Pinkie's eyes flitted open amidst the light that bathed the entirety of whatever strange room she was in. Recoiling at the brightness, she was able to assess that wherever she was, it was big, round, and bright. She was slumped against its wall, hind legs splayed out before her like the limbs of some marionette with severed strings.
A pale yellow pegasus flew in her direction, crying "Pinkie! Pinkie!" She touched down just inches away and, with a concerned expression plastered onto her face, inquired, "are you all right? You hit your head pretty badly."
"Do I know you?" Pinkie asked.
The pegasus blinked. "I- Um... What?"
A second pony - a light purple unicorn - appeared swiftly at her side. "Fluttershy, she doesn't remember. This happened last time! But for what it's worth, I think it worked a little better this time. Look at her cutie mark!"
Pinkie wearily gazed down at her haunches, instantly jolted from her daze by what she saw - or rather, what she didn't see. "Where's my cutie mark!?" she screamed.
"Do not fret, Pinkie Pie. It will return shortly." Pinkie's glance shot to a very tall, slim, but graceful figure approaching from the other side of the room. Her brilliantly colored mane waving, even in the still air. She was both a unicorn and a pegasus; the likes of which Pinkie had never seen before. But how, then, did this graceful figure know her?
Pinkie shrugged. "Who are all of you?"
"Let me use the memory spell, again," sighed the unicorn.
The tall one held up a hoof to stop her. "I don't believe that will be necessary, Twilight. Remember what happened the last time?" Suddenly, her horn was sheathed in a white light. Approaching, she tilted her head downward to gently place its end upon Pinkie's brow.
Pinkie then saw a bright light, resolving into mental images as vivid as reality itself. Then, she remembered: She had agreed to stand in as a target for the new spell that Princess Celestia had showed Twilight. Something about "disrupting magic" was all she could understand, but Twilight seemed to know better.
Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "What did happen last time!?"
Princess Celestia winked. "I left that one out on purpose."
Pinkie rose to her hooves and shook the cobwebs out of her head. "So, explain to me how giving somepony memory loss is going to stop Malice, again?"
"Well, it isn't really supposed to do that," Twilight explained uneasily. "It's difficult to explain, because most magic draws from the manætic aether, but doesn't actually interact with it."
"The magnetic what now?"
Twilight scrunched her face. "No, Pinkie. Manætic, not magnetic. It's the... uh, stuff that magic comes from - a quasi-tangible substance derived from the mana that- Uh, you're not following any of this, are you?"
Pinkie shook her head. "Nope! But, go on?"
Twilight thought for a second before trying a different explanation. "All magical creatures draw from it; it gives us the special traits that make us who we are. Princess Celestia was saying earlier that it's how ponies get their cutie marks, or how pegasi can walk on clouds."
"So... It's magic, then?"
"Kind of. Without it, we wouldn't have magic."
"I still don't get it."
Twilight shook her head. "You don't have to. I just need to find a way to prevent it from interacting with you."
Pinkie blinked. "Okay... But, why?"
"Because, um..." Twilight must have become very interested in the ceiling, because she tilted her head up to study it for several seconds. "Princess?"
Princess Celestia nodded. "It's okay, Twilight. This spell took me a long time to master. You see, Starswirl the Bearded discovered the aether long, long ago. He spent many centuries studying it, and although he realized that all ponies could readily draw from its infinite reservoir, he had never been able to devise a spell to actually affect it.
"That all changed when I first encountered Malice. Given enough time, I realized that although ponies, dragons, and chimeras alike were all affected by his scourge, some animals - roosters, snakes, frogs, birds, and insects - all seemed to carry on, unaware of the darkness hanging over them.
"At first I reasoned that Malice had no interest in such things, but then I came to see that Malice's hunger for pain and suffering extended to all living things. There had to be a reason why the darkness was not claiming these simple creatures.
"That answer was magic. Specifically, Malice's hold extends only to creatures that draw from the aether. I believe it is how he is able to extend his will across an entire nation without confusion.
"I brought this to the attention of Starswirl himself, and we combined our knowledge of the arcane to develop a spell which disrupts the flow of aether around the caster's target. If a pony's connection to the aether is severed, so is Malice's ability to reach them."
