The Alter Accords

Chapter Twenty: The Diaries Part One.

Twilight sighed as she closed the door to her room having to hate dealing with the nobles but such is life when one is the personal student of Celestia, she just wished they would leave her alone right now all things considering.

‘They all wish to get to know me, only for the reason they think that it can get them closer to the Princess.’ Twilight thought as she went up to her bed and prepared to plop down on it with clear mental exhaustion on her face. ‘At least it isn’t like before where they wanted me away from the Princess because my family is lesser nobility and they thought I wasn’t ‘worthy’ to be the Princess’s student. Ever since I became the Bearer for Magic most of their attitudes have changed but now it’s mostly them just kissing my plot.’

The lavender unicorn rolled over on her bed and took a look to the shelf within reach that carried a lot of books she liked to read to help her sleep. “Let’s see: Razor Wing and Jewelette, not really in the mood for tragedy and romance. The Unification of Tribes, while history is nice I feel it won’t help me sleep. The Diary of Twilight Sparkle…wait what?”

Pulling the book off the shelf she seen it was indeed her old diary. Opening it up to a random page she smiled as she read it: ‘Dear Diary. Today I moved into the castle as the Princess wants to teach me by making me her personal student. ME! I can’t believe it. I will be able to learn all kinds of new magic techniques and spells, I will be able to be around the Princess all the time, read all kinds of….OH MY CELESTIA so many books I can read that won’t be available anywhere else! *SQUEEEEEEEE!* hehe I had to write that as I made the noise when I realized that…I wonder if I spelt Squee right…I will have to find a dictionary later to check and see.’

Twilight smiled at her younger self, sure she wasn’t for writing every day, but the diary had made her feel better when she needed to get something off her mind, a good example of that was the rest of the entry. ‘The only thing I think I don’t like about me moving to the castle is that I won’t be able to see my family anymore, well I will but I mean every day. Sure I will miss mom’s homemade cookies and hugs, Dad’s goofy stories and his tickling, even if I tell him I am too old for them, and Shiny, I will miss my B.B.B.F.F., that stands for Big Brother Best Friend Forever Diary so make sure to remember that. I hope that they will all take care of themselves, I have to be brave for them because it’s not every day that a filly is made into the personal student of Celestia.’

The unicorn smiled to herself sadly as she could see the tear stains from where her filly self had started to cry as she wrote that. ‘I really did miss my family back then, but now that I think about it, I started to feel a lot better after I wrote that…or it could have been the fact I balled like a foal after that…maybe that is what I need.’

Being who she was, Twilight had more than her fair share of blank books to take notes in that was given to her by her teacher as she was younger, selecting one of them, lavender in color of course, she took in a deep break and started to write in it.

“Dear Diary, well the new one at least, your predecessor is full and I can’t fit any more entries into it. Anyways I suppose the reason I am writing to you now is cause a lot has happened lately and I really need to get it off my mind…I suppose I should start from a week ago.” Twilight dipped her quill into the ink pot she was levitating as she took a deep breath.

Twilight was cheering internally as she seen Velox sucking up the electro converted mana, he was basically robbing Trixie of her power since she had linked it directly to her own pool, which is standard for unicorns casting a spell. Part of the reason why unicorns have to study so hard in order to know when to cut something off and why fillies and foals during their early years when spontaneous magic can occur isn’t at risk since they usually only used magic in a burst.

Trixie must have also realized this as the red glow from her eyes vanished and she quickly tore off the Alicorn Amulet releasing all of those she had in her telekinesis and letting them land, albeit a tad bit hard, on the ground. All of her friends and herself included were cheering at this, though for some reason it looked like Velox didn’t hear them.

Twilight was slowly stopping her cheer as something in the back of her mind was telling her that something was off. ‘He looks so calm and serene, he should look happy he won, I mean once he gets rid of all the excess magic he…’ The exemplary mage realized what was wrong and it caused her eyes to widen quickly. “He can’t release the mana he took.”

She must have said it just above a whisper as Rarity over heard her. “What do you mean darling?”

“He is a Pegasus he can’t release the mana he took from her, and it was a lot if what I felt about that beam was right.” Twilight was looking over at Velox who was glowing red from the infused mana from the amulet in both his lightning and at his eyes. She watched in horror as she could see the red dim from parts of his body and was focusing on others, mainly his wings. “Oh no, if he does that he will-!”

