> Song of Despair
>  by Blizzard Breeze
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter one: Calming melodies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rarity was sitting on a chair inside of the Manehatten Hotel, sewing together a beautiful piece of dress for an upcoming performance. She was humming to herself, when suddenly a knocking on the door interrupted her. “Finally, my fabric is here!” Rarity said as she rushed to open the door. When she opened it, a tall mail pony with a package placed on his back and a clipboard held by one of his fetlocks awaited her.

He looked down on the clipboard with all of the orders written down, then back to Rarity. “Miss Rarity, I presume?” He asked, as he grabbed the box and held it in his hooves..

“Yes, that’s me.” Answered Rarity, eyeing the package nervously as she bit her lower lip. “Do you by any chance have a package full of the gems that I’ve ordered? Also I hope I’m not being rude, but why did this take so long to get here?”

“Manehattan’s traffic makes it a little hard to deliver packages on time. And the fabric was heavier than it looked.” He then allowed himself in and placed the boxes in her apartment and turned to go. “ Oh yeah, you also got a gift in the small box over here. Almost forgot.” He then handed her a smaller box. “I will be on my way. Goodbye, m’lady.”

“Thank you.” Rarity called out as she put a ruby into his pocket. “Have a good day sir, I got work to do.” Closing her door, she began to unpack her fabrics, placing the third box on the desk with her sewing machine..

“Now hopefully I’ll be done by tonight. I don’t want to miss Twilight’s birthday.” Looking through her dress patterns, she placed a spool of thread inside of the sewing machine machine. “Now, let’s see this mysterious gift.” She unfolded the box revealing a music box with a small note taped to the top. “Ah how lovely of her.” She said, taking the note off the box, holding it in her magic as she began to read.

Dear Rarity, greetings. I know making these dresses must be stressful for you. As a token of appreciation for your efforts, I sent this music box to listen to while you work. Its melody always helped me concentrate, and I think it will help you as well. Sincerely, director Page Tale.

A warm glow filled her cheeks, setting the note and the box down on the table next to her sewing machine. “Hmm, the score isn’t written on the box or note. Strange.” She said, cutting up layers of her new fabric while also setting them in piles as she adjusted the size of the next dress.

“Now with no interruptions, I’ll be done by tonight and a little tune will help.” Winding the music box until the handle couldn’t turn, she watched as the top opened up and played its song. The melody moved along to what seemed like small bells and piano dropped in. “Nice and calm, perfect!” Humming to the melody, she began sewing the fabulous dress.

The machine carefully lined the thread, connecting each fabric together, adding patterns, and adjusting the size as needed. “Looking fabulous! The director is going to love this!” Rarity gleefully said as she added sequins to it. “A little sparkle won’t hurt. It will shine on stage. Can’t wait to see what they think.” Her excitement seemed to be never-ending, not noticing the distorted sounds coming from the box. She calmed herself down by breathing in and out several times, focusing on fine-tuning the dress as the light flickered above her.

Paying no mind to it, she added the finishing touches as the distorted music just started to hit her ears. “Hmm? I don’t suppose this is how the tune was supposed to sound.” Rarity said, stopping the music and closing the box. Then she suddenly noticed her strength quickly disappearing, and she let out a yawn. She lifted up the ribbon and set it onto the dress and turned it into a bow while sewing it on with her magic and a needle.

“I honestly did not expect to be this tired, but I admit I’ve done a lot of work today.” Stretching her hooves, she admired her work and decided that what would happen next would be a well deserved rest. She then went into her bedroom and slipped in between the bedsheets. Casting on her sleep mask, the wrapping of sleep taking its hold on her. Lying cozy on her bed, she began to enter the world of dreams…





Rarity started to shiver. A chill wind moved across her body, causing her to sit up and wrap her blanket around her. “Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?” She wondered while taking off her sleep mask. The room was pitch black, so she had to cast her light spell and have it stick to her horn. The outside was incredibly dark, with bits of snow falling down across the windows. “Strange… it wasn’t winter the last time I looked out of a window.“ Shining her light around the room, Rarity noticed how the room seemed to look a little rotten, the colors seemingly faded away.

“This doesn’t make any sense! What’s going on here?” She got out of her bed, her eyes being cast on to her desk which was bare. “This is so bizarre. Also, where did the box go?” She said, shining her light along the floor. The boards were covered up in dirt and muck, creaking heavily as she stood up from the bed and approached her closet. Taking out a ragged scarf, the smell of it so revolting she gagged as she wrapped it around her neck. “How disgusting but, looks to be the only scarf here. Great….”

She then walked out of her room. “Why is everything so quiet? The streets were roaring a few minutes ago.” She said as she looked out of the window, vision limited severely due to the darkness outside with snow falling down.

“Hello? Anypony here?” Rarity called out, but didn’t receive a response back. She approached the room next to her’s and knocked on it. “Hello? Is somepony in there? Can someone explain what is going on?” No response… the place remained dead silent. “There has to be somepony here.” Rarity said unnerved, as she walked over to the fire exit as a cold breeze ran under the door. Her body shivered as she entered and started walking down the rotten stairs, smelling in a way that made Rarity put the scarf against her nose with her magic. “Sweet Celestia… where am I?” Her voice echoed as she kept walking down while on edge.

Rarity walked a few floors down until her ears caught the sounds of bells and a melody quietly played along with it. “Wait, is that the music box? It’s coming….from that door.” She carefully approached the door and set her ear against it. “Hello!” She called out and only the sounds of the melody played out. She opened the door slowly, the song growing in volume as a gust of wind followed it.

“Going down even further. Great…” She said while walking down the stairwell. Following this tune, growing louder as she was getting closer to another door.

She approached it and stopped a few steps away. Letting out a shallow breath, she opened the door to see the music box on a table with a mirror behind it. “The box? How did it get here?” She placed her front hooves forward into the room and focused her eyes on the table. “Wait, wha‒?” She blurted out as suddenly the door slammed behind her, pushing her in and sending her crashing into the table. “Owww!” She screamed as she tried to regain herself, the music becoming distorted to her ears.

As she was setting her front hooves onto the tabletop to balance herself, her eyes went wide open as the music box wasn’t on the table anymore… but on the other side of the mirror. “What, what is this?” Once she got on her hooves, she raced for the closed door, grabbing the handle and putting as much force into it as she could muster. “Locked?! Let me out, whoever you are, now!”

She bashed her hooves against it for a few seconds, the wooden door not moving an inch. Oh celestia celestia, please open! She screamed in her head, recoiling back as a black mist circled around her horn. “Ahh… my head…” Rarity held her head as she faced the mirror. The light within it dimmed as a black liquid started leaking out of the mirror. Unconsciousness overtook her, collapsing down onto the floor as everything went dark.
> Chapter two: Ride to Manehatten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie kept leaping up into the air, as her excitement never seemed to break off while the train stopped at the station. “Come on Spike, Rarity will appear any second now!” She cheerfully said and trotted to the train that has already stopped, and its doors were about to open.

“Wait up!” Spike called out as he ran and got Pinkie breathless. “We are... Not in the Olympics... We don’t have to rush....” He said while catching his breath.

“We also don’t want to miss Twilight’s party. Don’t worry,” she replied, “that stress will go away during the party.”

Spike straightened himself up and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, guess I’m the one who needs to relieve his stress then.” He said as they both laughed about it. Spike set his eyes to the train doors, looking for Rarity to come out.

“So, can you see her yet?” Spike asked. A few ponies left the passenger car while Spike and Pinkie looked around, but Rarity didn’t come out of the crowd.

“Nope, I can’t. Not even Pinkie sense tells me anything.” Pinkie said, her glee dialing down a bit. “Maybe she is in another passenger car.”

They watched and waited, but Rarity was nowhere to be seen as the train left the station. “Pinkie, the letter did say she would be here at 1:35 today, right?” Spike asked.

She reached her hoof into her mane and pulled out an envelope, reading the letter within. “That is what it says. Rarity should be here… Oh hey, there’s Rainbow Dash!” She pointed to her right as a rainbow blur landed on the ground, causing dust to stir up upon the landing.

“Hey you two. We got all of the decorations set up for the party.” Rainbow Dash said. “Sooo… where’s Rarity? I can’t wait for her to see the amazing work I’ve done. Well, we. Fluttershy and AJ helped too.”

Spike and Pinkie stared at each other for a moment before they both nodded to each other and Pinkie replied.“Rarity didn’t show up.”

Rainbow Dash stared at them, confusion painted on her face as well as her left eyebrow being raised. “You’re joking, right? Really, where’s Rarity?”

 The two remained quiet to the question.

The silence started to worry Rainbow. “Okay…You two aren’t joking, hold on.” She said, walking up to the ticket booth. “Hey, when is the next train for Manehatten?”

The ticket vendor pulled out his schedule and replied. “If things remain in order, the next train for Manehatten is coming in half an hour. You’re going to buy a ticket?”

 “Not yet. I’ll be back after a while.” Rainbow flew back to Pinkie and Spike, “I’m going to get the girls, you two stay here.”

They nodded and watched as Rainbow flew away. A rainbow colored trail shining bright behind her.





Twilight tied up all the balloons as they floated up to the ceiling, a smile spreading on her face. “Everything looks good girls, now we wait for Rarity to arrive.”

Fluttershy and Applejack nodded as they were setting up the table, placing a cake and cupcakes on it.

“I gotta say we’ve done a great job so far.” AJ said, focusing on carefully placing the cake, as she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back home in case she dropped it.

Suddenly, Rainbow crashed through Twilight’s door, startling them and making them turn to her.

“Rainbow Dash, you can’t crash into the party like that!” Fluttershy said. “ Wait… she just did.” She whispered.

“Sorry for barging in like that, but we’re going to Manhattan.” Rainbow Dash said, gesturing towards the general direction of the train station.

“Something wrong?” Twilight asked as Rainbow gave a ticket to her.

“Rarity isn’t here. And I have a feeling if we don’t find her soon enough, something bad will happen. Pack your bags girls, we are going!” She said as she tossed Twilight’s bag down to her hooves. Rainbow crammed some books into the bag and tossed it next to Twilight.

