Levitating the Elements of Harmony ever-so-carefully in a cloud of shimmering violet magic, Twilight Sparkle stepped down the stairs leading out of Canterlot Tower, out into the night and the storm.
Ever since the incident at Princess Cadance and Shining Armor’s wedding, Princess Celestia had removed the protection spell on the Elements’ chamber that could only be broken by her personal magic—it had proved to be more of a hindrance than a safeguard in the end. Even if Twilight and her friends had managed to reach the Elements before the Changelings stopped them, they would not have been able to open the chamber. Also, the system had proven itself completely useless several months earlier when Discord, the exact type of being that the magic was designed to keep out, swiped the Elements from the chamber with no apparent effort.
As she stepped outside of Canterlot Tower, Twilight looked upward, observing the merciless sky as it waged war on the defenseless city below. The bright moon stared her directly in the face, remaining in the center of the cloud-infested sky even though it should be nearly dawn. But how? the lavender mare thought, utterly puzzled.
Gazing up into the night, she suddenly remembered a similar night over a year ago when the moon had overstayed its welcome…then with a cold shiver, the one and only possible conclusion hit her in the face: Nightmare Moon.
A wave of guilt washed over Twilight as she remembered the odd way that Princess Luna had acted when they spoke. The blue alicorn had seemed different when she talked about the self-purification spell, as if some fear plagued her mind, fear of herself. It had all happened when Puzzle Master showed her the Element of Betrayal...
I could have stopped this, Twilight realized with a feeling of shame that festered in her gut. If only I had stayed with her…but I was so intent on this plan, and…Twilight pondered the events of the last few hours. She argued with Puzzle Master, and then after that she decided to take action…exactly when Regal Magus and Spell Scholar left, leaving Luna completely alone with the Element of Betrayal sitting right next to her. I played right into Puzzle Master’s hooves.
Is there anything else I’ve overlooked? Twilight racked her brain, trying to remember everything she had done. She glanced up through the pounding rain as she walked, looking up at the West Canterlot Tower. A window loomed over her from one of the highest levels…the window to her own room. Pitch darkness waited inside, although the candles should have been kept lit by one who should have been inside awaiting her return.
SPIKE! She silently cursed herself. I told him to go to the research room, and then…No. Twilight suddenly realized what she had to do as the metallic noise of the rain splattering against the Elements echoed above her head. My friends are waiting for me at the train station. If we don’t unite with the Elements of Harmony, we will lose everything, including Spike.
Twilight Sparkle forced her eyes away from the silent tower and turned to the skies, noticing a familiar hot-air balloon as it floated down into the courtyard next to the Palace Library. She galloped towards the library, pushing herself faster and faster, feeling a powerful sense of relief fall over her at the thought of having friends to fight by her side once more.
The balloon let out a disgusting squelch as it landed softly atop the mushy front lawn of the Canterlot Library. Raindrops plummeted down to earth from the storm above, drowning the once neat-and-tidy trimmed grass lawn with unending sheets of water.
“How perfectly horrid,” Rarity said. “Aren’t there any pegasi on duty at this hour who could break up this dreadful storm?”
Rainbow Dash turned to face Rarity and a look of annoyance flitted across her face: “We can’t stop everything, you know. Some storms are just too big to handle for even the best weather ponies. Besides, it’s the middle of the night!”
“Um, not to be rude, but technically, it should be almost morning right now, so…sorry!” Fluttershy squeaked as Rainbow turned to her.
Applejack spoke up from behind them, saying “Maybe we all should get a move on. Twilight seemed awful worried in that letter of hers.”
Four of the ponies jumped out of the balloon, and Rainbow immediately shot into the air, her eyes flitting across the dark city-scape. “Twilight is just down the road! Jeez, I didn’t know she could run that fast.”
Rarity carefully stepped down onto the damp grass, wincing as the mud squelched under her hoof. Applejack rolled her eyes. “C’mon Rarity…we don’t have all night.”
