Lloyd reached the end of the path and saw an old rope bridge in front of him. To his right there was another path that led back into the forest and saw Twilight leading her team peek through. He waved to his friend and to all of Twilight's friends as well. His teammates waved to the others too.
"Hi Twilight!" Lloyd called out.
"Hello Lloyd!" Twilight called back. "You got separated from us earlier, but it looks like you're okay."
"Yeah, we kinda had an adventure of our own." Lloyd told her. "But we're here now and the castle is literally right there!"
"Yeah, it is." Twilight said. "But you might want to be careful. That bridge is old and about to break apart. If too many ponies step on it at a time it will most likely break apart and make us all fall to... wherever that hole leads."
Twilight nervously gulped and forced herself to not look down. She turned her head toward Lloyd's team and motioned for them to walk across first. She watched as Lloyd, Zane, and Jay flew over instead while Kai, Nya, and Cole were stuck with carefully walking over the rotting boards.
Twilight watched Rainbow and Fluttershy fly over as well and the others safely making it across before stepping onto the bridge herself with her friends. This time there were more ponies on the bridge, so she had to be very careful while placing each step. She walked very slowly and steadily over each board and when she heard a creak she stepped over that particular board and moved forward.
Twilight eventually made it safely across the bridge with her friends. Because the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters was literally right in front of them, they all ran (or flew, depending on the pony) toward the scorch mark-covered entrance. She stepped inside the castle ruins and saw exactly what the illusion did. There was even the heavy presence of powerful magic.
Twilight let everypony look around while she began researching everything around the area. Scorch marks covered various bits of rubble and blast areas. She quickly scanned to see the magical signature for the scorch marks and saw that both Sensei and Garmadon fired them. The two spells used were pretty different though. One seemed forceful (Sensei's), while the other seemed determined (Garmadon's).
"Hey everypony! I found the way down!" Pinkie yelled. "It's easy to see once you notice the bright glowing light!"
Twilight turned to where Pinkie was yelling and saw the light. It shimmered with gold, but was mixed with the occasional black wisps of smoke. The glow came from a staircase that was leading up to the second floor of the castle ruins. She walked over to the staircase with all of her friends and looked up. She could see the sky above her due to a large hole in the ceiling that was blown apart by a spell.
Twilight began walking up the steps, but some of them crumbled away from under her hooves. She placed her hoof in another place to try and find a supported spot, but a crack began spreading when her hoof went right through the step. The crack webbed out from the hole and spread which made the staircase crumble and break, eventually turning it into a pile of rocks. She sheepishly grinned before backing up from the pile, while she receved stares the whole way. She backed up to the end of the group and let all of her friends work to fix the stairs.
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Soon enough Twilight and her friends managed to turn the pile of rocks into something they could use to climb to the second story of the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. When she went up the makeshift stairs with her friends, the pile collapsed after the last pony made it up, trapping them in the castle ruins. She looked back, but then decided to just keep going and look for the next way to go.
It didn't take very long for Twilight to figure out where to go. The same light from earlier was stronger than before, but came from a long hallway that had cracks and holes scattered around it. Daylight shone through the holes, which was one of the only things lighting the path ahead. The other was the golden light. If not for those, the hallway would have been pitch black and nearly impossible to traverse through.
Twilight began walking down the hallway, avoiding holes and jumping over areas that otherwise would have crumbled below her. All of her friends followed right behind her, some flying while the others copied her movements. When she became much more sure about her hoof placement she sped up a little bit, which eventually turned into a gallop. The end of the tunnel was incredibly far away, so at some points she teleported a bit so she wouldn't have to run as much.
'I just don't know why this hallway seems endless.' Twilight thought to herself once she realized that the exit wasn't getting any closer. 'Outside this hallway looks like it's much shorter than this!'
Twilight slowed down and told all of her friends to stop before speaking. "I don't think this hallway ends. The exit hasn't gotten any closer, and you can even feel the magic in the area. But if you look behind you, you can see that the entrance is impossibly far away. Another contributing factor is the fact that outside this hallway didn't look very long at all."
Twilight just watched as her friends exchanged nervous whispers and a few ponies showing signs of distress.
"So how do we get out then?" Rarity asked. "Falling through a hole doesn't look like an option, nor does breaking out, so how do we get to the end of this hallway?"
