Sanity Lost

*This chapter was originally called "Party Time", but I figured it hinted to something Pinkie-related. That doesn't happen until later. ;)*

Bon Bon knew there was something different in the air that day. She wasn't sure what it was, but some sort of change in the atmosphere told her something bad was coming. She blamed her thoughts on the recent chain of events. After the discovery of the Rainbow Factory everypony was set a lot more on edge than they used to be. The once beautiful rainbows that everypony cherished and loved were now seen as symbols of the death and torture that Princess Celestia herself set in motion. A few weeks later, ponies began disappearing all over Equestria. At first it was blamed on the Factory, but after a few more disappearances it became clear the pegasi of Cloudsdale had nothing to do with it. No pony was prepared for Discord to strike again, nor were they prepared for the new wave of violent chaos that followed. Many more ponies were either killed or injured during the battle to defeat him again.

But that was just over a week ago, and Ponyville was picking up the pieces as best it could. All were sad for their lost friends, but none could do anything about it except keep going. Aloe refused any help in clearing up the damage to the spa she and her twin sister ran. Lotus Blossom had been crushed under a crumbling wall during the battle with the God of Chaos and hadn't woken up, no matter how much her sister tried. The Apple family lost Big Macintosh in the same disaster, fallen within range of one of the Chaos Entity's deadly beams of pure magic. Carrot Top, Colgate Brushie, and Berry Punch were tending to each others injuries as best they could while Nurse Redheart dealt with the other ponies.

Through it all, two groups of friends remained defiantly intact in the face of danger. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity had been the ones to first stand up against any danger that threatened Equestria, saving everypony many times in the past. The battle with Discord had proven much more difficult than they had predicted, nearly killing them from the effort they expelled. If not for the assistance of six other ponies, the day may not have been won. Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Dr. Whooves and Ditzy Doo added their own offering of help and, in a last-ditch attack, the twelve ponies sealed the evil creature into his stony prison once more. All had been quiet since then.

"Come on, Lyra!" The cream colored earth pony called to her marefriend. "We're going to be late if we don't hurry! I'm sure the others already arrived!"

"Hold your hooves, we don't need to be anywhere for five more minutes." The mint green unicorn grabbed Bon Bon's tail with her magic. The twelve friends were meeting up at what was left of the Ponyville Library for a celebration of their victory, which, as Lyra reminded Bon Bon, still wasn't expected to start for another five or six minutes. As far as Lyra was concerned, that was all the time in the world for her to do something fun. "Hey Bonsie, watch this!"

The earth pony watched in annoyance as Lyra climbed up onto one of the particularly tall piles of rubble that dotted the town. If she gets herself hurt, I'm not gonna have much sympathy this time, Bon Bon thought to herself. Lyra was almost to the top when one of the pieces of building she was shifting onto slid loose. Both ponies hearts skipped a few beats as the unicorn regained her balance. A smile crept across her face as she turned her head to look at her marefriend.

"See, nothing to worry abo-WOAH!"

A sudden wave of energy swept through the air and shook the pile, threatening to knock it over with Lyra still clinging to the side. A few seconds passed as the giant, teetering heap of wreckage slowed its movements until it was completely still.

"I think it's time you came down." Bon Bon called up in a shaky voice. Lyra nodded down to her.

"I think you're right."

But as she began her descent, another block of rubble gave way. This time the screaming unicorn plummeted to the ground as fast as gravity's hand could force her. As the ground sped up to meet her, Lyra could do nothing but close her teary eyes and brace for impact. There was a sudden tug on her mint green and white tail as she was stopped in mid-air. A familiar, yet out of breath, voice rang out from somewhere to her right.

"What the hay were you doing!?" Vinyl Scratch, the best Dj in Equestria, asked in between heaves of air. "If I hadn't been here, you'd've been another mess on the ground to clean up!"

Lyra opened her eyes to glance around at the upside-down everything around her. Vinyl still had her suspended by her tail in her magic field, the white unicorn's horn glowing a dark blue. Octavia wasn't far behind the Dj, only slowing down when she saw her friend was safe. Lyra and Octavia had known each other much longer than the two knew their marefriends. Everything between them was strictly nothing more than friendship now, neither one wanting to hurt the other's new relationship in any way. Neither one could deny they still had some feelings for each other, though, and had absolutely no problem divulging into a long conversation about the events of the previous night.

"Thanks Vinyl." Lyra said, smiling a little. "But next time, do you think you could slow me down a little first?"

All four of them laughed as the unicorn was returned to solid ground, rubbing the base of her tail a little.

"So, are we all ready for this celebration?" Octavia asked the group. "I'm sure Ditzy Doo and the Doctor are already there waiting for us."

"I think we're more than ready." Bon Bon replied, glancing at Lyra. They started back down the road, still a short ways away from the library. Vinyl slid her ever present headphones over an ear and began bobbing her head to the beat of something from her seemingly infinite tracks of any kind of electronic music you could think of.

"Why're you two so late?" Lyra nudged her ex-marefriend teasingly. "I thought you liked to be on time for everything."

Octavia blushed a little.

"Well, you know how Vinyl can be. The second she needs to be somewhere, she get's the worst urges. Sometimes it's something she simply HAS to record, and others..." She trailed off.

