Author's Notes:

Wow, it has been a while... Sorry about that. Life has a funny way of mucking up plans and such. In any case, with most of those issues resolved we should be able to push ahead towards the (hopefully) exciting conclusion of this story at long last.

*poke*

“Stop that.”

*poke* *poke*

“Didst thou not hear us just now?”

“Hmm? You say something?”

*poke*

“If thou does not cease thy prodding immediately, thou shalt suffer dire consequences.”

“Oh come now, princess. It’s clear it’s not bothering Princess Twinkle here. If I wanted to annoy her I’d wake her up this way.”

“Discord, don’t you-”

*GOOONNNNGGGGGGG*

Twilight’s bloodshot eyes snapped open as Discord rang his gong as loudly as he could mere millimeters above her head. To Discord’s disappointment she managed to refrain from sitting up and knocking her head against the brass percussion instrument, but he still managed to take some satisfaction in her bewildered and annoyed face.

“Wha- what the... Discord? What in Celestia’s name are you doing?” Twilight mumbled as she slowly woke up.

Discord snapped his fingers, causing the gong to vanish just as he grabbed Luna and placed her in between himself and the sleepy princess. “Don’t blame me, it was her idea!” he said innocently.

Twilight peered through her sleepy eyes and finally recognized Princess Luna. “Huh? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, yawning loudly afterwards.

Luna shot Discord an angry glance before bowing her head to Twilight. “My apologies, Princess Twilight. I needed to come speak to you of a matter of the utmost importance, but he insisted on tagging along.”

Discord adopted a look of pure innocence. “I only wanted to help, but Princess Moody Moon here wanted me to stay locked up in the castle, all alone...”

Both princesses ignored the Lord of Chaos and continued their own conversation. “So what’s going on? Don’t tell me that there’s another issue in Canterlot...”

Discord opened his mouth to speak but was silenced by Luna’s stern gaze. “Party pooper.” he muttered.

Luna turned her attention back to Twilight. “While on my nightly patrols through everypony’s dreams, I happened upon one dream I could not enter. I have always been able to enter the dreams of ponies and do not know why I wasn’t able to this time, but I was able to tell that it is not an ordinary dream, but a magic induced nightmare.”

Twilight looked slightly confused. “But how come you need my help? Which pony is having this dream?” she asked.

Luna shrugged. “I cannot say, for some reason my powers cannot see which pony is suffering. All I was able to tell was that the pony is somewhere here in Ponyville.”

Twilight yawned and slowly got out of bed. “Alright, so where do we start?” she asked sleepily before yawning again.

“Might I suggest...” Discord started, but once again Luna silenced him with a cold stare.

“We should start with visiting the unicorns who reside here.” Luna said. “Such an anomaly is usually caused by a spell, so we should start there.”

Twilight paused to think. “I can’t think of anypony who is capable of casting such a spell. Even I’ve never heard of it. But there’s no time to waste, let’s start with Rarity. She can also help us search if it’s not her.” she reasoned.

With their plan in place, both princesses rushed off into the night, leaving Discord all alone in the library. “Hmph, amateurs.” he muttered to himself. Owlowiscious opened his eyes and looked at Discord with some interest as the Lord of Chaos sighed dramatically. “Looks like it’s up to me to fix things yet again.” he said, snapping his fingers and disappearing from the library.

Unphased by what had just happened, Owlowiscious gave a small hoot before closing his eyes and falling back asleep. He finally had some peace and quiet, a rare thing with all the chaos happening in Ponyville lately.

“No. No! Gaahhhh!”

Nightshade’s twisted grin widened as the pained expression on Specter’s face became grimmer. Her horn glowed a sickening gray-green as her dark magic corrupted her victim’s dreams, which he was forced to experience due to her sleep spell. She was proud of the fact that she knew, much less was able to perform such a complicated and rare spell, and though most ponies would be too scared of the fact that they were trespassing on Princess Luna’s territory, Nightshade was confident that even the princess of the night couldn’t interrupt her.

