MLP Laboratories- The Outbreak

Chapters

The meadow
Spike's cupcakes
Worms
The other side
Spectrum
And Then There Was Darkness
The core
The head
Recoil
The arena
Fluttershy is going viral
The Outbreak
The double helix rainbow
Granny Pie
Iiiiiiih
Nonexploding Alligators
Unicorn brains

The meadow

Twilight Sparkle didn't scream when she woke up, not this time, but she was trembling all over.

Where was she?

Her bedroom in the library. Her glorious bedroom, in this glorious world of strong colors where even dirt looked cute and pretty- at least, compared to this... other place.

The unicorn pony began to relax. Everything was fine. It was a beautiful summer night and she was laying in her cozy bed, surrounded by thousands of books. She even heard her assistant Spike gently snoring downstairs. How could anything be so perfect?

Twilight drifted back into sleep.

She tried to ignore the voice in her head who insisted she was already dreaming. And that it was the... other place that was real.

The next morning, when she had breakfast with Spike, the little dragon pointed out how tired she looked.

"Bad dreams?"

"It's no big deal. Maybe we shouldn't eat dinner so late in the evening."

"I'll keep that in mind."

When Spike did the dish-washing, he asked:

"So... are you ready to help Rainbow Dash with her new performance?"

"Rainb... Gee, I almost forgot. Please don't tell me I've overslept."

"You're an early bird, Twilight, you've always been. Look outside, it's still dawn. You should be there just in time without breaking a sweat."

"Aren't you coming?"

"Maybe later. I still got some things to do around the library."

"That's my little assistant. What would I do without you?"

"Hehe..."

"Hey, Twilight! Over here!"

She discovered the light blue pegasus pony levitating on the other side of a blooming meadow.

"Good morning, Rainbow Dash!"

"And excellent morning, to be precise. Perfect flying conditions."

With a few powerful strides, Twilight had crossed the field.

"So... What do you need my help for?"

"Remember the magic floaty thingy you do?"

"You mean psychokinesis?"

"Yeah, the... Chinese one!"

She pointed to a nearby pile of gymnastic utensils.

"See these loops? It would be great if you could bring them up, and I'll dash through 'm."

"Dash, you know I can only hold things in the air for so long..."

"Long? Who said anything about long! Just focus on getting them up. In fact, the faster they fall, the better! I leave it up to you to come up with patterns. You're the course master!"

"I see what you mean, but that sounds awfully complicated. You sure you're fast enough for something like that?"

"Are you kidding me? They don't..."

"...Call you 'Dash' for nothing, I know. Fine, if you insist. But we'll have to focus- both of us."

"Oh, I'm focused alright. I am PUMPED. Let's DO this!"

Twilight grinned. It was hard not to be affected by her friend's enthusiasm.

She started with something simple: she launched three of the loops about fifty meters into the air and then ordered them to split up so they'd fall down in a scattered formation. In a brink of an eye, Rainbow Dash had passed them all.

"Oh come on! Is that all you've got?"

"You've asked for it!"

This was exhausting, but Twilight had to admit it was also surprisingly captivating, in a very unscientific way. She used all of her imagination to come up with the most unlikely patterns, and even though Rainbow Dash beat them all, she felt that she was doing a better job at challenging her skills. In fact...

"Hey!", Rainbow Dash laughed, "What's up with the flower pot?"

"Catch it before it hits the ground... If you're pony enough to save a little flower, that is. I though I'd spice this up a little."

"Oh, you're ON..."

At first, Twilight had just wanted to do her friend a favour, with the halfhearted generosity of a bookworm who is drawn into a sports event to be the referee. But with every round she felt that something was growing inside her mind, something as alien as it was intriguing. It was like a fever.

Sweat started dripping from the unicorn pony's mane.

First there was interest, then there was joy, but now, it became something completely different. And it wasn't exactly... nice anymore. It was like an itch inside Twilight's brain, an itch that got worse with every minute.

She ceased to be Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's faithful student. The itch had filled her entire being. She was grinding her teeth, the horn on her forehead was glowing like white-hot iron. Somewhere in her head, she thought she heard a noise, like a tiny drill... "Iiiiiiiih..."

Only that she didn't really think anymore.

Rainbow Dash didn't notice any of these changes. She was happy. More than that. This was a BLAST- even for someone like her, who never seemed to get enough action. She had chosen Twilight as an assistant knowing that no other unicorn matched her skills, but still, this was something completely unexpected. And Rainbow Dash loved it.

She even forgot what this was all about, her very mind dissolving in the heat of the moment. There was only speed. SPEED.

And it still wasn't fast enough for Twilight. Her voice of reason would have told her long ago that she had to be careful, that she might hurt her friend if she pushed her too hard. But the voice of reason was gone.

FASTER!, the new voice in Twlight's head screamed, SHE HAS TO PUSH THROUGH! SHE HAS TO BURST THE BUBBLE!

Rainbow Dash saw it- the last loop. On the other side of the meadow. Twilight had barely flipped it in the air.

Suddenly, she felt as if a black hole had opened up in her stomach, drawing in her heart and her guts. An all too familiar feeling of loss and despair. All enthusiasm was blown away. She was Rainbow Dash, but she couldn't do this. Ultimately, she would fail. Though she was known for "tooting her own horn louder than the brass section of a marching band", as Applejack put it, deep down the pegasus pony was convinced that she was destined to fail. She would never be accepted as a member of the Wonderbolts. She would never go down in history, at least not the way she intended. She would become an anecdote, the patron saint of FAILURE. Rainbow Crash.

She couldn't do it.

But she would!

The bubble of doubt that had built up in her viscera burst the very moment that it had formed.

Before she knew it - arguably, she didn't exactly "know" anything at this point, not anymore - she dashed towards the final loop.

It felt as if her skin peeled off, her eyes became dry like sand paper, her heart stopped beating. It seemed like a miracle that she didn't leave her own guts behind, trailing them like the tail of a kite.

She passed the loop, and all color vanished from the world.

Rainbow Dash was propelled high in the air by her own momentum, and then she simply let herself drop, using her wings as a parachute only by reflex.

It was only when she hit the ground and opened her eyes again that she realized how everything had changed. On the other side of the loop, there was no grass. There were no flowers.

There was no sky. Instead, there was a huge white dome with an artificial light at the centre. Smaller lights were blinking on the walls, and there were eyes. Black, glossing robot eyes everywhere. The air was filled with the sound of machinery- and screams.

A hole appeared in the part of the wall closest to Rainbow Dash, and a metallic arm appeared, incredibly long and with a sickening number of joints- more than anything should have. It made horrible, clicking noises as it unfolded, coming closer to the pegasus pony with every new segment. Rainbow Dash had never been so terrified in her entire life. There wasn't even a proper word for what she felt.

The metal arm brought its final segment into position, sprouting one of these ghastly black eyes as well as a long, translucent needle. Rainbow Dash was lying on her back, paralyzed except for her mouth and her throat, which allowed for a deep, constant moan of terror.

The black eye was zooming back and forth and from one side to the other, as if it was examining her.

Then the arm darted forward, and the needle was sunk right into the pony's belly.

Dash felt tears running down her face as she watched the needle sucking up her blood. She started sobbing.

The arm rose up again, and again it seemed to study her.

She though that if there was anything like an emotion in this stare, it was utter disdain. And why not. She was disgusting. She was a failure. She deserved this. She deserved to be chased out of Ponyville, right into the sterile, icy depths of hell. She deserved to be disemboweled and thrown away.

The translucent needle was sucked back into the mechanism, and instead, a new needle appeared, much thinner than the previous one. This time, the arm went for Dash's forehead.

Rainbow Dash screamed.

When she regained consciousness, the arm had disappeared. She was still crying, but things were changing once again. At the far ends of the dome, the white tiles were turning green and started sprouting flowers. The meadow returned. The noises of the machinery were slowly replaced by the chirping of birds.

Someone was coming. It was all blurry, but some sort of quadrupedal monstrosity was coming right for her. Dash tried to move, to slide on her back, but of course she was way too slow.

"Dash? Are you alright?"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

She could see it now. It was a four legged freak with purple skin, and a horrible, glowing implant on its forehead. It was glancing at her with its incredibly large eyes.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Dash, what's wrong? It's me, Twilight!"

Rainbow Dash was shaking her head in disbelief. But slowly, she started to understand.

"Twilight...? Is that really you...?"

She looked down at her own body, lifted her stubby hooves to her face. Her horrible, fleshy stumps.

Once again, she fainted.

She woke up at Ponyville's little hospital.

Everything was nice and peaceful. Birds were singing outside her window, the sun was shining. It was nice and warm in her room, and her bed was cozy.

A gentle knock on the door, and her friends came in.

They had even brought some cupcakes.

"Hey, guys..."

"Oh Rainbow Dash, I am so sorry..."

"For what? You didn't do anything wrong, Twilight. And besides, I did it, didn't I..."

The pegasus pony was frowning.

"What happened, anyway? I know that I was... scared, it was all so..."

"You crashed into a hedge at the rim of Everfree Forest. It took me some time to find you."

"A hedge, eh... I really freaked out back there, didn't I? You must think I'm a wuss or something..."

"No way!", her friends protested.

"It was probably just the aftershock from the adrenalin", Applejack suggested, "Twilight said you did some fancy flying back there. Probably broke a few records along the way."

Rainbow Dash sniffed.

"You think so?"

"Oh, I'm sure, sugar cube. They don't call you 'Dash' for nothing."

Since she had suffered no physical injuries, she was allowed to leave the hospital on the same day, and her friends stayed with her until she felt strong enough to leave her bed on her own.

Most of her fear and her sorrow gently dissolved in the warm embrace of her friends over the following days, but some cracks would never close again.

Deep inside, there was a part of her that was still convinced that all she had seen back in the meadow was real. That it was her punishment. That she was a failure and didn't deserve to live in this beautiful world, together with her friends.

There was a special place for ponies just like her. Sooner or later, she would have to return.

Spike's cupcakes

Spike heard the moaning upstairs, and he knew Twilight was having nightmares again.

Twilight Sparkle didn't like to talk about dreams in general, she was way too proud of her rational mind to admit that she paid any attention to them. And she hadn't told Spike about the recent series of nightmares either.

She didn't need to. Spike knew all too well what was going on. At least he could make solid guesses.

Spike remembered how it used to be.

The illusion used to be perfect, it used to be so good in fact that even he managed to make himself believe it was all true.

For days and weeks in a row, he could drown his memories and his conscience in the illusion that they were actually living in a magical land.

He managed to forget the world of the pipes, the syringes, the giant glass tubes, the dark corridors and white domes, the ever watchful cameras. He even managed to forget what he was- and what he did.

Spike didn't know what had changed. Why one day the "gems" weren't enough to make him forget anymore. Why he kept on thinking about the things They did to his friends while distracting them with fairytales so they wouldn't resist.

What had happened to Twilight Sparkle was his fault. He was becoming too nervous, it became harder and harder for him to hide his fear and his guilt. And Twilight... of course she had started to notice. They were living under the same roof, for Pete's sake! They were closer than brother and sister.

Somehow, Spikes suffering had spread to Twilight as well, and she started having... doubts.

And then the inevitable had happened: She had started resisting, probably without even noticing what she was doing.

She had awoken. She had seen... the truth.

They had wiped her brain clean of the memory of the incident, but the trauma had been too strong, and nasty little bits of it remained buried in Twilight's subconscious. Thus the nightmares.

But of course they weren't the real problem.

The real problem was that it might happen again.

Spike did not want to think about these things.

He wanted to curl up in his basket and pretend that nothing had changed. Pretend that the illusion was the truth and reality merely a twisted nightmare.

He was a coward. Deep down, he had always been a coward.

Sticking his head in the sand was the only option.

"I love you guys..."

But he would not be able to save anyone. No sir, not this pathetic little stooge.

Luckily, Twilight was too tired herself to notice the dark rings beneath her assistant's eyes.

He had made a big breakfast for her. Spike had started pampering her quite a bit since the incident with the dentist.

She didn't really seem to notice the changes in his behavior, or at least she didn't feel the need to comment on them. Not long ago, he would have tried to gain her praise and invited her to recognize his greatness. That was back when he was ready to tell himself he was worthy of praise. He tried teasing her occasionally to keep the act up, but that was all it had become- an act.

When the unicorn pony had left to help Rainbow Dash with her flight practice, he went into the library and started putting the data interfaces Twilight had left on the floor back into their respective slots. Under the influence of the "gems", Spike could see these things the way the ponies saw them- dusty old books full of runes and magic. That was nice, but when doing his chores, Spike preferred to focus and switch to a more... precise vision of things. It helped getting things right.

The gap between reality and illusion wasn't very problematic for the ponies themselves- as quadrupedal organisms, they weren't exactly made for complicated manual tasks anyway. Besides, Spike thought, the gap wasn't really all that big. That was both the funniest and the saddest part of the whole deal.

Hell on Earth, painted in pink.

Spike sat down in front of the fireplace, which was really a huge monitor that had a chimney fire for a screen saver. Yet another thing that was so funny the little dragon felt like killing himself.

He pressed a button on the keyboard, and the fire was replaced by the central Ponyville database. A few other keystrokes later, the program started downloading updates for the "books" he had just put back into their "shelves".

Keeping Twilight Sparkle occupied, making sure she would go all the way.

Making sure she would continue to produce results.

This had been part of his daily routine for as long as he could remember. They had created him just for Twilight, to keep her fed and healthy, to help her evolve- and to keep her ignorant. He wanted to believe that he was her assistant- but that was not quite the right word, was it?

He was interrupted by a horrible little noise, the acoustic equivalent of being stepped on the foot. He found a new message from Canterlot Central.

He read it once, he read it twice.

With a frightening CLONK, a ridiculously large syringe appeared in the slot beneath the monitor.

Apply serum E PV PP 33 manually within the next 48 hours.

Spike examined the content of the syringe. It wasn't a potion. This was something organic. Mutant stem cells. He could almost see them crawling around. If they got into Twilight's brain, she wouldn't just be drugged. She would be... changed.

No way!

Spike replied to the message, demanding confirmation.

Only a few seconds later, he got the answer.

It was the same message, word for word. Spike counted to ten.

CLONK.

Another syringe.

So this was handled by a computer. A stupid computer!

Spike was furious. A machine didn't know how to treat Twilight Sparkle!

He would NOT put that thing into her cranium just because it had been burped up by a random automaton!

But did he have a choice?

"Think, Spike, THINK..."

He could refuse.

Spike knew that as a specialized field pawn, he had a certain discretion. But not much. They were watching his every step. He was pretty sure most of the observation was done by computers, and they would only alert their superiors -whatever they might be -in case of an anomaly of a certain degree.

If he refused to execute the orders, however, even those issued by the lowly computers, he would put himself into the spotlight.

As well as Twilight.

Canterlot Central would pay closer attention to their case. If the surge of anomalies in this sector had not caught Their attention by now, this would definitely be the final straw.

They would start to see a pattern.

"Oh, Twilight..."

There is no harm in keeping all options on the table, Spike told himself.

He did not want to use this "serum" on his friend, but, if it turned out to be the only way... if within 47 hours he wasn't able to think of another solution...

So he did what he was supposed to do. He started to prepare the injection.

The main problem was to find the right moment to plunge this thing into her brain.

Normally, this was taken care of by the ponies' ability to simply ignore or to forget nasty things. Only month ago Spike would have used this narwhal tooth-sized needle on her in plain daylight and no one, including herself, would have taken any offense at it.

But these times were over. Twilight was having doubts, a deadly acid that would destroy the pink bubble that had always protected her mind.

So Spike would have to operate at night, when she was asleep. Only that Twilight was not a sound sleeper anymore.

The mere thought of her waking up in the middle of the night while he was standing next to her, ready to stab her in the head head with this horrible needle...

So he had to take certain precautions.

That's when he got the idea with the cupcakes.

Sugar Cube Corner was one of the few stores in Ponyville that had no obvious benefit for Them- it existed only to make the ponies happy. Because happy ponies wouldn't ask questions.

To the ponies, it appeared to offer a great variety of backed goods; in reality, these things were all made of the same, mildly nutritious goo, in different flavors.

Much of the processing was done by machinery that remained hidden to the town's inhabitants- including the very ponies "running" the business. The ponies of the bakery had only one thing to do- to come up with new creations by combining different flavors.

Like in many other areas, They weren't putting much effort into creating and maintaining the illusion- instead, They had created a system in which the ponies could fool themselves.

"Oh, hello Spike!"

"Hi Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie was on duty today. Excellent. Everyone knew she made the best cupcakes.

He was a lucky little dragon.

"The cupcakes look great today. Say, do you remember this one flavor Twilight liked so much...?"

"Do I! I would NEVER forget a friend's favorite cupcake!"

Of course she wouldn't.

"If you have the time, I would like to order a bunch of those..."

"Time? Time? No, I don't HAVE any time, but I'll MAKE some! Follow me!"

And off she bounced to the kitchen.

Her younger assistant hurried to take her place on the counter, rolling her eyes. Yep, that's what it was like to work with Pinkie Pie.

She had already started to prepare the dough.

"Could you hand me the sugar?"

"Here you go..."

"Oh, and some orange juice..."

Good thing that Pinkie didn't actually see the ingredients she was using.

Spike wasn't very picky when it came to food- to him, it all looked and even tasted more or less the same.

But that was because he had a little more... insight than his pony friends.

"Now, be a dear and get me an okapi."

"A... what?"

"Okapi. You know, little forest giraffe, white stripes. They're rare, so you better start looking."

"Don't tell me you actually need an okapi for the cupcakes."

"I didn't tell you which part of the okapi, did I? Wait... what cupcakes? Oh, right..."

"So no okapi?"

"Maybe later."

"So... can I get you something else?"

"The sugar."

"I already gave you the sugar."

"I mean the more sugar. Also, the more honey, while you're at it."

"I didn't hand you any honey before."

"You know, I didn't want to say anything..."

"So I was supposed to give you honey without you even asking?"

Pinkie Pie turned around and bulged one of her eyeballs into Spike's face.

"How much honey do you think I need, mister?"

"...Too much?"

"EXACTLY. Now for some chocolate chips... Good... and the buzzer, please."

"You mean this thing... OUCH!"

"Yes, that thing. No need to bring it over here, it was just for you."

Before he knew it, the cupcakes where in the oven.

He felt the need to sit down and to analyze the things he and Pinkie Pie had said- or yelled -and to put them into some sort of order that his brain could deal with. Had they been fighting? Joking? It was hard to tell. With Pinkie it always was.

Pinkie Pie came to his side, and together they looked into the oven, which was now glowing in a gentle orange. And this moment was nice. No matter which way you looked at it.

"Now we'll just have to wait while they are burning in their own little Hades..."

What a strange thing to say- even for Pinkie Pie.

Suddenly, Spike felt a little uneasy. Pinkie Pie's skin felt awfully warm and sweaty next to his, and the oven didn't make it better.

He looked around, and he found the "buzzer" Pinkie had used earlier to trick him. Where did she even get these things? Spike couldn't think of a reason why They would provide the ponies with practical joke devices. She must have found it somewhere...

The door of the cupboard on the other side of the room was open. It was just a crack, but Spike could tell there was something in there... something that shouldn't be here at all. Like an okapi. Or a disemboweled security camera.

Was he just seeing things?

For once, Pinkie Pie was quiet and lost in her thoughts. Suspiciously quiet.

"Pinkie...", Spike asked in a feeble voice, "How much do you know?"

It was as if he had flipped a switch. The earth pony exploded back into life.

"Uh, is this a quiz? Let's see, I know a whole LOT of things, like, did you know that eggs get stinky if you leave them in the sun and...!"

"No, I mean... Do you know about the... other place?"

"What other place are you talking about, Spikey?"

Part of Spike was disappointed, but the other part was relieved.

So that was it.

Pinkie Pie was just being good old Pinkie Pie, nothing more sinister than that.

"Never mind, Pinkie, just a stupid suspicion..."

He returned his attention to the cupcakes in the oven, but then the earth pony spoke again. The tone of her voice had changed only slightly, but it made him shiver.

"There is no other place, Spike. You of all people should know that."

He slowly turned around. Pinkie Pie's grin had faded. Spike felt his heart sink.

"What do you mean...?"

"There is no different place, there are just different ways to look at it. The candy and the needles from the sky make the ponies see nice things."

"Pinkie... The drugs don't really work on you, do they?"

"They failed me a long time ago. When I was just a little filly."

He wanted to scream, but he managed to contain himself, somehow.

"Oh Pinkie... I am so sorry..."

For a second, a vision appeared in his head, awfully live-like: Pinkie Pie pushing him right into the oven...

Into his personal hell.

"Awww, don't make such a long face. It's not that bad. All my friends are here, right? Besides, it's like I said. It's the way you look at things. We may be stuck in a bad place, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun!"

He should have figured this out long ago.

