Twi-ling

A soft knocking on the door quickly transformed into full-on, full force pounding. Twilight Sparkle rushed through her castle, residing in Ponyville, in a frantic to get to the door before it was busted down completely. The purple alicorn stepped back to allow a certain gray pegasus wobble into the foyer.

The pony bent over to collect her fallen mail and packages, and Twilight got a decent view of not only Derpy's bubbly cutie mark, but her nice round-

"Princess," Derpy squealed, bring Twilight out of her stupor. "I have news! Terrible news, oh Princess, I just don't know what to do! Is there anything I can do to help? I can get Dr. Whooves' flameless fireworks if you want!"

"Whoa there, Derpy. Slow your roll. What's the news?" The princess of friendship asked calmly, though her hooves were shaking slightly as she put a hoof on Derpy's shoulder. She felt chills run through her body. Knowing the delivery pony, there was a chance it was nothing. But she didn't want to take the risk.

Twilight pulled her hoof back and used the same hoof to motion for the other to wait. "I'll gather my friends. You stay here."

She grabbed her satchel and put it on her back, and prepared to rush from friend to friend's home.

Pinkie Pie was first.

Her hooves raced across the gravel and stone paths of her beloved Ponyville. As she gazed about, she realized-no pony was standing around and chatting like they usually did. It was regular to have ponies around at all times of the day.

First, 9:30 sharp, the elderly of the town gathered to gossip and giggle. Then they found a place to sit, most likely a bench, and began their knitting and sewing.

12:00 was lunch, and nearly everypony was out and about to eat and socialize.

2:30, the Ponyville Schoolhouse was let out. That could pretty much speak for itself as the fillies and teens of the village raced through the streets, occasionally stopping in at stores like Hoofin's or even Sugar Cube Corner for an after school snack.

Speaking of the famous sweet place... Twilight slowed down to a trot as she entered the store. "Pinkie Pie? Pinkie!"

"I'm finishing this cupcake, hold onnnn..." Pinkie's voice trailed off, seemingly coming from the kitchen.

"Pinkie, now! It's urgent!"

Twilight tapped her hoof against the floor agitatedly, then switched to biting her lip. This couldn't wait. She knew something was off. She could just feel it.

"But I'm not done!" Pinkie pouted.

"Pinkimena Diane Pie, get your ass out here right this instant," Twilight exclaimed, her frustration seeping into her words as she snapped. She did not have time for this.

The wide-eyed pink pony popped her head out and came out from behind the counter, not even bothering to take her apron off as she galloped full speed, side by side with Twilight as they rushed to the Carousel Boutique.

"Wow, this must be serious," Pinkie said aloud. "Oops, did I say that out loud? My bad. You know, I always do that while baking."

Twilight gritted her teeth. This was serious, and right now, she was not being taken seriously.

4:30 was time for performances, such as a school play, or some small concert.

Everypony had dinner around 5:30 and 6:00.

7:30 was relaxing time, which everypony did in usually their respective homes.

Rarity!

Breathe in, breathe out.

Rarity!

Had it occurred to Twilight that she was hyperventilating?

"Rarity!" This time she actually said it out loud, right as they burst into the boutique. "Rarity, meet me at the castle, just teleport, something!"

They left before the unicorn could utter a single word. Twilight teleported, Pinkie clinging to her, as they were whisked away to Sweet Apple Acres.

9:00, bedtime. Usually.

Agh, why was she still thinking about that? Twilight felt herself internally freaking out, something she did pretty rarely. However, this situation had bad news written all over it.

Fluttershy's cottage was next, and Twilight sent the pegasus off to Cloudsdale to get Rainbow Dash.

Twilight tried taking deep, slow breaths as she galloped into her home and into the Cutie Room. That's what she'd named the meeting room with their thrones and the cutie map. She figured, at least give it a name. She began to attempt to stay calm as her friends arrived and took their seats.

"Derpy, come in here please," Twilight called out. Her breathing was slowing, turning back to normal. Now that her friends were here, she could solve this.

The gray pegasus wobbled into the Cutie Room, flapping her wings but to no avail. "Oh Princess, something terrible has happened!"

"I know," Twilight responded evenly, trying to stay calm. She wanted to shake the pony's head and get her to tell them the trouble, but it was Derpy, and this wasn't her fault.

"Ponyville ran out of muffins and their ingredients!" Derpy exclaimed, tears leaking from her yellow eyes. "What a tragedy! Oh, woe!"

Twilight gritted her teeth together, back and forth. She summoned all her friends. Had a panic attack. Just. For. This?!

"Oh, yeah, also-"

"They're what?!" Twilight yelled, frightening the poor delivery pony. As soon as she saw Derpy's terrified face, she immediately felt ashamed and profusely apologized.

"Lemme get this straight," Rainbow Dash said, loud enough to get everypony's attention. "So the weird bug queen is back, and so are her changelings? Easy, use the Elements of Harmony, bam, she's gone, along with her little minions!" The blue pegasus crossed her hooves, pleased with herself.

"That's not it," Applejack injected, with a glance at the alicorn. "They've... T-taken the princesses... And the elements are gone, remember?"

Pinkie Pie: "Let me get this straight. So no elements, no princesses, just... Us?"

Rarity: "Well, I suppose so..."

Rainbow: "We'll just take 'em out, no problem! We figured out that we don't need the elements for our friendship to exist, right? So bam!"

Twilight felt her head spinning and her panic attack returning. She could tell this was not going to be easy, not like the other defeats of evil and villains. "Shit," she muttered quietly.

She thought for another moment. "Well, Queen Chrysalis will probably come to Ponyville next, now that she has the other princesses. And they could be... Gone... Forever, for all we know..." Her voice shook. "So we should get the heck out of here. At least until we come up with a plan."

"This'll be a helluva lot harder than the rest," Applejack murmured. "Ah reckon that it'll be harder than when Nightmare Moon came along, when we had nothin' to do, and we were clueless."

Five nods came from the rest of the ponies.

"Pack your bags, girls," the princess said solemnly. "We're leaving."