//------------------------------//
// Into The Night, Part 1 
// Story: What Came Before 
// by Rocket Blaze 
//------------------------------//

	As Pinkie took her first steps beyond the hall of the royal chambers, she was not immediately struck with the relief she'd thought freedom would provide. Instead, she was exulted to be in the company of her friends again. Twilight's eyes widened as she approached.

"Pinkie! The princess told me you were here, but it's still... Really, uh, surprising to see you."

The princess flared her wings out with pride in her disciple. "I must confess I was expecting some resistance, but Twilight maintains that she never had any doubt about your innocence."

"Thanks, I guess." Pinkie muttered, uneasily. "This all happened so fast."

"I know it's a lot to process," the princess encouraged. "But I'm afraid we can't become too complacent in our reunions," she continued, more seriously than before.

Twilight nodded. "You did say we had much to discuss, princess. I'm still not entirely sure why you called us here."

Pinkie looked around. "Wait! Shouldn't the others hear about it, too?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Fluttershy is still hurt from the Ursa Major attack, and Rarity is staying at the Canterlot Clinic to look after her while we're here."

Pinkie hopped over to Rainbow Dash and tilted her head curiously. "You're going to have to tell me this Ursa Major story one of these days, Dashie!"

The princess let slip a lighthearted chuckle that undercut the weighty air that surrounded them. "That can come later, Pinkie."

"Sorry, Princess." she sighed.

Celestia reassured her with a comforting wing, even as her eyes shimmered with resolve. "There is no simple way to say this, but I fear the Elements of Harmony are under attack."

"What!?" the ponies exclaimed in unison.

"Under attack!? By who? How is this possible!?" Twilight stammered.

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof. "I bet this has everything to do with what I saw before that Ursa attacked."

"What is it with this Ursa attack!?" Pinkie cried with equal amounts of curiosity and frustration.

"My little ponies, please-"

Twilight cut in. "-Rainbow, I don't think those are-"

Rainbow Dash interrupted her "-You don't know what I saw, Twilight!"

Pinkie stared at the ground. "I'm so confused..."

Twilight looked up to her mentor. "Princess, who is attacking the Elements of Harmony?"

Rainbow Dash stepped in next to Twilight. "I'm right, aren't I?"

The pause gave Pinkie time to join her friends in awaiting the Princess' reply. "I must confess, I do not fully know." Pinkie gasped. If Princess Celestia doesn't know- Pinkie's thoughts were interrupted when the princess shrugged a hoof in her direction. "Pinkie. Do you remember what you told me about the day I brought you in?"

Now all eyes were on her. No, no, no, no - This was the last thing she wanted to talk about in front of the friends she hadn't seen since that day to which the princess was referring. She shrunk as Rainbow Dash tapped her on the shoulder.

"It's okay, Pinkie. We're cool. Remember?"

Rainbow's endorsement made her feel more forthcoming. Even so, the Other was not something she ever wanted to think about. Even after all the time that had passed since she was free of its grasp, remembering those shadowy, spider-like tendrils that divided her memories and trapped her within her own mind was enough to send a cold chill down her spine. She felt her base coat start to moisten with sweat as she muttered. "T-The... The Other?"

Rainbow Dash turned to face Pinkie. "What's an 'Other'?"

Pinkie squeaked out a reply, but found the words stick in her throat. "It's..."

Dash gestured at the scars along her back. "That's what did this to me, wasn't it?"

Pinkie couldn't look. She knew it wasn't her that did it, even if her hoof had guided the blade. That didn't make it any easier to see. Twilight stepped in to Pinkie's defense. "It's okay, Pinkie. I think we understand."

"Pinkie, you are inextricably tied to the element you represent. I believe that this Other was feeding off of your positivity. It twisted, and corrupted it, until it was able to take control. Every time it made you harm another, it grew stronger as you grew weaker. All the while, the Element of Laughter was similarly being corrupted, and made black as the night."

Twilight was visibly contemplating this new information with genuine concern etched across her face. "This didn't happen overnight..."

Celestia frowned. "No. This has been a most gradual transformation, and I must confess, one of which I was ignorant until recent events brought it to light."

