With consciousness came the same ringing noise. Mrs. Cake murmured past it like a singer chanting out of chorus. "Pound... P-Pound Cake..." She hissed in pain and curled her forelimbs tighter to her chest. "My little cherub, Pound C-Cake..."
"Shhh..." A soothing voice whispered, dabbing a wet washcloth over her bruised forehead. "It's okay. You're safe now, Mrs. Cake."
After a few labored breaths, Cup Cake's eyes fluttered open. An uneven roof loomed above her, and several jagged tree roots came into focus.
With a gasp, Cup Cake sat up. "The pegasi! Winged ponies are after us!"
A pair of hooves eased her. "There there... you're pretty banged up. No sudden movements, okay?" Even in its somber tone, the voice had a pleasant pitch to it. Cup Cake recognized it immediately.
"Cheerilee...?" Cup Cake squinted across the earthen basement in the dim torchlight. "Miss Cheerilee, is that you?"
"In the flesh," Cheerilee said with a calm, calm smile. She leaned forward suddenly with an earnest expression. "Take it easy. Now... carefully... move your limbs. Tell me, does anything feel broken?"
"What... Broken...?" Cup Cake blinked. "No. Not broken." She winced suddenly and raised a hoof to her skull. "But my head... What...?" She felt a tight bandage against her brow, just beneath her mane. "How...?" She blinked. "The statue."
Cheerilee nodded. "You took quite a tumble there. We almost didn't reach you in time."
"Almost... didn't reach...?" Cup Cake twitched, then gasped loudly. "The filly! I h-had her! Where is—?"
"Shhh..." Cheerilee raised a hoof to her lips and moved aside. A tiny, frail body lay in soft slumber on a blanket besides Cup Cake. "She's asleep," the schoolteacher whispered. "She's safe and sound, all thanks to you, Mrs. Cake."
A shuddering breath left Cup Cake's lips. She shuffled over and brushed a hoof gently across the filly's feather-soft mane. "If only I could have done the same for her friend..." She gulped. "Or perhaps it was her brother. I'll never know, now, because... b-because..."
"Her name is Silver Skates," Cheerilee said.
Cup Cake looked up at her with moist eyes. "Silver Skates?"
Cheerilee nodded. "She's the younger sister to a student I teach. Or... that is, used to teach." A shudder ran through Cheerilee's body. Cup Cake became vaguely aware of other pony shapes in the basement beyond their immediate vicinity. "Each member of the family has 'Silver' in the name. They're the latest in a long line of blacksmiths and..." Cheerilee cleared her throat and summoned a tender smile. "At this point, I only want to think about the lives that have been saved. It's best not to dwell on all the tragedy."
"Whose... lives...?" Cup Cake blinked, then turned to look towards the far side of the basement. Four other ponies were huddled across the domain. One by one, Mrs. Cake discerned their shapes amidst the dancing shadows of Twilight Sparkle's torch-lit laboratory. Amethyst Star stood before a table, telekinetically lighting two fresh candles with a matchstick. Caramel was lying on a cot, his left rear leg set in a rough tourniquet. He winced as he glanced over towards a desk cluttered with scrolls where two ponies were tinkering on a tiny, crystal-powered device. From the hourglass on his flank, Cup Cake instantly recognized Time Turner. As for the mare next to him...
"She saved each and every one of us," Cheerilee said in a warm tone. "If it wasn't for Twilight, I would be up in the clouds right now, being carried about by Goddess-knows-who."
"This is... All of this is just..." Cup Cake winced. She turned and looked helplessly at Cheerilee. "What's going on?! What's causing this nightmare?"
"Twilight has a theory behind it all," Cheerilee said in a dull tone. "It's best if you heard her explain it. She's been amazing throughout this entire situation. She's kept us all focused, set goals for us to follow, and... and..." Cheerilee winced, her face scrunching up in pain as she brought a hoof to the side of her face. "She's been so strong. I-I just know she's lost as much as all of us, even m-more... and yet sh-she's just so... so c-courageous. I-I wish I was half as strong as her..."
"Hey..." Cup Cake smiled and drifted over, embracing Cheerilee in a tender hug. "If you've managed to stay in one piece all this time, that means you're pretty strong too, dear." She nuzzled the schoolteacher and said, "I was only out there for a half hour. Ponyville is a mess. It's taken more than Twilight to keep the likes of us alive. Silver Skates is a testimony to that."
