GONE

The Ponyville library was, putting it mildly, a complete and utter mess.

With an expression of grim determination, Twilight Sparkle glanced around at the jumble of books that surrounded her on all sides. Tomes of every conceivable size and subject were piled haphazardly on the floor in randomized stacks, a state of affairs that was more than a little abhorrent to her. The only up side she could see to the situation was that it enabled her to do one of the things she liked doing best: putting it all back in order.

Taking in a slow, steady breath and then releasing it, the unicorn set herself to work. With just a small amount of expended effort, she extended her consciousness up and into her horn, causing it to glow softly with a purple aura. The aura also appeared around three of the nearest books, lifting them up into the air in front of Twilight for her to carefully inspect. A grimoire of ancient spells, a collection of short stories, and a tightly bound copy of Errant Beaker's varied scientific discoveries floated before her briefly before flying off to three different corners of the room. They cut through the air like bullets, then came to a perfect stop on their respective shelves.

The purple glow dissipated from the three books, only to reappear on three more on the floor. With practiced ease, Twilight continued to sort through the books and put them in their proper homes. Once she had started really getting into the swing of things, she increased her workload from three to five then seven books at a time. Her expression grew harder and more determined with each upshift as she worked tirelessly to get and then keep everything straight.

Just in the corner of her perception, she could see that Spike was trying to help. The tiny dragon was moving around the periphery of the pile, occasionally picking up a book here or there and sliding it into place, but far more often he seemed to find himself ducking for cover as a fusillade of novels and textbooks came sailing his way, threatening to take his purple and green head off.

Twilight considered apologizing to her hapless assistant, but considering the fact that she would end up simply endangering his livelihood again mere moments later, it seemed best to postpone it until after the work was done. In the meantime, it seemed that he wasn't really getting in the way at least, so she allowed him to continue shoving in the small handful of books he was managing every few minutes.

Though the work was extensive, with Twilight's diligence and magic she managed to make it short. With just a little over and hour's effort, all of the books were finally back in their places and the library very nearly looked like a library again and not a landfill. While Spike took a short break, Twilight pressed on, picking up all the vases, stools, tables, and other bits of furniture and nick-knacks that had been knocked over earlier in the day.

It was just then, naturally, that a blue and rainbow colored rocket shot through a window, bounced off one of the shelves, and then ricocheted back and forth across the room, knocking all of the carefully returned books from their perches and back onto the floor.

Spike let out a startled yelp and then ducked for cover under Twilight's legs as Twilight herself cast a quick protective spell to keep any of the heavier books from causing either of them any serious harm. She watched helplessly as words fluttered by while entire sentences and paragraphs thudded against the translucent shell before sliding off only to be replaced by another wave. The carnage seemed to last almost as long as the cleanup had, but finally, mercifully, it trailed off, allowing Twilight to lower her shield.

The source of the damage was immediately apparent as the nearby pegasus who was pulling herself out of the rubble and rubbing her head with a forehoof. "Yowza!" she exclaimed, her raspy voice pitched high with excitement. "That was something, huh? Did you see me? I was all like zoooooom and then bang and then kapow zammo!"

Ignoring the onomatopoeic commentary, Twilight swept her gaze back and forth over the newly made mess, her jaw hanging open and her eyes wide with disbelief. Spike crawled out from underneath her and looked around as well, breathing out a soft "Whoa . . . "

"Oh man, I wanna do that one again! That was great! Hahaha!"

"Rainbow Dash . . . "

"Seriously, you guys gotta try this thing! It's like you do a big loop, right-"

"Rainbow Dash."

"-and then you go flying through these big rings that are on fire-"

"RAINBOW DASH!!!"

"-and it just . . . huh? Oh hey, what's up, Twilight?"

The unicorn bared her teeth for a second, but before she could actually open her mouth to say anything else, the library's front door swung open and let an orange earth pony in.

"Rainbow Dash, you in here?' Applejack called out before noticing her friends standing amidst the chaos. "Oh hey, there ya are! You gals alright?"

