Twilight... I'm sorry." Her words were muffled around the book she was still clutching loosely in her muzzle. Slinking away, she sat down on a cushion at the other end of the junction.

She spat the book out onto the ground, and examined its cover. It was titled The Spirits of Equestria: Discord, Anarchy, and Nihilism - A History by Galloping Graymane. "'Spirits of Equestria'. Twilight? Are you sure there's nothing in here?"

"I'm sure, Pinkie. I've already read it. Malice isn't even mentioned once."

Pinkie opened to the first page and read aloud, in a voice meant to mimic that of an elder stallion. "Little study has been made into the histories of the three dark spirits: Discord, Anarchy, and Neigh... Nigh... Neeh-"

"-Nihilism," Twilight corrected.

"Oh, yeah... Ahem" shifting back into her elder voice, she continued. "Where did they come from? Why did they come here? And why does only one remain? It is thought that these-"

"-Pinkie?"

"Yes, Twilight?"

"Can you read that quietly, please?"

"Oh... Okay! It was boring anyway..."

She flipped through to a random page. Previous evidence suggests that the three were brothers, but a great struggle between them left only one standing. Although no pony has witnessed the conflict directly, the place where it is widely believed that blah, blah, blah, boring stuff, boring stuff, blah, blah... She flipped the page, "Huh. Well that's weird."

"What?"

"These two pages are stuck together."

Twilight stood up and impatiently stomped over to where Pinkie sat. "What are you talking about? I read this book back to front. There was no-oh!"

Pinkie tilted her head. "What?"

Twilight snatched the book from Pinkie and pried the pages apart with her magic. "These old books get stuck sometimes. I never noticed this one because there are no words on these pages. It's a picture!"

"Oooh! I love pictures! Let me see!"

Twilight hesitated. "I wonder what this could mean..."

"I wanna see! I wanna see!"

At last, Twilight handed Pinkie the book. It was a sketch of what the caption noted was an old mural found in some temple somewhere. Pinkie recognized Discord easily enough, but he was shown with two other, similar looking creatures.

One had the face of a lion rather than a horse, and the other had a beak like a griffon, but all three had long, slender bodies like Discord's. Aside from the upper torso, it seemed as though none of the brothers shared a single part in common.

What must have drawn Twilight's attention was the way they were arranged. Each one had a hoof, or claw, or talon, or paw extending outward towards each of the other, but it was not clear if each was trying to strike down the other, or unite in solidarity.

Knowing Discord, probably not the nice one, Pinkie decided.

At the center of the loose circle was a solid circle, inked in with solid black. Protruding from it at odd angles were 13 long, spindly spokes bent at all sorts of unnatural angles. "That's got to be Malice, right?" Pinkie asked, gesturing at the shape.

Twilight squinted at the sketch. "It's hard to tell. Look at the weathering around these edges, and the center is blank. Like, whatever Greymane was sketching this from had the center ripped out... Maybe that's why he wasn't mentioned. We've seen Malice a lot more than Greymane did... It would fit, I think... But what does it mean?"

"Maybe Discord and Malice didn't get along..." Pinkie wondered. Twilight puzzled this over while Pinkie turned her attention back to the sketch. "Who are these other, uh, 'spirits'?"

"Discord had two brothers apparently," Twilight explained. "I'm not sure what happened to them, but they aren't mentioned in any of the other texts. It's like they just vanished."

"Why?"

"I don't know..." she groaned, turning her attention sharply to the page in question. "But I know someone who might."

Pinkie grimmaced. "You mean-"

"-I'm afraid so..." Twilight sighed heavily.

"Oh," Pinkie sighed. "The princess is not going to like this..."

***

Pinkie had expected the princess to be waiting in the Sun Room, but somewhere along the way they had been challenged by one of the guards.

"Where are you going?" asked a gruff earth pony in a gravelly voice.

Twilight was still clutching onto the Greymane book with her magic. She'd barely broken stride. "We need to see Princess Celestia, now." Without pause, she continued on her way.

"Wait!" commanded the guard. "Twilight Sparkle, you are heading the wrong way. The princess is waiting for you in the throne room."

"W-waiting for me?" Twilight stammered. "She never sent for me. How did she know I was coming?"

The guard nodded. "That is because I was on my way to the archives to retrieve you. Go to the throne room." He turned his attention to Pinkie "You must be Ms. Pie. Your presence has also been requested."

"M-Me!? But I-"

"I would go. It sounded important. Now, if you don't mind, I have to continue on my rounds." The guard trotted off briskly, leaving the two of them alone in the hallway.

"I wonder what she could want," Twilight mused.

"I don't know," Pinkie replied. "I wonder if it has anything to do with those questions the princess ask-"

"-The princess asked about me!?" Twilight yelped. "And you didn't think to lead with that!?"

"I, uh... didn't think it was impo-"

Twilight stopped in her tracks, shaking her head. "-Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no!"

"It's okay! I don't think you're in-"

"-I think I'm in trouble! Oh no... What if she doesn't think I was doing enough research? What if something happened, and it's my fault because I didn't stop it? What if-"

"-Twilight! Snap out of it!" Pinkie smacked her as hard as she dared. "Oh, no! Whoops. I'm sorry, Twilight! I don't know what got into me. Here, let me-"

Twilight blinked. "-No, you're right. No sense in getting ahead of myself." She sighed in resignation before continuing calmly. "Let's go get this over with..."

They spent the rest of their short walk to the throne room in complete silence. Twilight didn't ask for any more information about the questions Princess Celestia had posed to Pinkie, and Pinkie was content to just let the situation evolve on its own.

Before they entered through the grand double-door entrance to the throne room, Twilight realized she was still carrying the Greymane tome, bookmarked to the mural they had found. "Here, Pinkie. Hold on to this."

Pinkie had left her saddlebags in her room, and she didn't want that dusty, old, leather binding in her mouth again, so she decided to balance it atop her head. Twilight chuckled for the briefest moment, before suddenly steeling herself in her composure, and turning her magic onto the doors themselves.

Princess Celestia's regal voice was the first thing Pinkie heard. She was already speaking to some other pony in the room. "-very difficult, but you have helped make my decision that much easier. Thank you for assembling here, today."

Pinkie saw the princess at the end of the cavernous chamber, bathed in sunlight from the stained glass windows above. She was surrounded by her friends - all of them except for Applejack.

"Twilight Sparkle," the princess continued. "I am glad you have joined us! I wasn't expecting you so soon. Did you decide to visit me ahead of my summons?"

Twilight nodded. "Pinkie helped me see something I missed - a lead that might give us the information we need!"

"This is good, Twilight. We shall discuss it later. For now, there is a more pressing matter I must discuss with you. Gather 'round."

Twilight took her place next to the princess, with Pinkie staying by her side. She gently set the book down on the ground at her feet, and waved her hoof at Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity who were already forming a loose circle around the princess.

"It's nice to see everypony again!" Pinkie mused at her friends.

"Indeed it is," agreed Rarity. "I have been so dreadfully busy in town, raising bits to help restore Ponyville when all of this is over. Fluttershy's been a great help, too!"

Fluttershy nodded silently, but the smile on her face said all that needed to be said.

"Wait, don't start without me!" called a voice from the end of the throne room. It was swiftly accompanied by the patter of hooves on stone. It was Shining Armor, who skidded to a halt just at the edge of their formation, completing the circle.

"Hey, Twily."

"H-Hi!" she stammered. "This is... Well, I don't exactly know. Princess? What's going on?"

"Twilight, for many moons you have been my most faithful student. You have always been diligent in your studies, open minded in your pursuits, and - most of all - a true friend to everypony you meet. Under different circumstances, I would have been honored to retain you as my student for many moons more.

"Unfortunately, as you know, the situation outside of Canterlot is dire. I have sent out envoys to assess the details of the situation, but it appears that what happened to Ponyville is already beginning to manifest itself elsewhere. I'm afraid that, in light of all this, you have been forced to grow all too quickly.

"However, as your friends have informed me, you adapted to the challenge with the utmost strength and humility, and in doing so you have become an exemplar of all that which I have sought to instill since the beginning. I must conclude that there is nothing left for me to teach you, though I would stress that I will always be there if you need me."

Twilight looked thoroughly puzzled. "A-Are you saying that... That I'm not to be your student any more?" It was nearly imperceptible, but her voice was quivering underneath all of its confidence.

The princess patted Twilight gently with the underside of her wing. "I am saying that today is the day you graduate."

