Obsidian Series

Chapters

A day to remember.
Dream Theorist
Dreamweaver.
One of those days.
No one to blame
Walking through the forest

A day to remember.

The sun shined on its zenith, shininging brightly over the peak of mountain Canterhorn where the white city of Canterlot was set upon, basking the city with radiance and warmth as it was a day of celebration for all Equestria.

Canterlot currently was in a busy day as trains from all directions passed by to the station and airships from across the land docked in the port to receive the arrival of important dignitaries of every corner of the land and beyond.

It was a day to celebrate, as ponies of all races and regions reunited around the main plaza in front of the castle, all and each one of them filling a space inside to the brim that even Pegasi ponies had to bring cumulus of clouds to serve as benches to sit on in order to make room. Everypony was gathered to hear a message of great importance and revelation.

Ponies were curious and eager to hear what news would the royal diarchs would bestow upon them that had to bring about all of Equestria in one single place. Those who stood closer to the edge of the balcony where the friends and family of the well known Princess of Friendship, smiling warmly directly to the mulberry Alicorn.

Twilight Sparkle glanced around her and saw the many known faces she befriended from all around Equestria. Alongside her in the balcony, close to the edge of the rail were Celestia, her mentor and closest friend, along with her sister Luna, who she had began to admire as much as Celestia herself, and Princess Cadence, standing with their royal robes and official crowns as they showed their pride and joy through smiles. something that Twilight wasn’t sure of was how they seemed, rather it was admiration or devotion, Twilight wasn’t sure of what it was initially.

She too noticed that she was dressed in her own royal dress, the one she had last time for her coronation. She was excited, but she didn’t know why or for what reason she was supposed to be. She tried to recall the reason they were all celebrating, but none came to her mind, along with the fact that she never received any kind of invitation or information that required her presence that afternoon.

“Citizens of Equestria! Heed to our word, for we have great news to deliver for all those present!” Luna’s Canterlot Voice was heard for everypony around, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts, deciding to pay attention to the announcement that both Royal Pony Sisters had to say. Once Luna spoke those words she soon stepped aside to make way for Celestia to stand forward to the huge crowd that was massed below, along with those that were near the balcony from inside the castle.

The white alicorn gave a look around her and addressed to the audience. “My little ponies, we have gathered you all here today so that we can commemorate this day as the beginning of a new golden age for Equestria!” Celestia began, glancing around the multitude of ponies who had cheered in excitement from the moment that Celestia began her speech. Twilight felt amazed by how Celestia could rally the crowd, her words were nothing but awe inspiring to each and everypony, every single one of them paying attention to the words as if they could bring the promise of a better life throughout the entire land. But for the mulberry alicorn there was this strange nagging feeling of not knowing what they were celebrating bothered her in someway. Glancing to her friends, she tried to lean closer to them to ask about it, but once she noticed how attentive they all have been over the speech Celestia was still giving, she was a bit too embarrassed to distract them. ignoring what Celestia was speaking of, she still tried to look around and find somepony to talk to, but none of her relatives or friends took their eyes away from Celestia. None of them seemed to pay attention to Twilight at all, except for one figure from the furthest part of the balcony, near the rails.

The figure was completely dark, and no distinguishable features could be noticed from it that could resemble any other pony present. It was tall enough to tower over any average pony, it seemed that it could easily match Luna’s height.

Twilight could tell that this shadow figure was looking directly at her, even if she wasn’t able to tell where the eyes are or if it has facing where she currently was. She could feel it it was doing just so.

Celestia’s voice soon made Twilight refocus back to the end of the balcony, where the white alicorn had now stepped aside from her current place, as did Luna and Cadence, giving Twilight the signal to walk forward in between them and allow the ponies from around to watch her, “Last time, we had all been gathered to honor the coronation and ascension of Princess Twilight Sparkle. Now, we are here to celebrate her conquest of all ponykind and receive her title of queen of Equestria!” Twilight blinked, utterly surprised as she glanced at Celestia with with an expression of baffled surprise written all over her face. She was at the rail of the balcony as the alicorn of the sun exclaimed with glee, “We celebrate the ascension of Queen Twilight Sparkle, our new ruler and sole sovereign!”

“All hail Queen Twilight Sparkle! May her rule over the land last forever!” Luna shouted as well,soon the voices of thousands of ponies shouted in unison from below as they all cheered for their newest monarch and undoubtedly new queen.

Twilight didn’t know what was happening around her, but she soon felt a shift of weight on her body, soon finding out that her royal garments had changed into something more elaborate and bigger. Even her modest crown had become bigger, with more gems encrusted, and several ornaments adorned it. Twilight began panicking, turning around and could notice that all her friends and family had soon bowed low on the floor in submission before her, as if they acknowledged her as their superior and unquestionable ruler. The whole scene made Twilight soon realize what was happening. She now remembered what they were celebrating and why they acted like this before her.

She had conquered the hearts and minds of all the world.

The shadow that was standing from behind everything soon walked towards Twilight, passing by the ponies around her, and she stopped closer to the mulberry alicorn as she bowed her head, “My debt is now paid, Queen Twilight. Please enjoy what I have given to you,” the voice was soft like a mare and composed and regal as a noble, but Twilight couldn’t recognized from who it belonged to. Twilight was scared to make a reply. She felt overwhelmed as she closed her eyes tightly to vanish the scenery that was happening around her..

Twilight soon woke up.

Jumping from the bed and breathing heavily, the mulberry unicorn looked around her room, and soon enough confirmed it was as dark and empty as before she went to sleep. “That dream again,” she mumbled before rising up from the bed and turning on the light of her lamp. She approached her personal desk and pulled out a small purple journal that had on the cover a thought cloud connected to a sleeping pony: Twilight’s journal of dreams.

She opened it to a clean page and picked up the quill with her magic. With a single dip into the inkpot, Twilight began to write, “Fourth day of the week, the dream has changed once more from the last time I began this journal. This particular dream changed from me becoming the ruler of all the land of ponyville to the sole sovereign of the entire kingdom of Equestria. I haven’t found out why the dream is growing more ambitious every night I get to dream, and yet, I still fail to change it to a different way I desire,” she said out loud, writing everything on the pages of the journal, before stopping to dab her quill on the inkpot once more and resuming her writing.

“The dream itself has me being in charge of ponies that have no sense of will or free thinking as they all looked at me with expecting eyes of total submission towards me, and I usually end up lost in what to do, which prompts the dark figure to speak to me. The entity ends up saying the same line before I wake up,” she wrote it all down and took a deep breath to ease her mind as she read what she had written and mulled over the content once more before deciding to write more.

”I also came to the conclusion that the dream stays the same, no matter how I try to change the course of it. If I try to imagine some other kind of event happening, it drives back to the original, or I end up waking up,” she stopped, an idea having crossed her mind as she wrote down the thought, “Would the reason behind these scenes be my own fault? The dreams had somewhat bewitched me with an unknown desire that I have never experienced, and it is strange, since I have never had such thoughts before.” She wrote down the part with a worry as she consider that the sole idea would corrupt her mind in a possible future if she continued dreaming.

Twilight shook her head and closed her dream journal and got off her chair, still shaken from the dream she decided to head to the kitchen to ease her heart with a cup of jasmine tea. She walk down the halls of her castle and reached the stairs to turn around to her objective once near the kitchen the noise of rattling of pots from inside the room and decided to peak inside, finding Spike struggling to reach the upper shelves with a stack of stools and a broom to reach it.

“Spike, what are you doing?” the alicorn asked, causing the little drake shout in surprise and to almost lose his balance before turning around and watch Twilight by the door.

“Uhm, hey Twilight… I was just going for a midnight snack, yeah something simple before going back to sleep.” He explained, climbing down the stools, his hands were fidgeting as he tried to not look that much nervous about being caught.

Twilight raised an eyebrow and smiled, “more like a night raid to the jade chips cookies,“ she joked, levitating the cookie jar from the shelve and giving Spike two cookies for him and walks to the stove to lighten it up, in order to prepare her tea.

Spike was beaming in delight, enjoying the cookies with every bite, “so… Why are you up this late?” He was now curios, using the stool to reach to her level. “It’s that dream you had last night, right?” He guessed, licking his claws clean from the sugary taste of the gems.

Twilight mulled over the idea of telling him about and decided to let him know, “tonight was even worse though…” she admitted, keeping an eye on the teapot as it slowly began to boil.

“Woah, really?” the surprise in his face was evident as he decided to eat his second cookie to keep himself from overreacting. “I thought it was already bad that you told me how everypony in the town began to treat you like a total princess Princess Platinum and how you described how all your friends had to wear uniforms that displayed your cutiemark to show their undeniable loyalty towards you.”

“Well, this one was far much worse, that is for sure,” Twilight complained, levitating a teacup towards her. “Tonight’s dream was me becoming the sole unquestinable ruler of all of Equestria and every single pony bowing to my power.”

“The way you phrase it makes it sound awesome though,” Spike pointed out, giving the last bite on his cookie and swallowing it. “I mean, not that you could be that power hungry but it sounds like you could do that in a whim.” He wiped the crumbs of his mouth sighed in satisfaction.

Twilight groaned rather loud, pouring the tea to her cup with her magic and gave a stern glare at his protege, “I don’t find that amusing in any way, Spike, taking control of a pony’s free will isn’t an amusing idea, no matter what.” She scolded looking rather upset at the comment Spike made.

Spike cringed as she looked away in shame as he scratches the back of his head, “Yeah, sorry about that, it’s just that I’ve been reading the recent Power Ponies comic and they have this new villain that has taken control of almost all the ponies of Maretropolis for hr personal army to defeat the Power Ponies,” smiling weakly he turned up to see Twilight once more.

The glare on Twilight’s eyes soften somewhat as she lifted her cup to her muzzle and allowing the smell to ease her mind from getting angry, “That’s the difference Spike, the character is a villain, somepony to that takes advantage of her powers for evil purposes, or immoral acts, you know that I would never dare myself to do that to anypony at all,” She gave a sip of the tea and let the warm liquid pass down her throat to bring her comfort. “it’s just crazy to think that would happen.”

Spike smiled, knowing well that Twilight spoke of a valid point, “yeah, you are way more goody, goody horseshoes to do anything that a mere villain could do.”

Twilight gave a flat stare but decided not to voice her opinion about his comment, thus deciding to drink her tea and remain quiet for the moment.

Spike was in thought and walked next to Twilight with curiosity, “isn’t it strange though?” He asked, receiving a curious glance from his caretaker. “That you have been dreaming the same dream for almost a week by now.”

That gave Twilight his words a thought, “well, according to Dreamwalkers by Nap Time, some dreams are an extension of our fantasies and visions of what we enjoy to do, others are more of a resemblance of our conscious when we feel guilt of what we did during the day,” Twilight began reciting the book by memory taking another sip of her tea. “But my dreams had something unusual on them. It is quite hard to tell but there was this mysterious figure that is in each of them that I have never seen before.” She began to contemplate on what possible way that the apparition happened to be.

Spike was now interested to hear more of the mysterious pony and leaned closer to Twilight, “Wouldn’t it be the Tantabus acting up again? Or maybe the pony of shadows!?” he guessed wildly, feeling concerned of what possible threat haunted Twilight.

The mulberry alicorn shook her head and calmed her little ward, “I can hardly think that any of those could be responsible since the tantabus was a creation from Princess Luna’s guilt and it was dissolved and the pony of shadows is something that Rainbow and Applejack invented just for their little bet they made for each other,” Twilight deduced as she was trying to think. “From my investigations on the matter, I can only have one theory that is solid enough to be close to a fact.”

“and that theory could be?” The little drake motioned with his hand to invite Twilight to share her ideas with him.

“Well, according to Nap Time, when we dream our consciousness takes form of places and ponies that we have met during our day time so basically we dream about ponies that we have met in our past but this dark pony is nothing that I have ever met or seen, so my theory is that my dream is perhaps a premonition of a possible future.” She ended with an elevation of her tone to make it sound ominous.

Spike could no longer hide his surprise and leapt closer, “That sound awesome!” he shouted jumping closer to Twilight’s muzzle. “So this dark being will help you become the ruler of Equestria… or perhaps take control over it, which I think is not cool.” he said as he noticed the mindful glare that his surrogate mother gave at him.

“I think we should go back to sleep,” She finally said, levitating Spike on her back and leaving to their respective bedrooms. “I won’t have more of this take over Equestria talk in the morning and, perhaps, afterwards I will visit Zecora to see if she has a potion for dreamless sleep just to avoid any of these bothersome visions.”

“Why not ask for Princess Luna to help you with this dream, perhaps she has a thing or two on how to deal with it?” Spike suggested.

“I guess we can make a letter in the morning too, if anything we might as well ask her to help un change the dream to a more pleasant one,” Twilight agreed on his idea as she walked up the stairs. “Because I would hate to know that you are right on that idea of yours and the Power Ponies.” Twilight joked, as she headed to the stairs and dropped Spike in front of his bedroom.

“Fine, fine,” Spike relented, holding his hands up his chest in surrender. “But you gotta admit it was a good idea.” He quipped before going inside his room.

Twilight rolled her eyes in a playful manner, “rest well, Spike, see you in the morning,” she wished before walking back to her bedroom.

~~***~~

Elsewhere.

A young unicorn stallion trotted down the streets of Canterlot under the same moonlight. His coat was in a pristine ivory color and his mane was in a golden tone, he also wore a blue tie that decorated his neck.

He was alone which was something unusual for him due to how he would never walk around without his escort of guards around him.

It wasn't something the stallion was accustomed to do but due to an invitation that caught his attention he dared himself to make a rendezvous alone in the lower districts of Canterlot under the covers of the moonlight.

