The room was silent for a few seconds. Twilight stared at the continuously bleeding body before her, the Princess’s hair becoming red with her blood. She did it alright, but how would she get away alive? Teleporting from the castle was out of the question since there would obviously be some sort of barrier around it, and who knows what would happen. What pulled her back to reality was a sequence of loud knocks on the door.
“Princess please open the door! What happened?” Shouted the guard that was blocking the door earlier, now accompanied by others. Twilight was desperate, and used all of her remaining energy to push the large bed on Celestia’s room in front of the door. That would only hold them back for a while, since she could hear the knocking become stronger by the minute. They were trying to break inside.
“Sid! You have to help me out here! If the guards get me I will get a death sentence for sure!”
Discord had finally stopped laughing and was now staring blankly at her. “Twilight please would you stop calling me by that name? And as much fun as it was seeing you get all freaked out and run around like a ping-pong ball in panic, it’s getting pretty boring already, I think it’s high time I just break the mind-control spell.”
“Wait but ping-pong balls are inanimate! And what s...” She barely had time to reciprocate before Discord snapped his fingers and the spell was broke, her face slowly returning to the usual, less maddened expression. Or so it would be.
Everything suddenly downed on her. Everything that she did while she was out of herself. All the plotting, scheming, use of forbidden spells and the worst of all: She had killed Princess Celestia. The one that lessoned her and cared for her like a mother since she began her studies. Now she was lying lifelessly on the floor in front of her, with a pool of blood around her.
She then touched her own horn with her hoof. It was covered in blood, blood that wasn’t hers.
She snapped.
As the realization sunk in, her legs grew weak and she fell to the ground. A half-smile stuck to her face, and her eyes open wide, not even blinking. She was the image of pure madness, an empty shell of herself.
She couldn’t hear the knocks on the door or see what was in front of her. In that moment she was far away from there, hiding somewhere in the deepest corners of her own conscience. She didn’t even hear the screams of Princess Luna.
“For whoever is in there, if you treasure your life, back off from this door immediately!”. Discord didn’t need to hear anything else. With no previous announcement, he jumped from the broken window, away from the crime scene. With a large explosion, Luna broke through the door, completely destroying the bed in front of it and taking some pieces of the wall along, using sheer brute force. Seeing the state her sister was, she jumped down to her side, eyes tearing up, and lifted her head from the ground.
“Somepony call a doctor! She is dying here!” Luna looked frantically around as she cried as loud as she could, looking around the room looking for the potential culprit. And she couldn’t help but feel her rage build up inside as she saw the purple unicorn with her blood covered horn, fallen to the ground.
“I’m going to kill you!” She started getting up but felt a hoof push her down in place. Celestia was barely breathing, but she managed to shake her head in negation, as she tried to hold down her bloodthirsty sister. Luna then lay down side to side with her once again, and as she hugged her sister she whispered. “Please, don’t try to speak, help is coming I promise”.
Just when the others that had come along with Twilight to the castle had finally managed to reach the room, there was a huge commotion around it, and the guards wouldn’t let them get even close to the doors. That’s when they saw the Princess being carried in a large stretcher, her wings tied to her sides and three ponies around her pressing a large hole in her stomach in order to stop a seemingly endless bleeding. But what really shocked them was what they saw afterwards.
Twilight was being dragged by the front hooves, which were chained to each other, eyes open wide, face and horn covered in blood. As she was dragged small bursts of light came from her horn, creating large cracks on the walls and the ceiling around her. Luna walked out of the room right after her, dismissing all the guards that had gathered around, her eyes still red from crying earlier but she couldn’t show weakness. She was turning away to leave as Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“Princess! Wait! What happened here? Where are they taking Twilight?” Her voice was full of concern. “Someone tried to murder the princess. We are pretty much sure it was your friend. The only thing that stopped me from killing her on sight was my sister’s pleading.” The words were cold and harsh, but they were the truth and they could see it, but didn’t want to believe it. “You will all also be taken in custody, since you could as well be her accomplices”.
The five ponies and the small dragon just stood there, trying to process what happened, as a group of guards walked towards them carrying shackles. “Wait, that makes no sense! We all know Twilight was loyal to the Princess, more than anyone else, she as much as adored her! She wouldn’t do something like that, it’s ridiculous!”. Rarity tried to deny, tearing up in desperation.
Applejack laid a hoof on her shoulder and spoke gloomily. “Please, Rarity, just go with’em. If this is really truth, then ah reckon we can’t do anything about it, but ah hope that this gets sorted out. Let’s act with dignity”.