She never got to voice her thoughts any further as all of them were rocked back from the shockwave that was the explosion where Velox once stood. The explosion was so loud she thought her eardrums had been busted as everything sounded muffled when she stood back up and looked at the crater that was left behind, not very large but enough that she couldn’t see if Velox was in it or not. What startled her into action was a feather floating into her vision the same color as Velox’s wings.

Running up upon it she distantly heard the muffled hoofsteps and wing flaps of her friends and others coming up to check on the Pegasus shape shifter as well only to be shocked at what they found. She heard somepony hit the ground in a dead faint, she assumed it was Rarity, another was getting violently sick, another was praying to Celestia at what they say, but the other reactions she could hear were gasps and dead silence. To be honest she herself was close to losing all contents of her stomach at what she saw.

In the crater was a lot of blood to start, covering most of the Pegasus who seemed dead to the world if not actually dead, it was only the shallow rises and falls of his barrel that let Twilight know that he was still even alive. However the cuts and contusions as well as burns that was all over him didn’t even come close to the three most horrid of injuries. The least of the most gruesome injuries seemed to be his left eye at first she thought maybe the explosion had gouged it out but the almost jelly like viscous remains against the side of his face suggested something similar to it just melting.

The second major injury was ones that she had read about in medical journals and various other medical books, ones that had ended a lot of careers and dreams for many a Pegasus…both of Velox’s wings were completely gone. There was no bone structure left, no feathers, just two small nubs where the wings must have been blown off from. Knowing how fragile wings were both in structure and for medical healing, Twilight knew that even if they found his wings it wouldn’t change that there was nothing that could be done for them, he was just lucky the tendons seemed to have retracted into his body and sealed off the veins in his wings or he would have bleed out even before they had reached him.

The last and most severe was one that made her question if her friend would even live or not was simple: why was his insides on the outside? Down in the crater it looked as if somepony he eviscerated him spilling out a lot of his intestine. It was a sight that would haunt Twilight and cause Luna to have to intercede on her behalf in the dream realm more than once in the upcoming weeks as she would remember every color, the purples of the actual organs, the pinks of the blood covered flesh, the blues of the veins and more that those organs seemed to have, the slickness that coated them all and more.

Speaking of Luna, she was suddenly there, Twilight hadn’t heard her as she was still hearing things muffled and it was only cause of the royal Canterlot voice that she even understood Luna. “We are going to teleport him to Canterlot for treatment, anypony whose wish it is to be there for him use our chariot to come to the hospital.” With a flash of midnight blue, both she and the injured stallion were gone.

Her friends and herself had taken Luna up on her offer and took her personal chariot back to Canterlot and looking around her she knew her friends shared her concern as they were all squashed together, except Rainbow who decided to fly to make room in the large, yet not large enough, chariot. It was Celestia who greeted them and managed to reverse the hearing damage they all had suffered claiming it was only temporary anyways and all ponies who had suffered it in Ponyville should be fine in the morning.

However even with that good news, came the bad news as she had to give it after both Rainbow Dash and Applejack asked her how Star was doing. “My little ponies, I will not lie to you, just from the initial examinations of him his chances of surviving are…low. Even if he does live life for him after this will be much different.”

Twilight had to stop writing her tears were staining the page at remembering a week ago. Though she wasn’t sure if this made her feel any better she did feel the weight of being able to tell somepony even if that somepony was a diary. “I think I will send some blank books to my friends so they too can do this. If nothing else it will help in a small way by giving them an outlet.”

She found six more books, one for Spike, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Writing a quick note to each of them, she decided to wrap them up now and give them to the mail pony to deliver so it would reach her friends in the morning.

“I will write more tomorrow, for now I think I should just get some sleep once I get back…hopefully I won’t bother Princess Luna again tonight.” Twilight said as she went out of her room to deliver the books.

Rainbow Dash was hard at work, which was unlike her if anypony were asked. For her though, her favorite pastime of catching a nap between working and practicing was now one of her most hated things she could think of as with those naps came the nightmares that had caused her to more than once wake up screaming and accidently bucking the cloud she was on. Her bosses at Cloudsdale, however, would praise her new work ethic and not care while her co-workers were getting rather worried as any as the bags under her eyes were growing larger and darker.

