It had been two weeks since my incident in town. I could only watch as the ponies went back to their struggling routines. It would not take long for things to go under. The unicorns had already shown signs of depletion. Some of the weaker ones had already begun to use the magic from their reserves. After that was consumed, there would be little to keep them alive.

The pegasi fared no better, for their constant work clearing the sky seemed to become more of a hazardous task. The dragon that slumbered at the top of the mountain had fallen into a deeper sleep. The smoke omitting from it increased, causing the constant job of clearing it harder.

The earth ponies seemed to be the ones keeping them up. Their crops gave the needed energy for the pegasi and the unicorns. This could not last much longer as the unicorns would soon be unable to keep the land healthy. The crops would die out, leaving the rest of the ponies to starve.

Without the given energy from the food, the pegasi would be unable to clear the sky. The smoke would flow through the land like a curse, suffocating everypony who would inhale it. It seemed as though the ponies still tried their best to keep this from happening. Only time could tell when they would break.

There was only one pony who could stop all of this from happening. Her memories were a gateway that could change these events for the better. Within her subconscious was the key to saving this troubled land. All she needed to do was find me.

My luck with this proved naught, for she seemed to ignore what had been happening. She seemed to pretend everything was alright, that things would start to get better. But for her, things would only get far worse.

She was carefully walking across town, eyes focused on the sky as if she was expecting something. She stopped in her tracks for a moment when her tail gave out a small spasm of movement. Her eyes grew wide and she ducked under neath a nearby porch, eyes fully focused on the sky. After a few moments, she quickly changed her location to a nearby fruit stand.

She stared intently to the sky, seeming to expect something to fall. She turned to walk away until she saw something falling; a small amphibian creature. She quickly trotted to where it would land and swiftly caught the creature in her hooves before it could hit the ground. It was a frog from the local Ponyville pond.

"Oh, my." Came a timid voice from above the pink mare. "I'm sorry Pinkie. I told him to stay in the carriage, but he just kept hopping around." Pinkie watched as Fluttershy landed gently next to her pulling a small carriage full of frogs. She gave a small laugh and put the frog back into the pegasus's carriage.

"It's okay Fluttershy! No one was hurt." She said as she stared at the cart. "What's up with all the frogs?" Pinkie asked with delight.

"Oh, well, the pond in the middle of Ponyville isn't really doing too well. There isn't anypony willing to clean it so the frogs are getting sick there." She explained with a smile. "I'm taking them to Froggy Bottom Bog so they don't have to be sick anymore." Pinkie gave an understanding nod.

"That's real nice of you Fluttershy. It's good to see that not everypony has gone grim." She said with a laugh. "Oh, by the way, how is Spike doing?" The yellow pegasus gave a nervous look.

"Well," She started. "He's doing alright. He helps me with my animal friends. The ones that, haven't left anyways. He's a really good helper, but he just seems kinda...." She trailed off. "Out there. He's still shaken up over losing Twilight. We don't talk about her too much. It seems to hurt him when we do."

Fluttershy looked at the ground with sadness emanating from her eyes. Pinkie put her hoof on her shoulder in reassurance. "He's been through a lot." She said. "Even if it does hurt him a little, you might want to talk to him about it. Let him remember the good times he's had with her. Let him know that you're there for him." Fluttershy looked up with watery eyes.

"Do you really think that would help?" She asked.

"Abso-possi-lutely!" Pinkie said with enthusiasm. Fluttershy returned with a weak smile. She thought about it for a moment.

"All right, if you really think it will help. I'll get to my cottage and give these frogs something to eat. Then I'll talk to him. Let him know things will be alright." Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy with a smile.

"That's the spirit! I bet he'll be just fine afterwards!" She yelled out in glee. She let go of Fluttershy and with a quick goodbye, the two parted. As Pinkie walked away, a strange feeling came to her. Surprisingly enough, it was the heartache she felt when she lost Twilight and Applejack.

"That's strange." She said aloud to herself. "Why would I feel this now? I haven't seen anything bad happen lately." She ponders this for a moment then shook it off as a faulty sense. Pinkie just continued on her way to Sugarcube corner.

The cottage at the edge of the Everfree forest was faring surprisingly well. Only a few animals had left during the past two months. The rest, even though fully healed and healthy, had decided to stay at the small cottage.

Between the pegasus, the dragon, and the rabbit, things were going well. Each animal was taken care of and properly fed. None of them showed any signs of wanting to leave and join their feral brothers in the Everfree forest.

Fluttershy had just finished giving food to the frogs and was trying to find Spike. After a few minutes of searching, she found him lying next to a tree, staring at the faint glow of the moon through the smoke. She carefully walked up to him and took a deep breath.

"Hey Spike." She said softly. He looked at her with a smile.

"Hey Fluttershy. It's good to see you, I thought you'd still be up clearing the smoke." He replied as he sat next to the tree petting a small mouse.

