Forgotten Bygones

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Life of the Reformed Magician
Chapter 2: Shifting
Chapter 3: The Wagon
Chapter 4: Locked
Chapter 5: Sneaking In The Shadows
Chapter 6: Not Normal
Chapter 7: Reflection
Chapter 8: The Hut
Chapter 9: Holding Back
Chapter 10: Unprepared
Chapter 11: Recollect
Chapter 12: Repeat
Chapter 13: Washed Away
Chapter 15: Paranoia
Chapter 16: Acts
Chapter 17: Dawn
Chapter 18: Déjà Vu
Chapter 19: Restart
Chapter 20: Revelation
Chapter 21: The Talk
Chapter 22: Distrust
Chapter 23: Regrets
Chapter 24: The Strike
Chapter 25: The Backstory
Chapter 26: Preparations
Chapter 27: The Final Battle
Chapter 28: The Guilty Aftermath
Chapter 29: The Light and Epilouge
Chapter 14: Sweating Bullets

Chapter 1: The Life of the Reformed Magician

The ponies in the audience were cheering out of pure delight. Several hooves were stomping on the ground, making the sound like a herd of buffalos stampeding through the way.

Trixie relished the sound. Another magic trick that worked wonders. And it was all thanks to her, and of course, her best friend and assistant, Starlight Glimmer, that pulled off the feat.

"We did it!" Trixie said to lilac mare. "The Great and Powerful Trixie has done it again! With the help of a great and powerful friend!" she said as she wrapped a hoof around Starlight's neck.

"Oh, Trixie. You did most of the work." Starlight said humbly. "I was there to make sure that nothing goes wrong."

"Trixie thinks that that's nonsense!" Trixie silenced Starlight in a playful manner. "I could've done the trick just fine on my own. And besides, you helped rile up the ponies up to suspense with your natural charisma!"

Starlight chuckled a little bit. "That's not how I would put it, but sure!"

Trixie rolled her eyes playfully.

Starlight and Trixie poked their heads out of the curtians. The ponies were still in the audience. They were just talking to their nearby friends and family, commenting on Trixie's performance.

"Wow, Trixie never fails to impress." One pony in a crowd said to their friend.

"You can say that again!" A pony agreed.

"Makes you think how much she has changed." A pony responded back. Which the reply made Trixie smile.

"You know," Trixie said after listening to the audience. "I'm glad that I changed from the pony that I used to be."

Starlight looked taken aback by the sudden topic. "Oh?"

"Because if I hadn't, then I don't think I would be able to experience the joy and happiness I put in to entertain others. While in my past, I only did it to entertain myself and be a show off." she lowered her ears in shame.

How could she forget the day that she was corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet? She banished Twilight from her home, and made Ponyville a nightmare under her rule. And plus she tortured the residents and Twilight's best friends. If Starlight were there when the event occured, never in their entire life would they ever become best friends.

Starlight looked at her with pity. "Oh, Trixie. The past in the past. As Twilight would say: only the things you do in the present will truly represent the pony that you are today."

Trixie grinned. "Twilight is wise, isn't she?"

Starlight nodded, but she had a surprised look on her face. "I never thought I would hear you say that."

"Well, don't tell her I said that." Trixie quickly silenced her.

It had been a day since Trixie's magic show. Trixie went over to Twilight's castle and set up a board game while Starlight and Maud sat at the sides of the table.

"Let Gal's Day begin!" Trixie announced as she set up the pieces of the game.

"Gal's Day doesn't really slip off the tongue." Starlight commented. "Maybe we should change it."

"But I made it myself!" Trixie pouted. "And besides, we want it to be the polar opposite of Guy's Night." Trixie turned to Maud, who watched the two mares with a blank stare, as usual. "What do you think?"

"Its a fine name." Maud said with no expression in her face or voice.

"See? Maud agrees." Trixie looked at Starlight with a proud expression. "You have been outnumbered and I vote we keep it."

"Whatever." Starlight responded. "Can we please start the game?"

"Alright, Mrs. Downer." Trixie replied back as she levitated the dice to her friend. "You can roll first while Maud..." Trixie turned towards the gray earth pony. "How about I roll the dice for you since you don't have to roll it yourself..."

Maud just stared at her with the same expression. "Why?"

"Because, I don't want saliva all over the dice unlike last time!" Trixie explained. "It was so gross..."

But she just shrugged. "That's how all earth ponies play with dice. Just ask Pinkie Pie."

"Wait... do you mean that-" Trixie was about to ask before Starlight butted in.

"Ooooook. This just got disgusting. Can we please just drop the subject and start playing already?"

"Yeah, lets." Trixie quickly obeyed Starlight's command without objection.

After an exciting game, with Maud being the winner, Trixie and Starlight concluded Gal's Day and headed to the Hayburger Restaurant where they served... well... hayburgers.

Starlight and Trixie both sat down at the table with a tray full of food.

"Trixie cannot wait any longer!" Trixie quickly dove in and took a bite out of the burger. "THIS IS SO ADDICTING!"

Meanwhile, Starlight took a bite out of a burger in a slower way. "I wouldn't say addicting."

"Oh, you just have poor taste." Trixie shushed her.

"Shut up. I do have good tastes!" Starlight objected. "It just depends."

Trixie ignored the statement and continued eating. "You know, I'm glad Ponyville made this place. If this was built when I ruled over Ponyville, I would've came here everyday."

Starlight looked surprised. "I can't believe you used your dark past that lightly."

But Trixie just shrugged. "Meh. Trixie doesn't really care as long as no one rubs the past in my face."

Starlight quickly looked down at her fries. "You know, this would look great with some ranch!"

She teleported the ranch to the table and squirted them onto her fries, permanently staining them with a white color.

"STARLIGHT GLIMMER THAT'S DISGUSTING!" Trixie quickly looked away. She couldn't look at the sight any longer.

"What?" Starlight said with a muffled mouth. "Ranch with fries are good."

Trixie stook out her tongue. "'Good tastes', yeah right."

For the rest of the time there, Trixie ate her burger without looking at Starlight, and her stupid fry choices, much to Starlight's dismay and pleading.

The two mares hung out with each other for the rest of the day. It was until night had dawned upon them and they both said their goodbyes.

"Well, its time for me to head back to the castle. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You bet." Trixie winked.

With a warm smile, Starlight entered the castle, and closed its giant doors.

Trixie sighed. She was grateful that she was able to hang out with a friend like her.

She looked around the town. She was grateful that she lived in this town in general. If it weren't for this town, she would never have met Starlight, and wouldn't have become a proud and successful magician that she is today. Of course, she may not be a popular magician, she's proud that she at least most of the ponies are her fans, when just a few years ago, they were her slaves and would rule over them with a iron hoof.

Trixie climbed up into her hammock, and quietly went to sleep. She looked back on the moments that were made today: Hanging out with Starlight, Gal's Night, a cursed fact about earth ponies that she wished she forget, hayburgers, and Starlight's poor taste in fries, and many more.

If this day will be like all the days here, I'm glad Ponyville is my home.

With that said, she now fell asleep, her conscience in deep rest.

Author's Note

Ah yes, another tedious story for me to work on, but I am very excited about it! Hope that you enjoy reading this story! Apologies if this is short. But the longer chapters is where things start getting good. :rainbowderp:

Just a disclaimer, this is not StarTrix shipping fuel here. Just a group of mares enjoying each other's company, and being good friends :twilightsmile:

Chapter 2: Shifting

After a good night's sleep, Trixie stepped out of her wagon and breathed in the fresh air. Today is going to be another beautiful day.

She went to get breakfast at the hayburger place. Not only do they serve delicious lunch, they also have breakfast items too!

But as she headed to the place, she noticed that ponies nearby started giving her weird looks. The looks they gave were either a mix of suspicion, or worry. Perhaps even both.

What's up with them? Trixie thought, but she shrugged it off. They probably woke up cranky.

But she perked up her ears to listen to what the ponies said about her. Normally, Trixie doesn't eavesdrop, or at least do it often, but she felt that it was important to do so.

"What is she doing here?" A pony whispered.

"I don't know, but when it comes to Trixie, nothing is good." A pony replied, while giving Trixie a hostile stare.

What did I do wrong? Trixie now asked them in her mind. I just woke up, and now I'm getting these weird looks. She hoped that these ponies were just cranky...

She arrived at the hayburger place, but when she got there, the ponies screamed.

"It's Trixie!" A unicorn said in shock. They immediately dropped the hayburger with their magic.

"A fan of mine?" Trixie asked, but by the look that the unicorn gave her, it was out of fear instead of respect. An expression that she never thought she would experience in a long while.

"How can anyone be a fan of you?" A nearby earth pony asked her in pure anger. "You have forgotten about what you have done?"

"D-Done?" Trixie stammered. She was now getting confused. Why were they talking about her past now? Especially since it's been a long time.

"Playing dumb, huh?" Another earth pony interrogated her.

Trixie's ears went downward out of confusion and anger. "Ok, what has gotten into all of you?" she asked the ponies who were, for some reason, questioning her. "I just came here to get a burger, not be scolded for what I did."

"If its a burger you want, that you won't get." A pony stepped out of the kitchen. It was a big, bulky light green unicorn wearing a chef's costume.

Trixie couldn't believe her ears. "Excuse me?"

"I'm Thatchery, and I'm the owner of this restaurant." The unicorn introduced himself to Trixie, although while giving her a cold expression. "And you heard what I said, you are not welcome here."

"Are you kidding me?" Trixie looked aghast, and felt anger rising in her body. "And what exactly did Trixie do that I deserve a ban from this restaurant?"

He couldn't believe her words. "What did you do? Are you seriously asking me that? You forgotten about what you did to Twilight? To Ponyville? To all of us?"

Trixie scoffed. "Seriously? That's what this is all about? Some very stupid things I did in the past? That was a long time ago. I've changed for the better. I've even saved Equestria for Celestia's sake!" Trixie protested. Seriously, how have they forgotten about the fact that she sacrificed herself so Starlight and Thorax would save them from Queen Chrysalis?

"Saved Equestria?" Another random unicorn dismissed her words. "I'll believe that once pigs fly. Naturally."

Trixie kept rubbing her head with her hoof. She was now getting annoyed by this sudden dismissal. "Ok, I've had enough of this game you guys are pulling on me. Or is this one of Rainbow Dash's stupid pranks that she likes to pull on all of us? Did she put you up to this?"

"What you're saying makes no sense, but my decision is final." Thatchery stomped his hoof, as if its a sign of superiority. "Leave. After all your criminal actions you have put onto Ponyville, and us, you are no longer welcome."

"But that was a long time ago!" Trixie repeated. "I have changed, I can show you!"

But it was too late. Thatchery lifted Trixie from his aura, and forcefully threw her out of the restaurant. She hit the ground hard and had a tiny bruise on her hoof for landing it weird.

"That's payback for what you did to us!" Thatchery called out, trying to voice himself above the cheering that rose inside the place.

Trixie looked at the place in horror. Why would they do this to her? So suddenly? So... unfairly.

She stook her tongue out. "Fine! Act like childish idiots for kicking Trixie out for a crime that I have redeemed from."

She turned back, refusing to acknowledge the place that she used to love. They were traitors. All of them. She would find a restaurant that would actually forgive Trixie for her mistakes, instead of throwing her out like trash.

But then again... they did forgive her and let her eat there. It makes no sense why they suddenly have a change of heart now. Friendship is magic? Well, tell it to them, and they'll discard it like they discarded me.

Sadness slowly creeped into her when the ponies kept staring at her with cold faces. She even heard laughter come from them when she heard that she was kicked out of the hayburger place. And the worst part was that she had no idea why they were acting like this, and she assumed that even if they did try to reason with them, they would shun her away.

Hopefully, not everyone. Trixie thought with a spark of hope. She prayed that Starlight, and even Twilight and her friends would support her and acknowledge the residents of Ponyville by telling them that she was a good pony now, and that she deserves another chance, even though everyone was totally fine with that yesterday.

Please don't forget me, Starlight. Trixie begged in her mind. She could not bear the fact of Starlight, her closest friend, treating her as coldly and roughly as the others. The thought of that even started to make her cry. Please.

Trixie arrived at Twilight's castle, and was about to enter inside, but she heard hoofsteps beside her. She quickly turned her head towards the direction. A pony appeared from the shadows of the castle.

Trixie let out a sigh of relief.

"Starlight!" she screamed her friend's name in delight, but she noticed that the mare's hairstyle looked... different.

And to Trixie's surprise, she sighed in relief too. "Trixie!"

The two both hugged each other.

"I was worried that you would forget me." Trixie quickly admitted.

After the hug, Starlight looked down in shame, for some reason. Her ears lowered sideways. "So would you."

Trixie raised an eyebrow. She thought the same thing?

"What makes you think that?" Trixie asked in shock.

"Because..." Starlight's voice started to quiver. "Twilight herself had forgotten about me."

"What?!" Trixie couldn't suppress the scream. How in Equestria would Twilight, the Princess of Friendship herself, would forget about Starlight? Her own former pupil?

Starlight quickly covered her mouth. "Not so loud! At least, not here."

With a flash of turquoise, the two quickly appeared on the outskirts of Ponyville. Trixie couldn't help but feel free. She was getting extremely uncomfortable with the weird gazes that rested on her the whole time.

Trixie looked and saw Starlight stare off at Ponyville. Sadness started to fill her eyes as she closed them in shame.

"Starlight?" Trixie asked her friend. "What happened between you and Twilight?"

She was silent for a few minutes, as if trying to process the words. Until she finally started to speak, although still looking at Ponyville.

"The day began like any other day." Starlight began. "But then I noticed my... old hairstyle." she said as she pointed her hoof at her forehead. "And that was when..."

Starlight turned her head to face Trixie. Trixie saw the pure sadness in her eyes.

"When she changed."

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Starlight slowly got out of her bed. She yawned as she looked out the window. Another pretty day, it seems.

However, she noticed that her hair felt... different. She touched the side of her head. Her side bang was gone.

She rushed over to the mirror to see that her hairstyle was back to the way it was when she first started out. The style she used when she... was evil.

Weird that I returned to my old style. Starlight thought, while being a little creeped out. But she just shrugged. Not to worry, I can just brush it back to my other style.

She opened a chest to where her brush usually is, but it suddenly disappeared. She checked all the drawers in her room and a brush was no where to be found.

But this was still not a big deal. With the power of transfiguration, she quickly turned a nearby object into a purple brush.

Easy, peasy.

She looked into the mirror and trying to copy what Rarity did to her hair before, she brushed it to the side, and when the bang was finally there, it would change back into her old style. She kept doing it until she realized that the bang won't stay on.

Odd... this never happened before. Starlight thought. She really didn't like using this hair style for long periods of time. She made herself look intimidating, which was the last thing that Starlight wished to be seen as.

Her ears suddenly perked up when she heard racing hoofsteps outside her door. She jumped in surprise when Twilight immediately slammed the door open without knocking.

"Twilight!" Starlight greeted her. "Uh, good morning! What's going-"

"Oh my..." Twilight gasped when her gaze rested on Starlight.

"Twilight?" Starlight asked, confused by her friend's behavior. "Why are you-"

"See? I told you I wasn't lying." Spike called out when he finally caught up to Twilight at the doorway.

"It seems that you woke me up for a good reason, finally." Twilight replied to the dragon, still not taking her eyes off her.

"Lying? About what?" Starlight was now utterly confused. "What's going on?"

"What do you think?" Starlight was taken aback by Twilight's sudden hostile tone.

"Yeah," Spike added, sharing the same hostility as her. "What are you doing here, Starlight Glimmer?" he asked, but his voice was quivering at the end when he said her full name.

"You can always call me Starlight..." Starlight corrected the dragon. What was going on with these two?

"Enough talk." Twilight silenced her. "Why are you here? In my own castle?"

"Twilight, I live here." Starlight said, unamused.

Twilight almost laughed at her remark. "Since when?"

"Forever ago." Starlight took a step closer at her former mentor, but when she did, Twilight folded out her wings, and her horn started to glow.

"Don't try anything on me." Twilight warned her. "If you even attempt to steal my cutie mark again, you'll be sorry."

Starlight looked at her dumbfounded. She looked at Spike for any clues, but he just hid behind Twilight, while still giving her a gaze as sharp as knifes.

"I've had enough. Twilight, whatever game you are playing, I want you to stop. This isn't funny anymore." Starlight was now starting to get scared. Twilight acted like she was the enemy, and that she thinks that she would even think of hurting her.

Never again would I ever harm a single hair on Twilight after what I did to her and her friends. Starlight promised herself the moment that Twilight offered her a position as her pupil, but Twilight was strangely starting to act like she never made that promise before.

"What do you want? What do you want me to do to get you to not be so angry at me?" For whatever reason. Starlight wanted to add the last words, but she kept them silent.

"To leave, without attempting any more tricks up on your sleeve." Twilight answered her, starting to get a little calmer.

"Leave?" Starlight repeated her request. "For how long?"

"Forever." Twilight finished.

"Forever? Wait, I had a rent this whole time? And you never even told me?" Starlight's confusion now raised higher.

"Enough of your games!" Twilight suddenly started to walk towards her slowly. "I have no idea what you are saying, but make this perfectly clear. I don't trust you to live where me and Spike live. I don't believe that you changed one bit. You are not fooling me or Spike at all."

Starlight's back was against the wall now. "You... don't remember the times we spent together?" she whispered.

"What times? The times that you ran a cult? The time that you stole me and my friend's cutie marks? I remember those times perfectly well."

Starlight sighed. She remembered them perfectly well too, but those were not the memories that she meant. "No, I mean, the time where you asked me to be my pupil. The time that I saved Equestria from Queen Chrysalis. All those moments we shared together."

It was Twilight's turn to be confused. "I... don't remember that."

"Me either." Spike added. For the first time since this morning, sympathy showed in Spike's eyes.

Starlight couldn't believe what she was hearing and seeing. She couldn't help but feel only anger. How could she not?

"Wow." Starlight started. It was now her turn to have an icy cold tone. "All the times we shared together, and you only remember the times where I became evil? Is that how it is?"

Twilight just nodded.

Starlight gazed at her, still trying to process what she just witnessed at this very moment. She knew that there was no point in persuading her anymore. She got backed into the corner, and now only has one choice. One that would devastate her, but she did not want to push Twilight's anger further.

"Fine, I'll leave." Starlight said finally.

"Good." Twilight moved out of the way and showed her the door. "Normally I would take you to Princess Celestia and punish you for what you did, but I'm giving you a chance to redeem your actions, now. And of you ever attempt to destroy me and my friends, remember that I gave you a warning to freedom.

Starlight just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

Starlight exited outside her castle, and before she left, trying to decide what to do next, Twilight gave her one last warning.

"Unless you finally apologize for your actions, and prove that you repented, don't come to me." she said, then she finally slammed the door shut.

"The princess of friendship!" Starlight's anger continued to boil. "Won't even give me a chance to explain! Some princess she is."

I thought I knew her, but clearly I was wrong.

After thinking it through, she started to realize something. If she had forgotten about our friendship, did that mean others forgot about mine too?

She now felt tears go down from her eyes. She needed help. She needed a help from a friend. Immediately.

Starlight quickly teleported outside Trixie's wagon, wiping the tears off of her face. When she was about to knock on the door, she heard hoofsteps that were near her.

Cautiously peeking her head behind a bush, she sighed in relief when she saw a familiar blue pony.

Please remember, please remember. With a deep breath, she stepped out of the shadows.

"You too, huh?" Trixie said after Starlight's story finally finished.

Starlight slowly nodded. Tears formed in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Starlight." Trixie comforted her. She couldn't imagine the pain she felt when Twilight, her closest friend after Sunburst, would quickly disown her that quickly, and ruthlessly too. "Twilight may be a princess, but she no longer has my respect after what she did to you."

After crying for at least three minutes, she started to calm down.

"It's not her." She said in realization.

Trixie was confused. "What you you mean? According to you, its obviously her. In the flesh."

"Come on, Trixie." Starlight slowly got to her feet and stared at Twilight's castle. "Twilight never acts that way towards anyone. Even towards me when I actually did my revenge."

"I guess..." Trixie was still uncertain. "But I still don't understand. Why would everyone hate us now when yesterday everything was fine? And why are we the only ones who still remember each other and our heroic deeds?"

Starlight looked at Trixie with determination. "I don't know, but something fishy is definitely gong on."

Starlight continued to stare down at Twilight's castle with narrowed eyes. "I'm going go find out the truth about 'Twilight's' actions. If you think that I'm letting this slide," Starlight turned her head to Trixie. "You're dead wrong."

"Of course we are not letting this slide." Trixie got up and joined Starlight by standing side by side. "They kicked me put of my favorite restaurant without reason. No way the Great and Powerful Trixie is going to let that go."

Starlight smiled for the first time since their interaction today. The two mares stared down at Ponyville. They were now outcasts, hated, and when it came to heroic standards, forgotten.

"Ponyville is no longer our home." Starlight said finally. "But even so, we have each other."

Trixie nodded in agreement.

"And that's what matters. No matter what."

Chapter 3: The Wagon

Night had fallen upon Ponyville and the streets had little light sources. The only thing lighting up the town is the lights that came from the houses. Without them, then the town would be very difficult to navigate in the dark.

Two ponies appeared from the bushes, wearing black capes and wearing a hood over their heads. They both gazed at Trixie's wagon that she left near Twilight's castle.

"Ah, there is my sweet wagon!" Trixie gazed at it from afar. "I'm surprised the 'Princess' and her friends didn't do anything to it yet."

"Wouldn't it be ok if I just teleported it to our area in the woods?" Starlight asked her friend. "It would be no trouble at all-"

"Tut tut." Trixie shushed her. "My wagon is a heavy wagon, Starlight. If you were to teleport it, then it would take up a lot of magical energy."

"Fair point." Starlight eventually agreed. She stared at the wagon and then back at Trixie. "Can we get it without getting caught?"

"Starlight, we have the entire night to our advantage. These capes make us invisible! I'm sure we'll be fine." Before her friend responded, she dashed out of the bushes.

After Starlight caught up to her, she helped her look inside the wagon. Nothing looked like had changed.

"It's all good inside." Starlight said to Trixie, who was putting the wagon's latch onto her body.

"Good, I think we'll get out of this-"

"Trixie?"

Trixie and Starlight gasped when they heard the sound of Twilight's voice. The alicorn looked over them from the balcony and flew down to their ground level.

"What are you doing here?" Twilight asked in a genuine confused manner. But hostility shown in her eyes when she saw the second pony. "Who's this?"

"Uh..." Trixie stammered. "My... friend."

"Well, mind if you took off your cape?" Twilight asked Starlight, who was starting to sweat nervously.

"Run." Trixie whispered when she lightly kicked her hind leg.

But Starlight straightened herself.

"No." She said in a firm voice. When she stepped out, she used her magic to reveal her face by lifting the hood.

"Starlight!" Twilight gasped when she saw her again. She both looked at them with suspicion. "What are you two doing together?"

Trixie stepped in and stood side by side with Starlight. "Why would we tell you, Princess? Or should I say, Twilight?" she spat.

"Well, Trixie, I'm not surprised to see you again." Twilight responded back with disgust, and she looked at Starlight with a narrowed gaze, but Trixie noticed that Twilight had fear in her eyes. Why?

"And why are you here?" Twilight asked Starlight coldly. "I thought I told you that I don't want to see you around unless you have come to forgiveness, and according to what I am seeing, you are not doing that."

"Twilight I may have my old style back but I am still the reformed mare that I am." Starlight said to Twilight calmly, but from the look of her, Trixie could tell that she was trying her best to hold her anger in.

"You are?" Twilight didn't believe her words one bit. "If you have been reformed, you should've known to not sleep in anyone's house, or castle in this case, without their permission."

"Sorry?"

"You don't look sorry!"

Trixie and Starlight looked at each other with confused expressions. This can't be the real Twilight. She would never act like this, would she?

"Twilight, you may not remember... somehow, but, I am a different pony than the last time that I had this mane style."

"You may not believe her, or us," Trixie butted in this time. Maybe this Twilight would soon have a realization? "But you have shown to forgive villains who did many corrupt things. You may not give me a chance, but could you at least give her a chance?"

Twilight looked like she couldn't believe what she just heard.

"I've reformed villains?" she whispered to herself, but Trixie heard it too. She lifted her head and stared at the two mares. "You two are starting to go insane. I think I should take the two of you to Celestia and she would probably put you two in some kind of therapy..."

"Therapy?!" Trixie had enough of Twilight's oblivious statements.

But Starlight took her words in utter shock. "Wait, you don't remember reforming any villains? Luna? Discord? Tempest? No one?"

"I only remember reforming Princess Luna. But Discord? He's still running amok? And besides, she's the only one who deserved it anyway."

Trixie immediately saw the hurt in Starlight's expression as she lowered her ears and put her hood over her head.

"Ok, I've had enough of your stupidness." Trixie said to the alicorn. "Me and Starlight are leaving to go find answers as to why you are in this trance. And we are going whether you like it or not."

"As if!" Twilight stopped her. "I'm taking you two to Canterlot right this instant."

"Oh, really?" Starlight lifted her head and had scorn edged into her voice. "And how exactly are you going to take us there anyway?"

Flashing a knowing look at Trixie, her horn glowed, and soon, with all her might, she teleported herself, Trixie, and the wagon to some parts of the woods.

"I thought you didn't want to do that." Trixie looked at Starlight, who was panting a little bit from the spell.

"Under normal circumstances, no." Starlight explained to her. "But like I said, I did it, and it worn me out just a little bit. I just really needed to get away from her..."

"I can't blame you. That is hard to watch." Trixie agreed. "So what now?"

"We find answers." Starlight responded. "But we need to get far away from the town as possible. There is a chance that Twilight will find us."

"Good plan."

After walking for at least hours, they finally found a spot where the wagon was hidden. Trixie drank water in a cup, while Starlight stood by the bonfire in deep thought.

"Anything yet?"

"I'm trying to think." Starlight said to her friend. "But I remember a time where a similar situation happened with Sunset in the human world. Her friend's good memories of her were snatched away by a memory stone, thanks to a human called Wallflower Blush."

"So I must be it! Another memory stone!" Trixie exclaimed. "It must be it!"

"But it doesn't add up." Starlight stopped her. "According to Twilight, only one memory stone was known in existence. And it traveled to Sunset's world. So how can there be two when this said memory stone was destroyed? And besides, who hates the two of us enough to erase their memories?"

"I guess... but maybe the second memory stone was hidden from the puplic?"

"I don't know, but it is most likely, but wait-" Starlight looked like she had a new thought. "Twilight said that she only remembered reforming Princess Luna... does that mean that Discord and Tempest has been affected like us too?"

"So are you saying we should find Discord? I mean, with a snap of his claws, he can pretty much do anything that he wants." Trixie with an annoyed eyeroll.

"And with his magic he can revert the spell." Starlight finished. "Ok, I think we know what we have to do."

"But will it work?" Trixie reconsidered. "And what if he forgets us too?"

Starlight simply sighed. "I have no clue of what's going to happen next, but we now have a goal set in mind. So at least that is something."

When Starlight walked into Trixie's wagon to get some sleep, Trixie rushed up to her with one more question. "Ok, but how do we even find Discord? We don't really know where he lives, and we can't summon him or anything."

Starlight put a hoof on her chin, but before she could think, she heard hoofsteps that surrounded the two mares.

"There you are." Twilight appeared from the trees. "You think that you could hide from me for long?"

"Ok, you are definitely a fake Twilight." Trixie said to the purple alicorn as she backed away. "A changeling, perhaps?"

"A changeling?" Starlight and Trixie jumped when she recognized the voice. "If Chrysalis were smart, she and her soldiers would step away from me as far as possible."

Celestia herself arrived at the scene, with her guards at her side. "You two better have a better chance to explain yourselves."

Chapter 4: Locked

The cold wind howled violently as it ceased through the trees. Trixie flattened her ears to block out the noise, and she felt her body shiver from the cold. But the gazes of Twilight, Celestia, and the royal guards were even colder.

“Are you kidding me?” Trixie stared at Twilight in dismay. “Are you really that scared that you had to summon Celestia?”

“It's for good measure.” Twilight responded coolly.

Celestia loudly cleared her throat. “Well?” Celestia interrogated the two unicorns.

The two looked at each other. Wondering what to do next, and how they would get out of this unscathed.

“We mean no harm.” Starlight addressed the two princesses.

“You did when you teleported away from me.” Twilight answered her. Should Trixie be happy that Twilight’s anger has finally ceased? Maybe a calm Twilight would be more understanding somehow?

“How is that harmful?” Starlight asked in disbelief.

“Running away from a princess is always suspicious.” Celestia answered this time. “Especially if the runaways are villians.”

"For the final time-" Trixie was about to correct them once again but Starlight lightly kicked her in the leg, signaling that her words would be pointless at this point.

"For the final time, what, exactly?" Celestia tilted her head. Her gaze was hard but her voice was cool as ice.

Ignoring Starlight's warnings, she let out a deep breath and stepped forward. "For the final time, me and Starlight are not evil in any way anymore. We may be villains in your eyes, but from a different time in our lives, we really have changed."

"That's the thing. You have no proof of this claim. One can say they have changed, but its another thing to actually do it." Celestia said to the two. She lowered her head. "I tried telling Discord about this but he didn't take it too well. To the point where I had to capture him that he was getting of hand."

The two friends looked at each other instantly. It seemed like they were thinking about the same thing. Discord got captured?

"How did you even manage to catch him?" Starlight asked Princess Celestia. "That creature is as sly as a fox!"

"Oh, he's sly alright." Twilight muttered bitterly.

"Anyways." Celestia silenced with her hoof, ignoring Starlight's question. "We shall discuss this matter further at Canterlot, where me and Princess Luna will keep an eye in you."

Starlight and Trixie didn't even say anything. Why would they? They both knew by now that no matter what they say, or do, they would always see them as the bad guy.

Starlight's ears suddenly perked up. Trixie raised an eyebrow. What did she have in mind?

"Twilight!" Starlight got the attention of the purple alicorn. "The room that I slept in had pictures of me, you, and your friends! I was included in these said pictures. If you were to just teleport back to that room, you'll find the mirror!"

But Twilight looked weirded out as ever. "Starlight, you're getting more insane than I thought. I saw no pictures on that mirror when I confronted you in that room."

"I saw your eyes, Twilight." Starlight insisted. "I didn't see them look at the mirror long enough!" Starlight begged desperately. Trixie saw tiny tears form in her eyes. Trixie felt useless than ever. She felt bad for Starlight, a lot.

"I guess I can teleport to the castle..." Twilight said with hesitation.

Why is she so afraid?

"I think its time we end this conversation now. We are wasting daylight." Celestia's long horn glowed and it made the sun go downward. After the sun moved, Celestia looked down at the unicorns. "I doubt that you're a changeling now, but we simply cannot risk it."

She nodded at the guards.

Just then, guards suddenly swarmed Starlight and Trixie before they had a chance to react. While Trixie cowered to the guards in fright, Starlight lit her her horn protectively. But her magic suddenly caught off when black rings were placed around their horns.

"What is this?" Starlight's voice strained when one of the unicorn guards tightened it with their magic.

"A magic blocker." Celestia told her. "They are ones similar to what Chrysalis had for her throne. But this time, it blocks out any kind of magic. Both Changeling, and unicorn."

"Trixie didn't recall you having these things in your... CLOSET!" Trixie let out a cry of pain when a unicorn tightened the ring a bit too much.

"You watch how you tighten this thing!" Trixie whipped her head to face the guard. She couldn't help but spill her anger. "What are you trying to do? Pop my horn off?"

"O-O-Of course not!" The guard stammered.

"Let's move on to Canterlot." Celestia ordered. She looked down at her former pupil. "Twilight, would you teleport Trixie's wagon to Canterlot? I will send my guards to check the wagon later. But for now, keep it away from these two."

"You got it, Celestia."

"Wait hold on!" Trixie tried to stop her. "You can't do that!"

But it was too late. With one last look at Starlight and Trixie, she placed the wagon in her aura, and she teleported to the castle with it.

There goes my belongings.

"Now," Celestia spreaded out her wings, and the guards went closer to her. The two flinched; they were uncomfortable with the guards being so close to each other. Especially since they were accused of something that was forgiven a while back.

"Let us all return."

With her teleportation, Celestia reappeared at the throne room with the rest of the group. The guards quickly scattered, but two remained behind Starlight and Trixie in case they made an attempt to run.

Which is stupid since we have no magic, and we're not dumb enough to run from three Alicorns.

Celestia quickly flew onto her chair, and once Celestia ordered the guards to their positions, it was just her, Starlight, Celestia, Twilight, and Luna. But Luna's gaze was softer than the rest.

