Gulping down her fears of having just lost her magic, Lavender spotted a rift forming from where Luna must have entered in. "Look - look!" She shouted and pointed at the slim opening highlighted by a barrier of purple magic. Luna spun her head to where her friend was pointing and gasped, "Perfect! Quickly! Let's get out of here!" The two mares started to bolt for the exit, but Lavender was pulled back by a ribbon of dark magic that had appeared out of nowhere. "AHHHH LUNA!" She yelled, terrified.

Luna skidded to a halt and then spun on her hooves to help set her friend free of the magic ribbon. "BACK EVIL SPIRIT!" She cries as a bolt of turquoise blue light shone from the alicorn's horn and aimed directly for the tip of the dark magic aura. It snapped away from the mare's hind left leg causing the light purple Pegasus to fall forward before being helped up by Luna. "Come on!" Helping the mare up, Luna and Lavender cantered for the rift that was slowly opening wider. As it opened wider, the closer they got, it began to close once again. Fearing they wouldn't make it, Luna used her magic to give them both a speed boost.

Giving Lavender a bit of a fright, she was unprepared for the boost and yelled, "Wooaaah-oooohhhhh!" As the two of them burst forth through the rift.

Outside the Entity....

Celestia felt a jolt of energy burst through the stream of magic as Luna reappeared with a brilliant burst of blue light. She gasped for clean air and landed on the ground exhausted. The alicorns fell to the ground as they released the magic from their magical grasp and caught their own breaths. Twilight slowly lifted her head and saw Luna laying on the ground with her eyes closed. Then she looked up as the Hypnosian Queen roared in pain.

"AAAAAAAARGH, NOOOOOOOOOO I AM NOT DONE! NOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The entity slowly started to shrink in size as rays of dark magic burst from within her. Sparkles and orbs of glinting light appeared around her as her mass shrunk down, down; down until she was a black orb of magic. Ponies around the group of alicorns slowly began to return to normal and awaken from their hypnotic states. They felt dizzy and dazed as they came to from their trances.

The sun princess ran towards her sister to check on her. "Luna are you alright?" She asked and to her relief, she watched as the blue alicorn mare blinked open her eyes and gently lifted her head. "T-tia?" She said in a weakened voice as she lifted her head fully off the ground. "Celestia!" Her eyes widened as her memory came back and she was fully alert once more. "Where's Lavender! Is she ok?!" The three alicorns looked around the area and couldn't find her until Twilight looked up and spotted her laid across the roof of a house nearby. "Up there!"

Twilight flew up to the young mare and saw that she was covered in faded black spirals over her body, then she saw that she had a scar on her chest fur as well. "She's up here but..." She looked down at the two princesses looking up at Twilight. "She doesn't look too good Luna..."

"This is all my fault!!" Celestia watches her sister helplessly as she feels guilty for this entire incident. Trying to think of a way to comfort her she builds a plan. "Come now Luna.... how about we take her back to the castle to rest? You can keep an eye on her there, and help her find a cure for her condition."

"You'd... do that sister?"

"Of course! How many times has she visited the castle already and earned our trust as a close friend? She's more than welcome to recover at our place. She's almost like family now." Celestia grinned as memories popped up of how Lavender's cat Sapphire would often join her on her visits and playfully distract the sun princess from her paper signing duties. Sapphire would always try to play with her long flowing mane and tail, even her wings on occasion. Luna gave a thankful sigh of relief, "Thank you sister so much!"

"Mm! Twilight, help us bring Lavender up to the castle would you?" Twilight nodded in acceptance to the task.

In Canterlot Castle...

Bandaging up her shoulder, Luna winces as pain shoots up her wing, hissing through her teeth while backing away from the one tending to her. "Hold still Your Highness. You won't heal if you keep moving around like this!" Nurse Bluebell said as she used her light green magic to wrap a white bandage over the burn mark the she had cleaned first. "Hmmff!" Luna huffs in frustration. She hates sitting still.

Celestia laughed, "Oh Luna, you've always been like this! Never one to sit still are you?" While the white alicorn mare continues laughing, Luna furrows her brow at her, "Hush sister!" She said grumpily with a pouty face, only making Celestia laugh more. Princess Twilight giggled at the sight of the two royal sisters poking at each other like that. "Hehe, that's how a sisterhood should be!" She whispered quietly under her breath but was caught off guard when her student came bursting into the doors of the Royal Nurse's Office. "Ohhh! Oh..... I'm here..... Whew! That took a lot longer than I thought!" She blurted out as she caught her breath from running. "Well, I've informed Cadance and Shining Armor and they've secured the Crystal Empire just in case. I-" She looked around the room to see Luna being tended to, Celestia standing and staring with a surprised look on her face, and a new pony she hadn't seen before that was also being tended to more thoroughly than Luna.

".....O-ohhhh... Oh you saved her then?" Starlight stammered putting two and two together. Flattening her ears back, she felt a little embarrassed at her efforts being a little too late. Celestia giggled, "Don't worry my little pony, you did a wonderful job delivering the message, and if she does return somehow, we will have that extra sense of protection with extra help on standby... nicely done Starlight." Luna nodded in agreement to her sister. She slowly bent out her wing and folded it back up carefully once the nurse unicorn had seen to her wound. "Alright Your Highness, it'll take a week or two to heal fully so don't do too much flying in the meantime ok?" She asked giving the princess a cheeky yet serious look with one eyebrow raised, knowing she can be quite troublesome when it comes to recovery from injuries. Luna looked from her sister to Nurse Bluebell and sighed in a huff, "F-Fine...."

Twilight giggled at the sight of poor Luna. Then she looked at Starlight who was staring at the unconscious pony laying on the doctor's bed. "So.... what happened to her anyway....? And... who is she?" Walking up to the lilac unicorn mare, Twilight placed an open wing around her student, "..... a friend....."

Author's Note

When Lavender is finally rescued from the Entity, she has lost her magic! To Celestia, Luna and Twilight's horror the mare is marked by the corrupted spirit and has developed an internal mental link to the Hypnosian Queen. Luna must now give her friend magic treatments to try and free her completely from this link. If she's unable to, it could spell disaster for Lavender.