Just Beyond the Surface

Chapters

Second Lesson: Don't Judge By Appearances
Third Lesson: Don't Expect Forgiveness
Fifth Lesson: Don't Get Your Hopes Too High
Sixth Lesson: Don't Give Up
Final Lesson: Don't Forget Who Your Friends Are
First Lesson: Don't Create A Problem You Can't Solve
Fourth Lesson: Don't Ask Stupid Questions

Second Lesson: Don't Judge By Appearances

Moon Dancer stood hesitantly before the looming bulk of Twilight's Castle. The unicorn felt dwarfed by the towering edifice, and the thought that her friend was waiting for her somewhere inside did nothing to calm the butterflies in her stomach.

Buying a ticket to Ponyville had been easy. Walking down to the station had been exciting. Climbing aboard the train, looking out the window as the Equestrian countryside had rolled past, that had been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. But as the train pulled into Ponyville station, Moon Dancer felt a surge of apprehension rise up to greet her on the station platform. Her thoughts were plagued by doubts as she disembarked the Friendship Express. Yes Twilight had invited her out to what she had stressed was a casual dinner, perfectly casual, she had promised. Nothing to get worked up about. Even so, Moon Dancer couldn't help but think of this as a royal invitation rather than an invitation from a friend.

You can't think like that she had told herself. This is Twilight who invited you!

The same Twilight who had been her friend since they were fillies. The same Twilight that she used to sit next to in class. The same Twilight who she'd spent hours with, reading books one after the other just so they could recommend them to each other.

But this was also Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, the wielder of the Element of Magic and the former pupil of Princess Celestia. In fact, it seemed Twilight was familiar with all of Equestria's royalty in one fashion or another.

Who was Moon Dancer by comparison? Just some unicorn who'd never gotten beyond the library, who spent most of her time with her nose buried in a book. She had practically lived her life in books. Only recently, thanks to Twilight in fact, had she started opening up to other ponies and doing something other than studying for hours on end.

She knew that this was part of the reason Twilight had invited her. There was another pony, Starlight Glimmer, that Twilight was trying to get to open up to others as well... To give friendship a try, as Twilight had convinced Moon Dancer to do. It seemed to be her friends calling to try and bring friendship to all of Equestria. Even to stubborn unicorns like Moon Dancer herself. It made sense that she should meet Starlight, and maybe show her that she wasn't the only pony who had a hard time making friends. Twilight's childhood friend and her new pupil had both lived lives shut off from other ponies, so perhaps they'd have a lot to talk about in that regard?

Yeah, right.

As much sense as that did or didn't make, it made no sense at all that a pony of no account like Moon Dancer should be invited to as grand a castle as this for a casual meal with one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria.

With such thoughts filling Moon Dancer's head, it was no wonder that the somewhat mousy unicorn was hesitant. There was nothing frightening about Twilight's Castle in and of itself, but it towered over the rest of Ponyville, a truly imposing construction of crystal in the shape of an enormous tree. It was smaller perhaps than the palace in Canterlot, but still far grander than the library in which Moon Dancer spent most of her time... Let alone her own ramshackle and rundown house.

What am I even doing here?

The same thought had been running through her head for the last ten minutes as she'd stood before the golden door set in the tree shaped castle's crystal 'trunk'. How silly, her friends Minuet, Lemon Heart, and Twinkle Shine would think. You came all this way and you can't even knock! Even Twilight could knock on your door, and she hadn't seen you in years! Moon Dancer thought it would be easier to knock on the door to a hovel than a grand castle like this. Still, thinking of how her friends would laugh at her timidity actually went a long way to dispel Moon Dancer's anxious feelings. She knew she was being silly. Her friends would never let her live it down if she chickened out now.

Thinking of their smiling faces and their laughter helped to calm her frazzled nerves. Enough to knock at least. After all, it was only a door. Surely no harm ever came of simply knocking on a door?

She knocked three times.

There was no answer.

She knocked again, a little harder this time. It was a big castle after all, perhaps they hadn't heard her?

Still, nothing.

She was a little early. Was it possible that no one was home?

As she went to knock one more time, just to be on the safe side, the door opened.

"Hello," said a smiling unicorn filly, "What's up?"

"Oh!" cried Moon Dancer looking down. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but this wasn't it. "Hi there... uh, is Twilight here?"

"Let me check!" the filly said brightly, slamming the door in Moon Dancer's face.

Moon Dancer waited, taking the opportunity to clear a few pieces of lint from her sweater. She waited another full fifteen minutes.

Just who exactly was this unicorn filly? Surely this wasn't Starlight Glimmer. Moon Dancer knew that Celestia had taken in Twilight as her pupil at a young age, but she doubted that Starlight could have run an entire village as a mere foal, Right? Was it possible that Twilight had taken in another student since they had spoken last? But this filly looked as if she belonged in elementary school, not under the wing of one of the most important ponies in Equestria. Had Moon Dancer made some kind of mistake? Was she even at the right address? Was this Twilight's Castle or not?

Impatience got the better of her as these thoughts streamed through her head. All apprehension was lost as she knocked again. The door flew open immediately. The same filly from before opened the door, but her smile was gone. "What? What do you want?" she asked angrily.

"Is this Twilight's Castle or not?" Moon Dancer asked, undaunted by the filly's rudeness.

"Do you see any other castles around here?" the filly in the plum colored dress asked in turn.

In spite of herself, Moon Dancer turned to look. Sure enough, there were no rogue castles hiding behind Ponyville or beyond the horizon of the nearby fields. This was the only building of its type around for miles. While Moon Dancer's head was turned, the door slammed shut for a second time. Moon Dancer's eyes grew wide, even as her pupils shrank, as she realized she had been played.

Twilight's childhood friend got the distinct feeling that someone was playing a prank on her. She didn't appreciate that. Not one bit. She wasn't proud of it, but Moon Dancer had a temper and she was very close to losing it. At the thought that she may have come all this way just to be made a fool of, by a foal no less, made her blood boil. Her jaw clenched, and the magic of her horn flared. She turned her fiery gaze to the door, and let loose a series of magical knocks fit to shake the foundations of the earth and wake the long moldering dead!

Or at least that was her intention.

Instead, the door opened for a third time. The little grey filly stood there again, grinning happily as if the prior exchange hadn't even occurred. It took a strength of will Moon Dancer didn't even know she possessed to not unleash her magic on that smiling face. She settled for channeling the fire in her gut into her words instead. "I was invited here by Twilight Sparkle herself!" she thundered, her hooves shaking with fury. "The Princess of Friendship! My name is Moon Dancer and I demand that you~"

She was cut off mid-sentence, "Oh, Moon Dancer!" exclaimed the grinning girl giddily," We've been expecting you! So sorry to keep you waiting. Please, follow me right this way!"

The door opened wide and the little girl disappeared into the gloom within. All the rage and anger Moon Dancer had felt mere moments ago evaporated, leaving her feeling drained and quite perplexed. What exactly was this all about? As she ducked inside, the door closed behind her with a soft click. She whirled around, but there was no pony there. The filly must've used magic to close the door without looking.

If you could believe it, the castle seemed even larger on the inside. Tall pillars and stained glass windows lined the halls, stretching into the distance all around her. The place was almost like a maze. As she tried and failed to take everything in, it was only by the sheerest luck that Moon Dancer saw the dwindling figure of the filly who had answered the door turning down a passage that led off from the main hall. She had to trot to catch up.

Though the interior of the castle was well lit, Moon Dancer couldn't help but feel a fresh wave of apprehension as she followed the little girl further and further into the castle's depths.

Where exactly was she leading her?

The hall twisted and turned. As Moon Dancer turned one corner, she'd catch just a glimpse of the filly she was following turning around the next bend. It was maddening. Just when she thought she was catching up, the child would vanish from sight all over again. She wasn't certain that this wasn't still part of some game or prank being played on her. The thought only made her run faster. She'd find out where this foal was leading her if she had to wring it out of her tiny neck!

It wouldn't have to come to that though. Moon Dancer got her answer soon enough as the filly passed through a set of wide double doors.

The room within was cavernous. Though Moon Dancer's eyes took a moment to adjust to the gloom, she could feel the sense of space all around her. A gasp escaped her lips as she realized what she was looking at.

Books!

Stacks upon stacks of books! Everywhere, all around her. She walked further into the room and didn't even notice as, once again, the doors behind her closed with a soft click. She was too engrossed, too amazed by the sight before her! It was like her birthday and Hearths Warming all rolled into one!

So this was Twilight's personal library? Moon Dancer knew that her friend had done her best to not only salvage books from Ponyville's former library, Golden Oaks, but also tomes from the ruined Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters as well. Aside from those treasures, it seemed that there were books from Twilight's personal collection here as well. Looking around, she found that there were copies of books scattered about that Moon Dancer thought only existed in the Canterlot Archives! To a bibliophile like Moon Dancer, this room and its contents were like something out of a dream. A truly wild dream. The only way thing that could be more unbelievable was if...

And before the thought had a chance to fully form in her mind, she saw it!

It was sitting so innocently, on a table all by itself. A softly glowing oil lamp was on the table beside it, the flame carefully dampened low, as was befitting for the safety of the treasure that it illuminated. Moon Dancer dare not believe it but, as she drew closer and could see the delicately engraved letters in the soft leather, she knew exactly what she was looking at. It was a copy of Hayscarte's 'Treatise on Ponies'. She knew that Twilight had said that she had a copy, but Moon Dancer had half thought that her friend had only been saying that to get her attention. To actually be in the same room as a book written by one of the most brilliant philosophers in Equestrian history, even if it was only a copy, was a treat that Moon Dancer had dreamed of for the better part of her young life!

Unbidden, her hoof rose towards the book. Not to open it, not to actually read it. No, that would be going too far. But just to touch it, to stroke its supple spine, to verify that it was a real and solid thing and not some kind of illusion was all she intended to do. The leather was dry and cool to the touch.

Well... Maybe she'd take just a peek. What was the harm?

"You really like books, don't you?" The high pitched voice made Moon Dancer's heart leap into her throat.

Of course! How had she forgotten that she had followed the filly in the purple dress into the library? It made sense that she'd be here too. Moon Dancer had just lost track of that fact for a moment, so engrossed by the presence of such a rare tome as the one that lay open before her. She blushed, guiltily, like a filly caught engaged in a forbidden act. Such was her infatuation with books that this was exactly what it felt like. Even so, it was ridiculous to feel any shame in front of a filly half her age.

"Well, yes," she admitted. "I feel a certain... special feeling towards books. Especially such wonderful and fine ones as were written by the great pony philosophers, like Hayscarte."

"Really? Me too! I just love reading," said the filly brightly. "I like studying all sorts of books. Especially about magic."

"Is that so?" asked Moon Dancer, not truly interested, but taken aback somewhat by the child's exuberance. She had only ever known one filly that got that excited about studying... Maybe Twilight had more than one pupil after all? It would make sense.

"Yeah!" the tiny unicorn squeaked. "I've mastered tons of different studying techniques. Although, Twilight was telling me that there was one technique that would make studying take on a whole new dimension! Something about being able to learn even more from inside a book. Do you know what she meant?"

Moon Dancer adjusted her glasses, a nervous tick she sometimes displayed before beginning a lecture. "Yes. It actually relates to a method, developed by Hayscarte, by which a pony could enter a book. Twilight taught me not long ago. It's actually a simple spell, but difficult to master. I've only been able to make it work for a few minutes."

"Oh wow, that's so cool!" exclaimed the filly, clearly amazed... Or perhaps just laying it on a little thick. It was clear she wanted something. "Could you show me? I'd be ever so grateful if you would!"

This was such a strange situation. Normally Moon Dancer could barely stand children. They were always so noisy, running around and shouting, and none of them seemed to have any respect for the sanctity of the library or the value of a good book. But here was a filly that was not only interested in books and studying, but in Moon Dancer's talents as well. She felt a wave of unaccountable pride and fellow feeling for the little unicorn. It hadn't been so long ago, Moon Dancer thought, that I was a filly just like her.

Why not give her a little demonstration?

The thought itself was tempting... And the 'Treatise on Ponies' was sitting right there. The idea of reading it had sent a thrill through Moon Dancer, but the idea of actually immersing herself in the tome, becoming one with it... That thought left her positively shivering with delight.

Would she dare be so bold? But it was for the betterment of one of Twilight's (maybe) pupils, right?

Surely it would be fine!

"Well, alright," Moon Dancer relented, not so reluctantly. "I can give you a brief demonstration. Just stand back!" Concentrating her magic on herself, Moon Dancer felt her world shrink and expand at the same time. There was a brief, bizarre moment as she ceased to be a creature of the third dimension and instead slipped into the second. The transition from being a pony of flesh and blood to one of ink and parchment, however, was instantaneous. Not just any ink and parchment though! She was one with one of Hayscarte's greatest works! She could actually walk through the inner world of the book and absorb knowledge from every part of it at once! Moon Dancer was absolutely giddy with excitement!

It was a pity then that those warm feelings had to end so quickly.

With a dull thump, the filly closed the book with Moon Dancer still inside. There was a soft click, as the book's clasp was sealed, and the tiny bronze key that sat in its lock clanked home. "It's nothing personal Moon Dancer. Really, you seem like a nice, if somewhat naive pony." The voice of the filly seeped from the darkness. It was no longer bright and enthusiastic, but low and monotone. "But you had years with Twilight. Oh, sure, you missed out on a few, but you could have gone to her any time you wanted. You could have made an effort to visit her here in Ponyville at any time. Canterlot isn't that far away."

Moon Dancer tried to will herself back out of the book, but there was something that held her in place. that shouldn't be possible! The spell was designed with a fail safe to keep a pony from becoming lost or stuck inside any given grimoire. that was part of what was so challenging about it was pushing past those limits. It shouldn't be hard to stop using the spell! Was there some enchantment on the book itself that was holding her trapped inside? Moon Dancer had heard of such spells before, but they were supposed to be forbidden!

There was a feeling of motion. Of falling. Then a sharp thud as the book came to rest again. What was going on!?

"But you just had to hold it against her, didn't you? So she missed one little party... It wasn't the end of the world. But an outcast like you just had to go and take it to heart! As if you deserved to hold a grudge against a pony as wonderful as Twilight! As if your insipid feelings were more important than her destiny!" The filly's words were still low, but now they simmered with anger. No, something deeper than that. Hatred. Hatred bled from every word. "You threw away years that you could have spent as one of her closest friends on your stupid grudge! But that's fine by me. It's trash like you that holds her back! The best thing you ever did for Twilight was cut yourself out of her life! When she remembered you, when she came to you to apologize so magnanimously, you just had to send her on your little guilt trip! Make suffer and feel bad about herself, bad about doing what needed to be done for the good of Equestria. Well... sure, I can kind of understand that," the filly gave a mirthless laugh. "Anything to keep her under your hoof, right!? Well no more!"

There was a sound of shattering glass and a whoosh of flame. what started as a crackle was quickly followed by a roar! The sound almost, but didn't quite drown out the filly's hateful words.

"It's time you were thrown out for good, just like the trash you are!" hissed the unicorn, not at all like a filly. "And there's only one thing to do with unwanted garbage like you."

The darkness suddenly gave way to light and, with it, a scream burst from Moon Dancer as she realized what the child had done. She had set fire to the book! She was burning Hayscarte's 'Treatise on Ponies' and Moon Dancer along with it!

The trapped unicorn's panicked shrieks rose in pitch as the flames ate into the part of the book that contained her. She might not be flesh and blood, but she still felt as if she was. She could feel the hungry flames crack and peel her skin, burn its way down through her flesh to the very marrow of her bones. This all happened much quicker than it would if she were still a normal pony. The tome was very old, and very dry, and it burned very quickly. As such, so did Moon Dancer. Even so, the unicorn's pain racked screams went on much longer than they should have. With the spell she had cast, she wasn't really a flesh and bloody pony anymore... But that just meant she would suffer so long as a scrap of the book remained intact!

Violet stood over the garbage pail that she had place the book inside. The shattered oil lamp that lay atop the burning book did nothing to obscure the sight that made her grin so widely. Moon Dancer's screams seemed to be a welcome sound to the filly, and the stench of burning flesh mixed well with the scent of scorched paper. The flames danced gaily in the filly's unblinking eyes as she savored each fresh shriek, each smoke choked and blood gurgled screech. Violet stood there, patiently, watching as every last trace of the book crumbled to ash. Only then did the last tortured screeches of Moon Dancer's passing fade away.

They were replaced by a new sound, as the library was plunged back into its customary gloom. It was the sound of laughter, high and girlish and light. The giggle of a school girl.

The laughter went on for some time.

"And that's how we learned a valuable lesson about not judging a book by its cover," finished Twilight, beaming as she wrapped up her lecture.

"Wow Twilight, that was a fantastic story!" cried Violet, as she sat perched on the very edge of her seat. The filly had actually been taking notes! She was sitting in the same place that Starlight had been in before, although the plastic desk was certainly more her size. "I feel like I've learned so much!"

"Yeah Twilight, that sure was a great lesson," said Apple Bloom without any enthusiasm. The Cutie Mark Crusader's didn't share the Violet's excitement.

Each of the CMC were slouched in one of the thrones that stood around the cutie map, positioned in such a way that they were still facing Twilight. They'd heard that old story about the first time they'd met Zecora and the antics with the poison joke at least a hundred times. Heck, Apple Bloom had been there! It was one of Twilight's favorite lectures since it had involved a book called 'Super Naturals' that she had first dismissed as a work of fiction before realizing it was a tome about home remedies. Really riveting stuff. It was a great story the first few times you heard it maybe, but after the twelfth? Yeah, it had gotten old.

As bad as the three girls felt for themselves, they felt even worse for Spike. Sitting in his own miniature throne, the dragon had almost fallen asleep at least five times during the course of the lecture. They couldn't even begin to imagine how many times he had been forced to sit through that story.

"But you know, I think Rarity really will need my help about now," said Sweetie Belle with a stretch and a yawn,"She's supposed to be heading back to Manehatten soon to check on the new store."

"And I think I was supposed to meet up with Rainbow Dash half an hour ago," complained Scootaloo. "She was going to show me a new trick she learned from the Wonderbolt's."

"Ah think it's high time we all hit the old dusty trail," said Apple Bloom decisively, "But thank you for yer time Twilight and that... Rousin' lecture."

"Oh, but do you girls really have to go?" asked Twilight, pouting slightly. "It seems like hardly any time has passed at all!"

"Fraid so Twilight," Apple Bloom stated firmly. "We got places to go and ponies to see."

"I don't have to go anywhere Twilight!" chirped Violet. "I just love listening to you! Please tell me another story about friendship! Pretty please?"

Twilight smiled broadly and flipped the blackboard over to the opposite side. This too had been covered with crude chalk drawings of various friendship lessons she had hoped to get to with Starlight today. Spike's eyes widened at the sight. Hurriedly he said, "Tell you what. Why don't you two get started without me and I'll see the Cutie Mark Crusaders out?" It didn't seem like he needed to bother. Twilight was already in her own happy little world, expounding on the magic of friendship. Violet was sitting in rapt attention, hanging on her every word, neither seemed to care about anything else.

Once they were safely out of ear shot, Spike turned to the girls and said "Tell me I'm not the only one who think's Violet is kind of creepy."

"She is pretty intense," admitted Sweetie Belle. "Maybe she just really enjoys lectures?"

"No pony enjoys lectures that much," replied Spike. Then he thought for a moment. "Well, aside from Twilight herself anyways. Where did you three find her anyhow?"

"Actually she found us," confided Apple Bloom. "She just showed up at the club house while we were having our weekly get together ta discuss our plans for the week."

"She was really insistent that she had a cutie mark problem," chimed in Scootaloo, "She was very emphatic that she wanted a cutie mark 'in magic' and said that we needed to help her immediately."

"So what? She just waltzed up to your club house and then you decided to bring her to meet Twilight?" questioned Spike.

"Not exactly," Apple Bloom looked behind her somewhat furtively. Only when the earth pony was certain they were alone did she continue. "Truth be told she kind of freaked us out too. Ah'm not proud, but we tried to fob her off with an excuse that she needed to come back tomorrow. The filly wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, though."

"Then we tried to talk her into asking other ponies for advice," added Sweetie Belle. "I suggested my sister Rarity, since she's so magical with finding rare gems and crafting fine cloths, but she wouldn't even acknowledge that I'd said anything!"

