Twilight awoke to the delicious smell of pancakes wafting into her bedchambers. She noticed that Spike had already gotten up, as his bed was empty.
“I guess Spike has already started breakfast.”
As Twilight walked down the stairs to the kitchen the heavenly smell only got stronger. She began to hurry down the stairs so she could get to the pancakes faster.
When Twilight finally made it to the kitchen, she was greeted by the sight of Celestia cooking pancakes while Spike wolfed them down like he hadn’t eaten in years.
“Good morning, Twilight! I made pancakes!” said Celestia cheerfully.
“You make pancakes?” Twilight questioned.
“Oh, you pick up a few things when you’ve been around as long as I have, Twilight. Here, do you want one?”
Celestia levitated a plate of pancakes over to Twilight. She noticed that most of the pancakes were in the shape of Celestia’s cutie mark; she suspected magic might have played a role in the formation of these pancakes.
“Mm, these are delicious, Celestia! Of course, that could very well be because this is my very first time eating anything.”
Celestia’s good mood was instantly ruined by Entity’s appearance. Spike stopped eating his pancakes and looked curiously at Twilight.
“Spike, could you please leave us? Twilight and I have some important matters to discuss.”
“Of-of course princess, I guess I’ll start on my chores early then.” Spike grabbed his plate of pancakes and walked out the door.
“Have you forgotten that you must leave Twilight’s body before sundown today?”
“No Celestia, Twilight merely wanted to have breakfast before we left.”
“It seems you already have.”
Twilight looked down at her plate of pancakes; nothing remained but crumbs.
“Very well, since you are so insistent, I shall do so at once. When Twilight returns she will be free of my influence.”
Twilight began casting a teleportation spell, but Celestia reached out a hoof to stop her.
“Wait a moment, I believe I shall accompany you.”
“I cannot tell you for certain that you will be safe, Celestia. What I am about to attempt could be dangerous.”
“All the more reason to be there.”
“As you wish, Celestia.”
In a brief flash of light, both of them disappeared from the room.
<<>>
Spike hadn’t actually had any chores to do today, because it was his day off. Twilight should have known that. Worried, he had headed over to Rarity's boutique to talk things over with her. Tentatively, Spike knocked on her door. He heard frantic hoofsteps from within before the door was finally opened.
“Spike? You know you’re always welcome here darling, but why so early in the morning?”
“Well, it’s about Twilight-“
“Say no more, Spike! Come on inside and we can talk all about it!”
“Thank you, Rarity.”
As Spike walked inside, he passed by Sweetie Belle, who gave him an angry glare before ascending the stairs to her bedroom.
Rarity levitated a chair over to spike while she sat down on her own couch.
“So you wanted to talk about Twilight, Spike? Is she having another one of her… episodes?”
“I don’t know for sure, I haven’t really gotten to talk to her after she was abducted-“
“Abducted!?” Rarity shrieked. “When did this happen!?”
“Last night. Discord and Luna rescued her, but she’s been acting weirdly ever since.”
“Twilight could be in trouble! I have to get the others!”
Rarity practically leapt out of her chair and rushed out the door. As she left she shouted one last thing to spike. “Spike, could you be a dear and watch Sweetie Belle while I’m gone?”
“But I-“ Unfortunately, Rarity couldn’t hear him, as she had already left.
Spike then heard Sweetie Belle’s hoofsteps as she descended the stairs. “I’ll never get back to sleep with all this shouting!” She glanced at the clock “And it’ll be at least an hour before my friends get here!” Sweetie belle pouted.
“Sweetie Belle? Rarity wanted me to look after you.”
She turned towards him as if noticing her for the first time. “She did, did she? Well then, perhaps we can play a little game to pass the time.” She let out a small chuckle, then trotted over to the closet, pulled out a board game and showed it to Spike.
“Chess? Do you even know how to play chess?”
“But of course, Spike! It is a game of quick wit, subtlety, and dramatic action. What kind of pony doesn’t enjoy such an awesome game?”
“Alright, Sweetie Belle. But I warn you, Twilight taught me everything I know, and she’s a master chesspony. I don’t think you’ll be able to beat me.”