So they were all locked away, each one in a small cell, in the same corridor of the dark dungeon of the castle, only lit by a few candles placed sparingly through the walls. They were all restrained by shackles linked to the ground by short chains. Rarity had a magic suppressing necklace placed on her, and Spike a pair of steel gloves, to make him unable to use his claws to lock pick the door.
All of them could barely believe, that one moment they would be taking care of their lives in Poniville as usual, and in the other they would be locked away in a cell, accused of plotting the murder of their princess. Spike was clearly the one that was suffering the most, seeing his only family being locked away, charged with an absurd crime, and at the same time seeing all of his friends being taken along. Fluttershy was trying to calm him down, speaking to him through the bars, as their cells were front to front, but she was almost as bad, feeling horrible for her friends and scared of the dark and claustrophobic cell they were locked inside.
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“Princess Luna?” Called nurse that bowed in front of her.
“Is my sister alright?” She asked, her eyes even redder than before, her face still wet with tears of countless hours that she waited in the cold waiting room at the palace’s infirmary, hours made days by the worries about her sister’s condition.
“She is way better now, we managed to stop the bleeding but her current condition is bad. She is only managing through magic assistance, and it seems we can’t do much more. I’m sorry”. Luna just starred at the ceiling with a depressed look on her face. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she spoke up.
“Can she talk?”
“Yes, but we advise you would let her rest, we are doing everything we can”. There was no time for waiting. “I need to speak to her immediately, take me to her room.”
As the nurse led her inside, the sight before her made her eyes wet once again. Celestia was laying down on a large bed that was once white, now tainted in red by the enormous amount of blood she let out, in a situation no other creature would be able to survive. Around her stood 4 unicorns, horns glowing, as light enveloped the area around the wound on her stomach. She dismissed them, receiving some protests on the process, but she was more powerful than any of them, she could maintain the spell alone.
“Luna” Said Celestia with a weak and hoarse voice. “Shhh. Don’t speak too much, you are too weak.” If her state wasn’t enough of a confirmation, the barely lit up Sun in the horizon confirmed it. “I need you to tell me what happened, and why didn’t you let me do justice to that unicorn.”
“She…isn’t guilty. Discord is back somehow, he took control with her… I saw it myself” She said pausing between each sentence, trying to catch her breath.”It’s not her fault… and she is the only one that can stop him… along with the other Elements. Bring her to me; I have to speak to her.” Her voice now had a serious tone, but she was visibly drained. Luna could see that she was on her last breaths. “I can’t. She went mad; it seems like she lost control of herself, we had to lock her away before she hurt anypony.”
Celestia took on a pondering look. “She thinks she killed me. It hurts my heart to know what she is going through. But she still has her friends on her side, and you can help them help her” She stopped and coughed loudly “help her from the inside”.
Luna suddenly understood what she meant. With a sad look on her face, she started to slowly step away. “So it seems. I will go, please don’t leave me sister, I need your help now, more than ever. I will do what must be done.” She said decidedly.
“Wait…please” Celestia looked down to the ground “Stay with me for a bit”.
Luna laid down by the bed, as the only chair in the room was way too small for her. She then hugged her sister, and started stroking her mane.
“I’m scared” Celestia said as a lonely tear ran down her cheek. “Don’t worry, I’m here for you”.
A few moments of silence passed.
“And Luna?”
“Yes Celly?” She asked using a nickname she barely even remembered the last time she used.
“Please don’t hate Twilight…No matter what happens…Forgive her. This is my last wish for you.”
Luna spoke angrily. “Don’t say it like that, you’re not going to die, I won’t let you!” Luna hugged her tighter. Celestia laughed “Funny how we were discussing this not too long ago. Guess that destiny really has a sense of humor…as dark as it may be”.
She gave her sister a last smile before she fell asleep. Luna backed away slowly, gently laying her down in the pillow not to wake her up. She had work to do, and Discord wouldn’t wait for her.
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“What do you think that happened?”
“Whadya mean?”
“Seriously, I just don’t buy this story; Twilight wouldn’t try to kill the Princess. This is crazy!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she kicked the wall. The Pegasus felt suffocated by the tiny cell and her wings were strapped to her back, which made her even angrier.
“Of course it wasn’t her!” Spike screamed with all the air he could actually get inside the stuffy cell “She loved the Princess, she was almost a second mother to her” He was still trying to hold back more tears from coming “Luna must be out of her mind!”.
“No I am not, and as much as I would like to discuss this now I have some news for you”. Proclaimed Luna as she walked through the tight corridor; one of the guards following her up close.