"Oh my goodness, what a simply dreadful affair," Rarity said as she stepped in behind Applejack and picked her way through carefully, almost as if the books she was walking around were diseased somehow. "Honestly, I do believe an improved filing system may be in order, darling."

Fluttershy was the next to stick her head in. She glanced around with her soft doe eyes and tentatively tapped a hoof at the doorstep. "Oh my . . . is everypony okay?" she asked.

"Of course they're okay!" Pinkie Pie assured her quiet friend as she squeezed by and burst into the room, all legs and smiles and curly mane. In a combination of not looking where she was going and lack of grace, she then tripped over a small pile of books into a larger pile of books and somehow managed to make the mess even worse than it already was. Her head popped out of the heap, smile still in place as if nothing at all had happened, and she cheerfully added, "Dashie can't be hurt by anything, no way no how! Isn't that right, Rainbow Da-"

"OOOOOUUUUUUT!!!"

The sudden outburst brought all the little ponies to a complete stop. Eyes went wide and mouths dropped open at the viciousness that had been underlying the order. One by one they sheepishly turned their faces toward Twilight, who was glaring at them and flaring her nostrils angrily.

"Um, oh, sorry about the mess, Twi-" Dash started, but the unicorn cut her off.

"OUT!" Twilight screamed again, shorter but even more vehemently and directly in the shocked pegasus' face.

"Now hold on just an applepickin' minute," Applejack called out to her. "Dash weren't the only one involved, and she just done apologi-"

Twilight turned her wrath toward the newly provided target and advanced, hoof by stomping hoof. "She apologizes every time," she growled. "This is the second time she's had to apologize today. It's the seventh time she's had to apologize this week. I don't care what she or the rest of you were doing, I don't care that she apologized, I just want her out of here, I want you out of here, I want all of you out of here! NOW!!!"

Before anyone else could protest, a set of purple bulldozer blades suddenly appeared in the air next to everyone in the room except for Twilight, who then lowered her head and started walking toward the door. The blades safely but roughly scooped them all up one by one and pushed them backward until they were back outside and dumped unceremoniously on top of each other. Twilight stood at the door for a few moments, her face a mask of apoplectic rage, then screamed one last thing before slamming the door shut.

"I wish everypony would just LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Gradually the ponies picked themselves out of the pile and dusted themselves off, their feelings and egos hurting more than anything else. "Well, you heard her, girls," Applejack said with no small amount of displeasure. "Maybe we oughta find ourselves somewhere else to be."

Crestfallen, they turned around to leave. Rainbow Dash let out a huge raspberry at the library before zipping off into the distance, leaving only Spike to stare forlornly at the door.

"I don't see why I had to leave," he grumbled as he turned to join the others.

Inside the library, books were once again flying through the air, unerringly finding their way into their proper places. Twilight no longer restricted herself to three or five or even seven. Ten and twenty books at a time lifted up, surrounded by the brilliant light of her magic. Each rocketed back into their place, propelled by the anger still running through her adrenaline soaked veins.

In some distant part of herself, she knew that she was overreacting. Even though she'd been entirely accurate about how many times Rainbow Dash or - to be entirely truthful - any of her other friends had ruined the order and sanctity of her home and workplace, it was no justification for the way she had blown up. But with the anger still holding a death grip on her frazzled mind, she also knew that it would be pointless trying to seek forgiveness just yet. It would simply get her started up again and make things even worse.

So, for the moment, she simply concentrated on her work. It went quickly at first but gradually slowed down as she allowed the calming effect of putting everything in its place seep into her being. By the time she was three quarters of the way through, she had slowed almost to a crawl, picking up the books one by one, idly looking at the cover, and then actually walking it over to put it back on the shelf by hoof or teeth.

Though she had already realized blowing up had been the wrong thing to do, the full enormity of what she had done had taken some time to finally sink in. Dash really didn't mean to cause a mess, no matter how often it happened. Applejack had simply tried to stand up for her friend, just like any of them would have done. And the others . . . well, they hadn't really done anything at all. The only thing they had been guilty of was being there and getting caught in Twilight's blast radius.

