> Spiritus Malum
>  by Salted Pingas
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> All's well that ends well
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was nearing the horizon, foretelling the night and the inevitable coming of the moon. Three great explorers trekked across the great plains of Equestria; their journey was an arduous one, fraught with grave danger, but their adventurous souls and trusty pack mule helped them continue through thick and thin. Nothing would stop them on their great adventure! Be it dragon or manticore, nothing could halt their progress!

“Okay,” Applejack said, stopping and wiping some sweat from her brow, “We’re here.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, being yanked from their imaginations, came back down to Equestria as they turned to their trusty ‘pack mule,’ who began to undo the straps on her pack.

Summer was in bloom and school was out for another big break. That said, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had much more time for crusading. After a whole week of doing nothing but lazing around and being bored half to death, Applejack had happened upon the three young fillies and proposed a camping trip.

The troublesome trio had shown their appreciation by almost blowing out the elder pony’s eardrums with a cry of, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: CAMPERS!” and it was settled.

The group of four had hiked through the rolling plains that bordered Sweet Apple Acres, away from the hubbub and conveniences of Ponyville. They hadn’t gone too far, a mere two hours trot as this was the first time the three little fillies had been camping. Applejack wanted to take baby steps with how far out she brought them, just to be safe nothing bad happened.

“More lik:e when somethin' bad happens,” Applejack mused to herself as she remembered just who she was taking camping.

The three little fillies, being three little fillies, immediately began planning what they were going to do. The two day trip would be full of adventurous hikes, exploring, campfire songs, roasting marshmallows, and s'mores. The Cutie Mark Crusaders couldn’t wait to begin!

“Maybe we’ll find a lost temple!” Scootaloo exclaimed, wings buzzing with joy, “Just like in those Daring Do books, Rainbow Dash reads!”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom chimed in with glee, “Maybe it’d be full of treasure!”

“Maybe,” Sweetie Belle commented thoughtfully tapping a hoof against her chin. While she was doubtful, maybe they could be...

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: TREASURE HUNTERS!” The trio cried with the power of CAPSLOCK as they reached the same idea at once.

“How 'bout ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders: help Applejack set up camp?’” Applejack suggested with a hint of annoyance, “Come’n get yer cots and sleepin' bags, you three. I sure as sugar ain’t doin' all the campin' work here, 'specially if you three want a Cutie Mark for it,” Applejack pulled four sleeping bags from the large pack she had carried as well as four folding cots. She placed these on the ground and got to work on her own.

For a more authentic trip, they were sleeping under the stars. It would be just as Applejack had done in her own childhood. She was lost in her memories for a few moments before realizing that the three younglings had no idea how to set up a folding cot.

She turned around and gave a sigh of relief when she saw that the three hadn’t caused some horrendous accident with the cots...yet. She made sure to show them how to get the cots unfolded the right way and got them set up properly.

“Can we make the fire?” Scootaloo asked, wondering what a firestarting Cutie Mark would look like.

Applejack gave that a thought before opening her mouth to give the negative. Yet before she could utter the simple two letter word, she was met with the big-eyed pleading faces of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who foresaw her answer. One big-eyed face of an adorable filly, Applejack could say no to, but three?

“You can help,” she conceded with a sigh, getting a ‘yay’ from the fillies.

It took some time, but eventually they gathered enough firewood and kindling for the fire. Applejack showed the fillies how to properly set up a wooden teepee. Kindling at the bottom with some smaller sticks, then some of the larger ones in a teepee above.

“Now, to light it up,” Applejack turned back to the pack lying on the ground to get some matches to light the fire. She rummaged through the pack, but to no avail, “Where are those darned matches?” she asked nopony in particular. 

It was then that a creeping feeling tingled up her spine. She looked over her shoulder to see Apple Bloom holding the box of matches and Sweetie Belle poised to strike one on the box. Applejack gave a sigh of relief that the fillies hadn’t gone and...wait, was that the can of kerosene next to Scootaloo?

“Wait!” Applejack cried out as she wheeled about, too late.

Sweetie Belle struck the match and flicked it into the teepee that Scootaloo had been so kind as to cover in kerosene. The teepee burst into flame, sending the fillies stumbling away from the intense heat with screams. Small sparks showered off, landing in the grass. Applejack was quick to stomp out any of the sparks that didn’t die on impact. A few of the sparks landed on their gear, leaving small burns. To her horror, a few even landed on Applejack’s hat, but none of them caused it to burst into flame, so there was one upside to the situation.

“Dangit, you three!” Applejack cried angrily, “I told you not to do anythin' without my permission!”

“We’re sorry, Applejack,” the Cutie Mark Crusaders apologized sadly, eyes downcast.

Applejack knew that the fillies were only trying to help, but they had literally gone behind her back and turned the fire into a raging inferno. She sighed, “Why don’t you three go play around for a bit, just don’t go too far. We can’t use this fire in this state, so just head back to camp in an hour or so, okay? I need to keep an eye on the fire and make sure it doesn’t get too out of control.”

The three fillies ran off to play as Applejack set down to keep watch over the fire.
______________________________________________________________________________

The three great adventurers had charged bravely up a great mountain of dirt and grass to get a vantage point on the surrounding area. They scanned over the vast lands, searching for danger and treasure galore. It just so happened that they spotted the ancient ruins of a lost civilization.

They threw caution to the wind as...

“Didn’t my sister say not to go too far from camp?” Apple Bloom asked, halting the group in its tracks.

“We aren’t going too far, besides we can take care of ourselves!” Scootaloo replied, getting the group back on track.

“Besides, how are we supposed to get our Cutie Marks if we don’t explore those ruins?” Sweetie Belle added with a squeak.

They charged the rest of the way to the ancient ruins, an old well made of stone and rotting wood. A few wooden planks ran over the top, sealing off the well.

“Wow, what is it?” Scootaloo asked in awe.

“Maybe it’s a secret entrance to a cave!” Apple Bloom guessed.

“No, it’s just an old well,” Sweetie Belle buzzkilled, she hopped atop the well, the wooden boards covering it creaking in response.

“Well what’s an old well doin' just sittin' out in the middle of nowhere?” Apple Bloom asked, joining her unicorn friend.

“Who cares, we should claim it in the name of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Scootaloo declared, hopping atop the boards with her friends. She cleared her voice, pressing a forehoof to her chest in a noble manner, “I hereby claim this old well in the name of the Cutie Mark Crusade—” But it seemed that the well had other plans, the boards atop it broke and the three screaming fillies were swallowed by its dark depths.
______________________________________________________________________________

They only fell for a mere second, landing with three splats in a thick, goopy substance at the bottom. A foul smell came off the muck.

“Eew, what is this?” Scootaloo asked in the semi-darkness. She lifted a hoof in front of her face and stuck out her tongue in disgust.

“Just mud,” Apple Bloom said, lifting her hooves to see how thick the stuff was, “I think.”

“Shouldn’t we be trying to find a way out of here?” Sweetie Belle chimed in, staring up into the glowing circle that was the well’s opening.

“Maybe my sister will hear us,” Apple Bloom suggested, looking up towards the light.

The three filled the air with cries for help, screaming Applejack's name at the top of their lungs. Yet as the light from the well’s opening began to slowly fade, so did their hope for escape. Their voices were rough and hoarse by the time they stopped, and it seemed that despite their best efforts, the farmer pony hadn’t heard their cries for help.

“It’s no use,” Apple Bloom croaked sadly, “We aren’t loud enough.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Applejack will come looking for us eventually,” Scootaloo said, pasuing for a moment, “I hope.”

The last two words sowed seeds of fear and despair in the pony’s hearts. What if Applejack never came by? What if she missed the well? What if...something in the well got them?

At the last thought, the shadows that painted the walls began to take grotesque shape—in the filly’s minds at least—and become monsters ready to leap out and eat them at any moment. The three fillies huddled together closer in the center of the well as the light provided began to fade bit by bit.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked around the well with fright, their eyes had adjusted by now and with their glances, they came across something.

“Is...is that a tunnel there?” Apple Bloom pointed to one of the walls that seemed darker than the others, “Sweetie Belle, can you use your magic to cast a bit of light?”

“I...” a gulp of fear, “...can try,” Sweetie Belle squeezed her eyes shut and focused on using her magic to form some light. After a few moments, her horn began to glow as it lit the well’s interior, showing that there was in fact a tunnel leading off to the side.

“Maybe there’s an exit this way!” Scootaloo exclaimed, spirit lightening again.

“I dunno. My sister told me to hug a tree if I ever got lost, that way she could find me easier,” Apple Bloom said doubtfully.

“Apple Bloom, we’re at the bottom of a well! There’s no trees here,” Sweetie Belle reasoned, “Come on, maybe this is the way out.”

Apple Bloom was faced with indecision. She could stay put and hope for rescue or go with them and try to find the way out. When the light from Sweetie Belle’s horn left the well in darkness again, Apple Bloom made up her mind and charged after her friends, “Wait fer me!” She called.
______________________________________________________________________________

The presence of fear emanating from the three fillies radiated outwards into the depths of the well, like the smell of fresh bread baking. Deep within the tunnel, the fear essence was felt by a small marble sphere, or—to be more precise—the creatures trapped within the marble sphere.

Enchantments millennia old had begun to fade and the presence of fear and doubt provided by the well’s new occupants provided the final push. The binding enchantments broke and the creatures within awoke once more.

The creatures were tired beyond belief, one of the two going back into a slumber. The second creature, the more powerful of the two, felt the presence of life nearby. The fear coming off them was tantalizing, and the promise of it would have made the creature lick its lips if it possessed any.

The creature was oh so tired, but it had just enough energy to use its powers and feast once more. Once it did that, it could gather more energy and awaken the other.

Then? That didn’t matter. All that mattered was now. The creature was reminded of the three younglings slowly making their way down the tunnel. It had evil to spread.
> The art of fear
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, under the light of Sweetie Belle’s horn, splattered through the mucky terrain underhoof. The walls of the cave were made of stone and coated with slime that reflected the light from the unicorn filly’s horn.

“Do y’all even know where we’re goin'?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Of course,” Sweetie Belle replied matter-of-factly. She gestured forwards with a hoof, muck clinging to it, “We’re going this way.”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.

“Wait,” Scootaloo said, halting in her tracks. Her ears perked up, “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Shh, listen!”

Silence fell upon the tunnel and its occupants. The trio remained quiet and listened.

“I don’t...”

“Shh,” Scootaloo quieted Sweetie Belle.

The silence of the tunnel was almost thick enough to cut with a knife. Fear started to enclose the three filly’s hearts as they strained their ears. They heard nothing, the light glow of Sweetie Belle's magic only providing the bare minimum of light.

“RAWR!” Scootaloo yelled out, hopping into the air for emphasis.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle screamed in fright, grabbing hold of each other in fear. Scootaloo leaned against the slimy wall, laughing.

“Scootaloo!” The two growled angrily and separated. Sweetie Belle’s magic had failed and she quickly brought it back into effect, the tunnel being blessed with light again.

The young pegasus quickly realized that she was leaning on the slimy wall and supported herself with her legs, “Rainbow Dash said that pranking ponies was awesome and I couldn’t help but try it out! You should have seen the looks on your faces!”

Now that their bloodstreams weren’t full of adrenaline, the two other fillies did suppose that it was pretty funny and the troublesome trio had a little laugh.

Until something screamed and the fillies were brought back to their current situation.

“Wha...what was that?” Scootaloo asked, as frightened as the other two.

Silence fell over the tunnel again and Sweetie Belle threw a glance at Scootaloo. The pegasus looked frightened as they were. Whatever it was, this wasn’t another prank.

The trio stood still in silence, straining their ears for some form of sound. A blanket of fear fell over them once more as they stared into the unknown blackness.
______________________________________________________________________________

The fear essence that was filling the cave felt like a rejuvenating cup of coffee to the creature within the marble prison. It soaked up the fear that the fillies were giving out, but it knew—no not it, she knew that she needed more!

“We cannot fully survive on fear essence,” The second creature warned, its voice subdued and weak with fatigue.

Had she been a physical manifestation, the female would have looked back over her shoulder at him.

“We cannot drag deception or the other essences from these three in this state, we must push forth on fear until we may escape this prison and roam the land in a physical form again!” she snapped.

Still tired, the male didn’t respond.

The female dug into the draining confines of her deception reserves and drew forth more to scare the fillies. Had she a mouth, a smile would have crept across it.
______________________________________________________________________________

“H...hello?” Apple Bloom called into the dark in a frightened voice. Her cry was quieter than she had planned, but still echoed down the tunnel.

“Apple Bloom! What are you doing?” Sweetie Belle whispered, covering her friend’s mouth.

“The pony who screamed might know the way out,” Apple Bloom replied after removing her friend’s hoof from her face.

An unholy roar came from further down the tunnel, the way that they had come. It was faint, but very much audible and the three fillies froze up in fear. Their hearts raced in their chests, none of them were brave enough to dare ask aloud what that might have been.

On an unspoken word, the Cutie Mark Crusaders slowly began to trot backwards. Their straining ears, fueled by the fear in their bodies, began to hear things that weren’t there. The fillies stared into the darkness, hoping that nothing would come out of it and swallow them up.

There was a splatter of mud about ten yards in front of them. Then another...and another...and another. 

There was something coming their way, something coming down the dark tunnel towards them. The fillies continued backwards, their hearts pounding in their chests and their breath coming out in sharp gasps as the thing in the darkness came closer and closer. Scootaloo wet herself.

It was a spark of bravery in Apple Bloom’s heart that finally allowed her to think clearly and she realized something.

“Sw-Sweetie Belle,” she whispered, barely loud enough to be heard, “Ah think that thing i-is comin after that light. S-stop cast-ting that spell and hug the wall.”

Sweetie Belle, too frightened to argue with Apple Bloom, did as she was told. The tunnel descended into darkness and the three fillies hugged the slimy wall.

Ever so slowly, the splatter of hoofsteps came closer and closer. They halted when the creature would have been right in front of the fillies and whatever it was, it made a low growling noise. The three fillies were on the verge of screaming and simply losing it out of complete and utter terror.

After a few more moments, the creature began down the tunnel once more, splattering slowly through the mud. The Cutie Mark Crusaders hardly breathed as the sounds eventually faded into nothingness.
______________________________________________________________________________

“Why did we make that...thing continue on its way?” The male asked.

“Fool, our reserves of deception essence are already low. We cannot create physical manifestations. That was simply a trick of sound no more capable of harm than a whisper,” The female replied, grouchy, “Besides, the filthy earth pony seems to radiate a sort of intelligence that might figure out our ploy if pushed in the right direction.”

The male gave a mental shrug of acceptance, he was still very tired.

“Sleep now, we shall gather our energy and soon retake our physical form. Then we may spread our signature upon Equestria once more!”
______________________________________________________________________________

The darkness began playing tricks on their eyes again and the silence was filled with noises that weren’t there. However, it just so happened that one noise really was there.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders! Y’all down there?” A voice echoed down the tunnel.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, despite the darkness, exchanged glances before looking back down the tunnel. Though it was far away, they saw a beam of light poking down from what was likely the opening in the well.

“Applejack!” They all cried out, galloping down the mucky tunnel.
______________________________________________________________________________

By the time the sun had gone down without a sign of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Applejack realized that something was wrong. 

She had grabbed a flashlight headband and flicked on the light as she strapped it to her hat.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders!” She called out, playing the light over the surrounding area.

She charged up a hill for a better vantage point. Looking around from her spot, the rolling plains were shrouded in darkness and the flashlight had a very little effect on it. After a few swings of Applejack’s head, the flashlight played upon something in the distance. Applejack focused on the object, but her light couldn’t reach it enough to make it out from here.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders!” She called again, perking up her ears and listening for a reply.

When none came, she raced down the hill to the object. When she got closer, Applejack realized what it was: an old well.
______________________________________________________________________________

Their fear of the creature gone, the Cutie Mark Crusaders galloped down the tunnel towards the sound of Applejack’s voice.

“Applejack!” they cried out together.

They slid to a stop as the tunnel gave way to the well. A bright light shone down from the entrance of the well, blinding their sensitive eyes.

“How’d y’all get down there?” Applejack asked from the opening above, “Nevermind! I’m gettin y’all out!”

“Hurry!” called up Scootaloo, “There’s a monster in here!”

Applejack opened her mouth to ask about this ‘monster,’ but decided that it could and should wait for later. Now was the time for rescue, questioning the three could wait.

Applejack thought about how to get the fillies out, her mind wandered back to camp and happened upon the rope she had brought along.

“Y’all stay right here, I’m goin' back to camp to get some rope. Stay put!” Applejack wheeled around and shot back towards camp. She dug into her pack and retrieved the rope, praying that it was long enough to reach all the way down.

Applejack made her way back to the well and looked for something to tie the rope against. There was a single wooden post from the pulley system that once lay over the well, but it was rotting and looked too flimsy.

What else was there? The farmer thought quickly, if there really was a monster or wild animal down there then time was of the essence.

Could she bear the weight?

“Applejack?” Apple Bloom called up, "th-that you?"

The frightened sound of her sister’s voice set Applejack’s mind, she had to do this!

“I’m gonna throw a rope down, y’all grab on and I’ll see about pullin' ya'll up, okay?” Applejack called down, not bothering to listen for a reply as she got to work.

With her knot tying skills, Applejack fastened a makeshift bit on one end and clamped her teeth around it before tossing the other end down the well.

“Let me know when y’all are ready!” Applejack called over her shoulder towards the well.

There was a moment of silence, “We’re ready!” the three yelled out.

Applejack focused on the darkness in front of her and began pulling with all her might. She had never been the one to plow the fields before planting, but she had made sure to learn in case Big Mac had another accident. That fact combined with the fact that the Cutie Mark Crusaders weighed less than a plow meant that she could do this!

Applejack made slow but steady progress, hoof by hoof bringing the Cutie Mark Crusaders to safety. The cool night air helped to cool her off as she strained, she made a note to herself to consider having Apple Bloom get more exercise after this, the little filly was getting heavy. She might also have Rarity and whoever Scootaloo’s legal guardians were do the same for their charges.

Come to think of it though, Applejack didn’t remember meeting whoever took care for Scootaloo, she made a mental note to—

Her thoughts were blown away as the rope went slack and Applejack toppled forwards, faceplanting into the soft dirt and grass. Fear filled her as she realized the implications of what had just happened. Had the fillies fallen off? Had the rope snapped? Had...

She felt two hooves wrap around her side, “We were so scared, Applejack!” Apple Bloom cried.

Had her mouth not been full of dirt, Applejack would have breathed a sigh of relief. As it was, she spit out the gunk and turned to give her sister a hug back, making sure that the other two had made it as well. They had.

“Let’s get back to camp, what’s this talk of monsters about?”
> Memories unbidden to the mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to the accident, the camping trip was cut short and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were still Cutie Markless after another grand adventure. Something that they had come to suspect deep down inside.

Applejack reported the well to Mayor Mare, who sent some ponies down to check it out. The well presented a safety hazard, especially if there was a monster within it.

The search team had returned with news two days later. They found no sign of the monster, or anything alive at all. The tunnel led off in one direction before meeting what appeared to be an old cave in.

During the exploration, they happened upon a strange marble sphere at the end of the tunnel. They took it out with them after their visit for further study. Upon said further study, it was found that the sphere was magical in some sort of way, there were a few weakened enchantments on it.

Seeing that she was the best of the best when it came to magic, the sphere was given to Twilight for further study.
______________________________________________________________________________

“But we can’t have made it up!” Apple Bloom retorted.

“Apple Bloom, sweetie, the ponies who went down there didn’t find any monsters. It was dark down there and the three of you must have had a very frightening experience,” Rarity explained, “You three have very active imaginations and you only thought that you heard something down there.”

“But...”

“I’m certain that it seemed very real for the three of you, but they didn’t find any monsters. I’m sure that the three of you are very tired. Time for the three of you to go to sleep.” 

“Can’t we stay up a little bit longer?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“It is way past your bedtimes already. They don’t call it a ‘sleepover’ for nothing.”

“Fine...” Replied the annoyed little pony as she and her friends poutily trotted off to bed. 

“Nothing of our deception suspected,” the female said, pulling her mental form away from Carousel Boutique and back to the confines of the marble stone, “As we predicted.”

“Good, but when will we take our physical form?” the male asked.