Sweetie Belle chuckled evilly as she set the board up. “We shall see, Spike. We shall see.”
<<>>
Entity, still inside Twilight’s body, surveyed the landscape of the badlands for an ideal location for his device. Eventually, Entity found the perfect spot: A perfectly flat plain that stretched for hundreds of miles in each direction.
“Is this where you are going to build your device?” asked Celestia.
“Not quite, Celestia. Several miles below us lies a large cavern. It is in there that I shall construct my device.”
“So what are you waiting for? Let’s teleport down there and get started!”
“No. I will have to drill down to the cavern.”
“What? Why?”
“While my device must be constructed deep underground to safety’s sake, I would much prefer to live above ground. A tunnel would allow me be in both places at once.”
“If you say so.” Celestia said, not wanting to argue.
“Excellent. If you could please step back, I will began digging.”
Twilight’s horn began to glow intensely as she started lifting off the ground. She tore rocks from the earth to form a massive, magically infused stone drill. Twilight suddenly plunged it into the earth, and Celestia was forced to put up a shield to protect herself from the debris flying through the air; as well as the large waves of magical energy being given off by the drill.
<<>>
Discord struck another dramatic pose as he waited for the artisan to finish her work.
“This would go a lot quicker if you would stop distracting me!”
“Oh spare me, how long can it possibly take to create a single window?”
“It takes many hours of time and patience to create a stained glass window. Something you were obviously not aware of when you replaced them all with your ridiculous creations!”
“Ridiculous creations! I resent that remark!”
“Oh? So it is true that you were the one to defeat Nightmare Moon?” The artisan pony said as she pointed to a stained glass window. It depicted six Discords attacking Nightmare Moon with pool noodles.
“So I used a little bit of artistic license, an artist of your stature should be able to understand that!”
“Very well then, how about this one?” She pointed to a window that showed Discord in a hoofball uniform while he was tackling King Sombra, who also wore a hoofball uniform of a different color. Discord was posed to pass the crystal heart into the waiting hooves of Cadence.
“Every lie has a kernel of truth inside of it! I believe a famous pony said that!”
“Well, it doesn’t matter! You’re not leaving until I am done restoring these windows to their original state!”
“You know, I could save all of us a lot of trouble by using my magic to fix the windows…”
“Not a chance! Princess Luna said that you were to stay here and watch me fix each and every one of these stained glass windows! Maybe then you’ll learn to appreciate just how much effort goes into creating these!”
Suddenly Discord perked up, and he took on a serious expression.
“What’s wrong?” questioned the artisan pony. She had never seen Discord so grave in all the time she had known him; it worried her.
“There is a rather large magical disturbance to the south. I better go see what’s going on.”
“Very well. But I’m not doing any work until you come back!”
Discord smiled “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He snapped his fingers and was gone in a flash of light.
<<>>
“Oh Gummy, just three more minutes before the cupcakes are ready!” Pinkie Pie giggled. “Then we can begin your super-fantabulous it’s almost your birthday but not quite yet party!”
“But that sure is a loooooong time to wait! I kind of wish something amazing would happen in the meantime…”
Without warning, random twitches and shudders ran all throughout Pinkie Pie’s body.
“Arrgh, I said kind of! Kind of wish! Sorry Gummy, but your it’s almost your birthday but not quite yet party will have to wait until tomorrow! I’ve got to go help Twilight! Tell Mr. and Mrs. Cake that I had to leave!”
As Pinkie Pie rushed out the door, she ran into Rarity and Applejack.
“Sorry girls, no time to chat! I have to help Twilight!”
Applejack and Rarity watched as Pinkie Pie speed off into the distance.
“Ah reckon Pinkie Pie already knows, Rarity.”
“Yes, well we still have to inform Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.”
“We should split up; ah will go get Fluttershy, and you get Rainbow Dash.”
“Capital idea, Applejack! We’ll meet back at Twilight’s castle. I just hope we’re not too late!”
