Terciel opened the heavy door to the transport truck, a recent invention of the last century. It was fascinating to watch the advances men made south of the wall. It was unfortunate, but such advances were useless in the north. Technology that included synthetic materials and the use of electricity rarely worked close to the wall, and failed to work at all in the north. That included weapons, such as machine rifles. Luckily for the south-landers, the wall also kept out the vast majority of magic from crossing into their lands. Only very close to the wall did they need to fear anything from the north.
Terciel, was the Abhorsen, a man that used old magic to not only protect his home in the north, but the people to the south as well. The same people that for the most part did not acknowledge the north's existence. His skills had become honed over the decades of waging his one man wars, but something told him all of those skills and experience had not quite prepared him for the meeting he was about to have.
"Uh, sir?"
Terciel heard the soldier behind himself and managed to turn from facing the little pink horse running across the field—it wasn't easy. Even after meeting Rarity via a spell a few nights earlier, the pink creature was something that made him doubt that his eyes were working correctly. That wasn't a thought to be taken lightly with him, either. He had seen first hand some of the most unbelievable sights the north had to offer.
Terciel opened his mouth to answer the soldier, but paused when he saw the look of fear on the boy's face. The young corporal had a hand on his rifle as well.
After studying the driver a moment, Terciel smirked at him wryly. "There will be no need for that, corporal. Call it a hunch, but this creature is quite safe, I'm sure." He tilted his head confidently, then popped the door open. "Wait here and I'll handle this." The moment he hopped down from the truck—his stout leather boots kicking up dust on the dry road—he began actually thinking of how exactly he would handle things. It was true he had seen and evaluated the unicorn 'Rarity', but he was no expert on Equestrians, which this creature certainly appeared to be.
The pony was looking back at Terciel, and moving at an incredible speed across the field towards him and his escort. At its current rate, it would overtake them in just a few seconds.
It was then that the little pink horse diverted its course, and began sprinting parallel to the road instead.
Terciel was left to stare as it began pulling away.
"Heeey!" He raised up a hand and waved to get its attention, certain now that it was just like the fascinating creature, Rarity, after all. On the pink one's flank was a very similar mark. This pony was just... more pink. To his surprise, the pony glanced over, but didn't stop or change direction. It slowed down though, circling wide around them while trotting onto the road. It seemed to be following the pavement.
"Sir, what is it?" A gruff accented voice asked from behind. Terciel turned around and looked up at the five men peering over the side of the truck's bed, each of them wearing the most intense looks of confusion possible.
"I believe, it's a pony." Terciel said calmly up to them, then began walking away and towards the no doubt lost equine.
The fact there was another pony in all of this now had Terciel curious; Rarity hadn't mentioned more of her people, just that she were lost. He stroked his chin stubble while musing over explanations. Perhaps, there is a lot more to this than I've been told. He wasn't averse to helping, but more than anything he wanted to ensure that there was nothing dangerous to be concerned of. The creature that was scrutinizing him with one eyebrow raised high, seemed the perfect opportunity to figure that out.
No response had yet come from the pink pony other than body language. It merely cantered on and seemed to be turning away again to follow the road towards the college; the same way he was going, and where his daughter was.
"Hello!?" Terciel cupped his hands and called up after the creature. It took one last look at him, before turning its back and continuing onward, trotting a little bit faster. "How very peculiar." He scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to think. Perhaps this one cannot speak? I don't believe I saw a horn... that is definitely another one of those Equestrians though. Perhaps the horn is indicative of a more intelligent variety... He was used to traits of creatures defining what they were and what they were capable of, and of course that most of them were dangerous beyond belief. The ponies didn't give him even remotely the same feeling, but life had taught him it was better to be wary and not need it, than to get killed.
Whirling around, Terciel jogged back to the truck, grabbing the vehicle's door when close enough, and swung back into his seat. "Drive corporal, but slowly. Come up alongside it." He called out the cab's back window. "Men, let me do the talking." Perhaps... he decided right away, saying that had been a mistake.
"That thing can talk!?" All six men exclaimed at once, all of them staring at him, four heads squashed beside each other through the cab's back window.
