The world had ended, his life was over, so why wasn't he dead? Zipline shivered underneath the cold wind and rain, clinging with all his might to the slick stone surface beneath him. He could still hear Scootaloo's and Rain Breeze's voices calling over the wind and thunderclaps, faint and desperate, pleading for his aid.

You can't help them, the wind seemed to hiss into his ear. You can't save them. You will always fail your family.

Fail...fail...fail...The word seemed to echo in his head, the sound reaching down into his heart. And it was like a spark inside him falling upon a set of tinder, igniting, burning. There was some small part of him that refused to give up, refused to yield, and it slowly began to grow, filling his body with heat, dispelling the cold. His eyes opened into a determined glare and he stood, his wings opening at his sides, ready to take his weight.

"Hang on, honey!" he called into the dark. "I'm coming!" He jumped off the stone column and flew straight ahead, focusing only the sound of his daughter's voice, which was suddenly loud and clear, seeming to rush at him through the dark clouds.

Just like the iron bar that appeared from nowhere to ram him in the face, sending him tumbling to the stone floor. Pain broke through his mind, and he clung to it like a lifeline, allowing it to pull him back into reality. The hallucination vanished as he stood, and he was back in the cell. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked up to see Phillip lying on the floor of the other cell, curled into a ball and shaking. "Phillip!" he called, but the other stallion did not react: he didn't seem to be able to hear him.

I have to get out of this cell, he thought, the determination of his objective clearing his mind and hardening his resolve. He grabbed the iron bars of his door and pulled; but even though they were covered in rust, they were still strong, and refused to yield. With a grunt of frustration, he began to scan the dark hallway for anything that he could use.

A faint glimmer caught his eye. Focusing on it, his eyes eventually formed the shape of a key, hanging on a hook on the wall opposite. Too far away to reach, unfortunately. Glancing down, Zipline saw a good-sized rock on the ground and scooped it up. Focusing on his target, the key, he felt the weight of the rock in his hoof, determining trajectory and distance. He stilled himself, slowly expelling all the air in his lungs, closing his eyes and allowing his mind to still itself. For a moment, he maintained his state of stillness, of nothingness.

And then his eyes opened and he exploded into motion, throwing the rock without any conscious thought on his part. His eyes followed the rock as it sailed through the air, as if in slow motion, and struck the hook holding the key dead on target. As he'd hoped, the key fell off the hook and landed on the floor. Reaching through the bars, he strained his leg out to reach it. The very edge of his hoof touched the old metal and he willed himself to stretch just a little farther. For Scootaloo.

His effort was rewarded by the embrace of metal on his hoof. He pulled the key back towards himself and after some fumbling, managed to unlock his cell door. Hurrying forward, he unlocked Phillip's cell and threw the door open, hurrying to his friend's side. "Phillip?"

Through the crackling of flames and gurgles of the dying, a voice came to his ears...

"Phillip? Can you hear me?" Zipline said, touching the shaking shoulder.

He felt something and willed himself to look up. A shape was above him, but too blurry to recognized...

Phillip's tear-streaked eyes were unfocused, as if he was looking right through him. "Phillip!" Zipline shouted, getting no response except a frightened whimper. Desperate, he raised his hoof and slapped Phillip across the face as hard as he could. "Wake up!"

Instantly, Phillip stopped shaking and crying. Breathing heavily as he recovered from the nightmare, he looked up at Zipline, his eyes now focused and determined, then got to his hooves, shaking his head. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. You?" Zipline said.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," Phillip said, exiting the cell. "Let's find Doctor Nevermore." He headed quickly down the hallway, Zipline right behind him.

"Giggle at the ghostie...giggle at the ghostie!" Pinkie desperately tried to sing, but only succeeded in producing a sound like a cat having its tail stepped on before dissolving into frightened whimpers, clinging to her trembling friends in the dark.

Twilight knew she should do something, had to do something. But her panic seemed to have severed her connection between her brain and her body; she was only capable of staring, wide-eyed and clench-jawed, into the darkness, clinging desperately to Flash and Applejack, both of whom were shaking just as hard as she was.

Suddenly, her panic was multiplied: a sound reached her ears from the darkness. A low hiss, crackling, like radio static. Something was there in the dark with them.

"Wh-who...who's there?" Flash whispered.

The hissing grew louder, and a shape formed, dark against dark, moving towards them. Everypony's heart stopped and they each let out a silent scream of terror once they realized what it was. Slenderpony slowly strode towards them, flickering and twitching, tentacles sprouting from his back. The only sound was the the hissing crackle, which now grew into a deafening roar that filled the ponies heads, blocking any thought, any hope. This was death, Twilight realized: an faceless gaze staring down at her from the cold, silent darkness. Tightening her grip on her friends, she closed her eyes as tightly as she could and awaited the end...

"Where is my husband?"

Opening their eyes in shock, the ponies looked up to see Rain Breeze standing in front of the Slenderpony. She was trembling right down to tip of her tail, but she stood her ground, staring defiantly at the monster.