“Soon. Our prison no longer holds us, but we still lack the energy to take physical form. Once we have gathered enough energy we may take our leave and shape the land to out will once more!”

“And what of Celestia and Luna? What of the Elements of Harmony?”

At their mentioning, a memory from the past came forth, unbidden but still present...
______________________________________________________________________________

They had overestimated themselves, perhaps the goddesses of sun and moon were not as weak as Spiritus Malum had believed. It was lucky to have escaped unharmed from the battle at the gates of Canterlot. With their powers combined, the two alicorns were unstoppable.

But Malum had detected the corruption that it had implanted in Luna. Even if the goddess fought it, the essence of evil that Malum had implanted in her would remain until it came forth and consumed her entirely. It was only a matter of time.

Malum smiled. In their infinite wisdom, the two alicorns still didn’t know the whereabouts of Malum’s secret headquarters.

Using its reserves of deception essence, Malum cloaked itself from those nearby. The ponies of this small town were not corrupted to Malum’s will and as such would not take kindly to the spirit’s intrusion.

But all that was going to change once Malum had control of Equestria.

Malum hopped atop the town’s well and dropped down. Simple unicorn magic was used to create a pocket of air around Malum’s physical form as the spirit swam down to get to its subterranean base of operations.

Once Malum got to the secret base, it could...

“No!” The spirit growled, seeing the secret tunnel ending in a crumbled wall where a door once was. But how had this happened? The base was protected by powerful spells that only Malum could break...Malum or perhaps the goddesses...

But if the goddesses knew about the secret base...

Magic surrounded the spirit and it was suddenly teleported outside.

A ring of unicorn soldiers, all wearing specialized protective armor and wielding enchanted spears surrounded the spirit. Malum glared around, its eyes coming on the real threat that was present.

“Luna!” Malum smiled, “How nice of thee to show thineself after last encounter! How fares ye?”

The alicorn of the night glared violently back at the smiling spirit of evil. Her normally freeflowing mane gave erratic twitches, her eyes blaring hate as her lip curled back, “What didst thou do to me!?” she demanded, her voice shaking.

“We brought us closer together, Luna. We implanted a seed of ourself inside of thee!”

“How dost I remove it, thou sickening black-bellied monster!?” She yelled, not yet calling upon the Royal Canterlot Voice, but coming close.

Malum laughed, “Thou canst remove it, dearest Luna. We ask again, join us for we are not very different! You are the goddess of the night, a time of fear and of nightmares. We feed upon the essence of fear! Together we could overthrow the sickening rule of Celestia and make Equestria our own! Eternal night and evil upon its people!”

“SILENCE!” Called out Luna, the guards flinching as she used the Royal Canterlot Voice, “THOU SHALT REMOVE THY SEED FROM ME AND THEN PERISH UNDER THE POWER OF THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!”

Malum’s smile faded and the spirit wasted no time. It called upon the essences of fear, pain, hatred, and cruelty to create a group of elemental soldiers. The creatures had the form of ponies, but they were skeletal and starved with glowing red eyes and coats of roiling, black flame.

The spirit sicced the soldiers on Luna’s as the two semi-immortals took to battle.

“Die!” Malum called out, casting forth a dark blast of pain essence.

Luna leaped over the stream of energy, her horn charging with bluish light, and discharged a spell at the spirit.

Malum leaped away, the spell detonating where it had recently been. It looked around noting that its soldiers had made quick work of Luna’s and were awaiting Malum’s command. With a thought, it sent them on a rampage upon the town.

“Tell us, Luna. What shalt thee do? Make battle with us or make it with our soldiers who now slaughter this town?” Malum taunted confidently, the lunar goddess could easily make mincemeat of Malum’s soldiers, but it would give it time to escape.

“Thy seed makes me indifferent to them!” Luna shouted, casting another spell at Malum.

Malum had been sure that Luna would stop the battle to help the ponies of this village. Not taking into account the fact that Luna was actually feeling the effects of Malum’s tampering. The spirit was proud that she had delved into the darker side that it had implanted, but it was short lived as  a spell threw the spirit through the window of a building.

The attack would have killed a normal pony, but Malum was only dazed as Luna used another blast of her magic to turn the house into a pile of rubble that came crashing down on the spirit.

But Malum was only dazed and cast a quick teleport spell to escape the carnage. Outside, it noticed with a grin that the soldiers were making fine work of the town. Killing everything in sight and burning everything within reach.

Malum looked around, but Luna was nowhere to be found.

Malum prepared to escape with a long range teleport spell when dark chains sprung up from the ground and wrapped around the spirit. Malum struggled, but the chains were too strong.

“I will end thee if thou dost not remove thy seed of evil from my body!” Luna yelled, landing in front of the spirit. An enchanted spear was grasped in her magical clutches, “Doth not think that I do not know how to kill thee!”

Malum smiled up at his captor, “Kill us and you will be forever blessed with our seed!”

Luna used her magic to manipulate the chains and bring the spirit’s chest to bear. She took a step forwards and called out in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “THOU SHALT REMOVE...”

In her rage, the princess of the night had forgotten that Malum was more than mortal and the chains only bound its body, it didn’t stop Malum’s magic. The spirit concentrated a blast of pain essence at Luna, catching her in the chest. The alicorn cried out as pain lanced through her body, the chains around Malum’s body broke and the spirit was freed.

“Foolish demi-god,” Malum chastised, “We shalt remove thy heart from thy body and thy head from thy neck!” The spirit brought forth a magical blade of energy to finish off the alicorn.

Malum raised the sword of energy and it was obliterated in a blast of golden light.

Knowing the caster, the spirit turned and threw a blast of energy of the five essences of evil at Celestia. The essences of Fear, Deception, Hatred, Pain, and Cruelty shot towards the solar goddess. The five darkly colored blasts were met with resistance in the form of the rainbow blast of the Elements of Harmony.

Malum clenched its teeth, straining the Essences of Evil against the Elements of Harmony. Malum knew it was a losing fight, the Elements had six while the Essences had but five, but there was nothing it could do besides delay the inevitable...
______________________________________________________________________________

The memory was shattered as magic surrounded the marble sphere and the prisoners within searched for the reason behind it.

The sphere was levitated a few inches off the table for a few seconds before being set back down.

“Hmm,” Twilight Sparkle noted, levitating a quill and writing down a few notes, “It has a set of enchantments, that’s for certain,” the unicorn looked up at the marble sphere, “But what are they?”

It had been quite some time since Twilight last had something important to do. She relished the opportunity to study whatever this thing was and unlock its secrets.

Spike had immediately commented on the fact that it was about the size of a bowling ball.

“Maybe it’s an ancient bowling ball!” The little dragon had suggested with interest.

Twilight smiled at the memory, who knew? Maybe Spike was right and it was an ancient bowling ball. 

Speaking of said baby dragon...

“Spike,” Twilight looked back over her shoulder, “Could you...oh yeah,” she chuckled to herself as she saw that it was nighttime, the little dragon was fast asleep upstairs, “Owloysuis?” She began again, spying the owl preening a wing, “Could you get Enchantment Deciphering 101 for me please?”

The owl gave a hoot and flew from his perch to do as instructed.

“They will be of no consequence, we shall take it slower this time. By the time the goddesses of sun and moon become aware of our return, it will be far too late!” The female schemed, “Equestria is as good as ours!”
> A newcomer in Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Everything that thou hast loved has been lost,” the thing hissed to the Unicorn, “Thy loved ones, thy kin, thy friends, all that thou hast loved is gone from this world, never to return. Thy entire life has been a tragedy from the day that ye received that mark.”

The blackish smoke-like anomaly that was the feminine creature floated around to the unicorn’s side. It pointed to the unicorn’s flank with a smoky tendril at the tragedy mask Cutie Mark emblazoned upon his flank as emphasis to its point.

“What couldst thou offer me...whatever ye may be.”

“I can offer thee eternal life, aside from a cursed blade or a proper spell, nothing may take you in all your years. I can offer thee a chance to bend this land to your whim, to create tragedy upon it so that all may suffer the fate that has cursed you!”

“And the price?” the unicorn asked, not entirely sure that he wanted to know.

If the thing had a face, it might have smiled a sharp toothy grin, “To share thy flesh with thee, that I and you may become we!”
______________________________________________________________________________

“Awaken!” The female called, pulling the male from his dreams, “The unicorn is asleep and we may escape.”

The male looked around and spotted the purple unicorn that had been studying their prison. She had collapsed amid a pile of books, asleep. Her head rested between the pages of one on reversing enchantments.

“Use telekinesis to lead us to and out the door so we may retake our form once more.”

The male charged up a telekinesis spell and sent the marble sphere rolling off the table. It landed with a hard bump on the floor, but the unicorn didn’t awaken. The male guided the sphere to the door before opening it with another touch of telekinesis. With a final push they were outside in a blanket of night.

The sphere picked up speed as it rolled through the town, soon leaving the many buildings for grassy fields outside the small village. Here it finally came to a stop.

“Here?” The male asked.

“Here,” The female confirmed, “Use our magic to retake physical form and be removed from this prison.”

Had he had a head, the male would have nodded and clenched closed his eyes as he prepared a releasing spell. 

The marble sphere was wreathed in what had the appearance of black colored fire and it gave off a slight glow, white cracks forming across its surface. The sphere wobbled back and forth for a few seconds before detonating with a sound akin to a gunshot.

In the epicenter of a circle of dead grass stood a lone unicorn. His coat was the color of charcoal and his mane was the color of ash with speckles of night black. Upon his flank, in contrast to the color of his coat, was a stark white and unhappy tragedy mask Cutie Mark.

The pony looked over himself with cold blue eyes, flicking his tail once as he observed himself.

‘We are whole once more!’ The female exclaimed from his mind, unheard by all but him.

“We are!” The unicorn exclaimed, taking a deep breath of cool night air, “What is our next plan?”

‘We learned our lesson from our last crusade, this time we shall take it at a slower pace. Fit into society and find a way to bring it all crashing into a sea of evil. It was never said that evil was quick, but let it be said that evil is intelligent and cunning!’

The unicorn nodded, it was time for evil to reign.
______________________________________________________________________________

(The next day)

Spike was rudely awakened from another of his Rarity fantasies, this one involving a whole city made of gemstones, by a frantic purple pony.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled, shaking him by the shoulders, “Get up! I need your help!”

“What? What happened?” The baby dragon replied as Twilight released him and headed back down the stairs.

“Somepony broke in last night! We have to check everything to find out what’s missing!” Twilight replied as Spike groggily followed after her.

Somepony broke in? THAT got Spike’s attention.

“Somepony broke in?” He asked, his grogginess leaving, “Holy guacamole!”

“I woke up and found that somepony had left the door open! I know for a fact that I closed and locked it before I started to study,” Twilight explained, “That and the marble ball is missing, so somepony took it. I mean, it’s not as if it just got up and rolled away on its own.”

“Did you see them? Wait, how did they take the ball if you were studying?” Spike asked, examining the table that the marble ball had once resided.

Twilight blushed, “I guess I fell asleep.”

“Hi!” A cheerful and energetic voice called out, nearly giving Spike and Twilight heart attacks, “Whatcha guys doing?” Pinkie asked.

“Wha...Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked.

“The door was open,” Pinkie pointed a hoof back to the still open door, “It’s usually closed, so I thought you might be having a book fair or something, and then I thought that if you were having a book fair I might be able to cater for it like a party, and if I was going to to cater for it I would probably have to ask you first, and what better way to ask you first than by coming in and asking you since the door was open?”

Twilight and Spike stared for a moment. 

Remembering the situation, Twilight spoke, “I guess I should have closed the door. No Pinkie, I’m not having a book fair. Somepony broke in last night and stole the marble stone that was brought back from the well.”

Pinkie frowned, “Are you sure? I don’t think I know anypony who would do something mean like that...well maybe, but I don’t think so.”

“Well maybe if we find out what they took, we can possibly find a motive. If we find a motive, we can hopefully find a pony who did it,” Twilight reasoned, looking up and down a bookshelf.

“Right!” Pinkie proclaimed. The pink mare pulled out a deerstalker hat and pipe, placing the hat atop her head and biting down on the pipe’s end to blow some bubbles.

Spike raised a scaly eyebrow.

“Not that I don’t want your help, Pinkie, but don’t you have stuff to do?” Twilight asked, magicking the hat from Pinkie and placing it on her own head.

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said, popping the pipe into Twilight’s mouth and slamming a bowler hat onto Spike’s head before zipping from the library with a cry of, “Good luck looking for clues!”

Twilight made a face as she levitated the pipe from her mouth to wipe it off.

“What was that all about?” Spike asked, removing his hat to examine it.

Twilight put the now clean pipe back in her mouth before facehoofing and levitating both it and her hat away, “Just more of Pinkie’s silly antics, let’s get to work.”

“Speaking of which, how are we gonna find what else was stolen?” Spike asked.

Twilight replied by taking all the books off the shelf and dumping them on the floor, Spike groaned.

“By going through everything and checking off what’s missing,” At Spike’s annoyed look, she added, “Reshelving day is only a few days away, this way we can get it over with now.”

“Fine,” Spike moaned.
______________________________________________________________________________

Spiritus Malum trotted through the marketplace, observing the town and the ponies within it.

‘Predominantly Earth Pony,’ The female thought with distaste, ‘Wait a moment, something is wrong.’

Malum halted in his tracks, his eyes losing focus, ‘We...we are not one, our thoughts are separated...try to move our body,’ the male thought.

The female attempted to make Malum’s body move, but to no avail. Back in their height, the two were not a spirit and a pony, but one combined creature. Now they were two different beings, one residing in another.

‘It has to be a side effect of our lengthy time in imprisonment,’ the female reasoned, ‘It is but  a minor setback. So long as we work together, we shalt be unstoppable!’

The male nodded and continued on his way until a pink earth pony, who had just passed him by, gasped and zipped in front of him with a gasp.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” Pinkie asked with a massive friendly smile on her face.

Malum pondered that question a moment, he obviously couldn’t go around calling himself Spiritus Malum. He didn’t know how many ponies knew the old language, but he was certain that plenty did.

‘Mulam Sutirips,’ the female suggested cleverly.

‘No, still very obvious,’ He stared back at the smiling pink pony with an emotionless expression, “Metal Stirrups,” he finally replied, sticking slightly to the female’s suggestion.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Metal Stirrups!” Pinkie replied happily.

‘Nopony can be that happy, what does this pony have up her sleeve?’ Stirrups wondered.

“I know everypony in Ponyville and I mean everypony! Maybe I could show you around since you’re new here and...” Pinkie continued to blabber on, Stirrups eventually blocking it out as he and the female—Spiritus Malum—as the two were no longer one anymore, conjured forth some pain essence.

From Stirrup’s shadow, a small sliver of darkness broke away. It snaked its way over to Pinkie before touching her leg and...popping out of existence?

Pinkie halted her wall of dialogue and looked down at her hoof before shrugging and continuing as if nothing had happened, “...So whaddaya say, Metal Stirrups?” She smiled massively as she stared at the darkly colored pony before her.

‘Why did that pain essence not work?’ Malum wondered.

‘I am not certain,’ Stirrups replied, ‘Perhaps another side effect of our imprisonment?’

‘No, we were able to use deception essence with ease back in the well. We shalt look into this.’

“Helloooo?” Pinkie asked, waving a hoof in front of Stirrup’s face.

“I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling, move along,” Stirrups said before trotting around the pink pony.

‘So where shall we go—’ Stirrup’s train of thought was shot to tartarus as a particular pink pony began trotting beside him with a snort of laughter.

“I’m not selling anything, I just wanted to welcome you to Ponyville and help you make some new friends!” Pinkie said, “It’s the least I could do for my new best friend!” With that, she threw a foreleg over Stirrup’s withers like they were friends and began pointing out different places.

“Ugh, no,” Stirrups replied, “I am not interested, now be on your way.” He telekinetically lifted her foreleg off of him and continued on his way.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie asked, continuing to follow him.

“Yes,” Stirrups shot back.

“Are you sure that you’re sure?” The pink pony continued.

“Yes!” Stirrups replied, the pink mare starting to get on his nerves.

“Are you sure that you’re sure that you’re sure?” Stirrups growled to himself and headed into a dark alley. As he expected, Pinkie followed, “It doesn’t cost anything if that what’s...”

Stirrups wheeled around, bringing Pinkie face to face with him and supporting her head with one of his hooves under her chin. Through his foreleg he funneled energy from the five essences into the pink pony, intending to corrupt her to his will.

She stared back into his eyes, oblivious as his actions did nothing.

‘She is immune! An immortal?’ Malum asked, startled.

‘I do not know, perhaps all ponies have become immune to our tampering,’ Stirrups replied in thought, “When I say no, I mean no. Now stay the hell away from me,” Stirrups shoved Pinkie away and trotted past her, finally she didn’t follow, opting to stare after him as he went.

Pinkie watched him go with sadness, this was just like that time with Cranky, except he was a donkey, “No?” Pinkie asked nopony in particular as she sat in the darkness.
> Bound to mortal flesh
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie Pie pondered and pondered till her ponderer was sore. 

Metal Stirrup’s case was similar to that of Cranky Doodle’s when he first arrived in Ponyville. Pinkie thought about what to do on her way to Sugarcube Corner. With Cranky, things had ended well but had taken a sour turn before doing so. Perhaps she should be a little less forcive? Was that even possible for her? 

She finally arrived at her destination and when she stepped into the bakery an idea popped into her head. With a gasp, Pinkie Pie got to work. The next time they met, Pinkie was sure to make a new friend!
______________________________________________________________________________

‘If we wish to blend in, perhaps we should study this era and find how long we have slumbered.’

Stirrups gave a nod as he trotted through the market, ‘So back to that library?’

‘Correct. It is a surprise that a backwater earth pony village even has a place of knowledge,’ Malum confirmed in thought.

‘Indeed,’ Stirrups agreed.

Stirrups eventually got to the library, pushing through the door as if he owned the place. Inside, the purple unicorn was levitating books around the room while a small purple dragon was holding a list and checking off items as the unicorn named them.

The spirit could feel feel traces of fear and annoyance wafting off the unicorn, and felt tiny bolsters to their fear and hatred essences. The dragon output a more substantial amount of annoyance, furthering the increase in hatred essence. The feeling was pleasing after all the happy emotions bouncing around in the marketplace.

The pony looked up from her sorting while the dragon spared Stirrups but a glance. 

“Can I help you?” Twilight asked.

“This is a library, is it not?” Stirrups replied, trotting to a shelf to look for a book.

His response seemed to catch Twilight off guard and she was silent for a moment, “Uh, well yes it is. It’s just that we had a break-in last night and now isn’t the best...” She trailed off as her words were ignored, Stirrup’s attention focused on a book. She gave an annoyed sigh, further fueling the Spirit’s hatred essence reserves, and decided that so long as Stirrups wasn’t getting in the way that there was no harm in letting him stay.
______________________________________________________________________________

(Many hours later)

Quite a bit had changed in the time that Spiritus Malum had been imprisoned in the marble stone, but at the same time plenty was still the same. For example: the Griffins and Dragons were no longer as hostile towards the ponies, and had seemed to settle down instead of trying to take more land. On the other hand, it appeared that the Changelings were still trying to find ways to take the equinian country and had even come so close as capturing Canterlot for a few minutes in more recent times.

A half-mouthed smile split Stirrup’s features as he read the rise of ‘Night-Mare Moon.’ He had very little doubt that the seed of evil the spirit had planted inside of her was at least partially the cause of that.

The smile turned to a disgusted grimace upon reading about Discord’s short return. While Stirrups may have never known the Spirit of Chaos, memories from Malum were enough to fill him with distaste for the Draconequus.

‘Discord may have great power, but his use of it betrays a childish mind. It is his downfall,’ Malum thought, mostly to herself, ‘Perhaps we will cut his heart out once this land is ours.’

‘Could he not make a servant if his powers were nullified?’ Stirrups suggested.

Malum thought for a moment, ‘No, the fool is better gone from this world than serving as our slave.’

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked, causing Stirrups to flinch slightly. Stirrups looked over his shoulder at the purple unicorn, “Sorry to bother you, but you’ve been here quite a while and um...”

‘Is she kicking us out?’ Stirrups wondered.

“...could I interest you in some tea?” She asked.

Stirrups searched Twilight’s eyes for a moment, “If it’s free,” he responded before turning back to the book.

“Of course,” Twilight said, feeling slightly insulted that somepony would expect her to charge them for an offered cup of tea. 