Celestia's horn flashed a brilliant white, just before the throne room fell away. Their group stood suspended in a field of stars, as though they had been far removed from their world and placed high in the night sky.

Pinkie craned her neck about every which way to take in the beauty, though she made no effort to understand where she was or what was happening. For Princess Celestia, she devoted all of her trust.

"Whoa..." Rainbow Dash whispered. "This is... awesome..."

"You ready, Twily?" Shining Armor beamed.

Twilight appeared to be as transfixed in her surroundings as Pinkie. Her brother jarred her back to. "R-Ready? Ready for what?"

It was the princess who answered. "Your destiny, Twilight. Look up."

All at once, every pony in the circle tilted their heads back. Pinkie watched as the stars themselves seemed to move through space, reforming in a new constellation: One of Twilight.

She was not alone, however. Other star-forms graced the night sky. First Pinkie, on the day they'd met. And then Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, and Fluttershy. It was as though the heavens were serving a reminder of their connection to one another.

When the stars showed Applejack, Pinkie felt as though it were a gut punch.

"You've come such a long, long way, Twilight," the princess reminded. "Despite your initial resistance to the idea of friendship, you set all of that aside and let others help you, and guide you. Together, you've rediscovered the Elements of Harmony, reunited me with my sister, and protected all of Equestria from the rule of chaos.

"Through all of that time, you've demonstrated charity, compassion, devotion, integrity, optimism, and of course, the leadership of a true princess."

Twilight gasped, along with everypony else. "A true... what?"

As though in response to her question, the stars flew down from the heavens - hundreds of twinkling lights, cocooning Twilight in a radiant gown for but a moment before bursting outward, casting Pinkie and her friends in their warmth.

And then Pinkie saw it.

Twilight had wings.

"Oh..." she gasped. "Twilight... Look!" Pinkie stroked one of the wings with her hoof, before it shot outward, startling her and knocking her to the ground. It was then that she realized they were back in the throne room.

Everyone else seemed just as shocked.

"Wow!" Fluttershy exclaimed.

"How magnificent!" was Rarity's contribution.

Rainbow Dash just stood wide-eyed - her jaw agape.

Shining Armor cheered. "Congratulations, little sis! You're a princess now."

Twilight studied her new limbs. "I'm still not sure I understand... How is this even possible?"

"You've always had the potential in you, Twilight. It is something I saw in you on the day we met. But to be a princess is to know incredible responsibility! With so much happening so quickly, you aptly demonstrated that responsibility more quickly than I could have imagined. It was then my decision to try you before the stars, and you were deemed worthy of the title.

"But understand that you are becoming a princess at a difficult time. You will need to remain strong against the tide of darkness that is coming. We will host a grand coronation, to formally announce you to the people of Canterlot. I believe this will uplift their spirits in time for the eclipse.

"With these measures, Malice will be at his weakest. Then, and only then, will we try to bring Applejack back into our fold. We shall recover the Elements of Harmony, and use them to end him once and for all!

"I will need you at the forefront in this fight. You are Equestria's greatest hope."

Twilight was speechless.

Shining Armor spoke instead. "We have some of the brightest magic wielders in the Canterlot Guard studying the Elements of Harmony now. I believe we may be able to reverse Malice's hold using a modified version of that aether spell the princess taught you."

Twilight was still speechless.

"Um, Twilight? Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked.

"Y-yeah... This was all just so fast. That's all. I mean, last night I was worried about which section of the archives I was going to find the most useful books in. Princess, are you sure I can handle this?"

Celestia nodded. "I would not have entrusted you with this responsibility if you couldn't."

All eyes were on Twilight. After a minute's pause, she cleared her throat. "Well then... I promise I won't let you down!"

Desperation

It took the palace three days to prepare for the grand coronation ceremony, and it was then that Pinkie realized just how much time had passed them by while they waited at Canterlot for word of what, if anything, was going to happen. Tomorrow was Nightmare Night, and Pinkie hadn't given it a second thought. Perhaps because of her relative isolation at Canterlot, the goings on of the city were unbeknownst to her.

Pinkie found it odd that this didn't bother her more. It was a testament to just how much things had changed that one of her favorite holidays was about to come and go, yet she hadn't even picked out a costume. She wondered what she would even have gone as. Dressing as anything seemed too silly against the weight of what was happening outside Canterlot's walls.

Not that she even knew what that was. Night Rider still had not returned from whatever assignment he'd been sent on, and Pinkie was beginning to worry. The last she heard, there were disappearences cropping up all over Equestria: Manehattan, Cloudsdale, Trottingham, and even Appleloosa. They seemed to be isolated incidents, but it was a worrying indication that Malice was moving much faster than they were.

And then there was Twilight - Equestria's newest princess, who had no idea what to do with the role. Pinkie had tried to console her to the fact that what everypony needed most was something to look forward to, and somepony to look up to. It seemed as though Twilight was destined to be that pony, but far from content with the role, Twilight was begining to panic more than a little herself.

"Pinkie, I don't know what to do with this," she had confided. "I'm no princess, but ponies keep bowing down before me like I'm their ruler... But I'm not!"

Pinkie didn't have any better ideas about what Celestia expected from Twilight, but there was always the hope that it would be made clear after the coronation. The palace gates were opened to the public for the first time in a moon, and Twilight would have no choice but to show the strength that Princess Celestia so aptly believed in.

The sun and moon kissed through the high windows of the attendance hall. The eclipse would also be tomorrow, on the same day as Nightmare Night. How fitting, Pinkie thought.

"Pinkie, focus!" Rainbow Dash cautioned with a light jab to the haunch. "The procession's gonna move without us!"

She shook her head free of the distraction overhead and focused on what lay in front of her. The flagbearing mares to either side of the aisle were already marching forward into the Royal Attendance Hall. She quickened pace to follow them with Rainbow Dash at her side, towing Rarity and Fluttershy behind them.

Colored light danced off the shimmering silver aisle runner, casting the hall in a rainbowesque glow. The fanfare of bugles off to either side of the aisle lent an air of grandeur to the proceedings, but it was Princess Celestia standing proudly at its end that drew the attention of dozens of Canterlot ponies who had attended to see the main event.

I wish Applejack could be here to see this... she reflected bittersweetly.

At least she had Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with her. After what she'd witnessed at the burning vale, Pinkie made sure that she'd never take her friends for granted ever again. Even with the celebration carrying on all around her, Pinkie reflected on just how close she'd come to losing them, only to get them back again in a brilliant flash of rainbow-stricken light.

The cheers and adulation of over a hundred Canterites brought Pinkie back to the present, as she trotted proudly along the aisle runner. The flags before her had parted, clearing her view of the platform at the end where Luna and Celestia stood proudly.

Twilight had yet to take the stage. She would be formally anounced by the royal sisters, and enter the stage bearing her crown. Unfortunately, she would not be seen with the Element of Magic on this day - the Canterlot Guard was still observing the elements, seeking to reverse Malice's dark spell.

Pinkie climbed the stage, taking her place next to Princess Celestia and Rarity. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash took their positions next to Princess Luna. There was a fanfare from the trumpeteers at the base of the stage, and the crowd silenced.

"Greetings, Canterlot!" Princess Celestia announced - her loud voice carrying far across the hundreds gathered in the open hall. "We are gathered here today to welcome one of our own into the fold of Canterlot royalty! This is a time of exhuberance and celebration, yet it comes amidst a great turmoil that has befallen this land.

"We know that a good many of you have been personally touched by these tragedies, and so we would like to honor you with a moment of silence. Please stand with us - united as one - in remembering those who have been lost."

A hush fell over the hall as a wave of bowing heads moved outward from the stage. Pinkie joined them, closing her eyes in rememberance. She did not have to try hard to remember. If anything, it would be harder to forget. Not that she wanted to.

She tried to name all of those she'd known, but there were too many. She started with Berryshine, and then Nurse Redheart, Green Jewel, Comet Tail, Mayor Mare, and many, many more. She could write a eulogy for each and every one of them, but what she wanted to know in that moment was whether or not any of the hundreds in the crowd were saying a prayer for Applejack.

Yes, Applejack had dealt much of the suffering that Pinkie and her friends had received, but the decision to do so was not hers to make as Pinkie knew all too well. She missed visiting the Apples on their orchard, dancing in the sun beneath the sweet-smelling trees at the cusp of apple bucking season.

How many families has Malice torn apart? Pinkie wondered. How many will he?

"Canterlot is working tirelessly to ensure that the creature responsible for what has happened is brought to justice!" Pinkie's head was still bowed. She did not realize that the moment of silence had passed. Looking around, she satisfied herself that nopony seemed to notice.