<<>>
Celestia had lost sight of Twilight some time ago. Celestia’s best guess as to her location was inside the giant hole she had created. Celestia had tried to get closer to the hole so she could see what was going on, but the large amounts of earth still exiting the hole made this a difficult task.
“Celestia! Fancy seeing you here!”
Celestia quickly spun around towards the sound of the voice.
“Discord!? What are you doing here?”
“I sensed a great magical disturbance on this very spot. But I didn’t know that you had beaten me to the scene of the crime.”
“There has been no crime here, Discord. Not yet, at least.”
“How can you tell that from the cheap seats? We need to get closer if we want to see anything!”
“No Discord! It’s too dangerous!”
“Only if you’ve forgotten your umbrella, Celestia. Follow close behind me.”
Discord materialized a giant umbrella and slowly started to move forward. Celestia rushed to get under the umbrella to safety. Thanks to the power of chaos magic, the umbrella was able to deflect even the largest boulders. Even so, it was slow going thanks to the stones that had already landed on the ground. By the time they made it to the edge of the hole, the rain of earth had long since ceased.
“After you, Celestia.”
“No thank you, Discord. I shall take up the rear this time.”
“If you insist.”
Discord created a diving board on the edge of the hole and used it to jump into the fissure. He quickly disappeared from sight, and the diving board disappeared with him. Celestia slowly floated down the hole on her wings. She noticed that the sides were completely smooth, something that shouldn’t be possible. She looked down, and saw Discord as a tiny speak at the bottom of the hole.
“You’re so slow, Celestia! Just start free falling, and I’ll catch you at the bottom.” Even though Discord was far away, somehow Celestia could hear him perfectly. Although she trusted Discord to an extent, she believed only a great fool would take Discord up on his offer. After what seemed like eons, she made it to the bottom of the hole. The sight of a massive cavern greeted her.
“By Celestia, Celestia! You took so long to get down here that you missed the entire conversation!”
“Conversation?”
“With Twilight, of course! Who else?”
Celestia turned around, and sure enough Twilight was standing directly behind her. Celestia idly wondered why she hadn’t seen Twilight on her way down.
“That isn’t Twilight, Discord.”
“Don’t be silly Celestia! Same wings, same horn, same adorkable haircut, and still purple, too! I admit that purple isn’t one of my favorite colors, but I think it looks good on you Twilight!”
Discord frowned. Twilight hadn’t changed her expression at all, still looking at them both as if they were bacteria under a microscope.
“Anyway, my point is that this is still Twilight, even if she is currently possessed.”
Without warning, Twilight spoke. “Now that we are all here, we may truly begin.”
Twilight’s horn began to shine powerfully. The effect was immediate. The cavern’s walls, floor, and celling had been completely transformed. Smooth grey metal had replaced everything. Stripes of shiny, reflective metal formed grid like patterns over some parts of the room. Dominating the very center of the room was a large monolith. Strange bars of crystal covered the monolith, twisting around it in strange arrangements; the crystals shone under the light pouring in from the hole far above.
“Whoa, this place is so cool!”
Pinkie pie gently floated down using her balloons, landing atop the monolith. Everypony seemed surprised by her entrance.
“Pinkie pie!? How did you get here!?” Celestia asked.
“Duh, I’m the fastest mare in Equestria! Just don’t tell Rainbow Dash I said that, she’d get super jealous!”
“Yes, but how did you know to come here?” questioned Discord.
“My pinkie sense told me! It also told me Twilight was in trouble, but she looks fine to me.”
“Indeed. Pinkie Pie, could you get off my Limitless Spatial Extrapolator so that I may activate it?”
“Sure thing Twilight, but it looks more like an Infinite Spatial Perpetuator to me.”
Pinkie Pie jumped off the device, the balloons slowing her fall. She landed next to Discord. Twilight enveloped the device in magic and the crystals surrounding it began to glow in a prismatic array of colors.
“Is that all it does?” Celestia wondered out loud.
Discord let out a small chuckle. “Observe our surroundings, Celestia. Look closer.”
Celestia closed her eyes and reached out with her magic. And kept reaching out until she eventually gave up.
“The walls… everything still looks the same!”
