Perception

After a duration of time had passed, the creaking of the reinforced prison door attracted the attention of the two captive prisoners. Rising to their hooves weakly, the duo turned to glance at the menacing silhouette of Nightmare Moon and her aides right before the doorway. As Nightmare Moon entered the prison itself, fires were instantaneously lit around the room, eliminating the darkness. At the sudden change in the light's intensity, tears were forced out from the duo's eyes as they clasped their eyes shut reflexively.

Opening their eyes slowly, they could see the sacred scroll that led them into this predicament in the first place held between the teeth of the royal scribe tightly. Twilight's stomach turned in on itself at the sight of the scroll that was now controlled by the tyrant metres away from her, when she thought of how perilous it would be when Nightmare Moon could change events in the past on her corrupted command.

Starlight stood still, her face quivering at the sight. She certainly shared Twilight's concerns, but this was their only hope of any escape from this place. Whatever that was to happen next would be pivotal to their survival and escape from this world. And she only had one single chance to pull this off. It was now, or never.

"Ah, Starlight. It appears that you weren't lying after all," Nightmare Moon spoke, with an air of great confidence. "Another copy of this scroll actually does exist here!"

"Naturally," Starlight quipped after a short pause, as she was pondering about how to go about with her plan practically. "Since the scroll was taken from another timeline after he wrote the scroll, that means that-"

"Enough elucidation!" Nightmare Moon shouted impatiently, slamming her front hoof onto the ground. "Now, work out the modifications to fix the spell for me!"

With that, the scribe tossed the scroll into Starlight's cell, with a quilt and a bottle of ink for her use, before vacating the premises hurriedly with a wave of Nightmare Moon's hoof.

Staring hard onto the scroll that unrolled before her very eyes, Starlight paused. She stopped herself from grabbing the quilt with her mouth, as her conscience spoke to her. Her mind was still deliberating the consequences of what she was intending to do should she fail in her mission.

After a few moments of personal soul searching, her mouth opened to grip onto the quilt and begin scribbling onto the ancient manuscript. This was where the trap that Starlight had envisioned from the start would be laid. Unlike the previous scroll that she had modified, she needed to bind herself and Twilight to the spell, so that they could flee into the past, without Nightmare Moon following them. She now had to hope that Nightmare Moon would not read the scroll before she cast it.

In a short span of time, the job was done. Starlight kicked the scroll out of the cell, between the gaps of the iron bars trapping her in, to the obvious satisfaction of Nightmare Moon.

"Now I have fulfilled my side of the deal, now let us out!" Starlight dictated, turning to face Nightmare Moon's devilish face, trying to distract Nightmare Moon with her demand.

"No, you have not!" Nightmare Moon shot back quickly. "How do I know that this spell really works, based on what you just said? I will only let you two out when I have managed to travel to the past and back here!"

Before Starlight could continue arguing in protest at the injustice, Nightmare Moon trotted forth to the pick up the modified scroll with her hooves, to the surprising indifference displayed by Starlight.

"YES!" Nightmare Moon proclaimed, exposing a wide smile that revealed her ice white teeth. "With this scroll, I will now be the supreme ruler of every single alternate reality! The night will last FOREVER AND EVER!"

On the other side of the cell, an incredibly anxious Twilight watched on, her mouth wide open to gape at the situation. Although she had no idea of what Starlight changed in the time travel scroll, she knew that allowing Nightmare Moon to activate the spell was a terrible idea. Gazing at the sight of Nightmare Moon being on the verge to cast the spell to travel back in time, Twilight rushed forward to the iron bars that surrounded her and held onto them tightly. She could not stop thinking about the catastrophic destruction that Nightmare Moon could inflict in the other timelines. It pained her heart to the core that she was incapable of stopping her as she was trapped in this cell.

Nightmare Moon gleefully brought her magical aura into her horn to begin the casting of this spell. However, her horn failed to spark up to channel the magical energy into the scroll. Frowning at her failure to cast magic despite being the most powerful pony in the realm, she tried to cast the spell yet again, to no avail.

"Wait...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?" Nightmare Moon bellowed in rage, her face displaying utter disbelief at the loss of her own magical prowess. Suspecting the modified scroll to be the cause of this anomaly, she pulled the scroll open using her hooves on the ground and read through the contents of the scroll frantically, scanning line by line.

"No! Those crystals around the prison are blocking all of our magic! It has nothing to do with the scroll!" Starlight reminded Nightmare Moon hurriedly, trying to stop her from reading the scroll and its modifications. Starlight's heart was racing as quickly as it was physically capable at the untold amount of anxiety coming from her brain. Every single second that Nightmare Moon dedicated to comprehending the scroll's content would undoubtedly increase the chances of her being caught out. She had to pray that Nightmare Moon did not find that single line of runic words that was essential to their escape out of this quandary.