Stirrups let that half-mouthed smile cross his face as a minor flare of pain and an even smaller taste of hatred essence were received from the librarian. 

Stirrups got back to reading as Twilight went to make some tea for her and her visitor. The unicorn-spirit was coming to the end of a very recently published book on Discord. The final parts detailed the Spirit’s restoning by the Elements of Harmony.

Stirrups and Malum both shivered at the mention of the Elements, but a surprised look crossed the former’s face as he turned the page to look upon a drawing of six different ponies seemingly using the Elements, not Celestia or Luna.

‘This is an...’ Malum searched for a word, ‘...interesting development.’

“Indeed,” Stirrups muttered in agreement.

As far as the duet of evil knew, the goddesses were immortal. Aside from a few specialized weapons, such as blades forged in magic or other similarly enchanted items, nothing could kill them making the Elements just as immortal as they were.

However, were the Elements bound to ponies of mortal flesh...

Stirrups blessed the world with another half-mouthed smile whilst Malum gave a similar mental response.

“They would be just as mortal as those wielding them,” Stirrups muttered quietly.

‘We must find the identities of these six ponies. If we destroy them, we will be unstoppable!’ Malum declared.

“Here you are,” Twilight said from Stirrup’s side, causing him to flinch. It seemed that ponies trotted around with much less noise than five thousand years ago.

Stirrups looked over at her to see her offering a teacup with a few traces of steam wafting up off from the dark liquid inside.

Stirrups took the offered beverage and turned back to examine the picture. He brought the teacup to his mouth to take a small sip and shuddered after doing so.

“On second thought, perhaps I’ll pass on the tea,” he stated, placing the teacup on the floor and pushing it away with a hoof. He noticed a purple aurora take hold of it.

“Oh, is it too hot?” Twilight asked with a frown.

“It is simply not to my taste,” He replied, glancing over her. He felt a wisp more of hatred and pain essence as the unicorn took offense, however she did not take as much as he had expected, ‘Perhaps the ponies of this time are more happy and carefree than those of five millennia past,’ he reasoned.

‘Hold!’ Malum cried, startling Stirrups only slightly, ‘look to the unicorn!’

Stirrups snapped his head around, expecting an attack of some sorts. But all he was met with was Twilight’s receding backside.

‘What was that about?’ he asked, Malum’s mental tone had been on edge, as if the unicorn were attacking.

‘That pony has a similar color scheme to that pony in the picture,’ Malum pointed out, indicating the purple pony in the picture of the book, ‘and her Cutie Mark holds the ancient symbol of magic!’

Stirrups looked back to Twilight again before looking back at the picture, ‘By the gods! Could it be that we have stumbled upon one of the Elements?’

‘Two, possibly. Note that that pink earth pony resembles the one we saw in the marketplace.’

‘Hmm,’ Stirrups thought for a moment, ‘We are alone with the pony and her dragon?’ he inquired, searching the room for a heavy blunt object. Perhaps if she were looking the other way, he could...

‘No, remember that we shall not act hastily, this must be thought through. No matter if we must take a long time so long as the end result is complete domination! We shall lay in the shadows and formulate our approach so that it has no flaws. When the time is right, we shall cripple the Elements and take Equestria as our own!’
______________________________________________________________________________

(One hour later)

Twilight looked to the spot where the unicorn with the tragedy mark had sat for a series of hours. He had at some point in the past ten minutes simply got up and left without so much as a word.

‘Probably since it’s nighttime now,’ She thought before looking back to Spike. The baby dragon’s eyes were scanning over a list that he held.

“That’s everything?” Twilight asked.

“Yep, everything’s where it should be. Well besides that marble bowling ball,” Spike replied, massaging his cramping claw.

While Twilight was happy that nothing had been stolen, she had a feeling that something was just...off, for lack of a better word. What was that marble sphere and who would want it enough to break into her house and steal it?

Crime was virtually unknown in a small friendly town like Ponyville. They didn’t even have a jail for pony’s sake, much less a legitimate police force. Nothing bad or big enough ever happened to warrant the need for civil defenders or a place to put the dregs of society. 

“So long as nothing else gets stolen in the coming days, we shouldn’t need any anyways,” Twilight said as she trotted up the stairs to hit the hay and call it a night.
> Introducing harmony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spiritus Malum strained against the powers of the Elements of Harmony, digging its hooves into the ground in an effort to stop its backwards progress. The five Essences of Evil pitted in a battle against the six Elements of Harmony, but it was a losing battle.

While not all battles were fought to be won, this one was. Should it lose, Malum would be imprisoned for as long as the Princesses saw fit, which meant forever. Malum imagined being turned to stone or encased in a sealing stone, probably doomed to rest the rest of its days on display in the Canterlot gardens.

‘If we must lose,’ the spirit strained to think, ‘We shalt not suffer the fate of being a display item!’

The spirit could feel the presence of the well behind and to the right of it. If it jumped at the right speed and with proper trajectory, Malum could possibly end up in the well. The fact that the rainbow light of the Elements was sure to blind Celestia meant that Malum had a good chance of never being found. One last way to spit in the face of the Princesses, deny them its body as a trophy of conquest.

Malum wasted no time, leaping towards the well and ending the dark blast of the Essences. The rainbow hues of the Elements latched onto its body, encasing the spirit in a binding stone of marble. With a few clunks, the stone bounced down the well and under the power of momentum, rolled down the dark tunnel.

Celestia opened her eyes to see the Spirit of Evil completely gone, no binding stone or statue left behind. Perhaps it was not as powerful as it had imagined itself to be and had been completely eliminated from the world. 

Whatever the case it didn’t matter, Celestia knew that the spirit was gone and that meant that there were more pressing matters to attend to.
______________________________________________________________________________

Metal Stirrup’s eyes snapped open and he was instantly wide awake. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon and it lit the world with a dim light.

Stirrup’s stomach growled, reminding him that even immortal spirit-ponies got hungry.

‘We must find sustenance,’ Malum said, ‘A few apples shouldn’t be missed from that farm that we saw.’

Stirrups nodded his head and made his way towards the town.

The spirit/pony had rested in an empty field outside of the small village. Sleeping under the stars had always been enjoyable to Stirrups, even before he accepted the deal with Malum.
______________________________________________________________________________

Pinkie Pie awoke as sunlight poured in through her second floor window.

After going through a morning exercise, which included making faces at a mirror, Pinkie went to her window and looked outside. She saw a few of the early bird ponies and shouted greetings accompanied by waves.

On her greeting quest, she spied one particular pony that she hadn’t been able to find the other day.

“Metal Stirrups!” She called out, waving frantically, “Hey! It’s me! Pinkie Pie!”

The darkly colored unicorn didn’t appear to hear Pinkie as he continued onwards, oblivious to her oral outbursts.

“Hmm,” Pinkie pondered, “Maybe he can’t hear me.”

With that, Pinkie stepped from her window and hurried down the stairs and out the door.

“Metal Stirrups! Metal Stirrups! Wait!” Pinkie called as she chased down her quarry.

Metal Stirrups grumbled to himself as the pink menace chased him down, Malum and him had things to do.

‘Do not be foalish! Ask her if she is an Element of Harmony!’ Malum reprimanded.

‘Is that so wise, what if she suspects something?’

‘Do not be a foal! This ‘Pinkie Pie’ is obviously one who lacks intelligence, she shan't suspect a thing if we ask her that.’

‘Fine, but will you stop calling us ‘we?’ It is quite obvious that no matter what it may have been, you and I are no longer we. You may reside in my body, but we are separated.’

‘Fine, now ask Pinkie if she is an Elemental bearer.’

Metal Stirrups waited for the pink pony to catch up to him.

“Hi!” Pinkie greeted gleefully once she was trotting beside Stirrups.

Stirrups spared her a glance in return, “Oh, hi,” he replied flatly, “Say, do you happen to know—”

“I got you something as a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ present!” Pinkie cut in, producing a purple box with a blue ribbon and a bowtie of the same color.

Stirrups gave the box a quick once over before taking it with his magic and setting it on the ground next to him, “I see, now do you happen to know about a set of artifacts—”

“Ar-aren’t you gonna open it?” Pinkie asked, confused.

“What?”

“Aren’t you gonna open your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ present?” Pinkie inquired, indicating the gift with a hoof.

“Some time, but as I was asking, do you—”

“Some time? But—” Pinkie cut off before getting the same treatment from Stirrups.

“Pinkie, be quiet. I need to ask you something,” Stirrups said in a flat, cold voice that would have scared a lesser pony.

As it was, Pinkie was oblivious to the sudden change in tone, “Okay, what do you want to ask? Oh, but it can’t be what’s inside your present because that’s a surprise and I wouldn’t want to ruin your surprise for you.”

‘How do the ponies around here put up with this excessive banter?’ Stirrups wondered.

“Of course. Do you know anything about the Elements of Harmony?” He asked, thankful that finally his question was uninterrupted.

Of all the thing that he expected to get as a response, Pinkie hopping off the ground and gasping was not one of them.

“Omigosh! Yes I do know about the Elements of Harmony! There’s Magic and Loyalty and Honesty and Generosity and Kindness and Laughter!” Pinkie stifled a giggle of glee, “But that’s not all I know because I actually represent one! You see, it all started about a year ago when there was this new pony in town, just like you but different because she was Twilight Sparkle and you’re Metal Stirrups but you were the same since the two of you were new to here. But anyways, it was that day...or was it night?” Pinkie shrugged and continued, “So Night-Mare Moon came back from the moon and wanted to make it eternal night forever and ever and ever and ever, but Twilight had a plan to get the Elements of Harmony from this place in the Everfree forest and we all went along with her to get them because we couldn’t just let her go alone. So after a long and perilous journey we finally made it and Twilight discovered that the six of us were each a Representative of Harmony and then the Elements went whoosh!” Pinkie made a waving motion, “And zoom!” A mirror of the first motion was employed this time, “And zing!” A new waving motion was used this time, “And we all got these nice necklaces with our Cutie Marks on them. Except for Twilight, she got a tiara, and wham!” Pinkie thrust out her front hooves at an invisible attacker, “We defeated Night-Mare Moon! You wanna hear about the time we had to fight Discord?”

“No, Pinkie, can you tell me the names of the six ‘Representatives of Harmony’ and their Elements?” Stirrups asked in that cold and flat voice again.

“Ooh! I can to better than that!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Stirrups felt that half-mouthed smile creep across his face again. She could do better? Perhaps some details on their colors and perhaps even where they lived?

“Come on! I’ll introduce you to them, then you’ll have five more new friends!”

Stirrup’s smile fell, “What?”

“Come on!” Pinkie said, starting on her quest and dragging Metal Stirrups along behind her.
______________________________________________________________________________

Applejack threw a hard buck at the tree behind her and the apples rained down into the buckets below. The hard-working farmer enjoyed the feeling of the crisp morning air, it kept her cooled off and kept her from sweating too much from her work.

Just then a pink pony popped out of a tree in front of Applejack, dragging a unicorn with a tragedy mark with her. The unicorn looked confused as to what the hell had just happened, not knowing that the answer was: Pinkie Pie.

“Oh, hey Pinkie,” Applejack greeted, “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Metal Stirrups, he’s new to Ponyville!” Pinkie replied, before turning to Stirrups, “This is Applejack, she’s the Element of Honesty.”

“Well nice to meet you Mister Stirrups,” Applejack said, latching onto one of his forehooves to give a good shake. The unicorn tried to pull away, but his struggles were in vain against his stronger opponent, “So what brings ya to Ponyville?”

Stirrups and Malum were both annoyed that they were being forced to make conversation, they had more important things to do.

“A change of scenery,” Stirrups replied, looking around flatly, “Though I can’t say it was for the better.”

Applejack frowned, did Stirrups just insult Ponyville? Before she could make any further remarks, however, Pinkie was dragging her new friend off back towards the town.
______________________________________________________________________________

Rarity was completely focused on the task at hand, normally she didn’t get up to work this early but she had had an idea and couldn’t wait. The small needle, encased in a blue glow, dipped in and out of the fabric, bringing it together in the designer’s newest masterpiece.

Unlike the rest of her other friends, Pinkie Pie lacked a quiet voice or entrance.

“Hey, Rarity!” Pinkie Pie called as the door to Carousel Boutique was blasted open by the power of Pinkie.

Rarity hopped in the air at the sudden noise, though managed not to ruin her work in doing so.

After she landed and got her heart rate back to healthy levels, Rarity turned to her pink friend.

“Is there something I can help you with, Pinkie?” She poked the needle she was using back into its pincushion.

“I just wanted to introduce you to Metal Stirrups, he’s new here!” Pinkie replied, pushing forth the pony in question, “Metal Stirrups, this is Rarity. She’s the Element of Generosity.”

‘I would have thought Pinkie to be that one, but perhaps Laughter fits her better,’ Malum commented in silence.

“Ah,” Rarity replied, after giving him a quick once over, she continued, “Who does your mane, Mister Stirrups, those black spots really clash with the grey in quite a pleasant way.”

“It’s natural,” Stirrups said with a hint of annoyance.

“Oh,” Rarity replied with a hint of interest, “Well that’s quite interesting, I can’t say I’ve seen a spotted mane before. But where are my manners, welcome to Ponyville, stop by anytime if you need anything.”

Before he could offer insult and take in more of an essence, Pinkie had pulled Stirrups along again; leaving Rarity to her work.
______________________________________________________________________________

Stirrup’s struggles were unnoticed by a mostly oblivious Pinkie Pie. Malum and him had tried to attack her with the Essences of Evil, but they did nothing to the pink party pony. Stirrups decided to use magic, latching onto Pinkie with telekinesis and finally halting her quest.

“Stop pushing me around,” He grumbled in his dark, cold voice.

“Oh, sorry,” Pinkie giggled and released her quarry.

‘All I had to do was tell her to stop?’ Stirrups wondered, annoyed at himself for not trying sooner. Stirrups wanted to tighten his grip on the pink menace, but decided that crushing her could not end well for Malum and him...at least not yet.

“C’mon, Rainbow Dash might be clearing the skies around now. Maybe we can meet her!”

Stirrups was about to tell Pinkie that he was done and that he didn’t need these idiotic introductions, but Malum still had a feeling of his thoughts and stopped him.

‘No, there is no harm in meeting the Elements of Harmony. We must know what we are up against and the best way of approach,’ she chastised.

‘Fine,’ Stirrups grumbled back.
______________________________________________________________________________

“Rainbowdash!”

The mare in question opened her eyes, waking from whatever dreams she had been having.

“Huh?” Dash asked, looking around the cloud she was laying on, “Coulda sworn that I...”

It was just then that Pinkie Pie’s head shot up through the cloud, right in front of Rainbow Dash, “Wakeup!” Pinkie jabbered before disappearing again.

“Gah!” Dash cried, hopping to her hooves and taking a step back, “What the...”

She leaned to the right and looked around the cloud to see Pinkie bounce off a trampoline and shoot upwards again.

Dash cracked a smile at her ridiculous friend’s antics, “Pinkie Pie, you are so random,” she said to herself with a short laugh.

Pinkie’s head popped through the cloud again, “TheressomeponyIwantyoutomeet!” Pinkie spat out before her airborne trip ended and she plunged back towards the ground.

Without further ado, Dash shrugged and swooped down from her cloud.

Pinkie Pie spat in physic’s face as she came to a midair screeching halt and landed softly upon the trampoline.

Stirrups half-mouthed smile faded as his ideas of pushing said trampoline out of the way were ended.

Pinkie hopped off the trampoline and threw her right forehoof over Stirrup’s shoulders. Dash alighted the ground in front of them.

“Hey, Pinkie,” Dash greeted, she looked over Stirrups, “Who’s this? Did you get a coltfriend?”

Pinkie giggled to herself, “No, this is Metal Stirrups. He’s new here to Ponyville and so I’m showing him around,” she turned to the uncomfortable unicorn in her one-legged hug, “Metal Stirrups, this is Rainbow Dash, she’s the Element of Loyalty.”

“And awesomeness!” Dash added, striking a proud pose, she then remembered something and set back down, “I just remembered, I have a bunch of new pranking ideas that we should totally try out.”

Stirrup’s ears perked up, “Pranking, you say?” He asked, that half smile resurfacing.

“Yeah, why? You into pranking too?” Dash asked, looking over at the darkly colored unicorn. 

‘Causing pain to others? Deceiving them? Making them feel uncomfortable? Creating spots of fear and doing so in the name of cruelty?’ Stirrups thought to himself, “Yes, I very much enjoy a well placed prank or few.”

This set off a gasp from Pinkie, “Oh my gosh! We could be pranking buddies!”

“I’m starting to like this guy already,” Dash said, “You’re alright, Metal Stirrups. The three of us should pull a prank some time.”

Stirrups gave a quiet chuckle, “Yes,” he said simply.

“We’ll see you later, Dash!” Pinkie called as she trotted off with Stirrups.

Dash gave a wave as she headed back up to her cloud. Metal Stirrups seemed alright, but...that smile. There was just something...Dash pondered for a good way to put it...something off about it. But three pranksters were better than two, and maybe Stirrups just had a weird smile. Whatever the case, Dash had some Zs to catch and she did just that.
______________________________________________________________________________

“All done,” Fluttershy said, stepping away from the bald eagle who poked curiously at the splint on his wing, “Just remember to keep flying to a minimum and get plenty of rest so you can heal those bones, okay?”

The majestic bird looked up to Fluttershy and gave a thankful caw.

A knock sounded off the door, proving that Pinkie Pie could be subtle...around Fluttershy.

“Who could that be?” Fluttershy wondered aloud, trotting daintily over to the door.

“Hi, Fluttershy!” Pinkie proclaimed.

“Hello, Pinkie,” Fluttershy replied, quiet yet pleasant.

“This is Metal Stirrups!” Pinkie pushed the door open more to reveal the unicorn/spirit in question, “He’s new to Ponyville!” Pinkie turned to Stirrups, “This is Fluttershy, she’s the Element of Kindness.”

Before Fluttershy could respond in any way, Stirrups looked past her, “Are those animals living in your house?” He asked, voice flat as usual.

That got Fluttershy exited, somepony wanted to ask about her animals!

“Oh yes,” she started, forgetting her shy nature, “I have all sorts of animals that I take care of! Like...”

Stirrups shivered, “Your house must be filthy with all those creatures around.”

“Well, not really,” Fluttershy replied, losing some of her conviction, “I train them well and make sure that...”

Stirrups interrupted again, “No wonder this house is so far out here, all those filthy creatures must make this place smell real bad,” Stirrups turned and trotted off.

The words of the immortal Spirit of Evil had the effect of completely silencing Fluttershy, who appeared to be on the verge of tears. She tried very hard to make sure that her cottage was clean. She knew that it was so far from town because the animals and ponies didn’t always get along so well, not because it smelled bad.

For once Pinkie did not smile, Stirrups had said some mean things to Fluttershy. She turned and chased him down, a task that was easy concerning her disregard for most things logical.

“Stirrups, that’s no way to treat a friend,” She said from the other pony’s side, “You should go apologize.”

“I will later, Pinkie,” Stirrups blatantly lied, “But don’t you have one more friend to show me?”

Under normal conditions, Pinkie Pie would have, for lack of a better term, pulled a Pinkie Pie at the thought of finishing her friendship quest. As it were, she was much less enthusiastic. She looked back at Fluttershy’s cottage, the door was now closed and there was no sign of her yellow and pink friend.

“Well...I guess, but you’d better apologize to Fluttershy afterwards. Pinkie Promise that you will?”

“What?” Stirrups stopped and looked over at Pinkie with a confused expression.

“Pinkie Promise that you’ll go say sorry to Fluttershy afterwards.”

“Okay,” Stirrups replied.

“You gotta do the motions and say it, like this,” Pinkie stopped and did the motions as she said them, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

After mirroring a Pinkie Promise, Pinkie was satisfied that Stirrups would uphold his end of the bargain.
______________________________________________________________________________

Twilight finished and flipped a page of the mystery novel she was reading, The Big Sheep by Raymane Chandelier. She had read the famous novel a few times before, but was doing so again in light of recent events. She was tartarus-bent on finding the culprit of the missing marble bowling ball, as Spike had put it rather jokingly.

She was interrupted from the story by a knock on her door, if a door being thrust open could be considered a knock.

“Hi, Twilight! Whatcha reading?” Pinkie asked as she and Stirrups came trotting in.

