Spike peeked his little scaled head into the dark bed-chamber. He squinted to find the lavender alicorn who he’d consider his, sister? Mother? Some combination of the two? Anyways, He made mental checks on Twilight’s sleeping form in a totally not creepy fashion, mind you.
Let’s see, snoring, check. Ungraceful sleeping position, check. Those cute little hoof kicks she does when she’s in a particularly deep sleep, check.
Wow, he’s mentally checking stuff just like Twilight, jeez he needs to hang out with other ponies some more.
Based on all this newly acquired evidence, there was one definite conclusion.
Twilight. Was, in fact. Still asleep.
Perfect. Then operation early morning surprise party was still a go.
He closed the bedroom door nice and quiet like, then made his way down the hallway towards the front doors. Utilizing his wings, he landed before the castle front doors a whole minute quicker than if he waddled over on foot.
Grasping the door notches, the doors creaked in protest, despite Spike’s best efforts to open them as quietly as possible. Rays from the warm morning sun flooded inside, forcing Spike to shield his eyes from the sudden light.
After his draconian eyes adequately adjusted he was greeted by the sight of a beautiful orangish-blue morning sky, with great white clouds hovering overhead. The cool morning breeze brushed against his scales, sending a shiver down his spine. He could see early bird ponies out and about in the streets, getting ready to open up their businesses or just out on morning strolls. Ponies in countryside towns like Ponyville were weird like that. All and all, another beautiful morning in Equestria.
A roar of thunder caused Spike to jump. Oh that’s right, everything else was beautiful, except for the raging thunderstorm currently over the Everfree. Nopony was worried though, wild rain storms occurred over the Everfree forest all the time, and they always stuck to the borders of the tree line.
Spike looked right, then left, then right again. No sign of the girls? There were supposed to be here by now. 7:30 on the minute, that was the plan! His concern turned to relief when he saw his friends coming up to the castle from the center of town, waving and smiling at him. “Good, right on time.” He whispered out loud.
Fluttershy held a tray of freshly baked cookies in one hoof while a neatly wrapped banner was draped over her back. Applejack had a platter of freshly baked apple pie and in tow her two-wheeled cart, carrying a large barrel of Sweet Apple Acres signature cider. Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were right beside them carrying saddlebags full of table cloths, streamers and confetti. Every pony was…wait, where was? Suddenly pink filled his vision as he was scooped up into a tight hug from no other than Pinkie Pie, who appeared out of nowhere. Her cotton candy mane threatened to suffocate him right then and there.
“Heya Spike!” Pinkie screamed excitedly until an orange hoof stuffed her mouth, silencing it.
“Shhhh, Pinkie. We need to be quiet. Remember?” Applejack whispered aggressively, the other four ponies behind her giving Pinkie annoyed looks. “And can ya put the poor boy down, he’s starting to turn blue.”
Pinkie’s smile gained a slightly embarrassed tick to it, “Oopsies, right, sorry.”
Applejack unhooked her mini-wagon outside, unloading the cider barrel and hoisting it on her back, tying it securely to herself.
The ponies walked inside, the doors shutting behind with a click. “I’m glad you guys could make it,” Spike whispered as he hugged each pony in greeting.
“Shoot, you’d be sicker than a rapid dog if you thought I was gonna miss today’s hoe down.” Said Applejack as she ruffled Spike’s head crest with a hoof nuggie.
“Me, miss a party, with apple brand cider, no way.” Rainbow flew up to Spike, the two giving each other a hoof bump.
“Oh Spikey wikey, we wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Rarity pinched him lightly on the cheek, the other girls softly giggled, causing him to blush.
“Hehe, right, umm, follow me.” He led the pony posse into the castle, the ponies moving as quietly as their thick stumps of keratin they called hooves, allowed them to be. They passed the throne room, then the library, before finally stopping at their destination, the castle dining room.
“Alright, everypony, Saturdays are Twilight’s sleep-in days, so she’ll wake up at exactly 8:00 on the dot.”
“Heh, she calls8:00sleeping in? Amateur.” Rainbow interjected before being shushed by Applejack,
“Shhhh, hush up now. Go ahead, Spike.”
“Thank you, Applejack. Anyway, as I was saying, we have twenty minutes to set up the food, decorations, games, and the-”
“Done!”
“-what?” everypony, baby dragon included, blinked in unison. It was indeed done. The decorations, games, the banner that said ‘Happy 3rd Anniversary Coming to Ponyville Early Morning Party!’, were all set up and ready.
Upon seeing the banner, Fluttershy reached behind herself only to feel nothing but her bareback. Rainbow Dash and Rarity looked at each other, then at their saddlebags before tossing them aside, for everything in them was already somehow laid out in the room. They weren’t going to question it. Applejack took a double-take at the sight of her empty hooves. The platter of apple pie she was holding was somehow set up and ready for serving on the dining table. Her barrel of apple cider, that was tied to her back, now stood proud and tall on another end of the table with a beer tap placed in.
“Umm, ok. That’s…done,” said Spike after getting over the initial shock of everything just being ready.
The gang had been planning this party for months now. This weekend was the first in months where nopony was busy or had anything else going on. There were no apples to buck, no scheduled Wonderbolt training, no animals to care for, no pastry orders to bake, and no dress orders to fill. Best of all, no friendship problems to fix!
Today was also very special to the elements, like what the overly long banner stated. Twilight and Spike first arrived at Ponyville this very day, three years ago. Marking the kickstart to many adventures for the six mares and dragon, including; defeating terrible villains, uncovering a lost empire, and saving Equestria multiple times. Over the past couple of years, they had all earned a reputation for being heroes, warriors, savorers, and all around good ponies in Equestria and beyond.
This year, Spike took it upon himself to plan the party, with a little help from Pinkie Pie, of course. The party pony in question was absolutely aspirated when Spike said he wanted to plan the party. She even started calling him her little ‘party planner buddy’ for weeks beforehand, so much so that it nearly got them found out twice.
Speaking of Pinkie, she was currently eyeing the cookies Fluttershy had brought. Pinkie's eyes glinted with curiosity, for these cookies, along with the apple pie, were one of the very few food items brought that she didn’t bake herself.
‘I’ll just have one.’ She thought to herself.
So she did; she bit into one of the delicious cookies. Oh boy, she could taste it all, the richness of the chocolate chips, the pinch of salt to balance out the sweetness, the hints of vanilla, the soft chewiness of the cookie itself, it was all so perfect! Wow, these were some good cookies. One cookie became two, then three, then a bunch as she stuffed her face with cookie after cookie.
Rainbow flew behind her, trying in vain to stop the party pony from consuming all the baked treats before anypony else could even have one.
“Pinkie! Come on, don’t eat all of the-” her complaints were cut off, as her mouth was stuffed with a cookie, forcing her to chew or risk choking. After a few chews, Rainbow’s face shifted from peeved to delighted, for these were some good cookies. She swallowed with a gulp then proceeded to join in on pillaging the poor defenseless cookie platter.