"Yes..." Cheerilee sniffled, slowly regaining her smile. "Yes, I suppose she is." A sad breath left her. "I just wanna see my students again. I'm so worried about them."
Cup Cakes whimpered, "And I want to see my precious Carrot again..." She sighed. "And my children. Goddess, I miss my children so much."
Cheerilee gulped. Parting from the hug, she leaned back. "I feel for you, Mrs. Cake. But..." She squinted in sudden confusion. "Your children...?"
Cup Cake's eyes narrowed. "What about them—?"
Just then, Twilight Sparkle and Time Turner trotted up. "Okay," Twilight spoke, her mane showing the signs of several restless hours of study and research. "We've assembled the device and now we should be ready to act out the next phase of our plan. First, we need to split off into two groups and—" She froze just then, blinking at the two mares. "Mrs. Cake! You're... you're up!"
"Yes, I am," Cup Cake said. "And now that I'm awake..." She looked squarely at the group of ponies. "Would somepony please kindly tell me what's going on around here?"
"You suffered a concussion shortly before arriving here, Mrs. Cake," Time Turner said. "Some memory loss is to be expected."
"I think that goes without saying," Cup Cake muttered, glancing aside as Amethyst Star trotted over. Caramel watched the group from afar. "I... I-I woke up in Sugarcube Corner not that long ago."
"What does she mean by that?" Amethyst Star glanced fitfully at Twilight and Time Turner. "How can anypony possibly sleep through this Goddess-forsaken nightmare?"
"You really don't remember, Mrs. Cake?" Twilight Sparkle asked, her brow furrowed below her horn. "You don't remember the day that..." She gulped. "All of the pegasi turned?"
"Is that what this is, then?" Cup Cake remarked, glancing at everypony. "I was with a group of ponies earlier. We were all attacked by winged ponies. Before my group got pulled apart, I heard at least one of them rambling about... about..." She grimaced, but shook it off. "It can't be true! What would make every pony with wings go crazy?! It just doesn't make sense!"
"Well, live and learn, lady!" Caramel grunted. He pointed at his leg in a cast. "I didn't get this by being dropped by a giant turkey!"
"Caramel, please," Cheerilee moaned.
"She really must have been out of it when the craziness started," Amethyst Star murmured.
Twilight took a deep breath. With a sad expression, she brushed her bangs aside and said, "I was just coming back from having tea with Zecora in the Everfree Forest. I heard a screaming noise. Looking up, I saw..." She shuddered, but said, "I-I saw Granny Smith falling from over twenty stories. She landed in the middle of the street, her body a crumpled mess. I instantly knew that most if not all her bones must have shattered. So I ran to her side, yelling for somepony to call for an ambulance. But nopony answered. I soon found that that most if not all of them were holed up in their homes. The streets of Ponyville weren't safe. There were... violent ponies patrolling the skies."
"They grabbed ponies by the dozens," Time Turner continued the story, his eyes stretching with a wave of reminiscent horror. "In swarms, they dove down on us. I-I was in the park at the time, studying a research paper on quantum theory. I... I saw families dragged apart, then lifted up into the clouds. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Every winged pony just... j-just suddenly grabbed an equine and flew up beyond sight. They didn't say anything. There was no expression to be had. It was like basic instinct."
"Then..." Cup Cake blinked, leaning forward. "Every unicorn and earth pony—?"
"None of us appear to be affected," Twilight said. "It's only the pegasi."
Cup Cake gulped. "Affected by what?"
Twilight opened her mouth... but hesitated.
"Tell her!" Amethyst Star said, frowning. "Tell her about what you discovered! About what's gotten into their bird brains!"
"Amethyst, must you?" Time Turner groaned.
"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?" Amethyst snarled. "It's why we're all squatting down here like groundhogs with no place to—"
As if on cue, a dull thud rolled through the walls of earth surrounding them. Every pony froze. Their expressions melting away under a grimace of panic. Even Amethyst's frown had cleared, replaced with pale hyperventilation.
Cup Cake was the first to bravely speak. "How often do they fall?"
"At least one for every hour," Caramel droned, eyeing the ceiling above them. "It's been increasing with each passing day. The pegasi’s arms get tired, so they drop whoever they've been holding onto. They then drift down, find another pony, and fly back up to repeat the whole thing."