Now, in the retrospective, it all made sense.

"All this time, and I didn't notice a thing... I thought you were just being... goofy."

"That's because you're a doofy."

Spike shook his head in disbelief. "All this time, you had to live in the darkness, while the others had at least blissful ignorance on their side..."

The second the words were spoken, Spike knew he was going to regret saying them. Pinkie Pie leaped forward. Gnashing her teeth.

"Blissful ignorance is still ignorance, Spike! It's all a LIE. You're sorry the lies didn't work on me, but I can think of a few other things you should be sorry about!

They are raping us and ripping us apart, EVERY DAY, while you only care about the anesthesia! But things have changed, Spike, haven't they?"

"I..."

"You can't keep up the lies anymore, can you? So what are you planning to do about this, buster?"

She had driven him into a corner, in more than one way.

"I... I don't know..."

"Well, you better figure something out, and FAST."

Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.

"Spikey, you need to figure out which side you're on."

She returned her attention back to the oven, as if nothing had happened.

"They should be ready in about twelve minutes. Now If you'd excuse me, I need to get back to the counter."

"Spike."

The little dragon almost fell off the stool he had been sitting on while waiting for the cupcakes. Pinkie Pie was standing right behind him.

"Rainbow Dash had an accident. I am going to the hospital now. The cupcakes are ready, you can take them. Put them in one of our baskets."

He felt the need to say something to her, but she had already left.

The cupcakes smelled great.

Spike had almost forgotten about his plan.

The reason why he needed the cupcakes in the first place.

It would be easy to put sedatives into these. Twilight Sparkle would sleep like a little filly... And wake up with a different brain.

Yeah. How great was that.

Spike took the cupcakes with him to the hospital.

Worms

The Third Dress

Rarity was trying to keep her calm, but this was going too far.

This young pony's enthusiasm was flattering, but it didn't quite make up for the chaos she caused in her boutique.

"Do you also have this one in pink? This color is UG-LY. Say, what's this... ?"

And off she went to the other side of the room, dropping the robe on the floor. A robe Rarity had been working on for weeks was now part of a bog of similar masterpieces scattered around on the floor, crumbled, dirty, perhaps ruined. And this bog was expanding with every minute.

"Wait for me, dearest. I'd like to put the outfits back into their proper places after you've... looked at them."

"No sweat. I wonder if these jewels come off..."

"No, they..."

"Well, apparently, they do. It would have made me look fat anyway..."

The other pony was not fat. As a matter of fact, she was quite skinny and very, very young. Almost a filly. Though the word Rarity was thinking of started with "br" and ended with "at".

From what Rarity retained from the pony's uninterrupted monologue, she was looking for a dress for her birthday party the following weekend.

"Uh, I like this one... but the hat is ugly, maybe if we combine it with this one..."

"NO! I mean, I'd rather not have you modify my compositions, dear, I believe you can trust my professional opinion on th..."

"Green is not my color..."

Rarity did a few breathing exercises and tried to imagine the colors that would fit this young br... filly perfectly. She giggled. Yes, that would do the trick. She already felt a little better. At least in her head, Rarity could be quite naughty sometimes.

"Dear, would you mind if we settle down for a moment and think this over? I am sure I can find something that would fit you marvelously..."

"Time's a wastin' ! My party is in only a few days! It needs to be PER-FECT!"

To Rarity, it almost seemed like a miracle when the young pony finally stopped her rampage.

"Say... how much do you charge for these anyway?"

Rarity brought her a large, ornamented cardboard which had the price suggestions for different kinds of compositions written on it.

("It looks like a menu!", Pinkie Pie had exclaimed when she'd first laid her eyes on it. Rarity insisted that it did not look like a menu in any way. The mere thought of ponies chewing on her creations... And considering Pinkie Pie's track record, this outcome was far from impossible.

It made her shudder.)

The young girl studied the board and started to frown. The happy, carefree expression had disappeared. Now she almost looked... sad. And part of Rarity rejoiced at this.

"I... I guess I'll have to think about this. Can I get back to you?"

"But of course, dear."

And Rarity thought: That's right, young one - go home and ponder about the value of things. Maybe that will teach you some manners.

Rarity was a "neatfreak", as Applejack would have put it. Her dislike of chaos made her very good a cleaning, but that also meant that she spent about 20% more time on it than any other pony. She had not even quite finished cleaning up this particular mess when the young customer returned the following day.

"Hello... Ms Rarity?"

"Good day to you, dear. Have you come to a decision?"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to look around one more time..."

Rarity closed her eyes. She would have crossed her fingers, if she'd had any, when she finally said:

"Certainly, dear. Take your time..."

But this time the young pony was surprisingly well-behaved. Rarity was almost ready to forgive her. After a while, Rarity even felt safe enough to turn her back on her and continue working on another dress. There was a deadline coming up.

Later, Rarity would think that she should have been more suspicious. She should have asked the girl about the big, red bag she was carrying around on her back, a bag that she did not have with her the previous day. She should have asked more questions generally speaking. The outcome would have been very different. She was sure of it. But of course by then it was too late.

"Ms Rarity? I think I have found a dress I like."

"Coming, dear..."

Rarity was shocked. It wasn't just any dress - well, NONE of her dresses was just "any dress", but this one even... less.

"Are you sure? I am not convinced it would be quite fitting for you, and also... I am sorry, but I'm afraid I have to tell you that this is one of the most expensive compositions I've ever produced. Are you sure you can afford to spend this much money on a dress?"

"Oh, it's quite alright. It isn't actually that pricey..."

"Oh, haha... I can assure you it is."

"But look what it says on the cardboard!"

The "menu"- again, this horrible word - did not feature every composition in the boutique. Some had their own elaborate price tags so that customers would not nourish any illusions.

This price tag, however, didn't look quite right. The comma was completely misplaced, for instance. It looked as if it had been traced with a black permanent marker. It sure smelled that way.

Rarity told herself to relax. She was going to handle this like a lady.

"I am very sorry, but there must have been a mistake. This is not the right price."

"Well it's the price on the tag! How is that not the right price?"

"Miss, this is not the price I have put on display."

"What are you talking about? You say you charge "X", so I say you either stay true to your word or I'll have to assume this store isn't very customer-friendly... Highly misleading, that's what I think."

"Mhm, so this is what you think, yes? Tell me, dear, you would not happen to carry a black permanent marker with you?"

"What? NO!"

"May I take a look into your bag?"

"NO! You're creeping me out! If you come any closer..."

A couple which had just entered the boutique decided to leave as quickly and as discretely as possible.

Great. The first real customers of the day. And then the look on their faces... In this business, appearances were everything. Rarity could not afford to lose her face. 'The customer is king', right? Tyrant, even. She had to think of a compromise before this young pony would ruin her.

And of course the horrible brat knew that.

Oh Celestia, Rarity thought, give me strength.

"Listen, I tell you there has been a mistake. I am sorry I can't give you this dress, but I am sure we can figure something out. How about I give you a reduction on one of the other outfits...?"

"Forget it! If this is the way you treat your customers, fine. You've creeped me out. Out of here, to be precise. Good day."

And of course she had said that as loud as possible, chasing away another customer which had just entered the boutique.

Rarity did not bother to reply anything. She just wanted the young one to leave.

This nightmare is finally over, she thought.

Rarity was wrong on that account. Yes, quite wrong.

When the girl was halfway through the boutique, Rarity noticed two things.

One of the dress forms on display was disturbingly bare.

And the girl's bag looked quite stuffed now.

Rarity wasn't sure what happened next.

She would just remember that she felt an incredible RAGE looking at this brat's self-righteous expression as she tried to walk out of her boutique, stealing one of her best works... after insulting and humiliating her. She didn't look like a kid to her. She looked like vermin.

Before she knew it, this little round face was very close to her own, and the expression had changed quite a bit. Apparently, Rarity had knocked her on the ground. Good.

She had even brought the fabric she'd been working with and used it as a gag to silence the screams. Good.

The little pony struggled under her hooves. She was crying now. And that was good, too.

"How dare you... How DARE you... You little..."

Only that Rarity's voice was muffled. Because she had a scissor in her mouth. One of the big ones.

Rarity pulled the red bag out from under the shoplifter's back. She turned it around so that it would reveal its content.

It wasn't just one dress. It were two.

Crumbled as they had been stuffed inside in haste.

She looked at the other pony's face. The young one was terrified. Her face was covered in tears and snot. Even through the gag, Rarity could hear her sobbing.

These eyes. These big, blue eyes full of tears. They could have told Rarity everything she needed to know. They could have told her the story of a poor girl who'd never had nice things to call her own. The story of a girl who was becoming a young woman and who wanted to wear a dress, just this once. She was not a smart girl, and not a very honest one either, but she had a good heart. In her own, twisted way, she was actually innocent. And the other dress? This one was for her little sister. They even might have given these dresses back afterwards, not very likely, but at least possible.

Her eyes told the story of a girl who wanted to live a dream, for just one night, and who was willing to cheat for that. Thinking, as all kids do, that she wouldn't get caught.

But this was something Rarity would think about later.

What she did right now was to stab the young one in the chest.

The pony girl didn't even scream.

And she never would again.

She looked at Rarity, crying her last tears, unable to understand why things had gone so horribly wrong.

Bright eyes, How can you close and fail... how can the light that burned so brightly

Suddenly burn so pale...?

This was one of the many questions Rarity would ponder about for the rest of her life.

No other customer walked inside her shop while she was busy wrapping the body in fabric and pulling it down the trapdoor, into the basement. No one walked in when she was cleaning up. She had not bothered to close her boutique, but luck, some horrible, nightmarish form of luck, was on her side.

All this blood. The fabric was soaked in minutes. Rarity had seen blood before, tiny drops, nothing unusual in her profession where it was all about needles and scissors. But this was beyond anything her mind could handle. So it didn't: Rarities consciousness retreated to a tiny point floating just beneath the ceiling, looking down at this unicorn pony desperately trying to cover the ample evidence of what she had done.

It took her several hours, but Rarity worked without interruption, removed every last stain. She even cleaned the rest of the shop, as if the other pony had exploded instead of being sta... No, it was better to clean as much as possible. Clean was good. Cleaning was essential.

There were now several voices in Rarity's head. Some would accompany her permanently from now on.

Many of them were memories. Songs about dressmaking, friends and customers complimenting her on her work.

The voice of the young one, of course. The young one was with her all the time, repeating the things she had said to Rarity in an endless loop, but also starting to tell her story, her real story, the reason why she had stolen the dresses in the first place. Much of this would later be confirmed in Rarity's research, which didn't surprise her.

There was also a voice she called "Little Rarity".

"Little Rarity" lived in a big, dark place, probably an abandoned cathedral or a temple. She was wearing a black cloak and was walking in circles, and her voice resounded eerily from the architecture.

"We could have figured something out. She didn't need to steal the dresses. She didn't need to lie. She could have borrowed them for the weekend. No, I even would have given them to her for free! All the dresses she ever could have wanted... She was just a kid... just a kid... Down the river of Death... I didn't want to hurt her... I could have loved her like my own sister... Oh, why did she have to make me so angry! Why did I have to get so angry? Why did I allow myself to ki... to do this?

Why did this happen? With all the things that could have happened instead, all the wonderful things, why did it have to end like this?

We could have laughed it off. That's what Pinkie Pie would have done.

I could have given that girl a nice, healthy kick in the hindquarters. That's what Applejack would have done.

I could have reasoned with her, trying to teach her about morals and how stealing from others is not an answer. That's what Twilight Sparkle would have done.

I could have yelled at her and threatened her with telling the whole town that she was just a big fat shoplifter. That's what Rainbow Dash would have done.

Fluttershy... Well, no one would ever steal from Fluttershy in the first place. And even if they did, she would just look at them with her big, sad eyes and tell them they were hurting her feelings. Devastating.

But I am me. And I didn't do any of these things."

Oh, and there were many other voices. Her friends starting to notice that something bad had happened, someone discovering the body in her basement...

The horror and the disgust when they found out that Rarity was a monster...

And there was Big Voice. It was calm, noble, full of sympathy.

It was also the loudest and most terrifying.

It would say: Rarity... where is the young one?

"I know not", the voice she called "little Rarity" would reply, "Am I her keeper?"

And then the voice would say: Rarity, what have you done?

Everything came off. Everything was squeaky clean. As if nothing had happened.

In the heat of the murder, the girl had looked like dirt to her, and now, in the cold world after the incident, she was cleaning up... removing the dirt. Every last trace. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that anything could be so... mortal. That living, thinking creatures could vanish like this. Wasn't everypony just a bloody stain in the fabric of the cosmos?

Rarity wrapped the new inhabitant of her basement in another layer.

Then she went back to work. Made new dresses.

Piece by piece, snip by snip

Croup, dock, haunch, shoulders, hip

...

There were no more customers this day, and none the following day.

Ponies who had wanted to enter her shop changed their minds in the last minute, remembered important meetings, decided to spend the afternoon at home with a nice book or to go for a long walk. None of them would have admitted that it was a feeling of certain doom that repelled them at the doorstep.

Opal was a rather lazy cat and prefered to stay at the boutique rather than to stroll around, but when she heard her owner make strange noises downstairs, her instincts told her to see if she could spend some time at Fluttershy's place.

So she left the shop through an open window and went to Fluttershy's cottage. Though she had to discover, much to her dismay, that the aura of this familiar place was even worse.

Fluttershy would have wondered why Rarity didn't honor their weekly get-together at the spa, but while Rarity was lurking in the darkness of Carousel Boutique between freakish, half-finished dresses, and while Opal was standing in front of the door, trying to decide where she would go next, the yellow pegasus pony was lying in her cottage, her eyes wide open, but unable to move.

And she wasn't the only one from her circle of friends who had their own problems to worry about. Their own nightmares.

Sweetie Bell would certainly have noticed that something was wrong with her older sister, which she had always admired, but the little unicorn was spending the week at their parent's place.

Rarity tried to focus on her work, but everything she created looked positively awful. Like a monster.

And whenever she turned her head, she saw the bundle. Sometimes it was in a corner, sometimes it way lying in the middle of the room or under her table. Once, it was even stuck to the ceiling, like a giant cocoon. The wrapped body. The young one-burrito.

Sometimes it twitched.

She didn't want to stay in the basement. Rarity didn't blame her. That's not where she belonged anyway. Something had to be done.

So Rarity decided to make a new dress for her. The others were stained in blood, and that wouldn't do at all, now would it?

No, she made her the most beautiful dress she'd ever made for anyone. The young one would have loved it, Rarity was sure of it. Of course no one except her would ever see the girl in that dress, but it did count for something, didn't it?

She worked on it for two nights, working as fast as she could, knowing that she didn't have much time before the content of the burrito would start to rot beyond recognition.

It had already started, but luckily Rarity discovered a whole new way to use make-up. After she cleaned off the blood, of course. All that blood, friends and neighbors.

There she was, lying on her side in Rarity's basement. A butterfly hatched from her cocoon. Pale, but with stunning, colorful wings.

Rarity had done a good job. The young pony almost looked as if she was sleeping.

She looked so pretty. A real lady, all set for her last birthday as a child and her first birthday as a young woman.

Rarity started crying again. She still had a lot of tears in her. An entire ocean. She would never be able to shed them all.

There was no word for how sorry she was. But it didn't matter either way, did it?

Nothing would ever bring her back. And Rarity would never receive forgiveness.

It was almost dawn when Rarity left the boutique with the young one on her back. She didn't make any effort to conceal the body, but again, the putrid luck of a psychotic murderer was on her side. She was all alone. If you didn't count the young one.

If you did count her, of course, it would have been safe to say that in a way, Rarity would never be alone again.

When she arrived at Froggy Bottom Bog, there was still no light on the horizon.

She knew that there was one place where the swamp was much deeper than in the rest of the area. This is where she gently lowered the young one into the water.

And there she was, slowly sinking into the darkness, her lifeless body following the path her spirit had taken a bit earlier. The dress moving like the fins of a tropical fish.

And she was gone.

Only that she wasn't.

Rarity started to circle the bog. Restless. What else?

When she had watched the girl sink, she had almost felt at peace. No, not at peace, but at least it had seemed like the right thing to do. A proper... burial.

Now Rarity wasn't sure anymore.

Something was wrong.

There. She saw the face of the young one. Because it was illuminated by an unknown source of light. A light which had no buisness being there.

She was moving. Not the way inanimate things move peacefully in the water. She was being pulled.

This was wrong! This was not supposed to happen!

This was no bog.

Rarity saw the whole world fall apart around her. The plants and trees disappeared, were replaced by alien machinery. The grass and mud turned into white tiles. It wasn't fog that filled the air, it were clouds of disinfectant.

But Rarity didn't care about any of that. It was something happening in the corner of her eye. It was just a secondary nightmare.

Because Rarity focused on what was happening down in the water.

The young one was grabbed by something that looked like a black tentacle with searchlights, and was pulled into a hole that had opened at the bottom of the pool.

NO.

Rarity dived into the filthy water. It was burning in her eyes and on her skin, but she went deeper and deeper. Finally she managed to grab the young one's dress. She started kicking at the tentacle, but this was hard to do under water.

Everything was so slow, so confusing.

The tentacle seemed surprised at first, but then it pulled harder. The dress was torn to shreds.

NO! Rarity thought. You are not going to get her! Not you!

A second tentacle appeared, this one covered in needles.

Rarity felt how it was wrapping around her legs, and the pain was incredible. Yet she didn't give up. She would kick, and kick, and pull, and scream...And then the young one was sucked into the hole.

And then there was darkness.

Bubbles on the surface of the bog.

The other side

Worms

Applejack was proud of her family's orchard.

It was hard work, and if you looked at the price the Apple ponies got for the literal fruit of their labour, it was almost safe to say that they lived in slavery. Though neither Applejack, nor Big Macintosh, nor anyone else in the family would ever have looked at it that way.

Ponyville needed them apples.

And the Apple clan was proud. Proud to shoulder one of the hardest tasks in the pony community. They saw themselves neither as the lowest nor the highest strata of society, but as reliable neighbours who did what they did best- slaving every day for a commodity so integral to the everyday life of the ponies that most didn't even waste a second thought on it.

Applejack was more than happy to show Twilight Sparkle around the farm. The librarian had visited the farm before, but this time she had told Applejack that she would like to take a closer look, even something like a guided tour if that was possible and didn't make too much trouble.

It didn't make too much trouble.

If there was one form of bragging Applejack was more than happy to commit, it was bragging in the name of the clan.

At the end of the little tour, Applejack brought Twilight to her favorite spot, on top of the highest hill on the farm.

"Now feast your eyes on this sugarcube. Isn't it splendid? I could stand here for hours just taking in the view."

"I shall say. How big is the orchard anyhow?"

"Funny you should say that... Let's just say it's quite a hoof full. We work sector by sector until we're all done for the day..."

"And then you just continue working the next day?"

"As I said, it's quite a hoof full..."

"It's just... you seem to be harvesting all the time."

"Well, not ALL the time, Twilight. I mean otherwise I wouldn't really have the time to show you around now would I?"

"No, what I mean is... It never seems to end, except when it's winter. Almost every day you're out in the orchard. You have cellars and silos, and you put apples in them almost on a weekly basis. Year-round."

"There is no shortage on my watch, that I can assure you. There's a lot of hungry ponies to feed around these parts."

"Tell me something about Applebuck Season. We all helped you last time, because Big Macintosh had broken his ribcage, remember...?"

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I already admitted I could not have done it alone, I learned my gosh-darned lesson, get over it already!"

"In a way, it was a lot like the Running of the Leaves: It was something that had to be done before winter. Taking down all apples at once..."

"Like every year."

"See, this is what I don't get. The rest of the year, there is always apples. No matter how many you're taking down. It's only in the winter that they don't grow back..."

"Well, DA. Twilight, I know you're not from the countryside, so let me tell you: apples don't grow in winter. They really don't."

"But why do they grow back the rest of the year?"

"Because it's not winter."

"Week after week?"

"Personally I'm glad they do. You may not have noticed, but we're eating apples every day."

"It just seems strange to me that we have such a steady supply..."

"Oh Twilight, you think so much about things, I'm surprised your head doesn't burst like a big purple pumpkin- no offense. There is good ol' mother nature on the one side, and there is a carving for vital vitamins on the other side, and in the middle, there is the Apple family. And that's how it goes."

Twilight was slowly shaking her head.

"You're at the heart of the system... and you work all the time... without ever complaining, without ever asking questions, because Ponyville needs you..."

"Now there sugarcube, are you trying to make this big ol' workhorse cry? My, if you put it like this, I'm overwhelmed by my own glory. They should make me quite a possom of a statue, don't you think? Right in the middle of town..."

Applejack showed her friend the pose she'd like her monument to be. Twilight couldn't help but giggle, and at least for a moment she forgot what had troubled her.

"Say, Applejack, do you have any... machines?"

