The leaves trembled in the tree's embrace, and the wind slowly passed through, like a ghost. Unseen, yet still there. The crickets chirped in the night, and the night was quiet, at least that's how it would have looked to any other pony.

The sound of hooves galloping at full speed broke the natural sound of the forest, and the sound that followed them thundered through the woods as it gave chase.

Twilight Sparkle had been instructed to find ten pieces of paper that had once hung throughout Pinkie Pie's Pizzeria, and now Twilight was running for her life once again.

She had found herself, once again, first waking up in the glade after her encounter with the Rainbow Dash animatronic imposter.

Her head had hurt more than when Pinkie had fired off her party cannon next to her ears, and she felt far more groggy than the other times she had woken up after her... deaths.

She tried to stand up, but felt like her legs were on fire, and she immediately collapsed again, with a grunt. She knew sitting still in the open for too long would spell certain doom, but she couldn't bring herself to stand up, there was just to much pain...

''Have faith young Alicorn, you are not down and out just yet...''

Twilight's head shot up and she had to bite her tongue to prevent a scream from leaving her throat. ''Seamstress! Would you please just tell me what the hay is happening to me! I feel like every time I was attacked has suddenly just now taken effect! How-''

''You may have been saved from death before, but that doesn't mean the wounds would not carry on, if you do not end this, you will certainly die, whether from the memories of your injuries, or from them.''

''But-''

''There are ten relics of the past in this forest, scattered amongst the trees...find them, and soon, all will be revealed...'' The Seamstress nodded, and began to fade away, her mask never once betraying even the slightest emotion.

And as the last glimpse of The Seamstress vanished, leaving Twilight in the near dark, another light appeared, enveloping Twilight with a warm bubbly feeling, soothing her, until it faded away.

She felt like her pain had simply been washed away, but the memory of the pain remained. She needed to move fast. Twilight's horn flared, and her lighting spell illuminated the area in front of her, and she began to run.

Twilight had run all throughout that forest, snatching foals drawings from off of tree's ,lamp posts, and from in between stones, but it wasn't long before she realized she wasn't alone. After collecting the first few pages, she had heard a silent creaking from somewhere in the distance, and she found out just why she hadn't heard a single sound of life other than the crickets.

The hideous creature that stood staring at her was a twisted, mangled imitation of Fluttershy, at least, she assumed it was Fluttershy, the robotic abomination was so twisted it was hard to tell. She was a burnt yellow, and both she was missing a hind leg, a foreleg, both eyes, and her jaw was hinged up in a permanent shriek of rage.

Her eyes glowed a white color, but similar to Rainbow, she just stood there a short distance away, staring at the Alicorn, like it was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Twilight had a uneasy feeling about this one, and something about the Fluttershy made her want to look away, so she turned away and continued on her way.

The entire way Fluttershy had followed her, her thundering steps echoing in the forest behind her. Fluttershy had never once suddenly charged her, and this made Twilight even more uneasy, to the point that every ten seconds or so she would look back at her stalker to make sure it wasn't about to try anything. For some reason, this seemed to slow down the burnt monster, and Twilight could safely assume that this was the way to ward off her hunter.

Now she was running down the path that led to the house that once belonged to Tech Nology. Twilight had almost instantly recognized the dirt trial leading to the lonely house, and had been galloping all the way down it.

She had collected nine drawings, and she assumed the last one would be lying around there. Her only hope was that Starlight's shield didn't stop before the building and cut off any hope of collecting all the pages.

The house was coming up, and Twilight's energy was fading, and the pain from before was starting to return, causing her to grit her teeth, there was no barrier! She could make it! She spun around one last time to slow down Fluttershy, and then sprinted headlong towards the lone building.

Twilight's magic reached out for the paper, and she grabbed hold of it, storing it away in her pocket dimension.

She braced herself.

Nothing happened.

The sounds of thundering metallic hoof steps had stopped. In fact, it seemed like all sounds had stopped. Twilight slowly, turned her head, her ears flattening nervously.

It was like time itself, had stopped. Nothing moved, there was no sound, nothing. Twilight herself seemed to be the only thing unaffected by this.

''What in Celestia's mane...?''

Then, everything faded away, before changing to a bright white for a second, almost blinding the violent Alicorn, before everything went black.

''What the hell is that supposed to mean!? We need somepony, ANYPONY, who can analyze this magical barrier that's surrounded Friendship Castle!''

Spyglass was not happy. Using a public phone, she had called up The Royal Guard, only to discover that there was nopony within the ranks of the guard who could study the barrier and find a way to break it if needed.

''Celestia damn it! If nopony there can, find and send us somepony who can! Ponyville, hurry!'' With that, Spyglass slammed the phone back into it's slot, and growled.

A blue hoof tapped her on the shoulder, and she spun around to glare at the stallion, who lightly cringed and took a few tentative steps back. ''So we got no backup, nopony who can help us with that magical barrier, and little more that we can do I assume?'' Swift Blade asked, his eyes narrowing.

