Meanwhile, back home…

[bq]FUTTERSHY: Twilight was awfully upset…do you think we should—

RAINBOW: Nope.

PINKIE: [offscreen] Um, hey, guys?

PINKIE: [from within an abundance of floof] I think there’s something wrong…

Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense is going haywire, and she’s convinced that Twilight is in trouble! The other bots are skeptical; Spike scoffs at the idea of Twilight being in danger with Celestia, and Pinkie’s probably just suffering from static.

But Pinkie knows that something is really, really wrong, and whatever it is, they have to get to Twilight now. And — much to everyone’s surprise — Rainbow agrees.

RAINBOW: What? I mean, yeah, I’m mad at her, but if Pinkie says she’s in trouble, I’m not gonna LEAVE her. I’ll get my coat.

The six of them decide to head over just in case, and load up in the old balloon that Twilight is totally going to fix one of these days, really, she just has to get around to it. The propulsion is busted, so Rainbow hooks herself on and gets ready to pull them after her.

And they’re in a hurry, as Pinkie won’t stop reminding them, so she needs to fly as fast as she can!

RARITY: Well, maybe not QUITE so faaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH[abruptly muffled by Applejack’s hair]

Meanwhile, Twilight is indeed in trouble…

TWILIGHT: Is this…an element…?

TWILIGHT: How is MOVING? Is it…alive?! — Ah!

Twilight tears off her shoe, which now has a hole eaten through the bottom of it…right where she had stepped on the strange dark Element.

TWILIGHT: It ate right through…gah!

NIGHTMARE: [eldritch mumbling]

Instinct kicking in, Twilight unfreezes and manages to duck behind a metal table just in time to avoid a sudden deluge of the dark Element —

She makes a run for it, but —

Outside, the bots are almost to the university, when suddenly they see…

RARITY: What is THAT?!

RAINBOW: What is WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT THE HECK

Clearly Twilight’s in pretty bad trouble after all.[/bq]