"And I suggested she ask Rainbow Dash for advice," said Scootaloo, looking down a little ashamed. "She just laughed at me. She said a pegasus wouldn't know anything about magic. I hadn't meant it like that though. Rainbow Dash has helped me through more than one rough patch. I just thought that maybe having an awesome pony like her to talk to would help Violet through whatever trouble she was having."

"So was it your idea to bring her here then Apple Bloom?" asked Spike finally.

"Nah. Ah told her to talk to her family," replied apple Bloom simply. "My kin have always been there for me, and Ah figured a good place ta start figuring out her problem would be with her home life." Applejack's sister looked down at the castle's tiled floor sadly. "She gave me one heck of a mean look and just said 'no' outright. It was actually her what suggested we bring her to see Twilight. She was dead set on the idea that she was the only pony in Ponyiville that could help her."

"I bet," Spike's eyes narrowed in suspicion. They'd reached the front door. He opened it for the three girls and the fillies stepped out into the bright, sunny afternoon. There was something refreshing about no longer being closed up in the castle. Spike hadn't realized just how dull and dreary being indoors had felt until he looked up at the sun. Or maybe it was just refreshing to no longer be anywhere near that creepy smiling unicorn filly. "You know girls, I don't think this Violet Flicker is all she seems to be."

"Do you think she's a changling?" asked Scootaloo, her wings flapping quick as a hummingbirds in excitement.

"Or maybe a zombie?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Girls, that ain't nice!" exclaimed Apple Bloom. "Clearly she's just an alien from beyond the moon!"

All three broke out into a fit of giggles.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," said Spike. "I just think the whole situations kind of weird is all."

"Hey Spike, we agree with you. But as far as we can tell she's a normal filly," laughed Scootaloo, "We really did have a conversation where each one of us thought she was one of the things we mentioned, and tried all sorts of tests to see if she was some kind of monster."

"She's mean and kind of pushy, but she does seem to genuinely be what she is," squeaked Sweetie Belle, "A unicorn filly that's obsessed with learning... And Twilight Sparkle, of course!" The girls shared another giggle and then headed their separate ways.

"It's that last part that worries me though," said Spike to no one in particular.

Third Lesson: Don't Expect Forgiveness

A silhouette walked through the castle on the tips of its hooves.

There was something almost illicit about what she was doing, and the shadowy figure couldn't quite suppress a smile as she moved silently through the halls.

If she was going for stealth, then the pointy hat and flashy cape seemed a little counterproductive, but that didn't seem to bother her. After all, this was a new experience for The Great and Powerful Trixie. Always before she would make a fantastic entrance, perhaps with fireworks and smoke bombs, announcing to all and sundry her grand arrival! She'd tried to tone that down recently after several complaints about smoke inhalation, and more than a few warnings from the fire marshals, but that wasn't why she was moving so cautiously now. Oh no, this was all about giving her friend Starlight Glimmer the biggest surprise of her life!

The two had been engaged in a prank war for the past few weeks.

It had all started not long after the night Trixie had performed the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive. Her hat had wound up somewhat disheveled in the course of the trick, and she had taken it off to mend. It was somewhat shameful that Trixie couldn't afford to have the work professionally done, but why spend hard earned bits on a trip to the haberdashery when Trixie could do the work herself? She had just finished sewing on the last star shaped patch when she decided to try it on and see how it looked in the mirror. The hat didn't seem to fit the way it had before, and it felt odd. While Trixie was no pro when it came to such menial skills, there was nothing that she did to the hat that should have effected its fit. Just to make sure, she took it off and looked inside...

That was when Starlight Glimmer had poked her muzzle out from inside the hat and cried "Boo!"

Trixie had jumped a mile as her friend magically pulled herself out of the hat. There was no telling how long Starlight had been waiting to play that trick on her. Though it had scared the day-lights out of Trixie, even she had to admit it was kind of funny. In the end Trixie didn't get mad... No, not one bit. But she did vow to get even, and had swiftly begun plotting there and then.

They'd been in friendly competition ever since, Starlight using her superior magic while Trixie used her knowledge of slight of hoof and all the stage craft she had ever learned. The magician was particularly proud of the time she had made it appear as though an Ursa Major had manifested from inside Starlight's tube of toothpaste. Sadly, after Starlight had recovered from her surprise, it hadn't been long before Trixie found the gravity inside her traveling wagon had been swapped so that the ceiling was the floor and the floor was the ceiling. She had to admit, the effect would have been fantastic for inspiring a little awe in the regular town ponies, but it made getting in and out of her traveling home a bit of a chore. The sensation of 'falling up' was never a welcome one.

Despite both ponies going to such extremes, the prank war was all in good fun.

Starlight had reversed the spell and returned the interior of Trixie's wagon to normal, and the remnants of Trixie's 'Minty Ursa Major' trick had still been usable for Starlight's morning routine. But Trixie couldn't help but feel she was on the losing end of the past few exchanges. It wasn't as if she resented Starlight, as she had with another certain unicorn turned alicorn. She knew this was just Starlight's way of palling around with her, and helping her sharpen up her skills as both a unicorn and an entertainer. It was just that the magician had something of a competitive streak, and she had her pride which already had its share of wounds. She wanted to perform a truly spectacular illusion, the likes of which would knock Starlight on her flank! But to do so, she'd need to get the drop on her, and that was no simple task.

True, it was no surprise that Trixie would be coming over for dinner later that evening. But if she arrived quietly a few hours early, she'd have time to set up the perfect prank! Or at least, so she hoped.

So what if what she was doing was technically breaking and entering? She'd just apologize as she always did and then take whatever scolding Twilight cared to dish out. If it meant finally one-uping Starlight, it would be worth it.

Unfortunately, the Trixie found herself to be totally lost.

The magician had thought that Starlight was exaggerating when she had told her how easy it was to get lost in Twilight's Castle. From the outside it looked to be just a fairly large treehouse. Inside, however, the halls were a maze of crystal and glass. Though it was indeed thrilling to sneak about in what she couldn't help but think of as 'the enemy stronghold', either Trixie was going in circles or this castle had more broom closets than seemed reasonably sane. Who kept this place sparkling and shiny anyways? Was it just that dragon assistant, Spike? She pitied the little dragon if Twilight made him clean all of this by himself.

"What-cha doin'?" came a high pitched voice, just behind Trixie.

She jumped so high that she landed awkwardly on the slick crystalline floor and fell in a crumpled heap,"Don't do that!" Trixie exclaimed. "You can't just sneak up on other ponies like that! You'll give some pony a heart attack!"

The unicorn filly in a dress the color of a ripe plum backed away, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just wondering what you were doing here. Are you lost?"

Trixie had never seen the little girl before. There was something odd about bumping into a stranger in a place like this, but she had no reason to lie. "The Great and Powerful Trixie does not get lost! She merely misplaces the proper path from time to time. She knows exactly where she is!" Just because she didn't have a reason to lie, that didn't mean she wouldn't.

"Well, I can show you the way if you like," offered the filly with a smile, perhaps seeing right through the magician's bluster. "Where exactly are you going?"

"Where Trixie is going is none of your business!" replied Trixie, turning away from the filly haughtily with a swirl of her cape. Despite this, she mollified her tone a bit and said, "However, if you know the direction in which Starlight Glimmer's room should happen to be, Trixie would be most grateful for your assistance." She looked out of the corner of her eye, expectantly.

"Oh, that ones easy!" replied the filly with a giggle. "Just follow me!"

Was it really going to be that simple? Trixie dared not believe her good fortune. She wasn't sure who exactly this filly was, but the precocious foal set out down a flight of stairs with far more conviction than Trixie's steps had held. Perhaps she really did know the way.

Trotting a bit to catch up, Trixie followed the bobbing ponytail of the filly down into the bowels of the castle. There wasn't as much stained glass here and, as a result, these hallways were much darker. Unlike the halls above, these also seemed somewhat disused. The crystal did not shine as brightly, and there was something of a layer of dust on the floor. In the past Trixie would have been thrilled to find such a flaw in Twilight's perfect image. The thought that the 'Princess of Friendship' would keep the halls ponies were most likely to see bright and shiny while allowing the castles underbelly to go to cobwebs and decay was just too delicious, even now that they were on better terms. However, that didn't seem quite to be what was going on here. Rather it felt like these halls had never been set hoof in before this moment.

Instead of a delightful feeling of schadenfreude at Twilight's expense, Trixie felt something else entirely.

She felt a mounting sense of dread.

Things only got worse the further Trixie and the little girl went. They climbed down another flight of stairs, and found themselves in an even darker hall, crowded with what looked to be broken pieces of science equipment and surgical devices. It wouldn't be like Twilight to be this neglectful... To not keep every inch of her domicile spic and span, let alone allow her instruments to languish in such a horrid state. The pony had always struck Trixie as being on the anal retentive side of things, and fixated on maintaining order to an obsessive degree. Twilight would be too much of a neat freak to allow things to get so cluttered with junk and coated in filth as this.

Trixie began to wonder if Twilight was even aware that these sub-levels in her own home existed at all. If she was, would she really consign her pupil Starlight Glimmer, to live down here? Was this Starlight's mess?

Trixie doubted it.

"Where exactly are we going little one?" asked Trixie, her apprehension removing all attempts at showmanship from her voice.

"It's just a little further," Violet replied brightly. "Just down this way!"

Trixie had no idea how the filly could see in this gloom. Her own horn was ablaze with light, but it barely did anything to clear away the dust clogged darkness she found herself in. As they went down one more flight of stairs, Trixie realized that they must be deep underground. There was a rough and unfinished quality to these halls. Here and there, she could see where black, damp earth had spilled through the walls. There was raw rock here as well, as if they were no longer in the castle, but rather a network of caves. Dark muck had seeped down into the floor and made a thick and unpleasant puddle that the pair of unicorns had to wade through.

The filly, for her part, didn't seem to mind and trotted on as carefree as if they were in a spring meadow. Trixie, on the other hoof had to gather her cloak about her for fear of it staining and move much more tentatively. The mud, which stank of fresh turned earth and other fouler things, seemed to almost suck at Trixie's hooves. The thought of sinking into that primordial slime made her grateful for her cloak as a chill shot down her spine. So preoccupied with maintaining her footing was Trixie that she almost bumped into the filly she had been following.

They had apparently reached their destination. A large door was set into the wall here. Though it looked thick enough that it would take a team of stallions to open, it swung open effortlessly with a touch of the unicorn filly's horn. "Right this way!" the filly in the plum colored dress exclaimed with a somewhat unsettling grin.

"Are you c-certain that this is S-Starlight's room?" asked Trixie tremulously. It was very cold in these chambers, almost as if all the heat had been sucked from the air, and she felt her teeth chattering. She was uncertain if that was from the cold or from her nerves as, looking back, Trixie realized she couldn't see even a speck of light to mark where they had come from. "This place doesn't seem f-fit for ha-habitation."

"Nope, this is the place alright," replied the little girl, as if everything were perfectly normal. "Go on inside, you'll see."

Despite her every instinct telling Trixie to flee, she stepped forward through the yawning portal. The room within was even darker than the hall outside. There was a sound from within. A clinking, like metal on metal. The filly just grinned, never blinking, urging Trixie silently to go further in. The foul smell was worse here.

Trixie carefully picked her way down another flight of stairs, but she dared not touch the filth slick walls, even to guide herself. "It's so dark," spoke the magician in a whisper. "I fear you've led Trixie to a terrible place little one."

"Having trouble seeing? Let me help you out!" The filly must have cast some sort of spell, for in that moment the chamber was flooded with crimson light.

With a sudden rush of relief, Trixie realized that they were in some kind of dark room. Most ponies didn't bother with developing film this way anymore, using the more popular Ponyroid cameras which spat out pictures as soon as you took them. A few shakes and you'd have a print suitable for framing. Here, the more difficult work of developing film by hoof was done in a series of shallow chemical pans lined up in several rows of narrow tables. Above them, prints hung dripping from strands of cloths line, held on by cloths pins and paper clips.

As Trixie moved down the line she looked at the developed photo's, and slowly began to notice a theme. Though some of the pictures were crowd shots in busy streets and others appeared a little more intimate, all held the image of Twilight Sparkle. Here she was speaking to her friends. Here again was a picture of Twilight engaged in conversation with the mayor. Here was a picture of her flying over head as if the photographer was far below. Here she was smiling. Here she was crying. Here she was staring into the middle distance. There were pictures of her eating. Of her sleeping. This picture seemed to be taken while she was in the bath. Trixie averted her gaze. There were details in some of these images that she had no desire to see.

Was Twilight so conceited that she had some professional photographer follow her around? That didn't seem right.

Was this some secret project Starlight Glimmer had been working on? That didn't seem right either.

While Trixie knew that Starlight had shared her fixation with defeating Twilight for a time, having gone so far as to stalk her for a few months so as to get revenge on her for what had happened in her village, this seemed a step beyond what the unicorn had done. Some of these pictures were very recent while, as she looked around to make sure, others seemed to have been taken quite some time ago when Twilight had still been a unicorn. Trixie didn't think Starlight had even known Twilight before she had become a Princess. To get some of these more intimate shots, somepony would have had to follow Twilight for years, not a few mere months. No, this spoke to an outright obsession that Trixie found terribly disturbing.

Was it possible that the dragon, Spike, could be responsible for this? Trixie had never liked the way he seemed to follow Twilight around. Nor did she think it a particularly healthy way for a child to spend their youth, even for a fire breathing dragon.

"I'm sorry, but perhaps you did not understand Trixie," she started to say, turning to where she expected the filly to be. "Trixie was hoping to find Starlight Glimmer's room, not this dark room or whatever... it... is?" Her voice trailed off as she realized she was alone. Worse, the door and the stairs she had walked down had both vanished! There was nothing but a blank wall behind her!

In the blood colored gloom, Trixie thought she heard a high pitched giggle somewhere off to her right. Trixie's skin broke out in goose pimples and the little hairs along her legs all stood on end.

"It's okay Trixie, just relax," she tried to comfort herself. "All you've done is follow a creepy little girl you don't even know down into a dark room far beneath the surface of the earth and now the way out has mysteriously disappeared." There was another soft, girlish chuckle, this time from the left. "And now she's laughing at you! Right, there must be a logical explanation for all this. Keep it together Trixie. Just relax and think... Think!"

And then it hit her. How had she been so stupid!? Of course this scenario was ridiculous! It was meant to be!

This had to be another one of Starlight Glimmer's pranks!

"Oh, very funny. Very funny! So you figured out tonight would be the perfect time for me to prank you back, so you decided to set up a trick of your own, huh!?" cried Trixie to the dark, to a fresh wave of giggles. "I have to admit, I didn't expect you to hire some filly to do your dirty work for you, but I can see where that was carefully calculated to throw me off," She walked past the dripping photo's and pressed further towards the back of the room. There was a doorway set there, and Trixie could hear the same clink of metal that she had heard earlier. This must be 'Starlight's Room' that had been set up specifically to scare Trixie. Well, she wasn't going to give Starlight the satisfaction. "I've seen through your little trick now! So you can go ahead and come out! I'm not scared by these kinds of theatrics!"

That last part was a lie, of course. Trixie had been very scared, but there was no reason to let Starlight know how close she had gotten to making Trixie soil her cloak. She expected Starlight to bound out of the shadows, laughing away at how she'd 'gotten' Trixie at any moment.

But that moment never came.

Trixie walked through the open doorway. The room she found herself in now seemed less open and horribly close compared to the dark room she had left behind. Exposed rafters propped up a high vaulted ceiling. Long lengths of chain hung down from above, and swung gently as if they had been recently distributed. That was the source of the clinking sound at least, and one mystery solved. As Trixie continued to walk forward, she was hit by the same sharp scent she had smelled in the corridor outside. Not the smell of fresh turned earth or even moldering metal. No, this was something else...

The scent was unmistakable. The floor was absolutely covered in a mixture of blood and viscera...

It didn't take Trixie long to find the source... It didn't take her long at all to find her friend, Starlight Glimmer.

She was hanging from the ceiling, illuminated by a single spotlight that shone down from above. A cruelly barbed hook had been forced through her forelegs, through her ankles, so that she hung by the tattered limbs. The tips of her hind hooves dangled slightly above a wide pool of drying blood that had mixed gently with the inch deep foulness that was already pooled on the floor.

Starlight was covered in wounds. Long sections of her hide had been stripped off of her back, and there were burns here and there that looked like they had been made by something red hot and very sharp. A thick layer of dried blood was caked around her mouth where a ball of dirty rags had been forced passed broken teeth. It looked like parts of her mane and tail had been pulled out by their roots, and parts if her scalp had been peeled back as a result. She was absolutely covered in tiny cuts that wept a steady stream of bitter red tears.

For a moment, Trixie was sure that her friend must be dead. No pony should have to endure that kind of torment and live. But then, as if responding to her friends thoughts, Starlight began to twitch. This caused her chains to clink together, making the sound that Trixie had heard when she first entered the subterranean room. Starlight was unconscious, probably from the pain, but her muscles were still spasming as she hung in a daze.

Trixie couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was too shocked to speak. It felt like ice water had been dumped into her veins. Who could have done this? She knew Starlight probably still had ponies who held a grudge against her from the old days, but what kind of sadistic monster would do something like this? Part of her wanted to suspect Twilight, but this was her pupil! Even if she needed to be punished for some infraction, like befriending a ne'er-do-well like Trixie, she would never go this far!

"Who!? Who did this to you?" asked the magician, mostly to herself. Starlight was in no position to answer.

There was a chorus of giggling from the darkness. "She did this to herself," spoke a child's voice, breaking into a fit of laughter as if she'd just told the cleverest joke in the world.

Had it been her? Had it been the child in the plum colored dress that did this? "To herself? No! How could she? It was you, wasn't it?"

"She was a bad pony," the filly replied, the answer echoing off the distant ceiling. "She made Twilight sad. She tried to force ponies to be how she wanted, act how she wanted. But in the end it was never enough for her. All she needed to do was make the right friends and everything would have been fine. Instead she wreaked chaos not just in Equestria but across time!"

"I know that! Don't you think I know all that?" cried Trixie. "Do you really think that she deserves to be punished like this? Making her suffer alone... Subjecting her to this sick torture... Imprisoning her here in the cold and the dark! This is just too cruel!"

There was more laughter. "You're right, it is cruel. Just as cruel as she was when she plotted to steal Twilight's destiny from her. Just as cruel as when she stole Twilight's cutie mark! just as cruel as when she locked her up in a room and tried to brainwash her into thinking the way she wanted her to think." There was no laughter now. Only seething anger. "But you're wrong about one thing... We never intended for her to suffer alone."

The chamber was suddenly flooded with lights in every shade and color. The room was far larger than Trixie had thought. Chains dangled in every direction as far as her eyes could see, each ending in a cruel hook. Many were occupied. Corpses swung from the chains, gracefully swinging in an unfelt breeze. Trixie's eyes were wide with terror already, but they grew wider still.

Starlight had been tortured, yes, but these other unfortunate ponies had been mutilated much further, and in very specific ways. Pegasi had horns jammed through their foreheads. Unicorns had wings sewn on their backs. Earth ponies had suffered both. Some were hung carelessly, with hooks through their stomachs, their necks, or upside down by one leg. One particularly unfortunate pony had her hook driven through her eye socket and back out the side of her jaw, which hung open in a slack and soundless scream. Others hung from more than one hook, twisted into poses that would almost look graceful were it not for the horrifying damage that had been done to their bodies to achieve them.

While they were mutilated and strung up in different ways, every pony had their mane cut into the same style. Each, also, had their cutie marks defaced, traced over with a familiar symbol. They all had Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark carved into their flesh.

Trixie felt a prick in her flank. She looked down to see a syringe jutting out of her side. Acting quickly, Trixie willed all of her magic on breaking the needle. The syringe fell, but already some of its contents had been injected inside her. Trixie turned to run, but found that the doorway she had walked through had vanished, just like before. There was nothing but more twisted hooks and chains. As Trixie staggered, her balance lost to whatever drug had been injected into her veins, she brushed against the jagged hooks that hung all around her. She sliced open her own flesh, gouging herself even deeper as she struggle to disentangle herself from the filth encrusted barbs.

Once she finally freed herself, she recoiled in pain, only to back into one of the 'Twilight dolls' that hung behind her. As she jostled the corpse, maggots erupted from its mouth in a burst of foul breath. Trixie gagged at the scent and tried not to lose her lunch.

The filly's laughter was all around her. Where was she? Where was it coming from!?

There!

There she was, grinning against a pillar, eyes manic. "You were a bad pony too, weren't you Trixie?" She was there for a moment and gone the next.