Terciel resisted heaving a sigh and deadpanned at the corporal. "Just drive."
Pinkie Pie began sweating nervously when she heard the noisy contraption behind her start up, then begin to gain on her. Great, for the first time in my life I'm anxious to NOT meet strangers, and here they are chasing me! She gritted her teeth and looked around herself, seeking someplace to hide. There was nothing nearby, and the directions she had gotten from a very helpful, strange looking road sign said that this was indeed the way to the college.
The vehicle was getting closer, and Pinkie Pie was getting more nervous. She frantically looked over her shoulder one last time, then dove off of the road screaming, "You'll never take me alive, coppers!" A tall patch of wheat was the best cover that was available to her. Once obscurred from view, she began crawling along the ground through it, gathering up clumps of straw while out of sight until she was satisfied with the amount she had gathered.
Meanwhile, the contraption had ceased making noise, and the human that had been yelling after her began doing so once again. "Hello? Little pony? I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a friend."
Pinkie Pie looked up at the sky past the tall wheat stalks, wishing she had brought her periscope. My friend? HAH! Humans are evil, big meany liar pants, that... lie... and are mean. Her eyes saddened and looked at her foreleg, remembering how she'd been treated by the few she had met so far. I don't know what to think anymore!
The sound of the man's voice even sounded friendly, and welcoming, maybe even fatherly... just like Fanny's had. Pinkie hugged the gathered stalks of wheat around her, then snorted and began using the greener ones to tie her disguise together with more speed. No, I'll get to Rarity, and then I'll rescue her from their clutches... and I'm not talking about eggs! Her teeth ground in a determined fashion.
"Hello?" a nearby voice greeted.
Pinkie Pie shrieked and flew up into the air in a blur of pink and loose grass-blades. She landed back on the ground with a thud, hooves clutched to her barrel and breathing frantically. "Didn't—" She gasped, "anypony ever tell you not to sneak up on somepony like that!?" Standing on her rearlegs, Pinkie tried to press her face up against that of the human, although she wasn't quite tall enough to reach. "I mean seriously, my poor Pinkie-heart just about popped from you surprising me!"
The human's eyes were a definite look of surprise now too. "Oh, er, I apologize for that... Miss. You weren't answering me is all, and I was very much beginning to think you couldn't. That is, that you couldn't talk at all, I mean." The taller creature took several steps back from Pinkie, giving her some welcomed space.
Pinkie Pie turned around and crossed her forelegs, wearing an indignant look, then glanced at him with one eye cracked open. "Oh? Weeell, in that case okie dokie! Still, not bad... I'm not easy to sneak up on. You were lucky though, I was too distracted to notice my ears flopping or my stomach gurgling. So don't think you're top dog just because of that, buster!"
The human gave Pinkie a brief, funny look, that might have been pure confusion, but she wasn't sure. He coughed, his eyes studying her in a curious fashion. She recognized it, all humans seemed to do it when they first saw her. The caution she had been focusing on taking returned, and she backed away several strides, edging through the grass. "Anywhooo mister stranger, I need to go, you see uhm, I have a friend, or I mean I don't have a friend. Certainly not one I need to go rescue from other evil humans... Not to say you are evil by any means!" She let out a gout of nervous laughter, then stopped. "Uhm, bye." She whirled around towards the open field.
"Is her name Rarity?" the human's voice called out behind her.
Pinkie ground to a halt, dirt and grass flying up in front of her face. A meter long furrow had been dug by her hooves in her wake. Without missing a beat, Pinkie whirled around on her hooves and galloped back across the ground towards the human as fast as she could. He was busy glancing behind himself at the contraption he rode in, where several other humans were watching from, then turned around again smiling in an accomplished manner.
"Aha, I was quite sure that she was your friend. Please, I am known as Abhorsen and I can take—"
Pinkie tackled the human, interrupting whatever he had been saying.
"WHERE IS SHE!? I swear on all of the cake in Equestria, uhm, the cookies too, cause they would feel bad if I left them out! That if you, or anyhuman else has hurt her! I! Will!" Pinkie Pie pressed her muzzle to the human's face, ready to say the meanest, most intimidating, most fearsome thing that could be said, all so that she could protect her friend. "Give you the worst wedgie of your liiiiiife."
