She could remember… the sound of the tide reached her ears clearly.
It's salty… she thought, sniffing the air.
Pinkamena Diane Pie had never seen the sea — too far from home for her parents to ever think of a family trip to the beach. Yet that gray, motionless and silent lake, beneath a colorless sky, had to be the closest thing to the sea she had learned so much about from books and school.
Her sisters, perhaps a little less enthusiastic than they should have been after the storm, observed with heavy curiosity the salt flat that had been flooded by the intense rain.
"No waves? Then let's make waves!" said one of her sisters as she ran along the shore. Pinkamena didn't need to turn around to know it was Limestone, who was now throwing stones into the lake.
Were the waves what had drawn her toward the lake? No… she didn't remember that part clearly.
What she did remember was the boat on the shore, and how easy it had been to climb aboard.
She smiled. That swaying sensation rose from her small hooves up to her belly: a tickle that, for some reason, seemed to caress 'something special' deep inside her — something she could only express with a shy smile.
The boat drifted away from the shore. Her sisters called out to her from there, but she didn't turn to look. That gray lake had a charm she couldn't resist; it was the first ocean she had ever sailed.
Stop? What nonsense! She didn't want to stop. The wind fluffed her mane, the cries of seagulls made her ears vibrate, and the swaying of the boat, growing more intense, pushed her heart to beat faster and faster.
Her smile, small at first, grew wider and wider. She could feel that 'something special' was about to burst inside her.
Yet that predestined moment would not come on that day or in that place.
A bolt of lightning struck the boat at that instant, and the next thing Pinkamena felt was an intense pain running through her body, followed by a metallic taste spreading through her mouth.
The water enveloped her completely.
After that… darkness.
[---]
The pain was gone. No paralysis to keep her from moving. She blinked.
"Hm?" her muffled voice was barely heard.
She couldn't see anything. Even so, she was certain that the descent of her body had stopped.
Had she already hit the bottom? It couldn't be. The distance she had sunk had been disappointingly short. Perhaps for a lake… but not for the ocean she had imagined herself falling through in her recent flashback.
Apart from that, wasn't the ocean floor supposed to be a little less… sweet?
She frowned, tasting more carefully.
"Hey! Why does the ocean floor taste like strawberry and chocolate?" Pinkie complained, making an effort to raise her voice, while her tongue captured what was left of the sweet flavor spread across her mouth.
The next instant, interrupting the pleased smile she was giving herself, the tide (or what she had thought was the ocean floor's tide) stopped and, after a brief pause, fell again.
"Wow!" exclaimed Pinkie as she emerged from the darkness and touched solid ground again. She had landed on all four hooves, the way a cat would when expelled from its box, but without quite enough elegance to impress Opalescence, Rarity's feline pet.
"I need to work on my landings. Mental note: consult Rarity's cat after we get back to our own reality," she told herself as her vision recovered. "Is this… the ocean floor?"
She looked around, confused. It was definitely not the ocean floor, but if the sea were emptied and set out to dry after a fun repainting, it would look just as desolate and alien as that poorly lit wasteland.
Hill after jagged hill stretched as far as the eye could see, with hues that made one think of a shattered candy palette. The very ground where she stood looked like a gigantic abandoned sugar block. Cracks, small and deep, spread in every direction, reinforcing the image of a single giant sweet smashed on the surface, broken into a thousand pieces.
But that wasn't all. As she observed the landscape, a very particular sound caught her attention, making her ears twitch.
Without wasting a moment, Pinkie ran toward the source of the noise, which seemed to be coming from the most pronounced crack near her. Soon, her earlier astonishment was eclipsed by a new one that barely fit on her face.
"In the name of cocoa and brown sugar! Could it be…?" Pinkie shouted, nearly throwing herself into the crack.
Her sense of smell gave her the certainty she needed. She couldn't see the bottom clearly, but the aroma emanating from it was unmistakable… and delicious.
"A chocolate river!" Pinkie exploded, with a smile as intense as the gleam in her eyes.
Indeed, a river of liquid chocolate flowed through the depths of the crack, releasing as it moved a bubbling sound that was siren music to Pinkie's ears.
Excited at the possibility of making her dreams from the previous night come true — and completely forgetting her other priorities — the rosy pony began to pace back and forth along the crack, looking for any opening she could slip through to reach its sweet bottom.
"I need a shovel... a float... and the girls! No, wait... better a rope... and a jar of olive juice for the road... all in a..." she rattled off quickly, until...
Abrupt, a dry sound fell behind her, stopping her in her tracks.
"…a… sack?"
She said no more. Pinkie, who had spun around quickly, traded her smile for a grimace of confusion.
Just a few steps away, on the caramel-colored ground, an empty sack lay discarded.
And behind it… something else.
To one side, a figure wrapped in vivid yellow plastic stood motionless, watching her with an unreadable attention.
Pinkie gulped.
"Ehmm… are you also here for the chocolate?" she asked, not knowing what to say.
Imperturbable, the figure did not reply.
Far away, on the horizon of the blurred toy-world sky, mysterious lights appeared in the distance. The new day was only just beginning.
[---]
"ROOOOOAR." The beast's roar shook her from behind.
"Get away from my mane! Don't bring my spirits down!" Rarity cried.
Before she could understand how close her pursuer was — or even what she herself was saying — an unidentified object shot across above her head.
The startle made her lose her balance.
"Ahhh!…" a final cry from Rarity, followed by the sound of a hard impact, echoed through the air.
Aching, the unicorn opened her eyes… only to find herself face down on the floor of the room.
The impact against the floor had knocked the breath out of her. Dazed and half-stunned, she rolled onto her back in an attempt to recover it.
For a moment, everything was confusion.
Then, silent stillness.
Her recent nightmare had ended.
A faint light filtered through the window, irrelevant amid the darkness that dominated the atmosphere, but enough for Rarity to make out the garish colors of the room's ceiling.
Tilting her head to one side, she found the legs of the two-tier bunk she had spent the night in.
It didn't take long for the pieces to fall into place.
"Pinkie! Why did you have to make me sleep on the top level?! Ugh!" she complained indignantly, touching her battered nose, bruised after falling from the upper bunk.