The events from the evening kept playing over and over in her dreams and every time she felt if she just flew faster, reacted quicker, done…anything better, she could have stopped what happened. Often it was Luna who came to her rescue from the nightmares that were plaguing her but Luna was not always available at all times to help her, so really it was only when she slept at night that it wasn’t as bad. It was her afternoon naps that were removed completely to keep her from having to relive the memories more and more.

“Rainbow Dash, Delivery.” Dash turned to the voice just as she kicked another cloud into vapor to see a gray coated mail mare that was Derpy, looking off in a direction as well as looking at her.

In her mouth was a decent sized object, though from its shape Rainbow Dash felt a moment of joy when she thought it was a new Daring Do book. “Thanks Derpy.” Was all Dash told her as the happy go lucky mail mare flapped away. Looking around quickly Dash sat on the fluff to open the package and stare at a plain looking cyan book with a note attached to it.

“Dear Rainbow Dash. I recently found an old diary journal of mine. Reading through it some I remembered how nice it was to talk to somepony to get my feelings out there, well it just so happens that somepony was just my journal. So finding a new blank book I started a new one since recent events have been bugging me. I made me feel better slightly too at least share my thoughts in this way so I am sending a blank book to you and the others in the hopes that you will find it just as therapeutic. Signed: Twilight Sparkle.” After reading the note again Dash thought it wasn’t such a bad idea, and looking at the time of day it would be about the time she took a nap so she zipped back home instead.

“I am just tired of the nightmares, not like I am doing this for fun or anything.” Dash mumbled to herself as she set it down at the desk she used to coordinate the weather schedule to Cloudsdale, something she didn’t want others to know so as not to think of her as an egghead since she was just doing her job. Grabbing a pencil in her mouth she started.

“Dear Journal, not sure what to write in you, heck not sure why I am even doing this but if Twilight thinks it will help it can’t hurt to try right?” Dash could feel herself remembering the emotions of that evening now as she wrote.

It had gone from super awesome to totally not cool in less than a half second for Dash. She was sitting there in the hold of the levitation of that showboat as she watched her friend, and roommate to her special somepony, taking all the zapping beam thing that was given to him and more forcing Trixie to take off her Amulet from what Dash guessed was the sheer awesome that it was. Trixie looked like she had been utterly exhausted by the beam too as she was unable to get up after that and even passing out making Dash give a silent ‘yes’ to herself with a hoof pump.

She was just about to brag to the others how awesome it was when she overheard Twilight and Rarity talking. “He is a Pegasus he can’t release the mana he took from her, and it was a lot if what I felt about that beam was right.” While not the brightest mare it was only though she herself had gone through mana stretching that she realized he may get sick from absorbing that mana into him at least she thought it would only be that. Dash looked back over to Velox, he had the look that she felt was on her face when she caught an air current and could fly forever, a look that said he was ok with things, even as the glow that was miscolored thanks to absorbing that whorse’s mana focused onto other parts.

Dash was feeling smug in that her teacher and friend took her down and thought to herself. ‘Ya you showed her alright, will have to get you to teach me that some da-’

That thought was interrupted as she heard Twilight sounding frightened. “Oh no, if he does that he will-!”

The prismatic flyer didn’t have to wonder about what her friend was going to say when a loud boom and shock wave bowled her over as well as the other ponies watching. Getting up was slow, at least for her as she felt groggy as if she crashed a tiny bit too hard.

“Twilight what the hay just happened?” As she said it though she could tell her hearing wasn’t right everything sounding muffled as if she had cotton jammed in her ears. Instead she decided to look at where the shockwave came from.

It was a rather impressive crater even if she had to say so. Whatever made it must have landed hard was her first guesses only to see Twilight starting to run towards it.

‘What is she running over there for? I mean the only thing that was in that direction was Vel…’ She didn’t even finish her though as her blood ran cold and she was in the air quickly moving to catch up to the magic user of the group.

Rainbow Dash, high speed stunt and flying mare, fastest Pegasus in Equestria if not Equis itself, future member of the Wonderbolts, and all her other self proclaimed titles did not in any way prepare her for what she was about to see. Because of her own pride in the particular appendages her first instinct was to look at the injuries of the wings on any pony that had them, what she saw caused her to instantly become sick and start to vomit.