A sweet, melodic ringing noise entered the air.
Pinkie blinked and looked up and around herself, making sure to not let the human out of her sight by keeping him in her peripherals. She shrugged, not sure where the beautiful noise was coming from, or what it was. Then, she saw a little, tiny bell in the tackled human's hand. Her ears flicked atop her head while she stared at it, still listening to the fading beauty of the sound that had apparently rung out from it. Suddenly, the most epic yawn she had ever yawned before cracked her jaw, and the urge to fall asleep began overwhelming her.
"Oh, that is so not... fair..." Pinkie mumbled, until her voice became a slurred dribble of words. She then flopped over onto her side, thumping slightly as she hit the dirt.
Terciel gasped out his breath, suddenly free, and crawled out from underneath the pony, completely at a loss for what had just transpired. The little horse had knocked the wind out of him, and he had reacted on instinct. Quickly, he stilled the clapper to his bell, Ranna, and re-contained it in its pouch, ending its luring voice.
"Sir, are you alri-ri..." The soldier that had run up behind Terciel yawned widely, covering his mouth. "Why am I so tired all of a sudden?"
"It is the sleeping spell of Ranna. Do not worry, she is quite harmless on her own, and was directed at our friend here. I believe, that this little pony may be very suspicious of us, judging by the way she just reacted." Terciel stared at the snoring form of the pony, looking as peaceful as though it were in its own bed and sucking on its hoof between snores. "Well, help me pick her up, Corporal. I believe it's a her, anyway. She'll have questions no doubt when she's awake."
"So this is really why you're here, Abhorsen? To acquire these... ponies?" The corporal grunted as the two men lifted the pony up between them. Nearby, the other men shifted uneasily in their boots, watching the two carry the creature and keeping an eye on the grass surrounding them.
"I shouldn't have to tell you that it is my concern alone, Corporal." Terciel looked at the man seriously, then smiled. "But yes, we're helping them get home, or I am, rather. I imagine I'll be leaving over the wall with them if we can't get them home quickly, wherever that is..." He grunted as they hoisted the pony up into the bed of the truck.
"Ah, I see, very well I'll ask no more, sir, I apologize." The soldier bowed his head, then made way for the other chattering soldiers to climb in after the pony.
"It's quite alright, son. Now, let's hurry on to the college. Our friend here will awaken much more at ease, I imagine, if she sees a friendly face when she does." Terciel spun in place, his surcoat's tail flapping behind him in the southern breeze.
"Er, right, sir! One, uhm, more question though, actually, if that's alright." The corporal gulped, glancing from the pony in the truck and back at the infamous man he was escorting through the countryside at the colonel's orders. When the Abhorsen looked back at him, he continued. "Why does the uh... pink pony have straw and grass tied around its head and body, sir?"
Terciel blinked several times, turned to look in at the strange creature, catching confused looks from all the men under his command, then faced the corporal again.
"Uhm."
Seeking escape, Terciel clapped his hands together and let out a deep breath. "Right, like I said, let's go."
Pinkie trotted whimsically through the gumdrop fields, stopping occasionally to lick the surface of one of the sugar frosted treats. Mmmm, these are delicious. She smiled down at the red, tasty treat, licking her lips and smiling in tandem. After the sugary respite, she continued on her way, until she stopped in front of a large gingerbread house that lay just around the bend past some rather large peppermint trees and what looked like a pond made out of lime green jello.
"Oooh, pretty... Reminds me of the last time I got a haircut! Hehe." Pinkie's mind grew enraptured by the tasty-looking and nostalgic edible house. Bouncing up to the front door, her smile grew wider and wider, until it became one of the rare occasions where she couldn’t make it go any bigger. She paused once at the door, debating whether or not to actually knock, then shrugged and proceeded to gnaw her way through the door, savoring the delicious taste of gingerbread.
“Mmmm,” she vocalized in a satisfied manner, moving swiftly through the crumbling, sugary door and into the building.
