“We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.”- François de La Rochefoucauld

“Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.”- Aristotle

Chapter 5: Can You Hear The Drums?

Inside the Golden Oaks Library was the ever diligent Spike. He was putting every book in their rightful place. Since he was always helping Twilight with her studies, Spike knew exactly which book goes where. He had memorized where they belong and during reshelving day, he rememorized each books new place. Earlier he was at Rartiy’s place, helping her in anyway he could. Of course because of the recent events, Rarity’s business has been extremely slow.

Who can think of dresses when there’s a monster terrorizing Ponyville?

So Spike merely helped Rarity clean up her home as well as watching over her little sister, Sweetie Belle. Since the event during Nightmare Night, she and her two friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo have been under a state of extreme terror. So he did the best he could do by keeping her company and telling her that he and her sister would protect her. Sweetie Belle did feel safe from their comforting words, but it wasn’t enough to keep her paranoia away. Since the incident, Sweetie Belle was too scared to be alone. So she always stayed close to Rarity or Spike, never leaving them out of her site. Everytime she heard or thought of seeing something, she would quickly cling on to whoever was the closest. With her parents gone on vacation leaving before Nightmare Night, Sweetie Belle stayed in her sister’s house and hasn’t left it after what happened. She was scared that the monster Slendermane would get her if she left the house since now everypony is saying that they saw him walking through town.

Seeing Sweetie Belle under so much stress hurt Rarity, since nothing she could do would help her sister. And seeing Rarity hurt also hurt Spike since he couldn’t help Sweetie Belle or the mare he loves. He knew that Twilight was doing everything in her power to find a solution to this disaster. He did everything he could do to help Twilight in her research since there wasn’t anything else he could do.

So here he was now cleaning up the library while Twilight was out doing everything she could do.

I wish I could do more to help. Its times like this, I feel so useless.

Usually when something big happens, Spike was always out of the action for whatever reason.

I wonder where Twilight could be, As he finished putting the last book in its proper place. As if on cue a bright flash came from the center of the room and once it did, Spike saw Twilight standing where the light was and was carrying a small jewel covered case. Seeing the case made Spike drool a little bit, but he quickly snapped out of it as he welcomed Twilight back from wherever she came from.

“Welcome home, Twilight. Where’ve you’ve been?”

“I was in Canterlot with Princess Celestia as I brought her up to speed about our problem.”

“You were in Canterlot?” Spike was a bit dumbfounded, “How’d you get there? I thought that Slendermane kept everypony from leaving Ponyville. That’s why he tore the train tracks to keep everypony here.”

“Princess Celestia teleported me there so she could give me these,” she opened the case, revealing the Elements of Harmony.

“So what happens now?” he asked.

“Gather everypony here and I’ll explain what we have to do.”

“You got it,” he gave her a salute and was quickly out the door.

By the time the sun had set, the rest of the Elements of Harmony bearers and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting in the library as Twilight explained her plan.

“So all we got to do is use our Elements on these eight pages and everythin will be back to normal?” asked Applejack.

“That’s exactly correct, Applejack.”

“Well what are we waiting for!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “let hup two it to the Everfree Forest.”

“This is gonna be fun,” said Pinkie Pie, “It’s like going on a scavenger hunt and I LOVE a good scavenger hunt.”

“How can you think any of this is fun,” said Rarity, “Didn’t you hear Twilight? This is going to be extremely dangerous.”

“I…. agree,” whispered Fluttershy.

“Yes, it is very dangerous,” said Twilight, “but it’s the only thing we can do to save not only Ponyville but all of Equestria.”

“Then let’s go everypony,” said Applejack as she was heading to the door.

“I’m coming too,” said Spike.

“No you’re not Spike,” said Twilight.

“But-”

“No buts, I can’t risk your safety.”

“But you said it yourself, It’s too dangerous and you’ll need all the help you can get. It might be quicker finding these pages with the extra help.”

“But-”

“No buts,” now the horseshoe was on the other hoof as Spike stopped Twilight from continuing.

“I can’t be watching my back and yours at the same time. That’s why I need you to stay here where it’s safe.”

“I can take care of myself Twilight. In case you haven’t noticed I’m a dragon!”

“A BABY dragon to be exact.”

“You always do this,” he raised his claws up and folded them across his chest. “Everytime something like this happens, I always have to be the one who gets left behind. Don’t you think it makes me feel good knowing that you six are on some adventure, some of them are dangerous and I can’t do anything to help out?"