‘Oh my gosh, there is nothing left! Sure I thought some feathers might be gone, even some bone damage, but…nothing. No Basal or Terminal Phalanx, no Metacarpus, no Radius, nothing. Even the Carcoid looks like it was broken and torn in half on both of them.’ The stunt mare wasn’t the smartest pony and would gladly admit that to anypony who asked, however if it was one thing she did know besides stunts, speed, and weather, was wings. ‘If his muscles didn’t contract from how his tendon pulled back his would have died from blood loss.’ Deciding to risk looking at him again, she was able to look at his other injuries and got equally sick once again. Not even noticing when Luna came up, only hearing her voice telling them all she was taking Velox to be helped.

All of them went to the chariot to pile in, except Dash herself who was going to fly so they had enough room in the vehicle to get off the ground. It was a weird experience to be nearly deaf while flying, the howling of the wind that soothing feeling for the flyer became something else, a dull roar that seemed almost as if it was heralding something ominous to come. This all translated into Dash’s head as ‘not right’.

The trip there was made with the same dull thuds as everything else she could hear but the Princess had met them when they landed. The Princess then solved their hearing problem with a healing spell so now everything was sounding once more normal.

“How is Velox, Princess?” Rainbow asked as soon as her hearing had returned making the soft flaps of her wings music to her ears.

Applejack had also pulled forward to ask the same thing. “Ya, ah mean he was lookin’ a right wreck when Princess Luna took him. Will he be alright?”

The look on Celestia’s face made RD settle on the ground with its serious look. “My little ponies, I will not lie to you, just from the initial examinations of him his chances of surviving are…low. Even if he does live life for him after this will be much different.”

In the distance she could hear some of her friends sniffling and letting tears go but they were getting further away in her ears as the prismatic mare asked and focused on her next question. “But he will be fine right Princess, I mean you have the best docs here in Canterlot, it won’t be long before he is up and flying again, just watch.”

The bravado didn’t last as the serious look on the sun matriarch’s face became one of sadness. “Rainbow Dash, while if he does survive from this he will not be doing what you asked. His wings are totally unrecoverable and he will be living the rest of his life as a grounded Pegasus while in that form.”

The book made a thump against the wall of fluff as Dash threw it across the room, tears flowing down her face as she remembered the Princess telling her that. “It’s not fair; he protected everypony he shouldn’t have to suffer like that.” The thing about cloud homes is that they are pretty soundproof with all the fluff padding but still some residents would claim to have heard a muffled scream of rage and sorrow that day.

Applejack was having a fitful sleep under an apple tree when she was rudely shook awake, though she was grateful for it so as not to suffer from the nightmares they carried. The dark rings under her eyes told of her lack of sleep and it was only when she bucked one too many trees while working the orchard that she would pass out and get some sleep, though it usually came with more of those horrifying accusing nightmares.

“Trouble sleepin’?” Came the deep voice of her brother. She would only nod not finding enough energy to voice a response only for Mac to give her something from his pack.

“What’s this?” She managed to ask in her exhaustion. The big lug just shrugged and walked away though not without looking back once more to shake his head when looking at his sister opening the package.

Inside was a plain looking orange book with a note attached. “Dear Applejack.” The note was from Twilight telling her that she found an old diary and started to write again making her feel a smidge better about things and suggested she try the same.

‘Why would ah write in a book about my feelin’s. Ah have my family, though ah don’t want to trouble them. Big Mac’ and Granny are surely worryin’ about me. Bloom wouldn’t understand and ah don’t want to trouble my friends either…hmm maybe Twi is onto somethin’ here.’ The apple mare thought to herself as she decided to take a break from bucking as she wasn’t honestly doing much as it was right now.

Getting up into her room she managed to find a pencil to write with and took a deep breath before starting to put her words to paper that also surprisingly had her accent in the words. “Dear diary. Ah don’t know what to do. Every night, every dream is about that night. It is drivin’ me crazy and ah know ah am worryin’ my family. Ah just want to get some good sleep but every time my dream reminds me. It reminds me: you could have done somethin’.”

