"My sister has truelly ruined all of Equestria single hoofeldy. She and Luna were supposed to be the only two alicorns, I specifically told her too many would distort the rulership of the land and cause mass confusion of the laws. She ruined our political influence in the Crystal Empire by overturning the King, not even speaking of causing the entire empire to disappear. She herself was almost overthrown, and defeated, by a Changeling! How she has fallen from grace. It has fallen up to me to set things right. I understand there is only one way to do just that. I know now what I must do." Order left his castle atop a mountain in Sparta with one goal in mind, to save them all, no matter what.

Twilight was with her friends enjoying a picnic they don't get to share as often due to Twilight's new obligations to being a princess. With meeting diplomats, deciding new laws, and royal conferences with delegates from across lands far out reaching Equestria, she barely ever had a off day. Today was hardly different, even now she had her face in a scroll on some political issue involving the dragons wanting to expand the area they are allowed to use as homes. Celestia had just informed Twilight they would negotiate allowing them the badlands to-

"Twilight! Darling, get over here this instant and spend time with your friends. You know it is not every day we get to do this anymore."

Twilight got her nose out of the paper long enough to see Rarity looming over her with the others watching the scene unfold from the mat Pinkie had laid out to set the food on. "Sorry Rarity, Celestia was telling me about the-"

"I'm sure Celestia will understand if you can't get back to her on this matter. It will still be there even if you come and enjoy yourself for just a day, darling."

Twilight hopped up, "You know what, you're right Rarity! Girls, I'm sorry for not including myself. So how have you been?"

Rainbow was the first to answer with a smug grin, "Well, being captain of the wonderbolts does keep me pretty busy with the latest recruits trying out to be the next big thing, jealous ponies who think they should be captain of the wonderbolts, and lazy colts who think they are the best things around. Reminds me of all those namby pamby, snobby, uptight unicorns in Canterlot, no offense Rarity."

Rarity turned her head with a 'Hmph' "Well, since I moved Carousel Boutique to Canterlot, business has risen exponentially. I have a fresh order every day with new possibilities for me to explore the fashionista world!"

Twilight nodded her head to those two, "That's great girls. Applejack how is the farm?"

Said farmpony seemed to beam with pride. "It's doin great Twi! After Applebloom got her cutie mark, she's been a great help on the farm. Big Macintosh usually tries to help her a lot, or take over her work, but she said she is a big girl now. We even get to harvest the zap apples every year on the day Granny died... I miss her. On the brighter side, we have more than enough money for the farm and some extra bits to help our fellows in other towns if they need it." Applejack's voice had gotten quieter when mentioning Granny Smith. Twilight was beaming with a smile at how everything else was going though. "That's great Applejack, I'm so happy for you. And how have you been Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy looked up quickly, surprised her name was mentioned, "Oh, um, I've been good Twilight. The animals are amazing as usual, so no complaints. Angel hasn't really been giving me much issue now that he's found himself a little girl bunny to be with. I finally got my own animal santuary to have a home for them all."

Pinkie Pie opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Twilight. "That's great girls, I'm so proud of you." They leaned in for a group hug enjoying each others company, except for Pinkie. While they didn't notice her, she slipped out of their way back to Sugarcube Corner alone again.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake decided to leave Ponyville, giving Pinkie Pie ownership and full responsibility of Sugercube Corner. They didn't even say goodbye. Well she did have Gummy, who was snuggled up with her providing as much morale support as he could muster as she wept into her pillow. Her friends never even noticed the party pony's absence. To get her mind off of what happened, She left her room upstairs to go downstairs and continue working. In a time without customers, Pinkie Pie would work on the boring side to any great business, paperwork. Things were slow until Rarity decided to stop by. "Hello Pinkie, I'm here with an order. A dozen strwberry cupcakes, please."

Pinkie looked up from her bills and her latest lawsuit to smile at Rarity. She was glad that one of her friends came to see her, had remembered her. "Coming right up Rarity!" Pinkie bounced into the kitchen to get started on thr cupcakes. She mixed the ingredients whilst singing her cupcake song. When Pinkie placed the pan in the oven, Rarity walked in saying, "You know Pinkie, it isn't everyday we can get to have a talk just between ourselves." Pinkie nodded.