"Oh...I see," Nightmare Moon responded with a monotonous voice, as she stopped reading the scroll immediately to glance at the glowing crystals above. Nightmare Moon could not believe that her eagerness in time travel caused her to act without clear thinking, such that she lost her memory of the crystals she placed in the prison designed to trap the two without their magical abilities.

"Guards! Bring the crystals out from this prison so I can cast this spell!" Nightmare Moon commanded, turning to the entrance doorway to command the guards to do her bidding, as she composed herself after that embarrassing setback.

Immediately, her personal bodyguards came into the prison to begin dismantling the magic nullifying crystals from their pedestals around the prison to bring them out of the room individually.

Starlight gave out a loud sigh of relief, as she wiped the cold perspiration off the top of her forehead. Pure luck managed to save her and Twilight from certain doom. Once Nightmare Moon has activated the spell, they would be sent back to the time before the Rainboom was stopped, leaving her behind in her own world.

As each of those luminescent crystals left the room, Starlight could feel her magical senses returning back into her spirit. Although she knew that she would eventually be able to use her magic to cast the spell herself, Starlight did not want to take any risks with the villainous alicorn. Should she fail, a struggle for the valuable scroll would be guaranteed. Why would she want to take any unnecessary risks when the stakes were so high? Starlight could just sit back and begin tasting the glorious victory that she had over the tyrant that locked her and Twilight into a state of helplessness.

Finally, Nightmare Moon's horn flickered in its true brilliance with its characteristic dark shade, readying itself to fire its concentrated magical aura, as the last few crystals were removed from the prison by Nightmare Moon's loyal guards.

"Ah yes! Finally, I can use my magic!" Nightmare Moon proclaimed, as she brought the scroll up to levitate in front of her to read through the remaining contents of the scroll, to ascertain the spell that she was casting. "Wait, WHAT'S THIS?"

At that remark, Starlight's heart sank into dismay at Nightmare Moon's unexpected discovery. She gazed into Nightmare Moon's eyes blankly, her mouth open and unmoving. She knew that she was caught, and she was caught red-handed. Her mind desperately tried to wrest control of her senses, to try to escape with her magic or something, but alas, her body was simply stunned into stillness. She merely stood there, staring at Nightmare Moon, as if she was daring her to fight it out, although the reality could not be more different.

Twilight could evidently tell from Starlight's body language that her escape plan had been foiled. She must have modified the scroll to aid them to escape; otherwise, Starlight would not have reacted this way when Nightmare Moon read through the scroll to find that her modifications were not as she demanded. Twilight could see Starlight in utter shock, her eyes meeting Nightmare Moon's in a silent confrontation for seconds that seemed to pass distressingly slowly.

Twilight had to take the initiative. Before Nightmare Moon could act, she charged up her horn to fire a blast of magical energy through the gaps of the iron bars at Nightmare Moon, having discovered that her magic was no longer obstructed by those hideous crystals.

Nightmare Moon felt a tingling sensation running throughout her back, as a vibrant purple beam descended onto her at a threatening speed. Reacting speedily, she instinctively turned and discharged a retaliatory dark beam to counteract the beam launched by Twilight from the corner of the prison.

The two magical beams collided midway between the two, releasing vibrant flashes of light and waves of energy throughout the prison compound.

Through gritted teeth, the two held their breathe to continue the struggle. Concentrating on their efforts to vanquish the other, the two combatants were both cramming their eyes shut as they willed to defeat the other. They could feel the strain on their bodies as they continued to duel each other in this final, epic confrontation. Neither of them dared to give up any inch of ground to the other, as Nightmare Moon and Twilight battled it out to bring forth as much magical energy as they could into the beams that they were emitting. The increasing amount of energy channelled into the clashing beams produced a deafening screech that reverberated through the stale air.

"STARLIGHT! Quick! Do something! I can't hold on for much longer!" Twilight cried out, knowing that she was about to reach the limits of her magical ability and endurance against the all-powerful authoritarian ruler.

Twilight's outburst to call for Starlight's help snapped Starlight out of her trance. Realising what was happening, she funnelled her magical energy to blast open a hole to allow her to get out of the cell she was locked in and come to Twilight's rescue.

"I've got you now! Just give up!" Nightmare Moon shouted from the depths of her lungs. "You've NO chance against me!"

As Starlight rushed forward, she realised that Nightmare Moon had retracted her magical grip onto the time travel scroll to focus on the ensuing battle against Twilight ahead of her, causing the crumpled parchment to land onto the floor, right by her side. Pouring her magical aura into her horn swiftly, she seized control over the scroll silently, as she watched the balance of power began to shift towards the evil, tyrannical Nightmare Moon.

As Starlight observed Twilight's beam waning in strength, she knew that this must be their only chance. With no time to spare, she launched a magical beam at the scroll to activate its sorcery.