Pinkie wanted to help her Goddess—no, she wanted to help her new friend understand, but she couldn't. She knew there'd been something wrong with the Goddess, but it was far worse than she'd thought.

She was nothing like Granny Pie had said She'd be, but that normally would've been fine... had it not been for the now obvious unstable and tenuous relationship the Goddess had with Her host.

Pinkie knew something had gone wrong when her Goddess had arrived here in the White Dimension, but she couldn't have even imagined it would lead to this.

Looking at her Goddess... looking at Twilight now, as she sank to the floor and broke down before her, the pink earth pony could never have prepared for such madness, misery, and horror to befall her, despite her family's proclamations—proclamations she paid no heed to.

Pinkie had been given a very special Gift by the Dead Goddess, one she used everyday without realizing just what it is she truly held within her.

She could do things no other equine—not even Princess Celestia herself—could do. She made the impossible possible on a daily basis, on a whim, and without restraint.

She could appear anywhere at anytime, pull things from thin air, and even predict the future to an extent, but not even Pinkie Pie could've predicted just what lie in store for her beloved little village of Ponyville.

She watched her new friend—her ancient and omnipotent Goddess, cry and whimper and shiver and groan with sadness and pity in her heart. She wanted to help her Goddess and potential friend... but for the first time in a long time... she had no words of comfort to give.

What did one say to somepony who's very existence had been thrown into question? What did one say to a being whose very existence was both mundane and at the same time, transcended equine understanding?

Even Pinkie, who found a reason to smile in any and every situation, couldn't fathom the true terror and uncertainty of such an existence.

It would tear anypony apart, break anypony down, and yet, this mare—this unicorn, this pony, this White Dimensional being had managed to hold on to her sanity up until this point.

It was an admirable effort, and spoke volumes of just how worthy Twilight was to host such a powerful entity within herself... but all things must come to an end eventually.

Questions and uncertainty devolve into panic, fear, and madness. A mare, lost within her own mind submits to the mental torment of not knowing who or what she really is.

Sadness, and compassion give way to surprise, nervousness, and soon enough... overwhelming terror.

The pink earth pony can only look on as Twilight Sparkle, the mare who would become one of her closest friends, finally breaks and falls to the uncontrollable might of the Goddess within.

The crying, whimpering, and groaning stop.

Tear filled eyes snap open and despair gives way to grim purpose. Those eyes are no longer the eyes of a pony, nor any creature of the peaceful and pathetic realm of light, life, and magic.

Pinkie could see it as she backed away, shaking her head in horrified disbelief and muttering the prayers her family had taught her—words of praise and pleas of forgiveness that were long thought forgotten by the quaking pink pony.

Twilight Sparkle was no more, and in her place was something else. In her place was something that truly did not belong here, something that made Pinkie want to scream and quiver and cry and laugh helplessly and hopelessly.

Maybe it was because she was special, maybe it was because she was chosen, maybe it was because she was meant to serve, but somehow Pinkie knew this thing... this vile creature of the Black Dimension, wasn't her Goddess.

No, this was neither Twilight, nor the Dead Goddess her family had worshiped for so many ages. The eyes of the lavender furred host—the Holy Vessel as Granny Pie would've called her—were similar to those said to be possessed by the Goddess, but at the same time, Pinkie knew they were not quite the same.

Twin stars, six points each of the deepest violet hue, stared back at Pinkie—piercing right through her and taking in the world around them.

Even in her terror, the pink mare couldn't help but notice the shape of those eyes as being strikingly similar to the shape of Her host's cutie mark.

The implications were beyond Pinkie for the moment, as she was still trying to focus all of her being on maintaining the currently fragile grip on her own sanity.

She may have been chosen, she may have had the Gift, but she was still equine—still a lowly creature of the White Dimension and not yet Awakened as Rarity was.

Like a newborn foal, the Vessel rose slowly and unsteadily, stumbling to its hooves, all done in silence as Pinkie continued to look on. Once it had fully risen, the Vessel blinked, and once more turned its baleful gaze towards Pinkie.

