What went wrong?by FrostbyiteChaptersPrologueChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5PrologueThanks to bednarowski for letting me use the cover image. I watched from the ring of fire that surrounded me as she suffered. One who was once an all powerful figure now lay a bloody, broken mess in front of me. Had this been a different situation I would have maybe felt sadness or remorse, yet those feelings were now foreign to me. All that was left was pure seething anger, hatred, and rage. “Please don’t,” she managed to choke out, a single tear rolled from her eye, down her cheek, only to sizzle and evaporate in the blistering heat around us. “I’m so sorry, please listen,” she said again, this time coughing up blood, that just added to the puddle already surrounding her. Her once pure white coat red from the puddle that she lay in. “It wasn’t supposed to have turned out this way, I only wanted to-” her voice is cut off and replaced by choked screams as I put a hoof to her throat to silence her. I watch as the fur burned and blackened from my touch. If she had the energy left she probably would have been writhing in pain, kicking and flailing to get free. Away from the pain and suffering, the thought only made me push down harder. With her eyes bulging as if they are about to pop out of her head, and face turning purple form lack of air, I removed my hoof from her throat and she gasped for air. I brought my face to hers and stared right into her eyes and the reflection from her eyes show what I have become; a monster. I could see everything that was now me. My eyes once purple, a glowing red, filled with anger. My once purple coat, white-orange, tinted by the flames that are now make my mane and tail. Just as like the wings that now sprout from my sides. “This pain that you feel right now, this is nothing compared to what I feel, nothing compared to what my friends felt.” I said as she tried to back away from the blazing heat that I was giving off. The image in her eyes not affecting me at all. “I want to make you suffer so much more, make you experience the pain that I had to feel. Take away the ones you love most and have you sit by unable to stop any of it. Listen to their screams, the sounds of them begging you to help them as the life slowly drains from their eyes. And yet I can’t even do that because a monster like you has no one that she loves. You only use others, just like you used me.” I backed away from her, and closed my eyes. I stopped and began to focus magic into my horn. I felt its warmth rise from the base and up to tip and then felt the magic spill out from the top and float above growing in size. “Wait, what are you doing?” she asked me. As the ball grew larger I felt my anger begin to subside along with the hatred, sorrow, and pain. I was putting it all into the ball, and as the negative feelings became less and less and the ball grew larger. “Stop this at once, what do you think you are doing?” now her voice went from worried to angry. However that only fueled my subsiding anger. The ball of energy above me burst into flames and I lifted it higher into the air giving room to expand. “Stop this! Do you know who I am? I am Princess Celestia! The all powerful ruler of the land of Equestria! You are nothing but a lowly commoner who should be grateful that I chose to be my student!” The flames that surrounded me slowly burn out. My makeshift wings disappeared and my mane and tail slowly went back to their original color. Though torn and ragged after the long journey I embarked on that brought me to this moment. My coat, now white, began to change back to original lavender. Starting at my hind hooves, I felt the white slowly change back and it faded away revealing my cutie mark then continued up my sides to my head. The last thing that reverted back was my horn and the white vanished at the tip with a small puff of smoke. I stared down at my former mentor, my face completely emotionless, “I’m not your student anymore. I’ve lost friends and family because of you. I don’t want to hear those words anymore. I don’t want to hear you voice, it sickens me, and I shall make sure I silence it for good.” Chapter 1It seemed like a normal Monday morning when I woke up. The smell of eggs, pancakes, and oatmeal came from the kitchen as Spike cooked. I rolled out of bed and went into the bathroom to begin my daily routine. First I brushed my mane, tail, and teeth, and then went downstairs for breakfast. I sat down at the table and Spike put the plate of food in front of me and poured me a glass of orange juice. Then he sat down on the other side and ate his breakfast. After breakfast we went into the library and checked inventory. Once that was done we began work on my checklists. My checklist for the things that were needed to make a checklist, then the checklist to make a checklist for the things that I need to get done by the end of the day, and finally the checklist of things that needed to be done by the end of the day. With the checklist in tow Spike and I made our way out of the tree library and down to the market for our first stop. The sun just barely peeking over the Canterlot Mountains and a few rays making their way to the town casting long shadows. Since it was the beginning of the week there wasn’t much to do on the list and food shopping seemed to be the most important thing at the moment. The streets were mostly deserted since it was so early, and the few ponies that were out, were the ones returning from early morning weather control. They were the ones that cleared out the clouds that rolled in overnight. It was a peaceful time of day, and I liked being out at this time because, even though I like Ponyville, the ponies in this town are a little crazy. They freak out over everything even when it’s nothing. Like the time that Pinkie’s party cannon fired black and white confetti instead of the normal confetti in town square on Zecora’s birthday, and Roseluck, Daisy, and Daffodil, thinking it was smoke, started screaming at the top of their lungs about how Zecora and Pinkie trying to destroy the town and everypony lost it. It took over an hour for everyone to calm down and it ended up with 7 ponies in the hospital, 4000 bits in property damage, and to top it all off Pinkie was banned from throwing surprise parties in the middle town anymore. She didn’t take it too well at first and went into another fit about nopony liking her parties. That lasted 20 minutes before she realized that she had to make plans for Cherilee’s birthday the next day. Speaking of Pinkie, we were getting close to Sugar Cube Corner and the usual smell of baked goods couldn’t be smelled coming from the bakery. “Spike do you smell anything coming from the bakery?” I asked him. “Pinkie is usually up at this time making cupcakes.” Spike raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “I don’t smell anything.” “That’s weird this hasn’t happened before.” “I think that she was foal sitting the twins last night because I went in before they closed and Mr. and Mrs. Cake were dressed up like they were going out. She’s probably tired from taking care of the twins all night.” “Pinkie, tired? That’s even weirder than her not making cakes.” “Yea well we can ask her later, Sugar Cube’s on the list.” Spike said pointing a scaly claw at a checkbox on the list. “Alright Spike, so what’s first on the list?” “We have to get more oranges at the market. We’re all out and I can’t make anymore orange juice without them.” “Ok then let’s go.” Spike and I continued down the street and when we came to the intersection we took a left instead of the usual right that would bring us to Sugar Cube Corner. That was my first mistake. Chapter 2The shopping trip was rather uneventful. Spike and I picked up the things that we needed for our home. By the time we had finished our errands in the market it was almost noon. By that time the town was bustling with ponies of different colors and species. I had seen a few of my friends during our time out shopping. Rarity was out getting cat food for Opal but couldn’t chat because she had work to do back at her boutique. Applejack had a stand set up selling apples and gave us a few for free since the orchard had a bumper crop this year and there was no way she was going to be able to sell them all. I saw Rainbow Dash standing on a cloud just outside the market giving orders to her weather team. She flew off before I had the chance to call out to her. I didn’t see Fluttershy, so I just assumed that she was at home taking care of her animals like she usually was, I didn’t see Pinkie either. By the time lunch rolled around Spike and I were ready to eat. Taking a different route than the original one we took in the morning we dropped off our groceries at home and made our way to Sugar Cube Corner. “So Spike how much do we have left to do?” I asked him. “Well…” he began as he unrolled the scroll and looked down the list. “We’re almost done. Up next is lunch at Sugar Cube. Then after lunch Cherilee had invited you to come to the school for a special presentation. After that you have the rest of the day off.” “Did Cherilee ever tell you what she wanted me there for Spike. I hope she knows that I need to plan these things if she wants me to teach a class. I need a lesson plan. What should I do? I could teach them some magic… no wait there are pegasus and earth ponies in that class aren’t there? Well maybe I could teach them how to- *OOF*” I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice the line of ponies in front of me and I fell backwards when I bumped into someone. The one I bumped into turned around and looked at me; I looked up and recognized the blue mare in front of me as Colgate, the town dentist. “I’m so sorry Colgate I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” I said as I got back on my hooves. “It’s alright Twilight.” Colgate said to me. I looked around and saw that the line that was in front of me