"Starlight Glimmer, Trixie Lulamoon," Celestia addressed them. "Since you have committed evil deeds in the past, me and Princess Luna will decide a punishment for you."

"Wait, you're not going to give us a friendship assignment?" Trixie looked at the ruler with a dumbfounded look. "If not, then why are you here?" she stared at Twilight accusingly.

But Twilight was unnerved. "I know in depth about what you three did. I'm just here because I'm a testimony pony for them."

"In the meantime." Luna now began to speak. "You shall stay in the dungeons until me, Twilight, and my sister will discuss and come up with a fitting punishment for the crimes that the both of you did."

"Dungeons?" Trixie quivered.

Luna nodded. "We would rather not send you there, but where else are we supposed to put you? In a guest bedroom?"

Trixie lowered her head in silence, while Starlight stared at the princesses.

"Guards, take them away." Celestia ordered.

Like lightning, the guards quickly got in front of the two. Pushing them to the direction of the doors that led the way out.

"Wait! Princesses!" Starlight begged.

The three looked at Starlight with a raised eyebrow.

And so did Trixie. What now?

Starlight closed her eyes and sighed. She opened them again with determination and looked at the princesses. "Look, I know what I did was wrong. And its unforgivable. But you should at the very least let Trixie go."

"What?!" Trixie gasped.

"And what makes you say that?" Twilight asked, but with no anger in her voice. Just mild confusion.

"Her crimes were nowhere near as bad as mine. Sure what she did is wrong, but compared to my crimes? Trixie should be given a chance for redemption."

"But not you?" Trixie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Starlight..."

But Starlight ignored her. "Plus, she was controlled by an evil amulet. She had no idea what she was doing when she obtained it. As for me," Starlight lowered her head in shame. "I knew exactly what I was doing."

The princesses looked at each other.

"I guess she does have a point..." Luna said.

"And she's not even as powerful as Starlight." Twilight pointed out.

They huddled together and muttered in hushed voices so they wouldn't hear them.

"Starlight," Trixie said to her remorseful friend. "You can't possibly be serious."

"Oh, but I am." Starlight responded.

When Trixie opened her mouth, the princesses stopped talking and got the mare's attention.

"We have come to an agreement." Celestia addressed them. "Trixie, you’re free to go.”

"No!" Trixie stood in front of Starlight. "Put me into the dungeon with her! I can’t bear the fact of leaving my best friend in the dungeon!”

"Trixie!" Starlight yelled her friend's name.

Trixie turned, confused by her friend's sudden anger.

"I'm doing you a favor." Starlight said to her. "This is your chance to be free."

"But, but, but, but," Trixie stammered. "What about you? You deserve to be free too!"

Starlight stared at her for a moment. Sadness started to cloud her eyes. "Do I?"

"Of course you do!" Trixie couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"This has gone long enough." Luna silenced them. "Trixie, I'll teleport you out of the castle. As for you,” Luna addressed Starlight. “My guards will take you away.”

Starlight only nodded.

"I'm not leaving without her!" Trixie begged.

"You don't have a choice." Twilight told her.

Luna's horn glowed dark blue, and in a flash, Trixie instantly teleported outside of Canterlot. Trixie was startled by suddenly touching grass when moments ago she was on hard floors.

What was Starlight thinking? Trixie was still trying to process what happened just minutes ago. Her own friend, locked up in a dungeon, while she is out in the open, with the privilege of freedom.

But it felt... wrong.

She has proven that she changed, as I did. It wasn’t fair that Trixie got a free life while Starlight was behind bars. But something else told her that she should not make Starlight’s sacrifice for nothing.

No. Trixie stared at the Canterlot castle with a sorrow but angry expression. I’m not about to let my friend, my first friend, rot away in jail while I prance around doing nothing.

She didn’t know how, but she didn’t care what Starlight would think. She didn’t even care what the princesses would think. And she was known to be reckless and careless...

Her mind has been made up, and she was not going to back out of it now.

I’m coming for you. She promised to her friend.

Chapter 5: Sneaking In The Shadows

Trixie kept banging on a rock so her magic blocker could break off. It hurt, a lot, but if she was going to break Starlight, and maybe Discord free, she needed a little bit of magic that she had learned, but unfortunately, it was not a lot.

What is this thing made out of? Steel? she thought in irritation. She would assume that this kind of stone would break easily, but it seems that's not the case.

After a few slams, the ring finally broke.

"Thank Celestia!" Trixie exclaimed, but retraced her words. "Actually, I won't thank Celestia." She's the one who put this onto us anyway.

But Trixie felt a headache was about to rise in her head. If she were going to break into a literal palace, her mind needed to be clear.

Since her wagon was under solitary confinement, she decided to rest into the woods until the moon was at the center of the sky. She wanted to be in solid darkness, and maybe when Luna is distracted in the dream world, she would be able to sneak in.

But the real question is how? And she had to think of what would happen if she were caught. Normally that would not be a problem if she had more powers that were as strong as Starlight's. But her magical abilities are average. Below average even.

I'll probably be in the dungeon, just like them. Or worse. Trixie started shaking fearfully. The thought of letting Starlight down was a thought that she could not handle. She could just imagine her angry gaze coming from her lavender pupils...

No, stop it. Stop it. Trixie commanded herself. If you don't pull anything stupid, we're fine.

She went into the woods and found a comfortable spot on the leaves. Obviously she would've preferred a hammock, but this could be a good substitute. And she is well hidden too, so creatures like the Timberwolves wouldn't find her in her sleep. Or so she hoped.

Wish me luck. Trixie thought to no one. She closed her eyes, and forced herself to sleep.

Trixie walked up near the Canterlot castle when the clock hit midnight. Not risking the chance of being seen by the guards, or Luna, Trixie hid behind a bush, hoping that she would not be easily seen.

Breathing in deep, she tried to look back on memories when Starlight and Trixie were practicing teleportation spells. She remembered that Starlight instructed her about teleporting, and finally recalled what she said to her.

"Once you know your destination, you have to picture it in your mind." Starlight said to her. "And when you find that place, light up your horn and if you do it right, you'll be at the destination in no time. But its not easy. It takes a lot of magical power for beginners."

Time to put all those boring lessons to use. Trixie thought teasingly.

Following what Starlight said, her horn glowed a light purple, and having a destination in mind, Trixie disappeared in a flash.

She eventually reappeared at the hallways of the castle. Trixie softly let out a short chuckle. She had no idea how she was able to do that on first try, but she didn't care.

I'm in the castle. Trixie couldn't help but feel proud. Sure, breaking into the Canterlot castle was wrong, but she didn't care. Saving Starlight, as well as Discord, is her key objective at the moment.

First time teleporting too. Trixie added. If only her first teleportation spell wasn't used for illegal operations.

Now that she was in the castle, another question rose in her mind: where is the dungeons?

Trixie quietly walked around the halls, paying close attention to her surroundings, and was wide alert for any hoofsteps.

As she continued walking, she heard the voices of Twilight and Princess Celestia in another room. Curiosity stabbed her once again and she stopped behind the door of the room, making the voices audible now. She hoped that the conversation would give her clues, and maybe some answers about what they were about to do to Starlight once she is free.

She stopped and listened.

"Celestia, I apologize for interrupting your sleep, but I couldn't get Starlight off my mind." Twilight told her former teacher.

You and me both.

"Twilight, we discussed this earlier." Celestia said in her usual calm tone, but Trixie picked up tiny hints of irritation. "We're not going to let her loose because of one apology."

"But Starlight stood up for Trixie, which was a thing I never thought that would happen for moons!" Twilight tried explaining.

"Twilight, a villain may do one righteous thing, but it takes more than that for me to prove that they have changed for the better. Remember when Discord betrayed us for Tirek?" Celestia reminded her.

"Of course I do." Twilight replied, hesitantly.

"Then how do we know that Starlight wouldn't do the same?" Celestia demanded. "Look, I know that redeeming villains is kind of... your cup of tea, but this is a thing we must think rationally."

"I understand, Princess." Twilight dipped her head.

Trixie felt that she had heard enough. She might as well find the location on her own since Twilight and Celestia wouldn't be any use to her.

She heard hoofsteps coming from up ahead. Panicking, she hid behind a table with a vase covering her face. And there were pillars on the sides so Trixie's side's were covered as well. She peeked one eye out and saw two guards with a snow white pony with a tiny gray mane. He looked sad as he stared at the ground with a sorrow expression.

Trixie noticed that the pony was wearing a orange shirt with black stripes on it. She immediately knew right away that this pony was a prisoner. Just like Starlight.

Once the three were out of sight, Trixie followed the direction to where the guards and the prisoner came from. She trotted down halls and halls, until finally she reached a doorway with a sign that said:

The Canterlot Dungeon

Warning: Beware for deranged criminals.

Starlight is anything but deranged! Trixie felt boiling anger rise inside her, but took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

Gulping, she opened the door, and closed it very lightly. The stairway was dark and gloomy, so Trixie created a magical orb that loomed on her horn, making it a light source.

The stairway seemed to go down, and down, and down for hours. Until finally, she reached the jackpot. The dungeons.

She saw stony cages that filled the room. One side has cages, while the other did too. And there were only a few torches that lit up the area, but it was still very dark. Trixie couldn't believe that her friend was trapped here. Cold, dark, and except for Discord, no friends in sight.

And I thought Celestia was noble. Trixie didn't like resenting royalty, but right now, its hard not too.

She kept walking and walking, lighting up every cage she could find. The criminals were either asleep, or they stared at Trixie with a cold glare, but didn't a say a word. Maybe they were tired.

Trixie searched for what seemed to be hours, until she finally spotted a cage where she saw the back of a mare with a familiar color. Trixie would assume that it was just another random pony, until she saw that the pony's mane had turquoise streaks in it. And she only knew one pony who had that.

Finally.

"Starlight?" Trixie whispered.

"What now?" Starlight groaned. She turned her head with her eyes half closed. But they opened wide when she saw the light blue mare. "Trixie?!"

"Quiet!" Trixie quickly silenced her. "You're going go alert the guards if they hear loud noises."

"Have you gone mad?" Starlight scolded her, but in a lower voice now. "I've literally given you the chance to not get captured!"

"If you think that the Great and Powerful Trixie would let her friend suffer in this cold, unforgiving dungeon, then you clearly don't know me at all." Trixie responded.

"Well, when I expected help to rescue us, I never expected you to come." Trixie groaned inwardly when she recognized the voice of Discord.

"Well, surprise, surprise." Trixie looked up and down the cage, until she spotted a padlock. "Oh great, I don't have the keys."

"You seriously didn't think about getting keys?" Discord rolled his red pupils. "Did you expect that every cage doesn't have a lock?"

"Well, if you're prancing around illegally in a castle, then there are some things to forget about!" Trixie aimed her anger at Discord. Did he want her to rescue him?

"Ok, I may not have they keys, but I know one trick that could work." Trixie lowered her head, and put the tip of her horn inside the padlock.

"Oh, as if that attempt would help us." Discord scoffed.

Just then, the lock opened.

It worked. Trixie stared at the lock. She actually thought it wouldn't work, but it did.

She looked up at Disord. "You were saying?" She said with a smirk.

Starlight giggled a tiny bit while Discord groaned in exasperation.

Starlight and Discord hopped out of the cage once Trixie opened the door. But Trixie noticed that something was off about Discord.

"Um, Discord?" Trixie asked the creature. "Why is there rings on your fingers and neck?"

"Magic blockers." Discord responded coldly. "Celestia went over the top with them. Now I can't use magic at all." As he said that, he kept scratching his neck.

"Have you tried sliding them off?" Trixie suggested.

"I can't." Discord responded. His cold tone faded away and was replaced with disappointment. "No matter how many times I try."

Starlight got between the two. "We can discuss more of this later. Right now, we need to get out of here before any of the guards see us."

"They don't patrol down here." Discord remarked.

"Doesn't mean we stand around." Starlight responded. "What if the princesses come to check on us? We can't risk staying."

"Hey," a voice was heard in the distance. "Can you break us out?"

"And me?" A nearby voice added.

As they were about to walk out, ignoring the prisoners, a red alarm went off from the ceiling.

"What is that?!" Trixie screamed in surprise.

"An alarm. What else does it look like?!" Discord responded back. "Do you need flashcards telling you what an alarm is?"

"This is no time for sarcastic remarks, Discord." Starlight said angrily at the draconequus. "There is only one way out, and the guards are most likely marching their way to here as we speak!"

"Actually, there is another." Discord pointed his bird claw at another entrance at the end of the room.

"Nice observation, but what if the guards go through that one too?" Trixie said in an almost mocking tone.

"Teleportation." Starlight whispered. She whipped her head to face Trixie. "You can teleport, can you?"

Trixie was caught off-guard by Starlight's question. "I guess... but I only teleported myself-"

She was interrupted when they heard the dungeon door slam open, and heard thousands of hooves heading to the bottom of the dungeon. They were getting close.

"Trixie, come on!" Starlight looked desperately at her friend. "You're the only one here who is able to do magic."

"But I've done it once!" Trixie exclaimed.

"Well, you better do it again!" Discord said, fear creeping into his voice.

Trixie felt her legs shake. She, her friend, and Discord, were all on the verge of capture once again. And will probably have a worse punishment when they have been caught by the guards...

Its now or never.

Breathing hard, her horn lit up brightly.

The guards barged into the room. "Freeze!"

Author's Note

After a certain commenter pointed out that Discord can still use his magic, even without the help of his claws. So I have changed it to having blockers on his claws, and his neck. Why not on his entire body? Explained in the next chapter.

So if you reread this chapter again, here is the authors note so you won't get confused.

Happy reading!

Chapter 6: Not Normal

Author's Note

Sorry if some of you have received more notifications of this. FimFiction bugged and I had to copy/paste the content and and put it into this new chapter so :/

Anyways, enjoy reading!

Chapter 6: Not Normal

"Freeze!" A guard yelled.

Trixie, trying to remember on how to teleport again, she imagined her, Starlight, and Discord far away from the guards... and she knew the destination for it, but she heard the guards get closer and closer. She had no choice.

In a heartbeat, they disappeared in a flash.

Popping out of the aura, Trixie, Starlight, and Discord both landed outside, but they were on top of the roof of a Canterlot tower.

The three of them immediately gasped and they all got hold of one of the flagpoles that lay on top of the tower.

"What made you think this was a good idea?!" Discord raised his voice at Trixie. "You couldn't find a way to teleport us on the ground?"

"I panicked, ok?!" Trixie defended herself. "This is the second time I did a teleportation spell, and it was hard teleporting not only myself!"

"Stop fighting!" Starlight commanded the two. "Or else the guards will hear your stupid bickering."

"Well, EXCUSE ME for freaking out at potentially falling to my doom!" Discord yelled at her. "Normally, if I have my magic, this would be easily averted."

"Me too." Starlight sighed.

"You can break it off, you know." Trixie suggested to Starlight.

She looked unamused. "I'm not having a concussion when I'm holding on a tower pole."

"How'd you know?" Trixie tilted her head.

"Because smashing my head on a rock is something that you would do." Starlight answered with a bit of tiny amusement.

"If you two are done, I would like to know on how to get down from here!" Discord snarked.

Starlight got to thinking. "Trixie, could you teleport us again?"

Trixie's eyes widened. "I'm not doing another teleportation spell. Its draining!" she said. The thought of doing another teleportation spell was exhausting.

Starlight lifted her ears to hear the sound of screaming guards in the distance. "Well, we can't dangle here all day, or else they would find us."

"Hmm..." Discord pondered. He looked around and he eventually found that underneath them was a few bushes. Trixie followed his gaze, and immediately knew what he was thinking.

"We are not falling into those bushes." Trixie glared at him. "I think the magic blocker has somehow blocked your logical reasoning."

"What else are we supposed to do?" Discord interrogated her. "We can't be here all day, and I don't see you coming up with bright ideas yourself."

"I could come up with a better idea than that!" Trixie spat back.

"What?!"

Trixie felt a deep chill when they heard the shocked and angry voice of Princess Luna. The guards must have told her about their escape.

Starlight and Discord felt the same way that Trixie felt.

"Well, you better tell us now." Starlight said, now starting to get scared.

"Uh, uh, uh..." Trixie stammered. Time now became their enemy. If Luna ever found Starlight, Trixie, and Discord, out here looking like idiots, Trixie would forever be drowned in shame. Not to mention that her entire rescue mission would be for nothing.

She had no choice. It was either capture, or Discord's stupid idea.

"Ok, fine!" Trixie snapped at him. When Discord smiled, Trixie turned to Starlight, who looked rather surprised at the idea. "Its the only choice that we have."

Starlight sighed. "Alright, on the count of three, we let go." she said. "One... two..."

They suddenly hear doors slamming open in the castle, and they started hearing muffled voices of Twilight. Soon they started hearing thundering hoofsteps in the distance outside.

"No time! Now!" Discord insisted.

As they let go, they began to fall. The three of them tried their best not to scream as they did. They all braced themselves as the bushes got closer.

"Ouch!" Trixie welped. The thorns pierced her skin, as it was to be expected, but thankfully, and despite the thorns, at least they landed safely.

Trixie made her way out of the bushes. Everytime she picked out a thorn from her body, she couldn't help but scream in pain. Discord got lucky that this was the only escape attempt.

"Quickly." Trixie heard Starlight usher. Trixie saw that Starlight had plucked the thorns out from her coat. She was impressed that Starlight could take all that pain.

"Wait!" Discord called out to Starlight. Once she turned to him, Discord was holding a rock with his lion paw. "You need this to break off your magic blocker."

Trixie smiled. For once, Discord was acting like he had a brain.

"Yeah." Starlight whipped her head. The hoofsteps were starting to get closer. "Make it quick! Maybe I can teleport us out of here!"

With that, Discord grabbed her horn and immediately smacked the blocker with the rock. Trixie could tell from Starlight's expressions that the process was not painless.

Finally, the blocker finally broke.

Starlight's horn lit up. "I can use magic again!" she said happily.

But it did not last long.

"Starlight Glimmer!" Twilight's voice rang above them.

"Not again." Trixie groaned. "Starlight, teleport us, now."

But she remained still. And instead, she waited for her to arrive. She does know that Twilight will still deny her, right? She should at least know this by now. But... Starlight wasn't known for being dumb.

Starlight started walking towards the princess as Twilight landed near them.

"What in Equestria is she doing?" Discord asked Trixie in a hushed voice.

"I don't know."

"Why aren't you getting the guards?" Trixie and Discord both turned their heads when she heard a cold, icy tone that came from Starlight.

"Because," Twilight stretched out her wings. "I want to talk to you."

Trixie saw Starlight stiffen. Her horn suddenly glowed bright.

"If you are trying to fool me and pull a trick on me and my friends, I'll make you regret that." Starlight said. Trixie was stunned by the hate that she felt from those words. That was not like Starlight...

"Starlight?" Trixie whispered to her friend.

But the two mares ignored her.

"I'm trying to give you a chance to redeem yourself." Twilight stated. Trixie saw that she was trying to keep calm.

"I already did." Starlight said each word slowly. "Want me to prove it?"

Starlight got low to the ground and cast a spell. An orb went over her head and played reels of the times Twilight and Starlight were together as friends: enjoying their company, laughter, and so many positive things.

Trixie and Discord started looking hopeful. Could this actually work? Would Twilight finally get back to her normal self?

But Twilight didn't buy it. "Wow, that must be a good spell that you cast."

Starlight's horn stopped glowing and immediately looked at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I knew that you were a talented unicorn," Twilight said, but for some reason Twilight sounded impressed by what she said next. "But you must be pretty good if you could somehow make slideshows of me and you together. And how did you know what my castle looked like?"

Discord and Trixie's jaws dropped. How? How in a million years would Twilight be that delusional?

It's official, everyone here except the three of us had taken stupid pills. Trixie thought, half angry, half disappointed.

They all looked at Starlight. She lowered her head and started crying.

"Wow." Twilight looked surprised. "Either you must be an impersonator, or you took a serious personality change. Never would I imagined you crying in front of me!"

But what came next was what the three of them could not have imagined.

Starlight opened her eyes, narrowed and filled with pure anger. She immediately got on her two hind legs and immediately punched Twilight hard in the face. She was unprepared for the attack and fell to the ground. She was unconscious.

Starlight loomed over her. "Didn't expect that, did you, princess?" she said to the unconscious alicorn.

Starlight?! Trixie screamed in her mind. While she thought Twilight deserved it after all the pain Starlight and the others went through, she never would have thought that Starlight would hurt the alicorn! Something was seriously wrong with her.

Immediately, Trixie and Discord got in front of Starlight and tried pushing her away.

"Starlight! Snap out of it!" Trixie pleaded. "What has gotten into you?"

"Yeah, and while I thought that was amazing, a tiny bit of me is thinking that was not a good idea." Discord agreed.

"Yeah, well she deserved it!" Starlight said to the two. "She's lucky that I only punched her and did nothing else! Or maybe... I should have..." she finished with an ominous voice.

Trixie looked shocked. What had gotten into her friend?

"Snap out of it!" Trixie immediately lifted a hoof and slapped Starlight on the cheek.

"Wow, this is juicy!" Discord awed. "If only I had my magic right now. I could totally get some popcorn!"

"Not. Helping." Trixie said at him through gritted teeth.

But much to Trixie's surprise, after Trixie smacked Starlight, her pupils were now dilated. The anger that she had was completely gone.

"Wow... thanks." Starlight put a hoof on her head. "I... didn't know what I was doing. It was like as if I..."

"As if you what?" Trixie asked, concerned.

"It was as if I couldn't control myself." she breathed out.

Before either of them could respond, a guard appeared from behind the corner, and quickly alerted the other guards.

"Princess Twilight?" A guard looked shocked when she saw the alicorn, who was still unconscious.

"Them." A guard pointed at the three. "They hurt the princess!"

Starlight quickly looked towards Twilight's body. Her ears immediately went backwards and her face only expressed horror.

"I-I-I-I didn't mean too..." Starlight quivered.

"Teleporting time, guilt later!" Discord said to her. "They are going towards us!"

When Starlight gazed at Twilight once more, tears started going down her face. With her eyes closed, Starlight cast a teleportation spell, and they teleported near Trixie's wagon.

Trixie was happy that she saw her old wagon again. "My sweet baby-"

Trixie was caught off guard when Starlight cast the spell again, and they quickly teleported to the woods, far away from Canterlot.

"Haha, yes!" Discord celebrated. "Finally away from those princesses! They were getting way too edgy for me. And I was actually ok around them at first!"

"We all were." Trixie said to the creature. "But something has changed, and we are going to find out what." Trixie turned. "Right Starlight?"

But she wasn't around. Instead, Trixie saw her walking away from them and headed deep into the woods. Her head and ears were drooped. Discord and Trixie, out of confusion and concern, had followed her until they found her standing by a calming river, looking down at the water.

Chapter 7: Reflection

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 8: The Hut

Trixie followed her friends to Zecora's home in the Everfree Forest. Trixie could not understand how Zecora would call this creepy, dark, and mysterious forest her home. Trixie doesn't really like to go into this forest, unless Starlight kept her company, but even so, she would still not like to go in. But she had no choice now.

Trixie arrived at the area of Zecora's house, and right after she appeared from the bushes, she saw Starlight and Discord were already waiting for her.

"Finally!" Discord exclaimed. "You took forever just to get here. I just assumed you got lost."

"Um, I had to hide a wagon?" Trixie said, exasperated. If she was going to be on the run with Starlight and Discord, she would not be looking forward to Discord's annoying antics along the way.

"We're just glad you're here on time." Starlight told her friend. "And just in time too."

"Just in time for what?"

"To think of a way to meet Zecora." Starlight now whispered.

Trixie looked at Zecora's house, which was like super close, then back at the group. "Can't we just knock?"

"Well, we always can, but we have to take precautions." Starlight explained. "Who knows? Zecora might be infected too."

"Then why in the world did we just go through the forest if we're now suddenly scared of meeting her?" Trixie rolled her eyes.

Just then, the door opened. The three immediately looked in shock. Discord was about to make an attempt to hide in the bushes, but it was too late now. They were now face to face with the zebra.

"What have we here?" Zecora asked the group. "And why are the three of you cowering in fear?"

They still didn't move.

Zecora examined them for a moment, until her expression beamed. "My, my, is that Trixie Lulumoon? I never expected to see you so soon."

Trixie looked at her in surprise. "Uh... you're happy to see me?"

"Is there a reason I shouldn't?"

"Actually, yes." Trixie couldn't believe it. Did they finally found someone that wasn't afraid of them, or hated them?

Zecora looked next to her. "I've seen you've brought your friends." she said, but there was no tint of hostility in her tone.

Starlight cautiously stepped out of the group. "You're not scared of me? Or Discord?"

Zecora chuckled. "Unless you're about to set my house on fire, I am not. But is there a reason why you look distraught?"

Discord looked awkward. "It's a long story."

"Zecora, please," Starlight asked the zebra, with desperation in her eyes. "Can we talk more about this in your home?"

Zecora nodded. "Watch where you step."

The trio both entered her home. Trixie could tell that the rest were creeped out by the rest of the masks that hung around her room. But she tried her best not to look creeped out. She didn't want to anger the only one who wasn't scared of them, after all.

"You must have came to me for a reason." Zecora said after a few moments of silence.

"Uh, yes, we did." Starlight answered. "A pretty big one too."

"I can tell." Zecora now walked up to the lilac unicorn. "And... from the last I saw, didn't you have a new style as well?"

"I did, but, not for a good reason." Starlight lowered her ears.

"Let's get to the point!" Discord butted in. "Our friends are acting like paranoid idiots now."

"How so?" Zecora now sat down with a soup on her lap, now very curious.

Discord cleared his throat. "Well, I went over to have tea with Fluttershy, but she started acting strange. When I asked her why, she kept calling me a villain, and would not stop crying."

Trixie now came into the chat. "For me, I was quickly hated by the ponies of Ponyville, and I got kicked out of my favorite hayburger place!" she exclaimed.

Starlight sighed. "And Twilight kicked me out of the castle, having no memory of me being reformed. And... me and Trixie were caught by her and Celestia. And when we escaped..." Starlight tried holding back a few tears, before finally starting to speak. "I... punched Twilight in the face."

"You punched an alicorn?" Zecora breathed out.

Starlight slowly nodded. "I just didn't know what came over me..."

"Hmmm..." Zecora now had a hoof on her chin. "And when did this start to happen?"

They both looked at each other. Did her friends even know when it happened?

"It happened when I woke up," Starlight said, which Trixie nodded in agreement.

"I don't recall." Discord crossed his arms. "You can't exactly keep track of time in my dimension, but if I have to estimate, I will have to say today."

"Hmmm..." Zecora now got to thinking. She set her soup down near her chair and she looked through the books that she went through in her library, which was not a lot.

"Aha!" Zecora looked through the page, and she quickly grabbed a few remedies from the shelves, and put them onto her burning, bubbling, cauldron. She dropped flowers, flower seeds, and some potions.

"Um, what are you doing?" Trixie asked the zebra.

"Getting the information that you need. And soon you will all start to see." Zecora said, as she picked off a few berries and placed them in the cauldron.

She looked down, and lifted a hoof, signaling them to look too. When they did, all they saw was black.

"It's nothing." Discord said flatly.

"Just like yesterday, but you will notice a little... delay." she said. When she pointed again, they all looked down and saw silhouettes of themselves, with them being the colors of their coats, and for Discord, his head. And next to them was white silhouettes that represented the citizens. But then a flash of blue came, and the citizens turned the color red, and instantly launched at them, as if they were about to battle them.

"That was them... hating us." Discord breathed.

"But what was that blue?" Starlight asked Zecora. "When it flashed, they all turned red."

"It represented magic." Zecora said. "A spell that leads to tragic."

But they noticed something in the cauldron. After the ponies attacked them, the three slowly started to turn dark red.

"What does this mean?" Trixie asked, amazed at what she was seeing.

"It means that as memories start to fade away, the good in you will start to decay." Zecora said gravely, then gave a hard look at the three. "You must have noticed that you were not yourselves, with Starlight being the easiest to tell."

"So that's why my old bang is back? And why I have these thoughts?" Starlight looked shocked.

"As memories continues to blur, the rest will start to feel the same as her." Zecora warned the two. Discord and Trixie looked insanely nervous.

"But it doesn't make sense! What is this weird blue thing that affected the rest of Ponyville and Canterlot? Can it affect us? Did it affect everyone outside of those two regions? And how come you were not infected?" Trixie stammered.

"The blue magic is called Goodness Forgetness. And it only happens when someone accidently casts the spell. But who? It does not tell." Zecora shook her head.

"Wait so all of these is happening because someone accidentally cast it?!" Discord was engraged. "How stupid is that?"

"Magic works in mysterious ways." she answered simply. "But this is one of the kinds that one must astray."

"So, how do we revert this stupid spell?" Trixie muttered.

"The answer is clear." Zecora sighed. "You have to hurt the ones that you love so dear. Most specifically the head. If the memory will jog, when you reconcile, it won't be long."

"Oh, no." Discord raised his lion paw. "I am not hurting Fluttershy anymore. Even the thought of it kills me."

"And so will your good side." Trixie stated. "Guys, it must be hard, but if Zecora says this is the only way..."

"You'll never know." Discord snarled. "I can't think of any pony that you love so dear besides Starlight."

"I guess that's true." Trixie rubbed the back of her neck. But then realization hit her. "Oh no."

She immediately looked at Zecora. "You meant we have to hurt everyone that used to forgive us?"

She nodded.

"WHAT?!" Trixie was shocked. "No. No way."

"I'm sorry, but it is true." the zebra said sadly. "But if it's the only way for you to get out of the blue..."

"No, this is stupid." Trixie got up. "This entire thing is stupid. Right Starlight?" she turned to her best friend, but she saw her look down at the cauldron still.

"I hate hurting anyone." Starlight said when she looked up at Zecora, and then they looked back at the two. "But if this is the only way we can get their memories back, we have to do it."

"You're so easily committed to this?" Discord gasped. "And I thought I knew you better."

She looked aghast. "Would you rather live your life as a villain forever, and be stuck as one too?"

Discord was about to say something, but he shrugged. "Fair."

Starlight turned her gaze to Zecora. "You better not be lying to us."

"Why would you assume that?" she tilted her head.

"Because if we do hurt our loved ones, and it doesn't make things go back to normal, as you say, I will find you." she said threateningly.

What the... Trixie was startled by the threat. And... was that a death threat?

But Zecora was unfazed, much to Trixie's surprise. "The evil is slowly beginning. So, I suggest you hurry, before it gets too overwhelming."

But Starlight was already out the door, and with a nod from Discord, he followed her.

"Thank you for the answers, Zecora." Trixie said. "But I must ask again, how did you not got infected?"

Zecora chuckled and messed with the masks on her walls. "The Everfree Forest is very strange, and magical. And maybe it didn't affect it because its special. And I was not out in Ponyville that night. So, I was safe from its might."

"Oh." Trixie shrugged. "Makes sense. Thanks again!"

With that, she dashed out and quickly met with the others that were waiting for her.

Discord rolled his eyes. "You took your sweet time."

"Well, I wanted to know why Zecora wasn't hit by the magic." Trixie answered sharply.

"I don't want to hear the two of your bickering again." Starlight called from the front. And for some reason, she lowered her voice. "We now have an objective."

Chapter 9: Holding Back

The three had ventured deeper into the woods, where the chances of the alicorns finding them would be low. At least for now. Moving her wagon was hard for Trixie since it would always somehow get caught in vines. Not to mention inside, where Starlight and Discord were resting for a bit, was rocky and bumpy to the point where they just walked with Trixie outside. And they saw the opportunity to talk about their encounter with Zecora.

"I've never even heard of 'Goodness Forgetness'." Starlight pondered. "And how is it possible to 'accidentally' cast a spell?"

"Maybe if we find where this spell is, then maybe we would get more answers about that." Discord suggested.

"Seriously? Who cares about finding the source of the spell when Zecora told us how to stop it?" Trixie stated.

Trixie's two friends tensed.

"Hurting Twilight again is the last thing that I need." Starlight said firmly. "And her friends in general."

"Especially Fluttershy." Discord agreed.

"Ok, I'm not fond of hurting our friends either, but Zecora has never been wrong before. And don't you want our old lives back?" Trixie could understand why her friends were hesitant, but should they at least give it a chance? According to Zecora, if they had a head injury or some sort, their memory will jog and they would gain their memories back.

But Starlight raised a hoof. "But it sounds... too simple." she said. "A problem like that that could be fixed so easily? There has to be more than that."

"Simplicity is the best thing!" Discord argued.

But she ignored him. "Maybe if I cast a memory spell..."