"Princess," Twilight began. "Didn't you say you never used it?"
"I never used it against Malice. The spell is only temporary, and once its effects have worn off, Malice can resume his attack. My fear was that seeing it once would be enough for him to devise a way to defend against it, and then it would be useless to us. As painful as it was, I decided to reserve it for my sister, in case she had fallen into his clutches."
Pinkie listened dutifully to the princess as she spoke, but her attention was starting to waver as her usual hyperactive energy returned. Looking back at her haunch, she saw her cutie mark was fading back into view.
"So, once we use it... What happens then?" Pinkie half-heard Twilight ask.
Her hair also felt perceptibly bouncier. She flexed the bob of hair sticking out before her, which she seldom thought twice of under normal circumstances. Thinking back on all she'd learned today, she realized that perhaps it was the aether's gift to her.
"Then..." the princess sighed. "Then, they have no choice but to fight back, I'm afraid. As I said, the effects are only temporary; at my best I've only been able to cast it for a few minutes. They will need to use that time to prepare themselves for the retribution that will come swiftly after that. Unfortunately, that is the best answer I have to give."
Twilight nodded heavily. "Well... I guess we'd better get back at it. Pinkie, I'll try not to wipe your memory this time!"
***
"Twilight. See to it that you are not casting the spell at Pinkie. Use your innate sense of the magical to detect the aether around her. When you hit her directly you are certainly going to disrupt the magic within her, but you will not sever her connection to the aether. The shock to her system is what is causing the amnesia."
Pinkie rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. "Who's the big, bossy one and why does she have a horn and wings!?"
Twilight sighed as her glowing horn tapped Pinkie's forehead.
"Oh..." Pinkie squeaked. "Sorry, Princess!"
Both ponies ignored her. "Princess!" Twilight groaned. "I don't know how! And we've been at this for hours! Isn't there an easier way? Like, maybe if I just focus on her hooves or something."
Even the princess's usually unflustered manner was beginning to show cracks in the veneer. "If it was so simple, then Malice would not be such a threat. I would have liked to teach this to all the unicorns I could find, but to spot the aether is a gift. However, I know you are capable of doing this, as I have seen you accomplish magical feats before that no other would dare try. Such is why I have chosen you as my student. We shall try again."
A loud snore ripped through the air; every pony snapped their heads sharply in the direction of its source. Fluttershy lay on her back, hooves twitching in the air as she slept. "I didn't know she was such a loud sleeper," Pinkie remarked. "How did Rainbow Dash get any sleep around that?"
Even Pinkie was starting to feel tired. Every time the spell hit her, it felt as though she'd been tackled by a stampeding bison. Not only that, but she'd been hit so often that he was beginning to forget what being herself felt like. It was as if in those brief periods before her cutie mark came back, her life's ambition was simply to curl into a fuzzy, pink ball and do nothing. She hoped that when the time came to actually use the spell, Rainbow Dash or Applejack would feel more empowered.
The dimly glowing sun crystal cast Twilight's face in a light that accentuated every crease and fold. "It's casting this spell over, and over, and over again. It's so exhausting. Princess... how did you do it?"
"I practiced, Twilight. As you must. We will resume our training tomorrow at first light. The sun has gone down, and I will need my rest if I am to raise it again in the morning. You are all welcome to stay in the royal chambers for the night. If you would come with me, I shall take you there myself."
Twilight followed Princess Celestia to the door, while Pinkie bounced over to where Fluttershy slept and prodded her repeatedly until she woke up. "Come on, sleepy head. We're gonna have a palace slumber party!"
***
"I think I felt it, Princess!" Twilight declared the next morning, during their practice. "The aether! I felt a connection to it, that time. I think I felt the aether itself!"
"Good, Twilight. This is wonderful progress." The princess placed a proud hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Now, try to use that connection to take hold of it. Go on, close your eyes and try it now."
Pinkie had already felt sore and exhausted when they started their training several hours earlier. Now, she could barely stand. Laying down, she yawned as courteously as possible, silently wishing she could join Fluttershy on her trip to Canterlot Square while Princess Celestia coached her student through re-establishing the connection.