“Meet you at the station in ten minutes.” She said as she turned back to the door. But she then turned her head in the opposite direction, facing Twilight. “Also… sorry for ruining your party, Twilight.”

Twilight simply shrugged with a smile. “Don’t worry, there’s always next year. And I wouldn’t enjoy it anyway with Rarity missing.”

Rainbow Dash was about to laugh at the unexpected reply, but she simply replied with a smile. “Guess you’re right.” She said as she sped out into the air.

“Huh, guess we are goin’ to Manehatten instead… are we? Applejack asked.

“Of course,” Twilight replied. “We are gonna do our best to find out what happened to her!”

They all nodded and clapped their hooves together in agreement and separated, Twilight heading to the station while the others went home to gather their bags.





Spike was pacing back and forth as Pinkie dragged her bags onto the station floor. “Come on Spike, relax a bit.”

He suddenly turned to her and said, “Please don’t tell me to relax, you know I can’t. Not as long as Rarity could be in danger.” Spike frowned and was visibly holding in his anger mixed with fear.

She placed her hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sure she is alright. Business probably got in the way. Although I admit it’s strange she didn’t contact us sooner.” Pinkie shrugged, as Spike straightened himself out.

“You’re right on that, but still she would have sent a letter about it.” Spike said as he walked back a bit, pushing Pinkie’s hoof back from his shoulder.

“Maybe the letter just didn’t arrive yet?” Suggested the pink pony.

“Yeah, maybe.” He looked up into the clouds and waited for Rainbow to return, as Twilight walked into the station.

“Hey Twilight!” Pinkie called out. “Guessing Rainbow Dash told you what we’re doing?”

The scientist pony nodded, as she walked over to Spike. “Are you feeling okay Spike?”

She asked, and he turned to her and said, “No, I’m not alright, this is horrible!”

She gave him a comforting smile, while setting her bag down.” This isn’t like her and it is worrying. But I bet she is fine.” She said, trying to lighten up the mood.

“How can you know that?” Spike asked, as Rainbow Dash landed and dropped her bags.

“I don’t, Spike.” Twilight replied. “But we will make sure to check if she is safe. And besides, you know Rarity. She might’ve just gotten too caught up in her work and forgotten all about the party.”

A smile came across his face. I guess she could be alright after all. He said in his mind, feeling a bit cheerful as Rainbow shoved a ticket into his claw.

“Now when we get to Manehatten, we will go to the theater and talk with the director. She probably knows where Rarity is.” She said as Fluttershy and Applejack jumped onto the platform as the train arrived. “Hope you all got what you need, it’s time to go, everypony!”

“Yeah!” Erupted from the group of ponies and a dragon.

Spike followed the girls on the train and stopped to look at something nudging his leg with a thud, making him turn towards it.

“A black gem? Where did this come from?” He asked, catching it from rolling away as the train began to move. “Hmm, the surface feels artificial,” his claws feeling the gem around. He put it up to his nose, trying to get a smell out of it. “No scent? What kind of gem is this?” He questioned as something tapped his back.

“Excuse me, that would be mine, good sir.” A voice sounded behind him.

Spike turned to the voice, to see a suited lime green unicorn mare speaking to him. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Violet Pearl, and I run one of the finest jewelry stores in Manehatten. That’s what I like to think, anyways.”

Spike examined the gem as the mare awaited his answer. “I have to say it looks really nice and shiny, but not something I would eat.”

“Yep I’ve heard Dragons do not favor the black gems. And you definitely wouldn’t like this one. As much of a shame as it is to admit, I messed up this one pretty badly.” She said, looking embarrassed.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh just look at the irregular shape! I simply could not sell this to a customer.” Violet Pearl replied.

“Then I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why carry it around at all? Ponies can’t eat gems as far as I know.”

“That is true, little dragon. While this is one of my most embarrassing pieces, I still believe it could make some ponies happy, so I’m planning on donating these. Even if they can’t use it to make themselves look prettier.”

“Oh I see. That is really generous of you. Well, here you go.” Said Spike, extending his hand and holding the gem 	in front of the mare.

“Oh no no, you can keep this gem, since you seemed to like it. I…. Kind of messed up the entire batch.” She bit her lower lip, and drily chuckled to herself.

“Aww man, that must really suck. But thank you!”

“No problem, uhh. I don’t think you introduced yourself to me yet.”

“Oh yeah! My name is Spike, the number one assistant of Twilight Sparkle!”

Violet smiled, and shook his hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Spike. If you will ever need some gems, this might come in handy.” She finished, as she handed out a visit card to Spike.

“Will remember.” Spike said as he took the visit card, placing inside the pack he brought in.

The mare nodded, and teleported away, presumably to her seat. This surprised Spike, and caused him to take a step back, and almost fall to the ground.

“You alright, Spike? Who were you talkin’ to?” Applejack asked as she caught him.

“She’s Violet Pearl, and runs the best jewelry shop in manehattan´. Thanks for catching me.” He said, hopping onto a seat.

 “Nahh, it was nothin’. ”She said, taking a seat next to Rainbow, while she looked at the black gem in Spike’s claws.

“Hey, Spike? Where did you get that gem?” Dashie asked.

“Oh, it’s from Violet. He replied, wrapping his tail around it and setting his back on the seat.

“Huh, well that is nice of her to give up something like this.”

He nodded in response as he stretched his arms and let out a big yawn. “Please wake me up when we get to Manehatten, Twilight. I need a nap.”

She nodded with a smile, as Spike closed his eyes, the sound of a hum going through his ear. Curling up, the world became silent.





Spike was peacefully sleeping, when a loud grinding hit his ears, causing him to spring up and shout, “What was that noise?!” His eyes opened up wide, as he saw the seat in front of him torn up and full of scratches and disgusting black stains. Spike then looked out of his window. A black sky caught his eyes, snow falling as the train moved. No passengers were in sight but himself. The frame of his window was bent and battered, letting in some of the snow.

“Huh?! Is this a dream?” He yelled once more, rubbing his arms as the cold air washed over him. “This feels… too real.”

He got off the seat and placed the gem into his claws. “The gem is here too!” Questions were flying through his mind as he walked over to the train cart’s door and slid it open. Slowly walking along the crossway to the next door, the air started to feel ice cold around him and the gem gave off a white light that shined brighter and brighter as he neared the door.

 “What’s going on with this thing, is it reacting to something?” Spike questioned, looking down at the glowing gem. The light shined through the dark crossway, revealing itself to the outside. “The world seems familiar but at the same time, it isn’t. Where... Am I exactly?”

He slowly opened the door to the next train car, using the light of the gem as a light source as he carefully walked forward in the dark car. Spike stopped in the middle, casting the light around him. “Twilight, are you there?” He called out, when he felt something tapping on his shoulder.

He turned to see nothing, but a black liquid running down his shoulder. “Gross, what the heck is this?!” He wiped it off with his claw, feeling the texture of the black goo.

He shivered as more of the black goo dripped above him and ran along his arms. Spike tried to shake it off, but it grew thicker and stuck to him. “What is this stuff, it’s so cold!” He said, trying to breathe out fire over his claws, desperately trying to warm himself up. His flame was extinguished before it could even leave his mouth, turning into a mist.

“What, my fire is out?” He dropped the gem to rub his claws together,  his insides feeling like they’re on ice as his vision blurred. The clanking of the wheels outside filed his ears as the black goo flowed out.

His skin felt like it wanted to come off, no longer able to feel anything around his neck. “Please.... Wake me up... This... Can’t be real.” Spike put a weak grip around the gem and brought it close to him. “Twilight... Pinkie... Fluttershy... Applejack... Rainbow!” Setting his eyes onto the gem’s shine, its light consistently forwarded allowed his reflection to be seen.

“Rarity!” He froze as his reflection revealed dark claws digging into him. Liquid-covered black teeth getting ready to bite as a growl slipped into his ear.

He gripped the gem tightly, its eyes staring back at him. “No... I won’t allow it to end like this!” He shouted, swinging the gem to his back with all his strength, leading the light to shine at the creature, releasing its claws off him as it gave off a scream while covering its eyes.

“Rarity needs my help! Get away from me you ugly thing!” He gripped the gem to his chest, shutting his eyes as the light of it surrounded him. He could not hear the creature, only a familiar voice came to his ears. A wave of warmth went over him as the voice grew louder.
> Chapter three: Hotel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Time to wake up Spike. It’ll be a few minutes till we reach Manehatten.” Spike opened his eyes, looking up at Twilight as he straightened up on the seat.

“Hey Twilight.” He said, gripping the gem tightly. “Where are the girls?”

She placed her hoof over his head and said, “The girls are getting our luggage, you’ll reach Manehattan in a few minutes. Hmm, it looked like you had the chills for a moment.” Twilight said with a smile. “Seems like you slept well, want to help get our bags sorted out?”

Spike gave a nod and said, “I’ll be with you in a minute, I need to use the restroom.” He said, then got off his seat and ran down the car, closing the door behind him. Checking back to see that Twilight wasn’t in sight, he looked upon the colorless gem. “Had you been responsible for that dream? Was it even a dream?” He questioned as he tried to make sense of what he experienced. “How will I explain this to Twilight? There has to be something more to that dream,” Spike stared at the gem, wondering what he should do. “If I have another dream like before, I need to tell Twilight about it.”

The train slowed its momentum, signaling to him that they were on Manehattan’s doorstep. “Hey Spike, come on,” Rainbow Dash called out, “We need to make sure Rarity is alright.”

He opened the door as Rainbow dashed to him, scaring him to stumble back and fall down.

“Sorry Spike.” Rainbow grunted as she helped Spike back up.

“No problem. So, what’s the plan?” Spike asked as she placed a piece of paper in his claws.

“You and Twilight will be looking for the hotel she stayed in, the paper has the address on it. Me and Applejack will go ask the director that hired her while Pinkie and Fluttershy will check the stores where she buys her fabric. Sounds like a plan?” Rainbow suggested, and smiled at Spike.