The night before, she had been the one to ask for that level of the bunk, and although Pinkie thought it more fun to decide via games — which she ended up winning anyway — now she could only blame her friend for not having tried harder to beat her.
It was a lamentable situation. She felt terrible… and it couldn't get worse…
"Achoo!" a fierce sneeze resounded through the room.
"Oh no! Are my allergies coming back? Pinkie, come here right now! I need my oxygen canister. Heelp meeee!" Rarity began to cry dramatically in the middle of a tantrum, making no real effort to get up, simply waiting for help to arrive.
But neither Pinkie nor any of the others came to her rescue.
"I can't breathe! Everything is going dark…! Pinkie…! Friends!" Rarity continued between tears.
Indifferent, the room remained the same as before.
"I see a light… it's multicolored… this is my end…" Rarity whispered, agonizing on the floor, with an intense runny nose and her body's movements finally ceasing.
Even though Rarity's dramatics were worthy of Manehattan's most prestigious theaters, the response to her performance was the same.
Nothing. Only silence.
She stayed like that on the floor for several seconds… until she opened one eye.
"Seriously?" the unicorn sat up sharply, a look of annoyance on her face.
A single movement of her horn was enough for a handkerchief to appear and clean her nose. Before her mane had finished settling via her own magic, Rarity was already on her feet, surveying the gloomy surroundings of the room.
Despite all the fuss she had kicked up… none of her friends had come?
She looked closely at the lower bunk, where Pinkie should be.
It was empty. But she wasn't surprised; the earlier silence could only be explained that way.
"So the new fashion is abandoning Rarity. Hmpf!" she sniffed, without the theatrics from before.
It was disappointing. Infuriating. And, though she still didn't want to admit it, worrying.
Had her friends grown tired of her and no longer been willing to pay her attention?
An unfriendly expression crossed her face, but she shook it off at once.
"No, don't think like that, Rarity. Your friends haven't abandoned you," she told herself. "They're just very tired from all the misfortunes we've been through… it's only that..."
She was talking to herself; she usually did when working on her designs, but this time was different.
She was doing it to convince herself that everything was all right.
She looked again at her friend's empty bed.
Where had Pinkie gone so early? To make breakfast without her help, despite the fact that she had explicitly told her she would be in charge of that from now on?
She sighed wearily; her discouragement had replaced her worry. She felt vulgar saying it aloud, but… she wanted to go back to bed and forget everything.
"Ahh… if only I had my sofa and my dressing gown..." she let out, thinking of the comforts of her distant home. Her dresses, her machines, and… half a dozen tubs of oat ice cream in her refrigerator!
With her gaze downcast, on the verge of shedding a tear in her loneliness, Rarity noticed a rectangular shape beneath her hooves.
Puzzled, she lit her horn and examined the floor in detail.
An ordinary notepad lay there. Without wasting time, she picked it up and examined it carefully.
"Pinkie's diary…?" she murmured, recognizing her friend's property.
Very plain for her own taste, the object was in perfect condition. As if its owner had simply left it forgotten on the floor.
Rarity mulled it over for a moment and frowned.
That thought sounded logical… except for the fact that it couldn't be.
"…she would never allow herself to lose her diary like this. She always puts it back in her box after writing in it… unless…" with a growing suspicion, Rarity looked around uneasily.
Beyond the light of her horn, the darkness in the room was palpable.
There was no sign of danger, nor of any other presence, but… the longer she spent scrutinizing the shadows, the more noticeable the feeling of being watched became.
A feeling that made her skin crawl.
Something was definitely very wrong at that moment.
She gulped with effort.
"All right, Rarity, don't lose your composure… Pinkie isn't here, it's true, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's been kidnapped while you slept. She simply went out very early… without telling you… with no apparent reason…" she began to say aloud, growing more and more nervous.
"Clank."
A metallic sound resonated behind her.
Spinning around in her startlement, she found a pile of disordered materials at one side of the wall — the same place where she had left the "supplies" sack she had brought with her the day before.
The sack was gone.
Why wasn't it there?
It took her a moment to understand, but when she did, the answer clicked in her mind. With wide eyes, her gaze drifted slowly toward the diary she was holding.
A cold sweat ran down her skin.
She thought no more of it and began to read. It was a complete violation of the friends' code, but the situation compelled her to do it.
After reading the last pages, her fears were confirmed.
"Pinkie!" she let out a smothered cry, covering her mouth with one of her hooves.
She felt terrible. Not like before, when she had only hurt her nose, but truly, genuinely bad.
The decisions of the previous day had just blown up in her face in the worst possible way.
"Applejack and Rainbow Dash were right! We shouldn't have done what we did!"
With a guilt that choked her throat, Rarity set out. She had to warn the other ponies. Perhaps together they could still take steps to remedy the situation…
She had barely taken a few hurried steps. She stopped dead.
She glanced sideways… where the light of her horn clearly illuminated the empty bed of her other friend.
Fluttershy wasn't there.
Before she could process it, the previous feeling of being watched returned with greater force.
This time, accompanied by a warm breath on her neck.
"Flutt…?" Rarity barely managed to whisper before an unknown force swiftly seized her from behind.
With her mouth covered, unable to scream, the unicorn was dragged into the darkness.
[---]
"Orrr... Uhhhh... shiuuuuu..."
"Well... and here I thought I had the worst snoring..." Rainbow Dash murmured in amusement, eyes still bleary.
At her side, Applejack — who was the one snoring — shifted uncomfortably beneath her sleeping blanket.
The Pegasus yawned, stretching her wings lazily. Her body still felt very drowsy, but her spirit had woken as fresh as the morning dew.
"Well, at least it's not as bad as Fluttershy's..." she laughed to herself, removing the bandages that still covered part of her head. "Hm, has she… woken up already?"
She couldn't remember the last time her shy friend had spent so long asleep. It worried her. The only similar episode that came to mind dated back to her moving to her new home in Ponyville.
Back then, starting to live somewhere away from her parents had caused Fluttershy immense stress, which in turn had given her a worsening insomnia. It wasn't until Pinkie Pie's sleepover — where she finally finished getting to know the others — that she had at last been able to feel at home and rest.
Of course, at that sleepover, Fluttershy was the only one who had a good time.
The rest…
Rainbow Dash's amused expression darkened slightly as she remembered the dreadful night the five friends had ended up spending on that occasion.