Trixie now started feeling concerned. "Starlight, you did everything you could to bring back Twilight, but it didn't work. What made you think that anything else would work?"

Just then, Discord suddenly started laughing.

The two unicorns looked at him with puzzled, but angry faces.

"And what's so funny?" Starlight asked him with a bit of hostility.

"Have you clearly forgotten about the time you punched her?" Discord asked Starlight. "If Zecora says that a punch would be enough, then surely her memory would regain again?"

"So are you saying that Twilight is back to normal?" Starlight sounded surprised by his words.

Discord nodded. "Most likely."

"Oh, wow!" Starlight smiled, which was the first time Trixie saw Starlight really happy ever since this quest began. "I think that might be true. I think I have gained her memories back! She'll remember me!"

Trixie shared Starlight's optimism. Maybe if Twilight was at their side, getting the spells back would be easier now that had another friend. One as an alicorn!

Suddenly they heard rustling in the bushes. And followed by the sounds of a few voices of some certain important mares.

"Y'all hear that?" a country pony asked.

Trixie felt cold when she recognized that voice, and others that followed along with it.

"I don't recall hearing anything, darling. Well, except for the wind and the rustling leaves of course." a mare with an elegant voice replied.

"Oh no, its Twilight's friends!" Trixie suppressed a gasp. She looked at Starlight. "What do we do? We can't fight all five of them at once!"

"I want to know for myself what they are doing in this part of the woods." Discord said silently.

Starlight looked up, and her eyes were now filled with shock. "Um, I think we have been spotted."

Trixie and Discord looked up too. Trixie couldn't help but feel bitter when she recognized the pegasus with a rainbow mane.

"Starlight Glimmer!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Before any of them could react, Rainbow quickly flew downward and tackled Starlight to the ground. They both tumbled until they landed on some bushes.

"You'll pay for what you did to Twilight!" Rainbow said hatefully. "No one hurts my friends without leaving some bruises!"

"Let me go you stupid peagsus!" Starlight said to her. Trixie saw the fear in her eyes, but heard anger in her voice at the same time.

"Stupid? Why I oughta-" Rainbow was about to lift a hoof, but Discord grabbed her arm.

"Let. Go." he snarled. "Or do I have to make you?"

Then a lasso appeared and it caught Discord on the neck. He let out a gagging noise and he left Rainbow's hoof go.

"I have him!" Applejack said to her friends. "I never thought catching the Lord of Chaos would be easy."

"Yeah, and I thought he would be super, duper hard!" Pinkie said with her usual bubbly excitement.

"Idiots. I have magic blockers, so you just got lucky that I don't have my chaos magic." Discord said to the mares. But he looked over and saw Fluttershy, who just stared at him in fright.

"I mean... not all of you are idiots." he stammered.

Starlight sighed. "I guess I have to teleport us out of here again." she was about to cast the spell but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rainbow interrogated.

"Where... no one can find us." Trixie stood in front of Starlight. "And if I have to ask, what are the five of you doing here in the middle of the forest?"

Rainbow scoffed. "I don't to answer that to you. And the same could be said to you and your friends."

Applejack got to Discord and started tightening the lasso around his neck.

"Gack!" Discord almost suffocated. He turned to the orange pony. "What are you trying to do? Kill me?"

"We'll be back."

Trixie heard to cold voice come from Starlight. When she turned to her, they teleported away, and instead teleported near Zecora's hut.

"Are you kidding me?" Trixie said to the mare. "We're back here? Again? And..." her heard whirled around. "Where's my wagon?"

"Relax, Trixie." Starlight reassured her friend. "I've cast an invisibility spell on it so its fine."

"But what are we doing back here again?" Discord scratched his neck.

"Its better to stay with a friend than to wonder deep into the woods, and encounter more ponies that hate us." Starlight told them as she knocked on Zecora's door.

They heard her hoofsteps, and a few moments later, Zecora. opened her oak door. She put on a shocked face. "Ah! Welcome back my friends. Did the terror end?"

"Barely." Trixie muttered. "We found Twilight's friends in the deep woods for some reason, and now they are looking for us."

Zecora smirked. "Then you probably caught them when they were headed for The Tree. Wasn't there a glow that was easier to see?"

"A glow?" Trixie asked her. "What glow?"

"The Tree lets out a white glow from the cave it resides. Maybe her friends came to it for... advice?" Zecora said with a puzzled expression of the last part.

Who goes to a tree for advice? Trixie opened her mouth to say more, but then they heard the others in the distance.

"They're coming!" Trixie said frighteningly.

Zecora quickly rushed them inside and slammed the door. "I suggest casting a spell to make you hidden. Before they get suspicious so sudden!"

As fast as lightning, the three jumped behind a plentiful of baskets, and Starlight cast an invisibility spell over them.

"Can you see us?" Trixie whispered to Zecora.

"Wow thanks for doubting me!" Starlight lightly shoved a hoof to Trixie. Parts of it out of playful annoyance.

Zecora loomed over them. "I cannot see your form, but I must inform: your voices are the only things I can hear. So maybe keep your lips shut, and you'll be clear." She warned them, but then they heard a knock on the door.

"Zecora? Are you ok?" Applejack asked her outside. "We heard a noise in the distance and we wanna see if you're ok or not."

She opened her door. "I'm fine as always. Not hurt, or drowsy. Maybe the wind is what slammed the door so loudly."

"Glad to hear that, darling," Rarity said to the zebra.

"But... we came here for something else." Applejack said to her, gravely. "We don't mean to rush, but its important."

"Its about those three." Fluttershy finally spoke up in fear.

Zecora looked confused. "Who?"

"Starlight Glimmer, Trixie Lulumoon, and Discord." Rainbow Dash informed her.

"Yeah! They are super badies! Well, Starlight and Discord are. But they are still super evil!" Pinkie quickly rushed in, which made Trixie and her friends surprised.

"I can recall what Trixie and Discord had done, and its not very bright. But what about this mare called Starlight?" Zecora asked them. Trixie was pretty amazed at how good Zecora is at playing dumb.

"Enslaved a village." Applejack said flatly. "And stole our cutie marks."

"And she did something worse: punched Twilight in the face!" Rainbow said. "Too bad she's a unicorn... or else-"

"Rainbow, for Celestia's sake, calm down." Rarity facehoofed. "This is the fifth time you bashed on Starlight and her actions. We get the point, darling."

Rainbow sighed. "Sorry. Its just, I can't believe she hurt her and got away with it!"

Despite the situation they were in, Trixie, for some reason, couldn't help but understand Rainbow's anger. If someone were to hurt her friends and got away with it, she would be equally enraged too. But it doesn't make it any better.

"So why are you telling me about them?" Zecora asked.

"Here's the thing: we've been looking for them to try and stop them again." Applejack explained. "But that Starlight and her magical abilities keep stopping us from doing that. And who knows what kind of crazy things she might do if she was loose."

Zecora lifted her hoof. "And what did Twilight say? Did she say anything before you went away?"

The three of them now got closer. Now waiting for the truth.

"Twilight told us to find her and round her and her friends up, somehow." Applejack said. "For some reason she put all her trust onto us."

"Yeah, after the punch, she got extremely mad." Rainbow agreed. "While I can totally agree with that, she was... a different level."

So Zecora lied? The punch didn't help Twilight at all? Trixie was super confused at how this stupid spell worked.

"Just as I feared..." Trixie heard Zecora say under her breath.

"What was that?" Pinkie Pie got closer to Zecora.

The zebra looked startled. "Uh, I don't see how I can be any help from here." she said sheepishly.

"So you have nothing?" Fluttershy said with her usual scared tone.

"Well, I can think of one thing that it is right." Zecora looked away. "You must fight."

"Fight?" The five all said at the same time.

The zebra nodded. "It's the only way. Unless you guys would rather be astray."

They all looked at each other thoughtfully.

"I'm not exactly fond with fighting three villains." Rarity responded.

"I am!" Rainbow flew around excitedly. The three had to duck so they would not be hit by Rainbow's fast-paced body. "I would love to see that mare again and give them all my might!"

"Starlight will be a hard one for sure." Applejack said. "But the rest should be pretty easy."

"Are you sure this is the right advice?" A timid pegasus asked her. "It could go very wrong..."

"Have I never been wrong?" Zecora said smugly.

"Never ever!" Pinkie jumped. "If you say its right, then its 100% right!"

The orange earth pony sighed. "Fine. I guess its official: we'll find the three of them again, if they are even around her, and defeat Starlight first."

The rest nodded.

"Thank you for the help, Zecora. You most likely helped Equestria be safe once again." Rainbow Dash said her goodbyes, and she shut her door.

Zecora looked out her window. And looked at the invisible group. "They are gone now."

Once the spell was off, Trixie sighed in relief. But the rest looked at Zecora angrily and Starlight immediately tackled her.

"Lying snake!" she said to her as she pinned her to the ground. Trixie was stunned but amazed at how strong Starlight can be at times. "You said that punching our loved ones would be the key to gaining their memories back! But it seemed that it was all but false information!"

"Lying is never a good thing." Discord said to the zebra with his pupils in slits.

Alarmed by what her friends were becoming, Trixie immediately stood by Zecora's side. "Calm down! Starlight, you're getting crazy again, and Discord, you may be starting to going back to your old self!"

Discord looks at his claws and shook his long head. "Oh. I guess I am..." he said as he rubbed his neck.

But Starlight was harder to get her to calm down, as she still held her down with a fierce glare.

"As I said, its a thing that I have feared!" Zecora pleaded. "That the punch may not be enough for the ones you love so dear!"

"What?" Starlight said through gritted teeth.

Zecora sighed. "When I looked it over again, somehow I missed one important fact. That the memories from the ponies you loved most will be harder to get back!"

Starlight gasped. She suddenly started losing her grip. As soon as she saw this, Trixie pushed her friend back.

"Its getting worse." Trixie stated. She turned to Discord. "We need to get this done. Now."

He quickly nodded. "Agreed."

"Zecora," Trixie turned her gaze to the zebra. "Thank you so much for helping us not get spotted, and for the new information." That I wish you told us sooner. Trixie wanted to say the last part, but she restrained herself. "Anything else we should worry about?"

Zecora looked at her book where she got to spell information. "It seems not."

"That's good." Trixie sighed. "Once if we need your help again, or if the disaster is over, we'll let you know."

As Trixie stepped out, Starlight and Discord both looked at Zecora, and waved at her awkwardly.

"Zecora... I'm sorry from earlier." Starlight apologized to her, to which Discord nodded at her side.

Zecora smiled slightly. "It is to be expected. After all, the spell is making you more dreaded."

Starlight and Discord shared similar smiles, and with Starlight grabbing Trixie's wagon that she forgot about, they quickly dashed to the bushes and following Trixie's trail back to the outskirts of Ponyville.

Chapter 10: Unprepared

Making sure that no one was around, Starlight, Trixie, and Discord hid behind the bushes on the outskirts of Ponyville. The town was quiet for now. Some ponies were chattering outside, while others remained in their homes.

But once they were spotted, Ponyville is going to be filled with nothing but terror, instant distrust and hostility, and Twilight and her friends ready to fight them.

"We're actually doing this." Trixie whispered in fright. "At this point are we just going to prove that we hadn't changed? If we are resorting to actual violence after all."

"If Zecora says that this is the only way things will get back to normal, then yes." Starlight answered her. "And we need to make it quick."

"If only I had a hammock so I could just watch you two fight." Discord muttered. "I wish I had my powers back."

"So you can put things back to normal?" Trixie asked him.

"No. So I can rule this town with chaos and disorder!" Discord raised his voice, but was immediately shut down by Starlight.

"Idiot! You'll give us away before we can even discuss a plan!" she scolded him.

"So how do we do it?" Trixie asked her friend.

"Find the source of the stupid spell." Starlight stated. "If a unicorn can cast it by accident, then there is a high chance that this charade will happen again. And I for one have enough memory loss situations for one lifetime."

She now looked at the ponies that were outside. "Plus, there has to be another way to stop this."

"And where exactly do you think it is?" Discord asked her, skeptical.

"Well, thats the thing. I have no idea." Starlight rubbed her neck nervously. "But my guesses are either in Twilight's castle, since her library is filled with millions of books. Or the Canterlot library. And Canterlot is the last place I would rather be right now."

But Discord didn't like the sound of that. "So all we have to do just waltz into Twilight's castle and scan through millions of books? Who knows how many books that pony has."

"And Twilight will hear us." Trixie added.

"Then we'll stay quiet as long as possible." Starlight reassured them.

With a glow of her horn, they teleported inside Twilight's castle, praying that the teleportation didn't alert the princess. Or hoped that she wasn't around at all.

But when they entered inside the castle, they saw thousands and thousands of books in the bookshelves. And Starlight knew that there plenty of more in this place.

We have to read all of this? Trixie thought in dismay. This looked like it could take hours!

And Discord felt the same way. "There is no way we have to read all of this." he grumbled.

"Just grab a book or two and scroll them through." Starlight immediately ran up to a bookshelf and grabbed three books. She skimmed each and every one of them, and tossed them aside.

The two of them eventually caught on and did the same thing, albeit much slower. Trixie grabbed a few books, but read through it slowly in case she somehow missed it. Meanwhile Discord just grabbed one book and flipped through the pages like a normal pony would.

Starlight looked at what they were doing and sighed in annoyance. "Seriously, are you guys snails?"

"Well, excuse us!" Trixie said hotly.

Just then they heard a noise outside the door. And all of their ears immediately perked up.

"What was that?" Trixie whispered.

Starlight immediately started walking ominously towards the door. And her horn lit up brightly and threateningly. "Stay close."

With Trixie and Discord right behind their tail, she followed her outside. And suddenly, Starlight leaped outside while scanning the hallways wildly.

"Show yourselves!" Starlight commanded.

"Wow. What a way to get Twilight's attention." Discord rolled his eyes.

"Be quiet." Starlight snapped.

When she looked around again, she noticed that no one was around.

"Ok..." Starlight said when her magic grew dim. "I think we're secure."

Suddenly, a loud tiny roar was heard. They all turned their heads and saw a figure leap from the shadows and immediately tackled Starlight.

She rolled on the floor, clearly unprepared for the attack. She looked to see Spike scratching her with his claws. And immediately went to her hind leg and bit it hard.

"Starlight!" Trixie and Discord screamed for her. And this same wimpy dragon can do this?

Starlight, who was in pain, immediately grabbed Spike and slammed him on the wall.

Trixie went up to assess her friend. Some scratches on her were starting to bleed, but her hind leg was bleeding more.

Trixie was about to ask questions to her friend, but she noticed that she was crying.

"I'm sorry, Spike!" she whimpered.

But he immediately snarled at her. "No you're not. You didn't seem sorry when you hurt my closet friend!"

And after he whistled loudly, more ponies appeared from the corridors. And they all tensed when they recognized them again.

"Missed us?" Rainbow said confidently as she flew in front of Starlight. And she immediately tackled her to the ground.

Trixie came in and rushed to help, but she was interrupted by Pinkie Pie with her cannon.

"Surprise attack!" Pinkie screamed as the cannon exploded confetti onto her, which made Trixie cough a lot.

Trixie, after finally getting rid of the confetti, searched around for Discord, but she caught him trying to talk to Fluttershy, to which the pegasus was crying by the sight of him.

"It's me!" Discord protested. "I'm your big loveable goofball!"

But she cried harder.

"Leave her alone!" Applejack yelled as she took out a lasso, and tied a rope around his snount.

Eyes slitted in rage, he lifted a lion's paw and he slashed Applejack on the head, and had enough force to knock her backwards and hit her head on the wall. Thankfully, his claws were not fully unsheathed, but Trixie noticed a few clawmarks on her cheek.

He eventually tore the rope off of his mouth and looked at an unconscious Applejack, and stuck a tongue out on her.

"Ow!" Trixie heard Starlight scream. She whipped her head and saw Starlight now covered with scratches and bruises from Spike and Rainbow Dash combined.

Despite being covered by so many injuries, she looked at the two with a hostile glare. "That all you got?"

"Want more?" Rainbow retorted back as she was about to punch her again.

This spell is making them more hostile than ever! She felt horrible that her friends were suffering while she stood around doing nothing. She immediately raced over to Rainbow and tackled her and pinned her to the ground. Startled, Rainbow tried to kick her off, but Trixie, much to her own surprise, kept holding her down.

"You hurt Trixie's friends?" Trixie said to the blue pegasus. "Trixie hurts you!"

She said as she quickly punched Rainbow on the cheek before the pegasus had time to react. It didn't bleed, but it did make her unconscious.

"Rainbow Dash-" Trixie heard Spike wail, but was interrupted when Starlight grabbed him with her magic, which made him not move.

Starlight watched as Spike kept trying to break through her magic aura, but kept failing. While sputtering a few inappropriate comments.

Starlight closed her eyes tight and kept crying.

"This is not the real him." Trixie tried to comfort her. "The real Spike is trapped under this stupid spell, and you're the only one that could save him."

"But I don't want to hurt him!" Starlight whipped her head to face Trixie.

"But he clearly hurt you!" Trixie said as she pointed to her scratches, and to her left hind leg, which was still bleeding.

But that still didn't help Starlight calm down.

Unfortunately, Starlight was weak enough to hold Spike now. And when he was free, and using Starlight's own sadness as a distraction, he immediately walked towards Trixie. She was about to attack him, but Spike was quicker, as he slashed her leg.

Alarmed, Trixie screamed in pain. She never knew that Spike's claws were this sharp. She assessed her hoof. It was slowly starting to bleed.

Suddenly, with Starlight still crying, Spike slowly opened his mouth, while green fire was starting to ignite.

"Starlight?" Trixie called out to her friend, but was too busy keeping her emotions in check.

"Discord?" Trixie whipped her head to find the creature, but he was distracted by Pinkie Pie's antics, by shooting millions of cannons everywhere, and throwing him pieces of cake.

"Damn it! " Trixie screamed.

Spike now opened his mouth, and breathing in deep for the flame. And for a second, Trixie could see his eyes glow blood red, similar to the color that she saw from Zecora's cauldron.

Trixie would normally fight back, but Spike was a distance away from her. So even if she did try to fight back, she would have to get closer to him.

Trixie immediately braced herself for the attack. She looked at two of her friends one last time before closing her eyes, expecting the fire to incinerate her.

But when Spike was about to breathe out, he was suddenly stopped. Trixie opened her eyes slightly to see Starlight levitate Spike, and immediately punch him on the cheek, and dropped his unconscious body.

"I'm so sorry..." Starlight whispered after a few moments of silence. With her tears now touching his scales. "I'm truly sorry..." and she immediately rested her head onto his chest. And wept silently.

Seeing that Starlight needed to be left alone, and it seemed that all the rest of the controlled gang were targeting Discord, she went to him instead.

Rarity was knocked unconscious, although she saw no claw marks on her head so maybe she took it lighter than the other, and even Pinkie was knocked out, but like Rarity, had no scratch marks.

The only one left was Fluttershy...

Discord was still towering over her. Trixie noticed that there was only bits on blood on his lion paw, but nothing too gruesome like Starlight's.

"You killed them!" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Not killed, saved." Trixie corrected her.

"From... what?" Fluttershy whimpered.

Trixie looked at Discord, and heard a tiny cracking sound coming from his clenched lion paw.

"To save you from this!" Discord roared. And with that, he punched her hard. And thus Fluttershy was down.

Discord got to his knees, and grabbed carried Fluttershy to his chest. "Why?!" he screamed in sorrow.

Trixie looked around her surroundings. Discord was wailing, Starlight was still crying over Spike's body, and the rest of her friends were unconscious still. All because of one spell cast by accident.

She now immediately hated the pony who created this spell in the first place. If the book says who did it anyway.

And Trixie felt useless in this battle. She watched her friends suffer while all she did was stare around and do nothing. She suddenly felt horrible.

I could've helped more. Trixie thought, angry at herself. But instead I watch my friends, or at least one of my friends, almost get killed.

It was as if this whole ordeal was her fault. And maybe it was.

My own fault.

She was about to start doubting herself more, but before she could, she could hear a groan besides her. Trixie turned and saw Applejack finally open her eyes.

Chapter 11: Recollect

Applejack slowly opened her eyes and started to groan in pain. Trixie and Discord were suddenly aware of her. Meanwhile all Starlight did was turn her head to face the scene, not moving away from Spike at all.

The earth pony rubbed her eyes, before squinting them again. "Where am I?" she asked.

"In Twilight's castle." Discord answered her flatly.

When she recognized his voice, Applejack's eyes suddenly grew wide. "Discord?" she gasped, and turned her head to see Trixie. "Trixie?"

They all sighed in relief when her voice wasn't tainted with distrust and anger. But they weren't completely sure she changed.

"You're not scared of us anymore?" Trixie asked her.

"Not anymore." Applejack sighed.

"What do you mean not anymore?" Discord caught on with suspicion. "Were you aware of your actions?"

"I was, kind of?" Applejack stammered. "But... I couldn't have hold of myself."

"Hold yourself...?" Trixie tried to grasp what she was saying. "So you were conscious of your actions, but something controlled you?"

"Look," Applejack said as she slowly got up. "All I remember was that I was tending the farm at Sweet Apple Acres, and the next thing I knew, I suddenly had the urge to hate you guys again. Somehow."

They looked next to them and they heard Rainbow Dash groan at the side.

She got to her feet and rubbed her cheek to where she got punched. "I'll feel that in the morning." she winced. She then noticed that Starlight was still crying on Spike's body, deeply in regret.

Rainbow walked up to her and lent her a hoof. "Here, let me help you." she offered.

Starlight turned and glared at her with pure anger.

Rainbow flinched and backed away.

"I suggest you should leave her alone for a while." Trixie told her. "After what you did." she said as she pointed at Starlight, who was covered with bruises.

"It wasn't my fault!" Rainbow pleaded. She turned to Starlight. "I had no control!"

But Starlight turned away coldly.

Just then, she saw that Spike was moving underneath her chin. Starlight immediately raised her head. "Spike?" she asked with her head tilted.

Spike slowly opened his eyes. Then he let out a yawn. "Uh, what happened?" he asked groggily.

"Spike!" Starlight exclaimed happily and hugged him tight. "Thank Celestia you're ok." she whispered.

"I think so." Spike answered. He turned and noticed that Starlight's cutie mark had deep scratches that was covered in dry blood. "I-I did that...?" Spike whispered, and he looked at his claws. They also had tints of Starlight's blood. "Oh Celestia!"

Then Spike immediately hugged her. His tears started to stain her coat. "I'm so sorry, Starlight." he whispered. "I didn't mean too!"

After being stunned by his sudden outburst, Starlight closed her eyes and hugged him tight. "Me too." she whispered.

"Do you finally forgive me now?" Rainbow interrogated her after he witnessed the scene, although with her tone a little softer.

Starlight raised her head to face the pegasus. "Somewhat." she answered bluntly.

Rainbow looked at her, unpleased.

"Don't be angry at Rainbow for long." Spike warned her. "She was under the same trance as we were, I bet."

"I guess." Starlight said to him, clearly not convinced.

"Ok now that everyone is waking up, can we cut to the chase?" Discord now came in. "What in the world happen to the rest of you?"

"Like I said, I was tending the farm for the night, and the next thing I know, I suddenly hated you guys again." Applejack answered him with tiny annoyance.

"I didn't notice until I woke up." Rainbow agreed.

Just then, Pinkie immediately got in the group. "I was making party plans for tomorrow and I suddenly had a hate cannon explode on me!"

"Hate... cannon...?" Trixie was perplexed by what she just said. "And how did you recover so quickly? We didn't even notice you waking up."

"Don't question Pinkie Pie." Applejack answered for her. "It's the last thing you want to do."

Trixie just rolled her eyes.

"So, all of this happened at night?" Starlight asked them as they assembled at the dinner table. With Discord and Trixie at her side, while the rest were in front of them, including Fluttershy and Rarity, who had woken up shortly after. Much to Discord's relief for the former.

"I was closing up for the day." Rarity had told them.

"And I was feeding Angel for dinner." Fluttershy added. "But instead of hate, like the rest of you, all I had was this sudden fear that I never felt in a while."

"Aren't you always fearful?" Rainbow asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, but the fear was not in general, instead it was to them." Fluttershy answered as she pointed a hoof at the three reformed villains.

"No wonder you were the hardest to wake." Discord sighed sadly.

"What do you think happened to us?" Applejack asked them. "Because something like this can't happen without a source."

"Zecora gave us the answer." Trixie answered the orange pony. "The spell is called Goodness Forgetness, and it honestly has the stupidest trigger I have seen."

"The spell is activated by reading a certain text." Starlight added, ignoring her friend. "And all we know is that if the text is read, then everyone will forget the good things that happen, I guess." she said with hesitation at the end.

"Someone can easily read the text and all the hard work the three of you did to prove your redemption, can easily be erased?" Rainbow Dash sounded outraged.

"There has to be more than that, darling." Rarity added.

"Well, that's what Zecora told us." Starlight shrugged.

"Anything else she told you?" Rainbow asked.

"No, or else we would tell you." Discord responded in a snarky tone.

As they were continuing to discuss, they saw Twilight enter the dining room. She immediately gasped when she saw the sight of Discord, Trixie, and especially Starlight.

"What are you doing here?" Twilight interrogated her. "You have some nerve coming to my home after you punched me."

Starlight just glared at her, saying nothing.

"Wait, lets calm down, y'all." Applejack got in.

"Calm down?" Twilight looked shocked. "Applejack, you are surprisingly calm that three villains are here in the castle!"

"They're not villains, Twilight." Rarity stepped up. "At least, we know that now."

"You're under a spell, just like us." Fluttershy told her gently.

"And its making you wacko!" Pinkie said as she started twirling her hooves around her head.

"Are all of you insane?" Twilight interrogated her friends. "Do you even hear yourselves?"

"Twilight, just trust us." Applejack said to the alicorn firmly. "You know we would never lie to you. Especially me."

But Twilight just shoved her aside. "You three are clearly sick." Twilight said spitefully to the three, clearly ignoring Applejack's words.

"Excuse me?!" Trixie couldn't help but have a burst of outrage. "No no no. You're one that's sick, Princess Twilight."

But she got angrier. "How dare you say that after you mind controlled my friends!"

"Mind controlled?!" Rainbow Dash looked angry at her. "Now hold on just a minute, Twilight-"

But she just muffled her with her magic. She immediately turned her head to Starlight. "This is all you, isn't it?"

"What did you just say?" Starlight's voice quivered. Trixie noticed that she was fighting to keep her anger in check once again.

"Well, how can it not be?" Twilight raised her hoof to Discord, and back at Trixie. "The other has no magic, and the other is garbage at magic. So it clearly has to be you."

I mean she's not wrong about me. Trixie admitted.

"Well its not!" Starlight yelled. But she stopped and she turned her head away in sadness. "Why do I even try to persuade you anymore?"

"Twilight, darling!" Rarity got in front of the princess. "Stop yourself before you make things go out of hand!"

Twilight started to stammer. She looked back at her friends nervously. Then she looked back at the villains with her eyes narrowed.

"You." Twilight said, while directly staring at Starlight.

With a flash, she teleported away.

"Ugh. I forgot we have to deal with her again." Discord groaned.

Starlight looked up at Discord and Trixie. "Well, we have to face her eventually-"

She was suddenly interrupted by a burst of purple, and she was gone.

"Starlight!" they all screamed her name.

Chapter 12: Repeat

"You." Twilight said, while glaring at Starlight. Then afterwards, she teleported away from them, leaving only behind the disappointed faces of her friends.

Starlight just stared on, trying to process what she just said to her. It hurt a lot that her own former teacher, and one of her closest friends, would continue trying to convince the others that she was the one that caused all this. She was the one that mind controlled Twilight's friends. But the worst part is that, in order for the real Twilight to come back, she would have to hurt her... again.

Its the last thing I want to do. Starlight said as she wiped a tiny tear that started to form in her eye. She hurt Twilight once, for an evil purpose, and a stupid one too. But would she have the courage to do it again? For the sake of making her come back?

"Ugh, I forgot we have to deal with her." Starlight heard Discord's annoyed groan behind her.

Starlight sighed as she turned to face her friends. "Well, we have to face her eventually-"

She was suddenly cut out when a bright purple aura had surrounded her. In a flash, she immediately landed on what feels to be sand. She got up to her feet and saw that she was correct. She was surrounded by the desert canyons, and she only saw a few cacti.

Starlight heard hoofsteps behind her and saw Twilight was approaching her with a glare.

She teleported me! Starlight thought in anger.

"Where are we?" Starlight demanded her angrily. "And how dare you interrupt me mid-sentence?"

"We're in the desert of Appleloosa." Twilight answered simply. "Where you wouldn't have Discord and Trixie to help you now."

Starlight was confused by her motives. What was she playing? "So, you left your friends to the villains that you thought mind controlled them?"

"They're a lost cause now." Twilight answered as she shook her head in sadness. "Besides, I have a new goal in mind now."

"Yeah? What's that?" Starlight asked her, before she was startled by Twilight's sudden tackle. They rolled on the sandy ground until Starlight was being held down by Twilight, with the alicorn's hoof on her chest.

"To defeat you, of course." Twilight smirked. "Of course, I need my revenge after you assaulted me in the Canterlot Gardens.

Starlight, with the willpower that she has right now, she forcefully kicked Twilight off with her hind legs. It hurt her to use them like that, since one of her sides were still covered in deep scratches, thanks to Spike.

"I can't believe you!" Starlight looked desperately at the alicorn. "What happened to forgiveness and second chances? Aren't you the Princess of Friendship after all?"

"Oh, I can forgive." Twilight simply shrugged. "But you are beyond forgiving." She said hatefully, then Starlight noticed that her eyes turned red when she said those words.

Starlight started walking backwards when Twilight started walking up to her, threateningly.

"Twilight, don't make me do this." Starlight said in hesitation.

"Scared?" Twilight taunted. Before Starlight could react, Twilight shot a powerful beam at the ground, causing it to explode and knock Starlight backwards.

Starlight crashed onto the ground. She looked up at Twilight, who was starting to walk towards her slowly, and when she saw that Twilight had a menacing grin, something clicked inside Starlight, telling her that enough was enough.

This was not the real Twilight. Not any longer. Instead, it was replaced by an illogical, and an unforgiving version of herself, and from the testimonies she had gotten from Spike and Twilight's friends, they were trapped, forced to watch them do damage onto the three. Starlight only got angrier when she realized that Twilight was in the same situation, probably screaming for help inside.

I'll break you free. Starlight vowed in her head. With a determined look at the alicorn, she slowly started to get up. She didn't care about the pain she felt from her leg anymore. In fact, she quickly discarded it, somehow.

"The only one who should be scared is you." Starlight retorted as she got face to face with her.

"And why should I?" Twilight continued to scoff. "You're just a unicorn. Meanwhile I'm an alicorn. More powerful than you."

"But don't think you'll take me down so easily." Starlight said before getting into her battle position and lighting up her horn brightly.

"Why are you even doing this to yourself?" Twilight rolled her eyes, before getting into her battle position too, although not as determined as Starlight's. "It's easier if you just submitted to me."

"Because my friend is trapped." Starlight answered her bitterly. "And I'll do anything to get her back. Even if I have to fight you again and again."

Twilight's eyes narrowed in rage. "For the last time..." Starlight braced herself as Twilight's horn started to glow brightly. "I... am... not... your... FRIEND!" She screamed when she shot another beam at Starlight's direction. Starlight quickly teleported away and instead teleported on top of one of the canyons.

"Missed me!" Starlight taunted from above.

Enraged, Twilight quickly teleported to Starlight and tackled her once more. But Starlight had the upper hoof this time. When they tumbled, it was now Twilight's turn to be slammed to the ground, while Starlight was on top.

"Thought you could try that on me again?" Starlight continued to sneer.

Twilight lit up her horn and they immediately teleported to another part of Equestria, the forest area; and they both landed in vines, and the both of them soon got tangled.

"Oh." Twilight sighed. "Didn't think that through."

"You think?" Starlight raised her eyebrow. She cast a teleportation spell on them, and they both landed on the grassy forest ground.

"Thanks, I guess-" Twilight was about to thank her in an ungrateful voice when this time, she was interrupted by Starlight as she had levitated her and slammed her against a tree. While Twilight was dazed Starlight quickly ran up to her and kept pushing her more and more.

Be unconscious, please! Starlight begged in her mind.

"You think thats gonna help?" Twilight mocked before forcefully kicking Starlight with her leg and regained her footing. Then she shot another beam at her, and which Starlight thankfully dodged.

However, when Twilight leapt for her, Starlight shot at her left outstretched wing in defense, leaving a burn mark. Starlight lowered her ears when she heard her former teacher scream of pain.

