My ears rang with the onslaught that the horrors outside my home were raining down onto my door. I felt a curious calm despite the obvious danger I was in. My impossibly dangerous Other was out there somewhere directing a nameless horde with designs on no less than my immortal soul. Looking inward I saw the calm for what it was. Quite frankly, I was simply tired. Tired of always running, tired of seeing my friends hurt, or worse. I was so very tired of it all that for a brief moment I entertained the thought of simply letting it happen. Eventually my reinforcement spell would give out, the door would cave in or, failing that, one of the walls.

What I just stood in place and waited, what if I just gave up?

They're scared of you okay?

An ache, deep in my heart, brought hot tears to my eyes and for a moment I was blinded by them. How could I even consider it after everything my friends had been through? Something about the passing of fresh sorrow renewed my resolve and my strength. Instantly my mind began working again, I'd known that it might come to this, I felt the power in my horn thrum as it maintained the wards, I felt the flickering life-presences of my friends getting more and more distant.

It was time.

I seized my saddlebags and cantered over to my desk and telekinetically lifted a heavy box containing a last resort I'd designed for just this occasion. If I was lucky it would throw them off enough to give me a head start.

“Run run as fast as you can...” I sang softly to myself as I undid the latch and lifted the stoppered glass vial of Black Nightshade Extract from its' velvet setting, “...You can't catch me...,” I removed the cork with a small 'pop' sound and swigged it down. I felt it burning through my system as it reached my heart and for a moment I panicked. This was a hell of a risk, if I had gotten the dose even slightly wrong I was finished. Too little and I would have rendered myself completely helpless before the attacking horde. Too much and...

It was getting dark... I couldn't remember what I had been so worried about. Everything was warm and numb and I was so very sleepy. All I knew was that I had been terribly worried about something but now I was certain that all I needed was a good. Night's. re-

+=+

My eyes snapped open and I stood up, it was as if I'd woken up from a night terror, high on adrenaline and fear. I knew I had to run, if I wasn't quick, if I didn't take advantage of every second this little ruse had bought me I knew that I might not make it.

I still had to resist prancing about like a filly squealing. It had worked, I mentally thanked Rarity, if it hadn't been for her knowledge of how this wretched place functioned I'd have been finished.

“Rarity I was wondering something,” I asked one night as we sat in front of the fireplace.

“What is it darling?” she answered, her gaze not moving from the flame, she was always cold these days.

I dithered for a moment before deciding to just jump into the question, niceties be damned, “Rarity, why did you have to kill me those two times?” That got her attention, she turned from the fire to meet my eyes and I saw the pain and sadness there. She made that little scoffing laugh of hers that some ponies might take offense to. I knew her well enough to know she only made that sound when she was aiming it at herself. She was remembering the events as I had, in the parody of our world where she had once strangled me and another time she had stuck me with one of Pinkie's blades.

“I suppose I do owe you an explanation,” she sighed and adjusted herself to a more comfortable position. “The way Pinkie described it that horrible place is intimately connected to death, don't ask me how darling I don't know,” she cut me off as I opened my mouth, I smiled wryly and motioned for her to continue. “I suppose it makes sense, death fills that place, it's like the whole world is dead over there.” I nodded in agreement, remembering the scorched sky raining ashes on a wasteland of decaying tree's. “When one is close to death the lines become blurred between that world and ours and you were in great danger.”

“I remember you saying that, what did you mean?” the questions that had plagued me were coming in droves.

“Simply put, you were a time bomb, your power was causing you to flit between worlds, drawn there by your own 'Other', Pinkie and I couldn't let it have you so we had to keep you in our world as much as possible...” she trailed off, a look of hurt and shame on her face, “...and by any means necessary.”

Seeing her distress I leaned over and clicked my horn against hers with a soft smile on my face, in the moment that she smiled back I knew I didn't have to say it. That I forgave her. Her smile was as radiant as her gems and for a brief and precious moment she was my friend Rarity, the flawless fashionista and bearer of the Element of Generosity, again and we shared a 'between-us-girls' laugh for the first time in ages.

The moment passed and I settled back to my position in front of the roaring blaze. “So basically being close to death can shunt a pony between the two worlds?”

Rarity looked thoughtful before finally answering, “Yes and no, I think it only works here because the wall are quite thin as it is, and... I don't know that it would work on anypony but you darling.”

“Huh? Why me?”

“Isn't it obvious dearie? Because you're the one who brought that world here in the first place.”

I took a moment to take in my surroundings, it was just as I remembered it from the last time I'd been here, the broken windows, the dead walls and empty shelves, the gaping hole in the rotten floorboards leading down to my workroom. The only difference was the light, from the basement a brackish light was filtering up.

“Contempt...” I hissed, I let a satisfied smile drift onto my face, I wasn't going to let her hurt anypony ever again, I'd made sure of it this time, the light was proof of that.

Of course it also meant I only had about a minute to clear the epicenter of what might be the very first multi-dimensional explosion ever recorded. I didn't dare try translocation magic, the walls were even thinner now than they had been when I'd first come here and I didn't want to accidentally drop myself right into my enemy's lap. So I ran, I released a flare of magic to speed my hooves and I ran as fast as I could, out the splintered door, down the walkway, through the gate, and-

KAWHAM

The force of the explosion was so loud it had a physical presence, I kept running for the brief moments before I felt my hooves leave the earth carrying me on a tangible wave of energy. As lifted me up I curled my body into as small of a ball as I could and, with a monumental effort of magic, I encased myself in a crystalline matrix. I'd gotten quite good with them since I'd regrown my horn, this shield was many times stronger than my old one and it absorbed the punishment as I was hurled bodily through the air and eventually through the walls of a good number of buildings.

I may have also passed through one of the Things. I hit something wet and splintery and that's all I know. I had no desire at the time to learn the truth of the matter, a feeling which hasn't changed in the slightest.

With a brief shudder I released the crystal cage that had saved me from becoming a dark smear on the poison earth of this place. I coughed as I lifted myself from the ash-covered ground I'd landed in, my body felt like it was one massive bruise and I felt like I'd slept too long, and badly, on my neck. I shook the ash from my mane and tapped the well of power within me, after a brief moment I opened my eyes and looked into one of the shards of glass that lay near me. No reflection, my invisibility spell had worked. I still couldn't risk translocating so I walked. I had a plan and that always gave me comfort. Even if it was a bad plan or a plan with little to no chance of success.

Which mine certainly was.

“Well that hasn't stopped me so far,” I muttered dryly to myself as I made my way towards the outskirts of Ponyville, the shadow of Canterlot rose in the distance. “There it is, the 'seat of scepter and orb' the tools of kings, queens and...” I lost my train of though for a moment, remembering my beloved teacher, “...and Princesses.” Whatever it was that had ripped into my mind when I'd used the Crown which now sat comfortably in my bags had told me where to go. I hoped I was on to something and not just following the trail of my own insane ramblings spawned from a bad spell-trip.

I sighed, steeling myself for the journey as I stepped past the boundary of my home of the past two years. “Pinkie... I could really use a good laugh right now,” I whispered to my absent friend and headed into the mountains. I had no idea what kind of horrors lurked ahead of me, a good thing too, if I'd known what waited for me in those mountains, what choices I would have to make, I might not have had the courage to go on.

Goddess forgive me.