“Merely a trick of the light, Celestia.”
“There isn’t enough room in all of Equestria for this! It should be impossible!”
“It is impossible in everyday Equestria, but apparently that device can suspend the rules of normal Equestria.”
“Yes, this space will easily contain my form. It is finally time to leave Twilight.” said Twilight.
“What’s going on?” Pinkie Pie asked “Twilight is talking crazier than Gummy when he’s had too much sugar!”
Twilight slowly rose into the air. In a massive explosion of heat, light, and, sound; Entity exited Twilight’s body. The once dimly lit space was now awash in an undulating flow of blue and white light. Even though the space was infinitely large, the energy that made up Entity’s form still spanned the entire area.
Celestia, Pinkie Pie, and Discord stood under a magic shield conjured by Celestia. Twilight lay unmoving next to the monolith.
“Twilight!? Are you okay!?” yelled Pinkie Pie.
“Mmph… Is that you, Pinkie pie?”
Celestia dispelled the force field, and Pinkie Pie rushed to Twilight’s aid; Celestia following close behind.
“Talk to me Twilight! How many fingers am I holding up!?”
“Fingers? Ponies don’t have fingers, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie Pie let out a sigh of relief. “She’s ok, everypony!”
Celestia helped Twilight to her hooves. While she did so, she also looked deep into Twilight’s eyes. Seeing no trace of Entity’s influence, she pulled Twilight into a hug. “I’ve missed you so much, Twilight Sparkle!”
“Celestia…” Twilight whispered.
“I hate to break up such a touching reunion, but I really must be off. I have some important business to attend to.”
Wait.
Everypony’s ears perked up, even though there was no sound for them to hear.
Before any of you leave, I would like to thank Twilight. Without her, I would still be trapped in my prison.
‘Um, it was my pleasure, Entity.” Twilight replied.
Allow me to provide your exit.
A small part of the blue and white lights coalesced into three separate portals. One showed a mare that had fallen asleep near a half finished stained glass window. Another showed Luna pacing back and forth in the throne room of Canterlot castle. The last portal showed Twilight’s friends, minus Pinkie Pie, talking among themselves in the throne room inside her castle.
Celestia timidly stepped through the portal depicting Luna and was gone in a flash. Her portal disappeared with her.
Discord flew through his portal and it too vanished into thin air.
“Come on Twilight, our friends are waiting on us!”
Pinkie Pie pulled Twilight through the portal and they were gone as well. However, the portal did not disappear after them. It instead begin to focus solely on Twilight, or more accurately, the small sliver of Entity’s essence still inside her.
<<>>
“Ugh, chess is so boring!” Scootaloo declared.
“Ah agree! Can’t we go do something else? Anything else!?” Apple Bloom complained.
“Now girls, our game is almost over, and it would be unfair to Spike to quit now.”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle groaned in unison.
Spike heard none of this, as he was far too focused on the game. Sweetie Belle had proven to be a truly fearsome opponent. Although both of them had taken considerable losses, Sweetie Belle had a few more pieces then Spike did. His king was trapped in a slowly constricting mass of enemy pawns, it would be only a matter of time before it was taken. Meanwhile, his queen and Sweetie Belle’s queen were locked in an intense game of cat and mouse; if Spike could defeat her queen, he would have a clear shot at her king.
“Spike, your defeat will only take longer if you take forever on your turn.” Sweetie Belle mocked.
Spike moved his queen into a position to take her king, but she moved her queen in a way that made going any nearer to her king suicidal.
“Why don’t you just give up? It’s rude to keep my friends waiting, after all.”
Spike was about to do just that when he suddenly realized something. Sweetie Belle had just put her queen near one of his pawns. While under normal conditions her queen would be safely out of the pawn’s reach, the pawn hadn’t been moved the entire game. This meant that the pawn could be moved slightly differently, but more importantly, it meant that Sweetie Belle’s queen was now vulnerable to attack by his pawn! Spike quickly took advantage, and took her queen with his pawn.
“What!? No!”
