The entire street was following Twilight's outburst. Every passerby had
stopped to look at her. Ponies in the nearby houses were peeking out of
their windows to see what the noise was about. Luna was shocked at the
way Twilight was acting. She hadn't expected her to take the news well,
but this was much worse than she imagined. Twilight was breathing
heavily as she jumped off the bench. Luna quickly reacted and bit her
tail.

“Let go! I'm going to end this!” Twilight yelled at her.

“No! Calm down, you're not thinking straight!” Luna ordered.

Twilight didn't listen to her. She pushed onwards and managed to free her tail
from Luna's grip. She dashed past everypony into the middle of the town
square. Nopony tried to stop her, as they were all stunned. Nothing like
this had happened before in the peaceful village. Twilight's face was
distorted into a mad grin as she looked around with her bloodshot eyes.

“You thought I was crazy?! Wait until you hear my theory! You're all magical
puppets, designed to make me look insane! Did you think you could trick
me? Tough luck, I've got it all figured out! I'll tear off your skin to
show there's no flesh inside!” Twilight said in a creepy voice.

Everypony ran away in terror as Twilight's horn lit up. Twilight wasn't bluffing,
as she had convinced herself that the theory she made up on the spot
was true. She focused her energy on a spell she had read of in an old
book. It was designed to remove extra hair on the fur of ponies within a
wide range around the caster. However, it was banned after it was
learned that amplifying it would tear off skin along with it. Casting it
that hard was a challenge even for Twilight. She used all the
adrenaline in her veins as she cast the spell.

A white ball of light appeared in front of her horn. It grew in size,
until it was about to burst. A moment before it did, a large bubble
formed around Twilight. She freed the energy in the ball, but none of it
reached outside of the bubble. Luna had cast it moments before to trap
Twilight inside. It was a strong barrier that prevented any magical
energy from leaking outside of it. All of Twilight's energy was used in
casting the spell. She fainted inside the bubble.

Twilight felt weak as her consciousness returned. The bubble on her back was
soft and comfortable. It was like a round, floating bed. She didn't have
enough energy to move, so she kept lying in the same position. She
heard a knocking noise in front of her. She slightly opened her eyes to
see the familiar library with her hazy vision. She saw Luna's back as
she was walking towards the front door. She opened it to find The Mayor
behind it, with an anxious look on her face. Twilight could only barely
make out their conversation, as everything sounded like it was
underwater.

“I heard about what happened. Are you and Twilight alright?” The Mayor asked.

“We're fine. I'd like to apologize for her. That wasn't something she'd
normally do, but recent events have placed her under a lot of stress.”
Luna said.

“I see. We knew she was a bit of an oddball, but we never expected her to
go that far. You’re her friend, right? Make sure she never does that
again. We don't have a prison in Ponyville, so we couldn't restrain her
anywhere.” The Mayor said.

“I swear under my title of a princess to protect her. This will never happen again, you have my word.” Luna said.

“Princess? You do look like one, but I'm sure you're no princess. I hope you have a good explanation for this.” The Mayor said.

“I uh... I meant it as a metaphor. Yes, I'll protect her as if I was her princess.” Luna quickly came up with an excuse.

“Hmm... Very well. You're welcome to stay in Ponyville, as long as you stay out
of trouble. Take care.” The Mayor said as she left.

“Thank you very much.” Luna said and closed the door. She met Twilight's eye
as she turned around. A warm smile spread across her face. “Oh, you're
awake. No need to worry, everything is fine. Feel free to relax in there
as long as you like.”

Twilight nodded in response. Even something as simple as that felt like it took a
lot of effort. She closed her eyes and fell asleep instantly. In her
dreams, everything was peaceful. It was like her daily life was only a
few days ago. The contrast between the Ponyville in her memories and the
one she was in now made her appreciate her usual life. She hadn't
realized how nice it was until it was taken away from her. However,
nopony could escape reality forever.