He walks with an unsteady pace, gawking at every corner, not because it was unwelcome to the eye but because it represented, by his standards, a place beneath him in any way.

His eyes wander at every direction of the alleyway, he was no doubt nervous, to even jump in fright when a stray cat jumped out from a dumpster, hissing at the stallion, and running away. He shivered in disgust, deciding to ignore the minor incident and venture on.

“Ugh, the nerve to make me come here…” groaned the white stallion as he kicked a can aside before resuming his pacing through the darkness of the night. “why couldn't the letter say to meet at the finest restaurant or at least at the back of a theater.” He groaned as he continued forward.

It was until he saw the dark figure of a cloaked pony below a street lamp, from what the stallion was able to see was a horn protruding from the cloak that was his only indication that the stranger was definitely a unicorn. “You there, reveal yourself to me!” he demanded, stomping lightly on to the ground,

the mysterious figure remained immobile, ignoring the words of the white stallion before him, standing there and waiting.

The white stallion snarled as he marched directly to the figure before him, “you dare to ignore the words of your prince!?” he almost shouted, trying to avoid any onlookers to spot him. “I can have you incarcerated for this, you know?” The hope of a threat was to make the white stallion to take control of the situation more easier but the cloaked figure still remained in its place as if it did not have any care in the world.

The mysterious pony leaned its head up and from it spoke a few words, ”I must deliver the key…” the voice was soft and quite feminine from what could be heard. From the inside of the cloak an object floated, a wooden box of mahogany and encrusted sapphires and landed close to the feet of the white stallion. “the key has been delivered.” The cloaked pony began to move, turning around and walks away from the alleyway.

“Hey wait! what is this, what is this about a key!?” The stallion shouted, ignoring the box as he focused only at the leaving figure, that was ignoring the words of the stallion.

The stallion didn’t even bother to follow the unknown pony as he watched it leave into the darkness of the night, “the nerve of someponies,” he muttered, huffing in annoyance and returning to the box on the floor. He smiled widely as he eyed the box as if it was the most valuable thing in the world and soon enough had to levitate it to his side and soon bgen to trot back to his manor giggling like a schoolfilly all the way back. “Oh the things I have planned for you, my little Obsidian.”

Dream Theorist

Starlight Glimmer woke up with a soft hum, a sign of a good night's sleep, as she stretched her forelimbs and spine to pop the joints to wake up her body before she jumped off the bed on all four hooves and headed to the joint bathroom of her bedroom to freshen up for the new day.

It didn't take her long to be presentable as she pranced down to the halls. Deciding to head directly to the personal kitchen for breakfast, with any luck she might still be on time to have a plate of a freshly cooked meal and a steamy mug of coffee. The mere thought of such delicacy made her add a skip on her step as she went a bit faster to her destination.

On her way down a hallway she suddenly came to a complete halt as something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. From the open door that lead into the main library she spotted several books flying around like it was a whirlwind of literature, as the books moved around relentlessly with their pages flapping about. "What is going on?" Starlight wondered to herself as she entered the flying books maelstrom and weaved around books, big and small, until she reached into the eye of the storm, which also happens to be the center of the room.

Twilight used her magic as she checked and analyzed each book that floated in front of her, setting aside those she needed and flying back to their spots those that were not needed. "No, no, no… this one is good and this one." The mulberry alicorn muttered to herself as she continued in her search.

Meanwhile Spike was evading the books that threatened to hit him as they flew around and as he rushed to a safe spot to organize the books that remained on the floor. Until an encyclopedia rammed into him, taking the little drake for a spin with the other books that floated around the entire room. As he wondered if it was worth the risk to make the jump down to the floor, and expecting to reach down harmless, a teal aura picked him up from his ride and carefully descended him to the floor, close to the pink unicorn who rescued him.

"Morning Starlight." Spike smiled from the air in which he was suspended.

Starlight glanced at Spike then at Twilight and back at Spike, "I take it that Twilight is doing extensive research today?" She asked, only receiving a nod for an answer. "Great, does she need help with any of that?" She looks back at Twilight and the flying books.

Spike waved his claw dismissively, "nah, she will be there until she finds the books to make for a light reading," he explained as he walked past Starlight. "Besides, I better get going to the kitchen to make breakfast for us three." Spike gestured to the pink unicorn to follow.

"Alright, sounds good to me ." Agreed Starlight, walking next to her friend directly to the kitchen.

Once there, Spike donned his apron and selected his cooking utensils in preparation to make some hotcakes. Using his fire to start up the stove while he worked on putting the ingredients needed to make the batter into a mixing bowl.

Starlight was preparing her coffee as she glanced at Spike with a look of curiosity in her eyes.

"So, what new subjects is Twilight researching on now?" The pink unicorn sat on a stool behind the counter as she stirred the black liquid.

Spike focused on making breakfast and decided to answer his friend as he began to pour the batter on the hot skillet. "She is investigating dreams and trying to get a full grasp on the meaning of some of them." He explained, reaching out for the spatula and flipping the pancakes. “It's because she has been having some strange dreams for a few moons and she wants to know what they mean.” he added with a small shrug.

Starlight changed her focus from her mug to Spike with curiosity, “strange dreams, as in Nightmares?” She guessed, trying to know the meaning of Spike’s words and waiting for him to elaborate more.

Spike hummed in contemplation, as he continued cooking, "they're not exactly nightmares, as Twilight tells me, but what I do know is that she dreams about being the sole ruler of all Equestria and that everypony bows before her, don't know if she means as a queen or empress though." Spike finally set up a plate with a stack of pancakes and gave them to Starlight, along with syrup and butterscotch to go with it. "She also told me that the only inconsistency is that the dream changes from place, from the Castle of Friendship to Canterlot Castle, there was even one she said happened in the old Castle of the Two Sisters right by the Everfree forest. They all still have the same theme though; everypony bowing before Twilight as if they were hypnotized, or something." He sat next to Starlight with his own plate already piled high with jades and emeralds.

Starlight was surprised as she poured maple syrup on her stack of pancakes, "wow...that is certainly a very dark dream to have," Starlight took a moment before taking her mug and drinking from its contents. "I always thought that Twilight had modest dreams of herself reading in giant libraries or enjoying an adventure with her friends." She gestured absentmindly with her fork before plunging it into her pancakes and using a knife to cut them apart before eating them.

Spike nodded in agreement, cutting his own stack of flapjacks, "yeah, Twilight usually tells me about her dreams and they do end up from being simple to extraordinary. Including the very bizarre nightmare of quesadillas." He then gave voice to a small idea that was lingering in his mind. "Maybe her dream is trying to tell her something." he guessed, considering the idea based on the books Twilight chose for her investigation.

Starlight lit up as she slammed her mug on the table, "a premonitory dream!" She exclaimed, looking at Spike, who looked back with certain confusion. "It’s a rare type of dream that shows a glimpse of the future. Sadly that is as much as I know about them." She explained, proving what limited knowledge she had on the matter was more extensive than what Spike knew.

Spike then considered a thought and voiced his idea. "Does this mean Twilight will be the newest villain and that she will conquer all of Equestria in a single weekend?" He fumbled on his glass filled with milk, swaying its content as he contemplated the answer.

Starlight let out a soft laughter as she shook her head in disbelief. "Now that is a ridiculous idea," she tried to contain her laughter as she covered her mouth with her hoof. "Imagine her being in charge of the entire kingdom and that her first claim would be that all citizens must become friends with everypony." She joked, looking at the little drake, who was now starting to laugh.

"Yeah, maybe she will make a new law that hugs will become a form of greeting as well." Spike joined in, with his laugh now increasing in volume.

"It is by law that all ponies must be cordial at all times and if they do not abide by this law they must pay the sentence of spending fifteen minutes in the tickle chamber." Starlight continued on, making a decent imitation of Twilight as she continued giggling.

"All residents in the kingdom must have at least three books in a proper bookshelf and in order by the Dewey decimal."

“ponies must help one another in any way they can or must be punished to wear the cone of shame.”

“friendship will be divided in three different categories; Good Friends, Best Friends and bestest Friends. Which brings privileges of certain benefits above the others.”

They both laughed at the ridiculous proposals they made for the supposed tyranny of their mutual friend. Enjoying the hilarity of the situation until their laugh became giggles and it too died down to a moment of sudden silence.

Spike downed his glass of milk and sighed to ease down the good mood he was in, "I'm kinda curious, though; how would Twilight manage to take control of all the entirety of the kingdom of Equestria?" He poked on his hotcakes while pondering on the question. "Kinda like a big order, if you ask me." He added, lifting his gaze to meet Starlight.

The pink unicorn noticed him looking at her with her with her mouth full of breakfast. She swallowed all and drowned the food with her coffee before thinking of possible ideas that Twilight would use.

"She doesn't need to," she began, looking at Spike with a gleam in her eye. "She can mind control the figureheads of Canterlot and probably those of the major cities of Equestria, with which the ponies would easily fall in line and obey her commands...probably." She explained giving herself a second thought on her idea.

"Another option could be that she could create a spell powerful enough that can charm Equestria entirely, with the help of powerful unicorns by her side to make it work… that is if Twilight knew where to find unicorns powerful enough to pull that kind of spell off." She chuckled lightly, completely ignoring the pale look of Spike as he stared in aghast.

"Starlight… Twilight does have powerful unicorns as friends."

She was a bit surprised but still looking at him, "she does, who?" She wondered, knowing a few herself but not having a full grasp of all of them. "I know she has a few but not all of them are that powerful, right?"

Spike lifted his claws and used them to count off Twilight's unicorn friends. "Well there's, Sunset Shimmer, Moondancer, Tempest Shadows, Sunburst, Shining Armor maybe, Rarity and you." He said as he listed the ponies off from memory.

"What about Trixie?" Starlight asked, looking at Spike wondering why she was on the list.

"What about her?"

"Well, you know… great and powerful and all that." Starlight shrugged nonchalantly.

Spike blinked a few times, as if to process the information,"I always thought that was her full name." The silence that ensued was far more than just awkward as they looked everywhere but to each other.

Starlight decided to continue the conversation. "Twilight does indeed have powerful unicorns as friends, not that it can change things." She admitted, scoffing at the idea she had mentioned. "Not like any of them would partake on a plan to take over the kingdom just like that."

Spike was in his own thoughts, remembering all the experience he gained from all of his comics about corrupted champions and fallen heroes. All about the trope on how every important character had suffered the syndrome of staring too long into the abyss that it stared back. Such is the fate of virtuous souls that fought evil for so long.

"What if…" he started off in concern, fidgeting his claws together in nervousness. "What if Twilight really has become evil and has been reuniting powerful unicorns in order to take over Equestria?" He guessed, his eyes growing wide in panic.

Starlight could barely hold her chuckle as she burst out laughing as she hugged her barrel to get a hold of herself,"oh Spike, you do have some jokes in you." She kept on chuckling, taking a few deep breaths to ease herself. "Not that I mind joining Twilight with a special project but I can't see myself, or any other of her friends joining up to some world domination." She declared, leaning back on her chair and smiling mirthfully.

"But most of Twilight friends were villains that tried to take over Equestria, no doubt they would all join in such nefarious plan like the evildoers they once been… uhh, no offense," he said, wincing slightly at the last comment noticing Starlight rise her eyebrow.

The pink unicorn let loose a sigh and set her forehooves on the table. "None taken,Spike," she dismissed the comment with a wave of her hoof. "But even if I used to be... that mare, Twilight helped me overcome such a dark path and that same goes for others, or at least from Sunset and Trixie." She was certain of her own words as she would never forget the lengths that Twilight went through to help her out of her obsession with Cutie Marks and revenge.

Spike mulled over the idea and grumbled in acknowledgement, "I guess you're right… probably." He mumbled, looking at Starlight and averting his eyes to the floor continuously.

"Seriously?"

"What if you and the others are some sort of sleeper agents that once the time arrives you will follow a protocol to enslave the town for Twilight?" Spike frantically shaked his claws as he started to panic. "I mean, you might not be aware of it because you don't remember it ever happened. Like in Power Ponies number two five seven; Mindless Mane-iacs!" He added.

"Spike, I am starting to believe that you have been into those comics more than you think you have. Real life is not a bit close to fiction in any conceivable way." She gave him a small smile and set her hoof on his shoulder. "And even if she did go and turned evil then we will do our very best to help her the same way she helped me." She stated, with a smile of pure confidence.

Spike pondered on her words and soon found himself smiling at Starlight. "You're right, if worst comes to happen we can help Twilight together with our friends return to the good side, no matter what!" He exclaimed, inflating his chest off to show his determination.

Starlight nodded in agreement as she raised her hoof to Spike to bump with him, which the drake did so happily.

"I'm gonna deliver Twilight's breakfast to her before it gets cold and she forgets to eat… again." The little drake set up the plates filled with food on a platter and dashed out of the kitchen, with a confident smile and a jump on his step.

Starlight groaned tiredly once Spike was out of the room and had to take in everything they had been talking about and the ridiculous idea that it all stemmed about, she was not ready for this day as it seemed. She slowly got off her chair and picked up the dirty dishes from the table and set them on the sink to start washing them while a small thought crept onto her mind and considered the thought for a moment.

“Queen Twilight Sparkle, Supreme Ruler Twilight Sparkle... Empress Twilight Sparkle, hmm,” in her thoughts the pink unicorn couldn't stop herself to voice out how it felt the titles that Twilight could have if she was to achieve such height in power until the cold realization hit her with more fierceness than she would have liked it to. “okay… no need to panic, just gonna head out to my room and make a quick scan spell to see if there are any signs of dormant spells within me that forces me to give unconditional loyalty to Twilight. Hehehe~" she chuckled, going from a walk to a quick canter to her personal bedroom to ease her worries.

