Author's Note:

Oh shoot! Another long wait! So sorry! Well, I certainly hope this chapter makes up for it. So, with nothing else to say… Here we go!

Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all were teleported to the Everfree Forest. Twilight immediately collapsed to the ground, panting from the energy the teleportation spell cost. That was only a short-distance teleportation spell; to transport six ponies from Canterlot to Ponyville was more than the spell or Twilight could manage. Hence the were dropped in a place between point "A" and point "B": The Everfree Forest.

"Ahh, What?" Rainbow complained. "It'll take forever to get out of here!" Then she blinked. "Wait a minute… I have wings!" she spread them and flapped to the canopy of trees. However, much to her dismay, the thick branches blocked her ascent. She tried breaking them in a similar manner as she did clouds, but trees are much sturdier clouds as Rainbow soon discovered as she sunk to the forest floor, clutching her throbbing hoof and muttering irritably to herself.

Fluttershy looked on the verge of tears, and Rarity and Applejack were occupied trying to calm her. "Darling, please!" hushed Rarity. "Be strong, don't cry."

"Yes," Applejack agreed, patting the pegasus on her back. "If you cry, the noise'll attract Timberwolves, and we'll be ripped to shreds!"

Fluttershy began bawling and Rarity glared accusingly at Applejack, who returned a weak, bashful smile.

Pinkie was hopping about as usual, looking around at the dark, foreboding trees about her. She suddenly paused. "Hey, I recognize this place!" she said. Everypony paused in their activities. Even Twilight lifted her head and managed to speak.

"You… do?" she asked with a small tilt of her head.

"Yeseroonie!" cheered Pinkie. "As you can see, these trees smell of bees, and if they smell of bees, honey is frees to take as we's please! And since honey isn't cheese, it contains no daries, so come, we'll not tarry for Zecora live there-y!" And Pinkie parted some bushes to reveal the tree hut that Zecora lives in some distance away, barely visible through the thick flora.

"I am so confused right now," said Twilight, picking herself off the grass, "but this is obviously Zecora's. She knows a lot of things; maybe she'll have some knowledge about Bill and who, exactly, he is."

"And a bandage for my hoof!" Rainbow added.

As the six trotted to Zecora's, Twilight suddenly came to a halt. "Girls," she said. "I just realized something. From which direction did you see Bill flying from, Pinkie?"

Pinkie paused, he hoof held thoughtfully to her chin. "Why, the Everfree Forest, from the direction Zecora's hut is in SWEET CELESTIA HE AND ZECORA ARE IN CAHOOTS?" Pinkie screeched. The other four ponies collectively gasped and stared at Twilight and Fluttershy in shock.

"So yer sayin' that Zecora migh' have somethin' tah do with Bill?" asked Applejack.

Twilight nodded. "To be sure, only one of us should go to Zecora's in case she thinks that all six of us might be suspecting her of something and are there to put her under arrest. That won't do at all. So, who should go?"
"Twilight," said everypony. Well, everypony except Rainbow, who voted for herself so she could get a "potion or something to heal my hoof."

It was, however, Twilight who ended up going, deciding to use Rainbow's need for a healing potion as an excuse to visit. Twilight would, as Zecora brought out the potion, subtly question her for evidence that Bill was connected to her in some way. Twilight felt guilty for suspecting and accusing a friend, but the fate of Equestria was on the line here. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

She carefully knocked on the door and tried her best to look like a pony who hadn't just watched somepony she thought she trusted totally cream two almighty princesses and then teleported herself and five others several miles. Apparently she did a good job because when Zecora opened the door, she gave her usual, friendly greeting in rhyme.

"Twilight, my dear, how pleasant it is to have you here."

Twilight nodded and returned with a smile as she walked into Zecora's hut. "Hi, Zecora. I was wondering if you had something to heal Rainbow Dash's hoof?"

Zecora stood in a thoughtful pose for a moment and said, "Well, how did sturdy Rainbow Dash hurt her hoof? In a crash?"

