This was going to be longer, but I just ran out of steam, so sorry for the abrupt ending for this chapter. And I'm getting worse with chapter names. Oh well.
“Oh, please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Rainbow said and took a step back. Twilight held her ground.
“What have you done with Pinkie?” ‘Pinkie’ chuckled, those red eyes staring into her eyes.
“What did I do to her?” ‘She’ asked, “Wouldn’t you like to know.” Something caught ‘Pinkie’s eye and moved to it.
“I said don’t move!” Twilight shouted, but ‘Pinkie’ ignored her and picked it up, which turned out to be the scalpel ‘she’ was using earlier. ‘She’ started spinning it on her hoof.
“You know what the funny part about all this is? This could have all been avoided if you hadn’t run away.” ‘She’ stopped spinning the scalpel and pointed it at Twilight and Rainbow. “It’s not nice to run from a possible friend you know. All I wanted to do was talk to you, share secrets if you will, and then crush your skulls into a fine paste. But you ran, which brings us to now,” ‘Pinkie’ then charged at the pair, but was stopped by a magic shield that Twilight put up.
‘Pinkie’ tapped the shield a couple times with the scalpel. “Still some fight in you, huh? Good, I like a challenge.”
“I don’t think she can get through,” Twilight said, “but we need to hold her down so I can use that memory spell on her.”
“If you can get that blade away from her, I can do that,” Dash said. Twilight thought of how to do that while ‘Pinkie’ paced outside the shield.
“Alright, I’ll lower the shield on three; when I do, I’ll distract her with a spell and you circle around her. Ok?” Rainbow lowered into a ready position.
“Yeah, let’s do it.” They took a deep breath.
“One,” Twilight started, also lowering to a ready position. “Two.” ‘Pinkie’ also readied herself, the grin still on her face.
“Three!” Twilight lowered the shield and both Dash and ‘Pinkie’ charged in their respective directions. Pinkie raised the scalpel, but was blinded by a flash spell from Twilight. Dash took that moment to jump on Pinkie’s back and tried to get the scalpel from her, but was bucked off.
‘Pinkie’ blinked a couple of times to clear her vision and charged at Twilight. Every swipe of the scalpel Pinkie made was blocked by a shield from Twilight. After a few failed attempts, Pinkie tackled Twilight and pinned her to the ground. She raised the scalpel to strike, but was tackled by Rainbow Dash.
During the ensuing struggle, Pinkie managed to knock Dash off her and focused her attacks on her. Pinkie went for a stab, but Dash ducked it, grabbed Pinkie’s foreleg, and flipped her on her back. Twilight grabbed the scalpel with her magic and broke it at the blade. Dash then flipped Pinkie on her stomach and put her in a full nelson lock. Pinkie struggled against it, though Dash managed to hold on.
“You better hurry with that spell Twilight; I don’t know how long I can hold her!” Dash yelled. Twilight didn’t need to be told twice and hurried in front of Pinkie and charged the spell. ‘Pinkie’ gave Twilight an angry look before her horn touched and she cast the spell, a bright light engulfing them.
“It’s so dark and cold, so dark,” Pinkie said with her eyes shut tight. The creature above her paid no mind to her words, focusing instead on pulling her limbs like some deranged puppet master. Every now and then Pinkie managed to slip from its grip, but it regained control quickly. It also paid no mind to the other pink pony tied up near it.
“You think you know about pain?! When I get my hooves on you, you’ll wish you never heard of the word!” she yelled at it. This was her home and it was toying with her body, which she wouldn’t forgive. The fight outside, which all involved could see, turned against the creature when Pinkie’s body collapsed to the ground. The creature tried desperately to move her to no avail, and then a bright light filled the darkness with memories of laughter and good times. The creature howled in pain and let its grip slip.
“Pinkamena, help me!” Pinkie cried out. Said pony noticed the bindings on her legs were weakening and struggled to break free, which she did. Pinkamena shot to her hooves and dove inside the mass of shadows that surrounded Pinkie. Her forelegs secured themselves around Pinkie’s midsection and with a strong pull freed Pinkie from the monstrosities’ grip. The tug sent the two flying out of the darkness and when they stopped, Pinkamena checked Pinkie’s condition.
“Pinkie, are you ok? Talk to me!” Pinkamena cried and shook her counterpart.
“It’s so cold, I can’t see anything,” Pinkie responded and seemed to be on the verge of tears. Pinkamena looked back at the creature, writhing and howling in pain from the light and felt rage course through her. She was pissed and she wanted that thing dead.
Four dark pink tentacles shot out of the ground and each grabbed a limb of the creature. Pinkamena walked toward the creature as a fifth tentacle appeared in front of it.
“Time to make due on that promise,” she said, not letting a drop of anger leave her voice. She then performed a familiar gesture that she and Pinkie had made a thousand times.
“Cross my heart.” The tentacle shot into the creatures open maw, piercing through the other side of its head and muffling the roar of pain.
“Hope to fly.” The tentacle ripped upward, splitting the creatures head in half.
“Stick a cupcake in my eye.” The tentacles around the limbs pulled in opposite directions and pulled in two. A hole opened underneath it. “Now get out of our head,” Pinkamena said as the two halves dropped into the hole and it sealed shut. With that done, Pinkamena turned back to Pinkie, curled up in a sobbing ball on the floor, and lay down next to her.
“Shh, Pinkie, it’s ok; It’s all over now,” she whispered to the crying pony and nuzzled against her. Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around Pinkamena and cried into her shoulder. Pinkamena returned the hug. She always hated doing this next part.
The light from the spell and Twilight stepped back from Pinkie and when Pinkie didn’t move, Dash stepped off her.
“Did it work?” Dash asked.