Twilight grimmaced as though she had bitten into a lemon. "How long, Princess?"

Pinkie answered. "At least a year."

"A year!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "How is that possible? We've been with you that entire time, and never once did you make us think anything was wrong!"

"I didn't know..." she reflected.

"Nopony could have known." the Princess intoned. "Not even I could sense anything was amiss until it was too late. This is a crafty villain we face, and we must be prepared to face it before we fully understand its nature. We may not have a choice."

"What do you mean, Princess?" asked Twilight.

Princess Celestia's forlorn expression frightened Pinkie more than anything she could have said. At least that's what Pinkie thought, until she actually spoke. "Applejack's element has also gone dark."

"That's it!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "You ponies can stand around here and debate what to do. I am not letting this thing hurt one more pony!" As swiftly as her outburst had surfaced, Rainbow reared up onto her hind legs and lept down the nearby stair before cantering from the chamber.

"Rainbow! Wait!" Twilight shouted, but her voice echoed off of empty halls. Her horn glowed bright as she prepared to teleport after her, but she was stopped when Celestia placed a calming hoof on her brow.

"Let her go, Twilight. She will not get far before we can decide what to do next."

Twilight scoffed. "Ugh. She's so impulsive!"

Pinkie shook her head. "I want to go with her!"

Twilight glowered frustratedly in her direction. "Pinkie, we need a plan!"

Pinkie agreed, but was at a loss for what any plan would entail. All she knew was that somwhere, one of her best friends was trapped inside her own head, alone and terrified, and would awake without a memory of it feeling lost and abandoned. She might not have known what to do, but she did know that she had to be there.

Twilight sensed her conflict. "Pinkie. No!"

"Twilight..." urged the Princess. "I summoned you here because I trust your judgement. All of you."

"She doesn't know what she's running into!"

"Neither do I." The princess reminded her. "Age and wisdom have made me cautious, but we are on the precipice of the unknown where action is required."

Twilight glanced uneasily in the direction that Rainbow Dash had run off in before Pinkie met her gaze. "We can do this, Twilight. Let's go with her."

She looked to Princess Celestia for guidance, but was met only with an acknowledging nod. "I trust in your judgement, Twilight Sparkle."

"Okay..." she sighed. Her horn was already sheathed in light as she turned to Pinkie. "Hang on to me."


***


Pinkie's body tingled as she suddenly reappeared atop one of the highest spires in Canterlot. The night wind whipped her mane about at such a great height, and its howl drowned out all sound. "Twilight!?" she shouted into her friend's ear from mere inches away. "Are you sure this is the right place!?"

Twilight remained wordless as her narrowed eyes studied the streets and alleyways below. Bathed in the light of the full moon, Canterlot seemed peaceful. It won't be for much longer if the Other isn't stopped, she reflected.

"Twilight?" she muttered, knowing her words would be lost to the wind. "Do you think we-" Twilight's foreleg shot around the back of Pinkie's neck, pulling her in tightly as another harsh pop ripped the two from the upper strata of the city and down into its depths. Pinkie's eyes had not yet adjusted to the new darkness when a blue shadow pummeled into her with a hard crash that knocked her body to the ground and wind out of her chest. "-AIEEE!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight barked.

Rainbow Dash struggled to steady herself as she lifted herself off of Pinkie. "Twilight, please. Don't try to stop m-"

"-We're going with you, but we have to be smart about this, Rainbow Dash. And I'm definitely not going to let you go alone."

Pinkie nodded. "We can't just barge into Applejack's house and nicely ask if she's taken any ponies captive lately."

"Well what am I supposed to do!?" Rainbow implored.

Twilight placed a hoof to her chin as she contemplated this. "It's not like there's a book for this sort of thing."

Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof on the ground as an idea came to her. "But there is!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You mean-?"

"-Come on, Twilight... Remember in book four when Doctor Caballeron stole the Amulet of Atonement, and Daring Do had to infiltrate his base to get it before he could sell it to Ahuizotl?"

"Rainbow, that was fiction. Daring Do isn't real!"