She started to remember that night but shook her head, was no need to recall that night when she lived it over and over again night and day as it was. The explosion that shocked and deafened everypony, the discovery of her special somepony looking like he had been gored by a raging bull, the darkness that came from her fainting, something that honestly surprised her to this day a week later that it happened, not once but twice. She barely woke up in time and it seemed no pony noticed as they all rushed over towards Luna’s chariot to go to the hospital in Canterlot where she learned later that Velox was taken.

The bad news just got worse and she remembers being comforted by her friends when she learned that if Velox lived he wouldn’t be flying ever again. She remembered crying only once before hard like that when her parents passed away and though she had promised there she was letting it all cause she couldn’t contain it all, burdening her friends with her tears and feelings. She wasn’t sure how long she was crying but she knew that she spent the night and the next day.

He had come out of surgery after nearly twenty four hours of it. The Doctors had said they did all they could for now and if he lived he would need more surgeries in the future to correct a lot of things but the next seventy two hours they said would be the signs if he would make it or not.

“It was defiantly something for sure.” Applejack said.

Two days after Velox had come out of surgery did something indeed come up that they weren’t expecting. Twilight had called them all together as a chariot was once more waiting to take them directly to the Canterlot hospital this time. Worry was eating away at her the entire time as they flew. Everypony had made time to come and secretly she was happy about that as she knew if she was alone she may not have been able to keep her tears at bay.

Immediately she knew something was wrong when they got to the hospital, all the ponies were tense, they all looked like something was going to jump out at them and what was more they all looked relieved to see them come in. A nurse came up to Twilight and told her that she would show them the way as they all trotted to the I.C.U. to see their friend. Once there what they saw surprised all and would right away something was happening that it shouldn’t be.

First off Celestia and Luna were in the room their horns glowing and surrounding Velox, who looked to be on death’s door. His coat was faded out like she had seen it in the crystal kingdom, bandages stained with blood around his middle and what was left of his wings as well as the bandage around his eye. What was off about the whole thing though was the red hue that seemed to be fighting back against the Princess’ magic.

Well it didn’t last much longer after they had arrived but the look on the rulers of day and night’s face said they had been at it a long while if the sweat dripping from them was an indicator. Some of the deathly gray vanished from the pony’s coat though still looked to be very unwell. Though secretly AJ was happy as she looked at him and the look on his face was calmer then when they had seen the Princess’ using their magic.

“What is going on Princess?” It was Twilight who had asked and that brought everypony’s attention to the pony that had answers.

Sighing and grabbing a drink first from a nearby picture of water Celestia took a moment to compose herself before speaking. “It seems there was more than meets the eye at work here my little ponies. Something had been bothering me since Velox had come here to receive his treatment but I couldn’t figure out why. It was actually my sister who pointed out that he still may have lingering traces of Trixie’s magic left in his system that may hamper his healing. Turns out she was both wrong and right at the same time.”

Luna had taken the same time to compose herself as her sister though only chose that moment to speak. “When we arrived and had scanned him for lingering traces of foreign energy we found out he had been cursed several times over and then alerted our sister.” Twilight started to speak up about that but Luna shook her head. “It wasn’t the curse of the slave like you had spoke of Twilight Sparkle. We had found three separate curses placed on him, though one was a hex that had just been elevated to the power of a curse via the Alicorn amulet as well as a newly forming curse.”

AJ felt as if her eyes would burst out at any moment hearing about that only to be stopped by Celestia continuing on with the explanation. “The first curse was as you said, A Slave Geas. That was the first one we removed as it was one that was the top most layer and the least buried in his being. The second was a name hex that he was unable to speak of similar to the geas. Anyone, pony or otherwise, that called him by a name he recognized as his own would cause him an extreme amount of pain and harm.”

Bile rose up in her throat as AJ heard that and instantly recalled the times when she had called out his name to have a look flash across his face. ‘He held it in so we wouldn’t worry about him.’ Immediately following the feeling of disgust came one of anger like she had never felt before and the image of a particular showmare laughing when she called out his name and caused him to shiver made her want to go to whatever cell she whorse was in and beat her within an inch of her life just for Twilight to heal her so she could do it again and again.

She was snapped out of her rather unfriendly thoughts as once more Luna spoke up. “We removed that one as well, however the last is a type of curse we barely recognize at its fundamental levels and even our sister is unversed in its role.” Both of the Alicorns suddenly looked tired and worried. “It was also the deepest curse embedded in his being, having its tendrils already hooked into his mana well.”

