The rain poured down, drenching Twilight as she trudged through the streets. She didn't bother to use any spells to form some sort of umbrella, nor teleport herself underneath a building or tree to wait out the storm. Something was compelling her to continue on, it was an odd feeling, but Twilight figured it was best to just get home as soon as possible, maybe then she could find out the secret behind the charred bolt she had found.

The young Alicorn turned a corner and spotted the welcome sight of her castle, she smiled at the thought of being out of this terrible weather and getting inside and began galloping towards the large glowing building.

Her mane flipped across her face several times, blinding her until it flipped out of the way. Twilight let out a little growl of annoyance every time it happened until she was under the large doors leading into the castle.

She was soaked down to the bone, and her mane and tail looked like she had had a bucket of water dumped over her. Which was what had happened, minus the bucket.

The Alicorn let out a frustrated sigh, before opening one of the large doors enough so she could slip in, before closing it behind her.

''SPIIIIIIKKKE!'' She called out, waiting for an answer from her assistant, but was annoyed to not get an answer. ''SPIIIIKKKE!'' She tried again, but her only answer was more silence.

The violet mare gave a long sigh, before levitating a towel out of a nearby closet, and drying herself off with it. When she was finally dry, she placed the cloth back into the closet and shut it.

''That takes care of that, and now onto the lab.'' Twilight said cheerfully to herself, slightly glad there was nopony to distract her now.

She began making her way to the lab, but was stopped when something in one of the many libraries caught her eye. Something was glowing brightly through the crack of the door. This caught her interest, and suspicion, what in Celestia's name was going on in there?

Stepping through the pizzeria doors, Swift Blade and Spy Glass made their way into the empty restaurant with quick glances around them. The place was normally so crowded and full of the noises of laughter and music, it was unsettling to find it so quiet.

Almost as soon as they took a few hoofsteps inside, a very light pink mare approached them with a large smile. ''Oh hello there, welcome to Pinkie Pie's Pizzeria! I'm sorry to say however we are closed for now, until our lovely animatronics have been repaired.''

Swift nodded, ''I know, but we're-''

''We're here to ask you some questions, the creator of your robots had been murdered, and we wanted to know if you knew anything'' Spy Glass interrupted.

''The boss is...dead...?'' The mare asked, she seemed very shocked at this.

''Yes, something got into his house and killed him, we came here to ask the mare who phoned him before he died some questions.'' Swift glanced at the mares cutie mark, trying not to seem strange.

Her mark was a blue magical swirl above a small purple star. something about this irked the stallion, ''That's a strange cutie mark to have in this line of business, why would she have gotten a job doing this when there were other jobs for unicorns like her?

''Oh, well, do you know her name, we have quite a few mares working here after all.'' The mare asked.

''No, she never mentioned her name in any of the messages, but we don't even need to name her, your voices match perfectly.'' Swift smirked, taking a step forward. ''Tell us everything you know, before I decide to arrest you.''

The mare looked slightly shocked at the accusation, but didn't protest, ''Yes, I called him several times a few days ago, but he never answered any of them. I got a letter from him saying that he was retiring and that he wanted me to take over the pizzeria, but I never knew he had been killed until you told me. Oh Celestia...Tech...'' She murmured.

''Nice try, but you forgot to delete the last message you sent, and considering what you say about you being the new manager here, I would say that you already knew'' Spy smirked, levitating a pair of magical hoofcuffs from her saddle bags.

Swift glanced at the detective, slightly in awe, she had noticed something he hadn't, he would have to compliment her on that later. The swordstallion turned his attention back to the possible mad pony and drew his longsword, the long blade sliding out of its sheath with a metallic sliding sound.

''All right, don't move, and this wont get ugly.'' Swift leveled the blade towards the mare before them.

''You really think you can catch me? Well, good luck with that.'' The mare snarled, a menacing smile growling across her mouth.

Before either pony could do anything, the mare suddenly lit up her horn and vanished with a flash of light.

''Damn it!'' Swift cursed, ''For a few seconds, I thought it may have been an understanding and she was being framed!'' The stallion shook his head and sheathed his weapon.

