//------------------------------//
// All Good Things Must End 
// Story: Letters from Ponyville Community College 
// by MLRNitevision 
//------------------------------//

	

Dear Nitevision, I’m so happy for you! Getting to see all of your old friends again is a huge deal, especially after ten long years! Aunt Lyra stopped by the Tavern the other day. She said she saw you yesterday. We spent hours talking about all of the fun times you two spent together when you’d spend the night at her house. I’m glad you are enjoying your first day at school! See you soon!
Your loving mother,
Berry Punch





The windows of the classroom had been covered by dark blankets. The sound of bottles crashing together filled the air. The room was lit by a flame underneath a beaker of bubbling pink liquid. A hooded figure chuckled evilly, listening to the flames as they hissed like a snake greedily drinking the runoff of the liquid in the vial. The pony was humming an old nursery rhyme from its childhood. A sound near the back of the room attracted the attention of the hooded creature. A mare was stirring, her hooves bound and mouth gagged.
“Hush little Pumpkin, don’t say a word. Mama’s gonna make you a lover­bird.” The hooded figure sang in an eerie voice. Pumpkin Cake’s eyes opened wide and she tried to scream.
“Hush now,” the creature said tapping a syringe near her eyes. “I’ve taken the liberty of gagging your mouth so you won’t be able to cry out and ruin our little party. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?” Pumpkin Cake squirmed nervously, as if trying to run. “Don’t tire yourself out,” the hooded pony groaned. “It’s not as fun when they don’t have the energy to fight back. Keep in mind, you’re doing me a huge favor here, helping me test this so I don’t hurt Apple Bloom when I finally open her eyes to the fact that she loves me...” the pony walked slowly towards Pumpkin Cake. “Mamma can’t hear you scream little girl,” Pumpkin’s captor mocked. “Come now, let’s hear it. The silent ones bore me.” Lightning crashed outside illuminating Twist’s eyes. “Hm.” The pony said. “This is nice and all, but something’s… Missing.” The Earth Pony tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Oh, I know what it is! The part where you beg for me to spare you. Let’s get that little cloth off your mouth, shall we?” The pony untied the gag from Pumpkin Cake’s mouth. “Go on,” Twist said. “Beg!”
“Never. You won’t break me!” Pumpkin spat.
The hooded figure chuckled “That’s what you think, little mare, but I happen to disagree.” Pumpkin Cake muttered something. “What was that dear?” The pony asked. “I couldn’t hear you.” Once more, Pumpkin Cake muttered something just quiet enough that the hooded figure couldn’t understand. “Fine. We’ll play your game.” The pony said, positioning her head near Pumpkin Cake’s mouth. “Say that again?” Pumpkin Cake grinned, seizing the opportunity to slam her skull into her kidnapper’s. Twist fell back into a stack of bottles, and Pumpkin Cake began to hop towards the door.“Not so fast!” She shouted, desperately hurling an empty beaker at the fleeing mare. The glass collided with her head, and she dropped to the ground mere hoof lengths from freedom.
“Don’t be a naughty little girl now,” The pony said as she watched Pumpkin’s eyes slowly drift close. The last thing she remembered was the distinct feeling of a cold, metal needle piercing her flank before she drifted into unconsciousness.