"Oh, so THAT'S why you're all sweaty." The unicorn stifled a laugh as the earth pony shot her a glare, her cheeks flaring up.

"I'm sweaty because I ran over here to see if you were all right. Besides," It was Octavia's turn to smile a little. "We were already too late leaving to even sneak in something quick."

The rest of the walk consisted mostly of Octavia and Lyra traveling all across the conversation spectrum, from normal topics like music and entertainment to some that were definitely not safe for filly ears. When it came into view, the library didn't look quite as beat up as they had figured. The door was more or less still intact, there were only a few broken windows and branches, patches of leaves were missing here and there and the sign was hanging at an angle, but other than that it looked mostly undisturbed. A steady beat that could probably be heard in Manehattan pumped out to greet their ears, quickly putting each of them in full-on party mode. The closer they got, though, the more difficult it was to keep from being sent flying backwards from the vibrations of the sound. When they finally reached the door Lyra poked her head through one of the various holes.

"We're heeeeeeere!" She shouted, barely heard over the music. Twilight Sparkle moved through the considerably more neat deathtrap of a floor to greet her guests, opening the door as the mint green unicorn pulled her head back through. It was evident that she and Spike had spent the entire morning cleaning the caved-in portions of the ceiling to make room for everypony. Most of the largest pieces had been completely removed, as well as a good number of some of the smaller ones. Everything else had been pushed up against the walls to be taken care of later.

"------" Twilight's mouth moved, but no sound came from it. An annoyed look crossed her face as her horn began to glow. She magically turned down the music and tried again.

"I'm so glad you could come!"

"As are we." Octavia replied, her voice suddenly full of importance. "It isn't often that we have a chance to go out simply to enjoy ourselves."

"Speak for yourself." Bon Bon, Lyra and Vinyl said at almost the same time.

"The only reason you never go to parties is because you and Vinyl Scratch always hole yourselves up for days on end in her apartment doing Celestia knows what."

"And you're saying you don't?" The earth pony shot back sarcastically.

"Oh, absolutely." Lyra's eyes narrowed and she grabbed Bon Bon, holding her tightly. "WE go for weeks."

Everypony laughed, even Twilight.

"So, have Hooves and Ditzy shown up yet?"

As if to answer her question, a loud crash came from inside the library. Several seconds of silence went by as Twilight slowly closed her eyes, trying to stay calm.

"Sorry." an anguished voice called out. Ditzy Doo poked her head around the door frame, her unfocused eyes glancing around. "I didn't mean to."

"I know, Ditzy." Twilight sighed. "Just like you didn't mean to break my studying desk, four lamps, two stools, a few steps on the staircase, the shelf ladder and the door hinges to my bedroom."

The clumsy pegasus smiled weakly, which spread into a wide grin upon seeing her friends.

"Hey guys!"

The ponies entered the library, awed by the multitude of lights and decorations. Dr. Whooves was standing in the corner of the room, trying his best to hold his glass of punch in his hooves like everypony else. So far, though, no one else was there. In an instant, Vinyl was behind the turntables, shifting her shades. She levitated a record from a box and checked the title, smiling.

"Let's get this party STARTED!" She jammed the record down and-

Another strange wave of energy surged through the air, knocking the power to the room out completely. It shook the walls with a force too great to comprehend, dislodging several books and causing several lights to crash down to the floor.

"What the hay's going on!?" Lyra screamed, several party lights narrowly missing her. She dashed closer to everyone else in the middle of the room. Twilight, who was in the exact center of the group, was trying to make sense of everything.

Without warning, the roof crumbled, a large section of it falling directly down to them. Seconds felt like forever as the chunk of impending death descended to meet them. Octavia, Vinyl, Bon Bon and Lyra glanced at each other, then back up at the chunk.

In an instant a magical barrier was cast over them, shielding the group from the falling debris. All eyes turned to Twilight, her horn glowing and her eyes closed in concentration. Even after the shaking stopped, the shield remained up.

"Twilight," Bon Bon set a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder, trying to bring her back to reality. "It's all right now. You can stop."

The unicorn gasped, her eyes snapping open.

"Something's out there."

"What do you mean?" Octavia whispered fearfully.

"It's not right." Twilight continued, unaware of the earth pony's question. "It shouldn't exist!"

An ominous hum stabbed fear into the hearts of the guests, their eyes being drawn to the sky now visible through the hole in the roof. What they saw was something nopony would be able to forget.

Above Ponyville hung a vortex large enough to swallow Equestria. Lightning flashed through the swirling clouds around it, illuminating them with a terrifying shade of orange and red. It gazed menacingly at the world, threatening it with dangerous arcs of shadow and fire.

"Wh-what is that." Lyra stammered. Twilight still wasn't paying attention.

"It just can't be!" she lifted her face to her door. "I have to find the book!"

Before she could move a single step a bolt of black lightning snaked its way through the sky, connecting with the back of the purple unicorn's head in a fraction of a second.

"TWILIGHT!"

She lay motionless on the ground for several seconds, then her eyes began to slowly open.

"Are you alright?" Bon Bon asked breathlessly.

"I'm fine." Came the unicorn's slow response, something different in her voice. "I'm not sure you will be, though."

Without another word, Twilight Sparkle's horn began to glow a dark red. Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, Vinyl, Ditzy and Dr. Whooves were sent flying at the walls.

"I'm not sure you'll be fine at all."