//------------------------------//
// 15. Pinkie Pie: The Deluge 
// Story: Rise of Ponietheus 
// by twitterdick 
//------------------------------//

	"Twilight! Where has she gone!?" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"Search where you like. She said she was getting Spike!" Zecora said.
Pinkie Pie was rummaging through the snacks she had tucked away in her saddlebag when the commotion began. She quickly swallowed the bits of cupcake and wiped. Without thinking, she whipped up her saddlebag and put it on.
"What's going on?" Rarity asked as the four of them gathered around near Spike.
"Twilight Sparkle was to gather Spike so that we may study what the infected fear. I do not know why she would disappear!" Zecora said.
Pinkie Pie frowned. There was something more sinister about the way the air felt. She was all twitchy.
"Well, where would she have gone?" Rarity said, "She has to be somewhere around here. She has to be."
"Oh, Twilight, what's gotten into your head?" Rainbow Dash mumbled.
No, there was something much worse. Everything had suddenly just felt wrong.
"Oooh, you guys, my knee's real pinchy!!" Pinkie Pie said.
A descending Shepard tone graced their ears. The sky bellowed above them. The air had gotten more humid. There was such a noticeable foreboding about it that they all were silenced. A thunderous grinding echoed throughout the soundscape inside and out, like the very earth itself was moan. Pinkie shuddered and her tail twitched twice.
"Twitch-y tail! Look out!" she cried.
Lightning struck the large hole in the roof. The scaffolding cracked and it widened. A plumage of dark lightning continued to strike the upside of the roof like fingers tearing the building open. It was painfully loud, like dynamite going off, and it did well to mask the screams of those inside. 
Panic slithered its way throughout the ponies as the wooden planks and concrete collapsed inward. They all spread out, and Rarity and Zecora were effectively cut off from Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. Those inside dashed madly towards the contours of the building. More lightning began to strike inside. Some ponies were hit and went dark immediately.
Everything was happening so quickly. Pinkie Pie called out for Rarity but heard nothing. She backed up slightly and just froze. The roof continued to collapse and she was stunned by that horrible noise of the lightning punning away at the building. She closed her eyes and whimpered.
"Make it stop!"
She then felt herself get swooped up by Rainbow Dash. She held her by her front underarms and burst out the front town. The storm came alive, albeit without rain, and lighting continuously struck the rooftops around them. 
"Rainbow!!" Pinkie Pie squeaked, "Rainbow, what's going on!?"
Rainbow Dash struggled to maneuver through the storm. "Be quiet, Pinkie!!" she shouted.
It was too late. Lightning struck Rainbow Dash's back. She hollered and dropped Pinkie Pie, who crashed onto the ground below.
Pinkie Pie awoke suddenly. Her head was in pain, and her vision blurred. She struggled to gather her bounds and focus in on her surroundings. The town around her was more calm and quiet than it had been before she lost consciousness, but it was still wrapped in a dreary touch of foreboding. The lightning had subsided, and she stood alone in the coldly light street. She quickly checked herself all around for any black rain, but miraculously found none. She scratched her head and blinked.
"Rainbow Dash!?" she called out into the night before her. Rainbow Dash did not answer.
Spying a shattered window in the building behind her, Pinkie Pie turned and quickly made her way inside. Upon entering the small home, she almost immediately herd drown out thumping from the floor above her. The sound was both dissolute and desperate, like the feeble attempts to drag one's injured body towards safety and salvation. Pinkie Pie did not hesitate to hurry upstairs towards the eerie source of the noise. As she approached the door the the room that contained it, the noise stopped.
She did not hesitate to hurry into the next room. 
"Dashie?!"
Before her, amidst debris and broken glass, Rainbow Dash lay still and stern, peering up at her with hollow, infected eyes like she was a beast or predator. Pinkie Pie shuttered at the sight, but moved in closer regardless. 
"…Dashie?"
