Meltdown

by Fabulosity Personified

Darkness

A shaft of sunlight crept its way through the window and into the bedroom throwing a beam of pure annoyance across Spike’s eyes. The purple dragon uncurled himself from the folds of the duvet and sat up, rubbing away the sleep and yawning. He hadn’t had a good night, but at least he had eventually drifted off, even if it was to a land where Twilight spoke to him with that tone of cold disappointment from the previous afternoon. Not to mention Rarity had… Spike’s clawed hands went to his head. He couldn’t dwell on dreams.

He went down to the kitchen and wasn’t surprised to find Pinkie there, despite it being dawn. In a few hours it would be a hive of activity, as the Cakes went about their business, but for now all was still in the way only an early morning can facilitate. The two exchanged half-hearted good mornings and sat in silence as they ate breakfast. Pinkie was the first to break the tension.

“They’ll be ok, wherever they are. I’m sure everything’s fine.”

She didn’t sound like she believed her own words.

“I know.”

Neither did Spike. They didn’t know that things were about to get a lot worse.

***

“So, umm, how did all you guys end up here? If you don’t mind me asking, that is, I umm…” Fluttershy tailed off. Nobody really felt like discussing the events of the past… hour? Day? Week? Time had no relevance in the darkness.

“Pretty much the same way as you, I’d imagine dear,” Rarity said, putting the still mumbling Fluttershy out of her misery. Applejack carried the conversation forward.

“The thing I don’t get is why in the name of Celestia would Twi act like that? What did we do wrong?”

“I… I suppose we have all been rather busy. The darling is under a terrific amount of pressure you know. Whenever we have tea together, or go to the spa, she seems to have a lot to get off her chest. But... I haven’t done anything with her for weeks, what with designing that new line,” Rarity finished guiltily. “Has anypony?”

“Well, umm, I’ve been busy with my animals.”

“I’ve had the apple harvest to take care of with Big Mac, and Applebloom runs me ragged too, y’all know that.”

“And I’ve been… errr, practising my flying. Plus the weather’s been crazy recently, and my team’s been understaffed.”

“Umm… so when was the last time anypony actually, you know, saw Twilight, apart from, umm… you know. And she’s been so busy looking after the town; I saw her running around Ponyville every day last week, without a break, helping ponies with the silliest of things.”

There was a silence.

“Still, that hardly gives her the right to do this to us, does it now Fluttershy? She’s been positively brutish. We’re her friends!”

“Uh, Rarity, maybe we haven’t been acting much like it recently. Now I’m not sayin’ she’s right, but we maybe shoulda been more aware of how she was.”

The darkness appeared too filled with black to be able to cope with anything else, but awkward silence filled it now too.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not about to give up on my friend.”

A flutter of wings whipped the otherwise still air in the prison, as Dash took to the air, as she always did when she was feeling defiant. The others could picture her, arms crossed, a reckless look in her eyes.

“We’re going to get Twilight Sparkle back.”

“Umm… Rainbow? How?”

Not even Rainbow had an answer.

***

“Rainbow Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!”

Pinkie, resplendent in her deerstalker mystery solving hat, stood in the long grass underneath Rainbow’s cloud and called up. The grass was sodden with dew, the little beads catching the early morning sun and throwing little rainbows of light over her pink coat. Spike, meanwhile, was up to his neck in it, and wasn’t really in any mood to enjoy the glory of nature that morning, though he didn’t mind the fetching hat Pinkie had insisted on him wearing.

The pair had already been to the Carousel and found it empty, with no sign of Rarity. Pinkie Responsibility Pie had taken Sweetie to Sweet Apple Acres the night before, where she was being looked after by Granny Smith and Big Mac. There she had confirmed that Applejack hadn’t returned, and the situation hadn’t changed when she and Spike had arrived after looking for Rarity. Luckily mornings were early on a farm, and they’d met Mac on his way out to look for Applejack. After assurances that they had everything in hand, he’d instead returned to the vital apple harvest, but he’d insisted that he and Granny were kept in the loop.

So here they were calling for Rainbow Dash and receiving no answer and the excuses that Pinkie was conjuring for Spike were doing little to quell their anxiety.

“I wouldn’t worry, Spike, she’s probably off on morning weather duty.”

Spike was silent.

Fluttershy’s cottage was their next port of call. Rainbow was a wildcard, unreliable; surely Fluttershy wouldn’t have run off anywhere.

