Sanity Lost

Impact came hard and fast. The six ponies hit the bookshelves like rocks to the ground, forced a few centimeters farther from the strength of the shove and held there. Twilight Sparkle's horn grew a brighter red as she began splintering some of the other shelves around her into fragments almost too small to see. The already broken shelves were levitated over and driven into the ground in a circle around the unicorn, creating a barrier of deadly wooden barbs.

"You know, I've read a lot of books about the anatomy of ponies." Twilight's smile widened, then fell as her mind raced.. "I know exactly what makes them tick. Each and every nerve that can be broken to cause pain in the most unimaginable ways; how much force it would take to pop the wings off of a pegasus; the precise amount of magical energy released when the horn of a unicorn is removed and ground up. I know all of this."

She released her magic from the petrified ponies, still keeping the wooden splinters aloft.

"But there are things the books didn't specify, things I must know to further build upon my knowledge. I still don't know how each of you will react to the pain of a slow death mixed with fear that even I couldn't calculate." The pieces of wood started spinning in the air, moving forward ever so slightly. "I think I'm going to enjoy this."

The psychotic unicorn sent the floating projectiles flying forward, coming within centimeters of her "guests" heads. Lyra was the first to move, dodging behind a small pile of books, followed closely by her marefriend. A sliver of wood grazed Vinyl's neck, sparking her mind back into gear as she and Octavia jumped away from another attack. Both unicorns and earth ponies glanced up to find Ditzy staring blankly ahead in the brain-dead way that she tended to do, seemingly untroubled by the fact that Twilight Sparkle was suddenly aiming to kill everypony in the room.

"Ditzy! DUCK!!" Bon Bon cried as Twilight aimed a flurry of splinters at the clueless pegasus.

"Where?" she shouted excitedly, turning just as the attack came within striking distance only to shoot harmlessly over her back while she searched furiously for the ducks. "I don't see any!"

The unicorn sent another volley to the pegasus.

"They're over here!" Lyra called, drawing Ditzy's attention to the only other safe spot in their side of the room. She squealed and jumped over, moving at the last possible second before being stuck with hundreds of pieces of wood. Twilight grimaced, her eyes darkening and her horn sparking.

"You won't get away from me that easily, you retar-OW!" the unicorn was interrupted by one of the larger books making an unlikely connection with her face. She looked up, her eyes darkening, to find Octavia holding an armful of books and Vinyl Scratch levitating another book with her horn, preparing to send it flying across the room to follow the other. "You foals!"

She aimed her horn at the pile of wreckage the two were covering behind, blasting it away with a beam of pure magic and sending the ponies flying.

"I thought you'd know by now that it would take much more than a book to the head to stop me." she blew the other pile that Lyra, Bon Bon and Ditzy were hiding behind apart as well, watching them with amusement as they scurried to the next closest thing to put between them and the unicorn. "I'm only second in magical power to the alicorns!"

Another beam was shot at the defenseless ponies. Then another, and another, until the only thing in the destroyed room to use as cover was each other. The six ponies backed away into a tight group, waiting for the final attack from their crazed friend. Lyra took a step back into the pile of books behind her, jumping a bit from the cry of despair from Twilight.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?!" the unicorn wailed, her magic grasping the books under the mint green mare's hooves and wrenching them away. "DON'T DAMAGE MY BOOKS!!"

Taken by surprise, Lyra fell back onto the pile. Several pages from many books were torn free from the weight of a unicorn sliding down on them, yanking another anguished outburst form Twilight. Octavia and Bon Bon watched the purple unicorn's tantrum with shock and amusement, a grin creeping onto their faces. They glanced at each other.

"I have a plan." The cream colored mare whispered to her grey friend, picking up one of the many stray books from the floor with her mouth. As soon as she saw Twilight turn her murderous gaze her way she started violently shaking her head, ripping the book to pieces. She picked up another and tossed it forward as the crazed unicorn shot forth another deadly beam, blocking the attack and incinerating the piece of literature in the same movement. Twilight stared, agape with the realization of what she just did. Her dark pupils shrank and a single tear formed, but was quickly blinked away as the fierceness returned when she noticed Octavia blissfully grinding two other books together like they were a cello and bow. Another blast was cast, and once more was deflected by a flying book.

Lyra quickly understood what her friends were up to and grabbed a few stray books with her magic, smashing them together like a child with a couple of action figures. Next to her, Vinyl had seized a couple adventure tales and was now spinning them around, open and face-down, on the ground like a couple of records on a turntable. Over in the corner, not wanting to feel left out of whatever everypony was doing, Ditzy built herself a book-fort, now in the process of knocking it down only to rebuild it again and repeat.

