The sky darkened to a deep, rich red, like wine. Cosmic energy crackled across Ponyville; bolts of lightning carved furrows and gouged holes in homes and roofs. Pandemonium reigned as townsponies screamed and flocked to predesignated shelters to hold their loved ones close.

	Bon Bon watched the chaos unfold from the patio table outside Tea-Totaler, and sipped placidly from her cup of darjeeling.

	"Bonnie!" Lyra raced to the table and skidded to a stop, throwing her forelegs around her marefriend. Her voice was thick, and her eyes were red – she must have been crying out of panic. "Thank Celestia I found you. We need to go. Right now!"

	"Why?"

	"Why?!" She grabbed Bon Bon's face between her hooves and wrenched it toward the sky, where a head the size of a meteorite plunged toward Ponyville, laughing maniacally. Strands of dark-streaked blue hair fluttered behind it, and tears of madness, caught in its own gravitic pull, orbited its cyan face.

	"[i]Calamity Sonata Dusk[/i] is why, Bonnie! We need to get to a shelter and––"

	"And what?"

	"And... survive? Hopefully?"

	From Twilight's castle, two spheres of blue and yellow interposed themselves in Calamity Sonata's path. A circle written with arcane symbols stopped the head in midair. Calamity Sonata screamed.

	"Sorry," said Bon Bon, "but I don't really see a point. Don't let that stop you from going, though."

	Lyra cocked her head. "Bonnie, are you depressed again?"

	"No, I've been taking my pills." She circled the rim of her teacup with a hoof, flashes of light catching in the surface of her drink. "I've just been thinking about things, is all, and I've concluded that there's no point in getting worked up whenever things like this happen."

	"When do things like this happen?!'" Lyra jerked her hoof at Calamity Sonata. "This is a little bit out of the ordinary, Bonnie! Just a smidge!"

	Bon Bon sighed. "Yes. So was Nightmare Moon plunging Equestria into eternal darkness. And Discord turning the main road into a soapy slip-'n-slide. Tirek eating everypony's magic. Parasprites eating everypony's houses. Cerberus. The bugbear."

	Five more points of light, pink and orange, yellow, blue, and white, joined the first two; the circle grew wider, glowed brighter. Fire gnashed inside Calamity Sonata's mouth.

	Lyra watched anxiously. "What are you trying to say?"

	Bon Bon sipped her tea as tongues of liquid fire, and also profanities, lashed against the lights holding back Calamity Sonata.

	"Every now and then, something crazy happens in Ponyville. The town goes crazy. Then the problem is resolved quickly and neatly, rendering all that panic and all that terror moot. So I just figure..."

	A lance of pink and purple shot from the castle, pierced the circle, and sliced deep into Calamity Sonata's forehead.

	"...why freak out?"

	Calamity Sonata wailed with the ecstasy of death as she disintegrated. Flesh and matter evaporated in the air; bone and teeth caromed in all directions. The storms and winds of destruction ebbed and vanished with her passing. The lights which struck her down faded and lowered to the earth.

	Lyra watched, a smile breaking across her face. "They did it," she whispered. "I can't believe they actually did it!"

	"I can." Bon Bon finished the rest of her tea. "It happens all the time. Once, maybe twice, a year. It's usually over and done with by lunch, and we all get back to our lives like nothing happened."

	Lyra glared at Bon Bon. "So, what, we should just ignore stuff like this and hope it goes away?"

	"I said nothing about hope. Live your life as you would otherwise, with the [i]certainty[/i] that it [i]will[/i] go away." She smiled at Lyra. "But ignore it, yes, by all means, rather than running about like chickens with your heads––"

	A fragment of a tooth crashed sideways onto Bon Bon from above, its sauce-encrusted crown missing Lyra by mere inches.

	Lyra cried out and dropped to her knees – Bon Bon's head was still visible underneath the crown, her face contorted with pain. "Bonnie! You okay?"

	"...Yes," she lied. "All the same, I wouldn't say no to a hospital."

	Lyra levitated the tooth high enough to pull Bon Bon out. Looping her foreleg around her neck, she raised Bon Bon to her hooves, and began the trip to the hospital. Around them, townsponies emerged from their shelters, into the bright light of day.

	"Gosh," said Lyra. "If only there were some way we could have avoided this."

	"Shut up."