Nothing but the sound of hoofsteps interrupted the silence that reigned in The Void. Absolutely nothing.
It was driving Rainbow nuts.
Rainbow, bored by the predictability of what she would see in the fantastic and colorful landscape that was The Void, lost herself in her thoughts.
However, when trying to recall the situation when she woke up, her brain reacted with a sudden wave of pain. Groaning, Rainbow fell to the floor, her forelegs holding her head. It felt like an invisible drill was perforating her skull.
After a few seconds, the pain decreased and Rainbow was able to get up again, but not before catching a glimpse of a shadow running away from her sight.
"What in..." She had repeated too much that phrase lately; enough to make her shut up before finishing it.
Silence reigned again.
Nothing made a sound.
Absolutely nothing.
Rubbing her eyes in disbelief, Rainbow looked in front of her, and then at her surroundings.
Twilight Sparkle wasn't there.
"Twilight?" Rainbow asked, hoping to see her friend.
Instead of the mare with a purple butt, a pink gas appeared out of thin air, just a few meters away from where she stood. Seemingly controlled, the gas moved towards Rainbow.
Creeped out by the gas, Rainbow took flight.
She watched at the gas stopped its movements, but was taken aback when the gas... started talking.
"Erppucose te no," it said in a raspy voice. Rainbow felt shills going down her spine just by hearing it. "Jemro rahmeso te."
Rainbow laughed nervously. "O-okay Twi, you c-can stop now," Rainbow said, putting emphasis in the last word.
The gas... growled and started forming a spiral. Upwards. To reach her.
It was a bad time to remember that her friend had said that, in The Void, an unicorn couldn't cast magic. Unfortunately for Rainbow, making illusions was considered as a part of 'magic'.
Shrieking in terror, but not loud enough to affect her awesomeness, Rainbow flew high. As she did so, the pink spiral shot upwards at breakneck speed, catching the pegasus and forcing her down.
Adrenaline and desesperation helping her, Rainbow's brain was unable to process how inefficient were her attempts to escape. It wasn't until the only thing she could see was pink that she stopped fighting, just to faint the next second as the gas encapsulated her.
"Celestia help us," Applejack said as she looked down at the hole where the library was supposed to be. Next to her, Pinkie Pie stared wide-eyed.
A group of ponies had gathered around the crater when they heard the explosion, and it had been quite the hard task to come closer to the place. But after a quick glance, Applejack wanted to not have come at all.
She looked at Pinkie, and was quickly tackled by her.
"Pinkie!" Applejack yelled. "What do you bel-?"
"Look," Pinkie cut her off, pointing at the place Applejack was a second ago. "You were going to fall." Like Pinkie stated, the scorched ground rumbled and fell to the darkness below.
Applejack stared speechless. Some of the ponies retreated, watching from a safe distance.
Pinkie, smiling sadly, moved away from Applejack. Her spongy mane was deflating and, if Applejack's eyes weren't cheating her, Pinkie's coat looked more dull.
Accompaining her change of appearance, a sob escaped Pinkie's lips. Applejack's heart ached.
"Girls!" somepony yelled in the public. After a few seconds, a white mare with a purple mane made her way towards the two ponies.
Wiping away the sweat from her forehead, she got up in her hindlegs and screamed, "GET AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE! DARK MAGICAL RESIDUES ARE STILL PRESENT AND CAN BE DANGEROUS!" Waving her forelegs like a mad mare, the ponies retreated even more and some of them ran without direction, it didn't take long until all of them were running towards their houses.
Just like the mare expected.
"Rarity," Applejack said, grabbing her hoof to get up. "What are ya' doin'?" she asked, accomodating her hat.
"Cleaning the place," she replied. "We need to send a letter to Princess Celestia as quickly as possible." She turned around and started walking towards Sweet Apple Acres. "Spike was with you, right?"
"Wait!" Pinkie yelled, appearing in front of the more. "We need to see what happened down there!"
Rarity bit her lip. "Pinkie, I know this from experience. There is residual magic in the air and I don't recommend getting down there."
"But what about Twilight?!" Pinkie continued, "the library is completely destroyed!"
"Well-"
"What if she died?! Do you know if she died?!"
"Pinkie-"
"We need to get down there, Rares!" Pinkie screamed in her face, shaking Rarity by her shoulders. "W-we need to m-make sure..." she trailed off, her once-spongy mane hanging straight, her pink coat becoming grayer than before.
A tear made its way down Pinkie's eye, followed by more.
Rarity put a hoof on her friend's shoulder in a sign of support. "I know you want to see, dear. But Twilight casted something powerful, something very powerful. And I am sure that approaching the scene will do no thing to help."
She wiped away a tear of her friend's eye and continued, "The quicker we get Celestia here, the quicker this is all solved."
"Will we g-get Twilight b-back?"
Rarity smiled, though a tear rolled down her cheek. "I don't know, Pinkie. I don't know."
Pinkie snorted, crying.
"Don't cry, Pinkie."
Pinkie, sobbing uncontrollaby, pointed behind Rarity. "It... it's just that... that Applejack went down while we were t-talking."
"What?!"