//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Turbulence // Story: Tartarus Infernum // by Sunderbraze //------------------------------// ********** Almost two hundred miles away, in the small town of Ponyville, nearly all of the inhabitants slept peacefully. There was only one light on—a soft glow from the top window of the local library. Inside, a restless purple unicorn was going about her astronomy observations. “Only an hour left of clear skies,” Twilight Sparkle sighed to herself, slightly delusional from a lack of sleep. She grinned happily, taking a break from the telescope to stare longingly at the sky through the hole in the roof. “New moon, no clouds… so perfect…” Twilight poked her eye back into the telescope, calibrating it precisely to view a lone yellow star. “Wait for it…” she whispered. Her violet eyes were becoming bloodshot. “Wait for it…” At the top-right edge of the little star, a tiny black dot moved into view. Twilight squealed in delight—her horn glowed with a translucent aura of purple light as she cast a spell, telekinetically seizing a quill and ink from the table behind her. Without removing her eye from the lens, she inked the quill and began to scribble her observations onto a piece of paper. “Fifteen inch magically-enhanced refraction telescope,” she mumbled, writing down the specs of her equipment and the coordinates of her finding. “Gas giant… hmm… Spectograph reports seventy-five percent hydrogen, twenty-four percent helium, by mass… likely a dense core, many satellites… possibility of life as we know it… zilch…” Twilight sighed at the plateau of her discovery; another planet is all well and good, but it was just another gas ball floating around in space. “What should I name you?” Twilight asked the planet, watching its silhouette slowly sail across the bright yellow star behind it. “Let’s go with… hmm… oh no!” Twilight yelped—the library suddenly rumbled, causing her telescope to veer away from its target. She struggled to hold it in place, but ended up falling off of her stool and landing on her back with a thud. “What in Equestria was that?” the bewildered librarian asked loudly, sitting up on the wooden floor and looking around in confusion. The rumbling had stopped as suddenly as it began, but it had made a mess of the observatory. Some books had fallen from their shelves, and a ladder had tumbled to the floor. On the desk behind her, ink had spilled from its container all over her paper. Her heart immediately sank. “No, no, no, no!” Twilight moaned. She angrily lifted the paper away from the spilled ink, but the damage had been done. Ink was now dripping from the corner of the page, and it blotted out nearly all of her writing. “Mmm… what’s all the hollerin’ about?” a juvenile voice asked from the loft above her. Twilight looked sadly at her baby dragon companion, telekinetically holding up the ruined paper for him to see. “…Use a weak liquid attracting spell,” Spike mumbled tiredly, yawning and returning to his bed. The dumbfounded Twilight stared at the edge of the loft, where Spike once stood. "Why didn't I think of that?" she wondered, her eyes going in and out of focus. Shaking her head to wake herself up, she smiled and cast the spell, watching as most of the spilled ink lifted itself from the paper, the floor, and the desk. A light shadow of dried ink remained on her paper, but the writing it had once concealed was now legible. Globs of ink now floated in midair, suspended by violet energy. She dropped the ink into the wastebasket and laid her paper back on the table. “Spike always has brilliant moments when he’s half-asleep,” Twilight sighed, her eyelids feeling heavy. “How come I only have mine while fully awake…?” Twilight lifted her stool up and sat upon it, preparing to copy the notes onto a new sheet of paper. Before she could complete the paper’s title, a wave of tiredness washed over her. Unable to organize her thoughts, the exhausted unicorn planted her face into the desk with a loud thump. As Twilight sank into slumber, another pony, less than a mile away in a bright red barn house, was just waking up. The bright orange, blond-haired mare rolled out of bed, firmly planting her hooves on the cold floor. She tied her mane, bit down on her hat, and flipped it upwards onto her head. “An early start to a busy day,” Applejack cheerfully thought to herself. “Wonder if Big Mac’s up yet?” Applejack’s large red brother, Big Macintosh, was still snoring heavily in the opposite room. “Must’a pulled a late one last night,” she grinned, quietly exiting her room and cantering down the hall. She skillfully avoided the sections of