Looking at her wing, then back at Starlight, her hatred grew even more. She teleported again, and this time, she teleported them to another part of Equestria, a muddy and rainy terrain, somewhere in the mountains.

"What's the point of teleporting?" Starlight asked her while still firing magic at Twilight.

"To see how you do with different climates!" Twilight answered, then when Starlight went high in the air, she cast a spell and when the beam was intact, Starlight turned into a crystal.

"Hah!" Twilight laughed a little.

But Starlight broke away the crystal easily. "Really? Now that's childish." Starlight scoffed as she got on the ground. But then she saw Twilight fire a beam at her. When Starlight dodged, the beam left a giant hole in the rocks.

Disappointed that she missed, Twilight looked at Starlight angrily before firing another move. But then she heard trembling underneath her.

"What is that?" Twilight asked, actual fear reaching her voice.

Finally, Twilight and Starlight stopped fighting, and listened to where the sound was coming from. Once it got closer, Starlight immediately looked up. She saw at what appeared to be a giant, rocky, and muddy river heading their way. Starlight's heart almost stopped when she saw what it was.

"A mudslide!" Starlight screamed.

"A what?!" Twilight asked, it seemed that she didn't hear her voice to the rumbling as it was getting closer and closer. Since Twilight, for some stupid reason, was not aware of the mudslide, Starlight tried to teleport her away. But it was too late.

When the mudslide came their way, Twilight was quickly caught in it. "Help!" she screamed. Just then, a lightning bolt flashes in the sky.

"Twilight!" Starlight screamed as she watched her get caught in the mudslide.

She raced down with her magic and tried to find Twilight and see if she could teleport her out. She could see Twilight gasping for air but was quickly unconscious as she was hit on the head by a rock that passed by. With that, she suddenly stopped screaming and her eyes closed, and disappeared in the slide.

No!

Starlight felt tears go down her face once more. Praying that she was ok, Starlight cast a teleportation spell, but she couldn't get a hold of Twilight. With nowhere else to turn Starlight went for the last resort.

Starlight dived towards the mudslide, and as she got closer, she saw tiny purple spots in the slide. She went and grabbed her with her magic, but she looked beside her and saw that a giant pine tree as about to crash down onto them. With a lot of effort, Starlight pulled Twilight out of the mudslide. Then once she was out, Starlight immediately teleported away, with the tree crashing down at the last second.

Author's Note

Cliffhanger time!

Chapter 13: Washed Away

Starlight panted as she set down Twilight on the leafy, wet ground, far away from the mudslide. They were underneath the shady trees, so the rain wouldn't continue to downfall on them as much. Or at least that was what Starlight had hoped for.

Starlight leaned over and checked her heart. She was breathing, thankfully, but she wondered what had happened to her while she was underneath the mudslide. She hoped that she didn't inhale a lot of dirt. Or maybe that was what she assumed. Starlight hoped that she just hit her head on a rock and nothing else.

She also noticed that Twilight has gained new scratches now. But Starlight was thankful that none of them were deep, just bruises from the fight. And speaking of deep scratches, Starlight turned and assessed her deep scratch that started on her hind leg and extended to her cutie mark. Since she didn't want to have a permanent scar on her, she powered up a spell and she casted it onto her injury. After a few minutes, the scratch slowly started to heal. Then eventually, she could no longer feel the pain, and her hind leg was as good as new.

Why didn't I do that before? Starlight rolled her eyes at herself. Maybe if she did, she would've had more agility when she was fighting Twilight. But somehow, she missed all of her attacks, except for the sudden tackles that she loved to do.

She looked at her unconscious friend once more, and she couldn't help but pity. It is hard to think that the real Twilight was trapped inside herself, forced to watch her trance do all the work, and to listen and see how much her words had affected Starlight, and her reformed friends. But she was grateful that Starlight had freed her from that. Or, at least, she hoped she did.

RUMBLE

Starlight was startled by the sudden sound of thunder, and it wasn't safe to be out in a thunderstorm, and since Starlight was exhausted from the fight, she didn't have enough energy to teleport them back home.

Starlight sighed as she looked around. She might as well find a suitable shelter for the night. She scanned the rainy, windy forest, until she saw something stony in the distance. Starlight, while not leaving Twilight behind for long, she had encountered the cave. She used her horn as a torch and scanned the cave. Thankfully, this cave wasn't that very deep, and no dangerous creatures resided there.

Deciding that this was the right shelter, Starlight had returned to Twilight, who still wasn't moving. Since she didn't want to carry a full-grown body all the way there, she levitated the alicorn and landed her body gently on her back, and carried on like that until they reached the caves.

Starlight set her body down gently, and making sure that no creature was around, Starlight got to the ground and just watched the pitter patter of the rain hitting the leaves of the trees, and the shrubs that were nearby, while yawning.

After what seemed like to go on for hours, Starlight realized that she needed to go to sleep. She looked at her friend who was beside her. Maybe she'll wake up in the morning.

But as she was about to lower her head and close her eyes, she could catch a glimpse of Twilight slowly opened her eyes.

Starlight raised her head immediately. "Twilight?"

Twilight blinked her eyes slowly, before turning her head to Starlight with a tired look. "Starlight? Is that you?"

"Y...yes." Starlight hesitated a little bit before she immediately got to her feet and padded closer to her, assessing her closely. "Are you alright?"

"How am I not?" Twilight said to her happily, while raising her voice, to which startled Starlight. "Its good to be back!"

"But are you ok?" Starlight asked her again, while being deeply relieved.

"Just my head hurts." Twilight smiled a little while she was rubbing her head. "And... feeling the pain on my wing."

She then lifted up the wing she was talking about. It was the one Starlight had left the little burn mark on.

"Twilight, I'm so sorry." Starlight lowered her ears. "I didn't mean too-"

But Twilight's face grew dim. "Why are you apologizing to me? Its clearly me that should be sorry to you, Trixie, and Discord."

"You were under a spell though." Starlight pointed out.

Twilight tilted her head. "Which one?"

"Goodness Forgetness." Starlight told her. "Apparently, someone cast the spell, and you were affected by it."

"Goodness... Forgetness..." Twilight repeated her words more slowly while staring at the rain. Her pupils got small, and her ears lowered.

"Yes...?" Starlight said, weirded out by Twilight's reaction.

But Twilight had shooked her head. "And how is this caused?"

"By casting a spell on accident." she told her. "How it does, we don't know."

"I've heard of Goodness Forgetness, somewhat, but I never thought it would still work." Twilight said as she put a hoof underneath her chin. "That's ancient magic..."

"You've mean its been around for a long time?" Starlight was now getting interested, and a little intrigued by the spell. She did want to know everything about the spell while she can, so she could report it to the rest of the group.

Twilight nodded. "A long time."

"Hm." Starlight pondered. She lowered her head, staring at the ground. "That spell put a toll on us, as you know."

"Oh, I know." Twilight said grimly. "I was there."

She lowered her head too, similar to Starlight's. "Been there from the beginning." she muttered.

"What?" Starlight quickly raised her head. "What did you say?"

Suddenly, loud thundering was heard from above, which startled Starlight and Twilight. After the thunder had calmed, Twilight looked at Starlight with sadness, and Starlight looked at her back with the same emotion.

"Twilight?"

But she just raised her hoof. "That's enough questions for one day." Twilight told her. "Its about time we get some sleep."

Twilight got up from her position, and walked towards the end of the cave, facing away Starlight. "Good night." she said to her.

Starlight twitched her ears. She felt bad that Twilight felt guilty for her actions. Starlight felt the same way not so long ago. But hopefully, she'll make her believe that none of this was really her fault, and hopefully would ease away the guilt, similar to how Twilight had helped her.

"Good night." Starlight called out to her. She looked at the cloudy night sky one last time, before lowering her head, and closing her eyes as she listened to the pitter patter of the rain.

Chapter 15: Paranoia

"Twilight, darling!" Rarity exclaimed to her friend. "Calm down before you start to pass out!"

Twilight, who was sitting in her chair in the throne room, was breathing in and out of a paper bag, and looked at Rarity with a deeply worried expression. "How can I calm down if we are resorting to hurt actual royalty!"

"You're royalty, and we have helped you get back to normal." Trixie told her with an annoyed eyeroll. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"We?" Starlight looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

Trixie lightly chuckled while rubbing her neck nervously.

"It certainly is a big deal!" Rainbow told the unicorn. "We're dealing with the ponies who carry the sun and the moon everyday!"

"Plus, they are actual princesses." Applejack said, then she cast a nervous look at Twilight. "No offense."

But Twilight was so fixated on her breathing that she didn't even notice.

"We are taking so many risks with this!" Pinkie shouted. "If I were part of this, and it failed, they'll probably ban me from planning parties ever again!" she then immediately tucked her hooves in and rocked herself in fright.

"That probably won't happen," Fluttershy reassured her while petting her mane. She looked at the others. "But I also agree with her. What if we failed to bring them back to normal?"

"We would probably be sentenced to the dungeons for an even longer time." Trixie nervously added. "Or worse..."

"We would probably be turned to stone." Discord added, with nervousness and sadness starting to reach him.

"I doubt Celestia would turn us into stone." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Without us, Equestria is practically doomed!"

"I meant us." Discord said, while pointing at himself, Trixie, and Starlight. "After all, they only see us as evil villains. Rotten to the core, with no redeeming qualties in sight." Discord ended bitterly.

"We won't let that happen." Applejack said boldly. "Right girls?"

They all nodded except for Twilight, who continued breathing into her bag.

"I think I should get another replacement bag." Spike said while giving Twilight an annoyed but worried look.

"If we're going to do this, we need a foolproof plan." Starlight told them. "One tiny screw up would lead to destruction."

Twilight suddenly stopped gasping and looked at the others, her eyes narrowed in fear.

"Uh... let's not resort to that just yet." Twilight started to raise her hooves. Trixie noticed that Twilight was starting to sweat. She did want the princesses to remember them... right?

"What else can we do?" Discord said as he crossed his arms. "I don't suppose you can come up with another idea that would make the princesses forgive us again."

"No... but-" Twilight was about to speak, before Discord interrupted her again.

"So unless anyone here has an idea to make Celestia and Luna forgive us without the force of brutality, then they should say it now!" Discord turned and raised his voice to the gang.

Trixie, Starlight, Rarity, and Applejack just shrugged, while Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, all pondered, but eventually gave up.

"That's what I thought." Discord huffed while putting on a smirk towards Twilight.

"This can't be the right answer." Twilight whispered to herself. "It can't."

Twilight immediately got off of her throne. "I can't do this. You're all making a big mistake if you even think about touching them!"

Trixie couldn't believe what she just heard. "How dare you?" she exclaimed angrily as she immediately stepped up.

"Trixie!" Starlight whispered nervously, but she ignored her.

"Does the thought of us hurting your precious teachers hurt you?" Trixie told the alicorn off in a mocking tone. "Well, princess, this isn't the time to go protective mode over them. We are in a dire situation right now. We are wanted criminals, and people are scared of us. Now we have a chance to easily avert that!"

Twilight was about to object, but Trixie continued on.

"It's as if you care more about the other princess than you care about us." Trixie said bitterly. "Do you know what would happen if we left Celestia and Luna unchecked? They could sent their royal guards to hunt us down, or even Luna would start giving us potential nightmares!"

Twilight gasped at her words. "They would never do that!"

"You wouldn't think they would, but we wouldn't have expected you to teleport Starlight to who knows where!" Trixie pointed out. "What makes you think they won't do the same?"

Then Trixie took it one step further. "Who's side are you on?"

"You guys, of couse!" Twilight looked surprised by her question.

"Doesn't seem like it." Trixie narrowed her eyes.

Twilight narrowed her eyes back.

"Ok, ok, ok." Applejack nervously laughed as she got in between the two mares. "This is starting to get out of hand."

"I agree." Twilight nodded, before giving Trixie a cold look. "And I want no part of it."

Twilight turned her back and left the throne room. Spike, while looking back in an apologetic expression, had followed her out.

Trixie breathed in and she sat down. She now started to think if she should feel regretful by what she said.

"I'll go talk to Twilight." Starlight told her friend reassuredly. She was about to leave the room, before her tail was caught by Rarity's aura.

"It's probably best if she handled her feelings alone." Rarity told her.

Trixie just rolled her eyes. "Does she have to act like a big baby about everything?"

"Any topic about Celestia and Luna freaks her out, and the thought of hurting them probably took a big toll on her." Fluttershy explained to her softly. "I sure would."

"Besides, you can't exactly blame her for being afraid of them getting hurt by us." Rainbow Dash agreed.

"Do you think some vanilla covered cupcakes will help her get better?" Pinkie Pie asked as she pulled a random note out of her frizzy mane.

"Cupcakes can't solve this matter, Pinkie!" Applejack groaned in annoyance.

"If you think about it, it practically does!" Pinkie Pie said bubbly, ignoring what Applejack said.

While the five were watching, and Discord was just sitting there, Trixie looked and noticed that Starlight was nowhere in sight.

Trixie smiled with an eyeroll. Classic Starlight.

It was midnight, and Starlight, Trixie, and Discord, were all in Starlight's room, guessing and coming up with a plan to bring Celestia and Luna back to normal. So far, they came up with nothing.

That is until Discord lifted his lion finger. "I got it! We sneak behind Celestia and we will somehow put a magic blocker on her horn! She wouldn't even notice!" he cackled.

"That sounds good," Starlight agreed. "but we don't know where she puts them."

"We'll find out once we get there." Discord muttered. He looked outside Starlight's window. "Its getting late. Since Twilight banned me from sleeping in her room, she had resorted my to the couch." he said, while he ended with a yawn.

"Good night you two." Discord left the room as he waved goodbye with his bird claw. To which Trixie and Starlight waved back.

After Discord left, Starlight started to yawn too. "I agree, it is getting late." she said. "I think I will turn in."

"Honestly, me too." Trixie agreed as well. "My eyelids are starting to fall down."

The two hugged each other goodnight, and before Trixie left the room, Starlight wanted to tell her one thing.

"Listen, about the fight you and Twilight had earlier... I... I think you should-"

"Apologize?" Trixie interrupted her before sighing. "I was about to do that. I shouldn't have said those things to Twilight when she was probably just concerned about our safety as well."

"I don't know what her motives are, but Twilight means well." Starlight said to her before putting a hoof around her neck. "She always has."

"I guess..." Trixie simply shrugged.

After saying goodnight to her closest friend, Trixie trotted downstairs, and listened closely, until she found Twilight's voice in the distance. Trixie had followed the voice, until she finally spotted one of the castle's doors with some stained glass.

Trixie was about to open the door, but she saw that Twilight was quickly sorting through books and books in the library.

She must be busy. Trixie thought to herself. Since she was occupied, Trixie just shrugged and started to walk away. She would probably try again tomorrow. The last thing she needed was to interrupt the princess with a stupid apology.

"Come on, Twilight, its getting late!" Trixie heard Spike exclaim in the distance. "At this rate, I don't think you'll ever find that spell!"

The moment he said the word "spell", Trixie suddenly stopped, and looked behind her and looked at the stained door curiously. Was he talking about Goodness Forgetness? Are they looking for a way to revert the spell?

Once again, Trixie didn't like to eavesdrop, but she could help but do it when Spike continued.

"Twilight, relax, please!" she heard Spike pleading. "What has gotten into you lately? You've been quiet and a nervous wreck since Starlight returned you to normal, according to her."

"Found it!" Trixie heard Twilight exclaim, completely ignoring what Spike had just said. Trixie then heard a book land on a table. She heard the book's pages flip, until Twilight gasped. "Goodness Forgetness! The spell is in this book!"

"Ok...?" Spike was confused by what she was saying. "What about it? We know it exists now."

"No! Starlight told me that the spell would be casted by accident." Twilight explained. "Then it says right here in the next page, 'one of the most mishandled spells in the ancient times, with only reading an ancient text would make the spell appear.'"

"Ok." Spike said, trying to follow.

"Then I look on top, and it says this weird text in some squiggly font." Twilight said while pointing at the words at the top of the page. "And... this is where I came in."

"Huh?" Spike and Trixie said at the same time, while Trixie's was more hushed.

"You know I have a habit of saying things aloud when I don't know how to read them clearly?" Twilight asked Spike nervously.

Spike didn't seem to get it, until he finally got the hint. "Are you saying that..."

"...I cast the spell on them by accident." Twilight finished more solemnly.

Trixie almost gasped loudly, almost giving her away. Twilight was behind all of our pain and suffering this whole time?

Trixie shook her head. Then she immediately listened in anger. She didn't even want to apologize to her anymore. How can she?

"Twilight..." Spike was about to say something, but his voice trailed away.

Twilight closed the book forcefully. "Why else was I so tense?" she asked the dragon sadly. "The moment Starlight told me that spell, I remembered reading about it just a few days ago."

Two days after my magic show. Trixie thought, assuming that was when the spell started.

"Twilight, the book said that this spell itself was mishandled." Spike told her. "None of this is your fault."

"It is! Now they are about to go to war with the princesses because of it." Twilight sighed, before rubbing her forehead with her hoof. "Oh Spike, I don't know what to do. When do I tell them?"

Trixie couldn't bear to hear anymore. She decided to make her presence known by slamming the door open. She didn't even care if it made the loudest noise in the castle.

"How about now?" she demanded.

"Trixie!" Twilight gasped. "How long have you been listening?"

"Long enough to know that you were behind all of this!" Trixie said while waving her hoof angrily.

"Trixie, Trixie, Trixie." Spike waved his claws, trying to calm her down. "This may seem bad but-"

Just then they heard the running steps of Discord, who appeared with a teddy bear tugged in his arms.

"You better have a good explanation for waking up the Lord of Chaos." Discord hissed, before turning and seeing the guilty faces of Twilight and Spike. "Actually, nevermind."

Just then, moments later, Starlight came down the stairs, clearly panting.

"Don't scare me like that!" Starlight told Trixie fiercely. "I thought something happened I-"

She immediately stopped when she saw Twilight and Spike, grinning nervously. While peeking beside Twilight and looked at the book that was titled "Ancient Magic from the Starswirl Days."

She looked towards the alicorn and the dragon, and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What's going on?"

Author's Note

*Cue the dramatic music*

Chapter 16: Acts

"What's going on here?" Trixie heard Starlight ask the alicorn, her tone as cold as ice. Her eyes were fixed on her former teacher, while narrowing them in suspicion.

Trixie turned to her other side and saw Discord give Twilight the same identical look. He crossed his arms and he tapped his hoof when Twilight continued to stall by darting her eyes around nervously, while Spike just kept laughing nervously.

"Uh... this isn't the best time right now." Spike cleared his throat nervously.

"For what?" Trixie tilted her head. "When is the best time for what you did?"

"What did she do?" Starlight asked, a little startled by what she said. She turned back to Twilight. "I demand an answer!"

"I'm with her." Discord told Twilight, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"No, I want Twilight to say it with her own words." Trixie told the two of them; and which, for some reason, gave Twilight a tiny smirk.

Twilight now started to back away. "Why are you smiling at me like that?" she muttered, as if she was talking to herself.

Starlight's gaze landed on the book that was behind Twilight. She raised an eyebrow at Twilight.

"You wouldn't mind if I had that book, would you?" Starlight asked Twilight, her tone caked with suspicion.

Before Twilight would answer, Starlight grabbed the book with her aura, and started to flip through the pages, with Discord and Trixie watching at the sides.

"Wait!" Twilight called out desperately.

But it was too late. Once they had found the page, Discord and Trixie glared at Twilight, while Starlight looked at her with a confused expression.

"You have this in your library?" Discord angrily asked her.

"Well..." Twilight rubbed her neck nervously.

"You did it, didn't you?" Discord said bitterly.

Twilight lowered her ears, and her eyes were filled with regret.

"You, you didn't..." Starlight lowered her ears. "You surely didn't unleash a dangerous spell onto us without thought?" she exclaimed.

"I didn't mean too!" Twilight told them, raising her voice. "I swear, it was an accident."

"An accident that would've made us rot in jail!" Discord told her bitterly. "An accident that would turned me to stone the third time."

"What do you mean by that?" Starlight looked at Discord, perplexed.

"Celestia deemed I was a menace to society and that I was ordered to be turned to stone the next day." Discord explained, while looking at Twilight bitterly. "That hurt me greatly."

"I'm sorry, you have understand!" Spike now butted in. "We now know this is a kind of spell is wild, and could be cast without thought! You have to realize that this is not Twilight's fault."

"No, it is her fault. Because she had that stupid book in the first place." Trixie told the dragon. "What kind of a princess are you?"

Twilight looked taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"A princess wouldn't be so careless over ancient spells! Who knows how many spells you may have. Who knows when you'll cast a spell that could potentially doom us all!"

Twilight lowered her ears in regret. "I'm... I'm sorry. I really am."

"Well, it's going to take more than an apology to revert what you have done." Discord scoffed. "After all, your carelessness did lead me to hurt Fluttershy after all. After I had promised myself to never hurt her again."

"I know that, but..." Twilight tried explaining herself once more, but Discord quickly went up to her, and lifted her up in the air with force; as if Twilight was as light as an empty bag. Even Trixie was shocked by how strong Discord was, and she turned and saw Starlight looked equally shocked as well.

"You made me hurt Fluttershy, and put our lives in danger!" Discord snarled. "Do you know how it felt to be feared by Fluttershy again? Trembling under my presence? Being constantly reminded of my past before being turned to stone a second time?"

"Discord, that's enough, we get the point!" Spike told him. "Put her down, please!"

He looked back and forth at Twilight, who just looked at him in defeat, and back at the tiny dragon, who looked like he was begging for mercy. He sighed and he dropped Twilight to the ground.

"You're lucky Spike convinced me." Discord told Twilight, who was still wincing from the pain. "I would've given you more scolding and an actual injury." he said coldly.

"Will you give me a chance to explain myself?" Twilight said as she continued to wince. "Listen, I'm sorry that I cast the spell on you. You all deserve to be angry, and I..." she trailed off when she noticed that someone was missing.

Trixie and Discord noticed it too.

"Starlight?" Trixie called out. But after she said that, they heard the door slam shut upstairs.

Twilight just hanged her head in shame.

"I hope you're proud." Discord said, before leaving the room and heading upstairs, presumably coming to Starlight's aid.

As they left, Trixie watched Twilight look at her with sadness. "I'm-"

"Don't say it." Trixie shut her down. "You've already done enough."

With that, she left the room, and went upstairs to Starlight's room. Leaving behind a sorrowful dragon, and a regretful alicorn alone.

Trixie knocked on Starlight's bedroom door. She heard a few mutters inside her room, but they were quiet when they heard the knock.

"Come to say 'sorry' once more, traitor?" Trixie recognized the bitter voice of Discord.

"No, it's me." Trixie told them, while being a little shocked by what Discord said.

"Come in, and lock it." ordered Starlight.

Doing as she said, she entered inside her room, and locked the door with her magic.

"About time the three of us gathered together after what happened just moments ago." Discord muttered. "Let's start off by saying things to get out of our chest."

"You already did that." Trixie rolled her eyes.

"No no no, not all of it. Mostly because Spike was there." Discord winked. "I'll go first. I don't-"

Trixie silenced him by levitating an apple from a nearby bowl, and shoved it in inside Discord's mouth, silencing his speech.

"Hey!" Discord exclaimed. "How dare you interrupt my temper tantrum?" he told her while chewing. "You're lucky this apple is good, or else I would've thrown it at you."

Trixie then winked. "Good, you don't wanna risk choking then."

Discord rolled his eyes back.

Trixie then looked at Starlight, who just looked at the ground with a sorrowful expression. "Why did you leave? Normally you don't leave a confrontation without screaming first."

"I... was too angry and too... sad to say anything." she told her. "I know she says its an accident but-"

"Don't listen to that." Trixie scoffed. "It's her own fault her stupid habits made us get into this mess." she told her. "I have no idea why she has access to ancient spells if she is going to release one so carelessly."

"Twilight is usually careful with spells." Starlight told her calmly. "She's not known to being careless."

"That doesn't excuse what she did." Trixie told her. "After all what we went through? To fix her stupid mistake?"

Starlight sighed. "I guess."

"Well, she's certainly going to be a big help with the Princesses." Discord rolled his eyes after taking a bite of the apple.

"No, she won't." Starlight said to him firmly.

"Because you know she will have a panic attack and slow us down? Not to mention increase the awkwardness?" Discord chuckled.

"Could be that. But its mostly because she's not going at all." Starlight finished.

"What?" Trixie and Discord exclaimed.

"Ok, I know we all don't like Twilight right now, but she could be useful for that mission. She probably knows the ins and outs of the castle!"

"For once I agree with that." Discord said while pointing at Trixie.

Starlight thought of it more. "No, Discord makes a good point. Going to assault the princesses, not to mention her former teacher, would only make the stress worse on herself if she is part of the assult."

"She deserves it though. After what she did." Trixie pointed out.

"One might think that, and I kinda agree, but Twilight doesn't even need to be part of the quest anyway. We're the ones who are supposed to bring the memories back after all. Twilight would only be a guide for us. Plus, I'm sure it's not that hard to navigate the castle."

Trixie and Discord looked at each other, and in the end, they just shrugged.

"Fine." Discord said.

"When will we leave?" Trixie asked her.

Starlight looked out the window. The moon was still high in the sky. It would take a while until it was morning again.

"We leave at the crack of dawn; and we do not alert Twilight, or let her know of our departure." Starlight told them while looking out the window. "It will just be us. The three alone."

Trixie tensed. She wasn't sure about Starlight's plan of breaking into the castle again and actually attempting to hurt royalty. But... they had to eventually, and the stalling and the waiting would come to an end. Trixie just hoped that restoring Celestia and Luna would be a piece of cake.

But they all knew that it was going to be a challenge. One that they would go to prison for, and even be turned to stone for their crimes.

Just don't get caught and we're fine. Trixie repeated in her head. But it didn't make the stress any better.

Chapter 17: Dawn

"Trixie?"

"Trixie wake up!"

Trixie slowly opened her eyes once she heard the knocking outside her caravan. She groaned in annoyance as she rubbed her eyes, and got off of her hammock. Even if it was necessary for the plan that Starlight had made last night, she still didn't like being woken up from her usual sleep schedule.

"Yeah yeah I'm getting up." Trixie said sleepily. She opened up her chest, and she groggily put on her usual cape and hat, and packed some extra smoke bombs for good measure. How could she forget?

Once she was ready, she slammed open the door. "I'm here now." she said in a tired tone, and while rubbing her right eye.

Discord loudly shushed her. "Don't be so loud! Do you want Twilight or Spike to catch us?"

"Your shushing is louder than the slam." Trixie retorted.

"We have no time to argue." Starlight told the two of them. As quick as a flash, Starlight teleported with them to the outskirts of Canterlot, and once they caught the sight of the bushes, they quickly hid in them.

Trixie, who was fully awake now, noticed that Starlight was sweating just a tiny bit.

"That must've taken a lot of power to teleport us here." Trixie noted to her.

"It was." Starlight responded back. "But we have no time to take a train. Especially right now." Starlight pointed her hoof in a direction. Trixie looked and saw that Celestia was on the balcony, raising the sun with her magic, completely unaware that three reformed villains were watching her.

"What about it?" Discord raised an eyebrow. "We can literally attack her at any time."

"It's good that we attack her while she's exhausted." Starlight told him. "I don't know how long it takes to regain that much power, but something tells me that it wouldn't be quick."

"Ok, but how will we do it without getting caught?" Trixie asked her. "I bet the castle will be filled with guards since our escape."

"We'll use the same invisibility spell I used when the Changelings were looking for us." Starlight told her. "If she does attempt to fight us, all we can do is slow her down, and make her tired."

"But once Luna hears the noise, she would surely be rushing to her sister's aid." Discord told her.

"Let's just hope that she's exhausted enough to not hear the noise." Starlight said.

"While we're on it, can we please get these off?" Discord pointed at his magic blockers. "If I have to go through one day without using my chaos magic, I'll lose my mind."

"Once Celestia is free, I'm sure you will be back to normal." Starlight reassured him with a warm smile.

Suddenly, Starlight's eyes flashed red, and Starlight let out a startled gasp. She was so startled that she lost balance and fell onto the bushes.

"Starlight!" Trixie, alarmed by Starlight's sudden shock, had rushed to her and offered her a helping hoof.

"What was that about?" Discord asked once Starlight regained her balance and got out of the bushes, thanks to Trixie.

"I... don't know." Starlight stammered fearfully. "I just had a sudden vision of darkness... with only red eyes staring at me. All staring down at my soul. With..."

Starlight turned her head to see Twilight's castle. "With her in the middle."

Discord and Trixie exchanged confused and uncertain glances. You could get visions?

"Maybe that was just a one time thing." Trixie told her nervously. "Maybe it was all because you're anxious." But Starlight didn't look convinced by her words, and soon, neither did it convince Trixie.

But let's just hope that it is.

With the help of Starlight's invisibility spell, they both scanned the castle without being noticed by the guards that were in every room, hallway, and every corner of the place.

"She have gone crazy with them since we've been here." Discord whispered. "I know Celestia is cuckoo, but you would think she would tone down on the security."

"As you have said before, she views us as criminals." Trixie whispered back. "Honestly, I can't blame her if three wanted villains were roaming around somewhere, possibly planning for revenge."

"She should be lucky it's just us." Discord scoffed.

Starlight groaned in annoyance. "Would you two be quiet? The guards would hear the two of you."

Trixie and Discord looked around. There were no guards in sight this time.

"Relax. For some reason this part of the castle isn't heavily guarded." Discord rolled his eyes.

"That is strange." Trixie agreed. "Wonder why."

But as they appeared behind the corner, Starlight suddenly stopped, and raised her hoof, making Trixie and Discord stop as well.

Starlight looked around the room, clearly alert. "Something is not right."

"Huh?" Trixie had no idea what Starlight was talking about. The hallway was completely empty, with no sign of the guards even close by.

"You're starting to get paranoid." Discord told her, both in an annoyed and concerned tone. "And for that matter, do you even know where we are going? It feels like we have walked around this castle for hours and I don't think-"

"Get them!" a voice shouted.

Right away, eight guards appeared right behind the trio, and instantly launched at them, making the spell disappear once the two guards tackled Starlight.

"Get off of me you idiots!" Discord commanded while hissing at the guards like a snake.

"What will you do about it? You're useless!" A guard retorted.

"Imagine having the Lord of Chaos himself being beaten by us guards." Another guard mocked, then lowered their ears. "That's... actually kind of pathetic."

"Don't worry guys, I'll save us!" Trixie declared, taking out a smoke bomb from her cape and immediately dropping it to the floor. However, this did little. The guards that were on top of her coughed a little, but somehow got hold of Trixie.

"We couldn't escape anyway, genius." Discord groaned as he pointed a bird claw at Starlight, who was already pinned to the ground, completely trapped. They had also put a magic blocker onto her horn, making her completely useless once more.

"But how did you even find us?" Trixie demanded at the guards. "We were as quiet as a mouse!"

One of the guards that pinned Starlight gave her an amusing look. "Well, for starters, you weren't exactly helping yourself since we would hear you whispering."

After they said that, Starlight gave the two a glare.

"Second, it is rather suspicious that we would hear hoofsteps in a silent hallway. So we followed the noise, and once he started talking," they continued while pointing at Discord. "We knew it was you three again."

"I told you be quiet and you didn't listen!" Starlight scolded her two friends. Meanwhile Trixie and Discord looked somewhat ashamed.

"Didn't you hear the second part? You were doomed from the start." a guard jeered.

"Oh, wait until Celestia hears of this!" A guard chuckled mischievously.

"No, wait until the three princesses find out!" Another guard joined in. "It's about time we finally have some justice here!"

All the guards agreed.

"Yeah, but you're so terrible at your jobs, that crime is easy to do!" Discord jeered. "Honestly, this may be the only time you were useful, you know?"

"Be quiet!" a white guard shoved his face to the ground. The stallion nodded to another nearby stallion, who was watching the whole scene.

"Tell Celestia that we have caught the criminals, and we'll bring them to the throne room." He ordered.

"On it!" said the guard as they ran off.

"Honestly, I never thought we would capture you that easily." A guard that was on top of Starlight jeered. "Normally it's us that gets defeated so easily."

"Not the time to bring it up..." the white guard facehoofed.

The trio sweated bullets once they arrived at the throne room. Each guard as at their side, with only a couple more group of guards behind them, all eyeing them like a hawk.

But it was only worse that they had Celestia glaring at them from below, giving them the coldest death glare that they had ever gotten, which was surprising for an alicorn that is usually calm and fair.

"I've seen Celestia mad, but not this mad." Discord whispered. He was even starting to get nervous.

"Silence down there!" Celestia strictly ordered.

