Elsewhere, away from the library, a lone purple drakeling sat beneath a small maple tree—one of many within a secluded grove situated near a certain forest near Ponyville.

To anypony passing by, it would've seemed as though the little dragon had sat down for a nap under Celestia's slowly setting sun. The alicorn was due to hurry it along its course soon enough, but for now, it looked like the dragon was content to be right where he was.

It had been some time since he sat down beneath that tree, and he hadn't moved in what felt like hours, much to the growing irritation of the stetson wearing earth pony mare watching him from afar behind a small thicket of bushes.

Sitting beside this mare was another, a yellow pegasus who'd been watching the drakeling with undisguised fascination—a complete contrast to the earth pony's suspicious glare and frustrated grimace.

The orange coated earth pony was none other than the Ponyville's resident apple farmer, Applejack, accompanied by the shy and soft spoken animal caretaker, Fluttershy.

By chance, the cowpony happened to spot Twilight's draconic assistant, Spike, heading away from the library through one of the windows. It wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary, except the dragon hadn't left through the front door, or even gone down the stairs from where Twilight had taken him.

He had no wings with which to fly, so the only explanation would've been that he simply jumped out of the second story balcony that could be seen from the library's exterior.

But why would he do that?

What would be the point unless he was trying not to be seen. What was even stranger, Applejack thought, was that he didn't even really seem to be sneaking at all. He just walked away from the library as though he were out on an evening stroll.

Fluttershy, who had opted to come along on the grounds that she found the baby dragon fascinating, had told Applejack that that may very well have been the case, but the stubborn earth pony wasn't buying it.

Something was going on with Twilight and her dragon, she could feel it. She tried to be hospitable, when she and Twilight had first met, and she succeeded, naturally, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off about the mare.

Now she felt that same eerie sensation coming from her dragon assistant, and she wanted some answers. With that in mind, she made her excuses and left the party, quickly followed by Fluttershy.

Now normally, sneaking around and keeping herself and her intentions hidden was anathema to a mare such as Applejack, but following her gut instinct was one of the many things she was known for.

At this moment, her gut instinct was telling her to stay quiet and hidden, and the feeling was strong enough to override any discomfort she felt from all the cloak-and-dagger antics.

Even now, after waiting around for the last two hours or so, and despite Fluttershy's occasional protests, Applejack's suspicions hadn't ebbed in the slightest.

Even as Spike continued to rest peacefully beneath that tree.

Unlike Applejack however, Fluttershy's interest was beginning to wane, and her thoughts began to turn towards her animal friends back at the cottage and how hungry they must be.

It was as the yellow pegasus turned to gaze out at the setting sun that something finally changed. Something in the air shifted, and the sudden change in the atmosphere made both mares gasp sharply—the sensation making them sick to their stomach.

Confused and disoriented, Fluttershy looked around for the source of the unnerving aura that had settled around them like a fog.

"What in Celestia's name... is that?"

Applejack's shaky, horrified whisper caught Fluttershy's attention and she turned to the other mare. Her hearbeat quickened as she saw Applejack's pale face and wide, terrified eyes. She swallowed and, against her better judgment, followed the earth pony's gaze to where Spike sat.

She froze, and her eyes locked, not on Spike, but rather the gaping hole in reality that had opened up next to him. The air around the jagged opening visibly twisted and warped in an unnatural fashion. Just looking at it made the skin beneath Fluttershy's fur crawl, but to her bewilderment, it didn't seem to faze the little dragon whatsoever.

In fact, it almost seemed as though he was waiting for it to appear. He stood up with practiced ease, and turned an impatient frown towards the black opening. Both Applejack and Fluttershy stood rooted to the spot, watching in horrified fascination as something moved within the darkness.

And then it appeared.

The assistant took a step back and looked on with a slight frown of annoyance as his contact finally made itself known.

Somewhere amidst the writhing mass of fleshy, slimy, black tendrils, the assistant could see a slowly opening eye. The eye was massive, and the full scope of its size couldn't be determined from within the confines of such a small opening.

Still, it was enough for the thing within to cast its baleful gaze in the direction of the much smaller creature before it. Its pupil was a dark violet and star shaped with six points set against pure white sclera, making for a stark contrast to the impenetrable Darkness around it.

The assistant returned its stare with impatient indifference, folding his tiny arms and snorting out a small gout of ebony flame.

"You're in quite a bit of trouble," the assistant admonished, "you do realize that, don't you?"

The thing within merely gave a long, drawn out sigh that echoed unnaturally in response. Its countless tendrils writhed and undulated erratically before settling back down again a moment later.

"I don't want to hear excuses," the assistant replied, his tone suddenly sharp, "I don't care if you were just worried, She was in no danger at all, or have you forgotten that nothing in this dimension poses a threat to Her?"

The thing within gave a deeper sigh, causing the earth around the assistant to shudder slightly.

"I... don't... care," the assistant growled, "do you know how hard it is to cross over into this realm?" the assistant gestured to his own body, "do you even realize how difficult it is for anyone other than Our Goddess to take on a host without tearing it apart in the process?"

The assistant began to pace, his increasing aggravation not allowing him to stand still any longer, "you're lucky I was able to find my host as quickly as I did, and that it was compatible. Conveniences like this happen rarely, and it's thanks to you that I had to risk this."

The thing within made to sigh again, but the assistant cut it off.

"No, I'm not even supposed to be here!" he practically shouted, violent gesturing to his own small frame once more, "this... this doesn't feel right, and it only made fixing your mess that much harder!"

