The blade stopped inches from my face but she was nowhere in sight, I glared at the weapon for a moment before letting it drop to the floor, I had just let out a sigh of frustration when a felt a warm body sidle up next to me, I froze…

“Hey Twi…” her voice whispered in my ear softly, it was almost sad, I didn’t turn, I didn’t move. Something impelled me to stay perfectly still, and to stay where I was.

“P-pinkie?” I answered the voice at my ear, I felt her lean against my neck, she was warm and there was a soft wetness, almost like… tears.

“You have to get out of here Twi… it’s dangerous,” she said, her voice was barely a murmur in my ear, I mustered up what remained of my jaded courage, after everything that had happened something in me was too weary of the darkness to be afraid.

“I guess you mean dangerous besides you, right?” I said, my voice softening to a whisper matching hers, I could smell her scent, like bubblegum and freshly baked cakes and for once the smell didn’t fill me with terror at the memories of what I’d seen. The smell was untainted, it was clean and... I felt something well in my heart, not fear, but sorrow. Despite all she had done, all the horrors and atrocities she had committed… I missed my friend terribly.

I heard a soft scoff, then she shift herself against my side to rest her head over my neck, I could feel her nuzzling into my mane playfully, the way she used to when she hugged one of us, “Yea… a lot more dangerous than me, and it’s close.”

“I can’t leave yet Pinkie, there are things I need to do here,” I answered her.

“I know, but not here here, you need to do them there here,” she said in response as she rested casually on my shoulder. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, the way she had said that was so… Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie… you’re so random.”

“I know… but really Twilight… you need to go…”

I shook my head, “I told you, I’m not done here.”

“Twilight…” she lifted her head off of my shoulder, her voice full of concern.

“I’m not leaving yet Pinkie, I can’t.”

“Twilight…”

“Pinkie I told you I-” out of reflex I turned to face her and my words died in my mouth. Her face was twisted into an unholy mockery of excitement, her mouth was stretched in a psychotic grin that literally went ear to ear, her white teeth shining in the darkness, and her wide, stark white eyes burned with the light of pure and undiluted insanity.

“RUN”

Every muscle in my body fired at once, I leapt away as an insane laughter ripped from her throat and she bounded after me, snapping up the discarded blade in her mouth as she moved. I got around a table, intent on keeping some obstruction between me and… and that thing.

“RUN RUN RUN TWILIGHT!” She said, working the words around the blade she carried.

So I ran, I released a surge of telekinetic force, hurling the table at her and ran underneath the whole I arched my head down and sent a blast into the floor, propelling me violently and quickly upwards. I reached out and caught the lip of the hole and started to pull myself up, I cried out in pain as I felt a cold burning sensation in my legs, the laughing madpony below me was slicing at anything she could reach, I heard her leaping up and down, and the slice of the blade through the air as a I finally made it to the ground floor. My legs had several small and shallow gashes, I could hear Pinkie laughing hysterically from below, I knelt and pressed my horn against my legs, the angle was awkward but I made it, and slowly I let light spill over the wounds and knit them closed.

“Pinkie…” I whispered, hoping to hear the calm voice that had reminded me of her before I’d lost her… something clicked in my mind at the thought.

I’d lost her.

What if I could find her again… I shook my head, remembering the conversation I had just had with her, she had been lucid, kind, and warm. She had been Pinkie Pie again, not the killer in the basement, not the madpony in the castle. She’d been…

A sudden weight hit my back and drove me to the floor.

“HEY TWILIGHT! WHY’D YOU STOP RUNNING?!” She bellowed in my ear, my train of thought shattered I bucked, trying to dislodge her from my back as she laughed in that high-pitched cackle, sudden scorching pain ran down my back as she drove her blade into it. I spasmed at the pain, putting all my force and the fury of panic into the attempt, throwing her off, she landed in a pile of debris, apparently overcome with a fit of hysterics. She righted herself and picked up the fallen blade, the wide grin and gleaming insanity still present.

I opened my mouth to talk to her, plead with her, but whatever I had been planning on saying was drowned out at that moment as a roar tore through the air, it was a roar that could never have been produced by anypony, it had palpable weight and carried a kind of manifold rage that nopony could even come close to feeling, much less expressing. I stared out of the blasted hole in the wall out into the distance from where the roar was emanating, the center of Ponyville, something about it seemed to dampen any other sound. As it faded I looked back to Pinkie, I realized she had stopped laughing, she was gone. Panic flew through me and I whipped my head around, trying to find her, focusing on the edges of my vision, the way I’d caught her before, but no pink ponies, no flashes of steel, she was gone.

“Pinkie…” I whispered, half to myself.

“Twilight?”

“Pinkie…?!” I whipped around, expecting to see the pink pony, her face twisted into the maniacal grin but instead it was…

“R-rarity?!” I gasped, my surprise filling my voice, “So you are here, but… how? And Why? And HOW?” questions flooded out but Rarity only lifted a hoof to forestall them. After a moment I realized that there was something different about my fashionable friend, her mane was in disarray and hung limply, her coat was streaked with ash and grime, but most telling were her eyes, they were hard and determined, possessing a naked ferocity I had only ever seen her display once; in the torture chamber of a certain castle.

“Twilight, darling, I’m sorry I can’t answer your questions, but you have to go,” her tone brooked no question.

“Rarity, wait, have you been here the whole time? Why?”

