“WHAT??!!?!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed after hearing the news that Twilight had just informed her.
“B-b-but… But that can’t be true.” Pinkie Pie said, shaking her head, trying to get rid of any evidence of what she was just told.
“I know it’s shocking, Pinkie, but it’s true. Someone is manipulating your mind.” Twilight said, placing her hoof over her friends shoulder for comfort.
“Okay just what did I miss this time?” Spike voice was heard completely out of nowhere.
“SOMEONE IS MESSING WITH MY HEAD!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed at the top of her lungs, standing up on her hind legs and flailing her front hooves out and about.
Spike just looked at this scene with confusion and then decided to go ask someone whose sanity he didn’t question… 100% of the time.
“So what did I miss?” Spike asked Twilight.
“Somepony really is messing with Pinkie’s mind, Spike. I just don’t think Pinkie is taking the news lightly.” Twilight explained.
“But why? Why in Equestria would they do it?” Pinkie Pie asked, finally calming down, somewhat, laying down on all fours, looking terrified.
“That is a good question. But a better question is. Who’s doing it?” Spike noted and asked.
“I don’t know on the “who”. But I have a theory on the why. Though I don’t think you’re gonna like it Pinkie.” Twilight said, remembering the images of her dreams.
“What is it? I don’t care if I like it or not Twilight. This is my mind we’re talking about! I hafta know why somepony is willing to do this to me! I mean a mind is a personal place. Well not as personal as a bunch of other places. But the mind is a very scary thing Twilight. And I don’t wanna know what scary things are in my head! I just don’t!” Pinkie Pie rushed out, obviously in panic mode.
Twilight just looked at her friend, torn between telling her what she saw just to ease her of the kind of fear she’s having, and not wanting to tell her to cause a new fear.
“Well Twilight?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know who’s doing this to you Pinkie, but whoever it is, they’re basically placing dreams in your head and wiping them from your conscious memory. So that sub-consciously you can…” Twilight paused, unsure as to word the rest of the explanation.
“So they can what?”
“So they can make what happens in your dreams what you really want to happen. It’s like a very complicated form of controlling hypnosis, Pinkie.” Twilight explained, finally happy with the words she chosen.
“But what do they want Pinkie Pie to want?” Spike asked, trying to ponder the answer himself by scratching his chin with his claw.
“OHMYGOSH!!! Spike’s right! What DO they want me to want?” Pinkie Pie asked, getting more worried by the moment.
Twilight sighed. This was the part she was reluctant herself to tell.
“What!?” Pinkie Pie said, thinking that Twilight said something.
Twilight just looked up and thought to herself that it was better if they just knew about it quickly and get it over with.
“Whoever is placing those dreams in your mind… Well… I think they want… I mean it’s a possibility…” Twilight tried to voice it out, really not wanting to tell.
“Twilight stop stalling.” Spike said, clearly annoyed.
Twilight just sighed, and tried to say the next thing in a big rush.
“Whoever is manipulating your mind probably wants you to have feelings for Discord!” Twilight said as quickly as she could, even though she knew it was nowhere near as how fast Pinkie Pie usually talked.
“What?!” She heard both her pink friend and dragon assistant gasp out.
“Are you sure?” Pinkie said.
“In all honesty, I can’t believe you can’t remember any of it. In your memories you always seem to have them, but for some reason, you never have the memories of them until you wake up from force of them. Kinda like a live experiment into adaptation.” Twilight explained a lot more smoothly.
Pinkie Pie was taking all of this in, and well, she couldn’t tell just what shocked her most: Just the info that this was real, and how a big part of her didn’t seem to mind so much anymore.
“Well… Is there any way to track it down?” Pinkie Pie said, trying to shake any of those thoughts out.
Twilight thought about this long and hard. Sure there was plenty of ways to do what Pinkie requested… but some of them were really complicated, and most of them needed plenty of time and surveillance. Really she was just trying to narrow down the best options, until she come up with one that would probably be the most satisfactory.
“Well, there is one way, but you’re gonna need to stay for the night Pinkie.” Twilight said simply.
“OOOOoohhh!!! So it’ll be like a slumber party!?” Pinkie Pie said excitedly, temporarily forgetting her past fears, bouncing up and down.
When Pinkie Pie mentioned “slumber party”, Twilight’s eyes widened and sparkled making her form and big grin. It was all she could do to not squee in excitement for her SECOND official slumber party. As it was Twilight had to use all of her will power to calm herself down about the exciting idea; this was a serious thing they had to deal with.
“Right, well Pinkie, it’s gonna be a bit more complexed than that.” Twilight said, with a slight blush to her cheeks after noticing Spike’s raised eye-brow and smirk at her quick excitement at the idea of a slumber party.
“How so?” Pinkie asked, stopping, temporarily, her bouncing.
Twilight quickly rolled her eyes teasingly and started to explain to Pinkie Pie what she planned to do to Pinkie to help her out with her problem for the night, with Pinkie nodding her head every now and then showing that she understood what she was being told.