Now she was standing beside Starlight. How had she moved so quickly? Had she teleported? "You tried to make a fool out of Twilight. You tried to drive her away." Now she was gone again. Where was she? Was she hiding behind the hanging corpses somehow?

There was laughter and blood everywhere. As the drugs effect accelerated in her blood, it began to look as if the 'Twilight dolls' were dancing through the air, their sewn on wings flapping gently, their manes floating as though they were under water.

Trixie felt tears pricking her eyes. This was worse than a nightmare. This was insanity! Her body wanted so badly to sleep, but Trixie knew that if she passed out now that there would be no one to save Starlight. No one to save Trixie, either, for that matter. She tried to concentrate, to cast some sort of spell, any spell to get away. But her mind was already thick with fog. Whatever the drug was, it was no less effective in smaller doses, it just took longer to take effect.

"We could almost understand where you were coming from. After all, if you couldn't have Twilight, why should any pony else, right? But then after all you did you had the gall to ask for forgiveness," barked the filly, seemingly right in Trixie's ear. "To plead that it was all the work of that little trinket of yours, the Alicorn Amulet, when you were the one who had freely sought it out and obtained it. All to try and be better than Twilight. All to try and deny her what destiny had in store..."

As Trixie at last collapsed on the blood slick floor, rolling in the putrid puddle of thick filth that must have been accumulating for some time, she knew she was losing her mind. As she looked up she saw not one, but two smiling fillies looking down on her. No, more than that... From behind every hanging corpse there stepped a grinning filly. They were all laughing, all staring, all smiling! And each one of them held something sharp and ready to rip open her flesh. They gathered around the pathetic and powerless Trixie as she sobbed and at last gave in to the inevitable encroaching darkness.

"You don't deserve forgiveness Trixie," one of the mirrored fillies said. "You deserve to be punished."

"And that concludes the first half of today's lecture. If you would like, we can take a short break here," Twilight offered. Truthfully, she could use a break herself. She'd been talking almost non-stop, pausing only when Violet asked one of her many very intelligent questions.

"Aww, do we have to?" pouted Violet Flicker. "I was having so much fun pretending to be your student! I feel like I've learned just so much just now. I mean, your other pupil isn't even back yet, right?"

It was true, Starlight hadn't shown back up yet. Twilight checked the time. Starlight had gone on break hours ago! What had happened to her? It wouldn't be the first time that Starlight had blown off one of Twilight's specially prepared lectures. Though the unicorn had made a lot of progress, Starlight would still sometimes take advantage of a situation to get her own way if an opportunity presented itself. Had this been one such time?

Had today's lesson been so bad that she'd just blown Twilight off? Was Twilight that bad of a teacher? Was she boring? Twilight paced back and forth, her thoughts racing.

"Are you okay Twilight?" asked the unicorn filly, her brow knit cutely with concern.

"I'm fine, everything's fine," Twilight was a bad liar. But surely she couldn't be that bad of a teacher, right? Spike and the Crusader's may have left before she'd even gotten halfway through her earlier lesson, but Violet had sat through it all.

Violet was such an attentive student! She always asked the right questions and gave the right answers. She was always suitably impressed by the effort and skill Twilight had put into her lesson plan. She even gave the correct wrong answers, which gave Twilight the opportunity to explore a given topic even deeper. Violet even took notes! No pony had ever taken notes when Twilight had given a lecture before! It was so refreshing! No, if Violet was any indication, Twilight was an excellent teacher. Maybe she just needed better students?

"I think maybe I just need a break," Twilight admitted. She had a lot to think things over.

"Well, okay, if it's for you Twilight," Violet replied with one of her bright and sunny smiles. "I guess I could use a trip to the little filly's room."

The unicorn filly was up and out of her seat and heading towards the hallway that would lead to the bathroom before Twilight had the chance to give her directions. Perhaps Spike had told Violet where it was earlier? It really didn't matter. What mattered was figuring out what had happened to Starlight Glimmer. Moon Dancer and Trixie should be arriving any moment now. If Starlight had decided to run out on another dinner, even an informal one, then it might be time for Twilight to give her pupil another kind of lecture entirely. Twilight removed her teaching glasses angrily and slammed her teaching wand on the lectern hard enough that it bounced across the room and clattered on top of the desk that Violet had so recently vacated.

Twilight's fore-hooves flew to her mouth. She hadn't realized just how angry she was, and the violent outburst had surprised even herself. She was thankful that Violet wasn't there to see her like this. That's really setting a great example Twilight, she thought to herself, throwing a tantrum like a foal! She'd even managed to scatter the filly's carefully taken notes all over the floor!

Silently reprimanding herself, Twilight moved to retrieve the wooden pointer and pick up the fallen notes. As she began to leaf through the spilled papers, however, something strange caught her eye.

"Twilight and Violet forever," she read aloud. One entire sheet of paper was nothing but that phrase over and over, surrounded by little drawings of hearts. She turned to the next page. This one was just a giant heart with a doodle of 'Twilight' inside. In the margins there seemed to be some kind of... poem about Twilight's mane. This one was just Twilight Sparkle written over and over, each one in a different font style. This one was dominated by doodles of Violet and Twilight with hearts between them and the letters T+V in big cartoony letters. She rifled frantically through the notes. This one was nothing but doodles of herself and Violet in various stages of embrace... Or at least that was what she thought until her eyes went wide with realization.

They weren't just embracing.

Twilight felt her knees grow week in the as the realization of the content of Violet's 'notes' hit her. She sat down in the tiny plastic chair, but jumped back up immediately. The chair was soaking wet. Twilight really didn't want to think of why, but suddenly she understood what Violet had meant when she said she could use the little filly's room.

Oh dear.

Twilight had just thought that Violet was interested in what she had to teach her. She never suspected a filly her age could have those kinds of feelings for anypony, let alone Twilight herself. This was a catastrophe! What was Twilight supposed to do about this? She'd heard of students sometimes developing crushes on their teachers, but this didn't seem like a harmless crush! It was flattering in a way. Really, really creepy, but still kind of nice to know that somepony thought of her that way. Even if that pony was half her age...

No, this wasn't good.

Twilight didn't even think of herself that way. She'd never had a special somepony in her life. She didn't think it would be a good idea to start now... Especially with an under-aged student!

What was she going to do? What was she going to do!?

Fifth Lesson: Don't Get Your Hopes Too High

"You!?" Twilight was overwhelmed with shock, practically in tears. "You did this to Spike? Why!? What did he ever do to you?"

"Oh, Spike? He never did anything to me personally. It's what he did to you Twilight." Violet rose from her desk, flecks of blood shaking softly from her dress as she moved. "All those years he spent sponging off of you. Getting in your way. Holding you back. It was honestly hard to watch! All those times he ruined your hard work. All those times he second guessed and doubted you. Truthfully, It made me ill." The filly spat on the floor, her teeth clenched as if she really was going to be sick. "To top it off, he fooled the entire Crystal Empire into thinking he was some sort of hero, when you and I both know he was little more than a delivery boy! They should have been building statues to you Twilight, not to this scaly sad sack."

"So you butchered him over that!?" Twilight roared, unable to fathom what Violet was saying.

"Oh no, not at all!" replied Violet, her eyes alive with infernal mischief. "I did that to get your attention.. For all his many flaws, I know how much Spike means to you. As much as I hate him for being such a screw up and still managing to be so close to you, punishing him the way he deserves would only hurt you. And I never want to hurt you Twilight." Violet's horn glowed softly, enveloping the dagger in Spike's chest. As it did Spike sprang back to life, writhing on the end of the blade, calling for help and screaming his pain. As the magic faded from the dagger, he froze mid-scream. "He's frozen in time, just a few moments away from death, but he's still very much alive. I can keep him like this indefinitely and he'd never even know it. For him it would just be one, long, very bad dream. Of course, now that you're here I can just go ahead and let him die."

"No, don't!" Twilight screamed in panic.

Violet smiled sweetly. "Of course not Twilight, I was only teasing. With the right spells I can fix him up as good as new. This whole thing really will have just been a bad dream as far as he's concerned. Of course," here Violet's smile turned nasty. "That's only if you cooperate with me."

Twilight's eyes narrowed in suspicion. The last thing she wanted to do was whatever this clearly insane and sadistic little filly wanted her to do. However, Violet was holding Spike's life in her hooves. If Twilight were more familiar with time spells she might be able to do something, but that wasn't her area of expertise. If only Starlight were here, maybe she could try something then. But as it stood, she'd have to play along. "What do you want me to do?"

"Oh, nothing much," answered Violet. "I just want you to sit... and listen." as she said this, Violet gestured to the plastic desk.

The Princess of Friendship recoiled. The desk was soaked now not only in Violet's 'juices', but Spike's blood as well. Twilight grit her teeth and carefully slid into the plastic chair. She tried not to squirm, but the cooling filth coagulating beneath her into a disgusting sticky substance made that endeavor a difficult one.

Twilight felt sick just thinking about it, let alone feeling the cold slime against her skin, seeping into her fur.

She had to put up with it though, for Spike's sake.

"And just so you don't get any ideas..." Violet's eyes let off a green light as her violet iris's turned bright red. Dark energy lashed out from her horn, slamming into Twilight's forehead. Thick black crystals grew along the shaft of Twilight's horn, sending a wave of pain deep into her skull. Before she realized what was happening, Twilight's magic had been sealed. It didn't stop there, however. Thick black crystal grew from the blood on the desk, shackling her limbs to the cheap plastic chair, including the wings behind her back.

Twilight was trapped!

This wasn't the first time Twilight had seen such dark magic, however. "Where did you learn that spell!?" she asked. As far as Twilight knew, only Princess Celestia and King Sombra had ever used the dark magic Violet had just so expertly wielded. Well, only them and Twilight herself... Even so, such a spell should be well beyond the capabilities of a filly Violet's age.

"Oh, I picked it up along the way. You'd be surprised the many things a filly can learn over the course of a lifetime," she giggled, as if there was anything funny about the situation. Violet seemed to be proud of herself. She gave a little bow and then turned her back to Twilight. "But I don't want to get ahead of myself. After all, we haven't even been properly introduced yet. I've spent so much time learning about you, and you don't really know anything about me yet, do you?"

"I know you're a crazy pony!" barked Twilight, unable to hold herself back.

"Only crazy for you Twilight," replied Violet batting her eyelashes as she looked back over her shoulder, making Twilight gag. "I went to a lot of trouble for you. Changed the color of my fur, my mane. I even thought about changing the color of my eyes, but that didn't seem necessary after I made other changes. Truthfully, I think part of me wanted to get caught, and that's why I didn't change my eyes. It would've been fantastic if you had recognized me, especially how I look now," Violet gave a little twirl, sending more flecks of blood dancing from her dress and into the air. "I would've been really very pleased! In the end though, I guess my disguise was just too good." she gave a coquettish wink.

"You keep talking like I should know who you are, as if we've met before," Twilight's brow was knit in confusion, "But I've never even laid eyes on you until earlier today!"

"Yes and no, Twilight, yes and no. Maybe this will help you understand." As she said this, Violet undid her long pony tail. With her magic she instead gathered up her mane into a pair of pigtails. The blackness slowly melted from her hair, dripping like filthy water as it fell to the floor. It changed to a shade or purple, run through with a streak of teal. Her fur, also, shifted from grey to light pink as the previous color ran off of her hide like bad dye. Violet smiled brightly as a cutie mark blossomed on her side.

Twilight recognized her instantly.

But it wasn't possible!

"Starlight!? What? Why? How are you a filly!?" Twilight asked in bewilderment.

"Please don't call me that. I gave up being 'Starlight' a long time ago," said the filly in answer. "I'm Violet now. And you know as well as I do that age spells exist. It took the better part of my life, but I finally mastered them!" she cried emphatically, letting her long mane droop around her neck and shoulders. "I had to Twilight. I had to so I would look the way I was when you first saw me! When we first met... Back before everything that happened..."

"I don't understand," said Twilight, who truly didn't. "We met in your village."

"Again, yes and no," was the filly Starlight, no, Violet's answer. "That's why I wanted you to sit here and listen. I know it's going to be hard for you. I almost don't believe it myself. But what i'm about to tell you is the truth. Let's start at the beginning. It's why you're here now, after all. Time for a lesson in friendship and magic!" as she said this, she brought Twilight's teaching wand towards the blackboard and tapped it against the black slate. The lesson from earlier had been erased and replaced with a series of new pictures.

The History Lesson began.

Once upon a time there was a filly who had only one friend in the entire world.

They did everything together and were the best of friends.

But then one day, something happened that would change their relationship forever. The filly's friend received his cutie mark. The filly knew what would happen next as soon as he ran off in glee. His parents, and it seemed the whole village, praised the filly's friend and cheered him. He would be spirited off to a school for gifted unicorns, while his friend would be left behind.

I'm sure this is a familiar story to you so far, but this is where things take a turn I think you may find interesting.

You see, as thoughts of despair and abandonment were going through the filly's head, she could hear them being echoed outside the window of her home. It was a unicorn, one that looked strangely familiar. She was speaking angrily to an alicorn, and what looked like a baby dragon.

They were just standing there, out where everypony could see! It seemed the other villagers were so distracted by one of their own earning his cutie mark that they didn't notice the unlikely trio.

But the filly did.

She didn't think there were any Alicorn's in Equestria aside from Princess Celestia, and she lived far away in Canterlot. The filly decided to investigate. After all, she had nothing better to do now that her only friend in the world had been ripped out of her life.

The unicorn was ranting something about cutie marks and how they tore friendships apart. The filly could relate to that, having just experienced such an event first hoof. So she drew closer... When suddenly there was a whoosh of magic! A portal seemed to open out of thin air and the trio were sucked into it...

As was the little filly.

The world seemed to twist and spin around her.

She was only a little filly and couldn't handle the trip. She blacked out.

In the end, this turned out to be fortunate, for when she at last awoke she found herself in a truly disorienting situation. She was up among the clouds. She panicked at first, certain she has died... or if she hadn't she soon would! It took her some time to realize she was in no danger and that she was standing on what seemed to be solid ground. A road in fact, that seemed to float on top of the clouds. The filly realized she was in a pegasus city... or perhaps it was some kind of flight camp? There were young pegasi all over the place, practicing flying and having races.

But that didn't hold her attention for long. No, not when she found the alicorn and unicorn from before close by.

They were still having some kind of argument.

It was only then that the filly realized why the unicorn had seemed so familiar. It was herself! Or, more accurately, an older version of herself.

She didn't understand all that was happening while she was seeing it, how could she? But she could tell that both were very upset and her older self was very angry. Her older self was threatening to tear up a piece of parchment, and while that didn't seem like it should be so bad, the filly got the sense that if it were done then something terrible would happen.

However, as she watched, the Princess seemed to talk the other Starlight down. She made her realize that all the things she had been so angry about were things that she could fix herself, if only she tried. Even only she opened herself up to friendship!

You, Twilight Sparkle, convinced Starlight to not change the past, and instead forge a brighter future for all of Equestria! Then the filly saw the most beautiful sight! It was you silhouetted against what the filly would later learn was a Sonic Rainboom. It had been this that you were fighting so hard to make sure came to pass, and the sight took the filly's breath away.

And then you, your dragon, and the older version of the filly disappeared through the same magic portal and were gone.

And the little filly was left behind.

Violet looked down at her hooves, her eyes hidden in shadow beneath her bangs. "I was stranded. At first I tried to get home, return to my old life. A friendly pegasus took pity on me and offered to fly me home, but when I got there I found there was another me, already living out my old life," said Violet sadly. "But you know, it wasn't so bad. Unlike that other filly, who was clearly as angry and friendless as I had been, I no longer harbored those emotions. I knew where that path would lead. No... even more so, it was because I had seen something that gave me hope! I had seen you making friends with that older version of me! I knew then that the two of us, Twilight, we were destined to be friends! We were destined to be together!"

This had been a lot for Twilight to absorb. She didn't entirely believe what she was hearing. "So you're Starlight Glimmer from another timeline who was stranded in our past? Okay, say I believe that, and that you're not just some kind of insane changeling or something... why are you still a filly? You said something before about using age spells, but why?"

"Like I said before, I did it for you. But if it bothers you," As Twilight watched, Violet's horn began to glow. Then her entire body began to flicker and change. Her dress split apart at the seams as her body swelled and grew. In moments a pony who looked exactly like Starlight Glimmer was standing before Twilight.

Well, almost exactly.

Now that she was 'older', Twilight could see the differences. Her mane was longer, and hung loosely in greasy strands from her head, as if she hadn't had a bath in ages. Her fur seemed matted down and filthy, though that might have just been from Spike's blood. Even the lines on her face were different, as though she had lived a very different and much harder life.

What truly caught Twilight's attention, however, were the scars. While these hadn't been apparent when she was a 'filly', they were all too notable now. It was as if, at some point, ever part of her body had known the kiss of a blade. Nowhere was this more apparent than on her flanks... There was something wrong with her cutie mark. It was far more disfigured than the rest of her body. It looked like a knife had been taken to it, gouging and cutting away at the flesh, leaving red exposed muscle where skin should be. The purpose for this was obvious... The cutie mark's shape had been altered and distorted, changing it from the familiar mark that would normally grace Starlight's flesh. It took a moment for her to realize, but as Twilight studied the horrible wounds further, she could see just what pattern the wounds were intended to mimic...

Violet had carved Twilight's cutie mark over her own.

Twilight didn't want to think about the pain it had cost or the dedication it would have taken to peel and shape the flesh until a bright red version of Twilight's six stars graced Violet's flank. Just looking at the glossy, glistening exposed muscle made bile rise up in her throat.

But while Twilight looked on this alternate version of Starlight with disgust, she herself looked on Twilight with a smoldering gaze that could only be described as wanton lust. Violet almost appeared to drool as she began to walk slowly towards Twilight. As the scarred unicorn spoke, it was in a deep husky voice, heavy with longing. "Twilight, whatever you want me to be, however you want me to be, I'm more than willing. I'll be whatever you want, so long as you'll have me..."

Violet draped herself over the desk in front of Twilight as if she were offering herself to her. Her eyes were half lidded and she was panting. She slowly stroked one hoof down her scar covered chest, to the tenderness just bellow her belly. The sight was more than enough to turn Twilight's stomach. "I thought we were destined to be friends!?"

"Friends, and so much more!" cried Violet, a manic grin spreading across her face as she looked up adoringly at Twilight. "You see, I've been watching you since we were both little. I've been shadowing you every step of your life's journey. I know you now better than you know yourself! I devoted my life to finding you, to learning everything I could about you! I watched you as you studied in Canterlot. I thrilled as you made new friends and defeated Nightmare Moon! My heart leaped as you became the Princess you were always meant to be!" Violet's eyes were glowing as she pulled away from Twilight, kneeling down before her, never breaking her adoring gaze. "But I never dared interfere. I never dared reveal myself to you. Even so, I learned so much!"

Violet rose again, sliding her hooves across the blood stained desk. She was getting uncomfortably close now, her face was mere inches apart from Twilight's. "I know how you crease your brow when you're reading a particularly challenging book. I know how you like to study late into the evening, eyes never leaving the page. I know how you like to have a warm beverage on a cold day, and exactly how many marshmallows you like in your hot cocoa." Violet's voice dropped a few octaves as she leaned forward to whisper in Twilight's ear, her warm breath sending a shiver down Twilight's spine. "I know how you smell after a hot day, when that beautiful brow or yours is glistening with perspiration. I know how your mane shines after a nice, long soak in the bath. I know what it sounds like when you're sleeping a deep, untroubled sleep. I know everything about you Twilight. I long for you to learn about me just as intimately. I figured out some time ago that we were meant to be more than friends. Twilight... I want you to be my special somepony..."

"Not going to happen," was Twilight's firm reply.

"I thought you might say that," replied Violet, running her tongue over her teeth as she pulled back. "But that's why I planned all this out so very carefully. I wasn't just researching you, you see. I know all about my rivals as well!"

"Rivals!? What rivals?" asked the Princess, perplexed.

"You don't have to be coy with me Twilight," Violet replied with a knowing smile. "You have your regular circle of friends, but you've been adding new 'friends' of a particular sort lately. Comely young unicorns of a particular disposition towards magic. Oh, they may start out as rivals, or even enemies, but eventually you add them to your little harem." The look on Twilight's face was pure denial, but Violet wouldn't give her the chance to voice it, raising one hoof to her lips to silence her. "Deny it all you like, but the facts are the facts. Trixie Lulamoon, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and even your fillyhood friend Moon Dancer; all of them are unicorns that share your love of magic, and each of them you've gone to some effort to befriend. Even if you don't realize it yourself Twilight, you've found yourself attracted to a certain, shall we say, type of mare. Admit it... You're attracted to powerful magic users who aren't all that hard on the eyes." Violet gave her a little conspiratorial wink.