Her head snapped over to Twilight who gasped and had tears fill her eyes, worrying the farmer even more. “I-in his well?”

Luna nodded but it seemed that Twilight was the only one who understood so she explained. “Every pony has a Mana well as you may or may not know my little ponies. That sends mana throughout their bodies. It is very similar to how your heart works; pumping blood through your body letting you live. However if a poison were to work its way into your blood stream it can spread through your entire body potentially killing you depending on the degree of the poison. A curse can do the same thing, and this curse was doing something similar, but not killing him outright.”

Applejack opened her mouth to say something only to find no words coming out instead it was Fluttershy who asked the question she wanted to. “W-what was it trying to do?”

Sighing for a moment Luna turned away to look at the injured stallion as Celestia spoke for her. “Curses can do many things if they enter your well, as well as any foreign being that can infiltrate into the mana well. In the end for this curse, he would have become similar to ponies you all have met before: Another Nightmare Moon or another Sombra.” She momentarily had an image in her mind of a fanged Velox whose eyes were no longer kind or loving but fierce and cruel come to her mind before she banished it. “We suspect he gained this last curse almost willingly as he absorbed the corrupted powers of Trixie while she was under the amulet’s influences. However cause of the nature which he did this and the mysterious nature of the amulet itself we are unable to know what it truly is or how to completely cure it even if we could.”

It felt as if somepony had suddenly stepped on her heart and was keeping it from beating at that last part. “W-what?”

Twilight looked to her friends sadly wiping some tears away from her eyes. “Any pony that has a curse get to their well has the curse for the rest of their lives as it now is a part of their very being. It will no doubt choke out his own mana for its own keeping him very weak for the rest of his days.”

“She is correct, though we did manage to cast a spell upon our pony that would make sure that what we couldn’t remove of the curse wouldn’t spread out of control.” Wiping a weary hoof over her eyes Celestia continued. “It also means he will never fully recover if he does from those wounds.”

“Applejack, where are you?” It was the voice of her sister calling out for her. The farm mare would wipe away some tears she had shed during her writing and actually smiled.

“One moment ah will be right down in a jiffy.” She called out to her little sister. ‘Twi was right, ah do feel better getting’ that out there.’ That night her dreams were calmer and she finally got a decent rest for the first time since the incident.

Rarity was doing fine in her work, so fine in fact that even when she made a mistake she found a way to make it work. Not that she would admit to anypony that she was making mistakes at all. Indeed, when she miss-stitched something, or added a color that didn’t quite match her set she turned it around making those mistakes the main feature of a whole new line of work that she knew would be all the rage.

While she did appreciate Twilight’s rather…Twilight like gift, she was far too busy to even think about what had happened to their protector knight. Indeed for whatever reason she couldn’t fathom she had more inspiration than ever before going so far as to ask poor meek Fluttershy to help come over and model them for her so she could see how her work flowed.

“A-are you sure that you want me to w-wear this?” Came the voice of her friend from behind the curtain.

Rarity flipped her mane even if no pony was looking to look just that much more fabulous. “Why of course dear, I do need to see how they move to see if the lines are just right.”

Fluttershy came right out and stood next to the ponykins that held the other dresses that the fashionista had made. “I am not so sure about this stitching Rarity, they seem rather…I don’t know but they don’t feel right.”

“Nonsense dear, embellishments such as these will be all the rage when my work is displayed.” The designer said with a smile. “Now can you move a little to the left to catch the light just right?” Fluttershy did and Rarity was pleased. The blues accented by the light purples and pinks were just perfect. Even the red streaks along the inside on the undercarriage were placed just right for the work of art not to mention the embellishing stitching along the sides and near the top by her wings just made the whole thing scream high fashion.

“I don’t know they just look a tad in the darker theme to me, just the feeling I get.” As Fluttershy tried to politely various things to her friend a shadow passed from an errant cloud outside catching one of the ribbons from the undercarriage just as the bobby pin that held it up let one end loose.

Suddenly the shop was much darker and colder to Rarity. No longer was sweet Fluttershy there trying to talk trade with her, but a certain broken Pegasus. His remaining eye was looking at her accusingly as his bloody stumps of wings twitched as if pain and not from the nerves that the yellow and pink Pegasus who had been standing there was.

