"Rainbow Dash?"
"Yeah?"
"Rarity told me something...when she was talking 'bout the reason Sweetie Belle ran off."
"Uh...okay?"
"It's really important okay. So, don't you go laughing, just give me a straight answer, alright?"
"Um...Applejack, what is this about?"
Sigh. "Rainbow, I know you'd never do anything to hurt me. That's why I just want a straight answer from you...why'd Sweetie Belle say ya gave Rarity a love-note?"
Long pause.
"I-I didn't give it to her...I dropped off a love note, okay? But it wasn't from me alright? I mean, I was the one who dropped it off, but it the note was from another pony, alright? I mean...it was a different pony who was interested in Rarity, okay?"
"Uh-huh. And I don't suppose you'd be up for telling me who that was?"
"I promised not to." Rainbow shifted beneath the covers. "Anyway, why does it matter? You didn't really think I sent a love note to Rarity did you?"
"No. No, I didn't."
"Great..."
"..."
"Can we go to sleep now?"
Applejack sat up and switched on the lamp. "Why don't you wanna tell folks about us?"
Rainbow Dash groaned. "Do we have to talk about this right now?"
"Yes, Rainbow, I-I was really worried that you were...well, I don't rightly know what I was thinkin' but I wouldn't have been thinking anything if we weren't sneaking around like we was doin' something wrong." Applejack declared.
"Ah-ha! So, you did think I had the hots for Rarity!" Rainbow said, rejuvenated at the prospect that she wasn't the one who'd messed up this time.
"No! Well, I-"
"You liiiiied." Rainbow said with a grin. "Admit it!"
Applejack turned away. "Darn it all, Rainbow, of course I lied! I wouldn't have if you'd just come clean about why it is you don't want folks to know your sweet on me."
Rainbow sighed. "Applejack, we've talked about this a million times...it's been a really long day, can we just...discuss it in the morning?"
Applejack shifted on the edge of the bed; her face still turned away. "Yeah, Rainbow. Whatever you say."
Rainbow heard the familiar crack in Applejack's voice and sat up, climbing across the bed. "Hey, you didn't really think I would ever cheat on you, did you?!"
Applejack's face was tipped forward, her unbraided locks obscuring most of her features. She took a deep breath, then she snapped back to glower at Rainbow. "Well, what in tarnation was I supposed to think!?! You're out there galivanting all over Equestria. You gotta a line of fan-fillies a mile long just waiting to cozy up to ya. And you're going to places that it just ain't...convenient to bring a pony like me."
Rainbow recoiled slightly and then glared, lifting up off the bed. "So, what you think whenever you're not around I'm just smooching random ponies!? What kind of a jerk do you think I am?"
"Then why are we sneakin' around? If it's not so that you can fool 'round behind my back, why is it!? Why don'tchya just admit your ashamed of me and quit toying with my heart!!?"
Rainbow's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?!! I love you! You know that I love you!! And-and you love me too, don't you?"
Applejack turned away.
"Why-why isn't that enough!?" Rainbow demanded.
There was no answer, besides the hard coughing sound of that Rainbow had recognized as her lover trying once more to hold back tears.
Rainbow flew over to Applejack's side of the bed and reached out with one hoof. Then she stopped herself before she reached Applejack's sturdy, shaking shoulders. "I-I know I haven't exactly made things easy." She said, as she stared at the knots in the unstained floorboards. "But I'm not ashamed of you, okay!? I would never be ashamed of you...and-and if it takes me telling everypony how much you mean to me for you to realize that...then-then that's what I'm gonna do!"
With that, she threw open the window and rushed out into the night air.
Applejack stared at the far wall for a long time, listening to the sounds of the wind rustling through the orchard outside. Quit crying, she told herself. Ya ain't got no reason to cry now, even if she don't love you as much as you do her. But the voice in her head, the strict voice which had come to substitute for the voice of her mother from a very young age, was drowned out by the wave of sorrow finally bubbling to the surface. Eventually, unable to handle standing any longer, she lay down next the bed, pulling the covers off the mattress and biting them to stifle the overpowering scream forming in her throat.
Applejack had always prided herself on being strong, self-sufficient. She took care of others. That was the way things were. But right now, she didn't feel strong. She didn't feel self-sufficient. She felt like all the broken pieces she'd been holding onto had just come tumbling out of her stupid mouth and without Rainbow's help she'd never be able to get them back in working order.
Applejack was the most hard-working, patient and loving mare that Rainbow had ever met. If she thought that Rainbow didn't love her, then that meant Rainbow must have been doing a pretty bad job of making her feel loved.