Pinkie looked back with wide, teary eyes, her shaking frame backed against a far wall. She wanted to turn away from those horrible eyes, but she found she couldn't.

Then, right before her very eyes, the Vessel began to change—its lavender body growing and twisting and warping into a nightmarish mass of black, slimy flesh, sharp teeth, and countless black tentacles that whipped back and forth angrily.

One of the eyes disappeared entirely while the other expanded until it alone dwarfed the pony before it. Throughout its hideous transformation, it never once took its eye off the pink mare.

In that moment, Pinkie knew without a doubt that her world was about to come to an end. She sucked in a breath to scream, but the sound wouldn't come. She watched silently, her mouth agape as the Vessel opened one of its many monstrously gaping maws and let out a deep, furious sigh.

The force of the sound, combined with the beast's incomprehensible form was enough to rend Pinkie's mind asunder, and she finally screamed as the world began to tremble.

Rarity had felt it the moment her Goddess's presence disappeared from this world. She had sensed the arrival of something else in Her place, though she knew not what it was.

She had felt the stress of her Goddess, and had begun making an excuse to the others as she prepared to appear by her side, when She disappeared entirely.

Her Goddess had retreated to a place where she could not yet follow, and so she remained behind. All she could do now was wait and wonder just what this new creature was and what it had in store for their meager little town.

Rarity was not afraid—far from it.

Curious? Certainly. Worried for her Goddess? Most definitely, but something in her mind told her she need not be afraid of what was to come—that it would all be over soon, that everything would be as it should be, and that her Goddess would return in short order.

And so she remained unafraid, unfazed by the blood curdling scream from above and the rumbling earth below. While the others looked about, eyes widening in fear, confusion, and panic, Rarity calmly made her way towards the library's entrance.

The large black tentacle that smashed through the upstairs door drew everypony's attention away from the white unicorn mare and ensured her exit would remain unnoticed by anypony there.

Still, Rarity's curiosity made her stop and cast a glance behind her.

The other mares screamed in terror, scrambling to escape as the massive limb tore the remains of the door from its hinges and tossed them down the stairs.

Rainbow had responded in time to avoid the remnants of the bedroom door, but Fluttershy, frozen as she was by sheer terror, wasn't so lucky and took the blow full on, the door smashing into her weak frame with the force of a freight train.

The cyan pegasus, who had begun making her way to one of the windows, doubled back to help her oldest friend, and Applejack made to follow, but didn't quite get the chance.

Another dark tentacle shot out from within the upstairs bedroom, knocking chairs, tables, and bookshelves aside before wrapping itself around the orange earth pony's entire lower half.

She screamed for help, her front hooves uselessly scraping against the hardwood floor as she was dragged away and up the stairs to meet some hideous fate.

Her pleas fell on deaf ears, Rainbow's attention fully focused on pulling a whimpering Fluttershy from beneath the broken bedroom door, a task made somewhat difficult by the quaking earth.

Applejack could only stare, her eyes wide and disbelieving as her rainbow maned friend ignored her. She looked around for something, anything that would save her, and her bright green eyes landed on the white mare standing near the entrance.

The mare that watched.

The mare that waited.

The two simply stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, and in that moment, Applejack knew. Rarity would not help her, the orange earth pony could see it in her eyes.

Overwhelming fear was suddenly replaced with despair and hopelessness and Applejack stopped struggling, allowing herself to be pulled up and out of sight beyond the doorway to the bedroom.

Rarity watched her disappear, then allowed her eyes to follow the dislodged stetson as it gently tumbled down the steps and came to a stop, resting at the bottom.

She frowned slightly and turned her attention towards Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. As the ground continued to shake the foundations of the library, more and more of the ceiling cracked and crumbled, chunks of wood falling to the floor below.

Furniture was knocked over, books came loose and fell from their respective bookshelves, and windows shattered, but Rainbow Dash ignored all of that as she tried to help Fluttershy to her hooves, having finally freed her from beneath the surprisingly heavy door.