"You know we aren't so different as you would think." Pinkie looked at her questioningly, "what do you mean?" Rarity said, "That feeling deep down you get when somepony ignores you, when somepony tries their very best to pretend you don't exist, like they can't hear you, when somepony tries their very best to shut you up so they don't have to pay attention, how being ignored is the worst feeling in the world?" Pinkie had a look of sad understanding between them. A silence ensued between them for a moment. "Out of our friends, we are the ponies who talk the most deary. In all of our great qualities, they would rather us keep our mouths shut than hear about a 'cake disaster' or a 'fashion emergency,' or what have you. The point is, we should take some time out of our week to just chat with each other. You know, with somepony who won't get sick of us blabbering on and on. Thank you for the cupcakes Pinkie. I will talk to you later." During the monologue, Rarity had pulled out the cupcakes from the oven and placed them in a to-go box. "Okie Dokie lokie Rarity. Til next time!" Pinkie called from the entrance to Sugercube Corner as Rarity was about to return to her motel she was spending the night at. Pinkie had forgetten, Rarity no longer owned a living space in Ponyville. "Rarity, wait!"

Rarity turned her head back to Pinkie who was running over to her. "Rarity I completely forgot you don't have a place to stay. How about you stay the night with me? No no no I won't take no for an answer. You can have my bed." Pinkie was dragging Rarity into Sugercube Corner. Rarity dismissed the fact her mane might be ruined on the way in.

Pinkie Pie was awake in the middle of the night reading, shocker right? She was reading a child's story of what would happen if the Gates of Tartarus were ever opened, 'When the Earth is down on it's luck, the mane six will return to offer aid in the coming blight.'

That was the end of the story. Pinkie put a hoof to her chin, the mane six? Perhaps the book means the elements of harmony since they are so powerful and- she sighed heavily. Oh who is she kidding. Pinkie was only using the book to keep her mind off of how poorly her friends treated her. They could have called her silly and random. They could have laughed at something she did. But to ignore her completely like she wasn't even there, it broke her heart. But Rarity had come and eased her troubled mind.

The next morning Twilight was in her old library home with Owlowiscious and Spike cleaning up the library. Spike belched a letter from the princess and Twilight immediately started reading it.

'Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

It is with great urgency that you come back to the castle immediately with your friends. I can't speak much of what's going on in the form of a letter, others may be watching, but you must make haste! Bring the Elements of Harmony!'

Twilight was in a frantic rush to pack for her trip to Canterlot. "Spike! Go and get Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity. I will get Rainbow Dash! Tell them to meet me at the train station!" Spike gave a quick salute and ran out of the library.

He made it to Sugercube Corner where Rarity was with Pinkie in the dining area drinking tea as Pinkie Pie said something that made the pampered pony chucke delightedly at her pink party pony friend's antics. "My, My Pinkie, that most certainly is something I never new about you. Ah Spike! Wonderful to see you here. Please sit join us." Rarity said gesturing to the table. "No time Rarity! Twilight needs you two to meet her at the train station, Stat!" Rarity said, "Oh my, it must be very important to interrupt my time with one of my best friends. Let's go Deary, we mustn't be late." The three ran out of the Boutique with Spike heading to Sweet Apple Acres to get Applejack.

Applejack bucked another one of the many apple trees with apples on them at Sweet Apple Acres. She moved to buck the next tree, but instead of hitting bark, her hind hooves collided with skull. Spike was on the ground holding his head in pain. He considered it a bad idea now to get between Applejack and her tree bucking. "Spike! Shoot I'm sorry bout that. Ya know ya shouldn't get in my way when I'm bucking apples." She helped the poor dragon up, who was now sporting a noticeable bruise, to his feet. "Ow, it's fine AJ. Twilight needs you to meet up at the train station, it's an emergency from the princess!" Applejack said "I'm on it" and ran off to the train station. Spike ran to Fluttershy's house.

By this time, Spike was very exhausted, and in pain. He got to Fluttershy's cabin but couldn't raise a claw to knock. He instead just let his head fall on the door a few times. When the door was opened, he stumbled forward alittle. "Sorry Fluttershy, Twilight needs you to meet up with the girls at the train station." Fluttershy meekly nodded and floated off to the train station. Poor Spike had had all he could handle for one day and fell asleep on the spot.

Twilight had all her quills and paper and whatever else she needed for a test, even though she was a princess and probably wouldn't need it. Fully prepared, she flew to Rainbow Dash's home to wake her up. She floated into her home without knocking and gently shook her awake, "Rainbow, Rainbow Dash wake up." She groggily rose her head up and shook it to get the sleep out. She rubbed her eyes and said, "Twilight? What the-" "No time to explain!" Twilight said interrupting her, "The princess needs us in Canterlot now, it's an emergency." When Rainbow Dash heard emergency she was on her hooves fully awake faster than Pinkie could say Chimmycherrychunga. "Well What are waitin for? Lets go!" They flew as fast as they could across Ponyville together and hopped on the train. Their friends were already on the train when they got there. The conductor had told them they would have to take an alternate route and drop off some other ponies.