Rainbow Dash scurried away from her quickly as she drew closer, propping herself up by one of the beds in the room. She was clearly injured, her exposed left shoulder mildly scrapped and cut. Yet she masked her pain with fierce eye contact, like a feral beast in the wild. Pinkie Pie was unnerved, but moved closer.
Rainbow Dash murmured and tried to flare her wings in a defensive showmanship, but she clearly strained. They barely lifted past her shoulders.
"Dashie." 
Pinkie Pie was filled with a foreboding, subtly well aware of the futility of her words. There was no point, but she pined and tried anyway
"Dashie, it's okay. You don't have to be afraid. It's me - Pinkie Pie! Your friend!"
Rainbow Dash showed no reaction to her soft words, and made all efforts to pull away from her. 
"No," Pinkie Pie whispered.
Rainbow Dash appeared more and more depraved and horrified. She desperately crawled away from Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie sunk back towards the door, feeling a slight rush of tears coming to her eyes. 
"Rainbow Dash, don't do this! Not you too…"
Pinkie Pie felt a despairing whimper escape her lips before bottling all emotion and preceding downstairs and out of the building. She collapsed down into the curb by the street, slouching down into herself as her mind rushed to process the various enfeebling stimuli and disparage she felt. There, in that place, she felt so alone. Such a feeling always caused debilitation in her head, forcefully usurping and replacing the fragments of logos for rushes of strong emotion.
Yet, from there, she drew from the withered well of determination that had been formed by the recent events. She conjured what strength she could from the fact that, despite everything, she'd made it this far. She suppressed all the negative emotion stirring in her chest, and resolved to press on. Suddenly, as she picked herself up from the curb, the foul beating of the wings belonging to the accursed harbinger of darkness flickered above her.
He didn't notice her, but landed down a few feet from the town hall. It was as if he was investigating all the noise. He had a soft stance about him. He was almost shaking.
She sneered at him and bellowed, "You stupid jerk! This is all your fault!!"
He winced when she shouted and turned around. He seemed horrified.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "…Sorry." He trembled and turned to leave.
"What!?" she shouted back, "After all this, you're just going to walk off? You can't just leave us all in a state like this. It isn't right… This isn't right! It's not how the story's supposed to end!"
"I'm sorry," he whispered. His words were even softer now, and he seemed very shaken. He winched and stared up at the clouds. "I'm sorry to leave you alone. I'm so sorry."
He backed away slowly. He lifted himself up and apologized again. He flew off in the direction of the library. The thunder and muck in the skyline seemed to subside, and the clouds appeared to begin to slowly disperse. However, it was still so dark.
Pinkie Pie shuttered. "…Alone?"
Those words sauntered into her gut like fallout. The shock soon settled around her as the town sunk back into its silence. The meek Harbinger was far off now. She felt such a foreboding, like the first leak spewing from the cusp of a great dam. Words of fear and panic fluttered into her mind as she began to make her way back towards the town hall. Her pace quickened more and more as she drew closer.
The hall stood demoralized and broken with it's roof and top floor exposed. The great wooden doors were cast asunder, laying defeated in the cold, dank mud surrounding the building. As she approached, she witness dim figures laying broken in the lawn, overcome with the infection that had ransacked the area. They trembled in their rain coats, shaking in the dirt before her. She attempted to call out to some, but the thralls lay still and silent. Her heart continued to thump as she approached the large vacant doorway leading into the large building.
Poking her head inside, she was greet with nothing but the shivering choir of absolute silence. The hallway leading up to the large conference room ahead remained dark and oblique. Small strains of light struggled to shove their way into the great chamber, softly illuminating the overturned chairs, tables and supplies as they lay torn and scattered. The hall was very quiet, a stark contrast to the terrible noises that had flooded the place earlier.
Then, from amidst the debris, Pinkie Pie heard a moan; Not one of physical pain, but the call of great vexation. She rushed over to it's source, and used all within her to cast aside bits of plank and scaffolding that covered the being lying under them. There, crumpled before her among the rubble, was Rarity. Apart for a few scrapes and bruises, the alabaster pony did not appear to be critically injured. She was, however, as dim and grey as Spike had been when they had brought him to this place.