“Can you girls please control yourselves? Twilight hasn’t even woken up yet, and you’ve already eaten half of them there, cookies.”
Unfortunately, the two cookie-crazed ponies ignored the farm ponies’ plight. In fact, they seemed to speed up, much to Applejack’s annoyance.
Wait, we’re the cookies, multiplying? No matter how many cookies were consumed it seemed the pile never got any smaller. Weird.
Applejack’s ear twitched at the sound of the sipping of a wine glass beside her, “I concur, Applejack, we must wait for Twilight before indulging in the cattery can commence.” Applejack rolled her eyes before giving Rarity a deadpan look. The fashionista had taken it upon herself to have already begun indulging herself with a glass of wine she held in her magic.
“Really, Rares?”
The fashionista looked to her floating glass, then back at the farmpony with a sheepish smile and nervous giggle.
“What? It’s Liquid Gold Vintage! I’ve been holding onto this bottle for years, darling. Years! I simply couldn’t wait any longer.” She floated the bottle along with a champagne glass closer to Applejack, “Would you care for some?”
“No thanks, too fancy for my tastes” Applejack was a simple pony. She’ll take a nice tankard of cider over some fancy fermented grape juice any day.
Rainbow and Pinkie continued their rampage on the poor cookies, “Wow, Fluttershy, since when did you know how to bake?” Rainbow asked in-between a mouth full of chocolatey goodness.
“Oh, I wasn’t the one who made them.”
“No fooling?”
“Nope, Discord did.”
Real talk, a record scratch sound came from somewhere, Rainbow froze right she was about to stuff her face with another cookie. Delight turned to near terror as her eyes narrowed to pinpricks. “Dihd you shay, Shiscord made…these?” crumbs and bits fell from her mouth as she mumbled.
“Ahuh,” Fluttershy uttered innocently as she clapped her hooves together in delight. “He’d be so happy to hear that you enjoyed them.”
Dash spit the last bits out of her mouth, then backed away from the cookie platter like it suddenly became radioactive, “Great, now I think I have to go get my stomach pumped.”
Fluttershy frowned at this, of course. Discord worked really hard on those cookies after all, “Rainbow, that’s not nice. You said they were good.”
“Yeah, but that was before I knew Discord made them.”
Pinkie however was unfazed by the ‘god of chaos’ origin of these amazing baked goodies, “Oh, come on, Dashie! I think they're great, I mean if Discord did something to the cookies don’t you think something would have happened by now?” The room went silent as all eyes were on Pinkie. Everypony flinched and braced themselves, the timing was too perfect, too set up for something...chaotic. Now Pinkie would explode, spontaneously transform or something. Anything.
A couple seconds passed with nopony saying a word.
Nothing.
A couple more seconds passed. Everypony on edge waiting for any kind of chaos to debut for them to deal with.
Nope, still nothing. Rarity coughed though, so there was that. Everypony let out a collective sigh, they guessed the cookies were clean. For Now.
Spike had a claw to his chin. One pony was missing. Strange, he told her to meet up with them twenty minutes before- his thought was interrupted as a flash and pop of a teleportation spell revealed none other than Starlight Glimmer. Huh, speak of the devil.
When all eyes turned to her, Starlight wilted a bit from all the sudden attention. “H-hello, everypony, am I late?” She made the mistake of speaking at a normal volume.
“Shhhhhh.” everypony and dragon proceeded to shush her. Silly, Starlight. Didn’t she know this was a stealth operation?
“Nope, in fact, you’re right on time, Starlight.” AJ said in the same hushed tone that the gang and she spoke since they came into the castle. She wrapped one arm around Starlight’s neck in an affectionate hug. The other girls followed suit while Spike was content with a hoof to claw bump.
“So, why are we whispering? Where’s Twilight?” Starlight replied,quickly adopting the whispering tone of everypony else.
“She isn’t up yet, were waiting- “she placed a big emphasis on the waiting as she gave all her offending friends the signature apple family stink eye. “-until she wakes up.Then this hoedown can start properly like.”
“Ugh, can’t we just go wake her up already? How long do we have to keep whispering like this for?” Rainbow, for one, was over the whole talking like Fluttershy thing.
An idea popped into Starlight’s little magic adept brain. “Here, I can do this.” she held her horn high as it glowed with energy. A small glowing orb leaped from her horn into the air above. It impacted the ceiling, popping and flaring into a light blue dome filling the room, stopping at the door frame. “There you go, a good old noise cancellation spell. Now we can be as loud as we want. As long as we’re in the dome of course.”
Rainbow immediately switched to a volume a little bit above an indoor voice, “Oh, sweet Celestia! Thank you, Starlight!”
Happy that she could speak normally now, there was still one thing that bothered Rainbow, “Man I, just wanna drink some cider already!”
“You and me both, Sugarcube, but the party don’t begin- “
“Without, Twilight. Jeez, we get it, AJ. No need to sound like a broken record.”
“Please, don’t be like that, Rainbow. We only have to wait a little longer, darling. Surely you can be patient?” Rarity chimed in.
This only got a funny look from Applejack and made Rainbow flare her nostrils. The Wonderbolt flew just above Rarity, squishing muzzles with her. “Oh no, no, NO! You don’t get to talk! You’re already drinking away with that fancy wine of yours!”
“Everypony quiet for a second!” Spike shouted as he looked at the clock on the wall. Wow, bickering really seems to make the time fly. It was literally seconds away from being eight! And if he knew Twilight as well as he thought, She should be getting up in “Three.” He held his claw, counting down with his fingers, “Two.”
“One!”
Pause for dramatic effect.
“Hello, Spike? Where are you at? Helloooo?” Man, he was good.
“Alright she’s up! Lights out and places everypony! Surprise party formation alpha seven!”
“Yes sir!” The ponies all cheered in unison, giving off salutes before diving into action. The lights were blown out, curtains drawn, and ponies hidden. Starlight’s noise cancelation spell gave the lavender alicorn trotting down the hallway no indication of the goings-on in the dining room.
“Spiiiike?” Twilight let out a loud yawn before continuing to call out for her number one assistant, “Spike, where are you, and why is it so dark everywhere?” The clip-clopping of hoofs was getting nearer. All breaths were held as they saw a purple head poke into the pitch-dark throne room, entering one hoof at a time with a timid caution.
“Hello? Spi-“
“SURPRISE!”
“Bwwwahh!” Twilight’s wings flared out in panic mode, and like the little startled horse she was, she rose to her hind legs, flailing her forehooves before falling on her back. Hyperventilating, her heart feeling like it was beating a million beats a second.