She gave a hmph at the impatient farm pony, whose hooves were completely covered in muck. “I do apologize, Applejack…some of us have standards, you know.”
Suddenly a purple blur burst into the clearing, screeching to a stop in the center of the group. Twilight Sparkle collapsed onto the wet ground, panting with exhaustion. The six golden Elements of Harmony fell directly in front of her, each landing in the mud with a dull thump.
Rarity carefully lifted the Element of Generosity out of the mud, preparing to wipe it off, but its surface remained strangely clean.
“Hi Twilight! Long time no see! How was your meeting with the Princess? Did everything go well? Did they give you free meals on the research team? Does the castle staff serve good food? Hey, do you know why it’s so stormy out right now? Ooh, you brought the Elements with you! Are we going to have to stop a big bad guy again? Who-”
A cyan hoof collided with Pinkie Pie's mouth. Slightly put off, Pinkie waited and let an impatient Rainbow Dash speak.
“Twilight, what the hey is going on?! First you left for Canterlot because Princess Celestia needed your help with a research team, and now you send us a letter in the middle of the night because there are 'Elements of Disharmony'?!”
“Easy, sugarcube. Twi will explain everythin’, just give her a moment to collect herself.”
The lavender mare wheezed and held up her hoof. “I’m so sorry, everypony, for being so mysterious about this whole thing. I promise I’ll explain everything, just…just give me a moment.” Twilight began. Rainbow nodded and motioned for her to continue. “Princess Celestia called me here so that I could help Princess Luna with a research group studying the recently discovered Elements of Disharmony. It wasn’t going to be a big deal, but then I found out that a traitor in the group, Puzzle Master, was setting up all of those Elements to find new wielders. It was all that I could do to get you all here now, before he and his masters of Disharmony try to overthrow all of Equestria!”
“T-They’re going to take over Equestria?” whispered Fluttershy, her eyes widening in fear. “Who are…they?”
“I don’t know for sure.” Twilight hesitated, but then continued, “I do know, however that they are too powerful for us to handle without even more powerful magic.” She levitated a small dull object into the air for all to see, an ancient, cracked book with an indiscernible title on the cover written in loopy golden writing. “Princess Luna gave me this book of ancient magic, which will allow us to…to go into our own minds and defeat the evil inside. It is the only way for us to unlock the full potential of the Elements of Harmony and defeat those who were corrupted by the Elements of Disharmony.”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Wait, go inside…our minds?”
Twilight simply nodded. “It’s really complicated, but…just imagine a dream-like place that holds all of your memories, thoughts, and emotions. Somewhere in there will be an evil that we all must defeat…the worst part of ourselves.”
Rarity gulped. What kind of evil could possibly be inside me? I'm not evil…
Then a nasty thought twinged in the back of her mind, a memory of Sweetie Belle’s harsh words as her own little sister disowned her for her ignorance: “Well then…maybe I’ll go to the Sisterhooves Social without a sister. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my LIFE without a sister!” Rarity shuddered. With a sense of bitterness, she realized that she knew exactly who she must face.
Rarity turned back to the group. Everypony donned their Elements, a look of nervous apprehension on each face as they all lied down on the mucky ground, preparing for the inevitable fall to sleep. “Do we all have to lay down in this…mud?” she asked, repulsed.
“Unless ya want to fall down,” replied Applejack flatly, “Twi’s gonna put us under some kind of sleep spell, and we gotta do it fast before these ‘Elements of Disharmony’ ponies find us all sittin’ here.”
Shuddering, Rarity lowered herself onto the damp ground, wincing as the cold mud seeped up to her sides. She placed the Element of Generosity around her neck, which locked at its base—next to her heart—with a mechanical click.
Opened her eyes one last time, Rarity saw Twilight’s eyes squeezed shut in concentration. Violet fog poured out of her horn, enveloping them all in a cloud of shimmering magical energy. Closing her eyes, the wielder of Generosity inhaled deeply…and then fell into the black pit of sleep.
