With all the commotion settled down, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash gathered near Twilight's castle, where the princess had cleaned herself up. After sprucing herself up to look more presentable, she still had aches and pains from the event with Pinkie. So, she decided to sleep in. She had thought that sleep could take the pain-mental pain, that is-away. It could also clear her mind from some of the physical harm she had dealt with only an hour ago. Pinkie, on the other hoof, had tried to calm herself down-which she did. However, when she tried to think of some way to apologize, she had forgotten what there was to apologize for, why she was doing so in the first place. Just to clear her thoughts, the party pony trotted over to Twilight's castle. Surely she would help in some way. Help her figure out why she felt like something had happened, but wasn't sure what.

She caught up with the other four, "Hi, girls! What did I miss?" The other ponies quickly turned around. "Oh, Pinkie! There you are! We've been expecting you," Rarity answered, whipping her mane out of her face. Dash leaned on Pinkie, wrapping a hoof around her back, "You should've seen it! Fluttershy was trying to tame a couple parasprites, but they kept on trying to eat all the apples from some poor pony's cart. That's when she yelled at one of 'em, and they started to swarm around..." Rainbow Dash continued on about how the yellow, timid pegasus had taken down the swarm with no one to help. Pinkie, like Dash, thought that that was pretty neat. And funny. "Haha! So that's what I missed!" Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully, "Oh, I'm so glad that's over, Fluttershy! If you hadn't done that, we would've been goners! You're a hero!" Fluttershy blushed, "Pinkie..." "Aw snap!" Applejack interrupted, "I totally forgot 'bout Winona! She gonna be okay, Sugarcube?" the apple farmer turned to the pink-maned pegasus. "Oh, um, yes. She's doing fine." Applejack sighed, "Thank ya. I thought I'd done somethin' wrong. Heheh..."

Later that night, Rainbow Dash returned home, as did the rest of the group. She found Scootaloo on the couch, all curled up and comfty-cozy in a thick blanket. The cyan pony kissed her on the head, rubbed her back for a short moment, then flew upstairs. Once inside the room, she stretched and yawned. "I'm so tired right now, I can't even think straight," she said to herself. The sculpture was still there. It was still sparkling, even in the dark. Rainbow Dash still thought this as odd, but she shrugged it off and proceeded to fly into bed. It was only a matter of minutes until the brash pegasus finally fell into a deep slumber. A couple hours went by. Suddenly, there was a scream coming from downstairs. Rainbow woke up, confused at first, then shocked with realization. "Scoots!" Rainbow rushed downstairs, leaving the blanket floating in the air, and caught up with the orange filly. Or at least that's what she had hoped to see. But all that was there was an empty couch. In fact, it was the only thing in the room, now. Just a couch and Rainbow Dash.

"Scoots?" the rainbow-maned pegasus shouted, "Scoots! Where are you?" She looked frantically around her. Things were definitely out of place. There were no doors. No windows. None of Scootaloo's crayon pictures were hung and no lamps were found. She listened inventively for any sign of the purple-maned filly. Nothing. For five, solid minutes-nothing. Then, a faint cackle echoed in the room. It sounded...it sounded as if somepony was going absolutely mad. As if that somepony had done something wickedly wrong, and was condemned to an asylum for all eternity. That's what it sounded like to her. That's when she saw it: a glow. A glowing object heading towards her. It shone brightly, causing Rainbow Dash to cover her eyes. The glow subsided. Dash uncovered her eyes, making sure it was safe to look. What stood in the place of that glow was the cause of what had been laughing so madly. It still was for a couple of moments. "How's it goin'?" the strange creature asked.

Rainbow was confused. What is that thing? Why is it here? What did it do to Scootaloo? "Aw, don't you fret now, Rainbow Dash! I'm just here to congratulate you!" The strange object spun around once or twice. It was still glowing, but only a little. It seemed to be made of something yellow and shiny-gold. A golden triangle with black appendages-arms and legs-protruding out. It was ordained with a black bow-tie and top hat. But the most prominent feature was its one, big eye-a slit for a pupil and a stare that seemed to peer into Dash's soul. "Who...what..." Rainbow stuttered, trying to figure out what to ask it first, "who...who are you? What do you want? Where's my sister? And how do you know my name?!" "Whoa, whoa! Slow your roll, Dash!" the triangle assured her, "Look, I know I haven't been to "gentlepony"-like so I'm gonna make it up to you!" It bowed to her, then got back up-even though it was floating.

"Name's Bill Cipher!"