Yay, new chapter! And only two days later than I wanted :3 As I promised, we're returning to Ponyville… Celestia knows how long though.

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Rarity closed the door to the library behind her. The princesses were still making plans with Pinkie on how to catch whatever had been killing so many ponies. Spike was sitting off to the side, listening. He had volunteered to be used as bait to draw out the mysterious evil. "Somepony," he said, tears filling his eyes at the news of Twilight's mare-napping, "has to pay for this." He had dug his claws into fists so hard that blood began dripping from them, small green drops falling and sizzling on the floor. Rarity had noticed the crusaders were gone and had left to find them.

"They really shouldn't be out on their own right now," she said, carefully avoiding the inky black puddles that were left from the pegasi's cleanup. "What with the disappearances and the fire, we all need to stay together."

Rarity wandered around town, calling out for the fillies. Whenever she ran into somepony, she'd ask if they'd seen Sweetie Belle or her friends; nopony had. She was beginning to get very angry. "We only sat there and listened to how our friends were taken by a monster that defeated princess Celestia and they still decide to go run off."

As she was walking along, Rarity noticed an orange and purple blur on the river. It looked like Scootaloo but she was going too fast to be sure. "SCOOTALOO!" Rarity screamed, her mane was frizzy from the excessive amounts of water in the air and she had been walking for hours. Her hooficure was ruined and she was going to have to take several baths to get all of the mud out of her beautiful coat.

The blur on the water changed directions without slowing. Rarity could see Scootaloo's face now. She was headed straight for Rarity and she looked… different. Rarity saw that her sister wasn't with the orange pegasus. "Scootaloo," she yelled, "where have you been and where… are…" Rarity trailed off. She realized that Scootaloo wasn't planning on slowing down. She was hooves away from Rarity and if anything she was going faster.

Rarity started to retreat from the river's edge, but it was too late. Scootaloo launched herself up the river bank, boards were stuck to her hooves, but they flew off as they came into contact with the ground. She flew through the air, her wings still buzzing, and crashed into Rarity with enough force to knock them back into a nearby building.

"Rarity," Scootaloo said thickly. Rarity could see she had been crying. It looked like the only reason she'd stopped was that she just didn't have any left in her. Her breaths came in huge bursts as she spoke. "Rarity, it's got them. It's got Sweetie and Applebloom!"

"What does?" Rarity had a feeling she knew, but she desperately hoped it was something else. 'Please let her say they were in the forest again and they found another cockatrice, please let it be something safe like that.'

"The monster, the monster found us. It looked like Pinkie, but it changed! One second it was Pinkie, the next it was a huge monster. The lights went out and Sweetie Belle screamed. When the lights came back on she wasn't there anymore and the monster was gone too!"

"No, not Sweetie Belle," Rarity felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach. She'd seen some of the remains found in the clearing where they thought the monster to be, if Sweetie Belle had to go through any of that…

"Wait," a thought occurred to Rarity, "where's Applebloom?"

"She made me leave. She stayed behind to try and find Sweetie. I don't know if she made it. I went back outside and Pinkie was at the door, I think it was the real Pinkie this time. She tried to kill me, but I managed to stay ahead of her. Then I fell off a cliff and managed to water ski back here."

"That couldn't have been Pinkie," Rarity said, terrified at the thought of somepony with Pinkie's talents killing ponies." She's been with the princesses this whole time. "There's no way she could have gone that far out before you got there."

"It doesn't matter," Scootaloo said, she had herself under a little more control now, but her voice still came in little hitches, "we need to send somepony in after them. Who knows what they could be going through right now."

Rarity tossed the small filly onto her back and took off for the library. "This… is why… you girls… should… heh… should listen to… us!" She wasn't used to running let alone carrying a filly around on her back. Even the light weight of the small pegasus was more than she was accustomed to.

"Yeah… I know…" Scootaloo had finally stopped crying, she was still worried about her friends but she knew crying would only waste more of her energy. She was already exhausted from having pulled the crusaders to the clearing and then having to come back so fast. She lay down as well as she could on Rarity's back. Even with the constant jolting, it was fairly comforting; her fur was soft and silky form all of her hair care products. Scootaloo tried to rest her wings; they still ached from when Pinkie had slammed her down on them. 'No, it wasn't Pinkie,' she thought, 'it was another one of those monsters, or maybe even the same one. Pinkie would never do this to her friends.'