The house was empty. All the animals were gone. Even Angel was missing, although from the squeaky sobbing coming from the chicken coop, it was pretty obvious he hadn’t gone far. The living room was a scene of utter devastation – feathers, fur, knocked over furniture and splinters of the door covering everything like confetti. The Pegasus herself, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. Spike and Pinkie went outside again and sat, totally dejected on the grass at the back of the house, hats discarded. Spike was the first to speak.

“Fluttershy would never leave her animals.”

Pinkie shook her head, her mane bobbing from side to side.

“Spike, I think they’re in trouble.”

Spike paused and thought about losing his temper with Pinkie. Talk about stating the obvious; five ponies were missing and Fluttershy’s house was a total wreck. It was only the total absence of her characteristic bounce that held his tongue, as well as the fact that her hair looked dangerously close to deflating.

“I think you’re right. We have to do something!”

The two stood, infused by a fresh energy.

“But what, Spike? My special talent is throwing parties for Celestia’s sake, I doubt that’ll solve anything. For once.”

A spark flickered in Spike’s brain.

“Well, maybe we should just write to Princess Celestia and just tell her what’s happened and ask for help?”

“Oh, I really don’t think that’d be a good idea, do you?”

Pinkie and Spike turned to face Twilight.

***

Moments earlier, Twilight had been thoroughly enjoying herself. She’d attained and experienced absolute power and exiled her not-friends into a shadowy dungeon of doom, all in half a day. She had been in the process of plotting her next move.

Of course she would take over Equestria; it was the courteous thing to do in her situation. No sense wasting all the magical energy that was flowing through her. It was more a question of how. She couldn’t just waltz into Canterlot and blow Celestia to kingdom come; there was no style in that. She didn’t want to be cliché either, although that was always fun. If she could have had her way, she would have drowned everyone in chocolate, just for irony’s sake and the fantastic villain lines it’d provide (“Well that sure is a sweet way to die, mwahahahaha.”), but Discord had taken that one already with his chocolate rain.

Chocolate rain… Twilight had been reminded of Pinkie. Of course, she’d considered the Earth Pony’s threat to her plans, as well as Spike’s. They were both far too stupid to be a problem though. Honestly, sometimes she wondered how they managed to stay upright. The little piece of her soul had screamed its protest inside, but it had fallen on deaf ears as Twilight mused on whether it might be entertaining to put them both in a cage and throw bananas at them. Maybe she could train them.

Suddenly, a wave of magical disturbance had cut the air – Spike had had an idea. His constant exposure to Twilight had given him a little magical connection to her and she could sense what he was about to do.

“Oh no you don’t, you stupid dragon.”

There was a flash and Twilight was gone.

***

“No, definitely not a good idea,” Twilight laughed and advanced on the stunned pair, a glimmer of madness in her eye. “You see, if you were to tell Celestia what was going on, she might stumble upon my plan, and while I could beat her with two hooves tied behind my back, I’d rather she was unprepared. Besides, if she were forewarned, she might be able to find that cretin Luna, and drag her away from whatever keeps her so busy whenever drama happens. Two on one? Well that’s just unfair.”

Spike was the first to react.

“Twi… Twilight, where have you been? What are you talking about?”

“Your Twilight is gone, you stupid dragon. I am so sick of you. ‘Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Friendship! Twilight, Twilight’”, she mocked cruelly, “All the bucking time.”

“Hey, nobody speaks to Spike like that!” Pinkie had bounced into attack mode, and hopped, foot to foot, hooves raised like a boxer. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Twilight!”

“Well done. What gave it away, the magical vortex of shadows swirling around me, or the fact that I keep cackling?”

Pinkie struck, but Twilight dodged easily, and backhoofed her around the face, knocking her to the ground.

“Pinkie!” Spike leapt into action, teeth bared. Then he hesitated. It was still Twilight. Even if there was only a little bit left of her; he could still feel it. The connection worked both ways. Twilight acted ruthlessly, slamming Spike into the wall of the cottage, where he slumped, winded.

“You know, I was going to spare you two. I didn’t imagine you’d ever really be a problem. Oh well, I guess I should have expected it – it’s always the plucky underdogs who take down the villain in the end isn’t it?” Twilight laughed maniacally again, “Not this time though. I won’t miss either of you, if it makes you feel any better. To think, the last hope Equestria had, it came down to you, and you’ve screwed it up. Ouch.”

Twilight’s horn flashed, and the shadows consumed her friends.

Inside Twilight, a piece of soul slumped, and let darkness take it too. Her hope had gone.