Eventide

Twilight had yet to understand how the tantabus that was possessing her body was doing it. All she knew was, whenever she looked through her eyes at various houses, she saw those writhing, slimy, red vines growing over practically every building in Ponyville. And, worse than that, every pony that would walk by one of those houses would be attacked by those vines, and wouldn’t see them, wouldn’t even bother looking at them. Could they not see them at all, or just not the way she was seeing them? The worst part was, when a vine stabbed a pony, as it did to every pony that came too close, the pony’s skin would peel away, revealing a sickly-green, pony-like creature that might or might not still be alive. It still walked, just not with the intelligence it had before. And, she seemed to be the only one that saw it.

Knowing that she was the only one who could see those wriggling vines, and what they appeared to be doing to ponies that walked past them, she deduced that those vines couldn't be real, and that it had to be the tantabus that was producing illusions. But, not being in control of her body anymore, as much as she wanted to let somepony, anypony, know what was happening to her, she knew she couldn’t. At least, not directly. But, she could only hope that a friend of hers already knew. But, then again, maybe that’s why the tantabus killed Pinkie Pie, because she was sensing him somehow and already knew. Well, if she was going to get a message to somepony, it’d have to be one of the sister alicorns. She was heading for Canterlot Castle, so she could wait.

In the mean time, she waited at the train station, along with that tantabus which was in control of her body, while her friend Rarity purchased the tickets for her and her other three remaining friends.

Then there was Rainbow Dash, who was sitting canine-style near the edge of the platform, glaring at her. And, the fact that the azure pegasa wasn’t attacking Twilight seemed to her a testament to the amount of self-control she was exercising. After all, Twilight, in the azure pegasa’s eyes, had killed Pinkie Pie.

It could be that part of the reason why Rainbow Dash was exercising so much self-control was because Fluttershy was resting sphinx-style between her fellow pegasa and the possessed purple alicorn.

Then again, the only reason why the tantabus wasn’t killing anymore of the element bearers was because he was waiting for the opportunity to kill the sister princesses. If they knew about the tantabus’ plans, would the bearer of the element of kindness be so willing to restrain her fellow pegasa, or would she also be out to kill the purple alicorn? The thought that the right answer to that question would be the latter option was at the same time frightening and comforting to Twilight. How she hoped to be free of this nightmare that was holding her captive.

If there was one thing that could be counted on about trains in Equestria, it was that they generally arrived in a very short time. And, thus it was with this train.

When the train came to a complete stop at the station, the tantabus-possessed Twilight lead the team of element bearers on board, then chose the bench closest to the door she entered and took a canine-style position on it closest to the window.

The other four element bearers sat around her, Rarity next to her, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in the opposing bench, and Applejack in the bench behind the two pegasae.

And, it wasn’t until the train started to move when the orange earth mare looked at the purple alicorn and noticed something about her mouth. Pushing between the two pegasae, she asked, “Twilight, could you open your mouth, please?”

Twilight answered, “I see no reason why I should do what you want me to, mud horse.”

What Twilight said to Applejack wasn’t as important to her as what she saw as she watched the purple alicorn’s mouth open and close. And, what she saw confirmed her suspicions. Twilight Sparkle had no tongue.

The orange earth pony backed away and fell off her bench, moaning in fear and surprise.

Fluttershy, hearing her friend behind her, turned to her and asked, “Applejack, are you alright? What’s wrong?”

Applejack pointed a trembling front hoof at the purple alicorn and half-whispered, half-voiced her answer, “Didn’t you see, Twilight don’t got no tongue.”

At this point, the other three element bearers turned to look at Twilight for a second, then turned back to Applejack.

Then, Rainbow Dash scoffed and said, “Of course she’s got a tongue. If she didn’t have one, how could she talk to us?”

As Applejack started shakily getting back up on the bench, she answered, “Ah don’t rightly know. What Ah do know is what Ah saw, and Ah ain’t seed no tongue.”