He nodded, heading out of the car into the bustling station.

Rainbow tossed him up onto her back, flying up as Spike scanned the area.

She searched through the mix of colors, spotting a mix of purple and blue together. “It looks like I found Twilight and Coco over there.” Rainbow began descending towards them, allowing Spike to make out another pony with Coco. He was wearing a white scarf matching up with his snow white mane, his coat colored icy blue with a worried look on his face.

“Me and Coco have been looking for Rarity for the past two days, we were hoping she would be here.” Spike heard as Rainbow got closer.

The stallion turned his head and smiled upon spotting them. “You must be Rainbow Dash and Spike right? Rarity told me about you. Tell me, have you happened to see her while you were flying?”

They frowned and nodded.

 Losing his smile he let out a sigh. “Well, we can go check her hotel again.”

“You know the receptionist won’t allow us to see her room.” Coco said, getting a confused face out of Spike.

The stallion hoof palmed his face. “I forgot about that. He did mention he sent the music box to my father’s place, right?”

“I think so, Breeze, I still wonder why Tale didn’t allow us to listen to it, and why she gave it to Rarity confuses me even more.”

“Who knows, but it is with my father I hope. He knows his way around antiques. Now, sorry for not introducing myself. I am Blizzard Breeze, a close friend to Coco and I recently made friends with Rarity before she vanished. The three of us were working with Page Tale to help make a musical she had written come to life.”

Rainbow put Spike down, resting her wings upon landing.

Twilight gestured Spike over and asked Coco, “You mentioned something about a music box, what is all that about?”

“We don’t know, Page Tale found it five days ago. She has been acting weird since then.”

“What do you mean by weird,” Spike asked, confusion visible on his face.

“Everypony else at the stage has heard it but the two of us haven’t. After she sent the music box to Rarity, she wouldn’t allow us to hear its song. Then, she broke all the mirrors at the cinema. In fact, to the extent she took mirrors out of several scenes that had them. Something is scaring her but she says we wouldn’t believe what she had seen.”

Spike listened intently, but could make little sense of it. What’s there to be scared of a music box? He thought. “Wait, this music box you mentioned, was it at the hotel?”

“Yes it was, but it should be at my father’s shop now,” Breeze answered. “ If you’re going to check the hotel, be careful. The receptionist has become a little hostile and has kicked everypony out.” He turned to Rainbow, “Have you seen where the rest of your friends are?”

“No, but Applejack and I are going to find the director and ask them where Rarity was last seen.”

“She should be at the cinema. Take these.” He took some keys out of a bag and tossed them to her. “She locks the doors during practice and maintenance. Good luck, hope you all find Rarity.”

“Thanks, you two.” she said as they walked out of the station. “Time to get going, I got to catch up to Applejack. See ya later,” Rainbow dashed out, leaving Twilight and Spike to their own devices.





Spike walked along with Twilight out into the bustling streets of the city. Carts passed by as they traveled, the two having thoughts spin around in their heads.

This feels like something big is happening.

Twilight thought to herself as Spike stared into space.

All this about a music box, Page Tale smashing mirrors and the removal of them. Something is up and I plan to find out.

The hotel was in their sights. Suddenly, a blue cart pulled by a pony of the same color and wearing a magician’s hat passed them. One of the wheels hit a puddle in front of them, which splashed both Spike and Twilight.

“Hey, how rude!” Twilight shouted as the cart sped away. Shaking off the water, she got a look as it went around the corner. “Hey, that cart looked familiar. Was that who I thought it was?” Spike shook, while he wiped the water off the gem he still carried and himself.

“If it is her, I hope she is not out to cause trouble. Especially now.” he said, as he inspected the gem to make sure all water was off. They approached the hotel entrance and looked through the windows before entering, seeing nopony waiting for them, bags left on the floor, giving her the feeling that the ponies rushed themselves out.
 \

“Hello, any pony there?” She called out, with the sounds of shouts and pans crashing to respond to her. Twilight looked at where it came from, as a stallion wearing a red uniform came crashing through the door and slammed it shut.

“Ugh, for the last time you two you can’t-” He stopped his line of thought when he looked at Twilight and Spike, revealing one of his eyes was bandaged up and had wounds around it. “You’re not Coco or Breeze. Well if you came to get a hotel room, you’re out of luck.” He said walking to the counter, placing a key on a rack behind him. “I don’t have rooms to give you, this place is going to be closed till further notice.”

“Actually, we were hoping you would answer some of our questions. It’s about Rarity, we hope you could help us.” Twilight asked and the stallion looked at her dubiously.

Meanwhile Spike eyed at the key the stallion hung up. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. How long was Rarity here? And what happened to your eye?”

“I’ll just be upfront with you, you won’t find anything on Rarity here. I’m sorry to answer your question. She was here for six days before she disappeared just like I told Coco and Breeze. You are not going to find anything here. Also what happened was a work accident. And that is that”

Twilight looked at Spike, weirded out by the answer the stallion gave. “Alright, but can we take a look at Rarity’s room? Can you give us that?” She asked as he shook his head. “ But how can we figure things out if we can’t?”

“Tough but I can’t help you with that, you are going to have to look elsewhere.”

Twilight turned around and walked over to Spike, bringing him close to her. “For someone who has nothing to hide he mentioned that we won’t find anything way too often.”

Spike nodded in agreement, looking over to the key hanging behind the guy. “Good to see we’re on the same page. Now I’m going to provide a distraction, I’ll keep him as busy as I can.”

She looked at him warily, walking to the door he came out of. The stallion rushed over, blocking the door and pushing her away. “This is off limits, I know this is the restroom  but, if you want to use one you will have to go somewhere else.” He said harshly.

“You can’t be serious right? What’s back there then?” She asked, having his attention.
Spike took the chance and sneaked past the stallion and quickly grabbed the key. Eyeing the stairwell door, he turned his back to it and slowly walked backwards, claws tucked firmly to keep the key from sight. The two ponies began to shout at each other, causing him to speed walk and quickly open and pass the door.

“You are getting on my nerves, miss. Wait a minute,” He looked around the room and peeked outside. “Where’s the dragon?” Twilight backed up a bit as he looked to see the key was gone. “Oh you little son of a donkey, you two are full on morons!” He sprinted past Twilight to the door and she leaped onto him, toppling Spike to the ground as he struggled to get up.

“What’s going on? What are you trying to hide?” Twilight asked, as the stallion refused to answer. Instead headbutting her nose, causing her to recoil off and allow him to get up and charge into the stairwell.

Spike heard the clopping of the receptionist’s hooves and looked down to see the stallion running up after him, causing him to run up the stairs as fast as he could.

Twilight entered the staircase and teleported up to the second floor, following suit as the stallion caught up to Spike, grabbing him and shoving him against the wall.
“You have no idea what you two are getting into! Give me that key!” He shouted, trying to rip it out of his claws.

“Leave Spike alone!” She called out, her horn lighting up with red and purple sparks as she cast a spell  on him, causing him to release Spike.

She shouted out, “Go Spike! This guy is not going anywhere!”, readying up another spell as he ran up the stairs.

The stallion turned to her, anger boiling as Twilight cast the spell on him. Smoke surrounded his face as he shook himself around and opened his eye that turned black as night, with black tendrils spilling out of it.

Upon seeing that, Twi recoiled back and readied up another spell.

He leaped onto her, powering through the spell and pushing her to the ground, her face filling with anger as she struggled on the ground. She tried to kick the stallion into his chest, but he didn’t budge a bit.

Readying her back hooves, she let out a kick to his stomach and grunted.

 A scream came out of him as he recoiled after the kick, allowing her to push him off and give her some space. He didn’t recoil for long as his hooves wrapped around her head, throwing her against the bars of the railing. Dazed by the blow, Twilight couldn’t keep up after the stallion as he took the chance to run up to find Spike.

“Room 405, where are you…” Spike runned around the floor, looking at the numbers at each door until he found it. Rushing to unlock it, he entered and locked it behind him. Vibrations curas through his tail, causing him to look at the gem which gave off a slight glow. “Huh, wait.” He said putting it into his claws. “You’re glowing like in the dream. Wait a minute.” He looked around the room, seeing the desk next to the window. Sewing machine is set on it with a stand right next to it.

Pieces of fabric littered the room around him. He ran over to the desk, looking through the drawers. “Gotta be something in here.” tossing junk out as he grabbed a crumpled piece of paper. “Yes, Rarity was here.” He held the letter that was sent to her. Reading it, he looked around for the music box mentioned. “Looks like the box is not here. Hmm what was that stallion trying to hide?” He searched the room, checking under the bed and going through all the fabric laying around. Nothing. He thought, eyeing the closet as the gem kept on glowing.

He walked over to the closet, the sounds of strangling coming to his ears. He rushed to the closet door. The gem glowed like crazy when he did so. “What’s going on with yo-” Spike stared into the closet, its wall and floor coated in black. He stared at it, confused as the gem started to blind him. “This is what he was trying to hide? Why are you going nuts?”The crunching of wood hit his ear, causing him to spin around to it.

The stallion busted his way through, smashing the door to pieces.

 Twilight jumped on his back, and tried to stop him from entering.

But as much as she tried, he tossed her off and threw her to the wasked.
Out of fear, Spike clutched the crystal in his claws and held it infront of his mouth and breathed fire through it, targetting the stallion’s face.

The stallion screamed, as dark smoke emerged from the gem, seemingly sucking the light out of the room.

Spike looked at the gem surprised, and smiled, breathing the fire once more.

The stallion’s quickly recovered though, and dodged the second blast of fire, and knocked the gem out of Spike’s claws.

“Hey! Not fair!” Yelled Spike, and proceeded to slide and punch the stallion into his belly.

The receptionist grunted, and threw a punch towards the back of his body, where Spike emerged from.

The strike luckily missed, as Spike jumped onto his back and held his mane. “Twilight! Fetch me the gem!” He called.

Twilight nodded, and ran towards the fallen gem.

“No!” The stallion commanded, and jumped high, making Spike lose his grip and fall.

