Song of Despairby Blizzard BreezeChaptersChapter one: Calming melodiesChapter two: Ride to ManehattenChapter three: HotelChapter four: Just a normal day in ManehattenChapter five: Silence Before the StormChapter one: Calming melodiesRarity was sitting on a chair inside of the Manehatten Hotel, sewing together a beautiful piece of dress for an upcoming performance. She was humming to herself, when suddenly a knocking on the door interrupted her. “Finally, my fabric is here!” Rarity said as she rushed to open the door. When she opened it, a tall mail pony with a package placed on his back and a clipboard held by one of his fetlocks awaited her. He looked down on the clipboard with all of the orders written down, then back to Rarity. “Miss Rarity, I presume?” He asked, as he grabbed the box and held it in his hooves.. “Yes, that’s me.” Answered Rarity, eyeing the package nervously as she bit her lower lip. “Do you by any chance have a package full of the gems that I’ve ordered? Also I hope I’m not being rude, but why did this take so long to get here?” “Manehattan’s traffic makes it a little hard to deliver packages on time. And the fabric was heavier than it looked.” He then allowed himself in and placed the boxes in her apartment and turned to go. “ Oh yeah, you also got a gift in the small box over here. Almost forgot.” He then handed her a smaller box. “I will be on my way. Goodbye, m’lady.” “Thank you.” Rarity called out as she put a ruby into his pocket. “Have a good day sir, I got work to do.” Closing her door, she began to unpack her fabrics, placing the third box on the desk with her sewing machine.. “Now hopefully I’ll be done by tonight. I don’t want to miss Twilight’s birthday.” Looking through her dress patterns, she placed a spool of thread inside of the sewing machine machine. “Now, let’s see this mysterious gift.” She unfolded the box revealing a music box with a small note taped to the top. “Ah how lovely of her.” She said, taking the note off the box, holding it in her magic as she began to read. Dear Rarity, greetings. I know making these dresses must be stressful for you. As a token of appreciation for your efforts, I sent this music box to listen to while you work. Its melody always helped me concentrate, and I think it will help you as well. Sincerely, director Page Tale. A warm glow filled her cheeks, setting the note and the box down on the table next to her sewing machine. “Hmm, the score isn’t written on the box or note. Strange.” She said, cutting up layers of her new fabric while also setting them in piles as she adjusted the size of the next dress. “Now with no interruptions, I’ll be done by tonight and a little tune will help.” Winding the music box until the handle couldn’t turn, she watched as the top opened up and played its song. The melody moved along to what seemed like small bells and piano dropped in. “Nice and calm, perfect!” Humming to the melody, she began sewing the fabulous dress. The machine carefully lined the thread, connecting each fabric together, adding patterns, and adjusting the size as needed. “Looking fabulous! The director is going to love this!” Rarity gleefully said as she added sequins to it. “A little sparkle won’t hurt. It will shine on stage. Can’t wait to see what they think.” Her excitement seemed to be never-ending, not noticing the distorted sounds coming from the box. She calmed herself down by breathing in and out several times, focusing on fine-tuning the dress as the light flickered above her. Paying no mind to it, she added the finishing touches as the distorted music just started to hit her ears. “Hmm? I don’t suppose this is how the tune was supposed to sound.” Rarity said, stopping the music and closing the box. Then she suddenly noticed her strength quickly disappearing, and she let out a yawn. She lifted up the ribbon and set it onto the dress and turned it into a bow while sewing it on with her magic and a needle. “I honestly did not expect to be this tired, but I admit I’ve done a lot of work today.” Stretching her hooves, she admired her work and decided that what would happen next would be a well deserved rest. She then went into her bedroom and slipped in between the bedsheets. Casting on her sleep mask, the wrapping of sleep taking its hold on her. Lying cozy on her bed, she began to enter the world of dreams… Rarity started to shiver. A chill wind moved across her body, causing her to sit up and wrap her blanket around her. “Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?” She wondered while taking off her sleep mask. The room was pitch black, so she had to cast her light spell and have it stick to her horn. The outside was incredibly dark, with bits of snow falling down across the windows. “Strange… it wasn’t winter the last time I looked out of a window.“ Shining her light around the room, Rarity noticed how the room seemed to look a little rotten, the colors seemingly faded away. “This doesn’t make any sense! What’s going on here?” She got out of her bed, her eyes being cast on to her desk which was bare. “This is so bizarre. Also, where did the box go?” She said, shining her light along the floor. The boards were covered up in dirt and muck, creaking heavily as she stood up from the bed and approached her closet. Taking out a ragged scarf, the smell of it so revolting she gagged as she wrapped it around her neck. “How disgusting but, looks to be the only scarf here. Great….” She then walked out of her room. “Why is everything so quiet? The streets were roaring a few minutes ago.” She said as she looked out of the window, vision limited severely due to the darkness outside with snow falling down. “Hello? Anypony here?” Rarity called out, but didn’t receive a response back. She approached the room next to her’s and knocked on it. “Hello? Is somepony in there? Can someone explain what is going on?” No response… the place remained dead silent. “There has to be somepony here.” Rarity said unnerved, as she walked over to the fire exit as a cold breeze ran under the door. Her body shivered as she entered and started walking down the rotten stairs, smelling in a way that made Rarity put the scarf against her nose with her magic. “Sweet Celestia… where am I?” Her voice echoed as she kept walking down while on edge. Rarity walked a few floors down until her ears caught the sounds of bells and a melody quietly played along with it. “Wait, is that the music box? It’s coming….from that door.” She carefully approached the door and set her ear against it. “Hello!” She called out and only the sounds of the melody played out. She opened the door slowly, the song growing in volume as a gust of wind followed it. “Going down even further. Great…” She said while walking down the stairwell. Following this tune, growing louder as she was getting closer to another door. She approached it and stopped a few steps away. Letting out a shallow breath, she opened the door to see the music box on a table with a mirror behind it. “The box? How did it get here?” She placed her front hooves forward into the room and focused her eyes on the table. “Wait, wha‒?” She blurted out as suddenly the door slammed behind her, pushing her in and sending her crashing into the table. “Owww!” She screamed as she tried to regain herself, the music becoming distorted to her ears. As she was setting her front hooves onto the tabletop to balance herself, her eyes went wide open as the music box wasn’t on the table anymore… but on the other side of the mirror. “What, what is this?” Once she got on her hooves, she raced for the closed door, grabbing the handle and putting as much force into it as she could muster. “Locked?! Let me out, whoever you are, now!” She bashed her hooves against it for a few seconds, the wooden door not moving an inch. Oh celestia celestia, please open! She screamed in her head, recoiling back as a black mist circled around her horn. “Ahh… my head…” Rarity held her head as she faced the mirror. The light within it dimmed as a black liquid started leaking out of the mirror. Unconsciousness overtook her, collapsing down onto the floor as everything went dark. Chapter two: Ride to ManehattenPinkie kept leaping up into the air, as her excitement never seemed to break off while the train stopped at the station. “Come on Spike, Rarity will appear any second now!” She cheerfully said and trotted to the train that has already stopped, and its doors were about to open. “Wait up!” Spike called out as he ran and got Pinkie breathless. “We are... Not in the Olympics... We don’t have to rush....” He said while catching his breath. “We also don’t want to miss Twilight’s party. Don’t worry,” she replied, “that stress will go away during the party.” Spike straightened himself up and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, guess I’m the one who needs to relieve his stress then.” He said as they both laughed about it. Spike set his eyes to the train doors, looking for Rarity to come out. “So, can you see her yet?” Spike asked. A few ponies left the passenger car while Spike and Pinkie looked around, but Rarity didn’t come out of the crowd. “Nope, I can’t. Not even Pinkie sense tells me anything.” Pinkie said, her glee dialing down a bit. “Maybe she is in another passenger car.” They watched and waited, but Rarity was nowhere to be seen as the train left the station. “Pinkie, the letter did say she would be here at 1:35 today, right?” Spike asked. She reached her hoof into her mane and pulled out an envelope, reading the letter within. “That is what it says. Rarity should be here… Oh hey, there’s Rainbow Dash!” She pointed to her right as a rainbow blur landed on the ground, causing dust to stir up upon the landing. “Hey you two. We got all of the decorations set up for the party.” Rainbow Dash said. “Sooo… where’s Rarity? I can’t wait for her to see the amazing work I’ve done. Well, we. Fluttershy and AJ helped too.” Spike and Pinkie stared at each other for a moment before they both nodded to each other and Pinkie replied.“Rarity didn’t show up.” Rainbow Dash stared at them, confusion painted on her face as well as her left eyebrow being raised. “You’re joking, right? Really, where’s Rarity?” The two remained quiet to the question. The silence started to worry Rainbow. “Okay…You two aren’t joking, hold on.” She said, walking up to the ticket booth. “Hey, when is the next train for Manehatten?” The ticket vendor pulled out his schedule and replied. “If things remain in order, the next train for Manehatten is coming in half an hour. You’re going to buy a ticket?” “Not yet. I’ll be back after a while.” Rainbow flew back to Pinkie and Spike, “I’m going to get the girls, you two stay here.” They nodded and watched as Rainbow flew away. A rainbow colored trail shining bright behind her. Twilight tied up all the balloons as they floated up to the ceiling, a smile spreading on her face. “Everything looks good girls, now we wait for Rarity to arrive.” Fluttershy and Applejack nodded as they were setting up the table, placing a cake and cupcakes on it. “I gotta say we’ve done a great job so far.” AJ said, focusing on carefully placing the cake, as she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back home in case she dropped it. Suddenly, Rainbow crashed through Twilight’s door, startling them and making them turn to her. “Rainbow Dash, you can’t crash into the party like that!” Fluttershy said. “ Wait… she just did.” She whispered. “Sorry for barging in like that, but we’re going to Manhattan.” Rainbow Dash said, gesturing towards the general direction of the train station. “Something wrong?” Twilight asked as Rainbow gave a ticket to her. “Rarity isn’t here. And I have a feeling if we don’t find her soon enough, something bad will happen. Pack your bags girls, we are going!” She said as she tossed Twilight’s bag down to her hooves. Rainbow crammed some books into the bag and tossed it next to Twilight. “Meet you at the station in ten minutes.” She said as she turned back to the door. But she then turned her head in the opposite direction, facing Twilight. “Also… sorry for ruining your party, Twilight.” Twilight simply shrugged with a smile. “Don’t worry, there’s always next year. And I wouldn’t enjoy it anyway with Rarity missing.” Rainbow Dash was about to laugh at the unexpected reply, but she simply replied with a smile. “Guess you’re right.” She said as she sped out into the air. “Huh, guess we are goin’ to Manehatten instead… are we? Applejack asked. “Of course,” Twilight replied. “We are gonna do our best to find out what happened to her!” They all nodded and clapped their hooves together in agreement and separated, Twilight heading to the station while the others went home to gather their bags. Spike was pacing back and forth as Pinkie dragged her bags onto the station floor. “Come on Spike, relax a bit.” He suddenly turned to her and said, “Please don’t tell me to relax, you know I can’t. Not as long as Rarity could be in danger.” Spike frowned and was visibly holding in his anger mixed with fear. She placed her hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sure she is alright. Business probably got in the way. Although I admit it’s strange she didn’t contact us sooner.” Pinkie shrugged, as Spike straightened himself out. “You’re right on that, but still she would have sent a letter about it.” Spike said as he walked back a bit, pushing Pinkie’s hoof back from his shoulder. “Maybe the letter just didn’t arrive yet?” Suggested the pink pony. “Yeah, maybe.” He looked up into the clouds and waited for Rainbow to return, as Twilight walked into the station. “Hey Twilight!” Pinkie called out. “Guessing Rainbow Dash told you what we’re doing?” The scientist pony nodded, as she walked over to Spike. “Are you feeling okay Spike?” She asked, and he turned to her and said, “No, I’m not alright, this is horrible!” She gave him a comforting smile, while setting her bag down.” This isn’t like her and it is worrying. But I bet she is fine.” She said, trying to lighten up the mood. “How can you know that?” Spike asked, as Rainbow Dash landed and dropped her bags. “I don’t, Spike.” Twilight replied. “But we will make sure to check if she is safe. And besides, you know Rarity. She might’ve just gotten too caught up in her work and forgotten all about the party.” A smile came across his face. I guess she could be alright after all. He said in his mind, feeling a bit cheerful as Rainbow shoved a ticket into his claw. “Now when we get to Manehatten, we will go to the theater and talk with the director. She probably knows where Rarity is.” She said as Fluttershy and Applejack jumped onto the platform as the train arrived. “Hope you all got what you need, it’s time to go, everypony!” “Yeah!” Erupted from the group of ponies and a dragon. Spike followed the girls on the train and stopped to look at something nudging his leg with a thud, making him turn towards it. “A black gem? Where did this come from?” He asked, catching it from rolling away as the train began to move. “Hmm, the surface feels artificial,” his claws feeling the gem around. He put it up to his nose, trying to get a smell out of it. “No scent? What kind of gem is this?” He questioned as something tapped his back. “Excuse me, that would be mine, good sir.” A voice sounded behind him. Spike turned to the voice, to see a suited lime green unicorn mare speaking to him. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Violet Pearl, and I run one of the finest jewelry stores in Manehatten. That’s what I like to think, anyways.” Spike examined the gem as the mare awaited his answer. “I have to say it looks really nice and shiny, but not something I would eat.” “Yep I’ve heard Dragons do not favor the black gems. And you definitely wouldn’t like this one. As much of a shame as it is to admit, I messed up this one pretty badly.” She said, looking embarrassed. “Huh? What do you mean?” “Oh just look at the irregular shape! I simply could not sell this to a customer.” Violet Pearl replied. “Then I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why carry it around at all? Ponies can’t eat gems as far as I know.” “That is true, little dragon. While this is one of my most embarrassing pieces, I still believe it could make some ponies happy, so I’m planning on donating these. Even if they can’t use it to make themselves look prettier.” “Oh I see. That is really generous of you. Well, here you go.” Said Spike, extending his hand and holding the gem in front of the mare. “Oh no no, you can keep this gem, since you seemed to like it. I…. Kind of messed up the entire batch.” She bit her lower lip, and drily chuckled to herself. “Aww man, that must really suck. But thank you!” “No problem, uhh. I don’t think you introduced yourself to me yet.” “Oh yeah! My name is Spike, the number one assistant of Twilight Sparkle!” Violet smiled, and shook his hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Spike. If you will ever need some gems, this might come in handy.” She finished, as she handed out a visit card to Spike. “Will remember.” Spike said as he took the visit card, placing inside the pack he brought in. The mare nodded, and teleported away, presumably to her seat. This surprised Spike, and caused him to take a step back, and almost fall to the ground. “You alright, Spike? Who were you talkin’ to?” Applejack asked as she caught him. “She’s Violet Pearl, and runs the best jewelry shop in manehattan´. Thanks for catching me.” He said, hopping onto a seat. “Nahh, it was nothin’. ”She said, taking a seat next to Rainbow, while she looked at the black gem in Spike’s claws. “Hey, Spike? Where did you get that gem?” Dashie asked. “Oh, it’s from Violet. He replied, wrapping his tail around it and setting his back on the seat. “Huh, well that is nice of her to give up something like this.” He nodded in response as he stretched his arms and let out a big yawn. “Please wake me up when we get to Manehatten, Twilight. I need a nap.” She nodded with a smile, as Spike closed his eyes, the sound of a hum going through his ear. Curling up, the world became silent. Spike was peacefully sleeping, when a loud grinding hit his ears, causing him to spring up and shout, “What was that noise?!” His eyes opened up wide, as he saw the seat in front of him torn up and full of scratches and disgusting black stains. Spike then looked out of his window. A black sky caught his eyes, snow falling as the train moved. No passengers were in sight but himself. The frame of his window was bent and battered, letting in some of the snow. “Huh?! Is this a dream?” He yelled once more, rubbing his arms as the cold air washed over him. “This feels… too real.” He got off the seat and placed the gem into his claws. “The gem is here too!” Questions were flying through his mind as he walked over to the train cart’s door and slid it open. Slowly walking along the crossway to the next door, the air started to feel ice cold around him and the gem gave off a white light that shined brighter and brighter as he neared the door. “What’s going on with this thing, is it reacting to something?” Spike questioned, looking down at the glowing gem. The light shined through the dark crossway, revealing itself to the outside. “The world seems familiar but at the same time, it isn’t. Where... Am I exactly?” He slowly opened the door to the next train car, using the light of the gem as a light source as he carefully walked forward in the dark car. Spike stopped in the middle, casting the light around him. “Twilight, are you there?” He called out, when he felt something tapping on his shoulder. He turned to see nothing, but a black liquid running down his shoulder. “Gross, what the heck is this?!” He wiped it off with his claw, feeling the texture of the black goo. He shivered as more of the black goo dripped above him and ran along his arms. Spike tried to shake it off, but it grew thicker and stuck to him. “What is this stuff, it’s so cold!” He said, trying to breathe out fire over his claws, desperately trying to warm himself up. His flame was extinguished before it could even leave his mouth, turning into a mist. “What, my fire is out?” He dropped the gem to rub his claws together, his insides feeling like they’re on ice as his vision blurred. The clanking of the wheels outside filed his ears as the black goo flowed out. His skin felt like it wanted to come off, no longer able to feel anything around his neck. “Please.... Wake me up... This... Can’t be real.” Spike put a weak grip around the gem and brought it close to him. “Twilight... Pinkie... Fluttershy... Applejack... Rainbow!” Setting his eyes onto the gem’s shine, its light consistently forwarded allowed his reflection to be seen. “Rarity!” He froze as his reflection revealed dark claws digging into him. Liquid-covered black teeth getting ready to bite as a growl slipped into his ear. He gripped the gem tightly, its eyes staring back at him. “No... I won’t allow it to end like this!” He shouted, swinging the gem to his back with all his strength, leading the light to shine at the creature, releasing its claws off him as it gave off a scream while covering its eyes. “Rarity needs my help! Get away from me you ugly thing!” He gripped the gem to his chest, shutting his eyes as the light of it surrounded him. He could not hear the creature, only a familiar voice came to his ears. A wave of warmth went over him as the voice grew louder. Chapter three: Hotel“Time to wake up Spike. It’ll be a few minutes till we reach Manehatten.” Spike opened his eyes, looking up at Twilight as he straightened up on the seat. “Hey Twilight.” He said, gripping the gem tightly. “Where are the girls?” She placed her hoof over his head and said, “The girls are getting our luggage, you’ll reach Manehattan in a few minutes. Hmm, it looked like you had the chills for a moment.” Twilight said with a smile. “Seems like you slept well, want to help get our bags sorted out?” Spike gave a nod and said, “I’ll be with you in a minute, I need to use the restroom.” He said, then got off his seat and ran down the car, closing the door behind him. Checking back to see that Twilight wasn’t in sight, he looked upon the colorless gem. “Had you been responsible for that dream? Was it even a dream?” He questioned as he tried to make sense of what he experienced. “How will I explain this to Twilight? There has to be something more to that dream,” Spike stared at the gem, wondering what he should do. “If I have another dream like before, I need to tell Twilight about it.” The train slowed its momentum, signaling to him that they were on Manehattan’s doorstep. “Hey Spike, come on,” Rainbow Dash called out, “We need to make sure Rarity is alright.” He opened the door as Rainbow dashed to him, scaring him to stumble back and fall down. “Sorry Spike.” Rainbow grunted as she helped Spike back up. “No problem. So, what’s the plan?” Spike asked as she placed a piece of paper in his claws. “You and Twilight will be looking for the hotel she stayed in, the paper has the address on it. Me and Applejack will go ask the director that hired her while Pinkie and Fluttershy will check the stores where she buys her fabric. Sounds like a plan?” Rainbow suggested, and smiled at Spike. He nodded, heading out of the car into the bustling station. Rainbow tossed him up onto her back, flying up as Spike scanned the area. She searched through the mix of colors, spotting a mix of purple and blue together. “It looks like I found Twilight and Coco over there.” Rainbow began descending towards them, allowing Spike to make out another pony with Coco. He was wearing a white scarf matching up with his snow white mane, his coat colored icy blue with a worried look on his face. “Me and Coco have been looking for Rarity for the past two days, we were hoping she would be here.” Spike heard as Rainbow got closer. The stallion turned his head and smiled upon spotting them. “You must be Rainbow Dash and Spike right? Rarity told me about you. Tell me, have you happened to see her while you were flying?” They frowned and nodded. Losing his smile he let out a sigh. “Well, we can go check her hotel again.” “You know the receptionist won’t allow us to see her room.” Coco said, getting a confused face out of Spike. The stallion hoof palmed his face. “I forgot about that. He did mention he sent the music box to my father’s place, right?” “I think so, Breeze, I still wonder why Tale didn’t allow us to listen to it, and why she gave it to Rarity confuses me even more.” “Who knows, but it is with my father I hope. He knows his way around antiques. Now, sorry for not introducing myself. I am Blizzard Breeze, a close friend to Coco and I recently made friends with Rarity before she vanished. The three of us were working with Page Tale to help make a musical she had written come to life.” Rainbow put Spike down, resting her wings upon landing. Twilight gestured Spike over and asked Coco, “You mentioned something about a music box, what is all that about?” “We don’t know, Page Tale found it five days ago. She has been acting weird since then.” “What do you mean by weird,” Spike asked, confusion visible on his face. “Everypony else at the stage has heard it but the two of us haven’t. After she sent the music box to Rarity, she wouldn’t allow us to hear its song. Then, she broke all the mirrors at the cinema. In fact, to the extent she took mirrors out of several scenes that had them. Something is scaring her but she says we wouldn’t believe what she had seen.” Spike listened intently, but could make little sense of it. What’s there to be scared of a music box? He thought. “Wait, this music box you mentioned, was it at the hotel?” “Yes it was, but it should be at my father’s shop now,” Breeze answered. “ If you’re going to check the hotel, be careful. The receptionist has become a little hostile and has kicked everypony out.” He turned to Rainbow, “Have you seen where the rest of your friends are?” “No, but Applejack and I are going to find the director and ask them where Rarity was last seen.” “She should be at the cinema. Take these.” He took some keys out of a bag and tossed them to her. “She locks the doors during practice and maintenance. Good luck, hope you all find Rarity.” “Thanks, you two.” she said as they walked out of the station. “Time to get going, I got to catch up to Applejack. See ya later,” Rainbow dashed out, leaving Twilight and Spike to their own devices. Spike walked along with Twilight out into the bustling streets of the city. Carts passed by as they traveled, the two having thoughts spin around in their heads. This feels like something big is happening. Twilight thought to herself as Spike stared into space. All this about a music box, Page Tale smashing mirrors and the removal of them. Something is up and I plan to find out. The hotel was in their sights. Suddenly, a blue cart pulled by a pony of the same color and wearing a magician’s hat passed them. One of the wheels hit a puddle in front of them, which splashed both Spike and Twilight. “Hey, how rude!” Twilight shouted as the cart sped away. Shaking off the water, she got a look as it went around the corner. “Hey, that cart looked familiar. Was that who I thought it was?” Spike shook, while he wiped the water off the gem he still carried and himself. “If it is her, I hope she is not out to cause trouble. Especially now.” he said, as he inspected the gem to make sure all water was off. They approached the hotel entrance and looked through the windows before entering, seeing nopony waiting for them, bags left on the floor, giving her the feeling that the ponies rushed themselves out. \ “Hello, any pony there?” She called out, with the sounds of shouts and pans crashing to respond to her. Twilight looked at where it came from, as a stallion wearing a red uniform came crashing through the door and slammed it shut. “Ugh, for the last time you two you can’t-” He stopped his line of thought when he looked at Twilight and Spike, revealing one of his eyes was bandaged up and had wounds around it. “You’re not Coco or Breeze. Well if you came to get a hotel room, you’re out of luck.” He said walking to the counter, placing a key on a rack behind him. “I don’t have rooms to give you, this place is going to be closed till further notice.” “Actually, we were hoping you would answer some of our questions. It’s about Rarity, we hope you could help us.” Twilight asked and the stallion looked at her dubiously. Meanwhile Spike eyed at the key the stallion hung up. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. How long was Rarity here? And what happened to your eye?” “I’ll just be upfront with you, you won’t find anything on Rarity here. I’m sorry to answer your question. She was here for six days before she disappeared just like I told Coco and Breeze. You are not going to find anything here. Also what happened was a work accident. And that is that” Twilight looked at Spike, weirded out by the answer the stallion gave. “Alright, but can we take a look at Rarity’s room? Can you give us that?” She asked as he shook his head. “ But how can we figure things out if we can’t?” “Tough but I can’t help you with that, you are going to have to look elsewhere.” Twilight turned around and walked over to Spike, bringing him close to her. “For someone who has nothing to hide he mentioned that we won’t find anything way too often.” Spike nodded in agreement, looking over to the key hanging behind the guy. “Good to see we’re on the same page. Now I’m going to provide a distraction, I’ll keep him as busy as I can.” She looked at him warily, walking to the door he came out of. The stallion rushed over, blocking the door and pushing her away. “This is off limits, I know this is the restroom but, if you want to use one you will have to go somewhere else.” He said harshly. “You can’t be serious right? What’s back there then?” She asked, having his attention. Spike took the chance and sneaked past the stallion and quickly grabbed the key. Eyeing the stairwell door, he turned his back to it and slowly walked backwards, claws tucked firmly to keep the key from sight. The two ponies began to shout at each other, causing him to speed walk and quickly open and pass the door. “You are getting on my nerves, miss. Wait a minute,” He looked around the room and peeked outside. “Where’s the dragon?” Twilight backed up a bit as he looked to see the key was gone. “Oh you little son of a donkey, you two are full on morons!” He sprinted past Twilight to the door and she leaped onto him, toppling Spike to the ground as he struggled to get up. “What’s going on? What are you trying to hide?” Twilight asked, as the stallion refused to answer. Instead headbutting her nose, causing her to recoil off and allow him to get up and charge into the stairwell. Spike heard the clopping of the receptionist’s hooves and looked down to see the stallion running up after him, causing him to run up the stairs as fast as he could. Twilight entered the staircase and teleported up to the second floor, following suit as the stallion caught up to Spike, grabbing him and shoving him against the wall. “You have no idea what you two are getting into! Give me that key!” He shouted, trying to rip it out of his claws. “Leave Spike alone!” She called out, her horn lighting up with red and purple sparks as she cast a spell on him, causing him to release Spike. She shouted out, “Go Spike! This guy is not going anywhere!”, readying up another spell as he ran up the stairs. The stallion turned to her, anger boiling as Twilight cast the spell on him. Smoke surrounded his face as he shook himself around and opened his eye that turned black as night, with black tendrils spilling out of it. Upon seeing that, Twi recoiled back and readied up another spell. He leaped onto her, powering through the spell and pushing her to the ground, her face filling with anger as she struggled on the ground. She tried to kick the stallion into his chest, but he didn’t budge a bit. Readying her back hooves, she let out a kick to his stomach and grunted. A scream came out of him as he recoiled after the kick, allowing her to push him off and give her some space. He didn’t recoil for long as his hooves wrapped around her head, throwing her against the bars of the railing. Dazed by the blow, Twilight couldn’t keep up after the stallion as he took the chance to run up to find Spike. “Room 405, where are you…” Spike runned around the floor, looking at the numbers at each door until he found it. Rushing to unlock it, he entered and locked it behind him. Vibrations curas through his tail, causing him to look at the gem which gave off a slight glow. “Huh, wait.” He said putting it into his claws. “You’re glowing like in the dream. Wait a minute.” He looked around the room, seeing the desk next to the window. Sewing machine is set on it with a stand right next to it. Pieces of fabric littered the room around him. He ran over to the desk, looking through the drawers. “Gotta be something in here.” tossing junk out as he grabbed a crumpled piece of paper. “Yes, Rarity was here.” He held the letter that was sent to her. Reading it, he looked around for the music box mentioned. “Looks like the box is not here. Hmm what was that stallion trying to hide?” He searched the room, checking under the bed and going through all the fabric laying around. Nothing. He thought, eyeing the closet as the gem kept on glowing. He walked over to the closet, the sounds of strangling coming to his ears. He rushed to the closet door. The gem glowed like crazy when he did so. “What’s going on with yo-” Spike stared into the closet, its wall and floor coated in black. He stared at it, confused as the gem started to blind him. “This is what he was trying to hide? Why are you going nuts?”The crunching of wood hit his ear, causing him to spin around to it. The stallion busted his way through, smashing the door to pieces. Twilight jumped on his back, and tried to stop him from entering. But as much as she tried, he tossed her off and threw her to the wasked. Out of fear, Spike clutched the crystal in his claws and held it infront of his mouth and breathed fire through it, targetting the stallion’s face. The stallion screamed, as dark smoke emerged from the gem, seemingly sucking the light out of the room. Spike looked at the gem surprised, and smiled, breathing the fire once more. The stallion’s quickly recovered though, and dodged the second blast of fire, and knocked the gem out of Spike’s claws. “Hey! Not fair!” Yelled Spike, and proceeded to slide and punch the stallion into his belly. The receptionist grunted, and threw a punch towards the back of his body, where Spike emerged from. The strike luckily missed, as Spike jumped onto his back and held his mane. “Twilight! Fetch me the gem!” He called. Twilight nodded, and ran towards the fallen gem. “No!” The stallion commanded, and jumped high, making Spike lose his grip and fall. Twilight managed to reach the gem, but the stallion was already halfway there. “Catch!” She called out, but her pupils shrunk as she saw Spike laying on the ground, and the stallion charging into her in full force, sending her flying across the room into the wall. “Spike...” She breathed out, as she saw the stallion approaching helpless Spike, before her vision turned black. Chapter four: Just a normal day in ManehattenAuthor's Note Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Please do say your suggestions to me, we can make this even better and cleaner with your help. Have a good day and enjoy reading, I'm thankful to any suggestions. Chapter four: Just a normal day in Manehatten Pinkie entered the shop, with Fluttershy following shortly behind. Loads of dresses and fabric were on display and surprisingly, all of them were heavily discounted. Pieces of fabric as low as a bit. That put a confused look onto her face. “How can a shop sell these at such prices? These look luxurious!” She said, eyeing the fabrics and dresses. After half a minute of admiring, she noticed something weird. “Wait, are the display windows painted over?” Fluttershy pointed to the displays near the door where windows should be. “They are. I honestly thought it was just a weirdly designed wall.” Pinkie said, walking up to it and placing her hooves against it. “I wonder why would anyone do it.” She then turned away from the wall and yelled, “Hello! Any pony there?” Only a crashing of metal responded back. They both turned to the sound and a dark green mare with silver mane came out of a door behind the counter. “Sorry sorry!” The mare shakenly walked past Pinkie. “I fell asleep in the back rooms,” she giggled nervously, letting out a short yawn right after. Pinkie noticed bags hanging under her eyes, as the mare stared at the wall. “Um, are you okay?” Pinkie asked, waving her hoof in front of the sleepy mare. “You look like you haven’t slept in days. Also, why is there paint over the window?” The mare shook her head, deep lines of worry crossed her face. She refused to let her eyes meet Pinkie’s. “I’m so sorry! Can one of you pass me my coffee please? It’s on the counter.” Fluttershy grabbed it and flew over to her. “Thanks darling.” The mare grabbed it and swallowed a big gulp. “Ahhh, the good stuff. Name is Silver Gew, what can I do for you two?” Suddenly a sound of crashing shelves assaulted their ears as the mare recoiled back. “Can you two go outside? I’ll be with you in a moment.” They exited out, shutting the door behind them as they looked at each other. “I really hope nopony got hurt. That was weird.” Pinkie said, looking over the painted window. “Something is off here, I can feel it!” “I agree, especially this paint over the window. She looked panicked when we noticed it. I hope she is okay right now.” The mare crashed through the door and slammed it shut, causing the two ponies to jump back in surprise. “Sorry about that!” She said while locking the door. “Now, what can I do for you two?” They looked at each other for a second before Pinkie came up to ask. “We were wondering if you’ve seen Rarity around. We have been going to all of the shops, asking around if they’ve seen her, and we haven’t found anything. We hope you can tell us something.” The mare stared at her with a nervous smile. Eying the door as she spoke with hesitation. “I… I’m sorry. I can’t really help with that.’' The mare looked disappointed. “I told Coco and Breeze the same thing. I can’t help you find her.” Fluttershy and Pinkie looked at each other. Worry crossed over their faces as they started to walk away. “But,” the mare called out, “can I tell you something that has been going on? It’s been happening since Rarity left my shop a few days ago.” They nodded in response, as she walked over to them. She sat down and began to tell them the story... “It was a day like any other. Staff came to work, ponies sorted through the dresses as you would expect. I went to the storage room to gather all of the items for Rarity’s order. Then, the air started to feel heavy.” The mare kept eyeing the door, sweat running over her face. “The place had gone quiet, weirdly quiet. Normally I could hear the music that is playing in the store, but I couldn’t even hear that. Instead, a medley came rushing into my ears. The speakers had it flood the room. There was something sinister within it… Like insanity was coated into it.” The mare noticed their worried looks and straighten herself. Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. “Sorry, this is making me terrified. Nopony outside the storage room seemed to have heard the music. After that, I gave Rarity her order and the rest of the day went as normal. But things changed when night fell. Every night I’ve been having nightmares since. A lightless world is where I would be. Whispers and distorted screams would ring through my ears until a black figure would appear in front of me. I would wake up every time it happened, but it would get closer to me each time. “I’m the only one still working here now. Others were too scared to come to work today.” The mare looked at Pinkie and Fluttershy and sighed. “I hope you find what you’re looking for. There is something happening in this city, so please stay safe. I’m going to stay out here for a moment.” Fluttershy and Pinkie stared at each other, lost in thoughts as the mare sat down, and shakily drank her coffee. The two walked away, looking at each other with eyebrows raised. “I really don’t know what to think about it, Pinkie. That sounded scary.” Fluttershy said, shaking a bit herself. “Yea it was, I wonder what caused the music to pla-” Pinkie’s left ear began to flap as a shiver spiked up her back. She turned around and noticed the mare was gone. “Hey, where did the shopkeeper go?” Fluttershy looked back and looked around for her. “She was there seconds ago!” “Maybe she just went back inside. Ow!” Fluttershy bumped into something as a poster flew into her face. “My posters! The Great And Powerful Trixie commands you to stop flying away from me!!” Spat an angry mare’s voice. Fluttershy pulled the posters off her face, and saw a familiar unicorn standing in front of her. “Trixie?“ She asked. “Oh, Fluttershy. Trixie is surprised that you came into a city like this.” She gathered the posters with her magic and placed them into her pouch. “So, may I ask what you two are up to?” “We have been traveling through the city, asking shopkeepers if they saw Rarity.” Pinkie told her. “She has gone missing and we haven’t found anything that could help us.” Trixie’s eyes went wide and her jaw went ajar at the news. “Really? Well, unfortunately Trixie can’t help you. But, since you two are here, I think I passed Twilight while I was taking my trailer to the park.” She pointed down the road. “She was heading towards a hotel that is five blocks away from here. Trixie doesn’t know if she is still there, but I passed her thirty minutes ago. This is all I know. I wish you two good luck.” The two mares nodded, and gave their thanks to her. “Wait,” Trixie called out before they walked away. “I’ll be performing tomorrow night. The great and powerful Trixie would like you and your friends to come and watch my great and powerful show. If you find Rarity, that is. It gets lonely after the performance is done. What do you say?” She asked with almost pleading eyes. Pinkie and Fluttershy looked at each other for a moment. Pinkie gave her a smile. “Yeah sure. If we get the chance, we’ll come.” Trixie gave them a smile and they headed off to the hotel. “Trixie seemed to be better than the last time we met her. Alicorn amulet and that. What do you think, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked. “Well, it was weird to hear her pleading for us to come.” She said, confused look on her face. “Are you really sure about going to her performance when we find Rarity? I don’t think the others would agree to it.” “I know, they may not like it but I’ll still go. I think she should get another chance, even if she can be full of herself!” Pinkie stomped around joyfully, jumping into the air. “I can see the hotel up ahead. The last one is a rotten egg surrounded by melted ice cream!” She dashed forward, leaving Flutters in the dust as she put on a smile. Galloping behind her, she slowly caught up to the pony. The wind went through her mane, getting it wrapped all over her face and causing her to trip up onto her stomach. Pinkie didn’t seem to notice her falling as she sped up. Picking herself back up, Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew up. While seeing that Pinkie had stopped a block in front of the hotel, she also noticed something that made her