~~***~~

It was dark. Beyond darker than any night can produce since there was no source of light that could be seen in this desolate room. Less than a room, it was a prison that contained a dangerous thing.

It lay on a corner, sitting, waiting. It was its punishment to be here. To wait for who knows how long until somepony would set it free from the sunless cell.

The wait seemed to be an eternity, with no way to tell the passage of time everything felt as if only minutes had passed, or years, until it all was finally over when a dull noise came from outside. It was repetitive, constant, like the noise from a hammer against a wall, the figure stood up from its corner and walked to the center of the room in preparation for the moment to be set free.

The hammering continued on for some while but the figure didn't mind that, it had been waiting for so long to have a second chance to make things right, to be used for good and to live in peace.

The rythmic noise soon changed as the loud noise of a wall crumbling down resounded on the other side of the cell.

It was hesitant, wondering whether it should go to the door or stay in place, knowing well that those on the other side could probably be weary of it and what it was capable, so it was better to take on a seating position and wait for the door to be open.

The clanking noise of an opening lock was heard then followed by a latch that opened the door.

At the barest movement of the door a gust of wind rushed inside to fill the room with fresh air, lifting up the collected dust around the room, causing the figure to cough and swat away the dirt filled air.

From the entrance the silhouette of a stallion walked inside the room, followed by two others from behind him, standing a bit close to the door but fairly away from it.

It had a hard time trying to see who the mysterious figure was through the dust that still lingered in the air, but perhaps it was the figure of the one who had imprisoned it here. It opened it tried to speak but a small croak of its throat came out, it tried again with more effort this time.

"Ro- Rock-"

Something forced its mouth shut, preventing it from speaking another word causing it to be startled for a moment until she noticed the magic emanating from the stallion's horn.

"You will speak when I say you can and nothing else," the stallion demanded, with a firm tone that made the thing feel intimidated.

It thought it was necessary to be harsh, knowing well what it was capable of then perhaps the stallion was being cautious.

The stallion soon composed itself and kept an eye on the creature, watching it was small and cowering from their brief interaction, "to think that something so valuable would be hidden inside a place like this? Truly baffling." He muttered to himself as he took a step forward to the thing.

It paid attention to his voice, judging by the fake accent it was certain that he was from Canterlot, most likely a noble that could have an ego bigger than the mountain Canterhorn. It watched him and taking into account his appearance, it deduced that he was not a pony It encountered in the past nor one could be aware of its imprisonment so this could mean that its jailer has failed to keep it in custody and this stallion has arrived to set it free.

"Now then," the stallion said huffing the last remaining specks of dust from the air. "You will start by doing as I say and expect that my orders are followed to the letter, am I understood?" The stallion instructed the creature without losing the grip of magic on its mouth.

It trembled in fear, having a feeling that the stallion would force it to do horrible things like the time before the imprisonment. No, it refused to be used like such and be left to carry the blame.

It shakes its head vigorously in denial.

The stallion growled as he walked towards the creature. "Listen to me you unworthy clod, if I demand you to do something I expect you to do it!" He growled, holding the chin of the creature to make it look at his eyes. "Or is it you wish to stay here to the end of days?" He threatened giving it a stern glare, his magical grip only loosened by the chin of the creature.

With only one option to choose, the creature nodded quickly in acknowledgement to the stallion's threat.

The stallion nodded once and smiled, "since you have learned your lesson you must now see me as your master." He said with an air of smugness around him. "Now, let us begin with your name, and be careful if you speak out of line, hou hear?" He warned, while loosening the magic hold on the creature's mouth.

The creature carefully moved her mouth to speak but hesitated for a second until it replied with a soft melodious tone that talked in a low bit hearable whisper. "M- my n- name is… Obsidian Mind, master." She said, giving a low bow.

Dreamweaver.

Obsidian Mind followed Twilight and Spike out of the forest and reached down the road that led to the town. She could tell from afar that the town held a certain aura of humbleness and modesty, with how the houses were made of wood and rooftops of hay.

"There it is, Ponyville on sight!" Spike exclaimed, flying close to the dark mare. "So, how does it look?" He asked with a good natured smile.

"It d- does look beautiful and p- pe- peaceful." Obsidian said, enjoying the view of the entire town from the hill and feeling in awe at how it looked.

Spike chuckled a bit as he shifted to be in front of Obsidian, "believe me when I say this but this town is anything but peaceful," he corrected the earth pony mare with a wide grin. "In Ponyville something crazy is always happening, always."

Obsidian tilted her head, surprised at what Spike meant with those words but since he didn't elaborate she just shrugged and they continued on down the path, walking together closer to the town.

The town seemed lively and busy as Spike said. Obsidian Mind watches around her as the townsfolk bustling around the streets on their own activities and foals rushing around in groups, playing their games and having fun, the mare took notice that there were more earth ponies than unicorns or pegasus as far as she can tell. It didn’t mean much for her in regards to such detail for her own plans.

As they continued on, they turned around a corner and reached the main street. Obsidian had to stop for a moment and observe the tallest building in the town. She was certain that the alicorn had a castle of itself or at least one edification that displayed her power and authority where everypony would find her and ask for her advice but never she had expected it to be a massive castle made out of crystal that shines to the ponies to see. Obsidian Mind could only stare at it in awe.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Asked Spike, hovering at face level to Obsidian and with a smile once he caught the black earth pony staring at such marvel of a building, "you know, Twilight obtained this castle after defeating Tirek with her friends, quite the feat, you know?" He continued on as he enjoyed watching the expression of amazement on Obsidian's face.

"It re- resembles the c- ca- castle of the Crystal Empire!" Breathed the ObsidianMind as she regained her mobility from her hooves and reached up to Twilight.

"You've been in the Crystal Empire?" Twilight was surprised at the tidbit of information from the dark unicorn.

"Ju- just a few ti- t- times, I enjoyed the city and me- meeting Princess Amore." She replied, keeping her eyes on the magnificent building and walking past both Spike and Twilight.

Spike landed next to Twilight and gave her an odd look at the mulberry alicorn. "Princess Amore? never heard of that one" He was intrigued to ask if the earth pony didn't know that was not the name of the princess of the empire.

"She probably refers to her by her first name," dismissed Twilight with a bat of her hoof. "You know that her full name is Mi Amore Cadenza." She explained further, taking a stride to be with Obsidian once more while Spike stood there mulling things over.

"It really is a b- be- beautiful castle, princess Twilight." She praised, giving a joyful smile.

Twilight gave an awkward smile, "no need to be so formal, Obsidian, you can just call me Twilight," she gestured with a more passive smile. "We can treat each other like friends."

"Fr- friends?" Obsidian remained still, stunned for a moment at how she was called, and began to process the word that she never heard in her life. "I never had a f- fr- friend before." She said surprise in her voice with a hint of fear under the tone.

Twilight then stretched her hoof to Obsidian, "then I would be glad to be the first one to be considered as one."

Obsidian was hesitant on taking on Twilight's hoof but watching the honest smile of that mulberry alicorn she lifted her shaky hoof she bumped on Twilight's own. She smiled, even when her mind reminded her about what she still had to do.

"Hey, don't forget about me," Spike landed in the middle of the two mares looking a bit miffed that he was left out.

"Oh! I am s- s- so- sorry, I didn't me- m- mean to imply not being fr- fe- friends with you t- t- too!" Obsidian cried as she sat to hug the little drake but stopped, hesitating on the hug, in case the little one wasn't a hugger.

But Spike changed his expression and laughed for a bit as he reached for one of Obsidian’s hoofs and bumped it with his claw, "sorry, I was just teasing a bit," he then puffed out his chest and pointed his thumb at himself. "But you can still count on me to be a good friend."

"The best I might add," corrected Twilight, hugging her little dragon.

"Th- thank you both," Obsidian said, feeling overjoyed that two strangers offered her their friendship. It was unique, special, even fantastic could be used to describe such a feeling and she loved it for what it was worth but deep down a pang of guilt hit the back of her head and subdued the happy feelings down a notch.

They continued on to the castle without much of a word and even if the building itself grew taller the closer they got. Once they reached the front doors Spike took the lead and held on the knobs of both doors, “here we are, the Castle of Friendship!” With that he opened both doors simultaneously to reveal inside.

Obsidian marveled at the large corridor and at how tall the ceiling even was more taller than what she had expected. Even the glitter that came off of the walls dazzled her eyes, showing how immaculate it all was.

"You must be tired from your trip," Twilight guessed once they reached the stairs to the upper levels of the castle. "I will show you to the guest room while Spike can bring you something to snack." She offered.

"Oh n- no, I don't w- wa- want to impose." Obsidian tried to refuse, waving her forehooves in rejection.

Twilight was a bit concerned but still carried her smile, "no worries, we are here to help a friend in need." She insisted, holding her hoof on the dark mare’s shoulder.

"O- okay… th- thank you," she yielded, following Twilight through the stairs while Spike made his way to another hall down the path.

It wasn't too long when they reached the guests rooms, a full hallway with doors on both sides for anypony to pick as their room.

"This one will do nicely, it is close to Starlight's room… and also Trixie's- just in case you need something." Twilight opened the room to show a completely furnished bedroom with a generously big bed and another room that led to a personal bathroom.

"I ca- cannot thank you enough for this pri- Twilight," Obsidian said, showing her gratitude towards the princess.

“No need to thank me. This is something I would do for anypony,” she gave a small nod and a smile. "Spike will come here soon with something for you to eat, while you can wait on the bed or wherever you feel comfortable." Twilight suggested as she turned around to leave. "See you in a moment." She added before closing the door.

"Until then," replied Obsidian before the door closed and left the mare alone. She observed the bed and poked it a few times before jumping on it and relaxed her body as her eyes remained focused on the crystal ceiling, specifically on the chandelier, and her thoughts swirled around her mind, doubts and hesitations were eating inside her but amidst the inner turmoil there was one thing that made her push herself forward with what she had to do and clear her mind entirely of such debate.

"It will happen tonight then."

***

Spike made his way to the kitchen where he found Trixie and Starlight idly chatting with each other, or as Spike could hear Trixie was the one taking most of the conversation.

Starlight noticed Spike's return and quickly greeted him, "hey Spike, returning from your trip with Twilight?" She asked, ignoring the pout face Trixie gave for interrupting her current story.

"Just arrived. We made it to Zecora's home; where she gave Twilight a potion that will help her with her sleep at night and you girls won't believe what happened after that," he began telling the adventure he had, making sure he had the attention from both mares as he continued on with the story of his heroic rescue. "We both rushed deep into the forest, almost reaching to the castle of Two Sisters, and found a hoof reaching out of the quicksand just up ahead of us and we knew we needed to act quickly as we rescued a mare from the treacherous quicksand and from the clutches of the Everfree forest." He couldn't help but push out his chest and lift up his hand to his face once he finished.

Starlight seemed enraptured by the story while Trixie looked a bit miffed.

"After that, we returned to the town and Twilight then decided to bring her home with us since she lost her saddlebags with all of her belongings on the quicksand." He finished along with preparing a daisy sandwich.

"So, does this new pony do have a name or is she going by the alias of Blank Space." Trixie asked, looking down on Spike from how high her muzzle was.

"Mindy The Silent, that is her name," Spike replied, setting the food on a platter with a glass filled with orange juice.

"Quite the name, probably from Canterlot," guessed Trixie as she got off her seat and walked closer to Spike. "Trixie must say that it is so generous of Twilight Sparkle to lend a helping hoof to those in great need of it." She added, receiving a curious look from Spike and Starlight.

"What do you mean?" The little dragon asked, expecting for Trixie to elaborate on the matter.

"Is it not obvious? Does the Great and Powerful Trixie need to explain it to you?" She mockingly asked with a playful grin, to which Spike replied with a growl at the azure unicorn.

Trixie took that as the answer she needed and decided to forward with her explanation. "Twilight has always been such a good mare so good that she might not know when a pony will take advantage of her good will," she began moving around Spike to keep his attention. "Who knows when this mare might even become a freeloader in the near future."

That gave an awkward silence followed by Spike raising an eyebrow and Starlight coughing from the background.

"Seriously?" Spike asked after a good amount of time had passed.

Trixie nodded, holding on to her own opinion, "Trixie has always been serious, after all, if Twilight keeps this up who knows how many ponies will end up storming this castle to get a place to sleep." She pointed out believing in her own point of view.

Starlight decided it was time for her to take into the conversation, "what Trixie meant to say is that we could all go together and meet up with our new guest and know her better," she looked at both friends. "Perhaps she could need two more friends inside this big castle."

Spike seemed more convinced with Starlight's explanation and felt more relaxed, giving both mares his smile of approval. "Yeah, I guess that if Mindy is staying here for a while she could need a few more friends so that she doesn’t feel out of place." He concluded, taking the lead to the guest rooms for the other two mares to follow.

Trixie looked at Starlight and gave her a smug look of her persuasion skills, to which the pink unicorn laughed a bit, considering that Trixie was just being Trixie.

Upon taking the platter filled with lunch and the unicorn duo, Spike knocked at the door where their newest guest was and opened it afterwards, "hey, Mindy, I brought you some lunch and two other ponies that might want to be your friends." He announced, leaving the platter on a nearby table next to the bed where the dark earth pony lied upon.

Mindy sat up straight and watched the sandwich with curiosity before looking at the two other mares and gave them a welcoming smile.

Starlight stepped forward and gave her hoof as a greeting, "my name is Starlight Glimmer, a pleasure," she began before pointing at her companion. "And she is the Great and Powerful Trixie." She added.