"That's ridiculous!" cried Twilight, struggling against the crystal that bound her to the desk. "Even if it were true, what does that have to do with you hurting Spike!?"

"Oh... you think Spike is the only one who's been dealt with today?" Violet grinned wickedly, showing teeth that suddenly appeared far sharper than they should be. "Starlight was the first. It was only fair for her to bare the brunt of my vengeance, seeing as how she was responsible for my current situation. I was tempted to destroy her outright before you even met her on the off chance that would send me back to my own time-line. But I couldn't have that... Then we would've never met either! Or at least, the Twilight I would meet wouldn't be you, and the me you met would not be me." It seemed that this thought saddened Violet, but then a manic gleam came back to her eyes. "Then there was Moon Dancer! Don't worry, she died quickly enough. Not painlessly, but quickly. Then Trixie... ah Trixie. It was a real pleasure to finally get a hold of her and make her pay for her past sins," Violet giggled, but it quickly turned into a deep and menacing laugh. "Sunset! Now, Sunset was a bonus! I thought I'd have to go to that stupid little parallel dimension of hers to take care of her, but then she showed up here out of the blue! Did you know she actually attacked me!? Can you believe it!? But in the end, she's the one who died!"

Twilight listened to all of this with a look of mounting horror on her face. Was this true? Had all of this gone on right under her nose!? "What? How? When!? You were here with me all afternoon!"

Violet's grin only grew wider as she looked down at Twilight, her eyes glowing with mischief behind her long bangs."Well, yes, I was," as she said this, Twilight could hear a chorus of giggles coming from the dark corners of the room. One by one, fillies that were identical to how Violet had looked a moment before stepped out of the shadows. Each looked exactly the same, except their dresses were all slightly different colors... But they all shared Violet's grin. "My mirror pool clones, however, have been very busy."

One of the clones squealed. "It's so nice to finally meet you Twilight!"

"We love you Twilight!" gushed another.

"We all love you Twilight," the clones chorused as one, fawning over the bound alicorn.

"So you understand now, don't you? You don't have a choice anymore Twilight!" roared the original Violet, the pupils of her eyes shrinking to manic points. "I've eliminated all of my competition in one fell swoop! Now you have to choose me to be your special some pony!" She threw back her head, laughing manically.

"You're crazy! This is crazy!" Twilight tried to squirm free of her restraints, to no avail.

"Only for you Twilight! I'm only crazy for you!" screamed Violet insanely. "I waited for years for this! Studying every scrap of magic I could find so that I could be worthy of you. I've mastered aging spells, time spells, and dark magic all for you! I sacrificed my flesh and blood, my mind, my very soul to make you mine! I made a secret home for myself in the roots of this castle of yours, just so I could stay close by your side! I scraped through the dirt and the mud, salvaged everything I could from what you threw away. All so I could better myself for this moment! After all my work and sacrifice, how could you possibly deny me now? Can't you see my devotion? Can't you see my sacrifice!? Can't you see how I did this all for you!?"

"You did this for yourself, you sick monster!" cried Twilight, angry tears in her eyes. "How could anyone love you after what you've done? You killed my friends!"

A look of shock bloomed on Violet's face. Her clones looked equally dismayed.

Violet didn't seem to understand what she had done wrong. "Is it... Is it because I'm old now? I know that my looks are a little r-rough b-b-but... But I thought if anyone c-could look past my appearance it would be Twilight! You're so kind and considerate, surely you wouldn't let a few scars get in the way of our love? But no, no that's wrong, isn't it? You like pretty unicorns. Pretty little unicorns. I'm stupid, so stupid!" Violet pulled at her own mane, ripping out hanks of her hair. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I should've known better! Did you like me better when I was young?" The glow enveloped Violet's body again, and once more she was a filly, her skin and fur completely unblemished. If anything she seemed to be a bit younger than she was before. "I can be any age you want! I can look how ever you want! Just please, say you'll be mine! That's all I want, I swear, and then this horror can all end. I'm... I'm messed up, I know that Twilight. I've done horrible things in the name of... of love! Yes love! We've all done silly things for love, right? But I can change! See, I can change!" The color of her fur and mane began to flicker wildly between different colors. Violet smiled imploringly, reaching her tiny hooves towards Twilight.

"Young or old, you're sick Violet. I could never love you!" Twilight shouted emphatically, tears running down both cheeks. "I could never forgive you for what you've done. But... but if you let me go, if you fix Spike, maybe we can get you the help you need."

Violet's head drooped. All of her clones looked down at their hooves as well, thier eyes hidden in the shadow of their bangs. "You think I need help?" They all said in the same monotone voice.

"You're the one who needs help Twilight," said the original Violet in a hoarse whisper. "After all I've done you still deny me? Then I guess you leave me no choice." The clones scrambled around. Some brought in a green doctors smock and gloves and helped the original Violet put them on. another group tied a backless gown around Twilight's throat. A final pair wheeled in a trolley that had several surgical tools lined up neatly on its tray. Everything was already drenched in blood. It seemed Violet had been busy. "Along with my magic studies, I studied up on pony anatomy as well. Did you know that everything there is about you, your entire personality, is all up to a very specific part of your brain? I really didn't want to do this to you Twilight... But if you refuse to see the truth, if you refuse your destiny, then I have no choice but to act. I'll make you love me Twilight! Even if that means turning you into nothing more than a doll!"

With a black charcoal pencil, one of the clones drew a dotted line across Twilight's forehead. Violet grinned all the more maniacally as the surgical tools were lifted into the air by her magic. A series of knives, hooks, chisels and tiny hammers orbited around Twilight's head. A thin whirring proceeded from the oscillating dressing saw as it buzzed to life, and brought its gore soaked blade towards Twilight's forehead.

"Don't worry Twilight, it's only a full frontal lobotomy! You'll be fine!"

Sixth Lesson: Don't Give Up

The saws circular teeth bit into the side of Twilight's head. She could feel it eating through her skin, chewing through her flesh, and biting deep into the skull beneath. Twilight grit her teeth against the pain, biting her tongue to keep herself from screaming. If only she could use her magic! If only there was somepony to help her! The blade whirred around her head, and she heard the crack, like an eggshell breaking. The feeling of the top of her head being lifted off, pulled off by her mane, was a sensation that no pony should have to live through.

The other surgical tools move in, scraping the under side of the bone, separating the thin membrane that held her skull in place over her brain. Blood and cerebral fluid dripped down her forehead and into her eyes. She shouldn't be awake for a procedure like this. She shouldn't be able to see the serrated scoop as it was brought closer, and its sharp edge embedded in her brain. She wouldn't feel anything as the grey matter of her frontal lobe was scooped out, except for a dull hollow feeling, and a sense of loss that would fade along with her personality. There would be no pain. Just a brief moment as everything about her, everything that made Twilight who she was, was torn away.

Such thoughts ran though Twilight's mind like wildfire! Her imagination flooded the inside of her head with visions of it being pried open and her brains scooped out. Twilight couldn't help it. She had a very active imagination.

The worst part was, once her thoughts became reality, she wouldn't even be sure she'd remember it had happened let alone car that it had. If this twisted version of Starlight was half as good at surgery as she as she seemed to be with dark magic, then there was a very real possibility that Twilight would just become her play thing as she intended. Obedient, compliant, willing to do what ever she said. She could make her fawn over her like some twisted pet, and Twilight would just accept this state of affairs as if that was how they had always been. The very thought alone was enough to make her sick to her stomach.

Encased by the bands of dark crystal, as Twilight was, she couldn't even move so much as a feather. If she remembered correctly when her brother, Shining Armor, has his magic similarly sealed the effect wouldn't were off unless the power of the crystal heart was brought into play. Since the heart was hundreds of miles away in the Crystal Empire, that did Twilight no good at all. Maybe if she focused her magic on generating the same kind of light and love, she could destroy the dark seal herself? Twilight would need time to build up that kind of power, however, and the short time it had taken to listen to Violet's history 'lesson' and her delusional relationship with Twilight had not been enough. Twilight needed more time! Time it didn't look like she was going to get.

Unless...

"Okay! Okay!" Twilight shouted. "I'll do it!"

"You'll do what?" asked Violet with one eyebrow raised, her voice muffled by her surgical mask.

"I'll... I'll be your special somepony," Twilight spat the words out as if they burned her mouth. "I'll be yours!"

It was as if the sun had come out from behind a bank of clouds. Violet positively beamed! "I knew you'd see things my way!" Her clones jumped up and down with joy.

All except for one in a burgundy dress, still studded with shards of the Crystal Mirror. With her eyes narrowed to suspicious slits, the clone said "This is a trick isn't it? you don't really want to be our special somepony, do you?"

"Well, no..." admitted Twilight truthfully. The look of betrayal on the faces of all of the Violet's was like a sudden thunderstorm. The surgical tools came towards Twilight's head again. "What I mean is I can't be the special somepony to all of you! It wouldn't really be special then, would it? In fact, it would be really weird."

"Huh. She's kind of has a point," said one filly in a purple dress.

"Yeah, I mean we went through all this trouble so wee wouldn't have to share her with those other unicorns," agreed another clone in a lavender dress. "It would be silly to have done all that just to have to take turns with her now."

"Don't listen to her. She's just trying to turn us against each other," said the pony that Twilight thought of as the original Violet. Though, how could she really tell? "Besides, you clones are just going back into the mirror pool when this is all over."

"We're what now!?" asked a filly in a mauve dress. "You mean after we did everything you said, you're just going to throw us away? That's not fair! We love what's-her-name too!"

"Twi-bright should choose! Make her choose!" cried one clone in a orchid colored dress.

"She already said she didn't want to be with us. We have to make her love us before she can choose," reasoned another clone. Or was it the original? "We can discuss this after the operation is complete."

"That's stupid! She won't even be Twilight anymore if we do that!" screamed a clone in a dress the color of a ripe plum, stomping one hoof like a petulant child. "This isn't how this was supposed to go at all!"

"Quiet you! This is the only way now. We have to do this!" cried Violet. Though if it were the original or one of her clones it was becoming increasingly hard to tell. "Once she's been made compliant we can all have a turn with her!"

"That's absurd! I think I'm done listening to you," said the clone in the purple dress coldly. "Twilight should be mine and mine alone!"

That was all the warning given before an all out battle began.

Some of the clones favored their magic, while others used blades. Surgical implements danced like a hurricane around the room as different versions of Violet tackled one another, sawing open throats and cleaving bone, gouging out eyes and crushing windpipes. It seemed Twilight had tapped into some seething resentment and hatred that Violet had for herself, or at least her errant clones. Perhaps they simply disliked competition, even from 'themselves'? It was hard to tell where the carnage began and ended. The clones seemed to use magic to heal themselves as quickly as they took damage. One pony was trying to circumvent this by chopping off horns, but she was somewhat hampered when all of her limbs were yanked out of their sockets and ripped off of her body by a particularly powerful magically inclined version of Violet.

As blood, viscera, and chips of meat and bone fell in a deluge around the room, one of the clones just huddled against the wall, weeping into her hooves.

This madness couldn't be allowed to continue, even if it did serve as the distraction Twilight needed. Digging deep inside herself, Twilight focused her thoughts on her friends. Moon Dancer's devotion. Trixie's vivaciousness. Sunset's empathy. Starlight... The real Starlight's, earnestness. And Spike... noble Spike... his honor! All of her thoughts and feelings about her friends that Violet had harmed, had attacked, had made to suffer all for her own selfish desires. These are what Twilight poured from her heart. Brilliant white light streamed from Twilight's eyes as the dark crystal exploded into so much fine dust and powder. She spread her wings wide and rose from the melted plastic of that had formerly been the desk that bound her.

As one the Violet's looked up towards her, at least the ones who still had eyes, and the look that passed over their faces was a mixture of awe and abject terror.

Twilight didn't waste any time. She remembered well the spell to return clones to the Mirror Pool... And this time she didn't have to bother finding out who the original was. The spell arched from her horn, flying out at blinding speed. As the spell collided with each of the fillies, they expanded as if they were about to explode before dissolving into base magic energy. They soared through the air like shooting stars, streaking back towards their origin in the Everfree Forest. Twilight was like a wrathful deity, laying about herself in judgement and hurling the sinful into the waiting abyss. The Violet's didn't go without a fight, sending searing spells arching from their horns and attacking with sharp weapons that hungered for Twilight's flesh.

She shoved her pain, horror, and grief aside and focused on the task at hand. She owed her murdered friends that much. The clones didn't stand a chance. Their spells bounced harmlessly off of her magical shield. What few edged weapons got past her defenses only managed glancing, shallow cuts as she flew and teleported around the room, magic trailing in her wake like the tail of a comet..

When the dust finally settled, Twilight found herself alone in the throne room, surrounded by pools of blood. As the light and fury faded from Twilight's eyes, she broke into a fit of wracking sobs. Never before had she been so violated. Never before had she faced such a vile foe.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

Time passed, and at last the wave of grief that had assailed Twilight receded.

There was work to be done. Twilight needed to keep it together.

The throne room was a sea of blood and severed limbs. Even the chandelier, made from the salvaged roots of the Golden Oaks library, was festooned with intestines and other internal organs that had been sent flying during the melee. These spilled their putrid viscera onto the room below, staining the precious memories that hung encased in jewels with their foulness as the juices steadily dripped down. It seemed that even though the mirror pool clones themselves had been banished, the bits and pieces of them that had been left behind would not be so easily dealt with. Twilight felt like she was going to be sick, but this was no time to let herself be overcome by the horror that surround her.

Not now, when Spike still needed her help.

Now that she wasn't threatened herself, Twilight thought she might be able to help her ever-faithful assistant. While she wasn't certain, she thought that the enchantment that bound Spike might be linked to the blade protruding from his chest. If Twilight could get a better look at it, study the runes engraved on the blade, perhaps she could preserve the spell that held him in stasis until she could find a way to heal his wounds? At the very least, if she could get a better idea of the spell that had been used, she might be able to reverse it and any ill effects it had done to Spike that were not immediately obvious.

It was worth a shot.

Twilight reached one hoof tentatively towards the blade's handle. Nothing happened. She tried to pull it out. Spike instantly started to writhe and scream, as if it were Twilight who was stabbing him. His pained eyes locked on hers, and he began to cough up blood. Twilight immediately let go of the blade's hilt and Spike froze in mid-scream.

If she couldn't physically remove the blade, maybe she could manipulate it with her magic?

Focusing her power into her horn, she engulfed the dagger with her power, and then began to slowly edge the blade out of Spike's heart. To Twilight's relief, it seemed that Spike remained motionless while she did this. She pulled the blade a little further out. As she did, the runes on the dagger began to glow a deep and frightening red. The sigil drawn in Spike's blood began to glow in kind, the runes leaping into the air and rotating in a shadowy haze of darkness. Before Twilight could return the dagger to the sheath of Spike's heart, an angry portal limed in crimson lighting tore open in the air above the cutie map.

Twilight's eyes grew wide as she felt herself being pulled in.

There was no time to react.

With a thunderclap, Twilight was sucked into the dark abyss that yawned before her.

For a time, Twilight feared she had gone blind.

When she tried to illuminate the area around her using her magic, all Twilight couldn't even see her own hooves waving in front of her face. Wherever she was, her surroundings seemed to simply drink the light from her horn and leave her in a boundless abyss. As time passed and her eyes adjusted, Twilight realized that there was a certain shadowy light that she could see by that lent some definition to herself and her surroundings. Even so, it did little to reveal where she was or even what condition she herself was in. All Twilight knew for sure was that, where ever she was, her surroundings were rank with the vile stench of an abattoir.

If she strained her ears, Twilight could hear a faint buzzing that she moved towards instinctively.

The floor squished unpleasantly beneath her hooves. Truth to tell, Twilight moved cautiously, terrified of taking a wrong step and slipping beneath the sludge that seemed to coat the ground she walked upon. She didn't want to think about what it was she was walking through, but curiosity forced her to bring one filth covered hoof up to her noise. Twilight almost vomited as the scent of a mixture of congealed blood, fecal matter, and what she could only assume were fragments of flesh filled her nostrils. She quickly set her hoof back down into the cold effluence. She wouldn't be trying that experiment again any time soon. At least that helped to explain the stench and the buzzing of what Twilight realized must be flies. It didn't tell her anything about where she was, but she knew it was some place sh didn't want to be. The endless darkness seemed to roll on forever in every direction.

Twilight needed to get back to Spike. He needed her help. She had tried teleporting, but no matter how hard she tried, she would only reappear somewhere else in this apparently limitless abyssal plane. No matter how far she walked or ran, there didn't seem to be an end to it. She had tried using her wings, but she had to be careful since she couldn't see. She quickly lost her bearings, and had somehow ended up flying straight back down to the ground. The impact had sent up a wet splash of filth, coating her mane and much of her skin in the stygian dreck. To her eternal regret, some had even managed to trickle into her mouth and up her nose. She'd spent a few wretched moments coughing, sneezing, and adding to the repugnant pool retching up her breakfast. She'd resisted the urge to wipe her mouth with the back of her hoof, as this would have only smeared more of the foulness across her face. She settled for using her magic to try and levitate the droplets of sick and dross from her body, but it clung stubbornly in matted clumps to her fur.

Twilight was not a happy pony.

She was contemplating just sitting down and screaming for help when she heard a strange, tinkling sound drift through the monotonous buzz of fatted flies. The only other sound up to now had been the ever present squelch as Twilight trudged through the mire that sucked at her hooves. Now, however, she could hear distant music floating through the darkness. There was a grainy quality to it, and a discordant slowness, like a record played on an ancient gramophone that dug its hateful needle into the records groove just a bit too slowly.

Twilight moved towards the sound cautiously, ever vigilant for a trick or trap. She had already realized that the spell that had been inscribed on the cutie map had been meant as a trap for her. She cursed herself for not realizing it sooner, but it made sense that if Starlight could make a portal through time then her evil alternate self might be able to tear one open in space. Though she was fairly certain that she had eliminated the true Violet along with her clones, that didn't mean that the fight was over. Clearly there had been some reason for leaving that trap in wait for Twilight, and it was possible that there were other mirror clones or booby-traps laying in wait for her.

Which is why Twilight jumped when an array of unseen spotlight's flashed on, illuminating her surroundings. What she had taken for an endless plane was nothing more than a high ceilinged room. Chains hung from above, their ends terminating in wicked looking barbed hooks, but these posed no immediate danger. Twilight wondered how she had managed to avoid those before when she had attempted flight. She was suddenly very glad she hadn't tried using her wings a second time. The floor remained unfortunately turbid beneath her hooves, but she didn't have the feeling that she was going to sink into the muck at any moment anymore. Now that she had light to see by, she could see that the grime was only a thin coating on a stone floor.

What was this place?

Twilight continued to move towards the music, which seemed less distant now, though all the more discordant. The needle of the unseen gramophone jumped and scratched periodically, grating on Twilight's understandably frazzled nerves. The alicorn's teeth were set on edge with ever skip of the record. The first thing she would do when she found whoever was playing this music would be to make them turn it off. That was, of course, if there even was anypony to make that demand of. Of any pony else, any other living soul, there was no apparent sign.

As Twilight walked further through the unsettling room, the dangling hooks and loops of chain only grew thicker. It almost seemed like the ceiling was getting lower with each step. It took a strength of will for Twilight to press on towards the sound rather than scramble backwards and try to find an exit elsewhere. It was obvious that she was likely only moving deeper into the jaws of the very trap that was meant to be her doom, but what choice did she really have? She feared turning back now would only lead her back to that strange lightless 'nowhere' that she had been wandering for who knew how long.

Doing her best to suppress her trepidation, Twilight at last arrived where the music seemed to originate. A rough looking stage was illuminated by brightly colored lights that swam and spun, creating strange shapes and bizarre shadows. The chains here were so thick, they seemed to act as a curtain for the stage. Twilight was perplexed. Why a stage? As if in answer to her question, the lights died, plunging Twilight back into darkness.

"Welcome Twilight Sparkle!" boomed a high pitched voice from every direction at once.

"Violet! So you survived!" bellowed Twilight, recognizing the voice of her tormentor instantly. "Or are you one of her clones? Come out and I'll deal with you the way I dealt with your fellows!"