"At the forefront of this effort, is somepony whom we have known for many years. Our faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." There was a thunderous applause, reminding Pinkie that Twilight was, at one point, a citizen of Canterlot herself.

"Citizens of Canterlot! Without further ado, we are pleased to introduce you to the newest member of our royal family, Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

There was another fanfare as the curtains behind their assembly parted. Twilight strode onto the stage flanked by members of the Canterlot Guard. Pinkie couldn't help but turn to watch, though she was, thankfully, not the only one doing so.

And what a sight she was, bedecked in regalia made to accentuate the color of her coat by contrasting it with gold and white. Aside from the ornately fashioned train, trimmed in gold and held aloft by a pair of unicorns following closely behind her, her outfit was remarkably plain.

The image, to Pinkie, was that of humility in the presence of great responsibility. Whether or not Twilight saw it that way was another matter altogether. It might not have been obvious from the crowd, but Pinkie could see signs of unmistakable panic in Twilight's eyes as they darted back and forth from Celestia, to Luna, to the crowd, to her friends.

"You're doing great, Twilight," mouthed Pinkie when Twilight's eyes found her for longer than a moment or two. She responded with as imperceptible a nod as she could manage, but Pinkie noticed.

At the end of the stage was a decorative platform, designed to frame the speaker where they stood. From the audience, Twilight must have looked impressive standing amidst a seasonal patchwork of lilies, celosia, and yarrow.

The roaring crowd hushed as Twilight cleared her throat, but a rustling at the back of the stage caught Pinkie's attention. She waited until all eyes were safely on Twilight before she dared a glance back over her shoulder, and her heart nearly skipped a beat when she caught sight of Night Rider, slinking across the stage to take up his place just behind Princess Celestia.

"Um... Hello, Canterlot," Twilight gasped.

Somewhere to her right, she overheard Rainbow Dash mutter something to the effect of, "Very smooth, Twilight."

Twilight pressed on. "I'm going to be honest. When I was told that I had to speak before you today, I had no idea what I was going to say. It's true that I lived in Canterlot, but I did not keep friends the way I do now..."

Pinkie glanced over her shoulder once more, catching a gimpse of the still-waiting Night Rider. What struck her first was how exhausted he looked. What struck her next was the damage his armor had taken - its usual pristine surface was marred with pits, scorch marks, and tarnish. Pinkie hoped that what she was seeing on his face was only exhaustion, and not defeat.

Gulping, she looked back to Twilight. "...my responsibility to the ponies of Equestria! I do, and always will, take it very seriously. These times demand it! But as strong as I have had to be on my own, I could not have done it without these friends at my side. Through thick and thin, we have had to stick together. We have had to support each other at times, and even rely on each other when we could not rely on ourselves!"

As invested as Pinkie was in Twilight's speech, Pinkie's eye caught movement nearby. Night Rider had strode next to Princess Celestia and caught her attention with a tap of his hoof.

"Can't this wait?" Celestia whispered.

"I'm afraid not, Princess. We must decide what to do before this gets away from us."

"Before what gets away from us?"

Night Rider lifted a hoof to lower Celestia's head even further, whispering something directly into her ear.

"WHAT!?" she yelped, pausing Twilight in the middle of her speech.

A brief hush fell over the audience as well, but Twilight recovered the situation by clearing her throat and pressing on. "As I was saying, no matter what happens outside of Canterlot, keep your neighbors close. Be there for one another! Tomorrow will be one of our most festive of holidays, coming at a time where the heavens will align for us! The sisters have poured their hearts and souls into providing us a sight that will be remembered for generations, and the evil that is knocking at our door should not dissuade us from being true to ourselves, and each other!"

"How long ago?" Celestia whispered.

"Hours..." Night Rider reported. "We need to do something before word gets out. There will be panic in the streets. Canterlot can't handle this on top of everything else..."

There was an uproar from the back of the audience as somepony cried out. They were quickly escorted out by one of the other ponies from the crowd, but chatter had already begun to rise from the huddled masses.

"...It may already be too late," he warned.

Twilight flustered, stammering to regain their attention. "Canterlot, please. We have to stand united. We cannot let fear get the best of us!"

"What are you going to do to protect us!?" shouted somepony from the crowd.

Twilight turned to look back at the princesses. Pinkie looked as well. Celestia stepped forward and raised her wings to project the authority of a true ruler. "Fear not! We are protected here! As long as we stay strong, we will not lose a single life!"

A second voice cried out, "Is that what you promised Ponyville!?"

That jab hit Pinkie like an arrow to the heart. What hurt worse were the indignant cries of outrage from the back of the crowd. "YEAH!"

This time, Luna stepped forward. "Citizens, enough! My sister and I will protect you from the worst of this! Show some gratitude!"

"Sister. You're not helping!" hissed Celestia under her breath.

"My family lived in Cloudsdale!" shouted another from the back.

The anger in the crowd was beginning to boil over. Princess Celestia backed away from the edge of the stage as a stream of guards rushed past to form a line in front of them.

"How can you protect us when you couldn't protect them!?"

"YEAH!" they chorused in unison.

"Princess?" Pinkie asked fretfully. "What are they talking about?"

Princess Celestia had no answer. She kept her eye firmly on the crowd as it erupted into a disorganized cacophony of slight, anger, and despair.

Twilight, for all of her efforts to regain the attention of the crowd, seemed well aware that she could not succeed. "Please! Please, everypony, calm down!"

"Calm down!?" shouted a pony from the front. "CLOUDSDALE HAS FALLEN!"

Before Twilight could respond, a horseshoe rose up from the crowd. Twilight froze in place, but not before ducking just enough that the wayward projectile missed her by mere inches. She scuttled backwards as the guards stepped forward, threatening to leap down into the crowd if they did not recede.

Pinkie, for her own part, could only watch in horror as the situation unfolded. More hurtled objects of varying size and density indescriminantly plopped onto the stage, or back down into the crowd.

"Pinkie!" Twilight shouted over the din. "What are you waiting for! We need to go!"

Pinkie froze, unable to take her eyes away from the developing situation. The guards had collectively dived head first into the fray, pushing back the front row by any means available to them.

A crash came from somewhere distant as one of the statues arrayed to either side of the hall was pulled down by the mob. Fighting had broken out between the spectators and the guards, with more armored stallions streaming in to even out the numbers.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Twilight's hoof extended outward, waiting for her to accept the aid. Just before Pinkie could bring herself to exit the stage with Twilight, a blinding pain pulsated outward from her temples.

Pinkie crashed to the ground, her ears ringing and her teeth pressing together with such force that she feared they might shatter. For but a moment, she caught sight of Canterlot burning to the ground as Twilight looked onward - laughing.

"It begins..." Malice whispered from somewhere inside her own head.

***

They regrouped in the throne room, which remained barred from the public. The riot outside could still be heard through the open doors, but a messenger reported that the guards were pushing the angry crowd back towards the palace gates.

"Good," sighed the princess. "Their fear is understandable. I would not like anypony to be hurt in the response. Ensure that the other guards to not get... overzealous."

"It shall be done, princess!" proclaimed the sentry as he turned to leave.

"Princess!" Pinkie cried. "While I was out there, I felt... him. He told me that... well, something was beginning. What does that mean?"

Twilight, still draped in her coronation garmants, was the first to answer. "This could only have been his doing."

"Tell them about the dream, Pinkie," encouraged Rainbow Dash.

"I... I can't... I don't want to think about that!"

Princess Luna cleared her throat. "Then allow me. Pinkie, when Malice reached out to you earlier, I felt it, too. He showed her a vision of Canterlot under siege, but perhaps she wasn't the only one he reached out to. This panic has spread most unnaturally. I am afraid, sister... I am afraid for what this portends."

"Be still, Luna. We shall find a way to stop him, as we had back before we were princesses. Do not forget that we were the sword and the shield, and we were the ones who cast him into Tartarus. We will find the strength to do so again, if necessary."

"Princess!" called another guard from the throne room entrance. "The mob has been pushed back to the palace atrium. They are actively fleeing the palace, but I'm afraid the panic is spreading to the rest of Canterlot. There will be little we can do about this."

"Very well, Swiftmane. Notify the first and second garrisons that I am authorizing them to keep the peace in Canterlot; the rest of you are commanded to stand the gates and keep the crowd at bay."

"Understood, Princess!"