In the middle of it all, Twilight was quickly growing more and more enraged at the utter disrespect these ponies were showing to her property. Not only that, but they were supposed to be dead by now. She couldn't concentrate with so many thoughts racing through her head, rubbing her forehead with her hooves. They had to die, that much was certain. She wasn't quite sure why or how, but they would all be dead by the end of the night. They would have to be taken care of afterwards, but she'd probably force Spike to do that while she straightened up the room to its former glory. The books would be repaired, the shelves would be put back- wait... The books....

THE BOOKS!!

"Hey, Twilight!" Bon Bon called out, pulling the unicorn back to reality while blissfully folding pages into paper airplanes. "How many of these spellbooks do you have? I've torn up at least seven."

Something more snapped in the unicorn's mind, finally making its way into the area it wanted most. Her eyes were now completely black, seeming more like pits than optical receptors. Her smile widened as far as the muscles in her face would allow, then farther. The horn on her head started spewing black sparks from the energy it was straining to hold back.

"One can never have too many books." Twilight giggled. "Have I told you I've read them all?"

Then, as if nothing could hold it back any longer, magic exploded from her horn. The wooden poles surrounding her were catapulted through the air at the ponies while the entire library was obliterated around them. The force of the blast tore roofing from nearby buildings, blew leaves off of the scarce trees that still had any at all, and sent passing pegasi spinning out of control. Wood and literature flew in every possible direction, scattering around Ponyville.

And amidst the chaos around them, the six ponies were frozen with fear mere feet away from the murderous unicorn. The wooden spikes had barely missed their targets, coming within a hairs width of impaling the friends. Twilight continued to smile, slowly moving forward towards her victims.

"I wonder what to do with y-"

Before she could even finish her thought the only remaining portion of the ceiling, having been blown straight up into the air, fell and crushed her with a sickening crunch and thud. Everpony's vision was blocked by a cloud of dust, but that didn't stop them from cringing at the sound of the unicorn's body being flattened. By the time the dust settled, there wasn't a single trace of Twilight Sparkle. The group backed away with their eyes locked on the new pile of rubble that entombed their friend.

"She couldn't have survived that," Octavia's voice shook a little. "Could she?"

"I don't think so..." The pale green unicorn replied, going even paler. "Those crunches sounded real enough."

Their attention was pulled skyward again by a rumbling from the vortex. Electricity was crackling around the opening of the swirling menace, growing more and more prominent with each revolution. Finally, an ark of black lightning shot down to the ground near the Everfree Forest. There was an explosion, followed by several birds taking off in a pitiful attempt to escape only to be zapped and brought permanently back down to earth. A fire quickly broke out to engulf as many trees that it could reach, spreading fast.

In an unspoken, shocked gaze at each other, Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia and Vinyl had a horrible gut feeling.

"Come on, Ditzy!" Bon Bon cried, taking off with the rest of the group. The confused pegasus started to follow, blissful in her ignorance, but was stopped by a thought.

"Where'd Whooooves go?"

"Hey, she's got a point." Lyra stopped, looking around. "Where did he disappear to?"

"We can find out later, you two. Right now we have to-"

Another unrelenting bolt of lightning crashed into the edge of the forest, more powerful than the last.

"Let's just hurry up and find Fluttershy!" Vinyl finished the conversation there, taking off. The others followed in close pursuit.

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, problems were piling up for the Princesses. Celestia and Luna were getting report after report of terrifying happenings all over Equestria. Unfortunately for everypony, the suddenness of an attack from an enemy they had never faced left them completely without answers. Their main concern was to find out exactly what this new power was, which she was sure her faithful student in Ponyville could accomplish with little difficulty.

Until, of course, she received a letter from an anguished baby dragon concerning the news of Ms. Sparkle's recent demise. She read halfway through the letter before releasing it from her magical grasp, letting the tear-stained paper fall to the floor fall to the floor. The shock was evident on her face, which greatly concerned Luna.

"Sister, what is wrong?"

But Celestia couldn't answer. Her was mind racing to every dead end possible in an attempt to find a new solution while Luna skimmed through the letter. She turned her head slowly to face her younger sister, the Princess of the Night, with a mild expression of defeat slowly forming.

"Don't give up yet, Sister. There may still be hope."

If this... thing... can take control of my best student, the Princess of the Day thought to herself. I don't think there's much that we can count on.

She nodded anyway, trying to force the thoughts from her head. The Princess gazed at the world outside the castle, the beautiful sunset sky tainted by the swirling vortex.

"There's always hope, Luna. But things were just made significantly more difficult."