Author's Notes:

For those who'd spent the last month dwelling in and, of course on this story so far, aside from large word count amongst other errors, I've already started off by apologizing for not updating as consistently as I had originally planned before; nevertheless, I've taken the time to remedy the ever present problems long enough to finish it on a high note and perhaps give this another go so until then, I have one thing to say to y'all: welcome back.

Anyways, this chapter although devoid of sudden fire and flames from long ago along without exaggeration whatsoever, will now be taking place at daytime as usual albeit without the action: a difficult task to accomplish in the lost time spent writing on my own, it was an arduous struggle to have it expressed quickly; besides, this one is going to be longer than the other days but it will be finished soon enough.

For those still wondering what Day Four will be bringing, I'll warn you that it will be, and I quote A Clockwork Orange's Alex, "the real weepy and like tragic part of the story beginning, O my brothers and only friends." Until then, enjoy this part while you can.

The golden sun arose to pierce the heavens with its light, heralding in the start of another day when the land and water became illuminated by the afterglow immediately. The clean cut skies that housed it were clear as a shiny crystal lake, free from any murderous entities that would come to rain down on an observer’s parade. The air was crisp and cool enough to commute many different aromas from all walks of life across the entire environs for people to sniff at and about. The floral arrangements that were composed of many colors slowly started to take a stand upon the grassy knolls where the soil resided below them. A wild assortment of animals took in a fresh breath upon awakening by sounding off their cries in the distance, regardless of where they were. The only thing that would potentially complete the look would be at least one person to immortalize the scenery with a certain set of skills at their disposal.

Of course, this wasn’t be the case concerning how it all begins, let alone where to be precise; anyways, all was certainly not well in the throne room as sounds of fury and sorrow followed a loud crackle: a dark blue mare was being held over a wood platform with fresh crimson streaks. Pieces of fabric matching the collar and sheaths on her body were all that adorned upon the eyes, covering up the eyes and mouth as they were soaked by the wearer’s fluids as of the moment. Around the blue mare’s hands and hooves were but a set of chains held in place to mitigate the shaky surface tension unfolding at once.

“What do you mean you haven’t found that heretic yet; you’re telling me he’s still out there as of this moment already?!” the king shouted as a slender stick quickly made contact with her coat.

A visiting guardpony, a brown gingerly unicorn in a set of dark gray armor, gulped before starting to answer already, “yes, Your Majesty: it seems that the mysterious rabble-rouser who’d started the bombings days earlier has still evaded capture unlike the hundreds we had amassed since last night’s storm.”

“And what happened to the other guard that had been sent out to the castle to lead the operation; what of him?” the caribou snarled as another crack formed upon the blue mare once again, “what about the other slaves who were holing up in there since then.”

“I apologize but he was stabbed in the eye with a sharpen twig; in addition, several others soldiers fell to their deaths when they were pushed over the cliff after catching up with the last of the stragglers that evening…” the unicorn answered in only seconds as two smacks rained down upon her quickly.

Following another fresh cut standing amongst others against the blue mare’s fur, the king threw down his stick and said, “fair enough, at least he died a noble death; had he survived, someone else would have picked up where he’d left off instead, especially concerning the fact that I’d been informed of the animal farm burning down. Nevertheless, this doesn’t change the reality of the very situation in front of us at: as of this moment, he could’ve received aid from some seditious factions dwelling about in our land to commit such a vile act; we may have gotten back some control of it, but there are still many other cunts hiding about in many different areas, most of which who had probably escaped from the wreckage. Everyone may been wondering what truly is going and it’s simple: there are still some of the heretics running about proclaiming harmful ideologies about how a mare is to be treated, but we will not let the likes of him wreak havoc at today’s country show; go and increase security checkpoint procedures by threefold in case these foolish mares are going to come over and try to stop the festivities somehow.”

“No way in Tartarus that they could do that; even you said it yourself: these cumslaves aren’t smart enough to think of a plan now…” the guardpony laughed softly, “as a matter of fact, the minute that last princess slut fell, it was like a house of cards ready to be rebuilt the right way.”