When he was gone, Celestia let out an uncharacteristic howl of frustration. "How could I have been so foolish? We should have acted sooner, but Malice has already done more damage than a simple eclipse will be able to fix. Sister, we may have to face the possibility that-"

"-No! We cannot... Not until we've exhausted all other options. We should not discuss this here."

"Wh-What is she talking about?" Fluttershy asked of Twilight.

"I don't know..." she replied. "Princess? What needs to happen?"

"I do not actually know, Twilight. Malice has extended his influence much faster than the last time I encontered him. I cannot lie to you - this situation is far worse than I had ever anticipated."

Rarity was trembling. "Does this m-mean that-"

"-It doesn't mean anything, Rarity!" declared Rainbow Dash. "We've been in worse spots before! Remember Discord? That was-"

"-Discord!" Twilight declared. "Princess, do you remember what I told you the other day?"

"I do, Twilight. And my thoughts on the matter have not changed. Discord is far too dangerous to be allowed freedom at this critical juncture!"

Rainbow Dash gasped, jabbing a hoof at Twilight. "Are you telling me that you actually want to set Discord free!? Wh-Why!? What possible purpose could that serve!?"

"Discord might have just as much cause to fight against Malice as we do, Rainbow! I found in my research that-"

"-Your research!?" Dash cried. "Did your research make you forget that he had us at each others' throats, and nearly turned Ponyville into the 'Chaos Capital of the World'!?"

"Ponies! Please!" Luna shouted. "Sister, have you considered the possibility that Discord might be... reformed?"

"Indeed I have, Luna. Were we living in a more peaceful time, I might have even allowed it. Discord is possessing of magic that could be incredibly useful were it used to serve harmony instead of chaos, but we cannot afford the liability right now."

"Um, Princess?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yes, Fluttershy?"

"Discord may have been a big meanie, but I don't think he's all that bad... I think that, um, maybe if we just talked to him, he would see that we really need his help. I think he wouldn't be so bad if he realized just how important he was."

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Okay, Fluttershy. So if we just talk to him, he maybe won't turn the ground into a big chess board and make it rain chocolate everywhere? Good luck with that!"

"I don't know... I kind of agree with Fluttershy," Rarity decreed. "He was dreadful, sure, but he wasn't by any stretch as bad as Malice."

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "You too, Rarity!? Pinkie! You're not on board with this madness, right!?"

"Um..."

"Come on, Pinkie... Remember how angry he made you!?"

"Yes..." Pinkie conceded. "But at least he didn't make me hurt anypony. Not the way Malice did."

"Okay... I can clearly see nopony is going to listen to reason here. Does it even matter!? Last I checked, we were short a few Elements of Harmony. It's not like we could break him free even if we wanted to!"

Twilight shrugged. "You may be right, Rainbow. I wish this wasn't the best lead we had, but as it stands we have to find a way!"

Princess Celestia, as Pinkie noted, had been awfully quiet throughout the debate. Her face appeared skewed in concentration - perhaps she was seriously considering it. "Princess?" Pinkie asked. "You would know how to free Discord, right?"

"If I wanted to?" She paused... "Perhaps. His entrapment is tied to the Elements' magic. When I cast him to stone one thousand years ago, he remained that way for as long as I was in control of the Elements of Harmony. In effect, I was a conduit for the spell, but the power came from the Elements themselves.

"However, after banishing my sister, I decided to surrender my ownership of the Elements - although they represented the greater good, using them as a weapon against my own sister broke my heart far too much for me to hold onto them. And so, they remained dormant in the castle we had shared.

"You would recall that Discord was released following that period. Since I was no longer maintaining the spell through my connection with the Elements, the spell had weakened considerably over time. Following that, I had somehow allowed enough chaos into his garden that he was able to break free of his own accord."

"How does this help us now, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"Malice has corrupted half of the Elements. Their connection to you may or may not be severed, but it is certainly weakened. The spell may, as yet, be strong enough to contain him, but if it were to be disrupted..."

Twilight gasped. "...The spell you taught me!"

"Yes, Twilight. You are, as always, quick to catch on." Celestia smiled. "If you cast your spell on Discord, it would perhaps break the spell, but it would also disrupt his magic. He would not be able to flee, and we would be able to see what he knows."

"Um... Okay," Rainbow Dash conceded. "So what happens after the spell wears off? It only lasts for a few minutes, tops! Remember? Will he turn back into stone after that?"

"I doubt it," said Twilight. "The spell will already be weakened. Once he's awake, he would probably be too strong to succumb to it without us having the Elements there to actually project the spell onto him again. I'm afraid we've only got one shot at finding out what we need."

Rainbow Dash laughed sarcastically. "So, let me get this straight. We want to fight one of the most evil villains we've ever faced, by releasing one of the most chaotic villains we've ever faced, on the hunch of a single picture in a book that's probably over a thousand years old, because he may or may not have fought Malice before? Oh, and to top it all off, we don't have the means to turn him back to stone if this turns out to be a bad decision?"

"That's what I'm saying."

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Okay... Let's get this over with, then..."

"Princess!" Every pony's head turned to see Shining Armor standing in the doorway. "A status report - the rioters have been pushed back to the palace gates, and barred outside. At your request, first and second garrisons have been sent out into the city to keep the peace, but I'm afraid that's where the good news ends..."

"Very well, captain," sighed the princess. "Let us have it."

"I've never seen a crowd get angry like this out of nowhere. It's like they've divided into two groups. There are some barring themselves away within the city's infrastructure, but others are on the attack, setting fire to flush them out. It's almost as if this tension has been building up for weeks... but how, and why now?"

"Malice..." Pinkie growled, "just like in my dream."

"I'm afraid we cannot deploy any more guards to the outside, captain. We need every guard manning the walls if possible."

"Very well, Princess. I will return to my post..."

"Actually, wait!" called out the princess before Shining Armor could leave. "I may have use for you yet. Retrieve two spellcasters from the wall - I may have need for containment - and meet us in the garden."

"The garden? At this late hour? What for, may I ask?"

"That is my command."

"Very well, Princess. I will meet you there in fifteen minutes' time."

Awakening

The sun and moon had gone down long before the ponies had emerged from the palace. The garden Celestia spoke of was tucked away in a central part of the palace, far removed from the public path. Perhaps it was for the better, if enough chaos could indeed release Discord from his stone prison. In fact, as Pinkie reflected, it seemed to be a miracle in and of itself that he hadn't broken free already.

And there he was, cast in stone amongst the other statues of the garden. He seemed taller than she remembered, though far from imposing as he wore the same panicked look he'd been petrified with. Nevertheless, her stomach turned as she recalled the unpleasantness with which he'd afflicted her and her friends.

Here was a creature who, like Malice, sought to corrupt her, her friends, and the Elements of Harmony in ways that made them untrue to themselves. Although, as she looked back on it, but underneath the superficial similarities was the deeper truth that Discord never actually hurt anypony. It was as though he were simply a child that never grew up - something that Pinkie could perhaps even relate to.

"Discord..." gasped Rainbow Dash. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I don't think we've had a good idea for some time," admitted Twilight.

"Just make sure you don't give him an inch, Twilight," she groaned. "If you do, you know he's gonna take a mile."

"If he doesn't cooperate, I'll take care of him." Shining Armor had entered the garden just behind Pinkie and her friends. In tow, he had two other unicorns clad in bronzed plate armor, each blazoned with their cutie marks: one, a ring of four-pointed star bursts; the other, a caged fire. "Sunstorm and Flameheart will hold him back if he tries any funny business."

"Will the three of you really be enough to hold him back?" asked Rarity.

The stallion with the caged flame cutie mark - Pinkie deduced that he was Flameheart - cleared his throat. "Sunstorm and I marked at the top of our unit with containment and barrier spells. Only Shining Armor scored higher."

"Oh, can't we give him a chance before we doubt him?" implored Fluttershy.

"Let's just get this over with!" Twilight sighed, stepping forward and bracing herself for the spell she was about to cast. "Spread out, gang. I have no idea what's going to happen."

Twilight reared her head, gathering an orb of bright light at the tip of her horn, and heaved forward. The orb rode along a beam of light and dispersed against Discord's stony chest.

No going back now, thought Pinkie.

Pinkie had partly expected the stone to break away, but for a moment there was no response, and she wondered if the spell had not worked. However, a second later, the color had returned to Discord's chest and neck, spreading outward along his arms, and down towards his tail.

When any trace of grey around his head was gone, he gasped, collapsing to the ground. Everyone except for Celestia, Luna, and the Canterlot Guards took a step backwards.