''Perfect...'' Spy groaned, ''Now we have a dangerous killer on the loose, and we have no idea where she's gone or who she is!'' The detective threw the cuffs on the ground with her magic and stomped her hoof on the ground angrily.

Swift held his hoof up to his chin in thought, ''Crap'' He realized. They hadn't asked her name, and now she was gone! ''Everything is going wrong!'' He screamed in his head. Now they were back where they began, they knew what the mare looked like, but they didn't...

''Wait a second...'' Swift turned to look at his angry companion, a small smile forming. ''Spy, we're going on a trip to the Canterlot archives.''

''What good will that do!? Without her name its useless to try and find a file on her.'' Spy retorted.

''We may not know just who she is, but the pony who owns the place will. He should be able to help us find a file on that mare, and then we can find out where she might go.''

Spy stopped stomping and allowed a grin to form across her face, ''Good thinking, lets get going, we have to find her as soon as possible!''

The two ponies quickly made their way out of the pizzeria, and began heading for the train station, they had to get to Canterlot as quickly as possible, or the mare might kill again.

Twilight Sparkle peeked into the library, and finding anypony in sight, opened the door and stepped inside. ''Hello? Anypony in here? Spike? Is that you?'' She asked hesitantly.

When there was no response, the Alicorn took another few hesitant steps across the room, finally spotting the source of the strange glow. A strange glowing orb sat on a pedestal near the center of the room. On closer inspection, it appeared to have strange markings running across the glowing ball.

''What in Equestria is this doing here? Did Spike bring this here?'' Twilight asked aloud, not expecting an answer, and she received none. She slowly reached out a shaky hoof, pulling it back quickly as if the orb might bite her, before her hoof made contact with smooth glass.

The flash that emanated from the ball was blinding, causing Twilight to step back, attempting to shield herself from the blinding light with a hoof. The light was so bright Twilight thought it would burn her eyes out, when suddenly the light died down.

The Alicorn princess lowered her hoof and stared at the glowing orb, it was clouding up and something seemed to be shining through the clouds inside of the orb.

''What the...''

Twilight was cut off by the sight of a pony stepping through the clouds, the glow of her horn slicing through the mist inside the orb like a knife through butter. Although she couldn't make out just who the pony was, she knew that something was wrong. ''Who are you?''

The pony's voice was that of a mares, ''Hello again Twilight, its been a while.'' Her voice sounded familiar...

''Um...do I know you?''

''Yes Princess...'' The mysterious mare almost snarled, ''But if you don't remember, then I wont remind you, all I'm going to say, is that your dead, and that you should know, that I'm the reason behind your death, and the deaths of your friends.''

''WHAT!'' Twilight almost screamed, ''What are you talking about?! My friends are all alive and so am I!''

''Yes, but not for much longer, once I'm done with you, your friends will follow you.'' The mare sneered. ''And if your thinking of trying to find me or escape, think again.''

Twilight quickly tried to cast a teleportation spell, but her magic flickered and died out. ''What?'' She began panicking. She tried to cast a number of other spells, but the only ones that seemed to work were her light spell and levitation, at least from what spells she had just tried.

The shadowy mare cackled, ''Heh, nice try, but the magic barrier surrounding you castle is preventing you from using any high class spells, so your stuck with average everyday magic. No Alicorn magic, no friends, no escape.''

''Why are you doing this!? What did My friends and I ever do to you!?''

The purple mare scoffed, ''What did you and your friends ever do to me? You ruined my perfect town, and all my plans to get even! So now, I'm going to get rid of you once and for all.''

''Don't go near my friends! I'll kill you if you touch them!'' Twilight was slightly surprised by her own words, but pushed on, ''Come out and lets settle this!''

The mare chuckled, ''Oh Twilight, I would love to, but I'd rather not get my hooves dirty, but my friends will love tearing you to pieces, enjoy the last moments of your pathetic life.'' Laughing evilly, the mare began to fade away into the mist of the ball, and then she was gone.

Twilight was stunned, but something in her head clicked. The mares voice, her cutie mark, the town she and her friends had supposedly ruined. Twilight let out a little gasp, as the realization struck her.

