“I just don’t understand it” said Fluttershy as she helped Rarity’s catatonic pet onto her couch “Opal’s never shown any signs of seizures and there certainly would be before she had one this bad.” It’d been three days since Opal was found by Sweetie Belle and Rarity, after staying at the vet for a time Rarity decided that Opal could use some fresh air so Fluttershy agreed to house the cat for a while. Opal did seem to get some color back but she still seemed paralyzed. Opal’s seizure had upset Sweetie Belle greatly, the little filly once so vibrant and energetic had become withdrawn and quiet, she’d also spent the last few nights sleeping with Rarity, even during the day Sweetie Belle seemed to stay close to her sisters side. Rarity attributed this sudden regressive behavior to Sweetie Belle feeling abandoned by their parents who were indeed leaving on more and more trips lately, so many in fact Rarity’s guest room was now more like Sweetie Belle’s second bedroom. Clearly Sweetie Belle thought that as she was getting older her parents felt less of a need to take care of her so she was acting younger to gain attention. Rarity fully intended to have a talk about her theories with her parents when they returned but first she’d deal with Sweetie’s inability to sleep in her own bed. That however would take place this evening and before that Rarity had plenty to do, a group of hired ponies were coming over to help her clean out the room in the basement.

As the ponies at Ponyville elementary ate their lunch most were quick and ate as a starving pony would, however one little filly wasn’t eating at all in fact she’d fallen asleep in her food “Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo called.

“Huh, wha?” Said Sweetie Belle as she awoke half her face covered in pudding.

“Ya okay Sweetie Belle ya been fallen asleep all day” said Apple Bloom concerned for her friend.

Sweetie Belle yawned and wiped the pudding from her face with a napkin “I’m sorry guys I just (yawn) haven’t been getting much sleep.”

“Ya otta look in ta that it can’t be healthy!” said Applebloom,

“Yeah” Scootaloo agreed “so I was on my scooter” she continued her story “I came to a hill… I swear I was air born…. For like two seconds but…”

Sweetie Belle tried to listen to her friend but her eyelids were very heavy and soon she found hers elf drifting off. Sweetie Belle stood in a place where she was surrounded by darkness on all side the only figure, or so she thought. “Hello Sweetie Belle!” said a voice.

The ponies came a half hour late but they were ready to tackle the basement room. “You may find the room downstairs and to the right” Rarity instructed.

“Anything in there worth keeping mam?” asked one pony he wore an orange vest over his brown coat and a hammer and nails served as his Cutie Mark.

“That is a matter which I have no knowledge of, till recently I was unaware the room even existed” said Rarity. “Just sort everything and see what you can find.”

“Whatever lady” said the other pony he too wore an orange vest over his grey coat and a large black mallet for a cutie mark. And the two workers headed downstairs and slowly entered the room.

“It feel cold in here to you?” asked the hammer pony.

“What do you want from me?” demanded Sweetie Belle.

“Want?” asked the voice it was high pitched like a fillies voice and yet there was something darker in the tone “I want nothing but to be your friend Sweetie Belle.”

“Why would I want you as a friend?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Because I would never abandon you as they have” the voice hissed.

“No one’s abandoned me!” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“Really?” asked the voice “so your parents have always gone on long vacations?”

“Well they’re coming back!” said Sweetie Belle though her voice had less depth to it.

“Of course” said the voice “but then after a few weeks they’ll be reading some travel magazine and want to head off somewhere else.”

“That’s not true” Sweetie Belle insisted though she knew she was lying as that was precisely what’d been happening the past few months, why her room in the Carousal Boutique was beginning to feel more like her bed room then her room in her own house.

“And” the voice continued “a sister who cares more for fashion then her sister”

“That’s…” Sweetie began but memories of the events leading up to the Sisterhooves Social swarmed in the little ponies mind.

“And” the voice went on “have you ever asked yourself what would happen if both your friends got their cutie marks first? Will they stand by you or leave you to your misery?”

“I…” Sweetie began, as it slept Sweetie’s body shed a tear. Suddenly Sweetie felt the voice’s concentration falter, like it had suddenly sensed something. “So sorry” said the voice “but I’ve got a small rodent problem to tend to.”

The two ponies worked by the light of a small lantern in the center of the room. And now that there was more light in the room the ponies could see what they were working with the room was about as wide as the library room of the Golden Oaks library, the floor was cluttered with beer cans, wine bottles, and other litter, there were also a few old boxes, a tattered chair, and one very large poster on the wall of the upper right corner and under said poster was more of the white powder Rarity and Sweetie Belle had found.