went down the street and around the corner. “Whoa, what’s going on?” I asked Colgate. “Is there some kind of sale or something going on?” Spike asked beside me. “Actually this is the line to get into Sugar Cube Corner.” Colgate said. “It is?” I asked shocked. “I know it’s the lunch rush but this is ridiculous. It’s never been this bad.” Colgate said looking towards the front of the line, her neck straining to see if the line was even moving. “I had heard that Pinkie wasn’t there this morning getting the early baking done so the Cakes are overwhelmed.” “That explains why we didn’t smell anything this morning Twilight.” Spike said to me. “Well I guess that explains that. I guess we’ll have to wait in line like everypony else.” It took 30 minutes in the slow moving line for us to reach the door, in which I was able to schedule in appointments with Colgate for both me and Spike. She had even had time to map out the inside of Spike’s mouth. It wasn’t like she just had diagrams of dragon teeth lying around her office. It was a completely different story once we were inside. There were ponies everywhere screaming out orders. The concept of a line completely eluded them and they just pushed and their way to the counter, wanting their order to be next. The counter looked a mess and the Cakes weren’t faring much better. I could hear Pound and Pumpkin crying from the kitchen and Mr. Cake was rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the counter trying to deliver orders and take care of the twins at the same time. His body covered in a mixture of frosting, flour, and baby food. Mrs. Cake looked tired, her hair was frazzled and her eyes bloodshot. When she saw me, her eyes brightened and she reached over the counter and grabbed me. “Oh, Twilight dearie, I’m so glad you came by!” she said practically shouting in my face with a crazed look in her eyes. “Y-you are?” I asked somewhat scared. “Yes of course! I need you to do me a big favor. Please!” Wanting her to let go of me I agreed to do whatever she wanted. “I need for you to go upstairs and get Pinkie, she hasn’t come down and she was supposed to be here hours ago.” she said. “We can’t keep this up on our own we need help NOW!” Mr. Cake said as he came galloping out of the kitchen with boxes of cupcakes on his back. He practically threw them at the outstretched hooves coming from behind me. “Ok I’ll go get her.” I said. “But first you need help. Spike! Where are you?” I scanned the crowd and found the dragon being bumped around by the mass of ponies and grabbed him with my magic and pulled him to the counter. “Spike stay here and help the Cakes while I get Pinkie.” “Got it.” He said, and I turned and squeezed through the mob of ponies in the bakery. When I finally made it to the stairs I ran straight up to where Pinkie’s room was and knocked on her door. “Pinkie are you in there?” I called out. When she didn’t answer I tried opening, it wasn’t locked so it opened with ease and I went in. However I wasn’t prepared for what I saw inside. Chapter 3Let me just say this, writers block is a bitch. The chapter is short and may not be as good of a quality as it should be, but I hope that i can make up for it in the next few chapters. The first thing I saw when I stepped into the room was a flash of green and then I went blind. I felt something crash into my face and whatever it was covered my eyes. I tried to shake it off but then I felt something sharp dig into the sides of my head. I panicked. I was running around blind, shaking my head and bucking around trying to get the thing off my face. After a few seconds I ended up tripping over something and landed flat on my face. Whatever was on my head fell off and I immediately opened my eyes to get a good look at my attacker. To my surprise the only thing that was in front of me was Pinkie’s pet gator, Gummy. However he seemed strange. The normally emotionless gator looked angry. He scowled at me, showing his non-existent fangs and then pounced at me. I easily caught the gator with my magic and watched as he flailed around in mid-air, snapping his toothless gums at me. “Gummy it’s me Twilight. I’m Pinkie’s friend, you remember me right?” I said to him. He stopped snapping at me and seemed to show some sign of recognition. “Where’s Pinkie anyways?” I asked no one in particular as I got my first look around the room. The sight before me caused me to lose all control of my magic, and I Gummy dropped to the floor. The room looked a mess, and not just "Pinkie Pie Party" messy, but it looked like the room had been attacked. There was broken glass all over the floor, some of it from the windows and some from the shattered lamps that lay on the floor. As I looked closer I saw that some pieces had blood on them and I recoiled back in fear. Pinkie’s party cannon lay, broken, in the middle of the floor. One of the wheels was split, and the confetti hanging from the edge showed that it had been recently fired. A few feet in front of the cannon were a few feathers. I went closer to them, being careful not to step on the glass and being even more careful not to step on the bloody glass. I couldn’t really tell what they were at the time so I just assumed they were pegasus feathers. I took another look around the room and saw that the window leading to the back alley of the building was open and there were bloodstains on the window and wall. Stuck in the window was a small ball of pink. I took it in my magic and pulled it from the window and brought it to me. Without even bringing it close I could smell the sugar coming from the pink and knew it came from Pinkie. All of a sudden Gummy came flying through the air and grabbed the hair from my magical grasp. He landed on the on the bed and put the pink tuft of hair down behind him and stood between me and it protectively. I didn’t even care. I was too lost in thought. “What happened in here? Who did this? Where’s Pinkie? Is she okay?” A million questions stormed through my mind and I had no idea what to do. The one thing I knew to do was to tell the Cakes. I went to the door and took one last look the destroyed room and at Gummy staring at me from the bed, still guarding the hair. I thought about bringing him along, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. Just another thing added to the list of things that I was unsure of. I could hear the sound of yelling ponies’ downstairs which meant the lunch rush wasn’t over. On my way down I realized there was no way I could say what I saw in that room at the time. There were too many ponies there and the Cakes would probably have heart attacks if I told them while they were already stressed out. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I had to push my way through the crowd to get back to the counter. The Cakes had put Spike at the cash register and he was the first to see me. “Twilight where’s Pinkie Pie?” Spike shouted to me as I appeared from the crowd of screaming ponies. I was about to open my mouth when the sound of the Cake twin’s cries came out from the kitchen. I then realized that it was going to be even harder than I had thought. Chapter 4I ended up helping out the Cakes with the lunch rush without saying a word to anyone. It wasn’t like they even noticed. They were still too busy with the mob of ponies in the bakery screaming out orders. Somehow I was able to take charge of the counter which made taking orders easier. I wrote down the orders I heard and put them in a pile for the Cakes to take care of. With Spike at the register taking in the bits that were being thrown at him, and Mr. Cake bringing out orders and passing them out to the angry mob, it freed up Mrs. Cake to take care of the biggest problem in the bakery, the twins. In about 5 minutes the constant crying came to a halt and she came out of the kitchen with the twins thrown across her back, both of them fast asleep. As she walked past me she said something inaudible over the sound of the screaming mob. I was also still too caught up in my thoughts on how to tell them along with taking down orders to even really care. I continued on with in silent writing down orders until I dropped the pencil and pad I was levitating and my eyes grew wide as it dawned on me what was happening. Mrs. Cake was bringing the twins to their room, which meant that she had to pass by Pinkie’s room. And I hadn’t closed the door which meant that… “Twilight what’s wro-” Spike began only to be cut off by an ear splitting scream from upstairs followed by the sound of the twins crying. The entire bakery went silent. The ponies that were once screaming out orders and throwing money at the counter were silent and motionless. The only sound heard were the piercing wails of the Cake twins coming down the stairs. All of a sudden Mr. Cake burst out the kitchen dropping the boxes on his back and went galloping full speed up the stairs. Seconds felt like hours as everyone waited for something to happen. “Honey-bun wha-” Mr. Cake said as he ran up the stairs. Then over the sound of the crying there was a loud yell then a thud from upstairs which only caused the twins to cry louder. *** An hour later the bakery looked like Nightmare Night had come again. There were two Lunar Guards posted outside the front door of the bakery watching the crowd that was beginning to gather on the around the yellow “Crime Scene” tape, that was surrounding the building. There were guards everywhere. They were inside the bakery and around the outside looking for clues. I had used Spike to send a letter to Celestia, but somehow Princess Luna had gotten it instead so she was the one who had sent help. All of the guards looked out of place in Ponyville. They all had dark hued coats and stuck out against the vibrant colors of the town. Some didn't even look like ponies. The pegasus guards that hovered around the roof and second floor on the outside had bat-like features including leathery wings instead of feathered ones. Even the unicorns were different. They all had long, sharp, pointed horns and menacing teeth. To top it all off, each of them wore dark sunglasses over their eyes as if the sun would have blinded them. The newly arrived ponies took their time inspecting Pinkie’s room and the perimeter of the building and after a while began to question each of us about what we knew. Mr. and Mrs. Cake went in first and were on the verge of a breakdown by the time they were let out. They barely answered any of the questions they were asked. Mr. Cake fainted at least twice during the whole ordeal and had to be carried to his room after his interview. When the Cakes came out I was pacing back and forth in front of the front counter completely worried about what they had found. As they left I watched as they carried the unconscious stallion upstairs and a few moments later a voice came from the kitchen calling for me in for me to come in. The room was dark and when I went in I had to feel my way around for my seat. When I finally found it I sat down at the table and a lamp was turned on. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sudden change and when I could finally see I saw that there was a pony across from me. He was a unicorn stallion probably 2 years younger than me with a dark purple coat and a crew cut mane style. He wasn't wearing the sunglasses anymore and I could see that his eyes were glowing like a cats’ in the darkness that surrounded him. The look on his face annoyed me, his expression was very calm and he looked at me with a deadpan stare as if he didn’t want to be there. Not the type of expression that said that he wanted to help anyone. His horn flared up and I watched as he flipped through the papers on the clipboard that was in front of him, pretending to read things that he had written down. After a few moments he looked up from the board and at me his eyes going up and down as if trying to size me up. I was about to open my mouth to say something when he finally spoke, “Name please.” “T- Twilight Sparkle,” I answered him, “Have you found any-”I began before he cut me off. “Miss Sparkle, my name is Detective Nightshade. I’m just going to ask you a few questions and then we’ll be done here.” He said as he started flipping through the papers again. Stopping at a page he looked up at me and said “So I see it says here that you are Princess Celestia’s protégé, is this true?” I stared at him and narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out if he was just playing around. “Says here my flank,” I thought to myself “that is a fact that is known by every guard in Canterlot.” “Yes.” “And what is your relationship to the victim?” “Victim?” I felt my eye involuntarily twitch. “You’re new here aren’t you?” I asked him. “Excuse me?” He asked, a bit taken back by the question. “Pinkie Pie is not just some victim. Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with here?” Nightshade flipped through the papers again and said, “Well it says here that-” I grabbed the clipboard with my magic and threw it into the darkness of the kitchen behind him. The papers scattering across the floor as the board flew through the air. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Nightshade turned around to look for the clipboard and when he turned back around the first thing he saw were my eyes glaring into his causing him to jump back in surprise, almost tipping back over in his chair. I was leaning across the table my face only inches from his, and to call myself angry would be an understatement. “Do you think I care what those papers say?” I asked him. “I want to know what you know. Not what those papers say.” I pushed my face in closer to his causing his chair to fall backwards and bringing him down with it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As I exhaled, I opened my eyes and put on a smile, and with the calmest voice I could manage, “Now can please tell me what happened to my friend?” I said to the pony as he lay on the floor staring up at me. As he got up, I sat back down and waited. His horn flared up and the clipboard with all the papers came flying back into the light. He reorganized all the papers and about a minute later he cleared his throat and looked at me. “Miss Sparkle, we do not know what actually happened to your friend, but I am afraid to say that she has been foalnapped.” And for the second time that day I was not prepared for what I had discovered. My writers block is gone! Longer chapter this time! Hope everyone likes it. If i can keep up the pace the next chapter will be out within the next 2 weeks. Chapter 5If my jaw had dropped any faster it would have split the table in half. I could only stare at Nightshade continued to explain what they had found. He explained to me that the there was no way to know what exactly happened to Pinkie, but that they would do everything in their power to find her. I sat there and took in everything he said, my mind racing trying to sort out the evidence, hoping I could figure out something. However there were too many holes in the story for me to make heads or tails of anything. We sat in silence for a few moments, Nightshade bracing himself waiting for another outburst from me. My face showed an expression that was a mix of fear, confusion, and anger as my mind sorted out the details. "He said that there were no clues to what had happened and that there was no true way of knowing what exactly happened. But there has to be a...” Suddenly and idea popped into my head. “Gummy!” I screamed out loud causing the detective to jump out of his chair. “E-excuse me?” He stammered. “Gummy!” I repeated, “Pinkie’s pet alligator! Maybe he knows what happened in that room.” Now the detective was looking at me as if I was a mad mare. “Where is he?” I said jumping up and standing on the chair. “Well you see Miss Sparkle, we were informed that there was to be an alligator in the room, but we were not told that it would be as rowdy as it was. It got in the way of our search and even tried to attack some of my men so he had to be caged.” “You CAGED him?!” I exclaimed. “Yes, but it didn’t last long. He kept getting out. We don’t know how but he escaped the cage without even opening the door. I even had one of my men watch him and he said that he was there one second and then when he blinked it had disappeared.” I sat back down when he said that with a smile on my face. That is definitely Pinkie’s pet. “So where is he now?” “I have no idea, he just, disappeared.” Nightshade said shrugging his shoulders. “And what good would he be anyways? There’s no way to get any information out of him.” “I have a friend who can talk to animals and I’m pretty sure that she could find out-” Suddenly, from the main lobby of the bakery came a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood. Then sounds of flapping wings and bodies colliding with the floor could be heard. Both Nightshade and I looked at the door behind me listening to what was going on. “Hey you can’t be in here!” A stallion yelled. “Hey get your hooves off her chump!”Said a familiar voice. “Ah think it would be in your best interests if ya did.” “Do you know who you’re talking to?” This time a different stallion. There was another voice but it was too quiet to make out over the sound of the others yelling. “Darling, there is no need to apologize; these hooligans need to learn proper manners when talking to a lady. And their sense of fashion is so depressing. Such dark colors on a beautiful day, simply horrid.” The sounds of arguing continued outside of the kitchen and I turned back to Detective Nightshade. “Well it looks like this interview is over.” I said as I got up and went to the kitchen door. When I went through the swinging doors into the main lobby the first thing I saw was that the front door of the bakery was laid flat out on the ground in splinters with hoof marks in the wood. Fluttershy was curled up in a ball with her wings wrapped around her face in front of two guards. One of them had her by the tail and was trying to pull her out of the building, but seemed to have been stopped by a hovering Rainbow Dash in his face. The other had a face full of Applejack and the surprise on his face was priceless as she overpowered and pushed him back against the wall continuing to tell him off. In-between insults, Rarity was trying her best to comfort Fluttershy. However it didn’t seem to be working. I was about to say something when Nightshade pushed me aside and yelled, “WHATS GOING ON OUT HERE?!” The guard that was grabbing Fluttershy snapped to attention at the sound of the detective’s voice, letting go of her tail and turning away from Rainbow. The other fell flat on his face as Applejack turned almost away from him from where she had him pinned on his hind legs against the wall. All eyes in the room except for Fluttershy’s were on the doorway. It took a moment but Applejack was the first to see me. “Twilight? What’s all this fuss about?” Applejack asked. Rainbow and Rarity looked in my direction and Fluttershy peeked between her feathers at me. “Twilight what is going on here?” Rarity asked next stepping closer to me. “What are these guys doing here?” Asked Rainbow. “Is everything ok?” This time Fluttershy. Looking at all of them I realized that I would have to tell them everything. With a sigh I began, “No, everything is not ok, you see…” ** Five minutes later and one less Rainbow Dash I had finished telling what I knew. I had only made it up to the point where I began to describe what Pinkie’s room looked like when Dash tried to rush upstairs to check it out for herself. It took the two door guards, plus Applejack and Nightshade to hold her down. Even with me and Nightshade trying to explain that anything she touched could mess up the scene, she wouldn't calm down. Nightshade had to give the order to detain her and with the four of them, they tied her down and took her out. He promised us that she was only going to be held