"Shhh, it's alright, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash was muttering reassuringly to her sobbing, shaking friend, "it's gonna be okay. I don't know what's going on, but we'll all get outta here, you'll see. We'll escape and get help."

Rarity raised an eyebrow at the mare as she helped Fluttershy over to the front door where she was standing. The cyan pegasus seemed completely oblivious to what had become of both Pinkie and Applejack.

But no... that wasn't the case at all, was it?

Rainbow turned to Rarity as she got closer and, upon closer inspection, Rarity could see that Rainbow's eyes were cloudy and unfocused. She was shivering just as violently as Fluttershy, if not more so, and she looked through Rarity rather than at her.

Denial.

Rejection.

A mind unable to accept what was happening around her as real.

She knew something horrible had happened to Pinkie and Applejack, but she desperately tried to cast those thoughts aside, push them away as she tried to save her remaining friends.

"Rarity, come on," Rainbow muttered tonelessly as she continued to shuffle towards the front door with Fluttershy in tow, "we need to get outta here... get help. Fluttershy needs help, she needs a doctor."

Indeed, the yellow pegasus was in terrible condition.

Fluttershy had suffered several cuts and bruises all over her body. One of her wings was clearly broken from the impact of the door, and there was a particularly large gash above her left brow.

To think that a simple wooden door could do so much damage.

Rarity didn't say a word in response, and was about to step aside to let them out, but as it turned out, there was no need. A horrible, echoing sigh reverberated throughout the library, chilling Rainbow and Fluttershy to their very core.

There was no time for questions or further panic however, as the world had begun to shake anew with the sound, and before anypony could react, another black, slimy, writhing appendage tore through the ceiling from up high.

Fluttershy screamed for all she was worth as the eldritch limb snatched her by the barrel and yanked her right out of Rainbow's grip, pulling her up towards the ceiling.

It was enough to snap Rainbow Dash out of her fear born stupor and she leapt into action with a cry of fear and anger. She flew up and desperately latched onto Fluttershy's hooves, grunting and growling with the effort of pulling her away from the thing that would take her like it took the others.

She held on as best she could, and though great, it was ultimately a pointless and futile effort.

A sudden movement outside one of the nearby windows caught Rarity's attention and she turned to see another tentacle lower itself down from somewhere above the tree.

It twisted, writhed, and undulated just beyond the glass, and had Rainbow simply turned her head slightly, she would've seen it, and maybe she could've at least saved herself.

As it was, her eyes and all of her focus remained rooted to the wide eyed, screaming mare in front of her. She only turned to look once the tentacle had smashed through the glass of the window, but by then it was too late.

Like a speeding arrow, the new limb flew straight towards and through the cyan pegasus, piercing her skin, pushing past the ribs, and ripping through the heart, ending her struggle along with her life.

Fluttershy only wailed louder as the corpse was pulled back through the window and out of sight, just like Applejack. She reached a hoof out towards where Rainbow had been taken.

Her cries of sorrow didn't last long however, as she too was wrenched away—tugged upward into the opening of the crumbling ceiling to meet her own demise at the tentacles of the wretched abomination.

Another inequine sigh.

Another violent quake.

Rarity stood there, staring up at the collapsing ceiling with a frown.

There was a pang of sadness, pity, and even some unease and discomfort at the sight of the events that had played out before her, but Rarity pressed on with the knowledge that everything would be as it was before in the end.

Her friends and her Goddess were gone now, but she knew it was not to be a permanent thing, and so she had no need to mourn or despair.

With that thought in mind, she quietly phased right through the front door, stepping out of one font of madness and directly into another.

The area around the library had fallen into sheer bedlam, and it wasn't hard to see why. Another echoing sigh caused Rarity to turn back towards the library, and her eyes widened in surprise.

She looked up, having to take several steps back to properly see the thing that had almost completely enveloped the library.

Wrapped around the giant tree was a massive black beast unlike anything Rarity had ever seen. Its one large eye swiveled this way and that—its star shaped pupil not appearing to focus on any one thing, and its multiple mouths snapped open and shut.