After the guards were all situated in their positions, Celestia raised her hoof. "Before we begin this, I have sent a letter to Twilight about this. She should be here any moment now."

"Hah! Have fun getting her to be on your side!" Trixie mocked her without even thinking. "She's on our side now, And you can't do anything about it!"

Celestia raised her eyebrow. "Is that so? Well, we'll see who's in the wrong once she arrives, but we all know who that will be." she finished smugly.

Trixie now started to get nervous, and so did Starlight and Discord. Sure, what she did to them was obviously reckless and unforgiving... at least for now; but surely she was not that braindead that she would side with Celestia because she was her former mentor and teacher?

"Twilight would never side with you!" Starlight called out boastfully, while having hope in her voice. "I know her. And I know that she won't leave us in the dust just to favor you."

"You're claiming you know her more than me?" Celestia asked her, clearly unamused, and a little angry. "Remind me, how long have you've known her? Have you've known her since you were a filly?"

"Uh... no." Starlight stammered. "But I know that she wouldn't submit to you over us. You crazed lunatic." Starlight muttered the last words to herself.

"Repeat those last words again." Celestia quickly threatened. Just then, the doors opened. They all turned and saw the purple alicorn at the doorway.

"Just in time." Celestia smiled.

"Yeah, I had a certain wake up call." Twilight rubbed the back of her neck again. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the three. "Oh, you again."

"Twilight! Thank..." Starlight was about to say Celestia but stopped herself. "Uh, I'm so glad you're here!"

"Why are you so happy to see me?" Twilight asked her rather coldly. "You're the one in trouble."

"Uh..." Starlight looked confused by her hostility.

"Twilight, my prized pupil, come sit next to me. We'll discuss what to do with these criminals while they face us." Celestia grinned.

"Twilight you must've gone mad if you even think about sitting next to her!" Trixie objected. "She's not the same teacher you know and love. She's starting to act like Nightmare Moon!"

"She's not like her!" Twilight spat back. "How dare you say that?"

They stared at her blankly once she sat next to Celestia. It's official, she's braindead. Trixie said in her mind. But why was she acting this way?

"Honestly I'm surprised you even have the nerve to come here." Celestia scorned them. "After all, you rescued Discord, and assaulted Twilight from your own hooves." Celestia finished while glaring at Starlight.

"And I'll do again if I have too." Starlight stated, while giving Twilight a fierce glare, mixed with anger and hurt. "Especially right now."

But Twilight barely flinched at the threat. "How do we punish them?"

"I was thinking maybe two months in the dugeon." Celestia pondered. "But I think it should be longer, what do you think?" She asked the three. They gave her nothing but glares.

"Nothing? Excellent. Two months in the dungeon! Oh, and if you ever attempt to escape, I'll make the time extra longer." Celestia clapped her hooves. "Guards, take them away."

They started sweating as the guards marched towards them.

"Twilight! Have you've taken stupid pills today?" Discord asked the princess angrily. "Stop this!"

Twilight said nothing.

"You're picking her over us?" Trixie asked, dismayed. "What kind of princess are you?"

"A sane one." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Take them away before they try more of their pitiful attempts to guilt trip me."

As the guards touched the prisoners, Starlight smacked their hoof. "Oh no, I'm not leaving yet." Starlight said with complete bitterness in her tone.

She faced Twilight, with only hurt in her eyes, but only anger in her voice. "I've believed in you, Twilight. I wasn't as angry as Trixie and Discord when they found out you cast the spell. I was willing to accept your apology and forgiveness with open hooves, but instead, you broke my heart and threw us under the bus. You chose your own friends and pupil all in favor over your insane teacher!"

But Twilight's only reaction was a twitch with her right ear. "I don't remember having a pupil, or having you as a friend."

Starlight softly gasped at her words. She turned away from her. After clearing the tears from her eyes, she faced Twilight, all the sadness completely gone. Only anger. "Well, you don't have to remember anymore." she said with pure anger.

Discord and Trixie looked at her in shock.

"Ok, are we done?" Celestia rolled her eyes. "Chop chop! I wanted them out of here three minutes and 60 miliseconds ago."

The guards shoved the three out of the room, with Starlight being the only one not caring, as she kept her head up and her eyes closed.

"You're not the only one punished, you know!" Twilight called after her, but they ignored her.

"Another reason as to why you're my prized pupil." Celestia congratulated her. "Not afraid to punish the enemies who do wrong."

"Heh... you and me both." Twilight shuffled her wings, although for some reason, she didn't feel happy, not proud of what she did. But what could she do?

This was her crime.

Chapter 18: Déjà Vu

Five days had gone by since the three were locked up in the dungeon, thanks to Celestia and... Twilight. Due to Celestia being harsher, thanks to the spell, they rarely get any food or water. But whenever they did, all they gave for each of them was a carrot, and a teacup with water inside. It was basically laughable at this point.

"Some princess she is." Discord scoffed as he rolled his eyes. "'A sane one.' More like an insane one."

"I know! After what Starlight went through to get her back, she still chose Celestia over us!" Trixie exclaimed before crossing her arms. "I've been stabbed in the back once or twice in my life, but this is a new level of low."

Starlight just said nothing.

"So, how do we get out of this mess that we've put ourselves in?" Discord asked. "It's been five days, I think, yet it feels like an eternity." He then looked at the carrots in disgust. "I swear, I'll explode if I have to eat these carrots for the rest of my life."

"Well, too bad. It helps with your eyes." said a familiar voice. A familar, traitorous voice.

"You." Discord snarled. "You have some nerve coming here after that little stunt you pulled on us. I've actually enjoyed five days without seeing your face. You might as well be the Princess of Traitorous Backstabbing Losers."

"Funny title, and what are you gonna do? You're in a cage, for Celestia's sake. It's not like you can hurt me or anything." Twilight gloated.

Trixie now stepped up beside Discord. "I never thought I would hate you more than I did when you made a fool out of me when we first met, but you are doing a very good job at breaking a new record."

"Ha! As if I care." Twilight rolled her eyes. She peered beside the two and saw Starlight sulking at the corner. "Have you got anything to say?"

Starlight remained silent.

Twilight shrugged. "Huh. I guess not."

Trixie glared at her. "What did you expect? You broke her heart a million times already. What are you? A sadist?"

"Only to those who have wronged me." Twilight explained. "After all, why should I feel sorry for you after all the stunts and tricks you pulled on us?"

They remained silent.

Twilight continued. "After all, a leopard doesn't change their spots. All villains do is lie, steal, and will do anything in their power to get what they want. But in the end, they would never succeed."

"Hey, hold on a moment!" Trixie objected. "Wasn't Princess Luna a villain too? Wouldn't that make you a hypocrite of you think that all villains deserve to not be forgiven? What makes you think that Luna doesn't fit in that category."

"Luna didn't hurt me as much." Twilight defended calmly. "But you three have. For Discord, he turned Ponyville into a chaotic wreck, not to mention betrayed us to Tirek; you have used the alicorn amulet to ban me from my home, and forced my friends to do my bidding; and Starlight somehow took me and my friend's cutie marks away! It hurt!"

This time, Starlight finally got up and faced the princess. "I would do it again if it wasn't for this stupid ring." Starlight threatened.

"You're all bark but no bite." Twilight shook her head. "What a pity."

They just glared at her; meanwhile Starlight walked back into the same corner, clearly not wanting to face Twilight again.

"Well, I'll leave you to rot in here. Well, most of you anyway." Twilight said while looking at Discord. "As for you, Celestia decided to turn you to stone tomorrow night."

"Why?" he growled.

"Because I requested it." Twilight told him.

That was enough to make Discord angrier than ever. He leapt at the bars and slipped his lion paw through. Since Twilight was close to the bars, Discord slashed Twilight's cheek with his claws, leaving behind deep scratches.

Discord kept slashing outside the cave. "Just wait until I get my claws on you!" he threatened. "You're lucky this cage is here to save you."

"Discord!" Trixie, shocked by his actions, she kept pulling him back, but to no avail. Starlight didn't even attempt to help, although she was shocked as well, but not much.

Twilight winced as she put her hoof on her cheek. Her eyes narrowed when she saw blood on her hoof. She looked up at Discord with hatred, and her pupils turned red. "Actually, I'll make sure she does it tonight."

As soon as she said that, she winced again. But this time, it was not from the scratch. She kept rubbing her forehead with her hoof. It was as if she was fighting a headache.

Discord's anger died away, with confusion as the replacement. "Twilight are you ok?"

Twilight looked at Discord, while her eyes were red still, her gaze softened and... she looked sad? "I'm sorry..." she whispered.

"Huh?" Trixie tilted her head, confused as to what was happening. She also heard Starlight gasp in the background.

Twilight grunted as she rubbed her forehead once more. After she was done, her red color was gone, but she looked angry once more.

"This isn't over, Discord." she vowed. She quickly ran out of the dungeon, and slammed the dungeon doors. It was no mistake as to where she was going now.

"What... was that?" Discord rubbed his chin in confusion. "She was suddenly remorseful? That made no sense."

"She was trying to guilt trip you." Trixie rolled her eyes, although she was puzzled as well. "But I don't know why she said 'sorry'."

"Didn't you see?" They turned and saw Starlight looking out the bars.

"See what? A sudden personality change? We all saw that." Discord crossed his arms. Then he noticed that his paw had tiny tints of blood on them. "How unprofessional of me. I'm usually classier than this."

"You're right, a personality change!" Starlight beamed. "Did you notice that her tone and the way we looked at us completely changed after you slashed her cheek?"

Trixie and Discord looked confused.

"What about it?" They said at the same time.

Starlight was about to say something, but she stopped herself. She was in deep thought. She pranced inside the cell, clearly thinking.

She suddenly came to a realization. "She's torturing herself." she muttered.

"What?" Trixie strained her ears.

"If I am correct, Twilight had casted the spell onto herself again out of regret, and guilt." Starlight told them.

"What makes you say that?" Discord asked. "How do you know she didn't just fake it this whole time?"

"She wasn't. When she hit the rock, she was back to normal, and I know because she way she expresses her feelings towards us looks, and feels genuine. After all, the spell is supposed to make them hate us more, not less."

"So what made her do it then?" Discord asked again.

"Out of guilt." Starlight sighed before explaining. "Remember when we scolded her for casting the spell onto us? Well, when we left, she left with a guilt-stricken expression. This was when she was out of the spell. Now it just so happens that the next day she suddenly becomes extremely hostile and picks Celestia over us?"

The two looked at each other. It sounded like it made sense.

"And remember the last words she said to us before we left the throne room?" Starlight asked her two friends.

"How could I not?" Discord scoffed. "'You're not the only one punished.'"

"Do you think she meant that it was not only us that's getting punished, but she's punishing herself as well?"

"That sounds too crazy of a coincidence." Trixie now caught on. "And her eyes flashed red too!"

"It was only afterwards that she was almost back to normal... but the spell still had a hold of her." Discord sighed.

Starlight now started feeling regretful. "I should've known the real Twilight wouldn't betray us like that. What kind of friend am I?"

Trixie walked towards Starlight and comforted her. "There is no one to blame but the spell."

But it still didn't help her. "I know, but-"

The dungeon doors suddenly slammed open, and four guards marched onward.

"You're done for, Discord!" one guard yelled.

But Discord didn't look even scared. He turned his head to Trixie and Starlight. "Remember when I asked how we were going to get out?"

Trixie rubbed her neck. "I... think so?"

"Well, I've found the answer to my own question." Discord smiled.

"You do?" Starlight's face beamed.

"Of course I do." Discord then got onto all fours. "Just follow my lead."

As soon as the guards got closer, he gulped.

"This is our only chance."

Chapter 19: Restart

"This is our only chance."

Trixie looked at Discord with a wide-eyed expression. "What?!"

Besides her, Starlight started back away slowly out of fear. Her ears lowered and her pupils turned small. "What are you talking about?" she asked Discord.

Discord gazed at the upcoming guards with a concentrated gaze. "You see that guard at the front?" he asked.

Trixie and Starlight looked at the guard. He looked like the other guards, except he was a little bit bigger than his companions. Trixie tilted her head. Why was he so special?

"If you haven't noticed, he has the keys to your magic blockers." Discord hissed silently.

"How do you know? Those keys could be for something else." Trixie rolled her eyes, although on the inside, Trixie hoped that he was right.

"From here, the keys are black and look like its made of stone. Like your blockers." Discord told them.

Before any of them could respond, Discord broke into a run on his fours.

"I'll toss them to you! Just make sure you catch it!" Discord called out to the two.

Then he leapt on the guard with the keys. Him and the guard tussled on the ground. While the guard was an earth pony, Discord had the upper hand thanks to his claws. But he kept getting interrupted by the guard's companions. They didn't even try to go after Trixie and Starlight. All the attention was on him.

"Gah!" Discord gasped. He then held up the keys with his bird claw. He looked directly at the two staring unicorns. "Here!" he said as he threw the keys.

Trixie gasped as she saw the keys fly at them at massive speeds. Who knew Discord had strong throwing skills? Trixie broke into a run until she leapt for the keys. She grabbed them in her mouth and landed on her hooves.

"Got them!" Trixie said with her mouth a little muffled.

Just then two guards quickly headed towards Trixie's direction, with the other two battling Discord. Trixie felt her heart thump even harder. Now the attention was all on her! And normally she likes attention.

"I'm here." Starlight said as she trotted after Trixie. She glared as the guards were about to approach them.

"Where's the stupid keyhole?" Trixie muttered, scanning Starlight's horn. She was now starting to sweat as she heard the guard get closer and closer.

Eventually, she found a hole in the blocker. Trixie gasped in delight.

"Found it!" Trixie exclaimed happily.

She looked at her side. Her heart almost stopped when she saw the guard was a few feet away from her. As quick as lightning, he leapt at Trixie. Trixie closed her eyes, bracing impact. As she did that, she heard bodies land on the ground. She slowly opened her eyes to see what happened; and she was thankful by what she saw.

Starlight had pounced on the guard, knocking him on the ground. They rolled to the side until Starlight kicked the guard off with her hind leg. The guard landed roughly on the ground, then he got up to his feet.

"Unlock Discord's blockers. His magic is ten times stronger than mine." Starlight ordered her friend, while not taking her eyes off the guard.

Trixie nodded. Then she noticed that a guard was also behind her. Trixie dodged the guard and raced straight towards Discord, who had both of the guards laying down near his feet.

Making sure nothing was in her way yet, she looked back and saw Starlight facing the guard. She saw that the guard was trying to get Starlight out of the way by making sharp jumps around her. But she kept blocking him every time.

"What's wrong?" Trixie heard Starlight ask. She also noticed that her friend had a curt smile on her face. "Too scared to fight a unicorn with their magic disabled?"

The guard gave Starlight a cold stare. "I'm not scared of a traitor with no magic." Trixie heard his sneer. Afterwards, Trixie looked at where she was going, to avoid the of missing Discord. But she could hear grunts in the background.

Trixie had now caught up to Discord. After they met, Discord eyed the guard who was chasing her. Before the guard could react, Discord delivered one punch to the side of his face. The guard fell to the ground. But before he could get up, Discord and Trixie pinned him down. With Discord having his claws on his mouth and neck, while Trixie put her hooves on the body.

"Don't fight it. If you know what's good for you." Discord muttered darkly. Trixie looked at Discord in shock. She never expected the goofy but annoying draconequus to mutter something so dark.

Discord turned his attention to Trixie. "Give me the keys. I'll unlock it for you. Keep him pinned." he told her. Doing as she was told, Trixie lowered her head, letting him scan her horn. Discord went through the keys until he found one with a round end. After hearing mechanical sounds, and feeling the block move a bit, she was finally free.

Trixie lit up her horn happily. "It feels so good to use magic again." she told him happily.

Discord rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Trixie noticed his sudden annoyance. "What's wrong? You literally have the keys to your blockers. Can't you unlock them?"

Discord shook his head. "These are the special kinds. No key could unlock them."

Trixie felt more nervous than ever when she heard those words. What if the next time we'll be caught, we'll have the same blockers as he does? she asked nervously in her mind.

Discord peered behind Trixie, then looked back at her. "Can you teleport duct tape here?"

"Uh, I guess?" Trixie said with a bit of nervousness. With a bit of concentration, the duct tape suddenly appeared.

"Good. Tape his mouth, and hooves. So he doesn't escape. Meanwhile, I will help Starlight." he told her. Then he ran off behind her.

Before the guard could have a chance to break free from the grasp, Trixie quickly taped his mouth shut. Then his hooves.

"I'm sorry." Trixie apologized to the guard. "But Trixie doesn't want to face death for the tenth time."

Afterwards, she ran after Discord. As she got closer, she saw Discord running up to Starlight and the guard. As she walked up to the fight, she now had a closer look at the two ponies. The two of them were deeply bruised, especially Starlight. They were both panting, and they gave each other intense glares.

"Do you give up now?" It was the guard's turn to sneer.

Starlight opened her mouth to say a reply, but then her attention was on Discord. Confused, the guard looked behind him. Before he could react, Discord forcefully punched him to the side, making him unconscious.

"That's the last of the four." Discord told her.

"Thank goodness." Starlight panted. "I don't know if I could take on another guard after that. Stupid armor they have." she said in between her panting.

Discord walked up to Starlight with the key in his hand. He messed with her blocker, until it broke free.

"That better be the last time you have those stupid things." Discord told her.

Starlight looked puzzled. "Why do you have your blockers on still?"

"I got the special edition." Discord said in a sarcastic tone. His ears perked up. Trixie's ears perked up too. She heard more guards coming.

"They're coming." Discord hissed bitterly.

"So what now? We got our magic back." Trixie asked the two.

"We find Twilight." Starlight told them. She lit up her horn and she closed her eyes. "I'm not letting her get away with this."

The three were now teleported inside a room filled with magical artifacts. The three looked around the room, looking content.

"Ok, this room fits Twilight. Maybe we can find her in here." Trixie said.

"Yeah, we all know she is a die-hard fan of artifacts." Discord agreed. He turned to Starlight. "Now what?"

"We cast an invisibility spell, and a spell that makes our hoofsteps silent. As we have learned from last time." She explained. Then she looked around the room, until we stopped.

"Ok so do we sneak up on her, then you can do a teleportation spell?" Trixie snickered.

"Perfect! We'll catch her by surprise." Discord snickered too. "She won't expect it! We'll be as sly as a fox."

"I like this plan already." Trixie agreed, then she felt a bit surprised. Are me and Discord getting along? But she shook the thought away. "Ok, Starlight, let's get on with the brilliant plan." she said with a wide smile.

Trixie looked. Her smile faded away when she found out Starlight wasn't there. But instead, she was standing over a glass case. Curious, she walked over to her; meanwhile, Discord stayed behind. Trixie walked up to Starlight, who had her ears lowered and her expression was sad.

"What's wrong?" Trixie asked her. She looked down to see what she was sad about. It was an empty case that said:

Starswirl's Ancient Time Travel Spell

Trixie looked at Starlight. Realization hit her like a brick.

"That was all in the past." Trixie comforted her friend. "You've changed. Despite what this stupid spell thinks."

"I know I have." Starlight told her friend, still looking down at the case. "But this just brings... bad memories."

Trixie looked solemnly at Starlight, feeling bad for her friend.

After looking at the case, Starlight turned back. "Let's get this over with."

With the silent hoofstep spell in place, instead of walking, they ran around the castle, searching for the princess. Occasionally they stopped for breaths a few times, but only when other ponies were not around. So they ran, and ran. Soon they were doubting that Twilight was even in the castle at all. Making this seem like it was for nothing.

But eventually they found the purple princess. She was calmly sipping tea while she was reading a book.

How dare she? Drinking tea while she thinks we are down there, suffering! Trixie though angrily. And from the faint, angry looks of Discord and Starlight, their thoughts were probably the same.

Afterwards, Twilight closed the book, and headed out of the room. The others quickly followed.

Twilight went down corridors, and corridors of the castle, until she eventually came across a dark room downstairs, not even noticing that her "enemies" were right behind her.

As she went down the stairs, with the others close behind her, she came across a candle-lit room. Twilight scanned the bookshelves, finding a spot to put the book back. Trixie looked at Starlight, and Discord. The three then nodded at each other. They all crouched and stalked up to Twilight. Then, as they got close to her, Starlight walked up to the alicorn, and stood on all fours, ready to punch Twilight as hard as she could, hoping she would pass out by the attack.

But as she was about to do that, Twilight dropped the book and immediately looked behind her. She activated her magic, and suddenly had Starlight in her aura. Due to the shock, Starlight stopped the magic; making them visible again. Discord and Trixie gasped in horror when they realized that Twilight was actually choking Starlight in her aura.

"You never give up, do you?" Twilight smirked as the struggling unicorn. She then threw Starlight at the side of the room, making her crash onto one of the bookshelves.

"Starlight!" Trixie and Discord exclaimed. They quickly rushed over to the unicorn. Twilight looked at them in an amusing look, as if she was enjoying this.

"Starlight, are you ok?" Trixie frantically asked. She looked around Starlight's body, searching for any guides or deep marks.

"I'm... I'm fine." Starlight groaned as she got to all fours. She then gave Twilight a shocked but cold stare. "She found us."

"I knew you were coming the moment I heard you outside the door." Twilight sneered. "All of you are really dumb when it comes to hiding."

"How is that possible? We—" Discord exclaimed in shock, but was interrupted by Twilight.

"I have my ways." Twilight told him curtly. She then cleared her throat. "Now then."

In the distance, they heard the basement door slam shut, and the rest of the candles in the room had lit up in a light purplish color, surrounding the room.

"I feel that the dungeon wasn't the greatest punishment in the world. So I might as well give you guys a punishment that would finish you all off." Twilight told them, before saying in a sadistic tone: "A punishment called death."

Author's Note

Forgotten Bygones is back in business 👍

As for the ending with Twilight, I can already see you guys typing in the comments by how Twilight is an absolute dumbass in these recent chapters, and how she is acting is going way too far. And you're right. But, there is an explanation behind all of this.

Because I've gotten comments about Twilight's stupid decision to cast the spell onto herself again. Too. Many. Comments. And guys ik what Twilight did was stupid but damn xD

I had to stop writing this for a while so I can clearly come up with an explanation that I hope that most of you can accept and understand as to why Twilight is acting like this. I will try my best to give you guys the best explanation about this as I can. And hopefully it will clear up the questions.

What's the explanation? It will be revealed in the next chapter, but for now. Just be patient and be prepared for what is about to happen 👀

—Catpaw616

Chapter 20: Revelation

"Death?" Starlight gasped at the words. She stared at Twilight, who had a wide smile on her face.

"How else do you get rid of pests?" Twilight rolled her eyes. She turned to Starlight. "I've given you a chance to live. But I guess you love making things worse for yourself."

Starlight stared at her, completely dumbfounded. Was this the same pony that had forgiven her? The same pony who had mentored her? Even if she was under a spell, she sounded almost as horrible as Chrysalis. Or even worse...

"You... you can't be serious?" Trixie quivered. Her eyes were wide and her pupils shrank. "You're bluffing!"

Twilight stared at Trixie while she smiled. Her eyes gleamed with happiness and pride. Starlight couldn't believe what she was seeing. Twilight was enjoying this.

"You're insane!" Discord gasped in disbelief. "How would you ever forgive yourself if you killed us?"

Twilight started to chuckle. "Why should I care?"

"B-B-B-Because you are literally going to commit a murder! What would Celestia and Luna think about that?" Trixie told her in complete shock.

Twilight scoffed. "All of you are stupid if you think that I'll let those two scare me. They won't be angry. In fact, they would rejoice at the fact that I eliminated three traitors."

"Wow. Just when I thought you couldn't be more braindead." Discord huffed. "Besides, how would you know what they think? You never killed a criminal before."

But Twilight shrugged. "I couldn't care less. And honestly, I only care more about her suffering than Celestia and Luna. That's my true intention." she said with a sneer.

All of their ears perked up, immediately catching on to what she just said.

"What did you just say?" Discord asked in a soft, but menacing tone.

Twilight smiled even wider. Her eyes sparkled with sadistic amusement.

"Oops." Twilight said as she feigned a gasp. "A slip of the tongue."

Suddenly, Starlight got in front of the two. Her horn had glowed brightly. "Who's her?" she demanded.

Twilight simply laughed for a few moments. Until finally she spoke. "Why, you're dear friend Twilight, of course."

After hearing the words, the three took a step back in shock, clearly shocked by what she just said.

"You're not Twilight?!" Starlight demanded, although her voice sounded like she was in disbelief.

The alicorn now laughed even harder. "You fools! Did you seriously not expect it? You didn't expect the uncharacteristics?"

Trixie's legs were now starting to shake a little. "B-B-B-But it was because we thought the spell said that as time goes by, ponies who are infected get more hostile—"

"That applies to all the infected ponies. Except Twilight Sparkle." The alicorn said. "Her case is different."

"How?" Discord asked her, completely shocked. "The spell that she had was gone but—"

"But it wasn't gone completely." The alicorn pointed out. Then she smiled once again. "The spell was still inside her, although it wasn't much. But it only got stronger all because of a little friend named guilt."

"Guilt?" Trixie tilted her head.

The alicorn nodded. "The fool felt bad about releasing me into the open world. Felt bad about me controlling your friends. In her mind, I kept persuading her that she 'deserved to suffer again'. But she was stubborn as always. Soon, push came to shove, and I eventually, I forced her to do it."

The three looked dumbfounded at the alicorn, trying to take in what she said.

"So Twilight never wanted to cast the spell in the first place." Starlight muttered.

"Were you controlling all of them the whole time?" Discord snarled at the alicorn.

The alicorn shook her head. "The mind-control is generic. But if one felt guilty for their actions, my power becomes stronger on that creature. To the point where I can even control them!"

Trixie and Discord narrowed their eyes. Meanwhile, Starlight couldn't take in all the information. She leapt onto Twilight and they both rolled on the floor, until Starlight had pinned her to the ground. Her horn then started lighting brightly.

"Get out of my friend's body. Now." She threatened.

But Twilight kicked her off, and blasted a beam at her face. Starlight gasped in pain and she stumbled backwards.

"Starlight!" Trixie and Discord rushed over to Starlight's side, and immediately scanned her face.

"Yes, suffer." Twilight now started laughing. "Suffer just like her!"

After they were done, the three gave Twilight the death glare.

Twilight stomped her hoof. "Ok, with that out of the way, now onto my favorite part. Killing!" she said happily. "Isn't it so exciting? Seeing your friends die and do absolutely nothing—"

"Like Tartaruas you like!" Discord snarled. Without a warning, Discord leapt at the alicorn and raked her cheek with his claw. But once he clawed her, she teleported away.

She reappeared at the other side of the room, wiping the blood off her cheek. She faced the three with a glare. "Oh now you've done it!"

Twilight's horn brightened, and in a few seconds, they saw a flame ignite on one of the books. Then the other, and the other. Then eventually, the flicker turned into a flame. Since it happened on every shelf in the room, the room was on fire.

The three looked around the room in alarm. Meanwhile Twilight simply laughed.

"Fools! You should've stayed in the dungeon. Now you shall be burned alive by the flames." She laughed at them.

Just then, Starlight sparked an idea in her mind. And if it worked out, the idea would save Twilight for good. Starlight turned to the princess.

"Don't think you have escaped us yet." Starlight told her confidently.

Twilight chuckled "How so?"

"You know what I did in the past, right? Back when I became a dictator?" Starlight asked her.

"Uh.... Starlight?" Trixie looked confused at Starlight. Discord had the same expression.

"Of course I know what you did. You stole the cutie marks off of ponies and you ran a cult." Twilight rolled her eyes. "But what does that to do with me 'not escaping?'"

Starlight smiled curtly. "You explained it yourself."

Before Twilight could react, Starlight activated her horn and launched a familiar-looking beam at Twilight. While she was in the beam's aura, she cried in pain when she felt her cutie mark taken off.

"What are you doing?!" Twilight screamed.

"Without your cutie mark, you can't use magic. Meaning you will be useless." Starlight explained to her. And she couldn't help but smile. "It's funny how the tables have turned. You are in our mercy."

"Um, as much as I love to sit around and chat, I am inhaling smoke as we speak. So can we please get out of here?"

"I got her Cutie Mark." Starlight told him. "And the pony." She said as she grabbed a very weak Twilight.

"What do we do with her now that her magic is gone?" Trixie asked her friend, now starting to cough.

"Whenever she wakes up, we punch her in the head. Until the spell completely goes away. Starlight told the three. She now looked at the defeated, cute-markless alicorn.

"I guess it is a fitting punishment." Starlight said, echoing her Twilight's from earlier.

As the flames got closer, the group had teleported away.

After the Twilight fiasco, Starlight and the rest of the group teleported back to the castle, and laid Twilight in her bed.

"You got her cutie mark?" Trixie asked Starlight.

Starlight nodded. "I will keep hidden at all times, until she is completely free from the spell."

"How long will that take? And how will we even know?" Discord asked her.

Starlight sighed."I don't know." she told them.

Starlight looked at the unconscious Twilight that lay in bed. She suddenly felt bad for Twilight. Who knows what she went through? The voice convincing her to cast the spell again; seeing her three friends get punished, mocked in the dungeon, and almost had to go through the three of them getting killed.

Soon, her sadness turned into anger. "This spell is a curse. A stupid, dangerous curse that no one should be allowed to go near." Starlight muttered. And she also couldn't help but insult the person who wrote the spell. Whoever wrote this spell, I hope you got what was coming to you.

Author's Note

Sorry if this looks rushed. Just wanted to explain the details of the plan as much as I could 😅

Chapter 21: The Talk

Trixie found herself in a dark, empty world. She looked around for any ponies or creatures, but found none. The only thing she found was darkness.

"Trixie doesn't like this place..." Trixie muttered to herself. As she walked, she somehow felt her hooves cold from the ground. It felt like she was standing on an iceberg. But nevertheless, she continued walking to seemingly nothing. She looked side to side. Still nothing.

"I swear, somehow I get myself in these weird situations—"

"You're alone."

A shiver went down Trixie's spine when she heard an eerie voice whisper in her ear. She jumped and she turned around. "W-W-Who was that?" she quivered.

"Did I startle you?" The voice responded again. It's voice sounded excited.

Trixie started taking a step back. "Who are you?" she asked frantically as she looked around wildly, desperate to find a living form. But she still found nothing

"Yeah, continue to be scared. It would only kill you in the end." The voice whispered again.

Completely terrified, Trixie started running in the darkness, desperate to get rid of the voice that continued to ring in her head, and to find someone to comfort her.

"Starlight! Discord! Where are you?!" Trixie wailed aloud while running in nothing. Right now, she wanted her friends more than ever.

She looked behind to see if the voice's creator was chasing her. As she did that, she crashed into a figure, knocking her down. After rubbing her head, she saw Starlight towering over her. She looked confused.

"Are you ok?" Starlight asked her.

At that moment, Trixie immediately got up and hugged Starlight tight for comfort and protection. "T-T-T-There's a voice out there!" she stammered.

"Oh, don't you mean me?" the voice was heard right next to Trixie.

Trixie jumped by how close it sounded. She looked back at Starlight. "See?! I told you—" she immediately stopped dead when she saw that Starlight suddenly gained blood-red eyes, and her coat looked more darkish-red, mixed with Starlight's lilac color.

Like a rabbit, Trixie quickly hopped back and stared at Starlight with a horrified look. "Starlight?"

"Do not mistake for that sensitive fool." "Starlight" spoke, although her voice was a mix of the eerie voice, and Starlight's own voice.

"What did you do to my friend?" Trixie demanded, somehow having her anger power over her fear.

"I figured that it would be easier, and fun for me to communicate through the pony that you care so deeply for." She said.

But that made Trixie angrier. "Release her now!"

"What's amusing to me is that you think that you have the power to tell me what to do." "Starlight" snickered.

Trixie continued to step backwards, trying to process what she was witnessing.

"Starlight" rolled her eyes. "Ok, fine!" She closed her eyes. Then she reopened them again. "There. Happy?" She asked Trixie, making her voice sound exactly like Starlight's.

"Of course not!" Trixie said, aghast.

"Starlight" rolled her eyes. "Picky, picky, picky."

Trixie couldn't bare to look at her any longer. Despite knowing it was fruitless, she turned around and ran away.

"Seriously? Again? Surely you know that running means absolutely nothing, right?" She called out.

When Trixie looked forward, she saw Starlight right in front of her again. She had a cruel smirk on her face as she continued to run away. "It's pathetic that you think you can win when you're in darkness."

Trixie didn't want to say it, but she had no choice. "Don't worry! With the power of friendship, we will defeat any evil that stands in our way—"

She was interrupted as something pounced on her, knocking her down. She looked up to see Twilight pin her to the ground. She also had blood-red eyes.