until she calmed down enough not to try and do anything like that again. By the time I was finished, plus the details Nightshade added in, calling Fluttershy broken would have been the nice way of putting it. She was curled up in a ball, cradled in Rarity’s arms. What scared us the most about it all was the fact that she wasn’t even crying. As Rarity rocked her back and forth, her face streaked with mascara, Fluttershy just stared off into space. Not blinking, not moving. Applejack was crying, mumbling and blaming herself for what happened. I couldn’t make out everything through the tears and sniffles except for something about a late delivery and a broken cart. Up until that point the only thing I had felt was anger and confusion. However seeing all my friends so upset was the last drop in the water that made the dam burst. The tears flowed free, and I let it happen. I collapsed to the floor and cried. All four of us were completely broken right in the middle of Sugar Cube corner. Nightshade offered no comfort to any of us. And yet, even though he did nothing it felt like he was doing the right thing. A few minutes passed before I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Looking up through my tears I saw Mrs. Cake standing there. “I-i- I’m so sorry.” I stammered. “I should have told you sooner, it’s just tha-” I was cut off as she grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. “It’s ok dear, you did what you thought was best. It’s not your fault.” I could feel the tears on her face as they soaked into my neck and it only made me want to cry harder. She pushed me away and held me at arm length as she looked me over. “It’s getting late, you should get home.” She said to me. I wiped the tears from my face and nodded. My mind was blank and everything felt dull as I stood up. Looking around the room I could see Mr. Cake leading Applejack to the door saying something to her as they went. Rarity was still with Fluttershy, and with the assistance of the two door guards was carrying the comatose pegasus out of the shop. As Mrs. Cake led me to the door I heard Nightshade say that he would take over. As much as I didn’t want him to be around I didn’t have the energy to protest. Outside the shop was now surrounded by news ponies trying to get interviews with the guards that were posted along the border. When they saw Mr. Cake and Applejack walk out together first, they began to push the line yelling out questions. The guards could only do so much as the mob forced itself forward. A unicorn was able to jump over the mob and make it into the inner circle and rushed towards the pair as they went for the hole the guards had opened up for them. With microphone poised and camera snapping pictures he began to harass the two with questions. Mr. Cake was doing his best to shield AJ who just kept walking with her hat over her eyes and head down. The unicorn knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of the stallion and went for the element of harmony instead. Trying to push his way around Mr. Cake, the unicorn bombarded AJ with questions. Despite his best efforts AJ wouldn’t even look up. It wasn’t until he pushed Mr. Cake down after blocking another photo did she respond. She stopped walking to help up Mr. Cake and pushed the unicorn out of the way. “Get out of the way.” Applejack said to him, yet the reporter still insisted. They were almost to the opening of the crowed when the reporter knocked down Mr. Cake yet again and used his magic to lift Applejacks hat off her face to get a better shot. Instead he got a chin full of hoof and camera as AJ smashed the camera up into his jaw. “MOVE!” She screamed this time, as the unicorn dropped to the ground, unconscious. Her hat fell back down over her face and she kept on walking past the crowd of stunned reporters and guards and headed in the direction of the farm with Mr. Cake in tow. After that, there were no more pushy reporters trying to get interviews with us. With the two guards at their sides Rarity and Fluttershy didn’t have any trouble getting through the crowd as they went on their way. Nightshade and I made it through without a single problem. I don’t know if it was because I had the most menacing looking guard at my side or just because many of those reporters knew who I was and the havoc I had caused since coming to Ponyville, but they seemed to be backing away as we passed through. As we walked down the street, I kept my head down as we made our way to the library. Nightshade was quiet and would only say something if I started to stray off the road. After a short walk, I could see the library from where we were a block away. I could go inside and sleep and hopefully wake up in the morning to find that everything was back to normal. I started to speed up thinking of how maybe Pinkie would be back in the morning perfectly fine. Just half a block to go and I would be at home. I was so focused on getting inside I didn’t hear my name being called. Ten feet from the door I heard, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” All of my optimism was washed away at the sound of my name, replaced with anger. I turned around to see Cherilee running full tilt down the street. Even from where I’m standing I can tell she was angry. I tried to put on a more fitting face to deal with her so that I didn’t show the emotions that I have been dealing with, but all that is gone when she practically head butts in the face as she gets close. Before I can even get a word out, she began to scream at me. “WHERE WERE YOU? YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD SHOW UP TODAY TO TEACH MY CLASS!” I could feel the anger boiling up inside of me. I tried as hard as I could to keep calm. Nightshade stepped in-between us and tried to push us apart, only to get slapped out of the way by the angry teacher. “OUT OF THE WAY! I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU THINK I AM BUT I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF, ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS.” The anger turned to rage and I could feel myself getting hotter. To say that I was angry wouldn’t do it justice. “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO CALL YOURSELF PRINCESS CELESTIA’S STAR PUPIL IF YOU CANT EVEN KEEP A PROMISE TO TEACH CHILDREN!” I was absolutely livid. And so I exploded. “AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF-” “WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP! YOU THINK THAT I CARE THAT YOU ARE ANGRY? DO YOUR REALLY THINK THAT I CARE? I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH THAT WHAT GOES ON IN THE PATHETIC THING YOU CALL A LIFE. I HAVE A FRIEND MISSING AND NO IDEA WHERE SHE IS OR WHAT CONDITION SHE IS IN. AND YET YOU COME HERE THINKING THAT YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOU ARE ANGRY OVER A MISSED CLASS? IF YOU DON’T GET OUT OF MY FACE AND OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU WILL WISH THE ONLY THING YOU WILL EVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IS A MISSED CLASS. I HAVE BEEN TO TARTURUS AND BACK SO THERE IS NOTHING THAT A MIDDLE AGED SCHOOL TEACHER WITH NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH HERSELF WHO CANT EVEN HOLD ONTO A STALLION WHEN HE HAS BEEN GIVEN A LOVE POTION TO FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU CAN DO TO HURT ME MORE THAN I ALREADY HAVE BEEN!” By the end of my rant I was panting. Cherilee had dropped into cowering position looking up at me with nothing but fear on her face. The flames of my wrath reflected back as I looked into her eyes. “Wait, what… flames?” Looking at Cherilee I saw that her mane was singed and her face was illuminated as if there was a torch being held in front of it. As my rage faded away into confusion I felt my hooves touch the ground. “Was I just floating?!” The glow on Cherilee’s face faded away and dimmed to the normal late afternoon sunlight. I looked around and saw that Nightshade was on the ground next to me in the same position as Cherilee looking up at me with the same look of fear on his face. I looked back and forth at the two of them trying to put the pieces together, but coming up with nothing. I looked behind me thinking there would be something there to no avail. Turning to Cherilee, I stepped forward and stuck out a hoof, and she began to scream. While screaming she backed away from me trying to turn and run only to stumble and fall multiple times before finally getting her hooves under her and running faster than I’ve ever seen a pony run, all while screaming at the top of her lungs. I turned towards Nightshade, who had gotten onto his hooves and was slowly backing away. He froze when I turned to him and took up a defensive stance. “What just happened?” I asked him. When he didn’t answer I took a step towards him and was about to ask again, when he pointed his horn at me and it began to glow. “STAY BACK!” he yelled, his voice trembling with fear. I lifted my hoof to take a step back and he fired at the ground in front of me. The yellow laser pierced the ground leaving a scorched hole only inches away from my planted hoof. I screamed and ran for the front door of the library. I yanked the door open and slammed it shut and leaned against it trying to catch my breath. After a few seconds I peeked outside the window and saw the stallion running down the road back towards the bakery. I dropped to the ground curled up in a ball. I recalled the events that just took place trying to figure out what happened and yet all I did was make myself feel terrible as I recalled what I said to Cherilee. That, piled on with all the emotions from what happened at the bakery caused the dam to burst for the second time that day. Author's Note This took a lot longer to write than expected. I would personally like to blame Reddit, League of Legends, School, Reddit, graduation, and league of legends for the delay. The internet finally went out and I was able to focus on writing this in peace without any distractions.