Still breathing heavily, Discord looked up at them. "Augh!" he groaned, "The next time you little ponies turn me to stone like that, can't you at least have the decency to make sure I'm comfortable first!?"

"And he's back..." sighed Rainbow Dash.

"Astute observation, most loyal pony... but I won't be here for long! I'm not sure how you expect to keep me here, but I've got more important business to attend to."

"Like what!?" Dash countered.

"Like not being here! I may have been wearing a stone body suit but I'm not deaf, dumb, or blind... Somepony hasn't been doing a very good job as 'leader supreme of Equestria' and, if you ask me, she should have just left me in charge!" He nudged his elbow in the direction of Princess Celestia.

Luna stomped her hoof. "You will learn your place, Discord, and respect my sister, or I will escort you to the dungeon myself."

"Oooh, I'm so scared. Haven't you forgotten? All I have to do is snap my fingers and..." He snapped his fingers to no effect. "Huh..." Trying a few more times achieved similar results. "This usually works."

"That's right, Discord!" proclaimed Twilight. "We're asking the questions, now..."

Discord stared at his mismatched hands with a puzzled expression before straightening his back and calmly stepping back onto the stone pedistal upon which he'd previously been perched. "Well, I'd give myself a chair, but... ahem... somepony rudely left me unable to call for one. I'd be oh so very cooperative if you pulled one out of your fancy palace for me, Celestia."

"That will be enough stalling, Discord," the princess demanded. "I know you are fully aware that the spell will soon wear off, and we need you to tell us some things in the mean time. If you are cooperative, we will let you go."

"What!?" Rainbow Dash gasped. "Princess! Let him go!? What do you think-"

Celestia held up a hoof to silence her. "-This decision is not yours to make, Rainbow Dash. We have already set him free; Discord, myself, and every other pony here knows full well that we cannot hold him against his will." She walked forward, stopping just short of the beast himself. "But he must certainly realize that if he cooperates, we will make his going that much easier."

"Sister. If we are to simply let Discord go, then why did we bring these guards to contain him?"

"I did not say his cooperation was guaranteed. Make no mistake, Discord. If you do not cooperate, leaving will be very, very... difficult." Pinkie had no doubt that the princess had meant to say "painful," but the implication was evident by the resolve in her voice.

Discord rolled his eyes. "All right, all right. You have my cooperation... for five minutes. After that, you'll be lucky if I don't turn each and every one of you into a mouse... or something even more unpleasant."

"Twilight. The book."

"Y-Yes, Princess." Twilight stepped forward, producing the book from its hiding place beneath her left wing.

Discord turned his attention towards her and chuckled. "Why, Twilight. What lovely wings you have there. A little gift from mommy, dearest? I hope you don't think this means you're a true princess. I'd hate to see that kind of power go to your head."

"Shut up, Discord," Luna said flatly.

Twilight did not respond to Discord's goading. Instead, she magically parted the pages of the book to the image that she and Pinkie had found before smoothly rotating it to face him. "We did some digging and found this. We want you to tell us what it means."

"It means you ponies can't draw worth a-" The three unicorn guards closed in around Discord, their horns glowing bright red. "-Okay! Okay! Shyeesh. Can't take a joke, can you?"

He studied the page for a few seconds and laughed. "Oh, this is laughable. Did you honestly think my brothers have anything to do with what's going on? You clearly haven't done enough research, Twilight. Frankly, I'm disappointed."

Princess Celestia spoke in Twilight's stead. "We are not interested in Anarchy or Nihilism. They have not been seen in Equestria for over a thousand years. We know from this image that you, and your brothers fought against Malice. I know that you know that Malice has returned. I need to know how you survived against him. We need to know what his weaknesses are! And, as much as it pains me to say this... you are our last hope at fighting back at him."

Discord tugged at his beard. "You think of me that highly, princess?"

"It does not matter what I think. These are the facts at hand."

"Well, in that case... I don't know what to say... I'm... I'm honestly just so..." a single tear formed at the bottom of his eye and got about halfway down his face when he suddenly burst into a mad fit of laughter. "HAHA! Oh, Celestia! I can't keep that up with a straight face. Oh, you should have seen yourselves! You're all so desperate for my help, but I have none to give!"

Celestia turned her head in Shining Armor's direction. "Guards."

Three red beams of light struck Discord from the sides and back. Almost immediately, Discord fell to his knees, clutching at his chest and screaming out in pain.

"PRINCESS! NO!" Fluttershy leaped between the Princess and Discord, flapping her wings to stay in her line of sight. "What are you doing!? You didn't say anything about hurting him!"

"I'm afraid he has left us no choice, Fluttershy. Our options are exhausted, and if Discord does not cooperate, Equestria may fall into the clutches of an enemy far, far worse than he ever was. Guards. Enough!"

Discord fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Fluttershy turned and landed next to him. "Mister Discord? Are you okay?"

"No... She tortured me! Now, I don't know how bad you think I am, but at least I never did that to anypony. Turning me to stone! Taking me prisoner! Torturing me with spells! I'm starting to think I'd be a nicer leader, in addition to a more effective one."

"I have had enough of your insubordination, Discord! Guards. Hit him agai-"

Fluttershy jumped between Discord and the guards. "No! Mister Discord meant to say he is really, really sorry, and he wants to tell us exactly what he meant. Isn't that right?"

"Why, thank you, Fluttershy. Yes, that is what I meant to say. You see? She knows how to ask somepony nicely... and just for that, I think I will stay a little bit longer than I said I would. Would that please you... your highness?"

"Tell us about Malice," said Princess Celestia pointedly.

Discord stood once again, stretching out his arms and arching his back. "Mmmmm, it feels good to finally be able to stand on my own two legs again without this one threatening to torture me, or cast me in stone. I am feeling much more cooperative now!"

"Yeah?" asked Rainbow Dash sarcastically. "Prove it!"

"Okay. Well, your princess isn't wrong. My brothers disappeared long ago, because Malice killed them. There! You happy!?"

"Malice killed your brothers?" Twilight asked, incredulously. "I'd have thought them to be immortal, like you."

"Oh, sweet, naive Twilight. Of course they were 'immortal,' until he killed them. Why do you think I want nothing to do with this!?"

"How!?" Rarity gasped. "How does one slay something that cannot be slain?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Don't you get it? The only way to survive this is to be as far away from the flames as possible! If I were Luna, I'd be missing my cozy little timeshare on the moon right about now."

"You still haven't told us much, Discord," Celestia warned. "You encountered Malice, but when and where? My sister and I cast him to the darkest depths of Tartarus, but you must have encountered him after that. Do you know how he escaped?"

Discord looked away, scrunching his forehead and rubbing his chin. "Well, the only way I can think of is if the Queen simply let him. Cerberus doesn't sleep on the job, that's for sure!"

"A queen?" Pinkie asked. "What is he talking about!?"

"Not just any queen, Pinkie Pie. The Queen of Death. I swear, it's like ponies these days never learn anything! She's the ruler of Tartarus. Did you think it just runs itself? That all of those prisoners down there are not overseen by anyone?

"I hear that she takes a personal interest in dealing with the worst of the worst. If the stories are true, she could literally torture you for an eternity! Understandably, she is another one I'd like to be as far away from the bad side of as possible."

"It's my bad side you need to worry about now, Discord," the princess growled. "Am I to believe that the ruler of Tartarus simply set a prisoner free? Why would that even happen?"

"Well how should I know!? You're the one who is always spouting nonsense about 'love' and 'friendship.' Maybe Malice and Death were just two like souls who happened to find a mutual love of pain and torture. How it happened is of no concern to me!

"I don't know what else to tell you. So, if you don't mind, I would like nothing more than to find a cave somewhere and wait out this lovely little storm you've somehow managed to start!"

Discord must have realized the spell had worn off by now. His taloned arm rose, claws poised in a position to snap and whisk him away to some far-flung part of the world. "Discord, wait!" Pinkie called after him.

He paused just long enough to meet her gaze. "What?"

Pinkie gulped. Discord may not have been Malice, but he still made her nervous. "All of this chaos Malice is making... Isn't it what you wanted?"

For a moment, Discord's face hung with what might have been sorrow... regret, even. "Chaos is only fun if there are others around to enjoy it." Snapping his fingers, Discord vanished from the garden in a puff of smoke.

Discord understood, then: If Malice won, there would be nopony left. If Pinkie had any doubt, it did not remain - Discord did not want this any more than they did.