Twilight nodded quickly. Too quickly, she thought, trying not to let her dread at the slip-up show on her face. Be natural so Zecora remains unsuspecting.

"Well, I might have a potion somewhere. Did I put it here? Or maybe there…" suddenly, Zecora stopped in her search. Her ears pricked. She swiftly pulled a large mask from her walls and shoved Twilight, who was too weak to resist, underneath.

"Hey! What're you-"

Zecora put her eye near one of the mask's eyeholes and sushed. Twilight fell silent, but had to stifle a gasp when none other than Bill Cipher himself appeared in the hut.

"Well, good evening, Zecora. How are you? Good? I'm feeling positively evil, thank you. So, now, where's that little potion that'll turn me back?"

"I didn't think you'd need it today, but let me find it. Do you have money to pay?"

"Yes, yes, I've a whole royal treasury of Bits now, you could say."

Twilight frowned. What could Bill want with a potion to change him back? Back into what? But Twilight quickly let her mind go blank when Bill's head turned to her direction. He can hear thoughts, Twilight! Don't think don't think don't - no no! Thinking about not thinking is still thinking! Oh Celestia he's coming closer, he'll find me, SHUT UP, TWILIGHT!

But Zecora noticed Bill walking towards the mask. "Get away from the mask; you're getting too near. Besides, I have the potion right here." Zecora held up a pitch black vial. Bill grabbed it without so much as a "thank you" and started to uncork it.

"No! Wait! Don't drink it inside! You'll blow up the house!" Zecora lied. Bill huffed, rolled his eye, and swept out the door. Zecora waited a few moments until she could be sure he was gone. Then she swiftly pulled the mask off Twilight and hung it back on the wall.

"What was that all about?" Twilight screeched.

"Bill came to my house as an isosceles. I gave him the potion of "Turning Ponies". But upon further reading in a book I had found, I realized that Bill had weaved lies all around."

"Book?" Twilight asked. Zecora nodded and held up a large book with rather tattered pages and a worn, red cover. Upon said cover was a large, golden horseshoe shape with a "3" in the middle.

Zecora flipped to a page that held a picture of Bill's Cutie Mark. Words written in a suspiciously red fluid read; "DO NOT SUMMON AT ALL COSTS!" Upon further reading, Twilight made out; "Can't be real". But what really rattled her were three words: "CAN'T BE TRUSTED." Twilight was rattled at how right those words were.

"Where did you find this?" Twilight asked.

"I began searching in the forest for the place whence Bill came. Instead I found this book that had been opened to his name. I believe these two might be connected, though how, I cannot tell. But this book tells me Bill's a demon, coming straight from -"

"HELLO!" roared Bill as he slammed open the door, which hung loose from its hinges. Zecora quickly put the book Twilight, her tail hiding it. Bill was smiling, but it was an angry smile, if there could be such a thing. "Okay, Zecora, funny joke giving me deadly nightshade poison, bt seriously, give. Me. My. POTION." His eye roved to Twilight. "Oh, Twilight! There you are. And I thought you'd have teleported to someplace farther away!"

Zecora puffed up in anger. "How DARE you come into my home and demand a potion! I'd never give you anything, even suntan lotion!"

Bill glared. "If rhymes are what we're doing here, then I will comply, but there you stand, so dumb, and thinking I believed your lie. Well I'll tell you 'Nice and dandy! How I so love liars!' But I hate when I'm lied to, so I'll set your house on fire."

Zecora stepped back in surprise.

Bill grinned as he held up a match box. He struck a match and held it up to the wall. Then he laughed blew the match out, set his horn on fire, and stabbed the wall. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Twilight screamed as she was suddenly surrounded by a blue blaze. She clutched the book in her magic grip, doing her best to shield it from the fire. She narrowly avoided being crushed by a large, burning spell book as it tumbled from its place on a shelf. Twilight's vision swam from the heat, and the choking smoke did not help.