PrologueThanks to bednarowski for letting me use the cover image. I watched from the ring of fire that surrounded me as she suffered. One who was once an all powerful figure now lay a bloody, broken mess in front of me. Had this been a different situation I would have maybe felt sadness or remorse, yet those feelings were now foreign to me. All that was left was pure seething anger, hatred, and rage. “Please don’t,” she managed to choke out, a single tear rolled from her eye, down her cheek, only to sizzle and evaporate in the blistering heat around us. “I’m so sorry, please listen,” she said again, this time coughing up blood, that just added to the puddle already surrounding her. Her once pure white coat red from the puddle that she lay in. “It wasn’t supposed to have turned out this way, I only wanted to-” her voice is cut off and replaced by choked screams as I put a hoof to her throat to silence her. I watch as the fur burned and blackened from my touch. If she had the energy left she probably would have been writhing in pain, kicking and flailing to get free. Away from the pain and suffering, the thought only made me push down harder. With her eyes bulging as if they are about to pop out of her head, and face turning purple form lack of air, I removed my hoof from her throat and she gasped for air. I brought my face to hers and stared right into her eyes and the reflection from her eyes show what I have become; a monster. I could see everything that was now me. My eyes once purple, a glowing red, filled with anger. My once purple coat, white-orange, tinted by the flames that are now make my mane and tail. Just as like the wings that now sprout from my sides. “This pain that you feel right now, this is nothing compared to what I feel, nothing compared to what my friends felt.” I said as she tried to back away from the blazing heat that I was giving off. The image in her eyes not affecting me at all. “I want to make you suffer so much more, make you experience the pain that I had to feel. Take away the ones you love most and have you sit by unable to stop any of it. Listen to their screams, the sounds of them begging you to help them as the life slowly drains from their eyes. And yet I can’t even do that because a monster like you has no one that she loves. You only use others, just like you used me.” I backed away from her, and closed my eyes. I stopped and began to focus magic into my horn. I felt its warmth rise from the base and up to tip and then felt the magic spill out from the top and float above growing in size. “Wait, what are you doing?” she asked me. As the ball grew larger I felt my anger begin to subside along with the hatred, sorrow, and pain. I was putting it all into the ball, and as the negative feelings became less and less and the ball grew larger. “Stop this at once, what do you think you are doing?” now her voice went from worried to angry. However that only fueled my subsiding anger. The ball of energy above me burst into flames and I lifted it higher into the air giving room to expand. “Stop this! Do you know who I am? I am Princess Celestia! The all powerful ruler of the land of Equestria! You are nothing but a lowly commoner who should be grateful that I chose to be my student!” The flames that surrounded me slowly burn out. My makeshift wings disappeared and my mane and tail slowly went back to their original color. Though torn and ragged after the long journey I embarked on that brought me to this moment. My coat, now white, began to change back to original lavender. Starting at my hind hooves, I felt the white slowly change back and it faded away revealing my cutie mark then continued up my sides to my head. The last thing that reverted back was my horn and the white vanished at the tip with a small puff of smoke. I stared down at my former mentor, my face completely emotionless, “I’m not your student anymore. I’ve lost friends and family because of you. I don’t want to hear those words anymore. I don’t want to hear you voice, it sickens me, and I shall make sure I silence it for good.”
Chapter 1It seemed like a normal Monday morning when I woke up. The smell of eggs, pancakes, and oatmeal came from the kitchen as Spike cooked. I rolled out of bed and went into the bathroom to begin my daily routine. First I brushed my mane, tail, and teeth, and then went downstairs for breakfast. I sat down at the table and Spike put the plate of food in front of me and poured me a glass of orange juice. Then he sat down on the other side and ate his breakfast. After breakfast we went into the library and checked inventory. Once that was done we began work on my checklists. My checklist for the things that were needed to make a checklist, then the checklist to make a checklist for the things that I need to get done by the end of the day, and finally the checklist of things that needed to be done by the end of the day. With the checklist in tow Spike and I made our way out of the tree library and down to the market for our first stop. The sun just barely peeking over the Canterlot Mountains and a few rays making their way to the town casting long shadows. Since it was the beginning of the week there wasn’t much to do on the list and food shopping seemed to be the most important thing at the moment. The streets were mostly deserted since it was so early, and the few ponies that were out, were the ones returning from early morning weather control. They were the ones that cleared out the clouds that rolled in overnight. It was a peaceful time of day, and I liked being out at this time because, even though I like Ponyville, the ponies in this town are a little crazy. They freak out over everything even when it’s nothing. Like the time that Pinkie’s party cannon fired black and white confetti instead of the normal confetti in town square on Zecora’s birthday, and Roseluck, Daisy, and Daffodil, thinking it was smoke, started screaming at the top of their lungs about how Zecora and Pinkie trying to destroy the town and everypony lost it. It took over an hour for everyone to calm down and it ended up with 7 ponies in the hospital, 4000 bits in property damage, and to top it all off Pinkie was banned from throwing surprise parties in the middle town anymore. She didn’t take it too well at first and went into another fit about nopony liking her parties. That lasted 20 minutes before she realized that she had to make plans for Cherilee’s birthday the next day. Speaking of Pinkie, we were getting close to Sugar Cube Corner and the usual smell of baked goods couldn’t be smelled coming from the bakery. “Spike do you smell anything coming from the bakery?” I asked him. “Pinkie is usually up at this time making cupcakes.” Spike raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “I don’t smell anything.” “That’s weird this hasn’t happened before.” “I think that she was foal sitting the twins last night because I went in before they closed and Mr. and Mrs. Cake were dressed up like they were going out. She’s probably tired from taking care of the twins all night.” “Pinkie, tired? That’s even weirder than her not making cakes.” “Yea well we can ask her later, Sugar Cube’s on the list.” Spike said pointing a scaly claw at a checkbox on the list. “Alright Spike, so what’s first on the list?” “We have to get more oranges at the market. We’re all out and I can’t make anymore orange juice without them.” “Ok then let’s go.” Spike and I continued down the street and when we came to the intersection we took a left instead of the usual right that would bring us to Sugar Cube Corner. That was my first mistake.
Chapter 2The shopping trip was rather uneventful. Spike and I picked up the things that we needed for our home. By the time we had finished our errands in the market it was almost noon. By that time the town was bustling with ponies of different colors and species. I had seen a few of my friends during our time out shopping. Rarity was out getting cat food for Opal but couldn’t chat because she had work to do back at her boutique. Applejack had a stand set up selling apples and gave us a few for free since the orchard had a bumper crop this year and there was no way she was going to be able to sell them all. I saw Rainbow Dash standing on a cloud just outside the market giving orders to her weather team. She flew off before I had the chance to call out to her. I didn’t see Fluttershy, so I just assumed that she was at home taking care of her animals like she usually was, I didn’t see Pinkie either. By the time lunch rolled around Spike and I were ready to eat. Taking a different route than the original one we took in the morning we dropped off our groceries at home and made our way to Sugar Cube Corner. “So Spike how much do we have left to do?” I asked him. “Well…” he began as he unrolled the scroll and looked down the list. “We’re almost done. Up next is lunch at Sugar Cube. Then after lunch Cherilee had invited you to come to the school for a special presentation. After that you have the rest of the day off.” “Did Cherilee ever tell you what she wanted me there for Spike. I hope she knows that I need to plan these things if she wants me to teach a class. I need a lesson plan. What should I do? I could teach them some magic… no wait there are pegasus and earth ponies in that class aren’t there? Well maybe I could teach them how to- *OOF*” I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice the line of ponies in front of me and I fell backwards when I bumped into someone. The one I bumped into turned around and looked at me; I looked up and recognized the blue mare in front of me as Colgate, the town dentist. “I’m so sorry Colgate I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” I said as I got back on my hooves. “It’s alright Twilight.” Colgate said to me. I looked around and saw that the line that was in front of me went down the street and around the corner. “Whoa, what’s