A depression settled over Twilight as she put the last tumbled item back in its place. She would go out, find the others, accept Dash's apology, and then offer one of her own, but not just yet. She sighed to herself and shook out her mane, feeling completely drained. As important as it was to set things right, she simply didn't have the energy to do anything more than slump her way up the stairs to her bedroom, pull back the covers, and crash down on the mattress. Laying there, she could see through window set in the wall above that the sweet blessing of Princess Luna had finally settled across Equestria.

Twilight stared at the stars, still and quiet, until they blurred in her vision and she finally fell into the deep well of sleep.

Consciousness returned suddenly and fully, making her entire body twitch in surprise. Coherent thought was slightly slower in the coming, however, and she gazed uncomprehendingly at the wall for several moments before realizing that one, it was still dark in her room and two, the reason she was awake was because she could hear the soft sounds of movement coming from downstairs.

The memory of shoveling Spike out the door with the others suddenly lit up in Twilight's mind. Guilt tore through her chest, propelling her out of bed and onto her hooves. He lived in the library with her, and she had thoughtlessly tossed him out. Scrambling forward, she leaned her head out over the edge of the bedroom floor and peered down into the gloom of the library to see if she could spot even the slightest hint of baby dragon scales.

Instead, she was surprised to find that she could barely see anything at all. Her eyes were already adjusted to the dim light, but it seemed even dimmer than it normally would be under the circumstances. Darkness clung to every corner like spider-webs, weaving obscuring strands across the entire room and making it hard to see anything beyond her own nose. With some trepidation she turned her head back and looked up at the window to find the stars were gone, and in their place was nothing but a flat grey that hovered just on the edge of pure black.

A sinking sensation hit Twilight, and she could hear her breathing begin to quicken. Though she didn't lend much credence to gut feelings, Pinkie sense, or anything else of the like, she suddenly had the feeling that something was off even though she couldn't directly sense what. Her intellect furiously tried to tell her that everything was fine, that there had to be a logical explanation for the sky being so dark, but the rest of her wasn't having any of it.

Something was wrong.

Suddenly nervous about her inability to pierce the veil of darkness, she slowly rose to her hooves and walked over to the stairs as quietly as she could manage. Each step seemed to creak thunderously loud in her ears, but still she advanced slowly and carefully.

Once she was actually down inside the gloom that permeated the library, she found she could see just fine. But what she could see was almost precisely nothing. Everything was still exactly where she had put it before, and there was no sign of Spike or anyone else wandering around. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief without quite knowing why when suddenly something was there, and it stole the breath from her throat, causing her to choke.

Twilight Sparkle was standing right in the middle of the library, looking hard at the building's main entrance. She was also still standing several yards away at the foot of the stairs, her heart beating a million miles a minute.

In all of the general details, the other Twilight was perfect in every way. The real Twilight recognized every line of of the face that she saw in the mirror every morning, the cut of her mane and tail, the spiral of her horn. It was as if someone had taken a Twilight mold, used it to make a copy, and then set the facsimile up in the library as some sort of practical joke.

Whoever had made the copy, however, had done so out of pure smoke. The other Twilight was an almost uniformly wispy grey color that could just barely be seen through. The only parts of it that seemed truly substantial were the eyes, which glowed with a malicious looking red light. A fine mist clung about its hooves, emanating outward like seeking tendrils. And as the real Twilight watched this strange fog, the smokey Twilight's legs jerked into movement. Without looking over or giving any other indication that it had noticed her at all, the doppelganger headed toward and then straight through the door, unimpeded by its physicality.

Unthinking, unable to get a grasp on the situation, Twilight did the only thing her shocked mind would allow. She opened the door and followed her double outside, then stopped short as she looked around at Ponyville. Or rather, what little she could see of Ponyville, as it was surrounded by the same mist as her double, almost as if the village was trapped within an enormous cloud. Only the edges and vague silhouettes of nearby buildings could be seen, looking almost like toys strewn about an enormous playground or jagged teeth set in the mouth of a giant.

Twilight racked her brain, trying to remember if the local ponies in charge of the weather had scheduled a late night fog, but nothing came to her. As far as she knew, it was supposed to be clear and cloudless for at least several days before the next rain.