“All units, be advised, there’s been an accident on the campus. One mare was found clinging to life in the chemistry lab. All signs point to assault, or overdose.” The female officer’s voice crackled through the radio. “No sign of forced entry or exit. It looks like she came willingly.” The Pegasus stretched out his wings. ‘So much for a relaxing first week,’ he thought.
“Unit 3­3­3 responding, I’m on my way, over.” Pound Cake replied, sliding his hat down over his eyes. He never could have expected that the unidentified mare that he was going to find could be his sister. “Poor girl,” he said to himself. “I hope she’s alright...” He flapped his wings and took off from the cafeteria headed for the chemistry lab. Pound Cake looked around at the other ponies, who were simply going about their business as though nothing had happened. ‘That’s odd...’ He thought. ‘I would have thought ponies would be a little more concerned that one of their own had been viciously attacked… They don’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary...’ His hooves clicked against the stone floor as he landed next to one of the fellow Campus police officers. She tipped her hat, and stepped to the side. He pushed past another stallion with a camera.
“Featherweight? What are you doing here?” He asked.
“I heard about the attack through the radio I keep on my desk.” He replied. “Ponyville Community College’s newspaper needed a good story. I figured this would be the biggest story of my career! How fortunate that it would just fall into my lap like this!” Pound Cake narrowed his eyes. He knew that Featherweight would do just about anything to get his hooves on a good story for the paper. But would he go so far as to assault another student?
“Just… Try not to tamper with the evidence. Do we know who the victim is?” Pound asked.
“Yeah.” Featherweight said with a solemn frown. “Sorry about your sister. I hope she gets better.” Pound Cake’s heart nearly stopped.
“W-what did you just say?” He asked.
“I said, I hope your sister gets better.” Featherweight said, looking around nervously. Pound Cake looked at the most recent photo on the stallion’s camera. Sure enough, it was his sister, bound and gagged, and laying on the floor in a pool of blood. Pound Cake shoved the Pegasus out of the way, causing him to nearly drop his camera.
“Hey, watch it! This thing is brand new!” He snarled. Pound barely heard him. The stallion’s attention was captured by the sight of his beloved sister.
“Pumpkin...” he cried. “What happened to you?” The mare stirred, and her eyes opened halfway. Was it just his imagination, or… Had her eyes have splotches of pink in them? Pound Cake rubbed his eyes and looked again, but this time, the mare’s eyes were closed. He shook his head. ‘I must be seeing things’ he thought. Pumpkin Cake moaned.
“I’m here...” he said, extending his hoof. The mare extended her leg, and wrapped her hoof around his. Pound Cake laid down next to the mare. “Shh” He comforted. “Just relax. I’m right here.” Pumpkin patted her brother’s hoof, then opened her mouth as if to say something. In an effort to ease her struggle, Pound Cake positioned her ear next to her mouth. All he could make out were the words ‘Love’ and ‘Potion’. Neither of which made sense in this context. He frowned, then moved closer. “What was that sis?” He asked. Pumpkin Cake didn’t respond. “We need to get her to a hospital. NOW.” Pound Cake grimaced. Two other officers nodded and turned away. The Pegasus stood up and went to follow when he felt a sharp prick in his hoof. He looked down to see his sister retracting her mouth from his leg, small spots of blood appearing through his fur. Something was very wrong with his sister. She needed to get to a hospital right away.