going on?” I asked Colgate. “Is there some kind of sale or something going on?” Spike asked beside me. “Actually this is the line to get into Sugar Cube Corner.” Colgate said. “It is?” I asked shocked. “I know it’s the lunch rush but this is ridiculous. It’s never been this bad.” Colgate said looking towards the front of the line, her neck straining to see if the line was even moving. “I had heard that Pinkie wasn’t there this morning getting the early baking done so the Cakes are overwhelmed.” “That explains why we didn’t smell anything this morning Twilight.” Spike said to me. “Well I guess that explains that. I guess we’ll have to wait in line like everypony else.” It took 30 minutes in the slow moving line for us to reach the door, in which I was able to schedule in appointments with Colgate for both me and Spike. She had even had time to map out the inside of Spike’s mouth. It wasn’t like she just had diagrams of dragon teeth lying around her office. It was a completely different story once we were inside. There were ponies everywhere screaming out orders. The concept of a line completely eluded them and they just pushed and their way to the counter, wanting their order to be next. The counter looked a mess and the Cakes weren’t faring much better. I could hear Pound and Pumpkin crying from the kitchen and Mr. Cake was rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the counter trying to deliver orders and take care of the twins at the same time. His body covered in a mixture of frosting, flour, and baby food. Mrs. Cake looked tired, her hair was frazzled and her eyes bloodshot. When she saw me, her eyes brightened and she reached over the counter and grabbed me. “Oh, Twilight dearie, I’m so glad you came by!” she said practically shouting in my face with a crazed look in her eyes. “Y-you are?” I asked somewhat scared. “Yes of course! I need you to do me a big favor. Please!” Wanting her to let go of me I agreed to do whatever she wanted. “I need for you to go upstairs and get Pinkie, she hasn’t come down and she was supposed to be here hours ago.” she said. “We can’t keep this up on our own we need help NOW!” Mr. Cake said as he came galloping out of the kitchen with boxes of cupcakes on his back. He practically threw them at the outstretched hooves coming from behind me. “Ok I’ll go get her.” I said. “But first you need help. Spike! Where are you?” I scanned the crowd and found the dragon being bumped around by the mass of ponies and grabbed him with my magic and pulled him to the counter. “Spike stay here and help the Cakes while I get Pinkie.” “Got it.” He said, and I turned and squeezed through the mob of ponies in the bakery. When I finally made it to the stairs I ran straight up to where Pinkie’s room was and knocked on her door. “Pinkie are you in there?” I called out. When she didn’t answer I tried opening, it wasn’t locked so it opened with ease and I went in. However I wasn’t prepared for what I saw inside.
Chapter 3Let me just say this, writers block is a bitch. The chapter is short and may not be as good of a quality as it should be, but I hope that i can make up for it in the next few chapters. The first thing I saw when I stepped into the room was a flash of green and then I went blind. I felt something crash into my face and whatever it was covered my eyes. I tried to shake it off but then I felt something sharp dig into the sides of my head. I panicked. I was running around blind, shaking my head and bucking around trying to get the thing off my face. After a few seconds I ended up tripping over something and landed flat on my face. Whatever was on my head fell off and I immediately opened my eyes to get a good look at my attacker. To my surprise the only thing that was in front of me was Pinkie’s pet gator, Gummy. However he seemed strange. The normally emotionless gator looked angry. He scowled at me, showing his non-existent fangs and then pounced at me. I easily caught the gator with my magic and watched as he flailed around in mid-air, snapping his toothless gums at me. “Gummy it’s me Twilight. I’m Pinkie’s friend, you remember me right?” I said to him. He stopped snapping at me and seemed to show some sign of recognition. “Where’s Pinkie anyways?” I asked no one in particular as I got my first look around the room. The sight before me caused me to lose all control of my magic, and I Gummy dropped to the floor. The room looked a mess, and not just "Pinkie Pie Party" messy, but it looked like the room had been attacked. There was broken glass all over the floor, some of it from the windows and some from the shattered lamps that lay on the floor. As I looked closer I saw that some pieces had blood on them and I recoiled back in fear. Pinkie’s party cannon lay, broken, in the middle of the floor. One of the wheels was split, and the confetti hanging from the edge showed that it had been recently fired. A few feet in front of the cannon were a few feathers. I went closer to them, being careful not to step on the glass and being even more careful not to step on the bloody glass. I couldn’t really tell what they were at the time so I just assumed they were pegasus feathers. I took another look around the room and saw that the window leading to the back alley of the building was open and there were bloodstains on the window and wall. Stuck in the window was a small ball of pink. I took it in my magic and pulled it from the window and brought it to me. Without even bringing it close I could smell the sugar coming from the pink and knew it came from Pinkie. All of a sudden Gummy came flying through the air and grabbed the hair from my magical grasp. He landed on the on the bed and put the pink tuft of hair down behind him and stood between me and it protectively. I didn’t even care. I was too lost in thought. “What happened in here? Who did this? Where’s Pinkie? Is she okay?” A million questions stormed through my mind and I had no idea what to do. The one thing I knew to do was to tell the Cakes. I went to the door and took one last look the destroyed room and at Gummy staring at me from the bed, still guarding the hair. I thought about bringing him along, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. Just another thing added to the list of things that I was unsure of. I could hear the sound of yelling ponies’ downstairs which meant the lunch rush wasn’t over. On my way down I realized there was no way I could say what I saw in that room at the time. There were too many ponies there and the Cakes would probably have heart attacks if I told them while they were already stressed out. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I had to push my way through the crowd to get back to the counter. The Cakes had put Spike at the cash register and he was the first to see me. “Twilight where’s Pinkie Pie?” Spike shouted to me as I appeared from the crowd of screaming ponies. I was about to open my mouth when the sound of the Cake twin’s cries came out from the kitchen. I then realized that it was going to be even harder than I had thought.
Chapter 4I ended up helping out the Cakes with the lunch rush without saying a word to anyone. It wasn’t like they even noticed. They were still too busy with the mob of ponies in the bakery screaming out orders. Somehow I was able to take charge of the counter which made taking orders easier. I wrote down the orders I heard and put them in a pile for the Cakes to take care of. With Spike at the register taking in the bits that were being thrown at him, and Mr. Cake bringing out orders and passing them out to the angry mob, it freed up Mrs. Cake to take care of the biggest problem in the bakery, the twins. In about 5 minutes the constant crying came to a halt and she came out of the kitchen with the twins thrown across her back, both of them fast asleep. As she walked past me she said something inaudible over the sound of the screaming mob. I was also still too caught up in my thoughts on how to tell them along with taking down orders to even really care. I continued on with in silent writing down orders until I dropped the pencil and pad I was levitating and my eyes grew wide as it dawned on me what was happening. Mrs. Cake was bringing the twins to their room, which meant that she had to pass by Pinkie’s room. And I hadn’t closed the door which meant that… “Twilight what’s wro-” Spike began only to be cut off by an ear splitting scream from upstairs followed by the sound of the twins crying. The entire bakery went silent. The ponies that were once screaming out orders and throwing money at the counter were silent and motionless. The only sound heard were the piercing wails of the Cake twins coming down the stairs. All of a sudden Mr. Cake burst out the kitchen dropping the boxes on his back and went galloping full speed up the stairs. Seconds felt like hours as everyone waited for something to happen. “Honey-bun wha-” Mr. Cake said as he ran up the stairs. Then over the sound of the crying there was a loud yell then a thud from upstairs which only caused the twins to cry louder. *** An hour later the bakery looked like Nightmare Night had come again. There were two Lunar Guards posted outside the front door of the bakery watching the crowd that was beginning to gather on the around the yellow “Crime Scene” tape, that was surrounding the building. There were guards everywhere. They were inside the bakery and around the outside looking for clues. I had used Spike to send a letter to Celestia, but somehow Princess Luna had gotten it instead so she was the one who had sent help. All of the guards looked out of place in Ponyville. They all had dark hued coats and stuck out against the vibrant colors of the town. Some didn't even look like ponies. The pegasus guards that hovered around the roof and second floor on the outside had bat-like features including leathery wings instead of feathered ones. Even the unicorns were different. They all had long, sharp, pointed horns and menacing teeth. To top it all off, each of them wore dark sunglasses over their eyes as if the sun would have blinded them. The newly arrived ponies took their time inspecting Pinkie’s room and the perimeter of the building and after a while began to question each of us about what we knew. Mr. and Mrs. Cake went in first and were on the verge of a breakdown by the time they were let out. They barely answered any of the questions they were asked. Mr. Cake fainted at least twice during the whole ordeal and had to be carried to his room after his interview. When the Cakes came out I was pacing back and forth in front of the front counter completely worried about what they had found. As they left I watched as they carried the unconscious stallion upstairs and a few moments later a voice came from the kitchen calling for me in for me to come in. The room was dark and when I went in I had to feel my way around for my seat. When I finally found it I sat down at the table and a lamp was turned on. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sudden change and when I could finally see I saw that there was a pony across from me. He was a unicorn stallion probably 2 years younger than me with a dark purple coat and a crew cut mane style. He wasn't wearing the sunglasses anymore and I could see that his eyes were glowing like a cats’ in the darkness that surrounded him. The look on his face annoyed me, his expression was very calm and he looked at me with a deadpan stare as if he didn’t want to be there. Not the type of expression that said that he wanted to help anyone. His horn flared up and I watched as he flipped through the papers on the clipboard that was in front of him, pretending to read things that he had written down. After a few moments he looked up from the board and at me his eyes going up and down as if trying to size me up. I was about to open my mouth to say something when he finally spoke, “Name please.” “T- Twilight Sparkle,” I answered him, “Have you found any-”I began before he cut me off. “Miss Sparkle, my name is Detective Nightshade. I’m just going to ask you a few questions and then we’ll be done here.” He said as he started flipping through the papers again. Stopping at a page he looked up at me and said “So I see it says here that you are Princess Celestia’s protégé, is this true?” I stared at him and narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out if he was just playing around. “Says here my flank,” I thought to myself “that is a fact that is known by every guard in Canterlot.” “Yes.” “And what is your relationship to the victim?” “Victim?” I felt my eye involuntarily twitch. “You’re new here aren’t you?” I asked him. “Excuse me?” He asked, a bit taken back by the question. “Pinkie Pie is not just some victim. Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with here?” Nightshade flipped through the papers again and said, “Well it says here that-” I grabbed the clipboard with my magic and threw it into the darkness of the kitchen behind him. The papers scattering across the floor as the board flew through the air. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Nightshade turned around to look for the clipboard and when he turned back around the first thing he saw were my eyes glaring into his causing him to jump back in surprise, almost tipping back over in his chair. I was leaning across the table my face only inches from his, and to call myself angry would be an understatement. “Do you think I care what those papers say?” I asked him. “I want to know what you know. Not what those papers say.” I pushed my face in closer to his causing his chair to fall backwards and bringing him down with it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As I exhaled, I opened my eyes and put on a smile, and with the calmest voice I could manage, “Now can please tell me what happened to my friend?” I said to the pony as he lay on the floor staring up at me. As he got up, I sat back down and waited. His horn flared up and the clipboard with all the papers came flying back into the light. He reorganized all the papers and about a minute later he cleared his throat and looked at me. “Miss Sparkle, we do not know what actually happened to your friend, but I am afraid to say that she has been foalnapped.” And for the second time that day I was not prepared for what I had discovered. My writers block is gone! Longer chapter this time! Hope everyone likes it. If i can keep up the pace the next chapter will be out within the next 2 weeks.
Chapter 5If my jaw had dropped any faster it would have split the table in half. I could only stare at Nightshade continued to explain what they had found. He explained to me that the there was no way to know what exactly happened to Pinkie, but that they would do everything in their power to find her. I sat there and took in everything he said, my mind racing trying to sort out the evidence, hoping I could figure out something. However there were too many holes in the story for me to make heads or tails of anything. We sat in silence for a few moments, Nightshade bracing himself waiting for another outburst from me. My face showed an expression that was a mix of fear, confusion, and anger as my mind sorted out the details. "He said that there were no clues to what had happened and that there was no true way of knowing what exactly happened. But there has to be a...” Suddenly and idea popped into my head. “Gummy!” I screamed out loud causing the detective to jump out of his chair. “E-excuse me?” He stammered. “Gummy!” I repeated, “Pinkie’s pet alligator! Maybe he knows what happened in that room.” Now the detective was looking at me as if I was a mad mare. “Where is he?” I said jumping up and standing on the chair. “Well you see Miss Sparkle, we were informed that there was to be an alligator in the room, but we were not told that it would be as rowdy as it was. It got in the way of our search and even tried to attack some of my men so he had to be caged.” “You CAGED him?!” I exclaimed. “Yes, but it didn’t last long. He kept getting out. We don’t know how but he escaped the cage without even opening the door. I even had one of my men watch him and he said that he was there one second and then when he blinked it had disappeared.” I sat back down when he said that with a smile on my face. That is definitely Pinkie’s pet. “So where is he now?” “I have no idea, he just, disappeared.” Nightshade said shrugging his shoulders. “And what good would he be anyways? There’s no way to get any information out of him.” “I have a friend who can talk to animals and I’m pretty sure that she could find out-” Suddenly, from the main lobby of the bakery came a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood. Then sounds of flapping wings and bodies colliding with the floor could be heard. Both Nightshade and I looked at the door behind me listening to what was going on. “Hey you can’t be in here!” A stallion yelled. “Hey get your hooves off her chump!”Said a familiar voice. “Ah think it would be in your best interests if ya did.” “Do you know who you’re talking to?” This time a different stallion. There was another voice but it was too quiet to make out over the sound of the others yelling. “Darling, there is no need to apologize; these hooligans need to learn proper manners when talking to a lady. And their sense of fashion is so depressing. Such dark colors on a beautiful day, simply horrid.” The sounds of arguing continued outside of the kitchen and I turned back to Detective Nightshade. “Well it looks like this interview is over.” I said as I got up and went to the kitchen door. When I went through the swinging doors into the main lobby the first thing I saw was that the front door of the bakery was laid flat out on the ground in splinters with hoof marks in the wood. Fluttershy was curled up in a ball with her wings wrapped around her face in front of two guards. One of them had her by the tail and was trying to pull her out of the building, but seemed to have been stopped by a hovering Rainbow Dash in his face. The other had a face full of Applejack and the surprise on his face was priceless as she overpowered and pushed him back against the wall continuing to tell him off. In-between insults, Rarity was trying her best to comfort Fluttershy. However it didn’t seem to be working. I was about to say something when Nightshade pushed me aside and yelled, “WHATS GOING ON OUT HERE?!” The guard that was grabbing Fluttershy snapped to attention at the sound of the detective’s voice, letting go of her tail and turning away from Rainbow. The other fell flat on his face as Applejack turned almost away from him from where she had him pinned on his hind legs against the wall. All eyes in the room except for Fluttershy’s were on the doorway. It took a moment but Applejack was the first to see me. “Twilight? What’s all this fuss about?” Applejack asked. Rainbow and Rarity looked in my direction and Fluttershy peeked between her feathers at me. “Twilight what is going on here?” Rarity asked next stepping closer to me. “What are these guys doing here?” Asked Rainbow. “Is everything ok?” This time Fluttershy. Looking at all of them I realized that I would have to tell them everything. With a sigh I began, “No, everything is not ok, you see…” ** Five minutes later and one less Rainbow Dash I had finished telling what I knew. I had only made it up to the point where I began to describe what Pinkie’s room looked like when Dash tried to rush upstairs to check it out for herself. It took the two door guards, plus Applejack and Nightshade to hold her down. Even with me and Nightshade trying to explain that anything she touched could mess up the scene, she wouldn't calm down. Nightshade had to give the order to detain her and with the four of them, they tied her down and took her out. He promised us that she was only going to be held until she calmed down enough not to try and do