“You help out plenty, Spike.”

“Name one time I help you girls out on something.”

“Umm….” Twilight try thinking of something, but as it turned out, everytime something happened, Spike was always left behind.

When Twilight didn’t respond, Spike pointed a claw at her, “Ah ha! You see, you can’t think of one thing can you?”

“No I can’t, I guess I didn’t realized it until now.”

“Do you know how I feel when I get left behind every time you do this? Completely USELESS! You talk about how you’re doing this to protect me, but don’t you think that at the same time I want to protect you!” at this point Spike was starting to tear up, “you don’t know how it feels every time when I see you leave on some mission, hoping that this won’t be the last time I see you. That when you step out that door and it won’t be the time where you don’t return and I’m left here all alone.”

Spike words hit hard on Twilight. I never thought he would be thinking about this every time I leave. She could see the sad look on his face and it tore her heart. She never knew how much pain she was causing to Spike. She immediately wrapped her hooves around Spike in a warm embracing hug.

“I’m so sorry, Spike. I didn’t mean to make you feel like this. From now on I’m going to do a better job about being more supportive to you.”

Spike sniffed while he was hugging Twilight, “Does that mean I can come with you?”

Twilight thought about this before coming to a conclusion, “If that’s what you really want, then I can’t say no.”

“Thanks, Twilight.”

Everypony could feel the love between Twilight and Spike as they stood silent the entire time. Unfortunately the moment was cut by Rainbow Dash, who was getting impatient and couldn’t take anymore of all the touchy feelings, “Alright enough with all the sappy stuff, let get going already!”

“Your right Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight finally pulling out of her hug, “Alright everypony….and Spike, lets head on out.”

As soon as everyone approached the door, a loud voice spoke out, “WAIT!”

Everyone turned to see who shouted and saw it was Apple Bloom.

“What about us? You’re not going to leave us all alone, are ya?

“Yeah,” said Scootaloo, “If you guys leave us alone, he might get us.”

“Well yur not comin wit us that’s for sure,” said Applejack.

“Who said we wanted to go with ya?” said her sister, “we go in there and he’ll get us for sure.”

“Don’t worry, I got it all under control,” said Twilight, “once we leave I’ll put a barrier around the library.”

“Will it be enough?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Of course, I got my brother, Shining Armor to teach me this spell and he specializes in barrier spells.

The three crusaders let out a sigh of relief, “Okay, but hurry back sis,” said Apple Bloom as she walked up to her sister and they shared a nice sisterly hug.

“Same here, Rarity,” as Sweetie Belle, also walked up to her sister and they gave each other a hug.

“I’m not worried. I know you’ll take care of it,” said Scootaloo as she tried to put on a brave face to hid her concern. Rainbow Dash could see it and before Scootaloo knew what happened, she was wrapped up in Rainbow Dash’s hooves.

“Don’t worry about a thing squirt, your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is on it!”

“Thanks, Dash. You really are the greatest.”

All six of them hugged for a few moments before they broke it off.

“Alright, is everypony ready?” asked Twilight.

Everypony nodded.

“Ok, I think the first place to start is where the first page was last seen,” she turned to the CMC, “We need you three to tell us where you found the page.”

All three nodded and told Twilight where they set up camped and where they could find the clearing where the tree with the first page was.

“Thanks for the info girls.”

“You’re welcome,” they said.

“Now you three just stay here and wait until we come back. Don’t step a hoof out of this library.”

They all nodded.

Twilight opened the door, “Let’s go everypony, we have a world to save.” She then handed the elements to their rightful bearers.

All six bearers and Spike ran out the door, leaving the CMC by themselves. Once outside, Twilight cast her barrier spell and the library was covered by lavender dome. With the CMC now safe all seven of them marched to the Everfree Forest to begin their quest to save Equestria once again.

“How much farther is it?” cried Rainbow Dash as she was hovering above her friends. She was getting restless after it seemed like hours since they entered the Everfree Forest.

“Ah’m surprised they made it this far all on their own,” said Applejack.

“It’s starting to get really d-d-dark,” whimpered Fluttershy, “M-M-Maybe we should come back when the sun is up.”

“We can’t,” replied Rarity, “I know you’re scared, were all a bit scared as well. But we can’t turn back now, Sweetie Belle and the others need us and we can’t let them down.”

“O-Okay.”

“It can’t be far now,” said Twilight as she used her horn to light the path in front of them while Spike was on top of her looking around.

