It had been two days since the appearance of the purple tear in the skies above Ponyville. The initial panic had somewhat subsided and everypony had gone back to their jobs, still carrying worried looks upon their faces whenever they looked skyward. The foals, both physical and metaphorical, spread rumour of the return of Nightmare Moon and the older ponies had no way to dispute their ideas.

The pegasi had begun to investigate the properties of the gaping hole in their normal blue skies. The winged ponies took it as a problem within their domain, as masters of the skies. Several flight teams had been sent to obtain any information they could, even merely an accurate physical description, but most of the ponies could discover nothing about the crack in the world.

The strange phenomenon had also drawn the attention of the top scientific minds in Equestria to the tiny hamlet of Ponyville. Preliminary reports and news articles had started calling it “The Rift” and insisting that it was something of unparalleled danger to all of Equestria. Even the Royal Sisters had begun arranging a trip to Ponyville to inspect the enigmatic purple tear.

Twilight Sparkle had dismissed those claims at the moment, as if The Rift had planned to bring devastation to their land, it had made two errors already.

1) It had appeared over the smallest and least influential town in Equestria. If one were to attempt to truly wound Equestria, Canterlot or even Manehatten would be a more suitable location.

2) The Rift hadn't done anything yet to the residents of Ponyville.

She was pouring over books, nearly emptying the vast resources of her library-slash-home to find any mention of similar events throughout the history of Equestria. The Element of Magic had even fallen back upon the extensive works of conspiracy theorists, hoping to glean some information about the looming purple anomaly. However, there were no references to a similar event or even one of this suddenness and scale.

As she turned a page of 'Are We Alone: What They Don't Want You To Know', rubbing the tiredness from her eyes with a weary hoof. Spike came up the stairs. “Um Twilight?” His words were tentative and he was twiddling his fingers as he spoke. “There's something you should see.” She stood upon all fours again, glad at the opportunity to stretch her legs. Following the baby dragon, Twilight found herself in the middle of a rainstorm. However, the storm was not comprised of the liquid droplets to which the residents of Ponyville were accustomed, but rather socks.

“What.” Twilight could not believe her eyes. By the dozen, socks were falling down upon the baffled residents to Ponyville. This was less explainable than even Pinkie Sense, which seemed to have some basis in the establish rules of their world. This was just...impossible.

She trotted through the streets, Spike upon her back, attempting to find her friends. A sock landed on her from time to time, slowly making the mare look like a walking puppet show. Luckily, she came across the familiar building of Sugar Cube Corner. Dashing into the confectionery establishment, both to seek shelter from the rain and to find one of the ponies she knew would possibly have some strange explanation for the sock rain, Twilight tumbled into Pinkie Pie.

“Pinke! Thank goodness that you're okay.” She wrapped her hooves around the slightly smaller pink mare, taking comfort in the familiarity of her friend. This completely nonsensical event had shaken the unicorn considerably and an understanding hoof was what she needed.

“Of course I'm okay,” Pinkie said, blinking slightly in confusion. “Why wouldn't I be?”

“It's raining socks. Socks, Pinkie. Isn't that a bit odd, even by your standards?” Twilight stepped back from her hyperactive friend, shaking a sock from her left ear.

“According to the fandom, not in the slightest,” Pinkie gave one of her trademark grins and an answer that Twilight figured only made sense in the earth pony's mind.

It was then that Rarity trotted down the stairs to the left of the two conversing mares. “Ah, Twilight dear, I see that you've made your way here as well. I assume you find this turn of events quite shocking?”

“Not at all, in fact, it rains socks every Tuesday. Why would I find the weird?” Twilight sighed, her sarcasm clear in her stressed voice.

“Wait, it rains socks every Tuesday?” Pinkie's question made it clear that the purple pony's sarcasm had clearly not been not universally comprehended.

“Pinkie Pie, Twilight is a bit stressed out at the moment. She was being sarcastic. Though I must say, I do applaud the socks for at least being colour coordinated,” Rarity then continued on her path, muttering something about new styles for her next line of dresses.

“'A bit stressed out'?” Spike repeated Rarity's words, a slight adoring tone in his voice despite his incredulity. “Twilight nearly filed 'The Amazing Agenda of Acceptable Academic Admiration' under 'W'. I'd say she's a bit more than stressed out than even somepony as beautiful as Rarity can pick up on.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and trotted upstairs, greeted by the faces of her other three friends. Rainbow Dash was telling some story to Fluttershy, who periodically released the tiniest of 'ooh's at the aspiring Wonderbolt's tale. Applejack listened with a disbelieving expression, certain that Rainbow was stretching the truth at least a bit.

“And then - BAM! I saw this weird looking creature from inside The Rift. It didn't even have hooves and only had a tiny tuft of fur on its head. Somepony as awesome and fearless as myself wasn't about to let some bald weirdo mess with Ponyville, so I got ready to fly up there with as much coolness as possible and give that thing a piece of my mind, when the whole scout team got covered in socks.” The blue pegasus was making dramatic poses and gestures as she spoke and the sight of it was so typical that the Princess' personal student couldn't help but feel the alleviation of some of her stress.

