Twilight woke up in pitch blackness, and immediately thinks “Am I dead?” If this was heaven, then Twilight didn’t like it. It was too dark, too cramped and- wait was that water? She felt something dripping onto her flank from above. She tried to move her hoof, but found that it was chained to the ground. She concentrated, attempting to break the chain with magic, but to no avail. “There must be some magic cancellation on the chains.” She struggled against the bonds and shouted; “Hey! Let me out of here!”

This continued for what Twilight could guess was a half-hour before a door opened, finally allowing some light into the chamber, blinding Twilight at first, but she didn’t care. “Thank Celestia!” She said, I was worried that no one would-.” She stopped as her vision cleared, and she gasped at the figure before her.

“Shut up.” The Bat-Pony said. “The Queen has requested to see you.” The chains undid themselves, and Twilight was roughly dragged outside the chamber. She was lifted to her hooves as she was struck speechless by the sight of where she was. The dark stonework of the chamber had opened into a lavish lavender hall, with trim so dark that it was almost black. But the most interesting thing was that Twilight knew where she was. It was more extravagant and in much better shape than she remembered, but the stonework, tapestries, and the view outside all confirmed that she was being held prisoner in the Castle of the Two Sisters.

The guard shoved Twilight forward. Twilight glared back at him, but began walking. If there was one thing that Princess Celestia had taught her (and Cadence for that matter) it was how to keep cool under pressure. She examined her surroundings as she walked, and this only confirmed her suspicions, as she saw the mountain tops around the castle. Only one thing was different, she saw no tree tops, no strange animals, nothing. The entire everfree forest was missing.

Twilight hadn’t been watching where she was going as she slammed into a large oak door, the guard having not bothered to stop her. Twilight knew better than to speak up as she rubbed her muzzle The guard opened the door to reveal a room even more extravagantly designed than the hall. It seemed to be a mirror image of Celestia’s throne room, only with a hue of nightshade. The worst part was that the pony sitting on the throne was not Princess Celestia, but instead the pony that had plagued Twilights nightmares for the past year: Nightmare Moon.

“H-how is this possible?” Twilight pleaded, backing in the guard, who shoved her into the room and closed the door.

“Come forward, we need to speak with you.” The evil spirit in front of her spoke. Twilight didn’t want to, but her legs began moving on their own until she was directly in front of the horrifying Queen of the Night. She tried to stand tall in front of her original foe, but her legs were shaking and she probably looked as cowardly as she felt. Nightmare Moon stared down at her, malice in her dragon-shaped eyes. “I don’t know who you are,” spoke the Dark Alicorn; “But you are not Twilight Sparkle!”

Author's Note

Author Note: Thank you for reading chapter 2 of Starry Night, I hope that you enjoyed it. This chapter was significantly shorter than the first one, but that’s just because I have been expanding upon other elements of the story for later chapters, as you will hopefully see when I get to it. Leave your thoughts and suggestions on how to improve in the comments, and I will implement as much as I can. Thanks again, I’ll be back fast as lightning *winks*.