After deeming her task complete and licking her lips, Pinkie let her eyes wander about the house. There was only a single room aside from the entrance hall, which she now stood in, and with another shrug, she trotted inside that room.
The familiar sight of a kitchen greeted Pinkie. Her eyes were immediately drawn to a large gumdrop, stationed behind the counter. Most odd about the sugary thing, was that it had a face of different candies, and an expression of all things.
Pinkie grinned, fascinated, and addressed the funny looking candy-creature. "Hey! Whatcha doin'? Is that a cake? Oh, is it chocolate or vanilla? Which is it? Also, my name's Pinkie Pi—" She stopped abruptly when she noticed the look of terror on the gumdrop's sugary face. Wait, silly Pinkie! Candy is an inanimate object and can’t be terrified; that would be crazy! She raised a suspicious eyebrow at the thing, then without a second thought, she tackled the gumdrop to the floor and took a bite out of it.
Before Pinkie could finish it off, the gumdrop somehow rolled away from her and sped out the door, leaving a confused pink pony in its wake. Huh, well you don’t see that everyday...
Turning her head to face the counter the gumdrop was just at, Pinkie was pleasantly surprised to see the cake on top. It was in fact neither chocolate or vanilla, it was obviously strawberry flavored. Its sweet and sugary aroma beckoned her to come closer.
Answering the call of the pleasant dessert, Pinkie slowly floated towards the cake through the air. Oh, you look so delicious and tasty! It'd be a shame to leave you here, Pinkie thought, her eyes furrowed in concentration.
“Well, that gumdrop didn’t seem like it was going to come back, so I guess I could just have a little bite...” Pinkie thought out loud, before throwing the cake into the air and eating it whole.
“Oops..." Sheepishly rubbing the back of her head, Pinkie started to exit the kitchen, when she noticed a pair of cakes in the half-opened refrigerator. "Well, I'm obviously dreaming so I don't hafta worry about overdoing it!” Deciding that there would be no harm in eating two extra cakes, Pinkie promptly picked both of the confections up. After balancing them on both of her front hooves to inspect them, she threw both into the air. Her mouth closed around both cakes simultaneously. She was amazed, as normally eating pastries that quick was reaaally difficult, even for her.
A faint sound of crying rang in her ears from somewhere. Pinkie stopped what she was doing and looked all around herself, suddenly gripped by the sad sound. She couldn’t spot where the echo was coming from at all though. Her eyes searched the kitchen until they stopped, then searched some more. When nothing turned up, she gulped and resumed her mid-night snack.
Pinkie combed some more of the kitchen for any other hidden treats, then left the room, closing the door behind her.
With only the slightest bit of hesitation, the pony took a bite of the handle after doing so, as well. Chortling to herself and savoring the crunchy wafer delight.
The sound of crackling leaves, or perhaps snapping twigs filled Pinkie's ears, and she froze. Her ears twitched on her furry head, listening carefully to the noise. She thought it was some sort of natury kind of sound, but she couldn't figure out what it was after looking around. The gingerbread filling her mouth was swallowed with a gulp, while she stopped and studied the hall's walls closer.
The noise stopped as Pinkie did so. Whoa... She held a hoof up to her head, suddenly feeling dizzy. Geez, sugar rush? Oh, hey, I feel awake now, yay! Her hooves clip clopped back onto the floor. What was that noise? The house? Uh oh, did I eat a load bearing candy cane? A giggle escaped her, suddenly realizing how silly it was that she was in a real building made out of candy, not just one that looked like it was.
Pinkie's giggling slowed though, her mind retracing the dream and everything that had transpired in a flash. This is... really weird. Huh. Not waiting, she continued down the hall, eager to get outside of the closed space; for some reason, and she couldn't quite put her hoof on why, but the atmosphere felt wrong all of a sudden.
A deeper and deeper sense of foreboding began to fill Pinkie as her hooves carried her down the short hallway towards the house’s exit, the one she had taken to get inside. She shook her head and watched the door, not wanting to let it out of her sight, while also trying to stay focused.