“Nevertheless, these mares ought to know their place by now; speaking of which, rumor has it that today’s going to be a red dawn out west: she’s finally seen the light…” the caribou joined in.

Regaining his composure, the unicorn said, “I could drink to that; besides, I’ve already planned on being there to see it happen before my eyes.”

“Don’t think you’re going alone now, captain; there’s many more waiting as well other than myself…” the caribou sighed as he removed the fabric over her teal eyes, “after all, this is going to be a great day; shame to go working and waste some time off away.”

“How could I forget all at such short notice?” the guard replied as he trotted out of the room at once; needless to say, this was just only the beginning.

Meanwhile, the steady waters inside of a lake were shining bright like diamonds in the sky as it was surrounded by luscious foliage in the distance. The calm sandbanks were the only barrier standing to go in between the two elements thereof, each composed of innumerable specks around the way as they stood still amongst the earth. Watching over the stationary front at once was a small yet rock solid gray cave where darkness loomed in and about without a care in the turning world that it had been already a part of no less.

Soon, a single figure emerged from the concentrated internment in due time: it turned out to be none other than Pinkie herself, now bathed in the heat and light that came from above as she trotted outside; suddenly, her skin and coat shuddered about while turning to face the entrance. The pink pony’s flatten mane and tail started to become blown around by the shifting winds all around as she slowly wrapped her arms around and turned to the water up nearby ; watching the stagnant texture, the matching eyes locked onto its owner’s reflection. Already taking awareness at once, she began to take a small step towards the lake and then made a giant leap forward without warning whatsoever, splashing the sand and grass behind; within only seconds, her body was then submerged into the target location at once before quickly resurfacing back up to face the sky directly above.

Pinkie wiped the moisture away from her eyes and started to sink into the water until it'd reached up to the neckline; soon, she slowly thought to herself, “hah, it such a beautiful day out there, but the outside world is so cruel; I can’t believe that these two had to suffer through like this, being unable to fly and all because of those sheaths around their wings. I’ve seen how Rainbow had responded about it even though that she barely mentioned them since we’ve met each other again, but Fluttershy just kept on crying ever since that fire yesterday; oh, how I can’t believe that I've done these girls so much wrong ever since the caribou came along. No, it’s every single pony that I've done wronged: I allowed creatures to defile countless neighbors, I’ve snapped at Applejack when she came over to play at the bordello, and I even helped the Wonderbolt Captain have his way with Dashie; I don’t deserve to be anypony’s friend, not anymore. I may not even have any master this time around but who knows how long I’ll even last until I get myself captured again and reassigned to a new one; at this rate, they’ll probably have me chained up by another meanie who might want me to stay purple forevermore. So much for being state owned, I just wish I could just disappear completely so no one would find me; on the other hand, even if I were to find a way for such a wish to come true, then what will become of the others: my friends, my family, would that mean leaving them behind as well? What can I just do to even try helping them now after what had happened anyway; where would we even go to feel safe again: Las Pegasus, Vanhoover, Tall Tale, or wherever we could even stay at, how long until all of this pain here resurfaces once more? I bet that Rainbow still hates me even more for what I'd allowed myself to become – one of the king's oversexed cheerleaders; in fact, I’m probably betting that she’ll be cooking up a plan to kill me when the nightmare is finally over. Maybe, I should just allow her to go and do it anyway: they broke us into pieces and nearly killed us all so it wouldn’t surprise me if she decides to finish the job; besides, it’s better that a former friend like herself be up to the task than Applejack or Fluttershy, let alone my dear–––”

At that moment, the pink pony felt her line of vision around the lake become blurry as she choked out a cough without warning before sinking further into the blue. She then raised a single hand out from the very water and wiped her eyes clean again, this time creating a collision of two different yet similar fluids within only seconds. Now, another hand had quickly emerged as well where they started to cover up Pinkie’s entire visage the very moment she began to emit intermittent sobs all at once.

“Pinkie, is that you already; what are you doing up this morning…?” a faint voice was instantly heard as the eponymous listener’s floppy ears perked all so suddenly, “are you alright…?”