However, unbeknownst, to the two ponies and baby dragon, that they were being watched, by a dark figure in the shape of a pony; the same dark figure that stood just outside of Ponyville the night before.
The figure was covered from head to hoof in a dark cloak, only the glowing aura from its horn shining through as well as the glaring red eyes peeping through the hood.
The magic that was being produced was being formed in a little ball of smoke with a crystal clear image in the middle; like a crystal ball of green smoke.
The dark form looked over at the image of the purple unicorn explaining her plan to observe the pink mare of the figure’s interest in her sleep to watch for anything unusual, and how to trap the user of who was manipulating the pink mare’s mind: Namely the figure watching this all with a sour frown.
The figure didn’t plan on its subject to wise up to the deeds being done to its subject, the figure also didn’t plan on the pink mare to go and seek aid on the subject. Now the entire experiment, mission, heck, EVERYTHING was all unbalanced. Now the figure had to work extra hard to accomplish the prime directive of this crucial mission. And what made it worse was they now had to tread on harsh waters now.
“This is NOT going according to plan.” The figure growled, wanting to wipe away at the vision, but restrained itself knowing that it had to be fully informed of what was going on with her test subject.
Then they heard what the purple unicorn had planned to watch over her pink friend. This news finally made the figure smile a dangerous sort of smile underneath the cloak.
“Heh heh. Really? Is that the best you can perform Miss Twilight Sparkle? As Princess Celestia’s top student, I would expect something more from you than that.” The figure mocked at the vision of the two ponies and dragon, knowing fully well that they couldn’t hear the figure.
The figure chuckled to itself when the three of them had confirmed the earlier question asked and headed straight away to start their own, “tracking spell experiment” thing. It didn’t matter, though. It was a weak enough spell. The figure could still do their own deeds with barely any, minimal amounts of, trouble.
“And here I worried that you would choose those nasty little spells your failure of a princess used against me.” The figure growled out the last part, remembering it’s past failure with the Alicorn Princess of the Sun.
“But I guess you are her weakness and you have been graced with mercy on your friend, which is good.” The figure grinned again, putting itself back in a good mood.
“Because it doesn’t matter how you watch over her, Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie Pie is The One. The One I have been searching for. She is perfect! And nothing will stand in my way.” The figure leered over the green smoky ball.
Soon the figure waved away the scene, quickly getting bored with the events of the baby dragon sending a note to Pinkie’s employers, explaining and excusing her absence and the two mares talking about, oddly enough, past slumber parties.
With an extra green glow from the figure’s horn, the glowing gas ball changed its scene, to one more… Scenic: The Counterlot Castle’s garden. The scene moved quickly and accurately, trying to search for something, like a maze game on hyper speed. Until, finally, the figure found its target.
It was a statue of an all too familiar face, and body for that matter. It was made of up so many creatures it was almost confusing to count. The stone face of the statue was forever frozen in a face of horror of the knowledge of its fate, its body, too, frozen in a form that when it was animated, was trying to ward off the spell that was done to it. But the figure knew better: Forever wasn’t as long as one thought.
The statue, of course was Discord.
The figure looked at the statue with a mixture of emotions: Anticipation, anger, excitement, and of course, joy; though not all of the emotions were created just because of the chimera himself. But mostly because of the memories of the past and what the figure’s plan now could mean for the future.
“Soon.” The figure quietly promised, whispering so low, that even if a pony was present no one could’ve heard the figure.
“Oh so soon. You will be set free again. I have perfected my calculations. Not like last time.” The figure growled to itself yet again in anger of the past. “No, not again. This time you will be free, and I will ensure that you remain so. She is your key, and I will make the lock fit this time. And this time neither the Sun nor the Moon will ruin my glorious, beautiful plan.” The figure explained, relishing, and regretting, that it was telling an epic speech of dark proportions, and no one was around to witness it.
“Soon you will be set free. Soon, she will be the key to setting you free. But for now…” The figure trailed off. Closing their glowing red eyes to concentrate, causing a glowing green spell to form and zip its way into the vision and seep itself into the statue’s frozen face of terror, while another, different spell, seeped its way more subtly across the horror stricken eyes, before it quickly went away and back to the spell caster. The figure was now smiling full blown, now revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, the red eyes gleaming with the success of the spell.
“Hmmm… Interesting. A statue takes a simple love spell like that better than a living creature. Especially considering….” The figure trailed off, getting angry again about the past. “Last time.” It finally growled out.
“Never the less. I have work to do. And who says that a silly, little, weak, tracing spell will stop me.” The figure laughed out, looking back at the statue of the draconequus, if one could see the face beneath the hood, one would find a face full of sadness and sympathy.
“Soon, Discord. Soon.” The figure promised to thin air, soon waving a hoof to wipe away the glowing green gas ball, thus removing the visions.
Then remembering the plan, the dark figure decided to pull back the hood and stand on their hind legs, letting out a sinister laugh.
“Now let’s see who’s evil!” The figure cried out amidst the laughter to the heavens.