Mind gave her hoof, with a hint of trepidation, "u- uhm, Mindy the Silent," she greeted the new mares, which they responded by bumping hooves in kind.

"I will leave you girls to get to know each other a bit better," Spike said with a smile, picking up the platter and pointing out to the door. "Gotta make sure that Twilight has everything in hoof for her research." He then scurried off out of the room, leaving the three mares alone in the room.

The silence was awkward at best, as Mindy looked everywhere but at the other two mares, wracking her head to find a starting point for a conversation.

Starlight decided to make the first move as she sat on the couch, at a respectable distance and cleared her throat.

"So, Mindy, where are you from?" She started, giving her the well practiced friendship smile Twilight taught her about.

"And what do you dedicate yourself to?" Added Trixie, once more feigning ignorance from Starlight’s stare with such intrusive intrusive questions.

Mindy looked from Trixie to Starlight for a few moments, considering what she could answer to these mares, doing also her best to not look suspicious. "I am f- from a small town near Canterhorn; called Moot Point. I am a dreamweaver."

Trixie didn't seem impressed nor interested while Starlight was curious to know more about this mare.

"Dreamweaver? I never heard of that sort of job." She said her gut feeling warned her of something was off about this mare but she labeled it as simple curiosity. "can you explain what this job entitles?"

Mind was nervous, she expected that her answer was of common knowledge but it was not the case as she tried to find the right words to answer Starlight's question.

"W- well, it is a si-simple job that helps ponies that suffer from insomnia, c- co- com- compulsion of anger, problems from eating or drinking too- much." She explained, fidgeting on her hooves while continuing on. "Basically it helps ponies to be a- able to obtain peaceful dreams through an induced sleep th- that helps them with any p- problem."

Trixie paid attention, wondering what kind of job was that, soon she lightened up as a thought came upon her. "Trixie assumes that is what hypnotherapists do."

"Father was a bit old fa- fashioned." Mindy shrugged lightly as she glued her eyes on the floor.

Starlight was now interested in the subject, it could be an option to help with Twilight's recent nightmares. "Can you show us how this works? For curiosity's sake." She requested.

Even Trixie seemed interested as Starlight noticed how subtly the azure unicorn inched closer to their newest friend.

In an instant, Mindy stopped being shy and nervous and lifted her head to look directly at both mares with a look of certainty. Before Starlight could even frown inconfusion she noticed the jet black earth pony opened her mouth to say something but everything went dark as her eyes closed

Thud

Smack

Mindy watched Starlight fall asleep on the bed but she winced once she saw Trixie fall flat, face down first on the hard crystal floor along with cape and hat.

"Oh dear," she whispered as she helped the sleeping mare carry her up on the bed and to check for any wounds. Fortunately for Trixie only her muzzle was red from the impact. "That is good… I think."

Obsidian Mind took a deep breath to ease herself and observed the two mares sleeping without any care in the world. "I better get started then." Resigned, she leaned closer to Starlight and began to whisper in her ear.

~~***~~

Starlight Glimmer was in the middle of the desert, nothing but sand and rocks as far as the eye can see. Nothing to use as a guidepoint she had been walking for what seemed to be hours, even there was no telling that she was getting anywhere.

From 1 to 10, 1 being cold and 10 being scorching hot, how do you feel?

"10… it feels like a scorcher." Starlight replied unconsciously, dragging her hooves under the intense heat of the sand, even the intensity of the sun was making her more uncomfortable on her coat, like an itch that she couldn't reach but tried her best to ignore.

She continued her trek forward, her need to find something -anything- was getting more desperate as she continued to find herself in midst of the sand and she feared that it would not change anytime soon as she had no other option but to push forward.

At the distance Starlight spotted an object, a palm tree, in fact it was an oasis. The pink unicorn rushed towards it with the desire to feel the coolness of the shade they could bring. using all her strength in the process but it was all worth it .

From 1 to 10 how do you feel?

"8, it feels good to be under the shade." Starlight replied as she ventured deeper into the palm trees.

Indeed it felt nice to be under the shade, the deeper Starlight walked into the shadows the cooler it started to feel. It was relaxing.

From 1 to 10 how do you feel?

"7, it feels nice and relaxing." Starlight replied, enjoying how without the intense glare sun on her back, she could let loose of her aching muscles and enjoy the coolness of the shadows.

The further she continued on, she could start to hear the sound of water close by, and as luck would have it, there it was. Crystalline blue water that even by watching it was a refreshing feeling to Starlight.

She trotted to the water and dipped her hooves into the lake, walking slowly she felt the water reach to her barrel.

She could still walk deeper and was now neck deep into the water, no longer her hooves touched the bottom but still Starlight needed to go deeper.

Starlight submerged her head into the lake, allowing herself to sink into the bottom and enjoying how good ghe water felt.

Totally relaxed, her body limp and at ease, Starlight could see that she still went deeper and deeper, noticing how far the surface was getting but she paid no mind to it, focusing on how good it was to relax and submerge deeper.

The water was soothing in her coat, no longer bothered on where she was but focused on relaxing, enjoying how good it was to relax her body and mind.

Nothing. Starlight was floating in the middle of nowhere. She couldn't see, nor hear, nor feel, not even give voice her own thoughts as she was in a mindless state of which her mind was an empty vessel in need to be molded by the only voice she listened to.

Starlight touched the bottom.

~~***~~

Obsidian Mind, breathed in relief, watching how both mares were now in a deep state of hypnosis. She knew that other methods would be faster but for the plan to work she needed somepony in a free mind of thought and not an obedient, down to the letter, mindless pony.

Surprise enough that the mare called Starlight had resisted more than she expected, compared to the other mare that is. But it did not matter how many magical wards a unicorn can cast on herself Obsidian always knew that her power to overcome any unicorn was absolute.

"Now, I want you two to listen and dream." She whispered, leaning closer to Starlight's ear and began to murmur gently into her ear. Words that seemed intangible but they reached the pink mare nonetheless, while Starlight gave a soft smile the more she heard from the dark unicorn.

~~***~~

There was nothing around Starlight, only the void of her mind as it was nothing but herself inside and then in an instant something changed, the space around her morphed and she was now inside a room but not any room, she recognized as the throne room of Twilight and her friends. But it was completely empty except for the furniture and a glowing purple orb that was floating above the table.

Starlight walked closer to the round table and kept an eye on the orb. It began to swirl slowly and began to grow in size, pulsing in rhythm with Starlight’s breathing, once the pink unicorn reached the table she kept her eyes on the orb as it began to glow brighter.
“Obey Twilight, serve Twilight, please Twilight, follow Twilight.” It said in a sweet tone of voice that it gave Starlight a pleasant feeling and a desire to hear more, but deep inside she could tell that what it said wasn’t right, Twilight was her friend and as such she had seen Starlight as her equal, regardless of the teacher student relationship they had, Twilight never pulled out rank on her to do anything for her friend.

The orb soon enough revealed an image, one that Starlight recognized all too well. She saw Twilight offering her hoof in friendship, after all the fighting, the revelation, of a dark future, after so much hatred and yet.

“Twilight has given you so much, why not give something in return?” The orb spoke once more, showing Starlight more images of their friendship with the mulberry alicorn in
Ponyville. “Obey Twilight, serve Twilight, please Twilight, follow Twilight.” It repeated,dousing the pink unicorn in that sweet sensation that she couldn’t resist.

Starlight had to admit that the voice was right, Twilight had done so much for her and what had she done in return but to use magic against her friends and other inconveniences around the Ponyvillians, Twilight had forgiven her for those transgressions as well. It was due time to give something back.

"Twilight could be a great leader and all the kingdom must know of this." This time the orb showed Twilight in a throne, in this same castle, with a royal cape, jewelry ornaments around her body, a golden scepter and a crown that was bigger and shinier than the ones that carried Princess Celestia or Luna, while around her all her friends and neighbors from Ponyville bowed before Twilight as they changed her name as queen of the kingdom.The voice resounded around the room creating an echo that hit Starlight from every single direction and made the mare feel her heart aflutter with each word it said. “Obey Twilight, serve Twilight, please Twilight, follow Twilight.”

She could no longer resist it, it has been done and Starlight was the mare to help Twilight become the sole ruler of all Equestria and nopony, neither earth pony or alicorn will stand against her objective to grant Twilight the kingdom.

Obsidian Mind watched the reaction of Starlight's face. The dream went on as expected, the conditioning was being accepted by Starlight, making her become a loyal ally to Twilight Sparkle. Obsidian then watched how Trixie was doing and smiled in relief on how the Azure unicorn was much easier to control.

"Obey Twilight... serve Twilight… please Twilight… follow Twilight…" Trixie droned off as she continued sleeping.

With these two mares conditioned it was all going as her master instructed, to which she was hesitant to obey him the more she continued even when there was no other option for her to stop him. Once she was done her freedom was guaranteed.

~~***~~

Starlight woke up, she looked around and noticed that it was completely nighttime, not only that, but she was located in the rooftop of the castle, away from the pool but close to the giant star that decorated the front of the castle and next to her side was Trixie, who was mumbling something in her sleep, her ear and left forehoof twitching until she woke up with a snort while using her right forehoof to clean her muzzle from drool that pooled all over her cheek.

"Wha' zahh?" Mumbled Trixie, she looked around and felt a bit disorientated until she found Starlight next to her. "What was in that punch?"

Starlight ignored Trixie and helped her to get up and guide her friend back inside to and into their own respective beds for the rest of the night.

That was until she noticed a dark figure that was lying prone. Starlight focused on the intruder, who she assumed was writing something on the floor with a piece of chalk. At a closer inspection, Starlight could notice that it was a magic circle that the pony was drawing. It was big in comparison with those she normally knew with several runes drawn in it, it seemed like complex to recreate and in the center of it all was a six pointed starburst that Starlight knew from only one place, Twilight's cutie mark, and on top of it rested a black gem that laid inert on the floor.

Starlight walked closer to the pony and glanced back at Trixie, who was now on her senses, and returned to look at the cloaked pony.

"Uhm, excuse me?"

The chalk went flying and the pony yelped in surprise, it turned around and Starlight took notice that it was the mare that was brought by Twilight and Spike, Mindy, "oh, you two are awake! Good," she looked at both unicorns and nodded to herself. "I just set up the magic circle and all that is needed is for you two to charge it up!"

"Charged it up?" Starlight asked as she and Trixie walked closer to Mindy as the pink unicorn kept her eyes on the magic circle. "What for?"

Mindy reached out to Starlight and whispered, "it's all for the sake of Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Those words echoed within Starlight's mind as her eyes lost focus for a brief moment, same with Trixie, as she remained unmoving for brief seconds as the mantra came back into her head, before regaining her consciousness. Both mares shared a smile, showing excitement as they had a firm nod to Mindy.

"anything for the sake of queen Twilight Sparkle." Trixie replied first, making her way next to the magic circle and setting her horn high, Starlight being close by to take her own place on the circle did the same and both of them charged their horns into a blazing flare before unleashing their power simultaneously the magic from both mares hit the obsidian shard and charged it with energy that made the gem float in the middle of the circle while the engravings on the floor began to glimmer dimly and increasing it slowly gaining more light as it began to glow and the gem finally started to shine.

Mindy watched everything with rapt attention, keeping an eye that everything was going accordingly. Soon the obsidian stone will reach to its fullest charge and then it will start the spell that will reach throughout the entire town. She made sure everything was set and that nothing would go awry once it fired off and preparing for the next part of the plan

The crystal was at full capacity by the loud humming of magic vibrating through it and in the blink of an eye the spell imploded, a magical aura of violet and black soon manifested all over Ponyville and its sleeping residents covering everything from Ponyville’s hospital to Sweet Apple Acres.

~~***~~

Twilight watched the sunset from her bedroom and decided to start her ritual sessions before going to sleep, even by getting everything ready she even pulled out her onesies for a more comfortable sleep.

Take the opportunity to reach for her saddlebags and pull out Zecora's potion with her magic and consume one sip from the vial. Her dreams had been repetitive and had started to wear her down for the last week, which was why Twilight needed to get rid of them and have a good night's rest. Setting the potionat the nightstand and climbing on to her bed to be sound asleep, ignoring the brief flash of light and the rumbling noise that traveled into the entire town.

Author's Note

Tookme long enough to write down the hypnosis...

One of those days.

It was still dark just before the break of dawn where the streets of Ponyville were barely vacant with nothing but the noise of crickets and the clopping hooves of a mare walking down the main street as she always did on a daily basis in order to open her small business.

Bon Bon has always been an early riser to get everything in functioning order to the candy store, prancing happily to her way, carrying with her saddlebags full of ingredients, as she always needed to get her new batch of taffy ready and sort out new jars filled with candy, and the noise of her keys jingling with every step.

She always enjoyed the quietness and the cold morning air around the town as the peace gave her a good feeling of calm and a renewal of energy with the enjoyment for the starting of a new day. Bon Bon was enjoying herself until she heard the noise of two sets of hooves behind her caught her attention and from aside she saw two ponies walking past her, going at a faster pace than her without even looking at the cream coated mare.

This surprised Bon Bon but the mare just gave a light shrug, guessing that these ponies were going to the morning train and whatnot, probably even trying to be the first in line for a fresh batch of bread in Sugar Cube Corner, either way she just went on her way and arrived to her candy store and pulled out her set of keys, jingling at the pull of her hoof and set to hold on the main door key and insert it and unlock it. “Another day, another foal smiling for sweetness.”

by the time she opened the door she was on time to turn around and watched the sunrise to arrive but the thing that caught her attention was that more ponies were walking down the same street that the previous pair walked down a few minutes ago, it was curious but probably some event planned for the morning, probably organized by Pinkie Pie, but the thing that caught her attention was the fact that she noticed that all the ponies that walked down the street were unicorns.