Sweetie Belle tried to tighten her noose around his king, but it was already too late; with the help of the few pawns he had remaining, his queen checkmated her king.
“I guess you won after all, Spike. Well, I’m off to play with my friends. I look forward to matching wits with you again.”
Spike watched them go. It occurred to him that whatever chat that Twilight and Princess Celestia were having was probably over. As he walked out of Rarity’s boutique, he thought back to the chess game. If it hadn’t been for that one pawn, he would have been defeated for sure. Perhaps, he mused, pawns were more important then he had previously thought.
<<>>
“Sister, to be perfectly frank I find this hard to believe.”
“What do you mean, Luna?”
“Do you truly think that this entity would give up its hold on Twilight Sparkle so easily? I see no logical reason for it to have done so.”
“I saw it leave her with my own eyes, Luna!”
“Sister, think back to when I was Nightmare Moon. It took the intervention of the elements of harmony to purge the Nightmare from my body. I do not think that this entity would be any easier.”
“But I saw-“
“Likely just smoke and mirrors, dear sister. If this thing can possess an alicorn, it can most likely fool an alicorn as well.”
“Perhaps you are right, Luna. You should visit Twilight’s dreams just to be safe.”
“An excellent idea! I shall do so this very night. Although I hope that you are correct, sister. If this entity remains inside Twilight Sparkle, it could mean the end of us all.”
<<>>
Twilight had seen her friends through the portal, so she knew they were waiting for her in her castle.
“Twilight darling, we’ve been worried sick about you!”
Twilight was confused. Her friends shouldn’t know about her disappearance, unless…
“Spike told you what happened, didn’t he?”
“He said that you had been kidnapped!” Rarity cried.
“Well, that’s not exactly what happened…” Twilight then proceeded to tell her friends exactly what happened.
“Wow, that is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash asserted. “While it was inside you, did it tell you the secrets of the universe?”
“It had the secrets of the universe this whole time!?” Pinkie Pie yelled. “If I had known that, I would have asked it about this new cupcake recipe I’ve been working on! It’s almost perfect, but it just needs a little something more…”
“I don’t know girls, everything seemed so hazy and out of touch while it was possessing me” Twilight explained. “I don’t really remember much of anything.”
“I think that’s for the best, Twi. Being possessed sounds so… scary.” Flutershy commented.
“Ah’m just glad this is all over with, and that you’re safe, Twilight.”
“Not quite, Applejack. We need to teach Entity about harmony and friendship.”
“Ah reckon we are the best ponies for the job, but exactly how are we gonna do that? This Entity fella doesn’t sound like he’d be easy to teach.”
“Come on Applejack! All we need to do is sit em down and hash things out! It’ll be easy peasy!” Proclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“Yes, I’m sure that once we get to know Entity, he’ll turn out to be really nice!” stated Fluttershy.
“Well I already met it, and it did seem nice! Although I didn’t get to talk to it very much…”
“Well, first thing tomorrow morning we’ll all head over to its new home in the badlands.” Twilight said.
“The badlands!? What kind of pony would want to live there?” Asked Applejack.
“If I remember correctly, Princess Celestia wanted Entity to build his house there.”
“That can’t be right! Why would Princess Celestia force somepony to live in an inhospitable desert?” questioned Fluttershy.
“I think Celestia had a good reason, if I could just remember…”
The castle’s front door opened and shut in the distance. Spike walked up the stairs and entered the throne room.
“Spike, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be watching Sweetie Belle?” Rarity inquired.
“She’s with her friends.”
"I guess that’s- Oh, just look at the time! Sweetie Belle is probably at home, waiting for me! Excuse me, Twilight, but I simply must be going!”
Rarity rushed out the door without another word. Her other friends said their goodbyes and left as well. Soon the only ones left were Spike and Twilight.
“Well Twilight, I’ve got to get to work on some last minute chores, so…”
“Chores? It’s your day off, Spike! You don’t have any chores!”
Spike breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s good to have you back, Twilight. Well, it’s getting late, so I’ll see you in the morning.” Spike headed off to his own room.
Twilight walked out onto her balcony. Sure enough, the sun had almost dipped below the horizon.
