The black veil suddenly was pulled back, exposing just WHAT it was that had been within the dark room of the demonic wagon.
And Twilight could do nothing except for scream and scream, as the horror that her well-nigh shattered mind still could not actually comprehend was upon her, and her injuries were now completely real.

She could feel the insect sensations as they bit and borrowed through her vastly looser and looser skin and into her muscles, and the claws… oh Celestia, the knife-like claws!
They ripped not only into her back again, but now also into her neck and front legs and shoulders, and the poor unicorn’s tears poured down her cheeks like waterfalls and her throat started it rapidly go raw and red from screaming as her horribly tortured body was no longer just FEELING the agony, but was now actually going through it, gruesomely at that.

Her blood was quickly flowing now onto the bed, her other bodily fluids were rapidly mingling in, and the twisted shadowy blur of unnatural darkness and utter evil was somehow covering the screaming pony and keeping her pinned to the bed as it quickly, yet somehow slowly, was ripping her skin from her body and relishing in her suffering.

Twilight Sparkle, the young Unicorn mare of unmatched promise and with a heart as pure as a crystal, died horribly that night in the throes of unimaginable torment and despair that only comes from one who has no hope as they are killed in the worst ways possible… not.

For just as her mind was THIS close to being shattered and her body forever lifeless, suddenly EVERYTHING froze.
The ongoing agony suddenly stopped, her scream suddenly ceased, and even the horror itself seemed to halt in its own malicious rhythms. Then suddenly…

“No, no no. Not that, not HIM!”

Twilight’s pain was still fresh and raw, but somehow it didn’t seem to be proceeding like before, somehow stuck in a sort of limbo between being an unbearable torture and outright numb.
Her tears were still thickly on her face and her heart was still beating hard and fast, but it didn’t shake her body like it had been doing before.
And just then, a voice made itself known.

“And what, PRAY TELL, is this supposed to be?”

This new voice was… strong, Twilight immediately decided, and it was practically shaking with fury. The entire cabin and wagon just outside were trembling, dust falling from the ceiling and the floor sounding like it was starting to crack along with the walls as SOMETHING large and bright suddenly seemed to just pop into reality, accompanied by a dozen bolts of blue and white lightning bolts.

Twilight was torn initially between trying to shut her eyes from the sudden flashing or to keep watching this strange and unbelievably odd object, but her eyes were soon dragged back to look up and at the… THING.
The nightmarish demon creature that had captured her and was now trying to kill her in such a sadistically brutal manner was somehow being hurt by the bright electrical light that the big blue thing was giving off!
It’s multiple visible and invisible hands/claws were suddenly off her as it seemed to be struck by a bolt and collapse to the smashed floor with an ear-piercing screech and hiss, and it’s own hideous body was finally being revealed by the light, and it was a truly disgusting sight!

All this took place over the course of a mere few seconds, but every single detail was already ingrained into the young Unicorn’s brain perfectly as suddenly the big blue shining object seemed to stabilize itself on the floor, and then a door she hadn’t noticed before was opening.

From then on, Twilight finally felt herself falling deeper and deeper into a fresh bout of unconsciousness, the pain from her ghastly wounds simply being too much even as the worst of the suffering had been stopped. She had simply lost too much blood and other important fluids, but somehow she didn’t feel such terror anymore.
The entire room was now filled with bright electric blue light, and her fading vision now saw briefly that the demon wagon was outright burning outside the window, and just before she lost consciousness… the tortured young mare saw a light brown stallion exit from the big blue box and swiftly approach the small, smoking, writhing demon on the ground as it tried desperately and weakly to crawl away from him.

Then she blacked out.

-

The strange sensation of light shining down on her closed eyelids and the taste of clean air were all it really took for Twilight to open her tired eyes, and she found herself in a strange room with several strange lamps nearby to the big new bed she was lying in. For a few seconds she didn’t move again, but soon her memories came back, first a trickle and then a flood.

She remembered leaving the party that was in another town other than Ponyville, the coming across an old wagon… and she began to shudder now, and how that voice had tricked her into believing it was just a harmless old mare who’d been abandoned, and then… she began to shake just a little bit as the ever-increasing horror returned to her fully.
The reveal of the demon and its intentions, the bloodless torture, and crash… and the actual attack of the monster as it had her cornered and then began to skin her alive.

But then the last memories jumped into her head just after she began to cry and shudder.
Memories of a mysterious large blue box that had somehow teleported into the room in a burst of power and color, how it had revealed the monsters true face and struck it back, and how somepony she’d never seen before had exited the box and was making his way over to the demon as it was vulnerable.

It was just then that the large metallic door she’s seen in the wall suddenly opened like magic, sliding into the walls smoothly, and the same pony, an Earth Piny Stallion, walked into the room and bowed his head in her direction.

