Midnight met up with the boys at the pizza parlor, wondering if they’d have some advice.
“I really don’t know what to do,” Midnight sighed, “Twilight’s obsessing over the legitimacy of Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense is starting to scare me.”

“Well, when you’ve known her as long as we have, brony,” Thunderlane said as he took a swig of soda, “you just have to accept that Pinkie is just Pinkie.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac nodded as he took a bite of their pizza. “Miss Pie is an enigma tha’ ain’t meant t’ be understood. Tha’s wha’ makes her special.”

“Hey big brother!”

The boys looked and saw the Cutie-Mark Crusaders run up to them, all six of them eyeing their pizza with drooling tongues, as Twinken asked, “Can we have some pizza, please, please, please!”

The guys all laughed at their younger siblings and their friends as they ordered another pizza for the colts n’ fillies to enjoy, they even got them sodas. As the kids drank, Apple Bloom asked, “Hey, d’any y’all know why Twilight’s followin’ Pinkie?”

“I think it has to do with the Pinkie Sense,” Thunderlane answered as he looked at the guys, all of them bearing knowing smirks.

“Well, I hope it was worth all those bee stings,” Rumble commented.

“Bee stings?!” echoed Midnight with concern.

“Yeah, we saw Twilight watching Pinkie from our classroom,” Button Mash spoke up, “Pinkie got an itchy nose and ran off before some bees showed up, and Twilight got stung a lot!”

“Ooh…” the guys all winced.

“Don’t worry,” Sweetie Belle waved off their concern. “Cheerilee had plenty of band-aids for her. We helped her out but we didn’t get any cutie-marks in first-aid.”

The guys couldn’t help but find some relief in that though they said nothing to discourage the kids.
“So… is Miss Twilight still followin’ Pinkie?” asked Big Mac.

“Last we saw, yeah,” Scootaloo replied with a big BURP, everypony laughing as they gave her kudos for impeccable execution.

Later on, Midnight was on his way back to the farm after making sure Twinken got back to the orphanage when he saw Applejack carrying a basket of apples.
“Yo AJ, where ya headed?”

“Takin’ some apples to th’ new apple-cellar,” Applejack explained when they heard someone shout, “TWITCHY TAIL!”

They looked ahead and saw Spike running their way, shouting, “Something’s gonna fall, run for lives!”

Before they could speak with him, Spike had run off hollering when they heard multiple crashing sounds and looked in the direction it came from. Heading over to investigate, they found Pinkie doing something with her tongue, Midnight asking, “Hey Pinkie! Did you hear some crash nearby?”

“Oh, just over those bushes,” Pinkie answered, “though I hope Twilight didn’t get hurt.”

“Whattya mean?” Applejack asked.

“Well, Twilight’s been secretly following me all day without me knowing,” Pinkie responded with a smile on her face.

“You mean you knew ALL ALONG?!”

They looked to see a bruised and battered Twilight march up to the pink pony, giving her a murderous glare, Applejack and Midnight grimacing at the sight of the purple unicorn who was more purple than usual, given those bruises.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Silly,” Pinkie giggled, “that would’ve spoiled the secret!”

Twilight growled with a twitchy eye as Spike popped out from behind her tail, nervously asking. “Tail… still twitching?”

“All done! Clear skies from here on out as far as I can te-” Pinkie was saying when she suddenly started shivering, and no sooner did she did Midnight gasp!

“Is that a hydra?!” Pinkie screamed as she, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike gazed up at four serpentine heads that glared down at them hungrily.

“Who cares?! Run!!!” Applejack screamed and they all started running, the many-headed monster rampaging after them.

…Midnight! Midnight, snap out of it!”

Midnight shook his head and saw Pinkie was still shivering, as he asked, “What happened?! What-what?!”

“Dunno!” Pinkie replied in concern, “Never got one of these before, but whatever that shudder’s about it’s a doozy! Something you’d never expect to happen is gonna happen!”

Her whole body shuddered again before saying, “And it’s gonna happen… at Froggy Bottom Bog!”

“LET'S GO!” Midnight shouted, running off without waiting for the others. I hope whatever that was, whatever Pinkie’s sensing, it doesn’t end with one of my friends becoming a monster’s lunch!

As the five friends made their way into to the bog, Pinkie kept randomly shuddering, Twilight sniping, “Cold? Need a jacket or something?”

“For goodness sakes, Twilight!” Midnight snapped at her, “Fluttershy could be in real danger, and we don’t need any more of your skepticism!”