"Bold words Twilight, but no, I am the original Violet I assure you," the voice answered. "Escaping in that maelstrom of blood shed that you caused was simple enough. Really, I should thank you for taking care of my doubles and saving me the trouble."

"Show yourself and I'll do more than save you trouble," Twilight answered, her tone letting Violet know that this was no idle threat. "Those who have touched the waters of the Mirror Pool are subject to the return spell just like their clones. It would be a fitting end for you, to be imprisoned with your shallow copies!"

"A difficulty I'm well aware of Twilight. Hence why I am not there to embrace you as I welcome you to my realm," taunted Violet.

"You're realm? This pigsty?" replied Twilight, not rising to the bait, "It suits you!"

"Oh, somepony is feeling saucy," giggled Violet. "You're insults aside, it was no small feat to craft this place. My little hidey-hole, my home away from home, inside your home. Digging into the earth beneath the 'roots' of your domicile was the easy part. You have no guards in your so-called castle, so that part was as simple as trotting inside when no one was around. Siphoning magic from this crystal edifice, however... Ah, now that was a trick! I must say I'm rather proud of twisting that magic to form this pocket of reality. It exists simultaneous inside and outside of your dimension, you see. It required a lot of time, patience, and sacrifice, but it was worth it!"

A pocket dimension! That explained why Twilight couldn't simply teleport home. It would have been like trying to teleport from Equestria to the Human World without a portal. It just couldn't be done! The danger that Twilight was in slowly dawned on her. Without learning the way out, she could be trapped here for all eternity. "Such a powerful working of magic must have been difficult. Too difficult even for Starlight Glimmer! You must have had help!"

"I'm far more powerful than that weakling Starlight!" boomed Violet. "And my clones were all the help I needed. Well, them and my little sacrifices. But ah, i'm getting ahead of myself again. It's time for the show!"

The flood lights burst on again, and the music grew to a deafening crescendo as the chain link curtains opened revealing a pair of ballerinas posed elegantly on stage. At least, they looked like ballerinas. Twilight's eyes grew wide as she took in the sight. There was no mistaking the identity of the performers who stood stock still on stage. Starlight, the real Starlight, hung suspended from several chains that were embedded into her legs by the long hooks that Twilight had seen before. Trixie hung likewise, though she appeared to twitch slightly, writhing like a worm on the end of a not so metaphorical hook. Both ponies had clearly endured unspeakable torture. Cuts, bruises, and burns marred their ones smooth flesh, patches of hair were completely missing and both had their mouths sewn firmly shut. Their horns, of course, were sheathed in the same black crystal that Twilight's had been sealed by not so long ago.

Before Twilight's shocked eyes, the chains that held the two unicorn's began to jerk back and forth, twisting the hooks in their muscles painfully and forcing them into an awkward dance. The ponies, clearly conscious of their suffering, moaned and gave muffled screams as the music continued to blare. Blood seeped from their wounds as the hooks twisted and spun in their flesh. Twilight couldn't bear to watch this any longer. Before she realized what she was doing, Twilight had climbed on stage, galloping at full speed towards the twisted marionettes. Twilight had to free her friends!

But before she could so much as reach a hoof out to touch them, a line of other ponies fell from the ceiling. Twilight jumped back, wings spread wide, thinking this was some sort of attack. The line of ponies hung perfectly still, swinging ever so slightly on the chains that bound them. These were the corpses that Trixie had seen earlier, still skewered on their hooks, their chains swaying gentle from their sudden fall. Twilight felt a wave of nausea as she realized that these were the 'sacrifices' that Violet had earlier alluded to. The miasma of dark magic wafting off of them must have been carved deep into their flesh as they had been tortured to death. While some were clearly only recently dead, or at least well preserved, others were severely rotted and mutilated to the point that they barely resembled once living creatures. One of the ponies was even missing the top of her head, her lower jaw hanging down across her chest as the cross section of her throat swung back and forth before Twilight's eyes.

Along with the ritualistic carvings etched into their flesh, there were other modifications. All of them had wings, even those who had not been born with them. The cadavers that still had their heads were adorned with horns that were either natural or borrowed. The suffering these ponies must have endured was more than Twilight was willing to contemplate. They were so badly damaged that it was impossible to tell who they had been while they were alive, but it was clear they had all lost their lives thanks to Violet's twisted obsession with Twilight. Each one, she realized, had been shaped and twisted and changed into a facsimile of her own appearance.

"Do you like my doll collection Twilight?" asked Violet, a teasing tone in her impish voice. "I must admit that they're not as good as the real thing, but then what reproduction truly is? Even with all of the pictures I took of you in secret, in even the most intimate settings, I could never quite reproduce the shining image that was you. Still, I think I was close to capturing your essence with some of them. I dare say a little more time, a little more work, and I would've had a harem to rival your own!"

"Is there no end to your perversion, your depravity!?" screamed Twilight in disbelief. "What did these ponies do to you that could possibly justify this depraved violation!?"

"They reminded me of you, Twilight," replied Violet's disembodied voice callously. "A turn of the head, a curve of the shoulder, the brief flash of a smile like summer lightning. With every turn and every step they tormented me with the reminiscence of you, as you were in my fillyhood memories. That, combined with knowledge that I could not obtain you drove me to these ends. I had tried to be satisfied with them as they were, to slake my desire for you with their bodies, but they just never lasted. I admit it wasn't their fault... How could they hope to compare? They were all so imperfect! Even with my modifications, they were just pale imitations. I had hoped to end all of that today, but I see now that you remain beyond my reach. Then again, that's why you're here now!"

Twilight knit her brow, "What do you mean?'

"I tried reason Twilight. I tried magic. I even tried science," replied the unseen Violet. "But there's a reason I made this place, and no, it wasn't just to hide my presence or my deeds. This was going to be our paradise! By now, I'm sure you've realized you cannot leave here by teleporting. You can walk out any time you like, but I assure you that you will never leave. You will never find the exit. I'll make you dance like a puppet on a string, just like your 'friends' here. Just like these dolls! If I can't have you Twilight, then no pony can!"

As she said this, magic crackled down the lengths of the chains supporting the Twilight dolls, making them dance as their desiccated bodies began to twitch on the ends of their hooks. Their hooves touched the boards of the stage and, as one, they turned their eyeless gaze towards Twilight. Screeches of pain and deep groans of despair escaped their parched throats and peeling lips.

The corpses were alive!

"Ingraining a vivifying spell into my toys was an integral part of the modification process, otherwise they'd be useless to me even more useless to me. I think you'll find that they won't be so easy to deal with as my Mirror Pool clones though. I've poured my magic into them Twilight, along with my hatred and my longing!" Violet laughed manically from behind the scenes. "You have no idea how much I've hungered for you, Twilight! How I've longed to taste you! How I've wanted to put you inside me for so long! Of course... these dolls lack my restraint! Oh Twilight... hah-ha... they're going to eat you alive!"

The chains that supported the corpses suddenly twitched and spun at incredible speed. The dolls twisted bonelessly, their bodies bending at odd angles as they hurtled across the stage towards Twilight. It was only on raw instinct that the alicorn dodged a set of jaws sank deep into the wooden floor where she had stood but a moment ago. Another doll leaped through the air towards her, one hoof scything through the space that had previously been occupied by Twilight's head. The chains rattled and clinked as the undead dolls closed in on Twilight from all sides.

The Princess had no choice but to make a hasty retreat!

Twilight leapt off the stage and squelched into the foul ichor of the floor, skidding and sliding away from the stage. Running was difficult, so she tried flying. However, as Twilight rose off of the the ground, a hook swung down and dug deep into one of her wings. Twilight let out a scream as the wing was wrenched nearly out of socket. "They're coming to get you Twilight!" sang Violet's voice gleefully as Twilight struggled to free herself. "They're coming to for you now!"

The cadavers glided like ghosts, just above the surface of the sea of gore, some moving gracefully while others twitched and squirmed. Twilight had no choice... She couldn't run anymore. With a grunt that turned into a scream, she slid her limp wing off of the hook that had entangled it. With a scream, she forced her wing back into socket. It would be useless for flying, but so long as she could use her wings she'd have a slight edge over the limp creatures that were bound to the chains they swung from. As the nearest doll drew close, its eyeless skull shrieking, Twilight lashed out with her magic.

It was a simple spell meant to push the animated carcass back, but to Twilight's surprise the rotten creature instead burst like a water balloon. A shower of maggots rained down on Twilight as flies rose up in an angry buzzing swarm. Temporarily blinded by the buzzing insects, Twilight didn't realize the danger she was in until she felt rotten teeth bite deep into her shoulder. She howled her pain and terror to the sky as another set of broken teeth latched onto her flank. The corpses moaned with something between pain and pleasure as they scrapped dry tongues over Twilight's skin, lapping up the warm living blood spilling from the rancid bite wounds. The dead things did this for but a moment, before they began to worry her hide with their putrid mouths. They were trying to eat her, just as Violet had said!

Twilight spun around, bucking furiously, kicking the twin dolls that had injured her to damp and ragged pieces. What was left of them fell hissing to the ground. Just the thought of the horrible diseases that Twilight may have contracted from their bites was enough to send the alicorn into a frenzy, stomping their squirming carcasses into mush.

Infection was the least of Twilight's problems, however, as the other dolls closed in around her once again. Twilight lashed out with her magic once more, trying to be careful to cut or crush her attackers rather than risk bursting them open. Bodies fell from their chains as heads and limbs were severed or smashed, splashing onto the floor. Soon a wave of maggots was swimming through the cold viscera, twitching over Twilight's hooves. It was a small price to pay to avoid snapping jaws and their eager tongues.

Doll after crumbling doll was struck down, smashed, and left in ruined piles of desiccated flesh. Flies choked the air, forcing Twilight to attack blindly. This was why she was shocked when she suddenly heard a cry that wasn't the screech of the animated dead. No, these sounded all too familiar! Twilight hesitated as Trixie and Starlight appeared from the swarm of flies, limbs scything through the air against their will to attack Twilight. The cause of that muffled scream Twilight had heard was all too clear... She had opened up a wide cut along Trixie's cheek, blood mixing with the tears that streamed down her face.

Twilight was struck with a sudden pang of guilt. Still, now was not the time to hesitate. Violet had made a fatal mistake in using her friends as weapons! Moving swiftly, Twilight used her magic to pull her friends free of the hooks that bound them. Blood gushed from their open wounds as they fell into the pool of writhing maggots, but at least they couldn't be used by Violet anymore.

Or so Twilight thought.

She should have realized that they, like the dolls, were only meant as a distraction.

The hooks that dangled over Twilight suddenly fell, gouging into her own flesh! Her limbs were stretched, pulled in four different directions at once. This had been Violet's plan all along, tiring her out enough and distracting her long enough so that she couldn't resist her own capture. Twilight screamed long and lustily as the chains drew ever more taught. She was being ripped apart! The pain was too much. She couldn't concentrate enough to use her magic to rescue herself.

"I caught you! You fell right into my trap! I finally got my hooks in you! Hahahaha!" Violet squealed with triumphant laughter at her own joke. "I bet you wish you had agreed to be my special somepony now, huh!? I bet you wish it was my hooves instead of my hooks caressing you!"

Twilight willed herself to ignore her pain... To ignore the voice of the demented filly that taunted her. In a flash, she teleported back to the stage. The sudden absence of the cruel metal that had gouged her flesh caused spurts of blood to issue from the suddenly vacated wounds. Twilight felt lightheaded as a wave of pain and nausea caused her knees to buckle beneath her. She fought to stay upright. Twilight knew that she couldn't give up now! If she was going to save her friends, save herself, then she had to act before Violet had a chance to react.

Violet must have been very confident in that last attack, or she was getting sloppy as her madness reached its peak. Twilight knew exactly where she was hiding now! All of the chains seemed to lead behind the stage. What Twilight had taken to be a bit of theatrical artifice on Violet's part to terrify her, she now realized was the only place that anypony could hope to hide in this horrible place.

With a flutter of her injured wings, Twilight hurtled through the thickest part of the chains. Sure enough, she found Violet hunched 'backstage' next to a dusty gramophone that continued to blast its terrible jangling waltz. Surprise flares in Violet's eyes for only a moment before she brought a nail studded bat down hard on Twilight's head. Unsurprisingly, Twilight was knocked off her hooves and sent hurtling into the record player. At least that awful music was at last silenced as Twilight crashed into the gramophone with a wood splintering crash.

"You just couldn't hold still and let me end it, could you!? Twilight Sparkle always finds a way! That was something I admired about you once, but now I think I'm starting to see why all of your enemies curse your name in particular from among your friends!" Violet's hair hung limp and bloody. Apparently she hadn't escaped from the treachery of her clones entirely unscathed, as fresh cuts and bruises adorned her tiny body. Her injuries didn't stop Violet's eyes from blazing with fury though. "Just hold still Twilight! Just hold still and let me make all the pain go away!"

Twilight barely heard any of this. Her ears were ringing and her vision was going in and out of focus. She couldn't move if she wanted to. She was spent. "I... I can't. I can't go on like this. Please. If you really did ever love me just... Just end it quickly. Don't make me suffer like those pony's you sacrificed," Twilight begged as fat tears wobbled in her eyes.

The bat Violet held with her magic froze in mid swing. Her eyes were suddenly glistening with tears of her own, "You think I want to do this? You think this is how I wanted things to end!? I just wanted you to love me the way I loved you Twilight!" Teardrops fell from Violet's eyes. She was a psychotic killer, an evil murderous monster that had used and callously exterminated other ponies lives as if they were nothing. Despite this it was clear, in that moment, that her twisted heart was breaking. Whatever sick obsessions she might have, whatever hatred she might harbor, it was clear that at one point she had felt nothing but genuine admiration and even love for Twilight Sparkle... The pony she was about to consign to oblivion. "But now... Now it's you or me! Now you've given me no choice!"

"I know," replied Twilight through tears of her own, her face turning suddenly stern. "I don't have any choice either." The spell exploded from Twilight's horn and smashed into Violet. She didn't react the same way that her clones had. She didn't dissolve into magic, nor did her body expand or contract... Rather, her tiny form was enveloped with a light that was blinding in that dark place. Violet's distorted scream faded to silence as her flesh and blood were converted to light. Her body was sent hurtling through that dimly lit land towards a distant horizon... To where the exit to Equestria lay, and her journey to the Mirror Pool was unobstructed.

Violet's passing scoured the filth from the ground, creating a deep, sparkling furrow that was easy to follow...

Even for an injured alicorn with a pair of ponies draped over her aching back.

Final Lesson: Don't Forget Who Your Friends Are

It was impossible to say just how long it took for Twilight to trudge through that horrible dark dimension.

Violet Flicker seemed to have crafted her realm as a trap from which her victims would not hope to escape under normal circumstances. Without its mistress, however, the usual bizarre laws of time and space that normally governed her realm no longer applied. Even so, It could have been minutes or months before Twilight found the Dark Room where a seemingly endless array of photos of herself still hung over the shallow chemical vats. She didn't pause to look for long, but instead made her way towards a winding set of stairs. As she climbed, each step an agony unto itself, that was when she began to wonder just how long this was all taking her. It felt like an eternity. Twilight almost thought that she was climbing an endless staircase, a trick worthy of King Sombra, but a short time later she reached the cold iron of a massive door.

A door that wouldn't open.

Twilight tried pushing and pulling to no avail. She tried every spell and cantrip she knew. She even tried yelling that door open, thinking it might be sealed with some special password. The iron door might be rusted shut for all Twilight knew, but this had to be the way back to Equestria. The sparkling path Violet had left in her wake had ended here.

It was only by pure luck that Starlight Glimmer's horn grazed the metallic surface, as Twilight tried one last time to force it open by leaning her shoulder into it. The door swung open as if it were on well oiled hinges and had never been locked at all, leading the three ponies to land in an awkward heap in the muddy halls that made up the sub-basement in Twilight's Castle. While these levels that Violet had dug were filth stained and neglected, Twilight recognized that she was at last back in Equestria, and couldn't suppress a rush of relief that surged up from the depths of her weary soul.

She laughed weakly, taking the rich, earthy aroma of the halls in to her lungs in great gasps. The scent didn't even bother her, a welcome change to the horrid, dank miasma that had haunted the dark dimension she had escaped from.

Twilight's vision blurred. She felt light headed and dizzy, and realized that she was about to pass out. To make it this far, only to succumb to her wounds wasn't acceptable. She had to act now! Scraping up the last of her strength, Twilight used her magic to teleport herself and her surviving friends to Ponyville hospital. She collapsed in the waiting room after bleating a single weak 'Help' to the attendant on duty.

Twilight opened her eyes slowly, wincing as bright white light seeped through her eyelids. Her head felt like it was clamped in a particularly cruel vice that was squeezing her head in its grip. She could hear a rhythmic beeping and the sound of hushed voices. Twilight's mouth was so dry her tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of her mouth. She had to work her jaw back and forth to get some saliva flowing, just to loosen her tongue enough to say, "Too bright. Can somepony turn out the lights?"

The hushed voices rose suddenly in alarm. Thankfully, the glare faded enough that Twilight could open her eyes and take her first look at her surroundings. Everything was blurry at first, but slowly she could make out the silhouette of two ponies standing over her. For a moment, she had a nightmarish vision that it was the pair of 'Twilight Dolls' that had bitten her that loomed over her bed. Understandably, she flinched away.

"Rest easy Twilight, you are in no danger here," Twilight relaxed. She recognized the voice. As her vision cleared she could see that the speaker was Princess Celestia. Princess Luna stood beside her and both Alicorn's wore expressions of relief.

"You have been asleep for some time Twilight Sparkle," spoke Luna in a regal tone, "We had begun to fear that you would not wake."

"How many hours have I been out?" asked Twilight, her head still fuzzy, though it hurt less now that there was no light shining in her face.

The royal sisters looked at one another, their brows knit with concern. It was Celestia that broke the bad news, "I'm afraid it has been more than a few hours Twilight. You have been asleep now for many days. Weeks even."

"Weeks," Twilight whispered, unable to wrap her head around the thought. She then suddenly sat bolt upright in her hospital bed, "Starlight! Trixie! Are they alright!?"

Luna pushed her gently back against her pillows with one hoof, "Calm yourself Twilight, they are well. Or as well as can be expected." She smoothed back down Twilight's blankets before she continued. "Your friends were in much worse shape than you. When you arrived here their injuries, as well as yours, were clogged with filth. You were all on the verge of septic shock. I am afraid that, for a time, it was very touch and go."

"Luna has kept your friends in magically induced comas," explained Celestia. "Once they have had more time to heal, she will awaken them as she has awoken you. It was fortunate that you were able to bring them here when you did. Neither they nor you would have likely survived were it not for your heroic efforts."

"My 'heroic' efforts?" Twilight whispered bitterly. "All of those awful things happened to them right under my nose! I'd hardly call that heroic."

"We are aware Twilight," said Luna, stroking Twilight's mane. "This is not the first time we have spoken. I have walked your dreams, and I have seen the horrors you witnessed. It was not your fault that such vile atrocities occurred. My sister is correct to call you a hero. While it was the doctors that Celestia and I requested from Canterlot that saved your life, and that of your friends, if it were not for your actions all three of you would have undoubtedly met a most terrible end."

"So the three of us were taken care of," Twilight mused, looking down thoughtfully. The bed linens were white and crisp, but there were a few stains where tubes were still running into Twilight's body, feeding her medicine and fluids intravenously. "What about Spike?"

Princess Celestia's features clouded. She looked away towards the window, though there wasn't much of a view with the blinds closed. "We discovered Spike much as you had left him. I am afraid that the curse he suffers under is one far darker and more powerful than any we have encountered before. We were able to unbind him from the magic circle inscribed in the Cutie Map, but I am afraid removing the dagger in his chest is impossible until we learn more of the nature of the spell that was cast upon him."

Twilight's face fell. She had thought that might be the case, but it was still terrible to hear. Princess Luna must have read the look on her face, because she lifted Twilight's chin until the two were looking into each others eyes. "Worry not, Twilight. We have taken him to a facility that specializes in dispelling dark enchantments of just this type. Celestia and I ourselves will be heading up the research into Spike's condition. There will be many sealed tomes and forbidden grimoires pried from their dusty resting places, but we will save Spike, you may rest assured of that!"

Celestia gave a weak smile as she turned back to her former student. "We've actually already made some progress. We were able to banish that horrible dark dimension that was linked to your castle. That dread place no longer exists in our reality. You need never fear any danger from it again."