Seeing how genuine her friend’s fear was, Fluttershy slowly turned to the purple alicorn and asked, “Twilight, will you please open your mouth?”

Twilight continued to look out the window as she snarled, “Ugh, not you too, bird horse.”

Rainbow Dash then turned to the purple alicorn and said, “Hey, there’s no reason to call names. Fluttershy just asked you a question.”

Twilight turned to glare at Rainbow Dash, then turned her glare on Fluttershy. Then, she turned to Rarity and asked, “Yeah, and what about you, huh, needle horse? You wanna see my mouth too?” Not waiting for an answer, she continued, “Alright then. Everypony have a look inside my mouth!” And, she opened her mouth to an unnatural, uncomfortable width.

Applejack, who had already seen that her alicorn friend had no tongue, closed her eyes and covered them with her front hooves and turned away.

Rainbow Dash, looking into the purple alicorn’s mouth, just sat there in shock.

Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth with her front hooves.

Rarity gagged, then collapsed.

After a few seconds, Twilight closed her mouth again. But, before turning back to the window again, she said, “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to keep a lookout for Canterlot and the castle. The princesses and I have an appointment.”

After a few seconds, Fluttershy snapped out of her stupor of horror and started attending to Rarity, while Rainbow Dash remained frozen.

In the mean time, Applejack uncovered and opened her eyes, then glared at each of the other element bearers and said, “Ah hope you’ll remember this next time. Ah don’t lie.”

And, until the end of the train ride, those were the last words any of the five element bearers said.

In Canterlot, a darkish-orange earth stallion with curly brown hair and a halved, grilled-cheese sandwich for a cutie mark wandered through the streets, intent on finding the party he knew must be here. At least, that’s what his Cheesy Sense had told him the day before. The good news was ponies here were far more polite to him than the ones in Manehattan had been. The bad news was that there was no sign of the party he knew he was supposed to host.

He made his way down a road lined on both sides with houses, but was unable to even find foals playing in any of the yards he saw. At the end of the road, he sighed, turned to the rubber chicken on his back, and said, “Well, Boneless, I don’t know what we’re gonna do. My Cheesy Sense told me that there’s supposed to be a party here, but I can’t find it. Maybe we’re supposed to start one of our own, and other ponies’ll just join in.”

As the lone stallion turned ahead of him to look for a good place for a party, he heard a voice in his right ear, a mare’s squeaky voice, say, “Oh, there you are. I’m glad you could come.”

Instinctively the stallion turned to his right to see who was talking to him. When he couldn’t see the mare, he stumbled backwards a step or two and said, “Wh-who’s there?”

Now, he heard the voice in his left ear giggle before saying, “Don’t I remember you from one of the parties I threw back in Ponyville? And, don’t you remember me?”

The stallion turned to his left, but still couldn’t see anypony. Even more frightened, he stumbled back a few more steps as he said, “I-I-I d-don’t think s-so.”

As though it dawned on her, the mare’s voice said, “Oh, that’s right. You can’t see me this way. Just a moment.” Then, the stallion’s fear turned to shock as a carnation-pink earth mare with curly, electric-pink mane appeared in front of him and said, “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie.”

In initial shock, the stallion fell into a canine-style position as his hind legs gave out under him. Then, it clicked in his mind; and he pointed with a front hoof at the familiar-looking mare and said, “Wait, I recognize you.” Then, as he rose to all fours again, he asked, “Wait, why can I see through you? What happened?”

The spirit of the pink party pony sighed before saying, “It’s kind of a long story. What’s important is you’re needed at the castle. I’ll tell you everything you need to know along the way.” Then, she turned a hundred eighty degrees and started heading along the street, toward the castle.

Uncertainly, the stallion watched this translucent mare turn around in front of him as he said, “Well, alright.” Then, he started following her toward the castle.

Pinkie then turned back to the stallion and said, “I want you to take over bearing the element of laughter, now that I can’t anymore.”

