Twilight’s eye was on the clock tower above town hall as she looked around the crowded streets of Ponyville. Her train did not depart for another 2 hours, so she had plenty of time. She already bid each of her friends goodbye as each one of them set out to deliver her book to the libraries across Equestria. They each had picked out their own destinations. Fluttershy took a chariot bus to Baltimare, while Rainbow Dash flew to Cloudsdale. Rarity picked Manehattan to visit her recent pupil, and Applejack was on her way to Appleoosa to visit her cousin. Pinkie Pie said she always wanted to see Las Pegasus because “they’re all party ponies,” according to her. Though something told Twilight that her bouncy pink friend was going to teach them a thing or two about partying. As for Twilight, she decided on the Crystal Empire so she could see her brother and congratulate him on his foal-to-be.
She, of course, planned everything out so libraries would be expecting them in each town. What she didn’t plan on was leaving the new castle empty in her absence. She would usually trust Spike as caretaker while she was gone, but since he hadn’t returned yet, she needed to find some trustworthy ponies that would be willing to house-sit a castle for 2 days. Who were the most dependable ponies in town that weren’t her 5 closest friends? She needed to find somepony soon, so she could go back to
“Hi Princess Twilight!” three little fillies cried out in unison behind her.
“Miss Twilight,” she heard as well in a deep voice. She turned and saw the three cutiemark crusaders wearing their proudest faces, with Big Macintosh standing behind them trailing a carriage of lumber. Hmmmm she thought. She didn’t really want to trust a castle in the care of three children, but with Big Macintosh supervising, this might just be the job they needed. It was hardly likely that anything would happen in her absence, and the Apple family were the most honest and trustworthy ponies she knew, so she felt safe enough to ask.
“Hello everypony,” she said brightly. “I was just looking for some dependable ponies for a very important job.” Their eyes immediately lit up in childish excitement. Twilight probably could have asked for anything and they’d likely accept whatever challenge she threw at them. It was inspiring to see such enthusiasm.
“Anything you need, princess!” Sweetie Bell called out.
“We’re dependable!” Scootaloo echoed.
“Well, I’m going to be gone for the next few days. I need some trustworthy friends to take care of the castle while I’m gone. That means checking the halls, watering the flowers, feeding Owliscious, and locking the doors. Do you think you can handle that?” she asked with an artificially concerned look on her face.
The fillies nearly exploded from excitement. They immediately began bouncing up and down and running in circles, chanting their new job in time. They squealed and laughed and ran around with energy. Twilight took the opportunity to ask Big Mac more sincerely to keep an eye on them.
“Would you mind looking after them for me?” Twilight asked.
“Nope!” the big red stallion replied with a smile.
“You’re sure it’s not too much trouble?” she clarified.
“Eeyup,” he echoed and nodded his head in reassurance. Twilight smiled and looked back at the crazed children before her.
“My little ponies!” she called out, and they immediately fell in line. “I’m going to go back to the castle now and pick up my things before my train. Can you please meet me outside the castle in one hour?”
“Yes Ma’am!” they all said in perfect time and saluted their little hooves to their foreheads.
“Thank you so much, girls. I’ll meet you then,” she said and gave Big Mac another smile. He nodded again, and she turned back to her castle, leaving the four of them to finish their shopping in town.
She trotted off, feeling comfortable with her decision to trust the fillies with a little more responsibility, and began going over her mental checklist one more time. Her mental checklists were never as reliable as the one’s Spike wrote for her, but she had to make due while he was away somehow. The thought made her miss him even more. Just before she got to the edge of town, she spotted a florist stand with fresh bouquets of flowers on display. I did tell them to water the flowers, she thought. She cantered over to the stand and asked for the prices.
“Oh no, your excellency, free of charge for the princess,” the yellow colt offered politely.
“Oh nonsense,” she said and tossed over a few bits to the gentlecolt. “Which one will that get me?” she said and gestured to the display. The unicorn lifted up a beautiful bouquet of lilies and tulips and presented it to Twilight. She gladly took the bouquet with her magic and thanked the colt for his kindness. His eyes seemed to glow in response.
