As the girls ready themselves for a fight, Fluttershy instead calmly approaches the Bug. "Fluttershy, what're you doing?!" Applejack worriedly called to her.
"Get back here!" Rainbow Dash reaches for her.
"Maybe it doesn't wanna hurt us. It could be sheltering from the snow, too." Fluttershy reasoned as she approaches the strange creature. "Hi, are you lost?" she asked it softly, but it doesn't answer, save from its otherworldly beeping. "Perhaps you're hungry? I have a bag of snacks for creatures big and small." she presented her critter food bag.
The Bug violently smacks the bag away before raising its claws to attack Fluttershy, triggering Rainbow Dash to speedily carry her away. "Not friendly!" she shouted to her friends.
"Rarity, shields, please!" Sunset Shimmer commanded.
As they back away, Rarity erects a diamond wall to isolate the Bug to the entrance. "That should hold it!"
Flash Sentry snaps a picture of the Bug pounding against its prison. "But what is it?"
Bravo and Twilight Sparkle scan the Bug, seeing red pixels covering it on their displays. "It's covered in portal magic. It could be Equestrian." Twilight Sparkle reported.
"I've never seen anything like that back in Equestria, then again I only learned about Changelings an hour ago." Sunset Shimmer commented.
The Bug pounds at the wall uselessly before backing away. Its face glows brighter, emitting a heat so intense everyone behind the wall can feel it. With this heat, it forms a fireball that melts a hole through the shields, narrowly missing Rarity by a few inches before explosively crashing into the back wall. "I thought diamonds were unbreakable!" Rarity exclaimed.
"That fireball capped temperature readings on my scanner!" Twilight Sparkle yelled in surprise, seeing her scanner pick up 999°F. "It went way over the melting point of diamond!"
"Defences fell, so let's go on the offensive!" Rainbow Dash commanded. "A.J., grab a rock and—"
"On it!" Applejack picks up a boulder and tosses it at the Bug.
The insectoid winds back its forelimbs and punches the boulder into gravel upon impact with its claws, demonstrating great strength betraying its lanky frame.
"It doesn't look so fast." Rainbow Dash notes its girthy physique as she stretches her arms. "A fist clocking in at Mach 1 should do it!" she crouches at a four-point start, aiming for the Bug. She slingshots herself as a rainbow streak, winding up a mean right punch, but when she comes face-to-weird-orange-glowy-thing, it erects a clear prism-shaped shield around itself, and she smacks right into it. "Ow."
"It has shields, too?!" Rarity yelped in surprise.
As Rainbow Dash picks herself up, the Bug's shield dissipates and it looks down on her. Before it could do anything to her, she hobbles to her friends and collapses on Fluttershy. "Rainbow Dash, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.
"I play soccer. My face gets dates with all sortsa surfaces all the time." Rainbow Dash assured with a smirk.
As the Bug slowly, menacingly waddles towards them, Twilight Sparkle presses her Geode and activates her telekinesis, picking up the gravel that the Bug left behind. With sounds of cracking and clattering overhead, she moves the entire pile back to the Bug, encasing it head-to-toe with gravel. The Bug thrashes about as it tries shaking the gravel off, but Twilight Sparkle doubles down and clenches her hands into fists, causing the gravel to rub against the Bug faster and faster, degrading into sand. With a great amount of pressure Twilight Sparkle applies to the sand, she compacts it into a sandstone tomb for the Bug as it ceases movement, and its wicked wheezing and beeping peters out. When all was done, her legs tremble and she collapse into Sunset Shimmer's arms.
"Good job, Twilight." Sunset Shimmer congratulated.
As everyone was relieved to see the Bug stop, the stone tomb glows red-hot as steam and smoke spew from cracks, and from those cracks, a haunting noise quietly emanated. From the tomb's face, a fireball shoots out and explodes, blowing a hole wide open to show its pulsating facial organ. With violent jerks of its arms and legs, it breaks out of its stony prison in a matter of seconds, shaking off the rest of the sand peppering its exoskeleton before hobbling towards them.
"What now?!" Pinkie Pie panicked before Rainbow Dash comes to vigorously shake her.
"Pinkie, you know what to do! Movie explosion time! One that'll make Canter Zoom proud!" Rainbow Dash hurriedly demanded.
Pinkie Pie pushes her away before hurriedly searching her pockets, then searches her backpack, producing a sprinkles shaker. "Bombs away!" she tosses a handful of sprinkles at the approaching Bug towards its face, scattering and sticking the candy onto its chest and shoulders. Everyone covers their ears for a boom, but nothing happens, even the Bug is confused and wipes off the sprinkles before resuming its slow pursuit.
