Twilight looked at each of the three fillies. Everypony in the room had lost somepony important to them, a sister, a hero, or… Spike.
“Come on Spike, I have faith in you. Help the others, keep some order in my absence, and most importantly, get yourself out of there.” Twilight whispered to herself.
“What’re we gonna do Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked, taking her usual place as the leader of the trio.
“Well Crusaders,” Twilight started, and the three fillies perked up slightly. “First thing is first. We need to get you three to safety, as much as you want to help; you are more help if you can keep me up to date.”
“How?” Sweetie asked, eyes widening.
“Simple. Do you three remember the crystal ball that Queen Chrysalis was using back during the Secretariat Comet?” Twilight asked.
“Oh yeah, when she captured us to get to you.” Sweetie giggled, remembering how mad the changeling queen would get at them.
“I know how to enchant one of those so that we can use it the same way.” Twilight smiled.
“Awesome!” Scootaloo shouted excitedly.
“Yup, and I can also enchant the locks on the windows and doors to the library to keep those ‘Heartless’ creatures out.” Twilight said, trying to maintain a façade of confidence in hope of keeping the fillies calm.
“Where are you going first?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I was hoping to work my way to the Canterlot Library. Maybe, if I’m lucky, I can find a book there about the Heartless and how to stop them. Once I know how to do that, I can save my friends.” Twilight answered as she used her magic to move an enchanted crystal ball toward the fillies.
Twilight then started to walk around the house and enchant each door to the outside and window. She was hoping that what she was doing would be enough to keep them safe. It was going to be a task in and of itself to keep them in a safe location.
Twilight slowly crept down the streets of the darkened Ponyville. The once peaceful town had grown terrifying in a matter of minutes. The Heartless were possibly more dangerous than the changelings were at her brother and Cadence’s wedding. At least with changelings, she could find information on them, and now she knew what to expect after two encounters. The Heartless weren’t in her library and the odds did not look good for her finding them elsewhere.
“I have one good shot at this.” Twilight stared out at Canterlot from the edge of Ponyville.
She cast a spell that enhanced her sight in both distance and night vision capabilities. Despite all of this, she could just barely make out the railroad tracks a few miles from the city.
A flash of lilac light ensnared the unicorn, and she vanished from the outskirts of her home town, reappearing instantly just outside of Canterlot. In the case of the city being infested like Ponyville, she slowly walked toward it. To her surprise, Twilight didn’t see any Heartless at all as she reached the edge of the city. Two members of the royal guard were standing at the entrance.
“Twilight Sparkle? Is that you?” one of the guards asked.
“Yes…” Twilight sighed in relief, “it’s me…”
“By Celestia… What’s going on out there? We were told to quarantine the entire southern district of the city and a portion of the northern, and that Ponyville was lost. Rumors are also spreading that we might be losing Fillydelphia and Manehattan.” the guard asked.
“Shadow monsters. Princess Celestia sent me a letter telling me that they were called Heartless. I came here looking to go to the library-” Twilight started.
“Sorry Twilight, but you are out of luck. The library was in the part of the city that was quarantined off. There’s no way that you can safely get there.”
“Then what about the princess, she might be able to…”
The guard shook his head slowly. “She stressed her magic too much, Princess Luna is watching over her right now, but nopony knows when she’ll wake up.”
Twilight stood there in shock. The Heartless had beaten Princess Celestia in a battle of strength.
“I’m going to the library.” Twilight said firmly.
“I can’t let you do that.” the guard replied, straightening his posture.
“They took my friends and they took Spike.” Twilight’s brow furrowed and her nostrils flared. “Nothing is going to keep me from any of them.”
“The princess has left her orders.” the guard was hesitating.
“Tell her that I’m sorry. I need to do this.” Twilight dragged a hoof across the ground, preparing to charge.
“I’m not going to stop you.” the guard responded, looking over to his partner who had chosen to remain silent throughout the ordeal.
“With all of your magic, we lost in only a few seconds. We didn’t even know what hit us.” the other guard said calmly.
Twilight loosened herself. “Thank you.”
She walked past the pair of guards and started toward the Canterlot Library. She couldn’t help but feel awful for disobeying her teacher, but she wasn’t aware of the situation. If the princess knew, she’d definitely forgive Twilight; at least, that’s what she hoped. Saving her friends was her main priority, even if it cost her dearly.
There was a loud hiss from behind Twilight, startling the unicorn back into reality. She spun around, summoning the Keyblade almost instinctually. The Heartless flew through the air, smacking hard against a wall. Twilight galloped over to it and slammed the Keyblade into it with all of her strength. The Heartless burst into a dark smoke, just like it had in her dream.
Twilight turned and started on a full gallop toward the library, trying to focus to her surroundings. She was no good to anypony if she was dead, and if she kept getting distracted, that’s how she’d end up.