Time Turner shuddered. Cheerilee struggled to keep from sobbing.
Cup Cake turned from Caramel and looked squarely at Twilight. "Twilight Sparkle, darling, what is it? What's causing all of this?"
Twilight fidgeted, glancing at the crystal-powered device that hovered in her telekinetic grasp, freshly-assembled. With a sigh, she asked, "Mrs. Cake, have you ever heard of the 'June Jet Effect?'"
Cup Cake slowly shook her head. "I... can't say that I have."
"It was named after a famous Cloudsalian scientist who performed multiple studies on enchanted crystals and their effect on various species of local birds. He had a laboratory located within Cloudsdale's largest aviaries, and from there he did most of his experiments—"
"Just get to the part that matters!" Amethyst Star grunted, glaring into the floor of the place. "I'm sick and tired of hearing this story over and over again."
Twilight sighed. She looked at Mrs. Cake and said, "Anyways, June Jet ultimately discovered that a Sunstone Topaz, when vibrating at a certain high pitch, emitted a sound frequency that had... an effect on birds."
"What kind of an effect?"
"Well, hypnotic, to say the least." Twilight cleared her throat. "He was able to get them to fly in a very specific formation, based on how he was able to adjust the vibrating crystal's pitch. However, he was forced to cut the experimentation short. There was... a crisis happening across Cloudsdale. To be more specific, several ponies who had come home from the snowflake and rainbow factories overnight were starting to fly around in their sleep. What's more, they were showing unnatural strength... and... erm... high levels of aggression."
"So, you're saying..." Cup Cake squinted. "The same crystal that affected the birds was making ponies in Cloudsdale... turn violent?"
"The Sunstone Topaz was shut off before June Jet could find out. However..." Twilight grimaced as she said, "June theorized that—had the crystal not stopped vibrating—it would have affected the ponies who were awake as well."
"I... I never heard of this before," Cup Cake remarked.
"Not many ponies have. It happened over fifty years ago."
"But what does it have to do with what's happening now?!" Cup Cake asked, glancing nervously at the group. "Why are we talking about some 'June Jet Effect' that happened decades ago?"
"Because the key factor of the 'June Jet Effect' is that there's a dormant portion of the average pegasus' brain that, theoretically, is stimulated by a specific vibration of a Sunstone Topaz. It's a flaw in the nervous system of pegasi, so to speak. We’re talking pony biology, stuff that's as old as time." Twilight bit her lip, but ultimately said, "And, hours after retreating to this laboratory, I... uh... I-I detected that very same frequency in the air." She gulped. "I have every reason to believe that what almost transpired in Cloudsdale is actually happening right here... right now... in Ponyville..."
Cup Cake slumped back on her haunches, blinking wide. "You mean... that the pegasi aren't thinking with their heads like normal?" She winced as she thought aloud, "Th-that some... crazy vibration is causing them to act like beasts?"
"It would explain the weather being as chaotic and unkempt as it has been for nearly two weeks," Time Turner said. "No pegasus has been in enough control of his or her faculties to control the climate."
"Also, it explains why they're flinging ponies around like xenophobic psychopaths!" Caramel grunted, wincing from his injured leg. "They're like sharks of the sky, now! Walking anywhere outside or above ground is an instant death sentence! Nopony’s been able to leave the village alive!"
Cup Cake turned from him to look at Twilight. "And you figured this all out on your own?"
"It's certainly helped that I've been stuck in a library of all places," Twilight said with a nervous smirk. The smile instantly left her as she further stammered, "But the discovery of the vibration didn't come easily."
"Oh? Why not?"
"Because..." Twilight squirmed, staring off in thought. "Because when I stumbled in here and hunkered down from the attackers outside, I looked for books on the subject of pegasus behavior and... and m-most of them were missing."
"Missing?"
"The library was robbed," Amethyst Star added in a droning tone. "Somepony beat Twilight to the books she needed in order to learn about this stupid situation."
"Luckily, I was able to remember the story of June Jet from a seminar I had attended in Canterlot two years ago," Twilight said. "From there, I did my research in a generalized almanac of scientific studies and came upon the strange frequency."
"But... what could that possibly mean?" Mrs. Cake stammered.
"What else?" Amethyst paced angrily. "Some freak living amongst us in Ponyville wanted to keep Twilight from learning the truth! He wanted to keep her from figuring out what he was up to!" She sat still and sighed. "He wanted nopony to discover that he's found a Sunstone Topaz and is using it to tear this place apart with those winged murderers."
