Night fell upon Ponyville in the passing hours while Rainbow Dash tossed and turned in her bed. She wasn’t sleepy, but she wished to hasten the transitory time before going to Twilight’s house. Her mind careened into the previous adventures that she enjoyed in the Daring Do series. Athletic as she was, she spent quite a bit of time reading and re-reading the tales of the A.K. Yearling books. In fact, she had read them so often in anticipation of the new release that she had nearly memorized every passage word for word.

She looked over to her pet tortoise, Tank, which was retreated inside his shell. He slept suspended by the tiny whirring blades of the helicopter strapped to his middle. Dash thought about waking him for a midnight flight lesson, but she decided to leave him be. She crept from her bed and bounced with each step on the cloud floor. She made her way outside and thought to herself that Tank would be alright if she went out for a brain clearing fly.

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

Dash leaped from the porch and left behind a wake of rainbow as she zoomed south. She extended her hooves forward while accelerating, and she felt the wind scream through her mane. She ascended sharply and rolled downward in a fantastic display of acrobatics. A thought made its way into her mind that she wished somepony was there to see her tricks while she cut the sky southbound.

A streaming rainbow streaked above the Everfree Forest as the pegasus reached sonic speeds over Froggy Bottom Bogg. Sweat beaded and flew from her body while she squinted in the wind’s resistance. She approached Ghastly Gorge and came to a stop above the chasm. She observed its serene tranquility and the dead trees which stippled the bank of the canyon creek that lead to the moonlit Froggy Bottom Bogg’s eerie array of black swamps to the North West. Further North, past the Everfree Forest, Dash could make out the Ponyville train station lights reduced to a tiny dot like a single star resting in the heart of the town.

Dash wiped moisture from her forehead as she treaded air with a steady beat of her wings. She had to be kilometers away from home, and she wondered if Tank had woke up and found himself alone. She knew he wouldn’t worry, but she still figured that she shouldn’t stay out for much longer.

She came to the conclusion that, if she was going to make her soothing venture a success, she would need to perform an awe inspiring finale. So, she fired toward the moon and burst a few clouds on the way up. She arced backwards, folded her wings, and shot herself downward with the force of gravity. She tucked her head between her hooves and pointed them straight toward the ground as she sped against the sound barrier. She was struggling to see due to her eyes involuntarily squinting against the ferocity of the wind when she realized that the ground was coming up a lot faster than she expected.

Rainbow Dash fanned her wings and grabbed onto as much air as she could while kicking her legs in a futile attempt to stop. She extended her hooves to try and catch the earth, but she crashed into the dirt and bounced a few meters before slamming head first into the grove of flowers that grow along the bank of the gorge. Her body remained perpendicular to the ground for a moment, and then she collapsed and came to rest on her belly.

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

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

Her joints ached more and more, and the stiffness in her neck endured throughout her flight home. She set down on the porch and cantered to her bedroom where she found Tank still asleep in his hovering shell. Her back felt like it had been twisted in a taffy machine, her knees were sore, and her neck was tight, but she was able to get comfortable enough to doze. Unfortunately, she remained plagued with unrest in the silent darkness with no sleep to quicken the passing time. Eventually, Rainbow Dash decided that doing anything was better than simply watching the inside of her eyelids. So, she jumped from her bed, poised on her hooves, and stretched her back.

“I know it is a few hours earlier than Twilight and I agreed on, but I can’t sleep!” She told the sleeping tortoise. She paused as if he was going to respond, and Tank brought his head slowly out from inside his shell. Dash rubbed the back of his neck and scrunched her nose against his, “I’ll be back with the new one before you know it, buddy!”

Rainbow Dash galloped to the front door, albeit slowed by her aching knee, jumped into a spear, and rocketed herself straight toward Twilight’s home. Cloud genocide resulted in the wake of her speed as they were sucked into non-existence and destroyed by head-on collisions.

She was gliding above the rooftops of Ponyville when an unmistakable shrill caught the pegasus’ ears.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash, it’s Pinkie Pie!” The pink earth pony with a wild curly mane shouted from outside Sugar Cube Corner. Rainbow Dash dropped rapidly, dug her hooves into the ground, and skidded to a halt. She shook out her foreleg and reminded herself to take it easy on the knee.

“What’s up?” Rainbow greeted.

“You’re clearing the sky awfully early, you know. I think a little cloud cover is good in the morning. It reminds me of cotton candy breakfasts!” Pinkie Pie chattered so quickly that some of her words came out combined.

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

“Rainbow, it’s like, two-thirty in the morning. Why are you going to Twilight’s this early?” Pinkie asked.

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

Pinkie Pie shrugged, “Okie dokie lokie.” And she bounced away toward Sugar Cube Corner.

“Wait.” Rainbow Dash raised a brow, “What are you doing up this early?”

