Pinkie Pie visibly twitched - her eyes becoming more dilated by the second - while Rainbow Dash had a huge grin plastered on her face, certain that without a doubt Applejack's words had gotten through to the real Pinkie Pie. Applejack, on the other hoof, had an concerned expression on her face; it didn't take much for her to realize that Pinkie's extra-extreme reactions were signs of something more suspicious going on.

"I-I'm so s-sorry," Pinkie whimpered, her shoulders shaking with sobs, "I never m-meant for this to h-happen."

Fluttershy laid a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder, her gaze warm and friendly. "There's no need to apologize, Pinkie. As long as you're... feeling better, we're all happy."

Applejack gave a brief nod of assent, although her suspicions still remained as she pondered them heavily. How could this be so easy? Ah'm certain somethin' fishy's goin' on here. Could Pinkie be trickin' us into thinkin' she's back to normal now?

Realization struck the orange mare as soon as she caught a glimpse of something small and sharp that had just appeared in Pinkie's hoof.

"Fluttershy!" she shouted, forcefully hauling Fluttershy back just in time for her to evade Pinkie's silver knife slicing through air like it was butter. Hurt filled Fluttershy's eyes as she stumbled, staring at Pinkie, whose face was now home to a sinister grin the likes of which nopony had ever seen before.

"Oh, Fluttershy, you haven't changed a single bit," Pinkie chuckled, her voice sounding more distorted than normal, "it's no wonder that you bear the Element of Kindness." Switching her attention to Applejack, her expression immediately darkened. "I'll give it to you, AJ: you almost got me back there, but not so good enough that it broke me entirely. So, good job on that."

Applejack scowled. "Ain't need no 'good job' from ya, impostor, to know that our Pinkie's still not back yet."

"Impostor?" the dark pink mare screeched, her eyes wild. "You dare call me an impostor? I am Pinkamena Diane Pie!"

Suddenly, Applejack broke into a huge, mischievous grin. "Ya care to test that? How 'bout this, then? If ya answer a question of mine an' get it right, then we'll all believe that you're the real Pinkie without any further doubtin'. If ya miss it, however, then ya'll admit yer not real. Alright?"

Pinkie scoffed. "Oh, who cares? It's just one question. Fine then, AJ, I agree to your terms. The question must be related to me, though, or else you'll... suffer the consequences."

"Sure thin'. Okay then, answer this: why'd ya call yerself Pinkamena Diane Pie?"

"Duh, I call myself Pinkamena Diane Pie because it's my name. What kind of stupid question is that?" Pinkie rolled her eyes in irritation.

Applejack's grin grew even wider. "Wrong, impostor. Too bad, ya've lost."

Pinkie nearly fainted. "W-What? How in Celestia's name is that wrong?"

"You forgot one thin', which is that Pinkie doesn't go by Pinkamena Diane Pie anymore! Yer an impostor!"

"It's still the name I was born with, even if I don't use it anymore!" Pinkie retorted.

Applejack's grin was immediately replaced by a self-satisfied smirk. "Yer still wrong either way. Pinkie - or shall Ah say, the real Pinkie - told us a long time ago that she wanted to forget all about her real name since she didn't like it anymore. If she's the one who told us that, what makes ya think that she'll be the one to break an' use her name again, especially if she starts addressin' herself with it?"

Pinkie's left eye twitched. "I... did say something of the sort... did I?"

Applejack, sensing that her deliberate distraction had worked, immediately made hoof gestures at Rainbow Dash. Unlike last time, the rainbow-maned pegasus gave a brief nod in response, understanding what the orange mare wanted her to do.

Acting accordingly with the plan, Rainbow cleared her throat and began complaining, "Oh, c'mon, Applejack! What's the point in telling her about boring history? We've already established that she's a fake!"

Pinkie's head immediately snapped up as she was freed from the distant, memory-recalling state she was in a moment ago, her eyes blazing with fury as she shot a venomous glare at Rainbow. "I'M. NOT. A. FAKE!"

Rainbow shrugged carelessly. "Who knows? You might be the real one, but as far as your wrong answer, you don't seem to be. I'm just going with the flow here, y'know?"

Pinkie gritted her teeth in frustration before suddenly, realization hit her hard. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I wasted so much time with you boring ponies when I could have found Rarity's killer already!"

Whirling around, the dark pink mare galloped off into the shadows and disappeared before anypony could stop her.

"Eh, I guess your plan failed then, huh AJ?" Rainbow glanced questioningly at the farmpony, whose expression was unreadable.

"To be honest, it wasn' really that much of a plan. Just somethin' that Ah threw together at the last minute," Applejack replied, her eyes downcast. "Well, ya really can't expect that much from a flawed plan, can ya? The only option left now is to chase Pinkie down before she does anythin' bad to another pony."

"Do we... have to? She's still our f-friend." Fluttershy's quiet voice surprised the others; it'd been a long time since she'd last formed any sort of speech.

Applejack stepped forward, placing a comforting a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "Sorry, sugarcube, but we have to. Ah'm sure everythin' will be all right in the end, though, so don't lose hope just yet."

"Speaking of friends," Rainbow suddenly remarked, "anypony here seen Twilight lately?"

Author's Note

Well then, there's that. Came out right on time, just like I promised.

Anyways, I suppose I'll leave you to your... questions now. You'll have to keep reading if you want the answers.

Stay tuned!