The Canterlot palace library was normally completely silent in the dead of night – or, more accurately given the time, the dead of morning. However, this particular morning the vast forest of filled bookshelves and empty desks was filled with the frantic scramble of four hooves on the marble floors, the soft hum of magic, and the softer sound of books flying through the air.

Twilight Sparkle began to huff and pant as she dragged herself over to an empty desk and set the legion of books that was floating over her head down on it. The sheer weight of them all made the ornate antique groan slightly, but the young unicorn didn’t much care. She grabbed the first tome and started rapidly skimming through the index for anything useful. She shook her head, set it aside, and went to the next one. When that one turned up nothing, she set it atop the first and grabbed another. Then another. Then another.

It went that way for… she didn’t keep track. Twilight had finally found an article that may have lead somewhere and read over it meticulously. When it too proved fruitless, she let out a frustrated growl and tossed the book at the growing tower of dead ends, causing the whole thing to topple over.

“Twilight?”

The young unicorn turned toward the thick rustic accent to find Applejack on the other side of the collapsed wall of books, looking at her with those emerald eyes of hers full of concern. The rest of her friends were standing behind the cowpony. Rarity looked equally concerned, while Rainbow Dash looked at the young scholar with a look of utter shock. Fluttershy was far behind them, her hooves shaking as she looked around. Pinkie Pie was back to her old self as she hopped over to the mess of texts.

“Aw, your book fort fell down,” Pinkie lamented as she looked at the toppled pile.

“Princess Celestia told us you’d be here; we’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Rarity said.

“Twilight… did you just throw a book?” Rainbow Dash asked in slack-jawed amazement.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she realized what she did. “Oh horsefeathers!” she exclaimed in panic as she used her magic to start reorganizing the scattered texts. “Oh no, oh no, oh no…”

“Twilight, dear, this may seem silly to ask, but are you okay?” Rarity asked as she trotted up and used her own magic to help.

“No, I’m not!” the other unicorn wailed. “Some of these books are older than Princess Celestia and she’ll send me back to Magic Kindergarten if any of them were damaged!”

Applejack sighed. “Twilight, Ah thought we’d been over this: Princess Celestia would never – and Ah mean never – send you back to Magic Kindergarten.”

“Especially since she has a crush on you!” Pinkie Pie chimed in.

A small shock shot up Twilight’s spine, causing her to drop all the books she was levitating. Much to her relief, she was able to catch them again before they hit the floor. Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash all shot Pinkie Pie hard glares that she didn’t seem to notice. “Pinkie, please don’t remind me. I’m still not entirely sure I’m comfortable with that,” she pleaded.

“Oh, okay,” Pinkie Pie said with a salute, completely unfazed. She paused and tilted her head as she fell back on her haunches. “Why, though?”

Twilight groaned a bit as the wall of books began to take shape again. “How about the fact she’s the co-ruler of our entire nation, one of the most powerful mages to ever exist, completely immortal, and, most importantly, over a thousand years older than me?” She tried not to, but she couldn’t help but shout that last part. “She’s like a second mother to me, for crying out loud! She probably knows me better than my real mother! She means more to me than anypony else in the world, just…” She sighed and hung her head low with a soft blush. “I don’t think it’s like that.”

“Dear, I wouldn’t put much stock in what that… thing said,” Rarity assured. “It was probably lying to drive a wedge between you and her. If anypony can solve this riddle it would be the two of you and Princess Luna, and if you’re too nervous to talk to each other then it just might win.”

“But what if he’s not lying? Celestia has been lied about in tabloids all the time; she’s used to untrue rumors and can handle them. If it got her that mad… Nobody was probably telling the truth.” Twilight’s head sunk lower and she looked straight at the floor. “Even if I don’t think about her that way… I don’t think I could stand to break her heart.”

“Aw, sugarcube.” She didn’t see but she certainly heard Applejack trot around the huge stack of books, and then proceeded to feel the cowpony’s forelegs wrap around her in a gentle – for Applejack, anyway – hug. “Just tell her that; Ah’m sure she’ll understand.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Applejack interrupted, holding a hoof to Twilight’s mouth. The cowpony then put that hoof under her chin and forced her to look into her own emerald eyes. “Ah reckon that if Celestia really does love you, she wouldn’t want ya to fake loving her back just to keep her heart from breakin’. Don’t ya think both of you deserve better than that?”