''Starlight Glimmer.'' She whispered, her voice bordering on fear. The crazed mare who her friends and her had stopped several times, was back again, and this time she meant business.

''This is way over my head, I need to get my friends, or maybe Princess Celestia!'' She paused for a second, ''Wait, Starlight made it impossible for me to use high level magic, hopefully I can get out on hoof.'' She began galloping out of the library and down the long halls, heading for the front doors.

She was panting and dripping sweat when she made it to her destination, and she had to stop for a quick breather. The young Alicorn turned her attention to the large double doors, and to her surprise found them slightly ajar. She took a few steps closer, and tried to push one of the doors open with her magic, but something on the other side was preventing the door from opening more than a few inches.

The Alicorn peeked through the crack in the doors and found the source, a large chain had been wrapped around the door knobs, blocking the violet alicorn's escape.

''Celestia damn it, she wasn't kidding when she said I couldn't leave, now what do I do!?'' Twilight swore.

a flash from behind her, caused the startled Alicorn to turn around, ''What the-'' She was cut off by the sight that greeted her, another ball filled with mist had just appeared before her, but this time, the figure who emerged wasn't Starlight. This mares body was thin, but her head seemed normal size. She seemed to be wearing a snow white mask, which looked strangely like her friend Rarity.

''Hello, Princess of friendship. I'm here to help you.'' The strange being said, her voice sounded ponylike, but had an almost robotic accent.

''W-Who are you? What do you want?'' Twilight stammered, she didn't know why, but this being filled her with a sense of dread.

''Call me, The Seamstress, and as I said, I am here to help you.''

''What in Celestia's name is going on!? And why do you look like one of my best friends!?'' Twilight began to back away from the orb, trying to put some distance between I and her in case it attacked.

''The purple one has unleashed my creations, and they now hunt for her, the one who killed them, and she has made them believe that you are her.'' The Seamstress seemed ignore the part about her looking like Rarity.

Twilight tried to think, this was all going so fast, ''The purple one? You mean Starlight!?'' She exclaimed.

''Yes, and now she has trapped you here, and my creations are her tools to get rid of you.''

''I know that!'' Twilight was getting annoyed now, this puppet like pony was telling her things she already knew, when something the pony had said suddenly made her ask: ''Wait, your creations? Just who or what are your ''Creations?'' ''

The Seamstress didn't reply, she waved one of her hooves, and the image in the orb changed, showing a blue stallion and a lime colored mare standing before Starlight. The stallion had a sword as his cutie mark, and he had a longsword pointed at Starlight, while the lime colored unicorn, who appeared to be a detective, due to her fedora and cutie mark, was levitating a pair of magical hoofcuffs towards Starlight. When nothing in the image moved, Twilight realized it was just a picture.

Even though she knew now was not the time, she couldn't help thinking that the stallion was pretty attractive, good enough to compete with Flash Sentry. She shook the thoughts from her head.

''What is this?'' She asked, watching as the image faded away and the Seamstress reappeared.

''These are the ones who have tracked down the purple one, and are hunting her down as we speak, if you can last until tomorrow, then these two should arrive and rescue you. However, if you die tonight, then my creations will move on to your friends.''

Twilight's pupils dilated, ''Just what are your creations?'' She whimpered, knowing that she wouldn't like the answer.

''They are the ones who killed the other creator.''

''Tech Nology!'' Twilight gasped under her breath.

''They are the ones who once made joy and fun.''

Twilight heard a hoofstep outside the doors, even through the rain. This was a loud step.

''They are the one's, who are outside your door.'' The Seamstress hissed.

Twilight Sparkle turned around, and peeked through the double doors, the sight that met her, made her gasp in horror. The pony-like beings that stood outside, just staring at her, were a nightmare come to life.

The Alicorn stumbled back from the doors, her mouth open in a silent scream, she looked back up at the orb, her eyes tearing up in fear. ''W-What are those t-things!?''

The Seamstress didn't answer, she just shook her head, ''Your time has run out.''

Author's Note

They're here. Now the fun begins.

Will Twilight survive?

Find out!