She could still fix things, though. She'd tell Twilight to make some kind of public announcement about the two of them tomorrow and then all of Equestria would know the truth. Rainbow tried not to think about what her parents might say. They had always been so supportive, to the point of embarrassing her. But what if she suddenly lost that support? Or worse, what if it dampened? What if things turned awkward and estranged? No outraged, dramatic declarations but instead slow, uncomfortable greetings to replace the heart-warming moments she'd come to take for granted?
And what about her teammates? They'd made fun of her flying, the thing she was best at. Of course, they'd make fun of her for loving another mare. They might even decide they didn't like her as squad leader anymore, for although Equestria had long been accepting of all types of love, most ponies still expected for mares to fall in love with stallions and vice versa. More than once interviewers had popped the question "Who's the lucky stallion?" Some had even asked when she planned to retire and finally have foals.
No, no pony would sling mud at her door or attempt to have her taken off the Wonderbolts for being a "fillyfooler". But the adoration she'd come to enjoy, the unfiltered exaltation she come to take for granted...that too might wane, rather than disappear. Ponies wouldn't think "There goes Rainbow Dash, the greatest flyer in Equestria." They'd think "There goes Rainbow Dash, the greatest flyer in Equestria...and by the way did you hear that she was in love with another mare?"
As much as it pained her, Rainbow had to admit that she'd put more value in the applause of her fans than the comfort of the pony she wanted to spend her life with. The truth was that she wasn't ashamed of Applejack, she was ashamed of herself. But she wouldn't go one more second with Applejack thinking that somehow she wasn't good enough.
She was almost at Twilight's tower when she saw it. A splash of illumination beneath the full moon, a dazzling array of gemstones sent showering through the moonlight. And something else.
Twilight. Thrown off balance by whatever force had sent her hurtling out of her tower, she would be unable to get hold of her wings fast enough to avoid crashing into the ground. Rainbow intercepted her a few feet from the soil managing to dodge the little shiny bullets which the gemstones had been turned into on the upswing.
"What's going on?" She asked, as she let go of Twilight in mid-air once she had recovered.
Twilight gave her a strange look, her eyes burning with nameless fire. "Ember-" Was all she said, before a dragon crashed into her and drove her down into the ground below.
Rainbow blasted down after her, slamming her hooves into Ember's scaled hide. "Hey! Let go of her! Knock it off, right now!" Rainbow commanded.
Ember swung out with the back of her claw. Rainbow dodged the blow easily. She might not have been as strong as Ember was (not something she'd ever admit) but she was quicker.
Not quick enough though, to dodge Ember's tail.
It coiled around her foreleg and tossed her backward with humiliating ease. Rainbow had a split second to slow her momentum, but her collision with the hard crystal surface of the castle was still a painful one. There was a ringing in her skull and a stabbing in her left wing, but both left immediate focus as she slid free of the wall behind her and realized she was falling. Rainbow tried to glide to the ground, but the pain in her left wing prevented her from fully extending it and she heard Spike cry out, before she hit the ground. Her ankles twisted, her bad wing folded under her and her somersault ended with her shoulder cracking into the broadside of an oak.
"Rainbow Dash!" Spike landed beside her, slapping her awake with a strike of his claw.
Her eyes barely opened. Everything hurt or else was so far beyond hurting it had passed into numbness, which was somehow worse.
Ember was looking down at her in shock. She was used to wrestling with dragons twice her size. She probably had no idea that the bones in the wings of a pegasus were hollow and no conception that the flight of other intelligent creatures might be propelled by something more than magic. She actually looked ready to dive down and help before the blast of purple light engulfed sent her crashing through the front doors of the Castle of Friendship. As smoke bellowed from the producing Ember-shaped hole, Twilight stood up, shaking dirt off her wings, and again her eyes gleamed yet brighter.
A pillar of blue flame erupted from the entrance before Rainbow could point the detail out to Spike and she was only able a to mumble incoherently he dragged her out of incineration range.
Rainbow's feathers curled at the ambient heat as she watched Twilight become a small black silhouette against the azure blaze. Then Ember paused the skin-searing onslaught to take a breath and the last thing Rainbow saw before passing out was Twilight charging horn first through the charred remains of the castle doors.
Diamond Tiara had only been sobbing for a minute before she felt hooves picking her up and carrying her back to the safety of the house. Then she awoke to find herself on the living room sofa, wrapped in a blanket, perched between her parents. They both looked slightly disheveled and more than a little fatigued, but they were also both smiling at her genuinely for the first time in over 24 hours.
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright!" Spoiled said, wrapping her hooves around her grown daughter and trying to hug away the trauma.
"We were afraid...well, thank the stars that Princess Twilight saved us from that awful spell." Filthy said, rubbing the side of his head. "I'm afraid your mother and I don't fully recall what day it is but...did that cat-thing do anything to you?"
"I tell you right now if I ever get my hooves on her, she'll wish she was dealing with a pack of diamond dogs!" Spoiled hissed.