As they passed the Sugarcube Corner, Rarity had to stop for a rest. Scootaloo tried to climb off and spell her for a bit, but as soon as her hooves hit the ground she collapsed. She managed to sit up, but she could already tell she wasn't going to be doing anything active for a few days, she was just so tired.

Scootaloo looked around as Rarity caught her breath. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, other than the remains of the huge fire from the night before, but something seemed to catch her eye. She looked up and could see what appeared to be a shadow lying across Pinkie's window. The ones around it had the lights turned off and the curtains mostly drawn. On Pinkie's window, the curtains were wide open and there was only blackness in the window itself.

Scootaloo watched, something tugging at the back of her mind, suddenly the darkness seemed to shift, it didn't move, it was almost as though a pattern had been pulled across it. There were no noticeable differences it had just moved.

A voice seemed to echo across the orange pegasus's mind, but before she could understand what it was or what it was saying Rarity pulled Scootaloo back onto her back. "We're nearly there," she huffed as she began running once more, "maybe we can save them before it's too late. Who knows, the others may still be alive as well." A voice deep down seemed to tell both of them that there would be no remains of their friends, but they pushed it away and hoped for the best.

As they neared the library, Scootaloo suddenly realized what she had heard in her head. It was the same voice that had haunted them as the lights went out in the twisted replica of the Sugarcube Corner. It was Pinkamena's voice. "I'm watching," it had said, the echoes resounding through her mind even now.

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Sweetie Belle walked along the tunnel, listening carefully for any unwelcome things from either end. She didn't know what the strange 'Keeper' wanted, but she knew it wouldn't feel good. He also knew she had to avoid Pinkie, if that really was Pinkie this time. She hoped it wasn't.

She emerged from the tunnel into the clear daylight that filled the still regrowing forest. She breathed deeply; even with the small remains of the ash and soot in the air it still smelled much better than the twisted house of pain below. Sweetie Belle looked around, Scootaloo's scooter was still there, but wheeled tracks were dug deeply into the ground both in and in front of the tunnel. She began to walk forward cautiously, but tripped in a large hole in the ground. It was in the exact shape of a small pegasus, she could even see deeper sections that must have been made by the wings stuck out behind the pegasus. 'Good,' she thought, still too scared to make noise, 'Scootaloo did get out, but why is her scooter here and where is she?' She saw a strange cut in the thick trunk of a tree that had somehow grown to nearly full height since that morning.

A few pieces of wood lay scattered on the ground, but more tracks left the tree, heading away from the thicker parts of the forest. A trail of destruction was easily visible. Sweetie Belle decided that this must be where her friend went. She noticed, as she followed the tracks, that there were hoofprints doubling back from there and they were fresher than the wheel tracks. She also noticed that more hoofprints le way from the clearing entirely and these were even more recent, some still had grass bent into them. 'Maybe it's a good thing we tried to learn how to track,' Sweetie thought, 'now I know where not to go.'

She followed the tracks for some ways. Rocks and saplings lay shattered all over the ground and she could see a few inclines that had shallow tunnels bored through the as though something had been going too fast to bother going over the extra ground. The young unicorn had hoped against hope that she would find Scootaloo at the end of the tracks, then they could go get Applebloom and warn the others, but as she found the end of the wheel prints, she found herself on the edge of a cliff overlooking the river. She could see more pieces of wood lying on the banks and a couple could still be seen floating in the slower parts of the winding blue ribbon.

She sighed and turned around. She was going to walk back the way she had come when she heard a rustling in the trees. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a low hanging branch and jumped over the edge. It creaked a little, but it held and she found that the top of the cliff was an overhanging ledge above a bowl like depression. She began swinging, the crackling sounds growing louder, and let go of the branch. She had timed it poorly though and barely managed to grab the ledge.

She dangled in space, held only by the barest edge of her hooves. She knew one wrong twitch would send her falling and that she wouldn't survive the impact. The rustling had stopped and the light sound of a pony walking across the grass told her that she needed to hurry up and move. She strained against the downward pull and managed to pull herself up, inch by inch. The rough ledge scraped against her stomach and cut through in a few places. They were small but they dangerously pulled at her attention and willingness to continue. Soon though, she was enough on the ledge to flop over and slide her rear legs up.