"Same as now — and also without Applejack's hat, huh? Well, that's quite a coincidence… all that's missing is Fluttershy sleepwalking out and going around whacking everyone like that time," she laughed for a moment, only to go quiet the very next second.
Around her, the silence remained unchanged, as lethargic as the almost nonexistent breeze.
Irritated, she turned to look at the shelter's entrance; everything looked normal, but she didn't take her eyes off it even after another yawn.
After watching for several minutes without incident, the Pegasus returned to her previous position. Shaking her head, she folded her wings. She didn't want to think about it any further; if she dwelt on it too long, it might actually happen.
She nestled back under the same blanket beside Applejack.
Lying outdoors at the shelter's entrance, both ponies found themselves in the middle of a grayish dawn.
There were no clouds in the sky.
There was no sun on the horizon.
Only a dim light spreading, timidly, from the highest point of that toy world.
"Little lights… little lights…" she whispered drowsily one last time before falling back into a deep sleep.
Her gaze, fixed on the horizon just before closing her eyes, couldn't help but notice the growing river of bright points moving in zigzags… far away, or perhaps far too close to them.
[---]
Beneath the sky of the false dawn, in that toy world, there were no words in the air.
Firmly planted, time seemed to stop as Pinkie observed the mysterious figure wrapped in vivid yellow plastic before her. Equally, the figure returned her gaze with an inscrutable…
"Shush, that's enough! Too much narration! Not even 30 seconds have passed facing this guy!" Pinkie Pie cried, frustrated, trying to break the fourth wall. "Still going? Don't focus on me — focus on him!" she added, pointing with her hoof at the mysterious presence.
For the first time, there was a reaction from her opponent. A claw — similar to that of a bird — emerged from it and came to rest in a reflective pose on its veiled face. The figure tilted its head slightly, with bony thumb and index finger resting on its chin.
"Ah, finally… Ahem, sorry about that, I…" — she cleared her throat, trying to hold back a nervous laugh — "my name is Pinkie Pie. I think I'm a bit lost… and you?"
This time the response came quickly: the claw pointed at the sack on the ground.
"Ahh… right. You're the one who kidnapped me in a sack and brought me all the way out here with no apparent reason… Is it about the chocolate?"
The index finger rose and shook gently in reply.
"No? Then…" Pinkie Pie paused, thoughtful. "Is it because you need help?"
She had barely finished asking when the claw had already begun to undo the yellow plastic covering that wrapped its body. The sound of the material yielding rang clearly in the middle of the desolate landscape.
Pinkie stood motionless.
The suit fell to the ground.
And what was left… was not a figure.
Suspended in the air, there was no body, no face, no recognizable form. Only the limb she had already seen: a bony bird arm, floating all on its own.
"Ah... I see..."
The arm didn't respond. Instead, it began to flex its fingers calmly, picking a bit of grime from its sharp nails.
"So then… you're not looking for somepony to lend you a hand, are you?"
This time there was no response either. In its place, the arm continued stretching its joints, preparing for what would come next.
"Well… in that case… see you around."
Her words hadn't even finished being heard when the rosy pony had already turned around, shooting off like a lightning bolt in the opposite direction, leaving her captor behind.
The arm, for its part, remained motionless, floating. It felt a little nostalgic. This wasn't quite right for the moment… but it would give her a few seconds' head start.
[---]
If there were ever an opportune moment for Pinkie Pie to wish she were part of an action-packed escape monologue, this would be it.
Galloping in a straight line, the pony had already covered a considerable distance since leaving her captor behind in the middle of the wasteland.
Pinkie was fast. She had enough speed to escape… though, to her misfortune, not the right sense of direction to know which way to go.
Realizing how lost she was, Pinkie used the first group of large rocks she spotted ahead to slow down and take cover behind them.
"Huf, huf...!" she panted. The run had left her breathless. Behind her, along the path she had just traveled, there were no sounds of her possible pursuer's hoofsteps — which gave her a fleeting reassurance…
"Wait a minute! What hoofsteps? It's just a floating arm! It has no legs!" she exclaimed, annoyed, without noticing that her attempts to break the fourth wall were no longer working.
"Hey! Are you upset with me about before? I was only trying to help you with..."
She didn't finish her words. A sudden tremor shook the ground beneath her hooves.
"Ayy... I'm sorry! I won't tell you what to do again! Excuse me! Yippee!" she tried to apologize in vain, stumbling away from the rocks, which crumbled seconds after she moved away.
The brief tremor ended as quickly as it had begun. Though Pinkie was completely unaware of its true cause, she couldn't overlook the unexpected opportunity that had opened up beneath her hooves.
"Opportunity?" No sooner had she said it than an intense aroma reached her nose, adhering completely to her sense of smell and pulling her toward the newly opened crack in the ground. Unlike the one she had seen before, this one was much wider, and its bottom was visible to the naked eye.
"Mmmmm! A movie-worthy escape through a chocolate river? I'll take it, narrator!"
Without waiting for any further explanation from the treacherous ground, Pinkie Pie threw herself directly into the abyss.
"Wheee!" she let out mid-leap. The fall would be short, and the rest of the journey, delicious.
The scent of chocolate intensified as she descended, enveloping her completely. Her smile widened as she stretched her forelegs out to receive it head-on.
With her eyes closed, she was already fantasizing about being inside the river she was about to reach.
Unfortunately for her, she would never get to touch it or taste it.
Barely centimeters from grazing the thick and fragrant chocolate current, a bony bird claw appeared suddenly above her. Faster than her own fall, it caught her and, yanking her like a fish hooked on a line, pulled her away from her trajectory in one sharp movement.
"Guuuuug!" she barely managed to exclaim as the arm hoisted her up abruptly by the scruff. Eyes wide open, she watched all the chocolate disappear beneath her in one bitter instant.
In a matter of seconds she was carried through the air across the entire path she had just traveled, until she was back at her starting point: the same spot where her captor still was.
"Boing!" A sound, similar to a powerful impact against an elastic body, burst into the air. Where Pinkie should have hit the ground, her body was now bouncing gracefully, over and over, on an enormous mattress shaped like a giant marshmallow.