As she contemplated this strange turn of events, the Twilight made of smoke stamped a forehoof on the ground twice and leaned its head forward to concentrate magical energy into its horn. The glow was purple, but darker than the real Twilight's aura. It grew in intensity quickly, then exploded with a soft pop, releasing a massive swarm of mist balls into the air. The miniature clouds swirled around the thing's head for a few moments before breaking away from each other and zipping off into the fog.

Twilight watched all of this happen in complete befuddlement, wondering if she had, in fact, woken up earlier or if the entire thing was just a dream brought on by stress and overwork. But even as she watched her doppelganger disappear into the ether, she felt the all too familiar grain of reality set in place. She was awake, and within moments, she could tell that several other ponies were as well.

The first scream was tight, startled, and close by. Twilight's ears twitched as she twisted around, trying to figure out where exactly it had come from, but before she could figure even an approximate location, she heard another yell of surprise come from the other direction. More sounds of fright joined them, finally pushing the unicorn into action. She galloped forward, picking a random direction to investigate since they seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, but she was brought to a halt when a nearby door flew open and a pony burst out to cut across her path. She belatedly recognized the figure as that of Cheerilee, the village's schoolteacher.

Cheerilee was normally a kind and attentive pony, caring to her students and conscientious of her interactions with everyone she met. But none of that could be seen in the terror-stricken expression on her face as she sped away from her home. Twilight turned her head to see what could possibly have put such a scare into the mare.

There was light streaming out through the door Cheerilee had just vacated, but the light was blocked suddenly by another figure, this one made of smoke and mist and eyes like glowing coals. But instead of copying Twilight, the ghostly double was of Cheerilee. Its face was neither kind nor terrified, but a horrible mask of hatred and malicious intent. With almost supernatural quickness, it sped through the doorway, passed right by Twilight's nose, and leaped high into the air. It came straight down on the back of the fleeing teacher, then they both disappeared.

No flash of light. No loud noise. Not even a final whimper from Cheerilee. They were simply there one second and gone the next, as if they had been on a length of film that was improperly spliced together.

With growing horror, Twilight stared at the empty space they had previously occupied and realized that the very same thing had to be happening elsewhere in the village. As she listened to the shouts and screams and curses still pealing out into the night, she began to notice just how many of them seemed to cut short, how many of them had fallen silent and weren't heard again.

Her legs began to move of their own accord. As they ran on automatic, she swiveled her head back and forth as saw direct evidence of her worst fears. Ponies were spilling out of their homes, only to be followed out by a grey mist version of themselves. They tried their hardest to escape, to run, to hide, only to be taken down one by one, canceled out by the impossibly fast phantom figures. All it took was the briefest of touches and both would disappear like popping soap bubbles.

Twilight watched as an entire family poured out into the night, the mother carrying a crying child on her back. The child's double flew out of the fog and pounced on them both, grasping onto the mother's hindquarters as it stretched forth a hoof. Both children, real and fake, winked out of existence, causing the mother to stumble and fall. She lay sobbing on the grass only moments before she too was gone.

Bile rose up in Twilight's throat, but she choked it down and continued on. There was nothing she could have done, she knew, but she still felt as if she should have done something at least. Anything other than keep running blindly ahead. Anything but simply look on as-

"Twilight!"

The heavily accented voice brought her out of her despair even as it caused guilt to spike up within her yet again. Thought her mind had been somewhere else entirely, her hooves apparently had known where they were going. The dim shape of Sweet Apple Acre's front gate was just visible in the fog ahead, and she could see Applejack and Spike running her way.

"What in the hoo-hah is goin' on around here?" Applejack asked, her normally steady voice torn with ragged edges of fear. "There some kinda things up at the homestead, and one of 'em . . . they touched Big Mac, an' he . . . "

The rest of the sentence caught in her throat, but Twilight didn't need a full description to know exactly what had happened. She knew Granny Smith and Apple Bloom must have met the same fate, otherwise there wasn't any possible way the stalwart pony would have left the orchards under the circumstances.

"I don't know," Twilight wheezed, her lungs burning deep within her chest. "But we can't stop, they're fast, they're so fast!"

