The days in Equestria passed like normal. Everypony went on with their lives as usual. However, without Pinkie, parties were not as fun as they could have been. The fillies and colts of Ponyville were never satisfied with their birthday parties or their cuteceaneras. It was always Pinkie who made their parties just how they liked them.

Twilight and her friends spent their free time looking for ways to either bring Pinkie back from the world Discord sent her to or to find a way to go to her. Discord made a Pinkie Promise to keep an eye on their friend and made sure that she didn’t end up in over her head.

Discord had warned the Mane 5 that going to that world would be too dangerous. At this point, Equestrians were infamous among the people there and would be more likely to try and arrest them out of fear that they would turn out to be more murderers like their friend. Gilda and Treehugger only made the situation worse in that regard.

Fluttershy was in disbelief that her old friend would end up being a killer since Treehugger was always a peaceful pony.

Rainbow Dash held onto some bitter feelings about the griffon. She never fully forgave her for trying to drive a wedge between her and her friends.

“The little psychopath is more charismatic than I thought,” Discord muttered.

“What do you mean?” Twilight inquired.

“Pinkamena was able to get Treehugger, a pony who is normally peaceful, and Gilda, who should still have some bitter feelings toward Pinkie from that party, to follow her in her campaign of violence and bloodshed. Though given what I’ve seen of those two, it seems they had some dark secrets of their own.”

“What secrets?”

“Seems Gilda has some anger issues related to Dashie betraying her.”

“What?!” Dash screamed. “She’s the one who acted like a jerk to Pinkie and made a mule of herself at the party...no offense.”

“None taken,” said a passing mule.

“Seems like she’s slowly getting over that betrayal with each person she kills. I’d say she’s been projecting you onto each of her kills.”

Dash’s complexion paled before she gulped.

“As for Fluttershy’s friend, it seems she spent some time in Zebrica and learned some of their dark magic. Invoking that dark magic brought some suppressed feelings to the surface.”

“What kind of suppressed feelings?” Fluttershy asked.

“It seems that she has a suppressed love of burning things.”

An awkward silence passed over the ponies.

“Are you sure Pinkamena isn’t corrupting them somehow?” Twilight asked.

“Those feelings have always been there, Twilight.” Discord answered. “Though it does seem that she has a knack for bringing out one’s inner chaos.”

“Ah gotta address the timberwolf in the room, how’s Pinkie Pie?” Applejack asked.

“The little bundle of cotton candy and energy drinks is fine. For some reason, Pinkamena’s been rather protective of her. She goes out of her way to make sure Pinkie doesn’t witness her depraved actions.”

“So what are they doing now?” Twilight asked.

“Seems Pinkamena and her new friends killed some arrogant businessman and sent him on a one way trip to Tartarus. The Third Street Saints have entered into some sort of promotion deal with the company that businessman worked for.”

“How is it possible for humans to get to Tartarus?”

“Not telling.” Discord literally zipped his lip with a zipper.

Celestia rubbed her temples with her forehooves as she read a disturbing report from Detrot. The situation in that cesspit called a city was continuing to escalate as the police force there were hard pressed to keep the criminal elements contained.

“Sister, thou art in distress. Pray tell what the problem is?” Luna inquired.

Celestia let out a heavy sigh. “Detrot is in a bad way, dear sister. Lawlessness has become rampant and it seems that a group of ponies there have formed some sort of organized crime ring. They’re calling themselves the Detrot Eclipse out of spite toward us for being unable to maintain order there.”

“What would have caused them to go down this lawless path, sister?”

Another sigh from Celestia. “Perhaps it is my fault that matters ended up this way. In my bid to bring peace and harmony to Equestria, I displaced our unruly citizens to one place and funded a police force there with more bits than I would any other. Unfortunately, the disorder in Detrot continued to worsen and now the funding I am giving the police there is not enough. Ponies there have immersed themselves in every vice imaginable. Stallions are openly pleasuring mares in the streets, ponies are throwing their bits away through rigged gambling operations, a Zebrican drug cartel has moved in and started selling their profane substances to my little ponies, and finally, the Eclipse has been stockpiling weapons.”

“Didst thou send the Royal Guard?”

Tears started flowing from Celestia’s eyes. “They were killed, every last one that was sent,” she whispered, barely audible but loud enough for Luna to hear.

“Perhaps we should intervene, dear sister.”

Celestia shook her head, “That would be an acknowledgement of the gang as a major threat to Equestria. Our little ponies will view any threat where we become involved as something that needs to be wiped off the face of Equus. It is tragic for the Changelings, but after the invasion, they would fall under that category. I won’t subject my ponies to such treatment, no matter how misguided they are.”

“Then what shall we do?”

“All we can do is contain them to Detrot and make sure their influence doesn’t spread beyond the city.”

There were some things that Discord never told Twilight and her friends about Pinkamena. At first he sent her to Stilwater to not only remove a violent threat to the ponies around her, especially the Elements of Harmony, but also to remove one of said Elements from play. Forming a relationship with one of them had made him reconsider the latter reason but still felt that Pinkamena was still too dangerous.

In order to help with the former of the two reasons, he sent Treehugger and Gilda to Earth on purpose to help teach Pinkamena the magic of friendship. He chose those two because they had the best chances of adapting to the culture of Stilwater. It worked in its own twisted way.