To one side, the bony bird arm remained suspended in the air, rotating its wrist in continuous circles, trying to relieve the cramp accumulated from the intense effort of stretching to catch the restless rosy pony.
By the time the arm stopped feeling the discomfort and turned around, Pinkie had already stopped bouncing and was lying stretched out full length on the mattress, gazing lost at the sky.
There was no exchange of words. Rather, only one of them could speak; even so, the interval of silence was prolonged, long enough for the arm to think something was wrong.
"WHYYYYYYY?!" Pinkie burst out in anguish, unleashing a river of tears. "Why didn't you let me fall?!"
The arm froze, confused.
"All that delicious chocolate! I had it within reach! Why?!" the pony continued crying floods, at the same time stretching her forelegs toward the sky in a futile attempt to reach what she had lost.
The arm — which, if it had eyes, would be rolling them — began moving its fingers in an effort to accumulate patience.
"YYYYyyyyy! WAAAAAAAAAaaa!"
Yet the pony's weeping showed no sign of ending. After several seconds of pointless waiting, and feeling a faint twinge of responsibility, the arm snapped its fingers, making some handkerchiefs appear, which it shared with the pony.
"WAAAAAAAAAaaa...! Thank you!" the pony replied upon receiving them. "Snif, snif... Waaaaaaaaah!"
Though briefly interrupted, it was clear the pony's crying would not stop on its own. Already impatient, the arm thought of another solution, a more practical one.
Again it snapped its fingers, making some balloons appear, which convinced neither it nor captured Pinkie's attention. It tried again, replacing them with little cakes, then tarts, donuts... However, all of them had the same effect as the first: none.
Finally it made a cup of hot chocolate appear with whipped cream and a decorative marshmallow on top, sprinkled all over with cinnamon and caramel chips. The aroma it gave off was irresistible...
Pinkie's weeping stopped at once.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." she breathed out, eyes fixed on the floating cup.
Swaying the cup back and forth, the arm verified that it had finally captured Pinkie's attention — she didn't take her eyes off the delicious chocolate, like a kitten captivated by its food.
Without needing any further proof, the arm handed the cup of chocolate to Pinkie, who, without delay, began to consume it eagerly, as if it were the first food she had tasted after a long fast.
The arm sighed — or at least that was how one could interpret the sudden relaxed movement of its claws — and, adopting a less tense posture, descended to the ground. Feeling the urgency of the situation, the arm began to write with one of its fingers on the surface.
"Ehhmmm... excuse me. I appreciate the chocolate, it's delicious and everything, but... could you give me the narrative focus back, please?"
The arm turned toward Pinkie and made a thumbs-up gesture.
Pinkie replied with a smile. There was no need to explain what that would mean next.
[---]
"79 98 115 101 114 118 97 114 46 46 46 32 97 110 97 108 105 122 97 114"
There was no easy way to explain it.
Successive, and with no apparent shared trajectory, bright lights emerged from different points on the landscape's periphery.
Even with the atmosphere darkened by the dying dawn, those lights crossed the sky with an unnatural fluidity, as though they moved along an invisible track that branched in multiple directions, perceptible only to them.
It was an astonishing celestial spectacle, but also an unsettling one. No sound seemed to accompany them in their transit, and at times they stopped their movements, as if recalculating their directions, before continuing with greater speed.
There was nothing natural about it. Those movements — and others just as suspicious — conveyed a clear intention, a planning that could only be attributed to a mind… a very intelligent one, managing everything through signals invisible to its congregation.
Indeed, that was the case.
Yet another question arose: what could be the purpose of such a swarm deployed over the terrain?
The answer was simple: a relentless search.
A search that, hours before, had shown its first signs of progress… and that now advanced with greater urgency toward its completion.
Finally, one of the lights stopped in the sky. Like the exploration probe it was, it observed with attention the organisms it had just detected on the surface. At once, it sent its coordinates to the rest of its kind… and, seconds later, to its superior.
The order came without delay.
"67 97 112 116 195 186 114 101 108 111 115 32 118 105 118 111 115 32 111 32 109 117 101 114 116 111 115"
[---]
"Uhmmmmm..." Pinkie's ears twitched lightly. The cause was not a tickle in her wavy rosy mane, nor a signal from her celebrated Pinkie Sense, but a sudden unease that had seized her just as she finished her cup of chocolate.
Wasn't the narrative focus supposed to have come back to her sooner? Now she could feel it… but not minutes ago, when she was scratching her tummy. She didn't like that. It was a clear indicator that other events, just as important as she was — or even more so — might be happening simultaneously somewhere far from where she stood…
…probably?
Pensively, she adjusted her drooping ears, without taking her gaze from the horizon.
Overthinking things in silence didn't suit her personality. But, considering how the day had unfolded so far, she had no choice but to act with just a little more calm.
"Ahh, at this hour I should be finishing making breakfast..." she recalled with nostalgia. The morning had already moved on considerably and she still had no word from her friends… nor did they have any word from Pinkie.
Feeling a sudden bitterness, she raised the cup to her lips. Although it was already empty, she continued searching its inside with her tongue.
"Tap, tap, tap..." A gentle tapping interrupted her thoughts, drawing her attention to the ground.
At last, the bird arm had finished writing whatever it had been writing.
With a spring she left the marshmallow mattress where she had been seated. The next instant, she was already in front of the mysterious writing, starting to read at once.
The arm watched her, expectant.
"Uhmmm… uh-huh… uh-huh… hehe…" the pony let out in small giggles as she read — a scene that would have irritated others, but that didn't surprise the arm. What did make it uncomfortable was how long she was taking to finish.
After several more seconds of apparent reading — and perhaps noticing how the arm was drumming its fingers with impatience — Pinkie let out a last muffled laugh before adopting a serious expression, very unnatural for her.
"Hmph…" the pony cleared her throat, rubbing her nose as well. "I see... First of all, could you give me more handkerchiefs? Please."
The arm snapped its fingers and a full pack appeared.
"Thank you!" Pinkie replied with a smile, opening it with complete nonchalance.
It was just what she needed.
Without warning, in a swift and sharp movement, she flung herself onto the arm, pinning it to the ground. With the pony on top of it, the limb tried to snap its fingers to free itself magically, but in vain. She had been one step ahead. Its fingers — its entire scaly bird claw — had ended up locked inside the box of handkerchiefs it had itself created.