Fluttershy awoke to a feeling of pure and absolute…comfort. An incomprehensible melody whispered sweet nothings within the warm breeze that flowed past. The very same breeze carried a sweet aroma to her; she sniffed at it but could not identify the smell. It felt reminiscent of…a flower, one that she had never even seen before.
She inhaled again, then blanched, as the aroma now smelled as if the flower had caught fire
Snapping her eyes open and jumping up to her hooves, Fluttershy's eyes widened as she took in one of the most surreal sights imaginable. A never-ending meadow surrounded her, with long, pure-white blades of grass that had tickled her while she lay in their sweet embrace. Hundreds of emerald-green flowers sprouted up all across the landscape.
Stretching out her legs, she walked over to one of the green flowers. As Fluttershy trotted towards it the flower opened up, revealing a lighter green bulb beneath its emerald petals. She leaned her face down, her mane brushing lightly against the flower, and let its smell waft up to her face. Strangely, as the scent reached her…she sensed not a scent, but a memory.
Fluttershy and all of her animal friends sat together on another sunny day, on a lovely picnic. The soft summer breeze whistled through the trees, filling her with a feeling of timeless content. High up in the sky the sun watched over the earth, warm and smiling on this most joyous of days…
Curiosity drove her towards another of the strange flowers, and her wing tips skimmed the surface of the tall white grass as she flew above the meadow. The next flower opened its petals to reveal…a flaming red bulb, casting a sickly orange glow on the surrounding area. All of the white grass around her turned shades of burnt crimson and ashy gray. She tried to jerk her head back, but the burnt stench overtook her senses before she could pull away.
Another memory overtook her, wherein she sat next to a damp puddle in the middle of the road leading out of her cottage…
The harsh, flaming sun shone bright in the sky, amplifying Fluttershy's boiling anger. The ringing of a bell from a nearby tower filled her ears, vibrating her skull. She whirled around to see two ponies approaching her, trotting down the road with bright smiles on their faces…Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Fluttershy shot them a glare imbued with pure fury as Rarity spoke: “Fluttershy, what are you doing? That’s no way to behave...!”
Fluttershy yanked her head out of the painful memory, and a sickening feeling of shame washed over her at the memory of that day…when Iron Will had taken her, transformed her, and released something deep within her that had been nearly impossible to force back inside.
Something deep within her…
Suddenly she closed her eyes and turned around, letting her senses guide her. Slowly opening her eyes, Fluttershy found herself staring at the one and only anomaly within the pure white meadow.
A fortress of blazing red hedges stood in the center of the meadow, every surface covered in bright flames which licked up the dark walls. The hedges glowed red with fiery heat despite their burnt-black color. On every side of the bush walls, countless thorns jutted out, guarding everything within from the oppressive bliss of the pure meadow.
The walls began to shift upon bearing Fluttershy's gaze, twisting dozens of thorny vines aside to form an opening within the hedge.
Slowly Fluttershy trotted towards the hedge stronghold, feeling a twinge of fear about facing the irrepressible emotion within herself that had so many times overtaken and controlled her.
Anger.
A soft breeze whistled through the trees and woke Applejack from the deep black pit of sleep. She immediately jumped up, readying herself for action, her eyes darting around the landscape. And yet as she looked around, it dawned on the orange mare that the task lying before her was anything but straightforward.
Hundreds of apple trees surrounded Applejack, in orderly rows and columns reminiscent of her orchard at Sweet Apple Acres. Yet these trees varied unnervingly from those of her home. Instead of a normal earthy brown, shades of red and orange greeted her eye on the tree-trunks. Every tree all had leaves of different colors of the rainbow, and yet each individual tree only contained leaves of one color. The sole similarity between these trees and the ones Applejack knew so well was the luscious apples hanging low from the branches, which drooped low to the ground.