“Gee looks like the little lady’s got a wild side” said the hammer and nails pony as he picked up a beer bottle.

“She said she’s never been down here” said the black mallet pony.

“Oh yeah, remember our last job for that Berry pony? I’m sure all that whisky really was for a friend” said the hammer and nails pony. “It getting cold in here to you?” he added.

“Ah all our basement jobs are cold don’t be such a foal” said the mallet pony.

“Yeah but not this cold” said the hammer and nails pony.

“Could just be the house” said the mallet pony.

“Yeah” said the hammer and nails pony uncertainly “if the place is this cold the lady might be looking for a little heat at night if ya know what I mean” he said with a grin “maybe I could supply” he added with a grin.

“Yeah but you ain’t got to big a supplier” said the mallet pony “ow!” he shouted. “Ya don’t need to get rough we’re on a job ya know!”

“What are you talking about?” said the hammer and nails pony.

“You hit me!” said the mallet pony.

“Did not!” said the hammer and nail pony.

“Ya yea did!” said the mallet pony “OWWWWWWWWW! Something’s scratching me under my vest!” he added now getting worried.

“Oh come here and let me see ya big foal!” said the hammer pony as the mallet pony removed his vest, both ponies were shocked. The mallet pony had several large and deep cuts that seemed to have come from claws of some kind, what was really shocking however was these cuts were much more then random shapes, no they were letters spelling out a message:

GET OUT!

“Okay something freaky is going on!” said the hammer pony. Suddenly something rocketed across the floor at the two ponies narrowly missing the hammer pony’s back hooves before smashing into the wall with a crash!

“What the Tartarus was that?” asked the mallet pony.

“Looked like one of the wine bottles” said the hammer pony “must’ve rolled across the floor” he said reasonably.

“Never seen anything move that fast on its own” said the mallet pony.

“So what do you think there’s something else down here?” asked the hammer pony.

“All I’m saying is something weird is going on” said the mallet pony.

“Well go turn up the lantern if you’re so scared” said the hammer pony mockingly.

The mallet pony didn’t want to admit he was afraid but went to turn up the lantern anyway, he reached out a hoof when suddenly the entire lantern burst into flames which vanished as quickly as they came! Then came the laugh, the sinister laugh it sounded not unlike the laugh the villain Tirek laughed when in his weakened form yet this one was hollow sounding like that of a weakened animal.

“Who’s there?” asked the mallet pony.

“Me stupid” said the hammer pony.

“No something else is here” said the mallet pony at that moment the laugh returned.

“Okay now I hear it” said the hammer pony “come out here!”

Only more laughter filled the now pitch-black room.

“Come on” said the hammer pony “come out and fight us face to face!”

The laughter subsided but now there was a voice, which didn’t seem to come from any one corner of the darkened room but rather from the darkness its self “face to face?” it repeated “why not.”

Rarity was deep “in the zone” when she heard the screaming, she ran down stairs and found the two stallions running from her house as fast as they could screaming all the way! “Now what’s going on?” demanded Rarity as the two stallions strapped themselves to their cart.

“Lady we quit!” said the hammer pony.

“Quit!” Rarity repeated angrily “now you stop right there, I paid you two good money and I expect…” she began when suddenly she found a large sack of bits in front of her.

“Take it back, we don’t care find some other suckers!” said the mallet pony. Rarity was about to say that this was much more then she paid but the two ponies were already off.

Rarity didn’t have much time to think over the workers strange behavior as soon Sweetie Belle came home with yet another note from Cheerilee saying that Sweetie Belle had been sleeping in class. “Darling” Rarity said to Sweetie Belle “we need to take care of this now!”

“But Rarity!” Sweetie Belle complained as her sister tucked her into bed as Luna’s moon hung over the boutique “I don’t want to sleep in here.”

“Now Sweetie Belle dear you need to get over this fear of the dark” said Rarity.

“I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of what’s in the dark” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“Sweetie Belle I can assure you there is nothing in the dark” said Rarity as she finished tucking in her sister and sat on the sleeping bag she’d arranged just beside Sweetie’s bed “now we’re both going to sleep in your room Sweetie Belle and you’ll see there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of” said Rarity, Sweetie Belle could only hope she was right.

Somehow Sweetie was able to get to a peaceful sleep and soon Rarity followed suit. However late into the night Sweetie was awoken, she couldn’t explain why, she was asleep one minute and wide awake the next. Sweetie Belle glanced out her window and saw that the moon was in its third hour position after midnight so it was three hours after midnight. Suddenly there came a creaking, Sweetie Belle looked and saw her closet doors opening and as she stared into the dark corridor she knew something was staring back! It came out of the closet slowly and gracefully, it was smaller than Sweetie Belle, its eyes shone in the moonlight as did its dark coat, it was smiling a smile that seemed to shine with starlight, it moved carefully over Rarity and soon was right in front of Sweetie Belle, it opened its mouth and uttered a single word “hi.”