Pound Cake’s mind raced. What had happened to her sister? Why had she bitten him? He looked around at all of the ponies around them, who were still going about their business. ‘Who could do this to my sister? How can they be getting away with this? And… Has Diamond Tiara always been so… Beautiful?’ Pound Cake stopped in midair. ‘Diamond Tiara? Why would I be thinking about her? She was always mean to me as a foal.... Pound could feel a change beginning to affect his body. The stallion felt something taking control of his mind. His eyes began to glow with pink stripes traveling up and down, slowly at first, then faster and faster. All thoughts of his sister slowly drained from his mind, replaced by the image of Diamond Tiara. Featherweight watched from a distance, watching through his camera lens as Pound Cake casually approached the mare. Snickering to himself, he snapped a photo of what was sure to be a disaster in progress. The Pegasus laughed as Diamond Tiara whirled on the stallion, and snarled something he couldn’t quite hear. The camera captured another photo all on its own. Featherweight moved to delete the picture, but something caught his attention. Something wasn’t right, and although he couldn’t immediately see it, there was something undeniably wrong with Pound Cake. The Pegasus zoomed in the photo and looked closer. There! Pound Cake’s eyes… It looked almost as if…
Featherweight nearly dropped his camera in shock. It was impossible… The Love Potion was a myth! And yet, here it was, clear as day. The stallion was clearly displaying symptoms of the virus. ‘You don’t just catch Love Potion...’ he thought. ‘And unless there’s somepony super in love with him, and he just doesn’t realize it… Somepony drugged him… I need to tell somepony about this!’ Featherweight though, as he raced off to find somepony. All of a sudden, a thought struck the stallion and he stopped in his tracks.
“Or,” he said to himself. “I can keep this to myself, and make it a front page story! I’ll be hailed as a hero! Ponies will come for miles to read my story… I could be the most popular journalist in Ponyville! Or even in all of Equestria!” He laughed. “That just leaves one question… Who would poison a Cop?” Featherweight frowned. He couldn’t just go around randomly accusing ponies of doing something this drastic. At least, not without evidence. ‘How am I going to investigate a Love Potion pandemic without raising suspicion or alarm?’ He wondered. And what about Pound’s sister? What happened to her? Had she… Bit him? If so, why? It looked like she had been brutally attacked… ’I really need to make a flow chart.’ He concluded. The Pegasus scanned the crowd, looking for somepony he could talk to about these new findings that wouldn’t immediately go to the authorities… Somepony who could understand what he was saying, but at the same time, not know what to do with the information… Somepony like… Featherweight’s gaze stopped on a pony he had not seen in years, and a grin spread across his face.
‘Yes… Nitevision would be PERFECT! If I remember correctly… He could barely stand on four hooves without nearly hurting himself somehow...’ The Pegasus’s grin broadened. ‘I doubt he even knows what a Love Potion is… He’ll be perfect! Now I just have to get his attention somehow… Maybe if I throw a rock in his general direction… No, that won’t work, it could get somepony else’s attention in addition to his.’ Featherweight tapped a hoof on his chin, causing his camera to sway from side to side. ‘If I were to say his name, another pony could notice… How AM I going to do this?’ A noise startled him back into reality. A black furred Bat Pony with blue goggles was jumping around, chasing a small butterfly. Featherweight scratched his head. What could he do to capture the attention of the other stallion? He looked down at the lens of his camera, and had an idea. Unscrewing the lens cap, he positioned the camera at the perfect angle to reflect the sunlight into a focused beam on the ground in front of where Nitevision was standing. The Bat immediately forgot about the bug he had been playing with, captivated by this newfound source of entertainment.
“Atta boy, Nitevision. Come get the pretty light!” Featherweight murmured, manipulating the reflection to lead the bat right to him. Nitevision fell perfectly into the trap, following the light around the corner of the school, and to where Featherweight was standing. The Pegasus held his camera still, allowing the light to stay in one spot. Nitevision pounced on it, clamping both hooves down on where the light had been. Featherweight took advantage of the situation, covering the lens with a hoof.
“Gotcha!” The pair said in unison. Nitevision looked up, for the first time noticing Featherweight standing right next to him.
“Hey Featherweight! Look what I got!” He said, raising his hooves. He opened them to display the speck of light that he had captured.
“That’s very nice Nitevision,” Featherweight said slowly, trying not to spook his quarry. “Where did you find it?”
“I caught it! Just now! See?” The Bat said examining his hooves. Upon discovering that the captured light had somehow escaped, the Bat’s face fell. “Aw… I thought we were friends...” Featherweight sighed. Working with this… Imbecile… Was going to be more difficult than he had imagined. But the fame would be worth it.
“What if I told you I knew where it went?” Featherweight asked, with an evil looking grin.
“You do?” Nitevision said, his face lighting up with an expression of hope.
“Of course I do!” The Pegasus said, casually examining his hoof. In the time it took Featherweight to blink, Nitevision had gone from looking up at him from the ground, to having both hooves pinning the stallion’s shoulders to a wall.
“You MUST tell me where it is!” He said. Featherweight gasped. He wanted to get Nitevision’s attention, but this was borderline suicide...
“Alright, alright! Don’t scare it off. Let go of me you little spaz!” He snapped. Nitevision relaxed his grip, but did not let go. Instead, the Bat moved closer to the Pegasus looking deep into his eyes.
“Where is it? Tell me tell me tell me tell me! Now, now, now, now, NOW!!!” He chanted. Fearing for his life, Featherweight sighed.
“Don’t tell anypony, but… I think I saw it go into that storm drain on the other side of the college.” He explained. Nitevision took off, on a quest to find the light.
“Hopefully I can get out of here before he realizes that light can’t get into the storm drain, or at least before he remembers that there isn’t a storm drain on the other side of the college...” Featherweight groaned.
“You could probably be to the moon and back by the time Nitevision even figures out ONE of those things” Fire Alloy said, rolling his eyes. Featherweight chuckled as he extended a hoof towards his old friend.
“It’s been forever since I’ve seen you!” He said as Fire Alloy bumped his hoof. “How’ve you been?”
“Super busy,” the Unicorn explained. “The Blacksmithing industry is in high demand over in Whinnieappolis. How about you? Are you a super famous journalist yet?” He asked.
“Not yet. Key word, YET. I’ve stumbled onto a bit of a major story, can you keep it on the Down Low?” Featherweight replied. Fire Alloy shrugged.
“I don’t see why not, seeing as nobody at this school seems to notice I’m even here. I mean seriously. Am I that hard to notice? I’m bright red for Luna’s sake!” Featherweight laughed.
“Alright. Well… The thing is, I heard about this brutal attack last night, and so I decided to check it out right? Turns out, this girl Pumpkin Cake somehow got Love Potion in her system!” The Pegasus paused. “Are you… Feeling alright? You’re turning a little pale...” Fire Alloy shook his head.
“You don’t mean the Cake Twin… Do you?” He asked nervously. Featherweight nodded. “Yeah. The girl. Why do you ask? Do you know her?” The Pegasus asked.
“Celestia have mercy...” Fire Alloy breathed. “I don’t know her personally, or at least, not as well as Nitevision does… He used to tell me all these stories about how they were best friends back in the day.” Featherweight shook his head.
“I hope for his sake, she’s alright...” He explained. Fire Alloy nodded.
“So, what do you need me to do?” The Unicorn asked. “Help me find out what happened.”
“Do you think this was purposeful?”
“I believe somepony may have drugged her, yes.”
“Then we had better find out who did it, how they did it, and why they did it, before somepony else gets hurt. I don’t know a lot about Love Potion, but I remember that, unlike love Poison, it can spread. So we’d better make sure ponies get warned before that happens.” Fire Alloy turned to walk away, but Featherweight put a hoof on his shoulder to stop him.
“Or,” he said. “We can find out ourselves! Think about it Fire Alloy. This could be a MAJOR career boost for us! Well, mostly me, but you’d be famous by association.” Featherweight grinned ear to ear. Fire Alloy gave a disgusted sigh and rolled his eyes.
“Featherweight, you’re going to get me killed some day, if Nitevision doesn’t do it first.” He replied.
“I’m taking that as a yes...” Featherweight exclaimed excitedly. “We need to get to work on finding out who would poison Pumpkin Cake, and why. Means, Motive, Opportunity, Execution.” Featherweight recited.
“Yeah… Whatever.” Fire Alloy said.