“What a crazy day. I hope tomorrow will be less hectic.” Somehow, Twilight doubted that would be the case. Sighing, she headed for her bed.
<<>>
Several minutes after Twilight fell asleep, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis stealthily entered her dreams. They were met with books. Towering bookshelves formed a gigantic maze in Twilight’s mind.
“Books. What is it with this mare and books?” Queen Chrysalis mused.
“It doesn’t matter. All we need to do is find the entity inhabiting Twilight’s mind, destroy it, and escape without getting caught.” King Sombra reminded her.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to find anything in this labyrinth!”
“Of course not, that’s why we’ll cheat.” Sombra’s horn glowed green and purple as small dark crystals started forming behind him. “Now we’ll be able to tell exactly where we have been, and where we haven’t been.”
As Chrysalis trotted alongside Sombra, she began to grow curious about what exactly the books around them contained. So she paused to pull one off one of the shelves.
“Sombra, come look at this!”
Sombra gave Chrysalis an annoyed grunt and moved next to her to get a closer look at the book.
“That’s strange, these look like…”
“Yes, Twilight Sparkle’s memories. We are in no ordinary dream.”
“We need to keep moving. The longer we tarry, the more memories that entity will be able to read!”
“Perhaps we should take a few with us…”
“As tempting as that is, we mustn’t do it. Twilight would eventually realize some of her memories were stolen, and come looking for the culprits. Besides, we haven’t the time to do so.”
Sombra and Chrysalis eventually made their way to the center of the book maze. There they saw Twilight sitting in a chair, calmly reading a book. Other books were piled around her, and every once in a while she would exchange the book she was reading for one in the pile. They both quickly ducked behind some books to discuss strategy.
“That must be Twilight. Chrysalis, if you disguise yourself as Princess Luna, we should be able to-“
“That isn’t Twilight Sparkle.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those books she’s reading are Twilight’s memories, correct? The real Twilight would probably feel a variety of strong emotions as she looked through her own memory. Perhaps regret, or fond remembrance. This Twilight Sparkle looks almost disinterested.”
“If it isn’t Twilight, then it must be the entity.”
“Indeed. Let’s rush it while we still have the element of surprise.”
They leapt over the books and began the attack. Sombra begin firing beams of black magic while chrysalis shot bolts of green changeling magic.
Twilight spun around in her chair and deflected the offensive magic with the book she had been reading.
“Ah, Sombra and Chrysalis. Whatever brings you two here?”
Twilight’s horn shone, and she was instantly concealed in a whirling tempest of books. King Sombra countered by sending his own cyclone of books on a collision course with Twilight. Queen Chrysalis begin funneling magic power into her horn.
The two book twisters collided, and books flew in every direction.
“According to Twilight’s memories you two are enemies of Equestria. Whatever you are doing here can’t be in her best interest.”
Twilight formed a bubble of magic around herself and rammed into Sombra. Although he tried to dodge, Twilight was just too quick. He was sent flying headfirst into a bookshelf. Twilight dispelled her bubble and landed gracefully next to Sombra.
“I bet that Twilight would want me to shred your psyche and take possession of your mortal coil. It would be in Equestria’s best interest, after all.”
Twilight’s horn glimmered in a scintillating display of unholy light. Sombra was still too dazed to do anything.
“They shall proclaim me a hero-“
Chrysalis’s beam of magic cut off whatever Twilight else Twilight was about to say. It also catapulted her across the room.
“Get up, Sombra! We still have work to do!” Chrysalis helped Sombra to his hooves. Together they walked to where Twilight had fallen.
“We had better destroy the body just to make sure.”
As if on cue, Twilight’s body started to spasm wildly. Bulky muscles rippled and formed under her skin as she grew larger. Her wing feathers, teeth, and horn sharpened into cruel points. Patches of armored scales grew on her skin, which was now ripped and torn because of the extreme growth. She now towered over Sombra and Chrysalis.
“You’re too late. I’ve already seen almost all of Twilight’s memories. All except one…” Twilight’s voice was now a strange, primal gurgle.