"Machines? We don't have no fancy automatons down here, my friend. It's all hooves and sweat, all traditionally-like, just as nature intended. What ever got you that idea?"

"I'm not sure... For a moment I almost thought... Ah, forget it. Thanks a lot for showing me around, Applejack! You have quite a farm down here. I won't bother you much longer, I bet you'll have to get up early in the morning again..."

"You're right on that account, sugar cube. Celestia knows this pony needs her rest... I better head for the stables."

This evening, Big Macintosh stayed outside for a little longer and gazed upon the orchard.

Big Macintosh didn't talk much. In fact, he didn't even feel much. Big Macintosh especially tried to muffle feelings that couldn't be traced back to their origin. But this evening, while gazing upon Sweet Apple Ackers, he couldn't help but feel sad.

The reason why Big Macintosh had given up feeling and thinking about everything was simple.

Because if you did, you might have come to the conclusion that none of this made any sense.

One of the benefits of doing hard, physical labour all day was that you tended to fall asleep quickly and that your dreams were deep and blue, devoid of the strange entities and cryptic messages that inhabited the sleep of ponies such as Twilight Sparkle.

It was probably mere coincidence that Applejack woke up that particular night, maybe just one sound that was loud enough to reach the pony's sleeping mind.

Or maybe it was Applejack's mind itself which had changed without her even noticing. Maybe the questions Twilight had asked about the farm had touched something deep inside of her which had been dormant for so long. Maybe it was both, or none of these things. We'll never know for sure.

At first, Applejack was just staring at the ceiling, not even aware that she was awake. She couldn't remember ever waking up in the middle of the night like this.

Her muscles and even her bones were hurting. She needed her rest, and she needed it badly. So why was she awake?

Then she noticed the strange noises outside. Someone had entered the farm!

Applejack leaped out of her bed.

"Son of a possum... !"

Whoever it was, they were going to pay. This was private land.

Also, they had deprived her of her rightfully earned rest. That's what you call aggravating circumstances.

Applejack grabbed a lantern downstairs, and off she went into the night.

She expected to see the light of another lantern. But the orchard was completely dark. She had to follow the sounds.

With every minute that passed, her confidence was shrinking a little further. Applejack didn't like to think of herself as a coward, but she didn't like the darkness either, the deep shadows between the appletrees.

Somehow her hopes that she would stumble upon Snips and Snails, or any other pony committing harmless mischief, started to fade.

Then she saw light after all. Tiny, green dots in the darkness. Fireflies? Yeah, fireflies. The color was off, but whatever. It was also strange that they weren't buzzing around, just hanging in the air in an awfully geometrical formation.

They were floating in front of the silo where the ponies of the orchard had locked up the apples they had gathered during the day. Applejack also spotted a couple of shadows lurking around the structure.

Strange glowy lights or not, she was dealing with apple thieves!

Applejack dashed towards the silo and started to shout.

"HEY! Now wait just a gosh-darn second! WHAT do you think you're doing?"

The shadows twitched, and Applejack was granted a sweet second of triumph before they slowly turned around and filled her heart with terror.

Applejack didn't dare to come any closer so that the light of the lantern would have fallen unto the strangers, but she saw enough.

Big, glowing eyes. Glass helmets. Dozens of spindly arms and legs. Even as they were staring at her, some of their limbs continued to move, picking up apples and sticking long needles into them.

And the green lights? No wonder they were arranged in such a regular pattern.

They belonged to the underside of a flying saucer.

Deep inside Applejack's spine, something screamed. But Applejack didn't.

Instead, she turned around and walked back to the farmhouse. Slowly. Calmly. She felt the stares of the strangers on her skin, but she paid no attention to it.

Because none of this was actually happening.

She went upstairs and curled up in her bed.

None of this was happening.

And she managed to believe that.

Every time she heard another noise, her certitude was shaken, but then she would just rebuild it, good as new. Hour after hour. She was just dreaming, after all.

In the morning, she got up for another day of hard work.

She looked into the mirror and smiled.

"Just a stupid ol' dream."

She hadn't been sleeping during the last seven hours. The dark rings under her eyes were more than just circumstantial evidence.

"Sis, you should try to sell some apples today."

"What, you mean... these apples over there?"

"Yup."

"Why... sure, big brother... Right away..."

She even put twice the load on the cart she'd usually carry. She happily ignored the tiny little holes that could be found on most of the apples. No one had ever stuck a creepy needle into one of THEIR apples, no sir! Best quality from Sweet Apple Ackers.

There were quite a lot of hungry ponies on the market place today. Applejack sold a lot of apples.

She watched in horror as the ponies were eating them, seemingly ignoring the tiny red worms that were squirming around inside. Applejack had never seen mycetozoa, the crawling slime molds, but if she had, she would have had the vocabulary to describe the red parasites which had infested her harvest.

One of them even crawled right out of the apple and into the corner of the eye of a pony while she was eating.

Of course Applejack didn't see these things.

Because they were not real.

"Gather around everpony! Get yourselves a taste of them apples! We have enough for everyone!"

She and her family had a job to do. Apples here, ponies there.

And that was the whole truth.

The only truth that mattered.

Spectrum

The other side

Twilight Sparkle was already wide awake when Spike flipped the light switch. She didn't sleep very well these nights.

It was not so much the fear of the nightmares as the fear of waking up, and realizing that the nightmares had followed her into her life.

"Spike..? What's going on?"

"...We need to talk."

He sat down at her bedside.

He looked troubled. Scared, even. He tried to look into her face, but flinched away the second their eyes met.

In a way, this didn't surprise her. She could see her own reflection in his eyes- pale, trembling, a mere shadow of her former self.

"Okay. I can tell you're worried about something. Why don't you just...?"

"I don't know where to start. This is important, Twilight."

He gathered all the courage he had.

Oh, she was going to hate him, he thought, and rightfully so. Or worse still, she would not even want to listen to him at all, even though her very life depended on it.

So what? This was the moment of truth.

"Twilight, you were having a lot of nightmares recently, weren't you?"

"I don't know what you..."

"Of course I'm talking about those nights where you were sleeping at all."

"Spike, I..."

"This is very hard for me. But I made a decision.

I am going to tell you why you're feeling the way you do. I'm going to tell you what I think is really going on here. I want you to brace yourself. This is going to be a shock for you, so I'll try to go slowly..."

He took her hoof into his little hands, an awkward gesture she had never observed on him until... well, until this strange day where she had gone to the dentist.

The day the darkness had come into her life.

The unicorn pony pulled her hoof away. Spike sniffed.

"We don't have much time. I have turned down the cameras in this room, but..."

"Cameras...?"

Twilight didn't like this at all. She felt the sudden urge to hide under her blanket. She didn't resist that urge- it was just that she was unable to move. It was hard for her to do even as much as breathing.

She didn't know what Spike was going to tell her, but her heart was filled with a terrible certitude: that she would not like what her little assistant had to say. The dentist, the nightmares, this very moment of terror- it was all connected.

Twilight felt as if she was balancing at the edge of a cliff. Any second now, Spike was going to push her.

"Breathe, Twilight! Breathe for Pete's sake! Look, forget what I said, relax, maybe we can just..."

"PUSH ME ALREADY!"

"...What?"

"I mean, SAY IT. I am TIRED of this. Spike, I am scared. I am SO scared. I can't go on like this. Please, Spike... Make it stop. GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"I..."

"SPIKE!"

"It's all a lie, and They're going to kill you!"

He tried to catch his breath again.

"Twilight, this place is not what it seems..."

At first Twilight's brain wasn't able to process any of this. She just heard Spike shouting and making little scary noises.

But then she looked at him, saw the fear in his eyes, the urgency... And something else.

Spike had come to warn her.

Because he was worried about her.

Much to the little dragon's surprise, Twilight started to smile.

It was the sort of smile that could erupt into a nervous breakdown any second.

Maybe, Spike thought, she is running amok right here and now. Maybe she'll kill me on the spot. Odd knows I'd deserve it.

Instead, Twilight spoke softly to him.

"You're quite upset Spike, aren't you? No worries, we'll figure something out."

"But Twilight, this isn't just any problem, this is..."

"Is it real?"

"...What?

"Is it real? Is it a bad thing? A real, bad thing?"

"Well, NO, it's EVERYTHING, actually, and..."

"Everything is still just a thing."

Twilight contemplated the device Spike had just put in front of her.

Her mind was trying to drift away, but she forced herself to concentrate on this horrible, alien instrument right in front of her eyes.

Spike started to explain it to her, slowly, but at least now his voice was steady.

"This is a syringe, Twilight. It contains mutagen cells.

This syringe was given to me a few days ago. I was supposed to use it on you- that's right, to sting that needle -notice the length- right into your very brain. And to fill your skull with these plasmids that would change the very structure of your cerebrum, the very way you think and act- turning you into a different pony.

Any questions so far?"

He nodded at the blank expression in her face.

"That's what I thought. We are going to do this step by step. I need you to look at everything you know- I mean, pretty much everything - in a different way.

Ponyville, for instance. Me. Yourself. Ponies. Magic, even!

I am sure you have noticed a lot of strange things. I am now going to give these things names, and I'll try to put them into context..."

Once Spike got started, he went on for hours. He had always wanted to do this. It was a confession he needed quite badly.

"... And thus everything is starting to fall apart. Once They get the impression that They are losing control, They will try to eliminate us and everyone we know. I'm afraid we don't have much time.

So in summary... THIS is the problem."

Twilight was slowly shaking her head. She was feeling dizzy.

"It's alright.

You have to think I'm crazy.

Well, I most certainly am.

Because I was playing by their rules, and because I am now breaking these same rules.

I couldn't keep lying to you any longer. I allowed so many bad things to happen. I tried to tell myself that They were harmless- righteous, even! Even though I saw what They're doing to you. You have a right to know. You have a right to chose. I should have realized that much sooner..."

Twilight was trembling more than ever.

"It's alright. Your mind is fighting the drugs and the hallucinations- now that it knows what to look for. Remember this: No matter what happens next, I will be by your side..."

Ever since Spike had started talking, the world had been losing its colors. Friendly, round shapes had turned into rectangles. Wood was turning into plastic and metal.

Twilight started noticing objects which she had ignored before, and familiar things were turning into something else.

This painting, for instance. Twilight had never paid any attention to it, it had just been part of the decor. Now that she looked at it, it didn't seem to be a painting at all. More like a plate of glass with buttons and switches all around the frame.

And the books, the scrolls, they were just... discs, of some sort.

And then Twilight looked at her own reflection on a polished piece of metal.

She started to notice the pores, the little drops of sweat, even the tiny hairs growing inside her nose.

And when she looked up again, everything, absolutely everything she knew was gone. Gone for good.

She would never see Equestria again.

She was seized by a terrible feeling of loss and despair.

Twilight Sparkle started to cry, and Spike was holding her.

She and Spike went for a little walk.

Just as Spike had told her, instead of a sky, there was a ceiling with great domes in it. It was there where the weather was generated- the pegasus ponies would pull it right out of the domes according to Ponyville's needs. It was like providing a hamster with building material for its nest.

The buildings were really stables made from the same glass and metal as the surrounding area.

All the ornaments and details Twilight had previously seen had merely been products of her drug-enhanced imagination. If the ponies had ever bothered to compare their different visions of ponyville, the scheme might have fallen apart a lot sooner. But who in their right mind would ever talk about wood carvings?

What appeared to the town's inhabitants as their daily routine, their jobs, businesses and other activities consisted mostly of going to certain extraction points where long tubes with needles on them would suck out their blood or other bodily fluids. If they were not removing entire organs.

Some ponies would run in what appeared to be giant hamster wheels to provide an additional energy supply for the very facility that was enslaving them.

There were also those ponies who spent their day within certain testing areas. It were mostly the unicorns, who would manipulate objects and solve puzzles using the nano-implant on their forehead, under the scrutiny of the omnipresent cameras and sensors.

It is one thing, Twilight thought, that They- whoever They were - had been lying to the ponies about everything. That they were harvesting their very life force without their consent. But there was something even more disturbing than that: The utter and blatant disdain they displayed for their little lives, their hopes and fears.

For Them, the ponies were mere things. You pressed one button to make them cry, and another one to make them laugh. If they were broken, you threw them out and made new ones.

Although Twilight Sparkle couldn't be sure about it, she thought that she had also learned something else about her oppressors: They were not invincible.

It was more of a feeling than a rational conclusion. And sure, maybe she would not be able to find a way out. But the important part was: She was not dealing with almighty, supernatural entities.

However powerful these creeps were, they were driven by greed and other lowly instincts. So they also had weaknesses. Necessarily.

They were not the central force of the cosmos, but merely a bunch of petty slave-owners.

So there was probably room for some... aggressive negotiation.

And Then There Was Darkness

Nonexploding Alligators

Spike was leading Twilight Sparkle through the labyrinth of tunnels beneath Ponyville.

"What exactly are we doing down here? Don't get me wrong, I love freakish, paradigm-changing surprises as much as the next pony, but what I like even more is to be prepared... I'm not sure what to expect anymore..."

"I want you to meet someone."

They reached a tiny room full of monitors.

And in the middle of the room, there was a...

"Wooooooo!"

"Pinkie Pie?"

"Aren't you excited? Cos' I'M excited! Now that there is two of us, there will soon be threeandfourandfiveandsix, and then, INFINITY! We will be LA RESISTANCE! There will be adventure, and EXPLOSIONS! We'll be fighting crime and the forces of... EVIL!..."

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around and humming some kind of theme song, happily ignoring that there wasn't really enough space down here to do that.

"I don't get it... You knew? I mean... YOU?"

"Me of all ponies! But I wasn't able to do anything big without you! I knew the day would come when we would all fight side by side against the machine! RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Woooo!

On a related note, I made you cupcakes to celebrate- but I already ate them all myself because I was just so EXCITED!"

Pinkie Pie hugged her perplexed friend tight.

It took Spike and Twilight a while to calm Pinkie Pie down to a point where they could discuss their plans.

"So you're telling me that you have both gathered enough knowledge to neutralize certain parts of the security system?"

"At least for a short time. I am supposed to know this kind of stuff, I am part of the staff. Though my skills are pretty much limited to what I need for my job."

"I have been sneaking into the dark and secret places ever since I was a little filly! I know every inchymeter of this town, and how to break stuff. You might say I'm a natural."

"But so far you weren't able to find a way out."

"We are able to punch holes into their defense, but we were unable to exploit them. These openings have to be small enough to stay undetected so They don't get suspicious and realize someone is messing with the machinery.

They are updating the security system every day. So basically it's always one step forth and one step back."

"Sometimes two steps back... It's like the Pony Pokey, just without the fun."

"So... what do we do?"

"You're the smart one, Twilight. You tell us."

"You guys...", Twilight moaned, "This really isn't fair."

Oh, but they were making puppy eyes.

"Alright then. First of all, tell me everything you know about this place and what you were able to do so far. I need maps, layouts, detailed descriptions of the machines and the technology used. I need to know how They think. But first of all, there is something else I'd like to know..."

"What is it, Twilight?"

"Spike, Pinkie... Do you think there even is a way out? You say all of Equestria was some kind of high-tech prison... How do we even know if there is another world outside? And what kind of world would that be? Perhaps it's even worse outside than it is in here... I am just worried that if we break out of this, we might be leading the ponies into certain doom... I can't just lead an entire people into the unknown."

"Think of it this way, Twilight. If this place really was so great, why would they work so hard just to keep you inside?

I can see why you're worried. Whatever we do, the consequences will be dangerous, maybe even diso... disastroo... really bad. But think of all the ponies who are born into slavery. Think of the way they're treating you. Outside, you may be able to shape your own destiny..."

"And what if there is no outside? What if this is all there is?"

It was Pinkie Pie's turn to answer.

"Then we'll conquer this place. Smash the baddies. Make new rules. Spike is right, Twilight. We have to take our destiny into our own hooves."

Spike put together a short video presentation to teach the ponies about the real geography of Equestria.

Twilight learned that the Forbidden Forest was actually part of a large iron curtain that circled the entire country. What appeared to the ponies as mountains were really giant watchtowers and robot factories.

According to Spike, Canterlot was the centrepiece, a fortress that included the most important research facilities and where all important decisions were made.

The lands between Canterlot and the Forbidden Forest were pony-habitats where large-scale research and organ harvesting took place.

Equestria was a closed space. What appeared to be the sky was actually the ceiling. It was quite possible that the entire facility was merely a cave deep beneath the surface ("Or even on the ocean floor!", Pinkie Pie added. Twilight didn't think that was very helpful).

"We don't know what lies behind the forests. It could be the way out. It could be other places like this one. Perhaps it's the place where They live. Either way, They make sure no one passes through without Their consent. It stretches through all levels of the facility as far as I can tell."

"Say Spike, how safe are we down here?"

"It should be safe for about twenty more minutes. Then the computers will notice that the sensory systems in this room aren't working properly and fix the bug. We have to make all of our meetings quick and change our locations every time."

"We can go to my place afterwards", Pinkie Pie proposed, "if Spikey can hack into Sugar Cube Corner as well."

"I have already hacked into all your homes... And I probably shouldn't have mentioned that just now."

"We'll talk about that later."

Pinkie Pie was serving them tea and cupcakes.

Twilight sighted.

"There are still so many things I don't understand. Like the other creatures that live here... What's their place in all of this?"

Spike swallowed the cupcake he had just picked up.

"Some are merely pony companions. Some are test objects themselves. Many belong to the security and maintenance systems, just like me. Pony-Surveillance-BioDrone, 'Dragon' class."

"What about Gummy? I can't see what a toothless alligator could be designed for... no offense."

Pinkie Pie's pet alligator had just waddled into the room, perhaps attracted by the voices.

Pinkie Pie giggled.

"Oh, little Gummy is the EVILIST of them all, isn't that right Gummypooh?"

"You see Twilight, 'Gummy' is actually an assassin. They noticed that something was weird about Pinkie Pie, but they couldn't quite put the finger on it (or whatever They have for fingers). So They sent Gummy. He is supposed to observe Pinkie Pie, and should she do something unusual- to attach himself to her..."

"Just like this!", Pinkie Pie exclaimed proudly when Gummy locked his jaws firmly on her puffy tail.

"...And then explode. If you listen carefully, you can hear him ticking. Twilight...?"

The purple unicorn pony had taken cover behind the sofa.

They all listened to the ticking sound coming from Gummy's belly. Finally, it faded away, and Gummy loosened his grip.

"That's a gooood boy!"

"We're not sure why he hasn't exploded yet. Might just be a malfunction..."

"Or maybe he just likes the birthday parties he gets as a reward for every year he's not exploding!"

"And you just keep him around?"

"They would get suspicious if he disappeared without going *boom*. Besides, I need him. He helps me focus."

"If you say so..."

But from there on Twilight Sparkle was trying to stay as far away from the alligator as possible. Well, trying harder than before.

"So what do you think, Twilight? do you already have a plan?"

"Well, there is one thing I know for sure... If we're going to go through with this, we'll need a team."

Pinkie Pie turned around to look right at the audience.

"You all knew it would go down like this, didn't you? Stay tuned for the next episodes, in which we will recruit our champions!"

"Who are you talking too?"

The core

The palace of needles

"Rarity? Spike, it's really none of my business, but can we actually trust your judgment on this? This is a very delicate situation, and we can't let our personal feelings get in the way..."

"Oh mare of little faith. Believe me, Rarity is just the pony we need. Besides, we'll have to tell everypony, sooner or later, so why not start with our friends?"

"First of all, we need to carefully plan our operation. Staying as discrete as possible. We can't have too many ponies involved at this stage."

"In any case, here we are."

"Where?"

"Oh, right, you can't tell. We're beneath Rarity's boutique. This trapdoor on the ceiling? It leads into her basement."

"You know, the thought that you have been sneaking around like this all along is starting to creep me out."

Spike pushed a button on the wall to open the trapdoor.

"You've seen nothing yet, sister... mind helping me up?"

He jumped on her back, and from there right through the opening.

"How did you get in before?"

"There is a tiny ladder. But I like this one better, hehe..."

"Very nice. Now how do I get up there?"

Spike lay down on his belly and reached through the hole.

"Gimme your hooves."

"MY BACK! This was NOT a good idea. Maybe you should consider going on a diet..."

"Oh shut up. With all these times I've been carrying you around, you owe me."

"With interests, apparently..."

"Shhh! I think I heard something.

It's so dark in here..."

"The stench... Twilight, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Rarity...? Is that you...?"

Twilight felt her little companion tremble next to her.

There was definitely something else down here.

Steps in the darkness. Hooves? No healthy pony would have walked like this.

"T-Twilight...? Maybe you should... you know... light... ?"

Probably. But Twilight Sparkle wasn't quite sure she wanted to.

"Well, here goes nothing..."

The unicorn pony's horn started glowing.

At first, the two intruders didn't see anything. But the sounds came closer, and then the monster stepped into the light.