the floor that squeaked as she descended the stairs and entered the kitchen below. It was the third day of apple season’s crunch time, as the Apple family liked to call it, where they worked the longest hours to pick up any slack from the previous month. Applejack poured herself a bowl of oats and milk, quickly gobbling them down. As soon as the clock on the wall struck 5:00A.M., she tossed the bowl into the sink and exited the Sweet Apple farmhouse. Applejack cantered towards the tool shed, pausing on her way to begin a series of morning stretches. She stretched each of her legs, bucking in place a few times to warm her muscles for a long day of work. As she rotated her neck, and continued walking, something odd in the eastern sky caught her attention. She paused again and stared at it—something was out of place among the morning sun’s early lights. ********** A sizable portion of the sky was dark green, centered on a bright emerald cloud. It was shaped like a mushroom, and had several rings around its lower half. “What’n tarnation?” Applejack wondered aloud, her eyes widening at the green cloud. “That ain’t no storm cloud… we ain’t s’posed to have rain ‘til Tuesday! …And it’s green!” She stared at the ominous cloud for a few seconds, knowing immediately that something was wrong. “Ah’d better get Rainbow Dash in on this,” Applejack nervously decided. Mushroom-shaped clouds were not something she saw very often, let alone green ones. If anyone knew what it was, her pegasus friend from the weather team would. Applejack lowered her head and broke into a swift gallop, exiting the farm and hopping onto the path towards Ponyville. She took a detour before reaching the town, heading north around the outskirts, where several cloud-crafted pegasus homes were organized into an airborne neighborhood. For a few moments during her trip, Applejack wondered if she was overreacting, but a swift glance to the right at the strange-looking horizon reminded her that this was no joke. Rainbow Dash’s home was just ahead; Applejack came to a halt and hollered up towards the cloudy building. “Rainbow Dash!” she called out, hoping not to wake the neighbors in the process. “R-D! Wake up, this’s an emergency!” “Wha?” a pegasus’s voice answered after a few seconds. A light turned on in one of the windows. “R-D!” Applejack repeated quickly, relieved to hear a response. “Wake up, ya gotta see this!” The bright blue pegasus lazily hovered out of the window of her cloud home, yawning and stretching as she descended. Her rainbow-colored mane was frazzled and matted against the left side of her face. “What time is it?” Dash asked in between yawns, landing across from Applejack. “Hay if I know,” the worried Applejack replied, pushing a hoof into Dash’s cheek and rotating her head towards the east. She lifted her other hoof and pointed at the odd mushroom cloud. “Look yonder!” Dash looked in the general direction for a moment, blinking at the sight of the ominous horizon. She blinked again and rubbed her magenta eyes with her hooves. “…A mushroom cloud?” she asked, dumbfounded. “What the…?” “You’re the expert on clouds, sugar cube,” Applejack reminded her. “What’s it mean? Ah’ve never seen anythin’ like it before… And it’s green! Clouds ain't supposed to be green!" “I’m not sure about the green…" Dash replied, starting to sound excited. "...But a mushroom cloud usually happens when something really, really big exploded!” “’Asploded?!” “Yeah-hah!” Applejack warily raised an eyebrow at Dash. “Uh, usually, an ‘asplosion means somethin’ bad’s happened…” “I dunno,” Dash shrugged. “I think we should go check it out!” Without waiting for a response from Applejack, she took off towards the eastern horizon. “Typical Rainbow…” Applejack took a deep breath in annoyance and galloped after her. To her surprise, Dash suddenly halted in mid-flight, giving her a chance to catch up. “What the hay is that?” Dash asked, squinting at the horizon in the direction of the cloud. The purple, orange, and green skyline was slowly becoming fuzzy. “Is that…?” ********** It was birds—tens of thousands of birds, of all shapes and sizes, were flying towards her. Dash hovered in place for a few moments, watching in disbelief as they swarmed above and around her. They were squawking in panic, fleeing towards the west. “What’s got their feathers in a bunch?” Dash wondered aloud. Applejack waved to her from below. “Ah’ll betcha it’s got somethin’ t’do with that cloud!” she called out. “Hey!” Dash hollered, ducking as an eagle’s talons almost grazed her ear. “What’s wrong with all of you?!” “Catch one of ‘em!” Applejack shouted up to her. “Catch ‘em, and we’ll take ‘em to Fluttershy!” Dash nodded in acknowledgement and swooped upwards into the flock of birds, choosing a panicking red-feathered hawk. “Take it easy, big guy,” she told him, holding the squirming bird steady in her hooves. “You’re gonna tell us what’s goin’ on!” Applejack followed below as Dash carefully flew at a lower altitude, dodging the oncoming swarm of westbound fowl. They took a shortcut through the town, which was beginning to stir for the morning. Ponies with early jobs were already going about their work, many of them pausing to stare at the bird-filled sky. Such a massive migration was a strange sight in the middle of July, and the birds were uncharacteristically worried. “Wow, look at ‘em go!” a grey, blonde-maned pegasus exclaimed. One of the birds crashed into her, sending her saddlebag full of letters spiraling to the ground. “Oh no!” Dash swooped over her head, further scattering the poor mail-mare’s charges. “Hi, Rainbow Dash!” she called out, waving. Right when she turned to start picking up her scattered letters, Applejack nearly bumped into her, trying to keep up with Dash. “Oh my gosh, are you guys having a race?!” Now oblivious to the swarming birds overhead, the grey mare started cheering for Rainbow Dash. Reaching Fluttershy’s small cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest, Dash circled around and flew directly into the back window, causing it to fly open with a loud thud. “Oh my gosh!” the pink-haired pegasus squeaked, falling out of bed in surprise. “Dashie? What’s going on? Is there an emergency?” Dash whipped around and held the struggling bird towards Fluttershy. “Quick! I need you to talk to the bird! Find out what’s going-“ ********** “My, my, there’s no need for such language,” Fluttershy gasped, her eyes widening at the chirping hawk in Dash’s hooves. She stood up and approached them slowly. “Calm down, little friend, tell me what’s wrong…” The bird cawed angrily, continuing to squirm in Dash’s hooves. “Oh, um,” Fluttershy said, pausing. “…You can let him go, Rainbow…” Dash hesitantly released the bird; he quickly took flight and hovered over to Fluttershy, perching on the yellow pegasus’s right wing. He twittered at her few times, finishing his sentence with an angry chirp. “Yes, I can see Rainbow Dash kidnapped you,” Fluttershy responded. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to…” The bird narrowed his eyes at his kidnapper; Dash shrugged guiltily. “Did Ah miss anythin’?” Applejack asked, poking her head into Fluttershy’s window. The hawk resumed his chirping, making wide gestures with his wings. “Wait, what did the others say?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes widening again. He repeated himself, flapping his wings several times. “Oh my…” “What’s he saying?!” Dash asked impatiently; the bird scowled at her. “There was a big explosion,” Fluttershy squeaked nervously. “They’re all fleeing a scary explosion from… Wait, where was it?” The hawk chirped twice. “Oh, from the Dream Valley…” “Dream Valley…” Dash said, pondering the location. “I think that’s south of Fillydelphia… But I don’t think there’s anything out there, just miles of boring grass...” “Nothin’ that Ah can think of,” Applejack added. “Ah think Ah passed through there once ‘n mah trip to Manehattan, but then it was straight north from there…” “What should we do?” Fluttershy asked concernedly. “The poor birds are scared out of their minds…” “We’d better check with ‘Twi before goin’ anywhere,” Applejack responded before Dash could suggest otherwise. “C’mon y’all, let’s see if she knows what could’a made that big 'asplosion...” “Heh, right… maybe we should let him go, too,” Dash agreed, guiltily eyeing the hawk. He squawked at her angrily and flew through the window back into the sky, which was still fuzzy with fleeing birds. “I do say, they seem to be in quite the rush,” a glamorous unicorn commented, watching the swarming birds from the doorway of Carousel Boutique. She adjusted her head, allowing her silky purple mane to flow unhindered in the morning breeze while she walked downtown. “Oh-oh, Rarity! Over here!” a chipper voice called out to her. "Look at this!" Rarity followed the voice, raising her eyebrow suspiciously; a bouncy pony with a poufy pink mane was tossing small bits of candy to the birds in front of Sugarcube Corner. ********** “Ah, um,” Rarity replied, watching Pinkie Pie reach into her saddlebags for another hoof full of candy. “…I’m fine where I am, Pinkie dear.” “Feed the birds!” Pinkie cheered, tossing a box of chocolates into the air for her winged crowd. “Toffies are yay!” Rubbing his