gasp. Pinkie dashed as quickly as she could. “Twilight! Spike! Sweet Celestia, sweet Celestia…” She called out, getting a closer look at them. Dots of blood covered Twilight’s face, while Spike’s lower face was covered in dry blood. They laid on the sidewalk, motionless. “Come on, please be alive…” She rolled Twilight onto her back and placed her ear to the unicorn’s chest. Slow breathing could be felt, her heart rhythmically beating into Pinkies’ ears. Letting out a sign of relief, she saw Fluttershy approach her. “Oh my gosh! Please tell me they are okay!” Fluttershy stared in a panic at the three of them as she got closer. “Twilight is breathing, and she doesn’t have any wounds I can see. Go check if Spike is injured!” Pinkie told her. She grabbed Spike and held him in her embrace. Blood oozed out of his nose, face turned gray. She set her hoof along his chest, feeling faint breathing. “Please wake up Twilight. Please!” Pinkie begged her, shaking her around and getting Twi onto her hind’ legs while keeping her hooves locked to her face. Twi’s eyes twitched open. “Pinkie…” Twilight said weakly, blankly staring at her. “Where am I? And why…. Am I?” She continued, while touching her head that was visibly hurting. “It’s alright Twilight,” she gave her a hug. “Trixie told us she saw you heading here. Really glad she did.” Pinkie’s ears began to flap onto her eyes. Confusing her as they alternated. Right right left left left and kept going until they stopped moving. “What the heck does that mean?” Pinkie turned her head to look around. She caught a black hoof mark in the corner of her eye, right next to the hotel wall. Then another mark appeared. It was like something was slowly moving towards them, but they couldn’t see it. “What is it, Pinkie? You look a bit spooked.” Fluttershy commented. Spike coughed as his eyes opened. “...I think it would be good if we go somewhere else.” She looked at her with a frown. “Trust me on that, please,” Pinkie said. “Wait,” Spike woke up and called out. “ Where’s the gem? It might come in handy later.” Flutters looked around and spotted the shiny rock with a glow coming out of it. Grabbing it, she gave it to Spike who clutched it tightly. “Thanks Fluttershy, this is more important than you would probably think. Twilight? Wait, where is she!?” “I’m right here, Spike.” Twi replied and he hugged her immediately. “We got to meet up with Rainbow. There is a lot we all need to talk about.” Pinkie kept on eyeing the black marks as another appeared to get closer to her. She began to walk with the others, nervously keeping her eye trained on the mark until it was out of sight. Rainbow was flying at half the throttle, as she approached a tall red painted building that was getting bigger each second. Once a few meters away from the entrance, she suddenly stopped and flew towards the ground and landed. She then eyed the sign reading “Wild Mild West”. “Looks like the place. What a dumb name for a play.” She smirked and commented as the clapping of hooves went on behind her. “Well-then, that has t’ be the worst name of a play I have ever heard.” The Applejack said, walking over to Rainbow. “You’re preaching to the choir. Ugh, let’s get this over with.” Bringing out the keys, she pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Why thank you for the keys, Breeze.” Unlocking the door, they let themselves in. The place was quiet. “For maintenance or practice, this place is pretty quiet.” Dashie said. “Come on, let’s find the stage. We are down to find somepony there.” Applejack said. Rainbow dash flew around, looking around for the auditorium entrance. Nopony was in sight. Not even a janitor, even though a cleaning cart could be seen. Nopony stood in the ticket booth either. The place felt weirdly empty, The place felt weirdly empty, her ears moving around uncomfortably as she glanced about.. “I found it!” AJ called out. Rainbow flew over to her, following behind as she entered. Lights were lit around the room, stage having all the props set up. But nopony was around. “Where is everypony? This is weirding me out AJ.” She said, flying over to the stage. The speaker to her left startled her, static suddenly playing from it and disappearing as quick as it came. “Stupid speaker. What the heck was that?” “Like I know.” AJ shrugged. “The new tech is real sensitive” With that, Applejack jumped onto the stage. “Come on, we got to find somepony.” Rainbow landed on the stage beside her, looking at the props that were laid about. “Looks like they had everything set up, but they had to abandon the place quickly. I won’t lie, this is giving me the creeps.” “Hello! Anypony here?” AJ called out and the room echoed the words back. Looking above, she noticed one of the lights was swinging left to right. “Hey Rainbow,” She turned to her, “can you take a look at that light? It’s swinging a bit.” Dash nodded and flew up to take a look. “The power cable looks a bit damaged. Do you see any tape or something to cut it? We wouldn’t want this crashing down on us.” AJ looked across the floor, spotting some pliers placed down. “They are pliers under the light!” She shouted, and bent down to grab them with her mouth. Rainbow flew down grabbing it, catching them way sooner than AJ could even bend down. Then the light suddenly came crashing down on her. “Look out!” AJ tackled Rainbow, the falling light missing them by inches. “What in the holy Celestia is going on here?!” Dash shouted, picking herself up as Applejack got off her. “Who cut that light down?! Show yourself!” The lights turned off, plunging the room to darkness. “Oh great, what now?” She said, sitting down in anger. The lights flipped back on. Rainbow was facing AJ, whose eyes went wide as her face lost some of its color. “AJ, what’s the matter?” “Take a look for yourself.” She pointed to the seats behind her. Eyebrows raised, she started to gag as a stench hit her nose. Dashie turned around and recoiled back. Confusion turned to fear at what she was seeing. As far as she could see, in every single seat there was a rotten corpse, with eyes replaced by insects coming out of them. Some were bloated, some looked like all their color was sucked out of them. Both AJ and RD screamed like there was no tomorrow. The sight was unbelievable. “Where the hell did they all come from,” Aj screamed out. “Who cares, run!” Yelled Rainbow back, knocking Applejack to the side and taking to the air. Dashing over to the top row of the seats. She looked around for a door that was once there. “Wait, the door is gone!” “Wha?” AJ ran up to Rainbow, placing her back against the wall. One of the bodies began staring at her, its caved-in gray eyes felt like it was piercing into her soul. “Maybe there is another exit!” Yelled Dash. “I’ll take a look on the balconies, has to be a door up there!” She flew up to the one closest to her. Landing and running behind the curtains, she checked the hall for any door in sight, but there was nothing but a hall. Only a body laid against the wall. This one was different from the others, catching her eye to take a look. This one was fresh compared to the others. Blood oozing out of a hole where one of her legs should be. Black prints covered the dark green coat of the mare, wearing a shredded uniform. Blood covering her silver locks, Rainbow placed her hoof onto her forehead. “Warm…” she said uneasily. “You were killed recently. What the heck happened to you?” She opened the mare’s eyes and dark smoke started to stream out of it. “This is unbelievable. Hey AJ, you found anything?” Applejack didn’t respond and the place has gone quiet. “Yo, Applejack, don’t play games with me. Talk to me!” “He…lp me.” A faint voice hit her ears. Hair standing on end, she let out a sharp gasp. Like something just wrapped around her. Turning over to the body, its eyes seemed to be looking straight at her, “did you say that?” she thought. She felt a hoof rub against her leg and looked down. The mare’s hoof was right next to Rainbow’s leg. When she tried to back away, the hoof shot itself to Rainbows’ neck. The body turned its head, as she struggled to break the grip. “What the hell?! Get off of me!” She began to flap her wings as fast as she could. Vomit left the corpse as she loosened the grip. Throwing a punch, she knocked it to the side and made the corpse lose its hold. Allowing herself to fly away, she turned her back and looked around for AJ. “Where are you Applejack?! Ugh, crap.” She looked back for the body, but it was no longer there. Her eyes went wide in shock as a door appeared in its place. “Wait, what?” She looked down at the seats below her. They were all empty, no bodies and no marks left on them. “Did I… imagine all that? Applejack, where are you!” “Ah, you must be Rainbow then.” A voice called out. “Come down, I’m over here.” Rainbow turned to the voice, a dark blue mare unicorn with a purple mane was standing at the edge of the entrance. Confused, she landed and cautiously approached her. Getting a closer look to see bags under her eyes, and a coffee she is keeping to the side. “It’s alright, your friend is just packing some stuff up for me. I’m Page Tale. I should have told Breeze not to allow anypony in. But well, too late now. We need to talk.” Applejack was searching the file room, packing up documents for Page Tale into her bags. “That girl better tell us what’s goin’ on. I will make it hell for her if she doesn’t.” Alright, I got most of the stuff off her desk. She mentioned a letter but where in the haystack, is it? ” She looked around the room once more, taking a look through the cabinets. Files of practice days, schedules, and costume diagrams within them. Annoyed, she began tossing files out onto the floor and ripping drawers out of the cabinets. “What the hay is this,” a folder was hidden under one of the drawers she ripped out. Confused, she picked it up, opening it up to see a bunch of drawings and a document full of random symbols. “Huh? ‘Classified’? What can be classified about a bunch of weird letters?” Then she noticed a small text at the bottom of the page. ‘Three wild ponies ran through a field filled with freshly baked dinosaurs &’ “Uhhh, this document is getting weirder ‘n weirder. I ain’t a scientist but that seems like a heck of a riddle to me. Twilight will surely know what it means.” She said, as she tugged the document inside her cowboy hat. “Alright, better hurry up and find the letter.” She said, and after a few moments found the letter sitting on the chair. “There we go.” She said while grabbing it with her mouth, and putting it inside of Page Tale’s bag. “Have you put all of it inside of the bag?” Page Tale asked when she entered the room. “I don’t have much time before I have to go.” AJ nodded and the unicorn lifted her up with a spell, keeping her in place while she cleaned the mess she made. “What are you doing? Set me down!” Applejack spat out in anger. “Relax, the spell will send you outside in a bit. Now listen to what I say.” The mare got close up to her ear. “ Leave the city while you can. If you value your life you will do this. Now go.” After being teleported outside, in front of the cinema’s doors, Applejack fell flat onto her face. “Ooww. Why that unicorn!” “You got teleported too I see. Did she tell you to leave the city?” Rainbow asked, helping AJ get up to her hooves. “Yes she did, if that is a threat if I ever heard one. The nerve she has to say that!” She tried to open the door, but it would not budge. “It’s locked! That little rattlesnake took the key from you, hasn’t she?” RD nodded as she kicked the wall in anger. “Let’s go find the others, AJ.” She said, when suddenly a voice called out to her. “No need, we’re here.” They turned around to see Pinkie. The others followed shortly. “ Good to see you two are okay. Twilight and Spike weren’t so hot.” Rainbow and Applejack looked at Twilight’s bloodied face and the bandage that was placed over Spike’s nose. “What the hell happened to you two!? You look like they put you through a meat grinder!” Aj cried out. “It…is a long story.” Twilight replied. “We all have things to share, no doubt. Let’s get something to eat, and then we’ll share. Today has been exhausting for all of us.“ “I sure wouldn’t mind something to eat!” Dashie called out excitedly, and did a somersault in the air. “Let’s go to Papa Will’s pizzeria!” “Yes!”,“Totally agreed!”, “Heck yeah!” sounded from everypony in the group of friends, as they all headed to get the tastiest pizza they could afford. While they were traveling, they discussed most of what happened. Fluttershy and Pinkie told them about their encounter with the clerk, which reaped a scared look from Rainbow, who remembered that she saw the exact pony, dead back in the theater. “Something wrong?” Asked Pinkie. “N-no it’s just,I saw the exact same pony at the theater… what was left of her, that is.” “What do you mean, Dashie?” Fluttershy asked. “Exactly what I’m saying. I saw the corpse of that poor girl back there!” That put horrified looks on everypony’s faces, and everyone’s attention focused on AJ and RD. So they told the girls and Spike about their entire visit to the theater. By the time they finished, Fluttershy was shaking with fear. “T-that’s horrible! This doesn’t even sound like something you could make up…” Pinkie held her, and said, “Yeah… we should definitely check up on her the next chance we get.” “Now, hold on a second.” Said Applejack. “You met the Trixie? The one that almost killed the entirety of Ponyville? I don’t wanna point hooves at anypony, but her being in town and this stuff happening can’t be a coincidence, I’m telling yall.” “We can’t discard that possibility.” Twi said, with a slight frown on her face as well. “It all would’ve made sense, but what me and Spike experienced in the hotel just doesn’t make sense! It was as if he was blocking my magic! Besides princesses, I can’t imagine anyone else performing such a spell. And we know that Trixie lost the alicorn amulet.” “We will need to find all of this out. But right now, I’m just too hungry to think straight.” Proclaimed Pinkie, as they reached ‘Papa Will’s Pizzeria’. “Good day!” “Heya.” Responded the clerk, eyeing the group of ponies. “What do you wish to order?” “Uhh…” Pinkie thought. “Girls, what do we want?” She turned her back to the clerk, facing her friends once again. “I see no reason to try to fight over the type of Pizza.” Replied Twilight. “I’m paying for everyone’s order!” Cheers erupted from the group, as they all scanned the menu for their favourite pizzas and began telling their orders to