Reflecting, she was grateful for not forgetting where she was or what she was doing.
"You need to hold onto it firmly," the princess explained. "Sway it back and forth and feel how it responds to your commands. The aether is a fluid, and just like any fluid, you can create ripples in its surface."
Twilight's placid expression gave way to intense focus as several beads of sweat formed on her brow. One dripped down over her eyelid, and then Twilight collapsed. Panting heavily, she looked up to her mentor and sighed. "I almost had it that time, Princess."
"I could feel it. It is a subtle thing, but once you are able to move it a little, you can move it a lot." Princess Celestia puffed her chest outward as she gazed up through the domed roof. Her horn brightened, slowly at first; eventually attaining a brilliant white glow that rivaled the sun directly overhead.
Pinkie squinted against its blinding glare, barely able to witness as the princess cast the ball of light skward with a great heave. Several seconds later, the room went pitch black but for the residual glow of the sun stone itself.
She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. "Woah..." she gasped in awe - the sun had disappeared from the sky. As Pinkie's eyes adapted to the renewed darkness, she could see the stars glowing as sharply as they would in the blackest of nights.
"The sun itself is a kind of magical entity. Its brightness is derived from the aether, just as our magic is here on this world. The magic of life... If I directed that burst at any pony, save for the most adept of magic users, they would certainly not survive."
After a minute of darkness, a new star appeared overhead - a pinprick of light from which fiery tendrils extended outward to reilluminate the day. Seconds later, it was as though nothing had happened.
"To do as I do, you must collect the aether around yourself, and thrust it forward. You will carve a channel through which Malice cannot exert his influence. You must concentrate on that, and that alone. Your surroundings must be secondary."
"Princess?" Pinkie asked sweetly.
"Yes, Pinkie?"
"What if we blindfolded her? I promise I won't move!"
Twilight nodded. "That might help me block out some of these distractions."
"You cannot rely on such clarity when you encounter Malice," the princess warned, "but it will suffice for now."
"Yippee!" Pinkie bounded off to the royal chambers to see what she could find among her personal effects. Inwardly, she was just grateful to get a break from the relentless training.
It wasn't a long jaunt, but it gave Pinkie time to reflect on how Princess Celestia had single-hoofedly blotted out the sun with her magic. Could she always do that? she wondered. Why can't she just hit Malice with something like that? Surely he couldn't be that strong.
She tried not to think about Malice or their training for the rest of her short break. She didn't have anything of her own that could be used to blindfold Twilight, but she did locate one of Twilight's scarves.
"Here!" she called when she returned to the sun room. In a few quick motions, she had tied the scarf tightly around Twilight's head.
"Is this my-?"
"-No time for questions!" Pinkie declared with a wide-faced grin. "Hit me."
"Oh, um... Okay. Let me just..." Twilight trailed off as she scrunched her forehead in concentration. She stomped her hooves down in a wide stance to steady herself, as a low whirlwind formed around her.
The glow around her horn collapsed into a point at its end. "I found it, princess. I've got the aether right where I need it!"
"Good, Twilight. Now, remember what I showed you: Cast the shockwave at Pinkie, but don't lose focus on the aether! That is the most important element of this spell. You must concentrate."
Pinkie was starting to lose her mettle about being used as a test dummy once more. Inwardly, she hoped that Twilight would miss and she'd be spared the impact. However, she realized how much hinged on her learning the spell. "Twilight!" she called, raising her voice to be heard over the loud thrum of the magical orb Twilight was holding. "I'm over here! Make sure you don't-"
THWOOOM!
Twilight's spell traversed the distance between her and Pinkie in the blink of an eye. What left Pinkie wishing she had, in fact, blinked was the brilliant flash that blinded her as the orb exploded just inches in front of her face. Pinkie let out a shriek, which cut short as she slammed against the ground with enough force to knock the air from her lungs.
"Did it work!?" Twilight begged before ripping the scarf from her face.
Pinkie rolled over, coughing up dust and smoke. "Um... cough cough... I don't think so." As she stood up, she realized that even though the explosion had hit her hard, browned her coat, and blew her mane back, she remembered everything that happened with crystalline clarity. "Hey! I don't have amnesia!"