She saw the tip of a pony's head look over the cliff and she pulled back against the wall. There wasn't as much room as she had thought but she still knew it was impossible for anypony to see her unless they were next to her.

Pinkie's voice floated down. "I was sure I heard her come this way. Maybe I was just thinking of little Scoot. There's no way she could have gotten away without me seeing, besides, she'd never survive that fall." A deep inflection came across her voice.

"She came this way, she's here right now. She merely cannot be seen mistress."

Sweetie gasped, but quickly covered her mouth. Pinkie seemed to hear, "well," she said, her voice back to normal, "maybe I should leave her then. After all, that's what I would've done if you hadn't told me."

"Sounds fair enough, after all she won't win." The deep voice seemed neither pleased nor displeased with this. It sounded as though it was just stating facts. There was something in it though. Sweetie recognized it from when she heard Rainbow Dash talking about a stunt or Twilight spouting something she had read. The voice was completely sure, more than that; it knew that it was right. Sweetie Belle's face turned even paler, though she couldn't tell. She could feel a strange lightheadedness as the blood left her though.

Pinkie giggled and walked away. "Bye Sweetie," she said as she left. The lone crusader could hear the impact from every time Pinkie landed as she hopped away. "Have fun getting off the ledge."

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Celestia faced her sister and the small pink pony. After the white unicorn, "Rarity," Pinkie supplied, had left, Celestia had put all present into a trance so that they could communicate faster. She waited until the mare left because she noticed the younglings were gone and that Rarity would be extremely worried when she noticed. She also had a feeling that they would depend upon Rarity finding them.

"So," Celestia's majestic voice resounded through their minds, "it is set then. Spike, you will take your place in Pinkie's contraption. It will be powered by my sister and I and Pinkie will spring the trap once our mysterious enemy arrives."

"Can we be sure of victory?" Luna asked, her voice slipping back into the Royal Wheeze she was still trying to get away from, "IF WE CANNOT WIN THEN WE SHALL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE! EVEN IF WE SURVIVE!"

"It's okay," Pinkie's voice said, "My stuff always works. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"It better," Spike's voice was cold and bitter. He was completely changed from his usual happy self. Twilight had always been like a big sister to him, most of the time she was more like his mother. Somepony had taken her away, and he was going to make sure they regretted it for the rest of their life, as long as he could make it. Fluttershy's disappearance also weighed heavily on him. He stomach was still knotted from learning of her true feelings and not being able to apologize for hurting her so much.

"CALM YOURSELF SMALL ONE," Luna hesitated before continuing, her voice softened but it was filled with bitter resent, "No matter what the cause, anger never serves. I thought I had a good reason just like you do, but I allowed it to twist me and I was sent to the moon for a thousand years as a result. I doubt anything that will happen along the path to come will be so merciful as that."

They snapped out of their trances as Luna finished. Her thoughts had turned to the dark memories of events that still haunted her. She had led an army of shadow creatures against her sister and nearly destroyed Equestria as a result. Countless lives had been lost for something they hadn't known or even suspected was an issue. She had felt the pain as each was destroyed by her sister's power combined with the elements of harmony until she lay broken on the ground. Her body wracked with the pain of a thousand deaths. This rushed by as Celestia quickly broke the mental connections. The last thing Spike saw was a pale, barren landscape; devoid of life and shelter. The Earth had filled much of the sky and a strong feeling of loss and anger came from this.

Spike was shaken by the visions. "Was that-"

"Yes," Luna stared at the ground, a trail of wetness coming from her eyes, "that was when I turned. Do not let such a thing tempt you young dragon, do not!"

Pinkie was in awe. She had seen memories of her dark mistress when she was still all powerful: Nightmare Moon's rise and original fall. The others seemed to take her shock for a similar feeling to Spike's; Pinkie was glad the mental connection was no longer active. She managed to secure the memories in the part of her mind that housed Pinkamena's connection to her, keeping them in a way that both her and her partner could view at any time. Pinkie shook from the sheer pleasure of having had the privilege of sharing in her goddess's mind, even if only for a little while.

Celestia snapped her hooves, drawing everypony's attention. "We must begin preparations." The clock had barely moved since Rarity left, yet they had already made plans, drawn and redrawn strategies and blueprints and had determined exactly how to play their hand.

Pinkie hopped out the door, "I better get to work then." The door closed behind her. Spike glanced out the window; she was already out of sight. He turned to the princesses, ready to make himself as appetizing to the monster as they could.