Rainbow Dash ignored Twilight's reasoning. "She bribed the local tribesmen with rubies, so that they'd watch the guard movements and-"

"-Rainbow-"

"-waited until the watch was changing then-"

"-Rainbow...-"

"-Create a distraction and then scale the-"

"RAINBOW!!!" Twilight clasped her hooves to her muzzle when she realized she might have woken up half the neighborhood. "I can just teleport us inside..."

"Oh." Rainbow scraped at the ground with her hoof. "I still like my idea better."

Pinkie tapped Twilight on the shoulder. "What do we do next?"

Twilight shook her head. "Well, I don't exactly know. If this monster is in control of Applejack, then it probably isn't going to expect us to show up. I think when she's caught off guard, I'll grab her and teleport us back to Princess Celestia so she can help her like she helped you."

"Great idea, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash cheered. "I especially love the part where we bring the evil, murderous, body-snatching demon we know absolutely nothing about straight to the most powerful pony in Equestria."

Twilight buried her face in her hoof.

Pinkie bounced as she let out an involuntary "OH!" With all eyes on her, she jumped up and down as she relayed the idea she had "I know! I know! Rainbow Dash, d'you remember those pranks we pulled together right after we met Twilight?"

"Yes, Pinkie. But I don't see how-"

"-No! Look, look! Watch this!" She edged close to Twilight and tapped her far shoulder lightly. Twilight instinctively looked to the right, then back over to find her left side vacant. "Surprise!" Pinkie yelled from somewhere to her right.

Twilight jumped in the air to nearly twice her height as Rainbow Dash fell to the ground laughing. She clutched her chest as she rolled onto her back and met Pinkie's cheery face. "That was great, Pinkie! But shouldn't we not be so obvious?"

As Twilight recovered from the shock, she jabbed at Pinkie with her hoof and smiled. "I see, Pinkie. Misdirection! I used to use it all the time when I was practicing magic without my horn."

Rainbow Dash looked puzzled. "Why would you-?"

Twilight clapped her hooves to the ground. "-A distraction, Rainbow! Pinkie can distract Applejack, then I'll, uh... Hit her with a memory spell. The one I used when Discord made a mess of things!"

"Uh, Twilight? Isn't that what we tried with the Ursa? We both remember how well that turned out."

Twilight shrugged. "That was a pacification spell... This is different!"

Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "But... will it work?"

"I don't know, Pinkie." Twilight admitted. "But it's the best plan we have." Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both nodded in agreement. "Great. Let's get over there and help our friend in need!" Twilight reached out to make contact with her friends before teleporting them out of the city.


***


In the very next instant, they were standing amongst the moonlit orchard at Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie searched around at the trees, slumped over and barren. The soil was soggy, and smelled of bog. Without Applejack at her best, the land had fallen into decay.

Pinkie surmised that the local beavers had built up their dam on a nearby section of river, as they were wont to do around this time of year. Normally Applejack and Fluttershy would intervene and get them to agree to move their operation, but these times were anything but normal.

As they made their way to the farmhouse, Pinkie listened to the crickets chirping softly into the cool night air. However, other noises belonged to a different creature of the night. The unmistakable chatter of bats was accompanied by the occasional flicker as their slight frames crossed in front of the pristine moon above.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Rainbow Dash whispered. "Why didn't you just put us inside the house?"

"We need to peek through the windows, first." Twilight whispered back.

The air grew cold, damp, and heavy as they approached the farmhouse. Certain structural parts had begun to fall from their mountings. A gutter dangled half-heartedly from the roof, while boards and shutter-flaps hung crookedly on broken hinges or rusted nails.

"By Celestia, it's even worse than I remember," Rainbow Dash muttered.

They worked their way around the side of the house, skirting all the way to the back. Not a single light was on inside. Pinkie could not tell if the curtains inside were drawn, or shut. Either way, the house looked abandoned. They stopped in their tracks, hidden by the shade of nearby orchard trees. "Twilight? I don't know if we're gonna be able to see anything inside."

The wind picked up, sending a chill down Pinkie's back. Her mane stood up on end, and for a moment she thought she'd heard a door creaking open on the other side of the house. "Hide!" she hissed, ducking for cover in a nearby bush followed closely by Twilight. She saw Rainbow Dash stand up on her hind legs behind a tree

There were some light scrapes of hoof on dirt as a shadow peeked out from the opposite side of the structure. Is it Applejack? Pinkie thought, desperately hoping it was, but at least partly wishing it wasn't.