"How do you feel, Pinkie?" inquired the princess.
"Besides the big boom!? Um... A little tingly, actually. But other than that no different from-OH!" she caught sight of her barren haunch, and realized with a start that the spell must have worked. Her connection to the aether must have been severed, but she didn't feel the usually sense of bewilderment or loss that had accompanied previous attempts at using the spell.
"Twilight! You did it!" she cheered, prancing over to her friend and tackling her with a great hug. As she pulled away, she noticed a fine layer of soot had transferred from her coat to Twilight's. "Oh... Uh, sorry! Heh, heh."
Twilight looked down at her sullied coat, then back to Pinkie, meeting her gaze with a smile. "I guess I did do it! I might need to work on the exploding bit, though..."
"Well," Pinkie offered thoughtfully, "I guess we'd better get started."
***
Six hours and innumerable fireballs later, Twilight finally managed to enact the spell without prompting a conflagration inches away from Pinkie's face. Pinkie was honestly amazed she had any hair left in her mane at all at that point, though she desperately craved a warm bath to wash all of the soot from her coat, and the tension from her shoulders.
"I think you did it that time, Twilight," she noted amidst a wide yawn.
"Thank you, Pinkie. The key was follow-through. I was losing my concentration as the spell expanded to engulf the targ-er, you... and I was cavitating the aetherial void to disastrous effect! But promoting destructive interference in the wave feedback patterns mitigated the-uh, Pinkie? Are you still listening?"
Pinkie fell into an awkward half-roll when Twilight saw her trying to brush the soot from her underbelly with her muzzle. "Oh, yeah. Definitely! You, uh... waves... Right?"
Twilight closed her eyes and sighed. "We'd better get going to sleep. I think I've had enough for tonight!"
Pinkie nodded. "Oh, uh... Where's the princess?"
"She left hours ago, Pinkie."
"You mean this entire time we were done!? I thought she just went to the, uh... little fillies' room or something."
Twilight let out a yawn of her own as she started for the door. "This spell is important, Pinkie. Think about our friends out there. I know I can't stop... And if I try to fall asleep with them on my mind, I'll only have nightmares. This training- It's the only way for me to rest easy knowing I'm doing everything I can to help!"
The doors to the sun room thudded behind them.
"What about me?" Pinkie asked. "I wish I could do more... But I don't have magic to help, or wings to fly with. I don't even know what I'm doing here..."
Twilight nudged her as they walked - a gesture Pinkie took as one of support. "You're helping me more than you realize. That blindfold idea of yours really made the difference! I think, now that I can concentrate on moving the aether, tomorrow I will be ready to practice without it... And then we'll be ready. This would not have happened as quickly without you. Trust me!"
The two ponies smiled at each other and walked in silence the rest of the way to the chambers. Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy all shared a room: a large one with two massive beds. Fluttershy kept a bed all to herself, and was sleeping soundly at the time Twilight and Pinkie came in. The lights were out, and the curtains drawn.
The room was lavish, though without the lights, it could not be seen. A large area rug bristling with soft fibres massaged their hooves as they stumbled and bumped their way against various pieces of ornate furniture to cross the room into the adjoining bathhouse.
Closing the door behind them and turning on a light, both ponies could finally relax for long enough to see how much of a mess the other was. Twilight's coat was sticky with a caked-on layer of sweat, and Pinkie's blackened mane still smelled thick of smoke. Staring into each others' eyes, they both suddenly burst into a wild fit of laughter.
"Haha! Pinkie, you should see yourself right now! They should call you 'Ashie Pie.'"
"Oh, you're one to talk, sweat monster! When was the last time you brushed your mane? Last Tuesday?"
Pinkie turned the water on, and climbed into the tub before it was halfway filled. The bath itself was large enough to accomodate at least four ponies standing side by side, with enough room for all of them to turn in any direction they wanted. It took several minutes for it to fill, at which time it was already darkened to a murky shade of brown from all of the dirt its occupants had accumulated.