Rarity watched in awe as its many tentacled appendages tightened around the library. The tree creaked and cracked and groaned under the pressure, and it wasn't long before the entire thing splintered. Even then, the titanic creature squeezed tighter, causing the tree to completely shatter and fall to the earth.

Rarity had long since blinked away to a safe distance as the library crumbled, and as she watched, another sound reached her ears, reminding her of the chaos that had been unleashed around her.

As the beast continued to sigh and the earth continued to shake, the ponies around town had been worked up into a frenzy. The screams, sobs, whimpers, and broken laughter of the frightened and insane echoed throughout Ponyville.

Most ponies trampled each other underhoof in a desperate attempt to flee from something they did not understand, while some simply sat there and stared, their minds crumbling away to nothing.

And yet there were those few who looked upon that eldritch thing and groveled—falling to their knees, shouting its praises, begging for mercy, crying out for some kind of twisted salvation.

Rarity watched all of this with a profound sense of disgust. There was still a lot Rarity didn't know about her new life, and she still had many questions, but she certainly knew one thing for sure.

These fools had placed their faith in a monster.

This creature was not the Goddess—it wasn't any kind of god at all. It was a creature beyond what the feeble minded could comprehend, yes, but Rarity's eyes had been opened to the truth.

She could see that it was nothing more than a simple beast—an angry child throwing a temper tantrum. Still, she could also tell it was connected to her Goddess in some way and that at least, did warrant a bit of respect.

"Sheesh, just what the hay did I miss?"

Rarity gave an annoyed flick of an ear as she turned to face Minuette. The mare, looked around the town with wide, intrigued eyes. Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine stood beside her, their eyes locked on the monster smashing the splintered remains of the library beneath it.

"It seems our Goddess had a bit of an issue to work out," Rarity explained, turning back to the maddened townfolk, "She's gone away, and apparently saw fit to grace our humble town with... that."

"I dunno," Lemon Hearts replied, frowning thoughtfully, "it doesn't seem like something She'd do."

"And just how do you know what She'd do, Lemon?" Minuette asked, finally turning to look at the crazed horror, "for all we know, She got sick of this place and decided to trash it."

"No, I agree with Lemon Hearts on this," Rarity interjected, "I've been around Her longer than you three have, and I know something is off. She's scared, stressed, and confused, and I don't think She meant to bring this monster here on purpose."

"So you think it was some kind of accident then?" Twinkleshine asked, giving Rarity a worried frown, "I mean, I'm pretty sure we all felt Her freaking out before She disappeared, and then this thing shows up out of nowhere and now I don't know what to think. Where did She even—"

"And now it's killing ponies," Minuette exclaimed, cutting off Twinkleshine. She watched as the beast grabbed hold of two groveling ponies, crushed them to pulp, and began slithering its way towards the fleeing citizens, "I guess it got bored of smashing an already smashed tree."

"Girls, I'm starting to think we should probably do something about this," Lemon Hearts said, her own worried frown deepening, "somehow I get the feeling this is gonna start spiraling out of control soon—even more than it already is I mean, and I don't think our Go... I don't think Twilight is gonna be too happy if She comes back to see this."

"Ah, it'll be fine," Minuette replied with a dismissive wave of her hoof, "everything will work out in the end, we just have to wait. Besides, what the hay are we supposed to do about it? I mean seriously, look at that thing!"

"Well, yeah, I suppose you have a point... but..." Lemon Hearts bit her lip nervously before turning to Twinkleshine, "just what is it we're supposed to be waiting for anyway?"

Twinkleshine merely shrugged in response.

"Maybe Twilight will be able to explain things once she gets back?" the golden grey mare guessed, "I say we just wait and see what happens."

"That won't be necessary."

All four whipped around to see a familiar purple dragon standing directly behind them, his eyes hard and his mouth set in a grim line. Rarity's eyes widened, her pupils reduced to mere pinpricks as she took a startled step back.

"S-Spike?!"

Author's Notes:

I was going to release this chapter much later, but then I realized today would be the perfect time to post it.

Happy Halloween all!