Immobilized entirely, realizing the terrible mistake it had made by letting its guard down, the arm stopped resisting.
The perpetrator, the bold Pinkie Pie, was the one riding the situation now — and she had some things to say…
"ASK FIRST!" an irritated Pinkie Pie exclaimed into the air, before turning a completely serious gaze on the captive arm. "Sorry about that last part... I... urghhh... no more fourth-wall games for now, all right?"
In response, the arm began to shake inside the handkerchief box. Pinkie, warily, loosened her grip a little, allowing one of its fingers to peek out from the box.
Exposed, the finger — the index, which looked more like a sickly stalk or a scrawny swamp worm — moved up and down insistently.
"Uh-huh... I understand... you'll only move if you agree. And you'll stay still if you don't. Correct?"
Confirming this last point, the finger continued moving up and down.
"Good! Now, my first question: are you Discord? I mean, our Discord? The same one who eats phone books with soda and who promised never to hurt his friends again — especially his first and most beloved friend, Fluttershy?"
For the first time, the finger stopped moving, perhaps taking its time to consider its answer. After a few seconds of waiting, it tilted to one side, as if pointing in a specific direction on the ground.
"No, don't try to change the subject. I'm not going to read that message you wrote there a moment ago. And if you ask me why not, it's because the first thing I noticed was your name, and the second thing — before I got distracted by your magnificent penmanship — was that your handwriting style is very different from the Discord I know. So, unless you dramatically improved your writing since the last time we saw each other, you shouldn't be the same Discord."
She paused briefly, sharpening her gaze without looking away.
"Or I could be wrong… or not, because if that were the case, it would mean there's more than one Discord, all with similar powers, with tendencies toward eating books and causing problems for others, but none that I can call a friend... Am I right?"
Pinkie was breathing intensely by the time she finished her words. Her gaze was even piercing. There was no doubt she was being very serious in that moment. To say the least, she looked very threatening.
After a few seconds of tension, the finger tilted again, this time validating her words.
"Aha! I was right!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a victory smile. "Then you are another Discord after all! ...That changes things completely."
As abruptly as her attack had been, Pinkie's temper changed again. The rosy pony stopped pressing on the arm, stepping aside and helping it free itself from the handkerchief box.
With no more restrictions, the arm got up and began stretching its stiff joints. While it did so, Pinkie — more relaxed and a little guilty — continued speaking to it:
"Yes... I'm very sorry for attacking you. That's not how I greet new acquaintances... but I wasn't sure who you were! The other Discord, the one I know, has the bad habit of making things very difficult for me and my friends. Last time we had to make him promise — a Pinkie Promise — that he would never behave like that again... and well, when I realized you might be him, I got very upset. To think that he would break his promise like that... that he would be responsible for everything... I..."
Fleeting, a shadow of vulnerability crossed the pony's face. The silence lasted barely an instant.
"But I could still forgive him! If he apologized properly, of course. But since that's not the case, and you're not you — I mean, him — then there's no reason for me to be angry at you the way I would be at him. Do I make myself understood?"
The arm, which had listened attentively to the tangled monologue, maintained a reflective posture. After a silent interval, it turned its wrist toward Pinkie, in the way the critical eyes of a cooking judge would regard a suspicious cake.
"Hey! I'm not jumping to forced conclusions. I'm being a responsible adult pony! I have a serious side too, you know? Besides, I'm still very upset at you for kidnapping me without introducing yourself; that was not at all friendly. But... considering you haven't done anything else to me so far, I suppose you have a very important reason up your sleeve... I mean, up your claw, don't you?"
The limb began to fidget; it gestured with its fingers in what seemed like an urgent message, but without success. Pinkie, confused, insisted:
"So you'll tell me why you kidnapped me?"
The arm, which hadn't stopped writhing, came to a halt, containing its movements. After calming itself for a moment, it moved again, this time more slowly, but pointing its claw in a direction.
The same one it had been pointing to the whole time.
"Ah! The message! Ha ha ha... urghhh... I'm sorry, I truly didn't read it all the way through before. Your penmanship was quite distracting. Do you realize you mix up your 's' and your 'z'?"
The arm, as though puffing up and taking on a more reddish tone, insisted over the text on the ground.
"I understand, I understand! I'll read it now. I won't get distracted this time, I promise," she replied with unusual calm.
Things hadn't turned out so badly for a first encounter with a thinking extradimensional limb. Pinkie could already feel more confident in her actions, and although 99% of her wanted to leap for joy and let loose her full list of limb-related jokes, the other 1% ordered her to maintain a serious profile by any means necessary.
"Urghhh! Being serious is exhausting!" she exclaimed inwardly as she approached the writing. She had a slight nervous tic in her right eye.
At last, standing before the message and taking a deep breath, Pinkie began to read aloud. It said:
"I am Discord, not the Discord you know, but one who does know the friend you cannot find. Twilight sent me to look for you. You and your friends are in..."
Pinkie, who had her mouth open from the revelation she had just read, looked up. A sudden shadow had covered the message on the ground.
"...d-danger?" she stammered, eyes fixed on the sky.
Above her, at low altitude, a flying saucer was suspended in the air, pointing a laser light directly at her.
The next instant, an intense explosion interrupted the stillness of the desolate candy wasteland.
[---]
At the same time, in another part of the toy world, inside the lookout-cabin-refuge-for-friends-desperately-in-need-of-a-good-lunch...
Two pony silhouettes advanced through what seemed like a dark hallway.
"Are you seriously going to be mad about this?!" Rainbow Dash protested, fluttering impatiently behind a hurrying and grumpy Applejack.
"Umhhh!" the farm pony grunted, stopping abruptly. She had no interest in turning to look at her friend. Her attention was on the pile of boxes blocking her way.
"I don't understand why you have to get so upset! I stayed awake longer than you. Nopony came in while I was keeping watch. If anything, you should thank me for doing a good job."
"..." There was no reply this time either. Applejack continued ignoring her, focused on removing the boxes as quietly as possible.
"Now you're going to ignore me? Argh! Why do you always get so stubborn in situations like this? You would've avoided this if you'd just let me keep watch alone, like always."
"Hm?" the farm pony stopped. The next instant, she switched on the torch she had strapped to her head.