"Rarity," she whispered, clearing out a path in what remained of the debris, "Are you alright?"
She did not respond and remained curled and sobbing in the fetal position. Her royal purple hair had lost it's firmness and was wrapped across her face. Pinkie Pie motioned to brushed it away, but pulled her hand back at the icy touch of Rarity's skin. She was so very cold and, apart from small whimpers, so very quiet.  
Pinkie Pie inhaled quickly and the trembling of her throat reflected in the soft noise of air entering her body. 
"I'm so sorry we left you here," she whispered, her eyes saddened by the obvious futility of her apology, "Rainbow Dash and I… we fell back upon gut instinct… survivalism and all that. It's scary how in a tight spot, your body can just… override your heart and mind, and make you forget…"
Rarity's movements were unaffected by Pinkie's words. A tear forced it's way onto the pink pony's cheek and ran down her head before releasing and dripping down to the floor. "I shouldn't make excuses…" Pinkie Pie continued, holding back tears, "No, we left you here. I… left you here and that was wrong. And I'm… so sorry. And now here I am, I'm the last one. It shouldn't be me… It should be you and Twilight and Applejack…. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Spike… You can all handle this… better than me. I-I've never been very good at… being by myself."
Her attention was shifted onto the surrounding room. Dim figures, all in raincoats, appeared from the corners and from beneath the debris. They began to march mindlessly towards the door, fulfilling the apparent thrall-like role of the second stage of the harbinger's magic. Rarity herself quit her sobbing and picked herself up, pushing past Pinkie Pie to join them. Pinkie Pie sobbed herself, watching her join the husks of Fluttershy and Zecora as they marched out of the building. Only Spike remained in that big empty room. He still flickered, despite everything.
Pinkie Pie sat in place, staring at the extraneous motions of Spike as he lay tucked under a table. Only the sound of her own breathing filled the corners of the decimated hallway, and as the indulgent self pity subsided, she was left with a curious thought: Whatever had happened to Twilight Sparkle?

--- 

She looked around for Twilight for what felt like days. Her hooves ached and she kept swallowing in attempt to shake the feeling that her throat was caving in. Things were so uncomfortably arid and cold. It was too quiet and Harbinger was nowhere to be found. She didn't care. Twilight was her last shot at not being by herself.
After a while she came across the library with a familiar figure curled up on the ground in front of it.	
"Oh no," she whimpered, "Not you. Not you. I can't be the only one that's left…"
She cried over Twilight's twitching black body. 
"You said this wouldn't happen. You said it wouldn't be down to just me. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be last one left. You were the one that was supposed to fix everything. What am I supposed to do?"
Twilight Sparkle was so quiet. That simply made Pinkie Pie cry harder.
"You don't even know what I'm saying."
Pinkie Pie collapsed backwards in that place, among the sorrow and the mud. The cobblestone beneath her trembling form sighed in sympathy, mimicking the cold desolation that filled her mind. Pinkie Pie felt like she was zoning out for a bit, but then her eyes spilled to the shock that poured down on her soul. She turned away from Twilight and quietly sauntered back into the center of the scorched, dry town. Pinkie Pie sat in place, whimpering. Soon, in that place, she released terrible moans and cries of emotion pain. Pinkie Pie sobbed.
She soon struggled to pick herself up. Everything was so quiet. She couldn't help but whimpered. She tried to pick herself up, but could not. She couldn't help by cry. Her throat ached and she bawled and sputtered.
"No!" she screamed, "This isn't real! This isn't happening! No! No, no, no."
She clasped her head in her hoofs and felt mocked; cheated. Her sobs when bitter soon. She felt starved and weak. "It isn't real. I'll wake up soon. It's not real. I'm not here! I simply am not here!!"
The thunder bellowed in the distance.