Diamond Tiara was severely upset. As if the day hadn’t been strange enough, with ponies paying more attention to something OTHER than her, Pound Cake was acting strange too. She had barely even spoken to the Pegasus when they were foals, and now here he was, professing his love for her in a public place! As if that wasn’t bad enough, when she had rejected him, instead of dropping to his knees and begging the mare for a chance like most of her other potential suitors did, he had BIT her. “He BIT me Silver Spoon!” Diamond Tiara snapped in disgust. Silver Spoon shook her head. “Maybe he really did like you! Did you see his eyes? I mean, most of the ponies that fall for you have glazed looks, but he was… Different. It was really weird!”
“Yeah, Silver Spoon? We’re talking about me, remember? Not him. Me. Now, as I was saying, he BIT me! Now, I’m getting blood all over my scarf! My brand new, beautiful...Silver Spoon, did you do something with your mane? I really… Really… Like… It...” Diamond Tiara said, looking closer.
“Uh… I… No, it’s not… Different? This is how I always wear it...” Silver Spoon explained, her voice laced with confusion. Diamond Tiara rarely noticed ANYTHING about other ponies, let alone, COMPLIMENTING them! “Are you feeling alright?” Silver Spoon asked, genuinely concerned for her friend.
“I feel just WONDERFUL, having such an amazing, amazing friend as you, Silver Spoon...” Diamond Tiara said, taking a step towards the mare. Silver Spoon swallowed. What was going on with her best friend? In nearly 20 years of knowing the mare, she had never acted so strangely… What had changed? The Earth Pony gasped.
“Diamond! Your eyes! They’re so… Pretty! Almost hypnotic! They’ve got these really cool pink stripes moving up and down… I… Wow, that’s really cool...” Silver Spoon said as she looked deeper into the mare’s eyes. Diamond Tiara stepped closer, and opened her mouth.


Dear Mom, Something weird happened today. A girl was found in the Chemistry Lab. Apparently, she was attacked, and injected with some sort of a potion. It’s really strange. I’m not worried though, Pound Cake said it looked like a one time attack. Fire Alloy reunited with Featherweight, who is also doing well. Pumpkin Cake said her parents stopped by earlier! How are they doing? I’ll visit soon! 
Your son, Nitevision.