Twilight managed to reach the gem, but the stallion was already halfway there.

“Catch!” She called out, but her pupils shrunk as she saw Spike laying on the ground, and the stallion charging into her in full force, sending her flying across the room into the wall.

“Spike...” She breathed out, as she saw the stallion approaching helpless Spike, before her vision turned black.
> Chapter four: Just a normal day in Manehatten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie entered the shop, with Fluttershy following shortly behind. Loads of dresses and  fabric were on display and surprisingly, all of them were heavily discounted. Pieces of fabric as low as a bit. That put a confused look onto her face. “How can a shop sell these at such prices? These look luxurious!” She said, eyeing the fabrics and dresses. After half a minute of admiring, she noticed something weird. “Wait, are the display windows painted over?” Fluttershy pointed to the displays near the door where windows should be.

“They are. I honestly thought it was just a weirdly designed wall.” Pinkie said, walking up to it and placing her hooves against it. “I wonder why would anyone do it.” She then turned away from the wall and yelled, “Hello! Any pony there?”

Only a crashing of metal responded back. They both turned to the sound and a dark green mare with silver mane came out of a door behind the counter.

“Sorry sorry!” The mare shakenly walked past Pinkie. “I fell asleep in the back rooms,” she giggled nervously, letting out a short yawn right after.

Pinkie noticed bags hanging under her eyes, as the mare stared at the wall.
“Um, are you okay?” Pinkie asked, waving her hoof in front of the sleepy mare. “You look like you haven’t slept in days. Also, why is there paint over the window?”

The mare shook her head, deep lines of worry crossed her face. She refused to let her eyes meet Pinkie’s. “I’m so sorry! Can one of you pass me my coffee please? It’s on the counter.”

Fluttershy grabbed it and flew over to her.

“Thanks darling.” The mare grabbed it and swallowed a big gulp. “Ahhh, the good stuff.  Name is Silver Gew, what can I do for you two?”

Suddenly a sound of crashing shelves assaulted their ears as the mare recoiled back. “Can you two go outside? I’ll be with you in a moment.”

They exited out, shutting the door behind them as they looked at each other. “I really hope nopony got hurt. That was weird.” Pinkie said, looking over the painted window. “Something is off here, I can feel it!”

“I agree, especially  this paint over the window. She looked panicked when we noticed  it. I hope she is okay right now.”

The mare crashed through the door and slammed it shut, causing the two ponies to jump back in surprise. “Sorry about that!” She said while locking the door. “Now, what can I do for you two?”

They looked at each other for a second before Pinkie came up to ask.
“We were wondering if you’ve seen Rarity around. We have been going to all of the shops, asking  around if they’ve seen her, and we haven’t found anything. We hope you can tell us something.”

The mare stared at her with a nervous smile. Eying the door as she spoke with hesitation.

“I… I’m sorry. I can’t really help with that.’' The mare looked disappointed. “I told Coco and Breeze the same thing. I can’t help you find her.”

Fluttershy and Pinkie looked at each other. Worry crossed over their faces as they started to walk away. “But,” the mare called out, “can I tell you something that has been going on? It’s been happening since Rarity left my shop a few days ago.”

They nodded in response, as she walked over to them.

She sat down and began to tell them the story...

“It was a day like any other. Staff came to work, ponies sorted through the dresses as you would expect. I went to the storage room to gather all of the items for Rarity’s order. Then, the air started to feel heavy.” The mare kept eyeing the door, sweat running over her face. “The place had gone quiet, weirdly quiet. Normally I could hear the music that is playing in the store, but I couldn’t even hear that. Instead, a medley came rushing into my ears. The speakers had it flood the room. There was something sinister within it… Like insanity was coated into it.” The mare noticed their worried looks and straighten herself. Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths.

“Sorry, this is making me terrified. Nopony outside the storage room seemed to have heard the music. After that, I gave Rarity her order and the rest of the day went as normal. But things changed when night fell. Every night I’ve been having nightmares since. A lightless world is where I would be. Whispers and distorted screams would ring through my ears until a black figure would appear in front of me. I would wake up every time it happened, but it would get closer to me each time.

“I’m the only one still working here now. Others were too scared to come to work today.” The mare looked at Pinkie and Fluttershy and sighed. “I hope you find what you’re looking for. There is something happening in this city, so please stay safe. I’m going to stay out here for a moment.”

Fluttershy and Pinkie stared at each other, lost in thoughts as the mare sat down, and shakily drank her coffee.

The two walked away, looking at each other with eyebrows raised.

“I really don’t know what to think about it, Pinkie. That sounded scary.” Fluttershy said, shaking a bit herself.

“Yea it was, I wonder what caused the music to pla-” Pinkie’s left ear began to flap as a shiver spiked up her back. She turned around and noticed the mare was gone. “Hey, where did the shopkeeper go?”

Fluttershy looked back and looked around for her. “She was there seconds ago!”

“Maybe she just went back inside. Ow!” Fluttershy bumped into something as a poster flew into her face.

“My posters! The Great And Powerful Trixie commands you to stop flying away from me!!” Spat an angry mare’s voice.

Fluttershy pulled the posters off her face, and saw a familiar unicorn standing in front of her. “Trixie?“ She asked.

“Oh, Fluttershy. Trixie is surprised that you came into a city like this.” She gathered the posters with her magic and placed them into her pouch. “So, may I ask what you two are up to?”

“We have been traveling through the city, asking shopkeepers if they saw Rarity.” Pinkie told her. “She has gone missing and we haven’t found anything that could help us.”

Trixie’s eyes went wide and her jaw went ajar at the news. “Really? Well, unfortunately Trixie can’t help you. But, since you two are here, I think I passed Twilight while I was taking my trailer to the park.” She pointed down the road. “She was heading towards a hotel that is five blocks away from here. Trixie doesn’t know if she is still there, but I passed her thirty minutes ago. This is all I know. I wish you two good luck.”

The two mares nodded, and gave their thanks to her.

“Wait,” Trixie called out before they walked away. “I’ll be performing tomorrow night. The great and powerful Trixie would like you and your friends to come and watch my great and powerful show. If you find Rarity, that is. It gets lonely after the performance is done. What do you say?” She asked with almost pleading eyes.

Pinkie and Fluttershy looked at each other for a moment. Pinkie gave her a smile. “Yeah sure. If we get the chance, we’ll come.”

Trixie gave them a smile and they headed off to the hotel.

“Trixie seemed to be better than the last time we met her. Alicorn amulet and that. What do you think, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked.

“Well, it was weird to hear her pleading for us to come.” She said, confused look on her face. “Are you really sure about going to her performance when we find Rarity? I don’t think the others would agree to it.”

“I know, they may not like it but I’ll still go. I think she should get another chance, even if she can be full of herself!” Pinkie stomped around joyfully, jumping into the air. “I can see the hotel up ahead. The last one is a rotten egg surrounded by melted ice cream!” She dashed forward, leaving Flutters in the dust as she put on a smile.

Galloping behind her, she slowly caught up to the pony. The wind went through her mane, getting it wrapped all over her face and causing her to trip up onto her stomach.

Pinkie didn’t seem to notice her falling as she sped up.

Picking herself back up, Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew up. While seeing that Pinkie had stopped a block in front of the hotel, she also noticed something that made her gasp.

Pinkie dashed as quickly as she could. “Twilight! Spike! Sweet Celestia, sweet Celestia…” She called out, getting a closer look at them. Dots of blood covered Twilight’s face, while Spike’s lower face was covered in dry blood. They laid on the sidewalk, motionless.

“Come on, please be alive…” She rolled Twilight onto her back and placed her ear to the unicorn’s chest. Slow breathing could be felt, her heart rhythmically beating into Pinkies’ ears. Letting out a sign of relief, she saw Fluttershy approach her.

“Oh my gosh! Please tell me they are okay!” Fluttershy stared in a panic at the three of them as she got closer.

“Twilight is breathing, and she doesn’t have any wounds I can see. Go check if Spike is injured!”  Pinkie told her.

She grabbed Spike and held him in her embrace. Blood oozed out of his nose, face turned gray. She set her hoof  along his chest, feeling faint breathing.

“Please wake up Twilight. Please!” Pinkie begged her, shaking her around and getting Twi onto her hind’ legs while keeping her hooves locked to her face.

Twi’s eyes twitched open.

“Pinkie…” Twilight said weakly, blankly staring at her. “Where am I? And why…. Am I?” She continued, while touching her head that was visibly hurting.

“It’s alright Twilight,” she gave her a hug. “Trixie told us she saw you heading here. Really glad she did.” Pinkie’s ears began to flap onto her eyes. Confusing her as they alternated. Right right left left left and kept going until they stopped moving.

“What the heck does that mean?” Pinkie turned her head to look around. She caught a black hoof mark in the corner of her eye, right next to the hotel wall. Then another mark appeared. It was like something was slowly moving towards them, but they couldn’t see it.

“What is it, Pinkie? You look a bit spooked.” Fluttershy commented.

Spike coughed as his eyes opened.

“...I think it would be good if we go somewhere else.” She looked at her with a frown. “Trust me on that, please,” Pinkie said.

“Wait,” Spike woke up and called out. “ Where’s the gem? It might come in handy later.”
Flutters looked around and spotted the shiny rock with a glow coming out of it. Grabbing it, she gave it to Spike who clutched it tightly. “Thanks Fluttershy, this is more important than you would probably think. Twilight? Wait, where is she!?”

“I’m right here, Spike.” Twi replied and he hugged her immediately.

“We got to meet up with Rainbow. There is a lot we all need to talk about.” Pinkie kept on eyeing the black marks as another appeared to get closer to her. She began to walk with the others, nervously keeping her eye trained on the mark until it was out of sight.




Rainbow was flying at half the throttle, as she approached a tall red painted building that was getting bigger each second. Once a few meters away from the entrance, she suddenly stopped and flew towards the ground and landed. She then eyed the sign reading “Wild Mild West”.

“Looks like the place. What a dumb name for a play.” She smirked and commented as the clapping of hooves went on behind her.