The thing within gave no reply, simply continuing to move its tendrils in a slow methodic rhythm. The assistant glared at the thing for a long moment before letting out a weary sigh before sitting himself down against the tree he'd sat beneath earlier.

"This isn't the first time I've had to swoop in and fix one of your blunders, and I get the feeling it won't be the last," he continued, rubbing his temples, "but I suppose it's not my place to punish you, after all, you are Her precious little pet. She'd have my insides perpetually turned out if I did anything to harm you."

The thing gave a raspy sigh that caused the ground to rumble. The assistant's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing slightly.

"What are you talking about?" he asked warily, "what do you mean 'there was something else there'? Are you saying something else was trying to make its way into the White Dimension?"

Another, quieter sigh.

"Humming?" the assistant muttered, "that's... strange. I don't know any kind of creature like that," he looked back at the thing within, "could that creature be the cause of Our Goddess's odd behavior?"

The thing gave a slow blink of its titanic eye and sighed again.

"I don't know," the assistant replied with a sigh of his own, "I haven't been here that long, but I can already tell something is wrong," he looked towards the sky and frowned, "something, or someone is coming soon, and while I'm certain they won't pose any trouble for Our Goddess, I don't think the creatures of this world are prepared for whatever, or whoever it is."

For a long moment, there was silence as the two creatures let the statement sink in, then the thing within gave a long quiet sigh.

"I don't know why Our Goddess decided to come to this place so suddenly, or why she doesn't seem to remember anything," the assistant replied with a troubled frown, "but from what I've seen, she's already made her mark on the creatures of this realm. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

He gave a small growl of frustration and turned towards the thing with another irritated snort of black flame, his frustration aimed elsewhere this time.

"I can return a world to its natural state, but it seems staying here for much longer than I have been is beyond me, even with a host," he sighed again, "unless more of our dimension's influence bleeds over into this one, Our Goddess and her Awakened are the only ones who can stay here indefinitely."

The thing gave a curious sigh.

"I know, I want to be by Her side too," the assistant replied, shaking his head, "I want to find out what's happening to her just as much as you do, but the only thing we can do for now is watch over Her from the Black Dimension," he grimaced, "I also need to look into this humming creature."

The thing within gave another questioning sigh and raised one of its many tendrils.

"Nono, I can make it back on my own," the assistant replied, waving a claw dismissively, "before that though, there's something else I need to take care of."

The thing blinked once, and its eye twitched towards a batch of nondescript foliage in the distance. The assistant followed its gaze and smiled sardonically at the distant shriek of terror coming from said nondescript foliage.

"Go on," the assistant commanded, turning to fully face the shifting bushes. He chuckled as a yellow pegasus flew out and away from the grove, "I'll handle this and meet you back at the Castle in a few moments."

The thing gave one last drawn out, earth shaking sigh before its eye snapped shut, along with the tear in reality. With the conversation over, the assistant shook his head and vanished.

Fluttershy's heart was racing in her chest, and it was all she could do not to breakdown right then and there. The only thing that stopped her was the desperate need to escape from what she and Applejack had seen.

Neither of them could hear what was said, but the sheer presence of that thing in the darkness was enough to blot out any rational thought in the first place, rendering the words incomprehensible regardless.

That thing was a true monster, Fluttershy knew without a doubt.

Fluttershy could see something in Twilight's eyes, something that spoke to her—resonated with her on a deep level, and though she could feel the same kind of wrongness from the lavender unicorn as that thing in the darkness, it was overshadowed by that strange resonance.

There was no such resonance with that beast, whatever it was.

Fluttershy was willing to accept Twilight Sparkle, despite what she may have been, but that other monster had no place in this world, and she was going to get as far away from it as possible.

Or at least, that was the plan.

Instead, she suddenly found herself standing in front of seven mares, six of which wore stunned expressions and the seventh lying unconscious on the wooden floor of the bedroom above the library.

Standing next to her was a fear addled and bewildered Applejack, and standing directly in front of the group of mares was a small baby dragon.

"F-Fluttershy?" came a confused voice. The panicked yellow pegasus turned her wide eyed gaze towards Twilight as she spoke, the lavender mare flicking her own wide eyes over each of them, "Applejack? Spike? What are you all—wait," Twilight took a hopeful step forward, "Spike, are you—"

"I'm sorry to cut You off like this," Spike interjected, giving Twilight an apologetic smile, "but I promise everything will be explained in due time, My Goddess," he turned back to Fluttershy and Applejack with a slight frown, "for now, I'm going to wipe their memories of the last couple of hours. After that, feel free to do with them what You will."

"Y-You're going to do what?" Fluttershy shrieked.

"N-Now hold on just one apple buckin' minute—"

Applejack's protest was cut off as Spike blinked, his eyes darkening into empty black pits. Both mare's seized up as they stared into those bottomless pits.

Then Spike spoke.

No sound was heard, no words were audibly spoken, but the reaction was immediate nonetheless. Both Fluttershy and Applejack's eyes grew cloudy, and a moment later, they—along with Spike himself—fell to the floor, just as dead to the world as Rainbow Dash.

A long, tense silence fell over the room as the remaining mares stared at the unconscious bodies littering the floor. Then Pinkie gave an awkward chuckle before turning to a shocked Twilight and shrugging her shoulders.

"And that's how... Equestria was made?"

Author's Notes:

I won't be leaving what happened with Twilight and the others out, so no need to worry about that.