Twilight's stomach knotted when she heard the greeting. She instantly recognized the voice.

"Pinkie!"

She was still in her library when she was spoken to. She stood up, frozen in place, and looked around the room. She didn't see anypony, but she knew. She started to tremble, looking around for a hiding spot. She didn't care at the moment if she would have been able to simply duck and cover from who she had been recently suspecting was killing everypony. Just the temporary idea of safety was all she suddenly wanted.

"Spike! Spike! Wake me up!" Twilight yelled.

Pinkie's echoing voice seemed to come from the entire room, "He can't hear you, Twilight. And he can't help you either."

Several books from the shelves came alive, floating off their cubbyholes and into the middle of the room. They spoke with Pinkie's voice and she continued, "I see you figured it out. That doesn't really surprise me. You were always the smart one. And now you have no idea what to do. I love irony, don't you?"

Twilight began to tear up, "Pinkie.. you were our friend. How could you do this?"

"You of all ponies should understand, Twilight. I sat there telling you all how dangerous it was, and you ignored me," the books explained. "Sound familiar? I admit, there were a few times where I didn't listen to you, but in the end, nothing bad ever came of it. Even at your brother's wedding, I didn't believe you. We were lucky though. Plenty of ponies could have been killed, but they weren't. But, it was just the six of us a week ago. There were no games, no end-of-the-world stuff, no letters to the Princess.. "

The largest book met Twilight face to face, "..and everypony's negligence cost me my life," and pulled back into the group.

Twilight hung her head glumly, "You're right, Pinkie. I'm.. I'm so sorry. Everyday, I.. I wish I could take it all back. I wish I- " she perked up. "Wait a minute! Pinkie, please, I think I know how to fix everything. Th-The Starswirl the Bearded wing in Canterlot, remember? The time spell?"

"Right, because that went so well the last time," Pinkie deadpanned. "I don't know why you're so afraid of what you know is coming. All of your friends miss you so. It'd be like a reunion of sorts! We could have a party!"

Four of the books behind the 'leader' cried out together in the voices of her other friends.

"Twilight, help!"

"Get outta here!"

"Wake up, Twilight!"

"You've gotta wake up!"

The books opened their pages wide and the words bled onto the floor, pooling into a singularity, causing Twilight to shrink in terror. Out of the black ooze, Pinkie's body formed and changed into her traditional colors. The books fell lifelessly to the floor. She glared angrily at the horrified unicorn.

"Pinkie.. please.. you're one of my closest friends! I don't want us to fight or anything!"

"Don't worry. We won't," Pinkie said coldly. "Now, come here and give me a hug."

Pinkie's body melted and lunged at Twilight, a few drops of her pink liquid form rubbing onto the unicorn's hoof. She screamed and jumped back, turning and running up the stairs, accidentally knocking over her candle in the process. The book she was reading caught fire and it quickly spread through the wood library.

The ominous ooze followed along a few steps behind her. Twilight reached the top of the stairs and winked away off the balcony and onto a safe spot on the floor, leaving the crawling pink slime halfway up. Dodging fire and coughing from the smoke, she threw open the door and darted outside.

"Aw, is that it? I was hoping for a little more out of you, Twilight!" Pinkie said mockingly.

The lavender unicorn took one last look at her home. It was going up in flames and smoke was becoming visible through the windows. Everything she knew was being destroyed, at least in the dream, just as her old life with her friends had been. She turned and ran as fast as her legs would carry her.

It was nearly pitch black outside. She kept going into the unknown, not caring where she went, as long as it was away from her tormentor. As she galloped away, she tried to think of some way to jolt herself out of the dream and back into the waking world. She came into a small clearing lit by a single, large moonbeam after who knows how long. What could have been ten minutes of running may have passed after only a few seconds to Twilight. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped at what she came across.

Before her in the dirt laid six tombstones in a row. An apple, a diamond, a balloon, a lightning bolt, and a butterfly were carved into five of them. The fourth was blank, but she knew immediately what she was looking at. She slowly backed away a few steps before a towering figure approached from behind the graves in front of her. Her mentor, Princess Celestia stepped into the light. The centuries-old alicorn glared disappointedly at the young mare.

"Princess! Help me, please! Wake me up, get me out of here! Please!" she begged, shaking like a leaf.

Celestia stared silently at the unicorn for a moment, unflinching. Finally, she squinted and spoke, "You have failed me," and slowly leaned in close, her soothing voice merging with Pinkie's, "my faithful student."

She retracted her head and began fading away in front of the panicked unicorn.

"Princess! Wait! Please, no!" Twilight yelled, her voice trembling as she reached out for her teacher, who finished disappearing. Tears rained down her cheeks once she realized that she was alone. She slowly lowered her hoof to the ground and looked at the bare tombstone hopelessly.

An orange leg sprung from the ground and grabbed onto one of Twilight's back legs. A white one grabbed the other. A yellow leg and cyan leg both burst out of the dirt and grabbed onto the terrified unicorn's front legs. Finally, a long, pink leg stretched out in front of her and wrapped itself around her horn.

