Twilight woke up and looked around her, suddenly filled with the feeling of overwhelming fear. She quickly realized she was still in the hallway and that the suits of armor were still smoldering from her earlier magic. Twilight realized something else though, something quite a lot more concerning; Sapphire was gone. "Sapphire!" Twilight yelled, the panic edging into her voice. When she got no response she yelled even louder and more frantically this time. "Sapphire! Where are you!"
Twilight let out a massive sigh of relief when she heard Sapphire yell back, "I'm here! Come over here for a second. There's something I want to show you!" From the sound of Sapphire's voice it seemed as if she was on the other side of the doors at the end of the hallway.
"Coming!" Twilight yelled. 'Everything is fine, Sapphire is just over there,' Twilight thought to herself, 'But if that's true then why do I still feel so … afraid?' Twilight shook her head, blaming it on nervousness, and walked up to the two doors. As she tried to open the door, though the feeling of "Something bad is going to happen!" slammed into Twilight's like a bag of bricks. "Come on Twilight!" Twilight whispered to herself. "Nothing is going to happen. Everything is going to be fine."
Twilight took a deep breath and opened the doors. "So Sapphire, what have you been u-" Twilight was cut off by a sword cutting into her chest. Twilight screamed in agony as her chest got stabbed for the second time in twenty-four hours. The sword was pulled from Twilight's chest, and the pegasus holding the sword laughed, almost as if Twilight was the funniest thing in the world.
Twilight tried to pull out her own sword, but she wasn't fast enough. An earth pony apple buck kicked her right in the stomach, flinging her across the room and making her sword fly out of her grasp. It hit the wood floor over ten feet away. Twilight weakly tried to get to her hooves, but didn't even get halfway there before a unicorn cast a laser spell right at her, cutting a hole straight through her left forearm. Twilight screamed in pain and fell to the floor. Twilight tried to cast offensive spells at her unseen foes; laser, disintegration, pyrotechnic spells, even paralysis spells. Anything that would stop her enemies! But before she could cast a single spell, a different pegasus from the one before came up to her and kicked Twilight in the head, breaking her horn right off of her head.
Twilight screeched an animalistic scream of pain. The pain was so bad that her mind couldn't even comprehend it, nor it's intensity. Then the laughing started again. They laughed like a chorus of evil, their song the definition of pain. Twilight looked up, and looked at the ones laughing with their insane laugh. Her eyes widened in terror, and her chin dropped in horrified bewilderment. They weren't just a bunch of randoms off the street, or a bunch of soldiers, or highly trained assassins sent to kill her. No, they were none other than the other Elements of Harmony, Twilight's friends.
Rainbow Dash barely got herself together before she yelled excitedly "Did you see that! I was twenty percent cooler than all of you combined!"
"Are ya sure about that, sugar cube?" Applejack asked, also barely getting herself together. "All ya did was stab 'er, while Ah sent her flying across the room!"
"Um, mine was pretty cool too, I broke off her horn," Fluttershy said in her normal quiet and calm tone.
"Ah darlings! Stop arguing, you're making a scene!" Rarity added in her regal tone.
Twilight couldn't believe what her eyes were telling her. Her friends insane and trying to kill her. 'No.' Twilight thought through the pain. 'It can't be!' Tears were already rolling down Twilight's face, but now they weren't all tears of pain. Twilight tried yelling for help, for Sapphire, for Crystal Ember, for anyone! But no one came.
The Elements of Harmony looked over at Twilight. A few of them looked on with disgusted frowns, a few with insane grins. "Oh, looks like our old friend over there is still kicking!" Rainbow Dash said with delight. "Means I can play with her more!"
"No Rainbow Dash!" a new voice said from behind Twilight. "You can kill Twilight, just wait a tiny itsy bitsy bit, okay?"
The new pony entered Twilight's vision. Twilight gasped; it was Pinkie Pie. 'Not you too!' Twilight screamed in her head.
"Hi Twilight! How's it been?! Pinkie said, smiling down at Twilight. She looked over at the others "Hey, I have an idea. How about we have a little party everypony!"
"What kind of party?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow as she said it.
Pinkie smiled darkly down at Twilight. "Why, a happy death day for our old friend here of course!" She looked over at Rainbow Dash and nodded. Rainbow squealed in joy and ran up to Twilight, pulling out a wingun as she ran. She smiled at Twilight and rested the barrel up against Twilight's temple.
"Goodnight! Hope you have a happy death day!" Rainbow Dash pulled the trigger, and Twilight's world was flung into darkness.
Suddenly, all of Twilight's pain went away, her sword was placed back into its sheath, and she was moved to somewhere else. Further inspection of her surroundings revealed she had been teleported into Canterlot castle. 'What the hell!' Twilight thought as she looked around the familiar halls of the royal palace. Then a thought popped into Twilight's head, one that terrified her to her very core. 'What if Celestia's here, what if she finds me?!'
Then the sound of hooves on stone reached Twilight's ears. Twilight swung around and her eyes widened in terror, her ears fell flat against her head, and she nearly spoiled herself like a filly. Just a mere five meters away stood the one, the only, Princess Celestia. Twilight began to shake in terror.
"Twilight," Celestia frowned in disgust. "My greatest disappointment."
"C-Celestia, please, just listen-" Twilight tried to say before she was cut off by Celestia's booming voice.
"SILENCE FILTH!" Celestia roared, using the Royal Canterlot Voice, very nearly blowing out Twilight's ear drums. "There is no explanation you can tell, or any excuse you can give that will make me forgive you, or will get you out of your fate! You will pay for your crimes against Equestria and her people. Twilight Sparkle, you are hereby sentenced to death!" Celestia smiled. "And I am happy to be named the executioner!"