Twilight started moaning. Her psyche was hurting.

This... thing was not a pony. For a nanosecond Twilight was trying to convince herself that it was just one of Rarity's dress forms, but of course she had seen it moving. And now it was coming closer.

It had leathery skin that seemed to have been sewed together haphazardly. It really could have been some sort of puppet... If it hadn't been for the bleeding wounds.

It had no mane or tail. It didn't even have a head.

A blind and deaf creature. How did it even know they were there?

It made a strange, clicking noise, and suddenly it seemed to hover slightly above the floor.

Twilight saw why that was: Each of the monster's stubby hooves had sprouted a long needle, and now it was walking on these needles as on tiny stilts.

The monster leaped forward, bound to stab Twilight with its front hooves on impact. The unicorn pony dodged the attack not a second too soon.

Now the monster was behind them, in the darkness outside their bubble of light.

"What IS that thing?"

"We have to get out of here! Where is the tunnel?"

"Wait, No!"

"NO?"

"Rarity is in here somewhere! We've got to find her!"

"Are you nuts? We're not prepared for something like... this!"

"It might be the only chance we get!"

There were noises all around them. So these creatures were pack hunters- whatever else they might have been.

Spike hopped on Twilight's back.

"Quick! How do we get to the boutique?"

"I don't... You know what? LEFT!"

Twilight dashed into the darkness. There were stilt monsters all around. Twilight even collided with one of them, but she managed to get up before the monster did.

And then she ran right into a wall.

"You said left!"

"So I should have said 'right'. Can we argue about that later? … WATCH OUT!"

Twilight leaped aside, and the front needles of the attacking monster got stuck in the wall.

"They walk slowly, but they strike fast. At least they don't seem to be very smart..."

"Look who is talking, Mister 'Left'! Now we do this my way!"

Twilight started running close to the wall. Through their tiny sphere of light, they could see that the monsters were trying to follow her movement, but as Spike had pointed out, their walk- and turn rate were rather slow. Finally, the stairs came in sight.

"Let's get out of here..."

Above the stairs, there was a trapdoor. Twilight pushed against it.

To no avail. It wasn't locked, but there seemed to be something heavy on top.

"No, no no no no no no no..."

The monsters were already gathering around the stairs. It was only a matter of seconds before they would start climbing. Or leaping.

Twilight was sobbing. She turned off the light and instead used her horn to work on the trapdoor.

She felt a sudden pain in her shoulder. Apparently one monster had attempted to pounce her and only missed her by an inch.

The door flung open, and they crawled outside.

They managed to close the trapdoor just in time before the stilt monsters could follow them.

Twilight used her light spell again. Sobbing and shaking and trying to catch their breath, they looked around and discovered what had been blocking their exit.

It appeared to be a giant lump of flesh, with iron chains wrapped all around it. It emitted deep, humming noises.

"I-Is it... alive?"

"Maybe it's sleeping... Whatever it is."

The windows seemed to have been sealed with metal plates.

"I've never seen something like this. That's not part of the system."

It was cold in the boutique. So very cold. Twilight could see her breath hanging in the air.

Spike didn't seem to care (which didn't surprise the pony, she had already seen him sleeping on ice as if it was a soft cushion), but Twilight knew she couldn't last much longer.

"S-Spike, I..."

"Already on it."

The little dragon pulled a large blanket from a nearby dress form.

"Here you go... Oh..."

The dress form beneath the blanket was missing body parts. And it started bleeding from its eye sockets as soon as the cover was removed. The blood was dripping on the floor.

"Oh Spike... what has happened to this place? Any chance this is all just in our heads?"

"I don't think so. We've got to find Rarity. Maybe we'll find her upstairs."

"That... thing just started moving.

And it's gaining... MOMENTUM!"

The lump was rolling towards them, apparently with the intend to crush them. Twilight discovered to her terror that her hooves seemed to be stuck to the ground. The humming coming from the monster's inside was spreading through the floor and right into her limbs.

"Twilight! Teleport!"

Right.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw that she had brought them into Rarity's atelier.

"Ooooh..."

"Let me guess. More monsters."

"I think I call them 'bag walkers'. It's always nicer when things have names, don't you think?"

They were coming closer from every corner. It wasn't possible to say anything about their anatomy, since they were covered from head (?) to toe (?) in baggy sheets. The air was filled with their sobbing and their moaning.

"Maybe they just want a hug."

"And maybe I don't want to find out. Are they blocking the path to the stairs?"

"Yes they are."

"Alright, then. Violence it is."

One of the monsters was approaching the pony from behind. She gave it a kick and sent it to the floor.

"Ouch. It's as if they were filled with sand."

She heard a cracking noise, and it was only by reflex that she lifted her right front hoof. Just in time: An incredibly long, nasty needle popped out of the laminate floor.

She was already hearing similar noises all around.

"Oookay... I can do this..."

Twilight sent a pair of scissors flying through the air, stabbing one of the covered monsters. She didn't quite see what came pouring out of the wound.

Spike was breathing fire, but his tiny flames didn't seem to have much of an effect. At least they acted as an additional light source.

"Can't you just teleport again?"

"It's on a cooldown, remember?"

Twilight screamed. This time, she hadn't been fast enough. She had lifted her left front hoof in time, but the needle coming out from underneath her left hind hoof struck home.

"Twilight! You have to get off the floor! Look at me!"

Spike had jumped off her back and right on top of one of the monsters. It was trying to shake him off, but he had already moved on to the next creature.

"Spike, I'm hurt...", she cried, "I can't..."

"You CAN! You must! NOW Twilight!"

Sobbing and her injured hoof throbbing with pain, she climbed on the back of a bag monster she had just knocked to the floor, and from there onto the next. It was like walking on a bouncy castle that wanted your death.

But this was no time for doubts. It felt like an eternity to her, but finally Twilight reached the stairs. Spike was already waiting for her.

The upper floor.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike went straight for Rarity's bedroom, though Twilight was very much in pain due to her hoof. They had wrapped it in a piece of fabric torn from her improvised cape.

They were trying to Ignore the blood that was dripping from the ceiling, the noises in the walls.

They also didn't look into the bathroom, even though they learned through their peripheral vision that the mirror was broken and that the bath tub was brim-full with water. There was something big and dark floating just beneath the surface, but that was a mystery that would be left unsolved.

Someone was singing in Rarity's bedroom.

It sounded like a child.

Twilight had thought that after all these things she had just gone through, nothing would give her the chills anymore. Silly mistake.

"Giggle at the Ghostie, eh Spike?"

"Giggle at the Ghostie."

"Gasp."

"You can say that again."

Rarity's canopy bed had been replaced by something that looked like a cross between a sacrificial altar and a guillotine.

Where the walls and the ceiling met, dress-form monsters were dangling on iron chains, constantly moaning and swaying.

The chandelier had been replaced by a giant lump-monster, similar to the one they had encountered downstairs.

But all of this paled in comparison to Sweetie Belle, who was sitting on the monster bed, looking sickly and worn.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head... Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

"S-Sweetie Belle?"

The filly looked up, and her eyes filled with tears. Though she didn't seem to have that many tears left.

"They don't want to go to sleep..."

"Hush, Dear..."

Twilight pulled her away from the horrible altar and hugged her tight.

"It's all going to be okay. I'm here now. Your auntie Twilight, remember?"

Sweetie Bell nodded and buried her face in Twilight's mane.

"Sweetie Bell", Spike asked, "Do you know where your sister is?"

"She's everywhere", the little ponygirl cried, "Don't you see? It's all her!"

"Shhh... There now... We have come to fix this."

A horrible scream came from the wardrobe and made them all jump.

"It doesn't like you", Sweetie Bell whispered.

"What is in there, Sweetie...?"

But the filly was frozen with fear.

"Alright, THAT'S IT."

Spike pulled up his imaginary sleeves and waddled towards the wardrobe

"Spike! I don't think..."

"I've had it. We will get Rarity back, and we will get her back NOW. So... BRING IT ON!"

He flung open the doors.

The wardrobe was empty.

"Wow. I guess no surprise IS a surprise as well. Hm..."

He turned his back to the wardrobe, scratching his head.

That's when the giant scissor monster leaped out.

Its screams were shaking their very bones.

It had the body of a young pony girl, but the legs had been replaced by gruesome prosthesis made out of blades and scissors, with a mind-boggling number of rusty joints.

The eyeballs had been torn out, and replaced with long needles that protruded from the sockets like robotic antennae. Her chest was a never-ending fountain of blood. In seconds, the floor had become quite slippery.

Scissors, needles and blades were swarming around her like so many giant wasps.

Twilight put Sweetie Bell back on the bed.

The monster tried to spear Spike with her front leg. Not only did he dodge the attack, but he hopped onto the leg and started climbing.

"I do this for RARITY! I'll show you, you... bloody creep!"

But Spike didn't get far. The monster was moving just too fast, too spastically.

The little dragon was sent flying through the room, right into one of the trapped dress form monsters, which was instantly trying to strangle him.

"Spike!"

Twilight slipped and fell into a puddle of blood.

With a glowing of her horn, she tore the wall monster out of its chains and hurled it at the scissor beast. Spike landed right in front of her.

"Thanks for detaching me before impact. That's what I call quick thinking."

"Detaching...? Right. Just as I intended... "

When the wall monster hit the target, the two creatures seemed to fuse into a fleshy... disaster. It was both very fascinating an very disgusting to watch.

After just a few seconds, the scissor monster had completely absorbed the other and went on with its rampage. But it was much slower and clumsier now. The smaller monster had been converted into giant tumors that were protruding form the scissor beast's flesh.

"Okay. So I guess this is the way to go. Listen, I need you to distract the monster while I gather my strength to launch another projectile."

"You got it. No female of whatever species finds anything more... distracting than me."

"Even under these circumstances, I find that disgusting. -More so, actually."

Surely enough, one wall monster after the other was added to the count.

"And now, dessert", Twilight said to herself when she detached the chandelier lump.

Even under the weight of this last projectile, the monster was still trying to stand up.

Twilight had had enough. Covered in blood, her injured hoof throbbing, her horn as well as her eyes glowing, she stepped forward.

"Give it up! We are STRONGER than you! Rarity belongs to us!"

A giant scissor on multiple joints was coming right for her.

The next thing Spike saw was a flash of light.

"Wow. Now that was a rather unpleasant encounter."

Sweetie Bell sniffed.

"You call THAT unpleasant? You clearly haven't met Pyramid Pony."

Slowly, the horrors of the boutique were melting away. The entire place reverted to its former state.

They found Rarity downstairs, crying.

The head

Spectrum

Rainbow Dash had been number two on Twilight Sparkle's wish-list. Number one had been Applejack. Twilight was convinced that Applejack's reliability, her rationality and her physical strength made her the perfect recruit and a vital addition to the team. It was only because Spike had insisted to get Rarity first that they had not talked to Applejack right away. This also meant that Rainbow Dash had been moved to place three.

Later, Twilight Sparkle would spend a lot of time thinking about this. She would ask herself countless times why she hadn't talked to Rainbow Dash first.

There are plans, and there is chaos.

Sometimes, you get the impression that the chaos is better organized.

Twilight sighted.

She and Spike were watching Rarity work. For the first time in days, the dressmaker-pony seemed to have reverted back to her former self. She almost looked cheerful, and after a while, she even started humming an all too familiar song.

"I'm still not happy with this, Spike. What happened the other day was just..."

"Why, exactly. Her magic is not the same as yours, but it's powerful alright. I've never heard of a unicorn creating things like these..."

"Excuse me? 'Things like these' ? Spike, it was pandemonium!"

"Pandawhut?"

"She brought her very nightmares to life! She created an entire world filled with monsters! Her insanity came pouring right out of her head and was trying to kill us! Her potential is truly amazing, but, you know... insanity?"

"Relax, Twilight. Rarity will be fine. She just needs something to focus on. This will keep her from thinking about... whatever made her go loco in the first place."

A sudden buzzing sound from Rarity's workbench made them both jump. She was currently working on something that looked like a chainsaw.

"You mean we are channeling her madness into a direction that's useful to us. I don't know, Spike. She might be better of with kindness- and therapy."

"Rarity won't be happy without her work. Trust me, now that she's back on track, she won't derail again that easily."

"But when she finally does, we'll all be DEAD."

"You're like a constant downer, eh?"

"Charlie the Unicorn reference? CLASSIC!"

Pinkie Pie had been sneaking in on them, finding just the right moment to test their vulnerability to heart attacks. Yet again.

Rainbow Dash was restless.

Ponies who didn't know her well enough would have thought that these erratic flying maneuvers were part of her usual routine. They were not.

She watched the town and the surrounding landscape from every possible angle. She was starting to notice certain patterns. And though she wasn't quite sure what she was seeing, she knew she didn't like it.

Not that long ago, she had thought that the sky was without boundaries, that she enjoyed absolute freedom of movement.

She didn't.

The sky was full of invisible barriers, no-fly zones. All this time, she had been flying on a handful of pre-established routes. Now that her former innocence had been spoiled, she had lost the inner compass which had helped her navigate through the iron skies the way she was supposed to.

Rainbow Dash was like a fly trapped in a glass bottle.

Many ponies would have said that Rainbow Dash was exaggerating her own exploits and telling tall tales until she started to believe in them herself. And as athletic and talented as Rainbow Dash was, she also liked to cheat. A lot. She was a cheating cheetah. Her love-hate relationship with Applejack was partially due to the fact that the workhorse saw right through her.

But there was a part of Rainbow Dash that knew all too well what was real and what was not. This part of her accepted nothing but the bare facts, and it was never satisfied with embellishments and half-truths.

It was this part of her which told her that this place was all about embellishments and half-truths.

And there was another thing. She hadn't met with her friends for quite a while, but lately she had been following Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight and Spike around secretly. They were meeting at different places, sometimes vanishing for hours.

They knew something they didn't tell her.

Well, screw them.

It was rather ironic that it all started with a cupcake.

Rainbow Dash didn't like cupcakes, not since that horrible nightmare.

Yet Pinkie Pie insisted on bringing over a basket full of baked goods from time to time, since she believed Rainbow Dash wasn't eating enough.

This time, when Pinkie Pie approached Rainbow's cloud mansion in her balloon, the pegasus debated whether she should pretend she wasn't home. She opted against it. No matter how much the thought of Pinkie's cupcakes made her shiver, the idea that her earth pony friend had come flying all the way to her doorstep in vain was simply too heartbreaking.

And even this could have been without consequences, if only Rainbow Dash hadn't decided this very day to break with her habit and actually try one of the cupcakes. Normally, she would have checked the entire basket and thrown away anything that reminded her too much of the nightmare. Yet this time, she decided to retain the last cupcake, and to give it a try. She had no idea why she did that.

And thus she found the message.

Hidden within the cupcake, there was a piece of parchment. It turned out to be a map.

Pinkie Pie would later assure that this had been an accident, that one of the cupcakes she had prepared for one of the Resistance-meetings had found its way into Rainbow's basket. But of course with Pinkemina Diana Pie, nothing is certain.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what this map represented, and yet it seemed awfully familiar.

The iron sky. The pieces started to fall into place, one after the other.

She was trembling, sweating. Suddenly, her mouth was full of crayons, and she started drawing all over the map. Here... and there...

RIGHT THERE.

She looked at her work. She had pushed her crayons so hard that several of them were broken.

She spat them out.

She had drawn a rainbow, shaped like an arrow. The structure at the tip of the arrow was now colored in red.

Rainbow Dash was crying and laughing.

Laughing and crying.

Then she devoured the remaining contents of Pinkie Pie's basket, the flavour of the crayons still on her tongue.

"Rainbow Dash! It is SUCH a pleasure to see you!", Rarity exclaimed, "Please, do step inside!"

"Hi, Rarity. Good to see you too..."

Rainbow didn't like Rarity's boutique that much. This world of fashion and finesse was the last place that would make someone like Rainbow Dash feel at home.

But there was no other way. She couldn't do this without Rarity.

"I'll be right back, dearest. I'll make us a cup of tea."

"Listen, Rarity... I have a rather odd request..."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped when she finally noticed how much the inside of the boutique had changed. Apparently she wasn't the only one with odd requests.

The pegasus pony didn't even have the vocabulary to describe half of the things she was seeing. There were still a few beautiful dresses, but now they looked awfully lost, like colorful butterflies in an armory.

There were also sketches and open books everywhere. Rainbow recognized a book on alchemy she had once seen in the hooves of Twilight Sparkle.

"My, what a mess! I'm terribly sorry, Rainbow, but I am working on so many things right now... "

Yeah, Rainbow Dash thought, I'd say at least forty at once. Does that sound like a good estimate, Rarity?

"Listen, if you don't have the time to..."

"But OF COURSE I have time for you, Rainbow! There is no question about that. I'll do EVERYTHING you'll ask me for."

There was a sparkle in Rarity's eyes that the pegasus pony found rather intimidating. What had happened to her? Rarity had never been lazy, but this looked a lot like obsession.

Ah, well.

Rainbow started describing her request. Rarity was listening very carefully and taking notes. To her horror, Rainbow noticed that things all over the place had started moving on their own. Even as they were speaking, metal plates were fused together, materials melted and were shaped into new, exotic forms.

She is doing this, Rainbow Dash thought, She continues working on her other projects right now, while she is already working on mine. How is that even possible? Do I even want to know?

"This sounds like a marvelous idea, Rainbow!"

"It does?"

"We're not going to waste any time. Please, hop onto this pedestal..."

"W-what exactly are you going to do?"

"Shhh. I'll need this to fit you perfectly. And I mean perfectly."

The blue pegasus observed with growing concern that a black liquid came floating into the room.

"I'm afraid this might take a few moments. I just realized that I still need to fix a few molecules... This is a new material I have developed earlier this afternoon, but I'm not quite satisfied with it... Yes, yes... Here we go..."

Dude... did she just say 'molecules'?

"There. This should do the trick. Now please hold still. You'll have to hold your breath for a few minutes... Oh, right, I guess you won't be able to do that. No worries. I'll just have to do it in seconds. No problem at all. Now hold your breath please... excellent."

Without further ado, the black liquid was covering her entire body.

It felt like an eternity when Rarity finally said:

"You can start breathing again, darling. I have created the openings for mouth and nostrils. Take a look into the mirror and tell me what you think. How does it look? How does it feel?"

"It's... it's like a second skin. This is incredible..."

"Oh no dear, don't move..."

Too late. Rainbow Dash had fallen off the pedestal and was now sliding over the floor.

"I'm afraid right now it won't allow you to walk. I really made it as smooth as possible..."

"This... this is amazing!"

Rainbow Dash was actually hovering slightly above the ground, because the suit was just so incredibly repellent.

"Yes, but I don't think it's very practical. I should probably give it another try..."

"No Rarity, this one is perfect. I won't need to walk in this anyway. This is for flying only."

Rainbow Dash was flying around in the boutique for a quick demonstration. Even though the suit was covering her wings, her flight was as steady as ever.

"Very well then. Please return to the pedestal, there is something else that needs to be done."

"Something else?"

"Trust me on this, dear."

Another bubble of liquid came flying through the air. Rainbow Dash gasped. It was boiling metal.

"Rarity..."

"It's okay, Rainbow Dash. The spell is shielding you from the heat. Though I'll have to ask you to hold your breath again..."

And then her head was wrapped in molten metal.

It were a helmet, and some sort of corset for her chest and her neck made of incredibly thin yet resilient metal rings. Rarity had also added a pair of goggles.

"I want you to wear these beneath the suit. They are based on the very structure of your bones, and will fortify your skeleton."

"It is ingenious... I wouldn't have thought of something like that."

"Of course not, dearest. This is what I'm there for."

"Rarity... I haven't even told you what I am planning to do..."

"And I don't need to know. My work here is done. Please take care, Rainbow Dash."

It was a beautiful summer evening. Clear skies, fresh air, even the wind was blowing in the right direction. Lies, but useful lies for a change.

Rainbow Dash was sitting on the roof of her mansion, wearing Rarity's suit.

From up here, she could gaze over all of Ponyville as well as the surrounding areas.

It was time.

Rainbow put on her new goggles.

With every flap of her wings, she was accelerating.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to fly in a straight line, but thanks to the map as well as the experiences she had gathered since the incident in the meadows, she was familiar with every route in the sky. Even though she didn't see the obstacles, she was able to navigate with ease, so that she could focus on gaining momentum.

And then she dashed right into the Forbidden Forest.

Even at this speed, her reflexes and her knowledge of the terrain allowed her to navigate around the trees.

The whole forest came to life. Branches turned into wicked claws, darts were flying through the air, poison gas was released into the atmosphere. Electric fences lit up like Christmas trees.

To no avail.

Rainbow Dash was busting through one security layer after the other. By now all hallucinations had worn off: She was seeing the forest for what it really was, a robotic inferno. And she was beating it.