Straining her ears against the night wind, she heard the drawl of a heavy and slow voice laden with sorrow. "Applejack. Why are you-"

"Is that Big Macintosh?" Twilight whispered into Pinkie's ear.

"-Quiet, brother! Don't ask questions, or you'll be next." That was definitely Applejack. "You ever want to eat again?"

Big Macintosh didn't respond.

The two emerged from behind the house, accompanied by the rythmic rattle of metal clanking on metal. Pinkie could see that Big Macintosh was clearly emaciated and very weak. A series of heavy chains dragged along behind him, shackled to his hooves and draped across his back.

Applejack followed closely behind him wearing a darkly colored cloak. Besides being well fed, she didn't appear to have taken the usual amount of care in her appearance. The parts of her athletic frame that weren't hidden behind her outfit were broken up by mats in her coat, and her golden hair looked like a pale, grey ball of tangled cobwebs that hadn't been kempt nor braided in days.

They crossed the yard to a cart that had been abandoned in the tree line. "I caught this one just after sundown. Didn't even put up a fight. Weren't worth it to bring her back here to drag it out. Ya wanna know what her last words were?"

Macintosh strained under the weight of his bonds. "N-Nope..."

"Good. Cause them's between her 'n' me." Applejack shoved him harshly towards the cart. "Dig'er outta there, would ya? You know the drill."

Pinkie watched in horror as Big Mac fought to lift his once mighty form onto the side of the cart. His muzzle flipped up the black tarp covering the lumpy surface of whatever was being held in it. Apples, by the sound of it. The distant shuffle of apples rolling over apples continued for several minutes.

"WHAT'RE YA WAITIN' FOR!?" Applejack shouted, her voice ringing like a bell through the night. She drew a short, leathery object from somewhere within her cloak and raised it high in the air, before bringing it down across her brother's back with a sickening crack.

Pinkie cringed, as tears came to her eyes.

Big Macintosh groaned beneath the apples, but he did not scream. He shuffled around for a few more minutes, incurring two more strikes from Applejack's switch. Finally, the stallion heaved backwards, trying to pull something big out from beneath the pile of apples.

"You get her out of there, or Apple Bloom's gonna be havin' you instead."

Big Mac fought some more before a figure emerged. Pinkie whimpered when she saw it was a mare. An earth pony, very slight of frame, and violet. The light was too faint to make out a cutie mark, but even if she could see it Pinkie wasn't sure she'd want to know who it was.

As Big Mac followed Applejack back around the back of the house, Pinkie realized she was shaking. Her entire body rattled with fear, tinged with incomprehension at what she'd just seen. It wasn't Applejack. It wasn't her. She'd never do that. Not to her family. Not to anypony.

She hugged herself tightly as she slumped to the ground behind her bush, completely oblivious to Twilight and Rainbow Dash standing over her. "Pinkie," Rainbow Dash whispered. "It wasn't her, Pinkie. Remember that!"

"T-Tell that to..." Pinkie pointed her hoof at the cart, still sitting disturbed in the distance. Everypony lost is a tragedy, she remembered but it is a tragedy for which you are not to blame. She thought. Applejack is not to blame for this. Her teeth ground against one another as she rose to her hooves, suddenly overcome with anger at this monster who had stolen her friend from her.

Rainbow Dash could sense the disquiet within her, and spoke to what they all must have been thinking. "We need to get in there," she snarled. "Forget the plan you had, Twilight. There's nothing that could prepare us for this."

Much to Pinkie's surprise, Twilight nodded in agreement. "Applejack's still in there somewhere. Just get me close enough, and I'll use my memory spell to bring her back."

Rainbow Dash pressed in close to Twilight, nodding at Pinkie to do the same. Reluctantly, Pinkie agreed. "We go on three," Dash whispered. "One..."

"Two..." Pinkie counted.

Without a word, Twilight's magic engulfed them all. The farm fell away as Pinkie closed her eyes, not wanting to see where they ended up next.