''We got the backup, we got a squad on the way, problem is none of them know much about shields of this magnitude.'' Spy's glare softened a bit, but her steely gaze remained.

''Damn it. What in Luna's mane are we supposed to do now!? Who knows what's happening beyond that shield!'' The swordstallion's voice rose in frustration.

''Hey! I heard something about a shield! Can I help? Huh huh huh!''

Spyglass and Swift jumped, letting out little yelps, as the new voice cut through the air like a knife through cheese.

''Oh, sorry for scaring you, I'm Pinkie Pie, are you two new! Are you? Cause I've never seen you before and I know everypony in this town which must mean your new! Ooooh! This means I have to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party! It'll be so much fun and I'll invite everypony!'' The hyper cheerful voice belonged to Pinkie Pie, the famed Element of Laughter, and one of the best party throwers in all of Equestria.

''Hold it missy!'' Spy clamped a hoof over the pink mares mouth, silencing her. ''I've heard of you, your friends with the princess of this castle, right?''

Pinkie nodded, the hoof still covering her mouth.

''We have some bad news for you,'' Swift cut in. ''Your friend may be in big trouble, there's a giant barrier around her castle that seems stretch into the Everfree forest, we believe she may be there now, but we can't get through the shield, could you give us a hoof?''

Spy let Pinkie's mouth go, and Pinkie began speaking rapidly again. ''Okiee Dokiee Lokiee! You got it! I'll go get all my friends! Wait no Twilight's the one who's good at magic but together I'm sure the rest of us can figure this out WHOA that is a big shield I'll be right back!''

With that, Pinkie bounced away, to find her friends, leaving Spyglass and Swift to merely stare. It wasn't until a large crack resounded in the air, breaking the silence, and the pair spun around to see that the barrier, was cracking.

They could hardly believe their eyes, but the barrier was indeed cracking, crumbling away like a priceless urn that a carless foal had hit with a baseball.

As the shield slowly shattered before them, the sounds of the pieces hitting the ground and shattering like glass rang through the silent town, waking residents and causing them to emerge from their homes to see what was going on. Ponies crowded near the center of town, trying to see what was making the large racket.

''Crap, we can't have all these ponies getting involved.'' Spyglass mumbled, and reached under her hat, retrieving her badge, and began flashing it around, shouting that she wanted everypony to return to their homes. Swift followed suit, mentioning how it was official orders from Princess Celestia herself. This seemed to satisfy the onlookers, and they returned to their residences. However, five ponies still stood there, their eyes narrowed.

''It looks like the shield was scared of us and broke itself.'' Joked Rainbow Dash, who was hovering just above the ground, her wings keeping her elevated.

''Good one Dashie.'' Replied Pinkie, who was still bouncing.

''Darling, this isn't the time for jokes, Twilight is in trouble, and we have to help her.'' Rarity shook her head, her eyes determined.

''Rarity's right sugarcubes, Twi needs help, and these two are gonna take us to her.'' Applejack was the most composed of the group.

''Um...you know, if you can, then please...take us to Twilight?'' Fluttershy timidly spoke up, however, her eyes were just as determined as the others, they would help their friend, no matter what got in the way.

''Alright, we better move, introductions on the way! C'mon!'' Swift led the way, galloping at full speed towards the castle, and in the direction of where the barrier had ended. The Everfree forest.

The mare in the dark's eyes opened, and her brows furrowed. The shield had fallen. What was more, she could no longer detect Twilight. If the shield fell, she should still have been able to track Twilight. However, somehow the Alicorn princess had vanished, like a ghost.

Starlight Glimmer growled, and slammed a hoof onto the desk before her. She sat in the office, once used for running this place, as well as surveying the entire pizzeria through the security monitors. On the desk were stacks of old applications, bills, and other things, which now lay scattered around the angered unicorn.

''Only one thing could have knocked down my magic...'' Starlight murmured. ''Either Twilight has fallen, or she found some way out...but how? The only ones with the knowledge and power to do that are the princesses...or the two that evaded my control...''

Starlight's mouth slowly twisted into a smile, and her eyes twitched erratically. ''So, the tables have turned...this should be interesting...''

The insane unicorn began to giggle, which grew into a chuckle, and finally erupted into a sickening laugh of a mad pony far beyond help. Twilight wasn't one to go down easy, and chances were she had gotten help from those... things. The question was, would Twilight be able to put an end to them, or would they simply tear her apart?

Enraged souls with little to no memory of their killer was a dangerous thing, and Starlight was pleased to think, that the one she despised the most, was almost the same color.

Starlight's crazed laughter continued throughout the empty building, echoing down the halls like a phantom. Beyond the doors, the moon glared down at Starlight through the barriers of the building. Something was coming, and for good or for worse, only one of the two purple mares would survive the night.

Author's Note

So it's come down to this, and things are about to get hot.

Purple will clash against purple, and only one will remain standing.