"I'm..... not sure." Twilight answered with her head dropping.
After Twilight said that, Rainbow flew up and began attacking the wall, and was joined with Applejack, Cole, and Kai, who came over to lend their strength. "I don't think that's going to work....." Twilight warned them, but it was too late. A crack spread from the side of the wall and broke open a hole, which led to cheering. But then the rocks that began falling glowed with a gold and black light, and filled up the hole, which led to groans of frustration.
"I told you." Twilight said. "This place is filled with magic, and tampering with it would force it to revert to its normal state. Messing with ruins like this can cause major catastrophes, and could lead to injuries, destruction of important organs, and even death."
After Twilight said that, she was met with various stares from her friends. Looks of discomfort, anger, fear, and shock were plastered on each face. She just met those looks and spoke. "It's true. So unless anypony here knows how to combat powerful magic, I guess we're stuck here for a while."
"Well we have to try something!" Jay shouted. "Isn't there a magic-cancelling spell or something?"
"Not for magic this powerful."
"What about a way to transport to another dimension, walk a few steps, and then end up where you want to go?"
"Ask Pinkie on that one."
"Okay! Hey Pinkie, do you know anything about a spell that can transport us to another dimension, walk a few steps, and then end up where you want to go?"
"Nope! The author doesn't want this trial to be easy-peasy!"
"Can't we just teleport?"
"Not with this distance."
"Well what can we do?"
"Like I said, I'm not sure."
"Aww....."
It was silent after Jay said that. Twilight didn't know what to do or how to fix this, and she felt generally useless. That was before Lloyd spoke up with an idea.
"How about we combine our magic to teleport to the end?" Lloyd asked. "If it's too far for one Unicorn, how about four Unicorns and an Alicorn?"
Twilight's jaw dropped with happiness, excitement, pride, and hope. "That's an incredible idea! Why didn't we think of this sooner?"
"Maybe it's because everybody here is crazy!" Kai suggested.
"Well that's true, but that's beside the point!" Twilight said. "Let's start the spell, so everypony that in not a Unicorn has to stand in the center of our circle while everypony else surrounds you."
Twilight got into her position along with all of her friends. She charged up a teleportation spell and so did all of the others(1). Green, magenta, light blue, red, and pink lights created a glowing orb around everypony that began to slowly spin. She put more energy into her spell as the spinning began to speed up. She looked at her friends in the center and saw fear, nervousness, excitement, and determination on their faces while the ones performing the spell just looked determined.
All of their horns flared and the orb spun so fast that you couldn't even see it. Twilight felt herself being lifted into the air until the familiar sensation of teleportation began. She felt a hole in the fabric of space open before her and suck everypony in the orb into it, only to spit them out again only seconds later. Twilight saw that both she and her friends were right in front of the end of the hallway, which led to cheers of success. She stepped into the next room to see Celestia in the center of the room.
Twilight walked up to Celestia and greeted her, but she didn't turn around. Twilight tried to grab her attention, but the princess didn't move a muscle. Frustrated, she walked in front of Celestia and gasped. Celestia's normally pink eyes were red while the white part of the eye was deep black. Silver lines formed a pattern over her face that seemed to glow with every breath. Sharp fangs were on each side of her muzzle that pointed down and seemed to shine with magic.
Twilight backed away from the not-Celestia and toward her friends. The not-Celestia turned around to meet her though, and let out a roar that shattered what was left of the glass windows. She and her friends let out a shriek before running in different directions. The not-Celestia roared again and began firing black and red magic to each pony. The magic attack normally missed, but when it missed it left a blast in the spot it landed that burned out, leaving scorch marks.
Twilight noticed that the not-Celestia was getting angry because she and her friends were dodging its attacks. She formulated a quick plan in her head before standing completely still in front of the not-Celestia. She stared into its eyes for a little while, which made it look at her and halt its attacks. Her friends stopped running wildly when they realized that they weren't being attacked, and they just stared at her.
Twilight prepared herself by beginning to charge up an attack spell, but the not-Celestia was faster. It roared at her and let out a single attack spell that sent her flying to the opposite side of the room. She cried out when she got flung in the air while all of her friends shouted her name. The not-Celestia roared again, only this time it cried out in victory. Twilight felt pain everywhere, but the last thing she saw before her eyes closed was a bright green light in the center of the room.