Confused, Applejack trotted up to one of the trees. Reaching out with her hoof, she knocked an apple out of its tree and it fell to the ground with a dull thunk. As she grabbed the apple in her mouth, she glanced upwards and saw that its tree had sickly bluish-green leaves that appeared almost rotten in the bright sunlight.
The apple’s scent filled her nose as she held it in her mouth, and upon smelling it she immediately recoiled. With a disgusting squelch the apple fell to the ground, bleeding out a sickly turquoise color onto the ground from where Applejack’s teeth had pierced its thick skin. As Applejack’s brain processed the truly unbearable nature of the apple’s scent, a memory forced itself into her vision:
Pinkie Pie’s cold and calculating eyes glared straight through Applejack, reading her like an open book. The orange mare began to sweat nervously, her mouth sore and hurting from her fake smile. Pinkie’s neck elongated as she tried to peer past her lying friend through the barn door, and Applejack was forced to mirror the pink pony, who spoke again. Her normally bright and bubbly voice had changed to a shrewd tone inflected with suspicion: “Okie…dokie…lokie...”
Applejack jerked up her head and shook it twice, clearing the unpleasant images. She shuddered, took a deep breath, and lifted her head. This place is creepy as an ancient castle on Nightmare Night! I need find a way out...She gazed around at her surroundings, looking for something, anything that seemed out of place. And then, not ten feet past the blue tree, she saw it.
Among the orderly rows and columns of dull red and orange apple trees lay a thick, wild section of forest that did not fit in with the rest. The trees stood tightly packed together, each one a different size and shade of blue as they all reached desperately towards the sky. Between every tree dozens of vines curled up from the ground and choked the life out of the sickly tree trunks.
Hardening her face with determination, Applejack walked down to the garden of evil. Within lived one that she knew she would have to face, an instinctual part of her Self that she must overcome…
Deceit.
The sickly sweet smell of sugar awoke Pinkie Pie, who opened her eyes to view a very familiar sight.
“Ponyville? How’d I get here? I thought Twilight was putting us all in a weird dream spell…OH WELL! I guess I’ll just see if there’s anypony around who could explain this.” Jumping up to her hooves, Pinkie turned around and trotted towards Sugarcube Corner, knowing the route by heart.
Craning up her head as she walked, Pinkie Pie nearly jumped out of her hooves in shock. Thousands of balloons flew across the sky, flitting from place to place with no rational pattern. A huge grin stretched across the pink mare’s face: “Hee hee! I knew there would be balloons here, I just knew it!” She fell over on the ground laughing, starting to float towards the sky to join the random parade of happy, carefree balloons.
And then she opened her eyes. She immediately fell like a stone, hitting the ground with a painful CRUNCH. The sight in front of her wiped the once-joyous expression from her face.
Hundreds of razor-sharp pitch black spikes jutted from every wall of Sugarcube Corner. The walls themselves had faded to the color of ash, sending off pale steam in wisps of gray. Black smoke poured out of the once-clear broken windows…and yet no flickering light of a fire glowed inside the building. All of the candy ornaments which used to decorate the cheerful building had withered, fallen off and shattered on the ground.
Burnt-black planks of wood stretched across the front door. Hesitant yet morbidly curious, Pinkie Pie trotted up to it and knocked three times with the tip of her hoof.
A soft voice, disturbingly reminiscent of Pinkie’s own, called back, 
Upon hearing the voice, a memory emerged in the back of Pinkie’s mind. A memory of suspicion towards all of her friends. A memory of abandonment, despair, and of…
Paranoia.
The soft feeling of a cloud tickled Rainbow Dash’s underbelly. She snorted once and flipped over, and the slow thrum of her heartbeat echoed in her ears. A swift breeze sped past her and she clutched the fluffy material beneath her.
With a painful rush Rainbow’s memories returned and she snapped open her eyes, shooting up into the air, slapping herself with her hoof to try and wake up. Yet somehow, the lulling atmosphere around her kept her from fully jolting to her senses.