Twilight looked deep into her friend’s eyes before hugging her back, nuzzling her orange neck and blonde mane. “I guess we do. Thanks, Applejack.”

Applejack chuckled and gave her a small pat on the back before she pulled away from the hug. “No problem, sugarcube. What’re friends for but to knock some sense in ya when you need it, right?”

Twilight couldn't help but giggle. "Right."

Rainbow Dash let out a loud yawn. “Sorry to interrupt, but now that we have Twilight, do you all think we could go home now? I’m beyond tired.”

The yawn spread over to Rarity. “Yes, sleep sounds lovely right about now. It’s been a long night and we’re not going to get anything done working like a skeleton crew.”

Twilight yawned as well but shook her head. “Sorry girls, but I’m staying here. The sooner I figure out Nobody’s riddle, the sooner we can all get back to our lives.”

“Told ya that’s why she was here,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Is that why you picked out this?” Rainbow Dash asked as she glided over and picked up one of the books from the stack. She narrowed her eyes of the cover. “‘A Summary of Eldritch Monstrosities for the Open-Minded Summoner’?”

Rarity gasped before glaring at her fellow unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle, while I may not be the magic expert you are, I do know that book is banned! It’s forbidden magic!”

“I know,” Twilight admitted, “that’s why I need to stay here. The Canterlot archives are full of books that are normally kept from the public. One of them may have some information on Nobody. The more I know about Nobody, the more likely it is I can guess why he’s called that. If I’m lucky, maybe the answer is even in here.”

Fluttershy piped up for the first time in the entire conversation; the only reason any of them could hear is that they were in a library. “Um, Twilight, I-I don’t think that’s going to do much good.”

Twilight looked at the quaking pegasus, her eyebrows raised high. “Fluttershy, I don’t know the answer, and I’m definitely not going to just roll over and accept our deaths.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “N-no, I didn’t say you should. It’s just that, well…” She looked around, fear plastered on her face. “He said he was omniscient,” she said in an almost inaudible whisper. “That means he can see and hear everything we do.”

“I know what that means, Flutter-” Twilight paused, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. The implications of what she’d just said hit her like a train. “Oh. Oh no.”

Rarity huffed. “Probably another lie to intimidate us.”

“I-I don’t think so,” Fluttershy stammered as her quaking got worse. “I th-think he’s spying on us right now…!”

“You bet your cute yellow plot I am!”

Fluttershy let out a horrified squeak as the six mares looked up to see Nobody perched atop a bookshelf next to Twilight’s desk. He looked to be in his pony shape, with his legs folded under him as he peered down at them with his featureless face. Fluttershy stammered incoherently as she backed up, her face so red it looked like it was going to pop.

“Aw, you look so adorable when you’re about to faint, Fluttershy,” he cooed down at the young pegasus. “In fact… you’re so cute I could just pinch your little head off.”

Fluttershy’s eyes almost rolled into the back of her head as she flopped over onto her side and lay completely still.

“Fluttershy!” the remaining five yelled almost in unison.

Rarity was the first to be by her side. The young fashionista pressed her ear against the pegasus’ chest. “Her heart’s still beating; she probably just fainted,” Rarity said with a relieved sigh, her friends quickly joining with ones of her own.

“My god, she’s actually cuter when she’s unconscious!” Nobody exclaimed in a tone far too lascivious for Twilight’s liking. She and the rest of her friends shot furious looks at him as he cackled hysterically. He was rolling over on his back with his hooves flailing in the air, choking out between laughs, “The looks on your faces are priceless!”

“Hey, that wasn’t funny, you jerk!” Pinkie Pie yelled up at him, hopping up and down in anger and growling like a rabid dog. “And trust me, I’m an expert on funny!”

Nobody’s hysterics died down to a few snickers as he rolled back over. “Oh come now, it’s not like I killed the poor mare. It’s all in good fun.”

“Fun? Fun?!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew up to the deity. “You think making somepony faint from how scared they are of you and then talking about them like you’re going to rut them that way is funny?!”