"But how would the power of friendship win if the Princess herself is mentally dead?" She snarled, showing her new fangs.

"Dead?!" Trixie echoed in horror. Before she could do anything, "Twilight" bit down her neck, and Trixie started to scream as the pain seared through her body.

"Trixie! Trixie! Trixie, wake up!"

Trixie felt herself shaking violently. Her eyes opened to see Starlight shake her body with her hooves, while a worried Discord stood next to Starlight. Trixie started breathing heavily.

Starlight sighed. "Thank Celestia you're alright." she said thankfully.

"But is she though?" Discord said with an eyebrow raised. "Look at how she's panting."

Trixie looked at Starlight in desperation, which made Starlight flinch. Her friend probably didn't expect Trixie to look at her with a terrified expression.

"Starlight? Is that really you?" Trixie said in between pants.

Starlight looked confused. "Yeah, of course."

"But are you really?" Trixie interrogated.

"Trixie, what happened to you?" Starlight asked, ignoring her question.

Calming herself down, Trixie opened her mouth to tell about what she saw, but she didn't want to worry her friends. They already have enough on their minds. Why worry them more about a silly nightmare? "It's nothing, sorry." Trixie muttered.

Starlight now had a fierce gaze. "Trixie, you were screaming for help and you acted like you were dying. That does not sound like nothing."

"Which definitely did not help our ears." Discord said as he yawned. Once Starlight glared at him, Discord shifted his hands to the side. "But I'm worried for you too. Really."

Trixie rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Did you dream about the curse?" Starlight suddenly asked her. This made Trixie shocked a little. How did she know that? As much as she wanted too, she couldn't lie to her friends. "Yes."

"Oh." Starlight and Discord looked at each other. Both were not sure of what to say.

"You guys had nightmares too?" Trixie asked them.

Discord only shrugged. Meanwhile, Starlight nodded. "Ever since this journey began, I had nightmares quite a few times."

"Really? What did you dream about—" Trixie asked, then she stopped herself. She didn't want Starlight to relive her nightmares again just so she could explain it to a curious Trixie. "You... don't have to answer that."

But she didn't seem to be bothered by the question. "Well, I had dreams about you two sometimes. But most of them centered towards Twilight and... Spike."

Trixie's eyes squinted when she mentioned Spike in a sad tone. Strangely, she sounded sad when she said Spike's name, but not Twilight. The one more that kept causing more trouble on their mission.

"What's wrong with Spike?" Trixie tilted her head.

"I'll give you guys some room." Discord said as he headed towards the door.

After he left, Starlight started to explain. "Well, it's just... it's hard for me to lay a hoof on him." she told her.

Trixie scoffed. "Starlight, he's a tiny baby dragon. You're acting like as if he's some unstoppable beast—"

"I meant it's hard to hurt him!" Starlight said angrily at Trixie, much to Trixie's surprise. As she saw the sadness and anger in her light lavender eyes, she knew that she said the wrong thing.

"Oh, I didn't understand that correctly. Sorry—" Trixie tried apologizing, but Starlight didn't calm down.

"Now the worst part is that it might happen again!" Starlight started to rant.

Trixie was surprised by her sudden burst of anger. "Wait, hold on, calm down—"

"Who knows what that stupid spell is gonna do next? The spell infected Twilight twice, when we thought she was free. Turns out she was not." Starlight ranted as she got up and started to walk around the room.

Trixie had to do something fast. "Starlight take a deep breath—"

But her efforts were once again interrupted by Starlight. "Now Twilight is unconscious for who knows how long, and now we realize that the other ponies that have been freed now have a chance of being infected again. Including Spike."

Trixie opened her mouth to speak, but as always, no effort.

Starlight turned towards Trixie. "Do you know how much pain I went through that night?"

Trixie was grateful that her friend finally gave her a chance to speak. "Yeah, the claw scratch looked pretty bad. But Starlight, things will be ok—"

"The scratch on my flank wasn't nearly as bad compared to the pain I felt when I had to fight him, and the fact that I had to physically injure him!" She continued her rant. As she continued, Trixie noticed that Starlight was starting to sound more sad and distressed than angry.

Starlight stopped pacing and looked at Trixie with desperation in her eyes. "What if he gets repossessed? What if I have to go through that same pain again?"

Trixie took in her words with a heavy heart. She had no idea how much the dragon meant so much to her. For the first time since her rant, Trixie had nothing to say.

After moments of silence, Starlight sat down dejectedly. Tears started coming out of her eyes. "I can't let that happen again. Not to me, and not to Spike."

Trixie approached Starlight and sat down next to the depressed unicorn. "He really means so much to you?"

Starlight nodded. "I-I love him as if he were my little brother." she stammered. "I can't bear to see him get hurt. Especially by me."

Trixie took in her words with a heavy heart. She looked and listened to a broken and angry version of Starlight. She kept trying to wipe her tears away, but they kept coming down her face like a waterfall. Not long after she didn't try to wipe them anymore, instead, she simply let them run down her face, and let the tears drop to the floor. Meanwhile she gritted her teeth in the process, as if she was trying her best to not wail her sorrows.

Thinking carefully this time, Trixie put her hoof on her back in an attempt to calm the crying mare. "You do know that whenever he's possessed by the curse, he's in pain."

Starlight opened her eyes, which were starting to get red. "Thanks for letting me know." she said blankly. She lowered her body and her head and she started crying while she covered herself with her hooves.

"You didn't let me finish." Trixie told her blankly. "What I was trying to say is that Spike is in pain whenever the spell takes control of him. At least, according to Twilight. But..."

Trixie got up and turned to face Starlight. "You were also the one that saved him."

Starlight looked up at Trixie, tears still coming out of her eyes.

"Think about it. The mere thought of hurting him hurts you mentally. But you have to understand, while the pain might be hard for you, Spike is taking it way worse. Could you imagine him watching himself injure you like that?"

Starlight sniffed. "It wouldn't be pleasant."

"Exactly." Trixie nodded. She started to tuck in her hooves so she could be on the same level as Starlight. "Listen. I know how it feels. Could you imagine how I would feel if I fought you? But either way, we are only fighting our friends for one reason. To set them free from pain."

Starlight raised her head from the ground. The tears were finally starting to stop as she stared at Trixie.

I'm finally reaching her. Trixie told herself proudly. I need to tread carefully here.

"You are only fighting so he would be free." Trixie told her. "So he won't be in more pain. No more sorrow, and he won't be able to see himself hurt you and the friends he loves. Is that what you want him to deal with?"

Starlight wiped the tears from her eyes. "Of course not."

Trixie got up and extended her hoof to Starlight. Trixie felt Starlight's wet hoof touch hers as she helped her get up. "Then we have to fight the friends that we love. But always remember that we are doing it for a great, and loving reason." she told her as she wrapped a hoof around her shoulder.

"Well, when you say it that way..." Starlight said a little hesitantly. Trixie was a little disappointed that her words didn't seem to reach her completely. Then she had an idea. One that would encourage Starlight for sure.

"And always remember that you're not really fighting Spike. You are simply fighting the curse controlling Spike. Would you like to give mercy to the curse that caused us misery? The curse that caused Twilight, Spike, and their friends complete misery?"

After hearing her words, Starlight narrowed her eyes in rage. "Why would I ever do that?" she said bitterly.

"If you give mercy to a possessed Spike, then you are giving mercy to the curse. Are you willing to let the curse control your friend? Are you giving mercy to the curse when the curse wouldn't do the same for Spike and his friends?" Trixie said, trying to rile up Starlight's anger.

That time, Starlight stomped her hoof. "I'll never give mercy to that curse." she said in raw hatred, which made Trixie shocked. Sure, she had experienced Starlight's anger before, but not on this level.

But at least her plan was working. She smirked. "See? You don't seem concerned for Spike now that the curse is on your mind. After all..."

Trixie looked around for something. On one of the desks, she saw a photo of Twilight, Spike, and Starlight smiling awkwardly in front of the castle. In the picture, Starlight still had her bangs like the ones she has currently. She levitated the picture back to Starlight.

"...Spike would most likely be cheering you on as he watches you break the curse for him."

Starlight looked at the picture that Trixie levitated. After one good look at the picture, she stared back at Trixie with a smirk.

"I'll fight that curse a thousand times if it makes Spike get away from the pain." Starlight told her in determination.

Trixie smiled even wider. "Do you mean it?"

Starlight nodded slowly. "More than ever."

Chapter 22: Distrust

I'll find a way...

That was the last words Twilight had heard before she opened her eyes. All she could see was her bedroom window, and the crystal walls that surrounded the room. She closed her eyes shut as the sunlight kept blinding her eyes.

My head hurts... Twilight thought as she slowly straightened herself in the bed to rub her forehead. She started to rub her cheek, which felt a little numb. She couldn't imagine why. I'm in so much pain. Well, physically.

Her ears perked as she heard running hoofsteps in her room. Alarmed, Twilight looked up to see the source. All she saw was a tip of a tail dashing out of the room, although she couldn't make out the shape and color. Twilight blinked by the sight, then slowly started getting a little terrified. Was that the pony—

"She's awake, you two!" A voice broke through her thoughts. Twilight sighed in relief as she recognized Trixie's voice, calling out of the room. But... why did she announce that she was awake? How long had she been out?

"Trixie?" Twilight tried to call the mare. She heard hoofsteps heading towards her room. Trixie creaked the door open with her head, peeking inside. "What is it? The others will be here any moment." She told the princess.

"W-who?" Twilight scratched her head.

Trixie looked a little annoyed by her response, but then her head peeked out the door, along with the sounds of more hoofsteps. "You'll find out right now."

Not too long after, Discord slithered into the room, and walked next to the bed. From the look of his pupils, he looked surprised. "Oh, you weren't joking."

"Why would I joke about this?" An exasperated Trixie asked.

Coming after Discord, Starlight entered the room. Twilight had to note that she still couldn't get used to her mane being straight, since she was so used to it being a curl. But she did expect Starlight to look happy and relieved that she's alright. But for some reason she looked... hesitant.

"Starlight? What's wrong?" Twilight asked her straight away. The others turned to look at the unicorn, as if wondering why she asked the question.

Starlight seemed to be uncomfortable by the stares, but she seemed to ignore it as she started to speak. "Nothing is wrong. But I'm just... wary." she told her.

Twilight twitched her ear. "About what? Aren't you happy that I have recovered?"

"Of course I'm happy that you have recovered. But are you?" Starlight asked firmly.

"Yes?" A confused Twilight answered her.

Starlight lowered her ears as her gaze went from hesitant and nervous, to suspicion and anger. "I don't believe you."

Twilight felt a pang in her heart when she said the words. What?

"She seems fine to me." Trixie told her, meanwhile Discord looked unsure.

"Is she? How do we know the curse isn't pretending to be her?" Starlight asked. Twilight became alarmed by the tiny hatred in her tone.

"But it is me!" Twilight pleaded. "I'm better!"

"That's what I thought last time. But then we have been betrayed, captured, and almost killed." Starlight spat. This time, she didn't try to hide her hatred anymore.

"But the curse isn't in me anymore. It left!" Twilight told her desperately. But Starlight didn't seem to budge. Did I just lose Starlight's trust? she asked worriedly. She hoped that it was not the case.

"She's right. How do we know if she's really better?" Trixie jumped in the conversation. She looked at Twilight with a worried expression. "What if you're not Twilight?"

"What..." Twilight tried to comprehend what was happening. Are they really this scared that they can't tell me apart anymore?

"As we know, there is still more to this curse that we have not known. Who knows what else it can do?" Discord added in. Although, strangely, he looked at Twilight in a sympathetic gaze.

Twilight took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She faced Starlight's angry gaze, while trying not to flinch by how fierce it looked. "Look, I know I may seem I'm being controlled by the curse. But I swear to Celestia, I am not—"

"Twilight! You're awake!" A familiar voice can be heard behind Starlight, which even spooked the unicorn a little by how sudden it was. Spike rushed inside the room and jumped onto Twilight's bed, and hugged her tightly. "I thought I lost you!" he said as if he was almost ready to cry.

Here's the welcome I was hoping for. Twilight thought gratefully as she hugged him back. Thankful that at least someone welcomed her.

But then she noticed Starlight looking at Spike worriedly, her signs of her previous emotions not visible. But when she looked back to Twilight, she looked angrier than before. What's going on with her?

"I thought I lost you!" Spike said while he continued to hug Twilight. She could feel tiny streaks of tears running down her back, and his hugs began to get tighter.

"Ok, ok. That's enough." Twilight said as she pushed Spike away when it got too uncomfortable.

Spike smiled as tears went down his face. Suddenly, he turned towards Starlight. "Isn't this great?" he asked happily.

Starlight made no response.

Spike's expression faltered. "What's wrong? Aren't you happy that she's awake?"

After a few seconds of silence, she nodded. "Of course I'm happy that she's awake. But, I'm just worried about what comes next." She said as she shot a glare at Twilight.

Once again, Twilight flinched by her fierce gaze. While Spike started to look worried.

Discord and Trixie looked a little uncomfortable by the situation. They shot glances at each other, not sure of what to do.

As if noticing the situation she was making, she turned to leave. Before she left the room, Starlight turned to glare at Twilight. "Don't think about toying with me, 'Twilight'. Because I will be watching you, and if I catch you slipping up around him, you'll be sorry."

She slammed the door as she walked out.

Trixie chuckled nervously. "Forgive me, Twilight. Starlight has been noticeably harsher lately, but it's only because she had a bad day." she said while patting Twilight's head as a way of "comforting" her. "Maybe talk to her tomorrow and maybe she'll stop having a fit. Heheheh...."

Trixie quickly trotted out of the room and presumably followed Starlight.

Discord looked at Twilight and simply shrugged. He walked out the room and closed the door.

Now that they were alone, Spike slowly turned his head to Twilight. "What... was that?"

Twilight sighed sadly. "I don't know Spike. Starlight hasn't threatened me like that since her villain days."

"I haven't seen her that angry since... yeah, her villain days." Spike agreed.

Twilight shrugged her shoulders. "What do I do, Spike? My former student probably hates me now, thinking that I'm the curse."

Spike put his claw onto her shoulder. "She doesn't hate you, Twi. She's probably just a little cautious."

Twilight sighed again. "She probably has a right to be. I am the one that let the curse affect me again. But how can I make Starlight understand without her making suspicions?"

After she asked the question, Spike jumped down from the bed. "Don't worry, Twilight. I'll talk to her."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You will? What makes you think that she will listen?"

"If it comes out of your mouth, then it won't. But Starlight trusts me more than she trusts you, apparently. I'll find a way to make her see. Don't worry."

I guess that makes sense. Twilight thought. After all, the only times Starlight was angry is when it was directed at her. "Ok, but be careful. I don't know how angry she is towards me, and I don't want her to take it out on you."

Spike patted Twilight's elbow with a smug expression. "Oh, Twilight. Trust me. I've dealt with worse."

Chapter 23: Regrets

"That's what I thought last time. But then we have been betrayed, captured, and almost killed." Starlight argued as she faced Twilight, who laid in her bed, tired and weak.

When she encountered the princess, she wanted to greet her with the same warmness as Trixie and Discord did. But there was something in her that told her to not trust Twilight. After all, she had been affected by the curse two times, and since the curse is pretty much unpredictable at this point, who knows what else it can do? The possibility of the curse controlling Twilight again, even now, seemed like a possibility; even though it should be long gone by now.

But I guess it still clings on to her, no matter what.

So instead of her usual gratitude and warmness, Starlight could only look at her former teacher in suspicion, and even anger. Her anger and suspicion increased when Twilight kept denying that she was controlled. As much as Starlight wanted to believe her, she wasn't taking any chances anymore. Her trust that she had in Twilight is now completely gone. At least for now...

"But the curse isn't in me anymore. It left!" Twilight told her in a desperate plea. But Starlight didn't believe it. In fact, how can she even believe a word that comes out of her mouth when it could be potentially the curse speaking to her, but with Twilight's voice? Starlight looked and saw that Trixie and Discord were staring at her. They may think that she may be crazy, or too superstitious, but she didn't care. She had been tricked many times. She isn't won't be fooled this time.

But eventually, Trixie started nodding in agreement. "She's right." Trixie told Discord. "How do we know if she's really better?"

Starlight was thankful that she wasn't the only one who was suspicious of Twilight.

While Twilight looked dismayed, Discord only shrugged. "As we know, there is still more to this curse that we have not known. Who knows what else it can do?"

Exactly. Starlight thought as she shot a glare at Twilight.

Twilight took in a deep breath. She looked at Starlight with her eyes half-closed, as if she was annoyed by the "false" claim. "Look, I know I may seem I'm being controlled by the curse. But I swear to Celestia, I am not—"

"Twilight! You're awake!" a voice can suddenly be heard in the room.

Starlight jumped a little by his sudden presence. She was too focused on Twilight that he didn't even hear him coming.

She looked to see Spike climbing up the bed, and hugged Twilight. She looked at Spike in pity. She wanted to feel warm about the scene, but all she could think about is what the curse is going to do near Spike. The last thing she wanted was for Spike to get hurt again.

Or worse... Starlight thought while she glared at Twilight again.

"I thought I lost you!" Spike wailed to her while he was hugging the alicorn. Starlight's pity for him continued to rise.

"Ok, ok, that's enough." Twilight winced as she pushed Spike away. Starlight continued to glare at her. It was as if she got annoyed by Spike's love. How dare she? Spike was scared and concerned about Twilight's health and state and she pushes him away?

"What's wrong?"

Huh?

"Aren't you happy that she's awake?" Spike's question pierced through her thoughts.

Starlight had been taken aback by the question. She wasn't even aware that Spike was talking to her. After thinking of a response, she nodded. "Of course I'm happy that she's awake. But, I'm just worried about what comes next." Starlight said as she shot a glare at Twilight.

Twilight flinched by her gaze, which is exactly what Starlight wanted.

Discord and Trixie looked at each other, wondering what was about to happen next. Starlight realized that she was making a scene. Sighing, she turned to leave the room. I need to clear my head.

But before she could walk out, she turned around to glare at Twilight one final time. "Don't think about toying with me, 'Twilight'." she threatened. She shifted her gaze towards Spike, then back at her. "Because I will be watching you, and if I catch you slipping up around him, you'll be sorry."

Thinking that she said enough, she slammed the door and walked down the hallway.

While she was alone, she took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm down and lose the anger that was inside her.

But her alone time didn't last long. Because not even thirty seconds later, she heard a door open behind her, along with running hoofsteps.

"Starlight!" Trixie called out to her. Starlight turned to meet the blue unicorn, who looked shocked.

"What was that back there? You treated her as if she were an enemy!" Trixie told her in a shocked and confused manner. "I thought you would be happy seeing your friend."

Starlight sighed. "I am, I really am. But there is a chance that the curse has taken control over Twilight. You even said it yourself!"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "I may have, but you have to admit that that was a bit too much. You even said it in front of Spike. How do you think he feels when he listened to your threat towards a pony that he cares deeply about?"

Starlight was about to say something to defend herself, but she had to admit that she had a point. I really shouldn't have said that around Spike... she thought regretfully.

"I only wanted to make myself clear before I left the room." Starlight explained. "But you're right. I should've kept my mouth shut and left. My glares seemed to be doing the trick for me already." she joked.

"I can tell." Discord said while he finally caught up with the two. "But there is also a chance that you were talking to a non-controlled Twilight."

Starlight's eyes narrowed. "Key word: chance. We can't tell if that was a non-controlled Twilight or not. We have been fooled many times by this stupid curse. We can't play it safe anymore. I'm just not keeping my hopes up any—"

"Starlight?"

The three looked to see Spike running down the hall.

"What is it?" Starlight asked the dragon. What did she do now?

"May I talk to you?" Spike asked, then his eyes darted towards Trixie and Discord. "Alone?"

Starlight suddenly felt alarmed. Meanwhile Discord nodded in understanding, and he patted Starlight's shoulder with his lion paw. "You're in big trouble now." he joked.

Twilight stared at Trixie disapprovingly. She looked towards Starlight in a sympathetic expression as she followed Discord. "You'll be fine."

Once they were gone, Starlight and Spike were face-to-face.

Panting, Spike was face-to-face with Starlight. The unicorn looked at Spike with a emotion that was mixed with fear, and regret. Spike hoped that she didn't think that he hated her, which he wasn't. Only confused and concerned.

"Uh, hey Starlight." Spike greeted her weakly.

Starlight said nothing.

Feeling the awkwardness rising, he cleared his throat. "So, uh... what was going on back there?"

Starlight flopped her ears in deefat. "I don't know Spike. That was just me exposing my raw anger... I guess." she said regretfully.

Spike tilted his head. "But why? What did Twilight do that upset you?"

Starlight sighed as she closed her eyes. "Well, it wasn't Twilight herself that I was angry with. I'm angrier with the curse than her."

Spike quickly became alarmed. "She still has it?!"

Starlight looked taken aback by his sudden dismay. She waved her hoof quickly. "No, no. She doesn't have it. At least, I don't think..."

"But you believe that she does? I thought that the curse only goes away if you punch her in the face." Spike objected.

"So we thought. But it turns out that if you're guilty, then it somehow overpowers you. I don't know. This entire thing is stupid." she rolled her eyes.

"But what if Twilight isn't controlled?"

"Then I apologize. But I need more proof that she's not controlled first." Starlight responded firmly. But her expression softened as she sighed. "But, I will apologize to you though."

Spike's eyes widened. "Me? For what?"

Starlight started pawing her right hoof as she looked at him regretfully. "For threatening her in front of you. It was unnecessary and inconsiderate, and I should've had more control of what I say."

Spike hadn't even thought of her threat being rude or inconsiderate. But now that he thought about it, it did seem like it. But he simply shrugged. "It's fine, Starlight. I didn't even notice." he told her.

But it seemed like it didn't help. She still looked sad.

With the moment dying away, Spike decided to end the conversation. "Well, Starlight, I can't help with whatever you think about Twilight currently, but you can change how you act and say. Even if you think she is controlled."

"I know, but—"

Starlight was interrupted by a loud knock from the castle door. They both turned towards the door.

"Who could that be?" Starlight asked.

"Let's find out." Spike told her as he rushed down the stairs, with Starlight right behind him.

They both trotted to the golden doors. Spike also spotted Trixie and Discord walking cautiously to the door. Their eyes were perked up and alert, and as for Discord, he unsheathed his claws from his lion paw.

Before one of them says anything, Twilight flew down to where they were. Spike noticed that Starlight was staring at her, although not as fiercely as before.

"Who is it?" Twilight shouted at the door in a confused manner.

"It's Celestia and Luna," An eeringly familiar voice can be heard on the other side. "and we're here to ask if you have found the traitors yet."

Chapter 24: The Strike

Trixie's heart seemed to skip a beat when she heard the voice of Celestia, asking if Twilight had found the traitors. Trixie looked to the side. For some reason, Starlight didn't look terrified at all. Instead, she simply stared at Twilight. Her gaze wasn't as fierce as last time, but from the look from her eyes, she was waiting for Twilight's move. Discord on the other hand hid behind a pillar.

Eventually, Trixie decided to follow Discord's lead and she hid behind a pillar too. Starlight slowly followed them and hid next to Trixie. Spike decided to walk next to Twilight, who looked startled at the door.

Trixie had hoped that Starlight was wrong in the bedroom: that Twilight was still under control. But if her theory was correct, then Twilight would immediately frame them and they would be captured. Trixie looked at her friend's expressions to see what they think. Trixie couldn't make out Discord's expression since his face was at an angle that she couldn't see. But when she looked at Starlight, she could see tiny hints of anger in her expression, although not much.

"Well? We're waiting." Luna's voice was heard on the other side of the door.

Twilight looked nervous and her legs started shaking a little. But with Spike comforting her at the side, Twilight took a deep breath. "Who are the traitors that you speak of?" she asked boldly.

"Starlight Glimmer, Trixie Lulamoon, and Discord?" Celestia told her, unamused. "Come on, Twilight, you're smarter than that. So, where are they?"

Trixie noticed Starlight slightly narrow her eyes.

Trixie started to sweat even more. If Twilight told them about their presence because she wants to appeal to the princesses, they were dead.

But amazingly, Twilight scoffed. "What do you mean? If I found them, I would've captured them and taken them to you straight away. Why don't you come back later?" she told them.

I knew she wasn't controlled! Trixie celebrated in her mind. She looked to see Starlight's expression by this breathtaking news. She saw her friend sigh in relief and she mouthed something she couldn't make out.

But she shouldn't celebrate yet. Two rulers, who were obviously controlled, were right outside the door.

"Mind if we come in?" Celestia asked.

At that moment, Starlight beckoned Trixie and Discord over. "I'll make us invisible. Just hold your breath whenever they are near." she whispered. Starlight nodded towards Twilight, who nodded back.

At least she doesn't hate her anymore. Trixie thought in relief as she felt her body become invisible.

"Let's just hope nothing screws up. I can't afford to be thrown into prison for the third time." Discord muttered.

With a nod of approval from the three of them, Twilight opened the doors. Celestia and Luna walked in, looking around. They seemed to look... unamused.

"What brings you here?" Spike asked them, but Trixie could tell that he looked worried.

Celestia sniffed the air, for some strange reason. "Hmm..."

Discord nudged Starlight's shoulder. "Can't you teleport us away?" he whispered

Starlight shook her head. "I can't. I don't want them to be alerted of our presence. We just hope that they don't find us, somehow." she told him.

Luna's head perked up. "I hear voices."

Trixie's eyes widened. Her heartbeat started thumping faster.

"What voices?" Twilight asked innocently.

Luna strained her ears for a listen. "I don't know. But it sounded like one of the traitors that you told us that weren't here."

"Yes, yes, I see what you are saying, sister. I can hear their breathing." Celestia agreed.

How?! Trixie demanded in her head. Did the curse give them enhanced hearing or something? We made no sound the whole time.

"You mean... our own breathing?" Spike asked, his voice sounding less confident and neutral.

Celestia and Luna smirked, which made Trixie uneasy. "Oh, not from you two. But... from over there." Celestia said as she slowly turned her head to Trixie and her friends.

Trixie had never sweated this much in her life, and she had been through the Changeling hive! She felt Starlight's body start to shake in fear, her breathing suddenly became hard.

Twilight started to look nervous too. "What are you looking at?" she asked hesitantly.

Celestia didn't say a word. She stared at the reformed villains for some amount of time. Finally, she opened her mouth. "Luna, restrain Twilight and Spike."

"Yes, sister." Luna said as her horn glowed. Her magical aura surrounded Twilight and Spike, making them unable couldn't move.

"Hey! What did you do?" Twilight screamed. "Let me go!"

Trixie could make out Starlight rising from the ground, her expression horrified. Discord followed suit.

"I hope you don't mind a little wall breaking." Celestia smirked. Her long horn glowed a very light gold color and it seemed like it was charged, then she shot a large beam at them.

Trixie cowered to the ground, her eyes shutting tight and her hooves covering her eyelids, bracing for impact. Luckily, before the beam could hit them, Starlight teleported them to another spot in the room, and deactivated the spell.

Trixie opened her eyes, thankful for her friend's great reflexes. But she looked horrified when she saw that their bodies were fully visible to the princesses.

"Aha! I knew you were there the moment I set foot into this stupid castle." Celestia announced with a smirk. "Did you really think that you could escape me?"

"Yes!" Discord answered.

"What are you guys doing? Run!" Twilight ordered. "We'll be fine!"

"It doesn't matter. I would still find them no matter how much they hide. But it's honestly really fun." Luna added. Trixie's ears twitched when Luna said "I". Wait a minute...

"Let Spike go!" Trixie saw Starlight plead in desperation. "He's done nothing wrong!"

Celestia's eyes widened. "Oh? You adore this little dragon, do you?" she asked in mockery.

Starlight's mouth was agape. It didn't seem like she knows what to do.

"Starlight, I'm fine. But listen to TwiLIGHT!" Spike winced as his body began to grip tighter.

Seeing her friends in pain, Starlight gritted her teeth, seething with anger. Her muscles tensed. She looked like she was ready to attack.

However, before any action could happen, Discord decided to walk towards Celestia. Much to Trixie and Starlight's confusion.

"Discord?" Trixie called his name disbelievingly. "What are you—"

"Now listen here you, arrogant, little crude." Discord insulted the controlled alicorn, completely ignoring Trixie. "You better let go of Spike and Twilight right now, or I will do some unspeakable things.." Discord glared as he boldly walked to Celestia. He snarled through his teeth as Celestia stared defiantly at him.

Starlight and Trixie looked at him in awe. Trixie couldn't tell if he was stupid for walking up to Celestia and literally threatening her in the face, or admire his bravery for standing up in front of Celestia!

"You can't do anything." Celestia laughed. "If I want, I could snap you like a twig in seconds."

Discord's eye twitched, and it was his turn to smirk. "Oh really? I love to see you try."

Without hesitation, Discord snarled as he launched himself towards Luna. His claws clawed the side of her face, forcing her to let go of Twilight and Spike.

"What the—" Luna gasped, but she was interrupted by another claw slash that went across her face, along with a scream.

"Discord?!" Starlight and Trixie exclaimed at the same time.

"You little pest!" Enraged, Celestia used telekinesis on the draconequus, and slammed him into the wall. Meanwhile Luna, who had recovered from the attack, had Spike in his grasp again. This time she didn't even try to grab Twilight.

Starlight noticed Luna, and her horn glowed brightly. "Let him go! Now!"

Luna wiped the blood from her cheek as she smiled. "Don't worry, I'll give him back. Either in skin or bones. Which one would you prefer?"

Starlight became even angrier as her horn glowed brighter. Meanwhile Trixie could only stand there in shock by what was happening: Discord was struggling under Celestia's power, and Luna is literally threatening Spike's life.

"You wouldn't do that!" Twilight exclaimed when she heard Luna's threat.

"Well, not right now." Luna shrugged. "Once I'm done with Discord, then he can be finished off. Toodles!"

"Twilight! Please—" Spike's cries were interrupted as Luna teleported away.

"No!" Twilight and Starlight both exclaimed fearfully.

Meanwhile, Trixie only focused on Discord. Celestia's body was covered in scratches, some bled and some didn't. While Discord had a black eye, but he grabbed Celestia's horn, making her unable to use magic.

"That's enough!" Celestia stomped her hooves onto Discord's throat, which made him let go. Before Discord could grab her horn again, she stomped her hooves onto Discord's hands, making him unable to move them.

"Now... it's about time to do something that should've been done long ago!" Celestia grinned evily as her horn glowed brightly. Discord closed his eyes as he braced for the inevitable attack. While Trixie, Starlight, and Discord can only look on in horror.

The beam hit directly at Discord's heart, which made him exclaim in pain. After the attack, Celestia immediately let go of Discord's hands, and watched with glee. Then at the very tip of his tail, stone started to form around him. Then it increased, as it reached his legs, making him unable to move.

Discord's pupils turned into slits when he realized what was happening. "No! No! Not again!" he screamed in terror.

Then in a matter of seconds, his throat started to turn into stone, and it started to reach towards his head. Realizing that he couldn't do anything, Discord looked at the ponies who were watching from the sidelines. His eyes looked sorrowful and he seemed to mouth something. Although Trixie was unsure by what he said, his lips seems to make out the words "Kill."

In just one minute, Discord turned to stone.

"No!" Twilight exclaimed out of pure terror, and started to rush towards his body. But Starlight stopped her.

"Wait!" Starlight tugged onto her body, and pointed her head towards Celestia, who smiled the whole time.

"You're... you're sick!" Twilight spat out the words out of pure horror.

Celestia looked at Twilight, her expression the same. "Am I?"

"I can't believe what I saw with my own eyes! You're worst than me and Starlight combined!" Trixie added. "...When it comes to villainy." She included when she noticed Starlight staring at her in an annoyed and confused way.

"What can I say? Being this powerful is fun. Way more fun than being in Twilight's body." Celestia objected.

The three of them looked at her in raw hatred, but she didn't seem to care.

Celestia yawned as she started to flap her wings. "Don't worry, as much as I wanted too, he's not dead, but rather... put in his place, and soon, all of you will join him. Anyways, toodles!" She ended as she was about to leave.

Seething in raw hatred, Starlight's horn glowed again. "You arrogant snide little rat!" Starlight cursed as she released a glowing lasso from her horn, attempting to catch her hoof. But before she could even cast the spell, Celestia teleported away. Starlight stomped her hoof in annoyance and muttered something that wasn't audible to Trixie.

"Discord!" Twilight exclaimed his name as she ran up to the stoned creature. Once she laid eyes on the body, she started weeping. "We should've helped him, but instead, we stood there like useless rabbits!" she wailed.