Spike opened his mouth to protest but she raised her hoof to silence him. “Discord came back. I have no idea how, but he took control of your friend’s mind. It is undeniable that she tried to kill my sister, but she was being manipulated, and now I need your help to set this right”.
None of them actually knew what expression to make. “So you will free her then?” Fluttershy spoke hopeful. “Well, I wish I could but currently, that is what I need your help for. She seems to have locked herself inside her subconscious after the shock of seeing what she did. I need you to “dive” inside her mind and pull her back to reality”.
“Ah don’t understand nuthin of that fancy stuff but if we are going ta help Twi, count me in”. Applejack looked more determined than ever.
“You can count on all of us of course” Rarity confirmed.
“The guard will then open your cells. Follow me now to where Twilight Sparkle is”. She hoped that it would work. “She is lucky to have such trustworthy friends. Not even one of them ever doubted her. I hope that bond is enough to save us all.” Thought Luna.
With all of them unbound, they followed Luna to Twilight’s cell. She was bound to the wall by her front hooves in a pair of handcuffs.
“What is that in her eyes?” Pinkie questioned the two pieces of tape in her eyelids. “She was holding them open all the time so we had to tape them closed, or she would be blinded soon. Also it was scaring out the guards. Anyway, time to get to work”.
“What are we going to do exactly?” Inquired Dash. “It is simple. I will cast a spell on all of you, so your minds will be transported inside Twilight’s. Inside there you will have to find a way to contact her and make her come out. Also, I will need an unicorn to keep the spell up, since I won’t be here so you” She pointed at Rarity “Will have to be the one. I need to confront Discord before he does anything dangerous”.
“Wait! I can’t do this; I don’t even use my magic for more than simple tasks, a complicated spell such as this one is impossible for me!” Luna sighed. “Look, I won’t say that I have faith in you or anything, I don’t know you or your skills, but there is no other choice. If it helps by any means, the most important part of the spell will be my doing, I will cast it, and you just have to keep it up”.
They all looked at each other, uncertain of what was about to happen. Pinkie was the first one to speak up, still shaken by the events, but still showing some of her usual energy to cheer everyone up. “Well, we have to get going then! No time to waste here, Twilight needs help. We can do this together; we already took Discord down once right?”
That seemed to help, as everyone’s expression lightened, and they all stepped forward towards Luna. “Let’s do this!” Proclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“So I want you all to make a semicircle around Twilight. I will cast the spell and then transfer it to…” She stared indecisive at Rarity “Sorry, what is your name again?”.
She looked back slightly offended. “Miss Rarity please”.
“Right, I’ll remember. So, I will transfer the spell to her and from then you’ll be on your own. And also, remember to be careful in there. The bonds between your body and mind are deep indeed, and wounds suffered inside will be felt in your real body. I don’t even need to tell you what happens if you suffer a fatal wound”. Everyone’s face turned serious again.
“What could possibly be inside Twilight’s mind that would be dangerous?” Dash asked tried not to sound concerned.
“One cannot know what might lurk inside another’s mind. But let’s make haste; we have no time to lose”.
As her horn began to glow, a cold, blue light enveloped the group, glowing slightly brighter around Twilight and Rarity. And so, their breaths started to slow down, as they were induced to a deep sleep, all of them lying down around Twilight, plunging to the depths of her mind.
“I guess it is all up to you now. Good luck” Said Luna as she walked away from the room, to prepare for the battle ahead of her.
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Splash
“So, where the hay are we?”
“Applejack, I know just as much as you. All I know is that the ground is wet and is so dark I can barely see anything” Whispered Rainbow Dash.
“Let me light it up a bit” Spike said blowing a small green flame in the air. For a few seconds they could see a dense forest surrounding them, with thick vines hanging from the trees. Fluttershy was startled by the flame and the sight around them so she was hiding behind Applejack, shaking like crazy.
“So we are in a swamp. I think we should be going then, we better find Twilight, wherever she is.” Spike tried to sound as confident as possible.
“And why were you whispering anyway?” Asked Pinkie.
“I don’t really know, now that I think of it, it’s pretty silly right? It’s not like we should be hiding from anything.” Rainbow Dash smirked, speaking at a normal volume now.
Just as she finished all that could be heard was a loud buzzing sound. As they all looked back, they could see the shadow of a pony with something in his mouth. He was closing in fast and so was the noise. Spike spat fire once again, and they saw the figure of a pony with a large grey coat over his body, a hockey mask and a chainsaw in his mouth, holding it in his teeth Celestia knows how. He was getting closer and closer. In desperation Applejack screamed at the top of her lungs.
“RUN!”