eyes, Spike came wandering down the road, pausing to gape in astonishment at the swarm of birds around Pinkie. As she tossed another hoof full of candy into the air, the baby dragon eyed a piece, his mouth watering. Spike increased his pace, preparing to dive for it—to his dismay, a brown finch intercepted the candy in midair, carrying it to the rooftop of Sugarcube Corner and gobbling it up. “What’s with all the birds, you guys?” Spike asked curiously, keeping his eyes peeled for any un-nibbled candies as he entered the town square. “I have no idea,” Pinkie gushed excitedly. “But some of them are really hungry!” “Good morning, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity said, walking around the rabble of candy-crazed birds at a wide angle and patting the baby dragon on his head. “Did Twilight Sparkle know what to make of this?” “…I uh, tried to ask her, but she won’t budge,” Spike explained, his cheeks reddening as Rarity gazed into his eyes. “…I think she pulled another all-nighter…” “How about we go brew her some coffee, darling,” Rarity suggested, dodging a swooping bird and cantering past the dragonling. “Come along, it doesn’t seem very… sanitary… outside today.” “Aw, but it’s just a bunch of birds,” Spike protested, eyeing Pinkie Pie’s saddlebag full of candies. “It’s weird, but that doesn’t…” He paused, looking down—his right foot had landed in a suspicious white splatter. “...Coming!” Spike hollered, backpedaling and turning to chase after Rarity. She hastily approached the library and used a burst of cyan magic to open the door, cantering in and making a beeline for the staircase. “Just need to borrow your mirror, Twilight,” Rarity said quickly, galloping past the sleeping unicorn and up the second set of stairs towards her loft. Twilight’s head rolled off of her hooves as her friend passed her, but she didn’t wake up. “Silly… birds…” Spike muttered, rigorously wiping his foot on the doormat. He turned and headed for the kitchen, seizing a large glass pot and placing it under the tap. Waiting for it to fill, he gazed out the window at Pinkie Pie, who was wandering down the road, tossing beak-sized bits of soft candy over her shoulder. An idea suddenly dawned on the young dragon. He pushed open the window and hollered, “Hey, Pinkie! Want to have some coffee with us?” “Oh boy-o-boy-o-boy!” the excited pony gushed. “There’s always room for coffee!” Thrilled by his own brilliant scheme, Spike turned around to put the coffee pot onto the stove, bumping into someone’s chest. “H-how did you…?” Spike started to ask; Pinkie stared at him eagerly. “…Never mind…” He walked around her and placed the pot onto the stove, turning it on and igniting it with a cough of green fire. “Aw, it’s not ready yet,” Pinkie observed, watching Spike approach the coffee grinder. “It’ll just be a minute or two,” Spike replied quickly, eyeing her saddlebags full of candy. “...Um, Rarity is upstairs, wanna see if you guys can wake up Twilight?” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing over to the staircase and calling out in a singsong voice. “Twiiiiiiii-light!” “Drat,” Spike muttered, hoping she would leave her saddlebags downstairs. He started grinding the coffee beans, brewing a new plan to get his claws on her candy. “Wake up, sleepy-horn!” Pinkie said cheerfully, poking Twilight’s horn with her hoof and giggling. “I’ve got some candy with your name on it!” Spike growled as he heard that, increasing the pace of his grinding. “Pinkie, you don’t see any more feathers in my hair, do you?” Rarity asked, observing her mane and tail carefully in Twilight’s mirror. “Nope!” Pinkie replied without looking, sitting down next to Twilight and poking her in the side. “She’s out cold, sweetie,” Rarity shared, breathing a sigh of relief and walking down the stairs from Twilight's loft. “Sounds like we should warm her up!” Pinkie deduced, looking sideways at the sleeping unicorn. “Got any blankets? Oh, oh! We could have a slumber party at Twilight’s house!” “I’m sure a nice cup of coffee will warm her up just fine,” said Rarity, sighing at her friend’s antics and sitting down across from her. “Breakfast is served, ladies,” Spike announced, walking up the staircase with a platter of coffee-filled teacups. Pinkie zoomed over to the stairs, meeting him halfway and seizing the handle of two cups with her mouth. She zoomed back to Twilight’s table, placing one of the cups next to her and drinking the other. “Thank you very much, Spike,” Rarity said, using her magic to lift a cup from the dragon’s platter. “Uh… Pinkie, I just finished making that,” Spike said worriedly, watching Pinkie gulp down