She trotted away back towards the castle and began to re-do her checklist, before giving up and calling herself hopeless without Spike. She was bound to forget something, so as long as she made sure the important things, like the books and castle key, she knew she could handle anything else that happened. The flowers were quite nice, and it would be good to give the fillies something to remember. She secretly hoped that Spike would be home soon enough to see them before they wilted. They smelled absolutely . . .
odd, she thought. She couldn’t remember what she was thinking about a few moments ago. Her eyes felt heavy and her hooves were wobbly. What in Equestria is wrong with . . .
Her legs became week, and she toppled to the ground with a thud. Strange thing was that she hardly felt her body hit the ground. The flowers gently fell beside her as she began to slip in and out of consciousness. She felt dizzy and the world began to spin, before going completely dark. The last thing she could sense was the sound of hoofsteps from beside her.
Twilight . . .
Twilight Sparkle . . .
Princess Twilight! . . .
Twilight looked around the hilltop for the pony calling out her name, but did not see anypony. It was a beautiful evening and she was resting on top of her favorite stargazing spot on a picnic towel. She was quietly enjoying the dark sky above her when her name was called again. As if from nowhere, two bright eyes appeared in the place the moon use to be. She shook her head and gazed at them as the rest of Princess Luna’s face formed out of the sky.
“Princess Luna?” She asked in amazement. “What’s happening?”
“This is a dream, Princess Twilight,” Luna said with a hint of urgency in her voice.
“A dream?” she asked and looked around her. Things didn’t look any different, but she couldn’t remember what she was doing before she was stargazing. “What happened? I don’t remember falling asleep,” she began, and then the memories started flooding back. She was on the road carrying flowers on her way home.
“Can you remember what happened before you started dreaming, Princess Twilight?” Luna said. The urgency in her voice was starting to become more apparent.
“I, um, not really. I remember asking the fillies to watch the castle, then heading back to there to get my things. I bought some flowers and then, I just . . . I can’t remember. What is going on Princess Luna!” Twilight asked, starting to panic.
“You have been abducted, princess,” Luna said very seriously.
“I’ve been foal-napped? I’m . . . how do you know?” she asked frantically.
“We were alerted to your disappearance from Ponyville an hour ago. Three fillies alerted the whole town and word reached my sister and me quickly. We dispatched guards to investigate, and they found a bouquet laced with nightshade lilies on the side of the road near your castle,” Luna explained.
“But, if I’ve been abducted, then how can you speak to me?” Twilight asked.
“I can enter the dreams of a subject wherever they may be. It is my strict policy never to invade the dreams of ponies unless it is important,” Luna continued explaining.
“Those flowers,” Twilight said raising her hoof. “The unicorn who sold them to me must have sedated me with them!” her voice was loud and frightened.
“Be still, princess, for we will find you. Can you tell me about this unicorn?”
“I, uh . . . it was a stallion. He was a dark shade of yellow, with a red mane. I couldn’t see his cutiemark.” Twilight thought hard to remember his face. All she could really recall was that the pony was kind to her.
“Can you remember speaking with him?” Luna asked.
“He said . . . he offered me the flowers for free. I paid him a few bits. He just smiled, he didn’t say much.” Twilight’s heart began to race when she thought about what would happen when she woke up.
"Calm thyself, princess. This is important. Can you recall anything about his eyes?"
Twilight thought for a moment. Why in Equestria would that matter? She remembered they were blue but beyond that, there was nothing too strange. Then she remembered his face when she accepted the flowers. There was something odd about them.
"When I accepted the flowers, his eyes seemed to shimmer a little. Like a faint green cloud in his pupils," Twilight remembered. Luna's gaze focused on Twilight.
“Listen, Twilight Sparkle, I believe you have been abducted by ponies affected by the Miasma. Have you heard of this?” Luna asked slowly.
“Miasma. No, I’ve never heard of it,” Twilight confessed.
“A Miasma is a virus of the heart. It affects a vice within us, such as jealousy or anger, and feeds off of it. The emotion will grow within until the soul is completely consumed by it. A pony infected with the Miasma is no longer himself, but rather a slave to its will. It also grant’s the infected pony with dangerous power. When that power is fueled by anger or hatred, terrible things can happen,” Luna said and looked down at the ground.