"When you fired your spell at me, and it exploded. Oh, man! I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. And then you were all like 'did it work'? Like, 'DID IT WORK'!? Hahaha."
"Yeah. The look on your face was pretty priceless too, Pinkie. I'm just glad I didn't singe your mane off. You'd look so weird bald!"
"Heh. Yeah..." Pinkie sunk down into the water, letting its warmth carry away the pain of the day. "I can't believe we're doing this."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Doing what, Pinkie?"
"Getting ready!" Pinkie closed her eyes and dunked her entire head in the water before coming up. "Ever since the farm, I've been scared that we were going to lose ourselves to this... meanie... monster... thing! But we're going to get our friends back, and we'll all be together again!"
Twilight splashed some water over her own head and massaged her mane to pry loose the sweat and dirt that remained. "Yes, we will. And you know why?"
"Because we have a party cannon?" Pinkie suggested jokingly.
"Hah! No, Pinkie... Because we have each other. Each one of us would fight for the other, and that's exactly what we're doing. Malice thinks we're his playthings... But he's going to discover that he's dead wrong."
"Yeah," Pinkie agreed somberly. She looked down onto her own reflection, for once not recoiling at the sight of her scar. In fact, as she looked upon herself she could see the old Pinkie more clearly than she'd been able to at any point in the last two moons.
"But," she added with a grin, "also because we have a party cannon!"
***
Though the next day progressed as slowly as the last few, Pinkie knew the most difficult part of Twilight's training was behind them. There were a few more misfires, one or two fireballs, and - as far as she knew - at least one incident of short-term memory loss. But by the time the sun had peaked in the sky, Twilight was casting her "aether wave" with confidence and brevity.
At one point, Twilight had suggested that Pinkie dodge to avoid the spell, and provide distraction "by any means." Pinkie's interpretation of this request was to prance around the sun room pelting Twilight with tiny pebbles she'd collected from the gardens outside.
It took a few attempts for Twilight to perform in spite of the distractions, but she eventually did score a direct hit. Pinkie had attempted to leap directly over Twilight's head to avoid it, but a last-second readjustment sent the orb hurtling straight at her exposed underbelly. The orb exploded against her with a faint warmth that preceded the spell's usual tingling sensation.
With her balance thrown off, Pinkie thudded to the floor scattering pebbles across the entire chamber. When she got up, she checked her haunch to see that she had indeed been hit. "Wow, Twilight. That was amazing!"
Even Princess Celestia seemed impressed. "Indeed, Twilight. You have progressed much in these last few days. I dare say you have picked up this spell much faster than I."
Twilight bowed low. "I owe it all to you, Princess. You and my friends, of course."
Princess Celestia returned the gesture with a graceful flourish. "I appreciate your gratitude, Twilight Sparkle. However, we may not rest yet. Now is the time for action, for I fear Malice has finally showed his hand."
"His hand?" Pinkie wondered. "How?"
"Earlier this morning, I received a letter from Rarity suggesting that Ponyville is in dire condition."
Twilight scrambled to her feet. "Princess! When were you going to tell us this?" she demanded with far more authority than she had any right to claim.
"I intended to tell you when you were ready," the princess admitted, "and that is what I did." With a flash of light emanating from her horn, a piece of parchment materialized before her.
Twilight took the letter from the princess's magical grasp and read aloud: "'Friends. The reconstruction in Ponyville has halted. The numbers of missing have increased. Please send help, immediately. I do not know how safe I am here. Yours, Rarity.' Princess. What is she talking about when she says 'the missing'?"
Pinkie knew full well what Rarity meant. Her thoughts turned to the farm house, and the lair Malice had created from some other dimension. She couldn't forget the sight of ponies laying motionless inside of cages like the carcasses of long-neglected animals.
It would have been different for Twilight, having been so focused on the mission at hand. But, for Pinkie, she'd recognized - even knew - almost all of them by name and face. Maybe that was why she remembered, and Twilight didn't.
"It is as it sounds, Twilight," the princess said, plainly. "Ponyville's residents are disappearing, one by one. Perhaps now they are disappearing even faster. I knew this would happen when you first approached me with word that Malice had revealed himself. History is repeating itself, and in order to stop it I had to be sure you were ready the next time you faced him."