She started to struggle when she felt her hind legs sinking, but she wouldn't budge from the grips. Her pulse raced and she started to hyperventilate. Her back legs disappeared, and her waist soon followed.

"No! No!"

She tried to blink out of their grip with her magic, but Pinkie's hoof prevented her from doing so. Unicorn's horns were rather sensitive and their magic could be disrupted, after all. Her forelegs and chest slid into the dirt. Her neck slowly submerged and she desperately, futilely stuck her head into the air, grabbing onto one last breath. The soil filled her mouth and her lips vanished from sight.

Shards of a broken plate sat in a pile just outside the kitchen. Twilight laid spread out on the floor in front of the last book she was reading. Spike was standing over the sleeping pony crying, shaking her with what little strength he could muster as her rate of breathing increased with each passing second .

"Twilight! I'm sorry, Twilight! Please wake up! Please! Twilight! Twilight!"

He suddenly gripped his stomach, feeling something wanting to come up. "Oh no! Not now!" He tried to keep it down, but a green burst of flame, along with a letter from the Princess, escaped his mouth. A small bit of the fire brushed against Twilight's shoulder and she screamed out in pain, snapping her eyes open. She grabbed onto her chest, trying to slow her breathing and her pulse.

"Twilight! You're awake!" he yelled in relief, grabbing tightly onto her neck. Twilight slid a hoof between them and gently pushed him off. He was choking her almost as much as the grave was a moment ago in her dream.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, Twilight! You said to make sure you didn't fall asleep, and I made a promise, and I- " She cut him off with a wave of her hoof.

"It's OK, Spike," she managed to squeeze out between breaths. She pulled him back toward her and hugged him gently, finally calming down. "You picked a heck of a good time to wake me. Now that I know what's going on, I wish I wasn't right about what's been happening."

He cocked his brow, his interest piqued, "What do you mean? Was it.. was it really Pinkie? You saw her?"

She nodded heavily, not wanting to believe it either. But, she couldn't deny what she went through. One of her best friends tried to kill her, and it was undeniable that she had gotten to the others. She turned her attention to the scroll laying beside them and smiled. "I'm going to have to thank Princess Celestia too when I see her. What's this letter say, anyway?" She unrolled it with her magic and read the note, welcome surprise overtaking her.

"Well?"

"It says here that she and Luna should be back here sooner than expected. They've foregone any rest in a hurry to get over here as quickly as possible. According to this, they should be back in a few hours at the most." Any fatigue she had went away instantly. Finally, some real help was right around the corner. Once she explained what she saw to her teacher, she hoped an answer to their dilemma wouldn't be far behind. Celestia may be immortal and incredibly wise, but that doesn't guarantee she'd have the solution to everything, and if she didn't, perhaps Luna would have some ideas.

"Spike, do you think you could stay awake the rest of the night until Celestia and Luna arrive?" Twilight asked.

Her assistant thought for a moment, "I should be able to. I'm pretty awake thanks to that nap from earlier."

"Good. I know this is going to sound a little, well, strange, but I'm still exhausted. Now that I know how to wake up in an emergency, I was hoping you could sit by me and, if I look like I'm in trouble again, burn me awake like you did a few minutes ago," she explained. "Once they're here, I'm sure they can probably put some kind of spell on me that will allow me to rest without any kind of worry, if such a spell exists, that is."

The little dragon smiled, "Sure thing, Twilight. I won't even bother to get a snack or anything. I will grab a couple Daring Do books to keep myself up, though. Those are always real page turners!"

Spike went to the bookshelf and pulled out a few of the popular adventure novels and laid himself next to the unicorn. He reached across her body and grabbed the candle for himself. If she was going to be napping until the Princess got there, he may as well keep the light out of her eyes. He opened the first book up and received a kiss from his mother figure for his trouble. His cheeks burned red for a moment and they smiled at each other. A moment later, Twilight was passed out.

Spike was a third of the way into the third book when there was a knock at the door. It could only be the Princesses at that hour. He checked on Twilight, who had fortunately slept undisturbed until then, and opened the door, finding the royal alicorn sisters in front of him. He welcomed them inside, bowing as they entered.

They knelt beside the sleeping unicorn and spoke directly into her ear, hoping for a response. With a startled jolt, Twilight lifted her head and saw the most welcome sight in the world. She leapt at Celestia with every bit of strength she had.

"Celestia! Luna! You're here!" she yelled with tears forming.

"Yes, my student. You're safe now," the Princess said, returning the gesture. She released Twilight, who held onto Luna immediately afterwards.

"Twilight, we're so sorry for everything that's happened to you recently," Luna said. "If there's anything you need, anything at all, just say the word and it shall be done."

The unicorn chuckled quietly, "That letter you sent had some great timing, I'll just say that. If it had arrived any later..well, I probably wouldn't be here right now." Her happiness at seeing her royal friends faded at the thought.

"Then it true, what you said in your last letter? Pinkie has been responsible for your friends' deaths?" Celestia asked.

Twilight hung her head and nodded solemnly, remembering what had been stolen away over the last several days. "She tried to kill me earlier too. Spike accidentally burned my shoulder when you sent your letter. It woke me up. Otherwise.. "

Celestia wrapped her long neck around Twilight comfortingly. "It's OK, my faithful student."