“Well-then, that has t’ be the worst name of a play I have ever heard.” The

Applejack  said, walking over to Rainbow.

“You’re preaching to the choir. Ugh, let’s get this over with.” Bringing out the keys, she pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Why thank you for the keys, Breeze.”

Unlocking the door, they let themselves in. The place was quiet. “For maintenance or practice, this place is pretty quiet.” Dashie said.

“Come on, let’s find the stage. We are down to find somepony there.” Applejack said. Rainbow dash flew around, looking around for the auditorium entrance. Nopony was in sight. Not even a janitor, even though a cleaning cart could be seen. Nopony stood in the ticket booth either. The place felt weirdly empty, The place felt weirdly empty, her ears moving around uncomfortably as she glanced about..

“I found it!” AJ called out.

 Rainbow flew over to her, following behind as she entered. Lights were lit around the room, stage having all the props set up. But nopony was around.

“Where is everypony? This is weirding me out AJ.” She said, flying over to the stage. The speaker to her left startled her, static suddenly playing from it and disappearing as quick as it came. “Stupid speaker. What the heck was that?”

“Like I know.” AJ shrugged. “The new tech is real sensitive” With that, Applejack jumped onto the stage. “Come on, we got to find somepony.”

Rainbow landed on the stage beside her, looking at the props that were laid about.  “Looks like they had everything set up, but they had to abandon the place quickly. I won’t lie, this is giving me the creeps.”

“Hello! Anypony here?” AJ called out and the room echoed the words back.
Looking above, she noticed one of the lights was swinging left to right. “Hey Rainbow,” She turned to her, “can you take a look at that light? It’s swinging a bit.”

Dash nodded and flew up to take a look.  “The power cable looks a bit damaged. Do you see any tape or something to cut it? We wouldn’t want this crashing down on us.”

AJ looked across the floor, spotting some pliers placed down. “They are pliers under the light!” She shouted, and bent down to grab them with her mouth.

Rainbow flew down grabbing it, catching them way sooner than AJ could even bend down. Then the light suddenly came crashing down on her.

“Look out!” AJ tackled Rainbow, the falling light missing them by inches.

“What in the holy Celestia is going on here?!” Dash shouted, picking herself up as Applejack got off her. “Who cut that light down?! Show yourself!” The lights turned off, plunging the room to darkness. “Oh great, what now?” She said, sitting down in anger.

The lights flipped back on. Rainbow was facing AJ, whose eyes went wide as her face lost some of its color. “AJ, what’s the matter?”

“Take a look for yourself.” She pointed to the seats behind her.

Eyebrows raised, she started to gag as a stench hit her nose. Dashie turned around and recoiled back. Confusion turned to fear at what she was seeing. As far as she could see, in every single seat there was a rotten corpse, with  eyes replaced by insects coming out of them. Some were bloated, some looked like all their color was sucked out of them.

Both AJ and RD screamed like there was no tomorrow. The sight was unbelievable. “Where the hell did they all come from,” Aj screamed out.

“Who cares, run!” Yelled Rainbow back, knocking Applejack to the side and taking to the air. Dashing over to the top row of the seats. She looked around for a door that was once there. “Wait, the door is gone!”

“Wha?” AJ ran up to Rainbow, placing her back against the wall. One of the bodies began staring at her, its caved-in gray eyes felt like it was piercing into her soul.

“Maybe there is another exit!” Yelled Dash. “I’ll take a look on the balconies, has to be a door up there!” She flew up to the one closest to her. Landing and running behind the curtains, she checked the hall for any door in sight, but there was nothing but a hall. Only a body laid against the wall. This one was different from the others, catching her eye to take a look.

This one was fresh compared to the others. Blood oozing out of a hole where one of her legs should be. Black prints covered the dark green coat of the mare, wearing a shredded uniform. Blood covering her silver locks, Rainbow placed her hoof onto her forehead.

“Warm…” she said uneasily. “You were killed recently. What the heck happened to you?” She opened the mare’s eyes and dark smoke started to stream out of it. “This is unbelievable. Hey AJ, you found anything?” Applejack didn’t respond and the place has gone quiet. “Yo, Applejack, don’t play games with me. Talk to me!”

“He…lp me.” A faint voice hit her ears. Hair standing on end, she let out a sharp gasp. Like something just wrapped around her. Turning over to the body, its eyes seemed to be looking straight at her, “did you say that?” she thought.

She felt a hoof rub against her leg and looked down. The mare’s hoof was right next to Rainbow’s leg. When she tried to back away, the hoof shot itself to Rainbows’ neck. The body turned its head, as she struggled to break the grip. “What the hell?! Get off of me!” She began to flap her wings as fast as she could. Vomit left the corpse as she loosened the grip.

Throwing a punch, she knocked it to the side and made the corpse lose its hold. Allowing herself to fly away, she turned her back and looked around for AJ. “Where are you Applejack?! Ugh, crap.” She looked back for the body, but it was no longer there. Her eyes went wide in shock as a door appeared in its place. “Wait, what?” She looked down at the seats below her. They were all empty, no bodies and no marks left on them. “Did I… imagine all that? Applejack, where are you!”

“Ah, you must be Rainbow then.” A voice called out. “Come down, I’m over here.”

Rainbow turned to the voice, a dark blue mare unicorn with a purple mane was standing at the edge of the entrance. Confused, she landed and cautiously approached her. Getting a closer look to see bags under her eyes, and a coffee she is keeping to the side.

“It’s alright, your friend is just packing some stuff up for me. I’m Page Tale. I should have told Breeze not to allow anypony in. But well, too late now. We need to talk.”




Applejack was searching the file room, packing up documents for Page Tale into her bags. “That girl better tell us what’s goin’ on. I will make it hell for her if she doesn’t.” Alright, I got most of the stuff off her desk. She mentioned a letter but where in the haystack, is it? ” She looked around the room once more, taking a look through the cabinets. Files of practice days, schedules, and costume diagrams within them. Annoyed, she began tossing files out onto the floor and ripping drawers out of the cabinets.

“What the hay is this,” a folder was hidden under one of the drawers she ripped out. Confused, she picked it up, opening it up to see a bunch of drawings and a document full of random symbols. “Huh? ‘Classified’? What can be classified about a bunch of weird letters?” Then she noticed a small text at the bottom of the page. ‘Three wild ponies ran through a field filled with freshly baked dinosaurs &’

“Uhhh, this document is getting weirder ‘n weirder.  I ain’t a scientist but that seems like a heck of a riddle to me. Twilight will surely know what it means.” She said, as she tugged the document inside her cowboy hat. “Alright, better hurry up and find the letter.” She said, and after a few moments found the letter sitting on the chair. “There we go.” She said while grabbing it with her mouth, and putting it inside of Page Tale’s bag.

“Have you put all of it inside of the bag?” Page Tale asked when she entered the room. “I don’t have much time before I have to go.”

AJ nodded and the unicorn lifted her up with a spell, keeping her in place while she cleaned the mess she made.

“What are you doing? Set me down!” Applejack spat out in anger.

“Relax, the spell will send you outside in a bit. Now listen to what I say.” The mare got close up to her ear. “ Leave the city while you can. If you value your life you will do this. Now go.”





After being teleported outside, in front of the cinema’s doors, Applejack fell flat onto her face. “Ooww. Why that unicorn!”

“You got teleported too I see. Did she tell you to leave the city?” Rainbow asked, helping AJ get up to her hooves.

“Yes she did, if that is a threat if I ever heard one. The nerve she has to say that!” She tried to open the door, but it would not budge. “It’s locked! That little rattlesnake took the key from you, hasn’t she?” RD nodded as she kicked the wall in anger.

“Let’s go find the others, AJ.” She said, when suddenly a voice called out to her.

“No need, we’re here.” They turned around to see Pinkie. The others followed shortly. “ Good to see you two are okay. Twilight and Spike weren’t so hot.” Rainbow and Applejack looked at Twilight’s bloodied face and the bandage that was placed over Spike’s nose.

“What the hell happened to you two!? You look like they put you through a meat grinder!” Aj cried out.

“It…is a long story.” Twilight replied. “We all have things to share, no doubt. Let’s get something to eat, and then we’ll share. Today has been exhausting for all of us.“

“I sure wouldn’t mind something to eat!” Dashie called out excitedly, and did a somersault in the air. “Let’s go to Papa Will’s pizzeria!”

“Yes!”,“Totally agreed!”, “Heck yeah!” sounded from everypony in the group of friends, as they all headed to get the tastiest pizza they could afford.





While they were traveling, they discussed most of what happened. Fluttershy and Pinkie told them about their encounter with the clerk, which reaped a scared look from Rainbow, who remembered that she saw the exact pony, dead back in the theater.

“Something wrong?” Asked Pinkie.

“N-no it’s just,I saw the exact same pony at the theater… what was left of her, that is.”

“What do you mean, Dashie?” Fluttershy asked.

“Exactly what I’m saying. I saw the corpse of that poor girl back there!”

That put horrified looks on everypony’s faces, and everyone’s attention focused on AJ and RD. So they told the girls and Spike about their entire visit to the theater.

By the time they finished, Fluttershy was shaking with fear. “T-that’s horrible! This doesn’t even sound like something you could make up…”

Pinkie held her, and said, “Yeah… we should definitely check up on her the next chance we get.”

“Now, hold on a second.” Said Applejack. “You met the Trixie? The one that almost killed the entirety of Ponyville? I don’t wanna point hooves at anypony, but her being in town and this stuff happening can’t be a coincidence, I’m telling yall.”

“We can’t discard that possibility.” Twi said, with a slight frown on her face as well. “It all would’ve made sense, but what me and Spike experienced in the hotel just doesn’t make sense! It was as if he was blocking my magic! Besides princesses, I can’t imagine anyone else performing such a spell. And we know that Trixie lost the alicorn amulet.”

“We will need to find all of this out. But right now, I’m just too hungry to think straight.” Proclaimed Pinkie, as they reached ‘Papa Will’s Pizzeria’. “Good day!”