While Pinkamena taught those two to let loose the suppressed darkness in their hearts in less consequential ways, such as killing enemy gang members and law enforcement that sought to kill them, Gilda and Treehugger had also triggered a change in the psychotic pony. Pinkie helped with that as well. Pinkamena had earned their loyalty by supporting them. Treehugger got a few real laughs out of the madmare whenever she slipped some drugs into Playa’s food and drink. The Saints leader’s antics while high were hilarious to both her and Discord.

While Pinkamena was making progress, Discord decided that a few more ponies might have more of an effect on her. He knew about the backdoor route to Equus and he could only hope that she would realize her destiny before she found it.

In a small house in Canterlot was a library worth of books piled in stacks twice the height of Princess Celestia. Books covered every piece of furniture, including the bed of the mare that owned the house.

Sitting at her desk, the mare studied book after book, filling her mind with knowledge for the sake of learning. It was unproductive, but she preferred that over being outside with everypony else.

The unicorn mare was yellowish gray, a red mane and tail with purple highlights, purple eyes and wore a dark gray sweater and a pair of taped glasses. Her cutie mark was a purple crescent moon with three light purple stars around it.

After a certain mare stood her up on her birthday years ago, the resident had become a shut in and rarely left her house while studying as a means of escaping from reality.

A knock at her door pulled her out of her comfort zone. She grumbled as she walked away from her desk and to the door. She didn’t bother cleaning up her disheveled appearance before she opened the door.

Minuette, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine, her old classmates from school, greeted her. “Hey Moondancer, we’re going to this restaurant down the street to get a bite to eat, you wanna come with?”

Moondancer frowned, “Can’t, I’m busy studying.”

“Come on Moondancer, you’re always studying. School is years behind us. Shouldn’t you have chosen a career by now?”

“Like I care,” Moondancer snapped. “I stopped caring about my own future a long time ago. The one pony I really wanted to be friends with and she snubbed me because she felt some prophecy about Nightmare Moon was more important than being my friend.”

“Forget about her, she’s not worth suffering over. You still have us. We are friends, right?”

Moondancer shut the door.

Just as she turned around to return to her desk, another knock came at the door. Moondancer growled and lit her horn to make the door fly open.

“What part of-”

*snap*

The house was filled with the deep, beautiful sound of the cello. The melody was soft and relaxing. Of course, the one playing the music could only hope in vain that it would make her energetic roommate fall asleep so her practice could go uninterrupted.

“Taviiii...I’m bored. Can’t you play something more upbeat?”

It was fun while it lasted.

Octavia Melody, an earth pony mare with a light gray coat and a dark gray mane and tail and purple eyes, wore a white collar and a pink bowtie. Her cutie mark was a pink treble clef.

Octavia sighed, “Vinyl, I told you before, I have a concert next week and I need to practice. Besides, you have a gig in three days at that nightclub in Manehattan. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for that?”

Vinyl Scratch is a white unicorn mare with a mane and tail of two tones of blue. She wore magenta shades over her red eyes and her cutie mark was two eighth notes. She was also a famous DJ.

“Eh, doesn’t take a lot of prepwork to get set up. My skills on the turntable are sharp as ever.”

Octavia rolled her eyes, “Don’t come crying to me if your gig is a bust.”

Vinyl decided to change the subject, “So when are you gonna talk about your mysterious past, Tavi? I’ve been more patient with that than I actually thought myself capable.”

Octavia groaned, “This again? I told you that just because you somehow found out Bon Bon was my colleague from my old line of work doesn’t mean I’m ready to tell you what my old job was.”

Vinyl rolled upside down on the couch. “No fair Tavi, you already know everything there is to know about me. It’s your turn to share.”

“Fine…” Octavia adjusted the pegs on her cello which opened a tiny compartment for her bow to fit into. Once the bow went into the compartment, the cello opened to reveal a briefcase. She removed the briefcase from its musical container before putting it on the floor and unlocked it. Opening the briefcase, Octavia revealed a disassembled sniper rifle.

“Whoa…” Vinyl gasped. “What is that?”

“This is state of the art technology that I promised my supervisors of my old job that I would keep safe from anyone who would think to steal it and use it against Equestria. My vow continues even after my retirement.”

Octavia could sense the deadpan expression through Vinyl’s glasses. “Retirement? Tavi, we’re still relatively young.”

“Okay, fine, early retirement. Some ambitious agent from Detrot got me fired when he gave me bad information to sabotage me. This prototype was my severance package...in a sense.”

“Wow...newfound respect for you. Can you use it?”

Octavia smirked, “Pegasi aren’t the only ones with good eyesight. Sadly, I have no ammunition to show you how it works.”

The sound of a teleport was heard from the living room. The two musical ponies turned to address the draconequus in the room. “I know of a place where you can get plenty of ammunition,” Discord said.

“Hey Discord,” Vinyl greeted. “You comin’ to my gig in Manehattan?”

“As much as I enjoy your raves, I’m afraid your plans are about to be cancelled.”

Vinyl tilted her head, “What do you mean?”

“The two of you are about to take a one way trip somewhere; two way if you can find the way back.”

“Discord,” Octavia began. “I know you’re having fun sending ponies to wherever you took the Element of Laughter, but we simply do not have time for--”

*snap*

Author's Note

The thing I fear most about writing these interlude chapters is that I might be giving too much away.