The Mane Six continued to run after their run-in with the Baby Manticore's parent and continued to run until they were fresh out of breath. And it certainly didn't help that Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were still injured after a crash landing, and Applejack was knocked unconscious after spotting Maul on the back of the giant Manticore, so Pinkie Pie and Rarity did most of the heavy lifting. When they stopped running, the six friends decided to set up camp once more. Once camp was set up, Fluttershy took off Applejack's hat and wrapped a white cloth around Applejack's head to treat the nasty bump on the head, possibly a concussion, that she received.
"Well, I have some good news," Twilight said, holding some joy back. "At least our injuries are healing". Twilight moved around on her own, still limping, but getting better nonetheless. Rainbow Dash followed suit and tried to test her wings, but she got a cramp mid-flight and fell face-first into some mud. Fluttershy decided not to fly to see if her wing was getting better but instead decided to help with a makeshift soup with Pinkie Pie's help. While the two were off gathering materials, Applejack was coming to and regained consciousness.
"Mah aching head." she moaned, as Applejack felt almost groggier than the last time they set up camp. Twilight ran over to Applejack and decided to catch her up to speed.
"Applejack. While you were unconscious, we escaped the parent manticore, and Pinkie and Rarity helped us all get to safety, and we decided to camp for the night. The good news is that our injuries are healing. Not done yet, but still," Twilight explained.
"Guys, I'm not sure about this, but there was someone controlling that Manticore." Applejack said. Twilight considered Applejack's words.
"It's obviously gotta be Nightmare Moon. She's trying to stop us." Twilight impatiently deduced though she was only partially right.
"The only thing she's doing is slowing us down," Rainbow Dash said, commenting on Twilight's quick assessment of the situation. Rainbow Dash decided to ignore the rest of the conversation and help Rarity start the campfire.
"Ya really think Nightmare Moon could ride one of those things? I know it's big, but I'd say it's still too small for a giant alicorn like her to ride," Applejack observed. Twilight wasn't sure if this was the concussion talking or not.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were gathering materials for their soup. It might not have tasted the best, but it still would have sufficed. The two of them were gathering delicious looking flowers, grass, and some leaves for good measure. Little did they know, they were under the watchful eyes of Maul and Nightmare Moon.
"Scary tree face time?" Nightmare asked Maul, who personally couldn't believe how well he's putting up with her.
"Fine. But wait for my signal, then you can scare the living bantha poodoo out of them," Maul told his lackey as he hopped down into the shadows and started to sneak closer and closer to the duo.
"You go collect the flowers over there. I'll gather the grass over here," Pinkie instructed to Fluttershy, making herself more vulnerable to attack. Maul couldn't help himself any longer. The time to strike was now. Maul leaped out of the shadows and bushes and knocked the grass and flowers out of her hooves. Pinkie was startled by this, but not afraid of him. In fact, she was quite annoyed with him.
"Hey! You'd better clean that up, Mister. We're just trying to save the world here," Pinkie demanded. Maul was honestly amused. Is Pinkie really gonna try to stand up to him with no training whatsoever? It honestly amused Maul.
"I can't tell if you're being brave or being stupid. I guess I'll go with both," Maul said, swinging his staff with such speed and force that Maul whacked Pinkie unconscious and took her captive. Immediately afterward, Maul returned to Nightmare Moon with Pinkie as their prisoner.
"OK, now is scary tree face time," Maul told Nightmare, who turned into a cloud once more and darkened the skies, even darker than how dark the night really is. Fluttershy continued to collect flowers and grass, but couldn't find anything in this strange blackness that now covered the forest. She couldn't take it anymore and decided to return to camp with Pinkie.
"Pinkie, I got the materials," Fluttershy whispered, but only found the materials Pinkie had gathered. Suddenly, Fluttershy looked around and saw a whole bunch of intimidating faces in the trees. The faces were too much for her, and she ran off back to the camp with a crazy theory about what happened.
