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"Try again. We require more information about the condition of the disease."

Twilight merely grunted as more magic poured from her horn, thoroughly coating the sphere with a sparkling-purple-over-blue. Her magic lacked its former power from all of the intensely concentrated energy used over and over again.

"I-I can't penetrate the magic. Luna, we need you to-"

"No. We shall try this together." Celestia's voice strung with stern determination as she strode with shimmering mane near the magical sphere.

As each princess followed, Twilight Sparkle wondered about what was inside. This was the weapon. Something about the earth pony is lethal, and a sleep spell fused with a shield spell was the only means of having the pony safely here without being a source of danger to everyone. Still, questions coursed unceasingly through her exhausted mind. What would we even try to do without breaking the sphere? If it can break, that is, but she briefly threw the thought away. Of course they have to try, because if the weapon was even just imprisoned, it could still pose a danger. But is forcing themselves in an innocent pony's mind the best way to do this? She took one last look at the princesses. Luna's and Celestia's manes were unkempt, with all of their eyes sunken in their faces. She didn't really look at Princess Cadence's, since she knew that seeing her will only trigger past haunting memories of her like this.

Twilight shook her head. She needed to focus. Each princess stood on a side of the sphere. With doubt lingering on her mind, she walked on slowly until she stood on her side of the sphere. Cadence faintly relieved Twilight with her caring tone.

"Hey, it's going to be okay, Twilight. We can do this.  Just try it differently this time, alright?"

She sighed. Lack of sleep blocked her usual problem-solving skills. Twilight Sparkle found herself declaring yet another attempt to penetrate the sphere with magic, but this time, it simply had combined power from other powerful ponies. Everything but certainty weighted on her emotions.

"Alright, every pony, let's start concentrating all of our magic in our horns, then after that Celestia can. . . ." Twilight droned on, secretly feeling horrified on the lack of preparation of this plan. It was a blind attempt, like leaping off a cliff with your eyes closed.  She watched as different-colored auras glowed on each horn, growing in brightness as their faces burrowed harder. Twilight looked back at the sphere, charging her own horn with violet magic. Her eyes followed the earth pony's own closed ones which calmly drifted with the rest of the body in the prison. With a sudden flicker of the events of Lord Tirek entering her mind, Twilight immediately regretted choosing to do this without her best friends.

"NOW!" yelled Celestia, and a bright explosion filled their eyes.

Twilight's eyes squeezed shut, leaving her to only feel a small tug of her horn. Her magical energy touched and probed what felt like a concrete wall. It brushed farther and farther, until the walls slowly felt like it had a heartbeat. She quickly realizes that the other princesses must be pounding against the wall. Her magic pressed itself again on the walls. With each thud, the wall briefly felt thinner and more hollow. Twilight patiently waited. When the walls thudded again, her magic harshly rammed against the walls. A hole quickly shattered when she knew the other princesses must have gotten in too.

She relaxed a little. Her magic was being gently pulled into some free moving space. Her energy gripped at random, attempting to feel for anything off the earth pony, preferably, a leg. When she was convinced that her probing was useless, a weak yelp suddenly escaped her lips.

Something felt like something was squeezing her magic somehow. It was yanking at it, she felt like it was being stretched. The foreign force felt wrong. It felt. . . .too ancient. Like it seemed to always be there in the inside, and it scared her.

The squeezing feeling spread, until it also punctured her own energy, trickling all the way to her horn. It entered her body like a parasite, lounging around until it can eat at her. She whimpered softly, feeling helpless on the vice-like grip on her. Twilight lost the sense of privacy as if it sifted through all of her memories, emotions, thoughts and actions. She pictured all of her friends together in the sunny cover of the bright blue sky, enjoying a cheery picnic in Ponyville. This wasn't that. Twilight Sparkle felt like a failure. Instead of bringing her friends along, she decided to do something with only the princesses. It was such a mistake. She felt isolated. She didn't feel like a princess; Twilight felt more like when she saw Nightmare Night manifest before her eyes long ago.

Sweat beads fell down with her small tears as she dared to open her eyes. Twilight was overwhelmed at the swelling mass of blackened smoky-magic filling her vision. She saw eyes, then a silhouette of a tall pony-like figure that was heavily reminiscent of Nightmare Moon, yet, she didn't feel like it was her. The image swirled away, replaced with a shadow of a stallion with bright orange tendrils shoot out of his sides like wings. A feminine yell echoed in her mind as flashes of prison-like bars appeared briefly with ponies glaring menacingly. Twilight felt alienated.

She quickly gasped for air as the horrifying magic-grip let go, the feelings and smoke passing away like some ghost. The walls of Canterlot was what she first saw. The princesses were sprawled out differently on the floor. Their faces were haunted, with some tears dried on their cheeks. Twilight Sparkle shivered at the sight of the mighty alicorn rulers looking weak, even vulnerable. Celestia dropped her head, a slight shiver still possessing her body.

"I. Saw. My. Sister. She-" Celestia stopped, apparently wanting to say something else. Her head shook slowly, a tear reflecting the off-putting sunlight outside. "Them. Canterlot. I saw the whole of Equestria. And-" her expression changed, "and trees. Trees were moving past me like-"

"Like you were being chased by something!" finished Cadence. They looked at each other in shock; Twilight didn't know what to make of it. Her heart then bombed at what she saw next.

Silence previously filled the air before breaking with the sound of hooves hitting hard ground. The princesses turned around. A relatively small mare was struggling to get up, a light blue aura still fading around her as she stared, sleepy-but-wide-eyed at the worn down princesses in front of her.