“Hey, Pinkie,” Twilight said tiredly, with a frown she looked up from the book, “Why are you up so late?”

Pinkie laughed innocently, “Silly Twilight, it’s nine in the morning.”

“What?” Twilight looked out one of the library’s windows, realizing that she had stayed up all night reading. Now that she was aware of this fact, she panicked, “Oh no! This is going to throw my schedule way out of whack!” Twilight, having forgot her book on the floor, rushed to and fro as she got a few supplies and a long list of dates.

The purple pony poured over the list, mumbling to herself as she tried to figure out a way to reschedule her schedule.

“So, Twilight! This is Metal Stirrups, he’s new here in town. Metal Stirrups,” Pinkie turned to the unicorn/spirit in question, “This is Twilight Sparkle, she’s the Element of Magic!”

“Mm-hm, that’s great Pinkie,” Twilight said absentmindedly, “If I move this here then...no, that would never work.”

Pinkie shrugged, “See you later, Twilight,” with that, she turned and began bouncing out of the library, Stirrups right behind her.
______________________________________________________________________________

“So you’re gonna go say sorry to Fluttershy now, right?” Pinkie asked.

Stirrups was pulled away from his and Malum’s scheming, “Oh yes, of course. I just realized something, didn’t you make me a present of some sorts?”

“Yep,” Pinkie proclaimed before realizing that the gift was gone.

“How about you go find that present and I go say sorry to Fluttershy,” Stirrups suggested.

Pinkie agreed by rushing off to find the gift.

“Take your time!” Stirrups called after her, trotting off to think.

‘So we know the Bearers of the Elements,’ Stirrups thought, ‘I think that removing Pinkie from the picture first would be ideal. Perhaps a drop of poison in...’

‘No,’ Malum cut in, ‘We are not yet ready, and we shall use far more...interesting methods of disposal than mere killing by poison.’

‘I hope that you aren’t trying to get us in over our heads,’ Stirrups said, ‘Why not simple disposal?’

‘All in good time, my vessel, all in good time.’
> Framed like a picture
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hmm,” Twilight said to herself, tapping a quill against her chin thoughtfully.

The purple unicorn may have been tired as all hell, but she was determined as much as well. Her bleary, bloodshot eyes scanned over a few lines before she realized that she wasn’t actually reading them.

Twilight shook her head violently, reread the lines, and scribbled down some notes.

Her body told her that she was tired by letting off a massive yawn, which Twilight failed to completely stifle.

“Not yet,” She told herself, “Just need to finish this. Now who in Ponyville might take the marble stone?”

Twilight sat in silence whilst her tired mind tried to come up with an answer and drawing a blank.

“Twilight,” a voice came from behind her.

Twilight jerked upright, startling at the sound of Spike’s voice. She turned her head around with a blush to see the dragon holding a steaming cup of black tea, the scents of lemon and honey lingering within, “Thanks Spike,” Twilight said, taking the beverage with her magic.

“You’ve been up all night again,” Spike commented, a tone of worry in his voice.

“Just as soon as I can at least find a few suspects, then I’ll rest,” Twilight said, nose already buried in her notes.

Spike fiddled with his hands nervously, this was starting to feel like that time that Twilight had visited her past self and ended up sending her on an adventure of semi-sanity, except with a lot less ice cream.

He wasn’t sure if he should try to intervene, his negligence that time after they had defeated Discord had ended up dragging Celestia in to help clean up the mess. 

Spike opened his mouth to speak, raising a finger to make a point, but then let his mouth shut closed. Twilight had learned her lesson the last time, he was sure that she wouldn’t be foalish enough to make the mistake again. It sounded like a dumb excuse even to him and he knew it, but he still picked up a broom and started sweeping instead of trying to help Twilight.
______________________________________________________________________________

“Surprise!” Pinkie called, popping up on the other side of the table.

Stirrups only barely flinched, “Oh, Pinkie,” he stated.

“You’re a hard pony to find, but I found you!” Pinkie said, happily placing Stirrup’s present on the table before him and then waiting expectantly.

Stirrups would have loosed a low grumble of annoyance, but both Malum and him were above that. Instead, Stirrups lifted the present off the table and set it on the ground beside him, content to open it at a later date if at all.

“Aren't you gonna open it?” Pinkie asked, only slightly confused, “You said that you’d open it ‘some time’ and it’s some time!”

Stirrups stared back at the smiling pony, trying to decide on whether or not to open the gift.

‘It should get her off my back,’ he reasoned, “Okay,” he said.

Stirrups lifted the box to the table and undid the bow tie and lifted the lid. Inside were a few rows of cupcakes, Stirrups froze as the rows of sweets caught his eye.

“Cupcakes,” he commented in an oddly shaky voice.

“Yep!” Pinkie exclaimed, “I didn’t know which was your favorite so I just put a whole bunch in there.”

Stirrups tore his eyes from the box and met Pinkie’s expectant gaze.

‘Keep control of yourself, foal,’ Malum warned from Stirrup’s head.

Stirrups lifted one of the cupcakes into the air and in front of himself, taking a small bite from the icing covered top. As the taste assailed his tastebuds, a memory unearthing from a time long ago...
______________________________________________________________________________

A young darkly colored unicorn colt sniffed the air. A genuine smile crossed his features and he galloped down the stairs and into the kitchen.

In said room, an older unicorn...his mother, perhaps? Was waiting before the oven, an oven mitt clutched in her magical grip. After a time, she lifted the cast iron door to the old oven and peered inside.

She threw a loving glance to the darkly colored unicorn colt before bringing out a crude metal plate with a series of depressions filled with cooked batter.

The delectable smell in the air only increased in magnitude as the piping hot pastries were set to cool by a window.

But there was a crash and the memory faded, leaving the young unicorn stranded in a plane of darkness. A swirling mass of shadow shot forth, stopping before him...
______________________________________________________________________________

‘Snap out of it, damn you!’ Malum yelled from Stirrup’s mind, blowing the memory to oblivion.

Stirrups squeezed his eyes shut before blinking rapidly to concentrate. He looked across the table to see Pinkie continuing to hold onto that expecting face.

Stirrups placed the cupcake he had taken a nibble from back in the box, “Thanks,” he said simply, “Don’t you have somewhere to be, though?”

Pinkie tapped her chin, pondering, “Oh yeah!” She exclaimed, rushing off with a cry of, “See you later!”

“I would hope not,” Stirrups muttered. He threw a cautious glance around before popping an entire cupcake in his mouth and trotting off as he munched with a degree of happiness, Malum holding in a groan of disgust.
______________________________________________________________________________

She had double and triple-checked the list, but still found nopony who fit the picture.

Twilight grumbled and rested her head on the floor, her eyes drifting closed and...

“No!” Twilight cried, snapping herself awake, “There has to be something that I’m missing!”

The outburst had a similar effect on Spike, snapping him out of his own little train of thought. He looked down at the ground to find that he was just brushing around a small pile of debris.

“What about that weirdo who didn’t like your tea?” Spike suggested absentmindedly.

Twilight looked back at him with tired eyes.

“I-I mean, he showed up the day after it got stolen and we don’t really know anything about him. That’s something, right?” Spike asked cautiously.

“You’re right!” Twilight exclaimed, she knew that it wasn’t nice to judge, but she hadn’t actually suspected the strange unicorn at all, what had Pinkie called him? Metal Stirrups? That was it.

Twilight scribbled down the name on a roll of blank parchment.

“But what should I do? Invite him over for a little chat? Meet him outside and get some background? Or maybe...” Twilight’s head hit the floor as her eyes snapped closed and she started to gently snore.

Spike cringed at the sound of impact, but let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Twilight was okay.

The little dragon knew that he couldn’t possibly lift Twilight and get her to her room, so instead he brought down a blanket and pillow. He threw the former over her and lifted her head to slip the pillow under her head.

Pausing but for a moment, he leaned close to plant a kiss on her forehead, “Sweet dreams,” He said with a smile.
______________________________________________________________________________

The next day...

Metal Stirrups made sure to not go past Sugarcube Corner on his way into town the next morning.

He had plucked a few apples from the same farm as yesterday and his belly was full.

‘Perhaps I should have saved some of those cupcakes for later,’ he thought to himself. Now that he didn’t have any left, the unicorn-spirit wanted more.

‘Do not let simple pastries distract you from the task at hoof,’ Malum shot back.

‘Which is...’ Stirrups replied.

‘We still need to find a way to destroy the Elements of Harmony!’

‘So let’s just kill them,’ Stirrups suggested, annoyed at Malum’s lack of simplicity.

‘It is not so simple as that. These ponies were chosen by the Elements of Harmony, I fear that simply killing them may not be good enough. We must ensure that if we kill them, that they’ll stay dead.’

Stirrups snorted, ‘They’re mere ponies, if you kill them they die.’

‘It is not so simple...you...you wouldn’t understand, not being born immortal. Suffice to say that if we kill them in a certain manner they will most certainly not come back and it will even increase our reserves of the Essences,’ Malum replied.

‘Fine, what do we need to do?’

Malum pondered on this for a while before replying, ‘Go to the library, we have research to do.’
______________________________________________________________________________

As Twilight became conscious, she felt the soft touch of a blanket around her and a pillow under her head. Once she became more aware, she felt the hard surface of the floor underneath her.

Still tired, her mind drew a blank and she opened her eyes to find herself laying on the floor of the library.

‘This isn’t my bed,’ she realized, annoyed that she had fallen asleep after a relentless bout of studying, ‘Well at least now I’ll be able to concentrate better,’ Twilight reasoned, looking on the bright side.

She gave the library a quick once-over with her eyes, stopping when they fell on the only pony in the room besides her: Metal Stirrups.

The dark unicorn had his back turned to Twilight, lazily flipping through a book before him.

Twilight rubbed her eyes and got to her hooves. She took the pillow and blanket in her magical grasp and set them neatly by the stairs.

“Good, um...” Twilight began, she threw a glance out a window to try and determine the time, “Afternoon,” she finished, “Wow, I slept a while.”

Stirrups gave her a simple glance before going back to reading.

“I don’t suppose I could interest you in a cup of tea?” Twilight asked, trotting to the kitchen to make herself some.

“That would be correct,” Stirrups replied flatly.

Slightly perturbed by the unicorn’s rather rude response, Twilight set about making herself a pot of black tea. As the water was set out to boil, she trotted back to the main room. Metal Stirrups was here now and she wanted to see if he would hold up as a suspect for the theft of the marble sphere.

“So...I see you met Pinkie Pie,” she said with casual friendliness.

Stirrups flinched, “How do you put up with...her in general?”

Twilight chuckled, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to her in no time...I mean, if you’re staying a while in Ponyville.”

“So you’re telling me that if you get a thorn in your side you should just wiggle, writhe, and let it be instead of removing it?” Stirrups replied.

“I wouldn’t go so far as calling Pinkie’s antics that bad,” Twilight answered with a mild frown, noting the fact that Stirrups confirmed that he would be staying in Ponyville a while. She wasn’t sure how that worked as evidence, but it was evidence nonetheless.

Stirrups snorted rather rudely, “I would.”

Twilight changed the subject, “I’ve been wondering about your cutie mark. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tragedy mask mark like yours, are you a writer?”

“Yes,” Stirrups said after a pause, “I suppose that you could say that tragedy is my forte.”

“Oh,” Twilight said, “Do you have any favorite works by other authors? Like Shakesteer?”

Stirrups looked over his shoulder at her oddly before replying, “No,” he said, killing the conversation and going back to reading.

Twilight looked over at the paper on the floor, the one with Stirrup’s name written on it. A single bullet point sat under the name.

“I was wondering...” Twilight began, looking from the paper to the pony, “...where...”

The sound of a teapot whistling cut her off, letting her know that the water was ready.

“Oh, excuse me for a second,” Twilight said, trotting off to the kitchen.

‘Take a look at that paper behind you, the ones by where the unicorn was sleeping,’ Malum ordered, ‘Quickly!’

‘Why?’ Stirrups asked, getting up and trotting over. He looked at the top paper and saw his name, or at least the name he was using, written on it. He lifted it and looked at the paper below it, reading the details.

‘It would seem that she suspects us of stealing our prison,’ Malum stated.

‘What should we do?’

‘Hmm, leave. Leave and listen, I have a plan.’

Stirrups did as he was told, leaving the library as quietly as a cat.

The entirety of the main room was equally quiet for a few moments before Twilight came back from the kitchen, a cup of steaming tea following her with a purple glow.

“So as I was say...” Twilight stopped as she noted that a the pony she had planned to interrogate was nowhere to be seen. The book he had been reading still lay open where he had left it and with a mild grumble, Twilight trotted over and slipped it back into its spot on the shelf.

Had she been less annoyed, she may have noticed the title of the book: Engineering one-oh-one. If she had been more awake, she may have wondered just what a pony who was a writer was doing looking up different mechanical contraptions...the world may never know...

The readers on the other hand might, or at least will in a chapter or two.
______________________________________________________________________________

“I’m tellin' ya!” Apple Bloom slammed a hoof on a table, spilling a drop of juice from her cup, “We should go back’n investigate that well! I know I saw somthin' no matter what everypony says!”

Scootaloo, ever up for adventure, nodded in silent agreement.

“I dunno,” Sweetie Belle started, a hint of fear in her voice, “What if that monster gets us? I mean, what harm is there in not going? We know what we saw, if somepony says otherwise what does it matter?”

“Now who’s the chicken?” Scootaloo asked, a smile blessing her face and a snicker escaping her lips.

Sweetie Belle narrowed her eyes at the insulting pony, “I’m just saying...” Sweetie Belle trailed off.

“Sayin' what?” Applejack asked, poking her head in through a window.

“Oh, uh, we were just talkin' about...” Apple Bloom thought fast, “...uh...”

“The Wonderbolts!” Scootaloo declared enthusiastically, saving the day or at least the situation.

“Oh,” Applejack commented, slightly suspicious.

“Yeah, the Wonderbolts,” Apple Bloom said, going with it, “Sweetie Belle was just sayin' that she thought that, uh...Thunder Clap was better than Firestorm. Ain’t that right, Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom turned to the pony in question, hoping that she would go along with it.

“Yeah, she could beat him any day,” Sweetie Belle answered.

“Well alrighty then,” Applejack said, accepting the lie, but still suspicious, “I just came to stop by and see how y’all’re doin'.”

“We’re doin' great!” Apple Bloom said.

“Excellent!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Fantabulous!” The dictionary read.

“Well okay then,” Applejack said, noting a peculiar black marble stone residing upon the highest cabinet in the treehouse. Thinking nothing of it, she left the troublesome trio in peace.
______________________________________________________________________________

“Somethin' important happen yesterday?” Applejack asked, “Ya usually come around the market Tuesday.”

“Sorry,” Twilight said, levitating a set of bits onto the stall Applejack stood behind and taking the correct amount of apples in return, “I got caught up in something and forgot.”

“No need to apologize, Sugarcube,” Applejack said, sliding the bits into a pouch. She frowned in thought, “Might I ask what it was that kept ya so busy?” The farmer remembered the time when a seemingly simple problem had been blown completely out of proportion, ending in Celestia having to come all the way from Canterlot to put a stop to it. She gave a silent pray that this wasn’t another one of those crises.

“I was just trying to find a suspect for the theft of the marble sphere that was found down in the well. The one that the Cutie Mark Crusaders fell down,” Twilight sighed, “I haven’t found a single pony who holds up as a suspect, not yet at least.”

Applejack’s frown deepened, “A marble sphere? What sorta color was it...about how big?”

“It was about the size of a bowling ball, all black. Why?” twilight inquired.

“Hm,” Applejack thought for a moment, “I think ah know who took it, meet me back at my stall at closing time,” Not entirely certain, she continued, “You...you're sure that this marble sphere was stolen, right?”

“Positive, I put it down on my table and in the morning my door was ajar and the sphere was gone,” Twilight replied, “Who do you think took it?”

Applejack was slow to answer, could Apple Bloom and her friends really commit something like theft? “I...I’ll tell ya at closin' time, I’ve only got a hunch.”

‘An' I don’t like it one bit,’ she didn’t say.
______________________________________________________________________________

Closing time...

Applejack was slower than usual in packing her stall that day, trepidation of what might be filling her mind.

‘Keep it together, Applejack,’ she thought, ‘Maybe it’s not the same stone, could be somethin' they just found on one of their little crusades. Little ‘Bloom an her friends would never steal somethin'...would they?’

“Hey Applejack, need any help?” Twilight asked from behind the farmer, causing her to visibly flinch.

“No, I’m good,” Applejack replied, finishing up quickly and starting to pull the cart along towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight followed, keeping pace at her friend’s side, “So who do you think stole it? Where’d you see the marble sphere?”

Applejack was slow to respond, knowing that once she admitted it that there was no going back.

“I...I think...” Applejack bit her lip.

‘Spit it out already!’ Applejack exclaimed from her mind.

But if she did...she could always tell Twilight that she made a mistake, that she hadn’t been right...

A memory came to mind from a time that seemed an eternity ago, ‘When all the truth does is make your heart ache...sometimes a lie is easier to take!’

‘No!’ In her mind, Applejack stomped her hoof onto the ground in a resolute pose. There was no way on earth that she would ever lie to a friend, no matter what the consequences were!

“I think it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I remember seein' a blackish sphere thingy in their clubhouse when I stopped by earlier today,” She paused as she remembered what had been being said, “They were also talkin' about somethin' suspicious.”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders?” Twilight inquired, ponderously looking to the sky as if it held clues, “You know, they might actually hold up as suspects!” Twilight realized out loud, “It was them who fell down that well, everypony assured them that what they saw was just fear-induced hallucinations, but they didn’t buy it. I suppose that if they got angry at the fact that nopony believed them they might try to, I dunno, get even in some way?” Twilight was silent for a moment, “Or perhaps since the sphere had enchantments, they thought that it had something to do with the hallucinations!” Twilight exclaimed, a smile of realization spreading across her face. 

Applejack’s felt her stomach start to sicken as Twilight confirmed that the Crusaders were, in fact, viable suspects.

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner,” Twilight looked over to her orange friend to see the other pony’s discomfort, her smile fell, “Applejack, they had a very traumatic experience. I’d understand why they would steal the marble sphere, especially after all of us told them that it was all in their heads. They’re just fillies, remember? They can’t entirely be blamed, they didn’t know any better.”

“R-right,” Applejack said, trying to convince herself.

It didn’t take them long to get to the treehouse that the troublesome trio used as their headquarters. Applejack unhitched herself from the folded stall and the two mares made their way up to the treehouse’s main floor.

Silence greeted them, portraying the fact that the treehouse was empty, Applejack didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad one.

Applejack pushed open the door and moved inside, Twilight right behind her.

“There, that it?” Applejack asked aiming a hoof up at the marble sphere.

The orb was encased in a purple glow before being levitated down to a table in the middle of the treehouse.

“This is it!” Twilight realized, eyes wide.

A sudden low buzzing that was quickly followed by the sound of a screeching halt could be heard from outside. After a moment, faint voices could be heard approaching the treehouse.

“I can’t believe that they boarded it up!” the voice of Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah, now we’ll never be able to go down there, the whole trip was a bus!”

“I think you mean ‘bust,’” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“Whatever,” Scootaloo replied, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally entering the treehouse, “I still think...” The three fillies froze at the sight of the two mares facing them from behind the table, the marble sphere resting upon it.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Applejack said, “we need ta talk.”
______________________________________________________________________________

> Once and for all
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Silence held an evil rule for a time, maniacally laughing in it’s silent tongue.

“Uh, about what?” Apple Bloom asked, overthrowing silence as supreme ruler.

“How about we start with how this here sphere came inta yer possession?” Applejack inquired, pointing a hoof towards the black ball.

It was then that Apple Bloom started to grow nervous, she gave a questioning mental frown towards her change, not sure what was happening. Had she been looking down, she may not have missed the sliver of shadow that had slipped in uninvited and attached to her hoof.

“I dunno,” Apple Bloom replied shakily, ‘What the hay is wrong with me? Are these some of those changes Applejack told me about?’

Taking in Apple Bloom’s voice and posture, Applejack came to a shocking conclusion.

“Yer lyin'!” She exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof at her younger sibling, a mixture of emotions assailing her mind. She didn’t know whether to feel angry or betrayed at the fact that her sister, her own sister, was lying right to her very face. Especially when the evidence was laying out right in plain sight.