"It didn't do anything!" Sunset Shimmer shouted.
"It's just a fluke! Go again, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash encouraged.
Pinkie again scatters sprinkles, but they only decorate the bug like a sinister sundae. With her shaker empty, she rifles through her pockets to grab caramel pieces, gumdrops, and a single piece of sour candy wrapped in clear plastic with a nuclear bomb sticker. She tosses them at the Bug, uselessly covering it in harmless candy. "Nuke incoming!" when she finally flings the sour candy like a baseball, it only bounces off the Bug's dark exoskeleton before being squashed underfoot. Out of candy, Pinkie Pie could do nothing but stare at her impending doom, shocked that her powers failed her in this extremely dire moment.
"Why aren't her powers working?!" Twilight Sparkle wondered panickily.
"Pull the trigger…" the voice in Pinkie Pie's head whispered, and at the same time, she clutches a hard mass that suddenly manifested inside her jacket. "Pull the trigger…"
"Pinkie Pie!" Flash Sentry shouted as he inserts a battery marked with a yellow warning label into Lil Flash. "Get out of the way, I'll—"
Wracked with pressure, she pulls out the pistol and points it at the Bug. "Don't move! I'll shoot!" Pinkie Pie threatened the Bug.
Everyone stares in horror, even the Bug as it stopped moving the moment she pulled it out. Twilight Sparkle searches her pocket for the gun she thought she confiscated, finding no trace of it.
"What's Pinkie holding? Everyone's so freaked-out about it." Ember asked Spike.
"That's a gun. This isn't gonna be pretty." Spike answered, scared more than ever.
"Is that the same one from the hospital?" Fluttershy wondered.
"But she left it behind, didn't she?" Applejack added.
"That's what we were about to tell everyone. On top of her unusual behaviour, this gun somehow found its way back to her, and it's somehow affecting her mental state!" Twilight Sparkle explained hurriedly.
Seeing no action from Pinkie Pie, the Bug daringly takes another step forward. "H-hey, hey! I m-meant it!" Pinkie Pie threatened as her fear rises.
"Pull the trigger…" The Bug stared blankly with its facial organ, letting out its strange garble. "Pull the trigger…" Pinkie Pie shivers as she breaks into a cold sweat. "Pull the trigger…" finally giving in, she puts her finger on the trigger, slowly pulling it back.
"Trigger…"
"Trigger…"
"Trigger…"
Before she could fire, her eyes roll back into her head and faints, collapsing onto the floor. "Pinkie!" her friends shouted as Rarity and Twilight Sparkle come to her aid.
When they pick her up, the creature raises its appendages to attack them, but was too slow as the two girls already ran away carrying Pinkie Pie. She was barely conscious while being carried away to safety, dropping her pistol in the chaos.
The last thing Pinkie Pie sees before everything goes dark is a flash of purple light illuminating the cave, accompanied by low-frequency booming.
In Pinkie Pie's kitchen, she stands in a meditative state beside her oven with a souffle baking inside, softly chanting something to herself. "…Zephyr Breeze, Zipporwhill…" she snaps out of her meditation and opens the oven, removing a fresh, hot souffle. "Done! Now to get this to Rarity on time!" she sets a timer for seven minutes and rushes to the door. "Outta the way!" She kicks the door open, meeting a worried Sunset Shimmer at her door. "Oh, hi, Sunset!" she waved to her.
"Pinkie, you're happy again!" Sunset Shimmer hugged her tightly.
"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?" Pinkie Pie responded in her usual happy self. "Sorry, but I gotta get this to Rarity fast!" she runs out the door.
"Wait!" Sunset Shimmer tries to grab her collar. The moment Pinkie Pie steps out the door, she and Sunset Shimmer find themselves standing in a dark, smoke-filled void. "Pinkie, where are we?"
"I…" Pinkie Pie stammered in confusion, finding the souffle gone from her hands. "I remember…" Pinkie Pie muttered, her hair slowly losing colour and flattening.
"Remember what?" Sunset Shimmer asked.
"The gun… the Bug… the voices… I couldn't take it…" she whimpered as she becomes increasingly distressed.
"Pinkie, it's gonna be okay." Sunset Shimmer assured Pinkie Pie as she turns her towards her face. "I'm here to save you, so tell—" she looks down at Pinkie Pie's hands and backs away shocked.
"Sunset, what's wrong?" Pinkie Pie asked for Sunset Shimmer to silently point at her hands.