“Horseapples!” Twilight shouted in pain as a Heartless caught her back right leg, just above the hoof.
She fumbled for her hoofing, but tripped and fell to the paved road of Canterlot. She rolled across the ground, trying her hardest to get up onto her hooves. She felt the Heartless claw her side and she yelped out in pain.
Twilight sent out a burst of magical energy, knocking the Heartless away before catching herself. She started to limp to try to get away, but soon found herself surrounded by Heartless. No matter which way she turned, a pair of yellow eyes seemed to pierce her.
In the distance, she could hear what sounded like flapping. She looked up to see the source, and her eyes met with those of one of Luna’s night guards. There were three of them flying down toward her. All she could do was hope that they would help her.
“Twilight Sparkle!” one of them shouted.
“I’m… here…” she grunted back before falling back onto the ground.
The ponies didn’t respond to her speaking, instead, two of them swooped down and lifted her from the pavement. They flew her away from the ring of Heartless. She could tell that she was in trouble, but they still saved her life and she was grateful.
“Princess Luna heard of your entry to the city and demanded to see you at once.” the pony who wasn’t holding her up growled.
That pony seemed to be older, more experienced as a guard. He had a deep scar over the right side of his face as well as more similar scars on his legs. His voice was rough but calm; Twilight had no doubt that he had seen his fair share of combat.
Twilight couldn’t bring herself to speak, she was too scared. All she found herself able to do was shake, which she did rather violently. She was barely able to hold back tears. She thought herself too weak to survive and too weak to help her friends.
Instead of flying her to the castle, they flew her to a small building that had a barrier projected around it. Two of the royal guard opened an entrance with their own magic and the night guard flew her inside. They took her in through a door and set her on a cold floor in a dark room.
“Twilight Sparkle…” a familiar voice spoke, “I expected better from you.”
“Prin… cess… Luna…” Twilight whimpered. She could feel her consciousness slipping away.
“You thought yourself above the other ponies. You thought that my sister’s declaration was beneath you, that it didn’t apply to you. Look where that foolishness got you.” Luna spoke in a firm tone. It was almost as bad as that first Nightmare Night, minus the royal third pony point of view.
“My… fr…” Twilight grunted, trying to inform Princess Luna about her friends.
“I do not have time to follow you around and make sure that you follow some simple instructions. My sister wouldn’t want you to be killed, so for your own safety, I am sending you to the dungeon. I will have a doctor sent there as soon as one frees up, which may be a while.” Luna waved a hoof and the same two night guard that had just carried her in began to lift her from the floor.
“Heart…less…" Twilight tried to speak again.
“I am well aware of the situation, Twilight Sparkle. As soon as my sister awakens, we will handle it.”
Twilight felt a flare of energy and her mane and tail ignited in a brilliant flame. Her coat was suddenly bleached by the same magic. “My friends are in trouble! I need to save them!” she shouted in a fit of fury.
The two guard were startled by this, dropping her onto the floor. Her legs quickly gave way and she collapsed. She could see Luna giving her a look of repulsion before the princess turned her back to the unicorn and she faded from consciousness.
When Twilight woke up, she found herself in a dark cell.
“She really did send me to the dungeon…” Twilight whispered to herself.
She couldn’t lift herself from the cold stone floor. Her leg was still too weak for her to even try. There were three stone walls and one barred wall, the barred wall having been enchanted to prevent teleportation through it and it had a resistance to any other magic that could be used to destroy it.
Suddenly, she felt a powerful presence in the room. She knew that she was the only one in there however, so she was left dumbstruck. It was a few moments later that she recalled the spell that the princess had her studying before this all happened. It allowed for her to look into the memories of a location, to see the most powerful memory left in an area.
Her horn lit as she began to cast the spell. A bright lilac veil enveloped the room and she saw the shadow of a pony standing in the corner. The pony was a very dark grey with a smooth black mane. A brilliant shade of green pulsed around his unicorn horn as he began to cast a spell on the wall, opening it up.
Twilight tossed all caution to the breeze and followed this strange pony’s lead. She could only hope that this technique still worked all this time later. She couldn’t quite place how old the memory was, but she’d be more than willing to wager that it was over a thousand years ago.
Twilight shot a weak burst of magic at the wall and it opened slowly for a few seconds. It got stuck at one point, so she pulled herself toward it using her forehooves.
“I… think… I… can…” she whimpered, trying to lift herself from the ground.
She forced herself off of the ground and stumbled through the crack, pieces of stone carving into her sides as she did. Regardless, she pulled herself through and fell to the ground on the other side.