If they thought that would reassure her, they were sorely mistaken. It was somehow worse, to Twilight's thinking, to know that those ruined corpses that resembled her were still out there floating in the ether. She would've preferred if the royal sisters had told her that they had scoured the place with fire and reduced everything to ash. Still, she didn't want her disappointment to show, so she gave a weak smile of her own. "Thank you. Both of you. But I'm tired. I think I may need to rest."

"Of course Twilight," acknowledged Celestia, "You have been through much. Perhaps when you are better rested, you can join us in our research into Spike's affliction. But for now, by all means, rest."

"I will see that you have a dreamless sleep Twilight," promised Luna. "Worry not. You are safe now."

Despite their kind words, Twilight wasn't certain she'd ever truly feel safe again.

Twilight did sleep dreamlessly, at least for the first few nights, as Luna had promised. But in time her rest grew fitful. She would wake, terrified, but only with the vaguest idea of why. She tried not to dwell on these night terrors, and instead she sought to occupy herself speaking with the hospital staff. Unfortunately, there was not much else she could learn about Trixie and Starlight's condition and the most she could learn about her own situation was that she would be kept under observation for another week or two at the least. It wasn't long before all other avenues of conversation seemed to be exhausted. It seemed the staff were nervous about conversing with a Princess and kept the topics light as possible, subsequently keeping Twilight at a respectable distance. Despite having ready access to books, even a few she had not read, Twilight soon found herself restless and bored.

Fortunately, her friends came regularly to see her. Pinkie Pie was the first to bound into the room with so many balloons Twilight was afraid the pink party pony would float away. She put on a bright smile for Twilight's sake, but the bed ridden Princess could tell that Pinkie had been crying. It had been hard for the party pony to see her friends suffer, and Twilight found herself comforting Pinkie as much as her friend was comforted her.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were all close behind. You would think that the atmosphere would have brightened with such a colorful procession crowding around Twilight's bed on a daily basis. Instead, things seemed to only grew more uncomfortable. Each of Twilight's friends would smile brightly each time they saw her, but even as they gave their hugs and well wishes to her she could tell that there was something eating at them. It took longer than Twilight thought it would to pry the reasons out of them, but apparently a lot had happened while Twilight was unconscious.

Her friends had been busy.

The first thing they had done upon learning what had happened from the royal sisters was sweep the castle to make sure that there weren't anymore 'Violet's' hiding anywhere. Celestia had made sure every group had at least two unicorn's that knew the spell to send clones back to the Mirror Pool. In the end, she needn't have bothered. It seemed Twilight really had taken care of all of them on her own.

Instead, what her friends had found were a series of chambers under the castle that they had never noticed before. They wouldn't tell Twilight explicitly what they had found hiding beneath her home, but she understood that many rooms contained things she wouldn't like to know about.

As they continued with their visits with her over the long weeks of her recovery, however, Twilight caught snatches of whispers when they thought she couldn't overhear. Hushed words about rooms wallpapered with pictures of Twilight in various compromising positions and others crowded with dark tomes that Celestia had forbidden anypony from touching directly. There were even quieter whispers about salvaged lab equipment and the purposes that they had been put to. The mutilated and carefully dissected bodies of dead ponies were among only some of the things that they had found in the dark and twisted labyrinth beneath their hooves.

Fluttershy was apparently having trouble sleeping because of it, but did her best to hide this knowledge from Twilight herself. Pinkie Pie had thrown several parties to try to get everypony to forget what they had seen, but Twilight's absence from such frivolity was a constant reminder of what had happened. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to be taking it all in stride, Applejack spending more time with her siblings and fixing up the farm while Rainbow Dash had doubled down on her Wonderbolt's training. Only Rarity had reacted in a way that Twilight hadn't really expected. The fashionista had shuttered her shop in Ponyville, and had taken to sitting by Twilight's bedside every hour of the day that she could, waiting on her every need.

Rarity had even taken to sleeping in a cot beside Twilight's bed, unwilling to return to her own home for the night. It was comforting to Twilight having her friend nearby, especially in the long and dark hours when visitors usually weren't allowed. Rarity had simply insisted to the nurse staff that they were practically family, and that had been all that was said on the matter.

In the end it was very good that Twilight had a companion during those lonely nights in the unfamiliar hospital. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been a surprise that her friends whispered details would lend shape to her dreams. Nocturnal repose that had started out as merely fitful had quickly taken on a darker tone. Twilight would often wake screaming from nightmares and, in those times, it was Rarity that calmed her down enough for her to realize that she had only been dreaming.

She knew she had to rest if she was going to heal, but even so, Twilight grew to resent sleep and tried to avoid it as much as possible.

It was only natural that her bad dreams would star Starlight and Trixie. That they would be about how they had looked hanging in that horrible dimension that Celestia and Luna had thankfully banished. She dreamed about the Twilight Dolls as well, and how their mouths had felt as they had bitten into her flesh. There were nights where she dreamed of herself being devoured, over and over, by the many mouths of the hungry dead. Violet would be watching over her of course, with hungry eyes of her own locked on Twilight's body. In her dreams, Violet was always horribly scarred as she had been in her older form. She would still have the form of a giggling filly though, albeit a deformed one. It would be her sand-papery tongue that licked over Twilight's lips right before she'd bite out Twilight's tongue.

Those nightmares were bad enough, but It was dreams about Sunset Shimmer that Twilight had the most. Twilight had wept bitterly when she had learned of the condition Sunset had been found in. Not just for the cruel loss of her friend, but also the destruction of the Crystal Mirror. With it gone, the connection to the human world would be severed, and there would be no way for Twilight to inform her human friends about what had happened. They'd be left with the other half of Sunset's corpse and no answers as to what had taken place. Worse, whatever problems had driven Sunset to cross over to seek Twilight's aid would go unresolved.

Twilight feared for what would happen in that other dimension in Sunset's absence. The only comfort to be had was in the somewhat poetic nature of Sunset's ultimate interment. Part of her would be buried in each dimension, both worlds having been so important to Sunset. Celestia had seen to it that Sunset's body had been turned over to the local mortician, Mr. Knacker, and apparently there had been a very beautiful service that Celestia, Luna, and all of Twilight's friends had attended while she was still unconscious. Twilight was sorry that she had missed it, but planned to visit Sunset's tomb after she got out of the hospital.

Such comforting thoughts did nothing to stop Twilight from having countless bad dreams about what had happened to Sunset. Dreams about what it must have been like to be ripped in half by the explosion of the Crystal Mirror. Worse were the dreams about her friends in the human world, suffering attacks from some faceless foe and screaming for Twilight's help, all while she watched powerlessly a world away. It was the utter helplessness that Twilight felt that truly made her sleep dreadful.

Even those dreams, however, were pleasant compared to the ones she had about Moon Dancer.

Of her fillyhood friend, not a trace had ever been found. Twilight hoped that meant that Violet had lied about killing her, but seeing what the crazed filly had managed to do to her other friends, Twilight doubted that she would be so fortunate. The uncertainty about what had befallen her had led Twilight to dream up thousands of different scenarios. She watched as Moon Dancer drowned in the shallow sludge of Violet's dark dimension, or danced on the end of a chain with wings sewn to her back in a mockery of Twilight's image. She watched her be eaten alive, stabbed, ripped apart, burned to death, suffocated, and vivisected over and over in the theater of her mind.

Not knowing what had happened to Moon Dancer, Twilight was sure, would haunt her for the rest of her days.

It was a small blessing when Twilight was at last released to go home. She'd come to hate the bed she was forced to lay in and all the night terrors that sleeping there had brought on. It would be nice to leave that hospital room far behind, even if doing so meant returning to the place where so many of those nightmares had been forged.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Twilight Sparkle found herself to be in something of a foul mood when it came time to leave. Though Twilight protested that she was fine to walk, a wheelchair was brought to her room and an orderly wheeled her to the front of the hospital as she grumbled the entire way. Rarity was there waiting to collect her as Twilight knew she would be. The two had grown closer over the course of Twilight's recovery. Rarity greeted her with a warm smile that Twilight did her best to return.

"Are you ready to go Twilight?" she asked, her smile faltering only slightly as she noticed Twilight's mood. "Do you need a helping hoof?"

"I'm fine," Twilight replied tersely, perhaps more sharply than she meant. She mollified her tone as she continued, "Really. Everypony is treating me like I'm made of glass, but the doctors say I'm fine to go home. So if I'm going, I want to do it on my own four hooves." Saying that she gingerly pushed herself out of the wheelchair. "See, I'm perfectly fi-" Twilight faltered and stumbled forward as part of her hospital gown had gotten wound around the front wheel of her wheelchair. She would've fallen flat on her face were it not for Rarity catching her.

"Careful darling!" Rarity chided, "You wouldn't want to injure yourself again before you even had a chance to leave the hospital, would you?"

Twilight blushed, but pushed Rarity away, and tore off her hospital gown rather violently in one swift motion. "I'm fine. I just stumbled is all," Twilight replied. "Lets go. The sooner I'm out of this place the better I'm sure I'll feel."

Part of the cause for Twilight's dark mood was readily apparent as they walked through Ponyville. It seemed every pony they passed had some kind of well wishes for her, false concern hidden behind fake smiles. There was no way that these ponies could really know what she had been through. While that wasn't their fault, since Twilight had agreed with her friends that it was better that the more sordid details of what had happened should remain secret, there were more comments about her welcome home party than questions about how Starlight, Trixie, or even Spike were doing. Everypony just seemed to be happy that Twilight was well and didn't have a single thought to spare for her friends who were still recovering.

Twilight felt her temper flair, despite knowing full well that these ponies didn't know the full extent of what had happened.

Rarity, at least, seemed to sense Twilight's irritation and helped to deflect the more annoying questions and move ponies along that over stayed their welcome. It doesn't matter much though, Twilight thought glumly, I'll be seeing them all again shortly. It seemed everypony who was any pony had an invite to Twilight's homecoming party. There was a steady stream of ponies moving towards the distant crystal castle.

Twilight's friends were supposed to have taken care of cleaning up and clearing away all of the terrible things that had come to occupy her home. It had been decided that the lower floors would be best boarded up after they had been cleared out. Twilight doubted that the evil that had been done there could be easily dispelled with something as mundane as a good cleaning. Too much had taken place in those rooms for them to ever be considered fit for occupation. Twilight feared that the corruption would only fester given time. As she looked down the long dirt road that lead to it, Twilight couldn't help but feel there was a darkness hung over the castle that had nothing to do with her own melancholy mood.

As she walked through Ponyville, Twilight's thoughts drifted back to the events that had led up to this.

How had things turned out so terribly?

There were no good answers.

Twilight had warned Starlight that any changes in the past could snowball into catastrophe for the future. Those words haunted her now. Twilight had never expected such catastrophes to be so personal, so intimate and deeply felt, or so truly terrifying. As they continued towards the castle, she had jumped a mile when she had heard the laughter of a group of fillies running through the streets, probably on their way to attend the party that Twilight was slowly realizing she was in no condition to attend.

Rarity was by her side to lay a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, but Twilight was already wincing at every shadow, and jerked away from her friend. Once she realized what she had done, Twilight gave Rarity an apologetic look and allowed her friend to kindly lead her to the front door of her waiting abode. The doors were wide open, and already Twilight could hear the sound of music drifting out from within.

Sure enough, all of Twilight's friends were gathered in the main foyer, and greeted her warmly with a happy cheer! All those smiles made Twilight's face hurt. She tried her best to return them as pony after pony came up to her and offered their well wishes, condolences, and their fervent insistence of their sheer joy at her recovery. But for all the love and attention that was lavished on her, Twilight felt more alone than ever. Being back in the castle, her castle, was only making her mood worse despite all the fun and frivolity going on in its crystalline halls. The sad truth was that it was clear this had all been arraigned to cheer her up, to make Twilight smile, and it was having the exact opposite effect.

Maybe it wasn't her friends fault, or even the party itself. Twilight didn't know if she'd ever be able to smile again so long as she dwelt in this somber place that had served as the setting of so many nightmares, both real and dreamed.

Once her friends had set about their partying, things had become a little less awkward, but there was no relief for Twilight. She sat, staring at her friends, wondering how they could feel anything like joy after so many terrible things had happened here. She knew it wasn't fair. They hadn't lived through what she had. They hadn't seen, smelled, or touched the quivering flesh of the dead, or trudged through the thick mire made up from their fluids and remains. They hadn't been stalked by a psychotic mad mare in the form of a filly. They knew that tragedy had occurred, but they could not feel it as keenly as those who had lived through it. Twilight was like a raw nerve, scraped free of its protected sheath of flesh. She felt numbness now, but she knew all it would take was one wrong word or a hoof out of place to send her jumping at shadows again or off into a sobbing fit over everything she had lost.

Even now, Twilight felt an uncharacteristic pang of jealousy at her friends ability to behave in such a carefree manner. It was only then that she noticed that she wasn't the only one who was uncomfortable. Many of the ponies huddled in small knots, well away from the castle walls. Some ponies gave furtive glances to the chandelier that hung over the Cutie Map, undoubtedly recounting the sorry state it had been found in and the hours of work it had taken to restore to anything like its former glory. Other ponies eyes shifted back and forth, as if they were scanning the room for a potential predator.

Twilight realized that what everypony was the most nervous about, however, was herself. Though everypony that approached Twilight wore bright smiles she could see now just how forced they were. She could see how their eyes didn't fit with their grins, tiny pupils trembling slightly as some of her guests even forgot to blink in her presence. With a wave of sardonic mirth, Twilight realized that she was ruining her own party. The smile this thought brought to her face must have been unpleasant indeed, for it made the fake smiles of the party goers slip almost entirely into looks of worry.

Fortunately, Rarity was there to guide Twilight away to a more secluded part of the castle.

"Twilight, I need you to tell me what's wrong," Rarity whispered once they were in a mostly unoccupied hall.

"Nothings wrong Rarity," lied Twilight. "Why would anything be wrong? I'm having a party thrown in my honor, in the castle where my friends were tortured and murdered. How could there be anything wrong?"

"That's not what I mean and you know it, Twilight!" Rarity fumed. "You've been looking forward to leaving the hospital for nearly a month now. You were telling me just yesterday how much you were looking forward to this welcome home party for pony's sake! You're treating your guests like strangers and, frankly, scaring the daylight's out of them!"

Twilight raised a hoof to her forehead. Her head hurt and her fur felt greasy with sweat. Why was it so hot in here? "I know. I know. I just..." Twilight hesitated, unsure how to put it into words. "I thought this was what I wanted, but now that I'm here I just wish that I was anywhere else!"

Rarity's stern look melted into one of concern, "Are you feeling alright Twilight? If you want, I can send everypony home. We don't have to do this right now if you're not up to it."

"No," refused Twilight. "I know how much trouble everypony went to for this. I know how much it means to them to have something familiar like a party to try to get things back to normal. I just wish it felt normal to me. I just wish I didn't feel like a stranger in my own home."

Rarity put a hoof to Twilight's forehead. "Gracious darling, you're sweating like a pig. No offense of course." Rarity wiped her hoof off on a nearby rug, before turning back to Twilight. "Oh my. Of course! But could it be that simple?"

"Could what be so simple?" Twilight asked, trying to not let her irritation show and failing miserably. It didn't help that her mood had only grown all the more sour as she had drifted away from the node of light and laughter in the castle's main halls.

"Well you've had no time to settle back in. You've been gone for weeks, darling, of course this castle doesn't feel like it belongs to you anymore. With all of these ponies here, we hoped to brighten things up for you, but maybe what you need is to take a few moments for yourself." Rarity tapped one hoof against her chin thoughtfully. "I bet after all that time in the hospital, you could do with a nice long soak in a proper bath. Why don't we try that?"

Twilight hadn't been able to do more than awkwardly shower while she had been in the hospital, and the thought of a good bath did sound appealing. Perhaps Twilight would feel better after she had a chance to clean the antiseptic smell of the hospital out of her mane? "But we're in the middle of a party! I can't just sneak off to take a bath. What if somepony notices?"

"It's your party darling," Rarity answered with a smile. "You can bathe if you want to! Besides, what does it matter if somepony notices? Royalty is allowed to be whimsical on occasion. If bathing ends up making you feel better and raises your spirits, then all the better. You can rejoin the party, renewed and recharged! I'll soon see to any gossip that might arise, worry not!"

Twilight didn't doubt that if any pony could, it would be Rarity. So it was that she quietly relented to being led upstairs. Rarity drew her a bath and sat in a chair just outside the door.

"Just call out if you need anything dear. I'll be right here," Rarity had said reassuringly. The smile she wore was as fake as her eye lashes and as forced as the ones worn by the ponies pretending normalcy in the party downstairs. At least, that's the way it seemed to Twilight. Truthfully, she didn't want to feel that way about one of her friends.

Twilight was beginning to think that her problems didn't lay with other ponies and that it may instead just be her.

Perhaps it was envy? Twilight thought herself better than that.

"Thank you Rarity. I'll try to be quick," Twilight replied, trying her best to hide her feelings as she closed the door behind her. Rarity had been so kind to her, she didn't deserve to have even more of Twilight's baggage foisted on her.

Alone again, Twilight's gaze roved over the tiny bathroom. The cracked wash basin, the dingy towels, the dust that clung stubbornly in the corners of the room. It all looked so cold and dismal to her eyes. How had she never noticed how stark and uninviting everything in her home had been? Even the tub, with its puke green shower curtain, seemed less like something you'd see in a welcoming abode and more like the utilitarian trappings of a hospital room or some similar facility. Twilight gave herself a shake and mentally reminded herself that she was not in the hospital anymore. She was home.

Or, at least, she was in a place that had been her home.

A painful reminder of that was hiding just beside the wash basin. The stool that Spike had once used so that he could reach the washbasin to brush his teeth stood dusty and forlorn. Twilight could still see his tiny claw marks in the varnished wood. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced herself not to cry. Twilight had done enough of that while she had been recovering, when neither her friends nor the nurses had been around. Now wasn't the time.

Twilight stared at herself in the mirror. There wasn't a scratch on her anymore. The surgeons that Celestia had sent were among the best, and had used a combination of medicine and magic to heal her wounds so completely that they hadn't even left so much as a mark. Even so, she still felt deeply wounded and absolutely violated on a level that no medicine or magic could ever truly repair. There were dark circles under Twilight's eyes and her mane hung in greasy locks from her head. She hadn't realized how much of a mess she truly looked. It was no wonder everypony was nervous around her.

She was just so very, very tired, all the time these days. Despite this, she was certain that she would get no sleep tonight. There were just too many reminders of what had happened and what she had lost. Twilight was already working on a plan to ask Rarity if it would be alright for her to stay with her at Carousel Boutique for the night. Maybe for a few nights actually.

Perhaps Violet had been right about one thing.

Twilight did seem to find comfort in the company of unicorns. Probably because they reminded her of her parents, although she'd rather eat live coals than admit this to either her mother or Rarity.

Still, if there had ever been a chance before, Twilight doubted she could ever look on any pony with anything like attraction ever again. Violet had ruined her for that. Twilight would never have a special somepony, unicorn or otherwise, if she had anything to say about it. The thought of being intimate with anypony like that now just made her flesh crawl. The memory of Violet's unwanted advances, the touch of cadaverous tongues, and the smell of that horrible dark place were just too vivid. Perhaps it would fade in time, but it would always be there at the back of Twilight's mind.

Was this just how things were going to be from now on?

Twilight shivered.

She missed Spike terribly.

Twilight hadn't realized how much she had come to rely on the dragon in moments like this until he wasn't here anymore. Her heart felt like it was going to burst in her chest.

She turned away from her reflection to the full tub of still slightly steaming water. As she gazed into its placid depths, Twilight could see her reflection wobbling slightly on the surface. She didn't look so bad in the green hued waters as she had in the bathroom mirror. There were no bags under her eyes or the seeming weight of the world on her sagging shoulders. Her edges were softened in the reflective pool, the sharpness of her pains dulled in that watery image.

Why, it was almost as if Twilight were looking at another pony altogether.

Perhaps she really would feel better for the bath? Twilight doubted it, but she needed something normal right now. She needed to be clean. If she was ever going to be herself again, she needed to do something to wash off the horror and despair that clung to her like a sickness.

If only doing that were as easy as taking a bath...

A bubble gurgled up from the tubs depths. That was strange. Had Rarity put in some kind of slow acting bath salts? More bubbles broke the surface, distorting Twilight's reflection. She knit her brow, staring hard into the depths of the water, trying to find the source of the disturbance.

Something about the water was wrong. "No," Twilight whispered, her eyes growing wide, "No, no, no, no, no!"