"SHUT UP!" she screamed, "Shut your stupid thunder FACE!"
She stood up and fell down again. The waters of anger brushed up against her. She felt frail and warm.
"ENOUGH!" she shouted at sky. "What else do you WANT?!"
Everything was silent.
"I don't wanna BE here!" she screamed again. She shuddered and spat. "Stupid WEATHER! What, we got beat by weather!?!"
She screamed awhile longer, then laughed. She didn't know what else to do but laugh. She just sat outside in the gloomy town and laughed. There was nothing else that could be done.
So she left. She went south.    
She walked past the buildings and the sullen earth. She felt like she faded out, like the very planet didn't even notice her. The infected wandered around about her, but she never minded them. They simply ignored her. She felt cold. Her legs were shaking. Her eyes festered and stung. Her hair was flat. Her mouth was dry. Her stomach hurt.
The town was soon behind her, and she wondered among the train tracks that stretched out among the earth. They only went one direction. They only lead to one outcome. She found herself yearning and she hated that kind of singularity. She drifted beneath the silver sky and never smiled. Pinkie Pie walked and retreated inside, like a filly pulling the blankets up over her head. She felt sick and she desperately wanted that to go away.
She soon found her way beyond the Harbinger's storm and found herself among a deep, thick fog. She still followed the railway tracks and the cozen moon remained the sky above. She sputtered and wanted distance. She wanted to disappear. She wanted it to stop. 
After the fog, she wandered southwest, away from the tracks, past the Ghastly Gorge and into the desert. She must of been walking for hours now, and her thoughts tormented her.  
The desert's sands stretched out far away, and said nothing. She felt weak. Her tears subsided and gave way to bitter ventilation as she felt her lungs and heart flutter. Her hooves went numb as her steps further out into that desert became more harsh and forceful. She pulled herself to a stop for a moment to release a curtailing, raspy shriek. She stood there in the reverb. That warm, arid place seemed a terrible anger. Then that stopped. Then Pinkie Pie wept for all she knew. She wept, like for death, like all she clanged to fell upon her and she watched all she loved cross into where she could not follow. She sat and stared long into the unknowable future, and cataloged all she had wasted.
"You know everything about everypony, Pinkie Pie," she said to herself, "You've learned and remembered what makes them laugh, cry or get scared, and you can always cheer them up. But where are they now that you need cheering up? What do all the other ponies know about you? Do you think they took time to remember all the things about you that you remember about them? Do they know what makes you laugh, cry or get scared? Of course, they don't. And now that you need them more then ever, they're gone. They're all gone. They forgot about you, Pinkie Pie. They didn't even know your name. How could they not even remember your name?"
She cursed all she knew and coughed. She quietly hated everything then. She quietly wished she had never met them. She coughed again like she was choking. A flash behind her drew her attention. Far away to the north, the Harbinger's storm was visibly violent. Then it went quiet.
Then, Harbinger's words entered her mind once more: "I have come forth conquering, and to conquer." 
She felt conquered. 
Soon, she came on upon a small hill, and, on the other side, she found something unexpected.
"Discord!?"
There he was, wandering in the desert like she was. He was not dark like the others in the town. He seemed surprised to hear his own. He looked around eagerly for the source, and, when his eyes happened on Pinkie Pie, he smiled slightly. "Oh! Hey, Pinkie Pie!"	
Pinkie Pie felt perdition brush away. She was soft bubble of reserved joy then, and burst forth into a hug with the soon startled Discord.
"Discord!" she cried, "Hey, you remember me!"
Discord remained reserved, stiffening and pulling back at the sudden and uncomfortable sign of rowdy affection. 
"Well, of course I remember you," he sputtered dismissively, "It is hard for one to forget the bouncy pink pony partially responsible for confining one into stone. Harder still when that same pink pony is responsible for releasing one after months of confinement and expect one to be her very best friend. You're acting quite strangely, pink pony. And for you, that's saying a lot."