Filthy's expression darkened, but he raised a hoof to quiet her and Spoiled turned to look back at their daughter. Diamond's mouth was open but her attempts to form words were being stalled by the trickling flow of memory. Her eyes were wide, and she gaped like a fish as their faces crinkled with worry.
When she finally spoke, it was preceded by a sharp intake as if surfacing after a long dive. "She...she told me that she'd make me forget Swuh-Sweetie Belle...I...I hated knowing that she didn't...love me." Diamond shrank in. "But forgetting her...it made me forget about all my friends...about e-everything that's important...I...I...ohhhhh..."
She turned to look at her father. "Daddy, Sweetie Belle is in the hospital and everypony thinks that Silver Spoon lost her mind and it's all because of me!"
"No! No, no, listen, none of this is your fault." Filthy insisted. "Your mother and I should have known better than to invite a strange musician in for brunch."
"Besides," Spoiled said, still holding onto Diamond's foreleg almost painfully. "Princess Twilight obviously has the situation under control. I'm sure she'll protect your friends from whatever is going on and you'll be able to make it up with them after a good night's rest."
Diamond looked between them and then shook her head. "No, I...I have to go...I have to find Silver Spoon."
Filthy backed up to the door. "I-I don't think that's a very wise idea. As your mother said, I'm sure the princess is more than capable of handling the situation."
"Dad, I did something terrible and...and Silver Spoon...she-she needs me, okay? All my friends do...I...I have to make things right!"
"No, no, please Diamond..." Spoiled grabbed her. "It's not safe out there! Please, stay here and let us protect you."
Diamond looked between them and then sighed and nodded. Her father relaxed his stance. Then she yanked herself out of her mother's grasp and dove toward the dining room. She landed atop the table and then went flying out through the dining room window, spraying shards of glass across the recently planted begonias beyond.
"I'll be back, I promise!!" She called, staring back through the broken glass at the shocked expressions on her parents' faces. Then she was rushing down the street in the direction of the Castle of Friendship. Twilight was clearly (but hopefully temporarily) out of her gourd. But she had known to track Bard's magic back to Diamond and her family which meant she had probably talked to Silver Spoon which meant she might know where Silver Spoon was.
Diamond was trying to formulate how exactly she was going to convince the immortal and temporarily insane alicorn to divulge Silver Spoon's location, when she turned a corner and almost ran headfirst into Apple Bloom.
"Oh...you." Diamond said.
Apple Bloom stared at her and then at the reflection of the streetlamps on the cobblestones. Then she sprung forward, grabbing Diamond Tiara and shoving her up against the nearest building.
"Why?! Why'd you say them things? What'd any of us ever do to you!?" Apple Bloom demanded.
Diamond Tiara squirmed beneath her grasp. "Please, Apple Bloom, I'm sorry for everything, but that wasn't me! I-I was being mind controlled, alright? But I'm trying to fix it! Please, you have to let me go before it's too late!!"
Apple Bloom ground her teeth together. "How dumb do you think I am? Fine, Diamond! What kinda creature made you say those things about Scootaloo's wings!? Well!? Spit it out!"
Diamond slumped against the wall behind. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in preparation.
Apple Bloom's grip slackened, but her voice remained deep and dangerous. "Well for your sake, I better."
When both polite requests and raw force failed, Ponyville's nurses gave up on coercing Rarity into leaving her little sister's side. It was only the call of nature which eventually drew Rarity from of the hospital room, although only after making Nurse Snowheart promise she wouldn't lock the door before Rarity's return.
Rarity had just gotten back from the powder room and was struggling not to think about her disheveled appearance in the sink mirror, when she saw Pinkie Pie standing in waiting area, the strings of a dozen heart-shaped balloons wrapped around both front hooves and a glitter coated box resting on her back.
The wrapping on the box was familiar, but Rarity had been awake for far too long to place exactly how at just this moment.
Pinkie caught her eye and waved one string-bound hoof. Still, there was more desperation than joy in the smile she gave and Rarity instinctively approached with caution.
"Oh, hey Rarity..." Pinkie's voice was lower than normal too. And while Rarity would normally be overjoyed that Pinkie might have finally developed an indoor voice, she was startled by the timing of its deployment. "I-I made a get-well present for Sweetie Belle!" She lifted her hoof again. "But Nurse Redheart said she was asleep."
Rarity thanked her lucky stars that Redheart had interceded before Pinkie woke up Sweetie and the rest of the wing with a get-well-soon-kazoo-concert. "Yes, well...I'm not sure your personal brand of reassurance would be appreciated at just this moment. But thank you for coming anyway." She brightened up, keen to change the subject and hopefully reinvigorate Pinkie a little. "Have you seen Fluttershy by any chance? Everypony else has come by to give their support and well, I'm sure she's very busy looking after the sanctuary but...well, I sort of ran out on her earlier and I wanted to apologize."