“Over there!” he pointed, “I think I see something.”

They started heading towards where Spike was pointing, ducking under the low branches. They were deep in the forest that moving around was getting difficult. With the lack of space, Rainbow Dash had to continue on hoof.

After a short trot they finally came across to what seemed like a campsite.

“This must be where the girls set up camp,” said Twilight. All their equipment looked all rundown and dirty.

“Hey look,” said Pinkie Pie looking at ground, “hoofprints, iddy biddy hoofprints.”

“That’s great Pinkie,” said Twilight, “now all we have to do is follow these hoofprints and they’ll lead us to the clearing.”

“Okie- Dokie, follow me everypony,” said Pinkie as she glued her eyes to the ground and started following where the hoofprints went. Soon everyone was following Pinkie through the ever thickening part of the Everfree Forest.

After a little bit of walking they finally came across a big clearing. Once they step out of the trees, Rainbow Dash immediately took flight.

“Aw man, it feels so good to be up in the air and not in the crowed forest anymore.”

“And look, there’s the tree right there.” said Applejack as she pointed to the only tree in the middle of the clearing.

Everypony rushed towards it. Once they arrived, they saw how different the tree was compared to the others. They saw how big and tall it was, as well as how the branches were all twisted around. This dead tree in the middle of the clearing gave a strange vibe as everyone stared at it.

“Alright,” said Twilight as she finally stopped staring at the tree and started looking at the ground, “everypony look around, that page has to be around here somewhere.”

Everyone looked at the ground around the tree where Apple Bloom said where she dropped the page.

“Found it!” said Pinkie Pie bouncing, “I found it, I found it.”

“Where?” asked Twilight.

“Right here, on the tree duh,” she pointed at the tree where the page was placed. “This was real easy, finding the others will be a piece of cake.” Thinking of cake, Pinkie hummed, “mmmh, cake,” she led out a moan with her tongue hanging out, “I should have brought some cake, now I’m hungry.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and started inspecting the page. “The page is exactly what the girls and Princess Celestia said looked like.”

“Okay, so now that we found it, what do we do now?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Now that we found the first page, we can start looking for the others,” responded Twilight as she pulled out an envelope from her saddlebag.

“Doesn’t the Princess know where the rest of them are?” asked Rainbow Dash, “I mean she was the one placed them after all.”

“The forest has grown so much since the last time Princess Celestia was here. Everything’s different, we were lucky that the girls found this one.”

“Well then let’s hurry up, we don’t have all night!”

“Why don’t we split up? It would be faster,” asked Spike.

“NO!” screamed Fluttershy. When everyone looked at her, she started feeling embarrassed, “I mean…no, if that’s okay?”

“It’s quite alright darling,” said Rarity as she comforted Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy’s right, it’s too dangerous to split up,” said Twilight, “That’s why we’re going to find the rest of the pages together.”

“Twi’s right everypony,” said Applejack, “were strongest when were all together.”

“Fine,” sighed Rainbow Dash, “but can we get a move on?”

“Just let me grab the page and put it in my envelope,” said Twilight.

“Ooh, let me get it Twilight,” said Pinkie.

“NO, WAIT!” but it was too late, Pinkie grabbed the page and yanked it off the tree.

“Here you go,” she said.

“Pinkie why did you do that? I was gonna use my magic so we didn’t have to touch it. Now he’ll know were here.”

“Oops, I’m sorry about that, Twilight.”

She let out a sigh, “It’s okay, you didn’t know,” she grabbed the page from Pinkies hooves and put the page in the envelope, then placed the envelope in her saddlebag.

“One down, seven to go.”

“H-How long d-d-do you think h-he’ll be here?” asked Fluttershy.

“Don’t worry,” said Rainbow Dash, “I bet he doesn’t even know were here.”

WHOOSH

A big gust of wind came out of nowhere and then quickly disappeared.

“Hey, do you girls hear it?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“We all heard it,” said Rarity, “that wind was pretty loud.”

“Not the wind, Rarity. I’m talking about the drums.”

“Does anypony hear that?” asked Apple Bloom.

“I didn’t hear anything,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Ah thought ah heard sumthin outside the library,” Apple Bloom walked up to the window to see. She looked and saw nothing.

“You’re probably just imagining it,” said Scootaloo, “you know that nopony goes out at night anymore.”

“Now come on, just forget about it and come sit with us,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Fine,” Apple Bloom sighed, “ah could have sworn that ah heard something. Ah’m feeling all nervous now, ya know being all alone in here.”