“I’m making the secret punch.” Pinkie said. She turned around and leaned closely to Rainbow Dash’s ear. “I’m using a secret ingredient that is…” She paused and checked for potential eavesdroppers before whispering, “…a secret.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “That’s great… See you later!” Dash flapped her wings and took off for a brief moment when Pinkie suddenly screamed in a voice that sounded like she had been electrocuted.

“WAIT!” Pinkie screeched.

Rainbow fluttered back down to the ground and wondered what that disturbed pony could possibly need at the hour. The utmost disinterest in making punch urged Rainbow Dash to pretend that she hadn’t heard the excitable pink pony and continue onward.

“Okay, I’m not really in a rush, but I kind of want to get going.” Rainbow said flatly before noticing that Pinkie Pie appeared frozen with a chilling expression locked into her eyes. Pinkie stared with such intensity that Rainbow Dash was sure something daunting was standing just behind her. Rainbow turned around and looked into the distance to see what Pinkie was so frightened of, but there was nothing. No ghosts; nor monsters.

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

Pinkie’s rear legs gave out from under her, and she plopped on her rump which sent a small cloud of dust spiraling around them. Rainbow frowned and asked Pinkie again, “Hey, what is going on?”

Rainbow noticed that Pinkie’s ears were vibrating, her eyes were cocking outward slowly, and then Pinkie’s mouth unexpectedly dropped open which emitted a low gurgling sound.

Rainbow Dash was trying to block the idea of Pinkie Pie becoming so excited that literally explodes and takes the lives of anypony within the blast radius. That was becoming a more real possibility with each passing second until Pinkie abruptly stood and met Rainbow eye to eye. A sobering moment of clarity washed over her and she rubbed a sweaty hoof behind her ear, “Whoa. That was a doozy.”

“Are you okay?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, I think so. Did anything happen?” Pinkie said while shaking the dizziness.

“That was some hardcore Pinkie Sense. Should we get help?” Rainbow Dash lifted Pinkie’s chin with a hoof and looked into her eyes. She appeared to be okay, but Rainbow wasn’t a doctor.

Pinkie looked down, “I’ve never blacked out during Pinkie Sense.”

Rainbow Dash nudged Pinkie, “Come on, let’s get you to a hospital.”

***

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

The hospital was the largest building in town, and it was the only building, other than the Ponyville Train Station, which remained in operation twenty-four seven. Each wing of the structure stretched west to east and all three had their own entrance on the north face of the building. Passages leading deeper into the hospital from the three main lobbies were lined with patient quarters, lecture galleries, and operating rooms. The trio of hallways convened in the southern cafeteria where students, doctors, and some patients could dine.

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

Pinkie Pie made small talk with the stallion about his assumed broken bone and insensitively joked about him being put down. The pink pony’s idiosyncratically bubbly demeanor was unchanged. She seemed completely like herself, and after a long while, the two ponies made their way into an exam room. The doctor performed a battery of tests, but didn’t find anything wrong with her; thus, Pinkie was released with a clean bill of health.

As the pair left the hospital, Rainbow Dash hugged Pinkie Pie and said, "Well, it looks like you're alright. I was genuinely freaked out by your little episode."

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

Rainbow Dash shot off the floor, "Daring Do!" Her eyes locked onto a clock that showed it was 6 AM. Rainbow flew out of the door and sped straight to the Golden Oak Library.

She weaved through buildings and trees and caught many waking ponies that had come out to enjoy the warmth of the sunrise off guard. She fanned her wings, caught a wall of air, and slammed her hooves into the ground. Her leg throbbed as she galloped to the door of the library and knocked.

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

Rainbow Dash stepped inside and noticed an overwhelming smell of lemon scented cleaner that permeated the air. Rainbow thought to herself that she was right in assuming Twilight couldn't sleep because that egg-head had been up all night cleaning the library to bide the time. So much for dissertations.

She made her way upstairs and found Twilight's bed unoccupied and neatly made. The basket where Spike usually rests was also unoccupied but in a disorganized array of bedding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You were there all morning?" Rainbow interrogated.

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

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

"Hey, fillies!" Pinkie greeted.

Fluttershy waved and smiled while Rainbow Dash continued to churn her mind. She mentally selected locations and silently evaluated the likelihood that Twilight would choose now to go to them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fluttershy sauntered to Pinkie's side and surveyed Twilight's convoluted ‘to-do’ list.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Arguing!" Pinkie exclaimed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Silence fell upon them again as Rainbow Dash dropped her hooves from Applejack and collapsed onto her haunches. Guilt twisted the proverbial knife deeper into her heart.

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

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

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

Rarity looked away from everypony else and to Twilight's work bench settled in the far side of the loft near her bed with wet eyes. She began slowly up the stairs with weak steps as if she was making her way to the gallows. Rarity’s horn shined a blue aura as she encompassed a quill and parchment from Twilight's bench, and levitated them to herself so that she could begin an alarming letter to Princess Celestia.

Author's Note

Extreme Pinkie Sense is scary to see.