Prologue

It was unseasonably hot for autumn. The sun beat down hard on Ponyville, causing sweat to bead up on the brows of the ponies who worked hard to restore it to its state from before the Ursa Major went on its disasterous rampage only three days prior. Berryshine made it her job to provide refreshment to the mares and stallions who lifted the supports back into place, and turned the sullen husks of their former homes back into livable spaces.

The town hall was already standing, albeit without walls or anything to distinguish it from the dozens of other half-built structures that dotted the center of town. It was a simple skeleton of wood beams teeming with ponies working tirelessly to flesh it out and restore Ponyville to its former glory. Berryshine smiled at the beautiful sight, not remembering a time before the attack when the town was so unified and alive. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder, which pulled her attention back to the stand she was attending.

"Well howdy there, Berryshine." It was Full Steam, who Berryshine knew took time away from pulling the train to Appleoosa to help with the reconstruction effort. Not that she'd have recognized him from a distance. Without his usual attire, the only thing that set him apart was his massive size compared to most of the earth ponies from around town. His mane was dogged, and dripping with sweat from the hard work.

Berryshine didn't need to ask. He had clearly come for her ever-popular "Verry Berry" punch-lemonade. "That'll be one bit if you like. All workers drink free, but the bit helps me buy my supplies to make more." She smiled cherrily at him.

"'Course. Glad to help." He tucked his muzzle down into the pocket of his dingy overalls and produced a shiny golden coin, which he cheerily flipped up into a bucket perched on the edge of Berryshine's stand.

"Yay!" Berry exclaimed as she bit onto the handle of her punch ladle, carefully transferring the delicious beverage from its oversized punch bowl into one of the many plastic cups she had lined in rows next to it. She had always taken pride in not spilling a single drop, and this time was no different. "Not a single drop!" she beamed as she put the ladle back into its bowl.

"Much obliged, ma'am." Full Steam tipped his hat, clamped down onto his cup, and knocked his head back, savoring every last drop before chucking the cup into a waste bin next to the stand. "Ah, that makes the whole day worth it."

Berryshine sprung into the air. "Glad ya liked it, mister!"

Full Steam nodded and sauntered off to go back to work. Berry looked down into her bowl and noted that it wouldn't be long before she was out of punch. Soon she would have to close her stand down to make more.

She didn't mind the effort though. It was the least she could do to help the town. Celestia knew she'd been next to useless when the Ursa Major came. Berryshine never was one for physical strength, so helping haul construction materials was kind of out of the question. Still, she'd found the legs to get out of Ponyville in a hurry when she'd seen the beast on the horizon.

At least she wasn't one of the poor ponies who stayed home during the annual running. Some had not heard it coming and were too slow to leave. Just the thought of being trapped helplessly as the ceiling came crashing down was enough to ruin Berry's mood, so she focused instead on helping the next customer who sauntered up.

The day went on, with more customers approaching well into the afternoon. Most left bits, which gave her enough change to make a supply run. Savoring the last drops of punch for herself, she flipped the bowl and placed the cups down on a lower shelf before flipping the "OPEN" tacked on to the front of her stand to "CLOSED," and hooking her change bucket onto a special saddle she made for herself.

From her saddlebag, she produced a list of things she would need: Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Gooseberries, Lemons, Apples, Grapes, and Sugar. It surprised many of the townsfolk to know that the most key ingredients to her "Verry Berry" punch-lemonade were not, in fact, berries at all. "Ties the whole thing together and makes the berries that much more special!" she told customers on more than one occasion.

Most of her berries came from the local grower at the edge of town. The Greenhoof family farmed almost everything that wasn't apples. They sold tomatoes, grapes, lettuce, and of course, berries. Every kind of berry but gooseberries. Those she'd have to get herself, because the only good gooseberries were the ones that grew in the wilds outside of town. Fortunately the Ursa Major's rampage did not destroy the bushes that fostered them!

The lemons came from the Sours family. Their demeanor was as prickly as their name would suggest, but their lemons grew all throughout the summer and kept for most of the year after that. They almost never ran out. Probably because they are so painful to do business with, Berryshine thought.

Apples, of course, could only come from Applejack and her family. Unfortunately the harvest was a bit weaker this year than it'd been in previous years. However, she managed to find Applejack carting her goods around town. Hard work made for hungry ponies, so she must have been selling a lot of them!

"Applejack! Applejack!" Berryshine cheered as she trotted up to her.

"Well, hi there, Berry." Applejack straightened her hat. "What can I do ya for?"

"I'm making my punch-lemonade. Everypony here seems to love it!"

Applejack smiled "Yeah, I know I do! Well, my Apples are a mite bit more expensive from last year 'cause of supply, but yer one'a my best customers, so buy some'n I'll throw in somethin' extra."

"Okay! How much?"

"Four bits'n apple."

Berryshine cringed. "Four bits? That's steep... But I'll take three!" She took the bucket off its hook and shook out twelve bits into Applejack's waiting hooves.

"Thank ya kindly, now take yer pick. Three apples'n I'll throw in a special one come down from the healthiest tree'n my orchard."

Berryshine looked up as she picked the plumpest looking apples from the cart. "Special one? Better than these?"

"You bet!" She put her hoof into one of her saddlebags and withdrew it balancing a perfectly red apple, topped with a sprig of two of the greenest leaves Berry had seen since summer. Applejack tossed it over to Berryshine who gladly put it into her saddlebag for later. "Give it a bite later'n you'll see what I mean." Applejack smiled. "But now I gotta keep my rounds. Best'a luck with your stand!"

Berry waved thanks and said goodbye. After she picked her berries and bought some sugar, the construction was wrapping up. Sadly she'd not be able to make her next batch of punch until morning. Berryshine trotted over to where her home had been before being caved in by the Ursa Major. A wood structure stood in its place, with walls erected on three of its sides. Inside, a large tent donated by the Canterlot Disaster Survivors Group served as her home for the time being.

Edging through the flap, she unhooked her saddle and dropped it on the floor before flopping down halfheartedly on the feather matress she'd been able to purchase with her savings. A lone rug adorned the middle of the tent, which was otherwise bare.

Berryshine closed her eyes and sank down into the comforting depths of her bed. As was her usual routine these days, she thought about the day, and all of the ponies who bought her punch, wished her well, and talked to her about the things they enjoyed. She reflected on the day of the attack, how she'd been so scared, and that strange rainbow light that burst from the town center just before the creature simply walked away. Somepony was looking out for us that day, she reflected.

She had to stop a tear from falling down her cheek as she remembered coming home to find that it was no longer standing. There were very few things left to recover that weren't pulverized with the rest of the house. She missed her old home, and knew it would be a while before her new one was finished. At least she took enough pride in her work to keep from being too sad.

And then she remembered the gift Applejack had given her. "A special apple." she muttered to herself as she excitedly reached out a hoof toward her bag. It toppled, sending the treat Applejack had given her rolled along the floor towards the mattress. Berryshine gripped it happily with her teeth and rolled onto her back before biting down hard.

It was certainly one of the juiciest apples she'd ever had. It's sweetness was almost cloying, but it was such an unadulterated aroma that when she closed her eyes she could swear she was outside amongst the orchard trees. Memories of sunshine and gentle summer breeze came rushing to her mind. It was, as Applejack had described, one of the finest apples she ever tasted.

She swallowed the first mouthful and took another bite. As she chewed, she no longer felt tired or sad. It was just the salve she needed to feel optimistic about the next day. She cleared her throat to take another bite, and then another, then another after that.

With each bite, more of the sweet apple nectar poured out. Her throat was soon coated with the stuff, giving her pause enough to try to clear it. Putting the last half of the apple down, she rubbed at her neck and found it swollen. When she tried to take another breath, she found that her airways were being pressed shut.

Gasping for air, Berryshine knocked the apple away so she could get to her bag where a skin of water awaited. Eagerly gulping the water down, she expected some relief, but her throat got tighter and tighter. "Wha-" she choked. Her voical cords were also being pinched off. "What is...?"

"Curious?" asked a familiar voice behind the curtains. A figure stepped through the tent flap, hidden by the freshly fallen night. "I bet you wanna know what's goin' on, right?" Applejack continued.

Desperate and taken aback, Berryshine nodded. She tried to gasp for air, but none came. Her eyes were bulging out of her head and she could see a halo of red tinting the edges of her vision. What's going on!? she wanted to ask. What's happening to me!?

"It's simple, darlin'." Applejack growled as though in response to her thoughts. "Yer gonna die, now." The barest hint of a chuckle broke the otherwise monotoned sincerity of her voice.