"So Twi, what exactly is this big emergency?" Applejack said a little unhappy for being interrupted from her farming. "Well the princess didn't exactly explain very much. I brought everything I would need for a test just to be certain." They shook their heads to that, "but she did say others may be watching, whatever that means, reading any letter I may send off to the princess." Applejack looked at her funny, "What in tarnation is that supposed to mean." They all looked to princess Twilight for answers. She said, "I have no idea" while shaking her head. Somepony a few seats down lifted the daily newspaper closer to his face smirking. The duration of the ride was unnaturally quiet. When on a train ride with Pinkie Pie, you can be very sure it should never be so quiet. All her friends were thinking about asking her what was wrong. Rainbow Dash finally decided to take the plunge into uncertainty. In Pinkie's room, she was looking out the window as the scenery passed by. She had an unusually grave look in her eyes as she turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash, "Hi Dashie" at least she was still calling her by her nickname. She attempted a smile that even looked sad, "has something gone wrong?" Rainbow noticed her hair was straight, and her eyes were dull, not the illustrious sky blue they usually are, "I just came to check on you. Are you ok Pinks? You look like you just saw a ghost." She sighed, "I got a feeling, kinda like a Pinkie Sense, that something bad, something really really bad is going to happen. My hair fell and until that bad thing happens, I think it will stay like that. I'm scared Dashie." By this point Pinkie was shivering with her hooves up to her face. Rainbow hugged her and stayed with her until she stopped shivering.

Twilight was in her cart studying, hoping to be prepared for whatever they must face. Suddenly she heard a familiar sound of laughter. She had heard it before but couldn't place her finger on where. It continued as it began to sound more and more childish and silly. It began to have a creepy edge to it, almost to the point of insane laughter. By the time it began to die down, Twilight was terrified. "Who's there?!"

It was silent. She heard something in the dark snap its fingers, and suddenly the cart she was in began to shake vigorously for a moment as a loud bang could be heard at the end of the train, smoke could be seen billowing out as well. Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack came running out of their respective rooms. "Oh sweet Celestia! Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were in there!"

They all ran to see if their friends were alive. The back cart was barely hanging on and was about to snap under the pressure. The cart was derailed with one wheel on the track, Twilight immediately took command of the dire situation. She turned to her friends, "Ok girls, this is what we're gonna do. Applejack, Rarity and I will hold the cart in place so it doesn't fall off. Fluttershy! I need you to fly into the cart, I know your scared but your friends need you. We don't have time to waste, so let's go girls!"

Twilight and Rarity used a levitation spell to help hold the cart in place while Applejack secured three ropes around the cart. They were doing ok for awhile. Fluttershy floated Rarity into the cart through the window, the door to the cart was jammed beyond opening as Twilight couldn't waste magic opening the jammed door, the cart was already almost completely out of their grasp. In the cart, Pinkie was on top of Rainbow Dash, protecting her from any falling debry with scortch marks on her back. "Pinkie!" No response "Pinkie! Wake up, please!" Fluttershy raised her voice, screamed at her, trying to wake her up. After a few seconds, Pinkie began to stir. She looked up to see Fluttershy surrounded by a blaze of oranges reds and yellows. She looked down under her, remembering she had saved Rainbow Dash from an explosion after she had gotten a Pinkie Sense telling her it would happen. Pinkie lifted Rainbow Dash up to Fluttershy, "Take her Fluttershy. I know you don't have enough wing power to fly us both to safety!"

"But Pinkie-"

"Fluttershy, this is not negotiable! This cart is going, I can feel it, and the rest are going to fall as well! Now hurry the fuck up and save yourselves!"

Fluttershy was hesitant but finally complied with Pinkie Pie. She lifted Rainbow Dash onto her back. She took her back to Twilight and Applejack. "Where's-" Twilight was cut short when she almost lost hold of the cart entirely as the entire train shifted. The cart fell down and crashed below

Rarity said, "There's no time, Applejack grab Rainbow Dash and make a beline to the front of the train. We must get off before we all crash and fall to our death!"