"Rain Breeze, what are you doing?" Flash said in horror.

The mare didn't seem to hear him: instead she took a step forward. "I said, where is my husband, you creep?"

Slenderpony silently gazed down at her, seemingly bewildered at her defiance. Rain Breeze growled at him, her fear beginning to turn into anger, burning through her paralysis. "Answer me, damn you!" she shouted at the creature, raising a hoof and punching Slenderpony in the face. With a grunt of surprise and pain, he reeled from the blow and collapsed onto his side.

Instantly, the spell was broken: Flash's torch and Twilight's, Rarity's and Rain's horns relit, dispelling the ponies' terror and illuminating the Slenderpony, who was struggling to get up, his too-long legs flailing like a crab that had been flipped onto its back. "What?" Twilight said, leaning in close and focusing her magic on the figure. The stilts, costume and mask were torn away, revealing a pegasus pony with pale yellow fur, a waxy mane the color of dead grass and blood red eyes that glared up at them in fury.

Rarity cried out in shock upon seeing him. "My goodness! When was the last time you used conditioner?"

"Who are you?" Rain Breeze shouted, grabbing the other pony and shaking him. "What have you done with my husband?"

"How?" the pony growled, his voice like rattling bones. "How did you resist my toxin? You should have been cowering in terror the moment you saw me!"

"Your formula wasn't perfect then, eh, Doctor Nevermore?" a familiar voice said. Looking up, the ponies saw Phillip Finder and Zipline standing in the door behind them.

"Honey!" Zipline shouted upon sighting his wife. The two hurried towards each other and embraced tightly in relief.

"Are you all okay?" Phillip said, examining the group, unable to keep a glimmer of concern out of his otherwise cool eyes.

Flash shook his head with a half-amazed, half-exasperated smile. "You're the one who gets kidnapped, and you ask us if we're okay?"

"You've been exposed to a powerful hallucinogenic toxin," Phillip said, double-checking Flash's eyes before assuring himself that his friends were shaken, but not too badly stirred. He glared down at Doctor Nevermore, who was still laying on the ground. "Is there an antidote?" Nevermore didn't answer with words, but looked towards the opposite end of the hallway. Looking up, the ponies saw an open door that led into a room filled with laboratory equipment, including a large vat of pale green liquid. Notepads were scattered across the three tables, all of them almost covered with notes.

"If it wasn't for that mare, all of Ponyville would have cowered before me," Doctor Nevermore growled at Phillip. "And from there, all of Equestria!"

"Well, then it's lucky we brought her," Twilight said calmly. "It seems you underestimated just how powerful love is."

"Love," Nevermore sneered, speaking the world like it was some foul disease. "The greatest lie evolution ever gave us. I'll show you. I'll show you all!" And before anypony could stop him, Nevermore whipped something from his wing to his mouth: a small, silver whistle. He blew hard through it...but no sound came out of the instrument.

"By blowing a broken whistle?" Rainbow said disbelievingly.

"It wasn't meant for you," Nevermore said.

Phillip's sensitive ears detected a noise: a leathery flapping and high-pitched squeaking and screeching, growing louder by the second. He looked up to see a shadow hurrying towards them. "Down!" he shouted, ducking and covering his head just as a flurry of bats, attracted by the ultrasonic whistle, rushed into the room, blinding them with their wings and deafening them with their shrill screeching. Flash instinctively jumped on top of Twilight and shielded her with his body: Zipline pulled his wife to the ground, covering her with a wing. The others ducked to the ground, covering themselves as best they could.

It took several minutes for the storm of bats to pass. Instantly raising his head, Phillip saw to his frustration that Doctor Nevermore was gone. Whirling, he saw that he had taken a back door out of the laboratory behind him. Hoofprints out the door led deeper into the Everfree Forest.

Calm, he told himself. He won't be back for a while, and you can use this equipment to make an antidote. He turned back into the crematorium, looking over the other ponies who were getting up from the ground. Zipline and Rain Breeze were hugging each other like each was afraid that if they let go, the other would disappear. And nopony got hurt. They're safe. They're all safe.

"Are you okay?" Flash asked Twilight, offering her a hoof up. "Are you hurt? Did I hurt you when—?"

"No, Flash," Twilight said a bit slowly, standing up. "I'm fine." She felt his hoof on hers, and it felt good. She looked at the joined limbs, then up at Flash. A shy, nervous smile crossed his face, and she felt a similar expression cross hers, a faint laugh escaping her throat. Very slowly, Flash began to lean closer to her, his eyes half-closing. Twilight began to lean towards him, her heart racing in her chest and a feeling like she was floating spreading up her body, originating from the hoof that was still gripping Flash's...

"BAT ON MY HEAD! BAT ON MY HEAD! HEEELLLP!" Pinkie screamed, leaping around in a panic and causing everypony to look up. There was indeed a bat on her head: it's claws were stuck in her cotton candy-like tangle of a mane.

