Twilight moaned as she slowly opened her eyes.
“Oh, goodness! She’s waking up!” she heard a faint yet soft voice speak.
“Wait… that voice…” Twilight thought. “It can’t be!” She jerked up as she looked at her surroundings. Twilight was in a bed… on a separate level from the wooden floor. The walls were packed with books.
She was home.
“Twilight! I’m so glad you’re okay!” a voice exclaimed, as she felt someone hugging her. She turned her head to see Spike.
“Spike?” she said.
“Come on, everypony’s waiting for you!” Spike quickly darted out of the room.
“But how?” she wondered, leaping out of bed and heading to the main room of her library.
“SURPRISE!” a pink pony popped up in front of Twilight, startling her.
“Pinkie Pie…?” she responded.
“Well, who else do you know that’d throw a super-duper humongous wait-until-Twilight-wakes-up-so-we-can-celebrate-our-‘we-beat-those-weird-monkey-looking-things’ surprise party?”
“But… I don’t understand!” Twilight replied.
“Don’t understand what, darling?” Rarity asked.
“How did I get here?”
“Well, duh. After you beat that one dude, we used the Elements of Harmony to take out the rest of them!” Rainbow Dash boasted, doing a front-flip before landing next to Twilight.
“But ah think it took so much strength out of ya, that you just plum collapsed. Ah guess you were pretty tuckered out, not that anypony could blame ya,” Applejack added.
“You wouldn’t wake up so we brought you to your room so you could rest,” Fluttershy said.
Twilight frantically gazed around the room. Everything seemed to be in place. The hole in the wall was being repaired… the Elements were back in the glass case… and all of her friends were right in front of her, unharmed.
“But… I thought… I was in Yusei’s apartment… in New Domino City last night…” Twilight recalled, her voice growing softer.
“‘Yusei’?” Applejack repeated.
“New what City?” Rarity said.
Twilight’s mouth hung open but found herself unable to speak.
“Twilight, are you sure you’re all right?” Rarity asked.
“Ah’ve never heard of any ‘Yusei’. Is he some boyfriend of yours that we don’t know about yet?” Applejack added.
“What?! NO!” Twilight exclaimed. “Why would you think that?”
“Applejack, how dare you suggest such a thing!” Rarity rebutted. “After all, Twilight clearly has a thing for that one guard at the Crystal Empire. What was his name again…? Flash Sentry, I believe?”
“Rarity!” Twilight yelled. “I do not have a crush on Flash Sentry or on Yusei! Besides, Yusei’s not even a pony.”
“Not a pony? Oh, I get it. You must be talking about some secret unfinished novel you were working on,” Rainbow Dash stated.
“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie Pie interrupted, bouncing in place. “And this ‘Yusei’ is a character in that story where you battle a bunch of weird guys and get sent to his world and then you, him, and his friends try to figure a way out back here to Equestria to save the rest of us because we were captured, right? That sounds like it would make a great story! I can’t wait to read it!”
There was a momentary silence as the other ponies in the room—and Spike—simply stared at Pinkie dumbfounded.
“Yeah…” Rainbow broke the silence. “I’m pretty sure that, as awesome as that sounds… it won’t be as awesome as my story, once it’s finished!”
“You mean that story about the pegasus who grows up to fulfill her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt?” Rarity asked.
“Duh. What could be more awesome than that? Still thinking of a name for the main character, though. I was thinking maybe… Rainbow… Dash?”
“Oh, however did you come up with that clever name?” Rarity replied, sarcastically.
“Just came to me,” Rainbow grinned.
“Wait a second, you haven’t made that much progress, have you…?”
“What are you talking about? I got loads done!”
“Yes, a very intricately woven plotline with a great name that you came up with just now… how exactly did you manage to get so much progress without the main character’s name?”
“Uh…” Rainbow stammered, sweating as Rarity raised an eyebrow at her. “Let’s head over to Sugarcube Corner!”