An endless sea of clouds greeted her vision, floating forward in a never-ending journey towards the sunset. Bold brushstrokes of painted sky soared above her, crimson and orange, pink and gray. Eternal dusk had consumed this surreal ocean of clouds.
Rainbow Dash looked around, her eyes widening more and more with each passing moment. Each cloud strayed from the anticipated spectrum of gray to black, glowing red and yellow and all colors of the rainbow. The cloud beneath her was a bright cherry red, filling her with an inexplicable sense of confidence and determination.
One anomaly broke the endless uniformity of this city in the sky. A group of monochrome thunderclouds floated far above the silent plain, swirling and speeding in circles around one central pitch-black cloud that sat above the rest, king of the sky. Bolts of cyan-blue lighting shot out of this cloud, into the storm walls—which amplified their power—and cast them into the tranquil sea below.
Rainbow Dash hovered above the crimson cloud beneath her as it began to glow, and then flinched when it fired a thick, solid bolt of pure red lightning at the storm above. In a flash of light, one of the many dark clouds vanished. A deafening rumble of thunder exploded out of the crimson cloud and filled the cyan mare with confidence. This cloud fought the storm as always had to, locked in an eternal conflict with the darkness.
Rainbow Dash must finish its job.
Soaring above the sea of clouds, Rainbow called upon her speed and shot towards the storm, which retreated upon her approach. As she glanced back over her shoulder, a shiver ran down her spine. Instead of rainbow mist trailing behind her tail, a beam of shining, solid red flowed backwards into the dusk.
The thunderclouds in the center of this realm parted, revealing a familiar-looking gray mare asleep on the black cloud which floated above the rest at the peak of the sky. In every way the mare matched Rainbow perfectly...but she had no colors in her mane or her coat, and wore a bright blue crown of thorns atop her head.
Suddenly a narrow bolt of lightning shot out of the black cloud, hitting Rainbow full-on in the face. As it hit, a painful memory jolted through her, causing her to stumble mid-flight. Reminiscent images flooded her vision, images causing something within Rainbow to twinge with painful uneasiness:
All of Rainbow’s friends sat happily in their seats, sipping at various sugary drinks. They laughed, they smiled as they discussed how impressed they were by the mediocre antics of the unholy usurper, the cruel “Mysterious Mare Do Well” who had stolen Rainbow’s rightful fame. Applejack looked over at her cyan friend, whose moody demeanor betrayed her…
Rainbow forced her eyes open once again, startled to find herself on top of the poisonous cloud which filled her with the same sense of bitter jealousy and anger that the memory had. She trotted over to the sleeping gray pony, her darkest and most evil reflection.
With a firm, commanding voice, Rainbow Dash shouted, “WAKE UP!…”
“…Pride.”
As she gradually opened her eyes, Rarity noticed first about the strange building that silk tapestries hung from the wall directly in front ofher.
Beautiful yet surreal patterns covered every face of the tapestries, the most delicate, intricately woven pieces of art she had ever seen. Each pattern seemed to expand upon one central concept: diamonds. On one tapestry thousands of the things formed a never-ending wave of interconnected diamonds, each a different shade of blue. Another tapestry showed one external with endless others inside of it in different, twisting layers, each one smaller than the last, until the final layer disappeared into invisibility. Somehow, Rarity doubted that a final layer existed.
The white mare sat up, looking down from the high walls towards the pure marble floor. Every panel on the floor was a different color, and upon extending her hoof from the colorless tile she had slept on, she felt a peculiar mix of emotions overtake her. She planted her hoof firmly on an orange tile a few feet away.
Immediately it shattered beneath her, sucking her towards a dark void below the colorful ground. Rarity shrieked, letting out a mute scream which was silenced by the empty air. Flailing her hooves desperately, she fell out of the surreal, colorful hall, air rushing past her.
