//------------------------------//
// What Now? 
// Story: The Love of a Mother 
// by Ashen Heart 
//------------------------------//

A bright purple light is seen outside the cave mere milliseconds before a loud explosion rings out of the walls of the caves. As the trees outside shake, animals start scurrying to hide from the sudden invasion of normalcy in the calm forest. A loud thump is heard as Nightmare Moon slumps back to the ground, wind knocked completely out of her and unconscious from the impact against the wall.
A bubble of purple magic flares up in the middle of the Golden Oaks Library, revealing Twilight inside as she frantically starts pacing around the giant centerpiece of a horse head. Hearing the ramblings of Twilight's panic, Spike starts to walk down the stairs and pounces on her.
“Twilight! Thank Celestia you’re okay! We were so worried about you!” Spike cries out holding onto Twilight.
“We? What do you mean we?” Twilight asks confused. Suddenly a blue blur whisks past knocking Twilight to the ground. Standing on top of her Rainbow Dash grins at her saying, “Us of course”. Coming up behind her at a slower pace was the rest of the ponies she had met that day. 
“What are you all doing here?” Twilight asks confused.
“Well when you and that monster disappeared everypony started to panic, we didn’t know where you went so we sent out some other ponies to try and find you. When nothing came up we decided to come here and maybe try to look for some answers.”
“I hope you don’t mind we borrowed some of your books” Fluttershy mutters in the back.
“Are you okay darling? What happened?” Rarity asks while grabbing Twilight’s face to inspect for injuries. Twilight shrugs her off as she starts to pace around the room again, slowly wearing a grove in the wood.
“No I’m not okay!” Twilight snaps as her pace increases. 
“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” Twilight sighs and stops pacing, debating if she should tell them. They did look for her and she didn’t know how else she was going to get out of this without telling them. 
“After I woke up we were in a cave that I didn’t recognize, she called it the Chamber of Truth. She kept whispering to herself while walking around me, almost as if she were inspecting me. After a bit she knocked me out, and when I woke up there were all these ‘memories’ in my head. I think she planted them there, but she claimed to be my mother.” 
“Woah nelly, what do you mean your mother?” AppleJack asks.
“I don’t know!” Twilight shouts, beginning to pace again.
“What are we supposed to do now?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“We need to find Princess Celestia and get the elements of harmony. I don’t know how they work or what they do, but the book said they are the key to defeating her.” Twilight says.
“How are we going to do that?” Fluttershy asks
“Wait. What happened after Nightmare Moon and I left? What happened to the elements?” Twilight asks realizing they were nowhere to be seen.
“Well darling, after you and her vanished the elements started swirling around the floor. They kept going until a blue fog covered over all of them and they vanished.” Rarity explains. Twilight sighs before slowing down.
“Alright well speaking that we have no idea where the elements, Princess Celestia, or Nightmare Moon are I suppose the best thing we can do right now is get some sleep, and come back tomorrow to find some clues,” Twilight says, before looking down at the floor realizing the groove she worked up already. Sighing, she gives everyone a nod before heading towards the stairs. Walking out the door, everypony says their goodbyes to Twilight.
“What do you think she meant by her mother?” Fluttershy asks as the group starts walking towards their respective homes. 
“Ah don’t know sugarcube, but ah’m sure we’ll be getting more answers tomorrow when she’s had some time to rest,” Applejack responds, looking up at the darkened sky nervously.
“She better or I’ll make her,” Rainbow butted in. 
“Now darling, there’s no need to be rude with her, she’s just as confused as the rest of us about all this,” Rarity remarks, trying to calm the prismatic mare down.
“Did anypony else think it a might odd how she knew about the elements and of Nightmare Moon?” Applejack asks.
“I suppose that is a bit odd,” Rarity responded, thinking back to the town hall.
“Well either way, Twilight’s probably right. We should try and get some sleep so we can be well-rested for whatever tomorrow brings,” Fluttershy says as they all turn off from each other heading to their respective homes.
A soft grunt was heard as Nightmare Moon slowly regained consciousness. Getting off the ground she starts looking around. She realizes that the purple mare from before is missing. Frantically she gets up starts pacing. ‘Where is she? Where’d she go! I can’t lose her I just found her again! To think she’s still alive after all this time! I can’t believe it, but already I lost her again! Wait where are the elements?’ Realizing this she quickly scans the room looking for the rocks. Spotting them scattered around the edges of the room, she quickly gathers them up and puts them in the corner. ‘Thank god they were here, we can’t afford to lose this now. With Twilight in the state she was in I’d end up losing her for good. She doesn’t understand yet but she will. I just have to give it time. I still can’t believe it’s really her though..’ Nightmare Moon thought, as she starts the teleport spell holding the elements in her magic.