Pinkie reached the gingerbread door. I could have sworn I ate my way through this thing Getting worried, she slammed it open, just wanting to get out and abandoning any pretense of calm. As she exited the house she was panting, but glad to be outside. The delicious looking sun greeted her once again, as did the return of her sense of ease. Wow, she thought with relief, turning around to look back into the strange building. To say that place gave me the spooks would be understating it a little. Oh hey, but I'm dreaming!
Pinkie Pie began giggling at her own silliness for being scared in a dream. Oh wow, Princess Woona would think that's hilaaarious. Oh wait, she didn't like that nickname! I should stick... too...
Pinkie stared at numerous sweets and confections that were now at the end of the walkway of the building. She didn't stare at them because they looked tasty, or were very unique. She stared, because they were staring back at her.
Each sugary creature bore familiar bite marks on them. Each sweet was one she had visited on her way through the dream. Worse, each wore a twisted face of agony directed her way.
Even though Pinkie was backing up as quick as her hooves could take her, she couldn't tell if she was getting any farther from them. "Oh, uhm, hello there?" The strange feeling she had almost never felt in her life, except in her imagination as a filly, had returned. It was fear. Her eyes watched with a mixture of confusion and distress as the pastries slid closer to her, a lump forming in her throat as they did.
"Ah, hi! I'm Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's number one party... uhm, pony, and I just want to say first that I'm suuuper duper sorry for... biting—" Pinkie couldn't believe what she was seeing, to the point of speaking on instinct. She couldn't find words any longer as the landscape and candies in front of her began to melt at an alarming rate. "I hope, uhm, are you all... okay?" Her rump struck something hard behind herself, and her retreating was put to a halt.
The candy creatures rolled and ebbed and drug themselves closer to her. The surrounding area was now unrecognizable as well. Candied apples had rotted, mountains of fudge and the sky had faded into pitch black nothing, and the ground had somehow become a dull, grey stone.
The candy kept staring at her.
"Hehehe." Pinkie grinned suddenly and straightened up, staring back. She quickly looked behind herself, seeing that the thing which had stopped her was a fierce looking gumball monster with rock candy teeth. Immediately, she gasped, collapsed onto the ground and began beating it with her hooves, caught in a torrent of laughter. "Oh man, that is pri-hi-hiceless. HAH!" Her eyes bugged as she wept tears over the crazy things she was seeing. "Oh Celestia, what did I eat last night to cause this?"
Standing up, Pinkie strode over to the gruesome things that moaned and slithered towards her, she pushed one over with a hoof and giggled more after it splatted onto the ground. "Huh, it must've been that weird human-bread that meany-feeny-foe-fanny was feeding me." She frowned a little and held a hoof up to her mouth in thought, still giggling. "Oooh, well."
Pinkie watched all of the strange candy creatures and monsters around her. They had encircled her, their ranks stretching back into the darkness that her eyes couldn't penetrate. They all stood and hunched, unmoving, every last one simply staring at her with black, empty eye sockets.
"Oh come on," Pinkie stamped a hoof and snorted at them, "I know this is just a dream you bunch of creepy mccreepersons! Drop the act, I'm just gonna wake up the moment I want to—"
A tar colored arm shot out from the crowd and grabbed her muzzle, then wrenched her head around and up to meet two, fire filled eyes. They belonged to something that Pinkie never wanted to see again, ever.
"Then why don't you?" it asked.
Pinkie screamed and screamed. Unbeknownst to her through the panic, the room's dim light was slowly causing her eyes to adjust and lessen the darkness that seemingly engulfed her. Once she began feeling around herself in the midst of her terror, she managed to slowly realize that what she was feeling—a soft, gushy floor—was actually a bed. The sound of somepony besides herself finally reached her, as well.
"—inkie!? Pinkie Pie!? Are you okay? Pinkie!?" Rarity cried out, over and over from the bedside.
Pinkie tried to swallow the Tom sized boulder-like lump in her throat preventing her from speaking. "H-Huh— R-Rarity?" Slowly, she realized she was awake now, more than in the dream she still remembered vividly.