Pinkie seemed to sink toward the floor. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. IEarlier today I walked in on Fluttershy talking about her special somepony but now her special somepony is interested in some other pony and she's all sad and it's my fault because I told her to act on her feelings!"
Rarity summoned her kindest smile and put her hoof on Pinkie's chin. "Oh, darling, I'm sure it's not that bad. I know Fluttershy is sensitive to these sorts of things, but I'm sure we can find a million stallions to set her up with if need be. In any case, it's not your fault. These kinds of things just happen in love sometimes."
Pinkie was always the one giving the hugs and nose bumps and getting into everypony's personal space, but now she shied from Rarity's touch.
"That's not it." Pinkie said. "You're Fluttershy's special somepony!"
If a pin had dropped, it could have been heard rolling across the recently waxed floors of the hospital in the moments which followed. Of course, silence was always a luxury when Pinkie was nearby and a distressed Pinkie was even more prone to outbursts.
"I told her you weren't happy because you didn't have somepony for tomorrow's dance. I thought you two could go together. But you've found somepony else and now she's miserable."
Rarity stared at Pinkie's forlorn expression not with unbelief but with an almost total lack of registration. While her face continued to smile long after the light had died in her eyes, her mind whirled, a hurricane of thought struggling to cohere into a meaningful reaction.
Eventually, she regained operation of her lips and after licking them delicately asked. "Fluttershy, is in love...with me?"
Pinkie nodded; her eyes still downcast.
"With...me?" Rarity repeated, her own voice elevating in pitch and volume. A thousand tiny moments were suddenly fitting together, a puzzle piece she'd never noticed was missing now slotting perfectly into place.
Pinkie nodded again. "I just want you two to be happy. But I don't know anything about romance, Rarity. I thought if you just loved some creature enough, they would love you back...I guess I have a lot to learn."
"Thou art too unkind;
Without thine eager distraction
Mine purpose could ne'er so easily be concealed."
Both ponies turned to stare at the figure who had appeared in the entryway. Though she stood on two feet, she was hunched down to nearly pony height. And as all while she scuttled across the floor, she noodled lightly on the strings of her pale-instrument. Rarity's eyes were drawn not to the lute though, but to the cloak which the Abyssinian wore. It was not only impossibly dark, but thin as well. It seemed to melt into the stranger's fur, and the arrangement of stars on it mapped not the night sky as ponies knew it, but some older and intangibly sinister selection of constellations.
"Excuse me, but music is strictly prohibited this late at night." Nurse Redheart hissed, marching up to the Abyssinian.
The cat's smile fell. "Thou art beneath notice,
Unworthy of even mine
Most inelegant irony."
With that, she plucked a string and Redheart swayed as if drowsy, before collapsing at the foot of her desk. Rarity's horn flared and she stepped in front of Pinkie, extending her forelegs to either side.
"Stay away from us, whoever you are! I'm warning you!" She ordered.
The cat was staring at Pinkie though, with something that resembled joy, if filtered through years of the most slime-soaked deprivation. Briefly, her eyes flickered to Rarity, and her laughter was wet with the most overpowering of spirits and spiked with the most cutthroat thirsts.
Rarity used her magic to pick up a nearby flower and vase. It wounded her to destroy such a beautiful arrangement, but the situation necessitated violence. She was paused though, when she noticed the look on Pinkie's face. Never had the pink pony seemed so pale beneath her coat, nor had she shuddered so at the sight of a monster in all their time together. Just as the cat had been looking at Pinkie like a fat fish in her food bowl, so too was Pinkie staring intently not at the creature, but through her, at something beyond the scope of Rarity's view.
"Darling? Are you alright?"
Pinkie's lip trembled and the glittering present on her back slid to the floor with a wet splat, confirming Rarity's suspicions it was cake. Rarity realized at that moment, that the glitter on the box was the same as that which was used on the dress her "secret admirer" had sent her. She didn't have time to process this revelation though, because the music which the cat woman was playing had begun to worm its way into her mind.
It was so pretty...so light and flowing. It reminded her of the silly songs she sang with her mother, before she got her cutie mark, before she'd resolved to break free of her humble circumstances. But it also contained within it the most delicate of classical compositions, the like of which Canterlot's most ingenious melodists would never achieve.