Worriedly, the stallion galloped a bit to catch up to the pink earth mare. When he was next to her, he asked, “Can’t bear the element of laughter anymore? What happened?”

Pinkie lowered her head and said, “I’m not sure how it happened, but Twily got possessed by a nightmare creature from the Everfree forest. She killed her friend Lyra first, then a couple days later she killed me.”

For a moment the stallion froze mid-step before exclaiming, “Killed!” Then, a second later, he forced himself to keep moving, to catch up with the evident spirit of the pink party pony, before saying, “B-but, y-your mane, y-your cutie mark.”

Pinkie looked back at one of her hips and said, “Yeah, one of the things we get to take with us after we die is our cutie mark. I learned that by experience. And, speaking of that, our experiences, our memories, are some of the things we get to keep after we die.”

As the stallion watched the ghost of his foalhood heroine turn to look ahead of her again, he felt feelings of grief rise within him, feelings he’d never learned to contain. He tried to say more, but all he could do was stammer.

Pinkie turned to him again and said, “Right now, I wish I could nuzzle you, or give you any kind of physical comfort. But, my body is back in Ponyville library; so, that’s out of the question. You’re Cheese Sandwich, aren’t you?”

Unable to speak, the stallion just nodded.

Pinkie, having received her answer, looked ahead of her again and said, “Just follow me to the castle, and Princess Celestia will take care of the rest.”

Cheese Sandwich continued to follow the spirit of Pinkie Pie, but couldn’t keep from whimpering as he ambled along.

At the gates of Canterlot Castle, two earth stallion guards watched, spears in hoof, for any possible intruders, when they saw a lone stallion sobbing as he approached them.

One of the guards, a gray stallion on the right side of the gate, seeing the darkish-orange one approaching, took a step toward him and said, “Halt. Who are you, and why are you here?”

The gray stallion then heard the voice of a familiar-sounding mare in his ears say, “This is Cheese Sandwich, and he’s with me.”

Frightened, the gray stallion reared up on his hind legs and stumbled back a step or two. Whinnying in alarm, he fell backwards into a canine-style position.

The other guard, a white stallion, after watching this odd behavior from his companion, asked, “What’s wrong?”

The gray stallion turned to the white one and asked, “You didn’t hear her? The voice of Pinkie Pie?”

In sincere curiosity, the white stallion answered, “No, I didn’t.”

The gray stallion said, “She said that this is Cheese Sandwich, and he’s with her. If I can hear her voice and not see her, then something must’ve gone wrong. You stay here with this Cheese Sandwich, and I’ll go in and talk to Princess Celestia. She needs to know about this.” And, with that, he rose to all fours again, turned to the gate, entered, then proceeded to the throne room to speak with the daytime alicorn.

In the mean time, the white earth stallion guard proceeded to attend to the weeping darkish-orange one there at the gate.

At the train station, Twilight, the first to exit the train, proceeded to march through the station, on her way to the castle.

The two pegasae had no problems keeping up with her; but it was a different story for the unicorn and the earth mare, who found themselves having to gallop to keep up with the impatient purple alicorn.

And, while she made her rapid-paced march, Twilight refused to say anything. She just kept up her march from the train station toward the castle, the tantabus in control, receiving guidance from the spirit that should have been in control of the purple alicorn body.

In the mean time, so hasty was the march to the castle that the other four element bearers had to focus all their energy on keeping up with their purple alicorn friend.

In the room where Princess Celestia received guests, she positioned herself on the platform connecting one flight of stairs leading down to the pathway to the front of the castle, and two other flights, leading up in opposite directions.

From the hallway, two earth pony guards approached on each side of another earth pony, one who had been given little time to come to terms with the death of a foal-hood heroine, and clearly needed more time.

But, he wasn’t going to get more grieving time at the moment, as the daytime princess asked, “You are Cheese Sandwich?”

The darkish-orange earth stallion took a step toward the flight of stairs in front of him and, keeping his head lowered, nodded unsteadily.