Pinkie Pie raises her right hand, and sees herself holding the pistol. "Ah!" she squeaked before throwing it into the void.
"Pinkie…"
"Sunset… did you hear that?"
"The voice… just like what Twilight told me… it's real…" Sunset Shimmer muttered, terrified of the prospect of something else there with them.
Rising from the smoke are bright white eyes, which both girls recognize as the entity that appeared to combat Torch; designated as The Third. "Wh-who…?" Pinkie Pie whimpered when she freezes, suddenly remembering this has happened before.
"Pinkie!" Sunset Shimmer shakes her back to lucidity. "What is that thing?!" she panicked, looking over her shoulder at the eyes.
"I…" The Third's voice boomed before a cacophony of hushed whispers. "…darkness… and…"
Pinkie Pie pushes Sunset Shimmer aside to face The Third as whispers continue filling their ears. "And what?! Tell me! What?!" she demanded answers with a fury she's never unleashed before. "What are you doing to me?!"
Pinkie Pie raises her hand to point at the eyes, but sees the pistol back in her hands again. "Trigger… pull the trigger…"
"Pinkie, put it down!" Sunset Shimmer shouted.
"I…" Pinkie Pie tries to release her grip, but her hand refuses to let go. "…I can't."
Then, Sunset Shimmer faces The Third for Pinkie Pie. "What are you doing to Pinkie?! Leave her alone!" she demanded.
Instead of a response, The Third extends its massive hand from the smoke, crushing the two girls with a loud crunch.
"Aaah!" Pinkie Pie screamed as she shoots up from her bedroll, drenched in cold sweat, and surrounded by her friends fearfully looking at her. She turns to her right and sees a crying Sunset Shimmer clutching her hand.
"Sunset, what are you doing?" Pinkie Pie asked before Twilight Sparkle and Spike comes to comfort Sunset Shimmer.
"Pinkie, I didn't know you had to go through that… I'm sorry…" Rarity goes in for a hug and started crying too.
"I told them everything about your condition." Twilight Sparkle explained to Pinkie Pie sombrely.
"We knew it was bad… just not this bad." Applejack said as she took off her hat.
"I couldn't even imagine how you felt through all that…" Fluttershy whimpered.
"I… don't even know what to say." Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her neck.
"It sounded like something outta a horror movie." Spike shuddered.
"Saying this as a dragon: hearing what Twilight said was… intense." Ember's eyes were wide open in shock.
"And for it to happen to you of all people… man…" Flash Sentry sighed.
"After driving the bug monster away, we rushed to find what's happening to you." Twilight Sparkle continued.
"I used my empathy powers to look into your mind, and maybe try to wake you up. I… I didn't think I'd see what I saw…" Sunset Shimmer explained.
"Bravo and I studied both your Geode and that weapon. The results… weren't good." Twilight Sparkle continued. "Pinkie, I dunno how to break this to you, but… your Geode's magic's gone."
"G-gone? How?" Pinkie Pie stammered.
"It's completely drained of Equestrian magic. It's why you couldn't use your sugar bombs." Twilight Sparkle explained.
Then Bravo kneels beside Pinkie Pie's left, looking concerned as he presents the gun inside an evidence bag. "Unknown manufacturer and model, no serial number, unidentifiable calibre, and thankfully unchambered." He began explaining. "It's a complete mystery to me, but one thing's for certain: it's covered in portal magic."
"It doesn't make sense. As far as we know, it's not connected to Torch, or The Third." Twilight Sparkle noted in confusion.
"That's what you think. I saw things in Pinkie's dream that should almost answer everything…" Sunset Shimmer started writing into her journal. She wipes her tears, then breathes in deeply, gathering all the confidence she needs. "I was at Pinkie Pie's house. She just took out a souffle outta the oven, said it was for Rarity." She recounted to both her friends and the journal. "When Pinkie Pie left her house, everything went dark, like we stepped into black void. Pinkie and I were so scared… then she pulled out the gun."
"It made it into her dreams, too?" Applejack scratched her head.
"Guns are that scary, huh?" Ember commented.
"Like I said: you have no idea." Spike replied.
"After she threw it away, the eyes appeared behind us… The Third." Sunset Shimmer continued, shocking her friends. "It wasn't like a vision or an illusion, it felt like it was in the same room as us… like it was real."
"I remember now…" Pinkie Pie muttered, drawing her friends' attention. "It talked, and it sounded like the voices I kept hearing all the time."
"What'd it say?" Fluttershy asked.