Suddenly the fluffy clouds of love had filled the atmosphere of Rarity's mind, crowding out all other thought and suffocating her aggression beneath a soft pink mist. Fluttershy. She was so beautiful, so soft. Everything about her was soft. Her sleek mane and pronounced tail. Her fuzzy yellow hide, somehow unspoiled by hours of working with the most unkempt of beasts. And so sweet smelling. Rarity had theorized in the past that the only reason Fluttershy didn't reek from the droppings of the often less than cleanly residents of her home was because she perfumed herself. But she realized now that Fluttershy wouldn't need to supplement her own redolence, any more than she needed to comb her mane. She wasn't like Rarity. She didn't need to fake beauty, she was naturally imbued with it, as gentle and graceful as a mare had ever been. Quiet and demure and incapable of committing the gaffes which had plagued Rarity's existence. And kind, so unbearably kind. Rarity had felt that kindness of course, she had felt it intermingling with her soul whenever they channeled the Elements of Harmony.
Now she longed to feel it again, to not just know Fluttershy's company but to dwell within her breast in a soft and warm place close her heart. And to wait horn and hoof on her like the princess she clearly was. Oh Fluttershy, how had Rarity ever imagined any pony else filling the hole in her life? With a dazed smile she let go of the vase, not even noticing the crash of shattered porcelain. She nodded briefly to the panicking Pinkie Pie and stepped over the snoring Redheart on her way out.
She looked only once into the grinning black hole eyes of the cat and mumbled something like an apology for her earlier rudeness. She meant to thank the cat as well, for reminding her of how in love she had always been with Fluttershy, but the words were quite difficult at the moment, and she was too antsy to get to Fluttershy's cottage and make her love known to dally. Still, she resolved to send some kind of gift as means of thank you (perhaps a new cloak, one that didn't swirl and squirm in such a distracting manner) as she stumbled by, too lovesick to walk straight.
"Stop it!" Pinkie demanded, putting her hooves to her ears to block out the music, even though she knew it had no effect on her. "Stop it right now! Leave her alone!"
The cat creature laughed. But there was nothing wholesome about the sound. "Mine crown for any who names
a more cavalier organ than the heart.
Worry not for thy plaything, tis
not her which draws mine courtship."
"You don't belong here!" Pinkie insisted. "I don't know how you got here or where you came from, but you don't belong!" So, just go back wherever you came from and leave me and my friends alone!"
"Make good on thy threat
And in turn I promise,
Not a drop of blood nor a pound of flesh
Shall conclude mine play.
For pain is as temporary as life.
But art is forever."
"This isn't funny!" Pinkie persevered. "You-you don't belong here!! Please, I don't want to hurt you. Just go back the way you came and let us all be happy! That's the way things are supposed to be!"
"Perceptive, thou art indeed.
Though once I played
In the sacred radiance,
I was denuded to the mysteries of Hecate
And beknighted by the muses themselves,
That mine playing might go unobstructed.
Now I wield the strings of fate,
As if I were at Hades' side.
The Mistress of Thanatos,
Bard, the carrion bride." She paused to extend one of her claws, playing a sharp note on the lute which incited a chorus of nightmarish shrieks not only from Redheart but from the various other nurses throughout the building whom she'd no doubt forced to sleep. "But play not at blindness.
Canst thou not see as I?
Is not thine sight unimpeded
By walls forth?
Perhaps thou thought
Thyself the sole oracle of this world.
But we art gemini, thou bright and boorish,
I dark and sublime.
Together we see this facade.
A shadow play on a cave wall,
Its contents props not actors,
Puppets moved by unseen hands.
Still art we not both jesters?
And do we not make jest of this,
Our most contemptuous of circumstances?
Do we not strive both to make our audience laugh?"
"I'm not like you!" Pinkie insisted. "I would never make somepony feel bad just because I'm bored or just to make someone happy!" Pinkie insisted. "And my friends aren't props! They're PONIES!! And-and just because they don't know everything doesn't mean that their stupid either." Her glare lowered. "Now, you have to leave! If Twilight finds you, then she'll realize the truth and then...then she'll never be able to be happy again!"
Bard laughed again and the sound was even more raucous than before. "Worry not, thy sparkling highness
Has been indisposed.
Mine plans art impervious for
This show is not mine first.
Hast thou not heard tell of the Mad Prince Piglet?
Or the Merchant of Venison?
I take pride in mine orchestrations
And they will ne'er be silenced by haughty nobility
On this or any night."
Pinkie's eyes widened. "You did something to Twilight?!" She launched forward, slamming into Bard hard enough to throw her through the nearest wall. The Abyssinian wasn't pushed through the wood and plaster though like she should have been. Instead, she pooled against the pastel surface like an oil slick and re-solidified with a quiver of arcane slime.
With her hooves on the edge of Bard's coat, Pinkie gritted her teeth. "Get rid of it!! Whatever you did to Rarity and Twilight and anypony else, take it away RIGHT NOW!!"
Bard laughed and the stars on her cloak twinkled and danced. "Amusing though I find thy intimidations,
Mine calling is beyond this simple hamlet.
Join mine troupe and thy friend's will returns,
Else these violent delights
Bring murderess ends."