She noticed that more ponies walked down the same street, all unicorns as before, and she noticed Lyra among them along with Dinky, Amethyst Star, Script Writer, Sparkler and others that she couldn’t recognize.

It was strange and rather intriguing to see more groups of unicorns walking down the same street, probably others going down other parts of the town; she rushed down to meet up with Lyra to learn about this event that she was unaware about.

“Hey, Lyra!” Bon Bon rushed onto the unicorn and joined the group, walking next to her friend and glancing around to keep everypony in sight. "Is there some sort of special event that I am unaware of? It does seem like a lot of unicorns walking down the same direction” She still glanced around the other unicorns, the way this all was happening gave her a strange feeling in her gut and that was never a good sign.

"Oh, hey Bons!" Lyra greeted her friend as if she just realized she was just there. "Just this morning I got up and realized that we have a princess who we never had pledged our fealty towards her Royal Highness, isn't that horrible?" She said, looking shocked at her friend while still keeping her pace forward down the street.

The cream colored mare blinked in confusion, looking at Lyra with uncertainty, "what do you mean? Twilight never was the kind of mare to ask for something like that." Retorted Bon Bon as her gut feeling became worse than before.

"That's princess Twilight Sparkle for you, Bons," warned the mint green unicorn, giving her friend a cold glare. "You should be more respectful of our highest figure of authority and Poniville's very own hero." Lyra added, not once looking away from Bon Bon as she continued on walking without much care on her steps.

Bon Bon was taken aback, she never saw Lyra this upset, not even that time when somepony deliberately had broken her lyre This was not how she usually behaved and yet yet this was happening, she needed to be careful on not upsetting her friend even more than she was already. "I guess you're right, sorry if I was being a bit disrespectful there." She gave an apologetic look and noticed how Lyra's face softened at the apology.

"Well, I guess I can leave you off the hook this once," Lyra conceded as she smiled once again and looked back at the street going along with the improv parade.

Not only was Bon Bon aware that Lyra was upset, but she had a bad feeling on the back of her nape feeling the same piercing glare from the other unicorns around her that had been close enough to hear their conversation, each of them eager to voice out their own complaints on the matter but seemed to let it slide due to her apology; unless she argued further on the matter.

This was becoming a delicate situation. Something was happening in the town and it involved two things, princess Twilight Sparkle and all the unicorns in town, unfortunately there were no clues to have a solid conclusion nor to point at a pony to make them accountable for this.

By the time the group of unicorns rounded up the corner to the main street, which can give a more direct view of the Castle of Friendship, Bon Bon noticed more unicorns walking down the same path, joining in the marching group, the cream coated earth pony now noticed that in this new group was Rarity and Sweetie Belle were among them, along with DJ-PON3, Snips, Snails, Lucky Dreams and several others more, it seemed that the entire unicorn population was walking down the street to meet up with princess Twilight.

Everything seemed to be going from bad to worse now that it was a fact that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony could also be compromised or corrupted to the same thing that was happening to the unicorns. This was now a dangerous situation, one that only a spy master could deal with and Bon Bon knew that she would need her spy kit at home and prepared herself to investigate this case further in order to save all Ponyville and its heroes.

"It's gonna be one of those days."

~~***~~

Celestia was in the dining room enjoying her morning tea, while looking at the door and waiting for the doors to open for her sister to arrive. She glanced back at the breakfast she made for Luna, a pancake with banana slices, honey and oats along with a lavender tea to accompany with, glad that it was still warm and not yet soggy from the honey. Celestia knew that her sister was just about to walk inside in a moment.

As in cue both doors opened by the night guard and Luna strutted into the room and took a seat on her chair, Celestia smiled behind her teacup at how well she nailed her timing.

"A beautiful morning as always, dear sister," greeted Luna while she glanced at her breakfast and began to eat.

"And a magnificent dawn from you as well, sister," Celestia replied back as she began to enjoy her pancakes.

In silence, they enjoyed their flapjacks for a while until Celestia looked up at her sister, with a soft smile, "how was your night, Luna? Hopefully nothing too stressful happened inside the dream realm?." She asked, in a way she always started a conversation.

Luna finished eating and drowned it with a sip of her tea, "avoiding specifics, it was a good night, except for a few nightmares happening in Applewood because of a recent flick that premiered in the recent month about monsters under the bed but all was taken care of." Luna explained, with a soft smile of the accomplishments of her work.

"That is wonderful to hear, Lulu, ponies, especially foals, do need a healthy amount of sleep and peace in their nights." Celestia gave her sister praise as she continued on eating. "I, on the other hoof, will have a dreadful meeting with Lord Stuck Up and his wife, Lady Gold Digger, on the matter of the budget transfer of the royal treasury and the expenses for the upcoming month." She started groaning at that last part, showing how much she dreaded it.

"Why is it that you delegate such a pony to be the royal treasurer?" Luna gave a quizzical look at her sister. "You know that they snuck bits under the table for their own benefit."

Celestia gave Luna a small smile, one that the lunar princess knew all too well in their younger years, one that she could interpret as a smirk, "I do not need to worry so much about that," she began, taking a sip of her tea and finishing it off. "Not since Discord replaced all their golden ornaments, statues and bits into a mocking golden wrapped chocolate."

Luna couldn't help but smile at that bit of information, feeling almost glad to know that there was some sort or ironic justice behind all this. "Does Stuck Up know about this yet?" She wondered out loud doing her best not to burst out laughing, “Surely he must be pulling out his mane in anger.”

“Oh, you will know when he realizes what happened to that gold, dear sister,” she showed her toothy grin before eating what little remains of her breakfast. “Wouldn’t be much of a surprise if he barges in the castle expecting a full scale investigation about this.”

Luna dabbed her muzzle with a napkin and set her plate aside, “well, I am not going to ask for the whereabouts of the gold but I must have to know this; since when have you done this kind of thing? Miss goody goody horseshoes.” while asking she looked around the balcony to see if their chaotic friend was around. ”And where pray tell is Discord? Knowing him he would have loved to come here and brag about such heists.” She glanced even under the table and even in her teacup.

Celestia chuckled at the so-called nickname and gave Luna a shrug, "to be honest, I grew tired of being the paragon of harmony, I worked so hard and diligently to make this kingdom grow, always being fair and just by giving all ponies a chance to thrive. Sadly that only made some of them spoiled and bratty, the amount of Coups I had to deal with during the first couple of centuries would make Chrysalis turn her back on this kingdom," she said, her voice sounded like it was exhausted and her look distant but it all disappear in an instant. "So, I took care of making sure that ponies will only reach a limit on the influence of their power… and bits as well. You know how that saying goes; ladròn que roba a ladrón, tiene cien años de perdón." She gave Luna a playful wink and relaxed her back on her seat. "As for Discord, last time I checked he said he was going for a little timeout, though he never said where, or when." She added.

Luna was just about to burst out laughing but she had showed much restraint until she reached to her personal bedchambers, "oh, Tia, you must invite me to these things, surely you could do with more stealth," Luna gave a pleading look, holding her hooves together and crooking her head on one side.

Celestia had to admit that the idea wasn't a bad one, since this could be a moment of bonding between the two sisters and if anything the two could also help the ponies of Equestria this way, "well, I have been working ahead of schedule in order to have some free time just so that you and I could enjoy a full weekend in Manehattan, we could even invite Twilight with us for a merrier time." She added, giving a light chuckle and a subtle wink, once more.

At the mention of Twilight, Luna became serious and then concerned, she glanced at the direction where Ponyville was located and then back at Celestia, "sister, there is something that I wish to inform you about our friend, Twilight," she started, gaining the full attention from the white alicorn. "Last night, I was requested to visit her dreams and from within them I have fou-."

The double doors of the balcony burst open and from it three royal day guards dashed forward to stop close to the table of the two sisters, who were surprised by the commotion, “your Highnesses, prince Blueblood has requested your presence of an urgent matter that has to be attended immediately!” he urged with a deep bow, along with his other two partners.

Celestia managed to held out a groan of frustration, which Luna noticed by how her eyes bore the look of utter boredom, ”guess I better take care of this before he gets into one of his hissy fits,” she muttered as she stood up from her chair and prepared herself mentally for the first thing in the day to work on. “Enjoy your rest and I will meet you at Sunset.” She bade her farewell and joined the guards

Luna watched her sister leave and gave a light sigh, not wanting to delay her sister from her daily tasks and deciding to continue their conversation by the sunset. She glanced at the direction of the town of Ponyville and began to wonder how Twilight was dealing with her current dreams and the lack of it the night before. “I hope that Twilight manages to deal with this dream of hers." She mused to herself as she jumped off through the window, spreading her wings and flew off to her personal tower to rest for the day.

Celestia, on the other end was now escorted by three royal guards and each of them marched in complete sync with one another while matching Celestia's long strides as they moved directly to the meeting room where her nephew awaited the royal monarch.

As they head on she notices the constant glances from the three guards. It was brief and it seemed that they were nervous for whatever reason the spoiled nephew had in store for her, she breathed to ease her annoyance and muttered under her breath,”It’s one of these days.”

~~***~~

Twilight lay sprawled in her bed, giving a pleasant smile after one night of dreamless sleep and she could have enjoyed it for much longer if it wasn’t for the sunlight filtering inside her room, hitting on her face directly and caused her to groan in discomfort and wake up as usual, ready to take on the newest day.

“Good morning, my queen,” came a female voice from inside Twilight’s own bedroom.

“Good morning,” replied Twilight absentmindedly as she began to stretch her forehooves, followed by her wings. By the moment she rolled around her neck and popped the joints until she then realized that somepony was there, in the same room with her. "Wait… what?" In that instant Twilight felt more awake than any coffee could ever do. Moving quickly she jumped off the bed, untangling herself from the bedsheets and scanned her room to locate the origin of the voice it came from.

Looking first in the bathroom door was slightly ajar but she knew that no voice came from there, her wardrobe was locked and she was certain that nopony was there the night before she went to sleep, there was also nopony near her vanity mirror which held her modest set of makeup and he photos of her friends, she noticed Trixie was standing next to the door of her room that was supposed to be locked since last night and the mulberry unicorn was inside but the balcony doors were left open to let the cool night air inside Twilight suspected that must have been where the voice of the intruder came from.

Twilight did a double take as she focused back to Trixie who was still standing in place where she had spotted her and what caught her attention right now was the fact was that instead of her usual stage magician outfit she was wearing what appeared to be a standard maid outfit with the detail of a collar that had an amethyst gem that was the same shape as Twilight’s starburst.

The azure unicorn gave a few steps in the middle of the room and bowed towards Twilight, “how may I serve you today, my queen?” she asked, her eyes focused on the floor and her ears perked in attention of whatever Twilight would say to her.

Twilight, for her part, was at a loss of words and her mind was trying to process the reason behind the situation that was unfolding before her, “wha- whe- who-... how did you get in here!?” She fought to formulate the questions that she wanted to ask but still she only had one mouth, and with effort decided to choose one.

Trixie lifted her head and stood up straight, “the servicial and talented Trixie used her own personal lockpicking kit, as the devoted servant Trixie is, she must be in the same room as you are, my queen,” She pulled out the mentioned box, to Twilight, which she used to open the door.

Still confused, Twilight tried to bring herself to scold Trixie for invading her bedroom, acting like a total creep, but her mind still had more questions as if they continued on autopilot, "wait, why are you referring to me as queen?"

Trixie gave a sharp nod, "that is the title worthy of your greatness, one that symbolizes your position above others, that includes the rulers of Equestria as well," she explained with an extra dose of pride in every word. "Although, Trixie can refer to you by a greater and more powerful title if you so wish, such as empress or even goddess!" She squealed with excitement, giving indication that she loved the idea of callingTwilight with a higher status that nopony could ever dream to achieve.

Twilight was beyond belief as questioned what sort of strange prank Trixie had planned in order to behave like this. From what she remembers, Trixie usually was an egotistical and self centered mare that balued herself over friendship, but to see her have this sudden change of behavior was strange and probably bizarre. Not to mention where the punchline in all this was.

"No, there is no need to change my title as it is, I am a princess." She corrected, glaring at Trixie and chose her next question. "And what do you mean by servant? I never thought of you being subservient to anypony else but yourself." Twilight tried her best to look for any facial signs that could lead her to believe that all this was some sort of prank performed by the, self proclaimed, maid.

"Trixie might have been that way in the past, but now she has found a new purpose, one that can bring her new calling in life that will fulfill her beyond the petty tricks and boastful attitude; and that is to obey your very command, my queen." Trixie once again gave a bow, which only lasted for a second. "All you have to do is to say what you want and Trixie will bring it towards you faster than you can say 'in ten seconds flat'. You'll be amazed how efficient Trixie is as the most hard working, skilled and dedicated maid there has ever been!" The azure unicorn declared, waving her hooves to emphasize her words and her horn glowed to invoke her usual illusion of pyrotechnics.

Twilight was left surprised at the commitment on how far Trixie was taking this prank and how well the azure unicorn was not even showing any signs of disgust or discomfort with every word she just said, but that by itself was something she was getting worried about.

She needed to put an end to this prank.

"Anything I say, huh…" she rubbed her chin as she played along, just to find something that could make Trixie stop this play and leave her alone. "Jump on three hooves." She commanded and was a bit amused that Trixie started doing so and never showing any need to stop until Twilight told her to stop.

"Alright, clean my room," she was probably pushing it but it was all in order to call out Trixie from this prank and probably scold her for sneaking inside her room.