“Okay now you roll” these were the words that awoke Rarity from her slumber. “Three” said Sweetie Belle happily as she moved the piece on a board game “okay you have to send one of your ponies home or skip your next turn.”

“Darling” said Rarity as she watched Sweetie Belle talk to the thin air opposite her “whatever are you doing?”

“I’m playing with my new friend” said Sweetie Belle happily.

“New friend?” asked Rarity.

Sweetie Belle nodded “Mare.”

Sweetie Belle’s new friend came up a lot over the next two days, at first Rarity asked her sister why Mare would be called such and asked if Mare had a name like most ponies. Sweetie Belle responded in a rather annoyed voice that “no, her name is Mare!” At first Mare seemed like a normal imaginary friend but Sweetie Belle soon began to tell Rarity very specific things about Mare, Mare was a filly younger then Sweetie Belle, Mare had been trapped in the basement room until recently, Mare claimed not to know why only Sweetie Belle could see her, and Mare liked Sweetie Belle very much. Rarity was becoming more concerned for Sweetie Belle than ever, though it was true that Sweetie Belle was now perfectly comfortable in her own room the little filly seemed to have some kind of obsession with Mare. At this point Rarity could only hope that Mare was just a phase Sweetie Belle would soon grow out of, her parents were due back tomorrow and Rarity was sure that once things got back to normal Sweetie Belle would forget all about Mare. In celebration of her final night with her sister at the boutique Rarity made a feast of all of Sweetie Belle’s favorite things but rather than shovel her food down in the manner she usually did Sweetie Belle just slowly scooped up her food.

“Darling are you alright?” asked Rarity.

“Fine” said Sweetie Belle simply.

“I noticed you didn’t go to “Twilight time” today” said Rarity.

“Mare doesn’t want me to hang out with Twilight anymore” said Sweetie Belle.

“I see” said Rarity “and does Mare have a reason for this?”

“Mare says she doesn’t want me around her!” Sweetie Belle repeated clearly annoyed.

“Alright, alright” said Rarity “I suppose you’re looking forward to sleeping in your own bed tomorrow.”

“Yeah right” said Sweetie Belle.

“And what’s that mean?” asked Rarity.

“They’ll come back, they always do, then in a few weeks they’ll be off somewhere else!” said Sweetie Belle angrily “they don’t care” she added.

“Sweetie Belle that’s an awful thing to say” Rarity scolded.

“Well it’s true!” said Sweetie Belle angrily as she got to her hooves “I’m going to my room!”

“I suppose you’re going to go play with Mare right?” asked Rarity angrily.

“Mare had to do something tonight!” said Sweetie Belle.

The two unicorns, Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles were riding home in a cab after a long vacation. “Should be in Ponyville any minute now” said Hondo.

“It’ll be nice to get home and see the girls” said Cookie. “Dear do you think we’ve been neglecting Sweetie Belle?”

“No” said Hondo “well maybe a little” he admitted.

“I think we caught a little midlife” said Cookie “we were so eager to go out and see the world we forgot about our world.”

“You’re right Cookie” said Hondo “well no more, this weekend we’ll take Sweetie Belle to her favorite places” he declared.

“We’ll let her have one of those crusader sleepover at our house” added Cookie

“And no more trips for a while and the next we go on we do it as a family” said Hondo.

“Ummm honey aren’t we going a little fast?” asked Cookie.

Hondo looked and indeed they were going very fast, his cousin seemed to be going as fast as possible. “Good point” he said “hey slow down!” he called to the driver.

Whether the driver heard him or just didn’t care he kept going fast even gaining speed! As they entered the town several ponies had to get out the way as the sped through like a bull out of control! “Hondo!” said Cookie over the shaking of the cart “this is dangerous!”

“Hey knock it off you’re scaring her!” Hondo shouted at the driver as the cart entered the mountain area.

Still charging along, the driver looked back at Hondo and Cookie, his eyes were completely white like a zombie pony, he let lose a roar one that sounded in-pony. Hondo only just realized that this was not the same pony from before as the cart sped off a cliff! It hung in the air for a moment before falling to the earth like a stone screams filled the air, and then… the sound of cracking wood and something else, the screaming and the ponies to whom it belonged had been silenced.