Sweetie Drops flew open the door to her home and shut it just as quickly, breathing rapidly and sweating profusely, soaking her black suit. She turned to look outside but nopony was around, not even across the street. She glanced up in the sky, and she saw nothing in the lamplights or shadows over the stars. With a hard sigh she nearly collapsed on the floor, removing her mask.

She made it. And all she had to do was sleep. She felt bad about leaving Rumble back in the forest alone, but she knew that was his best chance for survival. She limped her way to the refrigerator and grabbed some gin that had been opened before.

“You’re back?” Lyra asked walking into the room with concern. “I was going to serve some drinks out by the road near the vineyard but you told me to stay here instead.”

Bon Bon gulped a glassful and nodded as she poured another and gulped it down. “For your safety Lyra. Continue to stay in the house and don’t go out. And don’t answer the door; make sure the house seems unoccupied. Something terrible happened.” Bon Bon made her way to the couch and collapsed upon it. “I badly need some sleep.” Bon Bon nestled up against a pillow, doing her best to calm down. Through her exhaustion, she was asleep in no time.

When Lyra saw that she was out cold, she put up the gin and quietly grabbed a meat cleaver from the drawers, revealing an empty vile of what would be the anti-dream drink. Lyra tiptoed her way around the couch to the back of the house into a storage closet. She used her hooves to quietly open the door to reveal another Lyra, tied up and gagged, but knocked out from a head wound. The Lyra Changeling raised the meat cleaver to hack off her horn. The others would arrive shortly to collect the two ponies for the harvest.

The next day, Piña Colada found herself at school. She was exhausted—paying attention was difficult. And it didn’t help that the world around her seemed so fake. When the bell rang, it came almost expectedly, the distant, faint sound not changing her attitude at all. Not even school helped her this time. Without proper dreaming, this seemed like the dream. This unreal reality.

“Ok, class!” Miss Cheerilee said with a beaming, happy face. “Time to go home!”

As the foals got up, Ruby Pinch looked at the students around her with a slick grin. “Heh. I’ll race everypony to the four square zone!”

The foals happily giggled as they partook in the challenge. Piña Colada did not. As the classroom emptied and Miss Cheerilee cleaned the chalkboard, she called out. “Piña. You don’t have to do any homework today. I know you had it rough.”

Piña nodded and moped her way out of school. She saw Jelly Splat, Rumble, Noi, and Ruby Pinch get close in the race and cheer happily. Lyra and Bon Bon spotted her and waved. But Piña just walked by when she was bumped by Twilight Sparkle.

“Oops! Sorry, I should look where I’m going.” The princess was zigzagging her head, moving her eyes from one of three books hovering around her with Spike sleeping on her back. “Such a nice afternoon for a reading stroll. Nightmare Night sure was scary, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” came the voice of Piña’s older sister. “Poor Piña here stayed up way too late.”

“Oh, hello! I haven’t seen you in a while. Excuse me, Berry—Berry…”

“Berryshine!” the purple pony said with a smile.

“Sorry, I’ve been so busy lately,” Twilight said with a blush and looking back at Spike.

“It’s alright, we’ll stay out of your way, Princess.” Berryshine bowed and scooted Piña Colada to the side. Ruby Pinch waved at them and came to trot along. They made it back to their house without incident.

Piña Colada walked to the kitchen, speaking to her sister and cousin without looking at them. “It’s ok. You don’t have to pretend anymore.” She hung her head with a frown. “I hope the name Berryshine sticks now that you told that to the Princess.”

Ruby Pinch morphed into a mockingbird Changeling as Berryshine reverted into another Changeling. Piña Colada opened the refrigerator and found herself staring at a wall of alcohol. She felt the tinge of pain throb in her body, most of all in her chest, and she shivered.

She was Back Home, looking at The Remedy, having been Recruited by Invitation.

Her Purpose was the Concoction, but she needed Rescue from the Mockingbird Distraction.

And Then There Was One, and she was Alone. The chapters to her story ending—or beginning?

Piña Colada picked up a bottle of whiskey, partly emptied from her older sister’s drinking when she was still around. She knew her purpose. She knew her special talent. She understood her role in the world, twisted as it was. Piña opened the bottle and took a sip, and then a gulp. A lone island and an empty coconut tree flashed into existence on her light lavender flank as she closed the door.

Author's Note

SPECIAL THANKS
- Dylan Hockema, for Jelly Splat
- Steven Conger, for Swift Blade and beta reading
- Dominic Beck, for Redeye and beta reading
- All of my readers who asked for more