“How do you defeat it, then?” Twilight asked.
“You’ve done it once before, Twilight Sparkle, when you defeated me as Nightmare Moon,” Luna said coldly. Twilight turned her head in confusion.
“You mean . . . you were affected by the Miasma?” Twilight asked carefully.
“Indeed. I am ashamed to say that the Miasma connected with me when I was filled with envy for my sister and her daylight worshipers. It was attracted to my rage and envy. When it consumed me, I was no longer thinking for myself as Luna, but rather as a slave to my own envy as Nightmare Moon. Only you were able to free me from it,” Luna said and waited for Twilight to finish her story.
“With the elements of harmony,” she realized.
“Correct. But what I soon learned is that the elements of harmony cannot destroy the Miasma. Rather, they can only free the soul it is bound to. After you liberated me from it, the Miasma floated through space in search of a new source of envy. I was able to track it down, capture it, and bind it to a gemstone. Now the Miasma rests within that gemstone, which can act as a window to your deepest and most envious dreams,” Luna explained. Twilight remembered reading about something similar in one of her letters from Canterlot.
“Is that the gemstone Spike told me about? The one you showed him during his test?” Twilight wondered.
“Correct again. I showed the gemstone to Spike to test his resilience to his own envy. He was able to defeat his most envious thoughts, which makes him stronger than I,” Luna said with a bow.
“So if the Miasma is in that gem, why do you think I’ve been foal-napped by ponies affected by it?”
“The Night Watch discovered the presence of a separate Miasma cloud moving through Equestria nearly a year ago. We’ve been tracking it, but we’ve been unable to bind it to a gemstone. It seems that these new Miasmas have found new hosts, and have taken over their bodies completely. But they are just ordinary pony-folk, which makes them very difficult to track. We’ve been following their movements for months now, but we’ve always been two steps behind.”
Twilight thought carefully about what she was hearing. If the Miasma were clouds of vice’s, like envy and anger, then the ponies affected by it would be fueled by those emotions. But who would want to foal-nap Twilight?
“Do you know which emotions these new clouds feed on?” Twilight asked.
“I’m not sure. It could be anger, fear, contempt, greed, or even loneliness. But since these new host ponies are working so closely together, it is possible that they are not separate clouds, but rather one cloud affecting all of them,” Luna said.
“What do they want with me?” Twilight asked, rather frantically. If these ponies were dangerous and powerful, then there was no telling what she would wake up to find.
“I’m not sure, but fear not. My sister and I have sent our finest to find you. We dare not leave Canterlot ourselves, lest it be a ploy for us to leave the royal palace vulnerable to them. You must be very careful when you wake. If you can find which emotion they are fueled by, you may be able to predict their actions. The Miasma enhances magic, so be careful,” Luna warned.
The world shook beneath her hooves. Twilight felt the ground start to crumble.
“You are waking up, Princess Twilight! Remember, they are regular ponies who cannot control themselves. If you could save me from the Miasma, you can save them too!”
The image of Princess Luna before her began to dissipate. Twilight reached out, as if to hold on to her subconsciousness, but was thrown backwards and away from Princess Luna’s image. She cried out and felt her dream collapse on top of itself. Her heart beat faster and faster until her eyes shot open and she began to gasp for her breath.
“Your highness!” a light voice called out. “Thank goodness you are awake.” She looked around at her surroundings searching for the source of the voice that called out to her.
She was in a gemstone-lit room, sitting up on a comfortable bed with red velvet covers. The walls were made of carved stone and the floor was lined with luxurious carpet. She looked to her left and saw the source of the voice. It was the very same yellow unicorn who sold her the flowers in Ponyville. His mane was short but his smile was wide. His cutiemark featured a quill and a sheet of parchment. His eyes were very blue and somehow very sincere, but the cloud in his eyes was much more noticeable than before. He spoke with a softness that she remembered when he offered her flowers.
“Welcome home” he said, and smiled.