In front of Nightshade, Specter’s body writhed in agony as his mind continued to be bombarded with the darkest nightmares Nightshade could summon. The nightmare spell she was casting trapped its victim’s mind in a world completely real to them; all of the pain and suffering Nightshade’s twisted nightmares inflicted upon Specter were reflected on his physical body. Nightshade was showing no mercy. She wanted him to suffer, suffer until he was dead; but at the same time she wanted to make this last as long as it could. After all, she had all night before anypony would come looking for them and she meant to enjoy every second of it...

A subtle *pop* went unnoticed by Nightshade, but she stiffened up when she heard a strange voice behind her. “I must admit I’m impressed that you were able to learn such an obscure magic, but I don’t think Luna would appreciate you perverting the dreamscape like this.”

Managing to maintain her spell over Specter, Nightshade turned around and found herself face to face with none other than Discord. However, before she could react or say anything, the draconequus reached out and touched the tip of her horn with a clawed finger, paralyzing her entire body and submitting her mind to his will. Her eyes stared unfocused straight ahead momentarily until Discord gave his next order to her.

“Sleep.”

Without fail, Nightshade’s eyes crashed shut and the unicorn fell to the ground, her mind now trapped in a similar state as Specter’s was. With another snap of his fingers Discord summoned two bubbles out of thin air, each one the same color as the aura Nightshade had been using moments ago, and with a flick of his wrists he sent one bubble into the head of each unconscious pony.

“Sweet dreams, my little ponies.” Discord chuckled. “Now, I wonder when Princess Sparkle Butt and Moody Moon will get here? Hopefully not too soon...”

Nightshade’s eyes snapped open and she jumped to her hooves, her head lowered in preparation for an attack. However, Discord was now gone, as was the hospital completely; she was now in a large empty room, the only other pony present being the unconscious Specter. Nightshade kept her guard up since she was unsure of where she was or what was going on, but a bodiless voice caused her heart rate to spike.

“Wake.”

Specter’s body finally began to stir as he woke up and slowly stood up. His eyes opened but they appeared empty and lifeless, almost as if he were in a trance. There was something... off about the other Blackguard, but Nightshade was preoccupied with preparing for yet another battle with her rival to spare a thought to what it was. He didn’t make any attempts to move towards her so the mare remained still as well, waiting to see what would happen next. A few moments passed with nothing happening, but the patience of the being overseeing the unfolding chaos was running out.

“Screw it.” the voice said, followed by a surprisingly loud snapping sound. Specter’s attention instantly focused on Nightshade, causing her to lower her head and prepare her own counterattack with her-

... her horn was gone.

Nightshade’s heart rate immediately spiked as she realized that she was helpless, yet Specter still had his horn. She felt herself enveloped in his magic and knocked backwards to the ground, pinned down against her will as Specter quickly rushed forward and stood over her in victory.

“Well, that was easy. Sorry dear, I’m not one for long, dramatic battles and all.” the mysterious voice said. “Now, I do believe that the victor deserves a prize, does he not?”

Before Nightshade could inquire what the ‘prize’ was, she felt something suddenly bump up against her exposed crotch. It didn’t take long for her to figure out what had poked her foal hole, but she refused to let her fear win and remained steadfast and confident. “What, you’re going to have him rape me? That’s the best you can do?” she spat out.

“Oh come now, my little assassin. I wouldn’t lower myself to such barbaric standards.” the voice said in a hurt tone. “Besides, I’m not the one in control of all of this. I’m simply fulfilling your deepest desires.”

Nightshade smirked. “Ha! My deepest desires? My only desire is to watch you and this weakling die at my hoof!”

A short pause of silence followed before the voice spoke again. “Oh, you’re right, it seems I forgot a few things. Terribly sorry.”

Another sharp snap cracked through the air. At first Nightshade didn’t know what had changed, but when she looked up at Specter she saw that his body seemed to have grown almost twice in size. It only took her a few more moments to realize that she was wrong; he hadn’t increased in size, but she had shrunk down to the size of a filly.

