I stood watch at the door of an unpleasant room. It had taken me the better part of an hour to find a bed I was willing to let my friend lay on but in the end my search was rewarded. It was dusty but serviceable and Fluttershy needed the rest after what she'd been through. The ambient light seemed brighter than before, maybe it meant some kind of day was dawning outside, wherever or whatever the outside was. Regardless of the reason I didn't need the light spell anymore, which was good because my headache was becoming unbearable. After a little while longer I stepped back into the room and crawled carefully into the bed next to Fluttershy. I had done my best to help her, what little healing magics I knew had been applied, and at least her wings were still intact. I'd mended some cracked ribs and regrew some of her more important feathers, but part of the power from the spell of healing comes from the wounded and I didn't want to tax her any more than was needed.

I knew I should be out looking for Rarity and Applejack but I was so exhausted from rescuing Fluttershy I knew I wouldn't be any good unless I got at least a little rest. I laid my head down and tried to relax, letting the worst of the pain fall away into a dull ache.

…incess… …y can't I us… …at spell?

I started, staring around the room looking for the source of the voice. It was the voice of that filly again, it was soft and almost impossible to detect but it was there, fading in and out like an old record.

…n't you tru… …e?

"W-who's there?" I whisper, "Why can't I see you? Why can I only hear you?"

Suddenly a thunderclap split the silence, I nearly leapt out of the bed, Fluttershy squeaked as her eyes shot open, shocked into wakefulness by the noise. I put my arm over her as she shook.

"There there… it's ok, I'm here, and you're safe. It's just lightning." Which it was, I recognized the sound the instant after I heard it, a literal thunderclap, I decided it must be storming outside.

"T-twilight? W-" she gulped as she met my tired gaze, I knew what her question was going to be.

"Yea… yea it was real… At least, it was as real as anything in whatever this place is." I answered.

Tears started pouring down her face as she was wracked with sobs, "I'm s-sorry… I should have s-said something, I was j-just so scared and ashamed… I f-felt like it was all m-my fault."

I pulled her close, "I know 'Shy, I know…"

The storm raged outside for a while as we sat there sharing the tears we needed to let out. After a few moments Fluttershy looked up, wincing as she did so. "When I found out what happened to Dash, what happened with Pinkie… I knew right away," she confessed, "I knew that what happened to Rainbow Dash… Pinkie had originally intended for me."

I had nothing to say, that kind of burden… Even though I was the one who found them I couldn't even imagine what it must have felt like to think: 'That was almost me'.

"Fluttershy, we need to get moving, we need to find Rarity and Applejack, if they were trapped like you were…"

Fluttershy nodded, "I'll try to keep up… Uhm… Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"W-… when everything went dark and we were all… taken… did you… uhm… see anything?" she asked hesitantly.

I shook my head, "No, everything went completely black for me, I could hear things, I heard Rarity and Applejack scream, I heard you pleading…"

Fluttershy nodded again, "I heard them too… but…"

"What is it Fluttershy?"

"Well… uhm… what happened to Luna? I didn't hear her or see her after the darkness came."
I stopped and thought back for a second before realizing she was right, the only sounds I heard came from the other ponies, Princess Luna was silent.

I didn't like where my thoughts were headed, "W-well maybe she was taken first? Or maybe something happened to her."

Fluttershy just looked down, "I didn't really have time to think about it until now but… Do you think…"

I shook my head, "Luna would never hurt us, we rescued her from evil when we banished Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony."

Fluttershy only answered with two words, "Did we?"

I didn't want to admit that the thought had crossed my mind, that maybe, just maybe, the tyrannical Nightmare Moon was still present in the Princess's mind.

"Fluttershy, I don't know if Luna, or Nightmare Moon, had a hoof in this, but I can't imagine Celestia wouldn't have noticed that Nightmare Moon wasn't gone completely…" I answered, unwilling to think that my mentor and our Princess had missed something like that.

Fluttershy gave me a small hopeful smile, "Yea, you're right…"

"Now" I stood up with a vigor I didn't really feel, "Let's find our friends and get out of here."

We walked for what seemed like another hour or so before finding a set of stairs going down, we followed the hallway it ended at for a while longer after that, neither of us felt like talking. Something about the place we were in discouraged sound, it was a dark and oppressive atmosphere, everything from the off-grey pseudo-illumination to the peeling wallpaper, the rotting floorboards and rusty or stained lamp sconces gave off a feeling of desolation. It was as if this place somehow inimical to life, like it denied everything a pony was supposed to be, where there should have been laughter there was grim silence, where care and love should be there was only decay and neglect. Finally after an hour of painful silence we came to what was obviously a foyer of some sort, I peered about trying to get a feel for the layout.

My breathe caught in my throat like a stone.

I knew this place.

It wasn't just eerily familiar.

I KNEW it.

I mean… how could I not? I'd all but grown up here.

"No… no no no… this can't be right…" I whispered mostly to myself.

"T-twilight? What's wrong?"

I broke into a staggering run towards where I knew the main entrance would be, the doors were closed but they were rotted and barely hanging onto their once-solid iron hinges, a sudden burst of telekinetic force was enough to shatter a hole through it, I hadn't even slowed down.

As soon as I was out I whipped around and stared upward dreading and knowing full well what I'd see. Fluttershy came out in a sort of limping trot.

"Uhm, Twilight? What was that? Whats wro-" her question died in her throat as she followed my gaze upward.

"Oh…" was all she said.

Oh.