Berryshine tried to scream, but all that came out was raspy wheeze. Her head felt as though it would burst, and every heart beat sent a shock of agony through her entire body. She shook violently as though to break free of the pain that had ensared her. She tried to shriek some more, pained tears streaming down her face.

Applejack let out a playful chuckle, as though watching Berryshine quake was an amusement to her. Then she stomped her hoof down hard on Berryshine's stomach and pressed their muzzles together. Her eyes shimmered with malice and sadistic glee as she taunted "Wha's that? I can't hear ya." She giggled as Berryshine's vision started to fade. "Don't worry. Nopony's gonna find you. Nopony's even gonna know yer gone."

Berryshine tried to swing her hoof at Applejack, but she was too weak. Applejack merely brushed her aside. As the last moments approached, Applejack silently stared into Berryshine's eyes as they slowly closed, and all of the pain Berryshine felt vanished into nothingness.

Into The Night, Part 1

As Pinkie took her first steps beyond the hall of the royal chambers, she was not immediately struck with the relief she'd thought freedom would provide. Instead, she was exulted to be in the company of her friends again. Twilight's eyes widened as she approached.

"Pinkie! The princess told me you were here, but it's still... Really, uh, surprising to see you."

The princess flared her wings out with pride in her disciple. "I must confess I was expecting some resistance, but Twilight maintains that she never had any doubt about your innocence."

"Thanks, I guess." Pinkie muttered, uneasily. "This all happened so fast."

"I know it's a lot to process," the princess encouraged. "But I'm afraid we can't become too complacent in our reunions," she continued, more seriously than before.

Twilight nodded. "You did say we had much to discuss, princess. I'm still not entirely sure why you called us here."

Pinkie looked around. "Wait! Shouldn't the others hear about it, too?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Fluttershy is still hurt from the Ursa Major attack, and Rarity is staying at the Canterlot Clinic to look after her while we're here."

Pinkie hopped over to Rainbow Dash and tilted her head curiously. "You're going to have to tell me this Ursa Major story one of these days, Dashie!"

The princess let slip a lighthearted chuckle that undercut the weighty air that surrounded them. "That can come later, Pinkie."

"Sorry, Princess." she sighed.

Celestia reassured her with a comforting wing, even as her eyes shimmered with resolve. "There is no simple way to say this, but I fear the Elements of Harmony are under attack."

"What!?" the ponies exclaimed in unison.

"Under attack!? By who? How is this possible!?" Twilight stammered.

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof. "I bet this has everything to do with what I saw before that Ursa attacked."

"What is it with this Ursa attack!?" Pinkie cried with equal amounts of curiosity and frustration.

"My little ponies, please-"

Twilight cut in. "-Rainbow, I don't think those are-"

Rainbow Dash interrupted her "-You don't know what I saw, Twilight!"

Pinkie stared at the ground. "I'm so confused..."

Twilight looked up to her mentor. "Princess, who is attacking the Elements of Harmony?"

Rainbow Dash stepped in next to Twilight. "I'm right, aren't I?"

The pause gave Pinkie time to join her friends in awaiting the Princess' reply. "I must confess, I do not fully know." Pinkie gasped. If Princess Celestia doesn't know- Pinkie's thoughts were interrupted when the princess shrugged a hoof in her direction. "Pinkie. Do you remember what you told me about the day I brought you in?"

Now all eyes were on her. No, no, no, no - This was the last thing she wanted to talk about in front of the friends she hadn't seen since that day to which the princess was referring. She shrunk as Rainbow Dash tapped her on the shoulder.

"It's okay, Pinkie. We're cool. Remember?"

Rainbow's endorsement made her feel more forthcoming. Even so, the Other was not something she ever wanted to think about. Even after all the time that had passed since she was free of its grasp, remembering those shadowy, spider-like tendrils that divided her memories and trapped her within her own mind was enough to send a cold chill down her spine. She felt her base coat start to moisten with sweat as she muttered. "T-The... The Other?"

Rainbow Dash turned to face Pinkie. "What's an 'Other'?"

Pinkie squeaked out a reply, but found the words stick in her throat. "It's..."

Dash gestured at the scars along her back. "That's what did this to me, wasn't it?"

Pinkie couldn't look. She knew it wasn't her that did it, even if her hoof had guided the blade. That didn't make it any easier to see. Twilight stepped in to Pinkie's defense. "It's okay, Pinkie. I think we understand."

"Pinkie, you are inextricably tied to the element you represent. I believe that this Other was feeding off of your positivity. It twisted, and corrupted it, until it was able to take control. Every time it made you harm another, it grew stronger as you grew weaker. All the while, the Element of Laughter was similarly being corrupted, and made black as the night."

Twilight was visibly contemplating this new information with genuine concern etched across her face. "This didn't happen overnight..."

Celestia frowned. "No. This has been a most gradual transformation, and I must confess, one of which I was ignorant until recent events brought it to light."

Twilight grimmaced as though she had bitten into a lemon. "How long, Princess?"

Pinkie answered. "At least a year."

"A year!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "How is that possible? We've been with you that entire time, and never once did you make us think anything was wrong!"

"I didn't know..." she reflected.

"Nopony could have known." the Princess intoned. "Not even I could sense anything was amiss until it was too late. This is a crafty villain we face, and we must be prepared to face it before we fully understand its nature. We may not have a choice."

"What do you mean, Princess?" asked Twilight.

Princess Celestia's forlorn expression frightened Pinkie more than anything she could have said. At least that's what Pinkie thought, until she actually spoke. "Applejack's element has also gone dark."

"That's it!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "You ponies can stand around here and debate what to do. I am not letting this thing hurt one more pony!" As swiftly as her outburst had surfaced, Rainbow reared up onto her hind legs and lept down the nearby stair before cantering from the chamber.

"Rainbow! Wait!" Twilight shouted, but her voice echoed off of empty halls. Her horn glowed bright as she prepared to teleport after her, but she was stopped when Celestia placed a calming hoof on her brow.

"Let her go, Twilight. She will not get far before we can decide what to do next."

Twilight scoffed. "Ugh. She's so impulsive!"

Pinkie shook her head. "I want to go with her!"

Twilight glowered frustratedly in her direction. "Pinkie, we need a plan!"

Pinkie agreed, but was at a loss for what any plan would entail. All she knew was that somwhere, one of her best friends was trapped inside her own head, alone and terrified, and would awake without a memory of it feeling lost and abandoned. She might not have known what to do, but she did know that she had to be there.

Twilight sensed her conflict. "Pinkie. No!"

"Twilight..." urged the Princess. "I summoned you here because I trust your judgement. All of you."

"She doesn't know what she's running into!"

"Neither do I." The princess reminded her. "Age and wisdom have made me cautious, but we are on the precipice of the unknown where action is required."

Twilight glanced uneasily in the direction that Rainbow Dash had run off in before Pinkie met her gaze. "We can do this, Twilight. Let's go with her."

She looked to Princess Celestia for guidance, but was met only with an acknowledging nod. "I trust in your judgement, Twilight Sparkle."

"Okay..." she sighed. Her horn was already sheathed in light as she turned to Pinkie. "Hang on to me."

***

Pinkie's body tingled as she suddenly reappeared atop one of the highest spires in Canterlot. The night wind whipped her mane about at such a great height, and its howl drowned out all sound. "Twilight!?" she shouted into her friend's ear from mere inches away. "Are you sure this is the right place!?"

Twilight remained wordless as her narrowed eyes studied the streets and alleyways below. Bathed in the light of the full moon, Canterlot seemed peaceful. It won't be for much longer if the Other isn't stopped, she reflected.

"Twilight?" she muttered, knowing her words would be lost to the wind. "Do you think we-" Twilight's foreleg shot around the back of Pinkie's neck, pulling her in tightly as another harsh pop ripped the two from the upper strata of the city and down into its depths. Pinkie's eyes had not yet adjusted to the new darkness when a blue shadow pummeled into her with a hard crash that knocked her body to the ground and wind out of her chest. "-AIEEE!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight barked.

Rainbow Dash struggled to steady herself as she lifted herself off of Pinkie. "Twilight, please. Don't try to stop m-"

"-We're going with you, but we have to be smart about this, Rainbow Dash. And I'm definitely not going to let you go alone."

Pinkie nodded. "We can't just barge into Applejack's house and nicely ask if she's taken any ponies captive lately."

"Well what am I supposed to do!?" Rainbow implored.

Twilight placed a hoof to her chin as she contemplated this. "It's not like there's a book for this sort of thing."

Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof on the ground as an idea came to her. "But there is!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You mean-?"