Her target came in sight: One of the giant structures the ponies had come to refer to as "mountains", or more precisely, a small opening close to the top, secured by an electric field.

Without the suit, she would already have been fried hundreds of times, and without the helmet, she would have broken her neck.

Rainbow Dash had no idea whether she was going to survive the grand finale as well, and quite frankly, she didn't care.

The time has come to welcome spring, a pegasus' job begins, and clearing all the the gloomy skies... and let the sun shine in...

They didn't call her "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothing.

She hit the target, though it wasn't exactly a sonic rainboom.

While opinions diverged on this as well as the following events, most ponies later agreed that this particular explosion deserved to be referred to as the "beginning of the end", as far as Ponyville was concerned.

Spectrum

by AcousticBrony

(as found on YouTube)

Recoil

And then there was darkness

Twilight Sparkle and Spike arrived on the Apple Farm shortly before Rainbow Dash destroyed the central generator.

Applejack was working harder than ever.

Big Macintosh was worried. He was not a colt of many words, but he was trying to find the right ones. So far, nothing got through to her.

By now she was harvesting and delivering most of the apples herself. It almost looked as if she was obsessed to get them off the farm as quickly as possible.

Of course Big Macintosh didn't see what his little sister DIDN'T see.

Because what she DIDN'T see were the worms. Swarming all over the harvest, but hey, no worries. They were not really there. Business as usual. Work must go on.

"Hello, Applejack!"

"Howdy Twilight! Spike. Fancy seeing you here. I'm afraid I'm a little busy right now, why don't you go inside. Applebloom can..."

"I take it from here, Applejack", Big Macintosh said, "You go with your friends."

"But..."

Before she could say anything else, her brother had pulled the cart away from her.

"Alright, I guess..."

Twilight and Spike looked at each other for a brief moment. They had both noticed the dark rings beneath Applejack's eyes, the way her tail was twitching.

"Okay, Applejack... There is something we'd like to talk to you about..."

"Talk? About what, in tarnation?"

"About... Apples."

"Apples."

"Yesss! Your stock. We need to inspect your apple cellars. We'll explain there."

"Ma apples are fine..."

"SURE they are. Let's just go down to the cellar, alright? We'll explain."

"Come on in, then..."

Applejack didn't like this. Sure, they were her friends, but why were they so eager to keep her from working? All of this was mighty suspicious.

"Hey! What's Spike doing over there?"

"I'm locking us in. Don't worry, Applejack. You need to relax."

Twilight smiled at her.

"We need your help, Applejack. What we are going to tell you might sound strange, but as long as we all work together..."

Normally, the cellars were only lit in the small, orange glow of what the farm ponies thought of as candles or oil lamps. Now Spike had activated the main light, revealing the place for what it really was- a high-tech storage facility.

Spike uttered a tiny squeak of terror and disgust.

All around them, robotic arms were pushing needles into apples, or bombarding them with green rays. And the worms. Worms everywhere. Some were even crawling on the floor, coming closer, as if these blind creatures had a way of sensing the presence of their warm, inviting flesh.

"Spike, what is this?"

"The Apple Farm is not my department! I knew they were manipulating the food, but I had no idea... No idea..."

The awful calm in Applejack's voice made them shiver. "What are you two babbling about?"

"Applejack, can't you see? There is something horrible going on..."

"I can see alright. Listen, I don't know what got into you to, but I'm mighty uncomfortable with this. I would be glad if you could just... leave. Maybe come visit me some other day? I got work to do."

"Applejack, please! you need to come with us to Pinkie Pie's place. This has gone too far..."

"It has! Get out already!"

"The WORMS, Applejack! The freakin' WORMS! You're seeing them too, aren't you?"

"I AIN'T seeing nothing. NOTHING!"

Twilight wasn't prepared for this. She had always thought of Applejack as the most loyal friend, as someone rational and most of all, honest.

"We won't leave you like this! There is no way back, Applejack! You need to come with us."

"Get off mah property!"

"Applejack..."

And then there was darkness.

It was not so much of an earthquake as a sudden, high frequency vibration. One of the many inofficial names the inhabitants of Ponyville would later give to this event would be "the moment hundreds of ponies peed themselves".

There were the sounds of explosions, wires being torn apart, debris flying around like shrapnels. At some places, big chunks of machinery were falling from the iron sky.

And then the lights went out. Everywhere. From the artificial sun in the sky to the tiniest desk lamp.

Spike knew that this was a blackout, even though nothing in his training or his own research had prepared him for something like this.

The ponies however did not know.

Sufficient to say that not all ponies who died that day were victims of the explosion itself; there was a fair share of ponies who died of shock, had horrible accidents in the dark or even killed themselves on purpose.

From one second to the next, their world had vanished. They were lurking in the darkness, crying and trembling of terror and cold. Because the warmth had gone as well.

"Spike..."

"I am here, Twilight."

"Spike, I can't see anything... Am I blind?"

"I don't think so. Turn your head. Do you see the green emergency light at the other side of the room?"

"I do. Oh Spike, I'm so scared."

"I hear you, sister. Let's get out of this place. Where's Applejack?"

"Applejack!"

There was no answer.

Twilight used her horn to light the way. Her light was very small and pale now, but it was still there.

The worms on the floor were dying. Apparently, they couldn't stand the cold. Finally some good news.

"Applejack!"

"Twilight, I think she left us here."

"We... Oh Spike, let's leave. We need to know what is going on outside."

A night sky without stars. Twilight was staring into the void.

"What happened, Spike?"

"The juice is gone. But They didn't turn it out... Something has gone very wrong."

The world had become so quiet. So very cold. Part of Twilight wondered whether she was already dead.

"Hop on, Spike. We need to get going. Meet up with the others. Figure this out. Something."

The young unicorn pony felt like diving through a black sea. From time to time, structures and objects would appear in her hornlight, just to be swallowed again by the darkness.

They had reached Ponyville, and now she heard the whimpering. Thousands of voices, scared, lonely, hurting.

"Oh, Spike..."

"We're not the only survivors, Twilight. Think of it this way."

"Look!"

Other ponies were drawn to her light. A face rose from the darkness, and another.

"Hi... come closer. That's right, don't be scared."

"S-so cold..."

"I know. Shhh. We will go to Sugar Cube Corner, why don't you come with us?"

"Do you think this is a good idea, Twilight?"

"What else can we do? Why would we leave them here?"

There were more and more faces. There were other unicorns as well, but they were either not as skilled as Twilight or too scared to use their own magic.

"Everpony, follow me. That's right. Follow the light."

"Are you the Pony of Death?", someone whispered.

"I... No! It's just me, Twilight Sparkle. You know me!"

"What happened to us?"

"Stay calm. We need to organize ourselves. Just come with us."

They reached Sugar Cube Corner together with about twenty other ponies. Pinkie Pie was already waiting for them at the doorstep, and as surreal as this was, she had prepared a can of hot chocolate.

She let them inside.

They were resting on the floor of the shop, wrapped in blankets. There were tiny campfires everywhere, made of sheets and lit by Spike's flame.

"So this is it, then. Everything has changed. What do you think is going to happen, Spike?"

"Hard to tell... Obviously, They will try to fix this. The question is, what are They going to do to us? They can't use their gizmos to neutralize us, not anymore. If this sector is the only one touched by the blackout, They will probably quarantine us. And then? They just wait until we die of cold and starvation, and then They move in and fix this place. Or They move in right away. They might send drones..."

"Like this one?"

Pinkie Pie dropped a metal sphere in front of them. It had a large camera eye, but didn't seem to be active.

"It was floating around, and I just thought to myself... Well, no, I didn't, I just killed it."

"You know, maybe we can turn this to our advantage... Maybe we can figure a way out of here before they make their move."

Suddenly, a flash of light. It was coming from outside, from town square.

"PONIES OF PONYVILLE. DO NOT PANIC. PRINCESS CELESTIA AND HER ROYAL GUARD ARE HERE TO RESTORE ORDER AND SUPPORT YOU IN THIS DARKEST HOUR."

"Too late. They're here."

It was truly a sight to behold.

Princess Celestia had appeared, in all of her glory. She was like a living torch of angelic light.

Ponies gathered all around, their faces suddenly full of hope.

Even Twilight almost cried in relief. The glammer was so very strong.

She had long escaped the effect of the drugs, but Princess Celestia was an entirely different category. Twilight saw the "Pincess" for what she really was, and yet... The shiny white metal, the lights, the powerful aura, the wonderful voice... Celestia was the very incarnation of "home". Even knowing what she really was, you had no choice but to rejoice. Princess Celestia was easily the most treacherous of all Their creations.

"Greetings to you, my loyal subjects. A great cataclysm has brought darkness to our land. Be assured that I will do all that is in my might to protect you.

There are hard times ahead, but as long as we all work together and be faithful, we will survive, and prosper once again."

"Take us to Canterlot, Princess!"

"Please, take us with you!"

"Do not worry, My Little Ponies. I will make sure that things get back to normal as soon as possible. However, I need you to stay here, to rebuild your town. Rebuild your lives. This is what you have to do for me. My guards and my loyal servants will stay here to protect you."

The white pegasus guards were stepping forward. They were real ponies of flesh and bone, though the probes in their brains probably affected the way they were thinking and acting.

The Princess summoned a swarm of magical fireflies (only Spike could tell that they were tiny drones released from a hatch on her underside) who would spread over the iron sky like so many stars. And they were not only giving them light. Suddenly, it was warm again. A warm summer night. The ponies gasped. This was pure bliss.

"Now, it is my wish that all ponies gather at town hall to have themselves registered. A few ponies which I trust more than anyone else will head a committee that shall oversee the reconstruction effort.

Twilight Sparkle! My faithful student, please, do step forward."

Twilight was trembling all over. Did Celestia know about the Resistance? How could she hide her true feelings? How could she possibly pretend to be just one of her stooges?

"M-my Princess."

"I was told that you were very brave, Twilight, leading your fellow ponies through the darkness. I am very proud of you."

"T-thank you, majesty..."

"I want you to be part of the committee. You will assist another dear student of mine to bring order back to Ponyville."

"Another student...?"

A young earth pony colt appeared by Celestia's side. He was brown and had light blue eyes, almost as pale as ice.

"This is Bronyvistus. His loyalty and devotion to our cause are unmatched."

"I will do everything that is in my power to serve my people."

"I want you both to move into the major's office right away. It is time to organize the counting. But tell me, Twilight, where is your little assistant?"

"Spike? He..."

He was gone.

"No worries. I am sure he will turn up soon enough."

She and Bronyvistus were alone in his office.

"Twilight Sparkle... You think you are so special. Well, if your zeal to the right cause is matching your skills, you will be fine. Otherwise... We have been watching you, Sparkle. You're useful to us, but me, I don't trust you. Neither does the Princess, in fact."

Twilight's lips seemed to be moving on their own.

"You do know that the Princess is a machine, right?"

"Oh boo-hoo, you don't say. Do you think I'm STUPID, like these ponies out there? I know everything you could possibly know, and more. I know how our race was created..."

"So you know that we are slaves?"

Bronyvistus hissed.

"Careful, Sparkle. This is the only warning you'll get. Watch your tongue. Embrace the rules of this world, and survive. Start nagging and whining, and you'll be... left behind."

"So... what exactly are we supposed to do?"

"Simple. We organize. First of all, we register all inhabitants of Ponyville, carefully dividing them by breeds..."

"Come again?"

"You heard me. Segregation is the key. We can't have everyone running all over the place.

The earth ponies shall have the greatest share of the town, and the biggest rations of food. Medical care shall also be attributed to earth ponies by priority.

We will build one camp for unicorn ponies, and one for pegasus ponies. Trott Street and Muzzle Street should do nicely to quarantine these populations."

"What are you even talking about...?"

"IDIOT! Don't you know anything? Earth ponies are the most important breed. Our blood and flesh is what the mecha lords need. The two other breeds were important before the blackout, but right now, you're useless ballast. You unicorn ponies with your oh-so awesome powers, the pegasus ponies, who are always buzzing around... you're a nuisance. The peons of chaos and decay..."

"You... you're insane..."

Bronyvistus sighted.

"No, Sparkle, I'm not insane. You are just incredibly stupid. Are you blind to the things around you? Didn't you ever compare the roles of the pony populations in our community? WHO is doing all the hard work? Who is lazy, filthy and arrogant? Are you telling me you don't see a pattern? Don't you know the statistics? Or are you lying on purpose to protect your little politically correct world, in which differences are oh so special?"

"You have issues. That's fine with me. But I could really do without this horrible segregation thing. You think you can just impose your obsession on all of Ponyville?"

"That's exactly what I am SUPPOSED to do. And I'm your superior, both by breed and by appointment. You WILL obey me and stop farting offending nonsense out of your snout."

"Do you even notice you're insulting me in every sentence?"

"That's because I'm running out of patience. If you allow every idiot to babble around unpunished, you'll never get things done. Now start preparing the lists, Sparkle."

"Twilight...?"

At first, Twilight didn't even recognize the pegasus pony that was stepping into the big scanner next to her desk. She was pale, shaking...

"Rainbow Dash? Thank odd you're alright! You were not with the others, I almost thought... What happened to you?"

One of the white guards who had escorted Rainbow to the town hall was clearing his throat.

"Oh, right. I will have to register you, Rainbow. This will just take a minute. But please, do tell me where you've been..."

"I'm not sure. I don't remember anything... Not clearly... There was the explosion, and I..."

"Shhh... I think I'm done for today, why don't you wait outside my office while I finish the paperwork...? You can come to the library with me, and..."

Bronyvistus stepped into the office.

"What did I tell you about 'Segregation', Sparkle?"

"She's my friend. I want to invite her over."

"Uuuuuuh, I want two inwite hew owew... I really can't tell why Celestia thinks you're smart, Sparkle. I honestly can't. The pegasus ponies stay in Trott Street. As for you... you don't really think you get to stay at the library, unicorn?"

"How long you think you can keep this up? The ponies won't accept the way you're treating them."

"Once we have opened their eyes, they generally know what's good for them. Guards, please escort the pegasus and Sparkle to their respective camps."

"My friend needs medical care."

"She won't get any. Not before all the earth ponies have been treated."

The day and night cycle was gone, it was replaced by resting hours and working hours.

Twilight lay down in her new bed, in a tiny room she was sharing with seven other unicorns. She was gazing out of the window, into the black skies covered in Celestia's artificial stars. She was already falling asleep, even though there were still so many things to think about.

She was tired. She didn't know where her friends were, even Spike had abandoned her.

She needed to figure a way out of this mess, more than ever. But how? Where would she start? In Ponyville, there were Bronyvistus and his minions, and outside, there was the darkness. It was hard to tell which was worse.

Maybe, she thought before she fell asleep, maybe it's into the darkness that I need to go. Run, and leave all of this behind... and vanish... forever.

The arena

Underground

"Fluttershy...?"

Spike shivered.

The yellow pegasus was standing in a tunnel entry, her face mostly hidden within the shadows.

All around, there were horribly, screeching noises. The animals - the few who had followed them into their hiding place - were going wild. They'd had to restrain them. And yet Fluttershy was standing in this sea of madness like a rock. Silent. Seemingly lifeless. But for the first time in days, she was standing on her own feet.

"Are you feeling better...?"

"...Go away, please."

"But..."

"...I'll never be alright. But I can't afford to be dragged along like a broken doll anymore. I need to be alone now. No words, please. No help."

And so he huried back into the tunnel from which he had come.

Fluttershy is going viral

Pegasus Season

Twilight moaned.

"Oh brony..."

Non-earth ponies were not allowed to go out into the streets at this hour, but Twilight Sparkle could hear Bronyvistus' amplified voice even in here. He was holding one of his famous motivational speeches on town square. It was always the same stuff, repeated over and over again in order to expel "stupid thoughts" from the audience's heads, as the great leader put it.

In order to cheer up the unicorn fillies who were sharing this room with her, Twilight used her magic to bring a horn-warmer to life as a primitive puppet, moving its "lips" to mimic Bronyvistus' speech.

The fillies giggled, perhaps for the first time in days.

"In times where everything existed in abundance, you used to think that life was precious, a value in itself. This is a dangerous misconception! This is not the right way to look at it, and now that things have changed, it is important that you shake that illusion. Face it, my little ponies: life is a resource like any other! What matters is what you build out of it. If you want to build a truly great and healthy herd, a real community, some lives are more useful than others. Some are utterly useless, and some are even downright defective..."

You could laugh at these speeches, or vomit.

But what was breaking Twilight's heart was the applause.

"HEIL BIG BRONY!"

Followed by a single, cheerful exclamation the ponies in the crowd weren't quite able to trace back to it's origin:

"I can't heal him! I'm not a doctor."

Twilight smiled, feeling a little better. She recognized that voice.

Twilight was sharing her food rations with her new room mates, but it simply wasn't that much to go around. She got a bigger share than other unicorns because of her work in the committee, but still.

She looked once again at the 'Wanted'-Poster she had found on her way home. It was about Pinkie Pie.

'Pinkemina "Pinkie" Diane Pie', it read, 'Traitor. Number One Enemy of the State. Dangerous and Unstable. Wanted alive for due process (AND THEN WE HANG THAT BITCH)'

Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy had vanished since the day of the explosion, but there had been a series of mysterious... pranks since Bronyvistus had risen to power.

Whatever Pinkie Pie had been doing, she had not tried to contact Twilight. She knew that there were good reasons for this, but it still hurt. She felt so very alone.

Which is also why she was so happy when she saw Applejack again.

It was just another day at the office. The workhorse walked by her desk without even looking at her. She wasn't wearing her hat anymore, instead she had attached a black ribbon to her right front hoof.

"Applejack! I haven't seen you in AGES!"

"Oh, hi Twilight..."

"What are you doing here?"

"A request, in the name of the Earth Pony Youth... more flyers. They told me to consult with Bronyvistus on this."

"You're with the... Earth Pony Youth?"

"Sure am. Young minds need care, just as seeds that shall grow into mighty trees."

"You seem really enthusiastic about this..."

"No offense, Twilight, but you wouldn't understand. It's an earth pony thing. Now if you'll excuse me..."

"You don't want people to see you talking to a unicorn, isn't that right."

"No! No. Maybe. Look, let's talk some other time, I'm kinda busy right now."

"Oh, I understand, I mean, I have so much to do myself... Like, calculating food rations that keep the pegasus ponies slightly above the point of starvation while making them lethargic enough to keep them from flying around...?"

"Splendid."

"Indeed."

Applejack disappeared in Bronyvistus' office. Twilight felt like crying, but by now she had mastered the art of containing herself.

Another earth pony came storming inside, spitting a large paper roll on the floor and starting to rant as soon as his tongue was free.

"She did it again! How does she even do this? I need colts to search the town for other profanations! We need to take them down as quickly as possible. Ring the Police station."

"May I see...?"

The colt snorted, but allowed Twilight to unroll his find.

It was one of the motivational posters that could be found on almost every wall nowadays. It was showing Bronyvistus in a white robe and a heroic pose. The background was the eternal night with Celestia's artificial stars. There was a clock tower with the hands on midnight, supposed to represent the "Zero Hour" of the new Pony civilization. The particular thing with this poster was that Pinkie Pie had left her mark. Twilight tried very hard not to giggle, though this was exactly what Pinkie invited the reader to do: "Giggle at the Ghostie".

Applejack blew her whistle again.

"Come on, Applebloom. You need to exercise a lot more! I'm the Youth leader. I can hardly allow my own sister to be the least athletic pony of the whole bunch, now can I? Just follow my lead..."

"I don't know, Applejack... I don't really feel like doing extra training..."

"Sugar cube, it doesn't matter what you 'feel like'. We need you to be strong. Do it for the family. For the herd."

"It's not going to do my friends any good, though."

"You'll soon have a lot of friends again, Applebloom."

"I already have friends."

Applejack sighted.

"Oh, Applebloom... I know this is hard for you to understand, but believe me, it is for the best..."

"Pinkie Pie says that Scootaloo is starving. She is going to die."

"No, I'm sure that..."

Applejack frowned.

"Pinkie Pie, eh...? Tell me, Applebloom... Where did you meet aunt Pinkie? I haven't seen her in ages. I'd love to have a little... chat with her."

"You're not going to tell Bronyvistus, are you?"

"No. Nooo. I just want to see if she's alright, and such. And who knows, maybe I can convince her to end her little hide-and seek with the committee... Wouldn't that be a nice reunion!"

Applebloom didn't look very convinced, but finally she said:

"Okay. I guess you know what's best for her. I'll show you."

"That's a good filly."

Applebloom was leading her older sister to a little shed in the backyard of a unicorn family that had been deported to Muzzle Street.

"That's strange. We already searched this part of town. Several times! Are you sure it was here?"

"You'll see."

Applebloom opened the door of the shed and invited Applejack in.

After the workhorse had walked inside, the filly slammed the door.

"What in TARNATION...!"