“Eep…!” the pink pony squeaked as she soon sank further into the still waters before nearly reaching eye level.

Some small soft hoofbets made their way to her current location as she whimpered quietly, silently hypothesizing the potential identity of any wayward observer who'd cross paths with one another. Pinkie had her true blue eyes widening out and ears standing on endwise as the possibilities of who could it be now swished and swashed throughout the rather troubled mind she currently possessed. The pink pony slowly started to shake about near the edge of the lake as the sounds nearby seemed to have subsided all at once; nevertheless, she heard her own heart beating faster and louder in contrast.

Soon enough, a tall, dark shadow towered over her as she felt prompted by the mere sight of it to discover the identity all at once; as a result, the point of origin was revealed to be ironically a rather splendid source than initially thought of: Rainbow who slowly spoke, “Pinkie… why are you shuddering about?”

“Dashie… what are you doing up; what about Fluttershy?” the cyan pegasus’ eponymous friend answered, staring into the slightly worried magenta orbs, “aren’t they going to find us here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing before you brought up Fluttershy; besides, I noticed that you didn’t bring your top and thought you'd wandered off somewhere to get caught but then I heard you crying in the lake all of the sudden so there…” Rainbow answered as she crouched over towards the edge.

Rising back from the water, Pinkie soon stuttered slowly, “Rainbow, th–th–there is s–s–something I w–w–want to–––”

“Pinkie, calm down: if this is about yesterday, don’t beat yourself up over it; none of us expected it to happen…” the cyan pegasus interrupted quickly at once, “at this rate, you probably did a good thing after what we'd seen what happened to Fluttershy…”

“That’s besides the issue, here; it’s just like making a giant space castle solely out of cake…!” the pink pony cried out so suddenly.

Taken aback by Pinkie’s response, Rainbow waited to exhale and started to speak up again, “okay then, what are you trying to talk about here…?”

“Alright, the problem here isn’t about what I’ve been doing in the past; it's really what we could be doing to take back our home…” the pink pony slowly answered to the cyan pegasus while starting to crawl out of the lake completely, “ ever since that day of the festival, I snapped but not like the time I’d thought you all had hated my parties: the red collar that I’ve been up 'til that day wasn’t the first color that they put on me; as a matter of fact, there was a reason why. The moment I watched what they'd done to Applejack and Fluttershy, I bit the meanies that did this to them to in the necks; at first, it felt good that I'd seen them bleed to death but it also made me want to throw up and cry went I remember who these people once were: fathers, husbands, somepony else’s brothers, nephews, uncles, maybe even former classmates trying to make a living before all this. Before I could even tried to kill the next guy, I remembered one of the guards putting some fetters on my hooves just when I’d lost my own lunch, which would’ve been funnier had the invasion never happened; afterwards, one of the invaders tried to put his penis in my mouth and I’d bitten it off at once but then they punched me in the head so hard I’d blacked out. Next thing after, I was soon screaming my head off and saying some nasty things out through a muzzle; it’s like everything I was trying to do here back then could've made things fucking worse than before…”

“That was then, this is now; there’s no way it’s going to be our future for the rest of our life: there’s not going to be any pussy riding, no more taking it up the flank hole, and what’s awesome won’t be decide by a council of dickish perverts…!” Rainbow sighed as she stared into Pinkie’s tearstained eyes.

The pink pony sank back into the water at once and said, “but if I want to survive in this, then I have to let go of my anger, sorrow, and fear…”

“You once had me strapped to a machine and eaten out of while Soarin fucked me in the mouth…” the cyan pegasus growled, “after that, what could possibly have kept you from going all out crazy?!”

“How ‘bout the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see the Cakes again if I’d bit some guy in the dingy again; how ‘bout the fact that you'd have gone purple if I tried running away; how ‘bout the fact that they could even kill my–––” Pinkie felt Rainbow’s hand cutting off the reply instantaneously.

Soon, the cyan pegasus pulled her hand away from the pink pony and said, “I see where you could be going with it…!”