“RD, I don't imagine I'd believe ya under any other circumstance, but I gotta admit this whole thing's only a few nuts away from peanut butter,” Applejack said. The four other ponies stopped and looked confused, forcing the Applebucker to explain. “This whole thing is crazy, so Rainbow's story here ain't too unbelievable.”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie asked a question. “What in the world are we doing up here? We have socks to wear! They're so fuzzy and warm and apparently they're a great way to end up in the Drawfriend. I can't believe we've never had socks before! I mean, I put on this one sock and then I thought 'Woah! This is even better than that one time Twilight came to Ponyville and I was like gasp and ran off!' And...” The other ponies just let the excitable pink mare bounce around with her excited, if slightly disjointed words going unheeded.

Twilight had to admit, they did make the pony considerably cuter, even if they were a strange sight. “Uh...everypony, I think you ought to see this.” AJ stood by the window, looking out with shock on her face.

“Oh, c'mon Applejack, what could be stranger than Pinkie in – Woah!” Rainbow stopped in her tracks, an identical expression to Applejack's appearing on the peagsus' face. Twilight trotted briskly to the window, staring out at the town below.

It seemed like an ordinary day in the Ponyville Marketplace, with ponies going about their business, with the occasional worried glance toward The Rift. Young colts and fillies cantered through the streets, calling to their fellows and racing one another. However, Twilight's eyes finally caught the huge line of ponies stretching from the entrance to 'Hoofwear Heaven' all the way to the edge of the Sugar Cube Corner, straight across the entire marketplace.

“Come on girls, let's see what this is all about,” Twilight announced, taking charge both figuratively and literally as she led her friends outside.

“I'm not sure what they're all so worked up about. Not even Hoofwear Heaven could be having such an amazing sale as to draw this many customers,” Rarity remarked, picking her way through the socks that lay upon the paved road.

Seeing a dark purple earth pony standing nearby in the line, Fluttershy was the one to first attempt to enquire about the line. “Um...hello there. Could you tell us what everypony is doing lined up like this? I mean...only if you want to...”

Rainbow Dash sighed and took over the communication duties. “Hey, Berry. What's everypony doing in this line?”

Berry Punch turned to face the six friends. “Didn't you hear? Hoofwear Heaven is selling...socks!” Despite the oddly constant slur that Berry had in her voice, the word 'socks' had such an odd reverance about it.

“And what, may I ask, is so important about socks? Everypony knows that it's boots that are the style this season, not these woollen oddities.” Rarity picked up one of the more hideous socks as she spoke, tossing it away with some disgust.

At the unicorn's words, every single pony in the line fixed their eyes upon Rarity. As one, they hissed back. “Socks are the most wonderful piece of clothing ever. You will obey the power of the mighty Sock.”

Pinkie Pie suddenly spoke up, “See Twilight? I told you that it makes the fandom so excited to see socks. I've never seen them so insistant before.” The pink pony had a slightly confused look, but Twilight just ignored the mare, as they had a much bigger problem on their hooves.

The crowd was slowly turning toward the six, a dangerous light in their eyes. Simultaneously, they retreated quickly, but the advancing horde doubled their efforts. Fluttershy was nearly a mess, with a similarly worried Rarity had a hoof around the pegasus. They were trapped in the alley between two restaurants, with the only escape blocked by the sock zombies. Twilight noticed that they all wore socks, even some of her friends had started to turn with anger in their eyes toward the purple pony.

“Twilight,” Spike said, his voice quivering at the sight of the malicious ponies.

“Not now, Spike, I'm trying to think.” It was only Twilight and Pinkie Pie left, facing the anger of nearly all of Ponyville. The unicorn was too panicked to remember her ability to teleport, just managing to back herself against the back wall of the alley.

Just as Twilight had given up, resigned to her fate as a sock zombie (though most of her mind was insisting upon the absurdity of it all and blocking out the evidence to the contrary), Pinkie said perhaps the oddest thing in the history of Equestria. “SWEATERS!”

The advancing ponies stopped, looking curiously toward the earth pony. The light of madness in their eyes faded, Twilight watching in amazement at the effects of one word on the horde. Pinkie Pie grinned, knowing that somehow whatever she had done had worked.

---

After the cleanup and ending of the sock rain, Twilight and Pinkie sat together in the Ponyville Medical Office. Nurse Red Heart had insisted that they stay there until they could assess their mental states after what had occurred.

“Pinkie, how did you know that 'sweaters' of all things would stop them?” Twilight had been considering this during their entire stay under the surveillance of the nurse.

“Easy-peasy, Twilight. One meme that is replaced by another. I think they won't go quite as coo coo for cocoa puffs as before, but Rarity's gonna need to start stocking sweaters stat.” Twilight shook her head, marvelling at the strangeness of her friend.

“Well, whatever you did, thanks. You save us both back there.”

“I know,” Pinkie had another grin on her muzzle, bouncing over to the window.

It was then that Twilight considered two things that might shed some light on their current situation.

1) Pinkie somehow could counteract the effects of The Rift.

2)These antics seemed depressingly familiar.

She trotted out into the waiting room, where Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack had sat after being released from their own diagnostic period. “Girls, we're going back to Canterlot. The Canterlot Sculpture Gardens, to be exact. We have a draconequus to interrogate.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Troll Off! Estimated time remaining: 13 Minutes