"-Come on, Twilight... Remember in book four when Doctor Caballeron stole the Amulet of Atonement, and Daring Do had to infiltrate his base to get it before he could sell it to Ahuizotl?"

"Rainbow, that was fiction. Daring Do isn't real!"

Rainbow Dash ignored Twilight's reasoning. "She bribed the local tribesmen with rubies, so that they'd watch the guard movements and-"

"-Rainbow-"

"-waited until the watch was changing then-"

"-Rainbow...-"

"-Create a distraction and then scale the-"

"RAINBOW!!!" Twilight clasped her hooves to her muzzle when she realized she might have woken up half the neighborhood. "I can just teleport us inside..."

"Oh." Rainbow scraped at the ground with her hoof. "I still like my idea better."

Pinkie tapped Twilight on the shoulder. "What do we do next?"

Twilight shook her head. "Well, I don't exactly know. If this monster is in control of Applejack, then it probably isn't going to expect us to show up. I think when she's caught off guard, I'll grab her and teleport us back to Princess Celestia so she can help her like she helped you."

"Great idea, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash cheered. "I especially love the part where we bring the evil, murderous, body-snatching demon we know absolutely nothing about straight to the most powerful pony in Equestria."

Twilight buried her face in her hoof.

Pinkie bounced as she let out an involuntary "OH!" With all eyes on her, she jumped up and down as she relayed the idea she had "I know! I know! Rainbow Dash, d'you remember those pranks we pulled together right after we met Twilight?"

"Yes, Pinkie. But I don't see how-"

"-No! Look, look! Watch this!" She edged close to Twilight and tapped her far shoulder lightly. Twilight instinctively looked to the right, then back over to find her left side vacant. "Surprise!" Pinkie yelled from somewhere to her right.

Twilight jumped in the air to nearly twice her height as Rainbow Dash fell to the ground laughing. She clutched her chest as she rolled onto her back and met Pinkie's cheery face. "That was great, Pinkie! But shouldn't we not be so obvious?"

As Twilight recovered from the shock, she jabbed at Pinkie with her hoof and smiled. "I see, Pinkie. Misdirection! I used to use it all the time when I was practicing magic without my horn."

Rainbow Dash looked puzzled. "Why would you-?"

Twilight clapped her hooves to the ground. "-A distraction, Rainbow! Pinkie can distract Applejack, then I'll, uh... Hit her with a memory spell. The one I used when Discord made a mess of things!"

"Uh, Twilight? Isn't that what we tried with the Ursa? We both remember how well that turned out."

Twilight shrugged. "That was a pacification spell... This is different!"

Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "But... will it work?"

"I don't know, Pinkie." Twilight admitted. "But it's the best plan we have." Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both nodded in agreement. "Great. Let's get over there and help our friend in need!" Twilight reached out to make contact with her friends before teleporting them out of the city.

***

In the very next instant, they were standing amongst the moonlit orchard at Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie searched around at the trees, slumped over and barren. The soil was soggy, and smelled of bog. Without Applejack at her best, the land had fallen into decay.

Pinkie surmised that the local beavers had built up their dam on a nearby section of river, as they were wont to do around this time of year. Normally Applejack and Fluttershy would intervene and get them to agree to move their operation, but these times were anything but normal.

As they made their way to the farmhouse, Pinkie listened to the crickets chirping softly into the cool night air. However, other noises belonged to a different creature of the night. The unmistakable chatter of bats was accompanied by the occasional flicker as their slight frames crossed in front of the pristine moon above.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Rainbow Dash whispered. "Why didn't you just put us inside the house?"

"We need to peek through the windows, first." Twilight whispered back.

The air grew cold, damp, and heavy as they approached the farmhouse. Certain structural parts had begun to fall from their mountings. A gutter dangled half-heartedly from the roof, while boards and shutter-flaps hung crookedly on broken hinges or rusted nails.

"By Celestia, it's even worse than I remember," Rainbow Dash muttered.

They worked their way around the side of the house, skirting all the way to the back. Not a single light was on inside. Pinkie could not tell if the curtains inside were drawn, or shut. Either way, the house looked abandoned. They stopped in their tracks, hidden by the shade of nearby orchard trees. "Twilight? I don't know if we're gonna be able to see anything inside."

The wind picked up, sending a chill down Pinkie's back. Her mane stood up on end, and for a moment she thought she'd heard a door creaking open on the other side of the house. "Hide!" she hissed, ducking for cover in a nearby bush followed closely by Twilight. She saw Rainbow Dash stand up on her hind legs behind a tree

There were some light scrapes of hoof on dirt as a shadow peeked out from the opposite side of the structure. Is it Applejack? Pinkie thought, desperately hoping it was, but at least partly wishing it wasn't.

Straining her ears against the night wind, she heard the drawl of a heavy and slow voice laden with sorrow. "Applejack. Why are you-"

"Is that Big Macintosh?" Twilight whispered into Pinkie's ear.

"-Quiet, brother! Don't ask questions, or you'll be next." That was definitely Applejack. "You ever want to eat again?"

Big Macintosh didn't respond.

The two emerged from behind the house, accompanied by the rythmic rattle of metal clanking on metal. Pinkie could see that Big Macintosh was clearly emaciated and very weak. A series of heavy chains dragged along behind him, shackled to his hooves and draped across his back.

Applejack followed closely behind him wearing a darkly colored cloak. Besides being well fed, she didn't appear to have taken the usual amount of care in her appearance. The parts of her athletic frame that weren't hidden behind her outfit were broken up by mats in her coat, and her golden hair looked like a pale, grey ball of tangled cobwebs that hadn't been kempt nor braided in days.

They crossed the yard to a cart that had been abandoned in the tree line. "I caught this one just after sundown. Didn't even put up a fight. Weren't worth it to bring her back here to drag it out. Ya wanna know what her last words were?"

Macintosh strained under the weight of his bonds. "N-Nope..."

"Good. Cause them's between her 'n' me." Applejack shoved him harshly towards the cart. "Dig'er outta there, would ya? You know the drill."

Pinkie watched in horror as Big Mac fought to lift his once mighty form onto the side of the cart. His muzzle flipped up the black tarp covering the lumpy surface of whatever was being held in it. Apples, by the sound of it. The distant shuffle of apples rolling over apples continued for several minutes.

"WHAT'RE YA WAITIN' FOR!?" Applejack shouted, her voice ringing like a bell through the night. She drew a short, leathery object from somewhere within her cloak and raised it high in the air, before bringing it down across her brother's back with a sickening crack.

Pinkie cringed, as tears came to her eyes.

Big Macintosh groaned beneath the apples, but he did not scream. He shuffled around for a few more minutes, incurring two more strikes from Applejack's switch. Finally, the stallion heaved backwards, trying to pull something big out from beneath the pile of apples.

"You get her out of there, or Apple Bloom's gonna be havin' you instead."

Big Mac fought some more before a figure emerged. Pinkie whimpered when she saw it was a mare. An earth pony, very slight of frame, and violet. The light was too faint to make out a cutie mark, but even if she could see it Pinkie wasn't sure she'd want to know who it was.

As Big Mac followed Applejack back around the back of the house, Pinkie realized she was shaking. Her entire body rattled with fear, tinged with incomprehension at what she'd just seen. It wasn't Applejack. It wasn't her. She'd never do that. Not to her family. Not to anypony.

She hugged herself tightly as she slumped to the ground behind her bush, completely oblivious to Twilight and Rainbow Dash standing over her. "Pinkie," Rainbow Dash whispered. "It wasn't her, Pinkie. Remember that!"

"T-Tell that to..." Pinkie pointed her hoof at the cart, still sitting disturbed in the distance. Everypony lost is a tragedy, she remembered but it is a tragedy for which you are not to blame. She thought. Applejack is not to blame for this. Her teeth ground against one another as she rose to her hooves, suddenly overcome with anger at this monster who had stolen her friend from her.

Rainbow Dash could sense the disquiet within her, and spoke to what they all must have been thinking. "We need to get in there," she snarled. "Forget the plan you had, Twilight. There's nothing that could prepare us for this."

Much to Pinkie's surprise, Twilight nodded in agreement. "Applejack's still in there somewhere. Just get me close enough, and I'll use my memory spell to bring her back."

Rainbow Dash pressed in close to Twilight, nodding at Pinkie to do the same. Reluctantly, Pinkie agreed. "We go on three," Dash whispered. "One..."

"Two..." Pinkie counted.

Without a word, Twilight's magic engulfed them all. The farm fell away as Pinkie closed her eyes, not wanting to see where they ended up next.