“Sheesh! What’s got your tail in a knot?” Twilight huffed, a little surprised at Midnight’s outburst.

“And besides, I’m fine,” Pinkie added before shuddering again.

“So… whattya think happened to Fluttershy?” Spike asked Applejack.

“Ah hope nuthin’,” she responded.

“I know, but… whattya think happened?” Spike pressed.

“Ah’m trying not t’ think about it,” she evaded the question.

“Me too… But I’m thinking about it anyway,” Spike worried, “Like, what if she exploded?!”

“Just exploded?” Applejack raised a brow.
“For no reason?" added Midnight, equally skeptical. Even he had his limits about possibility. And nonsense.

“Yeah, like… BOOM!” Spike threw out his arms.

“Whoa!” Pinkie agreed.

“I know…!”

“What if…!” Pinkie brought up, “What if she exploded, and-and then exploded again?!”

“Can you do that?!” Spike worried, “Can you explode twice?”

“O’ course not,” deadpanned Applejack as they carried on.

“But what if- She exploded, and then… exploded again, and-” Spike bantered until Twilight stepped on his tail.

“Would you two stop it?! I am sure she’s fine!”

“Ah hope yer right, for Fluttershy’s sake,” Applejack responded before yelling, “Look, there’s Froggy Bottom Bog!”

The place certainly lived up to its name, in both the local frog population and being a bog. It stank of peat moss and whatever else curdling beneath the murky waters, and the humidity didn’t help.
“Whoo!” Midnight huffed as he tried to fan away the stink from his nose. “I had no idea a bog could be so rank!”

“Fluttershy!” Applejack called, Pinkie and the others doing so as well, as they fanned out for their friend. Twilight walked up a tree, Applejack looked through a root, Midnight looked behind a rock, Pinkie checked beneath a lily pad when out of nowhere, a frog hopped onto it.

Spike looked past Pinkie and saw, “Fluttershy!”

He ran over and hugged her, saying, “You’re okay!”

“Of course,” Fluttershy replied, a little surprised as her friends all closed in.

“Phew, what’a relief,” Applejack sighed.

“I’m so glad everything’s alright!” Pinkie added when Twilight spoke up.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s not nice to gloat but-” She suddenly found her lips being zipped and she glared at Midnight who returned it with a smirk.

“Then don’t, because it really isn’t.”

Growling, Twilight unzipped her lips, as she stated, “Well, I told you all there was nothing to worry about! Pinkie Pie said that whatever she was shuddering about-”

Suddenly, they started coughing as some kind of green mist fogged around them but Twilight kept going, “-a doozy and” - *cough, cough* - “the only doozy here is how right I am!”

All the while she boasted, Twilight failed to notice something rising up behind her, Applejack whimpering, “Um, Twilight?”

“Pinkie’s made a lot of predictions today but-” Twilight coughed again, failing to notice more somethings rising up, her friends’ eyes all widening in terror.
“What is that smell?! But what we’ve seen here is there’s no point in believing you can’t see for yourself.”

Midnight went over to her and pointed her head up as he said, “Well, for once, Twilight, I agree with you!”

Twilight’s eyes followed four tree trunk-sized necks that led up to four serpentine heads, each glaring down hungrily with greedy eyes as Twilight said in dawning horror, “I see it… but I don’t believe it!”

The four-headed beast let out a horrifying roar, Midnight screaming, “IT'S A HYDRA! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"

The hydra wrested itself from the murky water as it pursued the five ponies and little dragon, all the while dodging the hydra’s attempts to snap them up in its four hungry jaws. They soon came towards a rise too steep to climb when Twilight directed them another way, saying, “Everypony up that hill!”

“HE-E-ELP!”

They looked back and saw Spike struggling to free himself of the thick boggy water, the hydra getting closer.
“Twilight, get Spike! I’ll distract the hydra!” Midnight yelled as he and Twilight ran to their little friend.

As Twilight freed Spike, Midnight shot up, levitating himself so he was almost eye-level with the hydra. Focusing his energies, his eyes glowed pure white as they narrowed, and he made a slashing movement with his hoof as he cast a spell with merciless intent. To the others’ shock, the four heads of the hydra fell and from their body and sank into the muddy water. Midnight floated down to his friends, sighing, “We’re safe.”

“No we’re not!” Twilight snapped at him, “Midnight, don’t you know what happens when a hydra loses one of its heads?!”

