The ten days passed faster than anypony could have possibly imagined.
During that time, every possible precaution was taken to maximize the safety of the ponies throughout Equestria, but everypony knew that unless Blossom's MO was made public, and it would be when she started her spree, they could not determine their methods. Nopony was truly safe.
Throughout Equestria, the town leaders and city mayors had called one final meeting on the ninth evening, just before Blossom's promised spree. In Manehattan, the town hall was packed with ponies, each listening raptly to their mayor, a young pegasus stallion who had been elected only two years ago named Thundering Tornado, who was angrily pounding on the podium. "I refuse, I say I refuse to have the ponies in my city live in fear of The New Nightmare! She is just some bucked up filly who saw what her aunt did and thought it was a good idea. She has killed before, I won't deny it, but this time we're ready for her! This time she will make a mistake and our fair princesses will make a swift end to her!"
The crowd cheered loudly, and Mayor Tornado puffed out his chest. "I personally guarantee the safety of each and every one of you kind ponies. You are all the kind of honest and hardworking folk that is going to keep Equestria strong, and I know that you will do your duty to our country, and do your part to rid us of this evil! The New Nightmare will not kill any from Manehattan, even if she is in the city!" Mayor Tornado slammed his hoof on the podium again. "United we shall vanquish this monster, and the only blood that stains the streets will be hers!"
"Send her to Tartarus with her aunt!" roared one of the mares listening.
Mayor Tornado pointed out into the crowd where the voice came from. "You see, good mares and gentlecolts, this is the kind of attitude that will bring us safety and victory! With beliefs like that, we shall not fall to her evil devices." The Mayor narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer to the crowd. "I know you all will have the strength to make it through this time. If you see The New Nightmare, I don't care how you have to do it, but you must destroy her. Your families will thank you, I will thank you, and Equestria will thank you." Mayor Tornado raised his hoof into the air and pointed it at the ceiling, echoing a popular campaign image that he had. "We need you all to be as strong and brave as I know you are. Fear not, good citizens of Manehattan, WE. WILL. HAVE. VICTORY!"
* * * *
Princess Celestia stared out into the horizon as Luna's moon rose into the sky, darkening all of Equestria. It was time. Blossom's rampage was about to begin.
The moon reached its zenith, and Celestia was joined in a few short moments by her sister. They exchanged a comforting nuzzle, but neither of them felt comfort.
"Do we have any indication of where she might strike first?" Luna questioned.
"No, we don't," Celestia replied. The royal guards, the local police forces, and The Ghosts have been working around the clock to see if they can't discern some possible location, some hint of where she will strike next."
"But there is nothing," Luna concluded.
Celestia closed her eyes. "No. There is nothing."
"Your highness."
Celestia's eyes fluttered open, and she turned her head to see two of The Ghosts standing silently behind her. They had mastered their stealth training well. "Report."
"Alpha, Beta, what news?"
"It isn't good, your majesty," Alpha admitted. "Gamma and Delta went to Appleloosa while Epsilon and Zeta scoured Ponyville." Alpha levitated a map out of a small saddlebag and laid it on a nearby table. "We started in most of the outlying small towns." He began pointing to small towns on the outskirts of big cities marked in red. "We checked here, here, here, and here. All of our reports came back negative."
"And you are sure that the reports are accurate?" asked Luna.
Beta nodded. "Towns like that are small. It took all of six days to check the populations. We've also begun looking at the motels in the area, but we've come up negative with all of them." Beta rolled up the map and pushed it over to Alpha. "Wherever Blossom is, she's in one of the larger cities. The others have been checking a few of them. Gamma and Zeta even checked as much of Cloudsdale as they could, but we were met with no success."
Celestia stared silently at the two Ghosts as she processed their words. She fired up her horn and unrolled the map again, scanning it for any possible clue, but found nothing. "So what you are telling me is that in the next week, three of my subjects will die?"
"If she does them all at once... yes." Beta rolled up the map again. "The best we can hope for is that she exposes herself too soon, or she only kills one and slips up that way." Beta slipped the map into Alpha's saddlebag. "I'm sorry, but we have done all we can."
"Very well, you are dismissed," said Celestia with more than a little sharpness in her voice. The two Ghosts bowed their heads and left the room.
Luna extended a wing and wrapped it over Celestia's shoulder. "We will catch her, Tia. She will not kill as many of our subjects as her aunt did, We swear it."
"I just don't know, Lulu," Celestia whispered. "I just don't know."
* * * *
Mayor Tornado reclined in his dining room chair, munching on a plate of celery. Normally he would have been in bed by this point, but he was awoken when the clock struck midnight in his home. The ten days were up. Equestria's New Nightmare had fallen upon the land.
He shoved another celery stalk into his mouth and began work on another speech. It was far from unlikely that The New Nightmare would make at least one kill tonight, and it would be in the papers by morning. His ponies needed to see that he was a beacon of strength during this hard time. Although, if she was in Manehattan...
He shook his head and pushed such thoughts out of his mind. There were plenty of other places where The Nightmare could strike. Canterlot, Baltimare, even Ponyville would make a far greater impact on Equestria than Manehattan. Canterlot was Celestia's doorstep. Four of the Elements still lived in Ponyville, both would send a bigger shock throughout the land than Manehattan. Killing here had no symbolic significance. They would be fine, he knew it.