She only shook her head in answer, trotting over and wrapping her hooves around me, pulling me into a tight hug, “You have to go,” she whispered, I patted her arm and leaned into her, “make sure Sweetie Belle stays safe, and you too, stay safe.” I started to answer when her grip suddenly became like iron, with a twist she bore me down to the floor, hooves crushing the air from my throat. I could see the pain in her eyes as she stared down at me, throttling me with her bare hooves. My vision blurred and distorted as I fought against her, but all of her weight was bent down on my throat and with every swing my struggles became more and more feeble. Her voice came through like a distant buzz, “I’m so sorry Twilight… take care of my sister…”

Darkness overcame me; I heard the fleshy cracking sound of fracturing cartilage and I felt the pain in my throat as her hooves crushed my wind pipe, the gagging as my lungs burned, trying to take in air that wasn’t coming. Then slowly my consciousness drifted away too.

+=+

My eyes snapped open to a bright light and voices; I gasped and gulped in deep breaths of air, sudden vertigo assaulting me as oxygen reached my lungs.

“TWILIGHT?!” Spike’s voice broke through the haze and I oriented on him, the glare clearing as I came back to full consciousness, “Where did you come from? Are you ok?” he was helping me up. My vision was still blurry, I felt a strong back lift me up and deposit my prone form onto the couch, I figured I must be in the living room of the Library. It was just like over there only here… not here here… there here… I laughed softly, there here; that’s where I was now I guessed.

“I’m ok…” I croaked, my throat felt raw but whole.

“Let’s get you some water, Mayor Mare could you?” he asked, a clean and cultured voice answered.

“Of course dear,” I heard the sound of hooves moving away then coming back a moment later, a few moments after that a glass of water came into view, I gulped it down greedily. Finally my vision unclouded, I looked around; Spike was in front of me, worry in his eyes, I looked up and saw Sweetie Belle on the stairwell, Mayor Mare was standing to the side and…

“Big Macintosh!” I felt my heart swell, he was ok, he was alive and ok. Mac was standing off to my right near the door, he nodded and came over to me.

“Eeyup, ah’m jus’ fine Miz Twa’light, soon as yew vanished I made mah way down ta the floor and came righ’ here. Miz Mayor was alrea’y here when ah arrived.” I smiled as he explained, his low drawling tone giving that same sense of comfort it always did.

“But… Mayor Mare, what are you doing here?” I asked, a wry smile crossed her features as she adjusted her half-moon spectacles.

“Obviously my dear I’m here to help, with the princess dealing with that… thing beneath the Corner and Luna maintaining the seal…” she stopped and smiled again at the look on my face. “Dearie you couldn’t possibly think I hadn’t been apprised of the situation,” she shook her head and sighed, “Sometimes I think you may be too clever for your own good. I may not be the favored protégé of Celestia but Ponyville is my town after all, I’ve been corresponding with Princess Celestia for some time now, she instructed me to lend you any aid I can.” With that she nudged an ornate box towards me, “Princess Celestia told me that if the worse should happen, and obviously it has, I should bring you these, I’ve been keeping them safe for her since the Discord incident.”

I got up off of the couch and clicked the box open, inside were five necklaces and an ornate tiara.

“The Elements of Harmony,” I whispered, I hadn’t seen them since I’d returned them to Celestia’s vault after Discord had been once again sealed away. Even though I had wielded them twice in as many years they still took my breath away, their beauty went beyond the physical, but…

“They’re dark…” I said, looking over the gems, once they had shone with light and power, now they were dull and lifeless, they may as well have been made of glass.

Mayor Mare nodded solemnly, “Yes, that worried me too, the princess said it had something to do with, ‘The Breaking of Harmony’ she called it, I assume she meant the deaths of two of the Elements…”

I nodded in agreement, “Without Loyalty and Laughter the Elements are incomplete, and we can’t use their power to its fullest…” I shut the box, looking away from the stark reminder of our lost friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and now… Rarity was still over there. With a huff I turned and faced the group, “Alright, we still need to get to the Apple Family Farm, I have a cart out back we can use, Macintosh do you think you can pull all of us?”

“Eeyup.”

“Ok, Spike, burn a path to cart and get everyone in, Sweetie Belle you help Mayor Mare find some blankets, it’s cold out there and we’ll need them for the trip,” I rattled off instructions and each pony and dragon went off in search of their tasks.

“Twa’light, what abou’ tha’ mare out thar in the snow?” Macintosh asked in a quiet rumble once everyone else had left earshot.

I had been thinking the same thing, so I gave him the only answer I had come up with, “I don’t know Mac, but we’ll hear it coming at least, it seemed to be hanging around town so… do you think we can cut around and go down the path past Fluttershy’s cottage? Avoid town altogether? I know it’s a longer trip but…”

Big Macintosh nodded and slung his heavy scarf around his neck, “Tha’ ain’t no problem Twa’light, tha’ way we can see if Miz Fluttershah is home and we can bring’er with us.”

I smiled, no wonder Applejack was so dependable, with a brother like Mac I couldn’t see how she could’ve grown up any other way. Sweetie Belle and Mayor Mare were building up a respectable pile of blankets, I chose one of the lighter ones and swung it over Mac’s back, “Here, it’ll help a little least.”

To my surprise he fidgeted a bit and looked embarrassed, “Tha’s awful kind o’ yew Miz Twa’light, thank yew.”

Outside I heard a belching of flame that signaled Spike coming around with the cart, “Ok everypony, time to go, I won’t lie, there are things out there in the snow, dangerous things, but we can make it, make sure we’re all under the blankets, keep the whitest ones on top, they’re help us blend in.” They all nodded, even Sweetie Belle looked determined, scared, but determined.

“Twilight? W-what about my sister?” she asked softly as we loaded up the cart, I felt a twinge in my heart, I couldn’t tell her exactly what happened but…

“Rarity is fine Sweetie Belle, I ran into her a little while ago,” at my words Sweetie Belle’s eyes brightened. I looked out over the snow and shuddered, not from the cold, but from the song twisting on the wind.