You’d think after years of battling ferocious enemies, saving the day, and most impressive of all, living in Ponyville, would have hardened her to the effects of a sudden surprise party. But alas, Twilight Sparkle, a princess of Equestria, monarch of the most powerful nation in the known world, still couldn’t take it.
“By Celestia, you guys almost gave me a heart attack!”
Rainbow and Pinkie were on their own backs, tears in their eyes. Applejack hid her face in her hat as she chuckled, while Rarity and Fluttershy giggled with a hoof to their mouths.
“Oh man, you should have seen your face, Twilight, priceless!”
“HappythirdanniversarycomingtoPonyvilleearlyMorningparty!”
“Umm, third, anniversary morning, party?”
“Good enough! GROUP HUG!” Before anypony could even react, the six friends and dragon were enveloped in the tightest of hugs, courtesy of the party pony. Twilight’s face was smooshed up against Spike’s to her left and AJs to her right.
Starlight bit her lip in a chuckle until she felt a hoof wrap around her shoulder, “What?” before she too was assimilated into the almighty pony hug.
Pinkie hugged all her friends with the crushing force of an anaconda, “Ok, Pinkie, that’s enough, your…squishing…us… can’t…BREATH!” Twilight croaked as the air was slowly being forced from her lungs. After another couple of seconds of squeezing, the pink pony finally unclamped her hold, causing the pony pile to collapse in on itself. Ponies were now sprawled out all over the crystal floor. One after the other, each pony slowly succumbed to a laughing fit. As if a cackling contagion was spreading, infecting the whole group. First Rainbow, then AJ, then Twilight, then the rest. Pinkie herself fell on her back, joining the giggling pony pile.
The laughter slowly died down, followed by a few moments of content silence as everypony caught their breaths, Twilight managed to speak up first, “It’s nice to see everypony again, I’ll admit though I wasn’t expecting a party, especially not this early in the morning.”
“You can thank your little assistant there for the timing. Spike darn near planned everything himself.”
“Really? How could it be so? The one to be charged for attempted regicide living under my own roof?” Twilight said in mocking dramatic fashion, taking a few cues from Rarity.
“Oh, ha, ha, Twilight. If I wanted to take you out, you know for a fact a lot of cheese would be involved.”
“Oh no, don’t you dare go there, young man!” She reached out and grasped Spike in one hoof hug. “Come here you!” Spike returned the hug in earnest.
“Soooo, can we drink now?”
“Rainbow!”
“What? She’s up now, I’m just asking!”
“Don’t wait on me, girls, have fun. I just got out of bed, so forgive me if I’m indecent. I’m just going to freshen up really quick. I’ll be back.”
Spike gave Twilight one more hug “No problemo Twilight, there’ll be a nice cup of coffee waiting for you when you get back.”
“Thanks, Spike, you're the best .” trotting back into the hallway towards her bathroom. ‘What would I do without that dragon.’ Twilight thought to herself. As she made her leave disappearing back into the hallway.
After several minutes, Twilight finished a nice warm shower, brushed her teeth and mane. Then gave herself a once over, making sure she was completely ready for the day.
Straight and properly conditioned mane, check. Fresh breath, check. Lack of unpleasant body odor, check.
Satisfied with her appearance, she turned off the running facet before trotting back into her bedroom.
Her left ear twitched, to her annoyance, darn thing been acting up sense she woke up.
She moved close to the edge of her bed. Her horn glowed with purple energy, and out from underneath her bed emerged six identically sized gift boxes encased in her magical grasp. Each box was color-coded to match the coat of its respective recipient. They floated over till they were hovering at eye level with her. She thoroughly scrutinized each one, making sure everything was perfect for presentation.
Let’s see, neatly wrapped bow, check. Each box’s wrapping paper matching her friends’ coats and manes, check. Ear twitch, annoying, check. Name tags on the side, check. Everything seemed in place, and the presents were one-hundred percent presentable, excellent.
Her original plan was to visit each of the girls one by one over the week because they had all said they’d be busy today. Which apparently, was a big fat lie. She knew Applejack was acting really strange when she asked her about her work schedule the other day. It should have given away the party then and there. But now that everypony was here, she could give them all their presents all at once! Fun and efficiency!
Her thoughts were rudely interrupted when her left ear decided to make a fuss again. It kept twitching like it had a mind of its own. She reached up with a hoof to the side of her head to calm the offending ear when a cold wave of air crashed against her coat, causing the fur on her body to stand on end and the wrapped gifts to drop to the floor.
“What the?”
It was only then did Twilight realize just how quiet it was.
Almost unnaturally so.
Usually, you could hear a constant twinkling hum from the crystals that made up the castle. Twilight found the sound comforting because it helped her sleep at night, but she couldn’t even hear that. She swiveled her ears in all directions, but there was nothing. No birds chirping outside. No sounds from her friends just down the hall, despite the fact, her bedroom door was wide open.
No, this was silence. A silence not even a noise canceling spell could mimic. True, dead silence. Like a vacuum. A void.
On instinct, her wings raised ever slightly, readying themselves to take to the air at a moment’s notice. She glanced behind herself, seeing only her empty room with the door wide open. There was nothing there, but something didn’t feel right. There wasn’t anything in the room with her. She was all alone now, right? So why was she feeling so…threatened right now? Like a predator from the Everfree had its sights on her, and she could feel it.
She tried to use her magic to grab the presents and get the heck out of there, only for her eyes to widen in horror when she realized that she couldn’t conjure up any spells. Not only that, she found she couldn’t even move. Panic rose in her mind, she couldn’t tap into her own magic reserves, nor could she tap into the ambient magic around her.
Somehow her horn, the source of her power, which allowed her to defeat terrible villains, alter the very universe to her whims, was reduced to a mere mundane bone protruding from her forehead.
Now she knew without a shadow of a doubt, something was here in the room with her. The very air seemed to grow heavier. It tickled her throat and lungs as she breathed it in with a quickening pace. Beads of sweat trickled down her brow, with one drop entering her eye, causing her to wince but still unable to move or conjure magic.
Was this a spell? No, she couldn’t detect any magical foal play, no sorcery, no magic. She would know. She was a master of magic, after all.
She focused and fought against this strange paralysis with gritted teeth, managing to turn her head towards the open door. She licked her dry lips then tried to cry out for help, but her voice was raspy and hoarse like she had been a chain smoker all her life. All that she managed to mutter was a weak,
“H-help.”
The bedroom door slammed shut.
“-and then the cow said, moooove along!”
The throne room was in an uproar of laughter. The girls were taking turns telling jokes as they waited for Twilight to come back. Applejack managed to knock Pinkie on her flank, granted it really wasn’t that hard to get her to laugh silly. However, the rest of the girls were also clutching their stomachs as they laughed themselves till the point of stomach cramps.
“Hahaha, oh gosh, haha, that was a good one AJ! Ha, ha ha!”
“Alright, who’s next?”
“Me! I want to go! I got one that will really knock all your socks off!”