"Girls! Pinkie was eaten by a tree!" Fluttershy cried out to her friends. Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity looked at Fluttershy with great concern.
"I thought I was the one who hit my head," Applejack said, concerning Fluttershy's theory about Pinkie's disappearance.
"I think it's just one of Pinkie's pranks. She does do it all the time," Rainbow Dash theorized. Applejack and Rarity nodded in agreement.
"As much as it is a good theory, Dash, I think it could have been Nightmare Moon," Twilight said, joining in on how Pinkie could have vanished.
"What about her new friend?" Rarity asked. "It could have been either one of those two," Applejack nodded in agreement with Rarity. Applejack was at least comforted that somepony at least believed her that somepony was in cahoots with Nightmare Moon.
"I don't think Nightmare Moon is capable of making friends," Twilight said, believing Maul was some sort of figment of Applejack's imagination.
"Whatever, or whoever it is, let's get in there and see if we can find her," Twilight said. The five friends went in after Pinkie Pie, believing she could be nearby.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was tied up to a tree stump, surrounded by large flowers the same shade of blue as Nightmare Moon's mane. Though Pinkie was gagged as well as tied, the flowers emitted an aroma that flooded Pinkie's senses, which caused her to hallucinate her worst fears. Maul and Nightmare Moon looked on at their panicking prisoner.
"And why do you think these flowers are scarier than the faces I placed at the trees?" Nightmare Moon asked Maul, who was cautious not to get a whiff of the dangerous flower.
"With this one as our prisoner, the others will panic due to the scary faces on the trees. Then, once they calm down, we'll plant the flowers everywhere, and douse them in pure fear. Not 'scary' monsters, mind you, but a fear they cannot control. The fear of failure," Maul explained. As he monologued, he read Pinkie's mind with the Dark Side of the Force. Pinkie could not see Maul, but instead thought she was at a comedy night, where she tried to make everyone laugh, but kept on getting booed off the stage every time. This was Pinkie's fear, and Maul could see that with the Force.
Fluttershy cowered in fear of the scary faces at the trees and hid behind Rainbow Dash, who honestly wasn't intimidated, neither were the other 3.
"Is this what ate Pinkie?" Rarity asked Fluttershy, giving the tree a confused glare?
"Yes," Fluttershy stuttered, fearing the trees could eat her too. And she was supposed to be "one with nature".
"Honestly, sugar, if Pinkie were here, we would have just acted scared to make both you and Pinkie feel better." Applejack confessed. Nightmare Moon was enraged by her honesty. She thought it would have worked for sure.
"Told you trees aren't scary." Maul taunted. Nightmare gave in and caused the same kind of flower to bloom directly around Pinkie's friends. The friends took immediate notice of the presence of the flowers due to the strange aroma it produced.
"What even is that smell?" Rarity asked, sniffing around. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash also sniffed around, seeing if they could find the source. Once they found individual copies of the flowers, the hallucinations started to kick in. Their heads started to feel dizzy, and all passed out for a few seconds. Once they recovered, they saw they were no longer in the Everfree Forest.
Twilight thought she was in Magical Kindergarten, being laughed at by the other students for being older than them. Applejack thought she was at a run down Sweet Apple Acres and thought her family had gone out of business. Rainbow Dash thought she was at tryouts for the Wonderbolts, but was humiliated and kicked out, and Rarity thought she was living on the streets of Canterlot as a homeless mare wearing a potato sack as clothes.
Maul looked on as he saw their worst fears with Nightmare Moon. Nightmare cackled with glee to see her enemies come to a complete stop. Maul was not the kind of guy to give a maniacal laugh, but couldn't help but smile as he triumphed over the Mane Six.
"Now, you understand what it truly takes to bring your enemies down? You gotta get inside their mind." Maul said, pointing at Pinkie for reference. Nightmare looked on at Maul.
"I understand completely now," Nightmare Moon said, as she planted the flowers everywhere around Maul and flew off. Maul glared at her betrayal but was too dizzy to retort back. Soon enough, he too was going to see his worst fear.