She could see them. The Violets! All the shy little Violets, staring back at her with empty eye sockets and blood stained smiles. One, the Violet who had been studded with fragments of the Crystal Mirror, was reaching towards her!

The Mirror Pool clones rose from the depths of the clear water, staining it crimson with their still open and seeping wounds! They reached out with their tiny hooves, laughing all the while as they latched tightly onto Twilight, refusing to let her go no matter how hard she struggled! The army of Violets pulled her under the waters surface. Twilight thrashed and bucked but they had her now!

They would never let her go!

"Twilight, is everything alright in there darling?" Rarity called as she opened the bathroom door. "I thought I heard a scream. Is everything... okay?"

A pony stood on the bathroom rug. She was absolutely soaked. Water, dripping from her mane and tail, had already formed a puddle on the bathroom tiles.

"Oh my, were there no clean towels?" Rarity asked, all fussy concern. She opened a cupboard to find several large, fluffy white towels ready to use. She quickly wrapped the pony's mane and body in two separate towels and began to rub her down with her magic. "Why ever were you just standing there dear? You'll catch your death of cold!"

"I'm sorry Rarity," replied the winged unicorn. "I must have just spaced out for a minute. I'm better now."

She smiled at her, and Rarity found herself smiling genuinely back. She'd been doing her best to nurse Twilight back to health for some time now. Though her body had mended, it had seemed that her spirits were hopelessly dashed. It was good to see Twilight smile. There was a slight leap in Rarity's heartbeat from knowing that it had been her that had finally gotten their dear friend to smile again!

Pinkie Pie would be so jealous.

"That's quite alright dear," Rarity replied. "But you need to take better care of yourself! Come down when you're nice and dry. I'm sure everypony will be happy to see your smiling face again."

"Rarity, actually..." the purple pony looked down at her hooves sheepishly, "There was something I wanted to ask you."

"Yes darling?" asked Rarity, her eye lashes fluttering.

"Would it be alright if I spent the night with you?" she blushed rosily as she said this. "Only, I don't think I could stand sleeping here by myself. After everything that's happened I just..."

"Say no more darling, I completely understand," answered Rarity swiftly. "We'll all leave this drafty old castle after the party winds down. You're welcome to stay with me as long as you like."

"Thanks Rarity, I really appreciate it." She flashed another smile like summer lightning. "It means a lot to me."

"Tish-tosh! Think nothing of it dear," replied Rarity, and she meant it. "Come down whenever you're ready. I shall inform the others of our plans!" She skipped off, with a spring in her step.

The door closed with a click. The winged unicorn took her time drying herself off. She'd been soaking for some time. The feel of the fluffy towels whisking away the moisture from her skin was luxury itself. Her smile grew wider, and a shade more wicked as she paused to smell the towels, catching the lingering scent of another pony on them. It was a naughty act, but she felt she had earned the right to indulge. After all, it wasn't every pony that came back from the dead. She sighed heavily, longingly, but she knew well now that her love was just not meant to be.

"Well, if I can't have you, I'll just have to settle for being you I suppose," the wicked mare said in Twilight's voice as she gave her false wings a few experimental flaps. "It seems like a fair compromise with my clones. They get you, and I get your life. Don't worry though. I'll take good care of your friends. At least until they bore me..." Violet laughed as she stared into the placid surface of the water filled tub.

If only Rarity had stayed a little longer! If only she had looked into the tub! She would have seen Twilight, the real Twilight, banging her hooves on an invisible barrier just beyond the surface of the bath water. She would have seen her and the legion of fillies that were swarming over every inch of her body, writhing like a nest of maggots, pulling her ever further down into the bottomless depths.

Violet finished drying herself and laid the towels aside. She looked into the mirror. Violet had made of herself a far better likeness of Twilight than any of the dolls on which she had practiced. There were a few imperfections here and there, but if she looked good enough to fool one of Twilight's closest friends, then she doubted that she'd have any trouble in the short term. With the flicker of a cruel grin playing across her face, Violet leaned down and used her magic to pull the plug at the bottom of the tub with a muffled 'pop'. As the water swirled away, so too did any trace of what had happened.

She allowed herself another grin, but dialed it back a bit to look more natural on her borrowed face. She'd need to restrain herself, to make sure to keep up the act around Twilight's friends. Of course, once she had them alone, it wouldn't be Violet who would be... restrained. She couldn't quite hide a wisp of dark magic as it licked gently along the length of her horn. She would have to be careful about that as well. Wicked thoughts so easily led to wicked deeds. There would be plenty of time for that later.

"Time to meet my new friends~" Violet chirped in a sing song voice, before turning out the bathroom light and plunging the tiny room into darkness.

First Lesson: Don't Create A Problem You Can't Solve

"No, no, no, no, no!" cried Twilight Sparkle, emphasizing each 'no' by rapping her long teaching wand against her roughly constructed lectern.

The throne room had been converted for the day into a makeshift classroom. As Twilight used her magic to angrily adjust her spectacles, which she only wore to put herself into a 'teaching' frame of mind, she stomped over to the blackboard and *whacked* the end of her pointer against one of many chalk drawings. This one seemed to be of a unicorn standing in front of three fillies. A rather crudely drawn doll lay between them. "Let's try this again. You have a weekly friendship report due today. Despite having a week to prepare it, you have solved no friendship problems or learned any new lessons about friendship. The clock is ticking, and you have less than a day to find a friendship problem, solve it, and write a detailed report about the event and what lesson you learned from it. What do you do!?"

Twilight leveled her wand so it stabbed across the room in the direction of Starlight Glimmer, who was perched awkwardly in one of those hard plastic desk-chair combos that both she and Twilight had outgrown many years ago. The unicorn's smile was just as awkward as her posture as her mind raced, trying to come up with the most logical answer to her mentors question. "Well... The first thing I might do is write a letter to my teacher explaining the situation? I'd point out that the scenario held a lesson in and of itself; that friendship cannot be regimented and consigned to a schedule. Friendships, and the problems that sometimes help define them, happen far more organically than that after all. I also might point out that since I've had no friendship problems myself that week, that it just went to show how stable my friendships had become and what a good grasp I must have on the fundamentals of the concept for such problems to have become so... So few and, uh, far between?" Starlight smiled so hard it made her face hurt, such was her worry that she had answered wrong.

The Princess of Friendship stared at Starlight with her mouth hanging open. It was a perfect answer! But it also perfectly derailed the lesson Twilight was trying to teach! Never the less, Twilight rallied as best she could. "That might work," she conceded. "However, what you will want to avoid is the temptation to make a friendship problem yourself, so that you have one to solve. You would not want to, for example, cast a 'Want-It-Need-It' spell on an inanimate object and then attempt to use it to break up a friendship in order to have something to write a report about. The could only end in disaster."

It was Starlight's turn to stare with her mouth open wide. She couldn't hold Twilight's gaze for long before bursting out in uproarious laughter! Twilight didn't see what was so funny, and she was just about to say as such when Starlight managed to gasp between giggles, "I'm so sorry Twilight, really I am, but that's just too funny! I didn't expect your example to be so ridiculous!" She couldn't stifle a fresh bout of chuckling, "Who would ever think of such a silly solution!? Who would even be crazy enough to think something like that would work! Of course it would end in disaster!"

Blushing brightly, her glasses fogging up slightly with the sudden rush of warm blood to her face, Twilight turned away from her student so she wouldn't see that her reaction was causing her to feel intense mortification. These lessons were not going how Twilight had hoped they would.

Not at all.

"Be that as it may," Twilight replied after she'd had a moment to recover her composure, raising her head haughtily, "There's no reason to make such a disruptive ruckus about it. We're supposed to be having a dinner with our friends tonight and we're barely through your lessons! If we don't finish soon we'll never have time to lay out the silverware properly!" Twilight was the one that had the wonderful idea of introducing Starlight's first friend since becoming her pupil to one of Twilight's first friends. While she wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing Trixie again so soon, Twilight was overjoyed that Moon Dancer had agreed to make the trip from Canterlot for a visit. The idea was that they might all become friends with one another over the course of the evening, and strengthen their individual bonds of friendship in the bargain.

Secretly Twilight was hoping that this dinner could serve as a test run for a second attempt at hosting Princess Celestia, but she didn't dare invite the monarch of the sun until she was absolutely sure she had ironed out all the problems from before. It seemed that this had been a wise move on Twilight's part, given how things were going with Starlight's lessons today. If this was any indication of how the rest of the day was going to go, it may well be a repeat of that last ruined occasion.

Starlight, for her part, had quieted her laughter and wore what she hoped was a suitably chastised expression. "Again, I'm sorry Twilight. I'll try to be less disruptive. Do go on."

The Princess of Friendship gave her student her warmest smile. This was more like it! She was just about to point to the next chalk illustration on the blackboard when the double door to the throne room swung open. "Hey Twilight, have you got a sec?" It was Spike.

Spike, her faithful assistant.

Spike the dragon who was always so dutiful.

Spike who should know Twilight was not to be disturbed while she was trying to teach Starlight about friendship!

The Alicorn's horn glowed, her magic unconsciously bending her wooden wand until it started to creak, threatening to break. Twilight managed to turn towards the interrupting dragon with a smile on her face, although it wasn't a particularly reassuring one. "What is it Spike?" She hissed through clenched teeth, her smile frozen on her face. Her twitching eye was an indicator that Spike had best answer quickly and well if he wanted to avoid a localized explosion. "I hope it's something suitably important to interrupt Starlight's lessons."

"Well, I don't know about that, but it's definitely something you should deal with yourself," answered Spike carefully. He was well experienced in dealing with Twilight when she got this way. Telling her anything was outright more important than Starlight's friendship lessons would just invite a lecture down on his own head. He found it was best just to be completely honest and plunge ahead with whatever needed doing and worry about cleaning up any broken furniture later. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are here. They say it's a cutie mark problem and one that only you might be able to solve. They have another friend with them too. Cute filly, but kind of creepy."

"What do you mean, creepy? How creepy?" asked Twilight, her temper abating as her curiosity rose to the fore.

"Well, maybe 'creepy' isn't the right word," admitted Spike. "Still, she seems pretty odd. They're waiting in the hall. If you want, you can see for yourself."

"But Starlight's lessons!" Twilight protested, waving her teachers pointer erratically through the air with her magic.

"Actually, I could use a little break," confessed Starlight."I think we both could. Especially if I'm having problems... Focusing. Why don't you go see what they want and I'll grab a snack and we can pick back up in a half an hour?"

Adjusting her glasses, Twilight glanced over her lesson plan. She had set aside some time for a break in another hour. She was as devoted to teaching as she was to studying, but even she recognized that a mind needed a break every now and then to absorb what it had learned. Twilight took off her glasses with her magic, carefully folded them, and set them down on the top of her lectern. "Alright, we have time for a short break. But don't be late coming back, we still have a lot of ground to cover."

Starlight didn't have to be told twice. With a flash of turquoise magic she had teleported out of her seat and across the room to the door that lead to the castle's kitchen. With nothing more than a casual wave, she was gone. Twilight let out a heavy sigh. If Starlight was as enthused about taking lessons as taking breaks, she thought, maybe they'd be done by now.

That wasn't fair though, and Twilight knew it. She reprimanded herself for even having had the thought. Starlight wasn't just her pupil, she was her friend, and if she wasn't enjoying the lectures Twilight was giving her that wasn't her fault. Twilight knew she needed to change her approach and find a method of teaching Starlight that worked for both ponies. Still, it wouldn't have killed Starlight to at least pretend she was enjoying herself.

"Well Spike, let's go see what the girls want," she said dourly. "Perhaps we can do something productive today."

By the time they had walked to the main entrance, Twilight's mood had brightened considerably.

While Twilight was well aware that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had recently achieved their goal and gotten each of their cutie marks, she still remembered that it wasn't that long ago that they had all gathered together for what the girls had affectionately called 'Twilight Time'. In those after school sessions Twilight had helped tutor them in useful skills and taught them new things about themselves and the world around them. It had been a little messy at times, and when the girls had started inviting their little friends along it had become quite chaotic, but Twilight still looked back on that time spent with the the three fillies fondly. As such, she looked on the girls themselves rather fondly as well. She smiled brightly as she laid eyes on Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

It had been some time since they had last asked her for her help, so as a result, Twilight was looking forward to having the chance to both see them and help them if she could. She was all smiles as she greeted the girls and the dark little filly that was standing in the shadows behind them. "Hello! Long time no see! It's so good to see you again!" She practically chirped, her wings flapping happily.

"Hey Twilight," the girls chorused back. Twilight couldn't tell for sure, but the Crusaders seemed a little taller and a little more confident since they had gotten their cutie marks. Even so, they had come to her for help with something. It felt good to still be needed by them.

"So what's up?" The Princess asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"Well, ya see Twilight, it's like this~" began Apple Bloom before being interrupted by Sweetie Belle.

"We've got a HUGE problem," Rarity's little sister squeaked, a spark of magic randomly discharging from her horn as she emphasized the word 'huge'.

"It's not that big," insisted Scootaloo glumly. " I'm sure we could figure it out on our own if she'd let us try."

"Will ya let me tell it?" grumped Apple Bloom. Twilight couldn't quite suppress a smile. The Crusaders de-facto leader was showing a gruff side similar to her older sister, Applejack. Bloom took her friends silence as acquiescence and she started again. "Anyways, we have us a new friend here who just moved to Ponyville," Apple Bloom gestured to the dark haired filly who hadn't said anything yet, but stared at Twilight intently. "As ya can see, she's a blank flank. She came to us asking for cutie mark advice but... Well..."

"We kind of don't know that much about the subject she's interested in," admitted Scootaloo grudgingly.

"I mean I know some things about it, but I've never been very good at it," added Sweetie Belle bashfully. "And we just thought that~"

"Am Ah tellin' this or not!?" asked Apple Bloom irritably. Her friends quieted down again. "Ya see Twilight, Violet Flicker here is an absolute whiz when it comes to magic. She's dead set on getting a cutie mark for magic, but no matter what new spells she learns or what she tries her flank just stays blank. You'd be amazed at what she can do, but there's just no pony in Ponyville who knows as much about magic as you!"

"At least that's what Violet says," interjected Scootaloo before getting a cross look from Apple Bloom and a nudge from Sweetie Belle.

"Right," continued the farm pony. "So anyways, we figured who would be better to help Violet get a magic cutie mark than the Element of Magic herself!?"

Twilight took a moment to take a better look at Violet Flicker. Her eyes were a soft violet, like the flower of her namesake, and were striking against the light gray color of her coat. Black bangs curled down over her forehead and perfectly framed her face, white the rest of her long hair had been gathered back into a ponytail. She was shorter than the Cutie Mark Crusaders but, in an undefinable way, she seemed more mature. Maybe it was the dress she wore, a sailor uniform the same color and shade as her eyes, that Twilight had heard was popular with fillies in distant Neighpon. Or maybe it was the way the little unicorn hadn't blinked once the entire time the girls had been talking.

Either way, Twilight thought she could see why Spike had found her somewhat unsettling. Her quiet intensity was even getting to Twilight a bit. To say she seemed a 'little intense' was like saying the sea was 'sort of wet', the sun was 'somewhat bright', or the moon was 'kind of pale'. She tried not to judge her for it though. Perhaps she was just shy? Wasn't there some saying about 'shy little' violets? Twilight thought she had read that somewhere.

"I'm flattered... Really," Twilight said, unable to break Violet's penetrating gaze. "But I already have a pupil that I'm teaching right now. To tell the truth, I'm struggling just trying to handle her education. Until I get that right, it would be irresponsible of me to divide my attention between multiple students." The filly didn't respond. Violet barely seemed to be breathing. Twilight felt an unaccountable urge to explain herself further. "It would be unfair to both you and Starlight, you see? Do you understand?"

"I don't mind," replied the little unicorn, speaking up at last in a soft and light voice. "Twilight, I am your biggest fan! Even if all I'm doing is watching you teach your other pupil, that would be okay. Just getting the chance to bask in the presence of the Princess of Magic would be an education unto itself!"

Twilight blushed slightly. No pony had ever gushed over her like that before, "The Princess of Friendship, actually," Twilight corrected. Just because she was delighted by Violet's words, that didn't mean she would still let a mistake like that get past her. She was still Twilight, after all. "Although I am the Element of Magic, I'm actually the Princess of Friendship, not magic."

"See, I'm learning already!" the unicorn filly responded brightly, her smile lighting up the room like the noon day sun. Once the ice was broken, Violet seemed to be as cute as any other filly. Maybe Twilight had just been misreading her. Her inscrutable intensity from earlier seemed to have faded altogether already.

Spike was busy making a gagging motion where Twilight couldn't see, much to Scootaloo's delight, but Twilight herself found Violet adorable. What would it really hurt? Who was she to turn away a pony who wanted to learn? "Well, I guess if you think it might help you with your cutie mark problem, it might be okay." Twilight turned to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, "Why don't you all come with me for a short demonstration? I've got a few new teaching techniques I've been wanting to try out anyways!"

"Oh, gee Twilight, ya know how much we love yer lessons and all," said Apple Bloom, not entirely believably. "But we've got so much stuff ta do today like... Uh..."

"Earning our cutie marks?" hazarded Sweetie Belle.

"We already did that," hissed Apple Bloom.

"Doing chores?" offered Scootaloo with a shrug.

Apple Bloom sighed heavily, "Like doin' chores," she echoed weakly. "We got us a whole heap of chores waitin' on us."

"Nonsense!" Said Twilight, already sweeping the girls down the hall towards the throne room with her wings. "There will be plenty of time for chores afterwards. Besides, I know how you're always looking for an excuse to get out of them. Why not expand your knowledge of the magic of friendship while you're doing it!?"

The girls groaned, but Twilight pretended not to hear.

"You too Spike," Twilight said as the dragon attempted to slink away unnoticed.

"Do I have to?" moaned her assistant.

Twilight thought it over for a moment. "Yes!"

Starlight bustled, clinking around the dishware until she found the bowl she was looking for. It was very much her bowl, one of the few possessions she'd brought with her from her home village. It was something she had made when she was little. It was kind of rough, and she'd managed to misspell her own name on the side as 'Starlite', but the little earthenware bowl had sentimental value. She'd made it in elementary school along side her dear friend Sunburst. She giggled as she remembered how his bowl had distorted slightly when it was fired in the kiln and it had ended up looking as if he'd written his name as 'Sunbutt'.

It had been a while since she had thought about that. She found the memory strangely comforting. It used to be a sad memory. During all of those years when she had cursed cutie marks for 'taking away' her friend. It was a wonder she'd held onto the little bowl for so long. But as Starlight's tummy gave a growl, she was reminded that she would have plenty of time to reminisce while she ate.

As she turned away from the cupboard and back to the glowing stove, she had to shoo a fly away from the bubbling contents of a wooden handled pan. She made a disgusted face.

Starlight detested flies.

The filthy things got everywhere, and if you weren't careful they'd quickly multiply. Once, when she still lived in what she still unconsciously thought of as 'Our Town', she had left her house for a week to stay with one of her followers who was having doubts about their community. At such times she would have normally asked the wavering citizen to stay with her in her own home until their doubts had been dispelled, but not this time... It had required a more hooves on approach on Starlight's part. She wasn't proud of the memory, but that wasn't what she was recalling right now anyways.

No, she was reminded of something that had happened afterward.

When she had returned to her own abode, it was to a strange buzzing sound. She wasn't frightened, of course, because this was her town. Nothing bad could ever happen here, she had thought. That didn't mean that she hadn't been cautious as she investigated the source of the sound, though. Taking measured, careful steps, her every sense alert, she had walked carefully through her own tiny home.

She wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't the wave of sickening stench that greeted her as she entered her tiny kitchen. She had forgotten to take out the garbage before she had left. When she opened the lid of the garbage can, a great cloud of flies had whooshed out like a small black tornado. That was bad enough but, as she looked into the can, she realized the garbage was moving.

More than that... It was pulsing, as if it were alive!

Maggots started dripping over the side of the bin as the blind larvae tried to escape from the sudden unwelcome light that Starlight had let into their refuge. She'd almost thrown up there and then as a few of the tiny worms spilled over her hooves. Fortunately, Double Diamond had escorted her home. The earth pony had rushed to her aid when she had screamed, and had taken care of things... Removing the garbage and cleaning out the can, making sure that all of the flies were aired out of the house and every last maggot was disposed of. she'd watched him do it all. Even so, the unwelcome surprise had left her more shocked than she thought she had a right to be.

But this was her town. Nothing bad was supposed to happen here. There was something about the foul rot and decay hiding at the heart of her home that had left Starlight truly shaken.