“Where’s Big Mac?” asked Sweetie Belle, “he could be here protecting and keep us company.”

“He’s still in the hospital, remember?” responded Scootaloo.

Sweetie Belle forgot that Big Mac was part of the group of stallions that tried to fight Slendermane.

“Oh yeah, How he doing?” she asked.

“He’s doing better,” said Apple Bloom, “They say he might be out by the end of the week.”

“I still can’t believe that Big Mac got his flank kicked around like that. He’s like the strongest stallion in Ponyville,” said Scootaloo.

SNAP

All three heard something coming from outside the library.

“Ah knew ah heard sumthin,” Apple Bloom rushed back to the window to investigate. Once she looked outside she started shaking and stood there as if she was frozen.

The other crusaders were feeling nervous from Apple Blooms reaction.

“What is it?” asked Scootaloo.

“What’s out there?” asked Sweetie Belle who was starting to shake.

Without turning her head, Apple Bloom responded, “It’s him.”

Upon hearing Apple Blooms response, they immediately ran to the window and looked outside. There enough was the monster Slendermane, standing right outside the dome shield.

“What do we do?” squeaked Sweetie Belle.

“We got to get out of here!” shouted Scootaloo as she rushed to the door, but Apple Bloom stopped her before she reached to touch the doorknob.

“Are ya crazy? Remember what Twilight said. As long as we stay right here under the dome, he can’t get us.”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that.”

Both of them returned to the window where Sweetie Belle was still watching him.

“He’s just standing there,” said Sweetie Belle, “it’s a bit creepy.”

“Ah know what ya mean. It’s like he waiting for something.”

“Maybe, he realizes that he can’t get through and all he can do is just watch us all safe and sound,” said Scootaloo. Feeling a bit cocky she started taunting him, “Ha ha, you can’t get us, and there isn’t anything you can do,” she stuck out her tongue at him.

“Don’t do that!” shouted Sweetie Belle as she tackled Scootaloo to the ground.

“What did you do that for?”

“Don’t you remember what happened to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon? Do you want to end up like them?”

Once Sweetie Belle said those two names, all three of them felt a wave of sadness.

“Ah know that those two were always mean to us, but what happened to them, Ah would have never wished anything that horrible to them.”

“Yeah, I agree,” said Scootaloo.

“Me too,” said Sweetie Belle, “do you think they’ll ever recover from that incident?”

“Ah hope so, even if they went back to their horrible selves, ah would rather have them that way than how they are now.”

“Maybe we can be their friends, that might help them out,” said Scootaloo.

“That’s a great idea,” said Sweetie Belle, “we become their friends and with our help we might help them recover and who knows, with us spending time with them, they might treat us nice instead of being mean.”

“Ah agree, let’s do it.”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS BEST FRIEND MAKERS AND HELPERS, YAY!” all three shouted.

“So that settles it, when those two get out of the hospital we will do everything it takes to help them on the road to recovering,” said Applebloom as she stared out the window.

“Any idea what will do first?” asked Scootaloo.

“Ooh! We could throw them a party. Party’s always makes ponies happy,” replied Sweetie Belle.

“I like it, said Scootaloo, “what do you think Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom didn’t respond.

“Helloooo, Apple Bloom didn’t you hear what I said?” asked Scootaloo.

Once again, Apple Bloom didn’t say anything.

Scootaloo walked up to her and poked her, “Why won’t you say something?”

At this point Scootaloo noticed that Apple Blooms eyes were wide open as she stared out the window, and it seemed that she lost color in her face.

Scootaloo looked out the window and her eyes went wide open as well.

Sweetie Belle was starting to get nervous as she looked at her two friends, “What’s wrong?”

Scootaloo gulped and said, “Maybe you should see for yourself.”

Sweetie Belle walked towards her friends and looked out the window. Once she saw what made her friends like this, she understood why.

Because what they saw was Slendermane……..standing inside the force field instead of outside.

Sweetie Belle started feeling nauseous as soon as she was staring at Slendermane. “COVER YOUR EYES! DON’T LOOK AT HIS FACE!” she shouted as she covered her eyes. “Remember what Twilight said, don’t look at his face or you’ll end up like Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

Scootaloo did the same, “That’s right, thanks Sweetie Belle.” She turned to see that Apple Bloom was still staring at Slendermane. “Apple Bloom, cover your eyes!”