“That’s a great idea!” Pinkie concurred. “Time for that super-duper humongous wait-until-Twilight-wakes-up-so-we-can-celebrate-our-‘we-beat-those-weird-monkey-looking-things’ party!”
“Meet you guys there!” Rainbow sped out of the library.
Twilight stared as her friends left her home, a blank expression on her face.
“Twilight, aren’t you coming?” Spike asked, motioning for her to follow.
“Uh… yeah…” she answered, trotting towards the door to the outside. “I don’t understand… was it all a dream? Did we really beat those humans…? Or…”
“Is something bothering you?” the young dragon asked, walking beside her.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Spike raised an eyebrow at her. “If you say so. Come on! Let’s go party!”
Twilight glanced around. Something felt… off.
“Well, this feels familiar,” Twilight said.
“Come on, Twilight. You should really just kick back and enjoy the celebration!” Spike encouraged.
“I’m not even sure we should be celebrating.”
“What’s not to celebrate?” Rainbow asked. “I mean… we kicked those weird dudes’ hind quarters, didn’t we? Besides, it’s still one of Pinkie Pie’s parties, for pony’s sake!”
Twilight gazed over at Applejack standing in front of a barrel of water and apples, likely wanting to go bobbing for them. The country pony stuck her head in the barrel, much to Rarity’s disgust as she backed away.
She then watched a startled Fluttershy flinch as Rainbow Dash zoomed in front of her, taking another cupcake from the table they were near.
“Oh… heh. Oops. Sorry, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Oh, it’s okay, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy replied, standing tall once more to approach the table.
Twilight looked forward once more only to jump upon seeing Pinkie’s face just inches from hers.
“Pinkie! Don’t scare me like that!” she said, catching her breath as the Pinkie giggled.
“Hey! I know! We should play my favorite game, Pin the Tail on the Pony! Twilight, you should go first!” Pinkie suggested, already forcing Twilight to the center of the room against her will while the others cheered her on.
Twilight lost her sight as a blindfold was quickly placed over her eyes by Spike and suddenly spun around.
“And now we spin you around and around and then you can pin the tail on the pony!” Pinkie continued.
Twilight quickly collapsed out of dizziness. “Pinkie? Was it really necessary to spin me that hard?” she asked. She then felt a piece of fabric placed in her mouth and somepony helping her back up.
She slowly stepped forward and placed the material on the wall. Using her hoof to pull the blindfold up, she sheepishly glanced at the poster with the fabric on it. The tail was placed in the center of the pony’s body on the poster. “I was never that great at this game…” she thought.
Twilight turned her head towards her friends as a blindfold was placed on Applejack. “I’m gonna go get some fresh air,” Twilight said, stepping outside.
She took a deep breath before staring at the gray sky.
“That’s odd…” she thought, staring at the clouds. Twilight gazed around and saw that the colorful town had adopted an overtone similar to the sky.
She galloped back into Sugarcube corner to her friends.
“Girls!” she called as she entered the party room. Nopony was present. “Rarity? Fluttershy? Applejack? …Pinkie Pie? …Rainbow Dash…? …Spike…?”
She worriedly scanned the proximity before darting back outside.
“Where is everypony…?” she asked herself. Ponyville had become empty and nearly motionless. A light breeze blew through the town.
Twilight gasped upon seeing the flowers and grass wilt.
“What’s going on here…?”
Her eye caught the movement of a shadow in the distance. Curious, she pursued the figure.
“Hey, you! Stop!” she yelled, sprinting through the blackness that began to seep out of the environment. The figure continued to move away. “I said stop!”
Twilight's horn glowed as she teleported in front of the figure, who came to a halt.
The tall being wore a hood over its head.
“My, my,” it said, in a female voice. “Princess Twilight Sparkle… it figures I would find you here. I should have expected it. To think that using her power would allow me to come to this place…”
“A human…?” Twilight mumbled.
“But perhaps this venture might bear some fruit after all. A good night, indeed.”