The daytime princess continued, “My royal guard has informed me that you said that Pinkie Pie brought you here. Is that true?”

Cheese Sandwich opened his mouth and tried to speak, but was unable to without stammering some more.

The white alicorn turned to her guards and said, “Leave him with me, and return to your duties. I will attend to Cheese Sandwich myself. If Twilight and her friends show up, please take them to the throne room. My sister, Princess Luna, will be waiting for them there.” And, as the two earth stallion guards returned to their positions outside the castle entrance, Princess Celestia used her magic to raise the grieving earth stallion and levitate him over the stairs.

As distraught as Cheese Sandwich was, he was still surprised to find himself flying over the stairs. Then, when he realized it was the alicorn’s magic at work, he allowed, for the moment, his feelings of grief to be replaced by wonder at how he was flying over the stairs.

Then, as soon as he was above that intersection among the stairs, Princess Celestia proceeded up the flight of stairs to her right as she said, “It’s alright, Cheese Sandwich. I will take you to a room where we can discuss the matter that brought you here.”

Cheese Sandwich wasn’t sure if it was the feeling of amazement at flying under another creature’s control, or if it was his residual feelings of sorrow over the news of the death of Pinkie Pie. Maybe it was the combination of the two that was keeping him from being able to speak.

At the entrance to the castle, the two pegasae settled down, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy on Twilight’s right, and, when they managed to catch up to her, Applejack and Rarity on her left.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak, but Twilight stopped her with a glare.

The purple alicorn then turned to the earth pony guards and said, “I have an urgent matter to discuss with both princesses, as soon as possible.”

The two stallions bowed, and the gray one said, “Yes, Princess Twilight.”

As the two rose back to all fours, the white one added, “Follow us, and we shall take you to the throne room.”

As the two guards turned and proceeded to lead the five element bearers into the hallway, she said to them, “Proceed.” And, she followed them until they came to the familiar meeting room with the flights of stairs. And, from there, they turned right and lead the group of five to the throne room.

Princess Luna, who had accepted the request from her sister to wait for their coming guests in the throne room, had been waiting there for a few minutes, enough time to get comfortable in her chair, when the double doors opened, and the two earth stallion guards lead Twilight and four of her five friends through the doors and up the pathway to the two thrones.

As the group of seven stopped short of the steps leading up to the two thrones, the nighttime princess nodded to each of the guards before saying, “You are dismissed.” Then, as the two guards turned and headed back out, Princess Luna turned to the five remaining ponies and said, “Ye are welcome here any time. But, we have questions for you. Where is Pinkie Pie? And, what is this urgent matter that you have with us?”

In a masculine voice, the purple alicorn answered, “I bring you a message about the future.”

The unnatural sound of a stallion’s voice coming from a mare surprised the nighttime alicorn, and she instinctively went into defense mode, rising to all fours and opening her wings to make herself look bigger and more imposing than she was. Still, she was able to keep her voice from betraying her surprise as she asked, “And, what is this message?”

Presently, Twilight burst into black and purple flames, tossing the other element bearers away from her. A purple mist leaked from the back of each of her eyes, and her teeth sharpened, as Twilight said, “You and your sister will not be a part of it.”

If Princess Luna could’ve backed away from this evident threat, she would have. But, with her throne blocking her retreat, there was really no place for her to go. All she could do was stare wide-eyed at the possessed purple alicorn and say, “Oh, mother of me, it’s happening to Twilight now.” Then, she closed her eyes and focused the magic in her horn, sending an urgent message to her sister to come as soon as possible.

Twilight, or the tantabus possessing her, seeing the glow and sparkles coming from the nighttime alicorn’s horn, smiled and said, “Yes, that’s right. Call for your sister. Bring her here. This is the completion of step seven, and soon the sun and the moon will have their freedom from their captors, forever! Then, all of Equestria will feel the wrath of the great, the all-powerful, Nightmare Mage!” And, she, he, cackled long and loud enough to vibrate all the windows in the room.