When Applebloom opened the door again, her sister had vanished.

She giggled, quite pleased with herself.

These Posters. You could really find them everywhere these days. They were making Rainbow Dash sick. As if she hadn't been sick already.

She felt like an old mare, every step being an exploit. Her wings were cut and tied behind her back according to the new regulations, but she wouldn't have been able to fly anyway. These reduced food rations were starting to take their toll.

With nothing else to do, Rainbow Dash would patrol through the pegasus ghetto and make impolite noises with her tongue whenever she discovered another piece of propaganda.

Like these new flyers, for instance.

Some of the newer ones showed Applejack in a triumphant pose, and they read 'EarthPonyYouth: DAMN STRAIGHT!' .

"Yeah, right...", Rainbow Dash snorted.

Part of her now wished she had swallowed Applejack the day the workhorse had been shrunk down to the size of a mouse by a mutated plant. An opportunity missed, if there had ever been one.

Why, there was a new poster. Rainbow was shocked. This one had her name on it! What was this all about?

'No one can deny that Rainbow Dash's athletic achievements have inspired thousands of ponies nationwide.

Yet there are always two sides to a medal. It is well known that the young pegasus pony is mentally and emotionally unstable. The overuse of certain illegal substances might be a factor. Not to mention her rather ambiguous feelings towards other mares...'

"That's not true!", Rainbow Dash protested, "I do NOT have ambitious feelings towards other mares!"

Her face was changing colors at an impressive speed, none the less.

She turned away from the poster, only to stumble and fall.

"Hey! Don't just leave stuff on the floor! I..."

Then she saw what she had tripped on.

It was a tiny pegasus filly, barely breathing. One could count all the ribs.

There must be a way, Twilight thought, There must be some way to get more food to the pegasus sector.

She was already playing the administration, succeeding in smuggling some provisions by having the rations of one day delivered independently by two crews at slightly different times. But she needed to be careful. If she did it too often, if she got caught...

But she would have to try harder. Even though she wasn't allowed to visit the pegasus camp, she could tell. She was working with the numbers. She knew where this was heading.

Twilight was going on, day after day, unable to figure a way out of this vicious cycle. The escape plans of the Resistance seemed so far out of reach... Their oppressors had lost most of Their initial powers, and yet there was still no where to go...

She looked up from her work and jumped.

Applejack was standing in front of her desk. Staring right at her with eerie, empty eyes.

"A-Applejack... How long have you been standing there?"

"A while. Listen, Twilight, could I talk to yah for a second?"

"So now you want to talk to me, what..."

"Official EPY business. I need your help to choose the right paper for our brochures."

"Brochures? But..."

"Let's go to the supply room. Like, right now."

Applejack locked the door behind them. The lights went on and off. Twilight recognized this: someone had temporarily turned off the surveillance.

"Listen, Twilight, I got mahself hypnotized. Pinkie Pie and the others caught me. I'm supposed to deliver a message to yah. Don't worry, I'm not going to remember any of this. If I would, I would probably help Bronyvistus to catch yah. I'm very sorry for all that is happening right now, but, yah know... that's just how it is."

Twilight sighted.

"It's alright, Applejack. Just tell me what you've got for me."

And then Applejack started talking in Pinkie Pie's voice.

Just when she had finished, the lights went on and off again. Twilight unlocked the door.

"Twilight...? Why are we in this room?"

"I think you were looking for something, but you didn't quite remember. Are you feeling alright?"

"I guess so..."

A young earth pony colt rushed into the office.

"Sister Applejack! We need you in the pegasus sector! It's a full-scale uprising!"

"I'm on mah way!"

Twilight was trying to hold her back.

"They are starving! They're locked up! No wonder they're mad! Applejack, you can't..."

"I can, and I will. A mare's gotta do what a mare's gotta do. You just return to yah desk."

Princess Celestia and her minions had installed an electric fence around Ponyville, powered by portable generators, at least until they would get the main generator back on the grid.

A defensive wall against the darkness, as they called it. Similar barriers separated the unicorn- and pegasus-sectors from the "native" earth ponies.

Rainbow Dash was yelling into an improvised megaphone.

"DOWN WITH THE FENCE! DOWN WITH THE FENCE! WE'RE NOT AFRAID OF 'BIG BRONY'! HE IS... NOT THAT BIG!"

All around her, pegasus ponies were chanting as well, and knocking their hooves on the ground.

They started throwing objects at the electric barriers, again and again, in an effort to make it overload. What finally proved successful was one of Rainbow Dash's ideas, involving buckets of a liquid that shall remain unnamed for the purpose of this account.

"THAT'S RIGHT! PEGASUS FREEDOM! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"My, look who we have here. At the head of the revolt, none the less. Why am I not surprised, Rainbow Dash? Why can't you ever play by the rules?"

"Applejack? I... I can't believe you're with these creeps!"

"I do what I have to do. For the good of the herd."

"Oh yeah...? I guess that means I'll have to do THIS..."

The pegasus pony swung around and knocked Applejack to the ground with her hind legs.

Standing above the workhorse and bringing her face close enough to hers to smell the blood on her snout, she said: "Now listen, you..."

Without even opening her eyes, Applejack kicked Rainbow Dash in the air.

"It is ON. Let's 'buck us some fowl, everypony! Yee-HA!"

As intense as the battle was, it was doomed to be short. The pegasi were starved, and they had the wrong reflexes for a fight on the ground. After a while, the earth pony teams were just rounding them up and beating them to pulp at their leisure.

Bronyvistus was holding a speech in front of the tallest building in the street.

"Good work, everypony. Now let's bring some order into this. Those who offered the most resistance will get the harshest punishments, starting with the leaders of the insurrection..."

"That would be you, little turkey...", Applejack said, dragging the semi-conscious Rainbow Dash over the ground by her tail.

"Excellent, maid Applejack. Please follow these colts and deliver the pegasus to the chamber of justice."

"Uuuh, the chamber of justice..."

"Please, Applejack...", Rainbow whispered, her eyes filled with tears, "Don't do this... Let me go..."

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

Applejack pulled Rainbow into a former grocery store. The two earth pony colts were pointing to a great, rectangular opening on one of the walls.

"If you would be so kind, maid Applejack."

"My pleasure. And in you go. See you around, sugar cube..."

And so she tossed her in.

"So what is this anyway? Some sort of solitary confinement?"

"Solitary confinement! You crack me up, sister. It's more of a... waste disposal."

"Oh", Applejack said.

And then, very slowly: "A whatnow?"

"It's a meat grinder."

The Outbreak

Unicorn brains

Rainbow Dash was sliding down into the darkness, desperately trying to hold on to something- anything. But to no avail. The walls were just too smooth for her stubby hooves.

She was heading right for the horrible, grinding noises.

This is it, she thought, what a lame way to die.

Then she came to an abrupt halt.

"Helluuu."

"What... what happened... I... DERPY HOOVES? Is that you?"

"Derp."

"So they have thrown you in as well... Figures. Why are we stuck?"

"I lost my chewing-gum. That's making me sad."

"No one is going to believe this... Alright, let's figure a way out."

Twilight frowned. Applejack had walked straight into Bronyvistus' office, but she hadn't come out yet.

Finally, the unicorn left her desk and opened the door.

Applejack was sitting in Bronyvistus' chair, her hind legs on the desk. She was staring into the void, slowly eating an apple.

Then Twilight saw Bronyvistus. He was lying on the floor in front of the table. She had only rudimentary medical training, but she knew instantly that he was dead. No pony's neck should look like this.

"Applejack... You killed him..."

"You bet I did. Snapped his damn neck. He made me kill Rainbow Dash, who I loved more than anything else..."

"...Rainbow Dash is dead?"

Twilight let herself sink to the floor. So now it was official. One of her friends had died. Deep down, she had always feared that it was only a matter of time.

"She sure is. Dropped her into a meat grinder, just like that. Didn't know what I was doing. I reckon' I should have been suspicious when they told me to toss her into that scary machine. Now I can tell. You can always tell when it's too late..."

She took another bite from her apple.

Twilight felt like she was drifting away, tears were running down her face, but she forced herself to focus. She couldn't allow herself to crumble at this crucial moment. Now was the time to move.

"Applejack... All of this is horrible. Extremely so. But we have to act, and we have to act now."

"Whatever you say, Twilight. I'm mighty good at following orders, did you know that? I mahself didn't know how good until I tossed..."

"YES, but we really have to go now."

"Hold on, Derpy... I'll get us out of here..."

"I say we call SUPERMUFFIN."

"Do you have the muffin-hotline hoofy?"

"Good point..."

The blue pegasus pony had wrapped her front hooves in the chewing gum. With Derpy on her back, she was able to move up the slide, one centimeter at a time. Yet the top was still so far away... And her sweat was starting to dissolve the gum.

I have survived so far, she thought, I can't give up now. Also, Derpy is counting on me.

"Can I have my gum back after you're done?"

"Sure thing, Derpy..."

Suddenly, there was a drilling noise right in front of her snout. First with terror, then with fascination, she watched how a dot of light appeared on the surface of the slide, rapidly turning into a great circle. And then the round piece of metal fell off, and a monster with a glowing horn appeared in the hole.

"Uaaaah!"

"Don't be alarmed, Rainbow Dash, it is just me, Rarity. I'm afraid with these gas masks I had to sacrifice style for function..."

Rainbow Dash started coughing.

"Speaking of which, you should put yours on right away. Please, let me help you..."

Rarity pulled the two pegasus ponies into the hole.

She gave an extra mask to Rainbow, then handed her mask to Derpy, casting an air bubble around her own head as a temporary replacement.

"There you go, dearest. My, Rainbow Dash, you look terrible."

"I would look a lot worse if it wasn't for Derpy Hooves. It is so great to see you, Rarity. What is this place?"

"Spike could explain this to you in detail, but for now you just need to know that there are lots of tunnels and pipes beneath Ponyville, and we have been wandering through this maze ever since the cataclysm..."

"Why can't we breathe down here?"

"Well, first of all, the fiends who run this place have cut the oxygen supply. What is worse though is that they are flooding the whole place with toxic gas instead, in order to smoke us out. Which is crippling our efforts quite severely, as you can imagine..."

"How did you know where to find us?"

"I didn't. But we do spy on Bronyvistus' brutes occasionally, and we learned that they suspected something got stuck in the grinder... "

They arrived in one of the control rooms. It was just as dark as the tunnels, the only light source was a monitor. Spike was tipping on the keyboard, while supplying electricity to the computer through a tiny makeshift generator that needed him to pedal constantly.

And there was Fluttershy, surrounded by dozens of little animals, who had their snouts covered by more primitive versions of Rarity's gasmask, barely keeping them alive.

"Spike! Fluttershy! Oh you guys..."

She and Fluttershy hugged.

"What are we going to do now?"

"We were finally able to contact Twilight. Now everything depends pretty much on her..."

"Everypony! Listen to me!"

Twilight and Applejack were running through the unicorn sector.

Colts of the Earth Pony Guard were yelling into loudspeakers, and several sirens came to life all over the city. Still, in Muzzle Street, Twilight was the centre of attention.

"Listen! We're going to break out. I have a plan, but I need as many unicorn ponies as possible by my side! It is going to be dangerous, but we have no time for doubts... just do what I say and... Hello? Any volunteers?"

"Maybe we should just stay inside...", a young colt said, "Wait until things have calmed down..."

"NO! Aren't you listening? I need your help! You need to come with me right now!"

Yet the unicorns were backing off, trying to hide behind one other.

"This can't be happening! COME ON! Move it! Please!"

"I will come with you!"

"Thank odd, at least one of you... SWEETIE BELLE? That's out of the question. You're just a filly..."

"Please, I want to help! It's what Rarity would do..."

"You're very brave - UNLIKE ALL THESE OTHER PONIES - but I can't accept your offer. You're just too vulnerable..."

"M-maybe if we back her up..."

"Snips and Snails...? Unbelievable. Doesn't anypony else have an ounce of courage around here?"

Colts in uniforms and drones were moving into the street, and the unicorns let them pass.

"Twilight", Applejack said, "I hate to break this to you, but we've got to leave. These kids are all we have."

Twilight Sparkle was going to utter an insult towards the remaining unicorns, but she decided to save her breath.

"Come on then."

Applejack was carrying Sweetie Belle on her back for the sake of speed.

"Were are we going?"

"We're going to punch a hole in the fence. And then... straight into the dark until I tell you to stop."

"This is quite an adventure, eh Snails, old buddy?"

"I prefer those in the comic books."

"I hear you, man."

Twilight was worried sick. What if she was wrong? What if they weren't going to find their target? Well, it was too late for that now.

And then it came in sight: a giant hose, one end going into a hole in the ground, the other disappearing far away in the shadows.

It was guarded by two strange, bipedal creatures in baggy suits, with goggles and gloves. They were armed with what appeared to be large tasers. When they saw the ponies, they yelled in terror and surprise.

"What ARE these things?"

"Don't know, don't care. Just get them out of the way."

Applejack tackled the first creature before it could even use its weapon. The second one had better reflexes, though, and hit Snails with an electric bolt. He fell to the ground, shaking and covered in little lightnings.

"SNAILS! Why, you..."

Without even knowing what he was doing, Snips disarmed the flabbergasted marksmen with psychokinesis and knocked him down with the shaft of his own weapon.

"Wow! Snips, that was..."

"Will Snails be alright?"

"Yes. I'll lead the excess electricity in his body into... well, into one of these guys, why the hay not."

The ponies were trying to catch their breath.

"And now?"

"Now comes the interesting part. I have it all planned, but for what I'm going to do, I will need more than just my own brain. I need more processing power, so to speak. So I'm going to reach into your minds. I have never tried this, but I know it is crucial that you give me your permission. If you resist, this won't work."

"No problem... Oh man, there are some things though I'd like to keep for myself..."

"Sweetie Belle, your brain is the youngest and the most vulnerable. I won't lie to you, this could be too much for you to take..."

"I'm ready, Twilight."

Twilight Sparkle moaned. She would need every neuron she could get, but using Sweetie Belle's brain?

"Hold it!"

Another hole had opened up in the ground, and Rarity climbed out.

"Just in time. I heard you required the help of unicorns?"

"Rarity! Thank goodness..."

Then she saw Spike crawling out of the hole.

"Hey Twilight! Missed me?"

FLATS.

"Twilight, darling... I think you should roll over now. I'm not sure little Spike can breathe."

"Right, right... Ahem... Battlestations, everypony. Let's do this. Rarity...?"

"I know, Twilight. I will protect my sister's mind with all my might. Cast the spell."

It was unlike anything Twilight had felt before. It was as if their four brains were becoming one. She could see from the corner of her eye how the eyes and the horns of the other unicorns were glowing, and then she was actually outside her own body, her consciousness floating in the hyperspace between their minds.

She had never felt so powerful- except the times when her and her friends had been fighting evil as the "Guardians of Harmony"; though of course she didn't know if any of that had actually happened.

It was hard for her to resist the horrible urge to devour the minds of her assistants, to absorb their powers permanently. But she didn't forget her mission.

Under her guidance, their collective mind reached into the hose, and into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath. They seized the streaming gas as if it was a single, solid object, and started forcing it back where it came from.

Within minutes, they had emptied almost the entire sector, and the pressure within the hose was incredible. Yet they still forced it further away, one centimeter at a time.

Finally, Twilight decided that this was as far as they could go. Hopefully, it was far enough. Now it was time for another spell.

She used Rarity's brain to cast a morph spell. She was actually able to visualize the individual molecules within the gas. It had sounded incredibly complex when Rarity had first told her about this spell, but with the brain power now at her disposal, it was as easy as doing a preschool puzzle.

Just a little tweak.

Applejack and Spike heard an explosion, far away in the distance. Then the ground was shaking, the hose was torn into shreds, and a cloud of fire kicked them all of their legs and propelled them through the air.

Applejack got back on her hooves, coughing.

"Twilight...? Rarity...? Are you..."

The group was scattered all over the area, but everyone seemed to be alright. The unicorn ponies were bleeding from their ears and their nostrils, though it didn't look too serious.

"That was..."

"Intense."

"But what exactly have you done?"

"Yeah Twilight, what have we just done?"

"Hopefully? Set things in motion. Let's get moving, everypony."

The explosions and earthquakes continued. Obviously, the unicorn ponies had started a chain reaction.

When they reached the town, all loudspeakers came to life. It was Pinkie Pie's voice.

"Your attention, please! Everypony shall come to the library or the town hall immediately, depending on which is closer to your current position, obviously. These are fortified structures with large bunkers underneath. I repeat, please gather at the library or the town hall. Lend a hoof to those who can't go there on their own. We're in for quite a ride."

"Good old Pinkie... Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Applejack?"

"Yeah. We should probably help. These ponies wouldn't show civil courage if their life depended on it. Which it kinda does."

Assisted by Spike, Rarity, Snips and Snails, they went through all the streets and as many houses as possible, picking up fillies and old ponies that had been abandoned.

When they reached Trott street, though, they found that somepony else was already leading the evacuation.

"RAINBOW DASH!"

"You guys! I..."

She and Applejack just stood in front of each other, staring.

"Rainbow... You're alive..."

"You KILLED ME."

If it weren't for the little fillies on her back, Rainbow would have jumped at Applejack's throat.

"You MURDERED ME!"

"Well, you're fine now..."

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I HATE YOU!"

She started to cry.

"I hate you..."

"Rainbow, I..."

"You're dead to me", and, without taking another look at the earth pony: "Let's get these ponies to the library."

"Bronyvistus is DEAD? That calls for ten seconds of intense mourning... Ahem: Boooooohooooohooooo... He was so YOUNG... he had so many plans for the f-FUTURE... boo-hooo... There, all done. Let's have a party!"

"Pinkie, sometimes I suspect you might be the most evil creature around."

"I once even applied to become Derpy Hooves' minion! But then we got into a little fight and I said: 'Oatmeal'? Are you..."

"That's not how it went down", Derpy Hooves said.

"Derpy... Just have another gum."

"Mhmmm... gum."

For the following hours, the ponies of Ponyville as well as all the other creatures that had survived until now were staying in their improvised fortresses, listening to the sounds of the explosions and sitting through one earthquake after the other as the facility was falling apart all around them.

They did not know what to expect when they finally crawled out of their bunkers, but one thing was sure: Their town had officially ceased to exist. That chapter of their collective History was closed forever.

"You KILLED me."

"I'm sorry, okay? On a lighter note, I also killed Bronyvistus."

"Well... I guess that is pretty awesome... Though this isn't going to bring me back to life."

"You ARE alive."

"You know what I mean."

The double helix rainbow

The battle for Cloudsdale (Part I)

Rainbow Dash was navigating through the darkness, towards that one distant source of light.

The pegasus was finally pushing through. She was like a tiny insect entering a structure the size of a stadium.

Picture a place like the inside of an abandoned cathedral, a cathedral big enough to contain an entire city. Picture columns, giant digital screens instead of windows, mysterious mechanisms protruding from every surface like some sort of alien ornaments, lit by silver emergency lights. Picture countless metal platforms, hanging high up in the air.

It was the place they used to call Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash was home.

She returned to the others to tell them about her discovery.

"What did it look like?"

"Different. But it's not just because the illusions are gone. The place is deserted. Mostly dark. It's as if They had shut it down."

"So you're saying They deactivated Cloudsdale Themselves before we could even get there? Something like an orderly retreat?"

"Something like that."

"Maybe it's a trap."

"A trap of an epic scale."

"Well, we are rather epic..."

Twilight frowned.

"The question is, should we still go? So far it is the only way we have found that is leading out of the ruins of Ponyville. And we can't just stay here. We have not much food left, no water... oh, and we need this drug that keeps our bodies from melting like butter."

"If they have shut it down, they're expecting our arrival. So we are not likely to get anything over there."

Applejack was shaking her head.

"Spike, Twilight... what are you two even talking about?"

"We had a plan. Tell 'em, Twilight."

"I was preparing an invasion. Rarity has developed a few powerful weapon systems..."

"Twilight, dear, you should mention that these projects are all still in Beta..."

"...So were my plans. I was all still very theoretical. But now things have changed again."

"Wow."

"You can say that again."

"Wow."

Rainbow Dash had lead them to the dome, and this time, they all went inside together. They had told the other survivors of Ponyville to stand behind and let them do some reconnaissance first, though Twilight was pretty sure many of them, especially among the pegasi, had already split from the group to explore Cloudsdale on their own.

"I mean, Cloudsdale was already impressive when they made it look like a magical rainbow-land... But this is mind-boggling... How long does it take to build a place like this?"

Spike shrugged.

"Sometimes I wonder if even They themselves fully understand this facility... Much of it is handled by the computers. Sometimes entire sectors seem to appear or disappear overnight..."

They had some difficulties walking on the floor deep beneath the suspended platforms, for it was covered by a metal grille. Underneath, there was absolute darkness. Pinkie Pie spat down and listened for the impact, but she didn't hear anything.