“What!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, “No I’m not!”

The feeling of unease took the two other fillies as they threw their voices into the fray. Again, after a sliver of darkness attached to them.

“Apple Bloom isn’t lying,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo began, “We don’t know where that sphere came from.”

“What next?” Applejack asked, emotions still clashing, “Y’all gonna tell me that pigs can fly!? I can tell when yer lyin, Apple Bloom, the rest of you as well. Now come clean, tell me where ya got this sphere!”

“Applejack,” Twilight began, “Do you really need to egg them on like this? We found the sphere, that’s what we came here to do.”

Applejack turned to her friend, “This ain’t about that dang sphere no more, Twi. This’s about my sister lyin' right to my face!” Applejack wheeled back to her sister and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, all of whom were tearing up.

“B-but I really don’t know!” Apple Bloom retorted, on the verge of crying, “I’m not lyin' to ya, Applejack.”

“Oh like hell you ain’t!” Applejack growled, anger taking over, “You wanna give me a good explanation fer how Twilight’s sphere thingy got stolen from her house and ended up here?!”

Apple Bloom looked at the sphere through her tear riddled eyes, she looked to Twilight, who held an uncertain lip biting expression, and finally back to her elder sister.

“I don’t know! I ain’t lyin', I really don’t know!”

Applejack stared her sister down, angered sick. After a few moments, she lifted a hoof and brought it down hard, causing the three fillies to flinch and a small crack to appear in a floorboard.

“Fine,” She said in a quietly deadly voice.

Applejack began towards the Crusaders.

“Applejack?” Twilight inquired, not sure what was going to happen.

The angry farmer didn’t show any sign of having heard her friend. As she got within striking distance, the three fillies cowered away, hiding their heads under their forehooves and praying for the best.

The hoofsteps stopped before Apple Bloom, tears slipped through her closed eyelids, which she only dared open after a few moments of silence. Her larger sister was staring down at her with an unsure, but rage-filled gaze.

The two sister’s eyes met for a moment before Applejack broke contact and continued onwards, out the door and down the ramp that led to the treehouse.

“B-but I-I not l-lyin',” Apple Bloom retorted to nopony, tears now freely dropping to the floor.
______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, hiding in the shadows of a tree overlooking the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ treehouse, Metal Stirrups wore a half-mouthed smile.

‘That went far better than expected,’ Malum commented.

‘Agreed,’ Stirrups replied back, ‘I’m surprised that it took so little deception essence to pull that off.’

Their job done, the pony-spirit hybrid left. With that obstacle out of their way, they had much work to do.
______________________________________________________________________________

The next day...

“Hey, you notice anything strange about Applejack?” Rainbow Dash inquired before sucking down more of her drink.

“Hmm,” Pinkie pondered, poking at her chin with a hoof, “Ooh! Did she get a new hat? That would be really strange if Applejack got a new hat.”

Dash facehoofed, “No, not like that, Pinkie,” Dash thought carefully over her next words, “She seems...I dunno, there’s just something off about her.”

“So...she didn’t get a new hat?”

“No, she didn’t,” Dash sighed.

“Aww, well that just ruins my plans for a ‘New Hat Party,’” Pinkie pouted, getting a raised eyebrow of inquiry from Dash.

“Ookay then,” Dash looked around to make sure the coast was clear before leaning closer to Pinkie. In a conspiratorial voice she whispered, “So, do you have any new ideas for pranks?”

Pinkie modeled Dash’s actions, in an equally quiet voice she replied, “Hmm, nope. But I...” Pinkie suddenly spotted a particular dark colored pony walking down the street and switched to her yelling voice, “Metal Stirrups! Hey! Over here!” She cried.

Nearly busting an eardrum, Dash hopped back with a startled cry, landing on her back before the table that she and Pinkie were sitting at. Her smoothie chased after her and Dash threw up her hooves, catching it before it splattered onto her face.

“Hey, wait up!” called Pinkie, shooting off across the street towards Stirrups.

Rubbing her ear and sending a glare of annoyance to Pinkie, Dash picked herself up and placed her drink back on the table.

With an annoyed looking Stirrups in tow, Pinkie returned to the table.

“I’ve got things that need to be tended to, make this quick,” Stirrups said, not hiding his annoyance at all.

This time it was Pinkie’s turn to make sure that the coast was clear. Despite the fact that they were sitting outside of Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie knows how many ponies around, the crazy mare decided that the coast was, in fact, clear.

Pinkie turned her whisper voice back on as she leaned closer to Stirrups, “Got any good pranks that we could pull?”

Stirrup’s frown slowly turned into that signature half-mouthed smile.

“I suppose that one could say that my schedule just cleared up,” Stirrups said.
______________________________________________________________________________

The three prankateers, at Stirrup’s request, had made their way into Sugarcube corner. The Cakes were vacationing, leaving Pinkie to watch over the store by herself while they were gone. As such, the trio had full reign over the sweetshop.

“So why are we here?” Dash asked, “Shouldn’t we be heading to the joke shop?”

“If there was anything there of any value to pranking, you two wouldn’t be out of pranks, now would you?” Stirrups asked.

“You gotta admit, Dashie,” Pinkie conceded, “We have used every possible prank from the joke shop. Maybe Stirrups can get an idea from here!”

Stirrups and Malum scanned over the kitchen, most of the utilities they recognized, those that they didn’t didn’t look important enough to know about.

Trotting around, Stirrups eventually came to a cupboard, which he opened. Inside were an assortment of different ingredients. Sugars, spices, wasabi powder, flour...wait.

‘What in tartarus is wasabi powder doing in a sweetshop?’ Malum wondered. Stirrups voiced the question a few moments later.

After a quick giggle, Pinkie wrapped an unwelcome hoof around Stirrup’s withers and replied, “Silly Stirrups, it’s for wasabi emergencies! You never know when you might need it!” She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Right...” Stirrups said, closing the cupboard.

‘Wait!’ Malum cried, ‘Perhaps we could use this in a prank, spice up some cupcakes perhaps?’

Putting on his signature smile, Stirrups opened the cupboard and took out the jar of wasabi powder.

“I may have an idea,” he turned to his two fellow pranksters, one of which looked bored whilst the other appeared random, “Have you ever tried spicing some baked goods with a hot spice like wasabi?”

“Hmm,” Pinkie thought for a moment, frowning expression telling it all, “We did that once or twice...” Then Pinkie got an idea. Pinkie got a wonderfully prankful idea, “I’ll know just what we’ll do!”

“What?” Dash asked, doing a slow backstroke in the air. She righted herself and landed.

“There’s a free cupcakes sampling tomorrow,” Pinkie explained, “We could slip in a few cupcakes spiced with the wasabi powder!” She giggled jovially, “It’s perfect!”

Dash laughed, “Wow, that is perfect! I can’t wait to see the looks on those poor pony’s faces!”

“Yes, yes, now let’s get started,” Stirrups said, breaking up the comical atmosphere, “What do we need to do?”

“Well first we need to bake the cupcakes, silly,” Pinkie stated the obvious, she started towards a pan, but stopped as a thought struck her, “Hmm, what type of icing should we put on them?”

Dash shrugged her wings.

“Why not some wasabi-flavored icing?” Stirrups asked with his signature grin, “Double the power of wasabi.”

“Wait, they make wasabi-flavored icing?” Dash asked, she stuck out her tongue in an effort to make a grossed out face.

“No, silly, we’ll have to make some!” Pinkie said.

A wild song appears: Frosting song
(Sung in a similar tune to the Cupcakes song)

First, you gotta beat some butter
Make sure it’s not too cold!

Then, you add a bunch of sugar
Make sure it isn’t old!

Making frosting is such a breeze!
Pour in some milk!

Don’t pour in a lot, or you’ll have to trot
All the way back to the store, to get...

Frosting! 
So smooth and creamy!

Frosting! 
But not too steamy!

Frosting! 
Frosting, frosting, FROSTIIIIIIING!

After what was hopefully not too awkward of a presentation of her song in writing, Pinkie settled back down to all fours. Still in the mixing bowl, the finished white frosting now rested on her back.

‘What just happened?’ Questioned Malum.

Stirrups frowned at the smiling pink mare, “Pinkie,” he said.

“Yes?” Pinkie asked.

“You forgot to add the wasabi powder.”

“Oops,” Pinkie said, hopping to it.
______________________________________________________________________________

After what was a rather uneventful time making the batter for the cupcakes, rather surprising as it was Pinkie who made it, it was time for baking.

As Pinkie was carefully finishing pouring the batter into the mold, the sound of the door ringer announced that a customer had entered.

“I’ll get it!” She said, racing off from the kitchen.

Impatient and bored from lack of doing anything, Dash opted to take the ready cupcake mold and stick it in the oven. Dash closed the oven door and paused before the dials.

“Hey, Stirrups?” Dash asked, looking back at the unicorn in question.

“What?” He replied.

“What temperature do these things bake at?”

Pinkie’s head popped around the doorway to the kitchen, “Exactly three hundred degrees fahrenhoof,” And with that, she was gone again.

As Dash turned to the dial, Malum began to think about something. While he couldn’t tell what she was thinking about,  Stirrups could tell that the spirit was using a lot of brain power.

‘A bit for your thoughts?’ Stirrups inquired.

‘These simple poisoned pastries may cause a slight bit of pain and hatred essence, perhaps some deception...but it won’t be very much, not enough. If our plan is to succeed, we must have our reserves of the essences replenished far more than a simple prank or two may do,’ The spirit responded, ‘Now a catastrophe on the other hoof, that may cause quite a bit more to energize us.’

‘What do you have in mind?’ Stirrups asked.

‘Use your magic to amplify the heater on that oven, simple telekinesis on the mechanism should do the trick,’ Malum said.

‘No, that won’t do much, the oven is made to withstand any heat that the dial is set to maintain...at least for a time,’ Stirrups schemed silently for a moment, ‘But, if we were to use a bit of deception essence...’

A sliver of shadow split from Stirrup’s own. It darted towards the oven and raced up the side, slipping into the dial mechanism for the heating.

Almost immediately the temperature of the room increased, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the non-evil inhabitant.

“Wow,” commented Dash, “Is it just me or did it get really hot in here all of a sudden?”

“The oven,” Stirrups pointed out, ‘That should do the trick.’

“Oh,” Dash gave a quiet chuckle, “I knew that.”

‘How much longer will that thing hold? Should we be taking our leave?’ Malum asked.

Before Stirrups could formulate a reply, Pinkie finished with the customers and trotted back into the kitchen. The master baker instantly knew that something was wrong as the heat in the room embraced her.

Frowning, Pinkie asked, “Dashie, you set the oven to three-hundred, right?”

“Yeah, just like you said,” Dash replied, “Three...”

But before she could finish, the intensity of the heat blasted open the oven door. The force wrenched the hinges apart and the red-hot oven door slid across the kitchen floor. Hot on the door’s tail was a massive wave of heat that sent even Stirrups reeling backwards.

“Gah!” Yelled Dash, hopping over the runaway oven door before it scorched her hooves.

“What did you do!?” Stirrups growled, shielding his face with a hoof and squinting against the heat at Dash.

“Me!?” Dash exclaimed, quickly realizing that it was, in fact, probably her fault, “I don’t know!”

“Nevermind, we need to get out of here!” Stirrups said, galloping from the kitchen with Rainbow Dash hot on his tail.

The two came to a stop in the next room, the cooler air soothing their previously burning bodies. It was at this point that Dash came to realize something.

“Wait...Pinkie!” Dash hit the air again, shooting back into the kitchen.

When she hit the wall of heat, Dash’s immediate instinct was to recoil backwards to escape the sudden increase of temperature. Battling that instinct, Dash landed on the now-hot floor tiles and quickly spotted her pink friend.

Pinkie, who was sweating profusely in the heat, was forcing her way towards the oven. The once familiar machine was now bent out of shape and some of the lesser metals were turning to liquids. The heating rods were the same white-hot that the sun was, a testament to how haywire they were going.

“Pinkie!” Dash started, pushing towards her friend, “We have to get out of here! Come on!”

“No,” Pinkie replied in a voice that almost sounded tired, “I need to turn this off before it starts a fire!”

“It’s too far gone!” Dash retorted, now right behind her friend and unable to venture much further, “I can grab a cloud from outside and use it to stop this, but you need to get out of here! Now come on!”

“No!” Pinkie declared, taking another step towards the source of the heat, “You go get the cloud, I’ll try to turn it off from here! I...I just gotta...” But before she could say more, Pinkie collapsed.

“Pinkie!” Dash cried. When Pinkie failed to respond, Dash pushed forwards and tried to drag her friend along, but this proved fruitless.

Trying another method, Dash slowly got Pinkie hoisted across her back and started towards the door.

The intense heat assailed her on her slow trek, sapping away her energy and burning into her body. The doorway seemed miles away and Dash began to feel slightly faint.

“Stirrups!” She called out, “I need your help!”

There was no reply, Stirrups didn’t poke his head around the corner or show himself.

“Help!” Dash said, stumbling in the heat. Her vision flickered as she threatened to collapse from heat exhaustion. Dash knew that if she lost consciousness now, it would all be over she couldn’t faint! Her life and, more importantly, the life of a friend were in the balance!

“No more foaling around!” Dash declared, intent on making it to the other room no matter what. Using all her remaining energy, she rushed forwards and collapsed as her strength left her body, torn away by the intense heat.

The hot tiles on the floor bit into her belly and the heat in the air covered her like a blanket. Bit by bit, Dash’s eyelids slowly fell until suddenly the blanket of heat was torn away and a coolness replaced it, soothing Dash’s boiling body.

“Hurry!” Twilight called, horn aglow with magic.

“Twilight?” Dash asked, slowly making her way to her hooves.

It was then that Applejack came around the doorway, rushing to Dash and Pinkie.

“Woah there, take it slow now,” Applejack said, “I’ll take Pinkie from here,” Applejack threw a look behind her, “Twi? A little help?”

Twilight nodded and quickly levitated Pinkie onto Applejack’s back. With the weight of her friend gone, Dash was able to get back up.

“You go first, Rainbow. I’ll follow you with Pinkie,” Applejack adjusted her pink friend's position on her back and followed Rainbow Dash out of the kitchen.

“Get them to the hospital,” Twilight ordered, “I’m going to try and stop this from getting any worse.”

Applejack nodded and began to lead the way.

Focusing on her magic, Twilight grabbed all the heat and began to contain it inside an invisible bubble around the oven. She condensed the bubble of heat into a smaller and smaller sphere, hoping that when it got hot enough, the oven would simply turn into slag and shut off.

As the bubble was made into a shimmering sphere of heat around the oven, Twilight constricted it even further, hoping to increase the heat bubble’s temperature and destroy the oven faster. As she did this, she felt an odd sensation coming from the oven. It was as if there was something out of place, something that was just off about it.

Ignoring it for now, Twilight focused harder, she was certain that if she destroyed the oven that it would stop this Celestia-forsaken heat.

But before that could happen, the oven detonated.

A loud bang followed by a shockwave threw Twilight against the wall behind her.

She shook her spinning head, ears ringing and drowning out all other noise.

Looking to the oven, she was met with a blackened splotch on the wall and a few small fires raging around it. Twilight tried to focus on her magic, intent on stopping the fires, but her spinning head ensured that she couldn’t focus enough to use her magic properly.

Fortunately for her, the blast did seem to stop the heat wave and Twilight was able to get to her hooves and stumble out of the kitchen and then out of Sugarcube Corner. Having heard the explosion, a ponies had started gathering around outside, looking worriedly into the shop.

Her head spinning less than it had moments ago, Twilight started issuing orders, forming a bucket line to take water and extinguish the fires inside Sugarcube Corner.
______________________________________________________________________________

‘Well that was quite interesting,’ Malum commented as the duet of evil watched from a darkened alleyway.

‘Indeed,’ Stirrups replied, ‘I believe that with the essence we have gathered from this, that we are ready.’

‘I agree,’ Malum said, ‘We must still prepare, but the essence we now possess should be enough for us to finally destroy the Elements.’

‘Once and for all,’ Stirrups said, half-smile crossing his face.
______________________________________________________________________________

> Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So how are they, doc?” Applejack inquired, worried.

“They should be fine. The worst that they received were high-end first degree burns and some heat exhaustion. All they need is some burn cream, painkillers, and some rest and they’ll be right as rain in no time,” The doctor replied, adjusting his glasses with a touch of magic.

Dash grumbled from her bed, “How much rest? Is this gonna be a repeat of the last time I was here?”

“I don’t know,” The doctor replied, “Are you going to steal one of our books again?”

Dash gave a short, nervous chuckle, “I’ll try not to, doc,” she assured.

“At most you should be here a couple of days,” The doctor said, taking his leave of the room, “So get some rest and before you know it you’ll be on your ways.”

“Ugh,” Dash grumbled, falling back into her hospital bed. It was then that a sudden thought struck her, “Hey, where’s Metal Stirrups?”

“What?” Applejack, who had been zoned out for a second, asked.

“Metal Stirrups!” Dash exclaimed, “That jackass just up and ran off after that stupid oven went haywire! We could’ve been killed if you and Twilight didn’t show up! The good for nothing...”

“Excuse me?” Applejack interrupted, annoyance crawling into her voice, “Mister Stirrups just so happened to be the reason that Twi and I came round to save the two of you.”

Now it was Dash’s turn to say, “What?”

“I was cleanin' up my stall for the day when mister Stirrups came rushin' by and told me that somethin' was goin' wrong at Sugarcube Corner,” Applejack thought a moment, “Now that I think about it, what were y’all doin' down there anyways? I know for a fact that you don’t know salt from sugar when it comes to bakin', Rainbow.”

Dash seemed to wither under the suspicious glare that her farmer friend was giving her.

“Heh,” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head and avoiding Applejack’s gaze, “Oh, would you look at the time, I should probably start getting some of that rest. Come to think of it, I’m pretty dang tired from that whole ordeal. See you later, Applejack.”

And with that, Dash closed her eyes and started to faux-snore.

Unimpressed, Applejack glared at her friend a while before turning to go, “Well good then. Y’all get your rest. But I’ll get what you were doin' from ya one way or another once you’re outta here.”

Once outside of the hospital room, Applejack’s head drooped and she let out a pained sigh, ‘First my sister, now my friends too? What in the hay is goin' on?’
______________________________________________________________________________

“So...whatcha got there?” Twilight asked with a smile, trying to make conversation.

Stirrups, annoyed, turned his head around to look at Twilight, “A book,” he replied simply before turning back to his reading.

Twilight’s smile turned to a frown of annoyance, ‘Why is this pony so difficult to talk to!?’ she mentally growled.

Putting on a more pleasant face, Twilight cut through the bull, not literally of course but I digress, “Look, I just wanted to say thanks for warning AJ and me that something was wrong at Sugarcube Corner. If you hadn’t warned us...” Twilight trailed off, her mind wondering to what would have happened had two of her friends been killed. She shook her head to clear the bad thoughts, “Thank you, I don’t know what I’d do if two of my best friends were killed.”

“Hm,” Stirrups replied with a gruff nod.

Once Twilight had left him to his studies on different types of acids, Stirrup’s signature half-mouthed smile split his features once more.

‘What do you find funny?’ Malum asked.

‘The fact that she thanked us for saving the lives of two of her friends when we’re going to do away with them ourselves,’ Stirrups replied in kind.

Had Malum had a face, she would have smiled as well.

‘Ah yes,’ Stirrups continued after a moment of silence, ‘There’s just one last thing that I think we should do before we begin with our elimination.’

‘And what might that be?’ Malum inquired.

‘I think that we can make Pinkie Pie suffer quite a bit more before she leaves this world.’
______________________________________________________________________________

The next day...

“So how have you been, darling? I didn’t see you at the spa the other day,” Rarity said, making pleasant conversation as the two made their way towards Sugarcube Corner.

“Oh, well, cleaning,” Fluttershy replied meekly, “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Fluttershy. I understand that sometimes work comes before play, as the old saying goes. But what besides cleaning have you been up to? Surely mere cleaning hasn’t been the highlight of the week.”

Fluttershy seemed to shrink down a bit, her trot slowing, “Well actually...I-I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning,” she said, voice losing volume towards the end.

Rarity frowned at this, “Did some of your animals make an extra large mess of your cottage? If you’d like I could help you finish if you haven’t already...well so long as it doesn’t require getting dirty, of course.”