Twilight sent a barrage of fire bolts their way, and they were both forced to take cover behind a large black crystal that Sombra summoned.
The rain of fire suddenly stopped. Sombra peeked around the crystal and was greeted with the sight of Twilight charging their position. The crystal shattered like glass under Twilight’s massive bulk. Although Sombra managed to teleport out of harm’s way at the last second, Chrysalis wasn’t so lucky; with a loud snap of cracking chitin she slumped to the ground.
Chrysalis wasn’t quite done yet, though. She jabbed her horn deep into one of Twilight’s gaping wounds, then unleashed a powerful energy beam. Twilight’s loose skin was completely blown off, revealing the skin and bone underneath.
Twilight barely even noticed. She grabbed Chrysalis in her powerful telekinetic grip and started to slowly crush her. The changeling screamed in pain.
Sombra telekinetically gathered razor sharp shards of black crystal and sent them sailing towards Twilight. Almost all of them hit their mark. One of the shards hit Twilight’s horn, causing her to lose her grip on Chrysalis. She slowly limped away from Twilight.
Sombra sent a blast of dark magic at Twilight, and the crystals imbedded inside her began to grow, covering Twilight’s body. Despite this, she leapt high into the air, diving straight towards Sombra. Sombra converted into shadow form, and Twilight went right through him; the crystals that had grown over Twilight’s body shattered into dust when she hit the floor.
Twilight then released a wave of pure concussive force from her horn, and Sombra’s shadowy form was almost completely dissipated. She then turned her attention to Chrysalis, but was caught off guard by a ferocious right jab from her opponent. Chrysalis then followed up her attack with a wave of green fire.
Twilight summoned a large ball of water to quench the fires that had sprung up all over her body, then flung the water at Chrysalis; the water surrounded the changeling in an attempt to drown her.
However, Twilight was so concentrated on the Queen that she didn’t notice Sombra reforming behind her. With a guttural roar, he blasted Twilight with a potent beam of dark magic. Surprised, she lost control of the water surrounding Chrysalis, giving the changeling a much needed breath of air. Sombra then teleported next to Chrysalis, and they combined their magic into a burst of pure evil that slammed into Twilight. She disintegrated into a pile of dust. A small sliver of blue and white light rose from the ashes and disappeared in a poof of teleportation magic.
“What WAS that thing!?”
“Most likely a puppet created by whatever was inhabiting Twilight.”
“I have some choice words for the mare who told us this would be easy!”
“Agreed.”
“Let’s get out of here before something else happens.”
Sombra’s horn lit up, and he brought them both back to the waking world.
<<>>
Princess Luna entered Twilight’s dream, only to see utter destruction. Green fires raged, puddles of water soaked the floor, and a fine dust coated everything.
“What in blazes happened here!?”
Luna looked closely at the dust coating the floor. It was a mixture of finely crushed crystal and something more… unwholesome.
Luna reached out with her magic and didn’t find anyone or anything suspicious. The only thing in Twilight’s mind was Twilight, and of course, Luna.
Utterly confused, Luna left Twilight’s mind.
<<>>
Entity closed the portal looking into Twilight’s mind as soon as Luna left. There was nothing left to see. Entity thought back to its scuffle with Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra. It still didn’t know why they had decided to attack its presence in Twilight’s mind. More importantly, they had prevented it from reading the last of Twilight’s memories. Judging by how deeply buried in Twilight’s mind the memory was, it was very important to Twilight. Entity could of course renter Twilight’s mind and retrieve the memory, but it had told Celestia it would not enter Twilight’s mind ever again. Entity had seen in Twilight’s mind how much honesty meant to her, so it had decided not to break its promise again. So instead, Entity would enter the minds of Twilight’s friends. They likely had the information it wanted. But that could wait. It had other things it had to do. Entity shifted its gaze towards the land surrounding his home. Since it had cleared away the rubble, the land was flat, barren, and empty; the land was void of any life. Entity hated the emptiness, hated the void. So it began to create, filling the void, and thus destroying the emptiness. After all, hadn’t Celestia said it could build anything it wanted here?