anything like that again. By the time I was finished, plus the details Nightshade added in, calling Fluttershy broken would have been the nice way of putting it. She was curled up in a ball, cradled in Rarity’s arms. What scared us the most about it all was the fact that she wasn’t even crying. As Rarity rocked her back and forth, her face streaked with mascara, Fluttershy just stared off into space. Not blinking, not moving. Applejack was crying, mumbling and blaming herself for what happened. I couldn’t make out everything through the tears and sniffles except for something about a late delivery and a broken cart. Up until that point the only thing I had felt was anger and confusion. However seeing all my friends so upset was the last drop in the water that made the dam burst. The tears flowed free, and I let it happen. I collapsed to the floor and cried. All four of us were completely broken right in the middle of Sugar Cube corner. Nightshade offered no comfort to any of us. And yet, even though he did nothing it felt like he was doing the right thing. A few minutes passed before I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Looking up through my tears I saw Mrs. Cake standing there. “I-i- I’m so sorry.” I stammered. “I should have told you sooner, it’s just tha-” I was cut off as she grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. “It’s ok dear, you did what you thought was best. It’s not your fault.” I could feel the tears on her face as they soaked into my neck and it only made me want to cry harder. She pushed me away and held me at arm length as she looked me over. “It’s getting late, you should get home.” She said to me. I wiped the tears from my face and nodded. My mind was blank and everything felt dull as I stood up. Looking around the room I could see Mr. Cake leading Applejack to the door saying something to her as they went. Rarity was still with Fluttershy, and with the assistance of the two door guards was carrying the comatose pegasus out of the shop. As Mrs. Cake led me to the door I heard Nightshade say that he would take over. As much as I didn’t want him to be around I didn’t have the energy to protest. Outside the shop was now surrounded by news ponies trying to get interviews with the guards that were posted along the border. When they saw Mr. Cake and Applejack walk out together first, they began to push the line yelling out questions. The guards could only do so much as the mob forced itself forward. A unicorn was able to jump over the mob and make it into the inner circle and rushed towards the pair as they went for the hole the guards had opened up for them. With microphone poised and camera snapping pictures he began to harass the two with questions. Mr. Cake was doing his best to shield AJ who just kept walking with her hat over her eyes and head down. The unicorn knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of the stallion and went for the element of harmony instead. Trying to push his way around Mr. Cake, the unicorn bombarded AJ with questions. Despite his best efforts AJ wouldn’t even look up. It wasn’t until he pushed Mr. Cake down after blocking another photo did she respond. She stopped walking to help up Mr. Cake and pushed the unicorn out of the way. “Get out of the way.” Applejack said to him, yet the reporter still insisted. They were almost to the opening of the crowed when the reporter knocked down Mr. Cake yet again and used his magic to lift Applejacks hat off her face to get a better shot. Instead he got a chin full of hoof and camera as AJ smashed the camera up into his jaw. “MOVE!” She screamed this time, as the unicorn dropped to the ground, unconscious. Her hat fell back down over her face and she kept on walking past the crowd of stunned reporters and guards and headed in the direction of the farm with Mr. Cake in tow. After that, there were no more pushy reporters trying to get interviews with us. With the two guards at their sides Rarity and Fluttershy didn’t have any trouble getting through the crowd as they went on their way. Nightshade and I made it through without a single problem. I don’t know if it was because I had the most menacing looking guard at my side or just because many of those reporters knew who I was and the havoc I had caused since coming to Ponyville, but they seemed to be backing away as we passed through. As we walked down the street, I kept my head down as we made our way to the library. Nightshade was quiet and would only say something if I started to stray off the road. After a short walk, I could see the library from where we were a block away. I could go inside and sleep and hopefully wake up in the morning to find that everything was back to normal. I started to speed up thinking of how maybe Pinkie would be back in the morning perfectly fine. Just half a block to go and I would be at home. I was so focused on getting inside I didn’t hear my name being called. Ten feet from the door I heard, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” All of my optimism was washed away at the sound of my name, replaced with anger. I turned around to see Cherilee running full tilt down the street. Even from where I’m standing I can tell she was angry. I tried to put on a more fitting face to deal with her so that I didn’t show the emotions that I have been dealing with, but all that is gone when she practically head butts in the face as she gets close. Before I can even get a word out, she began to scream at me. “WHERE WERE YOU? YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD SHOW UP TODAY TO TEACH MY CLASS!” I could feel the anger boiling up inside of me. I tried as hard as I could to keep calm. Nightshade stepped in-between us and tried to push us apart, only to get slapped out of the way by the angry teacher. “OUT OF THE WAY! I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU THINK I AM BUT I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF, ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS.” The anger turned to rage and I could feel myself getting hotter. To say that I was angry wouldn’t do it justice. “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO CALL YOURSELF PRINCESS CELESTIA’S STAR PUPIL IF YOU CANT EVEN KEEP A PROMISE TO TEACH CHILDREN!” I was absolutely livid. And so I exploded. “AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF-” “WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP! YOU THINK THAT I CARE THAT YOU ARE ANGRY? DO YOUR REALLY THINK THAT I CARE? I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH THAT WHAT GOES ON IN THE PATHETIC THING YOU CALL A LIFE. I HAVE A FRIEND MISSING AND NO IDEA WHERE SHE IS OR WHAT CONDITION SHE IS IN. AND YET YOU COME HERE THINKING THAT YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOU ARE ANGRY OVER A MISSED CLASS? IF YOU DON’T GET OUT OF MY FACE AND OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU WILL WISH THE ONLY THING YOU WILL EVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IS A MISSED CLASS. I HAVE BEEN TO TARTURUS AND BACK SO THERE IS NOTHING THAT A MIDDLE AGED SCHOOL TEACHER WITH NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH HERSELF WHO CANT EVEN HOLD ONTO A STALLION WHEN HE HAS BEEN GIVEN A LOVE POTION TO FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU CAN DO TO HURT ME MORE THAN I ALREADY HAVE BEEN!” By the end of my rant I was panting. Cherilee had dropped into cowering position looking up at me with nothing but fear on her face. The flames of my wrath reflected back as I looked into her eyes. “Wait, what… flames?” Looking at Cherilee I saw that her mane was singed and her face was illuminated as if there was a torch being held in front of it. As my rage faded away into confusion I felt my hooves touch the ground. “Was I just floating?!” The glow on Cherilee’s face faded away and dimmed to the normal late afternoon sunlight. I looked around and saw that Nightshade was on the ground next to me in the same position as Cherilee looking up at me with the same look of fear on his face. I looked back and forth at the two of them trying to put the pieces together, but coming up with nothing. I looked behind me thinking there would be something there to no avail. Turning to Cherilee, I stepped forward and stuck out a hoof, and she began to scream. While screaming she backed away from me trying to turn and run only to stumble and fall multiple times before finally getting her hooves under her and running faster than I’ve ever seen a pony run, all while screaming at the top of her lungs. I turned towards Nightshade, who had gotten onto his hooves and was slowly backing away. He froze when I turned to him and took up a defensive stance. “What just happened?” I asked him. When he didn’t answer I took a step towards him and was about to ask again, when he pointed his horn at me and it began to glow. “STAY BACK!” he yelled, his voice trembling with fear. I lifted my hoof to take a step back and he fired at the ground in front of me. The yellow laser pierced the ground leaving a scorched hole only inches away from my planted hoof. I screamed and ran for the front door of the library. I yanked the door open and slammed it shut and leaned against it trying to catch my breath. After a few seconds I peeked outside the window and saw the stallion running down the road back towards the bakery. I dropped to the ground curled up in a ball. I recalled the events that just took place trying to figure out what happened and yet all I did was make myself feel terrible as I recalled what I said to Cherilee. That, piled on with all the emotions from what happened at the bakery caused the dam to burst for the second time that day. Author's Note This took a lot longer to write than expected. I would personally like to blame Reddit, League of Legends, School, Reddit, graduation, and league of legends for the delay. The internet finally went out and I was able to focus on writing this in peace without any distractions.