"Ha, Ha, Ha, it's funny cause we aren't wearing socks! Ha, Ha!
"Wait, Pinkie, that wasn't the joke." Rainbow took center stage, ready to tell a joke she learned from the academy. Not even ten seconds into her joke and Rarity lost all interest. It was clearly an inside joke between her and her wonderbolt coworkers, so she didn’t quite get it. Still, she did fake laughs so as not to be rude.
Rarity walked back to the dining table, which had all sorts of assorted desserts and treats, courtesy of Applejack, Pinkie, and apparently, Discord. Her magic hovered a plate of apple-pie over to herself but before she could enjoy her meal, she caught the form of Starlight in her peripherals. The fashionista could tell by Starlight's body language that she looked uncomfortable, out of place. Her smile became sad, “You know you are among friends, darling.” Starlight’s head shot to her, confusion on her face.
“W-what?”
“Twilight forgave you, I forgive you, and while I can’t speak for them.” She gestured to Applejack and Rainbow, currently in a drinking contest downing tankard after tankard of cider. Pinkie and Fluttershy were off to the side, watching in awe while chanting, “Chug, chug, chug!”
The little spectacle brought a small smile on Rarity’s muzzle before she continued her thought, “But I’m pretty sure they all have forgiven you as well. After all, Look at what you’ve done with this second chance. You’ve saved us on multiple occasions, and you're now head of an entire school. You have done good, Starlight. No, I dare say you’ve done spectacular!”
Tears built up in Starlight’s eyes, causing her to sniffle and rub her eye with a hoof. “Thank you, Rarity. I-I really needed to hear that.”
"Of course, darling." Rarity used her magic to resummon the glass of Vintage Gold, offering some to Starlight, who kindly declined. Very well, more for her.
A moment of silence fell upon the two unicorns as they watched their rowdy friends make fools of themselves.
Just then, a thought came to Starlight. Twilight has been gone for a while now, Rarity could see the furrowed brow on her face,
“Something the matter, darling?”
“Huh? Oh no, but, uh, you wonder what’s taking Twilight so long?”
The clanging of tankards and plates hitting the floor caused everpony to jump. All eyes turned to Pinkie Pie. On the floor near her hooves were several broken plates and a spilled cider tankard.
“Oh Pinkie, you clutz, look at this mess you made!” Rainbow, in a blink of an eye, was beside Pinkie. Her muzzle twisted into a mocking smirk, “Pinkie? Hello?” said smirk fell when she wasn’t receiving a response from the pink pony.
Rainbow’s head cocked to the side. She took a couple steps closer to Pinkie Pie, “Helloooo, Equus to Pinkie?” Rainbow waved her hoof in front of her frozen friend’s face. She even tried shaking her but still no reaction. Still no answer, Pinkie seemed frozen in time; but upon closer inspection Rainbow could see her blue eyes had become quivering dots in a sea of white.
“Guys! Somethings wrong with Pinkie!”
This got the rest of the girls scrambling. AJ pounded a tankard of cider in a three-second chug before trotting her way over.
“Ok, Pinkie, you’re starting to freak me out a little bit. Come on, say something!” The rest of the girls had gathered around, forming a semicircle of concern.
Fluttershy reached out to her, “What’s the matter, Pinkie?” Upon Fluterrshy’s hoof making contact, Pinkie’s whole body began to convulse, her puffy mane and tail twitching rapidly to the point where it was vibrating. It startled everypony enough to cause them all to back away a step, and the convulsions only intensified.
“Woah, nelly! This ain’t right, girls. This isn’t like any twitchy tail I’ve seen before!”
“Twitchy what?” to a still relative newcomer like Starlight, it looked as if Pinkie was having a seizure, but to the elements, this looked all too familiar as Pinkie experiencing a ‘pinkie sense’.
The girls continued to back away slowly, horrified at the display. Now they have each seen their fair share of doozy twitches, but this one was different. Never have they seen one this long or violent before. Everypony was set on edge as they watched Pinkie’s eyes roll into the back of their sockets, exposing the red veins of her eyes. The sight caused all to gasp, Rarity nearly fainted in shock, but Spike thankfully was there to catch her as she stumbled and helped her back to her hooves.
“We should call a doctor!”
Pinkie became still. Alarmingly, still.
“Pinkie!” the whole group shouted at once. AJ, Rainbow, and Fluttershy flung themselves upon their unconscious friend, checking her for vital signs.
Only for Pinkie to shoot back up to her hoofs, causing everypony to flinch. “D-d-doozy.” Her voice was calm, eerily so, the others began slowly approaching her again, concern etched on all their faces.
Rainbow went in to embrace her friend, but Pinkie didn’t hug back. She just stood there, leaning onto Rainbow while staring at her hoofs, mumbling something over and over.
“Doozy. Doozy.” Each time she repeated the phrase it grew louder and more frantic, “D-doozy! DOOZY!”
The last doozy was practically a scream, and she gave into Rainbow’s hug, firmly grasping her in turn.
“Something is wrong.” Pinkie uttered, her voice trembling with near despair, “Very wrong.” Tears began streaming down the pink pony’s face, her puffy mane deflated with an audible, ‘whmpf’.
Starlight Glimmer was just confused, “I’m sorry. I’m a little lost. What’s a doozy?”
“Pinkie’s got this, uh, ability that she calls ‘Pinkie Sense’ that allows her to, well, sense immediate danger or something along those lines.” Rarity pitched in to fill Starlight in on their friends’ ability.
Glimmer raised an eyebrow, “Seriously?”
“It’s better if you don’t question it, Sugarcube. Twilight had to learn that the hard way.” Applejack added.
“Uhhh, guys, a little help here?” Rainbow struggled to breathe as the crying pink pony held her in a tight, spine-breaking hug. Fluttershy came beside them, whispering comforting words into Pinkie’s ear,
“It’s okay, Pinkie, you’re okay. We are all okay.”
“Something bad is going to happen!” Pinkie screamed. She began tugging on her now straight mane with so much force that she threatened to rip chunks of it right off her head. “Something awful! Terrible! I don’t know what, but…but” her ranting degenerated back into violent sobbing as she pulled harder on her mane.
“Hey, hey! Pinkie, stop that you’ll hurt yourself!” Rainbow bolted forward, restraining Pinkie’s hoofs. The pink pony latched onto her once more, crying into her cyan friend’s shoulder. The others looked on in differing amounts of concern and maybe even a little bit of fear. Fluttershy and Applejack moved to stand beside Pinkie, stroking her back, anything they could do to comfort their distraught friend. Rarity, floated her drink away to rest on the table as she made her way over to help before a sharp pain came to her forehead. It hurt enough to stop her in her tracks. She felt the pain build-up at the base of her horn. “Ugh, what is this?”
Applejack’s ear twitched hearing Rarity’s complaint, “Something wrong Rarity?”