To her surprise that didn't happen once she saw how Trixie began to tidy up the place by using her magic on picking things up from everywhere and even brooming and mopping the entire room until it was immaculate. "Voila! The spotless and stainless Trixie has left this room sparkling clean as you requested, my queen." She gave a bow and looked at Twilight with the expectation of another order.

Twilight was now deciding to push it far off, going as far as possible that not only could this make Trixie call off this prank but to even make her go mad at her for such devious thing the mulberry alicorn had in mind to command such a nefarious order that could possibly leave Trixie washing her mouth for weeks to come.

"Trixie, admit that I am a much better magic caster than you and that I am much greater and powerful." She ordered, giving a smug grin at the azure unicorn. She was expecting that with this in any second Trixie would look at her with anger and disgust, shouting how unfunny her counter prank is all while throwing off the maid costume and probably ranting towards Starlight how bad things went.

Trixie just gave a single nod and bowed, once more, before Twilight so low that her chin was just barely above the marble floor, with her eyes closed, "the humble and inferior Trixie admits how superior and incomparable Twilight is, and that she is nothing compared to the achievements her queen has under her glorious name."

Twilight could feel her jaw hitting the floor, no words could describe how she felt after hearing the words she never thought would ever come from Trixie's mouth. The room remained still for a good amount of time until Trixie raised her head, but her body still remained knelt before Twilight. "Do my words please you, my queen?" Asked the azure unicorn with anticipation.

This was not a prank, that much could Twilight confirm. What was happening here was beyond her understanding. Her mind raced for options, theories, ideas of what was going on but nothing was of sense to this or even came close as to give her a proper answer.

But then there was one thing that came up as an option.

Starlight. She must have used a spell on Trixie to make her behave as a maid just to cement the idea of making the prank more realistic. Twilight believed this was the best option to explain Trixie’s behavior. It seemed so obvious to have Trixie embrace the role of a servant just to throw Twilight out of the loop and it really worked.

Twilight relaxed her body and allowed herself to laugh a little, "you did well Trixie, your… queen is pleased," she gave a mocking tone at the sentence as she laughed a little more. "Follow me so we can meet with Starlight." She couldn't help but play in the role of royalty, just for a bit.

Trixie beamed in happiness by the compliment as she rushed to follow Twilight outside of the room and down the hallway.

During the walk inside the castle Twilight was just relieved that this was Starlight's idea of a prank and she was mentally preparing to give one of her well known lectures on the abuse of magic spells and using them on one of their friends for pranks, in which case she thought that this was all consensual by both mares Twilight also had the idea to team up with Rainbow and Pinkie to counter prank them both in the near future.

It only took a few minutes later that they both reached the main hall where they found Starlight with a quill and clipboard in her magical aura, scribbling quickly on it, unaware of the alicorn and close friend being right behind her until she heard their hoof steps.

"Starlight, you have a lot to explain for this prank you made." Twilight declared, keeping her eyes on the pink unicorn while motioning to Trixie with her hoof.

Starlight was smiling at Twilight as she created her things away, "what prank you may refer to, my queen?"

Twilight, once again, felt that dreadful sensation in her stomach and the look of worry began to show on her face. Trying her best to keep herself under control she insisted on pressing on with Starlight to stop the act.

"You know what prank I am referring to. Making Trixie behave like a humble maid, doing my bidding and even admitting that I am better than her in magic?" She tried to keep herself composed but her nerves began to reach out and her smile began to crackdown. "I may be willing to forgive you for this if you admit it and now, and then we can all laugh about this." She insisted, looking at both mares expecting one of them to start laughing now.

Starlight cocked her head to the right and looked a bit confused, "I do not know what you are talking about, my queen."

Twilight was now feeling dreadful as it seemed that neither of these two were going to confirm her need of this being a prank, as they both seemed to be serious. She needed an answer, a sign perhaps, something that could be the difference between reassuring calmness and twisted insanity, "oookay… look, you two can keep going with this act all you want, in fact you win! You two have indeed made an excellent prank and have gotten in my nerves so much that I decided to head outside and and take a deep breath of reality, and perhaps have my breakfast at Sugarcube Corner, and once I come back here we can all laugh together at how I, Twilight Sparkle, was somehow crowned queen of all Equestria!" Ranted the mulberry alicorn as her mane shot astray and she trotted directly to the main door.

Upon opening it Twilight saw a large group of ponies in front of her castle. A group of ponies, by which Twilight noticed were in majority unicorns, were looking at her with excitement and somewhat devotion.

"It's queen Twilight!"

"Over here, your majesty!"

"I will be your most loyal subject!"

"Please allow us to serve you!"

"We will obey your every command!"

One after another, all the ponies were shouting to obtain Twilight's attention, rushing towards Twilight, going over the stairs and up to the main door.

In a quick reaction, Twilight rushed back inside and slammed the door shut and locked it, pressing her body on the door while several hooves, from the other side, bashed on it.

Meanwhile, Starlight and Trixie bowed before Twilight, "we await your command, my queen," both mares declared, much to the fear of the alicorn.

During all this Spike was just waking up with a cup of coffee on his hand, he took a sip from it and watched the commotion at the entrance, with a sigh and a shake of his head he said, "it's one of those days."

Author's Note

Celestia says a Spanish proverb that goeslike this; Theif that steals a thief gets one hundred years free of grief.

No one to blame

Moondancer had always been a morning pony, always ready and awake by sunrise, but recently she has been spending her nights by her desk, illuminated by the light of a candle and on front of her and a special book which she has bought a few moons ago when she noticed it inside a bookstore with a cover that called her attention and a title that convinced her to buy it; Me and my Shadow by Stigyan.

An autobiography written by a stallion from the far past, when Equestria was just in the first centuries of its founding and life was so different from what the present era was. She would never dare to let this opportunity pass by and get enraptured with its pages by the first day. She had been losing track of time reading the book followed up by a second time just to cross reference it with history books to mark real historical events in order to have a more accurate timeline of the travels of Stigyan and the Pillars.

It all went good but it all went better once she learned about a second volume and a third coming on its way, Moondancer was certain to enjoy spending hours on her reading but it all comes down to the fact that her schedule was thrown out of the window, to which she was now certain to fix as she made plans to go out with her friends just like princess Twilight had taught her, ot also helped to have the book of Friendship at hoof in the desk of her study.

Moondancer dragged her hooves to the kitchen and settled up a mug in order to prepare for some coffee in order to have a proper wake up, followed up with some oats cereal and toast, and enjoy another day of studies in the library and have lunch with her friends.

Until a knock in the door interrupted her train of thoughts, she noticed that the knocking sounded sharp and urgent. Whoever this was, it wasn't one of her friends.

Giving herself a mumbled groan and a few spins of her spoon on the coffee she grunted to jump off her chair and bring her mug with her to the front door. Giving it a good sip before opening the door and brace herself for the uninvited guest.

To her surprise a royal guard was in the front, looking at Moondancer with a critical eye, "you are Moondancer?" He asked not for the sake of the question but for the mare to confirm the answer.

Before answering, Moondancer gave another sip from her mug and hummed in annoyance, "that's me alright." She was still half a mug away from having a decent mood and the fact that a pony from the royal guard came to her home made her mood much more sour.

The stallion ignored the rudeness of her tone and continued on to what he came for, "the crown requires your assistance, do please follow me into a carriage," he said in a curt tone and was about to turn around and march away but Moondancer stopped him from moving.

"Wait, what is going on? Why do they need me?" She asked, never once had she been summoned by the princess, one or the other, and she was certain that there were other scholars that have far better academics to be selected than her.

The guard turned around and looked directly at Moondancer, "that information is classified and I cannot discuss it here," he gave a firm voice to impose how much of this was left out of discussion but he then softened his posture. "As for the other question, you were chosen because of your expertise on Wave Splitter's magic theory about magic frequencies." He replied before trotting to a stationed carriage and hitched himself up in order to pull it.

Moondancer, for her part, was now curious on what was going on that they needed her help but if the thing about her thesis is true then there might be one thing that she could think about that was happening. She had to move quickly now. Drowning the rest of her coffee and letting the burning sensation to wake her up fully and using her magic to bring her saddlebags, filling them up with books, ink, quills and parchment up to the brim and then some. She rushed up to the ornamental carriage and took off. She felt strange, being called to help the royal guard in some sort of mission that she had no idea what it was about and even worse was the hot coffee in her stomach that gave her a bad feeling, hopefully it wasn't literal.

~~***~~

Twilight was holding on to the door until she locked the door with her magic and glared at Starlight with anger, "Starlight what is happening here, why is everypony acting so weird?" She demanded, thinking to herself that this prank was getting out of hoof.

Starlight straightened up her posture, "as of today all the unicorns in Ponyville will swear fealty to your crown, my queen, to support you in anything you need for the creation of a new queendom, here in Ponyville." She started with glee, Trixie nodding along with Starlight's every word.

Twilight never thought how many times she felt her mouth was wide open, she might fear that it would never close up at some point. Hearing this was nothing she wanted to know and right here was Starlight saying the words she dreaded most and by spades with the entire unicorn population backing her up, something has to be wrong from all of this.

"You can't be serious about this, Starlight. Please, just tell me that this is just a prank and I will look past it all, especially what you did to Trixie." She pleaded, wishing with all her might that this might still be a dream and all it took was to wake up in her bed, inside her bedroom, or to have Luna just appear out of nowhere and laugh at her for a prank well made.

Starlight nodded and smiled atTwilight, “I am absolutely serious on this as all the other unicorns in town are,” she replied, ignoring completely how Twilight was flabbergasted and walked past her to the door. ”As of right now I was just taking in those who just arrived and what their new job will be inside the castle.” With that she opened theastle doors and thye ponies started swarming inside.

Twilight didn’t had a moment to process what Starlight's words mean as the lobby was now swarmed by ponies, mostly unicorns but some other earth ponies and a few pegasi, both of the last were a bit confused on what was really happening. All of them surrounding the princess with words of praise and adoration, teying to gain the attention of their princess.

That was when a magic barrier seperated Twilight from the crowd, "that is enough everypony, no need to overwhelm queen Twilight with praises and even more when we have to swear our loyalty to her." Starlight reminded, looking at the unicorns and a few others. "Now do be heading to the throne room, in order, and we can make it all appropiate and official." She began ushering the ponies down the hall while Trixie took the lead to guide the group towards the map room.

Twilight watched the giant group of ponies move until it was only her and Starlight as the pink unicorn walked closer and began dusting off Twilight's coat, "don't you fret, my queen, they are just excited to serve you," she gave a gentle smile. "Now, do come along, we better not keep them waiting any further." Starlight took lead, going directly to the map room.

"Starlight wait!" Twilight finally found her voice and stopped her friend from moving but she was at lost of words, nothing was making sense and everything was going to fast to process anything but she needed to regain some semblance of control and find out what was happening in town. "Starlight, all of this is going to fast and there is no need to be so rushed about this… ceremony." She wasn't sure on what she was saying or how deep this hole she was making but she had to say something to delay this to be future Twilight's problem.

"How about we take our time to get things in order and have a proper ceremony," she looked nervous and was sweating but she had to keep face. "How about… three days from today?"

Starlight gave a long look at Twilight, showing signs of suspiscion about Twilight's proposal for five seconds, until she gave a nod in approval, "an excellent idea, my queen, we can have ponies delefate these tasks and have a more ceremonial way to pledge our loyalty it will be grandiose." She enphasized the last part stretching her forehooves in excitment. "Leave the ceremony to me, my queen, I will have everything ready and with the aid of your selected subjects." She bowed to Twilight and pranced directly to the map room.

Twilight felt her stinach drop, she now made things worse by saying all that to Starlight and niw every unicorn will follow on that same suggestion. She needed to get to the bottom of this situation and fast before things get much worse.

"Miss Twilight?"

Twilight thought that the worse was yet to come but she undereestimated the situation completly. She turned aroind and saw another group of ponies, most of the earth ponies and pegasi were assembled behind Twilight and each of them bore faces from confusion to indignity, one in particular was a face of worry that came from Muffins who was standung in the front, closest to Twilight.

The grey pegasus gave a step forward and with her good eye she looked directly towards Twilight, "w- what is happening? I saw this morning Dinky and Amethyst walking directly to the castle, here, and when I asked them why they told me they wanted to serve you forever," her voice carried worry and she spoke slowly as to measure her words. "I mean no offense on them saying that they want to offer their service to the crown but it all happened so suddenly and I have this bad feeling ever since."

Twilight soon found that all theese ponies were just as scared and probably angry as well and that didn't bond well with Twilight, "do not panic, everypony there must be an explanation for all of this," she knew this wasn't what these ponies needed to hear but as it is it was all sge had to say. "Right now, I want you all to continue back to your daily lives until we find an explanarion that is happening to all the unicorns, I promise." She declared, watching that most ponies changed their expressions to relief and that eased Twilight for a moment.

"How can we trust in you!?" A voice came from the background, angry and accusing, Twilight had no idea who it was but that was not important as it turned out that the question itself made everypony angry once more.

Ponies began to ask the same question, demand an explanation or just to shout as the mob began to grow angrier and Twilight felt overwhelmed by all of this getting out of control.

"Ah believe her!" Shouted a louder voice, shutting off the crowd, everypony stepping aside in order to allow Applejack to make her way among them. As the mare that called out walked from the entrance into the hall. "There is no darn reason to think Twilight would be lying to us, not then not now." She then stopped next to Twilight and looked at the ponies reunited to center the attention towards her.

Most of them looked aprehensive and ashamed, muttering their apologies and glanced away. Muffkns was one of the few that seemed relieved from things getting out of control.