"Spooky."

"Would you please not do that? It is positively gross."

"How do we get into town? Those of us who can't fly, that is."

"We can all fly! Did you already forget about our balloon, Applejack?"

"Yeah, but where..."

Pinkie Pie was shaking her back, and the bundle she had been carrying fell to the ground. It made a loud clicking noise, and it unfolded into a large basket. The balloon cover was folded inside.

"How do we get this fella into shape?"

"No worries. I know someone who is FULL with hot air. Oh Spiiiiikey... ?"

The first thing they saw after they had landed on one of the platforms was a pegasus stallion walking towards a far away structure.

"A survivor! Hello! Hello there! Where are you going?"

The young colt turned around.

"I'm going into the light. That's where the others are. That's where Princess Celestia herself told us to go. I was too scared to go at first... But there is nothing left here. It's the only way."

He pointed to a dot of light, a few hundred meters away.

"Why don't you come with me?"

When they had come closer, the light turned out to be an open door. But the light coming from the other side was too bright to look inside.

Other pegasi were gathered around the door, some of them forming a line, others just standing around, undecided.

"And no one knows what happens to you when you walk through that door?"

"There are stories... They say it's salvation. The rapture. The portal to a better world."

"Don't you think... it might be a trap?"

"Who knows? But I'm going. I have no reason to stay here."

And they watched him disappear in the light.

"It's definitely a trap."

"Yep. No doubt about that."

"So what do we do?"

"We go explore the city. Investigate. And start to make plans."

"Let's go then... Pinkie? Aren't you coming?"

"No way! He said there was a RAPTOR on the other side! I wanna see him!"

"Oh Pinkie..."

They arrived on an especially big, round platform somewhere near the centre of the structure.

"I think this is the market place... Sure looks different without all the fluffy clouds... Say, what's this?"

Two big pegasus stallions were heading for a tiny pegasus pulling a cart. Even from this distance, their demeanor seemed all but friendly.

"Hey! leave her alone!"

But before Twilight and her friends could get any closer, a monster appeared. It dropped right out of the sky, and the impact made the platform tremble. It was an iron beast with blue, glowing eyes. In one swift movement, it grabbed the attacking colts with its giant claws and threw them away. Then there was the sound of breaking glass, somewhere in the distance.

The ponies from Ponyville started walking towards the pony girl again, but more slowly and careful this time. The monster was still standing right next to her, like a bodyguard.

"You saw what happened to the others! Don't you touch my food!"

The petite pegasus girl was of a very pale color, with black, curly hair, glasses and freckles. Her cutie mark was a chandelier.

"I can't believe it. This must be a nightmare. Is this... a YOGISH PONY?"

"Applejack!"

The little pegasus snorted.

"Stupid prejudices! ...Well, this time, by PURE COINCIDENCE, it happens to be true. So there. Don't follow me, or my friend will crush you, just like the others."

The giant metal monster jumped on the roof of a nearby building. Then it was out of sight.

"M-my threat still stands! He's still watching, you know? He's always watching!"

"We don't want to steal your food. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends... We have a few questions."

"I'm not saying anything! And I'm not curious what non-pegasi are doing all the way up here! Uh-uh! I'm not! Leave me alone, or I will send him after you!"

"Him...? What is he, anyhow?"

It was Rainbow Dash who answered that.

"His name is Sam. He's the Golem of Cloudsdale. You'd call him a robot. A Yogish unicorn pony found him a long time ago, and he changed the numbers in his head so he would protect the community whenever they were in danger."

The tiny pegasus girl gasped.

"How do you know that?"

But Rainbow Dash just said:

"You are working for Ibbar Blue Stern, aren't you? Please take us to him. We need to talk."

"The Ibbar has gathered the entire community in the temple. He said the others were stupid to walk into the light like this, that it was a trick and that the community should stay in Cloudsdale and gather provisions. He's our leader."

"I can imagine that. Please take us to him."

"He said one shouldn't trust a wej in these dark hours... Not after what they've done..."

"Just bring us there. You'll see."

Twilight offered the young pegasus to have someone of their group pull the cart.

"...Applejack, for instance. She's the strong one. Would you like to pull her cart, Applejack? To demonstrate our friendly intentions?"

"I'd sooner die."

"Applejack!"

"It's okay. I wouldn't have trusted a WEJ with our provisions anyway."

"Cute. Now tell me, why were these other pegasi attacking you?"

"They don't want us to have any food. The Ibbar said we must gather as much food and medicine as we can for ourselves. Otherwise they would let us starve..."

"And now you're letting THEM starve. I bet they were just trying to get some food for their fillies..."

"APPLEJACK! You're not helping. Can't you just keep it down for a while?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot. We're just wejs. We are not supposed to make... remarks."

"Seriously, you're acting weird."

"Pfff."

"We're here."

The Ponies of Ponyville gasped. The structure in front of them looked more like a fortress than a place of worship now. Armor plates and makeshift barricades had been put all around it.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

"It is Voglesinger... And some strangers. This pegasus here says she needs to talk to the Ibbar."

"He'll never talk to them! I'll count to three, and then..."

"Thanks, young Bloomtail, this won't be necessary."

A big, long bearded pony appeared on the platform above the barricade. He was dressed in black with a matching hat. The few parts of him that were visible- since not covered by cloth or beard - were of a dark blue color. His voice was deep and majestic.

"Who thinks that he is worthy of our time?"

"It's me."

Rainbow stepped forward.

"Rainbow Dash. Shame of my life."

"Hi, Dad."

Applejack's jaw dropped almost to ground level.

The other ponies of Ponyville were stepping aside while Rainbow Dash and her father were having a little... discussion. For some reason, Vogelsinger stayed with them even after her food cart had been pulled inside.

"I can't believe it... she never told me she was y... Fluttershy, did you know about that?"

"...Why of course, Applejack. We grew up together, remember? She just doesn't like to talk about her family. Her mother died when she was still very young, and her father... well..."

"I didn't even know the Ibbar had a daughter", Vogelsinger added.

"Even if their relationship seems to be... difficult", Twilight said, "he's still her father. Maybe we can find a way to help one another. The ponies of the temple made the choice to resist Celestia's call. But all ponies who stayed behind in Cloudsdale are faced with a very limited food supply. On the other hoof, the supplies should be sufficient to get everypony through if we're only staying here for a short time, just long enough to come up with a battle plan. Then we can all move on together."

Applejack uttered another mean laugh.

"Are you listening to the kvetching back there? This Ibbar isn't going to help anypony outside his precious 'community'. They don't care about finding a way out, they just want to make sure they're the last to starve."

"Why do you keep saying horrible things like that?", Vogelsinger complained.

"Thanks again for your input, Applejack. I think we can let Rainbow handle this."

Rainbow Dash rejoined the group.

"So? What did he say?"

"He said no. He doesn't want to have anything to do with our plans..."

Behind Rainbow's back, Applejack was silently moving her lips to say 'told you so'. Twilight Sparkle was trying to ignore her, while Vogelsinger was sticking out her tongue.

Rainbow snorted.

"He said I was free to join the ponies in the temple any time, though."

"Oh Rainbow", Applejack said in the sweetest voice, "Never mind us. You can take your little friend here and go back to your little tribe. You know you want to."

Everypony was holding their breath. It was clear the blue pegasus was having an inner debate. But after a few seconds, she decided that enough was enough.

"What is WRONG with you?"

"Hey! It's not my fault you are both a PEGASUS and a YOG. I mean, what the HAY?"

"You're so full of horseapples, Applejack -Horseapple Jackass-, no wonder they start falling out your stupid throat!"

"I just work with what you're giving me."

"I... How... YOU..."

"That's enough, girls!", Twilight said, "Maybe we can all just calm down and talk about things that actually matter...?"

Now both mares were staring at her in quite a menacing way.

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

Twilight was shaking her head.

"Quit horsing around. We're making a plan. Now. Listen up, everypony."

But that's where the siren started, and hell was breaking loose once again.

Celestia's mechanic voice was roaring through the structure.

"TROOPERS, CLEANSE THE CITY! THIS IS THE END OF THE LINE, TWILIGHT SPARKLE, MY FAITHFUL STUDENT!"

Their ears were ringing with sound of thousands of closing metal doors.

"They are sealing the buildings so that we can't take cover!"

"What's with the ponies trapped inside?"

Spike was just shaking his head.

"What's with the temple?"

"The pegasi must have hacked into the system. That must be the only building that's not under Their control."

Dozens of the strange, bipedal creatures came pouring from holes in the ceiling.

There was the sound of shooting in the distance.

"So it was a trap after all."

More and more pegasus ponies were gathering in front of the temple.

Rainbow Dash was pleading with the Ibbar.

"You've got to let them in!"

"No, Rainbow Dash. There is not enough room. This is our fortress. We cannot allow outsiders into our midst. Steel on the outside, cohesion on the inside. This is how we will survive."

The shooting was coming closer.

"This is it", Twilight said, "Now they'll try to kill us. There is no way to run."

"So whatever shall we do?"

"I guess we'll have to fight. Follow my lead."

A group of the masked strangers came running around the corner, preparing to shoot.

Twilight Sparkle's horn was glowing, and a rifle was pulled out of the grip of a perplexed marksman. It was floating in the air, rotated into position, and then fired. The soldier's head exploded. The body sank to the ground.

Before his terrified companions could react, they received the same treatment.

The Rifle was pulled through the air until it was floating right in front of Twilight's horn. Then she just dropped it to the floor.

"Twilight...!"

"I... I think I killed them."

"Yeah, no kiddin'. That was some fancy shooting, though I reckon shootin' someone's ugly head just half a meter away... On the other hoof, the boomstick itself was far away from YOU... I'm confused."

"Twilight, dear? Is everything alright?"

"No."

Twilight was shaking. She wasn't crying yet, but that was probably because she was too tense for that right now.

"I-it's sure different when you just read about it in a book..."

"There, there..."

"These were just three. There are hundreds of them out there... And maybe I'll have to shoot them all."

She was looking at her friends, incredibly pale.

"I don't think I can do that."

"You better find out quick. Here's the next wave."

This time, the ponies had to retreat into the ally. This group seemed to have learned from the failures of the predecessors and didn't waste any time to open fire.

"I can't... Not again..."

"It's alright, dear...", Rarity said, and in the general confusion hardly anyone noticed how sad she was, "Let Rarity take it from here."

Rarity levitated the gun and sent it around the corner while she was sticking her head out. She proved at least as "talented" as Twilight.

She was advancing now, while the corpses of fallen enemies piled up around her. Her hooves and her stylish mane were sprinkled in blood, but she didn't even blink.

After just a few minutes, the situation had calmed down.

"Look!"

The corpses of the first troopers who had been shot had started to evaporate, as well as the puddles of blood.

"Do you see that? Maybe... Maybe that means they're not real... Maybe we didn't really kill anyone..."

Rarity granted Twilight a little, sad smile. If Twilight managed to believe that sort of thing, good for her. But Rarity was a murderer. She knew death when she saw it.

"You guys? You're doing... great, but we won't be able to hold the city like this. Even if all our unicorn ponies do what you do. Twilight mentioned weapons earlier on... Pony weapons."

"Rarity?"

Rarity's eyes were staring into the distance. She was still levitating her gun.

"Rarity, what..."

"Oh, right..."

She seemed to regain conscience.

"The... projects I've been working on. Well then, I guess it's time to put them to the test."

She dropped the gun, which had also started dissolving, just like its former owner.

While Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stayed in the city, the other ponies met up with the rest of the ponyville-ponies at the tunnel entrance.

"What is going on up there? We're hearing the noises all the way down here."

"Urban warfare. I'd advise you to barricade the tunnel entry once we're gone. We have come to gather the things I asked you to carry for us, Big Macintosh."

"No problem. Is Applejack doing alright?"

"Oh, yes. Last time I checked..."

"Is there something we can do to help?"

"Our balloon can only transport a few ponies at a time, pegasi not included. obviously. And it is very dangerous. Twilight Sparkle said she would be glad about any unicorn pony capable of telekinesis, though. If we have any volunteers..."

A few unicorn ponies stepped forward. This time, though, Snips and Snails were rejected, and Sweetie Bell didn't even dare to do as much as look her older sister into the eyes.

They took as many ponies on board as they could while Rarity was levitating the equipment so that it would follow the balloon. She was gnashing her teeth, and her body was covered in sweat from the considerable exploit. She wasn't sure her brain would be able to take it much longer.

In the end, though, it was good they had taken so many volunteers at once, as a well-aimed shot from one of the dark troopers in the city forced them into a crash landing and made the balloon useless.

"Now that's what I call fancy galoshes", Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash was explictely NOT looking at her.

Rarity had fitted the earth pony with the prototype of the armour she had designed for her. Applejack's body was almost completely covered in shiny metal plates, and on her back, Rarity had mounted a "saddle" with a gun turret on it. The turret was operated through "reins" Applejack would hold in her mouth. She did, in fact, look like a tank.

"Now I know it is heavy..."

"No sweat. I can handle it."

"That's what I thought."

The other ponies were equipped with suits and armor as well.

Twilight was clearing her throat.

"Alright, everypony..."

"WAIT FOR US!"

The ground was shaking as Sam, the metal golem, was storming towards their camp, with Vogelsinger in his right claw, where she was sitting like a bird in a cage- though her demeanor was more like that of a pilot.

"Me an Sam, we want to help, too!"

"Thanks, Vogelsinger. We're glad to have you on board."

Applejack wanted to say something too, but Rainbow Dash gave her a glance so devastating that for once, she kept her mouth shut.

Twilight gulped.

"Now then... Battleplan..."

Granny Pie

The battle for Cloudsdale (Part II)

Princess Celestia- or rather the android core she had projected herself into for the time being- was observing the battle down in Cloudsdale through the countless cameras installed into her drones and the helmets of the laboratory troopers.

"That's right, Twilight, my faithful student... dance for me."

She had to admit that Twilight Sparkle was displaying a certain talent for strategic warfare. Of course Celestia knew where most of the formations came from- the little unicorn pony did everything by the books.

So far, Celestia was merely watching, while illegally downloading a song about bananas from the internet - the android equivalent of drinking a milkshake. She was eager to see how far Twilight would get. The young pony and her friends were advancing through the city, though it was clear the numbers were against her in the long run.

Download complete.

"Twilight? What..."

That's when Pinkie Pie saw it. A tiny bullet, floating in the air just in front of her forehead.

"Wow, thanks, Twilight! You just saved my bacon!"

Twilight was pale, frozen in place.

"That was LUCK! You should have been dead by now! We need to take cover... NOW!"

Twilight was screaming, trying to get the other ponies' attention over the hellish din of the battle.

"They have SNIPERS! We need to evacuate the square! RETREAT! I say RETREAT!"

Applejack was turning her head to see what the commotion was all about. That was the only reason the next sniper bullet hit her metal shoulder plate instead of her right eyeball.

"We're trapped! What can we do now?"

"I have an idea! Help me out here!"

Twilight started pulling screws and metal pipes out of the structures around her.

"I don't think you can dig your way inside like this fast enough, Twilight..."

"We need the scrap parts! Applejack, try to buy us some time while we collect the metal!"

"Here is an idea", Rainbow Dash said, "Why don't we use Applejack herself, in her shiny armour?"

"NOT NOW, Rainbow."

"Okay. Later, then."

The unicorns were fusing the parts together with telekinesis. The result was a sphere, resembling a metal sea urchin.

"Rarity. You levitate, I rotate, you translate, I release when you give me the signal."

"Got it."

Twilight was gnashing her teeth as she made the sphere rotate at a mind-boggling speed. Rarity

transported the sphere right to the middle of the square. It happened too fast for the troopers to react.

"HIT IT! HIT IT NOW!"

And Twilight made the sphere explode. It was raining blood, screws and body parts.

"We still have to get rid of the snipers in the area. Rainbow, I want you to locate their positions..."

"...And DESTROY them? On it!"

"No. You are fast enough to prevent them from targeting you, but if you were to face them head on, your advantage would drop to zero. Right now, I need you to gather intelligence."

"I'm not sure about that, Twilight", Applejack objected, "Rainbow and 'intelligence'... That's not her strong side."

"WANNA SEE MY STRONG SIDE?"

"Actually, yes. Would be a nice change from your cheating and your Yogish side. I mean: from your Yogish side."

"I... I don't have time for this."

"That's right, Rainbow... fly off... fly like a godly wind..."

Rainbow made an impolite noise with her tongue.

A pink pony with a cotton candy -shaped mane appeared on the square. She was obviously trying to be sneaky, but the snipers had no problem targeting her vital organs.

In the same time, a blue pegasus was darting through the air, though there was no obvious system in the creature's maneuvers, other than to make targeting impossible. That was inconvenient, but the snipers had no choice but to sit this one out and wait for reinforcements equipped with more adequate weapons- such as heat-seaking rocket launchers.

Chock.

The first bullet hit the pavement. The pink pony looked startled, but perfectly unharmed. One sniper after the other was opening fire, but even though they applied all of their skill, no bullet hit the target. Or rather, it was as if the bullets went right through the pony.

Only after several other attempts did the snipers notice the strange texture of the pony, the way parts of her body looked semi-transparent. And then she vanished completely.

"I didn't know you were capable of producing holograms, Rarity."

"It is the first time I tried. I couldn't have done it without you, Twilight. And Pinkie Pie, of course."

"Pinkie Pie, the new rising star in holo-TV!"

"Rainbow?"

"Seven. There are seven of them. Chalk? Thank you."

She was drawing a rough map of the area on the pavement.

Applejack gulped.

The second she stepped outside the alley, a terrible dance had begun.

Towering behind her was Sam the golem, shielding her with his broad, metal back and arms, a valuable asset but not a guarantee for her survival. She would only survive if she was fast enough without missing her targets.

Back to back, they were spinning around in the middle of the square.

Applejack discovered the first embrasure. Time seemed to stretch as she aimed at the muzzle of the sniper's rifle the very moment he was aiming at her. She was now in position, and she pulled the trigger of the gun turret on her back. The next fraction of a second would tell whether the sniper had pulled the trigger of his weapon faster.

He had. It didn't do him any good, though, because he had somehow missed Applejack's forehead, only managing to put a tiny hole in the cartilage of her left ear.

The earth pony didn't even notice, not more than she noticed the demise of her first opponent. She had already forgotten about him as she repeated the same procedure with the second sniper, and the third. Round and round they went, without ever slowing down, the iron feet of the golem and the hoofs of the pony beating the platform like a hellish clockwork.

The bullet of the sixth sniper hit the helmet Rarity had made for her at an angle that didn't allow it to cause any damage. Applejack, on the other hoof, hadn't missed a single shot, and she didn't miss this one either.

Sniper number seven.

Applejack expected to see another embrasure. And she almost saw it, a hallucination caused by the experiences she had gathered during the last few seconds and the crude map Rainbow Dash had drawn.

But there really was none. The seventh sniper was not where he was supposed to be.

So he was somewhere else. Somewhere else, aiming at her right now.

Rainbow, Applejack thought, She did this on purpose. With the last sniper, I'm on my own. Why would she do this to me? Oh, who am I kidding. As if I didn't know.

Applejack prepared to die.

"THERE WERE ONLY SIX SNIPERS! I soiled myself while I was looking out for the last one! You LIED to us, Dash!"

Rainbow was hovering over the rest of the group, displaying a bored expression, pretending to be cleaning her front hoofs.

"Oops. I must have miscounted."

"MISCOUNTED! Is this some kind of a joke?"

"Oh, I dunno. Was tossing me into a meat grinder a joke to you?"

"I SAID I WAS SORRY!"

"That's what you said, not what you were. NOW you're sorry."

Twilight Sparkle and the others were just looking at another, shaking their heads. They had long given up on any attempts at mediation.

In the meantime, Vogelsinger was talking to the golem, petting his giant metal claw.

"Vogelsinger, how is Sam doing?"

The golem turned around, and Twilight saw that he was missing one eye. It was now merely an empty metal eye socket with pieces of glass in it.

"No worries", Vogelsinger said, "I have a spare in my bag."

She flapped her wings to get on the same level as his face and started the operation. Considering that she had neither magic nor thumbs, her speed and dexterity were mind-boggling.

"There. All done. Good as new."

"It's not the first time you do that, right?"

"I do most of the maintenance. That's why he's hanging out with me all the time! Ever since I was very little."

"Alright everypony", Twilight said, "There is more of them every minute. But we can all see where they're coming from. This means that somewhere up there, there is a way leading out of this place. We will not be able to survive by simply holding our position, so we have to find a way to either stop the flow of reinforcements or leave this city altogether. Rainbow, I want you and the other pegasi to investigate the ceiling, while the rest of us will cover you. I guess I don't have to tell you that you need to be careful. Most of all, don't just try to push through all by yourself. For all we know, there is a hostile fortress up there."