“All I’m just trying to say is that they have everyone we know and love under their hooves and they’re reveling in it by rubbing our weaknesses into our faces…” Pinkie resumed speaking at once, “how am I supposed to even end the horror, let alone stop him from letting it go on…?”

“Well, in any case, I don’t know what to say about: let’s say, just for a millisecond, that you actually went and discovered a way to put things back the way it was, in this purely hypothetical fantasy village world where everything returns to normal, what would you do in that situation?” Rainbow slowly whispered as she sat down crossing her hooves.

The pink pony stared at her reflection in the water for over a minute and then faced the cyan pegasus afterwards to respond, “obviously, I would go and save the day like we had always done, silly; yet, last time we did that, that was it: no more lessons, no more treks, just cocks, cocks, and more cocks. I’m not truly sure how this would even be possible given the whole situation; after all, this would be something that you–know–who might even ask about if it weren’t for the whole thing. I understand there’s no way we can just use a spell to turn back time and forget everything that happened but it doesn’t mean I don’t regret anything I did, willingly or otherwise, to not go purple again. I know that this may not mean much to you Rainbow but now that were here, I want to say that I’m sorry for all this: for going out of control at the festival, for turning into one of them, but, most importantly, for hurting you the most.”

“Pinkie, do you honestly think that just because of what Dainn did to all of us that make you free of responsibility…?” Rainbow breathed as she felt her own head become lighter, “do you even think you’re the only one here who wishes to say ‘I’m sorry’ about the whole mess we’re in?!”

“Not entirely, but I'd hoped that maybe now we’re free again, it would at least mean something…” Pinkie answered slowly before breaking eye contact all at once.

The cyan pegasus looked around for anyone who might be watching and then returned focus back onto the pink pony again to say, “I’m not going to lie, but I can’t make the truth easier to swallow; other than that, I say it now: I don’t know what we’d do to end this, Pinkie.”

“Well, in case if that happens, then I want to start over again…” Pinkie sniffled, “I want the nightmares to end, and I want to make things right and not be remembered as a traitor…”

“I get that but you can’t expect me to throw all my doubts and concerns overboard like that with him running the show: I don’t want to go in details as to how long people have suffered before we’ve met again; besides, all this talk about you hating yourself is even starting to bother me…” Rainbow choked out in due time.

The pink pony flushed her eyes with water and spoke, “Rainbow, you weren’t a coward for running away from all of us; it was the smartest decision you’d made nevertheless, something that I never thought of. The Rainbow I'd come to known would never give up after all this time, not even… Applejack would come this far to do it; I mean, you remind me of her already, the loyalist of friends and most dependable of ponies.”

“But we’re still three to four ponies in a hiding spot…!” the cyan pegasus interjected as she’d briefly looked away, “and I don’t think that they should be enough to take on lots of caribou!”

“We don’t have to take them all on at once, silly: they may have broken our stride but the game’s not over yet by a long shot, you’ll see; I know it’s a long shot but we can still make things right again somehow…” Pinkie responded to Rainbow before climbing out of the lake again.

The cyan pegasus moved out of the way and asked, “how do we do that? It’s only a matter of time before we get found again at this rate; we’re still wanted mares under the eyes of the law, or rather Dainn’s law…”

“Not these two, but that’s beside the point: we still have a chance; we fought overwhelming odds before so we’ll do it again…!” the pink pony chirped as she shook the water off her coat, “besides, the tree of harmony is still intact anyways…”

“Don’t be too sure about it: I mean no disrespect this time but you’re starting to sound like one of these self–help books I’ve read before this madness; even if we could, there’s no way we can go near the tree now that his cronies could be watching it…” Rainbow replied as she watched the water evaporate off of Pinkie.

Walking towards the cave, the pink pony said, “maybe we don’t have to go to tree yet, Dashie but maybe we could get the gang back together again, just like old times…”

“I’m sorry but are you actually kidding me: you think your plan could even just fucking work?!” the cyan pegasus screeched towards her friend, “first off, there’s no way in Tartarus that we’re going be bringing those uni-cunts along after what they did. Secondly, we don’t even know where they'd be at this moment since their so–called masters might be dragging them along. Third of all, even if we were able to find them, what makes you they’ll be willing to give them up to us, let alone walk around Equestria in our coats and rags of clothing we’d be lucky to find?”