“Not exactly in good taste, I admit, but I get my laughs where I can,” he conceded.

“The more and more ya talk, the more and more Ah don’t like ya,” Applejack said, taking a step forward. “You ain’t no better than Discord!”

“Ah, Discord,” Nobody said almost wistfully, “such a brilliant young deity of madness and mayhem. Quite the entertaining fellow, too; knew just how to warp the laws of reality in the most fascinating ways. But please, don’t flatter him by comparing him to me,” he added, his tone getting much flatter. “I’m far older than him and his body count pales in comparison to mine.” If Twilight didn’t know better, she’d almost say he didn’t sound terribly proud of that second fact. Almost.

“Body count?!” Applejack roared.

“Why, yes,” Nobody said as he lazily examined his hoof. “Do you really think this is the first world I’ve done this to? I could give you an exact number, but it would take too long to say out loud. Needless to say, that noblemare earlier was just a single drop in a vast ocean of blood on my hands.” He shrugged as he tucked his leg back under him. “Besides, I’m on a five-world killing spree, and I hope to break my previous record of twenty-six.”

Twilight was stunned into silence. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and most surprisingly Pinkie Pie was too. Rarity, however, was not.

“You… you monster!” Rarity snarled.

“You flatter me; I thought I was beyond the league of any monster in existence,” Nobody said as if he’d been given the greatest compliment ever. “But really, I’m not all that bad. If I were truly bad, I would have used my power to separate matter to, say… skin everyone on this planet alive, watch you all run around in sheer agony for an hour or two, leaving you both pleading for the sweet release of death and begging not to die before I finally tore you apart atom by atom. You’re welcome for me being sane enough to not do that, by the way.”

That was what shut Rarity up, the unicorn just gawping at him with no sound coming out.

“Now, what was I here for…? Oh yes,” Nobody said, turning his head to look at Twilight. “Because I like you a lot – or it may be your plot, or both – I’m going to make things a bit easier for you and tell you this: You’re wasting your time here.”

Twilight managed to snap out of her stupor and shake her head violently. “I’m not about to lie down and let you kill everything, Nobody! I refuse!” she yelled with a stomp of her hoof.

“When did I say anything about giving up?” he asked. “I just said you’re wasting your time here, specifically.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

“Come now, would I lie to you?” he asked in a sickeningly sugary voice.

“If you wanted to.”

“Fair point,” he conceded.

“And if you’re telling the truth, it’s probably because you erased any book with any hints anyway,” she accused.

“Just because my sense of humor may border on the psychopathic does not mean I’m unsporting,” he said defensively. “I would never do anything like that.”

“Sure you wouldn’t,” she mumbled under her breath.

“I wouldn’t,” he said flatly. “Oh, and one last thing before I go: The riddle is why I call myself Nobody. I didn’t get that name from anyone else. If anyone named me, it would probably be The Void, The End of All Things, That Sick Bastard… you know, things like that. For now, good luck!”

Twilight blinked, and Nobody was gone. The six mares were left alone again… though they were all painfully aware that they were still being watched. Except Fluttershy, who was too unconscious to be thinking anything at the moment.

The young scholar narrowed her eyes and trotted back to her seat. “I’m staying here; you go back home, girls.”

“But he said you were wasting your time here,” Pinkie Pie said, her head tilting.

“Pinkie, do you really trust him to be honest with me? I’m probably on the right track and he wants me to try to figure his stupid riddle out myself for his own twisted amusement,” Twilight said as she picked up another book.

“Well, no, I don’t really trust him. He’s a big meanie jerk-face,” Pinkie snarled.

“I’d personally have much stronger words for that beast, but I can’t say any of them in polite company,” Rarity huffed. Her composure was mostly back, but there was still a tinge of fear in her voice.

“But what if he comes back?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew back down to the floor. “There is no way I’m leaving you alone with that thing!”

“Rainbow Dash, that wouldn’t do a lick a’ good and you know it,” Applejack said. “You saw me try to fight ‘im; all my kicks and punches just went right through. Darnit, not even the Princesses could hurt ‘im!”

“But-” Rainbow Dash tried to protest.