Twilight took the chance to address to the ponies and made sure to have all of their attention. "As I have noticed, whatever that is happening is only affecting unicorns right now we may not know more until we begin an investigation so my advice is for everypony right here is to spread the word to continue all with their usual activities and keep an eye out for anything suspicious," she made her voice loud and clear, making sure everypony got her attention. "Muffins, please let Mayor Mare know about this and to have Ponyville in high alert." She added fir the grey pegasus, who nodded and gave her a salute before flying off. Soon after everypony got the message and spreaded out back to town to convey others about the emergency.

Applejack waited until everypony left and then gave a stern look at Twilight "alright then, what's the plan?" She was expecting Twilight with information on how to act and was ready to take in her rol in order to help her friend.

Twilight looked away and gave a deep sigh, "I don't really know what to do, this all happened so fast and unexpected that I can barely grasp on the situation right now," she admitted. Still she had to find a solution to this and fast. "For now we better bring the others and send a letter to Canterlot for starters, then we better find for anything unusual in town."

Spike took this opoortuninty to jump in with parchment and quill on claws, "already ahead of you Twi, got this note of emergency on the ready to send off." He exclaimed, rolling up the parchment into a scroll and held it up in his right claw. "I even used the dire message script number three." He puffed his chest proudly.

Twilight beamed a smile of gratitud until she heard the last part, "wait, number three? Why not use number two instead?" She asked, looking a bit sheepish giving pleading eyes to Spike.

Spike grumbled in neyween breaths as he made a few adjustments to the parchment and proofreaded it.

Meanwhile Applejack watched everything and felt a bit curious, "what's suppoused to be different between number two and three?" She lifted her hat to scratch her head in confusion.

Twilight shuffled her hooves together and looked a bit nervous, they are basically the same but the main dufference is that number three implies that I don't know what to do while number two asks for assisstance."

The orange farm pony gave a flat stare at her friend but didn't comment on the matter as the town was going through some trouble to be arguing among each other aboit matters of pride.

"Aaand done!" Spike exclaimed as he burst the letter in flames in order to send it to Canterlot, directly towards princess Celestia.

"Great!" Twilight was becoming more confident with every action they did and looked at Applejack. "Now we just need to gather the others and we can-." Her plan was now interrupted by the cries of a mare from the front door.

"Twilight!" Shouted Rarity as she dashed directly at the mulberry alicorn. "I have come here, towards you, to make an announcement of my upmost loyalty to you!" She stopped close by and began to kneel before the mare.

In a rush of panic Twilight and Applejack stopped Rarity from lowering herself and hold the unicorn in a stupor.

"Rarity, you know that you don't need to do that, we're friends, remember?" Teilight forced a smile as she hoped that her friend could see reason.

Rarity, for her part, just laughed and gave a dismissive wave from her hoof, "oh Twilight, as modest as ever," she adjusted her mane and gave a few eyelashes. "I know that since we are friends we must be treated as equals, but now that you are a queen you are above any of us all." She added, giving a look of total adoration.

Applejack watched everything with an uneasy feeling, she knew how infatuated her friend could get about celebreties but this was just down right fanatism that she feared that Rarity would end up licking the dirt Twilight stepped on. "Alright missy, get your act together and stop being so fangirl on Twilight," she pulled Rarity back a bit and looked at her directly to cement her words on that skull of hers.

Rarity seemed displeased, holding Applejack's hooves and freeing herself, "excuse me? You dare to tell moì, to not be infatuated to the most important pony of our lives!?" Her voice began to grow as her horn sparked with magic and was pointing towards Applejack. "I have you know that this fangirl will stop at nothing to ensure Her Royal Majesty Twilight, will become the sole ruler of this kingdom and if I have to step on over on our frie-"

"Enough!"

Twilight stomp her hoof down and standed in between Applejack and Rarity, she needed to focus on seperating both mares rather than being afraid of the words that were not spoken. "Rarity, I… will have a coronation in three days and will have you to make me a dress for the oxassion. I trust in your skills to make it spectacular." Without any way to get through Rarity, Twilight went with her least favorite option and decided to distract her friend with a task instead of fighting on the situation.

Rarity for her part was ecstatic at the order as she couldn't resist the urge to shout in excitment as she clapped her hooves together, "oh yes, my queen, I thank you for this honor and will do my very best to make the most beautiful dress that Equestria- no the world has ever witnessed!" She shouted, gave a bow to Twilight and rushed out of the castle, directly towards her botique.

Applejack was still stunned by the attitude Rarity showed off, managing to reach for her hat and fan it to her face, "well Ah'll be… never seen that mare that angry, 'cept for that time Discord used his magic on her and attacked me for a rock and yet that felt tame compared to this." She adjusted her hat back.

"I never thought they would act like this. This is far more serious than I thought," Twilight was concerned and worried, she glanced at the map room were the other unicorns were residing and began to worry if any of them would be able to cause any harm to anypony if they spoke ill of herself. "We better act immediately. Applejack go for Pinkie and Fluttershy, I will head out for Rainbow Dash!" She then instructed. Giving no time to waste as Applejack nodded and headed out to the town.

"What can I do?" Spike adked, eager to do more in order to help.

Twilight frowned, she considered in rejecting his help, dearing that this was the plan of one of the dangwrous villains and it could place Spike jn any sort of risk that she feared would be turned against her but to tell him to stay safe would make Spike take even more dangerous options and that was far worse.

"Stay close to Starlight and Trixie, keep an eye on them and try to keep them from causing harm on others," she walked closer to Spike and placed her tight hoof on his shoulder. "But please stay safe, that is your priority and main concern, run away if you have to, understood?" She gave a solemn look at her little dragon and tighten her grip on him.

Spike wanted to dissmiss that last order a d that he would be fine bit looking at Twilight he dicided to reconsider. "I understand, Twilight, I will be fine." He gave a salute and rushed back down into the halls of the castle.

Applejack looked at Twilight with worry and glanced at Spike, who just turned around the corner, "uh, Twilight, don't 'cha think that having Spike close tah Starlight is mighty dangerous?" She trusted in her friend's desicion but she still needed to hear her reasons.

"My guess is that Starlight and the other unicorns must be under the influence of a relic that induces them to follow an especific pony, in this case me, to obey and be loyal above everything else. If that is the case, they will think of Spike as my second in command and will probably listen to him." She theorized, hoping that she was right and nothing bad will happen to him. "As far as I can tell as well, there is a high chance that Spike will find the culprit of this disaster much faster than any of us too." She was convinced that if there is a culprit to all of this they will link Starlight to their evil plans.

"Ah guess there is no need to argue with this then." Applejack sighed, accepting that Twilight was now getting ideas for plans and making her move. "For now, we might get starting to get the others and stop this once and for all." She then motioned to the door and started galloping, Twilight going right behind her.

~~***~~

Agent Sweetie Drops was laying down in the tree braches tyat gave her access to the main door of the castle and lowered her binoculars after watching Applejack and Twilight leave the building, in her hurry to spy on the mulberry alucorn she only had time to suit up and bring her binoculars but no other device that allowed her to hear their conversation.

It was enough for her to get some information but not answers to consider Twilight the culprit but right now she had two possible targets, three if the chance of Starlight faking her condition was plausible to be false. Yet no one to blame for this incident.

She jumped of the tree and headed directly to the castle. She needed to investigate what the unicorns will be doing, making sure that they will not cause trouble to the other Ponyvillians and to check on the possibility of an unknown pony among them, perhaps, with any luck, said pony would be the culprit that controlled them all from the background. Another matter was the time, for all she knew Ponyville could be only the first stop, a trial on how to take control of unicorns or even worse the other pony races, she needed to act quickly.

For now she had to observe and analyze, for the sake of this town and her friends.

~~***~~

Spike wanted to rush in to find Starlight but right now he realized something important, their newest guest who might still sleeping in her room, he quickly took a detour and took the stairs up to the guests rooms.

At the door he knocked three times and waited but nopony respobd, he knocked again a bit harder this time and pressed his fin on the door to hear anything but no sound came from inside. Spike decided to be drastic as there was an emergency happening and opened the door.

"Hello? Mindy are you awake?" Her asked, walking inside the room and looking at the dishelved bed and poked it. "Something is going on in town and we need you to be awake." He whispered, expecting to awake the mare and warn her about the possible dangers but she was still sleeping.

With much deliberation he decided to tug on the beesheets and wake up the mare and apologize for his rudeness. To which his surprise was the bed was empty and was only filled with pillows, he was now worried and rushed around the room, looking in the wardrobe, bathroom, unders the bed even inside the bathroom but there was no sign of the mare. Spike started to panic, bitting his claws and jumping on each leg not knowing what to do. Twilight had to know about this at once.

From the window of said room gave view of the lake that was connected to the waterfall of the castle inwhich was seen a black earth pony running away from the place.

Walking through the forest

Through the blue sky filled with clouds, over the vast green of dense foliage of the Everfree forest traveled a sky cart, pulled by two pegasi stallions, the cart was of simple design and seemingly old as for the stallions they both could barely steal a glance for themselves with how plain looking they were.

Their destination was not far now as they both agreed to bank on the right and land on a small clearing that the forest held, making a perfect landing on the spot and both ponies taking a breather for a moment.

While one took off his harness and shook off the dull feeling out of his neck the other one looked around nervously in all directions for any possible threat.

"First time in the forest, right?" Called out the older stallion to his novice companion.

"Uhm, y- yeah," the novice replied, not bothering to look at his superior, still at lookout into the dense woods of the infamous forest of any foul creature that could dare and jump at them for a quick snack. "I've heard of the stories about this place and the fate of those who are not careful." He added, jumping slightly as he heard a branch snap.

The superior chuckled lightly as he shakes his head at his partner behavior. "I get what you mean but not everything you heard is true, most of these creatures are territorial and they keep each other at distance, such as the cockatrice nest or the manticores hunting ground," he explained dismissively as he began unlatching the locks of the carriage. "Either way you can't go being too relaxed, as there might be one that strays from its path and manages to find us here. If so, get your flank here and help me out!" the older stallion shouted to his novice companion as he finished the last lock on the carriage.

The novice scrambled on his hooves and rushed to help his partner on opening the door of the vehicle and both stallions helped the mare out of it.

She was mare of ebony mane and jet black coat, her iris was of a gradient of amethyst color that held a sense of nervousness once she walked on the steps of the carriage.

The mare dragged a set of chains that connected to her four hooves that limited her need to run but not walk, adding the fact that her mouth was also tied up with a piece of cloth in between her muzzle that restricted her ability to speak.

The older stallion pulled out a key and unlocked the chains from the mare and tossed the manacles on to the carriage. "Remember your instructions and hold on to that cloth until we leave," he said with a serious and cold voice. "The town of Ponyville is at three kilometers from here, just keep the sun at your left and you will arrive there directly." He then quickly returned to the carriage and saddled himself back on the harness.

The rookie gave Obsidian a saddle bag with simple essentials along with a grey cloak on top of it all. "Be careful," the young stallion warned before rushing back to the carriage and prepared himself as well.

Obsidian watched the two ponies take speed with the carriage and take off to the skies. She pulled off the piece of cloth from her muzzle and wanted to shout at them to come back but it was too late, they were out of ⁷earshot by now. It was horrible, being abandoned in the middle of a forest with nothing but a saddle bag and a cloak but what other option she had left but to move forward.

Picking up the items and setting off to the direction the old stallion indicated as she walks down through the savage forest on her own.

***

Twilight had closed her last book and let go of a deep sigh, that resulted on little progress on the research of the matter of dreams. It had taken her the entire morning to find more about the subject of dreams with not much of success on the matter.

"I can't believe there is little to nothing aboit the dreams, not even regarding the magic of dream walking," the mulberry alicorn sighed, stacking up the books back to the shelves of the library, stretching up her limbs to ease up her body from her extensive reading.

Starlight joined in with Twilight on arching her back to relax the joints of her body, "we can chalk that up to another subject that was forgotten in time due to princess Luna's absence." She concluded by setting a book aside with the rest of the pile. "Would think that the subject of dreams was an open matter for everypony to know." She concluded as she stood up and stretched her limbs as well.

"You're right, there's so little about the subject of dreams that I can barely make a five page essay from it." Twilight complained, landing her head on the table. "Undoubtedly we will have to consult things with princess Luna about this and perhaps add an update on dreams for others to be informed about the matter." She added.

Spike patted Twilight's back as consolation, trying to look sympathetic, "we can still go with Zecora and check if she can help you with your sleep, those dreams have been nothing but troublesome these last days." He suggested.

Twilight gave a little smiled and lifted her head, "your right, Spike, at least we can ask Zecora for help." She set herself up on all fours and glanced at Starlight. "You wanna join us, Starlight?"

"Well, I would li- "

Before Starlight could finish her reply the doors burst open and small pyrotechnics s attered around, giving a big entrance of an azure unicorn that stood tall on her hindlegs while stretching her forelimbs as high and wide as she was allowed to do so.

"The Great and Poeerful Trixie has returned! bask in all of her unrivaled magnifisance!" Proclaimed the unicorn syandinh still until the fireeorks died down and her hindlegs soon gave up ad well.

deadpan glares.

Starlight giggled softly at her friends antiques while Twilight and Spike gave "How many doors did you kick open just to find us?" The young drake asked. Causing Trixie to snort, indignated.

"Trixie can assure you that she only practiced her spectacular entrance eight times before finding the correct door."

Starlight and Spike snickered while Twilight mentally groaned at the thought of finding all the castle doors wide open and with possible burnt marks around the frames.

Trixie soon made her way to Starlight and hugged her close, "oh, Starlight, the Great and Powerful Trixie has so many tales to regal upon you, of those of the highest mountains and lowest valleys and of those of how she captivated the hearts of the ponies, young and old, through her magnificent and flawless talents." She showed her excitement by the gleam of her eyes, expecting her best friend to say yes.