She lay awake for a few nights after that, sure that she could still hear a tell-tale buzzing coming from her kitchen. Once, in the middle of a hot summer night, she had pulled back her covers only to find another blanket beneath. A living blanket, that writhed and pulsed, wriggling moistly over her body. Starlight had awoken immediately, but sat shivering in the dark with only the light from her horn to comfort her. She wasn't able to sleep under any blankets after that for a month. She could still feel those dream maggots crawling on her skin.

Starlight hated flies.

But dwelling on such thoughts would put her off her meal. Starlight ladled some left over oatmeal from their earlier breakfast into her bowl. It wasn't much of a snack in and of itself but after reheating it on the stove top, and with the judicious application of a little maple syrup, it would help pick her right up. Using her magic, the bottle drifted over to the bowl, and squirted out two lines in an equal sign. This was quickly followed up by one long curve, turning the equal sign into a smiley face. She'd done this since she was little, but it never failed to put a smile on Starlight's own face.

"Wow, you still do something as childish as that?" came a young girls voice from directly behind her. Starlight jumped, nearly spraying maple syrup all over the kitchen.

"Oh my! You can't sneak up on a pony like that!" Starlight turned around and came face to face with a little unicorn filly in a lavender dress. "Just who are you anyways? Are you one of Apple Bloom's little friends?"

The little unicorn tilted her head. "No, I don't think so."

That was not the response Starlight had expected. Was it possible some filly had just wondered in off the streets? Twilight was pretty loose about letting people come and go in her castle as they pleased, but Starlight didn't expect to encounter a complete stranger in a setting like this. The whole situation felt dream-like and unreal. Surely there was a more sensible explanation to be had. "How about Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle? Are they your friends? Did they bring you here?"

"No. They are not my friends," the filly answered decisively this time. "Though you could say they did lead me here. I'm here to see Twilight Sparkle!" Mentioning Twilight's name brought a broad smile to the filly's face.

There was something about that smile that Starlight found both familiar and unsettling. She suddenly felt like she was the one intruding rather than the little unicorn. It was an odd feeling. What was worse is that the filly never seemed to blink. As Starlight watched in horror, the fly she had earlier shoo'ed away landed on one of the child's unblinking eyes. The insect started rubbing its forelegs together, occasionally flapping its wings with a soft 'buzz' as it explored the jellied surface of the filly's violet iris.

Starlight couldn't help but cringe.

Thankfully the fly flew away of its own accord as the filly spoke again, "Aren't you going to eat your oatmeal?"

Starlight looked to the bowl of cooling mush. Was that a slight twitch in its brown depths? Was it, just perhaps, moving? Surely it was just her imagination. But still... there had been that fly buzzing around it earlier. "I think that I may not be as hungry as I thought after all." She quickly took her bowl to the sink and started to wash it out. Of course there was nothing in the bowl aside from oatmeal... Certainly no maggots, at least. It seemed like such a terrible waste watching it swirl with the water as it went down the drain, but wasteful or not, Starlight had lost her appetite.

While she was occupied with scraping the last of the sticky contents out with a spoon, she felt a sharp prick on her flank. Startled, Starlight looked down just in time to see a needle sticking into her side, and watched the strangely colored contents of the syringe disappear as they were pushed into her veins.

The effect was immediate.

Starlight felt her bowl slip from her grasp, fall, and shatter in the kitchen sink. She didn't have any time to think about what a terrible loss this was, as she soon found herself swooning. She landed face first on the floor. The tiles were cool against her cheek. They were almost comfortable, except for the strange crawling sensation she felt running over her skin. The sensation of tiny, invisible maggots, nibbling at her skin. Her ears rang, and then buzzed as if she was in the middle of a swarm of flies. Even that might not have been so bad were it not for the smiling filly looming over her, with her face only inches from her own.

The filly's face warped and twisted, like one of those horrible visages that lurk just beyond the surface of a fun house mirror. Blood spilled from the corners of her mouth and eyes as flies erupted from her skin. She was laughing, causing more blood to spill, mixed with tiny white maggots that writhed and twitched as they pooled under Starlight's nose. She wanted so badly to look away, but she couldn't move a muscle. The filly only grinned wider, showing rows of cracked and filthy tombstone teeth and a serpentine tongue lurking behind that stretched out like a red carpeted road leading to the depths of Tartarus.

Starlight tried to close her eyes, but found she couldn't. Instead they were locked with the filly's own unblinking orbs. Those lifeless eyes burned into Starlight's mind as unconsciousness rose up and claimed her. There was only the incessant buzzing in her mind and the feeling that just beyond it, she could hear laughter.

Fourth Lesson: Don't Ask Stupid Questions

In a shadowy room in Twilight's Castle, something stirred.

The invisible winds of magic began to blow, causing books to flip through their pages randomly and lantern flames to gutter in their bronze and glass cages. There was a rush, not unlike a warm summer breeze, followed by a flash like heat lightning. Then all was silent and still once again.

Well, all save for Sunset Shimmer, who had just stepped hoof out of the Crystal Mirror.

Celestia's former student strode into Twilight's makeshift lab. This was the first time she had come through the mirror since it had been moved from the Crystal Empire. Things had been so busy on her side of the mirror, in the human world, she hadn't had a chance to visit.

At least she was already aware she was in Twilight's Castle, though Twilight's slightly messy lab wasn't the impressive sight she had expected. Actually, the messy lab brought a warm smile to Sunset's face. It seemed Princess Twilight had a lot in common with her human counterpart after all. Both of them might be slightly obsessive compulsive when it came to their daily routine, but they had a bad habit of working in messy spaces, as the state of the makeshift lab clearly attested.

As a good friend, Sunset took it as a hallmark of genius. Although, she did wonder just how messy things would be if Spike wasn't around to clean up after the Princess of Friendship. It would be good to see Spike in his dragon form. Now that she thought about it, Sunset had only ever seen him as a dog. Her last trip to Equestria had been very brief, too brief to get antiquated with everyone in their normal forms, though also very eventful.

But now was no time to reminisce, nor catch up with old friends. No, she was here with a purpose.

The Dazzlings had been up to their old tricks, using some kind of mind control to get a bunch of the boys at school on their side. It didn't seem like they could feed on negative energy without their pendants as they had before, but apparently they had found another source of power that was allowing them to turn the boys at Canterlot High into their mindless slaves. Whatever was going on, it was clear that it was bad news for Sunset and her friends.

Sunset had tried to write Twilight about it, but it seemed that ever since she had taken on Starlight Glimmer as her new pupil, she'd had less and less time to chat with Sunset. Their daily correspondence had become weekly, then monthly, and then finally stopped altogether. Sunset didn't really blame Twilight, but this was an emergency, and she couldn't wait for the Princess to remember to check her messages. She had to see her face to face and ask her advice now. If there was any pony that could help her unravel the new source of the Dazzling's power, it would be Equestria's Twilight Sparkle.

Before Sunset could so much as take another step, however, a silhouette appeared in the doorway that served as the only entrance to the room. "That's far enough!" cried a high pitched voice.

Sunset squinted her eyes against the glare from the hallway. The figure was so tiny. Was this Spike? She knew he was a baby dragon in this world, but she didn't expect his voice to be so... well, girly. As her eyes adjusted, however, she could see that what was standing before her was no dragon, baby or otherwise. Instead, it was a little unicorn filly in a burgundy colored dress.

"Um, hi. I'm Sunset Shimmer," she said, thinking it best to introduce herself given the situation. "And you are...?"

"I know exactly who you are Sunset. I know why you're here too," replied the filly, her eyes blazing with anger.

"You do?" Sunset replied with genuine surprise.

"That's right. You're here to take Twilight away! To steal her back with you to that mundane little dimension where you live out your self-exile," the little unicorn spat the words, as if the taste was rancid in her mouth. "I know all about it. I know all about you, too!"

"Is that so?" asked the fiery maned unicorn, her eyes flashing, and anger creeping into her own words. She didn't like this filly's tone one bit.

"Yes! I know how you tried to steal Twilight's Element of Harmony. I know how you twisted and corrupted its power, and then polluted that other world with Equestrian magic. Magic you don't even understand!" cried the filly, stomping her hooves in fury. "But that's not the worst of it! Oh no! The worst of it is every time you have a problem, you come begging Twilight for answers! You do your best to tempt her into abandoning her friends and responsibilities here, her destiny here, to go gallivanting around with you and your horrible knock off versions of her real friends. And then to top it all off, that world has its own Twilight Sparkle! You already have a Twilight in that world, do you really need two? Isn't that a little greedy? Don't you think you ought to share with the rest of us instead of hogging them all to yourself!?"

"Look, I don't know what your relationship is to Twilight, or what you think my relationship is with her," snarled Sunset, absolutely done with this filly. "But I don't know where you get off saying all of those horrible things! Twilight and I are good friends! We're both friends with the human world versions of Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. They aren't knock-offs! They're each their own person, each of them living their own rich and fantastic lives! And if you know anything about Princess Twilight, you know that just because there's another version of her in the human world, that doesn't mean she can just be replaced by another version of herself. She's special to each of us, and even if it is 'hogging' her to ourselves, we're going to keep on being her friend and being there for her when she needs us!"

"But she doesn't need you, does she?" hissed the filly, her eyes narrowing to slits beneath her dark bangs. "She never has! You've been nothing but trouble for her from the moment she met you! You've never done a single thing to repay her for the kindness she's shown you!"

"That's... that's not true!" Sunset cried. "I was the one who helped to defeat the Dazzlings when they first appeared at Canterlot High! Twilight needed me! Only with my help were we all able to defeat them, by working together!"

"And would these 'Dazzelings' have ever even been a threat if it weren't for you?" the filly asked, a sneer on her lips. "If it weren't for you stealing Twilight's crown?"

Sunset didn't have an answer to that. It was possible that if things had gone differently, the Dazzelings really never would've posed any kind of serious threat. The same went for the trouble that had come up at the Friendship Games. Maybe if Sunset had never stolen Twilight's Element of Harmony, the human version of Twilight would've never discovered magic and wreaked the kind of havoc that had threatened both the human world and Equestria. Sunset would have been lying if she said she had never thought of that before. The truth was, she secretly felt very guilty for about whatever role in those tragedies she had played. But that was behind her! that was all in the past! Wasn't it?

The unicorn looked down at her own hooves, plagued by doubt.

"I didn't think so. Face it Sunset, in the end you need Twilight far more than she will ever need you," the little unicorn grinned madly. "You're worthless! The best thing you ever did for Equestria was go through that mirror to that dung heap of a world you've made your new home! That is where you belong now! Right along side all of your worthless copies of Twilight's friends!"

"Shut up!" yelled Sunset, her magic flaring along the length of her horn. "You can say what you want about me, but don't you dare say another word about my friends! They aren't worthless!"

"But they are! Just like you! Worthless! Worthless! Worthless! WORTHLESS!" the filly laughed, and then started to sing a ridiculous little sing-song, chanting the same word over and over. "Worthless~! Worthless~! So worthless!"

"I said be quiet!" shouted Sunset, trying to be heard over the filly's one word 'song'. "Stop saying that!" she roared, her horn flaring again. "SHUT UP!" The beam of magic streaked across the room and blasted the filly off of her feet. Sunset's eyes widened in horror. What had she done!? "Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no-no! Are you okay?"

The filly in the burgundy dress was sprawled on the floor. Smoke rose from her still, lifeless form.

Then she coughed.

"Wow! You really are a horrible pony, aren't you?" the unicorn slowly started to sit up. "I mean, I knew the goody-two-shoes thing was all an act! But even I didn't expect you to just outright attack a poor, defenseless little filly! You really are a horrid piece of work, huh Sunset?"

Sunset felt a mix of anger and guilt. But she had been provoked! Surely that counted for something?

As the filly rose to her hooves, all such mitigating notions fled from Sunset's thoughts as she let out a horrified gasp of surprise. A wave of nausea tore through her as she laid eyes upon the damage she had done.

Half of the filly's head was missing!

Sunset could see a cross section of her exposed jaw as it moved, the tongue sliding between her broken teeth. Blood poured down her neck, where the exposed stump of her throat whistled slightly every time she took a breath. She could even see the filly's brain, or what was left of it, quivering gently in the half of her skull that was still intact!

"I hope you realize how much this hurts. It stings something fierce! Anypony else would be dead right now. Unfortunately for you, I'm no ordinary pony." As Sunset watched in revulsion, the filly's horn began to glow with a strange dark light, and the flesh started to knit itself back together. The most disturbing part had to be when the skull reformed and a new, beautiful violet eye blossomed with an awful squishing sound in the exposed socket. Sunset had dabbled in dark magic herself, but this... Whatever it was, was darker and more powerful than anything she had ever studied! As the filly's wounds completely healed, she exhaled a cloud of dark magic from her newly healed throat "Putting me down is going to be harder than you think!"

"Who are you? What are you?" was all Sunset could think to ask.

"Oh, is that all you want to know? The answer to that question is simple," the filly replied as her eyes glowed bright green and her irises turned blood red. A plume of dark magic spilled from within and started to radiate from her horn. "I'm Twilight Sparkle's biggest fan!"

Sunset wasn't expecting what came next. Dozens of arms reached out of the Crystal Mirror behind her, digging sharp glass claws deep into her flesh. Blood spurt wildly as they began to drag the unicorn back towards the mirror she had so recently stepped through, the surface of which had taken on an appearance like molten silver.

Sunset screamed shrilly, and fought to try and shake the arms off. She concentrated, using her magic to try and pry the claw out of her hide, but her spells simply bounced off the glass arms reflective surface. It only seemed to make whatever had hold of her angrier as more and more claws shot out of the mirror. The dagger like talons hooking into her legs, her back, her face, and piercing her face. There was a sudden stab of excruciating pain, and half her world went blood red before going dark. One of the claws had gouged out her eye!

"An eye for an eye. It's only fair Sunset," crooned the evil filly. "Of course, I know you won't be able to regrow yours as easily as I did mine, but hey! Some guys really dig the pirate look! Get an eye patch and you're all set!" She gave a fiendish laugh, clearly enjoying every ounce of Sunset's suffering.

Rage and fear fought for dominance inside Sunset as she felt her hooves sliding slowly backwards. She tried to teleport, to free herself of the claws, but each time she tried the talons would dig deeper, twist, and flay her flesh ruining her concentration.

Sunset was left with only one choice. She focused all of her desperation into one spell. If she couldn't break loose from the claws, she'd just destroy the pony making them! She didn't have to kill the filly necessarily, she could just knock her out, but given how fast she had healed before it was better to ere on the side of overkill. Magic swirled around Sunset, and just before the spell was about to discharge... one of the mirror claws wrapped itself around her horn. The spell's explosive force imploded back inside Sunset's head, scrambling her brains and sent cracks racing through her bones. The concussive force made her ears bleed. The horrible migraine pain in her forehead let her know that her horn was riddled with fractures, and was now largely useless. Sunset would no longer be able to rely on magic to escape.

The claws were relentless. It was almost as if they could sense Sunset's disorientation and pain, capitalizing on the opportunity to drag her back even more forcefully to the Crystal Mirror. Sunset was already touching the liquid glass. As her body slipped past that liquid silver boundary, just beyond the surface, she began to freeze and burn at the same time.

Choking on her own blood as the mirror claws dug into her throat, Sunset hissed through pain gritted teeth, "I'll stop you! I don't know what you're trying to do, but I'll find a way to stop you! I'll be back!"

"Oh, now I really doubt that," said the sadistic filly. As she spoke, her dark magic moved through the mirror once more. Half embedded in the mirror already, Sunset felt the cracks before she saw them. They raced over the surface of the glass, and down the enchanted claws, black and deep, dark magic spilling forth from within. It felt as if Sunset was being sliced apart by a thousand knives as the glass began to splinter, crack, and shatter!

Sunset gave one final shriek as the Crystal Mirror exploded!

Shards of glass sheared through her flesh, shredding her into so many hunks of ragged and tattered meat. Even if that damage hadn't been done, the unicorn was already clearly done for. The back half of her body had been on the other side of the glass when the mirror had exploded. Only the front half of Sunset's body lay in the lab now, in a spreading pool of blood and broken glass. In another dimension, the lower half of Sunset's human body would be found in an equally wide pool of blood beside the statue in front of Canterlot High.

Despite the fact she should already be dead, Sunset raised her one tearful eye towards the filly who had murdered her. Her lips tried to frame a question. "Why?"

"Why!?" cried the filly, her own body now studded with shards of broken glass, though she seemed to feel no pain. "Don't ask stupid questions."

Why was this happening to Twilight!?

Not only had her pupil run out on her, not only had her 'biggest fan' turned out to have a very unhealthy crush on her, but now Twilight couldn't find Spike anywhere!

Twilight had lost track of when her assistant had slipped off. Had it been when the Cutie Mark Crusader's had left? She thought she remembered him walking them to the door, but she wasn't certain.

This was the first time that Twilight had found herself alone in her own castle in some time, and the sensation was unsettling. Her friends had done a lot to brighten things up and make Twilight's castle feel more like a home, but what had really made her comfortable in the towering edifice of crystal was being surrounded by those friends. Trotting through the lonely crystal halls on her own left her feeling like an unwelcome intruder in someone else's home.

She really wished Spike were here.

Now that she was on her own, she found herself noticing all over again just how huge and empty the castle really was. Why did she need to live in a place like this? She had always preferred cozy little nooks in which to conduct her studies, like the Golden Oaks library which had been perfect for her studies. Just because she was a Princess why did that mean she had to live in a place with long cavernous hallways and tall stained glass windows? The place felt more like some kind of cathedral or a cavern than a home.

And the noises!

Twilight had never noticed how creaks and moans seemed to carry so well along the echoing crystal halls. All these strange sounds that the castle made when she was all alone were really starting to get to her. She swore that she had heard a roar of thunder not long ago, but Ponyville wasn't scheduled to have another storm for at least another week. And the screams! At least, they sounded like screams.... But of course that was silly. Why should there be screams, distant and haunting and so tortured? Why should their be wails like the last gasps of a dying mare or the shrieks of pain and betrayal just on the edge of her hearing? Such things were impossible in her home.

At least that was what Twilight kept telling herself.

It was her nerves. It had to be. Twilight was feeling abandoned by Starlight and, frankly, completely creeped out by Violet's unwanted affection. Of course she was in the perfect state of mind to start hearing things...

Things like the sound of distant hoof steps following behind her, or a snatch of high pitched and girlish giggling as she rounded a corner. Twilight thought at first that Violet must be playing a game of hide and seek with her or something, but the sounds of laughter and running hooves seemed to be coming from all over the castle. No matter where Twilight went, things seemed a little darker, the sounds seemed a little louder, and Twilight's nerves became a little more frayed.

Twilight feared that she was going mad.

The castle was driving her mad. She needed to get out. Just to get a breath of fresh air. Just to clear her head. She wasn't trying to run away or anything. Not from something as silly as a few distant sounds.

Then she heard fresh screams. There was nothing faint or distant about these. They were ragged and full of pain. They were crying out and calling Twilight's name!

They were Spike's!

Spike was screaming! Calling out for her help!

Twilight Sparkle burst into a run, galloping at full speed towards the sound of her oldest and dearest friends agony. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew that Spike needed her and that was all she needed to know! In a burst of purple magic, she teleported down the length of one hall and then another, vanishing and reappearing in quick succession. Finally she found herself... Back in the throne room?

The screams had stopped. Twilight could see why.

Spike had been strapped down on the Cutie Map by long frayed ropes. His body looked so tiny on the broad stone surface. A strange sigil, clearly some emblem designed to channel magic of the darkest sort, had been drawn around him in blood.

His blood.

Spike's purple scales were soaked scarlet, and a dagger had been buried deep in his chest.

Twilight's faithful assistant. Her friend. Her baby...

Spike was dead.

As the full weight of that realization struck Twilight, she felt her heart break. She had known him since the day he had hatched. He'd been by her side almost every day of his life. He'd been there at every major event in her own life, from her fillyhood all the way through her marehood. She never thought there would be a challenge she would have to face without him. She never thought the day would come where he would leave her side. To have him ripped away from her like this, with no rhyme or reason, was just too cruel. A wail of sorrow rose unbidden from her throat, racked by sobs.

Who would do such a thing? Who would even want to!?

Spike was no threat to anypony.

"Oh, are you back already Twilight?" asked Violet, sitting in her little plastic desk, facing the cutie map. Her dress was soaked in blood, staining the violet material a vivid scarlet. "That was a short break, huh?"