The ribbon of fabric had been transformed no longer a piece of her dress but the Pegasus intestines hanging down and dragging against the floor that suddenly felt too dirty. “This is all I mean to you isn’t it Rarity?”

Rarity could feel herself backing up in fear from the stallion that was staring at her accusingly. “No, I would nev-”

“Rarity, do not give me those horseapples. You wanted me cause you knew I had been in magazines before, you wanted to use me, to parade me around making me do what I hate. How about now? Do you feel better knowing you are using every bit of me like this.” To emphasis a point he held up the rope of the slippery entrails before letting it go to hit the ground with a wet splat as he continued forward.

“No please, I didn’t, I am sorry. I am sorry I just got caught up in such a pony here in Ponyville I, I-.” The pure white mare was cut off before she can go any further as the bloody pony grabbed her shoulders.

“Really, so all those advances, those dirty thoughts to use me, to measure me a bit to close were they all just made up then?” She wasn’t sure how he knew of those thoughts when she had them after she discovered that one of his forms was in Playmare but it didn’t matter. “Look at your hooves you are no better than Trixie, at least she was honest about using me.”

Looking down now she had seen that her pearly white coat was splotched here and there with crimson, especially at her hooves. “N-No it’s not true, no, NOOOO!!!” Curling up into a ball on the ground and closing her eyes away from the sight, she never heard or felt it was Fluttershy calling out to her trying to snap her out of it.

“Dear Diary.” Fluttershy started. “I am not sure what happened with Rarity today, she had wanted me to come to her shop to try on some of her new ideas. Sure I was nervous but I do like fashion a lot, and it feels nice to talk about the ins and outs with Rarity even if I am not as talented as her.” Dipping the pin into the ink well gently she continued. “At first she acted ok making me put it on and stand in the light, then as I was holding up one of the ribbons telling her it came undone I looked up to see her frightened of me. I went to go give her a hug and to ask what was wrong when she suddenly screamed out no. I was so frightened I left the shop in tears. Later I went back to return the dress to Rarity as I didn’t have a chance to take it off when I rushed out and to apologize for taking it like that without permission when I spotted a crowd outside of the Boutique.”

Fluttershy had just got her courage back to return the ‘stolen’ dress. She was nervous and was hoping that Rarity had not been that angry with her running out like she had. Her fears weren’t alleviated at all as when she seen the boutique it was surrounded by ponies near the front entrance. She was worried about her friend and that something had happened and was about to ask what was wrong when luck would have her overhear a pony speaking of just that.

“Did you hear what is going on?” Came the voice of the first random pony.

The second pony with a more feminine voice spoke up. “No, but it has to be serious for her to be doing that.”

The sound of a crash from inside followed by a yell was quick but short following the sound of something tearing. “Ya no kidding, seems she really blew a stack and is destroying all her fabrics and works that she had been working on. I wonder what caused it?”

Fluttershy needed to hear no more, she knew it was her fault for taking the dress so she quickly and as silently as she could flew around the back and through a window to avoid being seen by the crowd. ‘I have to return the dress so Rarity isn’t mad anymore. I just hope she isn’t too mad at me for it.’

Downstairs was a wreck, there was no other way to describe it. Usually when Rarity gets on one of her benders there would be fabric all over the place, but usually it was from where she didn’t clean up from cutting a piece or they were ideas that never came to be. This…this was pure destruction, the deliberate ripping and tearing of all her fabric and works into useless ribbons and scrap.

With a pair of scissors in her magical grasp right in the center of all of the carnage was a teary eyed Rarity tears coming down nearly in waterfalls off her face as she was attacking another of the newly made lineup. As she attacked it she started to scream more and more sometimes even closing her eyes as she did so. It sounded like she was yelling something but Fluttershy couldn’t understand it as it all blurred together with the rest of the yelling.

“Rarity?” Fluttershy wonder who called out to her friend when she realized it was her own voice.

She regretted it almost instantly as she had gotten too close to Rarity who whipped around quickly and cutting the Pegasus along the cheek. “What do you-.” Fluttershy was holding her cheek as she felt the pain and letting out a few tears as she heard destructive fashionista speak. “Oh dear Celestia what have I done?”

“I am sorry, I am sorry.” It was all the Pegasus could get out as she was hugged fiercely.