Pinkie stared up at Bard's predatory grin. Then another discordant note on the bone lute was plucked and another rush of nightmare pierced the veil of sleep which had overcome Redheart and her fellow nurses. This time their screams should have been loud enough to rouse one another, along with every other creature in the hospital.
But they did not.
Pinkie lowered her hooves to the floor. "So, you're saying if I go with you and join your band...you'll leave all my friends alone?"
Bard nodded.
Pinkie tried to think of some way out of this, some way to trick the slime cat monster into letting her not have to leave her home and all her friends. But strategy had never been her strong suit. Just as she could see things no other pony could, she also knew things they did not. And she knew that Bard had said "Murderess" not "murderous", which meant that she was planning to make Twilight do something truly unforgivable, to ruin the placid ignorance of Equestria with the inconsolable horror of bloodshed.
Twilight would never recover. She would blame herself forever. Pinkie couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let her friends be turned into monsters because she was too selfish to give them up.
"Thy hour runs short,
How doest thy answer?"
When, halfway through Diamond Tiara's attempted explanation, Apple Bloom realized that what she was describing was too stupid for her to make up, the two hurried in the direction of the Castle of Friendship. They were both shocked by the all-out brawl between Twilight and Ember, which had turned the first floor of the castle into architectural Swiss cheese. Still, they hurried up the half-destroyed staircase within, eager to save their friend before the castle collapsed around her.
They were both relieved to find Silver Spoon seemingly returned to her normal self, albeit intensely distressed at the memory of her most recent actions. They were less enthusiastic about it when Scootaloo appeared from behind the curtains with a mad gleam in her eyes and leaped in Silver Spoon's direction with a bread knife in one hoof.
It was a murder attempt so ludicrously dramatic that it would have been worthy of derision had they seen it in a play. But in real life, it was nothing short of terrifying.
Even with every ounce of magical strength they could summon, it still took both of them to keep Scootaloo's toned but slight form restrained, for she was wild with the strength of vengeance and bucked and squirmed against their grips even as she shouted at Silver Spoon's paralyzed, tear-streaked form.
"I'm going to get you for this!!" Scootaloo declared. "You can hide behind as many ponies as you like, Silver Spoon...I'll find you! I won't let you get away with what you did to Sweetie!"
Both Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom had tears in their eyes as they tried to calm her. Never before had a pony exhibited such undivided bloodthirstiness in their presence and the only thing which kept them restraining was the remembrance of the pony who Scootaloo had once been and the knowledge of the guilt she would surely feel from her actions when she came to her senses.
"Puh-please Scootaloo!" Diamond Tiara begged. "It's not you, it's the music. Please, you have to fight it! This isn't you anymore than it was her that attacked Sweetie. Please, please fight it. I know you are stronger than I am, and you are stronger than this spell."
"She's right, Scoots! Don't let this evil thing control you no more." Apple Bloom said, pressing her face into Scootaloo's mohawk. "I'm sorry I can't love ya like you love me, but it ain't cause there's anything wrong with you. It's cause there's something wrong with me...I...I'm sorry Scootaloo, but Rainbow Dash loves my sister. If'n you and I got together it'd be wrong...but it's more than that..."
Apple Bloom paused and stared at Silver Spoon. Then she closed her eyes and continued.
"I...I can't love no pony, Scoots. I can't fall in love like you and Sweetie. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...but that don't mean I ain't your friend! And I'll spend the rest of my life with you if'n that's what you want...just as long as you snap out of it...just as long as I get my friend back!!"
The thrashing of Scootaloo's form slowed and then she stilled beneath their grasps, the rage clearing from her beautiful purple eyes. Apple Bloom's iron grasp transitioned into a tight hug and Diamond Tiara released the pegasus she had once called friend, moving instead to Silver Spoon's side and gently rubbing off her ruined make-up with her hoof.
Scootaloo's eyes swam with tears and she slowly returned Apple Bloom's affection with a light stroking of her mane. Still her eyes were drawn to Diamond Tiara and she narrowed them in undisguised hatred. Then she wrapped her hooves around Apple Bloom and the two leaned into each other, each crying and each reassuring one another that the nightmare was over.
And that everything would be alright.
"How dare you!?" Twilight shouted, as she landed beside the pile of rubble Ember was half buried in. "How DARE you!?!?"
Using her horn, she tossed Ember's still recovering form into a nearby pillar, driving her three inches into the stone before she allowed her to fall to the now soot-stained floor.
"You come into my castle. You break into my room. You try to stop me from helping one of my little ponies!" Twilight marched over, rolling Ember over with a kick of her hoof. "You attack me! You almost kill one of my friends!!" She snarled down at the groaning dragon form currently trying to escape the hoof planted on her wing. "And you challenge my little brother, the dragon I raised, to a duel!? Did you think I would let you take him away from me?! Did you think I'd stand by while you rip him to pieces!?"