"I understand that yesterday you noticed I was a little down and wanted to take on the responsibility yourself, but you falling asleep hugging me like I was your special pillow was neither your fault nor mine. We were just very tired and it happened, that's it. Besides, it's not the first time..."
"Rainbow..."
"...that we've spent a night sharing the same blanket. I'm sure you don't remember because you sleep like a log most of the time, but we've had stickier nights... I mean, closer nights... before. So it's not a big deal, ha ha."
"Rainbow... what are you...? ...This is not the time for...! Urgh..." Applejack had to swallow her own words while turning her attention back to the boxes. "These... did you move them?"
"You mean the boxes? Not right now."
"Yesterday?!"
"No, I left everything just as it was. Why do you ask?" the Pegasus replied, landing beside her.
"These boxes... they're not the ones I put here last night."
Placed there the night before, those boxes constituted an improvised defensive mechanism, designed to obstruct access between the kitchen and the other rooms of the complex — which lacked doors — where they were sheltering.
The fact that they had been moved without any of their other companions notifying them could only mean one thing.
An intruder!
Both, sharing the same thought, froze and looked at each other before turning back toward the pile of boxes. The atmosphere, previously calm and laden with an almost friendly argument, had turned thick and cold.
Was that the feeling that preceded imminent danger? The answer lay on the other side of the dark hallway...
"Do you hear that?" asked Rainbow Dash, who had cautiously approached the obstructed entrance.
"What?" Applejack, nervous, moved closer to her friend.
"That!" Rainbow Dash urged. Both fell silent.
The sound, almost imperceptible before, began to grow as the silence deepened.
"Urgh...aaaaaaaaaa...."
A lament, like that of a soul in torment, reached the ears of both ponies clearly, who could not hide the shudder that ran through their bodies upon hearing it.
"aaaahhh...aaaaheeelp...aaaahhh...uuuuuhhh..."
Wasn't that muffled voice…? They took far too many seconds to break out of the paralysis that had trapped them. When they finally understood what those stifled cries meant, Rainbow Dash and Applejack pushed through the boxes without saying a single word, knocking them over and bursting into the room where their other friends were supposed to be resting safely.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
The danger had been sleeping among them all this time.
With the torchlight flooding the space, a bewildering scene was revealed before them.
"...heelp!..."
"Rarity?!" they exclaimed in unison.
From the floor, with red and tearful eyes, a pale Rarity was begging for help. Behind her, an expressionless Fluttershy had her trapped between her hooves in a strange crushing embrace that didn't allow her to move or breathe.
Despite the initial confusion, this time the pair of friends reacted quickly.
With a flap, Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy from behind, while Applejack struggled from the front, trying to loosen the solid grip on the unicorn's neck.
"Fluttershy! What in tarnation! Are you sleepwalking?!" Rainbow Dash said while pulling from behind. "Let her go already! Woaaaaa!"
Barely had she finished speaking when the sleepwalking Fluttershy released Rarity without warning and, spinning beneath Rainbow Dash, positioned herself behind her in the same pose in which she had previously trapped the unfortunate unicorn.
"Oh no you don't!" guessing her intentions, Rainbow Dash reacted faster than Fluttershy had moved and shot upward, dodging the embrace that was closing around her like the jaws of a crocodile. "Ha, nice try! But you'd better wake up from that dream and stop... Aaaaaa!"
She had sung victory too soon: her body was safe, yes, but not her tail.
Pulled backward by her sleeping friend, both Pegasi ended up tangled in a clumsy hoof-to-hoof scuffle, rolling across the floor and adding even more confusion to the already chaotic atmosphere.
Moving away from the fight, Applejack had dragged Rarity to the entrance of the room, where she tried to help her recover her breath among the scattered boxes all around.
"Rarity! Are you all right?! What on earth happened...?!"
She couldn't finish the sentence. A magical force shoved her abruptly from behind.
"We were wrong!" Rarity shouted at her, having yanked her with her magic until they were face to face on the floor. "Ahh... we shouldn't have done it... ahh..."
"What... what shouldn't we have done?" Applejack stammered, unable to understand.
"Ahh...! The supplies...! The sack...!" Rarity sobbed between hiccups, "We shouldn't have lied to Pinkieeeeee!"
Applejack finally understood.
"The diary... read the diary!" the unicorn ordered, handing her a notebook in what appeared to be her last reserves of strength. "Forget about me! Read it! Fix things before it's too late... Ughhh...!"
A second later, in the arms of a shocked Applejack, Rarity fell unconscious in a dramatic faint that, despite the gravity of the moment, came across as exaggerated and slightly funny.
After checking her friend's vital signs and confirming she was in no danger, Applejack took the supposedly notebook-shaped diary and began flipping through it quickly.
At the same time, inside, Rainbow Dash had managed to neutralize Fluttershy… in her own way.
"There! This should be enough!" the Pegasus exclaimed.
In one of the corners, with an angelic expression on her face, Fluttershy was now calm, holding tightly the pillow that Rainbow Dash had handed her moments before as an improvised solution to her violent sleepwalking.
With that problem solved — according to her, at least — she could turn her attention back to the other matter.
After casting a quick look toward the entrance, Rainbow Dash approached Applejack, who was still reading the diary.
"Hey, what happened here?" she asked, looking at the fainted Rarity on the floor.
At first she didn't feel too much concern seeing her in that ridiculous position; for an instant she thought she was just dramatizing. However, upon noticing Applejack's serious expression, she was immediately on alert.
"Pinkie... is she in her bed?" Applejack asked without lifting her eyes from the notebook.
Realizing Pinkie Pie's absence, Rainbow Dash turned toward her friend's bed.
It was empty.
"Where...?"
"She went out early to look for more supplies..." Applejack replied, pressing a hoof to her forehead, as if she felt her head was about to split in two. "She already knew we weren't finding food, so she thought she should go look for it herself..."
"Alone?! Wait... no, no, no. How could she have gone out without me noticing? I was keeping watch, Applejack. Nopony came in or out! She must still be here... surely..." Rainbow Dash began to agitate, scanning the space from side to side.
"She didn't want to worry us, which is why she didn't tell us anything..." Applejack finished explaining, lifting her gaze with a bitter expression. "She wanted to help in her own way..."
