After a long while of twilight laying there, the feeling of hope fizzled out of her.
Twilight slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. She then opened her saddle bag and looked at the photo of her friends she had found in the map room. Their faces were all still crossed out. With a snarl, Twilight threw the photo to the ground, causing the glass on the front to smash, and the paper photo to fall out.
Wiping her ears, the purple alicorn then saw a small glimmer in the now empty frame, along the wooden backing Picking up the frame, she saw that the frame had a hidden key inside.
Confused, she took the key and inspected it, it was the key to her castle in Canterlot. But how did it get here?
Her mind began to fill with questions, before she heard a loud screech, that caused Twilight to pale in fear and freeze in place for a moment. Peeking around the tree, she saw a figure, hovering in the moonlight, the only thing moving was their wings, as they flapped at a rapid pace, keeping the figure afloat.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked aloud, her ears folding back and her eyes squinting in the moonlight, trying to make sense of who or what she was seeing.
Before Twilight could make sense of what was going on, the figure swooped down, gripping twilight by her front hooves and flying into teh sky, twilight screaming the entire way. She looked up at whoever was carrying her. It was fluttershy, but something was wrong. Her hair was a mess, her wings were bat-like, her eyes were deep red. She was a bat?!
The alicorn reacted quickly, using a simple teleportation spell to get out of Fluttershy’s grip, and spreading her wings to catch herself from falling. She looked back, and saw Fluttershy flying after her with a snarl.
With a frightened yelp, Twilight flew as fast as her wings could carry her, swerving through clouds and over the treeline. She eventually managed to lose the bat-pony by diving into the trees and flying between the trunks for a while.
Once the cost was clear, she landed gently on all 4 hooves, beginning to walk back to the glass box, where she had left the broken picture. Only to round a corner and be greeted with a bright pink face.
“WAH–! Pinkie what are you doing h–?!” Her sentence was cut off as she backed up, away fromPinkie and saw the full picture.
Pinkie’s mane was flat, shimmering in the moonlight. Her face was paler than the rest of her body, and her eyes were void of colour, being completely white.
A small streak of blood ran from her nose and down her chin, which had dried and crusted against her fur. And a thick, rope noose held tightly to the earth ponies neck, the rope extending up through the treeline.
“P-pink… pinkie…” Twilight tried to speak. But her breath got caught in her throat. Forcing her into stunned silence. Her eyes began to fill with tears and her ears folded flat against her head. Her front hooves quivering as she reaches out, gently touching Pinkie’s stone cold face.
Tears began to quickly streak down her face, she couldn't believe what she was seeing, and she wasn't sure if she could look away.
Eventually, she tried to chuckle, wiping her tears and calling out into the distance.
“o-ok pinkie! You got me! Is this a prank? Y-you can come out now!”
Twilight was greeted with the silence of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Pinkie! Come on! T-This isnt funny! You can come out! Please?”
Silence again…
“PINKIE PIE! PLEASE!”
Twilight yelled out into the ghostly silent sky, her voice breaking and soon she burst into tears, her head slowly turning to look at Pinkie’s hanging corpse. But… It was gone.
Twilight’s eyes widened and she quickly dried her face, looking around, before shaking her head.
“Great… Now I'm seeing things…. I think i've been here too… long?”
Twilight’s sentence slowly trailed off as she saw Pinkie’s body hanging in the middle of the dirt path, leading toward the barn, but she was hanging in the air, with the rope attached to nothing in particular. Looking up, Twilight was greeted with something she wishes she had never seen.
It was a giant balloon, that was an exact replica of Pinkie Pie’s face, if she was still alive. Bright pink fur, big, poofy mane, and those sky blue eyes that everyone loved.
The alicorn was frozen in place, looking terrified, and she soon saw another balloon fly toward them. But it wasn’t pinkie’s head again. It was her own. Putting 2 and 2 together. Twilight took off running, using her wings to give more of a boost. She looked back as she ran,seeing that the Pinkie and Twilight balloons were pursuing her, and Fluttershy had found them too, and had also joined in the chase.
All twilight could do was scream until she reached the pear barn, slamming the door behind her. She held the door shut with her front hooves for a moment, panting heavily and shaking. As she turned, she paused, she was.. Upstairs?
Looking back at the door she came in from, it was gone, replaced with the wooden wall that would be where the stairs would be for the barn’s layout.
Twilight’s seen enough, holding her head, she checked her saddle bag. There was the golden key from the photo frame. She had to get out of here.
She left the barn, only to be greeted with the spiral staircase she had grown to hate. And the stairs were allowing her to descend back down to the ground floor.
Opening the door, she was back in the main lobby of the castle, just like she had left it.
It was quiet. Too quiet. Twilight slowly walked away from the pillar, toward the entrance, her hoof steps echoing through the crystal walls as she walked. She was tense, and was unsure of what was and wasn't real now.
Twilight soon reached the door and tried to open it, it was locked tight. Looking into her bag, she took out the golden key, but it had changed.
In the barn, it looked brand new and shiny, now it looked dulled down and slightly rusty, like it had suddenly succumbed to the passage of time.
Looking back at the castle, she saw that the interior had suddenly done the same. The once pristine walls were now covered in cobwebs, the shine of the crystals dulled down due to a thick coat of dust and some of the walls and pillars had large cracks in them, due to the passage of time causing plenty of wear and tear.
This didnt stop Twilight through, she quickly turned the key int eh door and was greeted with a rather interesting looking pony.
It was a bright green pony, with stitching going along the middle of each leg, as well as through the middle of her torso, like she had been cut in half and put back together.
Her mane and tail were in messy curls, and were a much lighter green. This pony also had 3 unicorn horns that bent in the middle, pointing toward the centre of themselves, and she had 4 tendrils that slipped through her back.
The whites of her eyes were fully black, and the iris was fully green, with slightly darker cross stitches in the middle for pupils, almost like buttons.
“K-key-Lime Pie? What are you doing here? You moved out of Ponyville years ago!”
Key-Lime simply smirked, Her stitches bursting open in a large tendril mass.