Mayor Tornado chewed his last bit of celery and finished a paragraph of his speech. He put his head in his hooves and shook his head. "I wish I knew what to say to help you," he whispered. "Celestia help me, I have to be a pillar of strength for six million ponies."
"Is something the matter, sir?"
Mayor Tornado glanced up and saw his butler and cook looking anxiously at him. He forced a weak smile onto his face and shook his head. "I'm just working on a speech. The Manehattanites will need me tomorrow, I'm sure of it. I want to make sure that I'm ready to help them however I can. That starts by me being strong."
The butler nodded. "I understand, sir."
Mayor Thunder pushed the parchment away and leaned back in his chair again. "If you two want, you can go home for the night. I know we all need our rest."
The butler drew himself up to his full height and locked eyes with his employer. "Sir, it is in times like these where we must all stick together. If what you are saying is true, we have a responsibility to help you in any way we can. That would be truth even if we were not employed by you!"
The cook nodded, but in a strangely perplexing move she held out her hoof in the direction of the nearest doorway and fired up her horn. The butler and Mayor Tornado frowned at her, but her actions became apparent soon enough. A vegetable knife flew through the doorway and into the cook's hoof. The two other ponies gasped when she grabbed it between her hooves, but it was too late. With one quick swing, the butler fell to the ground, blood pouring from a large jagged gash in his throat.
Mayor Tornado was about to get to his hooves to attack the intruder, but a quick burst from her horn froze his legs to the chair. He struggled to get out, but it was no use, and he could only settle for a glare.
The cook kicked the butler's head, and when she was satisfied that he was no more, she looked up at Mayor Tornado with a large grin. "I take it that you've figured out that I'm not your cook."
Thundering Tornado flared out his wings and intensified his glare. "If you've hurt her I swear to--"
"Oh I haven't hurt her," said Blossom with a wave of her hoof. She fired up her horn and changed back to her normal appearance. "I have something much more special planned for my third kill. Your precious cook is knocked out in your room. She'll have a nice lump in the morning, and whoever moves in next will want to buy a new lamp, but she's no worse for wear in the end." Blossom trotted over to the other side of the table and sat down in the chair opposite the mayor. "It's just you and me now."
Mayor Tornado snarled at Blossom and tried to take off. Blossom merely rolled her eyes and froze his wings as well. "It's not going to work, you're not going to make it out alive. Your death is far too meaningful to Equestria for that." Blossom giggled and her ear twitched. "'The Pillar of Strength for All of Manehattan!' That was your campaign slogan, wasn't it? Imagine what it will look like when I knock it down."
"My ponies will survive without me," Thundering Tornado growled. "They are a strong bunch, they're not going to fall to the likes of you!"
Blossom idly wiped the blood off of her knife with one of the napkins. "Maybe. You definitely got them riled up, that's for sure." Blossom chuckled and rested the knife on the table. "I was at your speech a few hours ago, it was really quite something. You really seemed to like my 'send her to Tartarus with her aunt' comment." Blossom rested her head on one of her hooves. "Stooping to my level by calling for blood, are we?"
"They'll catch you!" Tornado roared. "You won't get away forever!"
Blossom sighed and levitated the knife into the air once more. "I'm probably going to get that a lot," she mused. "In all honesty, you think that I don't know that? I am going to die soon and violently, it's just a matter of when, that's all." Blossom shrugged and motioned over to the table laden with wine glasses. "Had a dinner party tonight, did you?"
"No, I asked some law enforcement officials to come to my house so that I could have a hoof in coordinating the defense of this city. I served some non-alcoholic refreshments."
Blossom shrugged. "If you say so. Kinda seems like an oversight that you would coordinate security, but you don't have any for yourself."
"The Manehattanites need it more!"
"I'm sure that'll ease the sting of finding you butchered." Blossom tapped the knife on her lower jaw. "I haven't decided if I'm going to let them find all of you, or most of you.
Blossom shrugged once more and leaped onto the table, smashing two of the wine glasses. She fired up her horn and levitated Mayor Tornado's speech over to herself. "I'm curious," she admitted. She took another step forward and knocked another glass against the wall.
"To the citizens of Manehattan,
Last night was a hard night for us all. We lost a fellow Equestrian in enter city here." Blossom chuckled and crushed yet another glass. "Good to see that you have some foresight.
"It is now our time to give our support to the ponies of that city. The New Nightmare has not yet left there, so if we help catch her, we may prevent more tragic deaths."
Blossom tossed the speech on the ground and knocked over another wine glass, relishing in Mayor Tornado's increasing fear. "Could be worse. I think I'll send it to a newspaper. Your ponies will need their final words of comfort from their pillar of strength."
Before the mayor could respond, Blossom sliced the knife across his throat three times. Blood poured from the lacerations, and it was not more than ten seconds before Thundering Tornado slumped forward in his chair. Satisfied that he was dead, Blossom smashed the final wine glass before jumping off the table. "Quite the pillar of strength," she giggled.