her cup of coffee and turn to grin at him. “Mmhmm!” Pinkie agreed cheerfully. “Everything’s always best when it’s fresh out of the o-aaAAHHH!” She suddenly opened her mouth wide and exhaled a massive burst of fire, singing Spike’s green hair. “…Slow sips, dear,” Rarity giggled, watching Pinkie pant heavily for a few seconds. “Twilight!” an accented voice called from downstairs. “Twilight, are ya there?” Moments later, Rainbow Dash burst into Twilight’s balcony door, followed shortly by Fluttershy. They landed in the middle of the room, and Applejack came cantering up the stairwell. “Hi girls!” Pinkie exclaimed, instantly recovering from her fire-breathing episode. “Are you here for the slumber party?” “Uhm, no,” Applejack replied, heading over to join the group surrounding the sleeping unicorn. “Wait, there was a slumber party? And you didn’t invite me?” Dash asked in mild annoyance. “The only slumbering partier here is Miss Sparkle,” Rarity explained, using her cyan magic to nudge Twilight with the cup of coffee resting next to her. ********** “Mmm…” Twilight moaned quietly, stirring in her chair. The scent of the fresh coffee flowed into her nostrils; she slowly opened her eyes, flinching at the six pairs of eyes that were fixed on her. “Uh…” “Good morning Twilight!” Pinkie said happily. “We’re having a slumber party!” “A… what?” Twilight asked confusedly, sitting up and looking around. She noticed the cup of coffee next to her, and immediately seized it with a flash of violet magic, taking a slow sip. “Twi’, somethin’ big’s happenin’,” Applejack informed her quickly. “There’s been some kinda ‘asplosion, or somethin’ like that…” “Explosion?” Twilight asked, blinking at Applejack. She sipped her coffee again, trying to wrap her head around what was going on. “…Where? How big was it?” “Somewhere in the Dream Valley!” Dash added, taking flight as she spoke. “We saw the smoke cloud from it this morning! It was a huge mushroom cloud in the east!” Hovering in place, she traced the shape of a mushroom with her hooves. Twilight blinked, noticing the receding swarm of birds as her eyes travelled to the windows. “An explosion…” she thought. “…Was that what I felt last night?” “The birds are all flocking north because it scared them so much,” Fluttershy continued concernedly, joining Twilight in gazing at the flocking fowl. “That’s why they came?” Pinkie asked disappointedly. “I thought they wanted free candy!” “Candy?” Twilight raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. “No, but I sure want some…” Spike muttered, cleaning up some of Twilight’s books that lay on the floor. To his surprise, Pinkie tossed him a hoof full of candy. “Why didn’t ya say so, silly?” she laughed, watching him scramble to collect the scattered pieces from the floor. “Hold on, let me see if I got this straight,” Twilight said, shaking her head a few times to clear it up. “There’s been a big explosion, and now lots of birds are fleeing to the west?” Her five friends nodded in confirmation. “The mushroom cloud, what color was it?” Twilight continued, turning towards Dash. “Was it black, like regular smoke?” “Dark green,” Dash replied pensively. “…What’s that mean?” “It was definitely a magical explosion, then,” Twilight deduced, standing up and heading to her bookshelves. “The Dream Valley is almost two hundred miles away! If you girls could see it from here, then it had to be pretty big…” “Mighty good thing there ain’t nothin’ out there,” Applejack commented. “Just a bunch’a grass, Ah reckon.” “An explosion of that size must’ve left a big crater, too…” Twilight’s horn glowed as she reached out in search of a book—one of them flew from the shelf, landing on the table behind her. The cover read Dangerous Magical Mayhem. “This should tell us what we need to know...” she continued, sitting back down and opening to the table of contents. Before Twilight could begin reading, Spike suddenly belched up a mouthful of green fire, incinerating the candy he had just finished collecting. His eyes began to water as he looked at the pile of leftover ashes in his hand. The six mares turned their heads to notice that the dragonling had coughed up a small piece of paper. “Uh oh,” Dash exclaimed, scooping up the note and reading it quickly. “Princess Celestia needs us to meet her at Canterlot Tower immediately!” ********** “Let me see that!” Twilight said worriedly, using her magic to pull the letter from Dash’s hooves. “...It doesn’t have her usual seal or anything… it’s just a note with her signature!” Twilight Sparkle and friends, please meet me in Canterlot Tower immediately. Emergency. “Ah’ll bet mah hind legs it’s