Pinkie Pie droops her head. "It said it was… darkness, and… was about to say something else." She began explaining. "I was so tired, so angry, I wanted answers out of it so bad… then the gun came back." She fell silent for another moment. "Then, it said to pull…" she covered her face with her hands. "Pull the trigger. It wanted me to pull the trigger…" she cries into her hands, tears dripping from her palms.
"The Third never left after Torch beat it, it's been inside Pinkie the whole time!" Rainbow Dash realized.
"Y-you mean s-she's p-p-possessed?" Fluttershy shivered, taken aback to the revelation.
"It's been haunting my brain… and it's what's been making me bummed-out." Pinkie Pie clutches her head.
"Bummed-out's an understatement, Pinkie. You're straight-up depressed." Flash Sentry added.
"That must be why her Geode no longer works: it's connected to her happiness, and without that, it became inactive." Twilight Sparkle speculated.
"Or The Third could be feeding off her magic to heal itself." Sunset Shimmer added.
"It's… stopping me from being happy? Is that why it torments me whenever I hear the word sm—" Pinkie Pie wondered before covering her mouth, preventing another panic attack.
"But where does the gun fit into all of this?" Rarity wondered.
"Just like Vignette Valencia's phone, Juniper's mirror, and Twilight's watering can, it could be another object enchanted by its dark magic." Sunset Shimmer suggested.
"In light of recent events, I'll have to call backup." Bravo takes out his phone, but then Rainbow Dash stops him.
"Hey, what'd I say? We. Got. This." She assured adamantly. "Why don'cha go and keep guard and make sure the Bug doesn't come back. Tell Furlong what happened, sure, but tell him we're all the backup we need."
"I'm not sure I wanna sleep. I don't wanna see those eyes ever again." Pinkie Pie whimpered.
As she says this, everyone encircles her with their bedrolls. "Then you won't have to do it alone." Twilight Sparkle nodded.
"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Rainbow Dash confidently declared.
"Dream demons be darned! Nothin'll stop us from helpin' a friend!" Applejack energetically declared.
"We'll brave anything for you." Fluttershy told Pinkie Pie.
"Just sleep tight. We're here for you." Rarity assuredly held Pinkie Pie's hand.
Pinkie Pie smiles, happy and relieved to know her friends are doing all this to cheer her up. "Thank you, and… goodnight… everyone." She lies on her bedroll and shuts her eyes, falling asleep with her friends.
Sunset Shimmer was the last awake, having written closing regards into her journal following a sketch of The Third's eyes. "Hope the princess has some answers when we wake up." She yawns before lying beside Twilight Sparkle.
"So, this is what a slumber party really is about." Ember stares at the circle of bodies before her.
"Like I said: It's not just about the games you play, or all the juicy gossip shared between everyone. It's about the company you share, and sleeping together to grow even closer together as friends." Spike lectured.
"The only other dragon I used to sleep with was my dad. I hope we find him tomorrow." Ember commented as Spike hops onto a dog bed put down for him and Ember.
"For now, you have me." He pats the space beside him, gesturing Ember to sleep with him.
Ember smiles and goes over to Spike, lying down beside him, filling up much of the bed, almost pushing him to the outer edge.
"Comfy?" Spike asked.
"I've slept on rocks. Literally anything's comfier." Ember chuckled.
"Heheh. Goodnight." Spike chuckled back before lowering his head and closing his eyes.
Ember looks down on Spike, then puts her leg around his body, hugging him as she lies her head down.
Bravo stood by the cave entrance, staring at the resting Pinkie Pie. "There's always next time." He looks out to the midnight blizzard, seeing a faint orange glow in the horizon.
Pinkie Pie's eyes open wide, finding herself in the dark void again. "Looks like we're skipping the souffle now, huh?" she nervously chuckled when familiar lights rise behind her. She turns around and expectedly sees The Third ominously looking down upon her as before. "You… you don't scare me anymore! I have friends behind me!" Pinkie Pie shouted defiantly.
"Friends…" The Third muttered.
"Yeah, I got friends, a buncha them! If you're evil and try anything funny, we'll blast you with rainbow lasers!" she shouted.
"Friends… make… smile…" The Third's voice echoes. "...Smile… make… power…"
"So, you are feeding off my magic to get your powers back!" she shouted, suddenly silencing The Third's echoing murmurs. "I want answers! Who are you, why are you tormenting me like this?!"
"I… am…" The Third is drowned out by whispers. "Dark—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're darkness, I got that! Can't you say anything else?!"