Suddenly, Midnight recalled the myths he’d grown up learning and enjoying, and remembered a particular fact about the hydra, renowned not for its physical might but for its power of regeneration. They heard something as Applejack whispered, “Tha’ duzen’t sound good…”

They gaped in horror as the hydra corpse stood itself up, the four severed stumps being stretched when, in a burst of slime and discarded skin, eight heads erupted from the body and were leering down at the six puny creatures before it.

“Definitely not GOOD!” Spike agreed as Twilight carried him while they all ran up the hill.

“I’m sorry!" hollered Midnight regretfully, "I was only-”

“If we survive this, we’ll forgive you, just keep running!” Twilight snapped.
“But why’s Pinkie still shuddering?” Spike pointed out.

Pinkie was indeed shuddering and oddly keeping up with the others when she came to a halt.
“Oh lookit that, it stopped. O-h-h-h, t-h-e-r-e i-t i-s a-g-a-i-n!”

They soon came to a cliff and the only way across was six precarious looking pillars of rock, and thundering footsteps behind them told them they had to move unless they wanted to become hydra food.
“He’ll be up here in no time!” Twilight realized, “Quick, one at a time, everypony cross!”

Peering over the edge, spike just had to ask the two unicorns in his current company, “Do either of you know how to turn a hydra into a mouse?”

“Can we do that?” Midnight asked hopefully.

“No,” Twilight responded, looking down the hill
“How `bout a squirrel?”asked Midnight.
“No!”
“How `bout-” Spike tried to ask.
“No small rodents of any kind!” snapped Twilight.

“…What about a bird?” Midnight tried.
“JUST CROSS!!!” Twilight screamed.

Fluttershy went first, Twilight throwing Spike so he’d make it, but Twilight noticed their ever-approaching enemy.
“He’s too close! Midnight, make sure everypony gets across, I’ll buy you all some time!”

“Twilight!” Midnight called but she’d already taken off. Growling, he said, “Hurry girls!”

Taking Pinkie by the tail, Applejack made her way across, and once she’d cleared it, Midnight crossed as well. They all looked and saw Twilight was running back up the hill, the hydra in angry pursuit. But just as she neared the edge, she barely dodged another attack from the hydra by the skin of her teeth. The attack however widened the gap between the edge and the first stone pillar, which toppled the second, then the third, and the fourth, making jumping across a greater risk.

Everypony gasped while they hydra roared in pain of the bump on one of its heads, Pinkie quivering as she called, “T-T-Twilight! You have to jump!”

“I’ll never make it!” Twilight despaired.

“You’ll be fine!”

“No I won’t!” Twilight insisted but the hydra’s roars behind were starting to make her rethink.

“Twilight! It’s a leap of faith, you can do it!” Midnight called out to her.
“I-t-’-s y-o-u-r o-n-l-y h-o-p-e!” added Pinkie with a shudder.

Deciding she’d rather take her chances with the fall then the hydra, Twilight gulped nervously and backed up for a running start. The hydra noticed and went on the attack, as Twilight ran as hard as she could. Before she could reach the ledge, the hydra’s attack knocked the ground she stood upon into the air. Thinking quickly, Twilight leapt, sailing towards the pillar.

“SHE'S NOT GONNA MAKE IT!!” Spike screamed.
Midnight furrowed his eyes as he declared, “Oh yes she will!”

Putting everything he had into it, Midnight concentrated and imagined a pathway of light extending from the ledge he stood upon that reached out to catch Twilight, and that’s exactly what happened! From his hooves, a turquoise energy flared and extended, creating a platform of solidified light, Twilight landing on it. Not knowing nor caring where it had come from, Twilight ran and leaped in blind fear, right into Midnight’s forelegs, and held her close in relief, everypony cheering, glad they were all safe.

The hydra however grumbled, having been cheated of a meal as it stalked off, though one of the heads was not gracious enough to accept defeat as it spat a raspberry at the ponies and little dragon.

“I knew you could do it, Twilight!” Pinkie cheered.
“All it takes is a little faith,” Midnight sighed in relief.

“Well, I don’t know how it happened; coincidence, dumb luck, or what,” Twilight sighed as she looked to Pinkie, “But you said there’d be a doozy in Froggy Bottom Bog, and I’d say we had one hay of a doozy. I mean, that hydra-”

But she stopped when Pinkie shuddered again, Midnight asking, “What’s wrong, Pinkie?”