"Pinkie! It's me. What's wrong, Darling? A bad dre—"
Pinkie didn't wait a second more after realizing that her friend was real. "RARITY!"
Rarity oofed and fell onto the floor, the pink pony planted squarely over her after successfully leaping off of the bed to glomp her in a rib crushing hug.
"Rarity, Rarity! Oh Celestia, I've never had a dream so scary and-and-and nopony was there but these candy monsters that really looked like monsters like super bad and I was hurting them or—"
Pinkie Pie sat up and inhaled a zeppelin's worth of air, the unicorn she sat on oofing again as she moved.
"Pinkie, please get off!" Rarity grinned sympathetically up at her enthusiastic friend, desperately hoping to be freed. It was to no avail, as the other mare fell back after meeting her eyes and hugged her once again, and even more fiercely than before. Rarity thought she felt a rib crack.
"I-I-I've never had a nightmare like that before, Rarity—" The tangled mess of pink mane around her head wasn't helping, but Pinkie tried to calm down and slow her labored breathing.
"Ni—" Rarity coughed and tried to get her forehooves between herself and Pinkie to gain some space. At least enough to talk to her disheveled and frantic friend. "Nightmare? Oh, Pinkie I'm so so sorry you had one. Was it bad—"
"Rarity, okay, I don't tell this to a lot of ponies. Actually, I've told this to absolutely nopony except for my granny-Pie... But I actually used to get them a lot, and—"
Pinkie cut off, and seemed to stare into space a moment. Rarity opened her mouth, as if to inquire what was wrong, only for Pinkie to suddenly gasp and re-hug her friend even more bone-crushingly hard than previously.
"Rarity, it is you! I found you! Or, maybe, you found me?" Pinkie thought she heard a pop from somewhere, and took that as her cue to loosen up her grip. "Either way, we reeeally need to escape from the evil clutches of these humans now."
Rarity, for her part, was gulping breaths of after getting Pinkie-hugged—twice, no less—and was nodding along emphatically to what Pinkie said, all while still trying to gently coax her friend into getting off of her. "Yes, yes, Pinkie I'm ever so relieved to have found you, too. Now, if you would please— Wait, what?"
Pinkie sat back, nodding to herself as she thought what she could recall through to its obviously natural conclusion. "Yup, it all makes sense. After that one big-meanie— I think he said his name was Afro-son? Weird name, anyway he caught me on the road and knocked me out with... How did he do that? He waved a really pretty sounding bell at me, so maybe it was magic? Anyway, I bet they may not know that I'm awake yet, but don't worry! I'm three hooves ahead of them, my pointy-headed friend!"
Pinkie slapped one forehoof against her other for emphasis. "I made my escape plan long before they captured me. What was I saying before that? Right, nightmares. It was horrible! But I actually get them a lot, but that isn't the point. This one... it was different from the other ones, the ones I've learned to laugh at. This one seemed so real. This one... was..."
Pinkie trailed off, still seated on her friend's chest.
"Pinkie?" Rarity tilted her head from where she lay, her friend still tangled in her sheets in a sweaty, sorry looking state. In truth, Rarity would have screamed, or at least been repeating the word "ew" over and over, were she not so relieved to see the other pony.
Pinkie sighed, finally, unable to come up with an explanation that made sense. “It was just... it was just a nightmare. Never mind.” Giggle at the ghosties... With a clatter of hooves, she got up off of Rarity, who exhaled a relieved breath. "Sorry about that, Rarity. It's not important right now. We should get going before they know I'm awake, I bet they heard my... scream."
"Get going? This has to be some sort of misunderstanding going on here, Pinkie." Rarity massaged her barrel and side with a hoof, wincing, and turned to her friend. "What do you mean by all that? We don't need to escape anything, and why are you acting so..." Rarity's tongue seemed to swell up in her mouth as she thought of the words, fighting not to speak. "Not Pinkie?"
Pinkie Pie felt the thin sheets of her bed with a hoof. The bed was damp with sweat and the room felt hot. That seemed to her to be the norm in the human's world; the weather was a great deal different from home. Since there weren't any ponies, she wondered if there were another race that worked the weather? If there was, then they were awful at it, and if there wasn't... well that was just another scary thought for the growing pile.