“Applejack is right. Besides, if he wanted to kill me – if he wanted to kill any of us – he could have just done it a minute ago. Being a god, he probably could do it right now and there’s nothing we could do to stop him.” Twilight felt like she was just stating fact, but a deafening silence fell over the group as that realization started to fully sink into their brains. Twilight let out a sigh and added, “I don’t know if he’s leading me by a chain only to kill me later, or if he even will really leave us alone if we solve his riddle, but I just have to try. And no offence, girls, but I don’t really think you’re going to be much help here.” She motioned toward the mountain of books she’d gathered.

Applejack furrowed her brow. “Sugarcube, we know how to read. Now why don’t you come clean and tell us the real reason you want us to leave?”

Twilight just looked at her book and waved her hoof, refusing to look the cowpony in the eye. “I’ll handle it. You all get going; there can’t be many trains left running by now.”

Applejack sighed. “Alright, sugarcube. Just… be careful, okay?”

“I’ll try not to get any paper cuts,” she said back flatly.

Slowly but surely Twilight heard the soft clicking of hooves on marble started up as her four friends each gave their farewells and good lucks. Rarity levitated the still unconscious Fluttershy in the air and carried her off. Twilight could see out of the corner of her eye that Applejack had stopped mid-trot and looked back over her shoulder. The farmpony opened her mouth to say something, but shook her head before heading off as well.

As soon as the sound of hoofsteps faded completely into the distance, Twilight said, “I know you’re there, you know.”

“Aw, and I thought I was hiding so well too!”

Twilight glanced over at the pile of books she’d already gone through to see the pony-shaped hole in existence lazing atop them. “I’m a unicorn; I can sense the huge hole you make in the field of magic easily.”

“I know, I know, I was just being facetious,” the deity snickered. “Very noble of you to take the burden of saving the entire planet on your shoulders, by the way. I must wonder, though… why did you?” He brought his hoof against his non-existent chin and started tapping it.

“None of your business,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hoof.

“Oh, I think I can already guess the answer anyway.” He didn’t have a mouth, but she could just feel his manure-eating grin. “You’re not sure you can do it, are you? So just in case, you want your friends to have one last day at home that’s happy and carefree while they let you worry about preventing the apocalypse for once.” He stretched his neck until his head was peering over the top of her book. “Am I right?”

Twilight said nothing. She just kept reading, focusing on her book as it trembled in her magic grip.

“I thought so.”

As before, she blinked and he vanished, this time leaving her completely alone with her books and her thoughts in the confines of the library.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I know what you heard about me at the party this evening, and I know what you must be thinking. You must think that Nobody is lying, that I would never harbor feelings for you, my most faithful student.

I was hoping to confess to you in a much more conventional way and in much better circumstances, but I must be honest with you. I do have a very, very special place in my heart for you, Twilight, one that few ponies that have come before you have ever held. I never would have thought it myself, watching you grow up. I had no idea what a beautiful, brilliant young mare you would turn out to be.

You are the most talented young unicorn I’ve seen in many a century, and I guess it was only natural such a special young mare would grab my attention.

“Too clinical.”

Your sparkling eyes, your flowing mane, your adorable voice; I really get lost in the minutia of… you. Everything about you.

“Too clichéd.”

You have no idea how many nights I’ve lain awake in my bed, wishing that I could get up the courage to tell you that I wanted you there with me.

“Far, far too straightforward.”

Celestia allowed her mask of calm to slip for a second, letting out an irritated growl as she held the unfinished letter aloft with her magic and set it aflame over her wastebasket, letting the pile of ashes inside grow.

“This is a lot harder than it should be,” she mumbled to herself.

“Love is never easy. That, and I imagine the fact that you were alive when her great grandfather wasn’t even a twinkle in her great great grandfather’s eye yet makes things just a smidgeon more awkward.”

Celestia didn’t need to look; she could already feel the hole in the flow of magic behind her. She did anyway, and found Nobody in his pony shape lounging on the railing of the open balcony outside her room.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as coolly as she could manage.

“Oh, just heard you having trouble writing your letter – omniscience has its perks like that – so I thought I would drop by and help,” he said with a sincerity that could only mean trouble. “Here, allow me.”