"Hold still," Twilight said, heading towards her, part of her cursing her friend for ruining her moment. Flash's shoulders slumped in disappointment and he let out a despondent sigh.

"Flash." Flash looked up at the sound of his name. Phillip was striding towards him, an unknown emotion swimming in his gray eyes. He stopped a few paces away and paused, gathering his thoughts.

"I wanted to apologize," he finally said. "About what happened at the house."

Flash suddenly felt very ashamed. "No, I—"

"No, you were right. I was way out of line, mate," Phillip continued, holding his gaze steadily, but he seemed to waver a few times, as if struggling to keep looking at Flash. "I treated you like a child. I didn't trust you to be able to handle yourself, and I was too proud to accept your help." He paused, glancing down momentarily. "You should understand that this is still kind of new to me...being part of a team and—" He paused, sighing and shaking his head at himself. "There's no excuse. You did an ace job, I'm proud of you, and I'm sorry for how I treated you."

Flash smiled reassuringly at him. "It's all right." He held out his hoof. Phillip took it to shake, but to his surprise, suddenly found himself being pulled into a hug. He froze in shock, his eyes widening. Sensing the awkwardness, Flash let go very quickly and took a half step back. Phillip remained frozen for a moment longer before regaining control of his body and promptly returning to his normal stoic self. "Never do that again," he said flatly.

"Yeah," Flash said, looking like he'd been caught with the latest issue of Playcolt.

"Can we go home now, please?" Fluttershy said quietly.

About an hour later, Twilight sighed happily as she opened the door to the castle. "Ah, home sweet home," she said.

"Quite," Flash said, having followed her inside. A silence grew between the two ponies, one that bloated into awkwardness. Flash gulped and looked at the high crystal ceiling.

"Is there, uh...something you wanted to talk about, Flash?" Twilight said, wondering why her guard was hovering silently next to her, looking at everything except her.

Flash looked back at the lavender alicorn giving him a nervous smile and took a breath. "Twilight, I...I don't think I should be your Guard anymore."

"What? Why not?" Twilight asked, looking like he had just slapped her.

"When we were back at the asylum...I was scared out of my mind," Flash said, slowly lowering his head beneath the weight of his shame. "I couldn't do anything to fight back or protect myself, much less you. I...failed you."

Twilight stepped forward and placed a hoof on Flash's chin, raising his head to look at her. "We were all scared. You didn't fail me: you stayed by my side the whole time and didn't run or try to save yourself." She smiled and gave him a quick nuzzle, eliciting a blush from the stallion. "I think you were very brave."

Flash smiled softly. "Thank you, Twilight," he said, giving her a quick nuzzle back. "Sweet dreams, Your Highness."

"Sweet dreams, Flash Sentry," Twilight said, turning to head upstairs. Flash exited the castle to return home, humming a happy melody.

"I'm furious at you, you know," Rain Breeze said as she opened the door to their home.

"I know," Zipline said, entering after her, a sleeping Scootaloo sprawled across his back. She had been enormously relieved to see him again and refused to let go of him the moment she had bounded into his embrace, sobbing with relief. Exhausted by her worry, she had fallen asleep soon after.

"You're a reckless fool," Rain Breeze continued sternly, heading upstairs. "You don't think before you act, and you have no regard for the consequences."

"I know, honey," Zipline said, feeling like he'd rather have his drill sergeant shouting into his face than his wife speaking so coldly to him.

So he was very surprised when Rain Breeze turned and kissed him sweetly on the mouth. "You're also the bravest, most loyal and strongest stallion I've ever met," she said with a smile. "And I love you for it."

Smiling (and internally sighing with relief), Zipline nuzzled his wife affectionately and kissed her back. "I love you too."

"Let's put her to bed," Rain Breeze said with a yawn. Zipline carried Scootaloo to her room. Rain Breeze used her magic to lift her off of him and gently laid her in the bed. Zipline tucked the sheets around her. Pausing, he took a moment to admire his daughter, smiling in her sleep: he knew that no bad dreams would cross her head this night.

"You remember when you were young, and you would ask me to check for monsters under the bed or in the closet?" he whispered to her, thinking that some part of her could still hear him. "And I would always tell you that there aren't monsters?" He stroked Scootaloo's hair tenderly. "Well, you're old enough now to know that there are monsters out there. So I'm not going to promise you that there aren't any monsters. But I can promise you this: your mother, our friends and I will always do everything we can to keep you safe from the monsters."

He bent over and kissed Scootaloo on the forehead. "Good night, honey. Pleasant dreams." Standing and turning out the light, he joined his wife and headed to his own bed for a good night's sleep.

Author's Notes:

Finished in one day! I actually wanted to put the first part of this into the last chapter, but then I felt that that would make the last chapter too long and this one too short.

I'll put up chapter notes soon. I hope that you enjoyed this adventure! Drop a comment and fave or a like if you liked it!