Absently, Pinkie responded over her shoulder to Rarity. "Sorry, Rarity. I'll... tell you all about it later, but right now we should hurry." Trying her best to act herself, a short burst of giggles escaped Pinkie's hastily donned smile. "And yes, I said get going, silly!" Moving again, she ripped the remaining sheets off of the bed and began coiling them up into a rope like device. "First things first, though, we're going to make a rope! Then, we'll scale the walls of this eeeevil human castle and get to the courtyard. After that we're going to—"
Rarity made to stop her dear friend before she got any further with her explanation. "Pinkie, no! You blurted all of that out, but I thought that's what you'd said. Listen, they aren't evil at all, they're wonderful pon— Tsk, they're a wonderful people. I've been staying here in the very lap of luxury. Or, as much as anypony under present circumstances could hope for, I suppose... and why do you think we're in a castle?"
Pinkie rolled her eyes, but didn't stop coiling the sheets. "Duuuh, all super evil meanies foalnap damsels like us and put them in castles!"
Rarity decided not to mention how much the College did somewhat resemble a big stone castle. "Right, well, Pinkie, nevertheless I must insist you. Stop. That." She tried to pull the sheets from her friend and stand between her and the window she was trying to open with her mouth. "There is no need! Abhorsen means to help us!"
Pinkie reeled back and stood up on her rear legs, a hoof held to her mouth in terror. "Oh no, Rarity, they lied to you, too! Don't worry, just forget whatever they told you. They lied to me and I fell for it, but got away! Unless... they brainwashed you because you figured it out, oh no... Don't worry Rarity! I've completely revealed their big, nasty plot already!"
"Pinkie, what are you— Pinkie, stop! Put that down this instant!" Rarity backed up against the wall as her friend advanced on her with the sheets. "Stop being ridiculous!" She couldn't imagine what had gotten into her friend, but Pinkie rarely did things lightly. Still, in the flash of seconds she had to react, the thought didn't exactly console her.
"It's for your own good, Rarity!" Pinkie lunged at Rarity, the unicorn's horn lighting up as she shrieked and dodged out of the way, assisted by a bit of levitation to hold the pink mare back. "Don't worry, I'll find a way to free you from their evil clutches, even if I have to tickle it out of them myself!"
"Pinkie!" Rarity dove out of the way of another attempt by her crazy party friend to tie her up with bed sheets. "Listen to me—! They aren't evil. If you've come to that conclusion for a good reason we can talk through it, but these humans are my frie-MRrRHPH!" Unfortunately for the fashionista, while trying to explain things, the other pony took advantage and ran across the wall to clear the distance between them, ending the chase.
Pinkie Pie gently gagged her friend, as a mother might tie swaddling for her baby. "Don't worry Rarity, I'll get to the bottom of this. Detective Pinkie is on the case!" Once again, Pinkie retrieved her bubble pipe swiftly from her mane and plopped it into her mouth, grinning in victory.
From the floor, Rarity grunted once more and rolled her eyes above the gag she'd been stuck with. "E'rrf 'eing r'diculou'th, 'inkie."
"What was that, Rares? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me saving your life!"
Nearby, the sound of a door opening grabbed everypony's attention.
"Rarity? Myself and Sabriel wanted to talk to—"
Rarity and Pinkie both looked over to the sight of Sabriel walking in with a tray of what looked like tea and biscuits. Behind her, walked Abhorsen and Ms. Greenwood.
In the room, the humans saw Rarity, half tied together by white linen and laid out on the floor facing away from the pink mare. Both were looking at the newcomers with equal amounts of surprise on their faces.
After a moment of the vastly different beings staring at each other in awkward silence, Terciel placed a hand over Sabriel's eyes and nudged her over to the side of the door. "...Are we intruding?" he asked with a flat tone.
Pinkie Pie growled, and Rarity let out a series of muffled noises, her horn lighting up with its blue glow.
"FOR POOOONY!" Pinkie Pie lept off of her fashionista friend and straight at the evil mastermind behind it all: Abhorsen.