Celestia’s quill was wrenched out of her magic control as it scribbled hastily along the next roll of parchment.

Dear Twilight Spankle,

You heard what Nobody said tonight; it’s all true. I love you. I lust for you. I know you lust for me too, the way you swing your cute flanks when you’re around me with that come hither stare, you naughty little filly. Meet me in my quarters tonight so I can rut your sweet plot into immortality, you sexy thing y

That was as far as the quill got before Celestia slammed her hoof down atop it so hard it caused a crack in the antique desk. Her face was redder than a rose and hotter than her own sun. Her chest was heaving and her wings were spread wide in sheer rage. Worst of all, the sound of hysterical laughter rang in her ears louder than if she were in the echo chamber of a ringing bell tower.

She swung her head around to see the deity rolling around on the railing on his back, his hooves in the air as he cackled with insane glee.

“The look on your fahace!” he managed to choke out. “Ohohohhh I wish I had a mirror!”

“Get. Out.” Celestia snarled with as much restraint as she could muster.

When Nobody’s hysterics died down to manic giggles, he said, “Sorry Princess, but I can’t exactly do that. I am nothingness; I’m everywhere. Between every atom and molecule, there I am. I’m even inside you, technically. Where exactly would I go?”

She narrowed her eyes and let out a snort of smoke through her nostrils, turning her attention back to her work. “Then at the very least spare me your pestering.”

“Oh yes, I’ll be sure to let you get back to your little romance drama while the clock is counting down to doomsday,” he snarked.

“I’ll get to solving your riddle as soon as I’m finished with this,” she said as she took her hoof off the snapped quill and threw it in the trash before burning Nobody’s heinous draft. She let out a sigh and added, "There is still plenty of time left, and my concentration will suffer if I don't do my part for some closure. If this ends up taking more than another fifteen minutes, I’ll drop it and get to work.”

“She means that much to you, huh?” he asked. “You know, you could always resolve this right now by just sauntering your pasty plot over to the palace library and talking to her.”

The princess paused before saying, “I don’t trust myself to say the right thing face-to-face. I know I’d mess it up somehow. I need to get just the right words.” She picked up another quill and another scroll and tried to think.

“So you’re confessing your love to her by letter when she’s in your house at this very second? Romantic,” he drawled.

“What would you know about romance?” she muttered as her quill tapped against the paper.

“I’m the keeper of forgotten memories. I know more about romance than anyone on this planet or any other. Good romances, bad romances, fleeting romances, lasting romances, straight romances, gay romances, interspecies romances, incestuous romances… the list goes on and on of what memories I have inside my cosmic mind,” Nobody said.

She scoffed. “Oh? Then what, oh god of love, is your opinion on my romantic aspirations?”

“I don’t dispense opinions when I’ve got facts.”

“A wise policy,” she said.

“See,” he continued, “I heard what your faithful little student said about this whole affair to her friends already.” His voice suddenly came from next to her ear as he whispered, “Want to know what her answer will be?”

Celestia paused again as her quill gently tapped against the parchment. She had no idea how long she thought before she finally said, “No. I want to hear it from her; not you.”

“Suit yourself,” he whispered with a giggle. His voice was back out on the balcony when he added, “If the suspense kills you, that’ll save me the trouble.”

“Oh, I look forward to you trying,” she sneered.

“You look forward to me succeeding too, don’t you?”

The alicorn almost felt her heart stop and her blood run cold, all thought coming to a screeching halt.

“It’s a very common thought among immortals,” he continued, his tone suddenly very serious. “You watch everything you know and love turn to dust before you and scatter to the winds time and time again, and sometimes you wish it would just… end. Sometimes you just wish that Death would stop passing over you and wrenching all your friends and loved ones away from you. You wish that Death would take you in its icy grip instead, just so you could stop your heart from breaking over and over and over again. You’ve thought that before… haven’t you?”

There was silence; deafening silence. The only sound was the gentle rustling of the wind as it blew through the palace gardens below.

“Of course I have,” Celestia finally admitted.

“I could give you that, if you want,” Nobody offered. His voice was… different; devoid of mirth or glee. If she didn’t know how monstrous the deity was, she would almost mistake it for understanding and compassion.