Tears returned to Pinkie's tired eyes, but this time ones of relief. She pulled away from her hug, and sniffled as she struggled to regain her composure. "What… why are you all the way out here? What happened to you?"
Discord grimaced at the question, and he face became painted with grave vindication. "That shadowy mass launched me far out here. I couldn't find my way back, so I stopped here to take a rest. This desert is truly dreadful, isn't it? I mean, there's hardly anything out here. There's no fun to be had at all. Curious thing though, this place looks so very familiar…"
"I'm so very sorry to hear that, Discord. Such awful things have been going on in the last few days, huh?" Pinkie Pie responded earnestly. She reveled in the social contact.
"Have they?" Discord grumbled with a quasi-disinterested tone, "I'm out of the loop, I suppose. I've been stuck out here for who knows how long. It's been the same boring thing over and over, like an endless cycle. Nothing's more terrifying than such, I'll tell you."
Pinkie's eyes flickered. An idea buzzed around in her head, but it was distant and she could quite put it to conscience yet. As if instinctively, she reached into her saddle bag and pulled out a bright red balloon and worked all the air she could muster into it. Finishing her work, she tied the loop around it and handed it over towards the grumbling, grumpy Discord.
"Here, take this," she said softly, pushing the the balloon his direction, "Hopefully it will brighten up your bleak desert."
He took the balloon from her with a rare look of soft happiness. As he held it and looked at it, he began to snicker to himself. He then snapped his fingers rather sharply, and the balloon transformed instantly to a colorful cinderblock that crashed down into the undisturbed sands below with a powerful thud. Discord laughed at the spectacle, and snapped his fingers once again. The cinderblock changed again to a pink bowling pin that lifted itself up into the air before them like a rocket ship before exploding suddenly into an array of bright, vivid colors.
"Now there's some chaos, haha!" Discord said brightly between his chuckles. He seemed lighter in that moment. Then Pinkie Pie's idea struck her like a lightning bolt.
"Celestia have mercy," she whispered to herself. It all clicked; the legend, the curses, the rain, the fear - everything. "It's so simple."
Discord shifted his eyes her way before seising his laughter. He was visibly disappointed that she had not joined in the fun. 
"You know, for the 'element of laughter', you sure are a buzz kill today, Pinkie Pie." he muttered sarcastically.
"Laughter. It's so simple!" she shouted eagerly.
"Huh?" Discord asked.
"The darkness makes one's greatest fears come true, right!? And I know enough about everypony to figure out their fears, and giving Discord his balloon broke his fear of bored and samey-ness!"
"Are you even talking to me?" Discord questioned, now perturbed and annoyed.
"So all I have to do is 'break' everypony's fears and they'll go back to normal!" Pinkie's voice grew in volume as she spoke, her eyes widening and her flat hair springing upward in eclectic places.
"Uh, 'scuse me? Pinkie? Recall I've been stuck out here for the past while, I don't know what's happening or what you're talking about," Discord said.
"The darkness!" Pinkie screamed with excitement, "It causes fear, so we just have to make them overcome that fear and the spell will be broken! Giggle at the ghosty and all that!! Don't you see, Discord?? If I can break my friends out of their fear spells, then we can use the elements of harmony against the dark harbinger and save the city!!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Discord shouted, "I've literally been alone in the desert this whole time."
"Let's go!" Pinkie Pie shouted, "Let's get back there and finish this, Discord! I know what to do, I know how to break everypony out of their fears!!"
Pinkie Pie bounced in place for a bit, before turning herself around and making off towards Ponyville. She didn't even check to see if Discord was following.
Discord sat by himself for a bit, his face red with confusion. "Right, well," he said to himself, "It's not like I have much choice in the matter here. I mean it's blindly follow the insane pink pony or sit in the desert for all eternity, so I guess my choice is already made. Right. Off we go." 
He quickly picked himself up and pressed on after Pinkie Pie, who had already crossed the hill. The Harbinger's storm bellowed in the distance.