“Good evening, Miss Sparkle. I am Doctor Time Turner Whooves, but you can call me Doctor, if you like.”
His voice was gentle and dignified, mostly due to the fact that he had a slight accent. His demeanor, despite her heightened fearful state of mind, carried with it no ill feelings at all, and she actually began to feel a calming feeling slowly and kindly wash over her. It was different from when she’d been lured into the trap by the demon, as this place was rather bright and spacious and the one talking to her wasn’t hiding or anything, and he seemed to have a slight aura akin to Celestia, her beloved teacher.

Against her guarded feelings, Twilight began to quickly let herself feel calmer and less anxious, but now she began feel something stirring within her chest, within her heart.
A great sort of pain, one that was quickly beginning to overcome her now.

He noticed this easily enough and asked in a quieter voice, “May I sit next to your bed, or would you like me to keep my distance from you for now?”

She didn’t answer for a moment, but then,
“I… could use some close contact right now, and not the painful kind…”

Dr. Whooves approached her slowly and carefully, and now stood a few steps from her, on her left side near to her back hooves.
The tears were now visible in her eyes as she began to breathe just a bit faster, looking over her own bandages on her torso and front limbs over and over, as well as craning her neck to look at her back twice.

“It’s alright, Miss Sparkle. That abomination won’t bother you anymore, or anypony else for that matter. I’ve removed it permanently from the equation, I assure you.”
But she was simply(and understandably) too upset to calm down by now.

“Why… why couldn’t…you or… or somepony else have stopped this from happening in the first place!?!”
She screamed now and hugged her front legs/arms to herself as she began to sob like the poor little pony she was.
Dr. Whooves closed the distance between himself and her slowly, and wrapped the crying mare in his arms in a gentle hug. She immediately burrowed into his warm chest, and for a good long while nothing was said. He simply sat on the bed as his dear little patient snuggled into him and mourned for what she had lost.

In the wrecked remains of the cabin was a massive burn mark that had reduced the floor to cinders and the soil to glass, and there was a large number of bits that was addressed to the family who had taken Twilight in, enough to build or buy themselves a new home for their troubles.

The horrific murders and strange sightings that had plagued the little town of New Arkhorse were all soon discovered to have completely stopped.

Permanently.

And in a secret chamber of the Doctor’s special machine, which he called the TARDIS, was a Quantum Magitek Containment Chamber(QMCC) that contained the very essence of the demonic horror that had slaughtered numerous innocent ponies in the past and had brutalized Twilight.
But now?
The foul demon screamed in agony as the blue mystical bolts of Holy Sun Magic zapped it again and again… and a certain gray Pegasus mare with thr light blonde mane and tail, and the distinctive DERPY eyes, smiled happily as she pulled the lever again and again at intervals to keep up the torture.

She wouldn’t kill it, of course. Both she and her dear Doctor had already agreed that Twilight would do so when she was ready.
But for now, Derpy would enjoy herself with punishing the despicable entity as much as she desired.

-

It was not until the next evening(which was a few weeks within the reality-defying Magic ship) that Twilight Sparkle returned to the worried town of Ponyville a changed mare. She was not all moody and depressed or anything else, even though the numerous bandages across the majority of her whole body were soon discovered to be hiding the rapidly healing remains of the major ghastly injuries that most ponies had seen or even heard of in quite a long time. She was still kind to others and returned to being Princess Celestia’s faithful student and the biggest egghead ever!
Her personality and other forms of behavior overall, on the other hoof, were quite different from how she’d been before.

She no longer was so easily influenced by her emotions anymore, no longer so prone to panicking easily whenever something happened that she didn’t predict or foresee. Her friends noticed this especially and took note of how she was indeed far more coolheaded and competent when future events popped up that would have normally panicked her easily.

She also became more focused on her studies in regards to actual Magic combat ability, and especially delved more deeply into figuring out magical spells and undoing them in a fraction of the time it would take her in the past.

But most importantly of all, every one of her friends saw just how much closer she’d become with them all, including Spike. She was much closer to each of them now, more willing to spend time with them doing anything at all whenever she wasn’t studying intensely, and at times just giving them hugs for seemingly no reason at all.
They all could agree that she genuinely appreciated each of them so much more than she had before and was really just more appreciative of her own life.
Each Nightmare Night, meanwhile, was met by her with almost fearsome energy.

All these positive changes to the young unicorn was soon understood by the community to have been a result of the horrors ordeals that she’d been through on one particular Nightmare Night, and that rather than being broken and terrified, Twilight Sparkle instead was hardened and strengthened by her experiences and close brush with death. She became BRAVER rather than more timid, and in the process she was able to start helping Fluttershy truly become stronger and more confident in herself and more assertive. She was really the ideal role model when it came to this, after all, and she was more then happy to help her friend with this problem.

And sometimes, on random nights, she would just sit up late for hours at a time. And would watch the stars with a smile.

Author's Note

I’m not gonna go and start writing “fix-it fics” to every grim dark out there. But I WILL do so to a few that I find particularly nasty and without any such stories made for it by anyone else.

Don’t worry if you don’t like them, ok? I won’t make THAT many. But I might make a few more. Until then, comment your thoughts and I’ll see you all next time.