Starlight looked from Twilight to Trixie in regards to who to choose until she smiled at the azure unicorn. "Oh, how exciting, I would love to hear about your stories," she said, guiding her friend out of the library. "Let me just set the tea so we can enjoy the moment with comfort." They then turned around the hallway and their voice became distant echoes.

Spike walked close to Twilight and crossed his arms. "Well, guess it's just me and you then," he said with a smile that only Twilight could understand. "Just like old times."

"For our little adventure, we are enough." She agreed, walking to the front door of the castle. "Besides, it has been quite some time since we haven't done some adventure for the both of us."

Spike gave a claw pump in excitement, "alright, it might be just a walk to Zecora but there are a lot of things in the Everfree that could be interesting to find.

They both followed into town and directly to the outskirts to the enchanted forest.

~~***~~

It was all chaos.

The downpour of heavy rain rang through the entire forest, the torrential drops tgat impacted on the ground and trees began resounding in every direction as to block any other sound from within the density of the trees. The dark clouds obscured her path as if it was nighttime and nothing beyond her muzzle could be seen, forcing her steps to take an extra measure to avoid having them trip with an errant stone or up root on her way. Her cloak was also now soaked wet and weighed her down, obstructing her vision as well. She wanted to take it off but considered it better in order to keep herself concealed of any dangerous predator that could spot her once she was found.

Obsidian had been following the stallion's instructions as best as she could but the sun was barely visible in the sky due to the canopies of the trees that covered it all but was now unseen from the thick dark clouds that covered what little blue sky there was.

Fear and worry filled the mind of the mare as she tried to find shelter but nothing from trees to no end came across her path, she might as well be walking in circles for all that matters. She still had no other choice but to press on continuing in the straightforward direction until she could find a shelter or an exit from this dreadful forest that was beyond her logic on how it was able to brew a storm of its own.

As the rain continued to be relentless, not showing any sign of stopping soon while the black mare was growing exhausted from her trek and was on the despair of collapsing to rest her hooves then and there but she then noticed something in the distance. It was hard to discern but still it was still better than endless lines of trees to no end. That gave her the strength she needed to move forward and walk past the forest into a clearing that revealed the ruins of what seemed to be a castle.

Obsidian Mind wanted to run directly as fast as she could but once she slipped slightly on the myd was then that she reminded herself to be careful.

~~***~~

"Looks like a storm is going over that part of the Everfree forest, near the castle of the two sisters." Spike announced from the air, flying down to touch ground. "With luck, it won't go near Zecora's before we get there."

"Hopefully," agreed Twilight as she increased her pacing. "But to be safe we could go a bit faster, I do not want to know how strong this storm can get to be." She moved on while Spike joined her by flying close to her side.

The road to Zecora's hut was difficult to find as it was covered by the plantation of the forest that never allowed to show any sign of equine presence in the territory but that never stopped Twilight before since she had memorized the route to their destination with ease, the only thing they both needed to be weary about was the wildlife that could jump at them. Twilight knew this all too well and had her ears on high alert at all times.

"There it is, Zecora's hut at sight!" Spike claimed as he took the lead while Twilight was close by to keep an eye on him.

Spike knocked the door three times before waiting, just in time for Twilight tobe next to him and for Zecora to open the door.

"What a fortuitous surprise, two good friends standing together before my eyes," greeted the zebra with a passive smile as she stepped aside for them to walk inside. "Do please come in, feel at home within."

Twilight and Spike made their way inside the hut, at the center close to the cauldron, "Zecora, it is so good to see you," Twilight greeted, with a warm smile. "I was hoping to know if you had something that could allow me to sleep without dreaming?"

The zebra shamaness nodded, starting to search around her shelves for ingredients, "for this potion I will need some herbs and spices, bit no more other devices." She began pouring item after item in the cauldron, reciting her enchantment. "A batch of jazmin and a few of tigerlily, it will help you sleep like a little filly." She continued on while mixing the rest of the ingredients and started mixing it all together. The liquid soon morphed into a royal purple that shimmered in the light.

Zecora then scooped some and set it all inside a vial of glass, sealing it all up with a corck and delivering it all to Twilight. "Drink this at night and no dreams will be on your sight." She instructed, giving Twilight another four glasses extra. "But I must inquire, why is this that you desire?" The shamaness asked, curious as to the reason behind her friend's request.

Twilight considered to give her reply as she looked at the side to make her decision.

"Twilight has been having some weird dreams a few days ago and wanted to find a solution to stop them from disturbing her sleep every night." Spike beat Twilight with an explanation of his own and wilted at the glare Twilight gave him.

"A serious problem it seems, have you not asked the princess of dreams?" She asked further knowing there was an expert on the matter.

Twilight decided to take action by giving an answer to her stripped friend. "Since these are not nightmares it would be hard for princess Luna to interfere, besides I just need a few days of good sleep and hopefully the dreams will stop soon enough." She explained, setting up the portions in her s⁷addlebag. "How much do I owe you?" She added, pulling out her coin pouch and getting the bits ready.

Zecora shook her head and raised her hoof to stop Twilight from paying. "There is no debt for a friend's request, but I wish for a visit, for tea with friends is the best." She said⁰

Twilight returned the smile with the same energy, "thanks Zecora, come visit anytime," she invited, giving a hug to her friend and ŕrheading outside of the hut.

The zebra watched them leave back into the vast density of the forest and closed the door once they were out of sight.

"And with this we can call our mission successful," claimed Twilight triumphantly, now that she had the potions for a good night's rest.

"Yeah… I guess?" Replied Spike, his voice deflated, dragging his feet on the ground and his eyes on the ground.

Twilight noticed his change in mood and slowed her pace to meet with him. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked, looking at her crestfallen companion.

Spike looked at Twilight for a moment and considered to voice his thoughts. He opened his mouth, closed it and huffed a nit in annoyance before looking back at Twilight.

"Well, I was kind of expecting that Secoea would tell us that she needed one ingredient for the potion that we need to find," he began, pointing his claws here and there just to make his point. "Or that we would have to fight our way to get to Zecora, probably find somepony that has a secret map of a long, lost hidden treasure!" He showed his enthusiasm as he began to fly up to Twilight's eye level.

Twilight leaned back a bit from the sheer enthusiasm Spike was emanating until she smiled once he has done, "oh, Spike, not all adventures have to be of epic proportions," she began, focusing on looking forward. "This may seem a bit tame than what we do but you can't expect that every time we set a hoof outside the library somepony will cry for help. In fact the chances are one in two hundred fifty seven thousand three hundred and thirty three."

Spike wanted to argue further on his case but he knew better than to argue against Twilight's calculations. "Better lyck next tine, I guess."

The mulberry alicorn nodded, giving her young assistant a patient smile, "there is definetly going to be a next time, Spike." She promised as they continued back on the track.

The silence between the two was relaxing, if not a bit ackward, as they threaded further on until someghing caught Spike's attention.

"Twilight, did you hear that?"

The question made Twilight set her ears in high alert, checking for all her surroubdings for any sign of noise at reach, "what is it Spike, is there a monster nearby?"

Before Spike could give an answer the wind brought forth the same noise that came from the distance.

"Help!"

The cry of help was undeniable as it was barely closeby to where both Twilight and Spike stood at and had to act quick. Inside the Eveefree danger was counted in soades and time is of the essence.

"Quick, somepony is in danger!" Shouted Twilight as she began galloping towards the direction of where the shoit came from.

Even when he knew that danger was up ahead, Spike couldn't avoid grinning in excitement. Looks like the odds were in his favor.

~~***~~

She waited for the storm to end, hoping that it will end soon. In the meantime she wandered inside the ruins, looking for any inducation of where she was and any idea who the previous owner of this castle belonged to.

The ruins told little as it seemed that most of the banners and family shields had worn off through the passage of time, it mattered little to Obsidian but it helped her know where she was.

"I should had listened to father; staying in mountain Canterhorn was no way to know about the world," she sighed, continuing on as she kept an eye open for anything that catches her eye. Aside from the rodents, spiders, creepy gargoyles and the dark figure that followed her from a safe distance.

It was bad enough that it continued to rain but now it felt that she still had no idea on what happened to the world after her imprisonment, and other questions about her jailer, her new master and other important things.

It was confusing enough as it was then being alone in an unknown jungle finding her way to a village she never heard about and doing as she was told to do once she reached the heart of the town.

She kicked rubble on her path and watched it bounce towards an entrance, which she followed to find herself in a massive hall, void of space that was in ruins, with broken columns, lack of roof and a centerpiece that seemed to have five different pedestals that held nothing from them.

She observed the piece for a moment until she noticed something from the far end of the hall, she trotted to investigate and upon reaching the other end she noticed there being two thrones, clearly wrecked as well as the dias.

"This looks… familiar," Obsidian murmured, observing the throne and then up to the banners that seemed oddly new, compared to the ruins and vegetation.

Then she knew what those banners meant. Her body trembled, as a bucket of cold water was poured over her body, she stepped back and her head shook in denial. The banners of Sun and Moon.

"Th- the castle of the two sisters, bu- but how?"

She recognized them for who the previous owners were before the alicorns; the Guardians.

"No… i- it can't b- bu- be!" She cried, as she began to wonder how long her imprisonment had taken and what fate had happened to Rockhoof, the one who set her in that cell.

Decades, centuries, it all was a possibility now that she has seen it. What used to be a clear valley was now a dark forest, what used to be a galant castle was now ruins of rubble and vegetation, it made no sense but the proof was there.

It was getting hard to breathe, panic overwhelmed her mind and couldn't stand and stay there any longer. Her only option now was to turn around and run away, far from these nightmarish ruins, no matter where but still as far as her hooves allow them to.

She left the castle and rushed back into the forest, crossing the bridge and straight into the trees. Not caring that it stopped raining at some point as she was focused on one current thing only.

In her blind rush she missed an uplifted root from the ground, causing her to trip on the obstacle and was now flying in ditect collision to the floor landing face first into the mud.

She pulled her head up to breath and yried to stand up and run, that was when she realized she found no footing in the mud, her hooves couldn't find any solid ground to stand up on as her body began to sink on quicksand.

She tried to swim in the mud around her but she could barely move in any direction, her saddle bags and cloak were also weighing her down as she was neck deep in the mud.

"Help!" She shouted in act of despair, hopeing beyond hope somepony would come to her rescue. "Help!" She tried louder as she lifted her muzzle to keep on breathing.

She sank more until her face was the only thing above the surface as she had no other way to escape and even her outstretched hoof was still on to her wish to cling on to something, anything.

"Sister." She whispered before sinking her face into the mud and allowing herself to fall. She felt the darkness envelope her, the same one that she felt in her own cell that kept her away from the world outside and she hated it, she hated that many years had been passed by being lockdown inside her prison, she hated that the stallion that set her free was a power hungry brat that throwed her into a dangerous forest and she even hated this forest for the situation she was in now. Nothing was left for her now.

Until she felt a grip on her hoof and a light tug on her hoof then followed up a stronger one that began pulling her up and out from the quicksand and onto solid ground as she began to breath for air once more.

"Are you alright?" Asked a soft voice that was next to her, she couldn't see who it was by all the mud she had but nodded regardless.

She coughed up bits of mudfrom her mouth as she gave a weak nod from her head. "Th- thank you f- for saving m- me," Obsidian said, shaking off the mud off her body.

Twilight smiled, once noticing that the mare was indeed well and good, "thank goodness we arrived in time, never thought there was a quicksand around here." She glanced at the spot where the natural trap laid about and considered to set up a warning there for reference. "We should head back to town, who knows what other things could happen if we stay here." She suggested holding Spike on her back and guiding the dark mare with them.

"So, what's your name?" Spike asked, starting some small talk. "I'm Spike, by the way, and this is my friend Twilight Sparkle." He introduced himself.

"Oh, uhm, m- my na- n- name is Mindy The Silent," she lied, giving a corteus bow. "A p- p- pleasure."

"That is one oddly given name," Spike commented before noticing a glare of warning from Twilight. "Uh… it fits you though." He corrected himself, giving a weary smile to the black mare.

The mare gave a weak smile to Spike and averted her eyes away. "Y- you can ca- call me Mindy, if it m- makes you f- fe- feel better." She offered.

Spike nodded, mulling over the next question and resolving himself to formulate it. "So, what are you doing here in the Everfree Forest, searching for some long lost treasures?" He almost fell from Twilight's back as the alicorn princess jumped lightly to warn Spike on being to nosey.

Obsidian shake her head lightly, "n- no, I was o- on m- my way travelling by, I tried to pass through the f- fo- forest before I…" she wanted to mention an excuse but noticed that her saddlebags were missing, probably sunken deep in the pit she just escaped. "Oh, I am so clumsy to go through this forest."

"It's alright, not everypony can navigate through this place as well as I can." He boasted swelling his chest, feeling how Twilight rolled her eyes. "You're lucky that we were close by to save you."

Obsidian nodded, "for that, I am in yo- your debt, if you n- ne- need anything, I will d- do it without a doubt." She once again bowed before Spike, to which the young dragon appreciated.

"Say, if you don't have a place to crash maybe you can rest in our castle?" Spike offered, showing simpathy to a mare that went through serious danger.

Obsidian's eyes winded in surprise, "wo- would you do that? To a st- s- stranger that you just m- met no less ?" She was in disbelief.

Twilight turned to meet with Obsidian mind's eyes and gave her friendliest smile she had, "it is no trouble at all, Mindy, we are happy to help a friend in need."

The word friend struck Obsidian like a candle in a dark room, it felt so foreign and yet so warm. "I would love to accept your invitation then."

She smiled all the way to the town of Ponyville.