A pink flash, followed by pain. That was the very last thing many of the troopers experienced in their lives as they were gliding through the city on the sky lines, a complex network of metal pipes that connected the platforms and the ceiling like a giant roller coaster.

Pinky Pie loved the sky lines. It was as if they were made just for her. Up and down she went, hanging on to the little metal hook Rarity had made for her, sometimes jumping off and falling until she would manage to grab another pipe. She was able to accumulate considerable momentum this way. Her enthusiastic hollering filled the hearts of her enemies with terror.

Whenever she would encounter troopers on her way, she would either kick them off or use the skullbreaker, one of the experimental weapons she had developed together with Rarity. Skullbreakers were tiny bullets which would increase rapidly in volume and mass once "activated" by Pinkie's saliva and exposed to oxygen. In practice, that meant that Pinkie's spitballs would turn into bowling balls by the time they hit their target.

It was when Twilight Sparkle watched one of Pinkie Pie's victims fall into the abyss, kicking and screaming, that the purple unicorn truly started to understand what they were doing here. But there was no turning back.

Finally, Pinkie got close enough to the ceiling to try something out. She casually threw a shrunken skullbreaker into her mouth, aimed and spat it right into one of the openings. Instead of passing through, however, it bounced off, as if it had hit a solid surface. As it reached its full size by falling down, it hit several unsuspecting laboratory troopers.

"Oops. Sorry! This one wasn't even on purpose! Oh... Oh... Ohhhhhh..."

Since the skylines were fueled mostly by gravity, it was only momentum which kept Pinkie Pie at this height. Now she was moving backwards and downwards at an impressive speed.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash got the occasion to try out her new weapon system as well. Since any kind of projectile weapon would have slowed her down, Rarity had instead equipped her suit with long-range tasers that she could fire off by clapping her front or her hind hoofs together.

Another screaming, roasted enemy was knocked off the sky line and falling into the abyss.

"Now that's what I call a wonderbolt... bucker!"

"NO, Rainbow Dash! Don't go in there!"

"Sorry, Twilight", Rainbow Dash whispered, "I can't hear you all the way up here."

She shocked the next trooper who dropped out of the hole, and then she dashed in.

Darkness and lightnings. When Rainbow opened her eyes again, she was falling. Her head hurt so very much.

It took her a few seconds to fully regain consciousness, and even then it was only thanks to her instincts that she managed to turn around and spread her wings before she hit the floor. Otherwise she would have suffered severe injuries- not that she didn't already hurt enough as it was.

"Rainbow? Are you okay?"

It was Applejack. So the pegasus wasn't on the other side. She was back where she had started. It was good to see Applejack, though... To hear her voice, once again soothing and caring...

"Girl, you plummeted out of the sky like a rotten apple. What happened? Missed the hole? You know, speed can be a disadvantage if you lack precision..."

So much about Applejack having returned to her old, non-jackass self.

Rainbow groaned and got back on her feet. Without paying any more attention to the armored earth pony, she took off once again, though her flight wasn't quite as steady as before.

This time, she decided to investigate the opening before trying to push through.

The troopers dropped out of these things quite smoothly, and you could see some sort of tunnel on the other side. But there was something off about these openings.

For one thing, it was impossible to determine their exact edges. Between the metal of the ceiling and the gaping hole, there was a narrow, blurry fringe that was glowing and rapidly changing colors.

Rainbow tried to push her front hooves into the opening. It didn't work. It was as if she was pushing against a glass plate.

Furious, she patrolled the sky, trying to cover as many entries as possible in order to roast a portion of the incoming troopers before they could even reach the city.

Finally, she gave up and returned to the ground. She had to talk to Twilight Sparkle.

Carried by two pegasus stallions, and covered from enemy attacks by Rainbow, Twilight used her powers to seal one portal after the other. It would have been preferable to reprogram them so that ponies could pass through, but they didn't have the time to study the inner workings of this technology.

Twilight simply disturbed the subtle order that was keeping these energy fields together, and they evaporated instantly. Some unfortunate troopers were cut in half in the process, with their legs and lower bodies raining down over the city.

Other pegasi would then remove the white plates onto which the portals had been projected, so that Celestia wouldn't be able to activate them once again. Twilight decided to retain these plates for further studies.

The troopers remaining in the city were either hunted down or surrendered. Those who were captured alive obviously had some questions to answer, but it turned out they had only been breed for "following orders" and knew otherwise very little - about anything.

The fact remained that there was no obvious way leading out of Cloudsdale. The ponies faced the very real possibility that the portals had been the only thing connecting this sector to the outside world.

But for now, the survivors decided to rest. Unable to penetrate most of the structures, they built a primitive camp on the streets of the city. The ponies from the temple didn't issue any official reaction to the recent events, but quite a few of them decided to sneak off and share food and medicine with the ponies outside.

And then, of course, there was one more thing that had to be taken care of.

"Hey, Rainbow..."

Rainbow Dash snorted and didn't even turn her head.

"Wattsup."

"I wanted to say I'm sorry. It was mean of me to call you a 'yog'. No one deserves to be insulted in such a way..."

"WHAT? THAT'S your apology? Why, you..."

"There we go again with the kvetching..."

"Oi weh..."

Rainbow Dash brought her front hooves to her mouth.

"See that? I'm starting to speak Yiggish! You're driving me CRAZY!"

"Oh no, Rainboi Weh, I have nothing to do with this. That's all you."

For a few moments, Rainbow Dash was paralyzed with anger. Finally, she said:

"What happened to you, Applejack? You used to be so kind once..."

Especially to me, she thought.

Applejack looked down.

"It's because you lost the Apple Farm, isn't it?"

"Back when I still had my land, I could afford kindness. I used to be faithful and strong back then. Now that it's gone, I... Without my roots, I don't know where my strength is supposed to come from.'"

Rainbow Dash wanted to say something else, but as hard as she tried, she didn't find anything in her heart. At least nothing she would have been able to wrap in words anypony could understand.

So she just flapped her wings and took off, leaving the workhorse behind.

Applejack watched Rainbow fly away and creep under a blanket near one of the makeshift ovens that were spread all over the camp to keep the survivors warm. Finally, without even turning around, she said:

"Pinkie Pie? Could you find me a banjo?"

"No problemo Applelemo!"

"I know there's no excuse for how I treated you. I'm so very sorry. I mean it. Whether you're willing to forgive me or not."

"That wasn't so difficult, now was it. Sheesh."

Rainbow grinned. "Was there any particular reason for the banjo?"

Applejack blushed and looked down. "It was kinda silly and pretentious, actually. I guess I'd just embarass myself. Even more so, I mean."

"Ohoho, now you DEFINITELY have to do it. Consider it your punishment."

Later, they would hear Applejack play a song, and even though they kept a certain distance to offer Rainbow Dash and the earth pony some privacy, they couldn't help but overhear some of it.

It made Spike blow his nose with Twilight's tail.

(And here is the song: 'Old College Try' by the Mountain Goats, Applejack-and-Banjo version)

"From the housetops to the gutters

From the outside to the core

The warning signs have all been bright and garish

Far too great in number to ignore

From the cities to the swamplands

From the train tracks to the hills

Our love has never had a leg to stand on

From the plasmids to the rodeos to the / elevils

But I will walk / down to the end / with you

If you will fly / all the way down / with me

From the entrance to the exit

Is longer than it looks from where we stand

I want to say I'm sorry / for stuff I haven't done yet

Things will never go the way we planned

I can feel it in the rotten air tonight

In the tips of my hoofs

In the skin on my face

In the weak last gasp of this oven's dying light

In the way those eyes I've always loved / illuminate this place

Like a trashcan fire / in a prison cell

Like the searchlights / in the parking lots of hell

I will walk / down to the end / with you

If you will come / all the way down / with me."

Iiiiiiih

Twilight Sparkle wasn't very happy about this. In fact, Twilight didn't think she'd ever seen a dentist before, strangely enough. But every pony in town seemed to go there for a checkup, and as Ponyville's newest citizen, she wanted to fit in.

The dentist's office was at the other side of town. Spike had insisted to accompany her. For some reason, he seemed even more nervous than she was.

"Twilight, do you really think this is necessary?"

"It's really no big deal. Everyone is doing it. Don't you want me to be healthy?"

"Of course I want you to be healthy, it's just, this idea of you walking into that door, and then... and then they'll put drills into your mouth, and pliers, and little things that go "Iiiiiiiiiih"..."

"Gee Spike, thanks, I feel a lot better about this now. What am I supposed to do? Wait until they catch me and drag me in by force?"

Twilight was trying to sound cheerful, but it didn't have any effect on the mood of her friend. The little dragon seemed downright devastated.

"Spike... I really appreciate that you've come with me, but you don't look so well. Maybe you should go home. I can handle this."

Spike took her hoof in his little hands.

"No, Twilight. I don't want you to go there alone."

"Spike, seriously, what's wrong? You look awfully upset."

Her little assistant seemed to have an inner debate. Obviously, he wasn't very happy with the conclusion.

"It's... nothing, I guess. Sorry I'm spooking you like this. I just don't want you to be hurt..."

"Oh Spike, she is a dentist, for crying out loud. Sometimes you have to accept a little pain in order to get better! Besides, I always brush my teeth - unlike a certain little dragon, may I add. I should be fine. No "Iiiiiiiiiih"... for me."

She gave him a big smile to illustrate that thought.

He smiled back, halfheartedly.

"Miss Twilight Sparkle?"

The dentist pony stuck her head into the waiting room.

"Looks like it's my turn."

The dentist blocked the door when Spike tried to follow his friend inside.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait here."

"But I thought..."

"Please, have a seat."

"Don't you worry, Spike", Twilight said, "Be good now."

The dentist closed the door, and Spike was alone. He sat down right where he was, trembling.

"Please... Please don't hurt her..."

And a treacherous little voice in his head added: at least not more than usual.

"Lay down, please. And relax."

Twilight climbed on the strange contraption in the middle of the room. It was comfortable enough, but something seemed fishy about it. It even had a special sheath for the horn on her forehead. Most unicorn ponies considered their horn as a very intimate part of their body. This didn't feel... right.

Oh, Gosh darn it. Spike and his childish fear of doctors! He was sweet, but she'd never bring him to something like this again. He was contagious.

The exam itself was slightly unpleasant (a very prude part of her even considered it a little humiliating), but nothing out of the ordinary. It was no surprise to her that the dentist ended up complimenting her on her dental health.

"I will have to fill out some forms. Please remain seated while I go to the other room. Feel free to have a little snack. That's how we stay in business, you know."

The dentist pony pointed to a round jar full of colorful candy on a little table right next to her.

"Thanks..."

Twilight frowned when the other pony had left the room. Of course it made sense that she'd stay here until all formalities had been concluded, still, why couldn't she just go back to the waiting room?

It wasn't much, just these LITTLE things... the way her horn was tied down... the smell... this strange candy jar... The candy DID look delicious, and it smelled good, too, but suddenly Twilight didn't feel very hungry. To put it mildly.

"Have you had your candy yet?"

The voice of the dentist from behind the door made her jump.

"Thanks, I think I'll pass..."

"Oh, you should really have some, dear, they're quite good."

"I have no doubts about that, but I don't think I can eat right now, sorry..."

"Suit yourself..."

Okay, what was going on?

Twilight didn't feel so good. She didn't feel good at all. What was wrong with her? She had been a little nervous before, but now her fear- yes, her fear!- rose exponentially. Her breathing accelerated. Her bones started to shake. She was starting to panic. And the worst part was, she didn't even know why. Suddenly, everything looked wrong. Like some sort of awful joke... or a trap. The door through which the dentist had disappeared, the colors of the candy in the jar, the posters and diagrams on the walls, and most of all... this horrible chair, or bed, or whatever it was she was strapped to. Yes, strapped! Getting off the contraption had never been an option. Who had tied her down? The dentist? And when did she do it? And how come Twilight didn't notice?

Was she about to lose her mind? The colors became painfully bright, she felt as if she was sitting in the middle of a firework.

And then, they started to fade. The walls turned gray. The posters and other decorative elements disappeared. The candy in the jar turned white, like little bones... No, they weren't candy. They were pills.

Twilight wanted to scream out of confusion and terror, but she heard no sound coming out of her throat. It was like a nightmare come true. A little sparkle deep down still tried to remain rational, to analyze what was going on. This part of her realized that the world she had known had disappeared. It didn't matter why, or where she was now.

Now was the time to ESCAPE.

While her body was shaking in a mad, unconscious effort to loosen the straps, her mind was racing as well, looking for clues.

She was in some sort of cubicle. The walls looked like cheap decoys. Where the ceiling used to be, there was now endless darkness filled with red stars and a small, but horribly bright sun at the centre. And there were noises, lots of them.

Some of them went "Iiiiiiiiiih"...

Still squirming on the siege, she gazed upon her lower body. And in a way, what she saw was worse than all the other things combined.

Naked, sweaty skin with a slight purple glow. Stubby hooves. A tattoo on her flank. These stitches on her big, vulnerable belly. An entire scalp of hair growing on her behind. Oh Celestia, she had always assumed that was her tail.

Why? Why had she never noticed what she was really like? Why had she never wondered? By Celestia, she had lived without ever wondering what her coat was made of... She had just assumed she was... purple. PURPLE!

As if she had been living in a dream, a very sweet yet surreal dream...

Her throat was hurting. A lot. So she had been screaming the whole time.

She knew that she was going to faint, and she welcomed the darkness. The horrible cubicle became blurry, yet she could still see spindly, twisted things with glowing eyeballs descending from the darkness above. Mere hallucinations? Who was she to tell.

"My my, this one was screaming. I've never seen any of them waking up before. Why did the effect of the drugs wear off?"

"It was supposed to swallow the pills, but it didn't. No idea what happened in that little thing's brain."

"Maybe we'll have to take this one out completely."

"We'll see."

But eventually, these horrible voices started to fade as well.

"Twilight!"

"Wow, slow down little buddy. You... you're kinda suffocating me."

The dentist accompanied them to the exit and waved them goodbye.

"So... how do you feel?"

"Well, what do you think? A little dizzy actually, I guess that's from sitting in that big chair... thing for so long with my mouth open."

"Nothing bad happened?"

"Spike!" Twilight laughed in disbelief. "She is a dentist, not some sort of evil dungeon master. And my teeth are in top shape, just as I expected. See, nothing to worry about."

"Can I... can I ride on your back?"

Twilight was amused at how shy Spike looked all of a sudden.

"Since when do you ask permission? Hop on already!"

Spike felt her warmth, and her strong muscles moving beneath him. Inhaled the familiar smell evaporating from her skin as she was sweating under the artificial sun. Twilight was alright... She was alright, somehow, somewhat. Spike tried to ignore the red marks on his friend's skin where the straps had been, tried to ignore the little wounds where they had stuck the needles. Tried to ignore how pale she was. But he couldn't.

He would try harder. Just a little longer. One day after the other, right? Just like it had always been. Just like it was supposed to be.

"Spike? You're awfully quiet."

Nonexploding Alligators

Pinkie Pie is making a point

Boo!

And also Hi. It is me, Pinkie Pie!

Nothing against that NeuStrasbourg-guy (though I could bring up one or two things), but I'm afraid we're running out of time.

So I decided to interrupt the regular narrative to make a point. It's an important one, too.

All my friends are traumatized, raped, near-comatose, suffering from nightmares and hallucinations or have become murderers, and what is little Spike doing in the meantime?

Nothing, that's what.

He is walking around in circles, sighting and moaning and weeping and shaking his little head.

There he is now, going on a little walk on the outskirts of Ponyville.

Oh, but little does he know that he is being followed. Without a warning, he is pounced by a scary pink creature and dragged into a dark ally.

He is screaming and squirming and then he dares to open his eyes, to check who captured him, and now he is screaming some more.

I resent that.

"P-Pinkie Pie... what do you want from me? Also, since when are you the narrator?"

I am a pony of many talents. Right now there is only one question that really matters: What is YOUR place in all of this?

"I... I..."

Don't you I-I me, buster! You know why I'm here, Spike. This has been going on for too long. You'll have to make a decision.

"I can't..."

OH YES YOU CAN. This pony is NOT going to let you drag your sorry corpse from one day to the next while avoiding the issues. You DO exist, I won't let you pretend you didn't! And you ARE responsible for your own destiny. And for our destiny as well.

It's getting worse every day. So what is it going to be, Spike? What are you, a little schizoid NAZI stooge? Answer me! The audience wants to know!

"Oh, so you want to KNOW, eh? FINE! I will tell you what I think. I think you are RIGHT. I AM a stooge. I was created to serve, I was created to keep you trapped, to help Them exploit you. That's ALL there is to me. I am not your friend. I am TOOL. And I'm not going to help anyone!"

I can respect that.

"WHAT?"

Only that you just lied to me. That is not what you actually think.

Tell me, Spike, how do you feel? No need to answer, it's quite obvious you feel like HORSEAPPLES. Stooges don't feel like horseapples, though they should. You feel like someone who is doing the opposite of what he wants to do.

Now normally I would say who am I, Pinkie Pie, to tell anyone what they should feel and what they should do, but right now, I need you. I can't afford to have you waste our time.

We need you. The REAL Spike. And I WILL break through to him, even if I have to kick him out of this sorry pile of self-loathing right in front of me.

Shall I start?

I don't think anyone has ever seen little Spikey run that fast.

Silly Spike. He should know better than that.

He runs and runs and then he looks around to see if he is being followed. He doesn't see anypony, but he is suspicious and doesn't want to take any chances.

So he pushes a big red button on the side of a building, and a trapdoor pops open in the middle of the road. It's another one of Ponyville's special features the average pony is supposed to ignore.

Spike jumps into the trapdoor and finds himself in a long metal pipe illuminated by little green lights. He is on his way to one of the many supply rooms where the MLP-staff is getting their "gems" and surgical instruments and other things that help them on their quest to enslave ponykind.

It's one of these little safe places everyone would like to have to hide from the big bad world outside. No one is going to find little Spike down here.

He unlocks the door and enters the room. Just when the door closes behind him, he realizes that he's not alone.

Hi there! Now where was I...

Again with the screaming and the running.

He is now taking another tunnel, this one will get him back to the library.

Spike is checking every room at least twice. He has activated the security program that is wrapping the entire structure in an iron armour.

He has programmed the local security cameras to watch out for a very special pony, and to make loud warny noises when she is spotted somewhere in the general area.

He still doesn't feel quite safe. He knows that there is no point in expecting the impossible, after all, good old Pinkie Pie is just a pony, and as scary as she might be, she doesn't have superpowers (she really doesn't).

Still, the paranoia is overwhelming.

There. A noise.

It almost makes him jump out of his scales, but after a minute, he tells himself that he's just imagining things. If you ask me, he and Applejack should create their own little association, "Deniers Anonymous" or something.

Finally, Spike is able to breath normally.

All of this panic is making him hungry. He is on his way to the kitchen, but then he steps on something tiny and pointy that pierces right through the skin of his little foot.

A little scream of pain and terror.

What is this? A trap? Is he going to die? What is going on?

He pulls the little stingy thing out of his foot. It's a tiny piece of metal. Nothing unusual, one of the many machines inside the facility must be broken.

Strange, though. This particular piece looks like it should be inside a security camera...

And sure enough, there is a noise coming from the kitchen.

This time, Spike knows it's the real deal.

But his feet seem to move on their own while the rest of his body is paralyzed with fear.

He is stepping around the corner, and then, trembling from spines to toes, he takes a look into the kitchen.

It is empty.

No one there.

No one.

Spike is scratching his head. He feels a little dizzy, so he decides to sit down at the kitchen table.

That's when the lights go out.

On the outside of the library, the steel barricades are vibrating from the mighty scream they are trapping inside.

When the lights come back again, Spike is still alone in the kitchen. Or should I say, again?

On the table, there is a pink cupcake.

And next to the cupcake, there is a note.

But when Spike opens the note, there is no letter inside. Just a tiny piece of glass.

Spike is looking into his own face: It's a mirror.

Unicorn brains

Fluttershy in the shadows

Pinkie Pie sighted.

The others had just left.

She went to the closet and carefully opened the door.

"Hi there. How are you feeling today?"

Fluttershy was still curled up in the corner, wrapped in her blanket. She didn't even look up, just flinched a little when the light fell on her.

"Do you think you can go outside today?"

Fluttershy didn't answer.

Pinkie Pie stepped into the closet and lay down next to her friend.

"I know it's hard for you- well, no, what does stupid old Pinkemina know about this kind of things, right? More than you might think, actually. But what is even more important is that we love you. We are there for you.

There is still tea and cupcakes left. Think you can eat a little something for your auntie Pinkie Pie?"

Fluttershy remained silent.

Pinkie Pie rested her head on the pegasus pony's back and started humming 'Balladshy'.

('Balladshy' is a original song composed by AcousticBrony. It can be found on Youtube.)