"They had enough pegasi up there, so they let me have a break. I was about to bring some of the frogs from the pond to the bog outside of the Everfree forest." She explained. "They're over there eating now. I'm going to take them when they're done."

Spike gave a small laugh. Even though so much had happened to Equestria, the timid pegasus had not grown any bitterness. She always stayed the same, kind pegasus he met months ago.

"Umm, I-I think there's something we need to talk about." Fluttershy said reluctantly. Spike looked at her with interest.

"What is it Fluttershy?" He asked. The yellow pegasus swallowed the lump in her throat.

"You seem to be thinking a lot lately. About Twilight." She said this, and the little drake's smile faded. "I just want you to know I'm here if you want to talk. I-I mean, if that's okay with you."

Spike looked at the ground for a moment then looked up. "Yeah, it's okay." He said to her, eyes lowering back to the ground. "I have been thinking about her." He said slowly, eyes focused on the dark patches of grass before him. "It's been a few months, but I still wake up in the middle of the night expecting her to be pacing in the other room."

Spike let out a heavy hearted sigh. "She's the closest thing I had to a family. I was hatched in Canterlot, far from any other dragon. She hatched me, with her magic. At first, it seemed as though she only needed me for an assistant. That was really the only purpose I was there."

"I helped her with her studies and kept her library clean and organized; There wasn't really any other way she'd want it." Spike gave a small laugh remembering Twilight's crazy organization disorder. Everything had a place, and it always had to be there. Fluttershy was intently listening to the dragon's tale.

"She raised me there, at that school. Raised me like a mother would. Except she didn't act like a mother, but a caring sister. We became closer. I wasn't just her pet, I was her friend. Her family. We were as close as we could be until.....until......" Spike drifted off with tears forming in his eyes.

Fluttershy put a hoof on the dragon's shoulder, letting him know it was alright. He looked up at her teary eyed and saw her heartwarming smile. He wiped away a tear with his claw. "After Twilight was gone, I wasn't sure what I'd do. I felt lost in the night. But you came and took me in. You could have easily shrugged me off to be somepony else's problem."

"But you didn't. You let me into your home without any question. You showed me a kindness that I wouldn't get from anypony else." The small dragon stood up and threw his arms around Fluttershy. "I have always worried what I would do without Twilight, but because of you, I don't need to worry anymore. I want to thank you, for your kindness, for everything."

Spike was openly crying now, his tears getting caught in Fluttershy's pink mane. The yellow pegasus returned the drake's embrace with tears of her own in her eyes. The two remained like that for a few moments, the silence broken by Fluttershy's voice.

"I promise you Spike, I won't let anything hurt you. I will take good care of you, for Twilight." The young dragon broke the embrace with a genuine smile.

"Thank you." He said. He cleared the tears out of his eyes with his claws and sat back down against the tree. "I appreciate everything you've done for me." Fluttershy gave a tearful smile.

"What are friends for?" With that, she left to help the frogs to their new home. Spike laid his head against the tree, staring back up into the smoky night sky.

"No no no no no no, this is bad this is bad." Came a frantic voice from the outskirts of Ponyville. "I have to find Fluttershy! It's very important!" Pinkie quickly galloped down the path that lead out of the village. She was on her way to Fluttershy's cottage.

For the past two hours, she had continually received various senses that seemed to come to her randomly. Her head had been wrapped around trying to figure out what they all meant. She had a hard time finding her footing because her knee had been pinching at her. She believed this to mean that something scary was soon to come.

After this and various other senses, she had determined that they came together around the sense she felt when Fluttershy had left to her home. Whatever all these senses meant, it had to be about her. There wasn't a moment to lose, something bad could happen at any moment.

Pinkie looked out to see the cottage growing closer to her. She was almost there. She couldn't see any signs of her friend around the dwelling. As she arrived, she started to yell out her name.

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy, where are you!?" She desperately yelled out her name until she heard a voice come from a nearby tree.

"Pinkie? What are you doing here? Why are you yelling so loud?" Came the tired voice of Spike. Pinkie quickly ran to him.

"Spike! Have you seen Fluttershy?" She asked, fear imminent in her voice.

"Uh, not since she talked to me an hour ago. She was taking some frogs to that bog at the edge of the-" He said as he was swiftly cut off.

"The bog, that's right! Fluttershy was taking the frogs to Froggy Bottom Bog! We need to get to her, fast!" Pinkie explained quickly.

"Why, what's wrong?" Spike asked with worry.

"Uh.... I don't really know. All I know is that something is going to happen to Fluttershy!" Pinkie said dreadfully. Spike looked at her with concern.

"Wait, how do you know that?" He asked. Pinkie looked at him and gave a tired sigh.

"I can see the future! No time to explain. Twitchy tail of power. Lets go now!" She yelled out.