“Heya.” Responded the clerk, eyeing the group of ponies. “What do you wish to order?”

“Uhh…” Pinkie thought. “Girls, what do we want?” She turned her back to the clerk, facing her friends once again.

“I see no reason to try to fight over the type of Pizza.” Replied Twilight. “I’m paying for everyone’s order!”

Cheers erupted from the group, as they all scanned the menu for their favourite pizzas and began telling their orders to the clerk.
> Chapter five: Silence Before the Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After each pony finished their pizza, Twilight indeed paid for everyone’s food as she promised. “Alright girls, and Spike, let’s gather up what we know so far. There is something going on in that hotel, and we need to figure that out.” Twilight said, rubbing her sore head. “We also know from Fluttershy and Pinkie that Trixie is going to perform tomorrow in the park. And finally, we know that Spike’s gem has magical properties to it. The full extent of them, we don’t know. But it could be helpful.”

“Checkin’ up on Trixie wouldn’t be a bad idea. But before we pay her a visit, I have this for you, Twilight.” Applejack took off her hat, and placed a folder on the table. “I dunno what these strange symbols and drawings mean, but I have a feelin’ they might be important.”

Twilight pulled it open, regarding a bunch of papers covered in random drawings and a letter from the theater under them.

She lifted one of the pictures up with her magic, examining it. A shadow-like figure stood tall within a hall, sucking all the color out of its surroundings leaving only the color gray and black around it. Creeped out, she set it aside and put the letter into focus.

“Hmm, this looks encrypted. It’s too neat and condense to be just random symbols. Besides, who would store a wall of random text? For me to figure it out though, I’m going to need more information and another similar text. Sigh, I’m afraid we will have to return to the theater.”

 Rainbow and AJ nodded as they smiled. “We are planning to do that tonight anyway.” Rainbow said, bro hoofing Applejack. “We need answers, especially after what happened in there. No pony or thing will threaten us without a consequence!”

“We have one heck of a rabbit hole here, Rarity missing plus all of what happened today. I’m not sure if I want to know what is prepared for us next.”

Applejack looked up to the sky, seeing the sun set at its highest. “Looks like we have time before night falls. Let’s have a talk with Trixie, make sure she is not up to something.”

“You are not going to hurt her, are you?” Pinkie crossed her hooves and frowned. “I really doubt she is responsible for what happened at the theater.”

Dashie placed a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Relax Pinkie, we won’t go that far. Some questions need to be answered, that’s all.”

The pink pony stared at her friend. Keeping her frown as she shook her head.

 “Come on, it’s Trixie! She has to be up to something!”

“We should not assume, Rainbow,” Twilight said as she got out of her seat. “But checking never hurts, that is very true. So let’s peacefully talk to her.” Twi shot a look at Dashie.

 Dash rolled her eyes as they all got out of their seats, heading for the park where Trixie was supposed to be.





Trixie laid the saw down, using measuring tape to make circles to the side of the center stage. “It’s alright Trix, the owner you rented this stage from told you to do the best performance this park has ever seen. Besides, the great and powerful Trixie sure can fix some stupid floor!”

She then levitated the saw up, and began to create the holes she needed. Sawing two holes open, she put the saw to the side. Then removed the cut out wood and placed there two cannons she owned.

“There we go. Ha! Nobody expects two cannons under the floor! Now where did I leave those fireworks?”

The sound of wheels hit her ears, causing her to turn her head to see a wagon full of mirrors. A lime green mare pulled it through the park, stopping over to one of the statues next to the park’s lake.

Curious, Trixie jumped off her stage, and walked up to the mare as she promptly noticed her.

“Why hello miss, what brings you over to my not so humble stage?” Trix stared at the cart full of mirrors, giving the mare a confused look. “Why are you logging around so many mirrors?”

The mare gave her a smile, placing a large circular mirror and a little hoof mirror into the statue’s grip.

“I’ve got a big mirror order to fill out.” She pulled out a map and showed it to Trixie. “I have to make deliveries all over the city. The order is from the mayor, and you don’t refuse that. He wants to make things look a bit nicer. I would love to chat a bit more, but I gotta make ends meet! Have a good day.” The mare re-attached the cart to her and exited out of the park, leaving Trixie even more confused than she was.

“He? I thought the mayor was a mare. Oh well, guess that explanation will have to do.”’ She headed back to her stage and began covering the holes she cut out. “Now, if I was a firework, where would I hide…” She said, and started searching through the mess of boxes strewn around on the stage.

Something suddenly tackled her, knocking her to the floor and holding her down. “Well hello there, Trixie Lullamoon.” Said Rainbow as she pinned her down. “Have you perhaps been up to something… I dunno, malicious? Connected to unusual activities?” Dashie scowled at her.

“What do you think? I was getting ready for tomorrow night’s show! Get your hooves off the great and powerful Trixie!”

“Rainbow! I told you not to do anything rash!” Twilight shouted out. “Get off her now!”

Dashie released Trixie and  jumped down off the stage, allowing Trixie to get up.

“What was this for? You better have a good reason for almost killing a magician!” The rest of the girls and Spike got up on stage with her. Her anger cleared up as she noticed Twi’s blood-covered face and Spike’s bandaged up nose.

“What in Celestia’s polished crown happened to you two? You both look like you were hit with dumbbells!”

“Long story.” Twilight replied to her. “We can tell you, but we wanted to ask a quick question first. How well do you do illusion magic?”

Trixie gave them a confused look, weirded out by the question. “I’m the greatest show pony in equestria, so illusions are obviously no match for me.”

“Okayy, what about illusion magic that could materialize hundreds of ponies?” Twilight asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Now this sounds weirdly specific. Let me guess, Rainbow Dash got pranked real hard, and the first pony that came to her mind was me.” Trixie snorted, and pointed a hoof at herself. “While I most likely could do that, I spent the entire day here, preparing the stage. It was in a really rough shape.”

Rainbow flew up to Trixie, and angrily looked her in the eyes. “Hey! What happened in that Luna damned theatre didn’t feel like a prank at all!... And if it was I would give it 5/10. Totally uncool.” Rainbow responded with a snort, crossing her hooves while hovering angrily above the ground.

“Oh please, what even could’ve happened inside of a theatre? Did one of the actors do such a poor job that it left a mark on you for the rest of your life?” Trixie giggled a bit at her own joke.

“You little mu-!” Dashie got stopped by Twilight’s magic, holding her in place.

 Twilight grunted from the exhaustion of maintaining the spell. “Dash, not even kindergarteners get provoked this easily.”

“Sorry Twilight…” Rainbow said, shame filling her voice as she looked away. “We are done here, but know this. Not even your great and powerful hiney would stay cool after seeing row after row full of corpses, all reeking of blood.” Dash shook a bit while remembering that, and nodded to Twilight who in turn released the magical field.

“Yeah, true dat. Let’s go girls.” Commented AJ, and the group started walking away, leaving Trixie with her mouth gaping open behind them, visibly worried by the news she just heard.

“Wait!” She galloped and called out after them. “I-If that’s true, it must’ve been really terrifying. And this really doesn’t sound like something you made up to prank me neither.” She looked on the ground, digging at nothing with her hoof, then looked back at the girls. “This has to be solved!”

“Sure does.” Responded Dashie. “That’s why me and the girls are gonna break into the hotel and the theater tonight!”

“Hey!” Said Twilight, stomping her hoof jokingly and sounding offended. “It’s not a break in. You are making us sound like a bunch of robbers.”

“Okayy, ‘special investigating and only slightly illegal operation’ sounds better?” Suggested Dash with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight nodded and smiled happily.

“Do you have any specific plan on how are you gonna do it though? Busting into a theater is easy peasy, trust me. But hotels are locked up tight.” Explained Trixie, creating an image of what she was saying with her magic.

“That ain’t a bad question actually.” Applejack nodded and turned to Twilight. “What’s the plan, partner?”

“Well… I would normally just teleport us in, but I will be honest,” she touched her aching horn, “I’m not in the best shape after the latest encounter with that hotel guy, or whatever abomination that was.” Twilight responded.

“Then we will have to do this the old fashioned way! Heck yeah!” Cheered Rainbow, and did a few spins in the air.

“If I was you I wouldn’t be so excited, darlin’. This mission will require a bit of preparation, instead of just barging in.” Reminded her AJ, looking at Twilight for approval.

Twi nodded. “It will indeed. Whatever lurks in the hotel and the theatre is really dangerous. Walking in unprepared would be a suicide. But with no information on what is going on, we have no other choice but to go in blind. But we don’t have to be unprepared.” Twilight jumped on to the stage. “Trixie, we would greatly appreciate your help. …Since you claim to have experienced breaking into these buildings. I don’t even want to ask how.”

“Getting out of them actually. I had to get away from a few angry mobs in the past.” She frowned at Twi’s worried expression. “Worry not, Trixie hasn’t had that happen for a few years! Now, with the theaters I have been in, the backdoor lock tends to be no match for my powerful hooves, or pried open with a pry bar. I should have one right here, hold on a sec.”

She walked over to her trailer and went inside, in search for the said tool. Sounds of stuff being thrown away could be heard.

“Thanks…” Rainbow said, surprised by what she just heard. “Are we sure she doesn’t have an axe to grind?” She asked, without letting her eyes off of Trixie.

“Rainbow! Are you serious right now!?” Pinkie spat out in anger. “Trixie has done bad things in the past. But what you said is ridiculous! You think she is that stupid to pull out a bloody ax?”

“Why would she still carry a pry bar? Does anypony else find that a bit fishy?” Rainbow replied defensively, gesturing towards Trixie.

Suddenly a crate came crashing down on the stage. Trixie, setting the tool down, looked at Dash.

“A simple answer, Trixie has for you.” Grabbing the pry bar, she set it on the lid of the crate and pried it open. “This is why I keep it, you think something like cannons would be stored in a cardboard box?!”

She tossed the bar over to Applejack, who nearly dropped it, not expecting it to be tossed to her. “I know what happened, Dash, and I understand why you don’t trust me. I have changed and I’ve already apologized for it. I want to help you so please trust me!” Trixie frowned a bit.