Starlight walked up to Twilight and comforted her.

Trixie stared at Discord's stony prison. Even though she was never close to Discord, he didn't deserve this.

"Is there a spell where we can un-stone him?" Starlight asked Twilight, who was still crying.

Twilight shook her head. "Not that I know of."

Starlight grunted in annoyance. But her pupils dilated when she realized something. "It has Spike. They took Spike!"

At an instant, Starlight started prancing in a circle, heavily nervous and scared. "I-I-I-I don't know what it's doing to him! I wanted to protect him from any danger! At first, I wanted to protect him from you, who I thought that you were controlled at first. But it didn't matter because he teleported away to who-knows-where!"

Suddenly, A blue light shone through the wall, and shone inside the castle. However, since the window was high, Twilight used her wings to fly, meanwhile Starlight levitated herself.

Since Trixie didn't have any wings, nor was her magic strong enough to levitate herself, she relied on her friends to tell her what they were seeing. "What do you see?"

"A blue ray is shining above one of the towers of Canterlot! I think that's where Spike is!" Twilight alerted Trixie.

"I hope so." Starlight muttered.

Trixie put her hoof onto her chin. "Do you think that that's where our final battle with the curse would take place?"

Starlight rolled her eyes. "I hope so. I want that curse gone already so our lives can get back to normal."

But Twilight looked skeptical. "But here's the thing, we have no idea how to get rid of the curse. It's been revealed that punching their faces doesn't matter anymore if they can regain control of the same pony."

"Does the book that you cast the spell with say anything about getting rid of it?" Starlight asked with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight shook her head. "It says nothing about it."

"Maybe we can go to Zecora. She was the one that informed us about the spell in the first place." Trixie suggested.

"Do you really think she'll know?" Starlight asked, frowning.

"What choice do we have? If we don't know how to rid of the curse, then it would plague Equestria forever." Twilight told her with a hint of regret in her tone.

"Wait, do we get the rest of your friends?" Trixie asked Twilight as they were about to walk out.

"No. This is a battle between the three of us, and the curse. The girls will be fine." Twilight explained. She turned towards Twilight. "and I know that you want to finish the curse off together."

Starlight nodded.

"And so it shall be." Twilight said. When they walked out of the castle, Twilight turned around. Confused, Trixie and Starlight did too.

"When we return to the castle, the curse would either die, or we retreat defeated. If we even make it out alive." Twilight told them grimily. Trixie didn't like how she worded it. But Starlight didn't seem to care. She only nodded in determination.

"And we'll do it for Discord, our fallen friend." Starlight added sadly, then her voice hardened. "He will be avenged."

All what Trixie could do was nod, hoping that their wishes and goal would come true.

Then the three ventured towards the Everfree Forest.

Chapter 25: The Backstory

Twilight shivered from the cold as the three ventured inside the forest. It didn't help that it was raining, which made them soaking wet. Twilight kept shaking her mane to get the water out, but not even the shade of the trees can stop the inevitable.

Starlight didn't seem to be fazed by the storm, although she could notice that she was shaking a little due to the cold. While Trixie, who was next to her, kept chattering her teeth.

"Since when did the temperature get this cold? And how come its raining when moments ago it was clear as night?" Trixie complained.

Twilight looked up to see the clouds. Even though she wasn't sure, she could make out pegasi near the stormy clouds. They kept kicking them over and over, causing the rain.

"I think I found the culprits. No thanks to me though." Twilight muttered.

As they raced to Zecora's hut, Starlight's hoof slipped onto the muddy ground, causing her to fall. Twilight and Trixie halted to see the situation.

"Starlight!" Trixie exclaimed. She rushed over to lend her a hoof.

"Thanks." Starlight responded. Her coat, mane, and tail had streaks of mud. Starlight looked upwards to see the clouds, blinking rapidly so the teardrops don't get into her eye. "It keeps getting worse."

"It won't be long. Just keep going!" Twilight encouraged. She could make out some lights in the distance.

Twilight dashed ahead as Trixie and Starlight trotted after her in a slow pace.

Making their way through the bushes, they finally arrive at Zecora's Hut. Trixie sat near the door, trying to rub the mud off of Starlight. Twilight knocked on the door and patiently waited for Zecora.

Thankfully they didn't have to wait for long. Seeing them out the window, Zecora opened the door, and dipped her head to them.

"Welcome, friends! Nice to see you again." Zecora greeted.

Starlight and Trixie waved their hooves. "Hello, Zecora."

"Zecora, we're in a crisis right now, and we could need to some advice and a clue." Twilight told her instantly.

Zecoa's eyes widened. "The spell is still activated?"

"It's not a spell. It's more of a curse." Starlight explained.

"An aggravating one." Trixie added while rolling her eyes.

"And we have no idea how to get rid of it." Twilight finished.

Zecora's eyes continued widen, as if she couldn't believe what she heard. She cleared her throat and moved out of the way. "We'll discuss it once you are inside. That way, you will be dry."

Thankful for Zecora's hospitality, Twilight walked inside her home, dripping wet, and sat down onto one of the tables. Starlight and Trixie came in afterward, and sat near Twilight.

Zecora grabbed some herbs and put them into her steaming cauldron. Then she searched through her baskets.

"What brings you here in this dire time?" Zecora asked.

The three looked at each other, unsure. Where do they even start?

As if she knew what they were thinking, Zecora waved her hoof. "Just tell me your current situation. Since the entire story may lead to complications."

With a heavy sigh, Twilight began. "We figured out that this spell is actually a curse, and a single head injury doesn't drive it away anymore. It can possess whoever it wants!"

"They've turned Discord into stone, and they captured Spike!" Trixie shouted.

"We want this curse to be gone, but we have no idea how to get rid of it for good. That's why we came to you." Starlight told her.

Zecora nodded, processing the information. She focused her gaze onto Twilight. "Since you were part of the spell, what was it like? If you are willing to tell."

Twilight shrugged. "You have zero control over your body, and you are forced to watch a curse do terrible things with it."

"And do you know who cast the spell?" Zecora asked as she grabbed a wooden spoon with her jaw and started stirring.

Trixie and Starlight stared at Twilight with an intense gaze. Normally, Twilight would be uncomfortable, but given the situation, she felt that it was deserved.

"It was me." she admitted regretfully. "Not only once, but two times."

Surprisingly, Zecora didn't seem fazed. The zebra rubbed her chin. "How did you cast the spell? Surely it wasn't hard, I can tell."

"Apparently when you read it aloud, the curse is activated." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Then I cast it again after the curse literally forced me too."

Zecora immediately stopped stirring the cauldron. She looked at the three in pity. After staring at them for an uncomfortable amount of time, she turned away. "I hope that this isn't true, but I believe I have a clue."

Zecora searched through her pots and herbs, while the others watched. She pulled out a dusty box from the very back. With a sigh, she opened the box. She grabbed a golden chain and placed it onto the table. It was a golden necklace, with a pony-shaped center. The sight of it made Twilight startle a little by how creepy it looked. But it looked... familiar.

"Was this golden-shaped head on the cover of the book?" Zecora asked.

Twilight studied the necklace. Then her head perked up. "Yes... it was."

Zecora nodded grimly. "That's what I thought."

"But what does a necklace have to do with the curse?" Trixie asked.

Zecora looked at one of the masks that hung onto the walls and ceiling. Then she began. "When I was foal, our folks at home would tell me the tales of old. One of them had to deal with this necklace that lays onto the table, and I hoped that it was a fable."

"What tale?" Starlight asked curiously.

"The tale of Basan." Zecora answered grimly. "A tale about a pony who was evil, and was an assassin."

"Would you mind if you told the tale? If you remember it, of course." Twilight asked. Starlight and Trixie nodded in agreement.

Zecora smiled a little. "Of course I remember! I never forget a story from one of my dear mentors."

"Basan was a pony from the ancient times. Not much was known about his life, but he did cause a lot of crimes. He massacred villages, stole food from the poor, and so many more. He was known as one of the most evil ponies of the ancient times.

But then a not-well-known magician, Biaeus, put a stop to his mental strife. He found Basan, all alone in his home, and cast a spell that caused him to burn into flames, ending his life. All what was left was a necklace.

However, Basan had a brother, Anoetos, who was devastated about his brother's passing. Wanting his brother to return, he used dark magic onto his ashes and put it in a giant urn. He put his brother's ashes, and a random book into the urn, and he did the work with the power of his horn.

After the process was done, a spell had been finished. He was about to release his brother in order to end his mourn, but then Biaeus arrived to stop the unicorn. Realizing what he had done and gave him no chance to atone, the wizard turned Anoetos into stone, and... smashed him into bits and bits.

But moments before Anoetos died, he proclaimed that the book was unbreakable, so destroying it was impossible. Turned out he was right, since the wizard's spells onto the book took him all night.

Knowing that the book was indeed immune as it didn't make a dent, he put a powerful lock onto the cover, so no one would summon the spell by accident.

Then he hid the book into one of the castles, and put it deep into one of the shelves. As time went on, the book, and Basan's legacy had been forgotten. Well, by most ponies."

Twilight and her friends looked at Zecora dumbfounded. Zecora grabbed the necklace from the table and put it back into the box.

"So the book that I found... was actually the book that releases Basan's soul?" Twilight rubbed her head with her hooves, trying to understand the story. "But why was it called Goodness Forgetness?"

Zecora shrugged. "Maybe the wizard wanted to hide the fact that it was Basan's soul. Maybe Basan thought that it was a good idea to hurt innocent souls. So he decided to follow up to the name until he got bored."

"How do we get rid of Basan, then?" Starlight asked.

Zecora continued to mix her brew. "What I'm getting from the story is that Basan's soul is connected to the book, and according to his brother, only he can destroy it, one way or another."

"So once the book is destroyed by him... he dies?"

Zecora nodded.

With all the information setting in, Twilight nodded to her friends. To which they nodded back.

"Thank you for everything, Zecora." Starlight thanked the zebra.

Zecora dipped her head. "Always happy to help my friends in these weird times."

Chapter 26: Preparations

The three exited Zecora's hut and they headed back to Twilight's castle to retrieve the book, even though they weren't supposed to come back after the fight. But they never knew that the same book that the curse came from would be the key to defeating it.

But even so, Trixie couldn't grasp the backstory. It seemed solid, but to her, it was confusing.

"I can't be the only who thinks that the backstory is confusing. Basan got killed by a wizard, then his brother resurrected him in spell form, then his brother dies by the same wizard, then the wizard hides the book? Huh?" Trixie vented.

"It doesn't matter the backstory. As long as we know how to defeat it." Starlight responded, along with a scoff. "Although it should be easy."

"Maybe, but the curse is smart. It has outsmarted us on more than one occasion." Twilight argued.

"But we always came out on top. Otherwise, we would be dead by now." Trixie told her.

"Because it was toying with you. Believe me, I heard every thought Basan had when he was in my body, and he kept saying that a lot." Twilight told her firmly. "If he didn't have a wicked sense of humor, he would've killed you long ago without any delay."

"I wonder whose fault that would be." Trixie rolled her eyes.

Twilight halted and stared at Trixie. "I know what I did was bad! No need to remind me." she retorted.

Don't think I'm letting you slide that easily. "Oh please. Don't think that you're getting off easy because you're on our side. You caused so much trouble for us because you put your nose into dusty, forbidden books. I bet you broke the lock when you found it."

"It... wasn't there when I found it." Twilight side eyed. She shook her head. "Anyways, why are we even fighting about this? Should we find this book so we can fix a mistake that I made?"

She's trying so hard to change the subject. Trixie thought in annoyance.

Starlight shouldered in-between the two. "She's right. Fighting isn't making us go any faster. Who knows that Basan is doing to Spike while we're standing around?"

"And you wanna know why Spike is in this situation? It's all because of her!" Trixie spat while she pointed accusingly at Twilight.

"I'm trying to make up for my mistakes!" Twilight defended.

"Then you have to try harder then, because so far it's doing nothing." Trixie responded bitterly. "So far, there was nothing that you did that made up for us being thrown into prison. You didn't make up for Starlight's mental derailment, and even though it happened like two hours ago, you didn't make up for Discord being turned into stone!"

The loud thunder that rumbled in the sky startled the three. They looked to see the blue ray in the sky above Canterlot was starting to grow a dark red, along with a few lightning bolts coming out of it.

Starlight started walking up the trail that led out of the forest. "The light is starting to get worse. You guys can argue about this whenever you want, but right now, I want this curse to be done and dealt with. Like I said, fighting only derails our mission."

Trixie shot Twilight a glare, while Twilight tried to avoid eye contact.

"Fine." But I will bring it up later.

The three ponies barged inside the library. Starlight immediately scanned through the books with her magic. "What does it look like?"

"According to Zecora, the cover should have the shape that we saw on that necklace." Twilight answered while searching through the bookshelves. "This is the ancient book section of the castle, so it has to be here."

Trixie decided to join with Starlight, although she slowly picked out the books, unlike her friend who was rapid-fire. But it seemed to pay off, because after plucking books out of the shelves, she found a strange book with a pony-shaped symbol on it.

"Found it!" Starlight told them.

She opened the book on a nearby bookstand. She pages were old, and some of them were even ripped. Trixie sneezed from all the dust that came off of it.

"Yup, this is it." Twilight noted.

"What page did were you on that released the spell?"

Twilight turned the pages until she found a page with giant, black text. But Trixie couldn't make out what it said. "This looks like a different language!"

"It's Old Ponish." Starlignt told her.

"And thankfully, I can read what it says." Twilight boasted. "It says... 'Rise, oh big brother of mine. For you have fallen too soon, but never again.'"

Trixie couldn't help but stifle her laughter. "I can imagine you saying those words aloud." she joked.

"Ok, so all we have to do is make Basan destroy this book. But how?" Starlight tilted her head as she stared at the book.

"I don't know, but Twilight will figure it out for us." Trixie smirked, while the alicorn looked alarmed and confused.

"Why me?" she demanded.

"You started this, you finish it." she stated. "We are not finishing your problem for you."

"What if I'm captured?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Then we have to carry for you. Again. But you better not turn into a damsel-in-distress on us." Trixie told her firmly. "Right, Starlight?"

She nodded back.

"I'll try not too." Twilight sighed. "I did some unforgivable things, and the last thing I need is the victims of my mistakes to save me." she looked at Starlight, then Trixie. "I'll make it up to you two. I promise."

Trixie looked skeptical. Meanwhile Starlight nodded again, although from the look from her eyes, she was serious. "But you have to show it."

I'll try.

With the book in their grasp, the others exited the castle, and looked at the Canterlot castle with the ray shining a light red above.

This was it. The moment had finally came.

"Ready for the fight?" Twilight asked the two of them as she started flapping her wings. "We'll be flying to Canterlot."

Starlight levitated herself and Trixie from the ground. "We're ready." she told her in determination.

"Finally! We'll end the curse once and for all. About time too." Trixie smirked.

With that, they have flown to the skies, and headed towards the source of the beam.

"Let me go!" Spike wailed while Luna pinned him to the ground with her hoof. No matter how much we wiggled, or clawed, he couldn't get out.

Celestia, who was watching with a fresh batch of popcorn on her hoof, gave him an evil grin. "I can't do that. Otherwise, I would be a good pony for letting you live."

"Basan!"

Spike was startled by the sudden call that came from Trixie. Celestia, looked shock and angry. "Who said my name?" it demanded.

As if by command, the three suddenly showed up. Twilight flew with her wings, meanwhile Starlight and Trixie were flying thanks to Starlight's magic. They landed as they gave the curse hateful stares.

"Finally! It was about to get boring here, and I was almost about to kill this little bugger for good." Celestia said while shooting him a glare.

"The only one who's going to get killed is you." Starlight retorted angrily.

Luna scoffed. "Kill me? The only way to kill me is to kill your precious rulers. Would you really want to be responsible for their deaths?"

"Enough games! We know exactly how to get rid of you." Trixie spat.

Celestia's eyes widened in mockery. "Oh, do you now? Well then, I guess you have to show me." she grinned. "But don't wait too long, because I feel like giving you the same fate as your poor friend."

Spike gulped as Luna summoned chains with her magic. Spike suddenly felt cold metal wrapped around his body, and his body was tugged tight. The three looked at him worriedly, but their gazes were hard when they faced Celestia and Luna, who stood by Celestia's side.

Please, win. Spike pleaded in his mind.

They all braced themselves as the final battle was about to begin.

Chapter 27: The Final Battle

Author's Note

Cue the music

Chapter 27: The Final Battle

The ponies charged forward to their enemies. Their eyes narrowed in a fierce gaze, all of their horns were lit and ready. The only difference was that Celestia and Luna were smiling, Twilight and her friends were not.

When they met in battle, lasers and shields popped up everywhere. Twilight shot a laser beam to Celestia, but the princess blocked it with a magical shield. She tried to retaliate by shooting another laser beam to Twilight, but the purple alicorn dodged it skillfully.

Starlight and Trixie were facing Luna. Trixie was distracting Luna by throwing smoke bombs, which were teleported to the battle, into Luna's face, blocking her vision. While Starlight kept shooting lasers while she had the advantage. She was careful to not shoot out lethal ones. She didn't want to kill the real Princess Luna, who was probably watching the fight in utter horror.

But despite the disadvantage, Luna got hold of Trixie with her magic, and had thrown her to the other side of the tower, causing her to skid hard on the ground. Starlight, however, was harder to handle. The lilac unicorn is more talented than her friend when it came to magic, but that doesn't mean that she was impossible to hit. She had hit Starlight a few times with her magic: one next to her cutie mark, and a mark next to her left ear. Unfortunately for her, the attacks didn't even faze Starlight even by a little, despite her race being weaker than an alicorn. Realizing this, Luna decided to make her lasers more deadly, and Starlight realized it too when Luna's laser hit one of her hooves.

Starlight winced by the attack, and she even limped a little, but she still kept on fighting strong. Not long afterwards, Trixie finally got back up from the attack, and due to her smoke bombs not available, she decided to try out the next battle move: biting. Trixie pounced on Luna and bit one of her ears hard, which made Luna screech in pain. Starlight used a magic lasso to grab onto one of her hooves, but unlike the harmless lassos she had used before, this one had heat. Luna cried out in pain when Starlight's lasso had grabbed one her hind hooves, causing her to fall. Starlight and Trixie smirked by the sight.

Luna noticed their smiles too, which made her angry. "I'll wipe those stupid smiles off of your face once I kill the both of you!" she snarled, enraged.

She sent a magical wave that knocked back Starlight and Trixie. Far enough that they have almost fell out of the tower. Luna charged forward in high speeds, her long, sharp horn forward and ready.

"Look out!" Starlight warned as they both jumped out of the way in time. Before Luna could react, she hit her head onto the tiny wall. She was dizzy and had birds around her head. Starlight and Trixie looked satisfied in the sides.

"Starlight!" Starlight's ear twitched when she heard Spike call her name. She looked to see Spike struggling with the chains.

Starlight turned to face her friend. "You think you can handle Luna?"

Trixie whipped her head to see an unconscious Luna, then back at Starlight with a determined nod. "I'm sure."

Nodding back, Starlight raced towards the chained dragon. But before she could, she checked on Twilight with her fight with Celestia. The two were eveningly matched; not one of them looked tired from the fight.

Deciding that she will be fine, Starlight headed towards Spike. He looked up and saw his eyes beam with gratitude. "Starlight! You're coming to save me?"

Starlight smiled warmly as she teleported Spike out of the chains. "Of course I am. Why would I leave you to suffer?"

Then the two hugged each other. Starlight noticed that Spike was starting to cry. She faced the dragon and wiped a tear off of his face. "Everything will be ok, Spike. After this night, all of us will go back to our—"

Slash!

"Ah!" Starlight was caught off-guard by a scratch that cut her left cheek. She rubbed her brand new wound and her eyes narrowed in fear by the sight of her own blood that stained her hoof. Horrified, she turned to face Spike, but before she could even react, he pounced on her, biting the side of her neck hard.

Screaming in pain, she knocked Spike away with her hooves and quickly got to her feet. Her neck was also dripping with blood from the bite marks. Starlight looked up to see Spike grinning at her evilly, much to Starlight's utter horror.

"Luna was no use to me, so I decided to do some transitioning!" Spike said giddily.

Her heart beating fast, and her ears downward, Starlight slowly backed away from the dragon.

"What's wrong? Where's that little smile of yours?" Spike taunted the unicorn.

Normally Starlight would be angry when someone taunted her, but the only emotion that she felt was fear.

Not again, not again, not again. Starlight repeated in her mind while she backed away. This was the moment she was most fearful about. Flashbacks dreaded in her mind as she remembered the first memory of her attacking Spike back at the castle. But now she had to do it again? Am I mentally strong enough?

Spike continued to grin wider. "You can fight powerful princesses, but not a harmless little dragon?" he taunted again. Once again, while she was caught off-guard, Starlight pounced her again, causing the two of them to roll around with Spike managing to get a grip onto Starlight's skin. After the tustle, Spike managed to push Starlight's body to the ground, and slashed her again, leaving blood marks onto her chest, which slowly started to bleed too.

Starlight knows she has the power to overpower Spike, but her initial fears kept replaying in her mind. Over and over again.

"I always knew you were weak. It just took me a while to find your weak spot: having to hurt the one creature that you care the most." Spike smiled even wider, showing his fangs. "Any last words before you die a horrible death to your dear, closest friend?"

Tears streaming from her eyes, she shut them tight, trying to get the fears out of her mind. She felt Spike's claws dig deep into her chest, which had tiny streaks of blood from the cut.

Come on, Starlight! You're stronger than this!

Fight the curse!

Who are you? A weakling? Fight!

But for some strange, stupid reason, she couldn't bring herself to attack Spike...

"The fear is relishing! I just love to see the fear in your eyes. Right before I kill you." Starlight heard Spike proclaim. During that moment, she heard Trixie call her name, but she didn't dare to open her eyes, fearful of seeing Spike preparing to kill her.

But... during that moment, Trixie's words from the other day ringed into her head, and it seemed to overtake her fears.

Always remember that you're not fighting Spike. You are simply fighting the curse controlling Spike. Would you like to give mercy to the curse that caused us misery? The curse that caused Twilight, Spike, and their friends complete misery?"

Breathing hard, Starlight slightly opened one of her eyes. But instead of seeing Spike, she hallucinated and saw another creature on top of her. It was black, misty, and had blood-red eyes that stared into her soul. It smiled widely, showing it's white fangs.

If you give mercy to a possessed Spike, then you are giving mercy to the curse. Are you willing to let the curse control your friend? Are you giving mercy to the curse when the curse wouldn't do the same for Spike and his friends?

No!

When her eyes darted open, she saw Spike opening his mouth wide, ready to bite into her neck again. Her teeth bared into a snarl, Starlight finally gained the willpower to kick Spike off with her hind leg. When he recovered from the blow, Starlight got up as quickly as she can and kicked Spike with her hind leg again, this time adding more force.

Spike rolled onto the ground. He was clearly unprepared for the attack. When he got back up, he was face to face with Starlight again. She was breathing hard, the blood from her cheek and chest were dripping on the floor. The two enemies started circling each other, both of their gazes resting on the other intensely.

"It took you that long to finally defend yourself. What kind of pathetic hero are you?" Spike smirked. "What? Are you scared about hurting your little friend?" he ended with his tone dipped in mockery.

Still panting, Starlight wiped the blood off of her chest, not taking her eyes off of the dragon. "Your tricks and your taunts will not affect me any longer."

Spike's eyes widened a little in surprise. Then he growled. "You fool! You're fighting your friend! Who else do you think?"

Starlight shook her head. "It doesn't matter the body. All that matters is that I fight you. I have waited all this time to have my revenge, and you possessing one of my closest friends makes me angrier, and stronger."

Spike scoffed and rolled his eyes. "How does that make you stronger?"

Starlight smirked while she wiped the blood off of her cheek. "Step one foot closer and you'll find out."

Angry that he wasn't getting to her anymore, Spike let out low snarl and jumped onto all fours and rushed towards Starlight, his teeth bared and his claws out and ready. He leapt for Starlight, but this time, she was prepared. She immediately jumped out of the way, causing Spike to stumble sideways. But he quickly regained his position and he managed to leap to Starlight's hoof, and bit it with his sharp teeth.

With pain searing through her body, Starlight grabbed Spike's body with her teeth and, ignoring the scales that pricked through her mouth, she threw him to the side. Angrier than ever, Spike got to his feet and breathed out a big fireball from his mouth. Even though she did not expect that kind of attack, she still blocked it with her shield. But when the shield deactivated, Spike was already racing towards her in high speeds. But in the nick of time, before he could make the leap, Starlight quickly stepped aside, and put one of her hind legs outward, causing Spike to trip. When he stumbled from the fall, Starlight quickly stomped her hoof onto his scaly back, making him unable to move.

"Release me at once!" Spike demanded while he flailed his claws.

But that made Starlight push her hoof down harder, while careful to not break Spike's back.

Twilight and Celestia were facing each other in the distance, both panting from the fight. Each of them were covered in bruises and burns, and they also bled from some cuts. Their manes were jagged and ruined, their wings looked ruffled and unkept. But they never lost the intensity in their glares.

"You know, it's really hard to control two bodies when I have one being pinned by a pathetic excuse of a hero." Celesia told her bitterly.

Twilight looked besides Celestia to see what she was talking about. She saw Luna near a wall, not moving at all, but breathing; and she saw Spike, which she assumed he was controlled again, had been pinned down by Starlight, who had her cheek and chest dripping with blood. In the background, Trixie stared at Starlight and Spike in astonishment.

"It means that your losing!" Twilight told her proudly. "You have underestimated us for far too long."

Celestia stomped her hoof in annoyance. "So I have..." she muttered. Then her head perked up and gave Twilight another evil look. "But now that I know about your friend's true potential..."

At that moment, black mist streamed out of Celestia's mouth, which made Twilight horrified. Not long after, Luna and Spike had black mist streamed out of those strange areas. Starlight, who had her hoof onto Spike's back, even backed away out of startlement.

After the process was done, Celestia's body dropped to the ground. Twilight rushed over to her teacher. She was breathing, thankfully.

Twilight then headed over to Starlight and her friends. "Does anyone know what's going on?" Twilight asked the two mares.

"I-I-I don't know. I was pinning Spike to the ground and all of the sudden black mist came out of his eyes.

Trixie, who looked frightened, started shaking her hoof at the air. "I-I-I think I know where the mist is coming from." she stammered.

Twilight and Starlight followed her hood's direction, and their ears went downward with what they saw. The black mist was forming a pony's body in the air. After the formation was complete, two red eyes blinked. He looked down at the group in frustration.

"I've had it with you all!" Basan shouted. Twilight was immediately unnerved by the creepy voice that he had. Almost sounds like King Sombra...

So it's time I did something different... I hope you guys love this big surprise! Basan shouted with a rare tint of happiness. Basan looked down towards Starlight. She was startled by his intense gaze.

"You. he decided. Without warning, the mist immediately surrounded Starlight, then it disappeared as quickly as it came. Starlight then dropped to the floor.

"Starlight!" Twilight and Trixie exclaimed at them same time.

The two looked at Starlight frantically until the unicorn finally opened her eyes. She laughed while she smiled. "Thanks for letting me take over your body. Greatly appreciated!"

"You... you took over Starlight!" Twilight screamed.

"Of course I did. I mean, I took you over too many times, and your friend over there is weak." Starlight scoffed.

"Ok, but why did you take over the body? Starlight is less powerful than an alicorn!" Trixie demanded.

"I know your friend is powerful, which is why I want the satisfaction of killing the two of you in her body. Oh the nightmares and the trauma awaits!" Starlight said while she pranced in joy.

Twilight looked scared, but Trixie looked smug. "Oh really? How exactly will you kill us when we can easily teleport away. Right, Twilight?"

Trixie looked to see Twilight, but her mouth was agape.

"Uh... Twilight?"

Suddenly, Twilight's expression shifted. "Actually that's a great idea!"

"Huh?"

Even Starlight was shocked by her response. "R-really?"

"I mean, yeah! Why don't you end us all with a single, lethal beam that would burn us into a crisp one by one." Twilight told her, while winking at Trixie.

Trixie suddenly got the hint. She then nodded vigorously. "I mean, yeah! You're right! What's worth living in this life anyway, am I right?"

Starlight scratched her head. "Wow. You guys are really down on the dumps. I was expecting some persuasion but ok!"

Starlight walked to a distance and started firing up the spell.

"Uh, can you count 1 to 3 please?" Trixie suggested.

"Normally I don't take requests but since you guys literally have nothing left to lose, then I might as well. Ok, 1..."

"You have it ready?" Trixie muttered to Twilight.

"Of course."

"2..."

"You better not screw this up Twilight." Trixie muttered as she braced for impact.

"3!" The beam suddenly fired at them.

"Now!" Trixie screamed.

At that very moment, Twilight teleported the book in front of the laser, and immediately teleported them away to safety.

Starlight stared at the burning book, then back at the ponies. "You two are dumber than I thought—"

Cough!

Starlight covered her mouth. "What the..."

Cough!

"No..." Starlight immediately rushed over to the burned book. She gasped when she recognized the symbol on the book's cover, which started to melt.

"My necklace! This is the spell book that—"

Cough!

At the third cough, Starlight suddenly writhed on the floor. "My... my body! It's burning! I need to escape!"

Once again, black mist escaped through Starlight's eyes and mouth, only this time, it was burning. Despite being on fire, Basan regained to his pony form.

"Every movement! It hurts! It hurts!" Basan screamed. Suddenly, one of his hooves started to melt, and one of his eyes were inflated.

"No! No!" It screamed as the eye popped, spewing out dark blood. "My eyes! My poor eyes!"

As he continued to burn, he vigorously rubbed the back of his neck. "My neck! My head! I'm about to be dismembered! Help!"

But Twilight and Trixie could only watch his fate.

"My neck! MY NECK! It's about to break off!" Basan screamed out of pure fear. He tried to run away, but he was melted to the floor, they couldn't escape.

"Anoetos!" Basan pleaded to the dark night sky. "Anoetos! Please help you brother one last time! Please!"

No answer.

In a one final attempt, Basan faced Trixie and Twilight. Only one eye glowed bright red. "You—"

He gasped when he heard his neck continue to rip.

Basan glared at them for one final time. "I HATE ALL OF YOU—"

He was suddenly cut off by a crack. Basan's head immediately dropped to the floor, spewing out lots of dark red blood from the neck as the body continued to burn.

Finally after moments of pure anguish and suffering, all of what was left of the curse was two, flat spots of black ooze. One was the body, and one was the head.

Chapter 28: The Guilty Aftermath

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 29: The Light and Epilouge

After a long sleep, when the morning sun rose out of the horizon, Starlight gently opened her eyes. The light briefly affected her vision. She massaged her eyes while she yawned. She attempted to shift her body, but it made her wince. She scratched her head carefully, and she was feeling a bit tired.

Her gaze was lowered to her own body. She'd seen the bandages on her chest and arm. When she tapped one of her ears, she shivered in discomfort. She'd laid a foot on her ear that hurt the most. She let out a faint cry of pain as she felt a small piece of her ear gone, and the stinging feeling that came along with it. How? She questioned in her mind, startled.

Her thoughts went back to the fight that took place last night. She remembered the struggle she had with Spike vividly, including the agony she had each time the little dragon cut her flesh with his claws. My first battle scar. She mused wryly. It was a matter of discussion whether to heal her wound, and Starlight decided not to. It requires a lot of power to pull skin like that, which I'm not having at the moment. I mean, in addition to all this, does that make me seem a little tougher?

She was still surprised, though, by the fact that she had been scarred by this particular battle, no matter how many times she touched her ear. Not even her more vigorous battles with Twilight—including the ones from her days as a villain—had left a mark on her. My first battle scar.

Next to Starlight, Trixie slowly opened her eyes and gasped as she saw Starlight awake.

"Thank Celestia you're ok!" Trixie exclaimed as she tightly hugged her, which took Starlight by surprise. "I thought I'd lost you!"

The shock spread through Starlight's eyes. Was I that close to dying? In that thought, a chill went through her body.

"I'm here now." Starlight comforted Trixie as she rubbed her back, but it was all she could say. She felt almost unspeakably stunned by the shock.

"How are your injuries?" Trixie says, looking at the bandages on Starlight's chest, arm, and ear.

"It hurts," Starlight replied, rubbing her chest once Trixie stopped hugging her. "But I'm fine." She managed to smile.

Trixie smiled back. "Thank Celestia." She sighed in heavy relief.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed a slip of paper laying on the castle floor. Curious, Starlight levitated the paper to herself and began to read.

"What is it?" Trixie tilted her head once she saw the paper Starlight was levitating.