"I'm not really sure I know what you're sayi- WOAH!" Cried Spike as he was lifted off of his feet and placed on Pinkie's back. The pink mare swiftly ran towards the location of the bog.

"Please let Fluttershy be alright." She said to herself as she galloped down the path to Froggy Bottom Bog.

It was dark and dreary in the mucky swamp known as Froggy Bottom Bog. The deep thicket held nasty creatures who basked in the eternal night. Obviously a safe environment for a pony to visit unprotected. It was here that a yellow pegasus found a new home for a group of amphibious frogs.

She gently landed with a cart filled with them. As she landed, her hooves sunk a little into the ground. She flapped her wings momentarily to stay above the dark mud.

"Here you go little frogs. It should be much nicer here than that dirty old pond." She said sweetly to the frogs as she unhooked the latch to the cart to let them out. A single frog hopped out onto the mud and moved around a little. He croaked a reassurance to the others and they quickly hopped out to join him.

Fluttershy gave a small laugh as she watched the frogs hop away. She was glad that she was given the time to do this. As she started to tighten up her cart, she heard a strange rustling come from the thicket. She slowly backed away and called out, "Hello? Is anypony there?"

She was met with silence. After a moment, the rustling continued. It sounded stronger than before. Fluttershy backed away even further. Whatever it was, was getting closer. She looked into the distance with fear, waiting for some horrible creature to appear out of the swamp.

The rustling grew even louder and more violent as the creature came closer to her. The yellow pegasus wanted to fly away, but her wings had shut tight around her in fear. She could only watch as the creature came closer to her. She could see as the weeds before her shifted. It was almost there.

Fluttershy tensed up, ready for whatever creature that lay in the thicket decides to attack. After a few moments of paralyzing fear, a dark figure appeared out of the weeds. The pegasus quickly looked the other way, closing her eyes. She could sense the creature getting closer to her.

She felt something brush past her leg and she gave out a small yelp. After she backed away, she summoned enough courage to open her eyes and look at her attacker. As she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of a small water snake. That's all it was, just a small curious snake.

Fluttershy stared at it for a moment, then have a small laugh. She laughed at herself for being paranoid once again. This little snake only wanted to see her, not hurt her. She bent down to touch it with her hoof. As she brought her hoof to the animal, he slithered onto her leg. She lifted him up to take a better look at him.

"Aww, you're not some big horrible beast." She said to the small reptilian. "You're just a cute little snake. Yes you are, yes you are." As she petted the snake and cooed at it, he slowly looked up at her. A look of fear quickly found its way into his unblinking eyes. He swiftly slivered off of Fluttershy's hoof and into the thicket.

"I wonder what that was about?" Stated the confused pegasus. She turned around to see what had frightened the small water snake. The only thing she could see was a big, dark trunk of a tree. At least, it looked like a tree. It was thick, tall, and went far up into the air.

But the bark of the tree didn't look right. It didn't really look like wood, but kinda like giant scales. The kind of scales you would find on a lizard. But the only kind of lizards that big were..... Fluttershy stood still with fear as she saw the tree start to move. It swayed from side to side menacingly.

Three other trees around her began to move as well, all having the scale-like bark of the first. She then realized that these trees couldn't be trees at all. The trunks of the unreal-trees then started to bend downwards. Fluttershy looked up to see four wide grins gleaming in the night. These trees around her were really necks, and the heads were coming down to her.

All she could do was watch as the giant sets of teeth came down to welcome her. She could see the faint outline of reptilian heads through the gleam of the moon. It was surrounding her. She wanted to move, to get away as fast as she could, but she was still frozen with fear. She was about to try to escape, until she realized something.

These creatures were dragons. Gigantic, fearsome dragons. Fluttershy lost all sense of her surroundings. She could only focus on the giant, wavering mouths, and her paralyzing fear. She was trapped, she couldn't move. Even if she could, there was no way she could outrun them.

As her very last option, Fluttershy drew in a deep breath. As she released it, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "HEEEEEELLLLLPPP!" The cry echoed through the swamp, bouncing through the trees and weeds. That was it, that was all she could muster. Now, she could only hope some pony heard her.

"Pinkie, please tell me what's going on." Came the worried voice of a young drake. "What's wrong with Fluttershy?" Pinkie was galloping towards Foggy Bottom Bog with Spike riding on her back. She looked back at him panting heavily.

"I just have a feeling that something is going to happen to her. A lot of feelings actually, but there's no time for that!" She said between breaths. The pink mare was trying her hardest to get to Fluttershy before anything bad happened. The purple dragon only grunted with disbelief.

"I still don't think I believe you. How can you know when things will happen?" He said to her. She responded with a tired sigh.

"Listen, I randomly get small twitches and shakes. Each thing means something. When my tail twitches, that means something is gonna fall. When my knee pinches, that means something scary is going to happen." She quickly explained to him.