Feeling tears against her she looked up to see Rarity with her eyes closed crying against her. “No, I should be sorry darling; I am a terrible friend to everypony I don’t deserve to have any friends much less ones like you and the other girls.”

“Dear Diary, I am not sure why Rarity was saying those things at first, but she told me she was feeling guilty for trying to use Velox, Lego, and Novo for their fashion reputation. Then when I was wearing the dress earlier it seems she had a flash back mixed with a bit of a delusion…I told her that I really couldn’t help her with that and that it may be best to talk to somepony. She told me she might just use that book that Twilight got her and that is when I remembered you.” Taking a moment she sighed and continued writing. “But Rarity should feel guilty for that, I mean I seen that something was wrong with Star when somepony mentioned his name but I didn’t have the courage to speak up about it…I am the terrible pony.”

Pinkie Pie sighed as she threw away another set of burnt cupcakes. Her sense of timing seemed to be off and she was second guessing herself for mixtures as well getting more than a few complaints from customers at Sugarcube Corner. More than once recently she had even told off a customer only to apologize after when she realized what she had done. Pinkie knew the source of her frustration and problems, and it stemmed from the fact she couldn’t help any pony even if she wanted to.

She realized her problem just the other day, which was a couple of days after they got back from when Velox had his curses removed…well most of them.

Ponies were still adjusting to life after the attack and Pinkie, being who she was aka the primer pink party pony of Ponyville, was doing her best to throw shindigs that were lifting everypony’s spirits. For the most part it was working too, the only problem being, it was working for everypony, but herself and her friends.

She had been sulking silently and writing occasionally in that diary book that Twilight had sent her but honestly it wasn’t helping at least she didn’t think it was. She was out and about trying to occupy her time and help a pony cheer up when the twitching started. She started to look around as she deciphered the code her body was giving her.

On a ladder nearby was Lyra, the musician pony whose coat was a nice minty color, a harp, well a lyre actually, cutie mark on her flank, and her mane was cyan color with white streaks in it, with a nice wrap up of nice golden eyes that Pinkie knew Lyra’s marefriend, Bonbon, loved. Pinkie started to move fast now as she recognized the signals, pulling out a trampoline from a nearby bush that she had stashed just for emergencies.

The rung under the mare’s hoof gave way and she toppled backwards right onto the trampoline and then onto the ground after, somewhat bruised but a lot better then what could have been.

“Oomph. Ouch my flank.” Lyra looked over with a smile to Pinkie which the pink pony gave back ten-fold. “Thanks Pinkie, that could have been bad for me.”

“Don’t thank me you silly-filly, it was my Pinkie sense that helped you.” Pinkie said bouncing in place.

Giving a giggle the mint mare just smiled and stood back up. “Thank you Pinkie sense, I might have gotten really hurt if not for you. Hopefully you keep helping out ponies like me so we don’t get hurt anymore. Now I have to take this ladder to get repaired by Hard Ware see you around Pinkie.”

Lyra hadn’t seen it but Pinkie had stopped bouncing and was wide eyed as a thought occurred to her. ‘But if my Pinkie sense tells me about bad things happening…why had it not helped me to keep Star safe?’

It had been that question that had been plaguing the bubblegum colored pony since then. It would sneak up when she was mixing, baking, even planning and/or conducting parties. There was no time or place when it didn’t intrude on her thoughts. As a result if anypony looked they would see that some of the bounce was lost from both her step and mane. No matter what, no matter when everytime she thought of that same question that she had asked herself that day she kept coming back to one result.

‘What good is my Pinkie sense if it doesn’t help my friends when they need it the most?’ As usual there was no answer given.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, I hope your holidays were good ones. If yes then awesome, if no....ummm cookie?

Why a cookie how is that helping?

SHUT UP BRAIN NO ONE ASKED YOU! Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know, that while this is the first chapter of the new arc do not expect me to keep to my weekly uploads like before mostly because....well...my muse isn't working right now

Basically his inspiration isn't working so his creativity isnt sparking.

What did I just say brain?

That no one asked m-

That no one asked you that is right. Anyways I will try to update as frequently as I can but...ya, I have to go find a bug net now to catch my muse. Not letting her get away again.

Why a bug net?

So she won't buzz off again.

Bu-dum-tis