Pinkie could only see the lifeless body of Berryshine, strapped unceremoniously to a drum-mounted table. That kind, enterprising mare who had made such wonderful refreshment out of the goodness of her heart - she who liked to make ponies laugh almost as much as Pinkie herself; for whom Pinkie had celebrated countless birthdays, anniversaries, and special occasions alike - she was dead, and gone.
"So..." Twilight choked - her voice wavering, "You knew? You knew that this would happen? Why didn't you do anything? Why... Why aren't you doing anything!?"
Without her story told, nopony would know where Berryshine had gone or if she would ever return. How many others in Ponyville had met this fate? Would Pinkie ever know? Could she ever know?
The princess diverted her gaze; a pained expression rapidly eroding away the confident facade she had held up to that point. "I am, Twilight. This is my action... Preparing the eclipse, training you, and protecting this city.
"Please understand that we are facing a villain unlike any you have ever faced before, or read about in your books. You cannot counter hate with aggression - he lives off of it! To do so would only make him stronger."
Pinkie's gorge started to rise as she thought about it. How long had it been since the farmhouse? A week? How many ponies would Malice seek out in that time? How many monsters would he create? With so many unwilling servants, how many ponies would he kill?
Before long, she realized she was trembling with a visceral anger. Somewhere around her she could half-hear Twilight and Princess Celestia discussing what to do next, but all Pinkie could think was how blatantly unfair it was.
"They didn't have to die..." she grumbled, prompting both pairs of eyes to fall on her.
"What was that, Pinkie?" Twilight asked sincerely.
Pinkie's teeth ground together. "They. Didn't. Have. To. Die."
Twilight approached her calmly. "I know that, Pinkie. I'm as upset about this as you are but-"
"-NO!" Pinkie screamed. "You don't understand, Twilight! NEITHER OF YOU UNDERSTAND!"
"What... What don't we understand?"
"MY home, Twilight! He's destroying MY HOME! You lived there for a year, and hardly knew anypony after all that time! The ponies who are disappearing! I knew them long before I knew you! Long before your highness came into my life! Long before this... This monster came along!
"And now... you..." she jammed a shaky hoof in the princess's direction. "You're telling me that you knew any of them... ALL of them... That they would be hurt... That they would die? And you NEVER THOUGHT TO TELL US!?"
The regal princess never looked so small in all of the time Pinkie had known her. Her guilt was written all over her face, but she didn't back down. She didn't rebuke Pinkie either, even though Pinkie knew somewhere underneath all of her anger that the Princess wasn't to blame.
Several tense moments passed, during which the only sound echoing from the sun chamber walls was that of Pinkie's belabored exhalations. "Pinkie," the princess began, tentatively. "I cannot deny that I kept this information from you willingly, but please understand that I did so with a heavy heart, knowing that your focus would allow you to be better prepared to face him in the future.
"I have cared for Equestria and its citizens for over a thousand years. Do you not believe that I carry the weight of each and every loss as sadly as you? No. I carry the losses, but I do not accept them."
The princess stood tall once again - if she had seemed at a loss before, she didn't any longer. Although intimidating, Pinkie took a sort of comfort in her steely resolve. "When the time comes that we learn the true breadth of Malice's depravity, I will take an accounting of all the lives lost." She spoke each word with an undeniable certainty that made Pinkie's anger melt away. "I promise you that when that time comes, he will be made to answer for each and every one of them."
Pinkie brushed away the angry tears that clouded her vision and nodded silently. There was nothing left for her to say, so she met the princess with an apologetic embrace - half-expecting some sort of reprisal.
Instead, the princess folded her wings around Pinkie and reassured her with a motherly smile. "I understand the anger you feel. There is no need to apologize."
Twilight cleared her thoat. "I'm really sorry if I sounded insensitive earlier, Pinkie. Do you forgive me?"
"Of course!" Pinkie cried. "I'm... I'm really sorry I lost it like that."
"It's okay, Pinkie," Twilight insisted as she offered a smile of her own. "So, Princess... What happens now?"
"Now?" intoned the princess. "Now, we take the fight to Malice."