Applejack lifted Rainbow Dash on her back and ran as fast as she could to the front of the train. Rarity was next to her and without help, the other carts began to plummet. Dragging the entire train with it. Twilight flew to the front of the train and lifted up Applejack, who was still holding Rainbow Dash, and flew out the doorway. Fluttershy had lifted Rarity and flown off the train. They would be able to make it to Canterlot from this distance. They were all crying from the loss of their friend, but they would have to mourn later, Celestia awaited their arrival.

Before arriving to Canterlot, Rainbow Dash had woken up. She cried when her friends told her Pinkie died. She took the news the worst, her friend had saved her life and lost her own in the process. They made it to Canterlot and were escorted to the castle. They had planned to recuperate at the hospital and evaluate the situation, Fluttershy couldn't even move from fear of what had just happened to them and their friend. Rainbow Dash was still crying. The guards told them to go to the castle immediately regardless of their present condition. Fluttershy had to be lifted and carried all the way there. Twilight was having enough of Rainbow Dash crying. "Rainbow Dash I know you cared about Pinkie Pie, we all did, but we have to move on." Rainbow Dash looked up with complete fury, "Move on! Move on! I bet it would be easy for you to move on Twilight! You never liked Pinkie and tried to stay away from her as much as possible. Applejack hates it when she would try to talk to her. Fluttershy even gave excuses to push her away. Rarity is the only pony who never had too much of an issue with her. Now you just want us to move on, or do you want us to forget about her!?" Twilight looked down with tears streaming down her eyes. "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I didn't mean anything, I swear it! I just think we need to stay focused on what the Princess-" "Why don't you take the Princess' horn and shove it up your ass 'Princess Twilight!' She flew towards the castle, making as much distance between them as possible. At the gate, they met up with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Twilight had to wipe her eyes with a wet cloth so no pony else could tell she was crying.

She did the usual greeting she always did with her old sitter, anything to help forget about what they had just witnessed. "Twily! Princess Celestia is waiting on us." Without further questioning, they all entered the castle and made it up to Celestia's throne room.

Celestia was with Luna and Discord. Instead of a throne, he opted to floating above the princesses. "It is good you are all here. Where are the Elements of Harmony?" Princess Celestia said rather quickly. Twilight realized she no longer had her bag. Even if she did, she had forgotten about the Elements.

She laughed nervously, "I'm sorry princess, I forgot them." She said each word more slowly as she saw the fury in Princess Celestia's face. "You FORGOT them! I asked you to do one thing and you forget about it? What, Was it not important enough to you!?" Celestia was in Twilight's face, who had tears coming out of her eyes. "You stupid fool, I should-" Discord had placed a lion paw on Celestia's shoulder, in his other claw he had the Elements of Harmony, effectively cutting her off. "Tia, calm down. The elements are here, everything's okay. Just calm yourself." With fury and hate in her eyes she looked around to see everypony frightened of her outburst. Twilight was shaking. Celestia sighed, "I am sorry everypony, this stress is getting to me. Last night I had a vision. There was blood, death and destruction everywhere you looked, chaos ravaged the land and consumed the hearts and minds of everypony."

Fluttershy was shaking as the rest of them looked at Discord. "What! I'm 'reformed' remember? Besides I never killed."

"Discord is right, in my vision I saw the Gates of Tartarus opened without it's guard-dog. The Elements of Harmony will be used to put a new seal on the Gates. To get to the Gates of Tartarus, we must traverse through the Everfree Forest, survive the Abominable Sands, cross the River Styx, and pass through the plains of Olympia."

Rainbow said, "Well, talk about a hop skip and a jump away." Fluttershy was rolled up in a ball completely terrified. Celestia started coercing Fluttershy into going with while Discord said, "Princess, no disrespect, but instead of chasing down something we are not even sure about, we should refortify the city wide defenses and gather the citizens into the crystal caverns beneath the castle to keep them safe! Oh for goodness sake, I actually care!?"

"Are you saying my premonitions are wrong!?"

Discord shook his head, "Women" Celestia did not hear him, she was convincing Fluttershy to go with them, she said "No time Discord! We must stop this from happening."

They began arguing until Luna said, "Why don't we let our friends decide our future actions. Who believes we should wait here and prepare?"

Luna, Cadence, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Discord raised their hooves/hand.

"And who believes we should go to Tartarus?"

Twilight, Shining Armor, Celestia, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack raised their hooves. Celestia said, "Ok, lets try again. Anypony who wishes to deny their princess by staying, raise your hooves!" Only Discord raised his hand. He sighed, "Your wills are still as weak as ever." Celestia smugly smiled in victory. "Well, I suppose we should head out now."

Discord sighed, "This is going to be a big pain in my ass."