“Who are you? Tell me right now!”
“I could tell you, but what’s the point? In mere moments, it won’t matter. I originally sought to use this power to retrieve… an item… but since I’m here… I may as well retrieve you, too.”
“‘Retrieve’? You’re one of the humans that captured my friends, aren’t you? What did you do with them?”
“If you mean the friends you saw here… I didn’t lay a finger on them. Then again… I hardly touched them back in your home.”
“Wha…?”
“You’re the star student of Princess Celestia… and you’re telling me you haven’t noticed yet?” the woman tilted her head to the side.
“What are you talking about?”
“Catch me if you can…” the figure grinned as she sprinted away.
“Hey!” Twilight yelled, galloping after her. Her horn began to glow as she began to concentrate and fired magical blasts at the human.
The figure jumped in a zig-zag fashion to avoid the bursts of energy.
Twilight activated her horn once more to teleport in front of the human again, only to watch the figure leap over her.
“Try again, Your Highness,” the woman taunted.
Twilight groaned and started after her. She then gazed ahead in the direction the figure was headed. “The library…? But… why…?” she wondered. Her eyes grew wide upon realization. “The Elements! Oh, no you don’t…”
Her horn began to glow again but ceased when Twilight ran into what felt like a wall. She glanced up to see the blackness obstructing her path.
The figure had already stepped in and out of the library, holding a bright object in the palm of her hand.
“That was quicker than I thought,” the woman grinned.
“My Element!” Twilight gasped, charging forward through the blackness. “Give it back!”
“It’s been fun, Princess… but I think I’m done here.” The figure raised her other palm, covered in a dark aura. Waving it in front of her, another black wall appeared. This time, however, it violently swung itself into Twilight, knocking her away.
Twilight stood up and shook off the blow.
“My, my. Still want to fight?” the woman said, waving her aura-covered hand again.
Twilight was knocked aside once more. As she struggled to get up, she found herself bound to the dirt by ropy-like shadows. The ground beneath her turned black.
“Let me go!” Twilight demanded, recovering from the attacks.
“You’re certainly something, Princess,” the woman said. “The others weren’t able to put up nearly as much of a fight as you have… although… I suppose that’s to be expected of the one who wields the strongest of all the Elements of Harmony.”
“What are you doing…?” Twilight felt herself growing weaker and more restrained as she saw the shadows begin to blanket her.
“Taking you home. At first, I thought we had to collect the real you… but with this power that I have obtained… taking you here will also bring the real you to us… thanks to the magical ties between you, your Element, and…” The figure glanced behind her.
“The real me…? What do you mean by that? And what power are you talking about? I’ve never felt anything like this… I think…” Now that she thought about it, the essence of this darkness that was being used to capture her had a faint sense of familiarity to it, although she couldn’t put her hoof on why. She then noticed another presence approaching from the direction the woman was staring.
“You haven’t noticed? This is a dream.” The human looked back at Twilight.
“A dream?”
“You thought it was real? No matter. In mere moments, you’ll belong to us.”
“‘Us’?”
Twilight turned her head and saw a thick dark fog draw near with bright white eyes that pierced through it.
“Who or… what… is that…?” she mumbled.
“The last thing you will ever see before you become ours, Princess Twilight,” the woman grinned.
“No… I can’t… let…”
“Try as you might, your magic is no match against ours.”
Twilight groaned as she struggled to break free of the shadows. Her horn began to glow.
“I don’t think so,” the woman said.
Twilight felt a sharp pain in her horn. A shadow had shot from the dark fog where the eyes seemed to float and pierced through her horn, causing the glow to fade.
“Stop resisting, you fool. You’re only delaying the inevitable,” the figure continued. “But if you insist on continuing your pointless struggle…” She waved her aura-covered hand again. A thick blackness had smacked Twilight in the face.
Twilight felt her consciousness beginning to fade. “I… won’t… give…” she mumbled.
The woman’s last words were barely audible to Twilight. “Good night, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”