“That wasn’t it,” Pinkie deadpanned.

“What wasn’t?” Spike asked.

“Wha’ are you talkin’ about Pink?” Applejack demanded.

“The hydra wasn’t the doozy,” Pinkie replied in a bewildered tone, “I’m still getting the shudder! Oo-o-oh, oo-o-oh! See, there it is again! Whatever the doozy was at Froggy Bottom Bog, my Pinkie Sense says it still hasn't happened.”

“Wha- But I- WHAT?!” Twilight snapped as she got… dramatic. “The hydra wasn’t the doozy? How could it not be the doozy?! What could be more… doozier than that?!”

“Dunno, but it just wasn’t it,” Pinkie shrugged, Twilight’s eyes crying bloody murder, her teeth grinding, her ears blowing steam, when she jumped and her mane and tail burst into flames, her eyes angry red, everypony all gaping at her nervously as the flames died, her mane and tail and coat a tad scorched.

“I give up!” Twilight sighed in defeat.

“Give what up, Twi?” Midnight asked his teacher.

“The fight! I can’t fight it anymore…” Twilight said wearily, “I don’t understand, how, why, or what, but Pinkie Sense somehow… makes sense! I don’t see how it does, but it just does. You were right, Midnight… Just because I can’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“Y-y-you m-m-mean you b-b-believe?” Pinkie continued to shudder.

“Yup, I guess I do,” Twilight sighed.

Suddenly, Pinkie shuddered faster, before popping, inflating, stretching, twisting, and then she was back to normal (or whatever definition of ‘normal’ can be used in the case of Pinkie Pie). She gave herself a once-over before gasping, “That was it! That’s the doozy!”

“Huh?!” Midnight and Spike both said with open mouths and raised brows, Twilight saying, “What?”

“You believing, “Pinkie explained, “I never expected that to happen – That was the doozy, and, oh what a doozy of a doozy it was!”

She trotted past them merrily going, “La-la-la-la-la...”

Everypony had a deadpan expression as Midnight muttered, “There goes one of life’s many mysteries, fillies and gentlecolts.”

Everypony muttered in agreement before they all started laughing as they followed after Pinkie.

Later that day, Midnight sat with the boys at Pepper Pony’s and they’d even included Spike, who was munching on a slice of peppers and emeralds with extra cheese.
“Thanks for the pizza guys! I tell ya, running for your life from a hydra sure works up an appetite!”

“Amen to that!” Midnight chuckled as he held up a soda, gesturing the others to do the same. “I propose a toast, boys! To another lesson in friendship.”

“Hear, hear!”

They each took a swig before letting out large BURPS and BELCHES, laughing it off before Spike gasped, “Friendship? Lesson?! Augh! I need to see Twilight, she has a report to send! See ya guys!”

Midnight was about to call Spike back to get his pizza but shrugged, I’ll take it to him when I’m done here.

“Sounds like you all had quite an adventure,” Thunderlane brought up.
“An’ thanks fer protecting mah sister and th’ girls.” added Big Mac.

“I didn’t do much,” Midnight waved it off before sheepishly saying, “If anything, I doubled our troubles.”

“Well, everypony makes mistake, haystack,” Big Mac assured as he gave Midnight a hearty (and painful) backslap. “Jus’ think before ya act.”

“Thanks, guys, I’m gonna bring Spike his pizza,” Midnight stood up, levitating the pizza, “otherwise he’ll gripe about forgetting it.”

Midnight approached Golden Oak Library when out trotted Twilight and Pinkie, both of them wearing umbrella hats. They noticed him as he asked with a knowing smirk, “Twitchy tail?”

“Uh-huh,” Pinkie replied when her tail twitched, “There it goes again!”

“I wonder what’s gonna drop out of the sky this time,” Twilight commented.

“You never know,” Pinkie said with a giggle as she trotted off, Twilight following.

Midnight chuckled as he turned to head into the library when he heard something and looked up to see Spike, apparently about to send off another friendship report. But he noticed him stop as they both heard a descending whistle and from out of the sky dropped Princess Celestia, onto one of the library balconies, Spike gaping at her as he muttered in confusion, “Twitchy tail?”

The princess just smiled and took the report before flying off, Midnight couldn’t help but keel over in laughter of the look on Spike’s face as the little dragon gasped, “Holy guacamole!”

Spike's taste in pizza is actually a slight reference to "On a Cross and Arrow"