Rarity shook her head, and like that, the pain went away as soon as it came, “Nothing, darling.” All this sudden drama must have shaken her nerves or something.
Unbeknownst to Rarity and the others, Starlight also experienced some discomfort as she rubbed the base of her horn.
Meanwhile, Pinkie had finally managed to catch her breath and calmed down. She let go of Rainbow and apologized for her sudden breakdown. The other girls assured her that it was all alright, that she was safe. That they were all safe and sound.
“It’s gone. I don’t feel it anymore.”
Now if there one thing that the elements could agree on, is that a pinkie sense was not a matter to take lightly. An episode this extreme couldn’t mean anything good at all.
“Are you sure everything’s alright, Pinkie?”
“I-I think so. I feel like-like whatever bad thing that was supposed to happen, just didn’t.”
A false pinkie sense? Now that would be one for the history books. Rarity came around a glass of water held in her blue arcane aura.
“Here darling, drink some refreshing wat-“Rarity’s magic had suddenly failed her, causing the glass of water to shatter with a loud crash on the crystal floor. The sound of the glass breaking caught everypony else’s attention. The headache from earlier had returned, and it didn’t go away this time. Instead, it grew at a rapid pace, her eyes turned to pinpricks as a burning sensation started creeping up from the base of her horn until it engulfed the entire bone. It felt like her horn was being dipped in molten lava. “Argggh, my horn! My horn! It BURNS!”
“Rarity? What’s wro- ah, agh!” Starlight fell to her knees as the same pain-inflicting Rarity overcame her as well.
“What in tarnation is going on?” Applejack looked over noticing how Starlight was in the same state as Rarity. The two unicorns collapsed to the floor, clutching their heads in agony as their horns glowed a bright crimson red aura.
“What the tartarus? What’s happening to them? Is this the doozy, Pinkie!?”
“I-I don’t know!”
Rainbow hovered close to Rarity, but she had to back off when she felt a high amount of pure heat emitting from them. Seconds later another blast of heated air hit everypony in the room like a sucker punch. It was so intense it forced everypony to back away from the unicorns all the way to the other side of the room, “Holy horse apples! They’re getting hot, way too hot!”
The temperature in the room was rising rapidly. The two unicorns writhed on the ground as black smoke began visibly rising from their horns as they glowed, like red hot iron pokers. Spike tried to reach out to Rarity, but his claw was stopped by AJ’s hoof “No, don’t touch them!” AJ saw at the corner of her eye that Fluttershy was reaching for the two as well, “Nopony touch them!”
“Applejack, let me go! I’m a dragon, remember? I can handle the heat!”
“I know you can, Spike, but are there any medical supplies here in the castle at all?”
“Umm, yeah! Yeah, there’s a medkit and some medicines in the bathroom down the hall!”
“That’s good. Bring as much as you can and fetch Twilight while you’re at it.”
The little dragon glanced at Rarity, writhing on the ground, in terrible pain, he looked back at AJ, a glint of determination in his reptilian eyes. " I’m on it!”, he took to the air speeding towards the doorway as fast as his underdeveloped wings allowed him. Right as he reached the cusp of the entryway, he collided with something solid that violently ejected him backward at high speed.
“Spike!” Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie screamed in unison. Rainbow became a blur as she shot through the air catching the little dragon mid-flight. However, the inertia carried both of them until they crashed into the dining table. Food and cider went everywhere. When the dust cleared, Rainbow uncurled herself with a groan. She absorbed most of the impact with her back, sparring Spike little to no harm as he rolled off her stomach.
Applejack and Pinkie ran up to the two, helping Rainbow off the pile of the splintered table. “You alright Rainbow?”
“Heh, you kidding, it’s me we're talking about here, it’s gonna take more than that to keep me down.” Pinkie wrapped the battered Pegasus in a hug that rivaled an anaconda, “Ow! Ok, that hurts, that hurts, Pinkie!”
AJ rested a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “What about you, little guy? Are you okay?” Spike gently removed her hoof from his shoulder, a freighted look on his face before nodding to the farm pony.
“Yeah, I’m fine” the young dragon turned to his wonderbolt savior, “Thanks for the save, Rainbow. I owe you one.”
“Anytime, kiddo. And forget about owing me anything. Saving the day is just what I do!”
Pinkie approached the red aura blocking the doorway, prodding at it with a hoof only to receive a shock causing her to pull her hoof away. “What is this?” It was a dome, similar in size to Starlight’s noise-canceling spell from earlier. However, unlike the light turquoise of Glimmer’s magic, this barrier was a deep red in hue with strange pulsing vein-like patterns spread all over the dome’s surface.
“Pinkie! Step away from it, ya hear!” AJ galloped over and snatched Pinkie, dragging her away from the ominous red aura. “We shouldn’t be touching any unknown magic!”
Rarity let out another pained whine. Fluttershy quaked in place, she wanted so desperately to tend to her hurting friend, but the heat coming off the unicorn was flesh burning at this point.
Rainbow had enough of this, “We can’t just stand here and do nothing, AJ! They need our help!”
“What do you suppose we do, Dash?! They’re literally burning up, we can’t touch them, and we can’t go anywhere!”
“Arrrgh, I don’t know! Pour water on them or something!” That’s when an idea came to the former weather pony, “Wait, that’s it!” Rainbow stretched her wings and took to the air, hovering above the rest.
“Where are you going Dashie?” Pinkie went to grab Rainbow, but she was already up and in the air.
“Water, that’s where! The storm over the Everfree! I’m going to wrangle up a rain cloud and try to cool them off with it!”
“Rainbow, wait, the forcefield!” AJ’s words arrived several seconds too late, for Rainbow was already sent back to the floor, hard. She skidded along the ground before crashing into the table once again.
“Owwwww. Alright, I’ll admit, that one hurt a bit.”
“Celestia’s flank, Dash! Can you go five minutes without getting yourself hurt?”
“Oh, stuff it, AJ! I don’t see you trying anything!” Rainbow screamed back as she stood back up on her hoofs.
“Girls, stop it! We need to help Rarity and Starlight, remember! We can’t be fighting with each other right now!” Pinkie appeared between the two, cutting off their line of sight of each other. Applejack looked away, muttering heated words under her breath. A sound caught her ears, causing them to perk up and turn towards the source. It was a cracking sound, like glass about to shatter. She turned towards where Rainbow flew into the dome. The red energy barrier bore a crack, right where Dash had face planted into it.
Rainbow had also noticed the developing cracks, “Hey, AJ, you think we can buck this thing down?”
“I reckon we shouldn’t be touching it, RD. I mean did it not just fling ya around like a bag of apple seeds.”
“Well, you got any other ideas, AJ!?”
Sweat dripped from the brim of AJ’s hat. The heat of the room was increasing. If they didn’t get out of here or somehow stop their friends from becoming living bonfires, they’d be cooked alive.