At the word ‘dirty,’ Fluttershy flinched, “Y-you don’t think that my cottage is messy...do you?” She asked, looking at her friend with scared eyes.

“Whyever would I?” Rarity inquired incredulously, “You do a great job keeping your cottage clean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your cottage messy at all,” Noticing her friend’s overall actions and look, Rarity continued, “But what would make you think such a thing? Did somepony say something about your cottage being messy?”

Fluttershy shrunk down as Rarity hit dead-on what had happened, “Well...yes.”

“Who?” Rarity asked.

“Oh, I-I’ll tell you later,” Fluttershy replied, the two ponies were finally before the doors of their destination.

Rarity was going to inquire further, in an effort to find out just who had hurt Fluttershy’s feelings, when who should show up but a particular pink party pony.

“Hiya!” Pinkie greeted, appearing from nowhere as she did sometimes.

“Oh, hello Pinkie,” Fluttershy replied, her heart rate dropping back to normal.

“Why, how are you, Pinkie? Feeling better I take it?” Rarity replied with a question.

“Yep!” Pinkie chirped happily, “All better after that silly-willy accident.”

“Well that’s simply great to hear, darling,” Rarity said, “Fluttershy and I were just about to drop in for a bite to eat at Sugarcube Corner, care to join us?”

“Nope!” Pinkie replied bluntly, yet happily. She hopped through the door while the other two entered after her, “I’ve got baking to do!”

Nopony noticed the two shreds of shadow that followed the three mares into the sweetshop. Yet that was not to say that their effects went unnoticed as both shreds latched onto the two ponies already inside the shop.

Before she could bounce past the counter and into the kitchen, however, Pinkie was stopped.

“Oh...P-pinkie,” Mrs. Cake greeted with a worried expression on her face, “C-could you wait a moment...”

“Hiya, Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie replied cheerfully, not noticing the odd expression on Mrs. Cakes’ face.

Mrs. Cake was silent for a moment as she struggled with the words she wanted to say. Mr. Cake came through the kitchen doorway with a set of sweets on his back, he halted, however, when he spotted Pinkie.

“Look, Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake finally began, “Af-after the, well the accident, we can’t have you...” She trailed off.

Pinkie, who now wore a slightly confused expression on her face turned to Mr. Cake as he picked up where his wife had started.

“...I’m sorry, Pinkie, but you can’t work here anymore,” Mr. Cake said with a pained expression.

“But...can’t work...I...here...any...any...anymore?” Pinkie wondered aloud, sounding a bit like a broken machine

Fluttershy and Rarity stared, not sure entirely what to do. As what she was being told sunk in, Pinkie collapsed into a sitting position, her mane and tail deflating in a matter of seconds.

“Can’t work...but...” Pinkie continued, eyes latching onto the floor before her.

It was Rarity who snapped out of her trance first. She trotted up to Pinkie and after some hesitation placed her hoof on the pink pony’s shoulder.

“Pinkie?” She asked.

Pinkie didn’t reply.

“Pinkie, are...are you alright, darling?” 

Again, no response.

“Well, look. If...you need a place to stay, I have a spare room at Carousel Boutique. You can stay there if you want...free of charge of course,” Rarity offered, “Okay?”

“Okay,” Pinkie mumbled after a few tense, silent moments.

The normally energetic mare got back on her hooves and slowly trotted out of the shop. Rarity followed, glaring back at the Cakes before she left. 

“It may not be my business telling ponies what they should and should not do...” She began. Yet upon looking at the pain on the Cake’s faces, the next words died in her throat, her glare losing its power as she followed Pinkie.
______________________________________________________________________________

‘Oh by Luna’s majestic flank that, was beautiful!’ Stirrups thought as the three mares left Sugarcube Corner, all feeling different degrees of pain.

‘Quite our luck that her two friends were there,’ Smirked Malum, ‘That was perfect.’

‘So we’re ready now?’

‘With the added essence we now have, we should have plenty left over after the Elements are out of the picture.’

‘And then?’

Malum would have smiled should she have possessed a mouth, ‘Equestria shall be ours.’
______________________________________________________________________________

“What!?” Twilight exclaimed rhetorically, blind to the fact that libraries were supposed to be quiet, “They fired Pinkie!?”

Fluttershy, trying to make herself as small as possible should Twilight try to blame the messenger, simply nodded.

“But...what...that doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight continued, turning from the library door as she thought. Now facing the interior, she caught a glare from the lone reader, Metal Stirrups, and withered a little bit as she realized that somepony was trying to read while she was yelling. Furthermore, she realized who she had been yelling at, “I’m sorry for yelling, Fluttershy,” she said, lowering her voice as she turned to face the pegasus in question, “But this doesn’t make any sense, the cakes would never fire Pinkie over something like a little mistake, that’s completely out of character...right?” She wondered out loud, starting to doubt herself at the end, “Well perhaps blowing up an oven and almost killing two ponies might not be the exact definition of ‘little,’ but still.”

“The Cakes did look really sad,” Fluttershy offered quietly, “They looked like they didn’t want to do it, but they had to...like they were forced to.”

From his reading spot, Stirrups’ ears perked up ever so slightly, his body tensing.

After pondering a moment more, Twilight sighed, “So Rarity said that she has a place for Pinkie to stay?”

Fluttershy nodded.

“Well then I guess there’s one good thing to this mess. I think I’ll have a word with the Cakes and try and get them to change their minds to let Pinkie work there again.”

‘Damnit, we must do something! We can’t let her talk to them or it might ruin our corrupting essences over them!’ Malum growled.

Before Stirrups could respond, however, Fluttershy did.

“I...I don’t know if that’s such a great idea, Twilight.”

Twilight looked confused, “What? Why? Pinkie must be distraught, horrified even, at the prospect of losing her job at Sugarcube Corner.”

“But...so are the Cakes,” Fluttershy replied, looking from her hooves to her friend, “They looked really sad, like they didn’t want Pinkie to go. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t try to help Pinkie get her job back, just...not so soon,” Fluttershy flinched, “I mean...”

Twilight sighed, “No, you’re right, that makes more sense. Whatever the reason, it must’ve hurt the Cakes bad to make them fire Pinkie. We should at least give them some time to reconsider on their own and get over whatever bump this is before trying to force their hooves.”

Silence descended over the two, Stirrups’ body untensed and his signature smile came into existence as a crisis was averted.

“Thanks for keeping me in the loop, Fluttershy,” Twilight smiled.

Fluttershy replied with a weak, unsure smile in return.

“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” Twilight apologized to Stirrups with a sigh as Fluttershy left, “I’d hate to bother you with my friend’s and my own dilemmas.”

Stirrups gave a neutral snort, not looking up from his reading.

Twilight made her way to the opposite side of the library, sorting through some of the shelved books. She threw a few glances back at the ever-stoic Metal Stirrups before turning towards him.

“What...” she began, a grimace of doubt flashing across her face, “...what happened in the kitchen...at Sugarcube Corner?” Stirrups looked up from his reading, but remained facing the opposite wall with his back turned to Twilight, “If you don’t mind me asking,” she added.

She wasn’t certain if Stirrups was going to reply for a few moments before he did.

“I don’t,” he began, “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and I were making cupcakes for a prank. We had just put them in the oven when Pinkie was drawn away by a customer. Dash decided to turn on the oven to get the cupcakes done sooner, and then everything went haywire.”

“You three were making cupcakes for a prank?” Twilight inquired, not having heard the story of what happened yet.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Stirrups replied.

“Rainbow Dash...she didn’t sabotage the oven to do that, did she?”

“Not from what I could tell,” Stirrups said flatly, “But...unless it was pure mechanical failure I don’t know what else could have caused it.”

Twilight turned, a hoof at her chin as she thought, ‘Rainbow Dash would never deliberately sabotage the Cake’s oven...would she?’

Twilight remembered a time quite some time ago, when Dash and Pinkie had replaced her ink with a fading one. She had been working on some experiment which time had blurred the purpose of, but the result had been a small explosion. Harmless, yes, but an explosion nonetheless.

True, it was a simple prank that she had been a good sport about...but what if Dash had tried pulling a prank by messing with the oven? The athlete didn’t have a ton of mechanical know-how, but...

Twilight looked back to Stirrups, who was back to reading and silently scheming, and decided not to bother him any more about the details. She could ask Rainbow Dash herself later and find out if it had been through her that Pinkie ultimately lost her job.
______________________________________________________________________________

“So what were ya doin' with Pinkie and Stirrups in Sugarcube Corner?” Applejack asked bluntly.

Rainbow Dash, who had neither heard nor expected her friend’s approach, startled at her friend’s voice, hopping a short distance into the air.

When Dash landed, Applejack planted a sturdy hoof down on the end of Dash’s tail, ensuring that the pegasus didn’t escape.

Dash turned, as best she could with her tail mostly pinned to the ground, and faced Applejack to be met with an intense and questioning gaze.

Seeing that her options were either test Applejack’s strength in an attempt to escape, or just tell her friend what had happened, Dash decided to just fess up.

“We were baking cupcakes,” She admitted.

“So what in the hay happened, and why you and Stirrups? I know that you don’t have any interest in bakin',” Applejack raised a suspicious eyebrow, “Or am I mistaken?”

“We were making them for a prank. The idea was to put some really spicy frosting on this batch as a prank,” Dash groaned, knowing better than to lie to the Element of Honesty, “I set the oven and then it went all weird and crazy.”

Applejack remained silent, waiting to see if there was anything else.

“What? That’s everything!” Dash exclaimed under Applejack’s stern gaze, “I set the oven to three hundred or whatever and it just went straight to Tartarus from there!” Thinking for a moment, Dash came up with a question of her own, “And what’s with you lately?”

Seeing as she was done with the interrogation, Applejack released dash’s tail before replying, “What do you mean?”

“You’re, like, zoning out and stuff,” Dash looked over her friend once before replying, “And is it just me or do you look like you’ve lost some sleep.

“I’d blame it on harvest season or something, but one: it isn’t harvesting season, and two: you look like you spend more time at your stall than you usually do, you’ve set up in the market every day this week.”

“That doesn’t concern you,” Applejack replied with a slightly defensive tone.

“The well-being of a friend doesn’t concern another friend? Another, loyal...” Dash stressed the word, “...friend?”

“My well-bein' is fine and dandy, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack replied, turning to go, “Plus, you got a lot to think about yerself now that Pinkie lost her job cause of that damn oven explodin'.”

This was news for the pegasus.

“What?!” she exclaimed.

“The Cakes went and fired Pinkie,” Applejack, who had started to make her way away from Dash, replied. She halted and turned her head back towards her friend, “Ah don’t mean to point any hooves, but seein' that you were the last one to touch it before it went to pony hell, I’m beginnin' to wonder just who was to blame for that.”

“What!” Dash raged, shooting up so she was nose to nose with Applejack, “You think that I’m to blame for this whole Celstiadamned mess?”

“I hate to say it, Rainbow, but I’m beginnin' to. I’ve been wrong before, but if it was your fault, then you’ve got a lot to answer for,” Applejack held eye contact for a moment longer before turning and leaving.

Dash was about to chase after her to continue the argument, when it hit her. It hit her so hard that she landed rather harshly and sat back on her haunches.

“Wh...” she began, pausing for a moment to consider, “What if it...was me?”
______________________________________________________________________________

> Destroying harmony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight lifted her head groggily from the cold metal floor, her mind fuzzy as a rabbit. Had she been of a clearer mind she would have realized something: Ponyville’s library had no metal floors.

However, something far more colorful snatched away her attention before she could reach this conclusion.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight mumbled, confusedly staring at the blur of blue and rainbow a yard or so in front of her. Twilight rubbed her eyes, taking note that there was a metallic yoke around her neck, “What the...what’s going on here? This isn’t the library!” Twilight suddenly realized, panic setting in.

Her mind unfogged near-instantaneously and she looked around, taking everything in. The room that she was in was featureless and made of dull metal, in the wall in front of her was a closed door. Besides her, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack were all present, there was no sign of Fluttershy.

As this string of thoughts came to existence in her mind, the rest of her friends groggily awoke as well.

“Ow, my head,” Rainbow Dash muttered, rubbing her noggin.

“Rainbow? Where...what in the hay?!” Applejack exclaimed, getting to her hooves. She rested a hoof against her head and quickly realized something, “My hat! Where is it?!”

As Applejack began a frantic look-around for her hat, Rarity got to her hooves as well, “Girls? Where are we?” She looked down, “And what in Equestria is this dreadful monstrosity around my neck!?”

“Ooh, is this some sort of super-duper surprise party? Cause I’m really, really, really, really, really, really surprised!” The pink party pony smiled, a smile that seemed more forced than it should have, “Wait, where’s Fluttershy? She’s missing the party!”

As the panic from four of the five ponies reached a crescendo, Pinkie smashed it when she noticed a small note hanging by a thread from the ceiling.

“Ooh, is that the pinata?” She wondered aloud, though only with half her usual vigor. Balancing on her hind legs to grab hold of the small card and pulling it from its hanging spot, “Looks a little small to me,” she commented upon further investigation, “Oh wait, maybe it’s the list for a scavenger hunt!”

“What does it say?” Twilight asked, moving closer to Pinkie and the note.

“‘You are all going to play a game...’,” Pinkie read, “Ooh, I wonder what kind of...”

“Pinkie!”

“Oh, right,” she cleared her throat before continuing, “‘...that will test your bonds to the elements of harmony. By now you will have noticed the metal braces around your necks...”

“Pff, no duh,” Dash commented.

“...these braces are filled with explosives that will detonate under a few conditions...”

The ponies paled and Pinkie’s voice began to grow less cheery as the weight of the situation started to dawn on her.

“...If Twilight uses her magic, it will detonate all the braces besides her’s and Rarity’s. If Rarity uses her magic, it will detonate all of the braces...”

“What!?” Both unicorns exclaimed.

“...Finally, don’t think that you can just wait this out. The braces all have timers on them, remain in one room for too long and they will detonate. The clock is ticking, so get to it.’”

Silence fell upon the room.

“Well that doesn’t sound like a fun scavenger hunt.”

“Is...is that all it says?” Twilight asked, taking the note in her hoof, being careful not to use her magic.

“But...who...” Pinkie wondered.

“Discord!” Dash exclaimed, hovering above the others, “It’s gotta be him!”

“I reckon that’d make sense,” Applejack reasoned, brushing a hoof through her mane before realizing again that her hat was missing, “But where’s Fluttershy? I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that she’s missin'.”

Twilight, who had finished re-reading the note, looked up and locked her eyes on the lone door.

“I don’t know what’s in store for us or...whoever it is plans to test us, but so long as we stick to our elements, I’m sure that we’ll make it through this. If it is Discord, and he’s somehow escaped, we’ll need to get out of here quick and stop him again.”

“Right!” Dash declared as she shot towards the door, “Let’s go!”

“Rainbow Dash, wait,” Twilight said, halting the speedster in her tracks, “We need to stick together, together I know we can accomplish anything,” she turned to the others, “Ready?”

A series of nods gave her an answer.

“Then let’s go,” Twilight said, she and her friends moving towards the door.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy was tense with fear. Every few seconds she threw a look around her, fearfully eyeing the shadows in the corners of the small room. Every time that her gaze was taken by the shadows, it always quickly turned back to the wall in front of her.

On this wall was a lone image being displayed by a magical crystal. It was an image of a room, a room that was inhabited by her friends.

Fluttershy threw another glance back at the shadows, afraid that they were watching her.

When she looked back, her friends were on the move through a door in the room, and the image changed to another room. The elements of harmony were facing their first challenge.
______________________________________________________________________________

The room that the group of five moved into was much taller than the one that they had previously inhabited. Some sick looking contraption was attached to the ceiling and sunlight spilled through a pony-sized hole in the ceiling.

“A way out!” Dash exclaimed, shooting towards the ceiling.

“Wait!” Twilight called, “Rainbow Dash!”

Dash came to a screeching halt in the air, hovering a duet of yards from the opening, “What?” She called down to Twilight, “I can go get help!”

“That hole is there for a reason,” Twilight replied, “That first note said that we would have the elements tested and...” Twilight’s eyes locked on a second small slip of paper, “...that might be a part of the test.”

Making her way to the second note, Twilight grabbed it in a hoof before unfolding it and reading.

“‘This is your first test. Loyalty will be tested in this chamber,’” Twilight read, “‘Rainbow Dash, element of loyalty, you will have noticed the hole in the ceiling by now. That leads to your freedom. However, exiting through that hole will cause the braces that your friends are wearing to explode, killing all of them...’”

Rainbow Dash paled, throwing a glance at the hole in the ceiling before moving away from it, fearing that even being near it would spell her friends’ doom.

“‘...Your second choice is simple. You must...’” Twilight’s eyes grew wide and quickly scanned over the rest of the note.

“Must what?” Dash asked, not entirely sure that she wanted to know.

Twilight didn’t reply, reading the note over and over as if to find that she was reading what it said wrong.

“What does it say?”

“What is it, Twi?” Applejack asked, trotting up to her friend, “What does it say?”

Fed up with the lack of answers, Dash flew in and snatched the note from her friend. Twilight hardly reacted as the note left her grasp.

With the pilfered letter in hoof, Dash landed and read over it herself, mumbling it to herself as she read.

“‘You must...’” she mumbled, getting to the part that had caused Twilight to freeze up, her reaction was similar, but she didn’t stop her quiet oration, “...sacrifice your wings...f-for the lives of your friends...’”

Gasps were had around the room.

“‘...Fly up to the device at the top of the c-ceiling and slip your wings through the holes. Two blades will c-cut off your...’” she gulped with trepidation, “‘...wings and this in turn will open the d-door to the next chamber. We shall see how loyal you really are...’” Dash’s voice trailed off, cracking at the end.

Silence bathed the room.

Rainbow Dash flinched when Pinkie placed a hoof on her shoulder, “Dashie?” Pinkie asked.

“I...I...” Dash began, staring at her hooves as if they held the answer. After a moment’s pause, she looked up, “I can’t let my friends down...n-no matter what.”

Not hesitating, Dash shot up towards the device.

“Rainbow Dash! Wait!” Twilight called after her.

“I won’t let you girls down! I can’t!” Dash replied, though she did pause in the air.

“There has to be another way,” Twilight said, unwilling to let her friend harm herself without looking for other options.

“There isn’t!” Dash retorted, both in anger and anguish, on the verge of tears at what was to come, “What could we do? Huh?” she gestured around the room, “There’s nothing we can do, Twilight! I ha...I have to do this.”

“But Rainbow...”

“Damnit, Twilgiht! You’re making this harder than it already is,” Dash cut in, “I cannot and will not let you girls down!”

Without further ado, Rainbow Dash closed the distance with the contraption on the ceiling. She paused before it, fear crossing her face and making her hesitate. She looked down at her friends, all of whom were looking up at her with mixed degrees of fear and sorrow.

She set her eyes back on the machine, looking to see how it would work and doubts began to form in her mind.

‘Nopony would know...nopony would or could blame you if you left them, Dash,’ a dark voice in the back of her head hissed quietly, ‘Lose your wings...FOREVER? NEVER become a Wonderbolt? NEVER fly again? NEVER ever?’ the voice continued, ‘I say that you ditch your friends, nopony will ever know. You even have the note.’

Dash glanced down to her hoof where the note with the writing was still in her grasp.

‘You could hide it...burn it...tell them that you didn’t know...you flew out without thinking and the explosives detonated...nopony would ever have to know and you could FLY free...forever.’

Rainbow Dash threw a look down towards her friends.

‘Could you really just let this thing cut off your wings and never fly again, Dash? Could you sacrifice your entire life and career?’

Dash looked over to the hole in the ceiling, then to the contraption again. She hung her head and closed her eyes.

Indecision and doubt began to grow in her guts, twisting within as if they were a blade. On one hoof she could escape, fly free...but her friends...

Not letting any further doubt cloud her mind, Rainbow Dash shot forwards...and slipped her wings into the device. The effect was instant, something grabbed hold of her wings, holding them in place and making it so that all her weight was held by them alone.

A fraction of a second later, searing pain coursed through her wings and back as two razor sharp blades came down, easily cutting through feather and flesh.

Dash screamed in pain, spasming as her wings were assaulted by the blades. Warm blood spilled across her back, darkening her blue hide and dripping to the floor below.

Down below, a door opened and the terrified faces of her friends looked towards their escape before returning to their friend.