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Pinkie galloped down the street. Everypony froze as the pink streak shot by, knocking over anything loose and causing Derpy's mail bag to fly open, letters spilling in even more areas than usual. She climbed through her window at the Sugarcube Corner, not wanting to waste time with the stairs and doors.

Pinkie ran to her bed, pulled open the secret passage to her hideout and jumped through; she fell quickly but landed neatly on her bed as she came out of the light. She checked up on Pinkamena and found her following the crusaders; they were nearly at the clearing. A quick understanding flashed through them and Pinkamena rushed behind a rock in the clearing and changed into her smaller Pinkie form.

Pinkie ran down the hallways as fast as she could, jumping over the hidden pits and dodging all of her pets. She didn't have time to play vet right now so she thought it best to avoid them. She found herself looking into the main room as the crusaders entered with Pinkamena. She jumped as high as she could and landed softly on the ceiling.

Pinkie waited until the lights went out and ran by. She could feel Pinkamena's mane as she ran past with Sweetie Belle, it brushed against her and Pinkamena ducked her head quickly to avoid dislodging the party pony. Pinkie ran through the door and down the escape tunnel, moving back down to the floor as she went. She climbed up on the entrance and waited, sooner or later one of the fillies would run out and she'd catch them.

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Pinkamena had just learned that none of the fillies were where she thought they were. As furious as she was, she knew she had to keep a level head. Applebloom had been caught by Pinkie already and Scootaloo was nearing the town. She had left Sweetie Belle under care of the Keeper, so now all that remained was recapturing the small pegasus. She changed her form and launched herself to the outskirts of Ponyville. She landed by a small gray mare. Derpy dropped her muffin, but Pinkamena paid her no attention.

She walked quickly through the town. She ignored everypony's stares. She was a mare they had never seen in town before. They all wondered at her cutie mark. Even pinkie didn't have a cupcake as a cutie mark; they could only imagine how well this pony could bake. Pinkamena could tell their thoughts and smiled to herself, if only they knew that she had been baking for them all along. A few wondered at the fact that she had a rainbow cupcake, she paid them no heed. A few ponies recognized it as the kind Pinkie had been selling lately, but none of them asked about it. A few went so far as to assume that she was Pinkie's mentor, it would explain why her presence seemed so… distracting and unusual.

She noticed Rarity walking along looking for the crusaders. She decided to follow for a while. She didn't really care if she had to take the unicorn and the pegasus together, neither would present much of a challenge. 'Of course,' Pinkamena thought with a wince, even being nearly invincible she could still remember the pain inflicted by misjudging the last of Pinkie's friends, 'maybe I should play it a little safer.'

She drew back a little more and followed at a distance of several blocks. She could always smell where Rarity was so she had little worry about losing her. Soon another smell joined the sweet lilacs of Rarity. This smelled of fear and perspiration, an odd mix of cinnamon and oranges hung around just underneath it. She knew Rarity had found Scootaloo and she was wary. As she entered the town, she could feel the power emanating from the library in the middle of town. The princesses were watching and she didn't want to draw their attention… yet.

She retreated to the Sugarcube Corner and waited for Pinkie to return.

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Pinkie left the cliff where Sweetie Belle was hiding. It wouldn't be any fun to take them too quickly. She did, however, let the white filly overhear her conversation with the Oracle. She could actually smell the fear coming from the hidden ledge. She had known about that for years, she carved it herself to sit and enjoy cupcakes while the moon rose, giving her a view of her goddess's profile and allowing them an easier path of communication.

She wandered around a bit until she returned to the clearing where her hideout was. She shrugged and went inside; she had some more work to do before she had to make appearances in Ponyville to keep suspicion down.

Pinkie got out her sewing machine and set to work. As she went, she found a small golden object wrapped in Fluttershy's mane. She pulled it out carefully and looked at it, amazed that it had survived the destruction needed to kill the small yellow pegasus. It opened easily and revealed a small purple clipping that she instantly recognized as being part of one of Spike's scales. On the opposite side there was a small picture of Spike and Fluttershy at a party.

Anger flared up inside the pink pony as thoughts raged in her mind. "Has he been cheating on Rarity with her?" She screamed at the Oracle, pushing the remains of Fluttershy's head on the floor. The Furmites gathered around it but were wary not to touch something the mistress had thrown without commanding them to eat.