“Ah, ah don’t know.” The stress was mounting for the farm pony. Magic was not her forte, not her field. She couldn’t think of anything. She scrunched her eyes closed in frustration. “I, I got nothing, but Twilight would know what to do.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and slammed the floor with her front hoofs, hard enough to make small cracks on the floor, “Well, she isn’t here right now! So, if you don’t got a plan, well, guess what? I do. And I think we can buck this thing open!”
“I’ll help you, Dashie!” Pinkie piped up, “Come on, Applejack! You’re the strongest pony here! If any pony can knock this barrier down, it’s you!”
Applejack glanced at her suffering friends on the ground. They were in so much pain at this point that they barely even made any sounds. Rarity’s mascara ran down her face, while Starlight’s face was locked in an expression of agony. Seeing her friends in such pain like that really began to boil the farm ponie’s blood. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the small crack in the magic dome, then snorted, letting out some steam of her own through her nostrils. “Fine, we’ll buck it down.”
Rainbow looked at Pinkie, Fluttershy, and AJ. A fire behind her magenta eyes, as she bared her teeth in a wicked smile, the smile of a mare ready to fight. Fight whatever had the balls to mess with them and hurt their friends like this, “Yeah, that’s what we need, girls! Get mad! Somepony or something is hurting our friends, and the only way we can help them is to tear this wall down!”
Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack took their positions, rotating around so that their hindlegs faced the barrier. They were going to aim for the already cracked area.
“I want to help too.” Applejack turned to face Fluttershy, stooped her with a hoof resting it on her shoulder, emerald green eyes clashed with light bluish-green.
“No, Flutters, we need you to hang back to take care of us in case this goes south. You understand?”
Fluttershy glared back, her normally timid voice having a noticeable edge to it, “No Applejack, like you said, this is strange magic we’re dealing with, and if we’re going to put all we have into a buck then, excuse my language but, darn it! I. Want. To. Help. Too!”
Applejack was flabbergasted. If the situation weren’t so dire, she would have been proud of her normally quiet and timid friend. However, right now, Applejack needed her to listen. She was about to argue with Fluttershy, but Rainbow had to butt in with her big mouth.
“That’s the spirit Fluttershy! There’s no way in Tartarus this magic wall can stop all of us!”
‘Except it could,’ AJ thought bitterly. Magic works in ways none of them could begin to understand. Not unless you were a horn-head, and…darn it. Bad Applejack, you told yourself you wouldn’t even think those awful slurs anymore.
The stress must have been really getting to her now. Making her think in racial slurs again. She took in a deep breath then let it back out as a long tired sigh. “Fine, fine, FINE. We’ll all do it together.”
Who knows, maybe it will work? Thinking about it now, they really didn’t have any other options, did they?
“Alright girls, get ready, we all gotta buck as hard as we can, got it?”
“Let’s do this!”
“Got it!”
“Right!”
“On the count to three! One.” Fluttershy readied her best-bucking stance, but one could tell she wasn’t used to such an action. Pinkie prepared her kick as well, and despite the grim look on her face, her tongue hung out in a goofy fashion that kind of ruined her whole attempt to look serious.
“Two.” Applejack’s leg muscles tensed up, revealing their insanely toned musculature gained from a lifetime of hard labor. Rainbow’s followed suit, still with that fire in her eyes. Doubt sat at the back of all their minds. Applejack was undoubtedly right about one thing, none of them knew what they were dealing with. For all they knew, kicking this thing could disintegrate them into ashes or even turn them to stone. Magic was scary and unpredictable like that. Anything could happen. Oh well, nothing tried, nothing gained.
“Three, NOW!” With that, each pony unleashed a buck with everything they had.
*CLUNG*
The impacts caused a loud metallic clang, like a hammer hitting an anvil, only multiplied by a hundred. A shock went through all the ponies’ systems like a taser causing them to flinch backward. The horrid sound reverberated off the crystal walls, assaulting everypony’s ears. When the noise finally died away seconds later, they checked the barrier. At first, it seemed there was no effect, and all hopes were nearly lost, but bless the sisters, cracks began to grow! Spider-webbing out until it covered a large section of the dome. It was working!
“You see that girls! We can break it!"
“We see it Dash, you may be onto something here.” Applejack pulled her hat further down her brow, now things were getting serious. “Alight, again! One. Two. Three, BUCK!”
*CLUNG*
Again came the shock and the horrid metallic screech, forcing the girls to wait for the ear-piercing sound to stop before they could continue. The cracks had now spread to the entirety of the dome.
“Way to go, guys! One more should do it!” Cheered Spike from the sidelines.
“You heard him, girls! One more again! One. Two. Three, BUCK!”
The vile magic holding the dome together had met its match, with that final kick, the whole dome shattered, like when a glass window is hit by a rock. Strangely the broken pieces of the red energy didn’t fall or disappear right away. Instead, they floated around, unaffected by gravity. They had this bright shimmer to them as they danced around the room above the ponies. It was almost beautiful in a way.
Almost.
Applejack’s hoof suddenly exploded in pain. She brought it up to her face and saw one of the larger glass-like shards of the red magical stuff piercing her flesh. Blood trickled from the wound onto the floor. She looked up at the floating magic shard things, her eyes widening in realization. They’re razor-sharp, can fall any second, and hovering right over their heads.
“Everpony get under the table now!” she grabbed the shard in her hood with her teeth, tearing it out violently with a groan before diving under the dining table, “Them things are sharp, and they’re coming down!” The same realization came to everypony else as they hurriedly followed AJ’s example, joining her into cover.
The unicorns remained exposed, because of the heat, none of the ponies could touch them. Seeing this, Spike ran out from under the table, snatching a platter, tossing the cake on it aside. He flew over to the two unicorns and pulled them close together. He held up his makeshift shield, trying to protect as much of their bodies as he could. The platter itself suddenly went up in flames as the magical energy emitting from the unicorns started melting it.
The red razor shower came down, going on for thirty agonizingly long seconds. Some shards effortlessly passed straight through the quickly disintegrating platter shield, only to bounce off Spike’s hide. By the time the rain of death ceased, Spike’s makeshift shield had turned into a formless mass of molten metal in his claws. He quickly tossed it away to prevent any from dripping onto his friends.
The red magic shards all dissipated back into ambient magic allowing the other ponies to cautiously rise out from their cover. Applejack winced as she put weight on her cut leg, it wasn’t too bad, definitely not the worst wound she’s ever had. However, she had to check and see if everypony else was alright.
“Everypony alright?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“All hunky dorey.”
“I’m ok.”
Spike breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that both Rarity and Starlight had not even a scratch on them. He gave a thumbs-up, “We’re all fine over here.”
Applejack felt something grab onto her bleeding hoof. She turned to see her yellow friend scrutinizing her injury.
“Applejack, you're hurt!”