The alicorn rose onto all fours and looked directly at Nobody, staring into his eyeless gaze.

“I’m sorry, but I must decline, Nobody. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. I have a responsibility to my nation and everypony in it. They depend on me. They need me.” Her muscles tensed and her gaze hardened. “They need me far more than I will ever need to end my pain.”

“Even if Twilight returns your affections, you know you’ll still have to watch her die, right?” he asked. “Before your very eyes, the one pony you love more than any other in the world will wither, grow old, and die – and that’s if she isn’t tragically torn away from you on one of her more dangerous adventures.”

“It doesn’t matter if she returns my affections or not,” she said, though those words stabbed at her heart to say. “As long as she dies happy… I’m okay with that. As long as she lives happily, it doesn’t matter if she’s with me or somepony else.”

Nobody had no face, but she felt a smile radiating from the mass of nothing that was his body. A genuine one, or so she thought. “I would have been disappointed if you had said anything else, princess.”

Celestia could admit to herself that she was taken aback – she certainly wouldn’t admit to him out loud of that fact – but a question was on her mind that she just couldn’t set down. “What about you, Nobody? Surely as a fellow immortal you understand the desire for companionship. Haven’t you ever had a mortal catch your eye?”

Nobody scoffed. “Romance? Romance isn’t for me. I’m omniscient – that right there puts a dash to any of the mystery of romance, which is half the fun. Nobody can confide any of their secrets in me; I already know them.” He shook his head. “Let’s say there were some mortal that by some great cosmic joke I had my eye on. What would we even talk about? Things I already know? What could we even do? Things I already have thousands of memories from across the universe of doing? I can’t even find comfort in a lover’s touch since I don’t have a body with those fancy nerve ending things.” He huffed and turned his head to look to the side. “I’m incapable of romance. Frell, I’m incapable of friendship.”

Celestia felt her gaze soften on the deity. “Then I pity you more than any other creature I have ever met.”

“I don’t need you to pity me,” he said with a disdainful wave of his hoof. “I already do that enough myself.”

Celestia didn’t know quite what to say, but she felt a compulsion of what to do. She trotted over to the god and wrapped her wing around him, her face looking into his. For a split second, he did nothing. After that split second, his form collapsed and slithered away to another point on the railing before reforming again.

“You just get back to your letter, you paedophilic, filly-fooling freak,” he said with a much lazier wave of his hoof. “Pray I don’t come back around before the world ends.”

Celestia blinked, and Nobody had vanished. The hole in the flow of magic was gone and she couldn’t detect it anywhere nearby, so he wasn’t hiding. She looked back to her desk with a soft sigh before trotting back over it to finish composing her confession.

The end of the world was coming. It was really going to happen. It was really coming. Come the next midnight, everything and everypony on Equis would just be… gone.

Applejack shook her head. No, Twilight or the Princesses or somepony would solve Nobody’s riddle and everything would go back to normal.

All the same, she couldn’t stop thinking about it as she sleepily trotted down one of the many paths in Sweet Apple Acres. Her house was in sight, but with each step it only made her head buzz harder and harder. What was she going to tell her family? How was she going to tell them? How do she possibly break the news that everypony could possibly be dead by the end of the day? Well, without being an absolute monster like Nobody.

Her gaze turned over to the orchard, the legion of trees she’d taken care of her whole life. The whole reason Ponyville existed to begin with. Three generations of her family had worked and toiled on that farm, the fruits of their labors giving bloom to a whole new town on the edge of the most dangerous forest in Equestria. Sweat, tears, and sometimes blood had been shed to make the place she called home what it was.

And if Nobody had his way, all of it would amount to nothing.

She shook her head violently as if those thoughts were mud spattered on her face. “Don’t think like that,” she muttered to herself. “Nobody wants me nice and scared. Evil varmint is probably watchin’ right now, laughin’ his black behind off as everypony else in Equestria starts panickin’. Well, he ain’t getting that satisfaction from me.”