"They're not murderers, Amethyst," Cheerilee said. "They're as much victims of this situation as we are—"
"Oh yeah?! Tell that to the creeps who attacked me!" Amethyst shrieked. "Tell that to the ponies who dragged me out of my home!" She started to pant and hyperventilate. "Tell th-that to... to the winged monsters who... wh-who t-took my sister away fr-from me..." She dug her face into her hooves and quivered in tiny, heaving sobs.
Quietly, Time Turner trotted over and gave Amethyst Star a gentle embrace.
Cup Cake was staring at the sleeping figure of Silver Skates. With a nervous shudder, she glanced over at Twilight. "Why hasn't anypony tried sending a letter to the Princess about this?" She gulped. "Even if we have stormy weather of Ponyville, surely she could still help—"
Cup Cake stopped upon seeing Twilight's pained expression. The unicorn sighed as she said, "We can't send any letters. Not after..." She fumbled for words, her eyes growing misty. Clearing her throat, she summoned the strength to say, "It was barely past the second day when I found Spike. He had fallen hundreds of feet from the thunderclouds, landing on the edge of my balcony. I... I-I wish I could say he died instantly, but..." She choked up, her face stretching. After a few seconds, however, Twilight composed herself and raised the device in her grasp. "It doesn't matter. We're stuck here and we have to deal with this mess, and I have just the thing that may work."
"I saw you tinkering on something just a moment ago..." Cup Cake gently said, craning her neck to see. "Just what is it...?"
"It's a device I made to detect the vibrational frequencies on a minute scale," Twilight explained, levitating the remote in question. "If Ponyville is indeed suffering from the the June Jet Effect, then this will hopefully help us find the source of it."
"You mean this 'Sunstone Topaz' thing?" Mrs. Cake remarked.
"Or whatever it is." Twilight gulped. "Already, I've used this detector to triangulate the vibrations to an area of one hundred square feet. It appears to be emanating from the downtown area."
"But that could be anyplace!" Caramel exclaimed from his cot. "You seriously can't expect us to believe that every building in downtown's gotta be searched—!"
"Wait, 'searched?!'" Mrs. Cake spun and gasped. "You're going out there?! That's a death sentence!"
"If we don't find a way to stop this crystalline vibration, then tons more ponies are going to die!" Twilight exclaimed. "As we speak, countless numbers of our neighbors are plummeting to their doom as the pegasi carrying them above the clouds lose the strength to keep them aloft! We also owe it to the pegasi to bring them back from this spell!"
"It can't be done abruptly," Time Turner said from where he held a quietly sobbing Amethyst. He looked over with a placid expression. "If your studies are correct, Miss Sparkle, we have to turn down the vibrations gradually once we've found such a crystal. If we just shut the frequency off, like a lightswitch, then the pegasi would lose consciousness and everypony would be as good as dead anyways."
"I'm well aware of that!" Twilight exclaimed. "But the first step is finding such a Sunstone Topaz—"
"In such a large area?!" Caramel barked. "You're insane!"
"Not necessarily," Twilight said, pointing. "If somepony is truly behind all of this, and with such desperation that he would have stolen my books on the matter, then the best way to have broadcasted the signal would have involved placing it somewhere high in altitude."
Cheerilee gasped. With wide eyes, she exclaimed, "Town Hall! That's smack-dab in the middle of downtown!"
Twilight nodded. "Exactly. And remember what Caramel described seeing before fighting off the pegasi that attacked him."
"The thunderclouds were lowest around the Town Hall building," Cheerilee said.
"That could suggest a high concentration of pegasi above the site," Time Turner remarked. "Their massive flight could be disrupting the cloud currents."
"I don't know..." Caramel muttered from where he lay. "It sounds really, really dangerous."
"We're the only ones who know what's going on here," Cheerilee said. "It falls within our hooves to do something about it."
"At the risk of our lives?!" Caramel grumbled. "Wouldn't we be better off waiting it out for Canterlot to send guards and help us?"
"Yeah, and risked their winged soldiers succumbing to... whatever this blasted signal is?!"
"Well, anything's better than rushing out into that nightmare and—"
Another thud echoed through the earth above, silencing the conversation completely. A nervous hush filled the room as everypony's breath lingered in the torch-lit air.