Judging from the pain that she was in, she could only assume that a doctor hadn’t gotten to her yet. She didn’t have time to wait for one though. Her friends needed her, even if she was hurt this badly. Slowly, the unicorn made her way down a dark corridor that seemed to be endless. The only thing that seemed to have gone right for her the whole day was a lack of Heartless in that path.
“Twilight Sparkle!” shouted a stallion from behind her. “You need to come back here!”
Twilight tried to remain as silent as possible, occasionally grunting from the pain that shot through her each and every time her back right hoof touched the ground. She tried her best to increase her pace, but found that in the long run, it was just slowing her down. She couldn’t see straight forward due to the apparent spinning of the room.
“We can help you!” the voice shouted again.
She paused and glanced back, seeing a night guard following closely behind her. He grabbed hold of her front left hoof and sighed.
“I finally caught you.” he smirked. “Princess Luna didn’t say that you could go.”
“Let me… go.” Twilight struggled to get away from the bat pony.
“I’m just following orders. Why can’t you?” his expression darkened to the point of frightening the unicorn.
“Don’t be afraid.” the voice from her dream told her.
“I’m… not…” Twilight gasped out. “Afraid!”
A large burst of lilac magic blasted the bat pony down the dark corridor, more likely than not, rendering him unconscious where he landed. Twilight turned back around and continued to limp down the path. She thought back, trying to remember if that voice had ever appeared to her before her dreams that morning. Despite feeling like it had, she couldn’t place a time or a face the matched the voice. All she knew was that it was helping to keep her focused, to keep her alive.
“Maybe it has something to do with that strange unicorn…” Twilight thought.
By the time that she had reached the end of the tunnel, she felt a little more able to walk. Her injuries hadn’t healed, but they didn’t feel as prominent anymore. She knew though, that another blow to her leg might just be it.
The tunnel led her just outside of the library that she had been trying to get to. It was significantly larger than her own library back in Ponyville, and in fact, may have been the largest in Equestria. She slowly limped up the stairs and opened the heavy door with her magic.
The inside of the library had an ominous feeling to it. She could have sworn that she heard something on her right when she limped in. Twilight waited for a moment, to see if whoever or whatever else was in the building with her would reveal itself. Nothing moved for nearly two minutes in the eerily still and silent library.
“I know that you’re there.” Twilight said, ending the silence.
She waited for a response but didn’t get any. So, instead of waiting any longer, she grasped at the general direct of the noise with her magic. She felt her magic grab hold of a small shape.
“Lemme go!” shouted a young colt.
The colt was probably the same age as the crusaders. He had bright yellow eyes and a green coat. His golden mane was unkempt and spiked in all directions, the same description applied to his tail. He had a cutie mark of a musical note.
“It’s okay; I’m not one of them…” Twilight said weakly, remembering how much pain she was in.
The colt grunted at Twilight as she set him on the ground in front of her. He started to scramble across the floor and hide behind a bookshelf.
“Don’t mind him. Those creatures got his family. He still hasn’t gotten a chance to cope with it.” said a pegasus stallion who finally stepped out of the shadows. “May I ask your name?”
The stallion was taller than Twilight. He had a white coat and a black mane. His eyes were light blue and his cutie mark was what looked like a fog swirling around a mountain or hill.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight spoke quietly.
“Well, my dear, there’s no reason to respect the silence of a library right now.” the stallion laughed quietly.
“I actually can’t talk much louder right now.” Twilight glanced to the large gash in her side.
“By Celestia! Did one of those creatures do that to you?” he shouted back in astonishment.
“Yes…” Twilight took a deep breath. “What’s your name anyway?”
“My apologies. You may call me Mist Valley. I’m an-” the stallion started.
“Author. You wrote Mist Valley’s Geography of the Northern Equestrian Border.” Twilight interrupted him.
“You know my work. Glad to see I have a fan. Do you mind telling me what you were doing out there though?” he asked.
“Trying to get here from Ponyville.” she answered.
“Ponyville, huh? Quaint town, Ponyville, isn’t it?” Mist Valley replied. “What would make you want to come to a city that is infested by those monsters?”
“They took my friends…” Twilight whispered. “I need to research them. Then I can beat them.”
“Sorry to break the bad news, but nopony even knows what they are. You can’t research it if you don’t know what it is.” Valley stated.
“Heartless.” Twilight said, with more strength than she thought she had left.
“What did you call me?” Valley growled. “I’m just stating a fac-”
“They are called Heartless. Can you help me?” Twilight could feel her strength waning again.
The room seemed to start spinning around her, making one large blur. Unable to interpret directions, she tipped over and fell onto her side.
“Note! Get over here!” Valley shouted. “Help her now!”
“All right.” the colt aid, galloping to Twilight’s side.
“I’ll look for anything on those Heartless.”
That was the last thing that Twilight could understand before the world slipped away from her again.