“I don’t know but it’s a long shot and it’s all we have left; besides, I don’t want this to happen anymore so just please…” Pinkie begged as Rainbow stopped nearby by a few steps apart.

At that moment, a cool breeze ran over their skins, floating above the ground as it carried a sight they’ve never seen and there was no one to make a sound. Despite the rather tranquil scene that was already being set around the two little ponies, all was basically far from even well by comparison. Although that the air around them was devoid of color or aroma, it was strongly dense enough to bring out what could even be said about the whole thing.

Sure enough, the tense standoffish silence was a mighty few bit of a second away from being broken as it were: “fine then, I guess we should go on with it; at this rate, we’re probably going to need some food to stock for a while, something that ain’t loaded with some stallion or, Celestia forbid, caribou jizz.”

“Really, you mean it?!” a sudden reply made its way through; it was none other than Pinkie herself, “oh, there’s no substantial amount of thanks I want to express here, Dashie!”

“Don’t go overboard with it; we’re still not out of the woods anytime soon…!” Rainbow grunted as she was trapped into an extremely tight embrace that was also filling her with such anxiety.

Quickly released at once, the pink pony responded to the cyan pegasus, “I know, we’re not even sure where to go now yet…”

“That’s not what I mean…” Rainbow groaned as she back away, “right now, they’re probably going to be upping their searches at once; besides, we still got a long way to go before I start trusting you again: the minute any male comes along and finds us, or you snap back once again, we’d be totally screwed.”

“I understand that too but what about Fluttershy; are you sure that leaving her here alone would be okay after what happened yesterday…?” Pinkie asked while glancing at the cave she’d walked out of earlier.

Following suit, the cyan pegasus paused for a moment and answered, “don’t worry about it; from the looks of it, she could be having the best night’s sleep that any other mare could have in a lifetime…”

“Yeah but still, won’t she’ll be shocked about finding us gone…?” the pink pony countered, “I mean she could even start looking for us the minute she finally wakes up…”

“Then we should make this search quick: there’s a likely chance that whatever we could eat won’t be that far; aside from that, you could end up getting easily distracted and run off as well…” Rainbow answered Pinkie.

Suddenly, the pink pony held out her arms and wrists together and said, “then, tie me up…”

“Excuse me…?” the cyan pegasus sputtered as she looked at her friend with suspicion, “if this is one of your warning signs of snapping back, then I’m gonna–––”

“I won’t be able to run off and get captured or killed…” Pinkie interrupted quickly.

Rainbow felt her face become illuminated with redness and said, “oh, I see but what can we find that could help us solve that problem…?”

“Use my haltertop… I don’t mind…” the pink pony shuddered, eyes closed from the cyan pegasus, “I just don’t wanna risk hurting you more than they have…”

“Go get your rags and I’ll consider forgetting that reference soon enough…” Rainbow replied sternly as she sent Pinkie back into the cave at once, watching as her friend scurried off, only to return to the edge of the lake as soon as possible with the clothing in tow; needless to say, the former barely noticed the time that had passed in the process.

The pink pony whimpered to the cyan pegasus, “here…”

Rainbow stepped forward and began to stretch out the ragged fabric further apart as Pinkie held up arms and wrists once again. The pink pony looked back as the cyan pegasus wound up the clothing in due time and placed it around the former’s wrists. Now that they were like a pair of fetters to the two, Rainbow had to make sure it'd stay onto Pinkie's wrists tightly before they set off.

“Alright then, let’s pick up the pace; we haven’t got much time at all…” the cyan pegasus spoke as she then pulled the pink pony along for the trek, “I’d rather not think ‘bout what’ll happen next…”

“Okay…” Pinkie peeped as she followed Rainbow quickly, taking small steps away from the water at once as the sun’s rays gave them a clear path to trot away from the cave and into the woods.