Twilight Sparkle awoke in extreme pain. A quick self-diagnosis attributed this pain to several sources: her back (from sleeping on the hard wood floor of her basement), her head (from the magical backlash of the experiment that knocked her out last night) and finally her stomach (it felt like she hadn't eaten in days).

She surveyed the damage from the failed experiment. She cringed as she saw the table she had been using for her research material was in shambles. To the untrained observer it would appear that the table had been struck by lightning, but to her it looked a lot worse.

Her notes were shredded and sporadically burned, the reference books she had off to the side appeared to be scorched as well, but worst of all, the spell book she had been examining and testing was simply gone, lost to the torrent of magical backlash. She would have cried right there, that book was one of only three copies of "Animus's Arcane Animals", and with it gone she would need to travel to Canterlot to examine the one in the royal library if she was to finish her research, if she even could with her notes so thoroughly ruined.

She would have broken down right there, but her hunger pangs were more compelling than her depression.

"Spike!" she yelled up the stairs.

No response.

"Spike, are you awake yet?"

No response once again.

She unhappily rose to her hooves, grimacing at the pain of the endeavor. She made her way to the stairs and began the grand ascent. By the time she reached the top she was even less excited about the next venture of her journey: checking on Spike upstairs.

She made it to their room to be met by the sight of the peacefully sleeping dragon. She wanted to go to bed and have him bring her something to eat, but decided that, despite her pain, it would be unfair (and too difficult) to wake up the baby dragon after forcing him to stay up so late helping her last night. She had only dismissed him when she felt confident she would be ready to perform the test, and he had gone to bed not a second after his dismissal.

Twilight didn't remember the event itself, but she gave credit to the little drake for being able to sleep through the undoubtedly loud magical explosion she had caused only minutes later.

She trudged back downstairs after remembering that even if she woke him up and asked her to cook he wouldn't have anything to cook with; the kitchen was a barren wasteland after the most recent patented Pinkie Pie pantry pirate party.

Off to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast it was then. As she left home the fresh air helped to clear her headache a little, in fact after not too long she was actually feeling alright, other than her stomach.

The longer she walked through the more she noticed the odd looks she was getting. Ever since she became the all-team-organizer she had taken time to make sure she had at least introduced herself to every resident of Ponyville, and since the "want-it-need-it" incident she had taken even more time to reassure those residents she was not a crazed mad-mare. Some residents still gave her sideways glances when they thought she wasn't looking, but that was nothing like the looks she was receiving today. Today the residents of Ponyville were reacting to her the same way they reacted to Zecora at first, with fear, panic, running, and the liberal application of wooden cross-beams to window-frames and doors.

One particularly articulate mare had the calmness and sense of mind to scream "Predator!" at the top of her lungs.

That got Twilight's attention.

Perhaps, she reasoned, it was not her they were looking at but a predator so closely behind her as to elicit such glances. One so close that she should probably run for cover.

Her mind processed that thought in a fraction of a second and her body not a moment longer. She was sprinting at super-pony speed before she realized it, following the overly-articulate mare to the only structure that hadn't become a secure compound in the last thirty seconds: Sugarcube Corner.

The mare ran faster and faster as Twilight caught up, nearly being brushed by the fleeing mare's tail by the time she caught up to her. She expected the mare to hold the door for her, so when the door was unexpectedly slammed on her face she had no way to stop or even slow down. Result: She smashed into the door at full force, knocking it from its hinges and landing on top of it where it fell inside the bakery.

Fear compelled her to her hooves as she surveyed the small crowd that had sought refuge in the bakery. Their faces betrayed absolute fear as those in front began to fight to retreat further into the crowd.

One pony though, came forth from the crowd as they retreated, ready for what was about to happen.

"Puppy!" Pinkie shouted as she grabbed Twilight in a headlock and began to rub her chin.

"Pinkie? What are you doing?"

"Twilight? I didn't know you were going to be a puppy today! You should have told me! I would have prepared a 'Congradulations-on-becoming-a-big-scary-puppy-party'! Really though, we could have saved some panicking time if you would schedule what you are going to be. First it's stone, then it's the old grandpa from the retirement home, then it's an ali-"

Twilight put her hoof over Pinkie's mouth. "Pinkie, I just want to know why you thought I... was... a..." She answered her own question though, because as she looked to her friend, she noticed that it was not her hoof in the pink pony's mouth, but a paw.

"Oh..." was all she managed to say before she passed out on the floor of the bakery.

"Awww, puppy's tired!" Pinkie laughed as she began to reassemble the door with parts she kept around in case of "door emergency".

Author's Notes:

Written in a fit of creativity (madness) after seeing that cover pic. I will be continuing this in short (relatively stand alone) chapters as inspiration hits. Second chapter should be off the presses Soon™ (probably like the end of the week)