the clerk. Chapter five: Silence Before the StormSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter one: Calming melodiesRarity was sitting on a chair inside of the Manehatten Hotel, sewing together a beautiful piece of dress for an upcoming performance. She was humming to herself, when suddenly a knocking on the door interrupted her. “Finally, my fabric is here!” Rarity said as she rushed to open the door. When she opened it, a tall mail pony with a package placed on his back and a clipboard held by one of his fetlocks awaited her. He looked down on the clipboard with all of the orders written down, then back to Rarity. “Miss Rarity, I presume?” He asked, as he grabbed the box and held it in his hooves.. “Yes, that’s me.” Answered Rarity, eyeing the package nervously as she bit her lower lip. “Do you by any chance have a package full of the gems that I’ve ordered? Also I hope I’m not being rude, but why did this take so long to get here?” “Manehattan’s traffic makes it a little hard to deliver packages on time. And the fabric was heavier than it looked.” He then allowed himself in and placed the boxes in her apartment and turned to go. “ Oh yeah, you also got a gift in the small box over here. Almost forgot.” He then handed her a smaller box. “I will be on my way. Goodbye, m’lady.” “Thank you.” Rarity called out as she put a ruby into his pocket. “Have a good day sir, I got work to do.” Closing her door, she began to unpack her fabrics, placing the third box on the desk with her sewing machine.. “Now hopefully I’ll be done by tonight. I don’t want to miss Twilight’s birthday.” Looking through her dress patterns, she placed a spool of thread inside of the sewing machine machine. “Now, let’s see this mysterious gift.” She unfolded the box revealing a music box with a small note taped to the top. “Ah how lovely of her.” She said, taking the note off the box, holding it in her magic as she began to read. Dear Rarity, greetings. I know making these dresses must be stressful for you. As a token of appreciation for your efforts, I sent this music box to listen to while you work. Its melody always helped me concentrate, and I think it will help you as well. Sincerely, director Page Tale. A warm glow filled her cheeks, setting the note and the box down on the table next to her sewing machine. “Hmm, the score isn’t written on the box or note. Strange.” She said, cutting up layers of her new fabric while also setting them in piles as she adjusted the size of the next dress. “Now with no interruptions, I’ll be done by tonight and a little tune will help.” Winding the music box until the handle couldn’t turn, she watched as the top opened up and played its song. The melody moved along to what seemed like small bells and piano dropped in. “Nice and calm, perfect!” Humming to the melody, she began sewing the fabulous dress. The machine carefully lined the thread, connecting each fabric together, adding patterns, and adjusting the size as needed. “Looking fabulous! The director is going to love this!” Rarity gleefully said as she added sequins to it. “A little sparkle won’t hurt. It will shine on stage. Can’t wait to see what they think.” Her excitement seemed to be never-ending, not noticing the distorted sounds coming from the box. She calmed herself down by breathing in and out several times, focusing on fine-tuning the dress as the light flickered above her. Paying no mind to it, she added the finishing touches as the distorted music just started to hit her ears. “Hmm? I don’t suppose this is how the tune was supposed to sound.” Rarity said, stopping the music and closing the box. Then she suddenly noticed her strength quickly disappearing, and she let out a yawn. She lifted up the ribbon and set it onto the dress and turned it into a bow while sewing it on with her magic and a needle. “I honestly did not expect to be this tired, but I admit I’ve done a lot of work today.” Stretching her hooves, she admired her work and decided that what would happen next would be a well deserved rest. She then went into her bedroom and slipped in between the bedsheets. Casting on her sleep mask, the wrapping of sleep taking its hold on her. Lying cozy on her bed, she began to enter the world of dreams… Rarity started to shiver. A chill wind moved across her body, causing her to sit up and wrap her blanket around her. “Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?” She wondered while taking off her sleep mask. The room was pitch black, so she had to cast her light spell and have it stick to her horn. The outside was incredibly dark, with bits of snow falling down across the windows. “Strange… it wasn’t winter the last time I looked out of a window.“ Shining her light around the room, Rarity noticed how the room seemed to look a little rotten, the colors seemingly faded away. “This doesn’t make any sense! What’s going on here?” She got out of her bed, her eyes being cast on to her desk which was bare. “This is so bizarre. Also, where did the box go?” She said, shining her light along the floor. The boards were covered up in dirt and muck, creaking heavily as she stood up from the bed and approached her closet. Taking out a ragged scarf, the smell of it so revolting she gagged as she wrapped it around her neck. “How disgusting but, looks to be the only scarf here. Great….” She then walked out of her room. “Why is everything so quiet? The streets were roaring a few minutes ago.” She said as she looked out of the window, vision limited severely due to the darkness outside with snow falling down. “Hello? Anypony here?” Rarity called out, but didn’t receive a response back. She approached the room next to her’s and knocked on it. “Hello? Is somepony in there? Can someone explain what is going on?” No response… the place remained dead silent. “There has to be somepony here.” Rarity said unnerved, as she walked over to the fire exit as a cold breeze ran under the door. Her body shivered as she entered and started walking down the rotten stairs, smelling in a way that made Rarity put the scarf against her nose with her magic. “Sweet Celestia… where am I?” Her voice echoed as she kept walking down while on edge. Rarity walked a few floors down until her ears caught the sounds of bells and a melody quietly played along with it. “Wait, is that the music box? It’s coming….from that door.” She carefully approached the door and set her ear against it. “Hello!” She called out and only the sounds of the melody played out. She opened the door slowly, the song growing in volume as a gust of wind followed it. “Going down even further. Great…” She said while walking down the stairwell. Following this tune, growing louder as she was getting closer to another door. She approached it and stopped a few steps away. Letting out a shallow breath, she opened the door to see the music box on a table with a mirror behind it. “The box? How did it get here?” She placed her front hooves forward into the room and focused her eyes on the table. “Wait, wha‒?” She blurted out as suddenly the door slammed behind her, pushing her in and sending her crashing into the table. “Owww!” She screamed as she tried to regain herself, the music becoming distorted to her ears. As she was setting her front hooves onto the tabletop to balance herself, her eyes went wide open as the music box wasn’t on the table anymore… but on the other side of the mirror. “What, what is this?” Once she got on her hooves, she raced for the closed door, grabbing the handle and putting as much force into it as she could muster. “Locked?! Let me out, whoever you are, now!” She bashed her hooves against it for a few seconds, the wooden door not moving an inch. Oh celestia celestia, please open! She screamed in her head, recoiling back as a black mist circled around her horn. “Ahh… my head…” Rarity held her head as she faced the mirror. The light within it dimmed as a black liquid started leaking out of the mirror. Unconsciousness overtook her, collapsing down onto the floor as everything went dark.
Chapter two: Ride to ManehattenPinkie kept leaping up into the air, as her excitement never seemed to break off while the train stopped at the station. “Come on Spike, Rarity will appear any second now!” She cheerfully said and trotted to the train that has already stopped, and its doors were about to open. “Wait up!” Spike called out as he ran and got Pinkie breathless. “We are... Not in the Olympics... We don’t have to rush....” He said while catching his breath. “We also don’t want to miss Twilight’s party. Don’t worry,” she replied, “that stress will go away during the party.” Spike straightened himself up and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, guess I’m the one who needs to relieve his stress then.” He said as they both laughed about it. Spike set his eyes to the train doors, looking for Rarity to come out. “So, can you see her yet?” Spike asked. A few ponies left the passenger car while Spike and Pinkie looked around, but Rarity didn’t come out of the crowd. “Nope, I can’t. Not even Pinkie sense tells me anything.” Pinkie said, her glee dialing down a bit. “Maybe she is in another passenger car.” They watched and waited, but Rarity was nowhere to be seen as the train left the station. “Pinkie, the letter did say she would be here at 1:35 today, right?” Spike asked. She reached her hoof into her mane and pulled out an envelope, reading the letter within. “That is what it says. Rarity should be here… Oh hey, there’s Rainbow Dash!” She pointed to her right as a rainbow blur landed on the ground, causing dust to stir up upon the landing. “Hey you two. We got all of the decorations set up for the party.” Rainbow Dash said. “Sooo… where’s Rarity? I can’t wait for her to see the amazing work I’ve done. Well, we. Fluttershy and AJ helped too.” Spike and Pinkie stared at each other for a moment before they both nodded to each other and Pinkie replied.“Rarity didn’t show up.” Rainbow Dash stared at them, confusion painted on her face as well as her left eyebrow being raised. “You’re joking, right? Really, where’s Rarity?” The two remained quiet to the question. The silence started to worry Rainbow. “Okay…You two aren’t joking, hold on.” She said, walking up to the ticket booth. “Hey, when is the next train for Manehatten?” The ticket vendor pulled out his schedule and replied. “If things remain in order, the next train for Manehatten is coming in half an hour. You’re going to buy a ticket?” “Not yet. I’ll be back after a while.” Rainbow flew back to Pinkie and Spike, “I’m going to get the girls, you two stay here.” They nodded and watched as Rainbow flew away. A rainbow colored trail shining bright behind her. Twilight tied up all the balloons as they floated up to the ceiling, a smile spreading on her face. “Everything looks good girls, now we wait for Rarity to arrive.” Fluttershy and Applejack nodded as they were setting up the table, placing a cake and cupcakes on it. “I gotta say we’ve done a great job so far.” AJ said, focusing on carefully placing the cake, as she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back home in case she dropped it. Suddenly, Rainbow crashed through Twilight’s door, startling them and making them turn to her. “Rainbow Dash, you can’t crash into the party like that!” Fluttershy said. “ Wait… she just did.” She whispered. “Sorry for barging in like that, but we’re going to Manhattan.” Rainbow Dash said, gesturing towards the general direction of the train station. “Something wrong?” Twilight asked as Rainbow gave a ticket to her. “Rarity isn’t here. And I have a feeling if we don’t find her soon enough, something bad will happen. Pack your bags girls, we are going!” She said as she tossed Twilight’s bag down to her hooves. Rainbow crammed some books into the bag and tossed it next to Twilight. “Meet you at the station in ten minutes.” She said as she turned back to the door. But she then turned her head in the opposite direction, facing Twilight. “Also… sorry for ruining your party, Twilight.” Twilight simply shrugged with a smile. “Don’t worry, there’s always next year. And I wouldn’t enjoy it anyway with Rarity missing.” Rainbow Dash was about to laugh at the unexpected reply, but she simply replied with a smile. “Guess you’re right.” She said as she sped out into the air. “Huh, guess we are goin’ to Manehatten instead… are we? Applejack asked. “Of course,” Twilight replied. “We are gonna do our best to find out what happened to her!” They all nodded and clapped their hooves together in agreement and separated, Twilight heading to the station while the others went home to gather their bags. Spike was pacing back and forth as Pinkie dragged her bags onto the station floor. “Come on Spike, relax a bit.” He suddenly turned to her and said, “Please don’t tell me to relax, you know I can’t. Not as long as Rarity could be in danger.” Spike frowned and was visibly holding in his anger mixed with fear. She placed her hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sure she is alright. Business probably got in the way. Although I admit it’s strange she didn’t contact us sooner.” Pinkie shrugged, as Spike straightened himself out. “You’re right on that, but still she would have sent a letter about it.” Spike said as he walked back a bit, pushing Pinkie’s hoof back from his shoulder. “Maybe the letter just didn’t arrive yet?” Suggested the pink pony. “Yeah, maybe.” He looked up into the clouds and waited for Rainbow to return, as Twilight walked into the station. “Hey Twilight!” Pinkie called out. “Guessing Rainbow Dash told you what we’re doing?” The scientist pony nodded, as she walked over to Spike. “Are you feeling okay Spike?” She asked, and he turned to her and said, “No, I’m not alright, this is horrible!” She gave him a comforting smile, while setting her bag down.” This isn’t like her and it is worrying. But I bet she is fine.” She said, trying to lighten up the mood. “How can you know that?” Spike asked, as Rainbow Dash landed and dropped her bags. “I don’t, Spike.” Twilight replied. “But we will make sure to check if she is safe. And besides, you know Rarity. She might’ve just gotten too caught up in her work and forgotten all about the party.” A smile came across his face. I guess she could be alright after all. He said in his mind, feeling a bit cheerful as Rainbow shoved a ticket into his claw. “Now when we get to Manehatten, we will go to the theater and talk with the director. She probably knows where Rarity is.” She said as Fluttershy and Applejack jumped onto the platform as the train arrived. “Hope you all got what you need, it’s time to go, everypony!” “Yeah!” Erupted from the group of ponies and a dragon. Spike followed the girls on the train and stopped to look at something nudging his leg with a thud, making him turn towards it. “A black gem? Where did this come from?” He asked, catching it from rolling away as the train began to move. “Hmm, the surface feels artificial,” his claws feeling the gem around. He put it up to his nose, trying to get a smell out of it. “No scent? What kind of gem is this?” He questioned as something tapped his back. “Excuse me, that would be mine, good sir.” A voice sounded behind him. Spike turned to the voice, to see a suited lime green unicorn mare speaking to him. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Violet Pearl, and I run one of the finest jewelry stores in Manehatten. That’s what I like to think, anyways.” Spike examined the gem as the mare awaited his answer. “I have to say it looks really nice and shiny, but not something I would eat.” “Yep I’ve heard Dragons do not favor the black gems. And you definitely wouldn’t like this one. As much of a shame as it is to admit, I messed up this one pretty badly.” She said, looking embarrassed. “Huh? What do you mean?” “Oh just look at the irregular shape! I simply could not sell this to a customer.” Violet Pearl replied. “Then I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why carry it around at all? Ponies can’t eat gems as far as I know.” “That is true, little dragon. While this is one of my most embarrassing pieces, I still believe it could make some ponies happy, so I’m planning on donating these. Even if they can’t use it to make themselves look prettier.” “Oh I see. That is really generous of you. Well, here you go.” Said Spike, extending his hand and holding the gem in front of the mare. “Oh no no, you can keep this gem, since you seemed to like it. I…. Kind of messed up the entire batch.” She bit her lower lip, and drily chuckled to herself. “Aww man, that must really suck. But thank you!” “No problem, uhh. I don’t think you introduced yourself to me yet.” “Oh yeah! My name is Spike, the number one assistant of Twilight Sparkle!” Violet smiled, and shook his hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Spike. If you will ever need some gems, this might come in handy.” She finished, as she handed out a visit card to Spike. “Will remember.” Spike said as he took the visit card, placing inside the pack he brought in. The mare nodded, and teleported away, presumably to her seat. This surprised Spike, and caused him to take a step back, and almost fall to the ground. “You alright, Spike? Who were you talkin’ to?” Applejack asked as she caught him. “She’s Violet Pearl, and runs the best jewelry shop in manehattan´. Thanks for catching me.” He said, hopping onto a seat. “Nahh, it was nothin’. ”She said, taking a seat next to Rainbow, while she looked at the black gem in Spike’s claws. “Hey, Spike? Where did you get that gem?” Dashie asked. “Oh, it’s from Violet. He replied, wrapping his tail around it and setting his back on the seat. “Huh, well that is nice of her to give up something like this.” He nodded in response as he stretched his arms and let out a big yawn. “Please wake me up when we get to Manehatten, Twilight. I need a nap.” She nodded with a smile, as Spike closed his eyes, the sound of a hum going through his ear. Curling up, the world became silent. Spike was peacefully sleeping, when a loud grinding hit his ears, causing him to spring up and shout, “What was that noise?!” His eyes opened up wide, as he saw the seat in front of him torn up and full of scratches and disgusting black stains. Spike then looked out of his window. A black sky caught his eyes, snow falling as the train moved. No passengers were in sight but himself. The frame of his window was bent and battered, letting in some of the snow. “Huh?! Is this a dream?” He yelled once more, rubbing his arms as the cold air washed over him. “This feels… too real.” He got off the seat and placed the gem into his claws. “The gem is here too!” Questions were flying through his mind as he walked over to the train cart’s door and slid it open. Slowly walking along the crossway to the next door, the air started to feel ice cold around him and the gem gave off a white light that shined brighter and brighter as he neared the door. “What’s going on with this thing, is it reacting to something?” Spike questioned, looking down at the glowing gem. The light shined through the dark crossway, revealing itself to the outside. “The world seems familiar but at the same time, it isn’t. Where... Am I exactly?” He slowly opened the door to the next train car, using the light of the gem as a light source as he carefully walked forward in the dark car. Spike stopped in the middle, casting the light around him. “Twilight, are you there?” He called out, when he felt something tapping on his shoulder. He turned to see nothing, but a black liquid running down his shoulder. “Gross, what the heck is this?!” He wiped it off with his claw, feeling the texture of the black goo. He shivered as more of the black goo dripped above him and ran along his arms. Spike tried to shake it off, but it grew thicker and stuck to him. “What is this stuff, it’s so cold!” He said, trying to breathe out fire over his claws, desperately trying to warm himself up. His flame was extinguished before it could even leave his mouth, turning into a mist. “What, my fire is out?” He dropped the gem to rub his claws together, his insides feeling like they’re on ice as his vision blurred. The clanking of the wheels outside filed his ears as the black goo flowed out. His skin felt like it wanted to come off, no longer able to feel anything around his neck. “Please.... Wake me up... This... Can’t be real.” Spike put a weak grip around the gem and brought it close to him. “Twilight... Pinkie... Fluttershy... Applejack... Rainbow!” Setting his eyes onto the gem’s shine, its light consistently forwarded allowed his reflection to be seen. “Rarity!” He froze as his reflection revealed dark claws digging into him. Liquid-covered black teeth getting ready to bite as a growl slipped into his ear. He gripped the gem tightly, its eyes staring back at him. “No... I won’t allow it to end like this!” He shouted, swinging the gem to his back with all his strength, leading the light to shine at the creature, releasing its claws off him as it gave off a scream while covering its eyes. “Rarity needs my help! Get away from me you ugly thing!” He gripped the gem to his chest, shutting his eyes as the light of it surrounded him. He could not hear the creature, only a familiar voice came to his ears. A wave of warmth went over him as the voice grew louder.
Chapter three: Hotel“Time to wake up Spike. It’ll be a few minutes till we reach Manehatten.” Spike opened his eyes, looking up at Twilight as he straightened up on the seat. “Hey Twilight.” He said, gripping the gem tightly. “Where are the girls?” She placed her hoof over his head and said, “The girls are getting our luggage, you’ll reach Manehattan in a few minutes. Hmm, it looked like you had the chills for a moment.” Twilight said with a smile. “Seems like you slept well, want to help get our bags sorted out?” Spike gave a nod and said, “I’ll be with you in a minute, I need to use the restroom.” He said, then got off his seat and ran down the car, closing the door behind him. Checking back to see that Twilight wasn’t in sight, he looked upon the colorless gem. “Had you been responsible for that dream? Was it even a dream?” He questioned as he tried to make sense of what he experienced. “How will I explain this to Twilight? There has to be something more to that dream,” Spike stared at the gem, wondering what he should do. “If I have another dream like before, I need to tell Twilight about it.” The train slowed its momentum, signaling to him that they were on Manehattan’s doorstep. “Hey Spike, come on,” Rainbow Dash called out, “We need to make sure Rarity is alright.” He opened the door as Rainbow dashed to him, scaring him to stumble back and fall down. “Sorry Spike.” Rainbow grunted as she helped Spike back up. “No problem. So, what’s the plan?” Spike asked as she placed a piece of paper in his claws. “You and Twilight will be looking for the hotel she stayed in, the paper has the address on it. Me and Applejack will go ask the director that hired her while Pinkie and Fluttershy will check the stores where she buys her fabric. Sounds like a plan?” Rainbow suggested, and smiled at Spike. He nodded, heading out of the car into the bustling station. Rainbow tossed him up onto her back, flying up as Spike scanned the area. She searched through the mix of colors, spotting a mix of purple and blue together. “It looks like I found Twilight and Coco over there.” Rainbow began descending towards them, allowing Spike to make out another pony with Coco. He was wearing a white scarf matching up with his snow white mane, his coat colored icy blue with a worried look on his face. “Me and Coco have been looking for Rarity for the past two days, we were hoping she would be here.” Spike heard as Rainbow got closer. The stallion turned his head and smiled upon spotting them. “You must be Rainbow Dash and Spike right? Rarity told me about you. Tell me, have you happened to see her while you were flying?” They frowned and nodded. Losing his smile he let out a sigh. “Well, we can go check her hotel again.” “You know the receptionist won’t allow us to see her room.” Coco said, getting a confused face out of Spike. The stallion hoof palmed his face. “I forgot about that. He did mention he sent the music box to my father’s place, right?” “I think so, Breeze, I still wonder why Tale didn’t allow us to listen to it, and why she gave it to Rarity confuses me even more.” “Who knows, but it is with my father I hope. He knows his way around antiques. Now, sorry for not introducing myself. I am Blizzard Breeze, a close friend to Coco and I recently made friends with Rarity before she vanished. The three of us were working with Page Tale to help make a musical she had written come to life.” Rainbow put Spike down, resting her wings upon landing. Twilight gestured Spike over and asked Coco, “You mentioned something about a music box, what is all that about?” “We don’t know, Page Tale found it five days ago. She has been acting weird since then.” “What do you mean by weird,” Spike asked, confusion visible on his face. “Everypony else at the stage has heard it but the two of us haven’t. After she sent the music box to Rarity, she wouldn’t allow us to hear its song. Then, she broke all the mirrors at the cinema. In fact, to the extent she took mirrors out of several scenes that had them. Something is scaring her but she says we wouldn’t believe what she had seen.” Spike listened intently, but could make little sense of it. What’s there to be scared of a music box? He thought. “Wait, this music box you mentioned, was it at the hotel?” “Yes it was, but it should be at my father’s shop now,” Breeze answered. “ If you’re going to check the hotel, be careful. The receptionist has become a little hostile and has kicked everypony out.” He turned to Rainbow, “Have you seen where the rest of your friends are?” “No, but Applejack and I are going to find the director and ask them where Rarity was last seen.” “She should be at the cinema. Take these.” He took some keys out of a bag and tossed them to her. “She locks the doors during practice and maintenance. Good luck, hope you all find Rarity.” “Thanks, you two.” she said as they walked out of the station. “Time to get going, I got to catch up to Applejack. See ya later,” Rainbow dashed out, leaving Twilight and Spike to their own devices. Spike walked along with Twilight out into the bustling streets of the city. Carts passed by as they traveled, the two having thoughts spin around in their heads. This feels like something big is happening. Twilight thought to herself as Spike stared into space. All this about a music box, Page Tale smashing mirrors and the removal of them. Something is up and I plan to find out. The hotel was in their sights. Suddenly, a blue cart pulled by a pony of the same color and wearing a magician’s hat passed them. One of the wheels hit a puddle in front of them, which splashed both Spike and Twilight. “Hey, how rude!” Twilight shouted as the cart sped away. Shaking off the water, she got a look as it went around the corner. “Hey, that cart looked familiar. Was that who I thought it was?” Spike shook, while he wiped the water off the gem he still carried and himself. “If it is her, I hope she is not out to cause trouble. Especially now.” he said, as he inspected the gem to make sure all water was off. They approached the hotel entrance and looked through the windows before entering, seeing nopony waiting for them, bags left on the floor, giving her the feeling that the ponies rushed themselves out. \ “Hello, any pony there?” She called out, with the sounds of shouts and pans crashing to respond to her. Twilight looked at where it came from, as a stallion wearing a red uniform came crashing through the door and slammed it shut. “Ugh, for the last time you two you can’t-” He stopped his line of thought when he looked at Twilight and Spike, revealing one of his eyes was bandaged up and had wounds around it. “You’re not Coco or Breeze. Well if you came to get a hotel room, you’re out of luck.” He said walking to the counter, placing a key on a rack behind him. “I don’t have rooms to give you, this place is going to be closed till further notice.” “Actually, we were hoping you would answer some of our questions. It’s about Rarity, we hope you could help us.” Twilight asked and the stallion looked at her dubiously. Meanwhile Spike eyed at the key the stallion hung up. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. How long was Rarity here? And what happened to your eye?” “I’ll just be upfront with you, you won’t find anything on Rarity here. I’m sorry to answer your question. She was here for six days before she disappeared just like I told Coco and Breeze. You are not going to find anything here. Also what happened was a work accident. And that is that” Twilight looked at Spike, weirded out by the answer the stallion gave. “Alright, but can we take a look at Rarity’s room? Can you give us that?” She asked as he shook his head. “ But how can we figure things out if we can’t?” “Tough but I can’t help you with that, you are going to have to look elsewhere.” Twilight turned around and walked over to Spike, bringing him close to her. “For someone who has nothing to hide he mentioned that we won’t find anything way too often.” Spike nodded in agreement, looking over to the key hanging behind the guy. “Good to see we’re on the same page. Now I’m going to provide a distraction, I’ll keep him as busy as I can.” She looked at him warily, walking to the door he came out of. The stallion rushed over, blocking the door and pushing her away. “This is off limits, I know this is the restroom but, if you want to use one you will have to go somewhere else.” He said harshly. “You can’t be serious right? What’s back there then?” She asked, having his attention. Spike took the chance and sneaked past the stallion and quickly grabbed the key. Eyeing the stairwell door, he turned his back to it and slowly walked backwards, claws tucked firmly to keep the key from sight. The two ponies began to shout at each other, causing him to speed walk and quickly open and pass the door. “You are getting on my nerves, miss. Wait a minute,” He looked around the room and peeked outside. “Where’s the dragon?” Twilight backed up a bit as he looked to see the key was gone. “Oh you little son of a donkey, you two are full on morons!” He sprinted past Twilight to the door and she leaped onto him, toppling Spike to the ground as he struggled to get up. “What’s going on? What are you trying to hide?” Twilight asked, as the stallion refused to answer. Instead headbutting her nose, causing her to recoil off and allow him to get up and charge into the stairwell. Spike heard the clopping of the receptionist’s hooves and looked down to see the stallion running up after him, causing him to run up the stairs as fast as he could. Twilight entered the staircase and teleported up to the second floor, following suit as the stallion caught up to Spike, grabbing him and shoving him against the wall. “You have no idea what you two are getting into! Give me that key!” He shouted, trying to rip it out of his claws. “Leave Spike alone!” She called out, her horn lighting up with red and purple sparks as she cast a spell on him, causing him to release Spike. She shouted out, “Go Spike! This guy is not going anywhere!”, readying up another spell as he ran up the stairs. The stallion turned to her, anger boiling as Twilight cast the spell on him. Smoke surrounded his face as he shook himself around and opened his eye that turned black as night, with black tendrils spilling out of it. Upon seeing that, Twi recoiled back and readied up another spell. He leaped onto her, powering through the spell and pushing her to the ground, her face filling with anger as she struggled on the ground. She tried to kick the stallion into his chest, but he didn’t budge a bit. Readying her back hooves, she let out a kick to his stomach and grunted. A scream came out of him as he recoiled after the kick, allowing her to push him off and give her some space. He didn’t recoil for long as his hooves wrapped around her head, throwing her against the bars of the railing. Dazed by the blow, Twilight couldn’t keep up after the stallion as he took the chance to run up to find Spike. “Room 405, where are you…” Spike runned around the floor, looking at the numbers at each door until he found it. Rushing to unlock it, he entered and locked it behind him. Vibrations curas through his tail, causing him to look at the gem which gave off a slight glow. “Huh, wait.” He said putting it into his claws. “You’re glowing like in the dream. Wait a minute.” He looked around the room, seeing the desk next to the window. Sewing machine is set on it with a stand right next to it. Pieces of fabric littered the room around him. He ran over to the desk, looking through the drawers. “Gotta be something in here.” tossing junk out as he grabbed a crumpled piece of paper. “Yes, Rarity was here.” He held the letter that was sent to her. Reading it, he looked around for the music box mentioned. “Looks like the box is not here. Hmm what was that stallion trying to hide?” He searched the room, checking under the bed and going through all the fabric laying around. Nothing. He thought, eyeing the closet as the gem kept on glowing. He walked over to the closet, the sounds of strangling coming to his ears. He rushed to the closet door. The gem glowed like crazy when he did so. “What’s going on with yo-” Spike stared into the closet, its wall and floor coated in black. He stared at it, confused as the gem started to blind him. “This is what he was trying to hide? Why are you going nuts?”The crunching of wood hit his ear, causing him to spin around to it. The stallion busted his way through, smashing the door to pieces. Twilight jumped on his back, and tried to stop him from entering. But as much as she tried, he tossed her off and threw her to the wasked. Out of fear, Spike clutched the crystal in his claws and held it infront of his mouth and breathed fire through it, targetting the stallion’s face. The stallion screamed, as dark smoke emerged from the gem, seemingly sucking the light out of the room. Spike looked at the gem surprised, and smiled, breathing the fire once more. The stallion’s quickly recovered though, and dodged the second blast of fire, and knocked the gem out of Spike’s claws. “Hey! Not fair!” Yelled Spike, and proceeded to slide and punch the stallion into his belly. The receptionist grunted, and threw a punch towards the back of his body, where Spike emerged from. The strike luckily missed, as Spike jumped onto his back and held his mane. “Twilight! Fetch me the gem!” He called. Twilight nodded, and ran towards the fallen gem. “No!” The stallion commanded, and jumped high, making Spike lose his grip and fall. Twilight managed to reach the gem, but the stallion was already halfway there. “Catch!” She called out, but her pupils shrunk as she saw Spike laying on the ground, and the stallion charging into her in full force, sending her flying across the room into the wall. “Spike...” She breathed out, as she saw the stallion approaching helpless Spike, before her vision turned black.
Chapter four: Just a normal day in ManehattenAuthor's Note Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Please do say your suggestions to me, we can make this even better and cleaner with your help. Have a good day and enjoy reading, I'm thankful to any suggestions. Chapter four: Just a normal day in Manehatten Pinkie entered the shop, with Fluttershy following shortly behind. Loads of dresses and fabric were on display and surprisingly, all of them were heavily discounted. Pieces of fabric as low as a bit. That put a confused look onto her face. “How can a shop sell these at such prices? These look luxurious!” She said, eyeing the fabrics and dresses. After half a minute of admiring, she noticed something weird. “Wait, are the display windows painted over?” Fluttershy pointed to the displays near the door where windows should be. “They are. I honestly thought it was just a weirdly designed wall.” Pinkie said, walking up to it and placing her hooves against it. “I wonder why would anyone do it.” She then turned away from the wall and yelled, “Hello! Any pony there?” Only a crashing of metal responded back. They both turned to the sound and a dark green mare with silver mane came out of a door behind the counter. “Sorry sorry!” The mare shakenly walked past Pinkie. “I fell asleep in the back rooms,” she giggled nervously, letting out a short yawn right after. Pinkie noticed bags hanging under her eyes, as the mare stared at the wall. “Um, are you okay?” Pinkie asked, waving her hoof in front of the sleepy mare. “You look like you haven’t slept in days. Also, why is there paint over the window?” The mare shook her head, deep lines of worry crossed her face. She refused to let her eyes meet Pinkie’s. “I’m so sorry! Can one of you pass me my coffee please? It’s on the counter.” Fluttershy grabbed it and flew over to her. “Thanks darling.” The mare grabbed it and swallowed a big gulp. “Ahhh, the good stuff. Name is Silver Gew, what can I do for you two?” Suddenly a sound of crashing shelves assaulted their ears as the mare recoiled back. “Can you two go outside? I’ll be with you in a moment.” They exited out, shutting the door behind them as they looked at each other. “I really hope nopony got hurt. That was weird.” Pinkie said, looking over the painted window. “Something is off here, I can feel it!” “I agree, especially this paint over the window. She looked panicked when we noticed it. I hope she is okay right now.” The mare crashed through the door and slammed it shut, causing the two ponies to jump back in surprise. “Sorry about that!” She said while locking the door. “Now, what can I do for you two?” They looked at each other for a second before Pinkie came up to ask. “We were wondering if you’ve seen Rarity around. We have been going to all of the shops, asking around if they’ve seen her, and we haven’t found anything. We hope you can tell us something.” The mare stared at her with a nervous smile. Eying the door as she spoke with hesitation. “I… I’m sorry. I can’t really help with that.’' The mare looked disappointed. “I told Coco and Breeze the same thing. I can’t help you find her.” Fluttershy and Pinkie looked at each other. Worry crossed over their faces as they started to walk away. “But,” the mare called out, “can I tell you something that has been going on? It’s been happening since Rarity left my shop a few days ago.” They nodded in response, as she walked over to them. She sat down and began to tell them the story... “It was a day like any other. Staff came to work, ponies sorted through the dresses as you would expect. I went to the storage room to gather all of the items for Rarity’s order. Then, the air started to feel heavy.” The mare kept eyeing the door, sweat running over her face. “The place had gone quiet, weirdly quiet. Normally I could hear the music that is playing in the store, but I couldn’t even hear that. Instead, a medley came rushing into my ears. The speakers had it flood the room. There was something sinister within it… Like insanity was coated into it.” The mare noticed their worried looks and straighten herself. Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. “Sorry, this is making me terrified. Nopony outside the storage room seemed to have heard the music. After that, I gave Rarity her order and the rest of the day went as normal. But things changed when night fell. Every night I’ve been having nightmares since. A lightless world is where I would be. Whispers and distorted screams would ring through my ears until a black figure would appear in front of me. I would wake up every time it happened, but it would get closer to me each time. “I’m the only one still working here now. Others were too scared to come to work today.” The mare looked at Pinkie and Fluttershy and sighed. “I hope you find what you’re looking for. There is something happening in this city, so please stay safe. I’m going to stay out here for a moment.” Fluttershy and Pinkie stared at each other, lost in thoughts as the mare sat down, and shakily drank her coffee. The two walked away, looking at each other with eyebrows raised. “I really don’t know what to think about it, Pinkie. That sounded scary.” Fluttershy said, shaking a bit herself. “Yea it was, I wonder what caused the music to pla-” Pinkie’s left ear began to flap as a shiver spiked up her back. She turned around and noticed the mare was gone. “Hey, where did the shopkeeper go?” Fluttershy looked back and looked around for her. “She was there seconds ago!” “Maybe she just went back inside. Ow!” Fluttershy bumped into something as a poster flew into her face. “My posters! The Great And Powerful Trixie commands you to stop flying away from me!!” Spat an angry mare’s voice. Fluttershy pulled the posters off her face, and saw a familiar unicorn standing in front of her. “Trixie?“ She asked. “Oh, Fluttershy. Trixie is surprised that you came into a city like this.” She gathered the posters with her magic and placed them into her pouch. “So, may I ask what you two are up to?” “We have been traveling through the city, asking shopkeepers if they saw Rarity.” Pinkie told her. “She has gone missing and we haven’t found anything that could help us.” Trixie’s eyes went wide and her jaw went ajar at the news. “Really? Well, unfortunately Trixie can’t help you. But, since you two are here, I think I passed Twilight while I was taking my trailer to the park.” She pointed down the road. “She was heading towards a hotel that is five blocks away from here. Trixie doesn’t know if she is still there, but I passed her thirty minutes ago. This is all I know. I wish you two good luck.” The two mares nodded, and gave their thanks to her. “Wait,” Trixie called out before they walked away. “I’ll be performing tomorrow night. The great and powerful Trixie would like you and your friends to come and watch my great and powerful show. If you find Rarity, that is. It gets lonely after the performance is done. What do you say?” She asked with almost pleading eyes. Pinkie and Fluttershy looked at each other for a moment. Pinkie gave her a smile. “Yeah sure. If we get the chance, we’ll come.” Trixie gave them a smile and they headed off to the hotel. “Trixie seemed to be better than the last time we met her. Alicorn amulet and that. What do you think, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked. “Well, it was weird to hear her pleading for us to come.” She said, confused look on her face. “Are you really sure about going to her performance when we find Rarity? I don’t think the others would agree to it.” “I know, they may not like it but I’ll still go. I think she should get another chance, even if she can be full of herself!” Pinkie stomped around joyfully, jumping into the air. “I can see the hotel up ahead. The last one is a rotten egg surrounded by melted ice cream!” She dashed forward, leaving Flutters in the dust as she put on a smile. Galloping behind her, she slowly caught up to the pony. The wind went through her mane, getting it wrapped all over her face and causing her to trip up onto her stomach. Pinkie didn’t seem to notice her falling as she sped up. Picking herself back up, Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew up. While seeing that Pinkie had stopped a block in front of the hotel, she also noticed something that made her gasp. Pinkie dashed as quickly as she could. “Twilight! Spike! Sweet Celestia, sweet Celestia…” She called