“I’m fine, Fluttershy. It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry about me.”
“That’s deeper than a scratch!”
Applejack pulled her hoof out of Fluttershy's grip, “I said don’t worry about me. It's them we need to worry about.” Applejack pointed to the unicorns.
“Alright everypony, weird shield thing is down, Spike get those med supplies,”
“Right!” Spike flew off to complete his task.
“Rainbow, go get that cloud.”
“On it!” Dash took off down the hallway and out the front door, a powerful gust of air left in her wake.
Spike reappeared shortly after, the medical kit in his claws.
“Mind if I have that, Spike, please.” Fluttershy asked.
“Of course. I was actually going to give it to you anyway. You're probably the only one here that knows how to use it the best.”
Fluttershy wasted no time to treat Applejack's wound, much to her disgruntlement.
"How is it?"
"Its not deep, thank Celestia, you should be fine. Sorry, but this will sting a little." Applejack braced for the upcoming burning of medical disinfectant, of course no amount of bracing could prepare her for the real thing. Fluttershy applied the cream, causing AJ to groan in pain as the medicine worked its magic to sterilize her wound, before being wrapped in gauze bandages.
"Thanks Fluttershy." When Fluttershy finished dressing her hoof, AJ tried applying weight to it, it hurt like Tartarus, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.
"Applejack?" Spike called her name, evident fear wracking his voice.
“Yeah, what is it, little guy?"
"While I was getting the medkit, I tried looking for Twilight. I knocked on her door, called for her, but she didn't say anything and her door was locked!"
‘Great, things just keep getting better and better.’ Applejack thought bitterly.
“It’ll be alright we’ll find her. Don’t you worry your little scaled head.”
This brought a smile to Spike’s face which made Applejacks grow even more bitter. She really hoped she didn’t just lie to him.
Rainbow flew back into the room moments later, a dark cloud held in her hoofs. Rainbow positioned the cloud over her burning up friends before bucking it. The cloud rumbled before spewing water on the unicorns like a open sink faucet. The water evaporated upon contact with their fur, causing the room to quickly fill up with steam. Luckily it seemed to be working.
“Careful, RD! Don’t drown them!”
“Relax, I know what I’m doing.” Applejack noticed the strange look on Rainbow’s face. She took a step closer to get a better look at the Wonderbolt, and only then was her suspension confirmed. Applejacks already shot nerves go up by eleven. Rainbow’s expression could only be described as equal parts confused and disturbed. Gone was that intense fire and attitude from before.
After a whole minute of pouring rain the storm cloud had become a normal white cloud. With one more kick from Rainbow, the cloud was dissipated out of existence.
“D-Dash? You alright?”
“It’s everywhere, AJ,” Rainbow spoke so softly that she might as well have been whispering. Applejack tilted her head, like Winona whenever she was trying to hear something better.
“Come again?” In a blink, Rainbow was in her face, a mere couple inches from touching muzzles, near panic in the Wonderbolt’s eyes.
“It’s going on everywhere, Applejack! Whatever’s going on, its happing all over Equestria!”
Rainbow backed off, holding a hoof to her head. “Red domes. Red domes all over Ponyville, and Canterlot!”
“Canterlot too? Are you serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious! What, you think I’m lying?”
“No, I-“
“Girls! Somethings happening!”
Pinkie's shouts instantly crushed the squabble as everyone’s attention was drawn to the unicorn’s. The glow of their horns had ceased, and so did their consciousness as the two unicorns went limp.
“By Celestia, are they still breathing!?”
Fluttershy flung herself to the unconscious duo, not caring if their bodies were still as hot as a campfire or not. She checked their pulses. At the same time, her wings lightly brushed against their noses to feel for breathing.
“They’re alive, thank the sisters.” She let out a sigh of relief when she felt healthy pumping arteries and the light breeze of their breathing against her wing feathers. The unicorns’ bodies had cooled down almost instantly, and a couple seconds later, they began to stir from unconsciousness.
Glimmer stood back up first, one hoof rubbing her head. The pain had subsided significantly. It didn’t feel like her head was on fire anymore. Now it felt like a mild migraine. “Ow, ow, oh man, I have the worst headache right now.”
“Are you girls, alright?”
Now that they were at normal temperature, Applejack held out a hoof, which Rarity took in earnest, rising back to her hooves.
“Other than this horrible headache, yes, I do believe so. My head feels like it’s being pummeled with a hammer. Like a blacksmith with an anvil.”
“What in the hay just happened?” She was looking at Starlight specifically, causing her ears to fold back. Applejack was looking at her, expecting answers. The problem was, she didn’t have any.
“I-I don’t know.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed, “You don’t know? I thought you knew all kinds of stuff about magic!”
“No, I mean, yeah I do, but what…what that was? That was something I have never felt before!” Starlight prodded at her horn. Despite the horrible ordeal, there was no residual pain, no afterglow, nothing. However, she could feel her that her internal magic reserves were completely drained. The very air around them was void of magic as well.
“Our magic has been drained.”
“Drained? Like what happened with Tirek?”
“Yes and no." This got a confused look from the farmpony, forcing Starlight to quickly explain further, "Yes, as I can’t lift a feather right now if I wanted to, and no because all we need is rest, and we should be back to normal.”
“So, you have no clue what just happened?”
“No, not a clue, but I think I know how to find out.”
Everypony froze as the sound of the most blood-curdling shriek they have ever heard reverberated violently off the crystal walls. It dragged on for what seemed like eternity.
“Twilight!” not even a second after the scream stopped, Spike and the girls were at full gallop towards Twilight’s room.
Rainbow unsurprisingly was the first one to arrive at Twilight’s bedroom door. She tried opening the door, jingling the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Twilight?! Are you okay?! Twilight?!” Why was her door locked? There was no way with a scream like that was Twilight okay. It sounded like she was being murdered. Rainbow fiddled with the doorknob some more before going "Buck this!", and tried shoulder ramming it open to no effect. She tried bucking it down. With each buck, the door visibly flexed but still wouldn’t budge. She flew back a bit to give herself some momentum and then flew hard into the door. Still no dice.
“Argggh, are you kidding me! Stupid door!”
The others finally caught up, each of them screeching to halt. Rainbow grabbed Applejack by the scruff of her neck fur, “We got another bucking job to do AJ!” Applejack nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to the group behind her.
“Alright, everypony once we buck that door down, y’all stay out here, wait for my go-ahead first, understand?” Confused looks met her gaze. Rarity and Starlight looked like they were about to argue. Pinkie even took a step closer but conceded at Applejack’s stern glare. But Starlight was not as easily intimidated,
“What? But, what are we supposed to do, let you two charge in and possibly get hurt more?”
“No offense, but you don’t have your magic right now, so you’re no help!”, AJ nearly growled, causing Starlight and Rarity ears to flatten against their heads, “If there’s more bad magic mumbo jumbo , then only two of us should go in. That way, if anything happens to us, you all will run and go get help. Understand?”