She found herself in the bubble as she woke up. Her senses were much
clearer now. Luna was sitting nearby, reading a book. Twilight hit the
bubble to get her attention. Luna looked up at her and smiled.

“Good morning, my little sleepyhead. I'll let you out in a second.” Her horn
lit up as she popped the bubble. Twilight fell down a short distance and
hit the floor. The carpet felt hard after the softness of the bubble.
Twilight found it hard to get any words out of her mouth after all that
had happened. Before she said anything, Luna sat down next to her and
spread her wing on Twilight’s body. The large wing felt comforting
around Twilight's body.

“Take your time. You don't have to speak until you're ready.” Luna said in a
calming voice. Twilight was grateful for Luna's kindness. In times like
these, it was easy to tell Luna and Celestia were sisters. They would
both always act calm and rational no matter what the situation. Twilight
admired their ability their ability to do so. The whole incident
could've been prevented if Twilight was as good at controlling her
emotions. She needed time to think about what had happened.

“I took the liberty to make some coffee earlier. Would you like to have
some?” Luna asked a bit later. Twilight nodded and sat down at the table
with her. Luna poured coffee for the two of them. They sipped their
coffee in silence. Luna patiently waited for Twilight to talk. She
looked down at the table, regretting her actions. She had been thinking
of how to put her feelings into words. It was hard to talk about, but
she needed to get it off her chest.

“I'm sorry. I was so helpless back there. It felt like I had to do
something, even if I had no idea what it would be. I forced myself to
believe that I could solve everything. I knew deep down that it didn’t
make sense, but I couldn’t handle all that pressure anymore. I caused
everypony so much trouble. I doubt any of them even had anything to do
with this. How can I ever make up for this?” Twilight said.

“It's all in the past. I forgive you and I'm sure the entire village does
too. The only thing that matters in the end is that nopony was hurt.
However, you must realize that blindly rushing forward will solve
nothing. It'll only cause more pain for you and everypony else.” Luna
said.

“I know. I can't believe I did something that stupid. I need to calm down
and think things through. I still believe that something's gone wrong,
and I'm going to fix it. Even if nopony else believes me, I'm going to
do what I think is right.” Twilight said.

“I believe you.” Luna said in a serious voice.

“Really?” Twilight said, surprised at Luna's words.

“Yeah. Everything seemed normal at first sight, but there's definitely
something strange going on. I found it odd that those three girls didn’t
know who I was, but I wrote it off as them being ignorant. That theater
act was when I knew something was wrong. The script was an accurate
re-enactment up until the final scene. I was told it was written
according to real events, but that can’t be true. Not only doesn't it
match up with my memories, I couldn't be in Ponyville if Nightmare Moon
was banished into the moon. It's simply impossible for that to have
happened.” Luna explained.

“I knew it! I'm so glad you're on my side. You wouldn't believe how awful
it was to be the only one who thought things weren't normal.” Twilight
said, feeling relieved.

“I'll gladly help you. Since the two of share the same memories, we can be
certain that this isn't all in your imagination. Either we or the rest
of Ponyville must be wrong. For the sake of our sanity, let's assume
we're right.” Luna said.

“Why would everypony in the village pretend things are going normally? Why
am I the only pony living here who doubts that? What caused all the
changes to happen in the first place? It must have been very powerful
magic to be able to turn a pony into a tree.” Twilight wondered.

“Considering how everypony treats the events as a fact without any hesitation, they
must believe it had been like that all along. They sound too confident
for them to be acting. We need to find out what caused them to behave
this way. While the changes seem random, it's likely they were all
caused by a single source. Perhaps it also made everypony believe them
as a fact as they happened? I can't think of anything powerful enough to
do that on a large scale, though.” Luna said.

“That still doesn't answer why you and I remember things the way they used to be.” Twilight said.

“True. This is all speculation, as we don't know enough to make any definitive
conclusions. We should focus on searching for what caused all of this
to begin. Hopefully we'll discover a way to reverse all of the changes
along with it. We’ll need to go gather more information.” Luna said.