She expected the dark god to pop up behind her and taunt her about how scared she really was. Though she said out loud that she wasn’t, deep down she couldn’t lie to herself. She was afraid. Afraid that all her friends, all her family, and all the hard work she’d done throughout the years would just turn to dust. She was by far not the most well-read pony, but she’d understood that much about Nobody’s threat: he was going to turn all of them and the entirety of Equis into dust.

Anger burned inside her as the thought crossed her mind that he’d enjoy doing it.

Applejack shook her head again as she stepped up to her own front door. She tried to open it as quietly as she could so as not to wake her family, but she quickly found that pointless as she found Big Macintosh waiting for her. He was stroking Winona as she whined softly at his hooves. The dog’s ears perked up and she rushed over to Applejack, propping her paws up onto the cowpony’s shoulders and covering her face with slobber.

Applejack laughed as she spluttered against her dog’s tongue. “Down girl, down!” she managed to say, the dog quickly obeying before cuddling up to her legs. She stepped inside and looked up to her brother before saying, “What’re you doing up so late, Big Mac? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“Eeyup,” he said simply. “I just wanted to make sure you got back okay.”

Applejack chuckled as she stroked the affectionate Winona at her hooves. “That’s mighty sweet of you, but Ah’m just fine.”

“So I see.” Big Mac paused a second before asking, “How was the party?”

“The party was great,” she lied with great, great difficulty. “Pinkie Pie settled down after a bit and we all had a great time. Rainbow Dash even admitted that she likes mares, which is a long time comin’ if you ask me.” She looked at her brother a bit warily. He was normally difficult to read, but there was a certain… sadness behind his eyes. She couldn’t quite place it. Applejack let out a yawn before adding, “Well, Ah’m mighty tired, so Ah think Ah’m just gonna be hittin’ the hay.”

Applejack walked over to the stairs, her brother’s eyes following her. She was just about to set her hoof down on the first step when he said, “I know what happened tonight.”

Her blood ran cold as she looked back to her older brother. “Wh-whaddya mean?”

“That Nobody fella dropped in and told us what was gonna happen,” the large stallion said. “How the world was endin’ and how you couldn’t stop ‘im. Unless… you did stop ‘im?” Big Mac was never one to show much emotion, but she could definitely hear a hint of hope in his voice.

Which is why it broke her heart all the more when she said with a sigh, “No; we couldn’t. The Elements of Harmony did squat against him.”

“Oh…” he trailed off. “Sorry to hear that.”

The two sat in silence for what felt like eternity before the weight of a single word crashed on Applejack’s head. “Wait… did you just say ‘us’?” Her heart practically stopped. “So Apple Bloom–”

Big Mac shook his head. “She don’t know; fast asleep at the time. Granny Smith does, but she went to bed.”

Applejack released a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “That… that’s good…”

There was another stretch of silence before Big Mac broke it. “So… how are we gonna tell her?”

Applejack’s brow furrowed. She couldn’t help but turn her gaze up the dark stairway. She couldn’t help but think of her little sister, all tucked up in bed, sleeping soundly without a care in the world besides going back to school after the weekend was over.

She couldn’t help but think what would happen to her if on the slim, slim chance that Nobody…

She shook the thought out of her head and finally turned her gaze back to her brother. “We ain’t. As far as Apple Bloom’ll know, tomorrow is just an ordinary day.” She paused and added, “No, better than an ordinary day. You and Ah, we’re gonna treat Apple Bloom to the best darn day ever. Same with all her little Crusader friends.”

Big Mac gave her a small nod. “So… it’s really the end of the world, then?” he asked, his voice grave.

Applejack was silent for a few seconds before saying, “Ah’m sure it ain’t. Ah know it ain’t. Twilight will figure something out; Ah know she will. She’s the smartest mare Ah know, and if there’s a single darn pony in Equestria that can fix this, it’s her.” She started for the stairs again before admitting, “But just in case it is… Ah want it to be the best day of her life.”

Big Mac didn’t say anything behind her as she climbed up the dark stairwell, careful not to wake her sister as she slipped into her own bedroom. Just as she was climbing in bed, Winona slipped into her room, whining. The cowpony smiled and scooted over, letting the dog hop in and cuddle up against her before the pair drifted off to sleep. Next Chapter: Darkness Before Dawn Estimated time remaining: 54 Minutes