Chapter 3

Twilight was in a room somewhere. It was a small room, with the walls, roof and floor painted white. There were no windows, furniture, or decorations of any kind. There was only a single door, which she walked over to and pushed open. It revealed the Main Hall of the Royal Castle filled with ponies. The strangest thing was that they were all staring at Twilight as if they had expected her arrival.

"Twiiillliiight…"

Continuing their staring, everypony then began a slow shuffle towards the unicorn. Twilight was thoroughly freaked out. She backed away and turned around, planning to return to the room where she had started from, but found that the door and wall had disappeared. In fact, everything behind her had disappeared, including the ground, which meant that she was standing on the edge of a cliff.

"Twilight?"

She looked up. Princess Celestia was above her with a concerned look on her face. Twilight opened her mouth to ask for help, but nothing came out. She tried again with the same result. Celestia shook her head and flew off, taking with her Twilight's only hope for escape. The crowd continued advancing on her, determined to force her off the precipice and begin a long, long fall to whatever lay below…

"TWILIGHT!"

"Huaugh!" Twilight gave a garbled noise as she bolted up from the grass and her nightmare, but a hoof was gently laid on her shoulder and a familiar voice said "Calm down, sugarcube. You're all right now."

"Try saying that about me," Spike complained. He rubbed his side where Twilight had accidentally hit him when she woke up. The sight of him and her other friends – Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity – filled Twilight with relief.

"Oh, I'm so glad you girls are okay!" she said as she hugged them. "What happened while I was out?"

Spike began. "I tried sending a letter to Princess Celestia like you asked me to, but it kept on getting delivered back to me. So then I gave up and went outside to try and catch up to you and tell you about it."

"We four were at Town Hall with everypony else to listen to what the Mayor had to say about the dreadful events," Rarity took over. "Spike saw and informed us of his situation, so naturally we decided to accompany him."

"And then we ran into that big black wall and everypony else thought we couldn't go through it but I said 'Don't be silly, a wall can't just appear out of thin air!' So then I hopped through and they followed and we found you and woke you up and here we are!" Pinkie Pie finished in her trademark hyperactive style.

"Funny thing is, I can't see Canterlot at all," Applejack pointed. "It's like it jus' disappeared."

Twilight's mood came crashing down as she remembered what she saw. "It has. That's why I fainted…I saw Canterlot fall off…fall off the mountain. It's gone," she said in a quiet voice.

Stunned silence fell. "But…but how?" Fluttershy said, echoing everyone's thoughts.

"I don't know," Twilight moaned. "Maybe it has something to do with the sun and moon mixing together. We don't know why that happened either."

More silence followed as they all struggled to think of something to say. Twilight instinctively looked up at the sun to see what the time was, but then remembered that the age-old method was now useless. Yet another thing of life that was now gone.

Applejack shook her head. "Come on, y'all. Let's get back to Ponyville and talk there."

The others agreed. Twilight levitated Spike onto her back, and the group departed. The barrier on this side of the border was blue instead of black. Once over it, they had to wait a few seconds for their eyes to readjust to the gloomy twilight that Ponyville was cast in.

The crowd that was in front of Town Hall had disappeared, along with most of the other residents of the community. It was eerily empty – Twilight was reminded of the time when Zecora first visited Ponyville. At least there were lights which fought off some of the darkness.

They reached and entered the library, which was still a mess. Spike immediately began cleaning up, but Twilight stopped him. "You've already done enough for today, Spike. We can do this." The baby dragon nodded, clearly glad that he could have a rest.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie grabbed brooms to sweep up the broken glass while the other three cleaned up the books. "What did the Mayor say at Town Hall?" Twilight inquired as she directed History of Equestria to its rightful place.

"She was mostly trying to tell everyone to stay calm and maintain order," Rarity replied. "Everypony wasn't having it, though."

Fluttershy slid a book in between two others. "I could feel how rowdy they were. The poor Mayor, no pony was listening to her!"

"That's 'cause what she's asking fer is impossible," Applejack said. "How is anypony supposed to stay calm with that thing in the sky?"

"Oh! What thing? Is it a bird? A cloud?" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down as she rattled off guesses. "Maybe it's Rainbow Dash! Is it Rainbow Dash?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight remembered. Pinkie misinterpreted this as confirmation that her guess was right. She cheered, but Twilight's mood was as serious as can be. "Have you heard any news about her?"

Rarity shook her head. "We haven't heard anything from the rest of Equestria. I do hope she's all right."

Twilight sighed. "So do I, Rarity."

Once they had finished cleaning up the books and glass, Twilight got some cloth from the basement which was used to cover up the gaping holes that were once windows. "If you girls want, you can all stay here for the night," she offered.

Applejack yawned. "That sounds good, Twi. I'm mighty exhausted."

A few minutes later, they were all tucked in. A chorus of "Good night" filled the library. Twilight turned off the lights, crawled into her bed, and shut her eyes. Sleep claimed her in no time, but not before a thought drifted into her mind.

Her friends couldn't stay for the night. How could they, when there was only dusk?