out, getting a closer look at them. Dots of blood covered Twilight’s face, while Spike’s lower face was covered in dry blood. They laid on the sidewalk, motionless. “Come on, please be alive…” She rolled Twilight onto her back and placed her ear to the unicorn’s chest. Slow breathing could be felt, her heart rhythmically beating into Pinkies’ ears. Letting out a sign of relief, she saw Fluttershy approach her. “Oh my gosh! Please tell me they are okay!” Fluttershy stared in a panic at the three of them as she got closer. “Twilight is breathing, and she doesn’t have any wounds I can see. Go check if Spike is injured!” Pinkie told her. She grabbed Spike and held him in her embrace. Blood oozed out of his nose, face turned gray. She set her hoof along his chest, feeling faint breathing. “Please wake up Twilight. Please!” Pinkie begged her, shaking her around and getting Twi onto her hind’ legs while keeping her hooves locked to her face. Twi’s eyes twitched open. “Pinkie…” Twilight said weakly, blankly staring at her. “Where am I? And why…. Am I?” She continued, while touching her head that was visibly hurting. “It’s alright Twilight,” she gave her a hug. “Trixie told us she saw you heading here. Really glad she did.” Pinkie’s ears began to flap onto her eyes. Confusing her as they alternated. Right right left left left and kept going until they stopped moving. “What the heck does that mean?” Pinkie turned her head to look around. She caught a black hoof mark in the corner of her eye, right next to the hotel wall. Then another mark appeared. It was like something was slowly moving towards them, but they couldn’t see it. “What is it, Pinkie? You look a bit spooked.” Fluttershy commented. Spike coughed as his eyes opened. “...I think it would be good if we go somewhere else.” She looked at her with a frown. “Trust me on that, please,” Pinkie said. “Wait,” Spike woke up and called out. “ Where’s the gem? It might come in handy later.” Flutters looked around and spotted the shiny rock with a glow coming out of it. Grabbing it, she gave it to Spike who clutched it tightly. “Thanks Fluttershy, this is more important than you would probably think. Twilight? Wait, where is she!?” “I’m right here, Spike.” Twi replied and he hugged her immediately. “We got to meet up with Rainbow. There is a lot we all need to talk about.” Pinkie kept on eyeing the black marks as another appeared to get closer to her. She began to walk with the others, nervously keeping her eye trained on the mark until it was out of sight. Rainbow was flying at half the throttle, as she approached a tall red painted building that was getting bigger each second. Once a few meters away from the entrance, she suddenly stopped and flew towards the ground and landed. She then eyed the sign reading “Wild Mild West”. “Looks like the place. What a dumb name for a play.” She smirked and commented as the clapping of hooves went on behind her. “Well-then, that has t’ be the worst name of a play I have ever heard.” The Applejack said, walking over to Rainbow. “You’re preaching to the choir. Ugh, let’s get this over with.” Bringing out the keys, she pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Why thank you for the keys, Breeze.” Unlocking the door, they let themselves in. The place was quiet. “For maintenance or practice, this place is pretty quiet.” Dashie said. “Come on, let’s find the stage. We are down to find somepony there.” Applejack said. Rainbow dash flew around, looking around for the auditorium entrance. Nopony was in sight. Not even a janitor, even though a cleaning cart could be seen. Nopony stood in the ticket booth either. The place felt weirdly empty, The place felt weirdly empty, her ears moving around uncomfortably as she glanced about.. “I found it!” AJ called out. Rainbow flew over to her, following behind as she entered. Lights were lit around the room, stage having all the props set up. But nopony was around. “Where is everypony? This is weirding me out AJ.” She said, flying over to the stage. The speaker to her left startled her, static suddenly playing from it and disappearing as quick as it came. “Stupid speaker. What the heck was that?” “Like I know.” AJ shrugged. “The new tech is real sensitive” With that, Applejack jumped onto the stage. “Come on, we got to find somepony.” Rainbow landed on the stage beside her, looking at the props that were laid about. “Looks like they had everything set up, but they had to abandon the place quickly. I won’t lie, this is giving me the creeps.” “Hello! Anypony here?” AJ called out and the room echoed the words back. Looking above, she noticed one of the lights was swinging left to right. “Hey Rainbow,” She turned to her, “can you take a look at that light? It’s swinging a bit.” Dash nodded and flew up to take a look. “The power cable looks a bit damaged. Do you see any tape or something to cut it? We wouldn’t want this crashing down on us.” AJ looked across the floor, spotting some pliers placed down. “They are pliers under the light!” She shouted, and bent down to grab them with her mouth. Rainbow flew down grabbing it, catching them way sooner than AJ could even bend down. Then the light suddenly came crashing down on her. “Look out!” AJ tackled Rainbow, the falling light missing them by inches. “What in the holy Celestia is going on here?!” Dash shouted, picking herself up as Applejack got off her. “Who cut that light down?! Show yourself!” The lights turned off, plunging the room to darkness. “Oh great, what now?” She said, sitting down in anger. The lights flipped back on. Rainbow was facing AJ, whose eyes went wide as her face lost some of its color. “AJ, what’s the matter?” “Take a look for yourself.” She pointed to the seats behind her. Eyebrows raised, she started to gag as a stench hit her nose. Dashie turned around and recoiled back. Confusion turned to fear at what she was seeing. As far as she could see, in every single seat there was a rotten corpse, with eyes replaced by insects coming out of them. Some were bloated, some looked like all their color was sucked out of them. Both AJ and RD screamed like there was no tomorrow. The sight was unbelievable. “Where the hell did they all come from,” Aj screamed out. “Who cares, run!” Yelled Rainbow back, knocking Applejack to the side and taking to the air. Dashing over to the top row of the seats. She looked around for a door that was once there. “Wait, the door is gone!” “Wha?” AJ ran up to Rainbow, placing her back against the wall. One of the bodies began staring at her, its caved-in gray eyes felt like it was piercing into her soul. “Maybe there is another exit!” Yelled Dash. “I’ll take a look on the balconies, has to be a door up there!” She flew up to the one closest to her. Landing and running behind the curtains, she checked the hall for any door in sight, but there was nothing but a hall. Only a body laid against the wall. This one was different from the others, catching her eye to take a look. This one was fresh compared to the others. Blood oozing out of a hole where one of her legs should be. Black prints covered the dark green coat of the mare, wearing a shredded uniform. Blood covering her silver locks, Rainbow placed her hoof onto her forehead. “Warm…” she said uneasily. “You were killed recently. What the heck happened to you?” She opened the mare’s eyes and dark smoke started to stream out of it. “This is unbelievable. Hey AJ, you found anything?” Applejack didn’t respond and the place has gone quiet. “Yo, Applejack, don’t play games with me. Talk to me!” “He…lp me.” A faint voice hit her ears. Hair standing on end, she let out a sharp gasp. Like something just wrapped around her. Turning over to the body, its eyes seemed to be looking straight at her, “did you say that?” she thought. She felt a hoof rub against her leg and looked down. The mare’s hoof was right next to Rainbow’s leg. When she tried to back away, the hoof shot itself to Rainbows’ neck. The body turned its head, as she struggled to break the grip. “What the hell?! Get off of me!” She began to flap her wings as fast as she could. Vomit left the corpse as she loosened the grip. Throwing a punch, she knocked it to the side and made the corpse lose its hold. Allowing herself to fly away, she turned her back and looked around for AJ. “Where are you Applejack?! Ugh, crap.” She looked back for the body, but it was no longer there. Her eyes went wide in shock as a door appeared in its place. “Wait, what?” She looked down at the seats below her. They were all empty, no bodies and no marks left on them. “Did I… imagine all that? Applejack, where are you!” “Ah, you must be Rainbow then.” A voice called out. “Come down, I’m over here.” Rainbow turned to the voice, a dark blue mare unicorn with a purple mane was standing at the edge of the entrance. Confused, she landed and cautiously approached her. Getting a closer look to see bags under her eyes, and a coffee she is keeping to the side. “It’s alright, your friend is just packing some stuff up for me. I’m Page Tale. I should have told Breeze not to allow anypony in. But well, too late now. We need to talk.” Applejack was searching the file room, packing up documents for Page Tale into her bags. “That girl better tell us what’s goin’ on. I will make it hell for her if she doesn’t.” Alright, I got most of the stuff off her desk. She mentioned a letter but where in the haystack, is it? ” She looked around the room once more, taking a look through the cabinets. Files of practice days, schedules, and costume diagrams within them. Annoyed, she began tossing files out onto the floor and ripping drawers out of the cabinets. “What the hay is this,” a folder was hidden under one of the drawers she ripped out. Confused, she picked it up, opening it up to see a bunch of drawings and a document full of random symbols. “Huh? ‘Classified’? What can be classified about a bunch of weird letters?” Then she noticed a small text at the bottom of the page. ‘Three wild ponies ran through a field filled with freshly baked dinosaurs &’ “Uhhh, this document is getting weirder ‘n weirder. I ain’t a scientist but that seems like a heck of a riddle to me. Twilight will surely know what it means.” She said, as she tugged the document inside her cowboy hat. “Alright, better hurry up and find the letter.” She said, and after a few moments found the letter sitting on the chair. “There we go.” She said while grabbing it with her mouth, and putting it inside of Page Tale’s bag. “Have you put all of it inside of the bag?” Page Tale asked when she entered the room. “I don’t have much time before I have to go.” AJ nodded and the unicorn lifted her up with a spell, keeping her in place while she cleaned the mess she made. “What are you doing? Set me down!” Applejack spat out in anger. “Relax, the spell will send you outside in a bit. Now listen to what I say.” The mare got close up to her ear. “ Leave the city while you can. If you value your life you will do this. Now go.” After being teleported outside, in front of the cinema’s doors, Applejack fell flat onto her face. “Ooww. Why that unicorn!” “You got teleported too I see. Did she tell you to leave the city?” Rainbow asked, helping AJ get up to her hooves. “Yes she did, if that is a threat if I ever heard one. The nerve she has to say that!” She tried to open the door, but it would not budge. “It’s locked! That little rattlesnake took the key from you, hasn’t she?” RD nodded as she kicked the wall in anger. “Let’s go find the others, AJ.” She said, when suddenly a voice called out to her. “No need, we’re here.” They turned around to see Pinkie. The others followed shortly. “ Good to see you two are okay. Twilight and Spike weren’t so hot.” Rainbow and Applejack looked at Twilight’s bloodied face and the bandage that was placed over Spike’s nose. “What the hell happened to you two!? You look like they put you through a meat grinder!” Aj cried out. “It…is a long story.” Twilight replied. “We all have things to share, no doubt. Let’s get something to eat, and then we’ll share. Today has been exhausting for all of us.“ “I sure wouldn’t mind something to eat!” Dashie called out excitedly, and did a somersault in the air. “Let’s go to Papa Will’s pizzeria!” “Yes!”,“Totally agreed!”, “Heck yeah!” sounded from everypony in the group of friends, as they all headed to get the tastiest pizza they could afford. While they were traveling, they discussed most of what happened. Fluttershy and Pinkie told them about their encounter with the clerk, which reaped a scared look from Rainbow, who remembered that she saw the exact pony, dead back in the theater. “Something wrong?” Asked Pinkie. “N-no it’s just,I saw the exact same pony at the theater… what was left of her, that is.” “What do you mean, Dashie?” Fluttershy asked. “Exactly what I’m saying. I saw the corpse of that poor girl back there!” That put horrified looks on everypony’s faces, and everyone’s attention focused on AJ and RD. So they told the girls and Spike about their entire visit to the theater. By the time they finished, Fluttershy was shaking with fear. “T-that’s horrible! This doesn’t even sound like something you could make up…” Pinkie held her, and said, “Yeah… we should definitely check up on her the next chance we get.” “Now, hold on a second.” Said Applejack. “You met the Trixie? The one that almost killed the entirety of Ponyville? I don’t wanna point hooves at anypony, but her being in town and this stuff happening can’t be a coincidence, I’m telling yall.” “We can’t discard that possibility.” Twi said, with a slight frown on her face as well. “It all would’ve made sense, but what me and Spike experienced in the hotel just doesn’t make sense! It was as if he was blocking my magic! Besides princesses, I can’t imagine anyone else performing such a spell. And we know that Trixie lost the alicorn amulet.” “We will need to find all of this out. But right now, I’m just too hungry to think straight.” Proclaimed Pinkie, as they reached ‘Papa Will’s Pizzeria’. “Good day!” “Heya.” Responded the clerk, eyeing the group of ponies. “What do you wish to order?” “Uhh…” Pinkie thought. “Girls, what do we want?” She turned her back to the clerk, facing her friends once again. “I see no reason to try to fight over the type of Pizza.” Replied Twilight. “I’m paying for everyone’s order!” Cheers erupted from the group, as they all scanned the menu for their favourite pizzas and began telling their orders to the clerk.
Chapter five: Silence Before the StormSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