I stared up at the ruined majesty of Canterlot Castle, my childhood home since I was a young filly under the wing of the Princess. Even in its dilapidated state it was impressive, still standing despite whatever terrible neglect it had suffered. I felt tears form in my eyes to match the rain drops that were falling in the storm, I hadn't wanted to see this, this was wrong… this was so very, very wrong.

Small wonder why every room I went into seemed strangely familiar. Then that first room, the one I woke up in, was that…?

"Twilight look!"

Interrupted from my train of thought I turned to see Fluttershy pointing down into the courtyard, there were many statues there, each representing something important, an event or belief held sacred by ponykind. There was a new one now though; it was a sculpture of a Pegasus in the midst of taking flight from the ground, ascending into the sky with a look of familiar pride and defiance on her face. It was how we all remembered Rainbow Dash, how she should be remembered. Fluttershy, though, was pointing to something else. More specifically to somepony else. At the base of the statue was an orange-cream colored pony, her blonde locks falling over her face and her old worn stetson held off her head against her chest out of respect for the dead.

"APPLEJACK!" we both cried out as we rushed down the broken stairs to the courtyard.

She barely moved, looking up at us she blinked slowly, her eyes were red from crying and her face seemed drawn and weak. A shadow of the strong and vital pony we all knew.

"Oh… h-hey everypony… sorry ah'm… ah'm jus'… y'know… payin' mah respec's tah d-" she choked for a second as though tears were about to overwhelm her again, "…tah Dashies monumen' an' all..." she looked back up at it and sniffed a little, "awful nice ain'it?"

Fluttershy and I both looked at each other sadly, "Y-yea… Applejack, it's beautiful…" I replied.

She wasn't here, not really, her mind was off somewhere else, lost in happier times probably.

"Applejack… uhm…" Fluttershy broke in after a few minutes of awkward silence, it seemed like Applejack had forgotten we were there since she started a little before turning back to us.

"Uhm… what happened to you? After the darkness swept in?"

Applejack shuddered a little before looking back up at the statue.

"Ah… ah don' really wanna talk bout tha'." She answered quietly.

"Well… uhm… it's just that… Well, I woke up in some… danger... did you?" Fluttershy asked softly, trying to pull her attention back.

"Nah, ah… ah woke up righ' here… righ' at the foot'o this here statue…" she answered dismally, "Had mahself a righ' good cry when ah saw it…"

She drifted away again, her attention caught up with the statue, it was then that I noticed something at her feet. The rain intensified, coming down a bit harder than before.

It was a length of rope.

"H-hey Applejack? Are… Are you okay?"

She scoffed, "Sure am, ah'm jus' dandy" she answered in a dark voice.

"Well… I just-"

"T'was mah faul' y'know…" she said, cutting me off.

"What was?" I asked, already fairly certain of the answer.

"Dashie… t'was mah faul' she wen' the way she did."

I shook my head, "Applejack… why would you say that?"

"SHE CAME TAH ME OK?" Applejack snapped harshly, her eyes red with grief-fueled rage.

"W-what do you m-mean?" I asked her, Fluttershy had back-pedaled at her sudden ferocity.

"Her… Pinkie... She came by while ah was workin', said she couldn' find Dashie and wondered if ah knew where she'd gah'en off tah."

The blood drained from my face as I realized what she meant.

"So you… you told her?" I asked.

New tears started coming down, "Yea, tha's righ', I didn't have no reason tah think nuthin' of it, it was jus' Pinkie Pie lookin for Dashie… So I told 'er… I told 'er she said she was gonna be ou' in the far mea'ows practicin' a new trick."

She looked absolutely miserable, "An' then she thank'd me an' went on a'bouncin away like she always did…" these last few words came through a choking rain of tears.

"Dashie was suppos'd tah come 'round fer supper tha' nigh', never made it… figured she an' Pinkie 'ad been out prankin' ponies again so I didn't think nuthin of it."

She turned back to the statue and stared at it as she finished.

"Ah told 'er, I told tha'… tha'… evil… murd'rin pony where mah best friend was… an' now…"

"Applejack… It wasn't… that wasn't your fault…" Fluttershy spoke up before I could.

"Yea Applejack… Rainbow Dash… she wasn't exactly subtle… Pinkie Pie would've-" I started before she cut me off again.

"YA'LL SHUT YER TRAPS!" she shouted, "I sold out mah bes' frien' to a kill'r an' now I gotta pay for it."

In a flash her legs snapped out and kicked my legs out from under me, my head slammed into the ground multiplying the headache I already had. I caught a glimpse of a rope fly up and wrap securely around the statues neck line. A lightning bolt crossed the sky at that moment, illuminating the horror I was witnessing and making it seem surreal in the painful haze of my consciousness.

"APPLEJACK, DON'T YOU DARE!" I heard Fluttershy scream, I'd never heard her that angry before, even at the Gala when she was filled with frustration, or when the dragon was nearly on top of us. I heard another impact as I tried to get up, my head spinning from the pain, I saw Fluttershy hit the ground, I looked up as a wave of vertigo. My legs dropped out from under me again; Why did it hurt so bad, why couldn't I concentrate?

I went down, my gaze went up, I saw Applejack had already woven the noose, it was tied and secure around her own neck, her tear-stained face was set in a hard line, her eyes were red and gleamed with a grim light.

I turned my head to see Fluttershy trying her best to get up, making it to her feet only stagger backward out my sight as she steadied herself, her wings were still in tatters so flying just wasn't an option. I mustered a telekinesis spell and shot it out with all my might, but it barely made a crack on the solid statue, the effort nearly blinded me. I saw a blur as another lightning bolt snapped a thunderclap across my ears.

Followed immediately by the sound of another snap of a rope going taut and an earsplitting crack.