"Is your knee pinchy now?" Spike asked with discomfort. Pinkie gave him a quick nod.

"Very pinchy. It almost hurts to run." She replied. "And I just know it has to do something with Fluttershy. Besides my pinchy knee, I have a lot of other feelings too. I don't know what they mean, and that's why we need to get to Fluttershy, fast!" Spike began to grow worried. If pinkie was right, then that meant that Fluttershy was in danger.

"W-what do you think happened to her?" He asked. "What if something bad happened to her?" Pinkie tried to shake away the dragon's questions.

"Please Spike, don't think like that. Nothing bad is going to happen to her! We'll be there to make sure it doesn't!" She said to reassure Spike, and herself. They quickly saw the edge of the swamp appear before them. Pinkie stopped long enough for Spike to climb off her back.

"She should be here somewhere." Pinkie told the young dragon. "You go look over there and I'll look over here." Spike nodded his agreement and ran off into the swamp. Pinkie turned and ran into the bog, weaving around the trees.

She galloped around the trees, hoping to find the yellow pegasus. The pink mare called out her name in hopes to receive an answer. She was only met with silence. The minutes she spent searching seemed to stretch into hours. Each second without finding her became harder and harder.

Pinkie had grown extremely worried that she would not find her friend. Just as she had slowed to catch her breath, a voice caught in her ears. It was a shrill scream of terror. It was calling out for help. It was Fluttershy. With new found hope, Pinkie swiftly ran into the direction of the scream.

After a minute of running, she tripped over a small creature that ran out of the thicket. She stood up and looked over to see Spike in the mud, rubbing his head.

"Spike!" She called out. "Did you hear Fluttershy?" The small dragon looked at her and stood up, dusting himself off.

"Yeah, I was just coming to find her!" He said with fear in his voice. "Something bad really has happened to her!" Pinkie walked over to Spike and threw him back onto her back.

"Not yet!" She said. "We can still save her! Nothing bad will happen to her, I promise!" Spike looked at her with wide, teary eyes. He had trouble believing her. She had trouble believing herself. Pinkie quickly turned and ran towards where she heard Fluttershy.

The two quickly traveled through the swamp, dodging tree branches and high roots. Nothing could slow them down, they had to get to Fluttershy. They heard another scream come from her. They were close. Pinkie gave the last of her energy to push through the thicket.

As she ran, her hoof got caught on a loose root. She and the small dragon were thrown from the trees, landing firmly in the mud. Spike stood up shaken, while Pinkie laid in pain. When she landed, her back leg had collided with a rock. She struggled to stand up.

Spike looked up to see Fluttershy off in the distance, surrounded by four large, snake-like heads. "Fluttershy!" He yelled out. "Come on Pinkie, we need to help her!" He called out to the injured mare. She stood up and walked over to him, keeping her weight off of her injured leg.

Pinkie looked up at the four creatures surrounding Fluttershy. Their heads were right next to the yellow pegasus. They gave a low growl at her, staring directly at her.

"Fluttershy!" Cried out Pinkie as she started to run towards her. Her leg was too sore from exhaustion and her injury to work, causing her to trip into the mud. Spike stood there watching Fluttershy in fear. With tears in his eyes, he ran towards her with all of his might.

"Spike! Wait!" Cried out pinkie as she carefully stood back up. The little drake refused her warning and continued toward his friend. He tried the best he could, but was too late. One of the heads brought itself towards Fluttershy with its jaws wide open.

With a quick snap, it brought its teeth right into the paralyzed pegasus. Spikes eyes grew wide. He slowed to a staggered walk as he watched his caretaker rise from the ground. A crimson liquid dripped from the beast's mouth. The other heads came around it and snapped at the body from his teeth. They bit into her and slowly tore her apart, red mist floating in the air.

Spike fell to his knees in fear as he watched her tear apart. Tears quickly filled his eyes. All he could do was mutter a quiet, "Noooo......." He shut his eyes and looked away, hoping this to be some horrible nightmare. Hoping it all to be some horrible nightmare. He wished to wake up to the familiar clop of hooves on the ground as Twilight paced around the room. At least the chirp of the birds in Fluttershy's cottage.

He couldn't take it. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

"Spike!" Yelled out the tired voice of Pinkie. "Please, g-get away from there." He looked back at her, quickly limping towards him. Then she said the one thing he wished not to hear. The one thing that he wished was wrong. The one thing that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"There's nothing you can do."

Author's Note

I am so so so so so very sorry for those of you who do not like this chapter. I have tried to prolong it, but it had to get it done to get to the rest of the story. This chapter was hard for me to write. It's creation has left a hole in my very soul. Writing 'heartache' has given me heartache. I only hope this doesn't dissuade you from the rest of the story.