Without saying more, Applejack lifted Rarity's body and went back inside, passing by a guilt-stricken Rainbow Dash, to whom she casually handed Pinkie's diary.
With the diary between her hooves, she began flipping through it on the spot.
The air felt heavy. The torchlight on Applejack's head barely managed to fully illuminate the room, which now felt larger and less familiar than it was.
Laying Rarity down carefully on the absent pink friend's bed — and noticing an unusual stiffness in her own hind legs — Applejack sat down beside the headboard and let out a long sigh.
Rainbow Dash, for her part, had finished reading enough to understand what needed to be done next. Or at least she thought so, until she looked again at Applejack's expression.
"And now… what?" she asked, addressing her friend.
"Nothing," Applejack replied flatly, without taking her eyes off Rarity. "We'll just wait."
"What?! Aren't we going to go look for Pinkie?"
"No," her friend replied curtly.
"Why?"
"She didn't go far. According to the diary, she should be at the great crack in the north wall. She'll be back soon."
"Right... didn't you say yesterday that to get there you had to cross a field full of geysers?"
"Yes, but knowing Pinkie, she'll know how to get through it."
"Uhmmm…" Rainbow Dash grunted, staring hard at Applejack.
The logic behind her words made sense.
For any pony.
Except Applejack herself.
"All right... what's your problem?"
"Problem?"
"Don't play dumb with me. You've been acting strange since yesterday... Are you going through a guilt episode or what?"
"I'm not going through a guilt episode. I'm just being responsible, taking care of the friends who need me," replied Applejack, adjusting Rarity's pillow.
"And what about Pinkie? She's lost out there. She needs you too."
"I don't think so. She went out of her own free will. She can take care of herself."
"By herself? And what happened to 'we have to stick together'? Or does that not apply when you're responsible for splitting your friends up with your lies?"
Applejack's face flushed.
Almost immediately she got to her hooves and stood face to face with Rainbow Dash, who had moved closer to her.
"I am no liar, Rainbow Dash!"
"Oh yeah?! Then prove it to me by coming with me to look for Pinkie!"
"She'll be back soon. You can go look for her if you want. I don't need to come with you."
"Yes you do, Applejack!... For me you do."
Rainbow Dash looked at her with eyes that were slightly glistening.
"Pal... I know you hate to lie and let others down, but getting angry at yourself isn't going to solve anything. I know that... I've been like that for the past few days. But I also know — because a friend spent all of yesterday afternoon telling me — that together we're stronger. So please, set aside that guilt you're feeling about your bad decisions and come with me to find Pinkie."
For the first time, a bitter doubt was reflected on Applejack's face.
"I... Somepony has to take care of Rarity and Fluttershy, that's..."
"What Twilight would do? Yes, I've thought about that too," Rainbow Dash replied with weariness in her voice. "...But Twilight isn't here. You are! And so am I!" she added, placing a hoof on her friend's shoulder.
Applejack looked away.
"Look…" Rainbow Dash continued, lowering her tone a little. "I know you want to take the safe road and not leave anyone behind, but that doesn't mean we can stop taking risks. I make mistakes, you make mistakes, everything spirals out of control all the time... but we're still here."
Rainbow let out a small, tired laugh before continuing — she was finding it hard to put the right words together.
"So, I guess that somehow, in some strange way, things are still working out. And they're going to keep working out as long as we stay together. And I don't just mean physically, like this morning, but also... you know... up here." she said, lightly tapping the side of her own head. "Mentally... I mean... Head-to-head... Ugh, if you know what I mean." she finished with a useless circular gesture of her hoof.
Applejack dropped her gaze even further, barely visible behind her uncovered mane. The disheveled forelock she had was a living reflection of the intense deliberations weighing on her.
She let out a long sigh.
"Besides…" Rainbow Dash added, glancing toward Rarity and Fluttershy. "I really don't think they're going anywhere the state they're in."
"All right, Rainbow... let's go find Pinkie."
"Yeaaaaa!" the Pegasus spun in the air in a burst of happiness, but it was only one spin. Applejack's stern look made her land with the same speed.
"Urghhh... is there something else, Applejack?" asked Rainbow, clearing her throat slightly in an attempt to seem more serious.
"I think… it would be better if you talked to Pinkie first. I haven't been feeling very sure of my decisions these past few days... not after what happened with the beast and how things turned out…" replied Applejack, still downcast.
"You blame yourself for that too? That furball was crazy. You handled it pretty well in the moment... at least that's how it seemed to me..." replied Rainbow Dash, scratching the back of her neck with a hoof as she walked with restrained haste toward the door of the room. "And don't worry about talking to Pinkie. I'll do it for you. Knowing her, we'll probably sort this out way faster than this conversation took us..."
"That's true..." Applejack murmured, letting a slight smile escape as she set off too.
The guilt that had been weighing on her before had eased thanks to her friend's words. It was the peace her heart had so badly needed. But, even more important than that comfort, there was something else making her feel better…
She couldn't help but admire Rainbow Dash's quick recovery.
The day before, she had spent the whole time lying down, with no desire to move or collaborate of her own will. Now, just one night later, she was back on her feet with her typical energetic attitude, giving her a pep talk to keep going.
Had she recovered so quickly because they had slept together?
Applejack had slept deeply too, but upon waking she hadn't felt any more renewed than before. Only more nostalgic… about her bed on the farm and her family.
"Maybe I need more rest…" she thought resignedly.
No sooner had she finished forming that thought than a pillow materialized on the dark floor in front of her, forcing her to stop.
Was the universe telling her that was exactly what she needed to do at that moment?
Not a chance.
"Where did this come from?" she protested, turning around.
With the torch on her head well focused, she easily found Pinkie's bed, where Rarity still lay with the pillow she had placed under her minutes before.
Puzzled, she directed her attention toward Fluttershy's bed, which was...
Empty.
Applejack didn't have enough time to process it.
A soft, familiar voice — and, given the context, a terrifyingly one — was heard behind her.
"Don't move."
That was it for her…
"Hey, Applejack... can you shine some light over here? I can't see these boxes well... Ouch! What in the hay did you put inside these?!" Rainbow Dash complained as she tried to remove the boxes still blocking the entrance.
"Crack!"