Ember raised her eyes to look up at Twilight, too dazed from the last blow to comprehend anything her opponent was yelling at her.
Twilight snarled. One last blast of magic would do it.Deep within, one last shred of sanity screamed for her to regain control of herself. But the music was too loud, it's swell too overpowering. All the acrimony and obsession she'd absorbed had fomented into the worst of both worlds, an infernal torrent anger and undying love which refused to be reined.
Now it was driving her to perpetuate this meaningless violence. It was dancing her to the cliffs of murder, and she was powerless to slow herself down.
"Spike will make a better Dragon Lord than you ever did." She heard herself saying. Then she lifted her horn, ready to complete the incantation.
"Twilight, stop!!" It was Spike. He'd thrown himself atop Ember's crumpled form. He was crying, begging her not to do this, telling her that this wasn't who she was.
She ripped him free of his would-be mate with her telekinesis. He didn't understand the royal imperative. He had no idea of the responsibilities she'd accepted when she became ruler of Equestria, the responsibilities to put down dishonorable creatures like the one before her.
No, no this was wrong! Ember was her friend; this was all just a misunderstanding! Listen to Spike! Don't do this!
But her body wouldn't listen to reason, moved only by the fever pitch of emotion. And Twilight suddenly knew the evil which had been plotted right under her nose. The creature who had crafted these curses had known she would seek out her subjects and attempt to heal them. It had known that the laughter and the love and the loathing would erode her composure until there was nothing left but ill-will.
It was a beautiful plan, the perfect way to doom Equestria without ever having to get your hooves dirty. The dragons would turn Twilight's kingdom to cinders in retribution for Ember's murder and she'd be incapable of stopping them, overwhelmed with the guilt of what she had done.
She clawed at the inside of her own skin, desperate to end the spell coalescing around her horn.
Then as suddenly as it had started, the music stopped. Exhaustion washed over her and logic and dignity limped back into view at last. They were trailed closely by regret, crawling up out of the depths of her core to occupy the space of her fast-dissipating turmoil. With a groan, she muttered the beginnings of what had to be the paltriest apology in the history of pony and dragon relations, before fainting.
The sun was coming up and Rarity was almost to the cottage. Almost to Fluttershy. Why had Rarity ever wanted to live in a place as cluttered and cold as her boutique when a place as warm and inviting this one awaited her?" Out here, at the edge of town, where the bird song was unimpeded by the bark of society, out here, where the stars could be seen in all their glory each night.
And shared, shared with a pony that brought shame to theirs by comparison. Oh, how had she lived in such remote circumstance when love everlasting lurked just around the corner? When the perfect pony to dance with, to lay beside at the end of a long day of sewing?
She paused at the edge of the gate, breathing in the fruits of Fluttershy's labor. She was as hard a worker as any of them, that was for sure. And so much more compassionate than any high society pony ever could be. She was the answer to all the questions which had dogged Rarity, the answer that was waiting for her to sweep in and sweep her off her hooves.
Using her horn to unlock the gate, Rarity lifted a hoof to trot up the path to Fluttershy's home. Then she felt something. Something acrid as stomach bile rising up her throat and filling her mouth. Dread.
She had abandoned her little sister at the hospital. No, it was worse than that. She had left Pinkie alone with that...that...thing. While she was drooling over Fluttershy, one of her best friends was facing unknown dangers.
She looked briefly at Fluttershy's cabin, wondering if she should alert her to the issue. Then she shook her head. There was not a moment to lose. Besides, Rarity had to get a couple things from her boutique before she could confront the monster responsible for all this madness.
"Don't worry, Pinkie," Rarity said, as she teleported away. "I'm coming."
Pinkie had been very specific about the ramifications of her deal with Bard. Not only would the cavorting cat end the spell she'd cast on her friends, but she had to swear (on the stars above), that she wouldn't cast a spell on any of them for as long as she lived. Because the list of ponies who could be considered Pinkie's friends included half of Equestria it meant that it would probably be at least another century before Bard could stir up trouble in the nation again.
But Bard had been more than happy to indulge Pinkie, explaining with well-refined pretentiousness that her plan had never been to bring an end to Pinkie's friends but merely contrive a scenario in which Pinkie would have no choice but to abandon them.
Now she strummed to herself as they marched to the edge of the Everfree Forest, humming a tune which Pinkie might have actually enjoyed listening to if the circumstances been different.
Hoping to make her companion regret the deal they'd just made, Pinkie pulled herself out of the overwhelming loss looming over her and tried to conjure some of her normal energy. "So, am I gonna have to wear a cloak and play a lute and talk really weirdly like you do?"