But Apple Bloom did nothing and continued staring. Scootaloo had to act fast, so she tackled Apple Bloom to the ground and started shaking her.

“SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Scootaloo’s combination of shaking and shouting snapped Apple Bloom out of her trance.

“W-What happened?”

“You looked at Slendermane too long and fell under a trance.”

Suddenly she remembered what she saw before she went in her trance, “HE'S INSIDE THE FORCE FIELD!

“We know,” said Sweetie Belle with her eyes still covered.

“Well what do we do?” asked Apple Bloom.

“I don’t know,” said Scootaloo, “We got nowhere to go,” upon hearing her words set in, Scootaloo started shaking.

“Wait a second,” said Apple Bloom, “if ah’m here looking at you, you’re looking at me, and Sweetie Belle has her eyes covered. Who’s watching the window?”

Once she said that, all three crusaders turned to the window……and saw Slendermane standing outside the window.

All three of them screamed and started backing away from the window.

“What do we do?!” asked Sweetie Belle.

“We got to get away,” said Scootaloo, “hurry, up the stairs!”

All three turned to run to the stairs. Only to be stopped by Slendermane inside the house, who was standing in front of the stairs.

They turned around again, this time heading to the door. But Slendermane was once again standing in front of them, closer this time. All three cowered in together as they realized they had nowhere to go.

Slendermane started sprouting tentacles from his back and they slowly started heading towards the three scared fillies. Seeing the end is here, all three of them hugged each other one last time. They shut their eyes with tears running down their cheeks, Thinking that they’ll never see their loved ones again as they waited for the end.

Slendermane was enjoying itself as his tentacles kept creeping up to the three frightened fillies. They hugged each other tightly as they waited for whatever he had planned for them. His tentacles were getting closer and closer, soon they were just inches from their faces. Just as he was about to grab him, something stopped him. It was the familiar sound a paper flapping in the wind.

Another has touched one of the pages.

It was able to sense that it was the same page that the three fillies touched. Now Slendermane had a choice, finish were he left off with the three fillies or confront his newest prey?

After a couple of seconds, he came to a decision and vanished from the library.

After seconds of waiting, Apple Bloom opened her eyes and saw that the monster had disappeared.

“He’s gone.”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo opened their eyes and saw that Apple Bloom was telling the truth.

“What happened? Where he’d go?” asked Scootaloo.

“Ah don’t know, it seems he’s vanished out of thin air.”

“Y-You think he’ll come back?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Not sure, ah’m curious as to why he left? He had us right where he wanted and now he’s gone.”

“Thank Celestia, let’s hope he doesn’t come back,” said Scootaloo.

“Me too,” said Sweetie Belle.

“We can only hope that Twilight and the rest can find a way to stop him,” said Apple Bloom.

All three crusaders stayed silent while they were still wrapped up in their hug, thinking about the six mares and dragon that hold their lives in their hooves and claws.

“I don’t hear anything,” said Rarity.

“What do you mean you can’t hear it?” asked Pinkie Pie, “I can hear it as plain as day. How can you not hear it? The drumming. Can't you hear it? The constant drumming, Just listen.”

Everypony listened, but none of them heard anything.

“You hear it? It’s going, boom…….boom.”

“Pinkie, I don’t hear anything, it’s just in your head,” said Twilight.

“No its not,” she said, “It's everywhere. Listen, listen, listen.”

“Boom…..Boom, Boom…Boom.”

“The drums are coming closer……and closer.”

Everypony was feeling a bit worried about Pinkie Pie. Until Twilight remembered what Princess Celestia told her earlier.

“Once you take the first page, the game begins. The pages will let you know when he is near, so keep your eyes and ears open.”

“It’s the page!” she shouted, “Princess Celestia told me that the pages will let us know when HE’S near. Since Pinkie was the only one to touch the page, she’s the only one that can hear the drums.”

“Oh goodie, for a second there I thought I was going crazy.”

“S-So what does that mean?” asked Fluttershy.

“It means Fluttershy….” Twilight stopped talking as she figured out what she was about to say. “It means that HE’S COMING!”

Everypony started panicking, as they started running around trying to figure out what to do. Twilight tried to establish order, “EVERPONY STOP!”

Everyone stopped and turned to Twilight, “We need to stick together, everyone gather in a circle back to back.”

Everyone did as Twilight ordered and soon all seven of them were in a small huddle facing out.

“Now carefully, we need to get out of here and look for the second page. Now everyone follow me and keep your eyes open, he might already be here.”