“There, I believe that’s more to your liking.” the voice said mockingly.

Nightshade looked down at her own body and confirmed that she had indeed shrunk back down to her filly size. When she looked back up, she found herself no longer in the vast emptiness of whatever space she was trapped in, but instead she was now in an old boat shed.

‘What the...’ Nightshade thought just before a flood of memories bombarded her mind. Memories of what had happened to her over a thousand years ago came back to her, and for the first time she felt an emotion she hadn’t felt in a very long time. A sense of genuine fear.

“No... no, stop!” Nightshade said, panic overcoming her in that moment. She pressed her hooves against Specter’s chest with all of her strength to push him away. Of course her small body couldn’t hope to budge Specter’s larger frame, and without her magic she realized just how helpless she was.

“I see you are now aware of your position. It’s about time. Now, let’s get starte-”

Nightshade couldn’t help but cringe and recoil in terror, clenching her eyes shut in a desperate attempt to block everything out. After a moment she realized, surprisingly, that the voice of her tormentor had abruptly stopped midsentence. She slowly opened her eyes again; Specter hadn’t moved since forcing himself on top of her, and Nightshade couldn’t help noticing that the aggressive look in his eyes from before had softened and now seemed to show confusion.

With the immediate threat seemingly passed, Nightshade finally realized what had been bugging her about the other pony the whole time. The Blackguard enchanted ink that he wore without fail was gone, revealing the stallion’s true colors. Underneath, Specter’s coat was a dark brown, similar- no, the exact same shade as her own.

Specter slowly looked around his surroundings and eventually cast his gaze downward, noticing the small filly underneath him. His eyes widened in surprise as something in his mind finally clicked. “S-sister?” he asked in disbelief.

Nightshade’s mind roiled as questions suddenly flashed through her mind at once. Before Nightshade could respond however, the two unicorns found themselves quickly enveloped in a black fog that seemed to come out of nowhere. A loud roaring sound filled their ears and both of them shut their eyes, opening them only once the noise had faded.

Nightshade found herself back in the hospital, lying on floor on her side next to Specter. She tried to stand, but found her body too drained to even move. A quick glance at Specter next to her told her he was similarly crippled at that moment.

“They’re awake!” a familiar voice shouted out. Looking up, Nightshade saw Princess Twilight and Princess Luna standing over them both, and just off to the side a sulking Discord leaning up against the wall.

“See? I told you they weren’t harmed. I was just having a bit of fun.” Discord huffed.

Luna shot him a furious glance. “BE SILENT! THOU HAST NO IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!” she yelled in her thunderous voice. Her assertiveness immediately caused Discord to go silent, but he still defiantly stuck his tongue out at her.

The two princesses turned their attention back to the two unicorns on the floor. “Are they going to be okay? What should we do now?” Twilight asked as she helped Nightshade back on her hooves.

Luna frowned in concern. “As much as I hate agreeing with him, Discord is right. He has taken an interest in these two unicorns for some reason, and now so have I, especially your bodyguard who holds knowledge of dark magic. I cannot believe that in this day and age that anypony other than myself is capable of using my dreamscape spells.” She shot a venomous glance over her shoulder. “Well, other than this one apparently... Now then, it is clear that these two ponies are extremely powerful and dangerous. I shall take them both back to Canterlot with me immediately.”

Twilight nodded. “And Discord?”

Luna sighed loudly. “He, too, shall accompany me. He knows more than he’s telling me, and I shall make him talk one way or another.”

“Oh, princess, how did you know I like it rough?” Discord said, unable to stay silent.

Luna’s eyes seemed to go red as she blasted him with a sudden spell, causing his mouth to disappear. “DO NOT TEST MY PATIENCE!” Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm herself, she turned back to Twilight. “I shall return your bodyguard as soon as I can.” she said before she cast a spell over everypony but Twilight, and in a flash they were gone, leaving Princess Twilight Sparkle alone in the devastated, but otherwise quiet hospital wing. b