Without wasting even a second more, she levitated Spike up and onto her back, then turned toward Fluttershy's house at a full gallop. Applejack easily fell into step next to her, readily accepting that time was of the essence without needing to know what the plan was. Which, Twilight thought ruefully, there wasn't one. The only thing she could think of to do was gather all of her friends and then figure something out. They were the holders of the Elements of Harmony, after all. There wasn't anything they couldn't handle together.

"Dangit, get offa me!"

Twilight pulled herself to a stop when the familiar raspy voice hit her ears. "Rainbow Dash!" she called out, hope catching hold of her heart. If anyone could outrun the destructive apparitions, it would be the super speedy pegasus. She could go out and round up the others in a flash, faster than she or Applejack could ever hope to do.

"Twili-?" was all Dash managed to get out before her misty duplicate appeared and placed a single hoof on her side. Both of them vanished into thin air.

"No," Twilight moaned, completely stunned. "No no no no . . . "

Applejack was saying something, shaking her shoulder, but the unicorn couldn't hear any of it. More ponies rushed by in a panic, chased by their own shadows, but she only barely noticed before they, too, were captured and gone. The weight on her back suddenly lightened after a startled yelp from Spike. Applejack stumbled back, stared at the nearly catatonic Twilight with a sick expression, then turned to continue on towards Fluttershy's place.

The earth pony disappeared into the mist far too quickly to have simply moved out of visibility range.

As Twilight sat on the dewy grass, it sent a chill up into her body to match the one that had settled over her heart, mind, and bones. The screams gradually began to grow quieter, less frequent, and more distant. Just as she thought it was finally over, with the last cry for help dying out as merely an echo in the night, she felt a hoof come down on her shoulder.

A strangled sound came out of her throat as she spun around, certain that it would be the last thing she did before she disappeared completely, but it wasn't her doppelganger come back for her. Instead she found herself staring into the large and sorrowful eyes of a different unicorn.

"Rarity?" she breathed, then leaned in to cling to her friend as tears ran down her face. "Oh . . . oh, Rarity! I couldn't do anything! I couldn't . . . they just . . . I don't know what happened!"

Rarity put one hoof around the hysterical Twilight and cooed softly into her ear. "I know," she said. "I'm sorry, my dear. I'm sorry."

"You're . . . sorry?" Twilight pulled back and searched Rarity's face for a few moments, uncomprehending. "Rarity? What's going on?" she asked. "What . . . why are you still here? What are you apologizing for? Why haven't you-?"

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this," the other unicorn told her sadly. "I couldn't sleep, so I decided to stop by the library and make sure you were alright. There was a book still on the floor, pushed halfway under an end table. I was going to put it back for you myself, darling, only I saw that it was a spellbook of some kind and . . . I'm sorry. I just wanted to give you what you wished for. I didn't know it would do this."

She hung her head low. "I'm sorry."

Twilight's thoughts raced. She wanted to accept the apology. She wanted to rage and scream. She wanted to demand an explanation. She wanted to tear her own heart out to stop it from hurting, ask where the book was to find a counterspell, anything, but before she could form a single word and force it past the knot in her throat, she saw Rarity walk up behind herself and set a grey hoof on white flank.

Without the slightest whisper, the holder of the Element of Generosity was gone.

The fog went with her, receding back from Ponyville, leaving it bare and empty save for a single pony. With a cry of pure anguish, Twilight picked herself up and galloped straight back to the library. She tore through the building, searching the floor, the staircase, both under and over the tables, but she couldn't find the book Rarity had mentioned anywhere. Figuring that it must've gotten put back up after the spell had been cast, she started scanning the shelves, running back and forth in an ever-increasing panic.

The books were all out of order. What she had previously thought was a perfect shelving job turned out to be just as much of a mess if they had all been strewn out on the floor again, her anger having apparently blinded her to what she had done. In desperation, she began to pull the books from their shelves, one after the other, tearing through their pages in search of anything that could help her put things right.

The night passed, the day began, and the only sounds that could be heard in all of Ponyville were the shrill screams of Twilight Sparkle as she sat amid piles and piles of books, utterly alone.

End