I winced, shivering trying to trot in a straight line, an impossible act. The library was filled to the brim with equine bodies, breaths, and bellowing voices. Loud music throbbed in my ears as I stumbled my way into a punch table, nearly knocking ponies into the bookcases.
"Dah! Sorry! Pardon me! Ooof—My bad!"
"Belle. Your heart rate—"
"I'm sorry, Dalton. There's just... uhm... there are a lot—and I do mean a lot—of ponies in here."
"Is it a social gathering?"
"It's a party of some sort." I trembled, gnawing on my lip. "You know I-I don't really do well with crowds..."
"You or the subject you're sequencing with?"
"I... I..."
"You've almost communed with her personality already. Try and concentrate. Feed off of her emotions. For the time being, don't think of yourself as Bellesmith the timid unicorn. Think of yourself as 'Rainbow Crash, the daring pegasus.'"
I took several deep breaths. "I'm a daring pegasus... a daring pegasus... a daring..."
My body froze.
With burning ruby eyes, I glared at the thick crowd.
"Pfft!" I heard myself exclaim in a raspy voice. "Screw this!" I flapped a pair of blue wings and hovered above everypony's head. "I'm watching the Princess raise the sun outside!" But just as I pivoted about to fly out the window—
"Hiya!" a pink face grinned at me upside down.
"Daaah!" I flew back, slamming into a bookcase. The floor was littered with several thick encyclopedia volumes as I watched an earth pony with fluffy pink hair swinging back and forth on a chandelier, her opal eyes locked on me.
"You must be Rainbow Dash! The local weather flier!"
"And you must be... really, really creepy..."
"'Creepy?' That's no name for an earth pony, unless of course she was born on Nightmare Night, and then it wouldn't have been a birthday so much as it would have been a birthnight and nopony ever celebrates their birthday at night cuz then everyone would be too busy sleeping to bother coming over for a party and—"
"You're... the..." I squinted at her swinging form. "...the child of Mr. and Mrs. Cake from Sugarcube Corner, aren't you?"
"Heeheehee!" She giggled, snorted, and smiled my way. "I'm their niece and I'm twenty-two!"
"Yeah. Sure. Is that in Caneighdian years?"
"Hahahaha!" She kicked her legs, swinging precariously from the chandelier in dangerous little circles. "Oh, that's rich! Ha! I wish I thought of that one!"
I couldn't help but smirk. "Wow, you're pretty easy to make laugh."
"Haha! Why not?! Laughter is like a cupcake that never runs out of frosting! It's the best gift given to ponies!"
"Really?" I smirked. "This one time, a horse walked into a bar and said 'Ouch!'"
"Snkkkt—Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
I rolled my eyes and smirked at her. "I can't row a kayak. Canoe?"
"Hahahahahah!" She wiped a tear from her face and grinned my way. "Oh, you're such a crack-up, Rainbow Dash!"
"I've had teachers at flight school call me something similar, but they used a different word besides 'crack.'"
"My name's Pinkie Pie!"
"Of course it is."
"And I'm glad you could make it to my super special surprise party for Twilight Sparkle!"
"Oh yeah. I know that name," I remarked. "She's... She's..." I blinked. "Eh, who's Twilight again?"
"She's a crazy smart unicorn from Canterlot who came to make sure the Summer Sun Celebration was in top shape!"
"Oh yeah. Like, where the heck is she?"
"She should be on her way here! Word is that Fluttershy's roped her dragon buddy into relating his whole life story..."
"Heh. She's gonna flip once she sees so many ponies here, crashing inside the library."
"Remember! She gets the first slice of cake!"
"Cake?!" I exclaimed, suddenly beaming. "I love cake! Since when was there—"
"Shhhh!" a drawling voice flew across the room. "She's comin', y'all! Turn the lights down and get real quiet!"
I blinked, my wings freezing. I felt myself plummeting, spiraling, melting through the noise and color and heat of that place.
"Belle? Belle! What's going on?"
"I..." I looked across the library. The room had stretched for millions of miles into the blackness, and yet i could see a figure on the other side, as bright as a morning sunrise, with blonde tresses and emerald eyes. "I'm not sure..."
"Another sphere is colliding with yours! We have no idea where it came from! Hold on tight! We're pulling you out!"
"Don't... Don't want to..." I was murmuring, spinning, falling. I felt tears squeezing out of my eyes and they were hot as candle wax. "B-beloved?" I wimpered.
"Belle, concentrate on my voice! You're falling too deep within the sequence!"
"I... can't go back..." I hissed, my lungs tearing. "Must... fly..." I whimpered. "I'm dying. There's nothing left. There's n-nothing..."
"Bellesmith! Try to hang on—"
A giant claw pierced my hoof.
"Aaaaaugh!" I spun over, screaming into the stone and the blood and the crimson pits. My eyes rolled back.
A flank of violet leather.
My wing snapped in two.
"Haauckt!" I spat up bile and curled into a fetal position. There was something heavy hanging around my neck, and I felt my forehead melting in two places. "Hnnngh... Please... Please..."
A giant body leered over me, reaching with scaled fingers.
"Beloved. I j-just want to see you. I just... j-just want to love you..." I sobbed into my quivering forelimbs. "Please, hold me. Hold me. Hold..."
And the burning world dissolved into whiteness around me.