After reading the letter, Starlight looked at Trixie thoughtfully. "A meeting will be held outside Town Hall in Ponyville." She answered with a nervous glint in her eyes. "Twilight wrote this. She wants every pony from Ponyville and Canterlot to be there. Including us."

"Really?" Trixie muttered as she raised her eyebrows. "What could the reason be?"

Starlight sets the paper down on the ground. "It's not very clear. But maybe she wants to apologize?" She guessed.

"Yeah, she has too." Trixie rolled her eyes. "She has to set things right with the citizens first. She can't do that by sitting in her room feeling sorry for herself."

Just as Starlight was about to reply, she heard low muttering noises by her side. Both mares turned to see Spike shifting as he was beginning to wake up.

The purple dragon blinked his eyes sleepily and yawned. He looked at the two as he rubbed one of his eyes. "Oh, hey girls." Spike greeted with a drowsy wave of his hand. "What's—"

His eyes quickly widened in shock as he gazed at Starlight's bandages. As Spike stared at the injuries, memories of last night seem to hit him and before any of them could react, Spike rose to his feet and gave Starlight the biggest and tightest hug he had ever given in a long time.

Starlight felt breathless as Spike's claws wrapped tightly around her neck and chest.

"I'm so, so, so sorry!" Spike wailed as tears began to drip from his eyes.

"For... what?" Starlight asked, still feeling dazed. She rubbed Spike's scaly back to comfort the dragon.

"For letting the curse get to me!" Spike managed to speak through a mountain of tears. "I should've been stronger, but the curse got to me before I could do anything!" He broke down crying, not even daring to let Starlight free from his grasp.

As Spike said his words, and felt the pure, raw grief that was caked in his voice, Starlight couldn't help but feel hatred towards the curse as Spike's cries rang in her ears. Her hoof gripped the couch's cushion as these raw feelings surged through her body and mind.

That curse... Starlight thought bitterly as the mere image of the curse's sneering look entered her mind. That curse had caused her and her friends nothing but trouble since the very beginning. The events caused great damage to her; mentally and physically. She also remembered the curse taking control of herself for the first time. All the feelings... fear, anger, and hatred, seemed to give the curse great delight as he tortured her mind and used her like a puppet to do his dirty work. That was the last thing she remembered before she passed out.

If that curse was a living pony, I would gladly destroy it to smithereens after what it did to me and my friends. Starlight closed her eyes tightly so no one could see the smoldering rage that was shining from her lavender-colored pupils.

For the first time since she'd reformed, she wanted revenge. I never thought I would have the desire for vengeance again. She thought more to herself as the long-suppressed rage bubbled inside of her; the kind of rage that she kept inside for far too long. At least this time, my target is against a heartless, ruthless... thing. I could be doing the world a favor. I—

"Starlight, are you alright? You're shaking." Trixie spoke up, concerned.

Starlight opened her eyes and noticed that her hoof was shaking out of suppressed fury. Realizing that she was minutes away from exploding with rage, she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She slowly unclenched the couch and looked down at Spike once more. The dragon was still crying his heart out, not even noticing Starlight's sudden change of mood. The reason behind her friend's pitiful wails made Starlight even angrier. This is all the curse's fault.

With her best attempt to calm herself, she tried to soothe the distraught dragon. "It's alright. It's alright." She said soothingly, although it was aimed at both him and herself. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't hide the rage that was tinted in her voice. Trixie noticed this right away.

"Starlight? Are you alright? I haven't seen you this mad since... well... ever." Trixie's hoof rubbed onto Starlight's uninjured hind leg. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I think so." That was all Starlight could say. It was true. It had been a while since she felt hatred towards anyone before; especially after she learned the hard way that revenge is not the best answer for anything.

Spike looked up at Starlight, tears still welled in his eyes, but his voice sounded more controlled. "Are you still hurting? All because of me?" He asked as he wiped his nose with his elbow.

Starlight shook her head. She felt her anger dying away and was replaced with her usual calm self. "Spike, it's not your fault. You could do nothing against the curse's power." She told him calmly.

Her words didn't help Spike at all. "I know, but if only I had been stronger..."

Starlight rested her chin on Spike's head as her ears lowered. "Listen, what you did last night was out of your control. Not even the strongest ponies like Celestia and Luna could control themselves from the curse." She advised him as she closed her eyes. No longer out of rage, but out of understanding and calmness. "I said it once and I will say it a million times: none of this is your fault. Stop beating yourself over it."

Spike didn't say a word. His grip on Starlight became less forced and he finally stopped the tears from flowing in his eyes.

Trixie, who watched the scene with sympathetic eyes, levitated the paper from earlier and began to read it. "If it makes things any better..." She spoke, not taking her eyes off the paper. "The curse is dead."

Starlight's ears immediately raised upwards and whipped her head to face Trixie. Brand new shock entered her eyes. "The curse is... dead?" She had no idea.

Trixie nodded. "For good."

Starlight wanted to exhale a sigh of relief, but instead of that, she stared at Trixie, her eyes narrowing. "Are you sure?" She asked her again, this time in a more demanding way. She wanted to be prepared if the curse was able to come back somehow, one way or another.

Trixie flinched at Starlight's gaze.

Noticing her friend's hesitation, she relaxed herself. "Sorry, I'm just very tense." She apologized. She let her gaze become soft again. "But are you really sure?"

"I am," Trixie said with a dip of her head. "You should've seen the way it screamed. Seemed like death finally caught up to him a second time. I don't think he's coming back anytime soon."

"That's a relief," Spike muttered as he lets go of Starlight and started to wipe his legs. "I don't want to be controlled by anything like him ever again." He shuddered at the thought.

Starlight could only nod. She couldn't help but feel a sting of disappointment that she wasn't conscious enough to see the curse's pain as it died a second time. Normally, she wouldn't wish anyone death. Not even on Queen Chrysalis, her new arch-nemesis. But the curse...

Starlight shook her head firmly. Stop it. she scolded herself. She was starting to think about her old ways once more: always angry, always hateful, and always vengeful. She tried her best to calm herself down, but she was too wrapped in anger to even think happy thoughts. She should be happy that the curse was gone for good... yet for some reason, it made her mad. I should've been the one to end that pathetic parasite. This feels unjustified.

"...it says that the meeting will be held at noon." Starlight could hear Trixie's voice once her attention snapped back to her. Starlight looked confused. Wait, what's going on?

Trixie's eyes turned to Starlight. "Well?"

Starlight blinked. Her mind was so boggled with rage that she wasn't paying attention. She darted her eyes in embarrassment. "Uh, could you repeat that?" She chuckled sheepishly.

"And you call me out for not paying attention," Trixie said in an exasperated tone as she rolled her eyes. "As I said, Twilight wants us to meet at Town Hall at noon, which is 15 minutes from now. Do you want to go or not?"

Starlight's eyes widened. She had forgotten about that somehow. "Of course, I'm going! This might be important."

"Your wounds though..." Spike says hesitantly.

Starlight looked at her chest and arm, which didn't hurt a lot. Her ear also stung, but she could easily block out the pain. If she could. "My injuries don't bother me."

Before Trixie and Spike could say anything else, Starlight got herself off the couch and began to walk towards the castle doors.

"Wait! You can't go to Town Hall looking like you just came from a warzone!" Trixie called back as she caught up to her.

But I was in a war zone. Starlight countered in her head, but she didn't try to argue as Trixie began to unwrap her bandages.

Twilight pranced nervously behind the curtain. She was breathing in and out of a paper bag.

She knew she had to make the announcement; it was the right thing to do. But if only it wasn't so nerve-wracking.

Twilight looked at the clock that was hanging from the wall.

11:58

2 minutes before she began her announcement.

Twilight had the entire speech written down in flashcards. She knows what she had to say, but the chatter she heard behind the curtain, however, made her heart pound with fear.

Twilight couldn't help but peek behind the red curtains. She saw the ponies that were assembled in the room. Confused, and dazed ponies. Princess Celestia and Luna were there too, along with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. Their gazes were similar to the crowd's.

Then Twilight spotted Trixie, Spike, and Starlight enter the Town Hall's doors. The three didn't even speak to any of the assembling crowd as they walked by. After their little walk, they simply sat in the empty chairs that were slightly distanced from the crowd.

And then, Starlight noticed Twilight peeking out of the curtain. Their gazes locked in a split second before Twilight jerked her head back, completely hiding from anyone's view. The way Starlight looked at her made her feel... scared. Is Starlight still angry with her?

She looked at the clock again.

11:59

Then the clock chimed 12.

Twilight took in a deep breath. She put away her paper bag and made herself go in front of the podium. She hoped that no one could tell that she was sweating to death.

With the use of her magic, she pulled the curtains sideways, and she was now facing the crowd, which grew silent.

At first, Twilight was speechless. Her fear was taking hold of her, especially since Trixie, Spike, and Starlight were staring at her expectantly.

She managed to clear her throat and began to read from her notes. As long as she didn't look up, or even think of a thousand eyes staring at her, she felt slightly better.

She began her speech.

"Citizens of Ponyville and Canterlot, thank you for attending this meeting here at Town Hall." She started nervously. "I—"

Out of nowhere, questions and cries of confusion started to fly around the room.

"What's going on, Princess?" A male voice shouted.

"What happened to us?" Twilight recognized the voice of Bon-Bon in the crowd.

"That curse controlled our minds!" A female voice could barely be heard through the yelling.

Twilight didn't even stop them. She figured that after being controlled by an evil curse for so long, she figured it felt right to let them voice their outcries.

After what felt like hours of screams and cries entering her ears, the chatter finally began to die down. Twilight couldn't help but glance at Trixie, Spike, and Starlight, who said nothing the entire time. The trio seemed to be calm about the whole situation.

But Starlight's gaze was still piercing through her.

Trying to ignore her, Twilight looked down at her notes once more as the silence set in. She flipped through the pages with her magic.

Twilight closed her eyes and took another deep breath. These notes weren't going to cut it. So instead, she teleported the notes away, and began her speech again. This time, her words would come from the heart, not from little letters on a piece of paper.

"Citizens of Ponyville and Canterlot," Twilight began her speech again. She still felt fear, but she didn't let it get to her. Raw determination took its place. "I know what you are all thinking, and I will answer your questions." She took in another deep breath before continuing.

"A few days ago, or maybe a month ago, a curse had spread all over Ponyville and Canterlot. This curse? Well, we later found out that this entity used to be a pony from the ancient days of Starswirl the Bearded. The curse has been living in your mind; it forced you to forget the deeds of three creatures. Creatures who have been reformed from their past lives and saved us from the wrath of Queen Chrysalis herself."

The crowd instantly knew whom she was talking about. All of them turned their gazes onto Trixie and Starlight, who looked a little embarrassed. Twilight realized with a pang of sadness that Discord wasn't there with the unicorns.

I should ask Celestia and Luna to unstone after this. Twilight thought to herself before speaking again.

"And you may have been wondering what had caused this curse to suddenly burst into the air and control all of you. It wasn't Queen Chrysalis, as some of you may suspect. It wasn't any other villain that we haven't faced before. But alas, it is with a heavy heart to say that the pony who unleashed the curse... was me."

In an instant, cries of outrage began to form among the ponies.

"What?! This has to be a joke!" Ms. Cake cried out. Her voice was more of dismay than anger.

"I don't even know what to say." Mayor Mare added, shaking her head.

"Who else knows about this?" A light pink pony asked Twilight accusingly. The pony shifted their gaze towards Spike. "Had he known the entire time? Is he also a traitor?"

Spike's eyes widened. Starlight wrapped her hoof protectively around the dragon and shot the accuser a glare.

Applejack quickly rose from her spot and looked at the ponies that were seated behind her. "No one here is a traitor!" She managed to make her voice heard above the chatter and got the ponies' attention with her commanding gaze. "Now, why don't y'all be quiet and let Twilight speak? Perhaps she'll explain everything." She turned around and sat down in her spot. She gave Twilight a nod.

Twilight nodded back at Applejack, thankful for her friend defending her.

Yet at that moment, Twilight couldn't help but wonder where her five closest friends had gone since they had been freed from the curse's control. Since then, they haven't been seen since. It was unnatural of them to sit by while she was still controlled by the curse, along with Celestia and Luna of all ponies.

The curse probably took control of them again, just like how it took control of me and Spike for the second time. Twilight pondered.

Thanks to Applejack, the cries began to diminish. The ponies rested their gazes on Twilight once more, but this time, it was more out of betrayal than confusion. For some strange reason, Twilight couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. She didn't like the looks they gave her, yes, but the fact that the truth is out made her speech somewhat easier. Now all she had to do was persuade them that she didn't mean to do it on purpose.

If they were willing to listen.

Twilight began to speak once more. "Yes, you heard it right. I was the one who unleashed the curse upon us. However, don't think for a millisecond that I did this on purpose." She insisted. "Would you really believe that?"

The crowd muttered anxiously to one another, as if not believing her words.

Twilight felt her heart sank. Aside from her friends and the Princesses, no one seemed to believe her. Do they actually believe I would do this to them on purpose?

Twilight looked below to see Rainbow Dash flapping her wings. She was about to challenge the crowd, but another voice beat her to it.

"I can't believe all of you!" Twilight's eyes widened in surprise when she saw Starlight get out of her chair and challenged the crowd with a fierce gaze. "How long have all of you known Twilight? Do you know how many times Twilight saved all of you from a villain? The fact that you easily believe that she would unleash this evil spell on all of you says a lot."

"And how dare you call her a traitor?" Trixie added in, her gaze was not as fierce as Starlight's, but she sounded equally angry. "If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be here right now!"

Spike said nothing, but he looked angry at the fact that he had been called something so cruel.

Twilight breathed out another sigh of relief. She was thankful that in times like this, Starlight, and even Trixie, would stand up for her when it comes to these kinds of accusations. I would assume she would still be mad at me. Twilight thought once she saw Starlight sit down on her chair. But then she flinched when she saw Starlight's same fierce gaze staring right back at her. Or maybe not.

Starlight and Trixie's words seem to hit the crowd. The chatter was filled with fewer accusations and instead with more considerable words. Even the light pink pony from earlier looked sympathetic about the situation.

When she got the crowd's attention again, Twilight spoke. "I know you are not happy with what I did, and you have every right to be. But I assure you, I will not make the same mistake again. So, from now on, I have decided to transfer the ancient books from my library to Canterlot. This fiasco has proved that I am not worthy of holding such ancient powers just yet."

"Twilight, you don't have to do that." Applejack objected, but Twilight raised her hoof to silence the earth pony.

"I have to. Who knows what kind of evil spell could be unleashed under my hooves? This curse has proven that ancient spells are unpredictable. So, they should be locked away. Locked away so we wouldn't have repeated events, and similar tragedies. We were lucky that no one died."

The crowd's eyes widened. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have added that. Twilight winced.

Twilight shifted her gaze back onto Starlight. This time, her eyes were closed, as if she were in deep thought. I wonder what she's thinking about...

Then Starlight opened her eyes to look at a space next to Trixie's chair, her eyes clouded with sadness. It didn't take her too long to know who Starlight is thinking about. And I have nothing more to say...

"This concludes the meeting!" Twilight shouted as she slammed her hoof on the podium, signaling that the meeting was over.

Twilight flapped her wings, and she descended into the air. She quickly flew over to Celestia and Luna, who watched the meeting in silence. She was hovering over them as she spoke to the two alicorns. "Can the both of you do a favor for me?"

"Of course, Twilight." Princess Celestia answered. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but Celestia raised her hoof to silence her. "And in case you were wondering, my sister and I have accepted your apology, and we agree with your decision to move the ancient books to Canterlot."

"And you chose a good pupil." Princess Luna added with a hint of respect in her eyes. "It's rare for a pony to challenge a big crowd with such ferocity. Her and Trixie."

"Really?" Twilight asked, surprised. She didn't expect to hear that.

"Now, what is this favor that you want us to do?" Princess Celestia asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, finally! I can stretch!" Discord's triumphant voice echoed in the room. He flew off of the stony platform after Celestia revoked his magic-sucking rings around his neck and wrists. Discord snapped his fingers, and thousands of winged dogs appeared in the air. Discord laughed as a puppy landed in his paws. "The Lord of Chaos is back in action, baby!"

"And I'm happy about that," Fluttershy spoke softly to him. She was shining with happiness once Discord broke free from his stony prison.

"Hopefully things will get back to normal." Rarity said. She rubbed her cheek with her hoof. "My cheek is still sore, after all this time..." she mumbled to herself.

"That was a pretty awsome speech, Twilight." Rainbow Dash told her as she wrapped her hoof around her neck. "I bet the hardest part is getting rid of those precious books." She teased.

Twilight shrugged, unfazed by her teasing. "It's for the best."

"It's a shame that we missed out on the final battle! I would've liked to smack that silly old curse for making us gone for 14 chapters!" Pinkie said with a wide smile, which made a squeaking noise that came from seemingly nowhere.

Twilight stared at Pinkie, confused by what she said. "14 chapters? What—"

"Don't question it." Applejack put in with a smile. "We all know she says things that make no sense."

Twilight chuckled at Applejack's comment. She was happy that everyone was happy, for the first time in days. Discord has his chaos powers back, her friends are laughing again, and no one is being mind-controlled as far as she knows.

But as she looked around, she found out that Trixie and Starlight were nowhere in sight. She only spotted Spike entering the castle, his gaze happy and calm. "Hey, Discord got his chaos powers back!" He cheered as he saw the scene unfold in the distance.

Twilight trotted up to Spike. "Spike, do you know where Trixie and Starlight are? I thought they would be here to see Discord's unstoning."

"Oh, they're near the lake." Spike informed by pointing his thumb outside. "They'll be here in a moment. But if you want to talk to them now, I think they're sitting on the bench near the riverbank."

Twilight gave a thankful nod to Spike and flew out the door. It didn't take long to find Starlight and Trixie talking together on a bench, exactly like Spike said. Twilight noticed that Starlight's bandages were gone. Her ear and her leg seemed to be forever scarred. Twilight sighed as she saw her friend this way. Even if I am willing to forget about the event, Starlight's scars would remind me forever.

"Hey, you two." Twilight broke in with a smile. "You missed Discord's unstoning."

Trixie's gasped softly. "Oh, did we? Spike never told us that, otherwise I would've been there right now." She looked back at Starlight with a sympathetic smile. "You ok being here with Twilight?"

Twilight's gaze slightly narrowed in concern. What was wrong with that?

But Starlight nodded, not saying a word.

With a nod of farewell, Trixie jumped down from her spot and began to walk back to the castle.

Twilight sat next to Starlight. She didn't sit directly next to her like Trixie had. She sat on the ground in front of the seat while Starlight was staring at her reflection.

"Starlight." Twilight greeted her, trying to sound casual.

"Twilight." Starlight greeted back more nonchalantly.

An awkward silence was held between the two ponies.

"I... um," Twilight spoke, trying to break the ice. "I want to thank you for standing up for me at the meeting."

Starlight said nothing until she raised her head and gazed at the mountains ahead. "I had to do something. No one else was going to do it."

Except for Rainbow Dash. Twilight thought, remembering that the pegasus was about to challenge the crowd before Starlight stopped her, but she didn't say it aloud.

Another awkward silence was held between the two. Twilight wondered if this was a bad time to talk to her.

Twilight shifted her hooves along the grass. "If you want me to leave, I can—"

"You're not here just to inform me of Discord's unstonement, are you?" Starlight asked suddenly, not even looking at the alicorn.

Twilight's gaze narrowed. "How did you know? Do you have mind-reading powers now?" She asked, trying to make a joke.

Starlight didn't laugh. She continued to stare ahead.

Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly. "But, erm, yes. I came here because I wanted to apologize to you."

For the first time since she arrived, Starlight looked at Twilight in the eyes. She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "But you already apologized. At the Town Hall."

"That was for the townspeople. This one is more personal." Twilight said as she sat on the bench. She put a hoof onto Starlight's, which made the latter flinch a little.

"I'm sorry, for everything," Twilight spoke. Her voice was firm and soft at the same time. "You have every right to be angry with me, and so do Trixie and Discord. I know you say that you forgive me, but do you mean it? Really?"

After hearing her words, Starlight closed her eyes and was again lost in thought. With a sigh, Twilight looked away and also stared at the mountains in the distance, patiently waiting for her answer. For a moment, Twilight couldn't help but worry about what that answer might be. I didn't think that Starlight would hate me again. No, she wouldn't do that... will she? Her mind was suddenly racing with fear. Did I say the wrong thing? Is this a bad time?

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut. The tension was unbearable.

"Of course, I forgive you, Twilight."

Twilight opened her eyes wide. She looked at Starlight, who also opened her eyes. Her gaze was thoughtful.

"Starlight, come on—"

"I'm being serious." Starlight insisted. Her voice was firm. "If there is anyone I would never forgive, it's the curse. But it's dead now. Thank Celestia."

"But I was the one who brought this upon you. Surely, I deserve some sort of resentment from you?" She wanted Starlight to be completely sure before she got her hopes up.

But the unicorn merely shrugged. "I just don't have the heart to hate you for this, Twilight. I've hated you once and look where that took me."

"You don't feel angry at me? Not even a little?" Twilight persisted. After what she had been through, all the sacrifices, all the hate she felt, yet she feels nothing?

"I was angry when I found out," Starlight admitted. "Very angry. But it's like you taught me: holding grudges is not healthy. So, I am ready to forgive even you."

Twilight was speechless. She was expecting weeks of Starlight glaring at her with hostile and unforgiving eyes. Weeks of the silent treatment. Because she felt that it was justified. She still couldn't believe it. Not yet.

"R-Really?" Twilight stammered.

Starlight nodded. "Yes."

After taking the time to process her answer, Twilight slightly smiled. Starlight sounded confident in her answer. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad as Twilight thought.

Maybe things can finally get back to normal between the two.

Starlight jumped down from the bench. She winced when she put pressure on one of her hooves.

"Are you alright?" Twilight asked as she also got down from the bench.

"Yeah, I think so," Starlight answered. "Now, I'm excited to see Discord again with his chaos powers again. It always felt odd to see him without his usual chaotic shenanigans."

Twilight nodded in agreement, smiling.

The unicorns both walked away from the river and headed for Twilight's castle. Ponies that were walking by still shot Twilight unforgiving glances. She figured that the meeting hadn't completely changed their hearts. She would just have to get used to it from now on. Twilight saw Starlight's expression from the corner of her eye. Was that affection in the unicorn's gaze?

I'll get over the stares and the glares. At least our friendship has mended. Twilight concluded with a smile.

For once in a long time, things will finally go right between the two ponies.

Author's Note

Finally this story is now finished.

Somehow, this story became my most successful story so far during my time here on FimFiction. I did not expect it to be popular. At all. Funny how an idea I formed years ago could potentially be my most-liked story.

Thanks for all the support that went into this little story of mine. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing the chapters.

Chapter 14: Sweating Bullets

"Starlight!" They all screamed her name when the unicorn flashed away by a recognizable purple aura. Trixie immediately panicked when she knew what it meant.

"No no no no no no no!" Trixie immediately started breathing hard. "Twilight took her away!"

"No need to point out the obvious." Discord retorted, but he was almost as horrified as Trixie.

"What do we do?" Applejack asked them, concerned.

"I'll fly around and see if I can spot them." Rainbow Dash volunteered.

"But who knows where Twilight teleported her?" Rarity pointed out. "You could only go so far before you start getting tired from exhaustion."

But Rainbow almost laughed at her. "I'm literally the fastest pegasus around and you're telling me that I will get tired?"

Rarity nodded. "How can you not?"

"Oh please! I could zip around Equestria as quick as a flash." Rainbow Dash bluffed. "I can do a sonic rainboom for Celestia's sake. I'm sure this one will be a breeze."

"Ok, then do it." Rarity challenged.

"Enough!" Fluttershy got in between the two. Trixie was shocked by how assertive she was getting. "This isn't helping us find Starlight!"

"It can! I can find Starlight while proving Rarity wrong!" Rainbow protested, to which Rarity responded with an annoyed eyeroll.

"Fine, since you're so confident, go and search the entirety of Equestria. I'm not going to stop you." Rarity muttered the last words.

"Sweet!" Rainbow quickly opened the castle doors and zoomed away.

"So... what do we do in the meantime?" Applejack asked Trixie and Discord.

Trixie was a little shocked by her question. Was she the leader now since Starlight is gone? "Uh, we wait, I guess." she stammered.

Applejack looked outside through the doors that Rainbow Dash bolted through. "It's starting to get a little late." she told them. "I'm going back home to get some sleep. I will see all of you tomorrow." she ended with a yawn.

"Wait, you're throwing in the towel now?" Trixie called her as Applejack started walking out the door.

"I need to sleep." Applejack argued.

"So do we." Rarity and Fluttershy said at the same time, while Pinkie just hopped outside.

Trixie looked at them, dumbfounded. "So you guys are concerned about sleep when Starlight is in potential danger with an enraged alicorn?"

"What can we do, darling?" Rarity asked her. "We, unfortunately, can't do anything about that matter. Its up to Starlight to take care of herself and bring Twilight back to her old self if she can."

"Plus Starlight has super duper powerful magic!" Pinkie now started talking. "I'm sure its going to take a while before she starts going down."

"But... she can be emotionally unstable at times," Trixie told them, while recalling the memories of Starlight being terrified by her own village once she had been invited there, due to past leadership trauma. But even if she did get over that, she knew that Starlight would have a hard time having the courage to battle her friends. "and I'm pretty sure her fighting her old teacher again would make her have a mental breakdown."

"We will have to see until tomorrow." Fluttershy said softly. "But until then, all we can do is wait. Sorry Trixie."

Then the three trotted away, while Fluttershy just walked slowly, looking back at Trixie with apologetic looks.

Trixie just stared at them as they left, not even caring about Fluttershy's looks. They dismissed Starlight that quickly?

"Some friends they are." Trixie muttered.

"They do have a point, you know." Discord stated as Trixie walked inside the castle and slammed the doors.

"Huh? We're supposed to be on the same side!" Trixie exclaimed.

"Doesn't mean I will blindly disagree with them." Discord crossed his arms. "What do you expect them to do, exactly?"

"I don't know, wait, I guess?"

"And that is what we have to do." Discord finished. "She is out there on her own, and as Pinkie stated, she is 'super powerful'. So I am sure she will be fine."

Discord now yawned and stretched his lion paw. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm sure Twilight won't mind if I slept on her bed. Although these magic blockers will make sleeping a pain to do."

Now it was Discord's turn to get stared at by Trixie. Discord shot nervous looks at Trixie's death stare, as he quickly rushed up the stairs to avoid her gaze.

Et tu, Discord? Trixie sighed sadly. Maybe she was overreacting just a tad bit... but it didn't matter. If Starlight had been defeated, captured, or even worse, things could go awry very quickly.

Soon, she started yawning, and was starting to get tired as well. Trixie, hesitantly, decided to take the other's advice and go to sleep. But she wouldn't be sleeping in one of Twilight's guest beds.

Instead, she opened the castle doors, and sat beside the stairs that led up to the castle. She didn't even care that she was shivering by the cold wind. She would wait outside, in the cold, just to wait for Starlight and Twilight to return back home.

Safely, please. Trixie wished in her head, before slowly closing her eyes, and was enclosed in slumber.

Starlight yawned as she started waking up from her sleep. She looked behind her. Twilight was still asleep, although in a curled position, as if she were a cat. Starlight smiled warmly at her.

She started to walk out of the cave, and looked at the lush forest, and wet from the rain. She embraced the beautiful sunshine and enjoyed hearing the birds chirp in the background. Although her mane and coat did get a little wet thanks to the raindrops that dropped from the leaves of the giant oak trees.

Starlight's ears perked when she heard Twilight yawn in the cave. She turned and saw Twilight start to get up and stretched her hind legs.

"Good morning, Twilight." Starlight greeted her when she reentered the cave. "How did you sleep?"

"Eh." Twilight said with a shrug. "Not good but not bad either."

"Oh." Starlight simply said. She wanted Twilight to have a pleasant sleep after their fight. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah." Twilight answered. She looked outside the cave. "I think the rain stopped."

"I can tell." Starlight said with amusement. She prodded her with her hoof. "Ready to go back home?"

Then Twilight's stomach started to growl. "I am getting a little hungry." she said as she looked at some daisies with a wide-eyed expression. "Ooh!"

Starlight looked at the daisy, then back at Twilight with a confused expression. "Uh, what's so cool about a daisy?"

But she galloped to it anyway and lowered her head to start eating it. Starlight looked very surprised. She didn't expect a princess like her would want to eat a daisy that was planted on the ground.

"Twilight?" Starlight called her, with one part of her amused by what she was seeing, and the other nervous by her sudden eating habits. "What are you doing?"

"Eating a flower." Twilight said, while she looked behind a shrub. "More!"

Twilight then immediately jumped behind a bush, leaving behind a stunned Starlight. And I thought Tranced Twilight was crazy.

She followed her and peeked behind the bush. She saw her friend eating daisies with delight. "I forgot how good these were!"

Starlight still felt stunned.

Twilight plucked a daisy off the ground and levitated it to Starlight. "You must try one."

But Starlight pushed it away. "I think I'll be fine."

After Twilight's flower craze, they eventually returned to Ponyville thanks to Twilight's teleportation spell. Starlight still felt nervous about being around town with the ponies who still gave her the death glares. But she also noticed that the majority of them gave Twilight a perplexed look. They certainly didn't expect to see Twilight be suddenly chill with a pony that she hated just hours ago.

"Is she forgiven now?" a pony asked.

"What's Twilight doing with her?" another mysterious pony asked. "And why is she so... happy?"

As they went by a few towns, they were immediately noticed by three fillies, with each one being a different race. And they all looked at Twilight and Starlight in surprise.

"Twilight looks happy." a light-yellow earth pony whispered to her friends.

"She does." an orange pegasus agreed, before turning her gaze coldly onto her. "Especially if she's with her."

"Well, she is the Princess of Friendship after all." a white unicorn told them. "She is known to forgive anyone."

"Well, there are some ponies that shouldn't be forgiven." the orange filly said, before finally glaring at Starlight as she walked by. Starlight tried her best not to look at them.

She sighed in relief when they were finally away from the three fillies. But Starlight had a concerning question, since she saw them look at her with confused and hostile glances.

"Do we need to beat up foals?" Starlight's voice quivered. "We can't do that... will we?"

"Don't worry. The foals won't be harmed." Twilight told her reassuredly. "After this whole thing is over, we can convince the foals to listen all the good deeds about you and the others. They will surely come around."

"Hopefully." Starlight said, a little reassured by what Twilight said. The last thing she needed right now was to injure innocent foals.

They made their way to Twilight's castle as they continued talking. As she looked at the castle, she suddenly stopped and put her hoof out, stopping Starlight. She followed Twilight's gaze and saw that Trixie was sleeping near the stairs to her castle doors. She was upside down while waving her hooves around dreamlike.

Twilight and Starlight both shared amused smiles.

Starlight walked up to Trixie quietly and gently patted her on the head. "What are you doing?" she asked.

Trixie slowly opened her eyes, but became wide awake when she saw her friend. "You're back!"

Trixie quickly got to her fours and pounced on Starlight and gave her a big hug, while knocking her to the ground. "Trixie was so worried!"

"I guess so." Starlight looked at Twilight awkwardly, who just shrugged.

"I thought Rainbow Dash found you by now." Trixie told her as she got up. "She said she was going to fly around the entirety of Equestria to look for you."

"That's ridiculous. Rainbow Dash may be fast but she isn't that fast the search Equestria in one day-" Twilight was suddenly interrupted when a blue pegagsus crashed into her, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Sorry!" Rainbow Dash quickly got up, and offered Twilight some help. "Are you back to your normal self?"

"What does it look like?" Twilight groaned as she got up from the crash. "I'm not attacking those two."

"Yeah, right." Rainbow Dash smiled while rubbing the back of her neck.

"What took you so long?" Trixie demanded. "You said you were fast enough to circle around Equestria in one day. Shouldn't you have found them by now?"

"Hey, cut me some slack!" Rainbow Dash retorted. "You try flying around Equestria in one day!"

"You just said hours ago-" Trixie was about to say before getting interrupted by Twilight.

"Let's continue this discussion later." Twilight told the two of them. "We're back, safely, and that's all that matters."

Starlight started shuffling her hoof at the dirt. "So now that you and your friends are back, who's next?"

"Starlight, I think you know who it is." Trixie raised an eyebrow at her.

Starlight titled her head, then her eyes narrowed in fear as she finally realized. "Oh no."

Trixie nodded grimly.

"Oh no what?" Twilight now started to get nervous. "Who is next?"

Starlight and Trixie looked at her nervously.

Twilight's ears suddenly lowered. "You must be joking."