The Oracle answered as calmly as ever, "do you really think Spike capable of something like that? Or Fluttershy for that matter?"

"No, but I also didn't expect Fluttershy to escape Pinkamena and nearly kill me… twice."

"Fair enough. No, Spike wasn't aware of her feelings, not until a few days ago at least, but she didn't know he found out."

"How long has she liked him?" Pinkie asked, picking up the pink maned head and placing it back on the table. She felt a small wave of sorrow for Fluttershy. She knew she was bad about jumping to conclusions and she knew what rejection felt like. She also knew it was worse when that somepony didn't even know they had rejected you. But that's what cupcakes were for, though Fluttershy wouldn't have known about that. Trixie did now, but it was too late for her.

"Do you remember how happy she was when Twilight and Spike moved in and how unusual it was to you that she was so happy about strangers? And then how she retreated into her cabin when it became common knowledge that he liked Rarity?"

"That long, how did I miss it?"

"Even I can't answer how you missed something like that. Of course, nopony else knew either, so it's not like you're alone in this."

"Yes, but I notice everything."

"Apparently not."

Pinkie wanted to lash out at the Oracle but she didn't know how to harm a source of power residing in oneself. She doubted it would tell her. She grew angry at having missed something so obvious, but her thoughts cleared as an idea dawned. She turned to the sewing machine with new vigor, determined to have her plans ready by the time her plans topside came to fruition.

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Applebloom woke up. She was in a deep pit made entirely out of a strange black rock. It was warm, but harder than any metal she'd ever bucked. She realized that she had a startlingly large number of comparisons for this. The only light source came from a small glowing ball of energy that stayed just above her head, out of her reach.

She lay down on the floor, her legs ached as though she had sprained them and, looking up, she probably had, given the size of the fall. Her ribs pained her as she moved and she could feel the jagged splinters in a few that told her they were broken. She recognized the feel from when Big Mac had been hurt during apple bucking season a while back.

She cried out in pain as she examined her body for other injuries. She had strained a leg; sprained two hooves, the pain greatly increased after bucking the walls, and had two broken ribs. A third might be broken as well but she couldn't be sure.

Applebloom looked around. There wasn't much room for her to walk, only a few hooves of clearance on each side of her, and the pit was empty of everything other than the yellow pony and her mysterious floating light ball.

The rock splintered a little near the bottom as she lay on the floor. It formed itself into grates and she realized that she was moving downward very slowly, almost too slow to tell. A loud, pain-filled moaning came from the grates. As they became more exposed and easier to hear, Applebloom realized they weren't just moans of pain. They were cries of hunger, primeval calls of the need for something dangerous to feed. Something that had been locked up deep in the ground for a long time that was very hungry and wouldn't wait much longer. They stopped for a second and restarted with a renewed fury. The calls now had an urgency that spoke of their new knowledge that they wouldn't have to wait much longer to be filled.

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Mwahahaha! What shall happen next?

Yeah, it's all jumbly-wumblied up, but now you all know what was happening the whole time the last two chapters were going on, plus a little more. :3

For those reading this on FiMfiction .net, if you have faved this or commented that you like it, gimme a thumbs up. I don't like how close the thumbs up/thumbs down ratio is.

Also, big piece of business, a little while back I gave a shout out to some readers on Fanfiction .net, one of them Timefather64, wrote a story called "Hear the voices? Of Samuel". This is where Pinkamena's statement, "Oh Samuel no" came from. I'd advise reading it. It's good and you'll understand why she said it :3 (also for any fanfic readers reading this on fimfiction as well, [looks at Dalek] post a hello below so everyone can see how awesome you are /)^3^(\)

Next chapter: The Trap (name might change if I think of a pun or movie/book/song/game title that could be used instead.)

Coming up in Business is Boomin'

-"No! that can't be possible!" *twitches uncontrollably* "You can't get away with this! You don't know what you're doing!"

-"Freedom! Freedom once more! I'm coming ponies, make sure you're ready!" *evil cackling*

-"We are both free sister, free to experience joy once again!" *licks lips* "Such sweet, tasty joy."

-"Oh Samuel what have I done? What have I unleashed?"

-"Pinkie noooo!"

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-"Fluttershy? But, how?"

-"Spike, I-"

Next Chapter: The Trap Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 26 Minutes