*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."
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."