Strangely, as she landed on the damp ground below the building, Rarity felt nothing at all, no pain or even a fleeting sense of surprise. She had arrived exactly where she should have.
Near-total darkness hung over this cavern. It carried a humid, musky smell that reminded her of the cave that the Diamond Dogs called home. Rarity felt the grinding of sharp rocks beneath her hooves as she began to walk, and yet still she felt no pain. From somewhere to her left she heard a distinct dripping sound, but as she turned her head something else caught her eye.
High above her, a bright blue diamond shone across the oppressive gloom of the cavern, driving back the darkness. With her magic she cautiously levitated the gem closer, and then brought it down to her hoof. It felt warm to the touch, and upon holding it an old memory played in front of Rarity’s vision:
“…you need a glamorous NEW outfit for the Gala. And I’ll make it for you; no problem at all. It will be my pleasure.” The purple mare hesitated, taken aback at the unexpected offer: “That’s really sweet of you to offer, Rarity, but…I can’t let you do that. It would be so much work! This dress is fine.” Rarity took another look at the repulsive red-and-yellow dress sitting on her table: “Twilight Sparkle, I insist on making you a new dress…”
Rarity smiled fondly at the old memory as it gradually faded away, letting her vision readjust to the dim light of the cave. She looked up to where the shining diamond had been, a shiver ran down her spine as she saw thousands more attached to the ceiling high above her, glowing faintly in the dark. By the light of the sparkling gems, she could see the outline of the cave roof curving in on one point directly ahead of her. A spot right in front of her carried the pressure of the entire cave ceiling, as everything above tried its best to crush it and collapse this disgusting empty cavern.
Snapping her head back down, the white mare noticed a door that she had not noticed before, painted a sickly mix of green and orange and covered with diamonds that had lost their sheen, burnt black or completely clear.
Inscribed upon the door’s surface, in writing so fancy and old that it was hard to make out, was a single word…a word she herself had thought before falling to sleep so long ago in the stormy night, in a different world entirely:
Vanity.
Twilight Sparkle awoke inside the strangest place she had ever seen.
She stood inside a pure white marble hall, larger and grander than all of the buildings in Canterlot. A continuous, never-ending bookshelf was imbued within every wall, holding the knowledge of her subconscious mind. Below these dizzyingly tall stacks of information stood hundreds of wooden doorways, each leading to a different part of her Self. Deep purple writing snaked along each door, spelling out the names of every memory, emotion, or idea within her brain.
Somehow Twilight knew that everything in here had manifested as an illusion, a way for her conscious mind to make sense of everything stored within the furthest reaches of her brain. She confirmed that idea as she saw that each door had a numeral marking inscribed above its frame; truly only an organizational mind such as hers would categorize every idea in such a consistent pattern.
Trotting down the white hallway, she attempted to take in all that was around her. Focusing and pulling her gaze upward, she saw no ceiling to the imposing building, only an impossible yet beautiful twilight sky. The sun and the moon were together and yet separate, on opposite horizons, lighting up the sky with a surreal blend of white moonlight, black dusk, red twilight and the yellow golden glow of the sun. The stars shone through this plethora of colors, shining even brighter than the sun and moon, thousands of white pinpricks upon a distant sunset painted on her vision.
Hardly noticing anything in front of her face, Twilight barely saw the end of the hall approach. Up on the wall, one gigantic stained-glass window loomed over her ominously, glaring down in defiance. A familiar six-pointed star design consumed the face of the window, with five smaller stars of gray surrounding it. Her cutie mark, normally maroon-violet in color, had been bleached yellow by whatever corruptive force lay within this last room in the center of her mind.
One final door stood in her path, born not of wood but of a pure black substance. Its intricate frame shone with polished gold, curling and twisting in complex patterns across the door’s face. It had no label. With a nervous twinge, Twilight pushed open the door.
Her hoof fell right through. The door had never existed.