The Third silently stares down at Pinkie Pie before speaking again. "You… power… control..."
As expected, The Third thrusts its hands from the smoke and crushes her between its palms. Unexpectedly, Pinkie Pie forces the hands away from her with strength like Applejack's. "Yeah! You bet I'm in control! This is my dreamscape, not yours!" she throws the hands back into the darkness where they came from. "So why don't you take a hike and leave me alone?! If you think you can scare me, then you've got another thing coming!"
Pinkie Pie stares back furiously at The Third, then it starts to let out a booming cackle, scaring her. Along with its hearty laugh, it starts to clap at her, briefly pointing at her with its big finger before back to clapping.
"What's so funny?"
"You… funny…"
It snaps its fingers, and with that, the dream ends.
Pinkie Pie silently opens her eyes wide, seeing a ray of sunshine beaming across her face. She sits up from her bedroll, finding sunshine beaming through the cave entrance and her friends already up and packing up. "Hey, Pinkie's awake!" Spike and Ember pounce on Pinkie Pie's face, alerting everyone.
"Oh, morning, everyone." She smiled meekly, noticing Rarity just woke up leaning beside her with Spike sitting on her chest.
"Good morning, Pinkie Pie." Rarity greeted her as she rubs her eye and Spike leaps off her. "You didn't scream this time. Did something new happen in your dream?" she asked curiously.
"You don't look so spooked anymore. Did you finally tell those oversized lightbulbs to buzz off?" Rainbow Dash asked Pinkie Pie as she sat beside her.
"When it showed up in my dream, I told it that I've got a whole buncha friends to support me, and if it's evil, we'll blast it with our magic rainbow lasers!" Pinkie Pie boasted, speaking more confidently and cheerfully. "Then, it called me powerful, and something about being in control, I think."
"Then what happened? Did you dream up some dream us' and kick its butt?" Flash Sentry asked.
"When it tried crushing me with its giant hands, I channelled my inner Applejack and stopped it with super strength, then threw them back into the darkness!" Pinkie Pie answered, her hype escalating.
"Sounds like it got yer message loud n' clear! Atta girl!" Applejack whooped with a hat-whirl.
"It's a relief to hear you're standing up to this bully… whatever it is." Rarity let a sigh of relief.
"But after I did that, it just… laughed at me." Pinkie Pie added. "It started clapping, pointing at me, and then it called me funny. That's when the dream ended."
"Now it actually sounded like it was… amused." Twilight Sparkle noted, bewildered by this new development.
"Take it from a former supervillain: we love it when heroes think they got the upper hand. No doubt when it said that, it means it has bigger plans in store for you." Sunset Shimmer commented.
"B-bigger plans?" Pinkie Pie stammered.
"Don't sweat over it too much." Rainbow Dash puts her arm over Pinkie Pie's shoulder. "Like you said: if it tries anything, we'll blast it with magic rainbow lasers! They haven't failed us yet!"
"And the fact you've even stood up to it like this is a step in the right direction." Twilight Sparkle assured.
"Even if she's getting it under control, we still have a load of questions." Flash Sentry commented as he docks Lil Flash into a drone. "What is The Third? Why'd it attack Torch? Is it connected to that bug monster?" he presented a variety of questions, all of which concern his friends.
"Speaking of, how'd you beat the bug monster?" Pinkie Pie asked curiously.
"Let's just say it's camera-shy from now on." Flash Sentry gave a confident look as he patted Lil Flash hovering beside him.
"I haven't gotten a reply from the princess, but I hope she has answers soon." Sunset Shimmer presented her journal.
"Our scientists haven't found anything conclusive yet, either." Bravo approaches them, his parka frosted with a thick sheet of snow.
"Dude, you okay? Feeling a little nippy there?" Rainbow Dash asked him.
"I've been through worse." Bravo responded as he brushes the ice and snow off him.
"The weather's calmed down this morning. It should be safe to trek." Applejack thumbed to the cave entrance.
"Oh, lemme get ready. I don't wanna weigh you guys down more than I already have." Pinkie Pie got up from her bedroll. As she gets up, she feels around her jacket for something, but is soon relieved when the only thing she finds is her phone. "Whew, thought it came back." She wiped her brow before rolling up her bedroll.
As she packs her belongings into her backpack, Bravo continued staring at Pinkie Pie from afar. "Today's the day… today's the day you'll get her." he said to himself as he reaches into his parka, grabbing the evidence bag containing Pinkie Pie's gun. He takes a good, long look at the mysterious weapon before pocketing it.
To be continued…