Celestia chuckled and pointed her horn at Twilight. 'Oh crap' Twilight thought, dreading what was coming next. Then a beam of white light flew out of Celestia's horn with terrible power. Just milliseconds before Celestia's magic hit her, Twilight managed to get a shield spell up and block the spell. Celestia was relentless, however, firing spell after spell at her until finally cracks began to form in Twilight's shield.
Twilight looked around her at her weakening shield with newfound panic. "Shit!" Twilight yelled as she frantically tried to think of something to do, some way to get out of her current predicament. 'What can I do? What could I possibly do…?' Then she thought of it, not just that, but her escape could also be an attack on Celestia. Twilight concentrated, trying to do two things at once.
Then it happened; Twilight teleported out of her shield! Just in the nick of time too, for her shield collapsed in upon itself just as she teleported out. She didn't teleport just anywhere though, she teleported directly above Celestia. Twilight quickly unsheathed her sword and pointed it at the ground as she fell down towards Celestia. Twilight imagined her sword cutting straight through Celestia. Her defeating Celestia, and finally, after a month of living in fear of her, never being afraid of Celestia again.
Then Twilight stopped in midair as a white magical glow encompassed her. 'Oh no…' was all Twilight could think before she was slammed into the wall so hard it cracked the stone behind her, and the ribs inside of her.
She groaned in pain and got on her hooves again, ready for a fight. She never got the chance for a fight, however, as Celestia flung her like a ragdoll into the opposite wall, cracking it as well.
Twilight stood up, screaming in pain as she did so. But even against her body's greatest protests, Twilight stood up and brought her sword to bear. Twilight could feel the sticky sensation of blood in her coat. Twilight used a free hoof and wiped away some blood off her chin.
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Still have some fight in you, do you?
"I'll have fight in me until I lie dead and broken on the ground!" Twilight added. "And who knows, maybe even then I won't stop fighting!"
Celestia laughed. "So brave, and so foolish.” She sighed. “Well, now our fun must come to an end; GUARDS!”
From behind Twilight came running a dozen royal guards, each carrying a rifle held up by a neck strap. Twilight looked back and forth, trying to think of some way, any way, to win, to hide, to run, anything! She couldn't think of anything.
"AIM!" Celestia yelled. All the guards lifted their guns. A hoof against the trigger, ready to fire at any second. Twilight began to hyperventilate, frozen, as she looked at the barrels of the guns aimed right at her. "Fire!" Celestia yelled, her voice full of cruelty. Twilight screamed, and brought her hooves up in a vain effort to protect herself from the incoming projectiles.
But the bullets never came. Twilight looked up from behind her raised hooves, and her eyes widened in surprise, confusion, and excitement. Everything around her was frozen in time, like someone pushed the pause button on life. Just inches from Twilight's face were twelve bullets suspended in midair, aimed right at her. Then the whole scene swirled away, and Twilight was left in a black, empty void.
Then a voice Twilight knew very well spoke behind her. "What has happened to you Twilight? Where's the sweet and innocent alicorn princess I knew and loved?"
Twilight spun around, ready for a fight. When she saw who it was though, she was taken aback. "L-Luna?"
The dark alicorn smiled kindly at Twilight. "Yes, it is me."
'What the … you!' Twilight thought. She looked at Luna with fire in her eyes. "You're working for Celestia aren't you?" Luna looked at Twilight sadly. "You're here just to mess with me!"
"Twilight, I mean you no harm," Luna said, looking at Twilight with sincerity.
Twilight laughed. "You mean me no harm? You mean me no fucking harm! Why would I believe you after what you did to me in Whinnyapolis! Why would I ever believe anything you tell me after Whinnyapolis!"
Luna looked at Twilight with the same sincere expression. "I'm sorry for what I did then. I thought you had turned to darkness. That you were going to do unspeakable acts if I left you unchecked." Luna sighed. "Oh how wrong I was."
Twilight looked at Luna with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I came into your dream to try and track you down, or find out what your plans were. I wanted to be a step ahead of you in case you were to decide to attack Equestria. But then when I saw what your dream was really about … your friends betraying you … Celestia…" Luna shook her head. "I realized that you are just scared." Luna smiled kindly at Twilight. "And I want to help you in any way I can."
'What, why, whaa!?' Twilight thought barely even making sense of what Luna said. She couldn't even make words as she processed the information. Finally, when she got herself together she said. "But I can't trust you. How do I know you won't stab me in the back?"
Luna sighed sadly. "I wish there was a way, but you can't."
Twilight shook her head and sighed. "Fine, I'll listen to what you have to say. Tell me, how will you help me?"
Luna smiled. "I'm going to try to convince my sister, Celestia, to stop hunting you."
"Wait, what!?" Twilight yelled. "Celestia's hunting me!?"
"You didn't know?" Twilight shook her head, and Luna continued. "She has been ever since Whinnyapolis. She was planning on killing you if you were ever found."
"You- you'll do that?" Twilight asked with skeptical tone.
Luna nodded. "Yes I will. You don't deserve death, Twilight. I want you to be happy." Luna smiled. "You're waking up. When you fall asleep again, I promise I will update you on the situation. Happy waking!" The world around Twilight began to blur, and the hallway in the Labbrinthium was rapidly replacing the black void.
Luna yelled. "Goodbye Twilight! Stay safe!" Then Luna was gone, and Twilight was back in the hallway, back to the Labbrinthium.