“Give it a second,” Twilight said and waited for a reaction from Pinkie. Pinkie stood up and started coughing violently. Twilight took a step toward Pinkie when she started to vomit up a black substance. Twilight backed away from it as the blackness shuttered and started forming even while Pinkie was still vomiting it up.
“Well, it worked, only now we have to deal with that thing itself,” Twilight said as the beasts head formed. It wasn’t grinning, it just looked pissed. “I think we should run now.”
“But what about Pinkie? I don’t want to leave her alone like this,” Dash said while Pinkie finally finished vomiting and collapsed on her side.
“We’ve gotta get that away from here first; who knows what that thing will do if it stays-“ she was interrupted by the
creature letting out a massive roar. “RUN!” Twilight yelled and galloped for the stairs, barely missing being pounced by the beast, Dash ahead of her.
The two of them entered the main store and scrambled for the front door. Dash threw the door open and slammed it shut when Twilight ran though, which was pointless since the beast just burst through it a few seconds later. Dash took off and grabbed Twilight as she flew through the rain. They heard their pursuer roar behind them as it gave chase. All this happened so fast that neither of them noticed the various ponies checking outside.
Once they were a ways outside of town, Dash slowed down and looked around and realized they had ended up near Sweet Apple Acres. The storm also seemed to be dying down, though the overcast stayed as dark as before.
“Hey Twi, hold on,” Rainbow said and before Twilight could say anything, Dash flipped her on top of her back and flew
up to the cloud cover. Fearful of any stray lightning bolts, Dash carefully pulled a cloud from the mass. With the cloud in tow, she dragged it over a field with a view of the road to the nearby orchard. By this time the rain had come to a stop.
“Huh, I thought the storm would last longer,” Dash murmured to herself and then proceeded to empty the cloud of any remaining rain by jumping on it. After landing on the cloud, Dash looked back at Twilight. “Well, you can get off now.”
“What?”
Dash rubbed a hoof to her forehead. “I’m still kind of woozy from that cupcake and I don’t think I can make it back home without passing out. Since I don’t want to hang out with him,” Dash gestured to the beast staring at them from the ground, “We’ll just stay here for a bit. Hopefully it’ll get bored and go away soon.” Twilight thought it over for a moment and sighed.
“Alright, give me a second,” she said and cast the cloud walking spell she learned. Twilight tested the cloud with a hoof before putting her full weight on it, relieved that the cloud supported her. Twilight then felt exhaustion as the previous events caught up with her.
“Some day, huh Twi?” Dash tried to joke, but knew it wouldn’t work. She looked down at the creature circling underneath them. “What is that things deal anyway?” Twilight thought for a moment and sighed.
“I don’t know,” she said. She was about to say something else when an orange spot caught her eye. “Is that Applejack?” Dash looked up to where Twilight was looking.
“Hey, it is; hey A.J., where you off to?” Dash called down while waving. Applejack slowed down and looked up at the waving pegasus.
“Where do ya think I’m going Dash? Didn’t ya hear that roar not too long ago?”
Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. “Of course I heard it and I was the first one to check it out. It’s no big deal; whatever made it is gone now.”
Applejack looked at Rainbow suspiciously. “Are you sure?” she asked. Dash saw the creature, which had been laying low when Applejack came up, look back and forth between the two friends and flashed its grin at Dash.
“Of course I’m sure. Still better to be safe than sorry, so why don’t I give you a lift to where I heard it?” Dash asked nervousness only mildly evident in her voice.
“I can walk just fine, where is it?” Applejack asked, not noticing a black tendril slithering along the ground towards her.
“No time for that!” Dash yelled and swooped down and carried a surprised Applejack to Ponyville. The creature looked up at Twilight and withdrew the tendril. If it was possible, Twilight thought that the grin was even wider than it was before.
“Oh, that can’t be good,” she said to herself as the creature resumed pacing under her.
Applejack didn’t struggle that much on the flight over to Sugarcube Corner and soon enough she had all four hooves back on solid ground.
“Ok, here it is. Pinkie should be in the basement, I’ll talk to her later bye.” Dash said quickly and took off with her familiar rainbow trail following her.
“What?” Applejack asked confusedly to the missing pegasus. That was interrupted by a familiar white unicorn’s call.
“Applejack, am I glad you’re here.” Applejack turned to the shatter doorway where Rarity was standing and waving her in.
“Howdy, Rarity,” Applejack greeted and looked around the messy interior, with several sweets and confections scattered around. “What happened in here?”
“I just got here myself, so I don’t really know,” Rarity replied and started looking around the store. “I’m worried though, I haven’t found Pinkie yet.”
Applejack joined in the search. “Ah just had a talk with Rainbow Dash and she said Pinkie might be in the basement,” Applejack said and went behind the counter.
“There’s a basement here?” Rarity asked and was answered by a shrug from Applejack. Soon enough the two had found the stairs downward. Rarity led the way down. “Pinkie Pie, are you down here?” They were halfway down the stairs when they heard a groan and quickly descended the rest.
“Whoa Nelly,” Applejack said at the sight of the basement proper. She hadn’t expected the setup down here. Rarity walked to a knife stuck in the ground and pulled it up with her magic and set it on the bed.
“What is all this?” Rarity asked. The two then noticed a stirring in the corner of the room and saw Pinkie sit up and rub her forehead.
“Ugh, my head, where am I?” She looked around the room and blinked a couple times. “The storeroom, how did I get here?” Pinkie then saw Applejack and Rarity staring at her. “Oh, hi girls, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Uh, Pinkie…” Applejack began but couldn’t finish. Thankfully Rarity managed to do that.
“What are you wearing?” Pinkie tilted her head and looked back at the dress she just noticed she was wearing. She took in the stitched together main part, the wings on her back, and the horn necklace. It took a second before Pinkie started screaming in horror and started to tear the dress off.