“Go!” Dash yelled through the pain. She could feel the blades pressing into the bones of her wings, pushing with enough force to slowly make their way through, “GO!” Dash yelled again.

The four ponies below rushed through the open door before looking back up at their friend from the safety of the next room.

The damage from the blades paired with the weight of her own body eventually caused the bones of her wings to snap. Without anything else holding her up, Dash plummeted to the ground.

She tried to flap her wings through the pain, but her wings were no longer there and she hit the ground hard.

Cursing, Applejack rushed from the room towards the downed Dash. Behind her, the door began to close.

“Ya’ll stay back!” Applejack called back, dissuading any of the others from coming, “I’ve got her.”

Normally, Dash would have landed softly with the help of her wings. Without them and with the hard nature of the metal floor, she took far more damage than she usually would have upon impact. Stars swam around her head and she couldn’t bring herself to get up.

Her entire body now throbbed in pain as Applejack came to a halt in front of her. Applejack bit down on the metal brace around her friend’s neck and began to backtrack as fast as her legs could carry her, dragging her friend along with all due haste.

Inch by inch, the large door to their escape was closing but Applejack was sure that they would make it.

But it was not meant to be.

Applejack passed through the doorway, but right as Rainbow Dash’s head came through, the door’s closing speed was taken up a notch.

To the horror of everypony watching, the door came down right behind Dash’s withers. With a sick crunch, the pegasus was cut in half. Had she been more than half conscious, Dash would have screamed. As it was, she was only able to let out a moan before her blood pressure dropped far beyond the healthy level and her life ended.

Applejack stared, dumbstruck with horror.

At the sight of the blood that began flowing from Dash’s body, Rarity vomited.

Twilight paled at the sight before her, but was somehow able to keep her lunch.

Pinkie’s mind had trouble registering what had just happened, “But...this can’t...D-Dash...but...Dashie...” She mumbled, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Nothing moved save for the blood running from Dash’s body and Rarity, who was wiping spit from her mouth. Pooling, it grew slowly in size, grasping Applejack’s hooves and cutting her from her stupor.

“We...” she said in a hoarse whisper, hearing her voice, she stopped and tried again, “We...we need to keep movin'.”

Despite her words, Applejack didn’t move. It was as if she was transfixed to the body before her, as if she expected that at any moment life would refill her friend’s cold, dead eyes and she would get up. Yet it was not to be.

Rarity, who was finally done emptying her stomach, was the next to speak.

“A-Applejack is right...we need to keep moving. Once we’re out of this we can come back...for Rainbow Dash.”
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy, who was staining the ground with tears of sorrow, didn’t see as her remaining friends eventually began making their way down the metal hallway towards whatever the next test would be.
______________________________________________________________________________

A trail of tears followed the quartet of ponies making their way down the hallway, some of the ponies contributing more than others. 

The weight of the situation sinking in had forced Pinkie into a sobbing fit while she leaned against a comforting Twilight for support. Twilight felt herself crying openly, though quietly while Rarity held down her sorrowful sobs. Applejack, still partially in shock trailed behind the other three, a tear dropping from her eyes every few seconds.

There was a loud clang in front of her and Applejack jumped in fright, startled beyond belief. She looked up as her heart settled to find her way blocked by a massive door. She frantically began banging her hoof against the metal calling out for the others.

She heard no voices reply, but from the sound of it, the others were pounding on the door as well.

Applejack looked over her surroundings, trying to find a way out.

A door had opened to her right, leading into a smaller parallel hallway. She immediately figured that it was either a trap or part of the next challenge, maybe both. However, she had no other option besides going back, which led to nothing.

“Tarnation!” She cursed quietly, stamping a hoof on the ground before trotting through the door.

She gave a few pounds on the metal of the wall of the new hallway, trying to let her friends know that she had found a way.

Pounding replied and she gave a sigh of relief before continuing forwards.

She kept her wits about her, ears pointed forwards in an attempt to detect even the slightest noise. She kept pounding on the door as she went, letting her friends know that she was progressing as they were.

Soon enough, the hallway ended with a room with a closed door. Other than that, the wall separating the two hallways had been replaced with glass. Applejack looked through to see her worried friends make their way to their own door.

“Applejack! Are you okay?” She could barely hear Twilight ask.

“I’m fine,” Applejack replied, looking around. Her heart became filled with dread as she spied a note on the ground.

Uncertainty assailing her, she picked up the note and began reading.

“‘Applejack, now it’s your turn. You have two choices, one will lead to your death, the other to your friends’. Either choice will give the surviving party their freedom,’” She read quietly to herself, “‘They will ask for the password for their door. That password is: Honesty. Tell them this and you will die. Lie to them and you will survive. Stay true or lie, we shall see how honest you truly are when it comes to life and death...’”

“It says you have the password.”

“What?” Applejack asked, looking from the note to the glass.

“This note we have says that you have the password,” Twilight repeated, unease ruling her face.

Applejack opened her mouth to reply, but promptly closed it with indecision.

‘Tell the truth and die...or tell a lie and live...’ she thought.

As she thought that, thoughts began to churn inside her head. She would never see her family again. She’d never get to see Apple Bloom finally get her Cutie Mark, or buck her first apple tree, or grow up. Big Mac would have to do double the work for their family to survive as they did...thoughts like these and so many more were a hot topic in the head of the farmer pony. But quick thoughts cut these off.

Her friends also had families that needed and cared for them. Who was she to take them away? Who was she to...

“Applejack?”

She snapped out of her train of thought. Her friends, all wearing worried looks, were staring at her from their hallway.

“The...the password’s ‘Honesty,’” She said, hanging her head as she waited for the end. She looked up into the eyes of her friends, “I want y’all to promise me. Take care of Apple Bloom fer me, I won’t be there so ah want you girls to help my family while I’m...gone.”

The others looked confused, but nodded at her request. Twilight moved over to her door and spoke the password. The door opened and Applejack heard a series of loud, harsh clicks around her room.

She looked around fearfully before yelling, “Go!” to her friends. With horrified expressions, they quickly pushed through the door.

Applejack turned around, glaring around the room to see what doom awaited her. If she was dying today, she wasn’t going to do it laying down.

There was a hiss from above and Applejack looked up to see a thin mist slowly descending upon her. She threw a kick at the glass separating her from the other hallway, but it didn’t give. She tried again, bucking with all her strength. It was no use.

The mist was descending upon the small room, Applejack rushed to the door, but it was metallic and had no handle like the rest of the doors before. Applejack looked up to see the mist right above her. She dropped down to her stomach and an idea struck her. She began twirling her tail as if she were using a lasso, trying to fan whatever the mist was away from her.

Again, it was no use. What she was able to fan away was only gone a short while before more replaced it. She was only delaying the inevitable. 

Some of the mist reached one of her outstretched legs and she cried out as she realized what it was. She had thought that the mist was some form of poison, but it was much worse. The mist was highly acidic.

Applejack gritted her teeth, tears of pain flowing from her eyes as the acid burned into her foreleg, eating away the skin.

She inhaled sharply as the pain reached it’s peak and immediately regretted it as she got a lungful of the acid.

Applejack began to cough and hack as the acid settled into her lungs. She could feel it burning from inside as she continued to cough and hack, blood splattering the ground in front of her. She frantically got to her hooves, the pain clouding her judgement, as even more settled upon her body, eating away at her skin, peeling it away like some form of sick, twisted rain. 

She rushed around in a blind panic, eyes squeezed shut as she tried to find somewhere to get away from all the pain. In her blind rush, she ran into a wall and cried out. The pain was overwhelming and she opened her eyes, another thing she came to regret as the acid turned her eyes into soup, blinding her.

She finally just collapsed as the pain overrode her receptors and caused her to black out. The acid had already made decent work on her lungs and her brain quickly shut off as it was deprived of oxygen that was needed to keep it working.
______________________________________________________________________________

‘Fluttershy,’ a hauntingly familiar voice hissed into her ear.

Fluttershy let out an ‘eep!’ hopping away from the voice and ending up in the light of the crystal projector. She squinted against the light as it reflected off the streaks of tears across her face.

“Wh-who’s th-there?” She stuttered, both from the continuous sobs and the fear.

‘Do you see that button on the wall there?’ The voice replied.

Shaking, Fluttershy looked and saw a small button poking from the wall.

‘If the pain ever becomes too much, you can always press that button. That button will end all of you and your friend’s suffering and you will be free...’

Fluttershy looked around the room again, still quaking in fear, before settling back on the button.

“F-f-f-free?” She inquired.

‘Dead,’ the voice corrected in a much harsher tone, startling Fluttershy into hopping from the projector light and into a darker corner.

Her friends were entering a new room, but Fluttershy didn’t notice, she was too busy searching the room for the source of the voice...the familiar voice...her voice...
______________________________________________________________________________

For the hundredth time, Twilight glanced back over her shoulder. She wanted to go back and find Applejack, find a way to get her out of that room separated by the glass, but dread of what she might find kept her back. She hated herself for not having the courage to go back, but alas it was all she could do.

“There-there’s the next room,” Rarity pointed out, drawing Twilight’s attention forwards again.

The dwindling trio halted.

“I don’t think that we should go, there has to be some way to...to get out of this some other way!” Rarity exclaimed, frightened.

“As much as we want not to, there’s no other way, Rarity!” Twilight replied, “look around us! There’s nothing we can use! We can’t use our magic and we can’t stay put or these things will...” Twilight trailed off with a hoof aimed at the brace around her neck, “If...if one of us can pull through, she can get the princesses. I don’t know, maybe she can...do something, find out who did this and find a way to bring the others back!”

“But even I know that necro-magics are illegal! You can’t bring a life back! It’s one of the few impossible magics!” Rarity retorted, hating herself for saying it despite the fact that it was truth.

“But...but she’s the Princess! She has to be able to do...something!” Twilight exclaimed back, on the verge of losing it like Rarity.

“Girls,” Pinkie deadpanned, an act that instantly won the silent attention of her two friends. Without looking back, Pinkie continued, “We need to keep going.” And with that, she trotted into the next room.

After exchanging a glance, the two unicorns followed.

The room wasn’t very large, on the opposite side was a closed door. As was expected by now, a note hung from a string that was attached to the ceiling.

“‘There is a device on the floor with two holes in it. One of you must generously place your front hooves in this device to activate it and open the door to the next challenge. You will lose your hooves in the process, but your friends will be able to pass,’” Pinkie read sullenly.

Silence fell on the room for a minute or so before anypony dared speak again.

“I...I’ll have to do it,” Rarity said, she trotted over to the device, “For...for you girls, I must.”

“Wait,” Twilight mumbled, “If...if all it’s doing is cutting...” Twilight sickened at the thought, “Well, it won’t k-ki...Pinkie and I can carry you with us,” she finished. Twilight felt her stomach rise as she thought back to what had happened to Rainbow Dash, “We’ll need to be quick, though.”

Pinkie nodded.

Rarity stood before the device, two hoof-sized holes in the floor marking it.

“I...I suppose that,” she grimaced in what was supposed to be a smile, “this can’t be good for my new hooficure.”

In almost any situation, the remark would have been funny, but it only made the group of three more uneasy and sick in the gut.

Rarity lifted a hoof, staring down with dread at the hole she was about to place it in. She couldn’t bear to watch as her hoof slowly descended into the hole and she flinched when she felt it touch the bottom.

Rarity went tense as she expected something to come and slice her hoof off, but nothing happened.

She cracked open an eye, seeing that one hoof was inside the device, but the other wasn’t. Perhaps she needed to put both hooves in before the device...worked?

She lifted her other hoof, hovering it over the second hole. She then proceeded to set it in, but as the knowledge of what would happen when she did came into her mind, self-preservation halted her progress.

“No,” she said quietly to her reluctant hoof, “For the sake of my friends, I must do this!”

And with that, she stomped her hoof into the hole.

Blades would have been nicer, which was exactly why they weren’t used. Instead of any form of sharp cutting tool, two miniature hydraulic presses, each with tons of pounds of force behind them, came together on Rarity’s front hooves, turning the flesh to pulp and the bones to powder with a sickening crunch.

Rarity cried out in pain, wetting herself as the pain overrode her senses and plunged her into darkness. Her unconscious body collapsed forwards as her two front hooves could no longer support her. Warm blood began to pool around the ground at the white unicorn’s hooves.

“Quickly!” Twilight exclaimed, at her friend’s side in a flash, “Grab her hind legs!”

Without a word, Pinkie grabbed Rarity’s back legs while Twilight, trying to avoid all the blood, supported her front. Twilight was a thought away from using a spell before she remembered the consequences of doing such a thing.

“Turn her over,” Twilight said, hoping that with the wounds both above the heart and body, the blood loss would drop. She looked back over her shoulder to see the door open, “Lets carry her through the door, hurry!”

Rarity, already paler than she should have been snapped awake long enough to give a whimper as she was rushed through the door, which promptly shut behind them.

Twilight herself grew pale as she stared down at Rarity, her coat stained with more blood than she had expected from the wounds. The purple pony also realized that she had nothing to stop the blood flow, she knew that she might be able to with her magic, but doing so would...

“‘You have reached the second to last challenge, my little ponies...’” Pinkie read the next note, looking nothing like the Pinkie that Twilight had come to know.

The pink mare’s hair had deflated, laying across her head in a curtain while her face beheld no emotion. Her eyes slowly crossed out the words as she read down the note, mechanically, and without any feeling.

Seeing the usually resolute Pinkie broken as she was turned the seed of lost hope in Twilight’s heart into a full-grown tree, bearing plentiful ripe fruit of sorrow. Had she not been supporting the injured form of Rarity, she would have collapsed to the floor as she finally gave up.

“‘...here you come to a crossroads, with two choices leading to the next challenge. Your first choice, Twilight, cast a spell and kill Pinkie. Or Pinkie, press the button next to the door, detonating Twilight’s brace and killing her. Both of these will open the door, so hop to it.’”

Pinkie looked to Twilight, then the door, spying a red button next to it.

Without a second glance, Pinkie dropped the note and headed forwards, determination in her eyes.

“P-Pinkie?” Twilight asked, watching her friend.

Pinkie trotted on without a word and halted at her destination, locking eyes with Twilight before reaching forwards...and placing a hoof under her friend’s chin, bringing Twilight’s teary eyes to her face.

“Twilight,” Pinkie said, a sad smile crossing her face as a bit of emotion returned to her face, “You have to cast a spell, then you and Rarity can escape.”

“Bu-but...”

“Shh,” Pinkie hushed soothingly, talking in  a clear, calm voice, “Listen, Twilight, you have to do this. That first note said that we were being tested and now it’s my turn. If I push that button and kill you, how in Equestria am I supposed to make other ponies laugh, knowing that I made one never able to do so again?”

Twilight’s lip trembled, but she was unable to say anything.

“You can beat the last test, I know you can, Twilight. And when you do, I know that you’ll smile and I’ll know that I helped make that smile come true. You can keep on smiling, laughing as the years go by...but me? I can’t do that, Twilight. If I push that button, I fail my test and I fail everypony. I won’t be able to just giggle at the ghosties of my friends, I can’t.

“But you know what? I know that I can make sure that my two friends here can make it through this and I know that they can smile and laugh. Maybe not for a long, long, long, long, long time, but in the end, you will be able to. And you know what?”

Twilight couldn’t answer.

“When you do, I know that I’ll have passed my test,” Pinkie’s smile returned in full force. Her hair remained the same, but that genuine smile crossed her features, “I’ve come to the end of the line, Twilight. The author might want to go out with a bang, but I want to go out with a smile.”

Twilight looked into the blue eyes of her friend, stared at the smile on her face, heard the words issued by her mouth, and nodded.

Pinkie nodded back and turned around, trotting away.

“Any time you’re ready,” Pinkie said.

Twilight watched her friend trot away, opening her mouth to say something...but found that she could say nothing.

Twilight looked down at Rarity, who was unconscious again, then briefly back to Pinkie, and finally to the door.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as Twilight began to conjure up a spell. Microseconds spanned into what felt like forever in...time.

Time...

Time!

The spell died on Twilight’s horn as an idea appeared in her head.

“I think I know a way to beat the test!” Twilight exclaimed.

“What?” Pinkie asked, turning.

“Remember that time spell you found in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot archives?” Twilight asked, mind running a mile a minute, “That one time I went back in time to warn myself not to worry!”

“Oh yeah, future Spike got a big tummy ache!” Pinkie replied, remembering as well.

“What if I used that spell to send you back in time? The spell would hopefully unlock the door, but you wouldn’t be in this time frame, meaning that it wouldn’t set off your...” Twilight trailed off, shaking her head to clear it, “I’m going to try it, I should be able to alter it so that it can send another pony back in time instead of the caster.”

“So where are you going to send me?” Pinkie asked cheerfully.

“Just a few hours back, I wish I could send you to Princess Celestia, but I’d need to combine it with a teleport spell like I did the first time I used it. But I’m already messing around with the spell and throwing in a combination of a teleport spell might throw a wrench into the whole equation...so to say. That and my memory isn’t perfect so I can’t be a hundred percent sure that the spell will work,” the egghead ranted on, “But either way, here goes!”

Twilight squinted to focus and cast the spell. Pinkie immediately flashed in and out of existence, reappearing without her metallic brace, which clattered to the floor at her feet, causing a small explosion.

“It worked!” Twilight cried, elatedly clapping her hooves together.

“And it opened the door!” Pinkie pointed, moving back towards her friends and seemingly unharmed from the explosion.

“Wait, how’d you get your brace thingy off?” Twilight inquired, pointing.

Pinkie shrugged, “I didn’t, it just poofed away when I went back in time,” Pinkie frowned, “And I was standing in a cave for some reason, not this place.”

Twilight tuned to Rarity, casting a spell that stopped the blood from flowing from her wounds. Thankfully the white unicorn was still alive, though she’d need a blood transfusion fast.

“I did do a bit of reading up on time spells and one thing that I read was that conjured items that were made before the time that they were sent back to stayed in the time period that they were in, being unable to travel back...but that makes no sense, someone conjured these devices up?” Twilight lifted a hoof to her own, “And if you were in a cave, but I sent you back a few hours ago, all of this was created in a matter of hours? How? Unless it really was Discord, but if he’s back...” Twilight trailed off, freezing in thought, “Oh sweet Celestia! We need to pass the final test and get out of here!”

Lifting Rarity with magic, Twilight rushed from the room with Pinkie in hot pursuit.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy had started crying as she saw Rarity’s pain, unable to bear the thought of one of her friends being hurt.

Not having sound, she couldn’t be entirely sure what had happened in the next test, but a certain something else that took the form of the shadows knew, and it was not pleased.

‘Damn, that unicorn is rather resourceful, but I still think we should have kept the door closed to them as punishment for cheating,’ Stirrups said.

‘Hush, they only used the resources given to them, the unicorn may have foiled our plans, but she cannot be called a cheater...besides, there’s still our final test,’ Malum’s mental form smirked cruelly.

‘But the elements have passed all their tests!’ Stirrups retorted, ‘If what you say is right, they could potentially be brought back!’

‘Which is exactly why we are doing what we are to this one,’ Malum gestured towards Fluttershy, ‘Now be quiet while I watch the final challenge.’
______________________________________________________________________________

“‘This is the final test. There are three doors and behind one is freedom while the others hold death. You must choose the correct one to survive. The only hint as to the correct door is that if freedom is what you seek, then find the door that is not weak,’” Pinkie read.

“The door that isn’t weak,” Twilight repeated to herself, rushing around the room to examine each of the doors.

As she made her rounds, Twilight examined each of the three doors. One appeared to be made of wood while the other two were metallic.

“This should be fairly easy...I think,” Twilight commented, “Weak is a relatively subjective term. I’d assume that in this case, weak would mean the weakest compared to the others. Hmm,” The unicorn experimentally tapped on one of the metal doors, getting a clang as her hoof connected.

She moved to the next metal door and tapped it as well, getting a similar result.

“Damnit, how am I supposed to tell which one it is?” Twilight asked herself, “I don’t know any spell designed to detect the type of metal that something is...maybe I could...” She trailed off in her thoughts.

“Maybe you could see which one is the strongest by testing the doors,” Pinkie offered.

Twilight brightened at this, gasping, “You’re right, if I exert force on each door and see which one falls first, I should be able to single that one and the next one out,” Twilight firmly planted her hooves on the ground, “Get behind me, I’m not sure what this might do and I’d rather not take any chances...”