Rainbow crossed her hooves, rolling her eyes as Trixie turned to Twilight.

“Getting into a hotel is not as easy. Lucky for you, you have two pegasi in your team. The higher floor balconies have sliding doors for some of the rooms. They have no locks on them tho, so your friends can drop you off there. A big oversight on the architect’s part, I will say.” Trixie smiled, and tipped her hat with a hoof. " Trixie hopes you find what you are looking for.”

“Thank you again, Trixie.” Said Twilight, as she turned to the girls and they all began walking away, this time without an interruption.





“So now what?” Rainbow asked Twilight, hovering beside her. “We will definitely need some tools if we are going to do this. Just dropping you off won’t do the trick”

“Don’t worry Rainbow, I have a plan.” Twilight told her, thinking about the plan.

 Dash looked at her, and then smiled. ”Of course you do.”

“This is much bigger than we thought, and can handle. We need to let Celestia know about everything that has happened, and ask her for help.” Twi told her, and pulled out a notebook with a quill. Closing up the bag on her back. “Pinkie and Spike, stay with me. Fluttershy, Dash and Applejack, go get the most necessary tools in case the Princess will not be able to send anything. We’ll meet back at the hotel tonight.”

“You got it, Twi.” AJ replied, and saluted, as the three ponies started trotting away.

“Alright, Spike? I need you to start writing the letter.” Twilight told him.

“On it!” Said Spike, immediately grabbing the quill and notebook from twi. “You can begin.”

“Write this,”
Dear Princess Celestia,
I realize how busy you must be during this time, and I wouldn’t ask you for help if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. In short, Rarity’s life might be in danger and help in the form of gear and weapons would be greatly appreciated. This is not any sort of joke. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. 

“Twiii-light Sparr-kle.” Repeated Spike, as he ripped off the page, and burned it.

“Thanks, Spike.” Said Twi as she patted him and turned to Pinkie Pie. “I really hope she gets to read it soon. If not, we’re on our own. But I understand that Celestia is very busy.”

Spike put the notebook back into her pouch and said, “I wouldn’t worry about that. These letters always appear near Celestia after all. And she knows we wouldn’t send a letter this way unless it’s important.” Comforting her.

She smiled and said, “Yeah, good poin-” Just as she was about to finish the sentence, a flash of light appeared in front of them. A guard walked out, with two more following behind him as the light faded out.

Twilight just gaped at them with her mouth open, and Spike did the same. “Well, that was definitely faster than I expected.” He commented, following the guards with his eyes as they approached.

“Miss Sparkle?” Asked the dark coated guard in front of her, presumably their leader, as he looked directly at Twilight.

“Y-yes. I am Twilight Sparkle. Did the Princess send you?”

“Her majesty indeed sent us. And I have a message for you.” He then handed her an envelope.

Twi opened it, and read, ‘I will come aid you  as soon as I can. Armor and a few weapons are on their way. For now, have my guards to protect you.’.
She hugged the letter, and thanked Celestia in her mind.

“Thank you, captain?...”

“Sergeant actually. Sergeant Starfield, at your service.” He replied, while bowing his head slightly.

“Thank you, sergeant. I wouldn’t write to the Princess if it wasn’t a life or death situation. So, um, our friend Rarity has gone missing. Me and my friends immediately started an investigation, and headed to the last place she was seen in. And when we went inside…” Twilight trailed off as she wasn’t so sure how to explain this to the guards. “We got kicked out by a pony using dark magic.” She said, with a serious look on her face.

The guards seemed to be a bit shocked at the revelation, but seemed to believe her. “Understood. So, you want us to help you get past the pony?” The sergeant asked.

“Well yes. Ideally I would love to avoid him, after our last encounter I don’t want to risk my friends’ lives.” Twi replied, resolve could be seen in her eyes.

“That is wise, madam. Though may I ask, have you tried calling the police first? They are the first choice ponies go to for help.” Starfield asked her.

Twilight didn’t respond for a few seconds, being struck by the question. “Um, well… we could have, but I don’t think this is a case that the regular police could solve. We are talking about someone using powerful magic. And the longer we would wait the more out of hoof it would get.”

“Fair enough. And don’t worry, I wouldn’t think less of you for your response. Wherever the Princess sends us, we go and do our job the best way we can. If it’s important to the princess, it’s our job to make sure things turn out smoothly.” The sergeant responded, shrugging.

“I see… Well, we should go and wait in front of the hotel until the rest of my friends arrive. I actually told them to get some of the gear we need, heh.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head while smiling awkwardly. “We really weren’t expecting you to come so soon. Who am I kidding, I didn’t expect the princess to send guards at all.”

Twilight smiled, and added, “I will make sure to thank her properly once she arrives herself.”

 Well then, let’s go!” Starfield turned, and started heading towards the direction of the hotel.

“Wait!” Called out Pinkie Pie. “I didn’t get to know the other guard’s names! It wouldn’t be fair to want help from someone we don’t even know!” She jumped into a nearby bush, and somehow appeared behind the guards, startling them.

“Uh, it’s alright, miss. You will most likely never see us again. No point in learning our names.” Pointed out one of the guards, setting his helmet into the correct position after it nearly fell off of his head.

“Aww, don’t be silly! It would feel weird to work alongside someone you don’t even know.” Pinkie told them, her grin persisting.

“Um, well, my name is Jade Stone and this,” he pointed at the guard standing beside him, “is Iron Heart.”

“Hello Iron Heart and Jade Stone!” Pinkie said enthusiastically, while shaking both of their hooves. “I’m sure we will have a lot of fun working together!”





Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were walking in the middle of a moderately busy street, when Rainbow noticed a sign saying ‘Da best hardware store’.

“Seems like we found the place.” She said, pointing her hoof towards the shop.

“Ain’t sure how trustworthy it is if they can’t even spell ’the’ correctly.” Commented AJ while shaking her head, as she and Fluttershy followed Dash inside of the store.

A bell above the door rang, and the clerk welcomed them with a bored tone, “Welcome to Da best hardware store. Hope you will find what you are looking for and have a nice time.”

“Thank you, kind sir.” Fluttershy said, as she started sorting through the items, in search for a rope, a bunch of screwdrivers and flashlights. The store was fairly small, with shelves lining the walls. Rainbow looked through them, noticing an empty one with a label ‘mirror frames for sale’.

“Alright, who in all of equestria would buy a mirror frame? Why is this shelf even empty” Dash commented.

“A stallion came in, loaded them all in a cart and left without even paying.” The clerk answered while flipping through a catalog he was reading. “It happened 4 days ago, and I also haven’t seen my boss since then.” He looked out the window, a shocked look came to his face as a royal guard came inside. “Um hello sir, what brings you here?” He replied, wondering what is Celestia’s guard doing in a random shop in Manehatten.

“I’m looking for Miss Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow dash. Twilight Sparkle sent me.” The dark brown stallion replied.

Rainbow turned around, eyeing the guard who looked at all of them evenly. “Did Twilight send us a message or something? Are you really one of Celestia’s guards? I doubt you all would arrive here that fast.”

“Rainbow, just look at the armor,” Applejack said to her. “Only the royal guards wear golden ones.”

“My name is Sergeant Starfeild.” He bowed and approached Dash. “I asked Twilight if I could check on you all. Everything is in order?” He turned to the store clerk who had a worried look on his face.

“Yes but there are no flashlights on the shelves. Do you have any spares?” Fluttershy asked the clerk as he closed the catalog and grabbed some keys.

“Yeah, I forgot to restock them upfront. Sorry about that, I’ll be right back.” He unlocked the door behind him, went in and slammed it shut.

“I can sense he doesn’t like this job. I was in the same place like him, before becoming a guard.”

“Really, what was your past job then?” Dash questioned him with a smirk.

“Working in a sewing shop actually.” He replied and she lost her smirk. “What? That was what my family has been doing since the very beginning. I really didn’t like the job so I trained to become a guard instead. Took me five years to reach the point where I am now.”

“Your family must be proud of ya then.” Applejack smiled. “I doubt it was easy to get in the army.”

“It wasn’t easy. And no, my family was fairly disappointed actually. They wanted me to carry out their business and I didn’t want to. If they want to keep it alive, they will have to pass the torch to someone else.”

“Aw shucks. I can’t say I’m happy to hear that you have troubles with your parents, but at least you stood up for yourself and followed your dream.” AJ replied.

“Yeah well, life is a mule. It is very much a pain, but you should spend it by doing what you love, not by what someone tells you to do.” Starfield said, and after a while looked at the clock and eyed the door the clerk went through. “Hmm, he has been gone for a bit.”

“He is probably just taking his time. Though I don’t get what is so hard about getting a bunch of flashlights.” Rainbow commented as he walked over to the counter.

“It doesn’t take long to grab some flashlights. You three stay here, I’m going to take a look.” He opened the door, slipping through into the room. “Hey, is everything alright?” Starfield shouted out. The light flickers and there was only silence. Shelves storing the goods were knocked over, the clerk laying on the ground under one. He wasn’t moving, Oh no he thought, running over to him.

He lifted a crossbow up and loaded it up with his magic and started to point it to all of the directions strategically. “Show yourself!” He commanded. The place stayed quiet, as he kept his eyes forward. He tried to set his hoof to the unicorn’s chest, but he only felt the floor under him. He looked down, but the body was gone. “Wait what? He was right there!” Scanning the floor, he noticed something on the floor. Black hoof prints marked the ground, leading to the back of the room. Couriously, he followed the trail, keeping his eyes open as the place felt weirdly heavy. Like something was watching but he couldn’t only feel its presence.

The trail ended abruptly, with no further evidence of anything being here. “This doesn’t look like rats footprints… Hmm why is that mirror covered?” He looked at a half covered mirror, light shining from the uncovered part.

He eyed it cautiously and decided to have his crossbow ready, holding it in his magic as he examined the frame and placed his hoof on it. “Strange.” He said, pulling his hoof away as it went numb. “What is this made of?” He said and shook his hoof in the air. Curious, he pulled the cover off the mirror. His eyes widened in shock at what he was seeing.

