The air was still. The cold stone surrounded every area of the castle. Some rooms were littered with objects, well others were empty. In one of these rooms lay the Alicorn Opaline Arcana. Her body lay unmoving, her eyes shut tightly, her mind empty and thoughtless. The pony had stayed in the same spot for days. Nights before the alicorn had been defeated, brought down, and punished by someone who she had once looked up to. Opaline's mind was unable to comprehend her defeat. She wrestled with herself back and forth trying to process what had happened. Had she really been beaten? Had she failed Twilight? Did anything she did even matter? She thought to herself. Opaline then lifted her head. She felt her back and neck pop and crack. She then opened her eyes; her vision was blurred. light from the sun stung her eyes which quickly began to water. She shut them tightly before blinking a few times as the stinging sensation slowly went away. She looked around the room, trying to see if there was any way for her to get out of there. She then noticed a wooden door on the other side of the room. It was an escape she thought. Opaline had no true idea of where she was. Twilight had said she was in a castle. But what if she was just being held in some room in Canterlot? Opaline wanted to see the princess. She wanted to finish her off and take Equestria for herself. There wouldn’t be anything that possibly could stand in the way of the great and powerful Opaline Arcana! She thought. Opaline then went to finally rise from the position she had been in. She put one hoof in front of her. She went to rise only for her to fall over suddenly. She then tried again only to fall over once more. She looked down at her legs confused.
“Wha- wha...t I-” Opaline then paused her face making an expression of startlement. She then tried speaking again. “H... how can I Opa-” She then quickly stopped meeting the same result as before. Her voice came out only as a weak raspy whisper.
Opaline lay there unsure of what was happening to her.
She would then conclude that the sudden acquirement of all the world's magic and its swift removal from her body, as well as her battle with Twilight, had left her sore and weak. as her body had experienced something that no pony had ever felt before. For the rest of the day, the alicorn would struggle to pick herself up. She would crawl halfway through the large room before stopping due to the weakened state of her body. When she was recuperating on the ground she took the time to look up at the roof of the castle above her. It was rounded, and the castle’s colors were surprisingly vibrant and warm. The light purple stained glass window above shaded the room in a dim purple glow. Opaline closed her eyes; trying to process what was going on, and in doing so it allowed exhaustion to take over.
Opaline would find herself waking up every few hours. When this would happen, she would continue to crawl a little bit more. Eventually, she finally had regained enough energy to get up and limp to the wooden door. She went to turn the doorknob with her magic, but nothing was produced. She then slowly twisted the doorknob open with her hoof. She hoped to see herself walk out and onto a balcony overlooking Canterlot. But when she pushed open the door, she was only met with a long winding hall of an unfamiliar castle. Opaline quickly became angry, she wanted to know where she was and where Twilight was. She then slammed the door before collapsing again, as the sudden reactions and movements proved too much for her body to handle. She tried to get up but her body cried out telling her it hurt too much. She rested in that spot for a moment longer she then opened the door once more.
“TWILIGHT!” she screamed out. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE WHERE ARE YOU!?” But there was no response to her yelling, only the quiet ambiance of the castle.
Was she the only one there she thought? She quickly remembered back to the night Twilight had put her in that room and what she had said about the castle.
“I used all my magic to contain you and protect all of Equestria. You won't be able to leave. You can't.” were the words that Opaline recalled. She then limped out the door and into the hall.
“TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” she cried out again. But there was still no response.
Opaline franticly turned her head around in all directions. What had the princess done to her? Was she truly alone? Or was this some kind of trick the princess had done to get her to finally surrender? Opaline began to panic her head began to spin and she started to breathe heavily. She pressed her hoof to her temple. She felt her body was weak and she felt the anxiety caused by the situation but out of all the feelings she noticed that hunger wasn't one of them, she paused as this new realization quickly scrubbed out how she had felt. it seemed too minuscule to her as she hadn't consumed anything for the past few days. it was odd she hadn't felt hungry at all. In fact, she hadn't felt thirsty either. Was this due to her being more focused on her surroundings perhaps? Opaline then quickly thought of her stomach in order to make herself feel hungry. But the sensation didn't come to her neither did thirst. Was this Twilight’s doing She thought? Why would the princess do something like that to her? Was that because the princess was planning on keeping her here for a long period of time? Had Twilight made it so she wouldn’t feel hunger or thirst? Opaline looked around once more. Was this her new home or a prison?
Opaline would then spend the next few days becoming familiar with the castle. One room she stumbled upon was that of a large library. Every shelf was stocked with thousands of copies of fresh books. They all varied in different topics and texts. It would seemingly take years for a single pony to read through all of them. Somewhat reaffirming Opaline's negative suspicions. She’d stay in the library treating it as some kind of sanctuary. There as she was slowly physically recovering, she would take the time to reflect on all she had done. The events of that night with Twilight stayed clear in her consciousness. She could still see the looks of both Twilight and her student clearly. She had everything working in her favor until the very end. If it hadn't been for Twilight, she could possibly be ruling over all of Equestria right now. But instead, she felt like a bird trapped in a cage. As she began to once again grow stronger, she decided she would try to escape. She found a window and tried to open it. But it quickly became apparent that seemingly no matter what she did to it she could not find any possible way of forcing it open. She would kick at it with her hooves, kicking harder and harder before they would hurt. She then tried to throw objects at the window in hopes of breaking it. But they would only bounce off the glass. Glass should easily be shattered but it wasn't most likely due to Twilight's containment spell. She then went to a large red door situated at the base level of the castle that seemingly served as the building's entrance. She tugged on the latch trying to free it. But it held firm she tried kicking but this also failed. Then in an act of desperation, she grabbed a candle and tried to burn the door down. But the flame would not spread. She tried this until all the wax had melted and the candle's flame burned her. Opaline began to cry, realizing the gravity of the situation she was in. Twilight was right, she couldn’t leave.
“LET ME OUT SPARKLE!” Opaline cried out bashing on the door. She continued to bash on the door till her hoof went numb and the energy left her body. Her body gave out on her and she tumbled onto the floor in front of the large wooden door.
She felt as though now she only had enough energy left to think. And soon the isolation began to take hold of the pony. Minutes turned into what felt like hours, well hours felt as though they only lasted minutes. Days went by, before weeks, and months, until what eventually felt like years. She felt trapped both inside the castle and in her own mind. She was a prisoner punished to stay in her head alone with only her thoughts as the world passed by before her. She lost all sense of time, there was never anything she could do to entertain herself, there was nothing there that interested her, nothing there except eternal boredom and loneliness. She’d confine herself to rooms shrouded in darkness where she would stay for long periods of time. How much longer before the isolation would eventually cause her to stop thinking? She'd wonder to herself. Twilight said she would come back for her one day but when would that day come? And would that day ever come? Would she ever be able to leave or was her fate now sealed indefinitely? Opaline stayed there holding onto the hope that one day Twilight would come back and free her. But as time began to pass more and more the princess never returned.