The Illusion Of Sanctity *DO NOT READ YET*

Dawn fell on Zecora's hut, revealing a scene with shattered windows, broken keepsakes, and a single orange pony left standing, holding a small, leatherbound book. She was covered in bruises and minor contusions, had a lump the size of an egg on her forehead, and one of her eyes was swollen shut completely. Her breathing was heavy, and she kept her weight off of her back left hoof.

"Ah did it, Twi. Ah got the book. Now, let's see if this is really as bad as everypony says."

She opened the book and began to read, occasionally mouthing a word or two, her eyes shifting, following the text. Night crept upon them, and yet she still read, her forehead beaded in sweat, her eyes wide and worried. The sun rose once again, and as she finished the last page and closed the book, she understood. She understood why Twilight had run. She slowly sat down, dropping the book, and began to cry. Next to her Zecora groaned weekly as she began to regain consciousness. The only sign of wakefulness from the ponies was a few fluttering wings and eyelashes rolling up to reveal glazed, sleeping eyes. Applejack quietly creft over and sat beside Twilight, tears still streaming down her face, her eyes seeing the ultimate truth.

Zecora moaned again, her eyes slowly opening. In time, she sat up, and saw the book, lying on the ground half open where Applejack had dropped it. Her gaze roved around the hut, and she saw the pony, lying next to Twilight, tear stains on her face, sleeping soundly. She shook her head sadly.

"Silly pony, I told you so.

Once you wake, you two must go.

I cannot help you anymore,

Your friends must not know this horror."

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Rainbow Dash woke up, her head swimming from a blow with Zecora's stick, and looked around. One, two, three, four, five-she pointed at herself-and six. Where was AJ? Where was Twilight? And where was Zecora?

BAM

BAM

BAM

She whipped around as the door wast knocked in by an unknown shod hoof, just seconds before a gruff voice called out, "Twilight Sparkle! We know you're in there!"

Unable to speak, Rainbow simply watched in mute horror as the voice got louder and the knocking more pronounced, until finally, the pony outside simply kicked the door in. A squadron of the Elite Guard burst into the hut, quickly surrounding the one conscious pony.

The pony who appeared to be the leader threw his spear to the ground, yelling. "Damn! We almost had her! She must have just left!" For the first time, he appeared to notice who was in the hut and looked at the quintet of mares. "Hey, aren't you the Elements of Harmony? Where's the orange one?

Finally, Dash's tongue could move enough to frame a word. "Gone," she said thickly, "dunno where."

The white stallion threw his helmet to the ground, sighing. "Well, you girls-oh, and the dragon-will have to come with me once you all recover. Don't worry, we won't hurt you. The Princess will probably just ask you a few questions."

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In the Solar Court, Celestial sat on her throne, musing. The chief question in her mind at the moment was where Shining Armor had gone. She hadn't heard anything from him since she dispatched him to retrieve the book. As she was turning this quandary over in her head, the door suddenly opened, letting in a group of guards and four of the Elements of Harmony (and a dragon). She slid gracefully onto her hooves, stepping down from the ornate chair.

"What news, Second Lieutenant?"

The pony in charge shook his head. "We have evidence that she were indeed with Zecora, your Highness, but she managed to elude us, as did the zebra herself. These five were there as well."

Celestia frowned. "What of Applejack? Where is the Element of Honesty?"

The guard shook his head. "We don't know, Princess. We presume she escaped with the others. There was a book on the floor, however. Is this of any importance?

Celestia twitched. "Do you have this book?" The guard nodded and produced a book from his saddlebags. She took it with her magic and floated it over to her, looking carefully through it. On the last page she found what she was looking for: a long, thin thread of bright yellow mane fur, obviously coming from Applejack. She nodded to herself and, with a pulse of magic from her horn, quickly incinerated the book, burning it to ashes. Then she stepped up to the four brightly-colored mares (and the dragon), giving them a smile. "So, girls, please tell me what happened."

Spike grumbled softly.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, hesitating ever so slightly, then more confidently,and began speaking.

"Spike says Twiliight was reading like she always does a few days ago, until he woke up and found her crying and throwing things. When he tried to talk to her, she ran off into the Everfree forest and didn't come back. After we tried to stop you from making Twilight a traitor, we went back to the library and found the book. Pinkie told us. We shouldn't read it, so we took it to Zecora's instead. We found Twi there and started fighting with Zecora over the book. She knocked us out and when I woke up, guards were banging on the door."

Celestial nodded slowly, digesting the schedule of events, then began to think of ways she could turn it to her advantage. She forced back a malevolent grin that was trying to push itself onto her face and dismissed the guards, leaving herself alone with the four mares (and a dragon). She began to speak again, this time in a soothing, almost mesmerizing voice.

"You five have certainly been through a lot, haven't you? You look like you could use a nice long sleep..."

As she spoke, the ponies eyelids began to sag ever so slightly. Spike looked around in confusion as the princess continued. "Just go to sleep...sweet dreams, my little ponies...aren't you feeling so sleepy right now?" Rarity's eyes finally slid shut, and she collapsed in sleep, shortly followed by Pinkie and Fluttershy. Rainbow's eyes, however, continued to flutter at half-mast and Celestia frowned in annoyance as Spike slapped her, snapping her out of it. The pegasus' head snapped up and she looked around wildly. "Wha...? What just happened?"

Celestia stepped towards them menacingly, her eyes narrowed. They flicked over to Spike. So, dragons were immune to hypnotism...She needed to ensnare Rainbow again before they could escape. But as she began speaking, the dragon yelled at the top of his lungs to the pony, "RUN!"

Rainbow grabbed up Spike and blasted off of her hooves, the wind drowning out Celestia's voice as she smashed through the stained-glass window of Celestia and Luna, a rainbow trailing behind her as she carried the baby dragon away. Celestial glared at her rapidly receding form for a few more seconds before trotting over to the sleeping forms of the other three ponies she spoke softly, "When you wake up, your bodies will be under my control, but your minds will still be your own. You will be forced to end your friends' lives with your on hooves. Do you understand?

Their sleeping forms nodded dreamily. She clopped her hooves together and yelled, "Wake up!"

They jolted awake, their bodies responding not to themselves, but to her. As Rarity's hooves went out from under her, she looked up at the princess, confused and disoriented.

Celestia finally allowed her malevolent grin to show through as she said one sentence that filled them with horror.

"Now, my puppets, you are going too kill Twilight Sparkle."

As they turned around and began to walk towards the door, they couldn't even cry.

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The true Equestria looks much the same as the Lie, and yet, ever so different. Some things that were there are not. Some things that were never there are revealed. And through it all, you see the undercurrent of hatred running. Ponies are not friends. They are the bitterest of enemies, and the two Princesses rule them with the iron hooves of a tyrant. There are other, more subtle, differences. A broken house here, a mountain there, all of them never there in the world of the Lie.