Suddenly, the burning wall burst open as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie came in with a large raincloud that appeared to be in a violent battle with the five ponies. Applejack had it around the middle with a lasso, Rainbow kicked it with her good hooves, Rarity held it as best she could in her telekinesis, Pinkie Pie used her Pinkie Sense to warn them when the cloud was about to strike them with lightning, and Fluttershy meekly gave it the occasional poke.

Twilight was instantly soaked as Rainbow gave the unruly cloud a good, solid kick. It burst like a bubble, dowsing the fire but starting the fire of Twilight's rage.

"Oh, look at this! You soaked the book! I hope the ink doesn't run…" Twilight plopped herself down in a puddle, barely noticing her own wetness as she carefully opened the sopping pages of the book she hoped was undamaged.

Rainbow groaned. "Leave it to Egghead Sparkle to care about a book more than her own life!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight chastised, standing up and using a spell to dry the book before the ink could begin to run. "This book could be our one clue to defeating Bill! This is the most important book there is right now, even more so than "The Full History of Equestrian Weather Patterns". Speaking of weather, what was up with that cloud?"

"Everfree clouds," huffed Rainbow. "They're just unnatural. They wind controls them, not pegasi. Crazy, right?"

Everypony but Twilight nodded their agreement, while the purple alicorn rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, why's Zecora's hut on fire?" Applejack asked.

"Well, this is what happened…"


"... And then Bill teleported away, and you came and rescued me," Twilight concluded.

"Woah, so Zecora WAS working for Bill?" Rainbow screeched.

"Well, I don't think she meant any harm when she gave him that potion, but upon discovering this book," Twilight held up the now-dry journal, "she realized what an untrustworthy creature he was."

The ponies looked at the picture of Bill's Cutie Mark.

"What if," mused Pinkie, "What if this is not just Bill's Cutie Mark, but Bill himself?"

Everypony gave Pinkie a weird look, but Twilight nodded eagerly.

"Yes, Zecora said something about Bill being an isosceles before she turned him into a pony!"

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I wouldn't want to be the same species as that troublemaker!"

"Then again," continued Twilight, "Bill's Cutie Mark and the picture in the book are equilateral triangles, not isosceles, so that theory's out the window."

"But still," said Rarity, "he seemed to be such a gentlestallion. Even if his clothes were a bit… odd, he at least WORE clothes, which is more than can be said for those of us in Ponyville."

"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie. "Are we some kind of nudist colony? Seems a bit of strange thing to have in a children's show, or even to mention in a K+ fanfiction!"

Everypony stared at Pinkie, and this time not even Twilight made sense of that statement.

"Anyway," continued Applejack, "Where IS Zecora? She might be able to shed some light on this here subject, not to mention get somethin' fer Rainbow's hoof."

"Oh, horsefeathers!" swore Twilight. "I can't believe I forgot to check if Zecora was okay! Oh no!" Twilight and her friends began frantically searching the smoldering remains of Zecora's hut but to no avail. The zebra simply could not be found. And as Twilight looked at what was once a warm, homely tree, she couldn't help but remember that horrible feeling she had felt When Tirek destroyed her library, and felt very sorry indeed for Zecora.

Zecora, who, though Twilight and her friends did not know, had been taken away by Bill to the Canterlot Castle to be interrogated on how, exactly, to make the black potion…

"Look, Zecora," huffed Bill, preparing for a monologue, "You think taking over a country is easy? Well, it kinda is. But if you plan to leave after a while to start the Weirdmaggedon a couple thousand dimensions away, then you need to develop a strict form of government, leave behind a battalion, and strike enough fear into the hearts of the citizens so nobody dares mess everything up when you're gone. This is exactly what I have to do. I can easily achieve the first two of those things, but the last, well… I can't exactly strike as much fear as I'd like when I'm a banana-colored miniature horse with a horn that isn't nearly long enough to stab things and hummingbird wings. So how's about you just give me the recipe to the potion that will make me a demonic triangle guy again?"

"No, Dorito," Zecora said, managing to move her head despite being tied to a chair. Mystery Solver and Secret Keeper snickered at Zecora's quip, but Phyre quickly hushed them as she did not want to offend her dear friend, Bill.