A mare sat in the reflection, her coat smeared in black as the left side of her face looked as dry as a desert, missing the green color the rest of her body had. It was like mold was growing on top of her skin, and her left eye looked to be caved in. One of her legs was ripped off with a black mark being the only thing in its place. Its eyes met Starfield’s as it  twitched its body and growled.

“What the hell?!” Starfield looked behind him. It wasn’t there though. Starfield realized that as he noticed the thing lifting its hoof up and and getting on it’s back legs. “Oh horseapples!” He backed up as the creature started to rush towards him through the glass surface of the mirror, its hoof phasing out of the mirror and reaching for him. He fired at it, the bolt racing and shattering the mirror, causing the creature’s part of the body that got out of the mirror to vanish as it let out a hellish scream.

“Ya alright Starfield?I could swear ah’ heard a scream!” Applejack shouted out.

“Yes… I’m good, just give me a sec.” He shouted back to her while quickly eyeing the room and grabbing the flashlights the clerk was supposed to bring. He then bolted out of the room and met Applejack and Rainbow. “I found the flashlights for you.”

“Yay,” Called out Fluttershy, and asked, “How much will those cost?”

 Starfield looked back into the room, and quickly glanced back. “I don’t think you will have to worry about paying anymore.”

The girls looked at each other, then back at him confused as he grabbed a bag and placed the items in it. “I’ll tell you what happened on the way to the hotel.” After that, he escorted the girls out of the shop, and upon leaving, he paid one last look towards the room with the now shattered mirror, and flipped the sign saying ‘CLOSED’.




Spike looked up to the sky, where the sun was nearing the edge and setting. “C’mon, night is almost here, what’s taking the girls so long?”

Twilight closed the book she was reading and set it into her bag with her mouth. “I’m not sure. That’s why I asked Starfield to check on them after all.”

After a bit of waiting, Starfield appeared with Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow in tow.

“AJ!” Called out Pinkie, while she bounced around a pensive looking Applejack. “How did the shopping go? Did you get everything? And why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

AJ responded to that by looking at her, and saying, “It went well. We should have everything we need outside of weapons and armor. And kind of yes. Starfield here will tell you more.” She then approached Twilight and greeted her.

Starfield checked up on his squad, and began telling them what happened. “This is bigger than we all thought. A clerk from the shop we’ve visited just disappeared.”

“Figuratively, sir?” Asked one of the soldiers.

“I wish. When I went looking for him, all that awaited me was a strange mirror… and a creature within it that almost killed me. Yes. A monster inside of a mirror. I want you to immediately send a report to Princess Celestia.”

Another soldier saluted, and began writing. “Yes sir!”

Starfield then turned away from his soldiers, and walked over to Twilight and her friends. “We are awaiting your next commands, Miss Sparkle. By the way, the gear should be here any minute. I was told by our warehouse master it would take approximately 1 hour to gather and ship.”

“The best course of action would be to wait here. I assume our gear is going to arrive at the same place you got teleported to?” Twilight asked, and Starfield nodded.

“Yes, over there.” He pointed at the chunk of ground where they first appeared. “Also, it’s none of my business but do you have a plan for when we will be escorting you in the hotel?”

Twilight replied with “Actually, I do. First you will-” Just as she was about to finish the sentence, multiple crates appeared at the precise spot Starfield pointed at.

Everyone gathered around the crates, and they began to open them one by one.

“Sweet!” Called out Dashie, as she held a similar golden armor in her hooves. “Will we get to wear these?”

Twi nodded, as she picked through the other crate, containing spears as well as swords with runes on them. “I can’t thank the Princess enough! This is exactly what we need!”

She then dug into another crate, this one containing medical boxes filled with bandages, syringes and other medical equipment. “Oh my. I totally forgot to ask for medical supplies! I love you Celestia!”

“Um, Twi? I ain’t a doctor but there is enough supplies to stitch up more than ten ponies. Should we, I dunno, worry?” AJ asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Well… yeah, maybe a little bit. Where we are going, it will be very dangerous. That’s why I asked the Princess to send in the armor. I couldn’t withstand one of my best friend’s death…”  She finished, tears welling in her eyes.

“O-Oh yeah, better safe than sorry.”
AJ replied, tugging at her hat and bringing it down to cover her eyes. After that she grabbed an armor, and started putting it on slowly.

“By the way, has anyone else noticed something strange?” Commented Dashie.

“What do you mean? I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff today.” Responded Twilight, strapping on her armor.

“I know, but why is nopony around? We are literally in the middle of one of the biggest cities.”

“It’s almost night, every pony is probably in their apartments right now.”

“What’s the hold up ponies? Let’s get this party started in the hotel!” Pinkie Pie cheered, and group-hugged Twi and AJ.

“Not so fast, Pinkie.” Twilight told her . “First we need to put the armor on, and if possible, everyone carry a weapon.” She pointed at Pinkie, who forgot to put on her armor.

“A weapon? Um, no thank you.” Said Fluttershy quietly.

“You don’t have to, of course. Especially if you’ve never wielded a sword before. They are quite heavy. And honestly Im not sure if I will be able to hold one myself.” Twilight assured her, and tried to lift a moderately long sword up to  swing it around, but she soon decided to stop, to not hurt her horn even more.

“No complaints here!” Called out Dashie, already wearing golden chain mail. When She finished talking, she reached under her wing with her mouth, and grabbed a short sword stored in a pouch. She then swung it around, but sadly didn’t think about its weight, which made her dangerously turn to the side, almost falling.“Wooah.”

She spit it out, and looked at Twilight. “Magic makes everything so easy.”

“Don’t worry Rainbow, you can pick a lighter one. Or use a crossbow instead…  even though I doubt it’s pleasant to aim with bare hooves”. Twilight replied, slightly dropping her ears.

“Ya know what Twi, I don’t think me or Dashie really need a weapon. If anything attacks us, I will just smash it with my hooves.” Applejack said and flexed her legs, muscles showing.

“You betcha!” Agreed Dashie and brohoofed AJ.

Meanwhile Pinkie was choosing her own armor, and  asked Starfield with a surprised look, “So there are no pink editions? Not even ones with cake or candy ornaments?”

Starfield nodded no, and told her, “Sorry, miss. The closest to pink would be Princess Luna’s guards’ dark violet armor. And there’s no way to get it now.”

“Aww.” Frowned Pinkie, and looked around for an alternative. “I will go with this one, then!” She pointed at the default armor, and started to dress into it.

“Hey, what about me?” Asked Spike, hopeful look on his face.

“Sorry buddy.” Said Twilight, and patted him. “They don’t make dragon armors.” As she saw Spike frown at that, she added, “Why would they after all? Your scales are more powerful than anything. Plus you can breathe fire, none of our weapons can match that.”

She then gave him a warm smile, and Spike returned it. “You’re right, Twilight!” He replied.

“Alright, are we all ready to go, girls?” Twilight asked, and got mostly an excited ‘Hell yes’ and ‘Wohoo’ as a response.

“Just let me pack the supplies, and we can go.” Said Fluttershy, while she stuffed the medical supplies into both of her pouches.

“Let me help you carry some of that, miss.” Said Starfield, and started packing the supplies into his bags as well.

“Thank you Starfield, think you can carry some of the syringes too, Rainbow Dash? It would be wise to distribute the medicine amongst more of us in case something, well, happens to us.”

Dash nodded and Fluttershy handed them over to her.

“I will stick with Twilight for now. We will need to spread out to search the place. Jade stone you will stick with Spike, Iron heart you will stick with Pinkie Pie. Do not separate yourselves from the one you are assigned to, got it?”. Starfield commanded his guards.

“Sir, yes sir!” The guards said simultaneously and saluted.




After finishing the preparations, mane 6… well, 5 plus Starfield with his guards, now stood in front of the Manehatten’s Hotel. Compared to the other buildings surrounding it, a fair amount of dark clouds hovered above it.

“Is it just me, or has the hotel really gotten scarier?” Twilight asked, scratching her head and eyeing down the hotel.

“It really didn’t look like this the last time I stayed here.” Starfield answered, and looked at the mildly surprised looks the ponies were giving him. “What? Guards have to stay somewhere when we are on a mission. So why not choose a fancy hotel.”

“Oh yeah.” and “That makes sense.” Sounded from the group.

“Soo, will we barge inside or-?” Asked Dashie, excitedly flying through the air.

Twi alongside most of the group gave her flat looks. “Yeah sure. Let’s go in, beat the bad guy, save Rarity and profit. Sounds like a foolproof plan to me!” Called out Twilight, grinding her teeth a bit in irritation.

“Heh, sorry.” Rainbow apologized and landed on the ground. “So, what’s your secret plan, then?”

“It’s not exactly a secret. But here it is.” Twilight breathed in, and started explaining her plan. “So, we will go to a balcony on one of the higher floors. There are nine floors and we will each get three to look through. Me and Starfield will have the ground floor up to floor two. Pinkie and Iron Heart, you will have floors three through five.  Spike and Jade, you have the top floors. We need to search the whole place. Each of us going through different floors will make it easier.

“What about me?” Asked Dashie eagerly.

“You’re going with Fluttershy and Applejack to check out that theater. Starfield, I’ll share with you what AJ brought to me when we get inside. You will definitely find it interesting, especially one of the pictures. Good luck, I hope you three stay safe.”

“Don’t worry sugar cube, we got that handled. Just a quick question,” she turned to Fluttershy. “You sure you know how to use that stuff?”

“What, the medical supplies? I do know how to bandage simple wounds, as well how to fixate a broken limb. Hope it never comes to that though. I’m always on the verge of crying when I see one of my animal friends getting hurt!” Fluttershy responded, and added, “But I promise that I will do whatever it takes to protect my friends inside of this hotel!”

“That’s muh girl!” Called out AJ, and turned to Twilight. “I think there’s no better time to go than this one.”

“Agreed. The sooner we go the better.” Said Twilight, waving to the three of them, gesturing to Starfield to teleport them.


* * *