All at once, everyone started walking in the same direction as they kept their eyes opened for anything suspicious.

Fluttershy was the first to respond, “There he is!”

Everyone turned to Fluttershy’s direction and all saw the monster Slendermane standing outside of the clearing.

“W-W-What do we do?” Fluttershy asked.

“Why don’t we just hit him with the elements?” said Rainbow Dash, “He’s right there, we don’t have to go looking for the other pages. We can end it all right now.”

As soon as she said that, Slendermane vanished.

“Where in tarnation did he go?” asked Applejack.

“Stay focused everypony!” said Twilight, “we need to keep moving, otherwise were sitting ducks.”

They all followed Twlights advice and continued walking in a huddle away from where Slendermane was at a moment ago.

A few seconds later, Rarity shouted, “There he is!”

They all looked and saw him standing like last time….only he was standing closer to the group than he was earlier. With everyone looking at him, they started feeling nauseous.

“Everyone stop looking at his face!” Twilight shouted. All of them looked down, “Remember, if you look at his face for too long, it will start affecting you.”

Rarity looked up and saw that he vanished once again, “How are going to do this Twilight? How can we use our elements if we can’t see him?”

“Princess Celestia said that the pages are the key to stopping him. That’s why we have to find the other pages and fast!”

All seven of them continued walking, as they were almost to the edge of the clearing. Every once and awhile, Slendermane would appear in front of one of them, and then quickly disappeared. He would repeat this over and over, each time he would be standing closer and closer to the group. Then once they made it to the edge of the clearing, he vanished.

Now that they made it, the group broke the huddle since the forest was too thick for them stay in a group. “Alright, single file everyone and keep your eyes open,” said Twilight.

Once everpony was in line, Twilight lead her friends onto finding the second page. They walked and walked without any problems. Twilight was getting nervous about the other creatures in the forest besides Slendermane. She still remembered when she entered the Everfree Forest by herself and was turned to stone by a cockatrice. As she lighted the way infront of her, she called out to Fluttershy, who was at the back of the line, “Fluttershy, is there anything that you could tell us about how we can avoid running into any other creatures here?”

Fluttershy didn’t respond.

“Fluttershy, did you hear me?”

No response.

Twilight turned her head, “Fluttershy?” the light from her horn illuminated her friends, and Twilight saw that Fluttershy was nowhere in sight.

“She's gone!”

Everypony turned and saw that Fluttershy had disappeared.

“Where’d she go?” asked Applejack.

“Maybe she playing hide and seek,” responded Pinkie Pie.

“This isn’t the time for games!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Or maybe she needed to go to the little fillies room,” said Pinkie.

“She would have told me Pinkie,” said Rarity, “I was in front of her, so I would have heard her.”

Everypony started calling out to Fluttershy as they retraced their steps. For some reason the forest was getting darker by the second, “Rarity, can you help me in getting more light for us to see?” asked Twilight.

No response.

“Rarity?!” she used her horn to look around, she saw her friends, but not Rarity.

“Now Rarity’s gone too!” she said.

Spike started panicking as he jumped off Twilights back, “RARITY, WHERE ARE YOU?!”

He frantically searched around, shouting her name. But no matter how hard he looked or shouted Rarity was nowhere to be found.

“What do we do Twilight?! What if HE got her?!” he asked.

“Spike calm down! Will find her, I promise. Now come on, we have to keep looking.”

Spike jumped on her back as they continued to search for their two missing friends. Everypony was calling out their names as they searched and searched, hoping to find them safe and sound.

“Fluttershy!” called out Pinkie Pie, “Rarit-EEP!”

Twilight turned to where she heard Pinkie, the light from her horn showed that Pinkie was no longer there.

“Now Pinkie’s gone!” she shouted.

“Twi-” shouted Rainbow Dash.

She turned and saw that Rainbow Dash had disappeared too.

“Applejack. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are gone too.”

No response from Applejack.

“APPLEJACK!” she looked all around her and saw that Applejack had vanished.

“Twilight, it’s just us, were the only ones left. Everypony else has been taken,” said Spike as he was holding onto Twilight tightly. “What are we gonna do now?”

Before Twilight could respond they heard a twig SNAP coming from behind them. Twilight quickly turned around and all she saw was a tall figure and then everything went black.

Author's Note

Now this is where the story officially begins. And I change the rating from teen to mature(you've been warned.)

If you haven't figured it out, this story takes place before season 3.