Bill growled. "What is I say 'please'?" he asked in the sweetest voice he could muster.

Zecora pondered this. "Only if it's a pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top and you sing it to a tune, or a little bop."

Bill rolled his eye and sang quickly to the first note of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star": "Pretty, pretty, plea-ea-ease, with a cherry o-on top."

Zecora shook her head. "I changed my mind, you need to be a ruler that's kind."

Bill held his head in his hooves. "Oh, your dumb rhymes! Why must you rhyme all the time?"

"I don't always have to be poetic," Zecora said. Everyone in the room stared at Zecora. "But Twi keeps books in an order that's alphabetic!"

"Yep, that's the last straw," said Bill, and attacked her mind.

He ignored her futile attempts to keep him out as he dug around, opening cabinets of memory and drawers of imagination, looking for the memory of a potion that would turn him back. All he could find was a smashed bottle that once contained the potion. Bill exited Zecora's mind.

"Where. Is. The. POTION?" He roared.

"My my, desperate, are we? Well, Bill, perfect not is my memory," said Zecora rather sagely.

"You mean… You just forgot the potion recipe?" He asked. Zecora haughtily nodded, knowing the alicorn was beat.

Or thinking that, at least.

"Fine, then," said Bill. "I'll just take that book you gave Twilight and see if there is anything about potions in there. You're memory's too fuzzy for me to make out many details, but I'm quite positive it must be important. I won't even need to go looking for it and that blasted purple pony, because I know that she and her moronic friends will come along with it. Oh, and of course she survived the burning hut, Zecora. Main characters tend to have such strokes of luck. In any case, I will be ready for those ponies, as it does no villain good to underestimate their foes. Which is why I'm having you executed."

Zecora gasped. No villain in all of Equestria's history would ever even think to execute anypony. Harvest their magic, force them into slavery, even make their lives miserable for the fun of it, but just… killing?

"Mystery Solver, Secret Keeper, I would like you to do the execution. But not in here, though! Just had this room cleaned! Take her to the dungeons or something," ordered Bill.

"But Bill!" Phyre began, but was cut off.

"Wonderful idea, Phyre!" he said with an evil grin. "You can go watch! I'm sure Secret Keeper and Mystery Solver, with their lack of experience, won't know how to kill quickly, so you should have a fun, gory, and bloody time."

Phyre gulped and shrank away.

"In any case, I'd love to stay and watch the death of an innocent soul, but I've got paperwork to do, rules to establish, raise an army of undead ponies and stuff like that. Have fun, and get me a souvenir, like a gallstone or eyeball or something." And with that, Bill walked out of the room and closed the doors behind him.

Secret Keeper, Mystery Solver, and Phyre picked up Zecora and the chair she was tied to and carried her to the dungeons. "So, um," started Secret Keeper, for once at a loss for words. "You, uh, want to do it?" she held out an axe to Mystery Solver, who backed away, furiously shaking his pitch black head. Secret Keeper held it to Phyre.

"B-B-Bill only told me to watch," she argued.

Secret Keeper bit her lip and held the axe in her magical telekinesis. She raised it above her head. Then she sighed and let it clatter to the floor. "Forget it," she huffed. "I can do many things, but I'm not stooping so low as to kill another pony. You," she said, addressing Zecora. "Get out of here, and run away, far away." The two ponies and phoenix opened a hole in the wall, letting daylight stream in. They untied Zecora, who gave them a nod, and rushed off. Mystery Solver then carefully patched the hole in the wall.

The three went up to Bill to tell him the execution went much better than expected, though Bill was a little miffed about not receiving a gallstone.

Author's Note.

That sure took a bit of a dark turn towards the end! Though of course, so has Gravity Falls, so I'm perfectly within the right. Also, here's a little question I'm a bit interested in, as I've seen several other fanfiction authors ask this: Based off of the style, quality, and overall creativity of this story, how old do you think I am? Just curious to see what my Readers think of my ability to write!