"You.. you mean you believe me?"

"Yes, I do," the alicorn said. "We've all seen and dealt with some unusual things. While I've yet to hear of anypony murdering another from inside their dreams, if you said it's happened, then I'm inclined to believe you. I learned a lesson myself after the Changeling incident."

"How do you propose we approach this, sister?" Luna asked.

Celestia lifted a hoof to her chin, and looked at Twilight. Her student still looked rather tired, given the baggy, bloodshot eyes she had. "Well, first of all, I believe Twilight here would like to get some sleep. We can discuss things in detail once she's better rested."

Twilight yawned in agreeance. It had been a rough night for her, needless to say. "I do think we need to let Private Eye know what's going on. He's the detective who's been looking into the deaths of the others ever since Applejack died. He hadn't been able to find anything, and he didn't believe me when I suggested it was Pinkie Pie. Not that I can blame him. I barely believe it myself, and I just went through it all."

"Then we'll go speak with him first thing in the morning," Celestia insisted. "Now, you and Spike get some rest. I can cast a spell to keep an eye on your sleep patterns."

Almost as soon as Spike had finished getting comfortable beside her, Twilight fell back to sleep.

"I'm sorry if I'm having trouble believing you, Princess Celestia. It just seems.. crazy, I suppose," Private Eye said. "But if you say that what Miss Sparkle said was the truth, then there's little reason for me to doubt her at this point. It's not like you of all ponies would go around making up stories. How did you slip away again, Twilight?"

The Princesses were taken aback a little at Private Eye's disbelief, but considering his position, it was understandable. His job required hard evidence. Suggesting something supernatural was the culprit put him in a precarious position, and he could end up looking as nuts as most of the ponies he brought in if he were to tell his superiors such things.

"Spike here burned me on accident, here in the real world. It hurt like heck and it was enough to shock me awake."

The detective put a hoof to his chin, "Well, I can't exactly report this kind of thing to the papers. They'd probably skew it and make me look crazy, and even if they didn't, we don't need a panic on our hooves."

"It's best that this be kept as quiet as possible," Luna suggested. "Fortunately for you, if something like this were to happen, you could wake yourself up. We're not sure just yet where Pinkie is going to go from here. While she probably still wants Twilight, she may go after others for whatever reason, including you."

"And what would I do to wake myself up if I'm already asleep?" Private Eye asked. "Why didn't your friends wake up when they were being butchered?"

Celestia interjected, "I've read fictional stories where a character kills or injures himself in a dream to make himself wake up. Perhaps the same thing applies here. Since Pinkie was the one performing these acts, it may not have had the same effect. Though we can't be sure if that is the case, it's worth a try if you were to fall victim to one of her traps."

Private Eye shrugged, "I guess. I hope it doesn't come down to it, but we'll see. So, is there anypony else that you can think of that Pinkie may have a reason to go after? I may be able to keep an extra set of eyes on them until we get to the bottom of this."

Twilight, Spike and the Princesses sat in his office for a few hours, going over who they could remember in Ponyville. It was hard coming up with any faults that could drive Pinkie to want to harm any of them. She was friends with everypony in town, but they realized they had to throw that notion out the window. That Pinkie was gone; only this doppelganger was left.

Private Eye, as did the others, hated the idea that he'd just have to wait for anymore bodies to show up at his door as time went on. He volunteered himself to do some undercover work with Gumshoe, who'd probably need a bit of convincing as well, while they searched on their end for any answers on how to deal with the ghostly menace.

He planned to follow those who were closest to Pinkie for a few days and determine if there was any reason for Pinkie to want to attack them. If they could be in danger, they'd assign some guards to watch them covertly. If they seemed OK, he'd move onto the next pony, and so forth. It was about all they could do at the time until a better plan came along.

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, detective." Celestia said with a smile.

"No, thank you, your highness," he said with a bow. "I hope I can help you put this to bed, so to speak. I'll let you know if I find anything through Spike here. If that's OK with you, squirt."

The dragon smiled, happy to be able to lend a claw against the monster who took Rarity away, "Of course, whatever you need. Twilight?"

"It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep in touch while we all work on this. Stay with Private Eye and do what he needs of you, Spike. I'll come to get you when this is all done," the unicorn said. They hugged each other goodbye, silently hoping they'd see each other again as soon as possible.

After the Princesses and Twilight departed the police station, Celestia turned to Luna, "Little sister, I'd like you to oversee the rising of the sun and moon until further notice, as well as any royal business in Canterlot. There's a place I have to go that may help us. Twilight, I'd like you to accompany me."

"Of course, big sister. I'll begin right away." The dark alicorn hugged Twilight with a smile, "Good luck, little one," and flew off toward to royal city.

"Where are we going, Princess?"

She sighed heavily and sneered ever so slightly, "To a place I had wished to never return to to speak with a.. thing I had wished to never see again. But unfortunately, it's the first place that came to mind to search for an answer. I must warn you now, however. This will be a place unlike anything you've ever seen, and probably ever will see."

"Wh-what kind of place is that?" Twilight cringed.

"Where evil eventually goes."