A dry, unexpected sound resonated in the air at the same moment as the light in the room swayed before dimming noticeably.
Alerted, Rainbow Dash turned around, only to freeze at the end of the movement.
It was barely a second, though the image in front of her seemed to have been there for much longer.
In the center of the room stood Applejack.
She was not alone… nor was she in a situation Rainbow Dash would ever have imagined seeing her in.
Behind her, as expressionless as before, stood Fluttershy, hugging her from behind in what, at first glance, looked like a harmless reunion embrace…
"Wha... what...?" Rainbow Dash stammered, finally releasing the stupor trapped in her throat.
Just as she had tried to grab Rarity before, Fluttershy had Applejack suspended in the air in an embrace that seemed to be squeezing the soul out of her, rocking her at will as though she were her favorite pillow.
Yes… the same pony she had just spoken with, and to whom — in a moment of carelessness — she had turned her back. Now she was faltering in a situation that was almost surreal.
What should Rainbow Dash do?
She found no clear thoughts in her head. Only the muscles of her athletic body seemed capable of responding in that situation.
And that response was a shout converted into action.
She shot toward her friend. She had her eyes fixed on her and on nopony else.
She didn't even care that, with no apparent reason, Fluttershy hurled Applejack's body directly toward her.
With one powerful wingbeat she caught her in the air and descended to the ground.
She checked her vital signs immediately, desperately trying to confirm she was still all right.
She wasn't breathing.
"No, no, no... Breathe! Dummy, breathe!" she began to shout, pushing on Applejack's chest with her hooves in a desperate attempt to help her recover her breathing.
Applejack still wasn't responding.
"Dammit, Applejack! You can't go down from something this stupid... breathe!"
Tears were forming in her eyes.
Two seconds... three seconds... she kept pushing.
It wasn't until the first tear fell on Applejack's face that she finally got the response she so badly needed.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Applejack began to cough, recovering her breathing.
Rainbow Dash, relieved, was also able to catch her own breath.
She hugged her friend without thinking. Not a violent hug like the one she had received seconds before, but a gentle one, full of happiness and gratitude.
In that moment, the only thing that mattered to her was that Applejack was still alive.
"Cough, cough... uhhh..." the farm pony groaned, barely moving a little within the embrace she was receiving.
Rainbow Dash, realizing her friend's weakness, pulled away carefully and laid her back down on the floor.
"Ok... you're not badly hurt... you just need to rest a little more..." she started to say, looking around for something in the gloomy surroundings.
She found what she was looking for quickly.
"Here! A pillow and a blanket. Yes, that's what you need..." said Rainbow Dash, settling Applejack with both objects that had been floating beside her. "Just rest, Applejack... I'll take care of you..."
She finished speaking feeling exhausted at last.
Taking a seat beside her friend's headboard, she gently removed the torch Applejack had strapped to her head and put it on herself.
With the light illuminating Applejack's face, she began to stroke her hair without taking her eyes off her.
"Is she going to be all right?" asked Rarity's voice from behind.
"Yes... yes... though I think she dislocated her back or something... I don't know... I don't like how that looks..." Rainbow Dash replied, looking at Applejack's lower limbs, which remained completely rigid, in an unnatural position relative to the rest of her body. "Uggghhh... dammit... I should have tied up Fluttershy when I had the chance. I got distracted because you were..."
She stopped mid-sentence.
She blinked.
She slowly turned her head around, only to leap up with a shriek.
Rarity was behind her, very much awake on Pinkie's bed, a nervous smile on her face.
She had her horn light on, projecting the magic that kept the forgotten Fluttershy suspended in the air, who was hanging upside down and, still sleepwalking, was kicking her hooves as if chasing something imaginary that only she could see.
Still incredulous, eyes wide open, Rainbow Dash's expression of surprise transformed into anger.
"Were you awake this whole time?!" she shouted furiously.
"No, no... not at all! I only woke up after Applejack put that very compacted plastic pillow under my mane. I was about to say something at that moment, but you were arguing so intensely, I didn't want to interrupt and... well..."
"Aaaand… what?" the Pegasus snorted, turning red with impatience.
"And I just stayed where I was, listening to you..." Rarity replied, enormously ashamed, watching the unconscious Applejack on the floor. "I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry..."
If only she had acted sooner, perhaps the incident with Applejack could have been avoided… or would have had a less dramatic outcome.
"What in the world is wrong with all of you?! First Pinkie goes off on her own! Then Fluttershy turns into a sleeping beast! And now you play out the drama of the century! Ahhhhhh!"
Exasperated, a flushed Rainbow Dash looked as though she was about to completely blow her top right there against the whole world.
Averting her gaze, Rarity fell silent, not daring to say anything else that might further provoke her friend's fury.
The situation was very close to escalating between them…
But not in the way any of the ponies could have imagined.
A shudder ran through the entire plastic building they were sheltering in, as though a giant wind had struck it from outside.
Both Rarity and Rainbow Dash felt the tremor and stood motionless, unable to understand what was happening.
The shaking disappeared as quickly as it had come, but the silence that followed felt even more unsettling.
Something resembling a hum remained suspended in the air, making the ponies' ears twitch by reflex, trying to swat away a nonexistent mosquito.
"Stay here for a moment! Don't you dare go anywhere!" Rainbow Dash ordered sharply.
Swift, the Pegasus took flight and disappeared through the room's entrance.
Behind her, confused by the sudden chain of events that wouldn't stop happening, Rarity responded too late:
"Go anywhere? How could I...? I can't move from here either…"
Although she could now move her head and her forelegs, her legs under the blanket were just as rigid as Applejack's on the floor. All courtesy of sleepwalking Fluttershy's bear-crusher hold.
"What in the world is going on?!" she complained with nopony to hear her.
[---]
Outside, the previously gray and cloudy sky seethed with multicolored lights and moving shadows.
Emerging in rapid succession, rows of gleaming discs plunged toward the earth like a swarm of fireflies spilling without control over a silent wasteland.
Yet there was no longer any silence in their advance, but a growing and bone-chilling hum.
Rainbow Dash, from the shelter's entrance, spoke her first words after carefully observing the overwhelming celestial spectacle.
It was her most sincere opinion…
"We are completely lost!" she cried in despair, already in the sights of the new threat that had finally caught up with them…