Twilight rubbed her eyes. It was getting late; the book she was trying to read just looked like a bunch of squiggles.
“Twilight?” Spike said slowly, putting down a book of his own.
“What is it Spike?” Twilight said, sweeping up the books that had accumulated during the day with her magic and placing them on the shelves.
“Well, you know how you learned that teleportation spell yesterday?”
“Mmm hmm.”
“This book says teleportation spells have a bunch of side effects.”
“Really? Let me see,” Twilight said, levitating the book spike had been reading from where she’d just placed it on the shelf. “I wouldn’t want to be doing any unsafe spells, though if the Princess hasn’t mentioned anything I can’t imagine it would be that bad.”
“Princess?” Spike said.
Twilight held the book up in front of her face. The title was completely illegible. That was odd. She flipped it open to a random page. Then another. After reading the entire thing, she put it down, frowning at Spike, who was currently attempting to steal every pillow in the room for his bed.
“Spike, this book doesn’t have any words in it. It’s just squiggles. And you don’t need that many pillows.”
“Twilight-you're-crazy,” Spike burst out.
“What?”
“The book. It does have words. Hand it to me,” he said.
Twilight levitated it over to him and he opened it to a specific page.
“Let’s see, it’s right...here!” he said, turning the book so the inside faced Twilight and putting a claw on a squiggle. “Look! Only to be used in emergencies...side effects may include inability to perform everyday tasks...false memories...irrationality...complete denial of anything that contradicts...oh.”
Twilight just stared at him. Did he really think she would believe something so obviously ridiculous?
“I’ll just...talk to our parents when they get back.”
“Spike, my parents are in Canterlot. And I don’t know who your parents are. Have you been holding out on me?”
“Uhhh...”
“Anyway, I have to help set up the Summer Sun Celebration. I’ll be back soon!”
“...Right.”
Twilight raced to her tree house, opened the door, then slammed it shut.
“Spike! Spike, help!” she panted with her back pressed against the door.
Spike slowly walked down the stairs
“Spike! Thank goodness your safe. Nightmare Moon was at the Celebration, and she somehow took control of everyone there and made them go after me,” Twilight said, then walked toward the dragon. “We need to contact Princess Celestia and then get out of here!”
The dragon stopped walking at the bottom of the staircase.
“She’s here,” he called.
“Oh no,” Twilight said, tears welling up in her eyes. “They got you too, Spike?”
“I don’t know who Spike is, Twilight,” he said with a frown. “You’re crazy. That car cra—
A fuzz filled Twilight’s ears.
—teleporation spell must have done something. The doctors say they can fix it, but you need to—
Another fuzz. Spike’s eyes were glowing black from Nightmare Moon’s corruption.
—I will be here soon, Twilight. There’s no place to run. I’ve trapped my dear sister in the sun, and every other pony in Equestria has already chosen to submit to my rule.
Her door flew open with a crash. Twilight backed away with a gasp and levitated a book from a nearby table, then threw it at the intruder. It bounced off the Nightmare.
“No. No, no no! It can’t end like this!” she cried. “I can still find the Elements! I can! Just let me—”
“There’s no way out,” the Nightmare said, laughing. Thick tendrils of shadow extended from her form and curled around Twilight, rendering her immobile.
She trembled in the Nightmare’s grasp.
“You might have trapped Celestia, and me, but as long as there is one pony out there who remains free from your evil, your tyranny will end one day!”
Nightmare Moon let out another laugh. “What foalishness.”
Twilight screamed as she was dragged out of her home into the night.
Tiffany Velvet looked away from the scene in front of her. She couldn't take the sight of her daughter babbling at nothing in a straightjacket.
“There’s no cure?” she asked in a broken voice.
“I’m afraid not, ma’am,” the doctor said, holding his clipboard in front of him and jotting down notes.
Tiffany leaned into her husbands arms, tears streaming down her face.
“However, with time, we believe we might be able to bring her back to reality. It will require a lot of effort, and there’s no guarantee, but there’s a chance.” Another scribble on the clipboard.
Tiffany slumped against Nicholas’s shoulder, now openly sobbing.
“Hey. It’s okay. We’ll get through this,” he said.
She’d languished for years in Nightmare Moon’s dungeons, but Twilight wasn’t giving into her captor’s lies. She was tempted to, though. Oh so tempted. She missed Spike. She missed the Princess. She missed her books.
“Why did it have to turn out this way?” she whispered into the damp confines of the dungeons.
“What way, sweetie?”
Her vision blurred. A clinically white room was superimposed over her dungeon. The chains of darkness keeping her in place changed to a strange white material. Then the hallucination was gone.
“You won’t get me that easily, Nightmare Moon,” Twilight yelled into the dungeon. “Just because you can invade my dreams doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to brainwash me.”
“Oh, but I already have,” the voice cackled.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Another mind game?”
“See you tomorrow, little one.”
“The Elements are still out there!” Twilight shouted. “Some pony will eventually find them, and then Equestria will be free!”
Nightmare Moon cackled. Twilight strained uselessly against her bonds. She knew it wouldn’t help, but she couldn’t just do nothing. Even without considering her own predicament, all of Equestria was suffering under Nightmare Moon’s eternal night. Crops were dying. Ponies were dying. The Nightmare left, closing the door with a final-sounding thud.
And then she was alone in the darkness once again. It was a wonder she hadn’t gone mad.