Eventually, Mrs. Cake looked over at Twilight. "What's your plan for when you get to Town Hall?"
Twilight stared off into the distance.
"Miss Sparkle?"
Snapping out of it, the unicorn murmured, "I would... I-I would search the inside and the upper floors for the crystal, using this detector here as a guide to help us get closer to it."
"All by yourself?"
Twilight shook her head. "Time Turner here is willing to help me. But... to be perfectly honest..." Twilight chewed on the corner of her lip as she said, "If a thorough search is to be conducted, we'd need more than just two of us."
Cheerilee took a deep breath, then said, "Count me in. If it means guaranteeing the safety of the children in this town, then I'm all for helping you two."
"Me as well," Amethyst managed to say.
Time Turner gave her a sympathetic glance. "Miss Star, you're in no shape to—"
"I most certainly am in shape to help out," she said, sniffling. She looked emotionlessly at the rest of the group. "At least in a far better shape than my sister likely is right now."
"Well, it's greatly appreciated, Amethyst," Twilight softly said. "The more we have in the search, the better."
Mrs. Cake was staring at Silver Skates, at how the amber light of the torches spun shadows against the foal’s pale skin. She scarcely heard herself when she said, "Count me in too, darlings."
Twilight did a double-take. "What? No! Mrs. Cake, you've been through enough as it is! And there's no telling how much that concussion of your has affected—"
"You said it yourself, Miss Sparkle. The more help you have, the better. Caramel can stay here with the foal." Cup Cake looked over, her blue face firm and sincere. "At this point, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get my family back."
"But—"
"I mean it," Mrs. Cake said, bearing the softest of grins. "Don't pretend that we have any time to argue the matter."
Twilight blinked. She stared up at the earthen roof. After a few seconds, she sighed. "Okay. But we gotta do this carefully. There's no place that's safe so long as we're out in the open. I suggest we wait until night."
"Yeah, that sounds like fun," Caramel grunted.
Amethyst glared over at him. "You wanna come join us too, handsome? You'd look pretty heroic, hobbling away from pegasi in the dark on three legs and a prayer."
"Will you two please knock it off?" Cheerilee grumbled.
"Isn't there a key detail that you're forgetting, Twilight?" Time Turner remarked. "I think Mrs Cake deserves to know."
Cup Cake blinked. "I deserve to know what?"
Twilight winced. "Well... it's... it's about the Sunstone Topaz..." She gulped. "And the magical properties it has in emitting the June Jet Effect."
"Yes? What of it?"
"Well, fifty years ago, when June Jet had to cut his experimentation in Cloudsdale short, he still had time to record one glaringly bizarre phenomenon." Twilight looked straight at Mrs. Cake. "Remember the flock of birds that he was able to control?"
"Yes...?"
"Not all of them were... well... alive."
Mrs. Cake merely gawked at that.
Twilight slowly nodded. "There wasn't enough study to produce a valid explanation, but... at least seven of the birds spotted flying while June Jet’s Sunstone Topaz was vibrating were recorded lying dead on the floor of the Cloudsdale aviary hours before the experiment ever began."
Mrs. Cake blinked at the group, then glanced back at Twilight. "Surely, you can't mean to suggest that—"
"Two weeks ago, when I found Spike's... when I found Spike's body..." Twilight shuddered, her face twisted in pain. She brushed a hoof messily through her mane as she struggled to confess, "I found the pegasus who had dropped him. It was Fluttershy, which m-makes sense. She's easily the weakest pegasus who lives... who had lived in this town, and she dropped the victim that she was carrying early on. But... after dropping him, she had fallen too. And... and the gaping wound that was open in her chest... and the loss of blood..."
Twilight sat back on her haunches, hanging her head as she suffered a dry heave or two. Everypony else was silent, waiting for her to continue.
Eventually she did. "Well, she wasn't the last pegasus I saw with wounds that bad." Twilight muttered. "And, as a matter of fact, I... I saw her just three days ago, when Time Turner and I rescued Caramel just outside the library. She was still wounded, still falling apart, and... yet... sh-she was still flying."
Mrs. Cake was speechless.
"So, as you can see..." Twilight's eyes were firm, determined. "The sooner we stop this frequency, the better. We can't just sit here and wait for the nightmare to end on its own."
With a nervous gulp, Cup Cake nodded. "You'll get no argument from me, darling."