With that, Twilight squinted and her horn lit up with magical light, each of the doors getting a small ball of magenta light in their centers.

Focusing, Twilight made the balls of light grow stronger and larger, exerting more force on each door. To her surprise, one of the metal ones gave rather easily, bending. She stopped putting force on that one, focusing on the other metal and the wooden one.

The twin balls of energy grew larger and brighter until, suddenly, the metal door bent inwards. Twilight stopped her magic, surprised that the one she had singled out was the one that had stood up against the most force.

“I think it’s that one, then. Let’s go,” Twilight said.

But Pinkie stopped her, “But it said to choose the one that wasn’t weak, doesn’t that just mean that the first door is singled out?”

Twilight paused in mid step, surprised that she hadn’t thought of such an implication. If they were facing Discord again, did that mean that it was the second strongest door or the strongest one?

They hadn’t taken up too much time, so Twilight took a seat and thought for a moment. Discord was the spirit of chaos, so what did that mean? What was more chaotic? Or would the more chaotic choice be the wrong one as logically it would be the right one? Or was that logic flawed, being as the logical choice was chaotic and therefore in a chaotic...

Twilight stopped the train of thought before it went into a never-ending loop of one door versus the other.

Twilight got up and trotted forwards, towards the wooden door. She placed a hoof on it and had just started to pull when Pinkie cried out, “Pinchy knee!”

Twilight released the door handle as if it were a snake, hopping back.

If that one meant something scary was going to happen, surely that meant that the door was the wrong one.

But why hadn’t Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense foretold of the other scary events that had happened that day? What if Discord had caused something scary to jump out at them from the correct door in an effort to throw them off by activating the Pinkie Sense?

Or...

Twilight shook her head, she had to make a choice and she had to make it quick. She knew she had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right and that was relatively good odds.

“Pinkie, which door do you think it is?”

“Well...I had an itchy back earlier, meaning it would be my lucky day so...” Pinkie sized up both doors before pointing to the metallic one, “That one.”

“Okay then, here goes.” 

Twilight levitated Rarity behind her, Pinkie following to the metal door. With a simple push it opened, nothing happened.

The trio rushed into the dark room and still nothing happened. A bright square of light appeared ahead and the ponies rushed forwards as fifty pounds of high explosive detonated under their feet, killing all three before their minds could comprehend what was happening.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy stared teary-eyed at the now blank wall, the crystal projector having turned off. She had seen her friends move into another room when the projection grew bright before disappearing altogether. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, and her worry for her friends kept her eyes posted on the wall.

‘I suppose it was her lucky day then, she chose the door with the least painful death,’ Stirrups said.

‘A pity, we’d have gotten more essence if they had more prolonged deaths both from them and their friend,’ Malum commented, ‘We’d best escape here before anypony arrives.’

‘Right, with the elements gone, we’d best begin to prepare for our takeover...shall we kill the last one before we leave? I think that a strangling...’

‘No,’ Malum cut in, ‘The elements acted as they should have, disappointingly, this one must continue to live if we intend to keep the elements dead.’

‘But...’

‘Hush,’ Malum interrupted again, ‘Let us leave this place, we must prepare at once.’

> Wrongfully Accused
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been some time since she’d witnessed the deaths of her friends, long enough that Fluttershy finally had no more tears to cry. 

Eyes stained red with tears looked blearily around the room that she was still stuck in, yet found no way of getting out.

“H-hello?” she called out uselessly, voice faded and weak.

There was no reply.

Fluttershy got slowly to her hooves, legs trembling from the trauma-induced shock she was still experiencing. She needed to get out of here, escape and tell the princesses that her friends...

Scenes of her friends being murdered and mauled flashed across her mind’s eye, forcing her back to the ground with another round of grieving. Newly discovered tears dripped from her eyes as sobs wracked her body again. 

She couldn’t go on like this, maybe a braver pony like Rainbow Dash or Applejack could, but they were...were...

Fluttershy couldn't bring herself to continue on that train of thought.

Through her sobbing, Fluttershy could have sworn that she heard something muffled come from in front of her, to the back of the room. Her ears perked up, zeroing in on the noise, and although her sobs came to a halt, her eyes maintained the visage of twin waterfalls.

Without her sobbing adding to the noise, she was certain that she could hear something coming from the other side of the wall in front of her. Getting up, she moved cautiously forwards again, placing an ear up against the wall when she was close enough.

Was that...hoofsteps and muffled voices that she...

The wall dropped down, showing itself to be a door, revealing two Equestrian Royal Guardsponies, both unicorns.

“Freeze! Equestrian Royal Guard!” the one to Fluttershy’s right yelled, his horn alight with a spell and his face a vicious snarl.

Fluttershy leapt back with a scream, startled and scared witless, a yellow puddle growing between her hind hooves.

“Wait!” the unicorn to Fluttershy’s left exclaimed before his partner could fry Fluttershy, “That’s Fluttershy, she’s one of the elements,” turning back down a hallway, the unicorn called out, “Sir! We’ve found one, she’s alive!”

Upon realizing who they had found, the first guard relaxed, spell and snarl fading.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, calming his voice and approaching the startled mare, “What happened here? Do you know where any of the other elements are?”

“I...they’re...” Fluttershy struggled with her words as she tried to slow her racing heart, embarrassed at her lack of bladder control, “...they’re a-all d-d...” she couldn’t bring herself to spit out the word, her body quaking with held back sobs which she finally released again, “They’re all dead!” she cried, collapsing against the guard and crying into his shoulder.

Not sure entirely what to do when a pony started crying into your shoulder, something guard training had neglected to teach him, the guard awkwardly put a hoof against Fluttershy’s back. He glanced back to see Captain Shining Armor standing down the hallway, frozen.

‘Dead?’ Armor mouthed silently, looking as if he was no longer certain what to do.

Giving the crying Fluttershy a few comforting pats on the back, the guard turned to his partner, mouthing, ‘Sleeping spell,’ and jerking his head towards Fluttershy.

His partner nodded, coming in close and charging up a spell. When charged, he tapped his horn against Fluttershy’s head, sending her into an instant, dreamless slumber.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy’s eyes flapped open as awareness came back to her, a gentle beeping of a heart monitor in her ear.

“Ah, there she is,” said the kind voice of a doctor as he drew the smelling salts away from his patient, “How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy,” Fluttershy replied truthfully, putting a hoof to her head, “Wha...what happened? Where am I?” Fluttershy asked, mind confuzzled as she looked around. It was a hospital, no doubt.

The walls, tiles, ceiling, and almost everything else was a pristine and clean white, while the privacy curtains and gown she wore were a lightish green. The doctor, a unicorn, was a similar green color with a mane the color of the walls and flooring.

“Canterlot, at one of our primary care facilities,” the doctor replied, still keeping up a suspiciously facade feeling cheeriness, “Now, there are some questions that I have to ask you. I need you to remain calm and try to answer these questions with clarity, it’s very important that we find out what happened, okay?”

“O-okay, I guess,” Fluttershy said, looking around as she sat up, “But where are my friends...” she trailed off as memories began to flood her mind with images and feelings.

“Well, actually, that’s what we were going to ask you about,” the doctor said, frowning a bit at Fluttershy’s suddenly glazed-over expression, “Do you know what happened to them?”

“No...”

“No?” the doctor inquired, “Do you not remember...”

“No, they...they can’t be dead!” Fluttershy said, the doctor’s words having fallen on deaf ears, “They can’t be! N-not my friends...they can’t be dead. They were j-just hurt...real bad, R-Rainbow Dash a-and Rarity...” Fluttershy trailed off, quivering like a leaf. The constant bleeps of the heart monitor began to speed up.

“Fluttershy,” the doctor tried again with a firmer voice, the cheeriness fading a tad, “Who...attacked you and your friends? Who did this to you? Do you know any possible reason why? A motive, perhaps?”

“Wh-what?” Fluttershy asked, turning to the doctor, “N-no, I don’t know! B-but my friends...they...you can fix them up, can’t you? Can’t you?!” Fluttershy pleaded, eyes now shedding a payload of fresh tears.

“I...” the doctor began, choosing his next words carefully.

The unicorn had read the report of what had been discovered. A large, underground maze filled with a series of ‘tests’ for each of the elements, besides Fluttershy so it seemed. The bodies of two of the elements have been found, one cut in half and the other an unrecognizable mess of acid burns. The other three had not been found, though a massive explosion in a final chamber, along with the trail of notes, led the group to believe that those three had been in the epicenter of the explosion. The quick once-over done by the team had turned up nothing in terms of evidence as to who...or what...had done this.

“...I’ll see what I can...” the doctor began.

The door to the room burst open with the suddenness of an atomic bomb, ending the doctor’s speech. Three Royal Guards, two unicorns and one a pegasus all in full armor, rushed through the door looking ready to fight, and win, a war.

“Hey, what!?” the doctor exclaimed, turning rapidly, “What’s going on here?”

“Outta the way!” one of the unicorns growled, sending the doctor skidding across the room with a quick telekinetic shove.

“Fluttershy!” the second unicorn said, ready to zap her with a combat spell, “You’re under arrest for the murder of your fellow elements of harmony! Come quietly or we’ll be forced to restrain you with force!”

Having been startled by their entrance, Fluttershy now stood stock-still in fright on her hospital bed. Fear and confusion competed for dominance over her face, she felt her bladder release again.

“What!? M-murder of...my...my,” Fluttershy began, eyes wide and voice shrill with terror, “B-but they’re gonna be okay, they’re gonna make it!”

“Lie down on you belly and place your forehooves over your head, spread your wings to your sides! Now!” the unicorn retorted with a yell.

“But I didn’t hurt my friends!” Fluttershy replied, panicking, “They’re...they’re gonna all be o-okay...”

Seeing as she wasn’t complying, the unicorn doing the yelling released the spell he had charged. A bolt of electricity, meant to temporarily stun enemies, zapped forth.

Unluckily for the caster, Fluttershy yelped with fright, leaping into the air and shooting off towards and off to the side of unicorn, intent on escaping through a window to his side of the room. The bolt passed, mere centimeters, harmlessly below her, hitting the wall and leaving a slight burn where it struck.

Unluckily for Fluttershy, the pegasus guard had expected this move and intercepted her en route.

The guard collided in midair with Fluttershy, sending both of them to the ground and leaving Fluttershy with the breath knocked out of her. Gasping for much needed air, she got to her hooves only to be pinned to the ground by the pegasus guard.

“No!” Fluttershy cried, tasting a few salty tears as they ran down her face and into her mouth, “I...I didn't do anything! I...” her cries were vanquished as the guard pinning her down put her into an iron chokehold, cutting off any further cries.

“Hit her with a knockout spell!” the pegasus yelled as Fluttershy began to flail around in his grip, frantically trying to escape.

The guard who had tried to zap her seconds earlier was up in her face in a split second, his horn aglow with arcane light. He tapped his horn to Fluttershy’s head and for the second time, she fell into an instant, dreamless slumber.
______________________________________________________________________________

‘We are being far too risky being so close to the princesses!’ Stirrups hissed to his partner in crime, the two sitting as a shadow overlooking the hospital.

‘Hush, we haven’t been seen in five millennia, even if the princesses do detect us, they shan’t remember our feel,’ Malum replied, ‘Besides, we are using deception essence to throw off our source. They will think that it is a mere spike coming from one of the statues in the statue garden.’

Malum shuddered at the thought of being displayed as some trophy of the princesses.

The duet of evil watched as well as felt as the guards came in to seize Fluttershy, the scene of chaos ensuing from this fueling a bit of their essence reserves.

‘Hm, I would have expected more hatred from the guards,’ Stirrups commented as the unconscious Fluttershy was restrained with a magic dampening yoke, her hooves being bound with hoofcuffs. 

‘They are weak, like the gods they pray to,’ Malum sneered, ‘the pathetic creatures are uncertain if Fluttershy is truly to blame, they are just doing their job.’

The two watched as Fluttershy was carted off into a covered sky carriage waiting outside the hospital, drawing a small group of onlookers who pointed and muttered in confusion.

‘So may we go now?’ Stirrups asked as the carriage was flown away, off to a destination unknown.

‘Yes,’ Malum replied with a sick glee, ‘we must prepare for our takeover of this land. We have plenty of power now, enough to revert back to how we were before our imprisonment in that accursed sphere!’

‘And enough power to...’ Stirrups began, uncertain if he should continue.

‘We shall see if another essence is shown to us as it was before, but come. First we must find a place of relative seclusion to begin our transformation!’
> The Interrogation Room
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy found out the hard way that a bucket full of cold water to the face made a very effective, if also very uncomfortable, alarm clock. 

Fluttershy fell backwards, as if someone had shoved her, sputtering and gasping in shock at the sudden chill of the water. She looked around, squinting against a bright light positioned on a table in front of her as it shone off the series of lone droplets clinging to her face and chest.

“Get up!” a gruff voice commanded from the light.

Fluttershy flinched at the sound of the voice, curling up in an effort to make herself smaller, “Wh-what?” she replied with fright.

“I said: get up!” the voice spat back.

Fluttershy yelped as a telekinetic grip dragged her into a seated position with unnecessary roughness.

“Why’d you do it?” the voice growled menacingly.

“D-do what?” Fluttershy replied with a squeak, utterly confused by the turn of the events.

“Kill your friends, the other elements of harmony!” the voice yelled back, “We know you did it! Why?”

Upon hearing the accusation of being the one responsible for the deaths of her friends, Fluttershy was again brought back up to date on the news. With the flood of memory, however, came an unfamiliar feeling to the meek pegasus. It was an emotion that she’d rarely expressed in her life...the feeling of anger.

“I didn’t do it!” Fluttershy yelled back, confused to an insane level on the inside. Had New Fluttershy come back with a vengeance? “I wasn’t the one who killed my friends, mister!” Fluttershy continued with a growl, she rose from her seat and slammed her hooves on the table, “so if you wanna find somepony to blame, make sure it’s the RIGHT ONE!”

“Don’t you get cross with me!” the voice roared back. A telekinetic grip once again grabbed onto FLuttershy, shoving her backwards with force and earning a yelp in return.

Fluttershy was blinded by darkness as the light on the table clicked off, her eyes compensating to see a large, darkly colored earth pony stallion clad in Royal Guard armor come around the table and approach her.

“Now you listen to me, little mare,” he said, grabbing her by the anti-magical yoke around her neck and bringing her face to face, “You’re gonna start talking or else I’ll...”

“Dreadhoof,” a voice from now open door cut in.

Fluttershy and the pony holding her, assumedly Dreadhoof, turned to the door.

“Thank you,” a, less, darkly colored pegasus guard said to a unicorn positioned by the door, trotting in, “That’s enough for now, I’m taking over the interrogation.”

Dreadhoof dropped Fluttershy, turning to the pegasus guard, “Under whose orders?”

“Captain Armor’s,” the pegasus replied.

“I thought that the captain was indisposed at the moment,” Dreadhoof countered.

“Indisposed to take part of the interrogation, not decide who does,” the pegasus jerked his head to the door.

Dreadhoof spared Fluttershy a single glare before turning and exiting the room, the unicorn guard posted by it shutting it closed behind him.

“Sorry about that,” the pegasus said, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table, “Lieutenant Dreadhoof can be a little...overzealous with his methods of getting a confession.”

“I didn’t do it!” Fluttershy growled, getting to a seated position where she’d been thrown.

“Fair enough,” the pegasus replied calmly, “Not the first time I’ve heard that, and we’ve been wrong before. It’s just that the evidence isn’t in your favor, Miss Fluttershy.”

“What evidence!” Fluttershy snapped, horrified on the inside and wishing that she could apologize, yet unable to.

“Well, take a seat...” the pegasus gestured to the opposite side of the metal table, “...and I’ll try to help you with this. I’m Lieutenant Thunderclap by the way.”

“No,” Fluttershy replied.

Thunderclap sighed, gesturing to the unicorn guard by the door, who moved Fluttershy to the desired position with his magic.

“I may not be as harsh as Dreadhoof, but I’ll still require some cooperation on your part, Miss Fluttershy,” Thunderclap commented, “Now,” he continued, “as I said before, the evidence isn’t on your side in this case. A more thorough sweep of the maze turned up a few bits of your down in a few different chambers...”

“How do you know they were mine?” Fluttershy asked rudely.

“I was getting to that,” Thunderclap replied, “We compared it to some of your down and, with the aid of magic, came up with an exact match. Now, this alone isn’t damning evidence, but it’s not all we have.

“Going off the feathers, we tried to find further links that might prove whether or not the first piece of evidence was valid. We ran through some of your banking records and came up with a series of purchases that match what the maze was built with,” Thunderclap said, “exactly.”

“What? But I didn’t buy any of that!” Fluttershy retorted, anger still dominating her more normal psyche.

“That may be the case,” Thunderclap replied, “But that’s not what the evidence says. The things required for constructing the maze were no small sum, if someone else had bought these things through your account, you should have seen it and reported it. You didn’t.

“You’ve got us on how the maze was built, but we’ve got our theories,” Thunderclap considered something for a moment, “You aren’t part of some cult or larger group of ponies, are you?”

“I didn’t do it,” Fluttershy replied, fighting against the anger that was taking control of her actions.

“There’s also the question of where you were found,” Thunderclap said, “You didn’t partake in the tests and you were found in what appeared to be a sort of control room where a pony could watch everything. You were one of the elements of harmony, so why was it that you were singled out and put in a room to watch your friends die instead of joining them?”

Fluttershy glowered in silence, trying to force away the emotion that had taken control of her body.

“Oh, and do you have any idea what that button in the room did?” Thunderclap asked.

“It...would have killed my friends,” Fluttershy replied, anger dying down just a tad as sad memories took her mind.

Thunderclap sighed, “I had hoped that you said that you didn’t know, because that’s another piece of evidence against you. How would you have known that if you hadn’t built the maze in the first place?”

“What!?” Fluttershy snapped, anger rising again, “You...you tricked me!”

“So if you didn’t do it then how the hay did you know what that button did?” Thunderclap replied, voice rising a bit.

The memory floating back into her head, Fluttershy’s anger dwindled a bit.

“A...a voice told me.”

“A voice or a pony?” Thunderclap replied.

“A voice,” Fluttershy replied, looking at the table as she saw the scene replay in her head, “It...it said that the button would set them free...that it would...kill them...”

Thunderclap thought over this for a moment, “Was it a recording of a voice, or somepony actually talking to you?”

“S-somepony talking to me,” Fluttershy whimpered, the anger in her dying, “I-I’m sorry I yelled at you...earlier,” she apologized, unable to meet the pegasus’ eyes.

“You’ve had a rough day,” Thunderclap retorted, “This voice, though. Did it sound like anyone that you know?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

Fluttershy was silent for a moment, “Me,” she finally said.

Unseen by Fluttershy, Thunderclap threw a quick glance over at the one-way window, which served as a wall, to his left. What he had just heard might just be the confession they were looking for. Thunderclap was no shrink, but hearing voices was certainly not the mark of a sane pony, especially when those voices hinted at killing one’s friends.

“Well I think that that’s all for now, Miss Fluttershy,” Thunderclap said, getting up to leave, “Is there anything you need? Food? Something to drink?”

“No,” Fluttershy moped.

“Okay, well just give a knock if you need anything,” Thunderclap said, motioning to the unicorn guard who opened the door and followed him out.

The guard stayed behind at the door, guarding it. Thunderclap, on the other hand, trotted down the corridor a short ways before turning right and heading in through a door.

“She do anything yet?” he asked once a door closed behind him.

“No,” Dreadhoof replied, not taking his eyes from the pony on the other side of the one-way mirror, “I still think that I could’ve gotten something outta her my way.”

“Yeah? Well the shrinks disagreed, sorry about it,” Thunderclap replied, turning to the other three ponies in the small room, “Speaking of shrinks, what’s your guys’ call? She insane?”

One of the three doctors turned to the pegasus, “We’re afraid so,” he said, “she seems to be showing some signs of following the Cöbbler-Moss model of grief. Whether that means she regrets killing her friends or is truly grieving for them is still up to debate, but hearing her own voice tell her about the self-destruct mechanism?” the doctor threw a glance at his clipboard, held aloft with magic, “There’s no other explanation.”

“And before you ask, no,” Dreadhoof spoke up, “No unexplained fluctuations in the magical polygraph, she’s telling the truth on all regards.”

Thunderclap sighed, turning back to Fluttershy, “The princesses aren’t gonna like this at all...”