got somethin’ t’do with the explosion!” said Applejack, trying to read the note over Twilight’s shoulder. Spike suddenly belched up a second piece of paper—Twilight seized it quickly and unfolded it. “Weird, this must also be from the princess,” she remarked, her eyes darting across a series of strange symbols etched in a typographical formation. “But it doesn’t have a message on it… it’s just a… spell glyph?” “Sending us an urgent summons and handing out next week’s homework?” Rarity asked in confusion. “…I don’t understand…” “I don’t think this is homework,” Twilight answered, carefully reading the symbols—she mumbled to herself while trying to discern the spell it contained. “I think this is a teleportation spell, but the matter stream requirements and the p-field propagations are six times the normal size… and the destination is embedded in the glyph itself! But where is the destination…?” “…Come again?” Applejack asked, speaking for everyone in the room. “Oh, oh! It’s a spell that’ll send us all to Canterlot!” Pinkie said excitedly. Twilight ignored her for a moment. “…the x-y axis is relevant to topographical coordinates, and I think the z axis is based on sea level… wait…” she looked up from the scroll in pure astonishment. “Pinkie, you’re right! How did you know this spell would take us all directly to Canterlot!?” “Duh, it says so on the back!” Pinkie replied cheerfully, pointing a hoof at the opposite side of the glyph. “…Oh,” Twilight replied, flipping it over. While she had been obsessively studying the spell on the front, she had missed the small text on the back. Emergency Canterlot Portal, Seat 6 “Is this spell safe?” Rarity asked, glancing over Twilight’s shoulder. “It sounds a little dangerous…" “I’ve used glyphs before—as long as you read them right, they can make complicated spells easy to perform,” Twilight explained, checking the back side of the glyph for any other notes. “The only reason they’re so rare is because they’re really complicated to make! Princess Celestia must have made this specifically for us!” “S-so you can teleport us all to Canterlot…?” Fluttershy stuttered nervously, unsure about the idea of teleporting over sixty miles. Teleportation didn’t often involve distances greater than a few yards—that was common knowledge. “W-well, I trust you, Twilight…” “Wait! Are you sure about this?” Dash asked, before Twilight had a chance to respond to Fluttershy. “I don’t, y’know… teleport very often!” “Don’t worry, girls; I’m sure this will work!” Twilight said, draining her cup of coffee and ignoring the burning sensation. “Besides, this sounds like a pretty big emergency…” “Can I go with you guys?!” Spike asked excitedly. “Sorry Spike, the glyph is only going to work for the six of us,” Twilight told him. “Maybe next time!” He huffed in disappointment, stomping over towards the staircase. “Alright then, wha’do we gotta do?” Applejack asked. All eyes fell on Twilight as she continued to read the glyph. “I’m going to stand in the middle… you just have to stand in a circle around me,” Twilight directed, reading the scroll as she walked to the center of the library. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie circled up around her, followed by a reluctant Fluttershy. “You’re one-hundred percent sure this’ll work, right?!” Dash asked again, staring worriedly into Twilight’s eyes. She was even more concerned about it than Fluttershy. “Calm down, Rainbow,” Applejack chuckled. She placed a hoof on Dash’s shoulder and pulled her into the circle around Twilight. “Ah’m sure Twi wouldn’t put us in harm’s way.” “I agree,” Rarity added supportively. “We have to trust our friend!” “Trust me, it’s tons of fun!” Pinkie cheered, though Dash’s forehead continued to bead with nervous perspiration as she nodded in agreement. “Okay, girls… Let’s get going!” Twilight said, dropping the glyph to the floor in front of her and starting to read it sequentially. Power began to course through her body, and her horn began to glow with a very bright aura of purple energy. The aura turned into a magical field, surrounding her and her five friends. Twilight narrowed her eyes, focusing carefully on the glyph and reading the spell verbatim. “Wake me when it’s over…” Dash gulped, closing her eyes. With a blinding flash of purple light followed by a powerful CRACK, the six mares disappeared. The glyph was incinerated, producing a small pile of ashes on the floor where it once lay. “Of course, leave me to clean up the mess…” Spike grumbled, seizing a broom and starting to sweep up the ashes. His anger would be short-lived—Pinkie had left her candy-laden saddlebags on the table.