“Yeah, we got it, AJ,” Pinkie responded, her head lowering and her ears going flat against her head.
Starlight didn’t understand. How could she, in her mind, this ‘plan’ was absurd! “What, no, that’s stupid! We should go get more help first! Call the guard or contact The Princesses, something along those lines! Not charge into a possible trap! “
“Did you forget Twilight’s in there?”
“Of course not, but we can’t just charge into every unknown situation!”
“AJ!”
“I’m coming RD! Look, I’m done arguing about this with you, Starlight. Now stand back.” Applejack spoke with such finality that none of the others dared to say another word. Applejack, of course, noticed the hurt in her friend’s eyes. She wanted to say something else, an apology, something to ease their troubles. It was also very hypocritical of her, considering how cautious she was earlier.
Still, time was of the essence, and they had a friend to save. She posted with Rainbow in front of the door. They both turned around so that they had their hindlegs pointed at the door.
“On the count of three.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three!” They both bucked with enough force to snap an apple tree in half. The poor door exploded, snapping in half while violently ripping off it's hinges.
Spike and the others watched as Rainbow Dash and Applejack entered the room like a royal guard breach team. Several moments of tense silence followed. The ponies outside the room had their ears standing at attention, rotated ever slightly to try and hear anything they could. Pinkie even stretched her neck ever slightly to try and get a better listen.
“Oh, oh, goddesses.”
“T-twilight…are you…are you ok?”
“What are they saying, Pinkie?”
“Shhhh, I’m trying to listen.”
“Fluttershy! We need you in here, with that medkit, now!” Applejack’s tone was like a sergeant of the Royal Guard, one that demanded no-nonsense, only action and compliance. At that moment, Fluttershy moved with a speed that rivaled Rainbow, disappearing into the darkness of the bedroom.
Rarity, Pinkie and Starlight, couldn’t just stand by anymore. How could they? Something clearly terrible has happened, and they were to just stand out here? Nuts to that! They barged into the room, Spike following close behind, but as he was about to put his foot into the doorway, a cyan hood grabbed him by the shoulder, pushing him away from the door.
“I'm sorry, Spike. But there's nothing in there you need to see. It’s-” Rainbow bit her lip, finding herself unable to look the young dragon in the eyes.
“It’s, what? This is Twilight we’re talking about here! Let me see her!”
A pained scream rang out from inside the room, “Twilight?!” Spike brushed off Dash’s hoof and took a step closer to the door only to be blocked by Applejack, whose eyes were hidden under the brim of her hat. He’d try to peek around her to get a glance, but she would shift her center mass in his vision, stopping him from getting any kind of clear picture within.
“You can’t go in there, Spike.”
“Applejack, let me in! I need to see Twilight!”
“I can’t let you in there, Spike. I-I just can’t.” Applejack’s voice was wavering. She was barely keeping it together herself.
“Applejack!”
“She told us to not let you see.” Her voice became more cracked with each word.
“W-who did? Twilight? Is she ok? You guys are scaring me! What wrong with her!?" No reply came from either of the two ponies. Rainbow was looking down at the floor, her ears flat against her skull, Applejack continued to block the doorway like a statue, her eyes still obscured by the brim of her hat.
"Applejack, answer me! What’s wrong with her?!”
“Something bad.” she sounded on the verge of tears now. Dammit why did she say that.
“Are you serious?” Spike stomped his foot hard into the floor, “You’re not going to give me more than that?”
He turned to Rainbow who flinched upon seeing the despair, anxiety, and rage in his eyes.
"Rainbow, please tell me what's going on!"
Rainbow's jaw clenched, beads of sweat running down from her forehead, then she closed her eyes in shame? Anger? Regardless, she didn't answer the dragon's pleas.
That did it. His tiny wings flared out. Spike let out a roar that rivaled a manticore, “LET. ME. SEE. TWILIGHT!” with each word, Spike could feel Applejack’s hold on him wither, bit by bit. Although he still couldn't see her eyes, he could see tears streaming down her face. The dam had broken.
“D-don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Applejack sounded tired, defeated even. But Spike didn’t care at the moment. With her hold gone, Spike pushed past her.
Rainbow went to follow but was stopped by Applejack.
“What the hay, AJ! We can’t let him see her like that!”
“I warned him, Dash. Besides, he’s all grown up now, ain’t he. He’s gone through his own fair share of hardship before. He’ll help her through this better than we could.”
“Sounds like to me you’re just trying to justify this to yourself!”
The ensuing argument behind him faded away as he entered the bedroom. He didn’t have to be a unicorn to feel that a ridiculous amount of magical energy was released here.
Th sight before him nearly caused him to vomit, his claws rose to his mouth as he gagged. The sight. The smell. Oh goddesses, now he knew why they didn’t want him in here.
There was blood everywhere.
The ceiling, the bed, the curtains, and walls.
Everywhere.
He saw Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, and Starlight. All gathered around something lying on the ground. A glimpse of red and purple made his vision slit into a tunnel.
Everything else around him morphed into fuzzy unimportant shapes. The white blob that was once Rarity pulled him into a soft hug, whispering reassurances into his ear. No. He didn’t need this from her, not now. He had to reach Twilight.
He gently pushed the crying white shape away, not forcefully, of course, with just enough force to get the message across. It resisted at first but eventually released him from its embrace. The other yellow and pink shapes moved aside for him as he strode on. He could feel their eyes burrowing into his being, he could feel their worry, concern, and sadness. But he didn’t care for that at the moment.
“Twilight.” It was a statement, not a question. She was lying in a pool of blood, her once lavender coat and mane now stained crimson. Judging by all the blood, It was a miracle she was even still alive.
Twilight’s head slowly rose causing Spike to croak out a sob, her normally vivid purple eyes were now dull, lifeless. She looked completely out of it, like she wasn’t aware of her surroundings or that her little assistant was right beside her. Her back was visibly nonexistent as it was wrapped in layers of bandages, gauze wraps, and ripped scraps of bed sheets. Even with all of that over her midsection, large red spots bled through to the surface.
He overheard one of the ponies behind him say something, he thinks it was Fluttershy, she said something about ‘shock’ and ‘delirium’. Then something along the lines like ‘they need to get her to a doctor’, He wasn’t paying that much attention so he didn’t actually know who was talking or if that was even what was being said.
Spike lunged forward and wrapped his little arms around Twilight, but she didn’t return the embrace. He noticed something was wrong. Her back seemed very…flat. His young mind thought on it for a second before the realization hit him like a freight train, and tears began running from his eyes. His voice degenerating into sobbing croaks.
“Twi-Twilight? Oh good, sisters! Twilight!?”
Her wings. Bestowed upon her during her ascension to alicornhood. Were now, nowhere to be seen.