Bard smiled secretly like a father hiding his foals' Hearts and Hooves Presents. Then she stopped in front of a particularly decrepit tree and drew the terminus of her lute through the air as if making a perfect incision. Where she did, reality split, then parted like curtains in the wind. And beyond...beyond lay a stage of stone, where figures without form writhed in an endless reproduction of the ecstasies of agony.
And beyond them, beyond them lay an audience. A billion quadrillion stars hung in the air, watching and gloating over each tragedy with uncontained glee. Pinkie understood then, when she saw Bard's patrons. Bard was not an Abyssinian anymore. Bard was not even really a creature, the way that even Discord could be described to be a creature.
Bard was merely a conduit for those things beyond, those things which gleamed with millions of centuries of malice, conniving always to reweave fate in the darkness beyond pony sight, beyond even the sight of Luna and her sister and making themselves known in the cruelest and most unpredictable ways. They were older than ponykind, older indeed than anything which could be said to be living.
And Bard was their herald, her being made void by millennia of servitude. That was the reason why she glinted like she did, why she melted into every shadow she touched. She was not even truly on this realm. Just a stain of ink running down the page of the almighty. A touch of celestial sludge left behind to convey the screeching intent of her benefactors.
And oh, how they screeched. They chattered in deafening unison, each star burning and crackling a million degrees a piece for Bard's "plays". Each drunk on the torment of the souls immortalized in tragedy by her interventions and each thirsting for the next production. They were the most vile, voyeuristic things which Pinkie had ever encountered and if her intuition was correct, she would spend her days entertaining them, until the day their light finally dimmed, and the universe at last grew cold.
Pinkie took a shaky breath. It was worth it, if the little patch of unconditional love that her friends called home remained unmolested by their depraved designs.
She took a step towards the portal, her eyes closed. Maybe she would go nutso like Bard. Then at least she wouldn't have to think about where she had come from or what she'd lost. Maybe after the first trillion years it wouldn't be so bad.
There was a flash of bright blue light and suddenly a snarling unicorn was charging over to her and impaling Bard on her horn. Bard laughed as Rarity's horn ripped free, half coated in that same unearthly ooze which had emitted when Pinkie slammed into her.
"What are you doing!?" Pinkie asked, grabbing Rarity and pulling her away from the hungering rift in reality.
"Protecting my friends. And my sister!" Rarity said, tearing free of Pinkie's grasp and charging once more at the burbling monstrosity seeping free of Bard's feline sillouhette.
This time as she stabbed herself into Bard, her magic flared. From her saddlebag poured hundreds of needles, each ripping through the permeable surface of Bard's cloak/skin and sending droplets of noxious sludge splattering across the ground. They were joined by the silver strings of Bard's instrument, ripped from the bone lute with a creaking *SNAP!* and sent latticing through Bard's midsection in a display that would have been violent had the astral horror contained bones, blood, flesh or mortality.
Stepping backwards, Rarity tossed the bundle of slime-encrusted needles and ruined lute strings through the hole in the fabric of existence as if it were a trash disposal and removed from her saddlebags a large jar, which she began scraping the remaining bits of Bard-gunk into.
"I was planning to use this to hold all the thank you letters I usually get from clients around this time of year." Rarity revealed, as she sealed the lid and tied a bow over it to make sure it was shut. Then she stuffed the remains into her saddlebag and turned to Pinkie without paying the slightest bit of attention to the sextillion enraged stars currently screeching from beyond the yawning portal. "Come along, I expect Twilight will want to lock this thing up in Tartarus before it causes any further mischief."
Pinkie wondered briefly if she was even capable of seeing the squirming within the jar or even the portal beside them. Or maybe Rarity was just so awesome that she didn't feel the need to acknowledge either after everything else that had happened today.
Hesitating, Pinkie reached out toward the portal and in the same manner in which Bard had opened it, she zipped it shut, leaving the temper tantrum of the unholy stars to go unheard. She wondered briefly, why it was that she could do this, why it was that she could see the audience and the stage directions and the script just as Bard had, and why she could manipulate reality in the same way which Bard could, slithering between spaces and folding everything between as if it were merely paper.
But she didn't wonder long. She was too relieved to not be trapped in an incomprehensible void for the rest of eternity, performing a painfully predictable and tediously lengthy play for an altogether ungrateful audience.
"After we make sure the rest of the girls are alright, we should have a spa day." Rarity said, carefully removing a piece of Bard from her hair. "Obviously, we can't go to the dance tonight looking like this."
Pinkie glanced at the stains currently clinging to her and Rarity's coats and gasped. "I totally forgot about the dance!"
"Don't worry, darling. I'm confident we'll have just enough time to get ready." Rarity's eyes gleamed at the promise of scented soap and massage chairs, and even more tantalizingly, gossip. "And then you can tell me all about your conversation with Fluttershy and why it is you sent me that wonderful dress!"